GGST/Millia Rage/Counterstrategy

Millia Rage

Millia’s goal is to knock you down with 2KGuardLowStartup6Recovery12Advantage-3 > 2D or make you block a c.S with meter. To accomplish this, she can rush you down with a combination of her fast ground movement and unique aerial mobility. Millia’s main weakness is her low health combined with low damage, and additionally that she builds meter slowly and gives the opponent a lot of burst, so she often loses in resources.

Round Start

f.SGuardAllStartup9Recovery19Advantage-7 is the main threat she has at roundstart, as it's fast at 9 frames and reaches at that distance, and has a combo into wallbreak if it counterhits you. Her f.S can be 6P'd, and depending on your character's options, walking back to avoid and whiff punish it, or jumping over can be good options as it is somewhat poor on whiff. Outside of f.S, millia will likely play passive with walking back to fish for a whiff punish, dashblocking forward to safely approach, or occasionally an aerial option due to how well she can maneuver aerially. With this in mind, keep a counter for f.S on deck, and then otherwise throw out whatever sets you in a good position if she blocks, but isn't dangerous if she jumps over it.

Neutral

Millia has some of the fastest and most versatile movement in the game, both on the ground and especially in the air. Her neutral consists of either playing very patiently to whiff punish any button you press, or approaching very fast if you're playing too patient yourself. As mentioned previously, her overall goal is to score a hit with 2K > 2D to start her mix ups with the H version of Tandem Top (aka Disk). Even more than other matchups, Millia's H Disk makes the match up a matter of who gets pressure first to steamroll over the opponent. Avoid committing to normals with long total duration in neutral, if possible. Focus on playing defensively and forcing Millia to come to you, as her approaches should be answerable if you try to react to her committing to something. It's best to try and put as much space between you and Millia as you can, so you have more time to react to both her ground and aerial approaches.

Dealing With Millia's Ground Approaches

On the ground, when combined with her fast run speed, her buttons have a good balance of range and speed in neutral. Offensively, she’ll try dashing into either f.SGuardAllStartup9Recovery19Advantage-7 or 2KGuardLowStartup6Recovery12Advantage-3.

2K leads to her H disk oki, so be wary of it primarily. 2K low profiles many pokes, and when combined with her dash, it can be used from deceptively far distances. The downside to 2K is that it’s -3 on block, with it's only gatlings being 2D or 6H both of which are -8.

Her f.S has poor conversions at tip range and is poor on whiff, so aim to be right outside of where she'll place it to either whiff punish (or you can attempt jumping it), or if you do get hit not hurt too bad. it's also poor on block at the range where 5H doesn't reach, so blocking it there is generally a good position.

The S versionGuardAllStartup12RecoveryTotal 45Advantage-10 of Tandem Top is her strongest poke hitbox-wise. It goes over lows and can also be used against long range, disjointed pokes such as Sol’s 6S, Giovanna's 2D, Ramlethal’s f.S, etc. On hit, it sends you tumbling into a soft knockdown. Combined with Millia’s run speed, she can take this opportunity to get in on you and start running her pressure if you're hit towards the wall, though she can't meaty from a midscreen hit and doesn’t get any combo returns. Keep in mind S Disc is -10 on block (although slightly better depending on distance) with counterhit recovery. Make sure to lab your best frame 10 or faster ch starter that can reach to consistently blow Millia up for placing it incorrectly. With forward-drift purple RC, she can use S Disc as a get in-option or blockstring extender that will combo on-hit or extend pressure on block. On block however, this is mashable with most 5P's at most distances. experiement with disrespecting her here as she doesn't have the plus frames to lock you into an airdash air button string. If you jump over PRC S Disc, Millia can either air grab you, or intercept you with j.KGuardHighStartup6Recovery12Advantage- or j.SGuardHighStartup7Recovery14Advantage-.

Aim to keep millia out with fast, low recovery buttons to make her job whiff punishing its' hardest, only using slower moves when you're sure she cannot reach in time to punish.

Dealing with Millia's Air Approaches

Millia has two air dashes, which makes her more agile than most other characters in the sky. She also has further ways to alter her air trajectory. She has very good air normals that can dominate air-to-air scenarios, make excellent jump-ins, or convert air button hits very well. She can also cancel all of her aerial normals with an air backdash, adding yet another layer to her mix ups. And likely the largest note of Millia's airgame is KapelGuardAllStartup13Recovery12Advantage-1 (IAS), a 6P and other anti airs counter and movement tool in one. Millia's airgame can dominate a match if you aren't specifically calling it out.

Her instant air dash into a slightly delayedj.HGuardHighStartup8Recovery25Advantage+1 (IAD) is a classic poke, and can be used to punish slower ground based pokes. j.H is her go-to button during jump-ins. It hits on both sides of Millia and is a core part of her aerial mix ups and blockstrings.If you don’t anti-air this and end up blocking it, she can start pressing her advantage with options like airdashing into another air button. Naturally, it's susceptible to 6P, however, Millia can also mix up her aerial approach with Kapel, which will beat 6P. She can cancel her j.H with an air dash and either go forward for pressure, or cancel into KapelGuardAllStartup13Recovery12Advantage-1 (IAS), or she can just land and go into a low. The most consistent punish to her airdashing after a blocked j.H will be to do a rising airthrow, or a rising air button of your own. It's worth to lab out which of your air buttons can hit her out of kapel at that height consistently. Certain characters also have attacks that allow them to low profile her KapelGuardAllStartup13Recovery12Advantage-1 (IAS), such as Sol or Anji’s 2D or Nagoriyuki or Testament’s 2K. It’s worth checking to see if your character has a button that allows them to do this.

Once Millia uses Kapel, she can't air dash, she can only do aerials, so she'll have committed to whatever direction she's flung herself in unless she uses turbofall. You can hit Millia after her kapel with 5P/6P or most anti airs as turbofall takes some time to startup. To beat out Kapel before the move happens your best options are to airthrow or do a rising air-to-air. While kapel raises Millia's hurtbox very high up to avoid grounded anti airs, it's still quite reachable by an air button in most cases, and the detection for an airthrow doesn't change nearly as fast (it follows Millia's body as expected, vs her strike hurtbox shifting up very soon). Millia can also alter her timing in the air by using Turbo FallGuard-Startup14Recovery9LAdvantage-. She can cancel into Kapel from this, and use this to throw your timing off when looking to intercept Kapel or her other aerial options. Vs a Millia using kapel from the top of the screen, aim to play patient and punish her after she's jumped off the kapel, and vs a Millia using kapel in your face to try and hit you or make you block, use air throws and rising air buttons.

Controlling neutral with big air buttons is risky versus Millia. Certain matchups definitely still can beat her own air buttons with theirs, but many crumble to her j.S and you risk a fair amount by preemptively jumping into the air versus her fast ground speed and amazing use of c.S as an anti air. j.P can be good as a fast check to hit her out of her nonsense, but if you throw them out to much Millia can play keep away with j.S and convert on the counterhit. If you end up blocking her j.S in the air, keep blocking. She can follow up a blocked aerial in multiple ways, and usually string into c.S to begin grounded pressure. If she tries to jump out of your pressure, chase with your best rising air buttons (or air throw her), keep her in block stun, and bring her back down to the ground. Some characters may have good high reaching complete disjoints as well such as Goldlewis or Giovanna who can use those and mostly ignore the risk of kapel after Millia jumps out of pressure.

Offense

Her fastest button is her 4 frame 2PGuardAllStartup4Recovery10Advantage-2, though it doesn’t reach very far. Her fastest, farthest reaching normal is actually her 2K, with 6 frames of start up. Unlike most other 5Ps in the game, Millia’s 5PGuardAllStartup7Recovery7Advantage-2 has 7 frames of start up, which makes it one of the slowest 5Ps in the game, and not one she can reliably mash on pressure. Her only reversal is her Overdrive WingerGuardAllStartup8+1Recovery40Advantage-32, which has subpar horizontal range and is -32 on block, making it easy to punish.

The invulnerability on her backdash is below average (4f), although it makes up for this by having a fast recovery (16f total duration). It’s better midscreen than it is in the corner. She also has a very low meter multiplier, causing her to generally gain less meter than her opponent does, making it hard to offset their offense with defensive tools like Faultless Defense, YRC, or an Overdrive.

ArtemisGuardAllStartup24Recovery15Advantage-2 is very evasive, massively shifting Millia's hurtbox up by frame 4. With this in mind, the window to frametrap it with a button it naturally evades is about the same as frametrapping her jumping, but you can also use buttons that simply reach high enough to hit artemis (and far enough if she's not cornered, as it retreats fairly far back). the threat of her evading a button with artemis isn't terrible as she doesn't convert off it without counterhit, or very close spacing to convert into a throw (make sure to recover from stagger as fast as possible to avoid fake conversions).

Because of the height of her jump as well as her numerous air mobility options, most Millias will be pretty desperate to jump out of the corner, so try to keep her grounded and control air space as much as you can.

Defense

Defending Against Millia's Blockstrings

Like most characters, Millia’s blockstrings stem from either 5K or c.S. Since these normals are universally jump cancelable, she has a multitude of different options she can go into from either of these buttons. Saving your Tension for Faultless Defense is extremely valuable when defending against Millia, as it will lock her out of a number of options as long as you’re prepared to deal with them.

Millia’s 5K gatlings into itself. This is useful for the additional hitstop on counter hit allows her to easily hit confirm, while letting her check for what you like to do on defense, as well as to hit certain mashing timings that would protect you from throws. Using Faultless Defense will push her out and give you more time to either mash or get away from her if she goes for a throw.

Millia’s c.S is very versatile. It works as an anti-air, pressure tool and confirm tool all at the same time. It has two hits, and either hit is jump cancelable. When blocking Millia using Faultless Defense, many options whiff after c.S, such as 2S or Bad MoonGuardHighStartup11Recovery20 + 12LAdvantage-21. She ends the majority of her strings with Lust ShakerGuardAllStartup13Recovery-16, -18, -20Advantage-5, -7, -9 which is a safe ender at -5 with the short version, but becomes more minus but still safe due to spacing with the longer hitting versions. the longest 9 hit version at -9 can still sometimes be punished by fast big moves like Sol's 6H.

In pressure, Millia can cancel Mirazh into Lust Shaker to frametrap, although the closer spacing can get her punished by quick buttons. Artemis is also a safe option, but due to not converting into a combo on hit unless it counterhits, it's more used for her conversions or defense. She won't often cancel Mirazh into her other grounded special moves during pressure unless she has Tension, as they leave herself very punishable. S Tandem Top is -10 with counter hit aerial recovery, H Tandem Top has a 73 frame start up, during which she’s in a counter hit state, and Iron Savior is -12. Don’t let her get away with canceling into any of these.

If she jump cancels 5K or c.S into an aerial approach, this gives her access to IAD > j.H, which is really important for her. You can counter hit her out of this with a delayed 6P and swap sides with her if you're in the corner (though this won’t side swap if defending with Faultless Defense). This leads to an opportunity for a corner combo. Millia can also delay the air dash, but a delayed 6P should still at the very least catch her if she doesn’t immediately block after the IAD forward. These options all risk being crushed by KapelGuardAllStartup13Recovery12Advantage-1 (IAS) though, so the most reliable answer to Millia performing an IAD after 5K or c.S will be to air throw, and in second place, a rising air button. Alternatively, you could also just dash forward and escape altogether in some cases.

From 5K, Millia could go into 2K, which again, is something you always want to avoid getting hit by. If you block this and she immediately gatlings into 2D, there is a gap in between where you can input backdash to dodge the 2D. If you’re in the corner, after you backdash you can punish 2D with a backthrow. This gap also loses to invincible reversals as well.

She can go into her 6KGuardHighStartup28Recovery10Advantage+2, which is an overhead. It has 28 frames of startup, so keep an eye out for this during her pressure. 6K shifts her lower hurtbox, allowing her to counter hit low profiling moves, but it still loses to high enough hitting mash buttons. This normal also isn’t airborne, so she’s vulnerable to throws as well.

She can jump cancel either 5K or c.S into Bad MoonGuardHighStartup11Recovery20 + 12LAdvantage-21, which is an instant overhead. Millia isn’t likely to use this move without Tension. On hit she isn’t able to convert without it as it just leads to a soft knockdown that gives a meaty 5K, f.S or 2D midscreen which is very susceptile to backdashing on wakeup, and on block, it’s-21, leaving her wide open for a punish. She can also meaty with c.S in the corner, or she can 2S/Bad Moon/Grab for a 3-way mixup. When blocked from 5K, the high/low mix from Bad Moon/2K can be fuzzy'd from low to high for initial timings, and if the 2K is delayed to hit around when Bad Moon does, there is a dp'able gap, which Bad Moon has even at the earliest timing. From c.S, Millia can do a high/low mix up with either Bad Moon or 2S. This can NOT be fuzzy blocked as both options happen during blockstun and Bad Moon is multihitting to catch any swapping to low, and is a pure 50/50 where you have to guess. This is also completely gapless, you cannot mash anything at all here. Faultless Defense if used on both hits of her c.S will make Bad Moon whiff, meaning she is forced to cancel into either of her high/low options on the first hit against FD'ing players, which weakens her ability to go for resets or throws.

Her two-hit 6HGuardAllStartup15Recovery23Advantage-8 is another option she can do. With this, Millia’s return on hit or counter hit is really big, as such, 6H’s primary use is to frametrap opponents in a direct way. Millia generally doesn’t do high damage, but she does do a lot of damage from a successful 6H, so try not to get hit by this. Since it’s an advancing normal, it can also chase your backdash or continue her pressure when you're using Faultless Defense. She is airborne for the first of the two hits, making it invulnerable to throws and allowing her to go over lows. Millia can also special cancel into any of her airborne special moves (Bad Moon, Turbo Fall, Kapel) during the first hit.

Whenever you’re defending against Millia, ALWAYS stand up after blocking the first hit of 6H so that you can block in case she tries to cancel into any of her aerial special moves. There’s no threat of a low here, so be sure to stand up whenever you block this.
If you’re using Faultless Defense, Millia can’t special cancel the first hit of 6H into Bad Moon, or else it will whiff. Otherwise, keep the previously mentioned counter play for Bad Moon in mind.
As long as you're using Faultless Defense, the Kapel is vulnerable to whiffing and can be punished with a 5P, 5K, or even a c.S punish if timed well, which is very valuable.

Finally, there’s blockstrings that start from IAD > j.H. After blocking j.H, she can go into numerous aerial options, including:

Kapel
j.D > dl. Kapel > air normal
IAD - If she instant air dashes, she can do another j.H as well as all of the aforementioned options. Remember, she can only do 2 air dashes.
Land and do an immediate 2K

These options cover mashing after blocking a j.H. If you didn’t anti-air her j.H and you block it, as a layer 1 option, fuzzy block from low to high, to defend vs land 2K vs airdash air button. you can work with using air throw instead of switching to standing block as well.

Dealing with H Disc Okizeme

Once Millia gets a knockdown into her H Disc okizeme, this is a very difficult situation to be in. The H version of Tandem Top is Millia’s best move and what her entire game plan and win condition is centered around. 2D into H Disc is very difficult to mess with, as it causes the H Disc to become a meaty (although bursting after eating a 2D will hit her out of H Disc startup and beats most other options).

You’re going to have to guess, but there are ways to eliminate some of her options. After the disc is set up, she can switch sides, land and go for a low option, or go for an overhead option. This can be structured as either a 3 way mixup or 2 50/50 mixups (a left/right followed by a high/low). The 3 way mixup is made up of land 2K, airdash j.H (sameside), and airdash (crossup). these are not mashable or reactable, but both sameside options are dp'able, meaning a dp or reversal super will hit her and win. They also all generally give poor combo options compared to the 2 50/50 mixup set of options. Millia will mostly use the 3 way setup only to kill. The 2 50/50's setup consists of Millia doing an airdash that is timed to either crossup or collide with your character and stay same side. it's possible for the millia to airdash too early and become a reactable crossup, but done correctly this is unreactable. the second mixup is to either airdash j.H/j.K or land 2K/2S. the first options (j.H and 2K) are used for the fact that they will whiff if you fail to block the first left/right and allow millia to then pickup the combo for free. the second options (j.K and 2S) do not whiff if you fail to block the left/right and make the combo much worse, but time up to be less fuzziable. 2K can be delayed to matchup with the j.H but at frame 18 starting frame 18 starting from the airdash, certain players on pc may be able to react.

If she hits you with a 2D from a far distance, she may be unable to reach in time for a crossup, meaning you only have to guess between high and low, both of which are suboptimal starters.

It’s important to note as well that any disc that ISN’T setup from 2D, after a RRC, or her super Septem Voices is not the same. From a throw or 214P you can fuzzy jump out if she tries to use the usual mixups, however, she covers this with a safejump j.H typically. Anything else she tries is mashable or can be fuzzy jumped. The best thing to do is to try to block high (preferably with IBFD) and then fuzzy jump. This will IBFD j.H, and you’ll jump over any throw/crossup/2K attempts. If you end up forcing her to use j.H, her post-j.H options include:

IAD > j.PGuardHighStartup5Recovery12Advantage- > j.P
IAD > j.KGuardHighStartup5Recovery12Advantage-
Landing after the j.H and doing a 2K
IAD > Faultless defense cancel airdash into 2K

There is a fuzzy that beats this pretty consistently. Do the same fuzzy jump from before, and then block low, then high, then low. This will beat all of these options besides delaying the land 2K intentionally. If you’re able to IBFD the j.H, this is also really good at shutting down her options. Also note that this is a safe jump, meaning that if Millia does j.H after a throw, you cannot use a reversal, she will block it and punish you if you try.

Millia can cross you up using Turbo Fall, adding another layer to her mixups, although reactable. If she ever crosses you up, you have to switch your guard. When defending against Turbo Fall, throw punish it on reaction unless there's an H Disc out, in which case you block. From a certain height, and by doing a string that involves j.D > Turbo Fall > Kapel, Millia can cross you up in the corner by falling with j.H while landing on the same side. She can then force a Wall Slump. You can hold forwards and block this setup. This is not a true left/right for her.