'Safe because of follow-ups' is implied due to the inability to punish a particular attack because of the follow-ups that need to be taken into account. You can only punish an attack within a string on a read of the free cancel. If you try to throw something like Ayane's 3P (-14 on block move) every time, you put your self at risk of being blown up by 3PP or 3PK follow-ups (which deal hi-counter damage statuses to throw attempts).
That's why a lot of mid-string attacks are negative on hit or block, to compensate for the highly delayable follow-ups, which can punish people that incorrectly try to punish a move mid string just to get blown up by a delayed follow-up.
marcin said:
Thanks, I just checked and it was said e.g. about Christie's 6PP. So that explanation makes perfect sense.
So, basically, all initial parts of strings are "safe because of follow ups", right? (unless I guess if for some reason the follow up is bad or sth?)
And when people focus on a particular initial part, like Christie's 6PP when discussing a character, it is because it has some other desirable properties?
Christie's 6PP has 6PPP to punish people that try to punish 6PP on a misread of a free cancel. 6PPP is very delayable and has one last follow-up to increase safety in 6PPPP. As a tip, you can blown up 6PP~JAK with a fast mid or a fairly quick mid or low that tracks (I.e. If you block 6PP, a fast tracking move will retaliate against 6PP, free cancel, 6PP, etc. & 6PP~JAK, thus meaning that the main concern is when Christie uses 6PPP).