[CSE] Arakune vs Platinum

[Skye]

Things to look out for:

Neutral

Item Toss (214d) - Dodge or block this, on hit (especially CH) it gives Platinum instant momentum from anywhere, if you got Yomi, punish it with j.d or f.g.

Missiles - Dodge, another free approach for Platinum.

Bomb - Pay attention to the trajectory, another move to dodge.

j.c - Hard move for Arakune to get around, dodge or block, namely dodge, since it has enough hitstop to make you second guess the frame data.

6a - Not that big a hassle, slow and the invincibility comes to the party late, avoid like any other Anti air

2c - The real anti air you should be avoiding, yomi it out with j.d, the invincibility/low profiling on this move is insane and is special cancellable for frame trapping into Heart Car

Your Oki

Unless she has bat or meter, chase her down. Cure Dot Typhoon has no recovery after the active frames are gone, avoid, do not block, stay a safe distance and 2c at just the right time, if you have meter, f.g the spinning bitch.

As always, punish late tech attempts with 5d.

Her Oki

Don't get put in this position, ever. Best option is wake up > block. Backdash can be reacted to and punished with Heart Car (236b), still has it's uses though. 5a is the opening pressure string, -1 and hit crouchers (Fuck you Arc). Plus that, 2a and 2b catches rolls and j.236c > j.b is a great corner oki too. Plus that, command grab, normal grab, missiles and bombs make Platinum's oki extremely frightening anywhere for Arakune.

Misc. Tips

Avoid her, IB Barrier her 5a staggers and get out of there. Play a run and zone game.

Discuss.

[The09er]

After a couple of days of matches with a local plat player:

Synopsis: The items that plat uses really determines how you have to play the match, I don't know all the changes the items have but there are a few that really influence the match. I'll list all the items here and my impressions on how they influence the match.

Baseball Bat - Arguably the best "dp" in the game, you can block while doing this and it is invincible the from startup and it can be used in combos. It can either trade or outright beat j.4B. Be cautious when approaching plat when she has this equipped, attempt to bait her out by doing a falling barrier block. Baseball bat is air unblockable.

Magic(cat) Missile - Annoying cat-faced projectile. Can be done in the air. Starts off slowly and increases in speed much like jin's 236C Ice sword. Discarding this item via 214D shoots off three missles aligned in a wall that will combo twice but the third is teachable. If plat has this item, be cautious in your horizontal approach, j.D will trade with cat missiles from full screen and plat will recover in time while the missiles are approaching just as you teched. If you have 50 meter feel free to f of g plat carelessly throwing cat missiles.

Super Cat Missles - Gigantic Cat Missles that are the height of an average character and take up 1/2 screen. Can be done in the air, not air unblockable if discarded they will fire off sequentially and will combo into each other. If plat has these, take to the sky and harass her from there or make an attempt to make her waste her missiles, they are air blockable and they are easily IB. These control a lot of arakune's movement along with the next item.

Cat bombs - smiling cat bombs, fired in a 45 degree angle and follow a parabolic arc these present some of the best space control against arakune. If discarded they fire three bombs in the same arc. These really suck since not only because of the space it controls but because of the amount it has opposed to the missles or other space controlling items. Cat bombs come out once the startup animation completes, so j.D will trade. I haven't found a decent way around these, I tend to make her waste the item or rush her down until she does. Something to note - Air cat bombs will be active until contact whereas cat bombs on the ground will explode in the air. Super bombs are larger and do more damage.

Cat staff - More of annoyance than an actual threat. It's a large staff that meows when swung, not an overhead, easy to IB, -9 on block but it's range makes it nonpunishable from max range. One thing to note, it does ground on hit, not much of a change between normal and super other than hitbox. Discarding it is more useful against arakune since it lobs the actual cat hammer at a 60 degree angle similar to lamda's 2D.

Frying pan - Grounded version will make the opponent spin on hit, whereas air version will ground bounce, no landing recovery and is an overhead. The normal versions are unsafe on block whereas the super versions are -3 on the ground and -1 in the air. If discarded they will shoot the frying pan in the same trajectory as the cat hammer. Frying pan is mainly used for combo filler, however be cautious of platinum discarding it for a new item if you are laying a cloud during a super jump.

Piko Hammer - breaks two primers, used as combo filler/loops, grounds opponent with no emergency tech. If discarded plat will lob the hammer similar to cat staff. Rarely does plat discard this since it's combo/damage potential is really high. Super version will break two primers but if it doesn't connect it will cause a quake effect similar to potemkin's slide head, an unblockable full-screen grounded projectile with no emergency tech. Piko hammer also allows for unblockable setups. This is the item that plat is the most deadly with imo, play hit and run until she has to switch items to something more favorable in your matchup.

Things I noticed:

Not much to go by, I could kinda autopilot curse since the plat player didn't have lot of arakune experience. However his plat was on point and I felt that Arakune is still pretty strong in this match, just watch whats going on with plat's items and be aware of what she can do with each and the match will be a lot easier. She doesn't have the ability to do her old pressure like xie used to do but she can hold her own.

[Skye]

I say just don't pressured by her.

Dodger her like aids, I'll do a write up later.

[Herbal Grey]

Plat's 5a is -1 now isn't it? I don't understand this matchup. When I play the slow game she just throws away items til she has bombs, missiles, then free pressure. And you can't play too aggressively because 2c pwns j.b and if you don't j.b she just runs away and summons more items.

I feel like I'm most successful when I keep summoning clouds until I get the one that follows her. (at least this my experience against lost soul and gammagear)

[Skye]

Fighting Plat is like fighting Litchi, you have to maneuver in a way that you can get something on hit or block without having to block her. Bombs are pretty easy to dodge since Plat has to commit to the trajectory. Missiles are very easy to dodge and the worse you have to deal with is an air throw, Arakune spends his time in the air anyway. Zoning is a large part of the match up, so you can summon clouds while she is cycling items.