pokes

i want to get a better poking game. please help me out. i played a guy fastrodamus.
it was hilarious, he has a 7k 2k win ratio and i kicked him with my rusty characters. then he picked sub (probably his main) which is decent. i had troubles to beat him. he pressured me out a several times with 121 and 12 strings. everytime i tried to poke him out i got hit. thing is, i thougt subby was the easiest fhar ro poke out. what to do to poke safe?

I think you mean his 212 and 21 strings, unless you mean B121 an B12, but prob not cuz B12 is easy to poke out. 21 and B12 are both neutral on block. The spacing after B12 means Sub has to dash in to d3 or continue pressure, or he can just d4 but he'll probably get crossed over or D4 will be predicted and blocked. The 21 string is also neutral, and Sub's fastest pokes, D1 and D3 have seven frame startup, so the way I read it is anyone with a 6 frame poke (like Jax) can completely wreck Sub's pressure game. If he was poking you after 21, or doing 21 again and you couldn't poke out, it was probably lag. If both players have 7 frame pokes it goes to P1 advantage I believe. If you can't outpoke him when you should be able to, you're gonna have to bait pokes and block them to get on + frames. This is the way I'm working it out, but I'm a 7 day old frame noob so my opinion ain't worth much.