001. JOHNNY - INTRO & STRATEGY - GUILTY GEAR: ACCENT CORE
INTRODUCTION
Johnny is a very basic character, though by no means easy to play. In order to play a good Johnny, you have to be knowledgable about every aspect of the game and be able to utilize every opening your opponent leaves to your advantage. He consistently ranks at the bottom of tier lists and is generally regarded as one of the harder characters to play.
That being said though, you can still win with Johnny. Even his worst matchups (Potemkin, Zappa) are relatively balanced, so if you're dead set on learning him, you'll definitely be satisfied once you do.
BASIC STRATEGY
There's a few things you're going to need to learn if you're new to Johnny.
Those being:
- Coins (what they do and how to use them)
- Mist Finers
- Mist Cancelling
- Bacchus Sigh (214P)
Let's start with the coins. As you have probably noticed, above his Tension meter Johnny has 8 coin icons that replenish between rounds. These are how you power up your Mist Finer (236P/K/S) level and are also an invaluable pressure tool.
When you land a coin on an opponent, your Mist Finer level goes up by one. When this happens, you'll see "Level 2/3" near your Tension meter. This is important because Mist Finer properties vary drastically by level (and by which Mist Finer you use). For use as a pressure tool, coins are useful to keep your opponent in the corner when you don't have a Level 2 Mist Finer or higher (more on this in a bit). Remember that once you use a Mist Finer above Level 1, you have to land another coin in order to gain a higher level again. Be wary of spending all of your coins too quickly as well, as you become much less of a threat without them.
Next are the Mist Finers themselves. The input for Mist Finers are all 236, but will change direction depending on what button you press afterwards. 236P is the High Mist Finer, 236K is the Mid Mist Finer, and 236S is the Low Mist Finer. At Level 1, all three Mist Finers are pretty slow and weak. At Level 2, they become fast and good combo starters. At Level 3 they become multi-hit combos, and although they do a fair amount of damage, Level 2 Mist Finer combos will almost always do more. The main incentive to gaining a Level 3 Mist Finer though, is that you gain a faster Mist Cancel.
One important thing worth noting about Mist Finers is that they are a negative edge move, meaning that the move doesn't come out when you press the button, rather when you release it. This is important for two reasons; firstly, it means Mist Finers cannot be true reversals, and secondly, if you hold the button, you will stay in the Mist Finer stance. This is important for the next thing on the list, Mist Cancelling.
Mist Cancelling is an absolutely vital technique to playing Johnny, and while it may seem hard at first, it actually becomes quite simple once you learn the rhythm of it. Basically, any time one of your normal moves (other than 2HS) connects with your opponent (either on hit or block), input and hold 236P/K/S, and press HS immediately afterwards. What this does is cancel your moves' recovery with the Mist Finer stance, effectively making any move that connects safe. This is used primarily for pressure and advancing in on your opponent to attempt mixups, and is very useful for raising your opponent's Guard Bar.
The usefulness of Mist Cancelling ultimately depends on three things. Your consistency in the speed of the input for the actual cancel itself, your Mist Finer level (cancels get faster at levels 2 and 3), and what you do with the advantage you're given. The first one is just execution, and is thus the easiest to remedy. If you actually just tap the button you input for your Mist Finer and press HS afterwards, you will always get the fastest possible Mist Cancel. This will of course require a bit of practice, but it's useful once you learn it. The second one will vary depending on the match, but coins are generally pretty easy to land. The last one, however, is something that can only come with lots of matchup experience, practice and knowledge.
With the advantage Mist Cancelling gives you, it's common for newer players to think of it as a way to endlessly barrage your opponent with safe moves, but that's not what Mist Cancelling really does. What it does do, however, is both allow for you to make unsafe moves safe (useful for zoning and poking) and advance towards your opponent. The former is inherent of Mist Cancelling and is part of the reason newer players get trapped into bad habits. However, using Mist Cancelling to advance towards your opponent is something that takes a bit of practice (and for newer players who are blockstring happy, a little bit of self control). To use the advantage Mist Cancelling gives you to advance, you should only be doing one move, Mist Cancelling, dashing, and then doing this again (until you're in range to throw/low poke/Ensenga). The main problem with doing multi-hit blockstrings is that you're pushed back so far that the Mist Cancel effectively becomes useless. You may be able to do one, maybe two tops, reps of these blockstrings, but after that your opponent can just jump out. In summary, Mist Cancelling for pressure should be done with the intent of mixing up. The only way you can do this is by advancing, and the only way you can do that is to do one move per Mist Cancel.
Lastly, we have Bacchus Sigh, or as some people call it, "the mist". This is where Johnny's okizeme game shines most, as what Bacchus Sigh does is make the Mist Finer unblockable while it's active. Any time you score knockdown and have enough time to do so, it's always a good idea to use Bacchus Sigh- twofold if you have a high level Mist Finer. Much of Johnny's corner game revolves around knocking down into Bachhus Sigh, although it has it's uses midscreen as well (2D -> Bacchus Sigh is a common midscreen setup). Bacchus Sigh setups go hand in hand with one hit Ensengas, which will be covered in the combo section.
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