GG characters in high school

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core came out in 2007, and the metagame has been constantly shifting and it doesn’t show any signs of stopping soon.  One method of observing a fighting game’s metagame is in its tier list, so I wanted to compile the most recent “official” tier lists and matchup info all in one place.  Goldenrody may make a separate page for this in the future, but for now everything will be in this post.

First off, all of the most recent GG tier lists were made in 2010.  If you remember, 2010 was also the last year that Guilty Gear was in Tougeki, so it kind of explains why it’s also the last year that people cared enough to discuss this kind of stuff.  We’ll start with the list that the majority of the Japanese GGXX BBS agrees upon.  It’s also listed in the official JP GG wiki as well:

SS: Eddie Testament
S: Slayer Millia Potemkin
A: Jam May Baiken
B: Venom Axl A.B.A Order-Sol Robo Zappa Faust
C: Ky Chipp Anji Dizzy I-No Sol
D: Johnny Bridget

If you can read Japanese, the GG wiki page I linked earlier also has detailed explanations for the character’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the reason why they were placed in their respective ranks.  It also talks about the metagame as well, which is pretty interesting.
-Millia’s ranking is pretty controversial apparently.  Starting from 2010 many people began to rank her very highly, even above Slayer.
-There’s also a note for Zappa and Millia, which states that both characters are very strong but extremely unstable.  Because Accent Core is a very high damage game with the potential for big momentum swings, one mistake can change everything for them.  If they’re played flawlessly or played by a very good player, their ranking can go up.*
*Personally, I think this last note is unnecessary because tier lists assume that every character is being played at their full potential anyway.

The other major tier list is the one that most English speakers have seen by now.  It was featured in the April 2010 issue of Arcadia.
S: Eddie Testament
A: Millia
B: May Potemkin Jam Slayer
C: Sol Ky Chipp Faust Baiken Axl Anji Venom Dizzy I-No Zappa Robo A.B.A Order-Sol
D: Johnny, Bridget

So these are the two most recent lists for Accent Core.  There are numerous other (older) tier lists, but I feel that they’re largely irrelevant by now because GG is a constantly changing game.  2010 GG is a very different beast from 2008 GG, for example.  I feel that the metagame went through a big transformation starting from the middle of 2009, with things like Eddie getting ranked higher than Testament, players like Mitsurugi and Chonari really unlocking the potential of Zappa, players like Samitto and Susumu doing the same thing for Chipp, and countless others.  Sometimes, it takes some really strong players to truly develop a character.

As a side note, I agree much more with the 1st list than the 2nd one.  Call me biased(since I’m a Millia player),  but I absolutely cannot agree with ranking Millia above Slayer.  I can see how the relative rankings of Millia with May, Potemkin, and Jam can be debated, but Slayer is just so much more solid than her.

If you’re still curious about looking at the older tier lists, the Dustloop thread on this topic has everything you need.  It also has translations of an old thread on the JP BBS that broke down every character with their strengths, weaknesses, damage potential, matchups, etc.  Lots of good info there.

Moving off of tier lists and now on to matchups.  Unfortunately, there was only one matchup chart made for this game and it’s way outdated by now.  However, there were matchup lists created for individual characters by top Japanese players!  I’ll list them in chronological order:

Ogawa’s matchup list for Eddie(featured in July 2009 issue of Arcadia)
6:4 – Sol, Ky, May, Millia, Chipp, Faust, Baiken, Axl, Venom, Testament, Slayer, I-No, Bridget, Robo, Anji, Jam
6.5:3.5 – Zappa, Dizzy
7:3 – Potemkin, Johnny, A.B.A, Order-Sol

Nemo’s matchup list for Testament(featured in July 2009 issue of Arcadia)
4.5:5.5 – Eddie
5:5 – Venom
5.5:4.5 – Sol, Millia, Anji, I-No, Bridget, A.B.A, Dizzy, Order-Sol
6:4 – Ky, May, Chipp, Faust, Baiken, Jam, Axl, Slayer, Robo
7:3 – Potemkin, Johnny
8:2 – Zappa

Koichi’s matchup list for Millia(featured in June 2010 issue of Arcadia)
Easy win: Axl, I-No, A.B.A
Advantage: Ky, May, Potemkin, Johnny, Anji, Venom, Dizzy, Slayer, Bridget, Robo
Even: Sol, Faust, Jam, Zappa, Order-Sol
Disadvantage: Baiken, Chipp, Testament, Eddie
Impossible: Ogawa and Isa’s Eddie(lol)

Inoue/Kazunoko’s matchup list for Order-Sol(featured in June 2010 issue of Arcadia)
Easy win: Robo
Advantage: Sol
Even: Ky, Millia, Chipp, Jam, I-No
Disadvantage: May, Baiken, Faust, Potemkin, Axl, Johnny, Anji, Testament, Dizzy, Zappa, Slayer, Bridget, A.B.A
Impossible: Eddie, Venom

FAB’s matchup list for Potemkin(featured in October 2010 issue of Arcadia)
Easy win: Johnny, Robo, Slayer
Advantage: Axl, Sol, I-No, A.B.A, May, Anji, Order-Sol, Zappa*, Baiken, Chipp
Even: Jam, Ky
Disadvantage: Testament, Millia, Dizzy, Faust, Venom, Bridget
Impossible: Eddie
*FAB notes that the matchup could also be even, depending on what summon Zappa currently has out.

RF’s matchup list for Faust(featured in October 2010 issue of Arcadia)
Easy win: Johnny, Dizzy
Advantage: Axl, I-No, A.B.A, Ky, Potemkin, Bridget, Sol
Even: Order-Sol
Disadvantage: Slayer, Robo, May, Venom, Anji, Jam, Zappa, Baiken, Chipp, Eddie, Testament
Impossible: Millia