Jam's Neutral Game

[Xaks32]

How to play the neutral game with Jam? I remember her having more invulnerability in past games for all her special attacks, this feels like a nerfed version of her in this game. I've been having dificulties in both defensive and neutral game with her.

It can get incredibly hard to play against Johnhy or Axyl, for example, because she has no good range whatsoever and no frame invulnerabilities for compensating her low-range attacks(like Potemkim with his slow speed). My ofensive game with her I can do 40%-60% damage easy. but neutral gaming with her is just terrible, getting her on the offensive is pretty terrible.

So, any tips or hints on playing the Neutral game with Jam?

[ttv/AmaterrasVT]

I don't really know much about Jam, but from experience against Jam players, I can say that either f.S or 2S are your go-to buttons.
Also utilize her parries, if you can find a gap in a pressure string, parry those and find a gap to counter those.
Also projectiles can be parried too, including Axl's buttons, so you might wanna train for the timings on those.
Jam players also usually do instant air dashes when they pressure their opponent and do instant Gekirin or j.Ps.

Edit: Not many players use Jam because many consider her to be low-tier due to her lack of attack options. So it's kinda hard to find info on her, I feel you man..

[Penguinator]

Jam has really high mobility, use it to close in on the enemy. Against characters with strong neutral tools (like Axl) this usually means either low-profiling / going through stuff with Bakushuu and its followups, or airdashing above stuff with IAD. The third option is to wait out and counter something the opponent wants to do or charge a card if the opponent is beiong too passive.
Another notable thing is that you should really plan on when to charge cards (eg. after 2D or 6H) and how to use them; practically all the Jams I have encountered online have not used the cards efficiently.
- Card Ryuujin has huge invuln frames so you can use it go through loads of things in neutral, even on reaction (where using the TK version that starts up quicker is important).
- Card Kenroukaku allows the crossup from IAD (eg. after 2D) and also gives you a real invuln reversal.
- Card Gekirin gives you a good knockdown for another card charge and another good overhead mixup tool.

The reason Jam is quite universally agreed as lower tier is that her synergy with the YRC system is pretty bad and her damage and mixups aren't sufficient enough to make up for it. That being said, all characters are viable at all al skill levels, so you can only complain about tiers after you have mastered your own character and have really extensive knowledge of all matchups. The easiest way to learn the neutra is watching high-level players, which for Jam means people like Teresa (aka Dark Jam Oji-san), LOX, Jajamaru, and Rozari.

Knowing about your own character might also be not enough if you do not understand the basic fundamental of the whole game. This is where Machaboo's lessons (originall aired on stream in several parts) for growing players are really helpful; the concept of "three-structure neutral" was something that I had never heard before in such a compact form yet it is universally applicable to practically every game.
http://guiltygearsweden.com/strategy/machaboo-on-fundamentals-for-those-that-want-to-become-good-at-gg/

[Duse]

Slide(236S) works against projectiles that you can dodge with upper-body invuln like Ky's or Haehyun's, and you can go into the K followup or input Ryuujin afterward if you're fast enough. Carded Ryuujin has massive strike invuln to where you can basically treat it like a fullscreen DP, especially if you TK it (rolling the motion into jump and hitting K as soon as you leave the ground). Doesn't work well against projectile-heavy characters like Dizzy though. Alternatively, jumping and doing Ryuujin -> YRC throws you across the screen. Other than that, do instant airdashes and get good at braking your run with FD.

[Vassago Rain]

As Jam at neutral, you have the following choices:

a) if they're not doing anything, charge an overhead card.
b) if they're shooting you, puff through it.
c) if they're pressing buttons at random, charge an overhead card.
d) if you get to neutral after successfully getting out a long blockstring that ends with a completely whiffed super fat and slow move, charge an overhead card.
e) if the opponent possesses UNGA, charge an overhead card and hope for the best.
f) charge an overhead card and YRC.
g) move forward ever so slightly, charge an overhead card, and perform charged overhead the frame after the obligatory weaksauce hitstun punch or kick is over, catching the opponent completely off guard, because there's about a 1% chance that he knows modern Jam builds the card charge before the charge move itself actually ends.

Good luck.

[Krude]

some good pointers already mentioned, however for jam specific advice i'd say go join the discord for jam, there are tons of resources there and dedicated jam players willing to answer all your questions :)