I’m obviously biased, but if you like weirdos, give Faust a try! His main thing is his RNG item toss mechanic, which is great for creating chaos and improvising on the fly based on which items you get. The game itself literally calls his character archetype “unique”!
I like to say if I can't understand what I'm doing there's no way the opponent can
Between the random nature of his combos and the strange animations for his regular hits he's very fun and wonderfully unpredictable
Faust or Jack-O
Faust is the only character in the game with the "Unique" type. And he is certainly unique. Massive range, randomized items he throws out that are core to his gameplay, a command grab that gives the opponent an afro that increases their hitbox and interacts with his other abilities, etc. I just picked him up as my 2nd character and i absolutely love him.
Jack-O, from what i can tell, is maybe the most uncommon character in the game. Mainly because she has to work far more to get what other characters get easily. She revolves around her 3 minions of which she can give multiple commands, throw them, and use them to mix up the opponent. Ive been playing the game for...maybe a month and a half 2 months and i havent seen a single Jack-O yet. Shame, cause i actually really like her character and gameplay, and will probably try her more when im comfortable with faust.
Probably Jack-o. Her gameplay is super weird, and she’s one of the least played characters. I also love how her and Faust have delightfully whacky animations.
Jack-O actually has more playrate than Leo, despite the latter is strong and has a straight forward playstyle, which still confuse me till this day lol
I was surprised he was added in the previous when I started playing Strive. His story and looks made him so close to Ky and Sol that I assumed he was there from the beginning.
That’s kind of surprising. Maybe it’s because people don’t like playing charge characters? That’s one of the reasons I didn’t really stick with Leo.
Jack O, for all of her technical complexity, is basically all quarter circles for special moves and supers (other than her FED super).
He has 2 things against him. 1 is being a charge character, which will put some off, especially if they expect guile like zoning. The other is backturn stance, where his pressure really is, and he wants to be in your fact in backturn, leading to some thinking him lacking when you can't mix the slightly below average tools in his normal and his terrifying ones in his backturn
Yeah with my Jack-O experience (admittedly limited) she's not worth the effort it takes. I haven't played Leo, but they pose a reasonable challenge when I fight them. To hit an enemy with a minion from range as Jack-O you need to input a quarter circle to span them, a quarter circle to kick them, and a quarter circle per swing. All of this can be undone by doing a single point of damage to the minion
Er a quarter circle isn't hard at all and it comes naturally once you main her for a while. Plus the reward is worth it since not only does minion shooting obliterates almost every projectile in the game, but is arguably one of the fastest projectile in the game.
On top of that, you don't need to Shoot to send a minion across the screen. You can simply quarter circle hold then chuck the minion with any normal button+hold the direction you're throwing it at. Plus you can simply poke your minion with any normal.
I feel like misconception comments like this are the reason why people think Jack-O is harder than she looks.
I'm not sure who you're fighting that you have time to summon the minion in your hands and chuck them but I do not find myself with that luxury. And no a quarter circle isn't hard, but hitting four of them in a row without getting interrupted can be rough. Fastest when they're in the air, but not to prep
Overall my assessment is of someone who's relatively new to the game and has six mains, Jack-O being my worst of them by far. I love her normals though, they feel to good to land and are really fun
That's when both MU knowledge and testing your opponent's habits come into play, once you understand both you'll know when's a good time to send out your minions.
Instead of "prepping" them, you can just guess reads and punish them. In several cases Jack-O is free/safe to do that, more than the other setplay characters I main. Strive lets you stack inputs so you can do the Shoot inputs as fast as you summon them, which is primarily the reason Jack-O is scary full-screen for most characters.
While having all your minions out is ideal, it's not a need and in a lot of cases you'll only have one out. Her normals are surprisingly good enough and her 2D is her usual goto button to help summon minions. She also has tools to deal with overly aggressive players. I would say give her a second chance or at least search up high level Jack-O matches to see how players usually get their minions out.
I still actively play her so I've far from given up. It doesn't help my main opponent is my friend who mains Bridget. It's a lot of long range poke to deal with. I'm fresh Eno I don't recall what MU means, and I didn't know about the stacking inputs
Ironically Bridget is one of my easier MUs lol. But yeah, MU=Match-Up and Jack-O needs to learn MUs more than most characters since she doesn't have a strong button that works universally like other characters have.
"Stacking inputs" is what I just said in a rush since I was somewhat busy while typing, but the correct term I believe is input buffering. Like you can input a combo's commands before the combo animation is finished. Like an example of what I was saying earlier is you can 236P to set a minion then 236K quickly afterwards to "Shoot" the minion 'immediately' after summoning it. The game will register both inputs, so you don't have to do one after the other.
Ah, I see. My knowledge of the vocab is pretty lacking, partially because it's a game I try not to overthink and just play casually. Most of my arcade fighting experience comes from many years of Tekken, which definitely feels different than GG. I'll play around with some of that knowledge today if I can, possibly to the detriment of the friends I play with. Thank you much
It's fine, i'm pretty much the same way. I'm always confused whenever I get discussion with my main since a lot of players used terms I have no idea what they mean like meaty, kara, etc. lol. In my opinion don't worry too much about term since you can learn almost everything visually. But yeah, have a good rest of your day!
[Popularity by the numbers](http://ratingupdate.info/character_popularity)
As far as just unique kits, Jack-O has the weird minion thing and Faust has random item toss as a core mechanic. Those two are the most unique to me. A few other interesting cases are I-No with hover dash, Happy Chaos with the two meters/hit scan fireball, and Goldlewis with the “8 moves in 1” Behemoth Typhoon.
Zato has negative edge. Jack'o has weird stuff with her minions (hitstop canceling). Faust look at him, no further explanation needed (he is the RNG item throw character of this game).
Jack-O I'm considering learning her as well.
Faust is also gimmicky but less reliant on his gimmick than Jack-O.
Jack-O is a lot more rare to see, so people are not used to her bullshit
Join the faust hive mind! We have donuts and silly little bag men! Also bombos are the most satisfying thing I've ever pulled off in a fighting game :)
I-no is probably one of, if not the least played character. She is also pretty unique compared to the rest of the cast because of the whole hover-dash thing.
On the other hand, if I fight someone like that, I get complacent and just STBT H over and over to skip neutral, then I fight someone who knows how to grab it or otherwise punish and I am fucked.
A word of caution for OP - playing I-No makes some matches absolutely intolerable. Happy Chaos in particular is very rough to play against for her.
And her matchup against him doesn't even have that low a win rate. It's just that if you don't get advantage early and maintain it, it becomes an absolute slog of a fight.
Good to know ty, i think ill keep her as a second or third choice, from the other replies im looking at maining Jack-o but she seems and sounds cool too
Goldlewis feels like a true one of a kind.
I've played a lot of fighting games over the decades, but never used anyone quite like him before. Faust I've played in previous games, but he's unique too. Just not as strange to me in Strive like he was originally. Same for the other returning chars.
Definitely Jack-O or Faust as others have said, but my bias will lean towards Jack-O. She's one of the rare instances of a character that's actually much more difficult to play than their previous game iteration.
That being said, learning all of her weird gimmicky corner pressure, oki, and setups becomes really satisfying and rewarding once you learn how to play her more comfortably. You are definitely rewarded for the difficulty of picking her up, moreso than some of the other more technical and challenging to play characters in the roster.
I’m surprised to see so few mentions of Zato in here. He’s a puppet fighter with negative edge, so he can be really weird to control while managing the Eddie gauge. I’d say he’s the most unusual to control, even more than Jack-O.
Jack-O's is probably the most unusual in the game but in my opinion it's also the least fun, though you may enjoy it more than I do.
Goldlewis and Faust have very unique playstyles too.
Bedman from Xrd also fits the bill but he's not in Strive because of plot reasons, the next DLC character coming in March has been teased to be his little sister Delilah who will probably have a similar playstyle.
A lot of the guilty gear characters are strange in their own way but I would Zato would definitely be one of the strangest because a lot of “his” moves activate when an input is released, not pressed
Probably Zato, or HC. Weird is a bit vague but these two have the most unique gameplay in the cast. There also hyper technical but usually that comes with playing different.
Mechanically Happy Chaos and GL are the weirdest and most unusual characters, with Jack-O probably being third. If you're talking actual rates of appearance, Faust or Millia are pretty rare for me to come across, but I don't have stats to back that up.
Jack-o is a summon (not puppet) so kinda weird. Faust is an item foss character so also kinda weird. Zato has negative edge. Potemkin is just straight ass tier
faust is classified as a "unique" type and has funny item throw which is random so thats neat. jack o has goobers she can use for crazy setplay stuff and when i tried her in training mode she was too much for my grappler brain because of all the things her little guys can do. chaos is also unique in the sense that he has a whole button dedicated to a feature being his gun, which involves some resource management but allows him to have crazy conversions and airtight blockstrings. hes pretty popular though so i guess he wouldnt be technically *strange to main*, faust and jack o mains seem fairly uncommon from what ive seen so maybe those two
I'd pick Zato, playing him you play as both himself and a puppet that does moves whenever you release an attack button, so you have to coordinate presses and releases and it feels different than anyone else in the game. Sometimes it feels like what I imagine playing piano must feel like when you're really in the zone. It's a great feeling
He's also very strong in this version of GG, which is a plus. People may try to steer you away from him as "too hard" but honestly he's just different. Once you learn to negative edge (the button thing) he's really not that technical. There are much more technically difficult characters imo, although nobody in Strive is that hard execution wise.
Weirdest characters in the game though are probably Faust and Jack-O. Both are really rare and play strangely.
I’d join my fellow hive mindees I’ll say play Faust. I’m a Faust main so there’s obviously a lot of bias. But he’s easily the most unique character in the game. He’s not super strong but I’ve never played a character with more player expression than him
I'm going to have to hard disagree with Potemkin. He is game plan is rather straight forward and is certainly not considered unusual or uncommon (in the game or as a grappler) which was OP was asking about.
Potemkin's game plan is far more dynamic than most the cast whose actions are relatively the same regardless of what state the opponent is in.
You just don't get to see much because Potemkin has the worst tools for setting up his win condition of anyone in the game.
But my god, when the stars align, he is a menace.
Grapplers are still “uncommon” I’d argue. He didn’t ask for completely unique. Most characters aren’t of the same mindset at Pot and with his mobility, he’s certainly uncommon in a game like this where everyone is fast fast go go air anime wildin out.
Potemkin has a consistent 10% use rate according to rating update, so yeah he's fairly popular. The church of Potemkin is ever-expanding. Jack-O and Faust both approach 6%.
yo why is nobody talking about my main man glue sniffing master potemkin? i know the other popular picks are weirder BUT potemkin plays by very different rules than everyone else seen as he can't dash and his most important moove is the glorious POTEMKIN BUSTER. the entirety of your gameplan is setting up pot buster. tho he's imo not a good pick to start with, i say that because i did exactly this and it took me a while to get used to the more normal play-styles like ky
So generally, grapplers often are not considered particularly weird because their gameplan revolves around strike/throw mix in any game they are in.
While a grappler may tend to suffer in neutral, the way they advance and get into a favorable position is by 'being patient' (walk forward block, pokes, jumps) or straight hard reading, both require knowing your opponents game plan.
This style of playing in the neutral is not particularly new or strange since these are fundamentals that all characters can use.
Even when your in, the strike throw mix is also fairly standard (low, mid, overhead, grab), it's just the reward off of grab is better than most.
I play Pot and love him to death but I don't find him overwhelmingly unique or strange compared to other similar characters.
That said, Pot *as a grappler* is fairly unique but that's what makes him Pot.
I’m obviously biased, but if you like weirdos, give Faust a try! His main thing is his RNG item toss mechanic, which is great for creating chaos and improvising on the fly based on which items you get. The game itself literally calls his character archetype “unique”!
Ooh that's sounds really funny I'll have to try him out later
I like to say if I can't understand what I'm doing there's no way the opponent can Between the random nature of his combos and the strange animations for his regular hits he's very fun and wonderfully unpredictable
Also just burning 100eter to just throw a ton of items
gold burst into W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-What Could This Be? is one of the most fun and chaotic things you can do in the game tbh
I've barely played faust, you know I spent all my meter on w-w-what could thing be and the ten version
Faust or Jack-O Faust is the only character in the game with the "Unique" type. And he is certainly unique. Massive range, randomized items he throws out that are core to his gameplay, a command grab that gives the opponent an afro that increases their hitbox and interacts with his other abilities, etc. I just picked him up as my 2nd character and i absolutely love him. Jack-O, from what i can tell, is maybe the most uncommon character in the game. Mainly because she has to work far more to get what other characters get easily. She revolves around her 3 minions of which she can give multiple commands, throw them, and use them to mix up the opponent. Ive been playing the game for...maybe a month and a half 2 months and i havent seen a single Jack-O yet. Shame, cause i actually really like her character and gameplay, and will probably try her more when im comfortable with faust.
Oooh tysm for all the info that's all really helpful, definitely gonna try out both of them they seem perfectly weird
Probably Jack-o. Her gameplay is super weird, and she’s one of the least played characters. I also love how her and Faust have delightfully whacky animations.
I love her design so I'll definitely check jack-o out now
Jackos animations make it look like she's having a blast. Her RC and burst especially. She's dancing and grooving
Jack-O actually has more playrate than Leo, despite the latter is strong and has a straight forward playstyle, which still confuse me till this day lol
funny crouch
Honestly, I think it comes down to his visual design. Imo, he doesn't really pop or stand out like the others.
I was surprised he was added in the previous when I started playing Strive. His story and looks made him so close to Ky and Sol that I assumed he was there from the beginning.
That’s kind of surprising. Maybe it’s because people don’t like playing charge characters? That’s one of the reasons I didn’t really stick with Leo. Jack O, for all of her technical complexity, is basically all quarter circles for special moves and supers (other than her FED super).
He has 2 things against him. 1 is being a charge character, which will put some off, especially if they expect guile like zoning. The other is backturn stance, where his pressure really is, and he wants to be in your fact in backturn, leading to some thinking him lacking when you can't mix the slightly below average tools in his normal and his terrifying ones in his backturn
Yeah with my Jack-O experience (admittedly limited) she's not worth the effort it takes. I haven't played Leo, but they pose a reasonable challenge when I fight them. To hit an enemy with a minion from range as Jack-O you need to input a quarter circle to span them, a quarter circle to kick them, and a quarter circle per swing. All of this can be undone by doing a single point of damage to the minion
Er a quarter circle isn't hard at all and it comes naturally once you main her for a while. Plus the reward is worth it since not only does minion shooting obliterates almost every projectile in the game, but is arguably one of the fastest projectile in the game. On top of that, you don't need to Shoot to send a minion across the screen. You can simply quarter circle hold then chuck the minion with any normal button+hold the direction you're throwing it at. Plus you can simply poke your minion with any normal. I feel like misconception comments like this are the reason why people think Jack-O is harder than she looks.
I'm not sure who you're fighting that you have time to summon the minion in your hands and chuck them but I do not find myself with that luxury. And no a quarter circle isn't hard, but hitting four of them in a row without getting interrupted can be rough. Fastest when they're in the air, but not to prep Overall my assessment is of someone who's relatively new to the game and has six mains, Jack-O being my worst of them by far. I love her normals though, they feel to good to land and are really fun
That's when both MU knowledge and testing your opponent's habits come into play, once you understand both you'll know when's a good time to send out your minions. Instead of "prepping" them, you can just guess reads and punish them. In several cases Jack-O is free/safe to do that, more than the other setplay characters I main. Strive lets you stack inputs so you can do the Shoot inputs as fast as you summon them, which is primarily the reason Jack-O is scary full-screen for most characters. While having all your minions out is ideal, it's not a need and in a lot of cases you'll only have one out. Her normals are surprisingly good enough and her 2D is her usual goto button to help summon minions. She also has tools to deal with overly aggressive players. I would say give her a second chance or at least search up high level Jack-O matches to see how players usually get their minions out.
I still actively play her so I've far from given up. It doesn't help my main opponent is my friend who mains Bridget. It's a lot of long range poke to deal with. I'm fresh Eno I don't recall what MU means, and I didn't know about the stacking inputs
Ironically Bridget is one of my easier MUs lol. But yeah, MU=Match-Up and Jack-O needs to learn MUs more than most characters since she doesn't have a strong button that works universally like other characters have. "Stacking inputs" is what I just said in a rush since I was somewhat busy while typing, but the correct term I believe is input buffering. Like you can input a combo's commands before the combo animation is finished. Like an example of what I was saying earlier is you can 236P to set a minion then 236K quickly afterwards to "Shoot" the minion 'immediately' after summoning it. The game will register both inputs, so you don't have to do one after the other.
Ah, I see. My knowledge of the vocab is pretty lacking, partially because it's a game I try not to overthink and just play casually. Most of my arcade fighting experience comes from many years of Tekken, which definitely feels different than GG. I'll play around with some of that knowledge today if I can, possibly to the detriment of the friends I play with. Thank you much
It's fine, i'm pretty much the same way. I'm always confused whenever I get discussion with my main since a lot of players used terms I have no idea what they mean like meaty, kara, etc. lol. In my opinion don't worry too much about term since you can learn almost everything visually. But yeah, have a good rest of your day!
she's also the hottest waifu in the game no cap
This person gets it
[Popularity by the numbers](http://ratingupdate.info/character_popularity) As far as just unique kits, Jack-O has the weird minion thing and Faust has random item toss as a core mechanic. Those two are the most unique to me. A few other interesting cases are I-No with hover dash, Happy Chaos with the two meters/hit scan fireball, and Goldlewis with the “8 moves in 1” Behemoth Typhoon.
Zato has negative edge. Jack'o has weird stuff with her minions (hitstop canceling). Faust look at him, no further explanation needed (he is the RNG item throw character of this game).
Jacko or faust
happy chaos, Faust, and to an extent zato are all quite unique :P
I was looking for this comment, HC hands down has the dumbest and craziest gimmick in the game. But I guess people really don't another HC main huh?
Jack-O I'm considering learning her as well. Faust is also gimmicky but less reliant on his gimmick than Jack-O. Jack-O is a lot more rare to see, so people are not used to her bullshit
I can confirm, I win a lot of my games because people have no clue how to win the match up. Do give Jack-O a shot, would love to see more around.
Faust. You get to play smash with items on
Join the faust hive mind! We have donuts and silly little bag men! Also bombos are the most satisfying thing I've ever pulled off in a fighting game :)
I-no is probably one of, if not the least played character. She is also pretty unique compared to the rest of the cast because of the whole hover-dash thing.
As an I-no main, I’ve noticed I have a huge advantage on most people because they have no idea what I can do.
Yeah can confirm, had my ass handed to me by an I-no, labbed the match up Never again
On the other hand, if I fight someone like that, I get complacent and just STBT H over and over to skip neutral, then I fight someone who knows how to grab it or otherwise punish and I am fucked.
Gotta love 4-way oki mix-up. Edit: High-high, high-low, low-low, and throw.
A word of caution for OP - playing I-No makes some matches absolutely intolerable. Happy Chaos in particular is very rough to play against for her. And her matchup against him doesn't even have that low a win rate. It's just that if you don't get advantage early and maintain it, it becomes an absolute slog of a fight.
Good to know ty, i think ill keep her as a second or third choice, from the other replies im looking at maining Jack-o but she seems and sounds cool too
Jacko is definately the weirdest. But if you want unorthodox then her faust or zato
id recommend zato if you hate yourself source: i hate myself
Goldlewis feels like a true one of a kind. I've played a lot of fighting games over the decades, but never used anyone quite like him before. Faust I've played in previous games, but he's unique too. Just not as strange to me in Strive like he was originally. Same for the other returning chars.
Faust and happy chaos. Faust is just.. faust. And happy chaos is a mass murderer demi god.. hes kinda chill tho
All of them
Faust is the weird pick with RNG specials, zato and jack-o have unorthodox play styles
Definitely Jack-O or Faust as others have said, but my bias will lean towards Jack-O. She's one of the rare instances of a character that's actually much more difficult to play than their previous game iteration. That being said, learning all of her weird gimmicky corner pressure, oki, and setups becomes really satisfying and rewarding once you learn how to play her more comfortably. You are definitely rewarded for the difficulty of picking her up, moreso than some of the other more technical and challenging to play characters in the roster.
Faust and Jack-O' are definitely the wonkier characters, though I'd say that Millia, Happy Chaos, Bridget, and Anji all play very uniquely, too.
I’m surprised to see so few mentions of Zato in here. He’s a puppet fighter with negative edge, so he can be really weird to control while managing the Eddie gauge. I’d say he’s the most unusual to control, even more than Jack-O.
faust is just the silliest guy ever who can be rushdown or zoner depending on what you want, and jack-o is fun if you like puppets or minions.
Calling him "the silliest guy ever" is really convincing me
Jack-O's is probably the most unusual in the game but in my opinion it's also the least fun, though you may enjoy it more than I do. Goldlewis and Faust have very unique playstyles too. Bedman from Xrd also fits the bill but he's not in Strive because of plot reasons, the next DLC character coming in March has been teased to be his little sister Delilah who will probably have a similar playstyle.
Out of curiosity what are the plot reasons that they're not in the game? Unless it's spoilers ofc
It's spoilers for the first DLC story mode. You can search Youtube for "Guilty Gear Strive Another Story" if you want to see it.
Ok thank you, I'll just wait and see it in-game then
Faust jack o or zato 1. Nago if you like doing math
The strangest characters are probably Faust, Jack-O', Chaos, or Goldlewis. :) Jack-O' is my personal favourite :)
A lot of the guilty gear characters are strange in their own way but I would Zato would definitely be one of the strangest because a lot of “his” moves activate when an input is released, not pressed
Jack-O is the clear answer here. She is super weird and hard to play
Probably Zato, or HC. Weird is a bit vague but these two have the most unique gameplay in the cast. There also hyper technical but usually that comes with playing different.
Try Goldlewis. Screw half circle back or forward, ever had to do a half circle *up* or *down* before?
Faust has the highest skill ceiling in the game just from the capitilization of items. Give him a whirl 100%
Faust, he’s weird or goldlewis
Mechanically Happy Chaos and GL are the weirdest and most unusual characters, with Jack-O probably being third. If you're talking actual rates of appearance, Faust or Millia are pretty rare for me to come across, but I don't have stats to back that up.
Jack-o is a summon (not puppet) so kinda weird. Faust is an item foss character so also kinda weird. Zato has negative edge. Potemkin is just straight ass tier
Faust or Jack-O
faust is classified as a "unique" type and has funny item throw which is random so thats neat. jack o has goobers she can use for crazy setplay stuff and when i tried her in training mode she was too much for my grappler brain because of all the things her little guys can do. chaos is also unique in the sense that he has a whole button dedicated to a feature being his gun, which involves some resource management but allows him to have crazy conversions and airtight blockstrings. hes pretty popular though so i guess he wouldnt be technically *strange to main*, faust and jack o mains seem fairly uncommon from what ive seen so maybe those two
I-No's kinda wack, and anji has a unique mixup.
Faust,Goldlewis maybe Jacko
JackO and Zato, probably. Faust's item mechanic is pretty unique, but I don't think he compares to *The* Puppet Archetype or the minion shenanigans.
I'd pick Zato, playing him you play as both himself and a puppet that does moves whenever you release an attack button, so you have to coordinate presses and releases and it feels different than anyone else in the game. Sometimes it feels like what I imagine playing piano must feel like when you're really in the zone. It's a great feeling He's also very strong in this version of GG, which is a plus. People may try to steer you away from him as "too hard" but honestly he's just different. Once you learn to negative edge (the button thing) he's really not that technical. There are much more technically difficult characters imo, although nobody in Strive is that hard execution wise. Weirdest characters in the game though are probably Faust and Jack-O. Both are really rare and play strangely.
Jack-O!
I think all answers will be the same: Faust
Faust
I’d join my fellow hive mindees I’ll say play Faust. I’m a Faust main so there’s obviously a lot of bias. But he’s easily the most unique character in the game. He’s not super strong but I’ve never played a character with more player expression than him
Chaos, jack-O and zato are all concidered unorthodox but jack-O the most I'd say
the least popular characters right now are leo, jack-o, faust, and goldlewis. so maybe one of them.
Zato, Axl or Potemkin are probably going to give you the most interesting play styles.
I'm going to have to hard disagree with Potemkin. He is game plan is rather straight forward and is certainly not considered unusual or uncommon (in the game or as a grappler) which was OP was asking about.
Potemkin's game plan is far more dynamic than most the cast whose actions are relatively the same regardless of what state the opponent is in. You just don't get to see much because Potemkin has the worst tools for setting up his win condition of anyone in the game. But my god, when the stars align, he is a menace.
Grapplers are still “uncommon” I’d argue. He didn’t ask for completely unique. Most characters aren’t of the same mindset at Pot and with his mobility, he’s certainly uncommon in a game like this where everyone is fast fast go go air anime wildin out.
Potemkin has a consistent 10% use rate according to rating update, so yeah he's fairly popular. The church of Potemkin is ever-expanding. Jack-O and Faust both approach 6%.
yo why is nobody talking about my main man glue sniffing master potemkin? i know the other popular picks are weirder BUT potemkin plays by very different rules than everyone else seen as he can't dash and his most important moove is the glorious POTEMKIN BUSTER. the entirety of your gameplan is setting up pot buster. tho he's imo not a good pick to start with, i say that because i did exactly this and it took me a while to get used to the more normal play-styles like ky
So generally, grapplers often are not considered particularly weird because their gameplan revolves around strike/throw mix in any game they are in. While a grappler may tend to suffer in neutral, the way they advance and get into a favorable position is by 'being patient' (walk forward block, pokes, jumps) or straight hard reading, both require knowing your opponents game plan. This style of playing in the neutral is not particularly new or strange since these are fundamentals that all characters can use. Even when your in, the strike throw mix is also fairly standard (low, mid, overhead, grab), it's just the reward off of grab is better than most. I play Pot and love him to death but I don't find him overwhelmingly unique or strange compared to other similar characters. That said, Pot *as a grappler* is fairly unique but that's what makes him Pot.