GGST/Johnny/Counterstrategy

Fighting Johnny

Johnny is a setplay-focused character whose goal is to get in on you and then run his strong, mix-up focused pressure which revolves around his Mist Finer special move as well as his unique Turn-Up mechanic. He lacks a traditional dash, and instead has a step dash that he can’t immediately act out of, which makes his ability to approach very committal. In order to accomplish his goal, he has to be able to either connect one of his long range pokes, or utilize his specials to put you into a position where he can safely approach. Defeating Johnny is going to be a matter of playing around his pokes, abusing his limited movement, and punishing his unsafe specials in neutral.

Unique Mechanics

• Mist Finer

The cornerstone of Johnny’s entire gameplan. Mist FinerGuardStartup7RecoveryAdvantage- is an attack that has Johnny enter a stance before unleashing a fast slash of his sword. Holding down the attack button for the special allows Johnny to maintain the stance. He can also perform a teleporting step dash either forwards or backwards while maintaining the stance as well. Johnny can use Mist Finer both on the ground and in the air. There are three directions that Johnny can slash the sword in, which is dependent on the button used when entering the stance.

The P versionGuardAllStartup7+5Recovery30Advantage-15 slashes upwards, which can be used as an anti-air. It launches high and leads to a soft knockdown on hit. Unless you’re extremely close to Johnny, this Mist Finer will generally whiff if you’re approaching from the ground.

The K versionGuardAllStartup7+5Recovery30Advantage-15 is a horizontal slash. It's the easiest Mist Finer to use in neutral, and the one he will primarily poke with. However, it can be low profiled with attacks such as 6P or advancing, low hitting special moves such as Ky’s Stun Dipper. On hit, it will launch you away from Johnny into a rolling tumble. Something to keep in mind is that after a successful hit from a K Mist Finer, Johnny has enough time to dash forward twice with his step dash.

The S versionGuardLowStartup7+5Recovery30Advantage-15 is a downward slash that hits low. Since it hits so low to the ground, it leaves Johnny vulnerable to aerial approaches. S Mist Finer is Johnny’s strongest mixup tool. Since all Mist Finers are able to be used in the air, Johnny can use this Mist Finer to perform an instant overhead on crouching opponents. The grounded version leads to a hard knockdown on hit, giving Johnny an opportunity to set up his okizeme.

All versions of Mist Finer are -15 on block. The ground versions of Mist Finer all have 30 frames of recovery, while the aerial versions have a minimum of 13 frames of recovery in addition to the frames it takes for Johnny to land. Aerial Mist Finers all lead to soft knockdowns on hit. Johnny can also cancel out of any Mist Finer by pressing H or D. Johnny can do this during blockstrings to help keep himself safe since it pulls his hurtbox back and gives him better frame advantage on block after using particularly negative attacks.

• Turn-Up

Johnny’s special move DealGuardStartupRecoveryTotal 32Advantage- has him toss out a playing card onto the stage. There are three different versions of the special move which has him toss the card at different distances and trajectories. He can also throw a card downwards by using the midair versionGuardAllStartup15RecoveryUntil Landing+22Advantage- of Deal, or by inputting H during his VaultGuardStartupRecoveryTotal 31+7 LandingAdvantage- special move, which is a forward flip that allows Johnny to cover a significant distance. If Johnny gets hit by an attack while a card is on the field, it will vanish, however it does NOT vanish if Johnny blocks.

When the card is struck by any version of Mist Finer, the Turn-Up mechanic activates and the card explodes, which launches you vertically into the air on hit and guard crushes you on block, giving Johnny a chance to advance or enact one of his mixups.

Mist Finer and Turn-Up work together hand in hand. Without a card, you can take your turn back after blocking Mist Finer because of how minus it normally is on block as well as its lengthy recovery.

Round Start

Johnny has decent round start options. He has a 9 frame f.SGuardAllStartup9Recovery22Advantage-11 that’s disjointed at the tip, but does lose to 6Ps and low profile special moves. It has 22 frames of recovery. His 2DGuardLowStartup10Recovery26Advantage-15 has 10 frames of start up and reaches round start, which is pretty rare for a lot of 2Ds. Since it leads to a hard knockdown on hit, Johnny will have a chance to get a card out, so it's crucial to avoid getting hit by this. It has 26 frames of recovery. 2SGuardLowStartup11Recovery21Advantage-10 leads to good reward on hit and is large enough to catch people who just walk back. It has an 11 frame start up with 21 frames of recovery.

Because Johnny’s pokes are slow to recover, it leaves him vulnerable to advancing, low crushing special moves such as Bandit Bringer or Foudre Arc. Most likely, Johnny will backdash or IAD backwards with press j.SGuardHighStartup10Recovery22Advantage- to wall you out in case you do approach so that he can start poking at you from a distance.

Neutral

As previously mentioned, Johnny lacks a conventional run like most of the cast, and instead has a step dash that can’t be traditionally canceled, unlike Giovanna or Leo’s step dash. This also means that he can’t perform an FD Break. He can only jump cancel his step dash, which converts his forward momentum into air movement. This can make it difficult for him to gain space and advance to the range where he plays best at. If you play a character with zoning capabilities, such as Axl, use these tools to your advantage and try to make him force his way in.

Otherwise, Johnny will likely try and make you come to him, while poking at you with his 5KGuardAllStartup7Recovery9Advantage-2, 2KGuardLowStartup6Recovery11Advantage-2, f.S, and 2S depending on your current position. At closer ranges, Johnny's 5K can trade with buttons with slower start up time, such as Baiken's f.S, because all of Johnny's buttons have a light hurtbox extension before their active frames.

Card Toss in Neutral

If Johnny manages to connect one of his pokes, he may try canceling into P Deal and then following it up with K Mist Finer in order to pin you down in neutral. This is very fake and something to look out for, do not let yourself get knowledge checked by this. Remember, Deal doesn’t have a hitbox or do damage, and it takes 32 frames to complete, in addition to the 12 total frames of start up for Mist Finer. Keep your eyes open, and don’t let Johnny get away with this, but also don’t react too late and let yourself get counter hit. If you ever block the explosion from Turn Up, always remember: Johnny gets a free opportunity to dash in while still being plus on block, so don’t try and mash anything unless you want to get counter hit.

If Johnny can do so unopposed, he may try to throw a card out in neutral, especially when he's fullscreen. This allows to establish a level of space control. Johnny essentially forces you to engage in RPS in this situation. If he's managed to get a card out onto the field, directly approaching him comes with a significant amount of risk due to the card explosion from Turn Up. While the card can be air dashed over if it’s on the ground, Johnny can bait you into getting hit with an anti-air. It’s better to try and back off if possible and wait for the card to disappear (though keep in mind that this gives Johnny space to advance), wait for Johnny to approach, or occasionally swing at Johnny with a long ranged attack. If the attack lands, the card will vanish. You'll need to rotate your options here.

6K RPS

The worst thing you can do if Johnny's gotten a card out in neutral is standing in one spot. If Johnny’s conditioned you to sit still, he can get in your face with his forward advancing 6KGuardAllStartup15Recovery18Advantage-5. While his 6K is -5 on block, he can special cancel it to make it safe, most likely with his special move EnsengaGuardAllStartup18Recovery20Advantage-4 , a backflip attack Johnny can perform that can frametrap as well as crush lows and throws.

While Ensenga is also minus on block, blocking it will put Johnny at a safe distance away from you. You can call it out with invincible reversals as well as 6Ps, but Johnny can backdash to bait punishes. You can use a longer reaching poke or forward advancing attack to catch the backdash in this situation, however, Johnny can also do a backwards S Mist Finer Dash to punish 6Ps after 6K, or even just Mist Finer Cancel into a regular throw. Keep this in mind, and rotate your options when RPS-ing with 6K.

Preventing Johnny from Getting In

Against zoners, Johnny will likely attempt to use K Mist Finer to try and snipe if they’re in the middle of using one of their long range tools. He doesn’t get much of a reward for it, but he does get two guaranteed forward dashes during the rolling tumble of a successful K Mist Finer, so it’s an opportunity for him to get in. He can also try to go for Vault > RC once he has 50 Tension, because that’s his best way to get in. When Johnny cancels vault with a red/purple roman cancel, he’s able to put his opponent in a 50/50 by going into c.S and then either S Mist Finer or TK S Mist Finer. More information on that in the defense section.

Since Johnny’s ground movement is so limited, he’ll likely attempt air dashing forward or jump canceling his dash in order to get in. He does have some really solid normals to air dash in with, like j.KGuardHighStartup8Recovery10Advantage- or j.HGuardHighStartup15Recovery25Advantage-. Keep an eye out for this method of approach, and be ready to anti-air him.

Offense

Johnny’s defensive options are rather limited. His fastest button is a standard 5 frame 2PGuardAllStartup5Recovery9Advantage-2. Because Johnny’s 2P hits fairly high up, it can actually lose to some low profile options, like certain characters’ 6P or I-No’s Stroke the Big Tree. Johnny has a 6 frame 2K in order to catch these options, and since it naturally combos into 2D, it’ll give him better okizeme.

Aside from that, there’s his invincible reversal Overdrive That’s My NameGuardAllStartup9+2Recovery60Advantage-44 which he can use during gaps in pressure. On hit, Johnny will have enough time to set up okizeme with K Deal into a forward dash K Mist Finer, but the lower frame advantage and knockback distance makes this oki less favorable for Johnny. Certain characters can immediately 6P Mist Finer on wake up like Nagoriyuki and Testament, others can beat Mist Finer with a slightly delayed 6P like May and Sin. It's worth labbing with your character to see if their 6P can beat this setup. Some characters can also drift forward BRC on wake up to perform unique punishes, so it's check to see what your character can do. If Johnny doesn’t want to RPS after landing this, he does get a guaranteed safe jump by either dashing forward and then performing an IAD > j.H or jump canceling his dash into a whiffing j.P > j.S. Johnny can also perform super PRC thanks to the longer start up of That’s My Name. This allows Johnny to beat certain safe jump setups and can potentially net Johnny bigger punishes.

His 6PGuardAllStartup11Recovery17Advantage-9 is a unique abare option. It has lower than average recovery (17 frames) and great safety on block, since he can keep himself safe with Mist Finer Cancel or frametrap with Ensenga.

Deflect Shield can be especially strong for Johnny, since his long range pokes (f.S in particular) are great for whiff punishing. He can whiff punish with f.S and then convert into his Overdrive Joker TrickGuardAllStartup6+1RecoveryTotal 48Advantage-16, where he can set up the same okizeme situations as That’s My Name, but with greater frame advantage. Alternatively, if he lacks Tension, he can also convert the f.S into a standard Orange Wild Assault conversion.

Defense

Defending Against Johnny’s Okizeme

Johnny’s okizeme can be boiled down into three different common types of knockdowns:

• S Mist Finer Hard Knockdown

The most common knockdown Johnny can get. After landing this, Johnny can throw a card with P Deal and meaty with K Mist Finer. Mist Finer will trigger Turn Up, giving Johnny enough of a frame advantage to dash in for a strike/throw mix between c.S and regular throw. If Johnny has Tension, he can threaten a high/low 50/50 after the c.S between 2D and TK S Mist Finer. If the Johnny player is on point and slightly delaying the 2D in order to hit on the same frame as TK S Mist Finer, the high/low becomes unfuzziable.

If you use Faultless Defense when blocking the meaty K Mist Finer, you will keep Johnny from being able to dash into throw range, which prevents him from running his strike/throw mix. To try and mitigate this, Johnny could attempt a forward Mist Finer Dash, but this leaves him vulnerable to reversals and 6Ps.

Whenever Johnny guard crushes with Turn Up, forward dashing will leave him at +6. This leaves a 1 frame gap between the forward dash and the 5K or c.S, as they both have a 7 frame start up. This means that you can buffer reversals during this gap. To beat this, Johnny can dash into a 2K. This is a true blockstring that will keep you from mashing out reversals, so you can’t just default to mashing out a reversal. Use Faultless Defense, and rotate your defensive options.

• 2K > 2D / Throw Hard Knockdown - the strongest oki situations that Johnny has, as they leave him the most advantageous on hit. This high level of frame advantage is only available from these two things and nothing else.

This setup leaves Johnny so plus that after throwing a card out and activating Turn Up with Mist Finer, Mist Finer will actually whiff and not hit meaty. The explosion from Turn Up is what hits meaty. This is really good for Johnny because it makes him immune to pushback from Faultless Defense, and allows him to loop the strike/throw 50/50. A meaty Turn Up explosion is also more plus than normal, which means Johnny can dash into c.S and then perform a completely reversal proof high/low 50/50 between a low and TK S Mist Finer.

If the Johnny player is feeling bold, he may attempt a high risk, but high reward option during this oki where instead of the K Mist Finer whiff setup, Johnny instead will throw out a card > forward dash > meaty c.S, and go for the high/low 50/50. Johnny can convert from the Turn Up explosion without Tension if it hits, and stay plus if you manage to block it. This setup is vulnerable to invincible reversals, however, which is where the high risk comes from.

• Vault > Deal Soft Knockdown - while this lets Johnny plant a card at his feet, he’ll generally have less time to do complex setups due to the soft knockdown.

This oki is most commonly used at the end of longer combos to provide an immediate 50/50 between a TK and regular S Mist Finer when the gravity scaling for S Mist Finer knockdowns is too high to get a meaty after setting up a card. Alternatively, Johnny could whiff an S Mist Finer and meaty with Turn Up itself, which leads to the same oki situation as a hard knockdown from 2K > 2D or throw.

It's important to make sure that Johnny is sticking to performing oki from these common types of knockdowns. If a Johnny player ever attempts to do 2K > 2D > S Mist Finer > P Deal > forward dash, this is a fake setup that is vulnerable to wake up throws.

Defending Against Johnny’s Pressure

Johnny’s pressure is unique due to his lack of a normal run. He can’t threaten a run up > throw like most characters can to open you up. As a result, Johnny can sometimes struggle with opening players up without taking a big risk, or without having to use Tension to stay safe.

When running meterless pressure, Johnny can use delayed gatlings and special cancels to try and tempt you into mashing. A common blockstring would be c.S > 2S > 5HGuardAllStartup13Recovery30Advantage-15 and then canceling into a special move (typically Mist Finer Cancel). He can delay these buttons to set up frame traps, and mix the timing up so that he’s not predictable. Since Johnny can perform high/low 50/50s off of c.S, delaying the gatling from c.S to 2S is meant to condition you and make it harder to block them. If Johnny goes through with the whole blockstring, the high pushback of Johnny’s normals, as well as only being -4 after any blocked H normal when canceled into Mist Finer Cancel allows Johnny to control the spacing he’s left at when he chooses to end a blockstring. Ending a blockstring this way allows him to enact spacing traps and sets him up for easy whiff punishes.

Johnny can also gatling into 2HGuardAllStartup18Recovery30Advantage-14. This normal has two hits to it, and Johnny can Mist Finer Cancel either hits to surprise you and steal his turn back.

When running his pressure, Johnny wants to get you to stop mashing so that he can start sneaking in resets in order to open you up. There is inherent risk to these resets, but Johnny has to rely on them when his opponents choose to stand their ground.

For a meterless reset, Johnny can sneak in a Mist Finer Step at any point in his blockstring. This is one of his riskier resets, however, as doing so leaves him in your face while being very negative. Mist Finer Step has 25 total frames, so keep your eyes open for when he tries this and punish accordingly.

Johnny can also perform a high/low 50/50 with Orange Wild Assault, thanks to his ability to jump cancel it. Johnny will usually need 50 Tension on top of the 50 Burst needed for the Orange Wild Assault setup. Johnny’s pressure becomes especially volatile during Positive Bonus, as he can sneak in an overhead from almost any poke.

After a wallbreak from one of his Overdrives, Johnny can do a superjump into an IAD > j.H in order to safejump reversals with 10 frames or slower startup, but will lose to 3 frame mash options like Sol's 5K or Chipp's 5P and trades with 4 frame mash options like May's 5P. You can find a table outlining the options the safejump beats and loses to here. If there's a situation where Johnny can't safely perform a safejump, he will instead opt to use Deal to maintain control of neutral and potentially establish limited setplay. He may also attempt to fake you out by doing an IAD > j.S whiff instead of j.H and go for a gimmicky throw mix-up instead. If you opt to block the j.H, Johnny can perform a double overhead by following it up with P Mist Finer. Doing so leaves Johnny at -1 and out of throw range, allowing him to frametrap with c.S and perform the high/low 50/50.

Defending Against Vault > Deal PRC

When it comes to blockstring resets that require Tension, Johnny will mainly be doing Vault > Deal > PRC. After any blockstring ending in an H normal, instead of canceling into Mist Finer Cancel, Johnny can Vault > Deal to immediately throw the card. Then, Johnny can PRC the card throw to visually confirm if you took any action. Once Johnny lands, he can go for a standard strike/throw or the c.S high/low 50/50 if he has another 50 Tension. This reset is vulnerable to invincible reversals, and Vault can be 6P'd at specific spacings. Both options are hard commitments, however, and being wrong can lead to you getting punished.

Johnny can perform a high/low while doing Vault > Deal. He could do a fast PRC into j.K, a fast PRC into a j.H whiff followed by 2K, or a fast PRC into a held S Mist Finer. The S Mist Finer setup in particular is uncommon and risky, since holding the Mist Finer gives you a chance to challenge Johnny with a throw after he lands. Furthermore, if you standblock, Johnny may do a RRC by mistake, which messes up the timing for this setup. That being said, he can still do a backwards Mist Finer dash while releasing the S Mist Finer to punish you, so there are some levels of RPS here.

While Johnny will normally opt for Vault > Deal > PRC during pressure, he can instead fake you out by going for a forward S Mist Finer Dash instead, which will punish you if you just mash 6P during his blockstrings. If you manage to block the Mist Finer, Johnny can still Roman Cancel to keep himself safe, and either frametrap or start his pressure with c.S, f.S or 2K afterwards.

References/Resources

Uwabami's Beginner Johnny Guide by Uwabami

Johnny 101 | Strategy, Combos, Overview and Advanced Tips by Diaphone