Adon: Health 950, Stun 1000
Adon doesn’t seem to excel or be at a disadvantage in any one area, having decent normals, good damge and spacing off his special moves, and two viable Ultras. Good zoning can be troublesome for Adon, but like many characters with that weakness, there are ways around it. Save for Rising Jaguar, his special moves are generally safe on block with the worst one (EX Jaguar Tooth) being only -5 frames. His mixups generally revolve around his oki game, with OSs into respectable damage or knockdown. His corner game is strong with Jaguar Kick and decent anti-air options. Top Adon players have to be masters of spacing, and can be comfortable waiting the other player out, or putting pressure on his/her opponent with Jaguar Kicks.
Strengths:
-Far st.HK and cr.HK are great tools
-Has a quick Focus Attack
-Specials that are safe on block
-A quick, far, and hitbox lowering forward dash
-Great corner game
-Decent anti-air with Rising Jaguar and several normals
-Two specials that beat Focus Attack
Weaknesses:
-All of his special moves put him airborne
-He can be safe-jumped, as LK Rising Jaguar is his quickest reversal at 4 frames.
-Slightly below average health
A skilled Adon can be very tough for any Viper player to handle. His normals alone may make you want to keep him at a bit of a distance, but one Jaguar Kick, and he’s right back in your face. His specials are safe except Rising Jaguar so if you can bait it out and punish as hard as possible, you’re on the right track. Dealing with his strange jump arc and Jaguar Kick mixups can be a pain, so just as he/she needed to learn the proper spacing for it, so should you, and recognize when you have an opportunity to anti-air. This matchup is definitely winnable, some players say good for Viper, others claim it’s in Adon’s favor. In either case, keeping your wits about you and having good reactions can make or break this matchup.
Specials:
Jaguar Kick - Besides maybe Rising Jaguar, this is Adon’s most useful special attack. The 6 different trajectories for this move make it hard to predict and react to, but not impossible. Generally the best bet to beat it is to HP Thunder Knuckle as late as possible to if you want to prevent a trade. After a trade however, it may be possible for Viper to dash in to follow up for more damage. Certain ranges can just straight up beat out HP Thunder Knuckle however, but this is very specific. Alternatively, EX Seismic Hammer may be used but again, your timing needs to be good enough to take advantage of the invincibility frames. Also if the Adon is going for Jaguar Kicks right above your head, close st.MK might be an option to think about.
Jaguar Tooth - Another tricky move, it can be used against you to take advantage of Seismic Hammers that you accidentally let rip, or bait out anti-airs with the LK version. Prediction may be the name of the game here, as a LK Jaguar Tooth can be Seismic Hammered if predicted. Beating out almost any other version is easy enough, late HP Thunder Knuckles do well here, along with well timed EX Seismic Hammers. For the sake of saving meter and not predicting wrong however, it may be a good idea to try beating Jaguar Tooth with normals. Far st.HK works well because it has 6 active frames and a decent hitbox. However if timed properly there are many normals that CAN beat a Jaguar Tooth. Try out far st.HP for HK Jaguar Tooth and even far st.LP for EX Jaguar Tooth (very risky but doable)!. Jumping HK is also a viable option here. The EX version is probably the hardest to beat simply because of how fast it travels, so avoiding it altogether may be the best option, but again late HP TK and EX Seismo are your friends. LP Thunder Knuckle can also be used against Jaguar Tooth to some degree.
Rising Jaguar - The best thing about Rising Jaguar is probably its horizontal range. Be wary of attacking Adon on the ground during his wakeup. If baited, you basically have enough time to crack your knuckles and get ready to rip into him with a FFF combo. This move can be safe-jumped, the LK version has 4 frames of startup, while the other three have 5. The HK and EX versions have invincibility at the start up. Going for Burning Kick mixups on Adon’s wakeup can be dangerous because this move works very well when auto-corrected. Of course, this move can lead to an U2 with the meter to FADC so keep that in consideration. The horizontal angle of Rising Jaguar can also be used against Adon, because Viper can be right over top of him doing a Burning Kick on his wakeup.
This matchup seems to come down to not getting opened up by his pressure, both by normals and Jaguar Kicks. This means as Viper you might have to stay on the defensive more than you’d like to. Capitalize on any punish opportunity you get, and beat out whatever you can. Getting the knockdown can be a big accomplishment when fighting Adon so don’t let it go to waste, the best idea is to probably just go for a simple safe jump and try to react to whatever he does in response to it. Reaction can be a very important tool here, it might be a good idea to practice timing your moves against his in training mode. The mid-range footsie game CAN be dominated by Adon but his best normals at this range are slow-ish so timing things like jump-ins, MP or LP Thunder Knuckles, or EX Seismic Hammers can make or break you. Feinting Viper’s specials can be quite effective in getting Adon to throw something out, but be ready to deal with whatever comes your way. Dancing in and out of his ranges with back dashes can be a good way to keep Adon on his toes or make him miss a move altogether, giving you an opportunity to deal some damage.
A good Adon is going to exploit Viper’s weaknesses especially on her wakeup. There’s some OS’s involving Rising Jaguar, standing roundhouse, and sweep, so feinting HP TK then blocking on wakeup may(?) be a viable solution to protect yourself against those. Ultra doesn’t really bring anything different to this matchup, he got some minor tweaks in hitboxes and damage but otherwise it’s really Viper’s changes that make this matchup just slightly harder than in 2012. His Ultras can be interchangeable in this matchup with U1 catching Seismic Hammers and being able to combo into U2 for respectable damage. Gamerbee, probably the most famous Adon player, uses U2.