DBFZ Online Tutorial P1 - Basic Offense / Defense

Blockstrings - True blockstring into mixup

Basic offense is to do a true blockstring (no reflectable/vanishable/lvl3-able gaps), call an assist and do a quick iad double overhead/overhead low

After calling an assist they are put in a cooldown state, if the opponent is in blockstun, your assist is not cooling down. This is where you would leave gaps in your offense (blockstring) so that your assist comes off cooldown and you can use them again for further offense.

Blockstring stagger to reset assist cooldown
>> This leaves a gap which allows your assist to cooldown, this gap, depending on how big can be beaten by
>>> Buttons
          > Cell example, 5LL 2M 5M (gap) dash 2L will be beaten by buttons but 5LL 2M 5M 4M will beat the button which u can hit confirm into 6H 5H. 5M 4M is a natural stagger for Cell with a gap but also acts as a frame trap for buttons. The same theory can be used by other characters i.e. 2M 5M delay 5H, the delay 5H will act as a gap and reset your assist since it's not a true blockstring.
>>> Reflect
            > Cell example, 5LL 2M 5M (gap) 4M is beaten by reflect, but 5LL 2M 5M 6H will beat reflect and you can cancel into perfect attack or 5H to convert.
Another option is to do 5M 5S xx kamehameha, since 5S is a ki blast, you can guard cancel reflect/super dash ki blasts. The opponent can do guard cancel reflect after the first 5S and then commit to another reflect to reflect the entire kamehameha. Most players will cancel kamehameha into vanish which will get auto reflected. This will be covered in the next tutorial.
Another option is to wait after 5M which will bait the reflect and you can punish with 5M / 2M and also baits the next option which is -
>>> Vanish
              >The least safest option as this can be beaten outright if Cell does 5LL 2M 5M *wait* you vanish and get 2H'd or perfect attack into TOD
              > 5M 4M beats vanish
              > 5M 6H beats vanish
              > 5M 5S beats vanish
>>> Reversal / Level 3 - speaks for itself, in any fighting game, anything with invincibility will blow up non-true blockstrings.

Reflect basic mechanics

Reflect starts up on frame 1, it's the most valuable defense option and also one of the riskiest.
If you block a ki blast, you can cancel the block stun recovery into a reflect or super dash (since super dash goes through all ki blasts)
Beams into vanish is a common strategy for players to establish + frames into a true blockstring + assist mixup
Reflecting the first hit of a beam reflects all subsequent hits, this is the same as level 3s
Some level 3s have to be reflected to get a good punish from mid/full screen

Post beam+ vanish reflect ideas
Beam into vanish is +1/2 if done properly (it's more advantaged if the opponent vanishes you while you are in the air, it's less advantaged if their vanish attack is airborne)
Since this is a free get in to immediate pressure it's very scary
After the vanish, there is a gap, this is a common way of people resetting assists and letting you continue pressure. In this gap, you can Reflect/Backdash/Jump and the aforementioned RPS mind game is active again.

Options on offense for this
Cell - 5LL, if you backdash and hit a button/jump out and dragon rush, Cell will chase you down with the auto combo and combo you, if you reflect the 5L, the 2nd L will catch up to you and you will have to block the hit (if you committed to a hit after the reflect you will eat the 2nd auto combo light). Vanish is not an option here so Cell players will commit to the 5LL which beats most options.

Kbuu players will choose between 5L 2L or 2M (I've been told 1M is better for this). 2M will beat backdash, dragon rush jump out and immediate reflect (since the start up of the medium is slow enough to catch immediate refresh) but will lose to vanish and buttons (since the start up is slow). 5L will beat vanish, dragon rush, buttons and jumping but will lose to immediate reflect and backdash.

IAD jM jL is the next option, this will catch backdash, will cross over and beat reflect but lose to vanish and dragon rush (the latter option will just whiff). Opponents can make a hard read with 2H to outright beat this but this will lose to the previous options. They can also jump out but if you timed your offense right, you will catch them in the air with jM and you can bring them down with an air blockstring.

Use your own characters and test these situations.

Options on defense
After blocking a beam + vanish, you effectively lose your turn (+2 scenario for the attacker). Same options as before, you can Reflect/Backdash/Button/Tech a Dragon Rush and have all the risks associated with those options.

Reflect - if you reflect and the opponent commits to a 5LL (since 5L is most people's fastest button at 6f this will beat Vanish/Buttons/Throw and lose to Backdash/Reflect) you will reflect the first 5L and make the 2nd L (5LL) whiff and you can whiff punish. You will need to lab this as your character and find the best option to punish these things. If you have a standard ki blast, you can easily Ki Blast into Vanish for a light combo. Again, some characters will catch up to you if you reflect.

Backdash - Opponents 5LL will whiff (character dependent) and you can whiff punish. This is a very common option for people.

Vanish - This will beat a delayed button if they read a back dash and try to punish that, will also beat a Dragon Rush and lose to everything else. I'd advise not using this, not a great panic move and you use 1 meter. If they bait it, you'll eat a 2H :)

Jump - Same theory as Vanish, 5L will beat you but you beat any other option the opponent goes for. TBH this is safer than Vanish. If you're going to Vanish, why not just jump ?

*IMPORTANT NOTE* - In the stream we showed that you cannot backdash after a Vanish. This is incorrect and I will attribute it to online, you can backdash (with the risks involved of course).

Diving further into Reflect - Double Reflect

Cell players commiting to 5LL - Most cell players will always 5LL after a vanish on block, this is one of the strongest auto combos in the game due to what this covers. One way to beat this is double reflect.
Blockstring 5LL 2M -However, if you double reflect and push a button immediately you will lose to the 2M. Best thing here is double reflect, walk back a bit and react to the 2M whiffing. F O O T S I E S.

Double reflect is a very strong option in specific scenarios. We'll be going over it a bit later.

Next time on DBFZ! Basic Movement and Sparking!