You’ve likely heard of “fuzzy guard” setups by this point. The premise is that when you block something standing—like an air normal—you have a set amount of time where your character is stuck in a standing block animation. While you can change your input to crouch block, you’re still stuck in a standing animation while the blockstun finishes. During this time your standing character is vulnerable to “instant overheads” using jump normals on the way up.
A quick video example from Ibuki in Street Fighter V:
After the cross-up, if you were to crouch block you’d get caught by the instant jumping light kick.
Fuzzy blocking utilizes this concept as a defensive perk. In Guilty Gear, it’s something akin to the usefulness of the jump back + throw tech option select in SFV. It can escape throws while also covering several high/low mixups.
While blocking, you go from down-back, to up-back (+two buttons for Faultless Defense), to back, to down-back.
In number notation: 1, 7+PK, 4, 1
How long should you hold the Faultless Defense for? It mostly depends if you went airborne or not, but if you have meter to spare it can of course be useful for its pushback function.
Here’s an example against a few mixups from I-no, who has some of the scariest high/low pressure in the game:
fuzzy guard vs i-no pt2 #PS4sharehttps://t.co/7dNmmKj23z pic.twitter.com/9gpc9ZDL8b
— www.keeponrock.in (@gg_keeponrockin) October 30, 2016
Considering your typical pressure timing: most characters lows start up in about 5 frames, while their command overheads are typically closer to 20 frame startup. (If all they have is standing Dust, that’s usually closer to 25 frames.)
Starting with low block covers the timing for a typical meaty low. If they put you in blockstun, you won’t be able to jump and you will then just be high blocking for a moment. If they did not put you in blockstun, you will jump out. This will cover many basic mixups: going low immediately, a low followed by an overhead, a (command) grab instead of any normals, etc.
It’s best used after you’ve shown your opponent you’re willing to block when on the defense. If you use it immediately on your wakeup, a basic gatling with a delayed low (2P > 2K) or multiple lows (2K > 2D) is going to hit you. Using it later in a pressure string can be more effective. Know your opponent’s options: what they can gatling into, how many lows they have, etc.
Once you’ve conditioned them to try higher levels of mixup, though—this is a good time to apply this. This strong defensive option is also useful when you suspect a command throw might be coming.
Another example vs I-no, but this can be applied to many airdash pressure strings:
fuzzy guard vs i-no pt1 #PS4sharehttps://t.co/7dNmmKj23z pic.twitter.com/2CyDd1jOke
— www.keeponrock.in (@gg_keeponrockin) October 30, 2016
A common way for I-no to extend her pressure is Chemical Love YRC air dash forward. The mixup used here is airdash j.S, j.HS into j.D (for a third overhead), or land and go low. Because the low comes out fast compared to when the j.D hits, this option used right after the j.HS covers both options.
It should be noted that if she’s using other strings like j.S j.K j.S off the airdash that this is much harder. Those strings require closer spacing though, so you can use FD (Faultless Defense) to push her out of range of j.K, giving you an out.
The timing of this technique takes some practice to get used to, but it’s well worth learning.
Fuzzy blocking is quite an asset. It takes some practice to find the timing and where it’s applicable. It’s not infallible, though. If it’s obvious you’re doing it every time you get knocked down, it can be easily countered. Used wisely, however, this can get you out of a lot of difficult pressure situations, including mixups you may not be able to react to.
Sources: SpabRog; keeponrockin; dustloop.