GGST/Ramlethal Valentine/Counterstrategy

Fighting Ramlethal

Ramlethal’s goal is to use her disjointed normals, as well as her special moves Bajoneto (aka Sword Toss)GuardAllStartup20RecoveryTotal 43Advantage+3 and Eralumo (Rekka)GuardAllStartup16Recovery12Advantage-5 to force you into the corner, where she can then apply her nearly infinite corner pressure on you that can be extremely difficult and risky to escape from. Because of her disjointed buttons, she’s a character that’s really difficult to Burst. She also has high movement speed and incredibly high damage output, making her one of the most dangerous characters in the game.

Unique Attributes/Mechanics

Brigadier Swords

Ramlethal is built around her two familiars and the large swords they carry for her. Her S button and H button moves are mapped to one of her two swords, and using Bajoneto will launch them. Launched swords change the properties of her moves that use either one or both of her swords. The swords will return to Ramlethal after a delay, but can also be picked up by walking or dashing over them.

Round Start

Ram’s round start isn't the greatest. She has no lows that reach from round start. Only her f.SGuardAllStartup11Recovery21Advantage-10 [-13] and 5HGuardAllStartup12Recovery28Advantage-12 [-13] (which have 11/12 frames of startup) reach and can be beaten with 6P or starters under 10 frames. Knowing this, Rams can try to whiff punish by walking back and waiting to see if you press somethng first before pressing either of these buttons. She could try to stuff farther reaching pokes with 5KGuardAllStartup7Recovery11Advantage-2. This can also cause certain lows to whiff. She could also hold her ground with 2SGuardLowStartup10Recovery18Advantage-5 [-8], a fast (10 frames) and large disjoint that will stuff almost any immediate round start button. It does lose to buttons that reach from round start that are faster than it, such as Chipp’s f.S or Sol’s 6H, and it can be low crushed with buttons like Nagoriyuki’s 6K. It has 18 frames of recovery, so it can also be easily whiff punished.

She could instead try to gain initiative with an aerial approach where her options are slow and linear. Her air dash is slow so to land safely, she’ll try to cover her landing with j.SGuardHighStartup12Recovery24Advantage+5 (IAD) or j.HGuardHighStartup19Recovery31Advantage-. j.S has long range and good hitboxes which make it hard to anti air. When dealing with Ram’s aerial approach, you have two options:

Contest the landing with a 6P punish. Perfect if your character can convert meaningfully.
Jump around her landing button and begin your offense from there.

The worst thing you can do is block her jump-ins or contest her disjointed aerials. Both push you towards the corner, which will give her easier access to her win condition.

Some Rams like to be cheeky and start rounds off with SabrobatoGuardAllStartup19Recovery42Advantage-27 [-27] {-32}. It has a 19 frame start up and is a giant attack that can catch an opponent off-guard from afar. However, it’s very punishable, at -27 on block. She's not super likely to use this at round start as a result, but it leads to very strong reward for her, and is something to keep in mind. It's much better post wallbreak, when Ram has Tension. She can use drift RC to get in close and immediately apply her Rekka pressure on you. Be aware and be prepared.

In conclusion, cycle between immediate 6P and walking back to either whiff punish her 2S or 6P her aerial approach.

Neutral

It is extremely important that you avoid getting put into the corner at all costs. Putting you into the corner is Ramlethal's win condition. Her corner pressure is extensive and very difficult to defend against or escape. You need to play a passive, yet strong footsies game, and counter poke and contest her approach. If you succeed, then get in and maintain up-close pressure as much as you possibly can. As mentioned, she has two primary ways of getting you into the corner: strings that lead into Sword Toss and strings that lead into her Rekka.

The Sword Toss will carry you far on hit and push you back far on block. After launching the swords, they’ll be embedded in the ground. If they make contact with the corner, they’ll be embedded in the wall and explode after a short moment, giving Ram automatic combos on hit and an opportunity to reset pressure when blocked. Once Ramlethal has launched them, however, she'll lose the disjoints she relies on to control space in neutral and make her difficult to challenge, so she can't recklessly toss them out. If the Sword Toss gets blocked or dodged, she can be gatekept from her tossed sword and left at a disadvantage.

Her 3-hit Rekka is her most important tool midscreen. She can combo into it after 2KGuardLowStartup6Recovery9Advantage-2 > 2DGuardLowStartup10Recovery19Advantage-8. You need to be afraid of 2K > 2D because if she scores it, not only is she going to carry you towards the corner, but she’ll also get a ton of Tension. (More info on dealing with this in the Defense section).

Ramlethal thrives at controlling the mid range thanks to her large disjointed buttons. Her f.S and j.S are both excellent normals. They are fairly fast, have a long range and are difficult to deal with since they’re disjointed. Learning the range of those normals is very important as they are at the core of Ramlethal's neutral game. f.S is her best poke, but as mentioned during round start, it's weak to 6P. However Ram's f.S is too fast to react to, so 6P is relegated to a read/prediction option. She can gatling into 5H from f.S, either immediately, or after a delay to catch you mashing.

If the Ramlethal player is always going into f.S > 5H without ever delaying the gatling or going into a special. The entire roster can punish the 5H with blue roman cancel drift forward after blocking. Some characters can also punish without having to spend meter and even if you don't use BRC, you can easily take your turn back. Most Ramlethal players will delay f.S > 5H because of this to try and catch the opponent moving or trying to punish. This however gives more options to the defender. If Ram does f.S > dl 5H, you can use 6P to stuff the 5H. Once these options have been forced the Ramlethal player then has to sometimes end their blockstring in f.S only or take a risk with a Special. If they don't delay the 5H, as long as you're delaying your 6P, then you will always block. However there is a tight frame where they can frame trap to leave a small gap where it will punish 6P mashing. In those instances you also have DP/reversal Overdrive if Ram gets too close. Try and dash block during the delay. The closer you are to Ram, the more likely you can punish the extended hurtbox on her normals. Her f.S has 21 frames of recovery, so if she whiffs it, she’s left wide open for a punish. Try and play footsies just outside of the range of her f.S so that it’s easier to whiff punish her if she throws it out. If you try and go for an IAD punish after a whiffed f.S, she can mash 6P and get a huge reward if she counter hits you. Keep this and mind, and alternate your whiff punish attempts between the ground and air. She can’t cover both at once.

Aside from f.S, she could also poke by dashing into 2K. Remember, you need to avoid 2K as much as possible since it can gatling into her rekka, which she can use to carry you into the corner. Ram may also try to go into 2K > 2D from Slido Detruo (Flip Kick)GuardAllStartup22Recovery17Advantage-2 in order to get the rekka pressure going. The Flip Kick is +1 on block and forces you into a crouching state on hit. However, this move does not hit high. You can block this while crouching. You can go for a grab if you instant block it as well. While you can block it, doing so isn’t really advisable since again, she can go into her rekka pressure from it. It’s better to anti-air her or avoid the move entirely. Ram can use this after jumping in the air, which can make it difficult to anti-air, but easier to avoid.

Finally, as a reminder, be wary of Saborobato when Ram has Tension. Unless you hit can hit Ram before it reaches you (which, depending on spacing, you likely can't), you cannot contest this move because the hitbox is all disjoint. Always try to keep this in the back of your mind.

Offense

Ram is weakest with her back to the wall and fighting at close range. Her 5K and 2K are barely keep out tools. If you have a fast button that will move your lower hurtbox (like Nagoriyuki’s 5K for example), you can use that to beat 2K. They also don’t reliably gatling into her 2D or 6P from farther away. This forces her to rely on stagger pressure a lot or take a risk with her unsafe special moves. When you’ve boxed her into the corner, prioritize keeping her there over getting a hit. At some point, she will have to gamble to get out, effectively handing you her health bar. She may try to use the Flip Kick to escape the corner, so try to react to it by anti-airing while on the ground or intercepting her jump before she can get this out.

You do need to be very cautious of her invincible reversal Overdrive MortobatoGuardAllStartup7+2Recovery51Advantage-38 [-38] {-43} when applying pressure to her, however. It hits far in front and above Ram. This is her only invincible reversal. You need to be wary of her Tension as she tends to do this when waking up from a knockdown. It’s -30 on block, making it a free punish. From a hard knockdown, a well timed cross up forces the move to whiff entirely. The best thing to do is treat it like a Burst or DP: bait it out and punish. You can also punish this with an invincible reversal super of your own by inputting it after you see the flash for hers.

Defense

Defending Against Rekka Pressure

There is a gap between all of the rekka hits. The second hit is -10/-12 on block depending on the delay. You can get a guaranteed reversal Overdrive on block here. On the first and second hit of the rekka, she can do a special cancel and dash after the move comes out. She can also chain the dash cancel into a special cancel, meaning she can do the first hit of the rekka, dash, and start it up again, chaining the first hits of the rekka together if she so wishes. If she’s close enough, she can be thrown in between the first and second rekka. If you manage to instant block any part of this, it’ll make it a lot easier to throw her out of it. If she combos into the first rekka hit after 2K > 2D, this is a good opportunity to buffer an instant block. The third hit from the rekka leads to a soft knockdown.

Escaping Corner Pressure Part 1

If Ram is up close and applying pressure in the corner, this is the worst situation you can find yourself in. This is her win condition. When she’s applying her pressure, you can NOT just jump or challenge with buttons. Instead, use Faultless Defense to push her out. If she goes for her rekka, remember your options for defending against it. There are a few different blockstrings that Ramlethal will rely on to keep you jailed in the corner, both of which start with c.SGuardAllStartup7Recovery10Advantage+1. Burst/YRC are also strong tools to get out of this situation. There are ways to use them more effectively against Ram’s corner pressure. Wait and use them after H Sword Toss, when she doesn’t have both Swords. She can bait you if you use them immediately after the Sword Toss, but she can’t bait for very long if she wants to continue running her pressure.

The first string Ramlethal uses is c.S > f.S > 5H > H Sword Toss or c.S > 5H > H Sword Toss. These strings are both knowledge checks. H Sword Toss is +3 on block and can keep you jailed thanks to the sword explosion. You can jump or dash out right after blocking the sword, but before the explosion to escape. However, Ram can use S Sword Toss to lock you down. You can double jump to avoid the S Sword, but a smart Ram player rarely throws both swords and after a double jump, you are an easy target for an anti air. If she does throw both swords to pin you down, be wary of a dash up into grab, and try to jump or tech it. Certain characters like Sol and Giovanna can use their lowered run hurtbox to slip under S Sword.

You have a number of options when it comes to handling H Sword in the corner. If she’s in your face, you can YRC or use an invincible reversal, however, Ram can bait these options and these options will also whiff if Ram is standing further away. If she’s farther away, you can escape after blocking H Sword with either of the two following methods before the explosion locks you down:

Escape going high with a superjump
Escape going low by dashing out. Dash macro is a life saver here.

Using Faultless Defense here on these strings will push Ramlethal out far. Because of this dashing forward and blocking can often be the best solution to see what the Ramlethal player is going to do. This creates a 50/50, where Ram has to guess whether your escape route will be high or low. She can’t cover both options. If she guesses low, she’ll use a f.S to keep you jailed. If she guesses high, she’ll jump and mash j.PGuardHighStartup5Recovery8Advantage- to keep you jailed. Even if she does, she cannot pickup the sword as you both land without leaving a big gap. If your character does not have a dash you can jump and you only have to worry if Ram tries to j.P you.

You could also potentially bait her to pressure you after without her precious H Sword when using Faultless Defense before the Sword Toss. If she gatlings into 5H without the sword, she is -13 on block, and can't cancel into any of her Special Moves without some risk. This includes her special move DauroGuardAllStartup11Recovery26Advantage-10, a combo ender and frametrap option that’s -10 on block.

Certain special moves can also be used to escape and counter attack. Nagoriyuki can use Clone to nullify the explosion from the Sword Toss. Ky can use Foudre Arc and even if Ram blocks it, he has an opportunity to start running his pressure. Experiment with your character’s options and see what you can do.

Be patient, wait for the Sword Toss and mixup your escape options.

Escaping Corner Pressure Part 2

The other string she could do is c.S > close range H Sword Toss. Better Rams are more likely to use this string instead. She has multiple options she can do after the Sword Throw here.

She could do c.S > H Sword Toss > 2K > Sword Explosion > Dash~c.S. Since H Sword Toss is +3, she can then do 2K which will catch prejump frames and if the 2K is blocked, then the the sword will explode after, leaving Ramlethal at +10. After this the Ramlethal player can dash in and continue pressure. This string frametraps all the way, and can be looped into itself. You can’t jump or mash, no matter which part of the string it is. Furthermore, Ram can throw at ANY point of the block string. This is very scary pressure to deal with but when defending you have several options.

If your character has a DP, they’re good to use here as every part of this string has gaps. However, DPs don’t have enough invulnerability to beat the explosion.

Faultless Defense in general is useful against this string. From a knockdown though, Ram’s dash momentum beats FD.

Ram’s strike/throw is pretty difficult to react to in this string, but if she’s dashing after H Sword Toss, jumping beats whatever she’s trying to do.

6P beats c.S > H Sword Toss cleanly, but she can beat that with c.S > 6HGuardAllStartup18Recovery33Advantage-16 [-18], c.S > delay 2S, or just delaying the H Sword Toss. However, these strings are weak to Faultless Defense, allowing you to jump or dash before the explosion. Even on wake up, with dash momentum, Ram is pushed out too far to frametrap with 2K. This brings us back to the same guessing game from the previous string: you’ll have to choose between going high with jump or low with dash.

If you manage to IB c.S, Ram will be in throw range. The gap between c.S > H Sword Toss is long enough for you to get a throw in. Ram can still frametrap with 2S, however.

If Ram dashes up to do a c.S after the sword explosion, she can be thrown here as long as you’ve been using Faultless Defense to guarantee a gap in her pressure. She can try to do a c.S outside of throw range, but this doesn’t let her loop back sword pressure.

Stand block FD is a very good option if you know they will not go for 2S > H Sword Toss during pressure resets. The reason being is stand block has more pushback than crouch blocking, which will push Ramlethal fairly far away unless they did a dash-in, which then allows you to jump after the H Sword is blocked.

Ram can kara dash cancel into H Sword Toss after the c.S to beat Faultless Defense. You can throw between dash momentum c.S > kara dash H Sword Toss, or just throw the post explosion dash up > c.S. Also, with or without Faultless Defense, c.S > kara dash H Sword Toss is just as weak to 6P.

Defending Against Calvados

Calvados (aka Laser Overdrive)GuardAll (Guard Crush)Startup11+13Recovery17Advantage+16 is a fullscreen laser blast that Guard Crushes on block. It's +16 on block due to Guard Crush and thus cannot be punished if blocked. It has 24 frames of startup and hits under normal jump height, so if you’re low on health, double jump most of it, then block with Faultless Defense to prevent the chip damage. Ram will generally only use this to break the wall, or whiff punish moves with extremely long recovery, she'll likely never use this in neutral. If she does, you can punish it by jumping after the super flash and IADing into an aerial move if close enough. Some characters can use an extra air special move to stay airborne longer and get a better punish, so make sure to check what your character can do.