When it comes to fighting games, the grappler archetype is its own kind of beast and Guilty Gear Strive is no exception as the fast-paced anime sensation makes room for the towering Potemkin.
Due to his insane damage output and ability to take a lot of hits in Guilty Gear, Potemkin becomes quite the gatekeeper when attempting to rise through the ranks in the game’s online mode, being one of the more common and easy to use characters in Strive. Despite Potemkin lacking ground or air dash options, as well as having a horrendously slow walk speed, he’s equipped with insane tools to make up for it, yet they all come with some kind of drawbacks that you must know if you want to beat him.
The Gameplan
Obviously, Potemkin’s biggest reward comes out of getting a Potemkin Buster on you, so the main objective anytime you’re facing him is to avoid getting grabbed. That is to say, unless you are hitting Potemkin or carefully moving in and out of his normal threat range, you do not want to be close because the move is very fast at just 5 frames, which is just as quick as most characters quickest attacks.
Since “don’t get grabbed” is not very enlightening advice, what you will want to do when coming even remotely close to Potemkin is immediately dash back, jump, or maybe use one of your psych bursts. Normal grabs are the fastest move in Guilty Gear Strive because the game assumes you have been tricked into being that close to your opponent while blocking. However, jumping as a countermeasure to Potemkin’s grabs is not a perfect cure because he also has slower anti-air command grabs. The key then is to keep Potemkin out with projectiles, long-range attacks, or just swift overall movement so that he becomes overwhelmed and starts making mistakes you can capitalize on.
Let The Hammer Fall On Potemkin
If you’re successful at keeping Potemkin out, naturally he’ll want to get close, so besides being always ready to crouch block his Slide Head when you see him fall to the ground, you will also want to be on the lookout for his Hammer Fall.
The game’s mission mode teaches you to simply block Hammer Fall as soon as Potemkin lounges towards you, after that, you’ll essentially be able to hit him with any fast move at your disposal and possibly start a basic string of hits, or maybe even one of the Guilty Gear Strive’s best combos. However, using your character’s forward punch (6P) will also beat Hammer Fall or if you are feeling particularly confident in your reflexes you could also try grabbing him out of it to stop it, especially if you have a command grab.
Watch Out For Mega Fist
While Hammer Fall allows for more options, the jumping Mega Fist does not. In this case, using your character’s 6P is technically possible but incredibly hard to land and it will rarely lead to a high-damaging sequence in your favor, so blocking is the way to go 99% percent of the time as it offers a far better risk/reward ratio.
You will want to pay very close attention to how close Potemkin is when he lands his Mega Fist on your block because if he’s right on top of you then it’s definitely your turn to hit him. If the Potemkin player managed to hit you with the tip of his hands it means he spaced the move properly and you do not want to hit any buttons that might cause you to get caught by a Potemkin Buster that drains half your life bar.
Potemkin relies on patience and waiting for you to make costly mistakes, hence the way to beat him is by either raining down a bunch of pressure with non-commital attacks or staying far away from and poking him constantly so that you can take advantage of your opponent’s frustration to really turn the tables.
