Ace

## Introduction

**Portgas D. Ace** (referred to as **Portgaz D. Trace** in 4Kids) is Luffy's brother and a member of the Whitebeard pirates. He has fire powers.

Ace has some of the strongest punishes, if not THE strongest punishes in OPGA. With the right set up and enough meter, Ace can end rounds in one combo fairly consistently if he does everything right. The only thing stopping him from being insanely overpowered is his speed. He lacks anything fast enough to win neutral consistently and his short range and lack of disjoints on his combo starters don't help.

### **Pros & Cons**

+ Incredible combos
+ Fire DoT on a lot of his moves racks up a ton of damage
+ R+A becomes a ranged unblockable when charged
+ His A jabs have a lot of hitstun
+ One of the best unblockables in the game as it comes out quite fast and has a good hitbox that can even reach the opponent in the air
+ Built in mixups in his A combo tree including a dash that leaves fire and a punch that can be charged to become unblockable
+ Immune to fire DoT and even gets a buff from it
+ Boat seems like a troll support but if you don't respect it, you could end up in block pressure or some situational air combos
+ AB supers is one of the most damaging supers in the game and grants additional followups
+ Directional grab does full usual grab damage and applies fire DoT

- Slow startup on about everything he has
- Poor range and a lack of disjoints
- Has a lot of risky moves that leave him open to punishes
- Has a hard time in the air since he doesn't really have any great aerials, easy to juggle and catch his landings
- Support can be killed before you start moving and in some situations, you can be put right into a combo for getting hit on it

## Supports

### **Ace's Boat**

Ride support. Ace rides his boat leaving a fire trail behind him. Has a fairly large HP pool and can act as a budget Greatest Impact (Mihawk's support) if you get off of it. Can be good pressure but saving for an AB super is better most of the time.

## Strategy

### **Vanilla**

Ace in vanilla struggles a little bit because his strong punish game can be thwarted by the excess amount of meter in matches. Because of this, your best option is to whittle down your opponent with fire and give yourself the pressure you need with your assist and lingering supers.

### **Modded**

With some careful play in neutral, you want to look for an opening to start Ace's punish game. This can be easier said than done because Ace needs three things in order to get his *big* combos started. Meter, a wall, and a win in neutral. The third being sometimes a challenge to get. Ace doesn't really have anything amazing to open the opponent up and you'll be relying on his jabs because his other tools just don't set up for your strong punishes properly. Until you get there, you want to rely on his A>X to make it hard for your opponent to get in and make it easier for you to lock them down and his R+A so your opponent learns to respect your ranged fire damage. If you can condition them to block out of fear, you will be able to get a grab which in the right positioning will start your combo flow. Your unblockable is almost good enough to replace your A jab entirely, so make sure to use that a lot. A note to be careful with your fire trail. Block dashing into them will change your dash path for some reason, so don't obstruct yourself.

## Matchups

### **General Information**

Ace gets bodied in neutral by characters who can keep him out of range with projectiles, traps, or disjoints. You want to get into range as Ace to try and begin your big punishes, so any character who can make this a struggle can prove to be a challenge.

#### **Kuina**

Kuina is melee only meaning that despite her disjoints, she'll be fighting you up close most of the time. You can use this to your advantage and try to find an opening through her pressure to get things rolling.