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Hi! This page is a work in progress.

Some of the information here is likely outdated, and since these are mainly my own personal notes, it will sometimes be opinionated and possibly disagreeable. Still, I hope the pages here can be useful for other Zato players or people seeking to learn more about the character.

Also, I’m sorry if it’s in Light Mode. I’m not paying for Notion Pro to change that.

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Counterplay

A generalized list of important options to represent to not get trampled by Zato:

The Zatorah (Or: Zato Counterplay You (Yes, You) Need To Do)

A (just updated!) explanation of how to fuzzy Zato pressure and when it’s possible to do so:

Fuzzy Blocking Zato

The long-awaited explanation of BTL mix, its counterplay, and Zato’s counter-counterplay

BTL Mix

An overview of the best spots to use Deflect Shield against Zato:

Deflect Shield

A rambly overview of Zato’s basic high-low mix options:

zato high low stuff

A video on counterplay to Damned Fang with Oppose up:

damned fang counterplay (WOKE took the audio away)

An overview of Zato’s general gameplan and simple pressure and combos:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-LilKVLf0spI7c43FbGJym-SbDbH1gx8ZmEPrxFUvYk/edit?usp=sharing

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Combos

Counterhit routes

5H CH meterbuild route

c. S CH Meterbuild Route

CH 2H Eddie stall route

Corner steal optimal counterhits (Note: routing without killing Eddie is possible on the first setup and probably better due to the POBO changes.

Other

6H HKD extension

Outdated

Round start CH into super wallbreak (RIP Blue Wild Assault…)

Drunkard Shade CH trade combo (LOL.)

5H → Wild Assault OS routing

No-mash stagger combo

Throw into combo

Pressure on mash

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Matchups

A database for Zato pressure and tech that only works on some characters:

Character-Specific Interactions

(Semi-updated, but I need the list of characters that had 4f mashes before 2.0 to be able to re-test everything. Also, it’s a lot of work, and I haven’t had anybody ask me to do it, so …)

Individual matchup pages

(I will update all of these at some point in the future. Asuka’s new move is kind of annoying, Axl is the same as always, Axl sucks, Sin got a lot worse, and Chipp and I-No both got new, extremely good tools into Zato in recent memory. And Leo is broken.)

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