RUSIAN

Rusian is one of the strongest assists in the game due to his infamous 6S. 6S is known to shutdown an opponent’s approach and leaves you in an advantage state for quite some time. Even though you can get rid of him by hitting him this can be used against you which can result in a punishment. “Hitting” him is equivalent to whiffing a button so if you see your opponent doing this be sure to capitalize on it. Most times you want to make the 6S call as oki vs. neutral. While doing it in neutral is still a good idea it can be easily called out and you can get punished for the call. Neutral call requires you to protect him at all costs. Safest way, being oki, will secure you lots of time for pressure while Rusian does his thing. Before goblins hit the opponent you can run up grab, 2a, 4AB, etc. Then when Monster Train comes you can do the same thing and preferably you want Monster Train to hit as a result to get a full combo. Having two incoming attacks can be frustrating to deal with but you have to be sure not to get interrupted since cooldown time is pretty long. 5S is a generic counter assist that doubles as a combo extender. If you feel a wake up power blast coming, setting up this good boy will allow you to easily punish the power blast. It suffers the same problem Accelerator and Izaya have where it can be safe jumped or hit with a low recovery move to block it. Even so, this does leave the opponent blocking allowing you to continue pressure. Using this assist requires the proper utilization of the deadly 6S. Protect Rusian while he protects you!