Good stuff to Zinron for getting a lot of info out there already. I wanted to add some notes that weren't included that I've found to be really important to Antonov's neutral game, as well as an interesting post-combo setup.
Neutral:
Combos:
Zinron covered all the good stuff I have, but I do have a really silly setup that's worth talking about in the corner:
cl./cr.C f+A qcb+A qcfx2+B, j.C j.qcf+A/C
Basically you do a combo into the level 1 kick super, then juggle with an immediate jump C cancelled into Bering Splash. A Bering Splash is extremely meaty, and if the opponent does anything other than block or an invincible reversal the splash will hit them and knock them down.
If the opponent blocks, you've already recovered from the splash and get to continue pressure, perhaps even a cr.B/cr.D low/overhead mix-up. The point is that you're super plus. If the opponent is somehow wise to this setup and knows they can beat it with a fast invincible reversal, that's where C Bering Splash comes in. I haven't firmly tested this yet but I'm reasonably confident you recover fast enough from this setup that you can block the reversal and punish in the appropriate manner.
That's all I got for now but I hope it helps. IMO Antonov is actually shaping up to be a legit character. Underrated by most people's tier lists but still maybe a solid mid-tier at best. He can get pushed in really bad if he loses momentum, but he's very capable of winning neutral against just about anyone in the cast if you play smart.
Neutral:
- st.A is on the slow side but has a really good hitbox; it can even stuff pressure coming from high jumps on top of being great for short hop defense.
- The recovery of st.A is cancellable both into itself and into st.B, even on whiff. You can essentially "pump fake" into st.B this way. Kinda gimmicky at this point but good to know.
- st.B is easily his best grounded poking normal and a big part of his neutral game tech. I'll go into this more over the next few bullet points.
- st.B f+A doesn't combo but it's a great anti-mash/anti-jump chain that reaches out to about 1/3 screen. f+A qcb+A combos on hit, is safe on block, and is easily hit-confirmable into a super if desired.
- st.B hcb+D is a legit tick throw from any distance that st.B connects, and it's very hard to react to. Important to Antonov's mix-up and conditioning game.
- f+A is feint cancellable at any point in time before the active frames. This means you can do things like st.B f+A~hcb+D to confuse the opponent into thinking you're continuing pressure and feinting into a command throw. This is where a lot of the conditioning comes in.
- st.B qcb+A is good for when the opponent eventually figures out that f+A qcb+A isn't a true block string, since they'll eventually try to stuff it with an invincible move. You can also simply opt to not cancel the f+A; it's technically not very safe but if you're using it at max range it's highly unlikely you can get punished.
Combos:
Zinron covered all the good stuff I have, but I do have a really silly setup that's worth talking about in the corner:
cl./cr.C f+A qcb+A qcfx2+B, j.C j.qcf+A/C
Basically you do a combo into the level 1 kick super, then juggle with an immediate jump C cancelled into Bering Splash. A Bering Splash is extremely meaty, and if the opponent does anything other than block or an invincible reversal the splash will hit them and knock them down.
If the opponent blocks, you've already recovered from the splash and get to continue pressure, perhaps even a cr.B/cr.D low/overhead mix-up. The point is that you're super plus. If the opponent is somehow wise to this setup and knows they can beat it with a fast invincible reversal, that's where C Bering Splash comes in. I haven't firmly tested this yet but I'm reasonably confident you recover fast enough from this setup that you can block the reversal and punish in the appropriate manner.
That's all I got for now but I hope it helps. IMO Antonov is actually shaping up to be a legit character. Underrated by most people's tier lists but still maybe a solid mid-tier at best. He can get pushed in really bad if he loses momentum, but he's very capable of winning neutral against just about anyone in the cast if you play smart.