The cat’s out of the bag with this one…
In the context of this page, BTL mix refers to using Break The Law (214K) to cross under an opponent when Pierce is on the other side of them. There is other mix using BTL (see Sun Void Crossunder for an example), but this version of it is the main one.
In short, it’s this.
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BTL mix can be extremely ambiguous, since Zato can cross underneath multiple times before coming up and remain sameside while feinting a crossup.
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Zato can also get a full combo on hit as long as he has some Eddie gauge remaining, and can continue pressure if the mix is blocked (with some limitations).
This page doesn’t just exist to document that this mixup exists — we all know it does. However, what I have found in my years of playing Strive is that 99% of otherwise good players are ignorant as to its counterplay, and that many Zato players are both ignorant to the counterplay and to what they can do to deal with it themselves. This page will explain, in essence, how BTL mix is very strong but has clear weaknesses opponents can exploit; at the same time, I want to make it clear that it is not a gimmick and it is not “fake mix.”
There is no end-all be-all for this situation. Like most of Zato’s pressure situations, this is full of RPS and an extremely deep interaction. With this very long preface out of the way, I want to start with an overview of the situations where Zato can use BTL mix.
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Zato can start a sandwich by making you block Drunkard Shade — however, he can’t go directly from Drunkard Shade into BTL mix, since it requires more time to cross up. As such, Zato’s most common BTL mix setup is 214S → -P- → 5P/2K → 2K 2D -P- 214K.
Zato will usually have to use Pierce twice to properly set up BTL mix, meaning that he will already have spent a significant portion of his Eddie gauge by the time he either hits you or you block (this is really the main weakness of this mix). At the same time, the fact that any sandwich (including ones with Leap or drills) can directly set it up is what makes it so strong.
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Another way that Zato can set up BTL mix is as a meaty: specifically, it’s most likely to be used after Leap’s hard knockdown (as long as it brings the opponent closer to Zato). There are three important distinctions between the okizeme version and the standard version of this mix, the first being that Zato doesn’t have to spend significant Eddie gauge to set it up, meaning better combos on hit and better pressure on block.
Another big difference is that Zato can cross you up twice, once on the first hit and once on the second. However, this isn’t actually that big a deal, since it’s impossible to him to combo off the first hit unless he comes up early (and therefore makes the second hit not a mixup opportunity). Whether you block or get hit by the first 50/50 doesn’t matter very much, since the reward on hit is basically nothing.
The last, and arguably most important difference, is that it’s significantly harder to mash on this version of the mix. For one, if Pierce 1 hits after its first active frame, the gap between the hits becomes smaller (the smallest it can possibly be is a four-frame gap, on which many characters can’t mash at all). While getting hit rather than blocking the first Pierce doesn’t matter in terms of the reward Zato gets on hit, it shrinks the gap to just 3 frames, making it completely unmashable. However, you can still mash if you block the first hit of Pierce, and this okizeme setup isn’t Zato’s strongest by any means.
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With a (hopefully) better understanding of where you can expect to see BTL mix, we can now move on to what you can do against it.
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The 6 frame gap between Pierce 1 and Pierce 2 can be mashed on. In the context of a sandwich Pierce, your mash options are different than they would be against a non-sandwich Pierce, and while almost every character can mash a normal here, some can only mash on crossup or trade (which is still generally positive for them, since Zato can’t get a good combo off this trade without WA or meter). To see further information on what each character can do here, check out .
(Gifto, if you’re reading this, I don’t want to hear it. You can mash either BMF or FMF and it’ll work. You can mash fucking Hammerfall. You can mash fucking Pot Buster. Pot defense isn’t bad against Zato because he can’t mash 5P here.)
For characters with reversals, they can also mash them here — keeping in mind that it’s possible for their inputs to get crossed up (unless it’s Leo). Otherwise, DPs are extremely good into BTL mix, although metered reversals are not the best into it.
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If you time your YRC right, Zato can’t do anything against it. Doing it on reaction to BTL is preferable, as his only option to beat it there would be something like a hard-callout, super-early PRC (and if he has meter he has better mixup options than here). The only downside is that if you’re just YRCing based on the timing and not reacting to BTL, Zato can bait and punish it.
Like FD, Deflect Shield on Pierce 1 makes it impossible for Zato to cross up without teleport, and has the extra benefit of making it much easier to mash and kill Eddie.
Deflect Shield OS can be used to make sure that you don’t get a WA here and lose the round for it.
You can just Burst. It works identically to YRC in this context, but uses a different resource and Zato gets a much worse punish on it.
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FD, predictably, makes crossing up harder for Zato. If you FD him out far enough, it’s impossible for him to cross you up with just BTL, meaning he’ll have to use teleport to do so, which is much less visually ambiguous.
Also, FD adds two extra frames of crossup protection, so if Zato crosses you up particularly late, FD can help by letting you block same-side; however, I wouldn’t rely on this window too much.
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Jumping will only make you more minus, and backdashing will leave you minus and punishable if you do it on the right side and will get you hit otherwise, so, y’know, the above are your best options.
… Or you could just guess right. That’s always an option. If you block on the correct side, Zato can continue to pressure you, but is extremely limited in his options to do so depending on how much Eddie gauge was used to set up the sandwich (usually, it’ll take ~2/3 Eddie gauge to get a proper sandwich into BTL mix going, meaning that Zato can’t comfortably use drills or Leap to pressure). You don’t have to do any of this if you really don’t want to.
Also, I will get to FD OS later, since its interactions with BTL mix are, to put it succinctly, extremely complicated. An understanding of these basic counterplay options (and Zato’s options to deal with them) is much more important than the higher-layer FD OS interactions.
That being said, it’s now time to move on to Zato’s counter-counterplay.