1200MR Guile with no idea what I'm doing--seeking feedback

[tardy prawn]

I'm coming back from a 6 month break, so I'm especially rusty, but I have always felt like I have no idea what I'm doing. I struggle when the opponent is in my face and attacking me, and I struggle knowing how to be offensive. While I don't think I'm good at neutral or AAing either, I think I've basically gotten to Master exclusively based on that.

Here are some recent replays that I feel are good examples of my games:

Beat a Ryu: 75NTGU4BP and 4mg8txdxr
Lost hard to a Chun Li: ENYSMQDF3 and JGWPVAKA8

I'm looking for some general feedback and advice on patterns people see in my gameplay and what I should work on, but honestly I'm so lost and overwhelmed I don't even know where to start. I'll take any advice and guidance I can get.

[fervent venture]

Hey, took a look at your profile and went through a couple of games. Here's the notes I wrote down

• FRAME DATA - This will help a lot at getting you comfortable in the corner but also in general through matches to know when it's your turn or not. The start of mashing usually comes from the fear of unknowing, so I'd suggest starting this.
• LINEAR GAMEPLAN - To be fair, you're playing Guile and there's nothing more solid than Boom & flash kick lol. However, it's your only gameplan throughout the entire match. I would suggest looking at higher level Guile matches and see how they approach different match ups and how/when they change from boom & kicks to something else.
• COMBOS - Kind of goes in hand with the above, maybe you have combos but just aren't in the situations to use them but there was a few times where you could've gotten DR extensions or leaving more damage on the table during trades.
• REVERSAL USAGE - This comes from me noticing on wake up you use the regular version which doesn't have invinicibility, so when you fight players who have solid meaties, you'll get beat everytime. I also observed you using flash kick when the opponent wasn't in range even if they did jump randomly.
• WAKE UP BUTTONS - The solution to this is the frame data suggestion but I don't think I observed you once in a match just waking up with block. I understand pressure and the corner is scary in this game but mashing on wakeup constantly (especially against players who will pick up on this) will net you in those situations more often. Practice blocking on wake up more, who knows it might put the opponent in a position where they put themselves in the corner or an easy punish for you.
• NOT USING FULL KIT - I think this is just a combination of all of the above mentioned, but I think I saw maybe the same 4-5 things over again. Guile has a lot of strong tools and options. Need to look into them and how to apply them.

[tardy prawn]

I'm going to go through this and try to work on one bullet point at a time. I just want to say thank you for taking the time to go through my matches and write this up. It's really selfless of you. I agree with everything you said!

[fervent venture]

You're welcome, I enjoy doing this. Good approach, please don't try to do all those things at once lol.
By the way, this coaching is on-going, so if you ever need help for anything else feel free to reach out! 🤝

[tardy prawn]

I will do that, thank you! It is definitely overwhelming, since each of these bullet points seems like there's so much to them that I'm not even sure where to start. But if I just chip away at things, I'll slowly get there. I'll post questions or things I'm confused about along the way for help.

[fervent venture]

Well some of the concepts do overlap with eachother. For example, getting more familiar with with Frame data, would then give you the information and confidence in matchup where you would be less likely to mash. Boom, solved 2 problems with 1 solution.

Combos, learning and utilizing more of Guiles kit could reveal more routes and punishes. Boom, solve 2 problems... you get the point.

If I could format better in discord I would've been able to convey this the first time around but this should be good enough lol

[tardy prawn]

I watched a lot of Nuckledu videos this morning, and there are a number of things he does that I never do:

• he uses 5hk to poke A LOT
• he uses 5hk as a big whiff punish instead of 5hp (I think this became more optimal after one of the patches)
• he uses 2hk as a whiff punish often (maybe when 5mp/5hk won't reach or are too slow)
• he ends a lot of block strings with a light boom (which ones?). I usually just stop attacking when blocked.
• he uses DR 5lk often, then proceeds to 5mp even when the DR 5lk was blocked. The 5mp often lands--if it's blocked, I don't know what he does.
• He converts a lot of hits to DRC, which I almost never do. E.g. if he lands a 2mp, he often uses DRC to extend it, whereas I almost never use DRC and would just 2mp~2mp xx FK

[fervent venture]

Great observations. Even better that you know why/where he uses the different tools.

I don't know much about Guile specifics, but usually when a character ends with a certain move its usually to make the block string safe, set up a guess, or to set up a spacing trap.

Guiles st.mp is 0 on block, so if it is block he would probably set up a guess between lights, throw, or shimmy.

But this looks like a great list of things to start implementing.

[tardy prawn]

I just got worked by a Jamie. I always struggle against him. It feels like he can attack forever, and I'm never sure when it's my turn. Could I get some feedback on what I could do to improve?

I know I had some mis-inputs and missed some anti-airs, and I maybe could have won without those. I'm more curious in getting advice for what to do against Jamie when I'm in the corner, since I really don't know what to do in those situations.

Replays:
4J576EEW3
Q54GMA6MM
4HLU9APHX

[tardy prawn]

Sort of treating this a journal so I can take notes on what's working/not working and keep track of things I want to work on.

• Interestingly, Guile's Garden just released a video on the benefits of DR 5lk: https://youtu.be/OCHgcC__kGM?si=sbsva-ydmqWxaiT-
• Incorporating 5hk more as a poke has helped a lot. The range is really big, so it's hard to punish, and it seems to put people in burnout often.
• I still almost never use 5mp, 2mp, or 5lk. I think I'm afraid of how slow they are compared to 2lp. I feel like all I use is 2lp when opponents are close, 5hp when they have an obvious whiff like a missed DP, or 2mk and 5hk for pokes. I need to find ways to get comfortable with and incorporate other buttons.
• I've gotten more comfortable using DRC in situations where I get an easy punish DI or 5hp (namely 5hp DRC 5hk into whatever), but I still never use DRC out of a random 2mp, 5lk, etc. Probably because I never even go for those buttons.

[fervent venture]

So these matches were 80% not a Jamie issue. TBH he didn't even do that many Jamie related gimmicks to call it a match up issue. The main issues were you wake-up decisions and pressing buttons when he was +plus from DRushing. Learning Frame Data (my last suggestion) "It feels like he can attack forever, and I'm never sure when it's my turn" will fix this feeling. If data is too overwhelming, you can try to look up "How to beat X character" videos. Other things I've noticed while watching the replay.

• WAKE UP BOOM - I don't see a case where this is ever a good option. More often than not it caused you to lose your turn.
• BLOCK MORE ON WAKE UP/STRINGS - I grabbed a screenshot (lost it now) of what your wake up looked like, and everytime it was a flurry of cr.lp. You didn't lose to Jaime you lost because of mashing. You need to just start getting more comfortable on defense and you'll always end up on defense. If you're going to guess they'll do anything but block on your wakeup you should at least choose to use EXflashkick, at least its a reversal that will beat way more options than cr.lp will. This right now is the biggest hole in your progression. Might want to do some casual or long sets with people and just practice being on defense. Just get used to it.
• MORE PAUSES BETWEEN BOOMS - This will just give you more time to react to jumps. Mixing up your boom patterns also help, the second you start developing a pattern is when people start to easily jump in
• DRUSH B.LK - Not sure if you're trying to use st.lk instead but incase you're not, this move is only 0 on block when used in DRush, which doesn't give you any advantage or mixup. So switch to another move, probably st.lk as your DRush button for pressure.

[tardy prawn]

Thank you! Sorry for making you have to post some of the same advice twice. I knew that these were problems of mine, but it is really helpful for me to realize just how big of a problem they are for me and that I should really focus on these issues before anything else.