Controlling Level Positioning with Throws

Introduction:

When newer players think of level positioning, they think of wall carry, if their back is to the wall, if their opponent's back is to the wall, or out maneuvering your opponent. While experienced players will realize that there's certain throws that will be most likely used when their opponent's back is to the wall (i.e. King/AK/Roger GS, Leo f,f+1+2, Paul b+1+4, etc.) players don't realize that there's throws that aren't as immediately threatening, but still as strategic. Luckily characters usually only have one throw that provides such strategic prowess, as such there's not much you have to remember per character.

The good news:

Well I did say "usually" and Dragunov is an exception to the rule. With two different throw breaks that position switch and a throw that rotates your opponent dependent on their throw breaking abilities, Dragunov can do very innocent looking throws with very dangerous consequences.

The throws:

1+3 - Rotate CW on success, rotate CCW on failure

2+4 - Position switch on success and fail

f+1+4 - Position switch on success, backward/slightly right on failure

f+2+3 - Position switch on success, backward/slightly right on failure

f,f+1+2 - Opponent moved to your right on success, backward on failure

Strategy:

Okay, so I said, "a throw that rotates your opponent dependent on their throw breaking abilities" and there's a chance that you're still wondering what I meant. Well hopefully you just read the list above and hopefully 1+3 stuck out to you. 1+3 is special since the position the opponent is left at is dependent on whether they break the throw or not. If they break the throw, you rotate to the right and your opponent will rotate to the left and if they don't break the throw, the positioning is opposite.

Let's look at a theoretical case, imagine the wall is directly to your right (opp.'s left). Both you and your opponent are about 50% down and so far it's an even match. You want to apply some wall pressure as a solid wall splat should end the round in your favor, though you remember earlier that he/she broke a good amount of your throws. Using a 1+3 throw would put their back to the wall but escaping the throw would mean your back would be to the wall. As such you should not opt to use a 1+3 grab as best case scenario you're looking at a coin flip. Instead you can use a f+2+3 instant throw which on success will put your opponent's back to the wall, as well as wake up/grounded oki, and on failure would not cause any major position switch.