Sho
Per-Sho-na-less, but don't sleep on his rushdown and mix capabilities
Combo notes
Health: 8,500
No other notes
Unique responses and punishes
5D
Grab it, or use 5C (which doesn't hit him immediately, but should hit him on the way back). Care - this can be used frame 1 and the follow up can be used on whiff, meaning it given him his turn back on meaty 5A. You may wish to use 2A*3 instead for this reason.
2C/j.2C
Be ready with upback grabs for this, or delay/hold your 2Bs.
Teleports through during pressure (High speed movement)
Usually happens after a flash fang (the first rekka hit where he slashes forward). Can be grabbed at any point, although the timing to grab it after a B flash fang is tight, so you might want to wait and hit him after it instead
Grounded DP
At any range, run under and 2B for a full CH punish
Air DP
If very high, can 2B for full CH, but most at most heights can only 5A CH, but watch out for the super cancel.
Blazing moon barrage
If you're around a character length away from Sho, you can jump air turn for a full j.B/j.2B fatal punish. If you're closer, you have to block. On block, it's a full 2B fatal punish, but you have to press it earlier than you think as it has practically no blockstun.
Moon smasher
Cannot be rolled after flash if you're close enough for the rising part to hit you. On block or roll of the 2nd part, microdash 2B for fatal punish if in range (helps if you IB), otherwise dash in 5A for 5A fatal. Care, this can be OMC'd by Sho after either hit.
Overview and tips
Dustloop page here
In general you're free to approach this MU as you'd like. Sho's gameplan is much the same as yours, although is better in pretty much all aspects apart from damage conversions. His rushdown in general is faster and has more reach, and his knives are solid zoning tools. His pressure is also tricky to deal with for Labrys, and his defence is better than you'd think with a solid DP, hard to punish super, and a dodge option that works surprisingly well against Labrys' kit. However, he does lack the ranged threat that most characters carry with their C buttons, so you are a bit more free to move and attack in the midrange than in other MUs. If you use that to your advantage and get your confirms right, you can generally kill him pretty quickly due to his low health.
Neutral is an interesting affair here - while your normals are slower, they cover slightly more area, and if you manage to get space and put out an orb, things will swing in your favour. Just be careful of Sho's knives, which serve a similar purpose to orbs except they come out faster and have a fast option to interfere with you setting up. Labrys j.B works fine here, just don't be too obvious - what helps here is that Sho 2B can be baited and punished (if you steer clear of the 2nd hit or get behind him). Sho j.B is a bit obnoxious but it works roughly the same as yours, and is somewhat simple to 2B if he isn't careful.
Pressure here is pretty standard for Labrys - he has access to a decent DP (although very punishable) and good reversal supers, however his mash is generally sub-par and he can struggle with longer range pressure. Just watch out for his SB soaring fang (rising rekka) when he has meter, which is a 6f massiveattack with invuln, so try not to leave any large gaps if you feel this coming. On the other hand, Sho's pressure is pretty freeform, with the main feature being his ability to cancel into his teleports and hit you on the other side. In general you can mash/grab on reaction to these, but the windows for this are small, and if he 2Cs instead you are going to eat a full fatal route. Also watch for his SB flash fang (first hit of rekka), which is +5 for some reason. Also of note is that his 5A is chest attribute and 9f, so you may get some mileage from sweep - that is if they don't just 5B most of the time, which is only 10f and a massive double hit that is body attribute.
Some final quirks that you'll notice in Sho players that you can exploit:
Teleports often happen after flash fang (first hit of rekka), expect it there
Knives often occur full screen after landing, or after sending out an orb (low knife) you can attempt chain knuckles here, SB to be safe
Sho has an instant overhead that doubles as a safejump - does cost him 25SP though, expect it when he has lots of meter.
Main adjustments to make
Orb is pretty good here, as long as you can find a window for it. Be careful if he's throwing out knives as the low knivesdo go under D (and outward C) orb, and the fast knives can hit you out of startup pretty easily. Best to use if he jumps at long range.
Safejump is fine when he's not in awakening. When he is in awakening, bear in mind that A and SB moon smashers are 6F startup, so keep your safejumps super tight or you're going to get hit, but it will still work off C beast or better.
DP is ok-ish here - his larger normals are on the slower side, so you may sometimes be able to hit him without getting DP'd back. Holding DP usually doesn't work well as he'll go over you, and in general don't both DP'ing once he hits rekkas as he's either going behind you or above you.
Sho DP doesn't really change much - hits slightly above and autocorrects well, and is available to him in the air. If you block, he should get hit by spike/orbs in those setups.
j.B is fine here, although you're fighting against a decent 2B and a j.B that rivals yours. Sho 2B can be baited though, so feinting can work well here.
Chain knuckle is a decent knife callout, especially against slow knives where you don't even need to use SB. Still, use with care as his strong air options and movement can lead to whiffs.
Gears isn't great here - Sho has simple metered and meterless options to punish, but does struggle a little to stop himself in the middle of rekkas.
j.D is generally nice here, just as with orb, high knife can hit you out of it and low knife will go under it, so be careful with your timing.
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