Obviously, everyone is going to be different. Go ahead and list your general overall list for your most difficult character to go against vs your Aganos. We will see if we are on the same page as far as difficulty goes or not. Discussion on why/how you rank certain MUs are always welcome!
Thanks!
My list:
1-Maya
2-Maya
3-@#$&₩€£ Maya
4-Fulgore
5-Sadira
6-Aria
I will elaborate later, but in a nutshell: kill every Maya with fire!
I guess you could say Aganos…Puts on sunglasses
Has trouble with the ladies.
Fulgore is by far my hardest matchup simply because it’s too easy for him to teleport cancel into a throw or DP, either getting raw damage or removing chunks - I never know which he’s going to do. Add to that the fact that I, for some reason still get locked out like crazy against him because his attack speed, to me, always seems to change (even though I do know how to read his ADs and linkers). Add to that his additional projectiles that makes it hard to flick away and his up-laser that can still hit me even though I’m only standing 1/2 a screen away. Just yesterday, I lost to a Fulgore user who put me into a corner without chunks and simply poked me to death. It was embarrassing!
Riptor has all the tools she needs to wreck Aganos. Fast, multi-hitting attacks, crazy mix-ups, frame traps, and a run that can interrupt a lot of what the golem tries to do. Granted she has some weaknesses, such as if you block her tail-flip successfully, but most seasoned players won’t fall for that.
I would think Sadira would be easier, since jumping generally leaves you vulnerable, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with her. The best Sadira players I fought know how to jump at me up close and pester me like an annoying fly that won’t go away using cross-ups and mix-ups. Even those that stay far away, even though they are easier can still present a problem because her jumps always seem to be just at the right spot, height, or angle to prevent me knocking her back down with projectiles (which, if wiffed, then leave me open due to not having chunks). u+LP and D+HP are useful, but the spacing has to be perfect for the former and the latter is often too slow. Generally speaking however, if I can at least get a peacekeeper in my hand and keep her at a distance, I can at least prevent her from getting a supreme victory.
Maya is a matchup I’m actually not that bad at - it’s largely dependent on the player, but it’s always the better players that leave an impression - literally! Those magic daggers, when used in the right hands, are scary. I’ve learned how to block, ignore (with chunks), or flick them but the can come from just about anywhere - and quickly. Add to that her ability to get half-screen jump cross-ups, and mix-ups using her d+HK and fake d+HK, in-air d+HP (with both daggers) command grab and vanilla j.HP, and her ability to easily get 4 pips/unblockable dagger attacks… Well, that’s a recipe for a world of hurt. Still, if I can get her to miss (which in itself presents a challenge, since you know, Aganos is the size of a barn and you can’t really miss those), I can setup walls to keep her from getting her daggers.
Kan-Ra is another matchup I’ve largely learned, but he combines various aspects of previously-mentioned characters such as Riptor with his fast, multi-hitting attacks and Maya with his ability to easily get half-screen jump cross-ups, along with a few of his own. He can pester me with sand-swarms, sand-traps, and sand-spikes - the more he uses at the same time, the more defensive it makes me. Even worse, he easily punishes Aganos with his command throw (especially after a blocked natural disaster) or can set himself up to get 1 (for example, he can setup a sand-swarm and then grab me through it only to land me on top of it. I’ve learned how to avoid a lot of his crossups and even a lot of his traps, but that command throw gets to me every. single. time. despite the fact that I have even learned how to jump to avoid it (which can be countered later by smarter Kan-Ra players anyways) or to interrupt it with a poke. If I can get a peacekeeper in hand though, it generally helps even the odds, since it does a lot of damage, interrupts a lot of what he can do, keeps him grounded, and can destroy many of his traps. In addition, if I can hold on to my chunks and get a wall up, it makes it all that much easier to hit him with a wall-crash due to his floaty jumps.
The ONLY real issue I have with Thunder is his raw-damage output using his s.CotE ender or naked CotE - it hurts oh, so bad. But then again, I guess the bigger they are, the harder they fall, am I right? As long as I can avoid that I’m fine.
Other honorable mentions include Cinder, Jago, Sabrewulf, Hisako, and Orchid. They are all good characters, but IMO, not as good against Aganos as some of the characters listed above, and they are largely dependent on the skill of the players themselves.
WIth Cinder, his arial antics make him a rather easy target, unlike Sadira, but his penchant for hitting me with his flame-kick anyways even though I successfully did a j.MK cross-up can drive me bonkers because of its obviously neutral down, up input - even worse, it can lead to free in-air combos if he’s fired up. Also, his penchant for throwing grenades can get annoying, but is easily beatable.
Jago, largely depends on the player - if they know how to do the frame-traps, manuals, mix-ups, and cross-ups - then they’re a shoe-in for beating me. However, if they can’t do ALL of them, then I win. It’s that simple.
Sabrewulf is easily beatable at range (obviously), especially if he uses his run. As long as I can hold onto chunks, he doesn’t stand a chance because I can easily get full-combo punishes off of him. It’s the players that know how to poke and dodge that get the best of me since his normal attacks are so fast frame-wise, which can make it hard to counter before losing chunks. Add to that the fact that he’s got an easy anti-chunk combo punish via his claw-swipes on a blocked natural disaster (similar to Kan-Ra and his command grab) it’s well, going to leave a mark.
Hisako is generally easy to beat in most cases due to how slow she is. I can easily absorb hits or interrupt her. Her counters may sometimes pose a risk, but I have learned how to bait them for a punish, so that’s not a risk most times. However, good Hisako players with knowledge of how to properly use her wrath meter and her devour and command grab can make this a genuinely scary matchup for Aganos. To make things worse, there are more glitches in this matchup (in her favor) than I’ve seen with any other that can make winning against her annoyingly difficult.
Orchid, like Sabrewulf, can be incredibly easy to punish as long as I can hold onto my chunks (a throwing up joke, hehe), but in the right hands, she can be a tough bet. I still often get locked out due to her rekkas, and her grenades can help cause resets into a full-combo punish. Her anti-air throw into a full-combo punish can help her a lot too, even against a fully-chunked Aganos. Even though I can lock her cats out with walls, if I don’t have that wall up, her cats, with grenades and combos + damage enders can be down-right troublesome…
Omen and ARIA, while mentioned by others, don’t pose too much of a problem for me at all. The former is easy to punish whenever he shoots his projectiles (with s.ruin into wall-crash or peacekeeper throw), jumps (with finger-flick or d.HP), slides (with block or chunk-absorb into throw into re-chunk or full-combo-punish) - so nearly everything he does. The latter can only ever truly compete with me in her bass form, since it hits multiple times and quickly. However, they are easily blocked as are all her attacks in her other bodies. I’ve even learned how to combo-break all of her shadow moves as well as where to shadow-counter. Because of my knowledge with this matchup, I rarely lose (I can only recall about 3 instances I’ve ever lost against her while playing as Aganos).
Surprised to see Orchid on a list, I think that’s a match Aganos does pretty well in!
I guess it depends on the player.
Also I’m not good fighting against any orchid with any character. I guess my aganos has a pretty tough time with a player who knows the MU.
Omen: I’ve played this MU a ton and Omen can get away with a lot against Aganos. First of all, he can zone out Aganos completely as you can only react to a heavy rashakuken, but you may mistake a medium for a heavy, go for the punish and have Omen block your shadow ruin. Omen can also strip away armour quickly and he gains fantastic corner pressure so even putting up walls behind him is a risk. Shadow escape lets you get out of a ton of Aganos’s pressure and it lets you get in for free because you can react to Aganos’s shadow ruin (he has to use it to get through the projectiles). On top of all of this Omen gains a lot of cross up pressure, which is the 1 line of defence Aganos struggles against.
It’s rare that I see an Omen player NOT shoot 3 projectiles. It’s the Omen players that do that Aganos has to worry about, since it gives Omen faster recovery. However, fewer projectiles also means fewer chunks removed and easier finger-flicking, so at least there’s that. If an Omen player you’re fighting does this, don’t try to (shadow) ruin, as he can easily punish you. I also find that LP payload assault, if you’re willing to lose a chunk, also destroys a huge amount of his projectiles, since a good majority of them are relatively low to the ground, so that’s an option that you can use to open him up (and I do use it often - throw out a chunk, and as it destroys his projectile(s), or preferably before - move in with a natural disaster; with luck, he won’t be expecting you to get through his projectiles so easily). As for your (shadow) ruin, save it for whenever he tries to glide, especially if you already have a wall behind him. 
Speaking of which, Omen’s glide is the easiest way to punish him when playing as Aganos, so take advantage of it. You can finger-flick him, c.HP him, ruin him, natural disaster him, or hit him with a MP/HP payload assault or even the peacekeeper’s c.HP or j.HP.
His flurry of kicks can be annoying, sure, but to use it he has to get in close, which isn’t going to happen if you know what you’re doing. Any of Aganos normals should prevent that from happening, especially with chunks.
His shadow escape is a useful tool, but in itself is harmless. Simply be aware that that is an option for him whenever he has shadow (which I admit, will be quite often). Practice doing LP natural disaster if you can anticipate it to punish him as he comes out of it (and if you go through him, simply double-back by pressing up during the move for a cross-up).
I’ve always hated Omen’s throw, since it’s basically a free recapture into a potential full-combo punish, but that should be fixed with tonight’s patch. 
When your instinct meter gets full, use it ASAP - the peacekeeper is incredibly useful for shutting down a lot of what Omen can do (which includes his slide, his glide, his projectiles, his shadow flurry of kicks that shoots projectiles, and even his orda shield). Use it to open him up and start combos, to get some needed distance, or to chunk up or put up walls - as necessary.
Because the peacekeeper can be so useful during this matchup, it might be worth using chunks for walls too, but not for behind Omen. Instead put them behind you so you can then grab it. This has the added bonus of automatically putting him into the corner if he tries to use his slide on you if you haven’t grabbed it yet. 
BAD
Maya
I don’t think I need to explain this one. I can beat top level Mayas, but making it close is quite a rarity.
Fulgore
Always has a 3-hit DP along with an invisible throw/DP mixup that instantly changes the match, never worth pressuring on knockdown, basically has a backwards run for zoning.
Cinder (forecasting a bit)
Can easily lock you down with bombs, can hit up to 7-8 times in one jump (also fast ambiguous cross-ups with Trailblazer), a mid-screen 4-hit move that he can confirm into with meter, not worth punishing wakeup, and Aganos is the easiest to juggle in the game.
Kan-Ra
Has several normals which remove all armor, has an infinite frame trap on Aganos (need to test), but can abuse him pretty hard in the corner though.
Sadira
Can jump from angles where you have no anti-air or projectile, can apply tons of cross-up/throw pressure, but can beat all her wakeups.
Riptor
Moved down with the fix to Aganos’ Shadow Counter, can beat all her wakeups, might not even be that bad anymore, but we’ll see.
OK, BUT DON’T MAKE THAT ONE MISTAKE
Omen
Random fireballs kinda give him a free way in, mutli-hit opener, and low-as-balls full-screen move.
Spinal
Kinda hard for him to remove chunks without meter, but can always get behind you, and if he gets on a roll, you have no resources to play defense.
ARIA
If you counter hit her (multi-hit) opener she’ll fall to the ground, if you block her opener she’s too far away, you can’t really trip-guard her jump-in like most other characters, but can change the fight with one Shadow Ruin. Her instant jump HK also beats Aganos pretty hard.
Sabrewulf
Can footsie him out pretty well, but don’t lose a chunk or get your combo broken… or you’re on a one-way trip to ~70% damage and completely safe Instinct pressure. His sweep low profiles and has crazy reach in neutral.
TJ Combo
Doesn’t need to take away armor to beat you, but only his grab and recapture work well against armor
Jago
Needs meter to remove chunks, but great pressure that you really need to Shadow Counter if you mess up
GOOD/NOT BAD
Orchid
Has a really low profile (multi-hit) sweep to remove armor. Kinda like Sabrewulf, but her no-armor pressure is more beatable than Sabrewulf’s, since there’s no left/right aspect to it.
Glacius
Can remove all armor on reaction with Shadow Shatter, and his Instinct is probably the toughest in the game for Aganos. But s.HP wrecks Ice Lance and Shatter on reaction, he’s pretty abusable in the corner, and it’s surprisingly tough to zone out Aganos with Hail/Shatter.
Hisako
Rekka/Shadow Rekka is pretty useless against armor, has to either get constantly pushed out by the sweep (she can’t counter the 2nd hit) or commit to an easy-to-read jump. Her knockdown mix-ups can wreck you, but it’s kinda hard for her to get there, even with meter.
Thunder
s.HP hits him while crouching (meaning you can pretty easily keep him out or make him commit to a DP), can safe-jump his DP while moving away from him. There are 2 Thunders that I’ve played that can beat me, partly because they play two wildly different strategies.
Aganos mirror
Whoever is more patient wins.
I’m inclined to agree with this statement.
…and this is 1 that I’m NOT inclined to agree with. I find the best way to win in the mirror is to a) play defensively and b) use mix-ups - a lot. Basically, wait for a mistake or opening and then punish. I often like to save my shadow for a reaction punish using shadow ruin. This is the only way you can get armor during the Aganos mirror-match too and it’ll defeat literally anything he can throw at you as he attacks (for the same reason that Glacius’ armor seems to work so well). Think about it, though - it’s perfect!
s.ruin > every normal
s.ruin > peacekepper
s.ruin > payload assault (non-shadow)
s.ruin > natural disaster
s.ruin > pulverize
s.ruin > ruin (non-shadow)
s.ruin > jump-in anything
There are only 3 things that beat s.ruin in an Aganos mirror-match:
Naturally though, being a mirror, you have to watch for this yourself. 
Keep in mind that if you put a wall behind your opponent, he can pick it up (since, you know, he’s Aganos too). Sometimes, however, this can be beneficial, as you can use it as bait - put it behind him and then punish him with the aforementioned s.ruin or other means as he attempts to grab it. 
Believe me I know the Omen - Aganos MU, I’ve played it a rediculous amount of times. You cannot punish slide with shadow ruin, slide goes under. If you predict it, or catch it on recovery you can. You can punish with shadow natural disaster as long as he doesn’t have any projectiles out (which won’t happen). Sacrificing a chunk for an anti air is good, but I think it’s worth fighting the matchup chunk less, or at 1 chunk. Omen can cancel slide into shadow escape for a mixup that’s hard to react to, or shadow slide which cannot be shadow countered by Aganos. Furious flurry is fine. It’s -1 on block to just hit LK to beat all of omens options. Omen also has that light Orta reversal that he can cancel into shadow escape for a mixup, or shadow slide to make it safe.
Did I say to punish slide with s.ruin? I don’t believe I did… double-checks Nope, I did not. I usually punish a slide with a block and a throw follow-up (since Aganos has the extended grab range that other characters don’t).
While his shadow escape is a concern (after cancelling from his slide), I find many Omen’s even rarely use his shadow escape, as they would rather use it to get what little extra damage they can. Again, it’s the players that do know of how useful it is and that use it that you have to watch for - luckily, in my experience anyways, most don’t. Still, my advice to counter it with LP natural disaster (and potential roll-back) is, as far as I know, still effective so long as you can anticipate it (for example - 1 shadow escape, shame on me; 2 shadow escapes, shame on you).
1 thing I did forget to mention in my earlier post about this matchup, however, is that Omen has the same capability to punish on a blocked natural disaster as Sabrewulf does with his flurry of claw-swipes - all he has to do is use his F+HP command attack/normal…
You did say that you can punish glide with ruin though. Maybe not specifically shadow ruin , but ruin doesn’t do any better. Also if Omen meter burns his slide (which he doesn’t have a reason not to) you can’t grab him. You’re immediately on defence and in this MU omen is really hard to defend against because everything he does (if done effectively) is ambiguous.
You just described what being patient is… wait for a mistake, then punish accordingly?
Also, two other things beat Shadow Ruin
Nope, still can’t find it - quote it for me.
Ah, you got me there… Or did you? Maybe you weren’t being specific enough. So, ha! There! 
…and yes, throws too - I admit I forgot about those… But only up close!
After testing this in the lab, unlike with other characters, Omen does NOT slide through Aganos like he does with other characters (since his hitbox is so big) UNLESS the last hit(s) get absorbed by a chunk - in that case, it seems to pass through just fine for some reason. On hit, you’re right, since Omen can combo into it, but on block, it makes for an easy punish, throw or otherwise.
Speaking of which, Omen’s glide is the easiest way to punish him when playing as Aganos, so take advantage of it. You can finger-flick him, c.HP him, ruin him, natural disaster him
See that? 5th word glide. I did mention slide but in my retort I used the word glide. This might be where some of the co fusion comes from.
Question: wouldn’t heavy payload assault be the best way to respond to faraway Omen fireballs? They generally don’t cross the screen too quickly on account of most of them having random loopy patterns, and the heavy payload is pretty much guaranteed to both clear the screen and either hit Omen, or at least make him eat a decent amount in chip if he decided to throw a lighter rashokuken. The startup is probably such that it wouldn’t be viable at anything closer than midscreen, but it seems to me it should be a good counter farther out than that.
Well, that only proves the mistake was yours, not mine, since it was the glide and not the slide that I was referring to.
While it can be a difficult mixup to be sure, the solution is actually quite simple - 1 chunk with blocking is all Aganos needs to retaliate regardless of whether Omen uses a shadow slide, shadow escape, or does nothing after the initial blocked slide.
If he performs a shadow slide after the initial blocked slide, you simply reverse your block upon seeing the pre-frames of the shadow animation and punish him during his recovery frames (where he stands up from the slide).
If he performs a shadow escape after the initial blocked slide, you simply release your block, watch where he goes, absorb his hit with your chunk, and punish him with any fast standing normal as he hits you for a trade that ends in your favor.
If he doesn’t do anything after the initial blocked slide, then you simply attack him since he’s, well, not doing anything.
I also tried a blocked slide into a shadow flurry of kicks and shadow orda shield. The solution is the exact same as if it were a shadow slide instead - reverse your block and punish upon the recovery frames; in the case of shadow orda shield, you may have to hold the block longer to avoid the multiple orbs, but you have time for a punish after.
One thing I’ve noticed - if you shadow counter his shadow slide, Aganos rolls through him with a shadow natural disaster and across the screen away from Omen with no opportunity for a combo punish whatsoever (although he is safe).
You’re absolutely right! it’s only good at full-screen, but I tested this in the lab - the ONLY projectile that actually hits you in time is the bullet (the 1 that shoots out super fast all the way across the screen); none of his other projectiles even come close. The real question is if you’re willing to risk wasting shadow meter over that chance… 1/11, 2/11, or 3/11 chance? I would!
Omen won’t even have enough time to follow up with another attack (like his slide) before the chunks come raining down.