Pokkén Basics Chapter 6 The Wall

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In the last chapter, I talked about neutral, which is controlling space when neither character is right next to each other. I mentioned one of the universal goals of neutral is to force the opponent towards the corner also known as the wall. Now that we have a consistent game plan for field phase and understand what neutral is in general, it's time to use the concept of the wall to create a strategy for how to approach duel phase as well.

Table of Contents

6.1 Movement
6.2 Risk vs Reward
6.3 Psychology
6.4 Taking advantage of the wall

If you take anything from this chapter let it be this: You want the opponent at the wall because it makes them easier to hit, and being away from the wall makes you harder to hit. There are three main reasons why this is the case. 

6.1 Movement

First is movement. When you have empty space behind you, you can maintain the correct distance for your attacks to make contact. Conversely, when your opponent's back is to the wall, they cannot move backwards or jump backwards to avoid your attacks. They also cannot maintain the correct distance for own their attacks to hit as you can move freely around the screen making their attacks whiff and allowing for whiff punish opportunities. A few examples of players who utilize this concept well are Bim? and Thulius. While they can be aggressive up close when they want to, they are constantly looking for opportunities to back up when the opponent is at the wall. Not enough to give up screen positioning, but enough to get opponents to misspace their attacks and punish them on whiff for it. Characters with good back walk speeds and fast whiff punishers are best at taking advantage of this.

Mewtwo walks back to make Blaziken misspace its 8X then whiff punishes the move with Fire Punch.

6.2 Risk vs Reward

The second reason having the corner is important is the risk vs reward. Risk reward is weighted heavily in favor of the player who has control of the wall. Wall splat combos do massive damage and grant either hard knock downs or wall blasts into field phase depending on what you want. For example, a stray Flare Blitz does 170 damage and gives poor positioning from mid screen, but in the corner it leads to 285 damage and a wall blast that removes recoverable HP and lets you control the start of the next field phase. The smallest conversions from 5Y strings to 2Y hits can do far more damage when the opponent has their back to the wall. This means the risk is higher for that player to press a button making them more susceptible to being thrown but also more predictable as they really want to get out of the corner. Cornered players having restricted movement and being in a high risk situation leads to last benefit to having an opponent cornered I'll talk about is which is psychological.

Blaziken's Flare Blitz normally does 170 damage but can be extended to 285 with a wall splat.

6.3 Psychology

Cornered opponents, knowing they cannot move often get scared and make rash decisions to escape without thinking them through. This means when trying to predict what an opponent will do, you can eliminate some evasive options such as jump back, walking back or back dashing. In turn you can emphasize trying to avoid people jumping out of the corner and throwing out desperation pokes or armored attacks. You do not always have to get greedy and force an immediate guess. Wait for the opponent to over extend, wait some more, and wait even longer. You'll win this game of chicken way more than you'll lose it. Your opponents are humans and humans crack under pressure.

Yung Maverick jumping out of the corner.

6.4 Taking advantage of the wall

So how do you take advantage of a cornered opponent? Walking up and throwing is the most direct way to get damage, but it's also the riskiest. Instead, more often than this walk near the range where you can throw them and walk back out quickly into a range where you provoke an opponent to jump or press a button preemptively. Poke at them with moves that keep you at a range where you can anti air jump attempts and try to scare them as much as possible without overcommitting to moves that are unsafe or very negative on block. I've linked a video I made a while ago on Corner Control. 

Now I've gone over three great benefits to cornering the opponent (movement, risk reward, psychology) and what you can do once you have them there. If you ever find yourself in duel phase and don't know what to do, or even field phase honestly, aim to put your opponent near the wall first and foremost. But how do you get the opponent to the wall? How do you stop yourself from getting pushed to your own wall? With a good ground game. The next chapter of Pokkén basics will cover footsies, and spacing which all help you maintain proper positioning on screen and avoid the walls and push your opponents there. And don't worry it won't be two months before the next chapter comes out!