Shizuo has the greatest offensive strength in his j[C] and you are encouraged to use it as much as possible. You want to test your opponent’s match up knowledge and adjust yourself accordingly, if your opponent is too scared to contest it then you have no reason to stop but as you see strong players have correct responses to j[C] is when you start mixing in Shizuo’s other great tools. Your goal is to keep the constant mind game going with Shizuo, taking note of your opponents answers and manipulating their actions to your benefit. I will go more into detail with Shizuo j[C] below.
jB is his farthest reaching air normal and jA is a pretty alright air to air normal. When your opponent starts anticipating j[C] you can start mixing in his other normals to mess them up a little. On the ground his notable normals are 5A, 5B and 2C. 5A and 5B are good standing grounded pokes, 5B being air unblockable allows you to easily check your opponent for upback attempts at a distance. 2C is a very long reaching low sweep and can catch many not watching their toes.
You can utilize his 236x at the end of failed poke attempts with his 5C and 2C but be wary as it isn’t a true block string and can be 5AB’d out of or ranbu’d. His j236x series is a divekick and while it’s usually best for air combo enders if you’re feeling ballsy you can use it in neutral and surprise your opponent with it’s fast falling speed, the ex version also has armor properties making it difficult to contest and making it a good button to punish whiffed offense attempts.. Be wary as divekick is unsafe so if they block it you have to make it safe with an assist or combo blast. I will touch on his command grab below.
Shizuo on defense is severely lacking, instead of a normal “dp” 2AB reversal he is given a counter. While it can catch many off guard on offense Shizuo puts himself more at risk when trying to get out. 5AB is also an option however is just as unsafe. 4AB can go over lows, due to Shizuo’s lack of defensive options you have to really eye your opponents habits and make decisions based on what they do (more so than other characters in the cast).
Pushblock and try to get yourself out of pressure with his ranged normals then go back on your offense. Depending on your assist choice you also utilize them to aid you from difficult offensive, for example:
Iriya: In trump you can mash 6S to force your opponent to do something to open you up or to make them back off.
Dokuro: Dokuro 5S limits their movement in the air, it stops excessive jumping and can keep them locked enough to get out of bad positions on the screen such as the corner.
Counter Assists: When given enough space, in trump you can immediately put out a counter assist to halt your opponents actions.
These are things you can think about when you’re on defense with Shizuo.
These are the highlighted tools in Shizuo’s kit however we need to break them down so you can better understand how to utilize them.
j[C]: Jump Cancellable on hit or block, its pretty low on recovery when landing you can keep them blocking with a string like 5A 5B 2C. There are some downsides to this however to keep in mind:
After the first jump cancel you no longer have additional air options, you are more vulnerable to 2AB counters here or fast reactive jA air to air attempts if you attempt to descend with j[C] again.
j[C] into 5A 5B 2C is not a true blockstring, it is tight they can’t poke out with a normal however a 5AB or ranbu can get them out of the situation.
214X: The A and B version grab grounded opponents, A throws them in the direction Shizuo is facing while B throws them the other way and C is the anti air grab. The ex version is a single frame faster of the A version.
With the properties of j[C] in mind you want to think about how you can change things up instead of just doing j[C] over and over again until it works in order to establish more pressure/fear into your opponent. Here are some examples:
Blocked j[C] jump cancel don’t do anything, this allows you to:
Block 2AB or jA attempts easier
Gives you the option for a mix up when landing which is where the next layer comes in
Upon landing you can mix in the following:
2A (low)
4AB (high)
Command Grab (punish anyone commited to blocking, waiting for grab tech)
Throw (punish anyone waiting to mash out of command grab)
5A 5B jump cancel up (go right back into j[C] pressure again)
This is more of a basic concept to think about when layering your offensive options with Shizuo and his tools. If you want to get cute or deceptive with it you can aim to buffer an air normal as you’re landing such as jC and make them believe you’re falling with air normal to force them to block then apply your mix as you determine what their response is to your mix up attempts.
With a counter assist your combo universally becomes a bit weaker however you trade the damage for a more threatening oki. With a counter assist such as Izaya, Touma, Zero and a much lesser extent Accelerator you negate your opponent's option of poking out comfortably in the face of a counter assist in front of them leaving them practically forced to guess. This gameplan is made even stronger by being in trump state thanks to the added benefit of having no startup animation for assist calls, allowing shizuo to run mixups that are almost impossible to react too.
After a hard knockdown, more so in the corner, from 2C, 214AB, 236AB, 63214BC or trump. you can set up a counter assist and force an RPS situation on your opponent:
They mash: They activate the counter assist, depending on the counter you can go into a full combo and potentially back into the same situation or cash out at a full damage combo.
Stay grounded blocking: They’re vulnerable to A/B/EX Command Grab, open to mix from 2A or 4AB or even throw. Throw runs the risk of them getting baited on throw tech and getting hit by the counter.
Jump out attempt: They’re vulnerable to C Command Grab, 5B air unblockable or if you really want to be ballsy a run up trump.
Power Blast: The counter assist will block the blast allowing shizuo to punish with anything he likes if your reactions are quick enough. In the case of Izaya he will block and punish the blast as seen here
The idea is to force this situation on them and after a couple scrambles in neutral their health is low enough to where they could lose the round or game based on an RPS situation.