[CSE] Taokaka vs Arakune

[Domethieus]

Will edit this once more information is collected. Till then, discuss.

[NeoGio0o]

This match isn't all that hard truth be told you can almost do anything you want until you get cursed because that is when Arakune automatically kills you.

Arakune Pre-Curse pressure- He received a few buffs in his pre curse pressure, one notable one is that now he can do 2A,5A,2A,5A and his 2A hit's low so it gives him some form of reason to block low now. As for his actual pre curse curse pressure as a whole it actually sucks he really can't overhead you as you can mash out any normal into 6A which pretty much limits his pressure without respect. 5D is pretty good for frame traps and is JC but if he tries to follow up with a jump in it can be easily 6A regardless of IB, so it pretty much ends his pressure and he is forced to run away or risk getting AA. If he even tries to do something silly like j.D mid block string you can use 2B to cross under him and get a nice 5B,3C.... whiff punish. Overall if you got the reactions/good yomi never block his overhead as you can easily 5B it for free, if your not comfortable mashing out of it blocking is just as fine as he is forced to use 5A/5D to stop you from mashing out on regular block.5D ends his pressure and 5A will frame trap you if you try to 5B him, essentially he can do 6A,rising j.C if he knows your mashing after a blocked 6A for a fatal 100% curse combo. You will generally see them always cancel into 5D or rising J.C if they know your mashing this way they remain safe and have potential to build a lot of curse meter if your pressing buttons so on block respect his 6A. You can back dash the rising J.C fatal attempt and get a counter hit 6A if you got the reactions, so long as your not mashing buttons after a blocked 6A you will be fine in this match up. His pre curse stuff is not that scary for you to actually have to take the risk of mashing out of his 6A attempts so just relax and block as it beats getting J.C fatal into 100% curse.

Arakune Curse mix up- Good luck.Due to the drive distance nerf and Counter assault nerf you will be getting caught blocking easily and shall remain blocking until that curse meter is zero, the D bug is air unblockable and with proper use of bugs Arakune can easily catch jump out's and be reversal safe so neither of these options are recommended. His teleport fake outs now play a bigger part in his game play for fake cross up's and just general switching sides to block harassment, j.C and 2C are his best starters and they can choose for j.C to cross you up or just hit high, truth be told due to how low tao's health is he doesn't really need a good starter to kill her off so if your hit your probably dead. In curse due to bell bug hitting high and 2C hitting low he has access to an unblockable in the corner which if done correctly it's reversal safe and gold burst safe. Overall for about 1 entire minute his mix up becomes the best in the entire game and his guard primer breaking skills are just insane so counter assault properly and stall as much curse meter as possible as you might get lucky and still be in the match when curse is over.

Arakune's anti air's- 5A ( his fastest poke pretty good hit box), 2A ( not all that reliable but possible), 2B ( Really underrated he doesn't get anything without heat,but his box becomes almost as small as Tao's crawl.),6B (really good hit box and kinda fast if you ask me),5C ( slow but very rewarding if it hit's,easily whiff punishable). 2B,5A and 5C in this order this is how reliable each move is an anti air and in terms of reward the order is backwards. You have three jumps so you should have zero problem with any of these bait them like you normally would and you will be fine,2B is a really funny anti air.

Tao pressure on Arakune- Arakune has no reversal outside of Counter assault and his beam super so you have nothing to fear when pressuring him. Really try to lock him down as he can be quite evasive, when going for air throw resets be mindful of rising j.B as he can simply jump and j.b and it becomes very hard to air grab him out of this move. His counter assault is unique from the cast as it is actually a throw that can be teched obviously if done properly they are suppose to get a throw reject miss ( grabbing you out your normal duhh), but if by some off chance you somehow bait it out you can tech the throw and resume pressure/punish. Nothing much more can be said besides do what ever you want and simply bait out his beam super when they have 50 heat if they try to do it, pretty basic stuff overall. It should be noted that 214D,J.C,dash 5B,3C,236A,loop does not work on Arakune (small horizontal aerial hot box) so just hit confirm with 6A. Not 100% sure how accurate this is but on Arakune you can do more reps of the loop on him off of better starters than the rest of the cast more info on this needed as I only seen it once in a video and my memory of it is bad.

Neutral- Tao can control space better than him with her drives and with proper spacing there is nothing arakune can do in the air against her that is safe. His ways of stuffing drives are J.a,j.B,j6 (ABC) aka bird and lol pin wheel, Bird is a really good way to stop drive mash but it needs to be used preemptively and is sorta a guess if your grounded you can 6A/2D this for free and in the air well spaced j.C will get the job done easily. Pin wheel is pretty consistent in stuffing your air to air game it's just not safe so be sure to block it when they are overly using it and punish the recovery (you got about 11 frames after he lands). Arakune doesn't have the tools to keep you still or zone Tao so simply never stop moving and it becomes really hard for him to get momentum. As tao just do stuff and chances are you will counter hit him out of something if he tries anything in the air, the match up is really bad for him in his pre curse state.

Best tools in the match up- You can use your mobility any way you like as Arakune cannot either zone or catch Tao so be sure to be extra annoying when playing as a flustered player will not be making good decision most of the time. 2D,J.D,j.4D, and J.C are just godly in controlling space against him and are very good when fishing for counter hits, air throws can be good vs Arakune that don't just mash J.B all day as he cancels a lot of his air movement with barrier and teching a throw while holding barrier is an akward transition. It is possible to combo into 5B,6A,loop off of non counter hit 6B but the timing is very strict still the damage is always helpful if you are willing to take the time to practice. 6B into 3 reps of 5B,5C,J.D-B works really well against Arakune when he doesn't have heat as without a reversal he is forced to block the following mix up that comes afterwards. Overall you can do what ever you want in this match unless you are cursed, Arakune has a hard time stopping you in his pre curse state.

How the match up works/Final words- Pretty much this match up is advantageous for Tao until she gets curse, and that is why you have to beat him before you are cursed. A lot of Tao's make the mistake of saving their burst for getting out of curse as hard as it sounds you need to beat Arakune before you are cursed as once he starts his game stopping him is impossible. In curse he can break your primers and kill you off in seconds and if you somehow survive he will definitely have 50 heat in which case any combo's he does in pre curse that end with j.D can now be replaced with F of G (automatic re-curse super). Arakune builds tons of heat off his combos and blockstrings while in curse so F of G after curse is pretty much guaranteed. BURST BEFORE YOU GET CURSED! It rhymes for a reason so please take the advice because you simply cannot win when arakune has you cursed, your drive is still good for running away but the distance nerf really hurts trust me your better of killing him off before he gets his momentum going. I recommend bursting any of his fatal starters ( unless you got anti aired with 5C don't mash buttons and this can be avoided), any time he has F of G as if you let the combo play through it will end with you cursed and his air throw (possible to get 100% curse off of it), sometimes when locked down in the corner essentially he can build more curse meter and with j.B can really lock you down from moving. Outside of curse abuse your mobility and the fact that he cannot catch you, do your best to never give him momentum as that is what he relies heavily on in order to win matches. His Pre curse pressure is so bad there is no real reason to be trying to mash out unless your just being a D*** as the risk of fatal J.c is something you should never gamble with IMO. Drive around, get damage, don't get cursed, win this is how the math up goes in a nutshell.