Yeah I've been experimenting with that a bit as well, putting myself in the corner when I have the lifelead and am just laming my opponent out. One touch and you can switch places with them easily to get the setups going, which at least puts most of the cast in a guessing game that's heavily in our favor.
In the DD matchup I really like to start out with option select parries when he has all the venom and d1 xx earthshaker pressure going. Once they see that, it becomes a guessing game for them; one way is either we parry for 11% or they d1 shaker for... what, 15-20%? and the other is them stalling and catching us for the same damage, or us reading that and getting pressure or a big combo. I don't mind those odds, and I find it pretty easy to read DDs alot of the time. I also think our parry is awesome for reacting to venom at good enough spacing. Of course, then he's just gonna dash in, but that sets us up to get pressure if he gets too close off the dashes. I don't mind this matchup too much. Just need to be patient and really exploit the openings.
I'm not trying to compare KDZ's WW to foxy/nivek, just saying he's solid and the basis for my MU experience. I agree with your assertion that this matchup is all about the spacing. Full screen we can use gunshot in several ways to keep her out, once she gets closer we just need to switch to laying teeth and being more reflexive to how she reacts to stuff like that. D2/b1/instant j3's are important for keeping her honest and stopping her advance, totally agree. And yeah, jumping is bad against her... that d2 is godlike.
I agree that sinestro doesn't WANT to be up close, I'm just saying he has options when he is and they certainly aren't bad. And if he guesses right, he can choose to put you full screen again at any time. Must be nice to have options like that... *sigh*.
Yeah, I think you are struggling more with the fullscreen Zod mixup because of online. It's definitely harder in the lag. But I think he is terrifying when he's in your face too man. He has 50/50's for days there, with the advancing low starter and that downward breath thing, either of which can be either that for a low option or a trait grab for overhead, all of which leading to over 40% and you at fullscreen again, with trait halfway recharged... UGH lol. I might be wrong though, and it may all be reactable/fuzzy-able. I've only fought one Zod that did the close up game well so far, so I have less experience. But yeah, definitely worse than Sinestro lol, no arguments there whatsoever.