[CSE] Mu vs Litchi

[Aginor]

Discuss the Litchi match up here.

What to look out for:

What to do:

[Zeromus_X]

I don't really get to play this matchup that often but it's a shame to leave a matchup thread barren. This matchup is more in Mu's favor now that Litchi's damage was nerfed, but you should hardly sleep in this matchup. You still need to play a very patient neutral game and kind of run around with her a lot but one mistake against her isn't always the whole round anymore.

Since Litchi's Daisharin got nerfed, you'll see a lot more Thirteen Orphans and Four Winds on oki now. You'll mostly see Daisharin to discourage zoning when they have a surplus of meter. Also watch out for All Green as an anti-zoning maneuver as it can lead into 4k + corner carry on CH. If they just do "6A > 5D (set) > Thirteen orphans" as their combo ender, you can reversal Omoikane them. If you have 50 meter while you see them Daisharin at neutral, you can use Yata in response to the superflash if you have 50 meter.

When she has the staff, be careful setting up steins, or using 236D or ground Habaya. She can CH you 6B[m], 6C[m], or 3C[m]. If she sets the staff and tries to approach with staff launch, Air Habaya is pretty good to nullify both vertical and horizontal launch thanks to its downward arc.

Litchi has a very low-profile crouch which can go under a lot of things including jB, jC, and even 214D. You'll have to use airdash j2D's to get steins low enough to use 214D in pressure safely against her. I recommend more 5[D] or j5/2[D] setups against her in the corner, but that's not to say you should never use 214D.

Moves to look out for:

jB - Her primary jump-in, horizontal bar of denial, difficult to anti-air except with 6A

6B[m] - Great poke, 100 P1 starter, leads to 4-5k+ on CH, please don't get CH by this move

Itsuu (63214D w/staff) - Guard point with three different followups, loses to throws and lows, got buffed in Extend so you'll see it a lot more often now. Leads into corner carry on hit and can be tough to play around. Be mindful and don't get your 5C or 6C caught by it, no matter how tempting that CH may be. If the Litchi player just likes to use this move at the start of the round a lot, dashing 3C them and derp them into the corner for their troubles.

623D - Tsubame Gaeshi/Litchi's DP. A very effective reversal but cannot be RC'd. It's somewhat difficult to optimally punish this move with 6C after you bait it, but you should usually have enough time to at least 5C or 3C CH it. When in doubt, dash 5B to punish.

Litchi's basic pressure:

Staff cancelling - Litchi can cancel her attacks into her staff placement allowing her to reset her pressure. This actually isn't completely safe; like Tsubaki's charge cancel pressure, you can poke out of this if they do it too often.

6D- Breaks a primer, +3 on block. If you don't IB, you'll lose a primer and she'll get to reset her pressure for free which is lame. If you IB, the move becomes neutral and you can 2A or throw her and force her to jump in order to continue pressure.

4D- IB to make it -7 for a free 2A or throw punish.

j2D - Crossup low (not an overhead!), breaks a primer, +19 on block (!!), sets the staff for further pressure or a corner-carry combo on hit. Watch out for this midscreen. It does have 17 frames of startup and is easy enough to react to but it's difficult to DP against due to the crossup.

Itsuu- On normal block, Litchi gets to pretty much do what she wants afterwards. If you IB the first hit of the B or C followup, you can poke out with 2A. The second hit of the B or C followups are +19 on block, but since Litchi is usually a good distance away, you can usually backdash after IB'ing the second hit anyway.

j623/421D without staff - Litchi players will often use this to halt their descent in the air for mixups after air normals while the staff is set. Get ready to block high and watch out for a landing low, throw, or overhead.

Thirteen Orphans oki - The basic mixup is 6A for overhead, and 3C for a low, which both reset into the same situation if they hit. Litchi players will use the Thirteen Orphans animation along with 5A (whiff) to mess with your reactions; nevertheless, focus on Litchi, and "block low, look for high" still applies here.

Under pressure, it's important to have good blocking and be patient, but don't let the Litchi player just bully you into the corner. Keep them honest with their pressure since Litchi actually has a lot of holes.

[susano]

So.... basically don't get bullied in this matchup.

Litchi's staff annoys the crap out of me. It really does.

[Zeromus_X]

Got to play this matchup a little bit more. Definitely watch out for her 5B[m] near beginning of the match and in neutral. It can beat our your 5C at the start or if you're not spaced right. On CH she can do 5B[m] > 6C[m] > corner carry > derp.

Also apparently her 2B (without staff) can low profile our Counter Assault. So be careful when they stagger their staffless blockstrings, or you'll be super sad.

The second you see them try to deploy the staff at less than fullscreen, dash and 6C FC.

[bakahyl]

At the beginning of most matches that i have played i see litchi players either go for

an air grab or an arial attack,

some kind of anti air like her 2a (which works very well against mu's weak jump in's ) or the longer reach 2c (i know it does not have any head invul. but it does catch forward airdashes at the beginning very well) or itsuu + something (which also works against 5c because of it's guardpoint against high and middle)

or sometimes 6d (i have no idea why they use it, because mu's 5c and 2b can beat that move in most occassions if it doesn't trade).

I haven't seen them use 5b[m] that much but seeing that it's only faster than 5c by 1 frame and itsuu works already very good against Mu players who start with 5c in the beginning i don't see why they should use 5b[m]

[Tecta1Eastside]

Itsuu works alot better. Its best to just rushdown more than zone because she has options to prevent you from zoning. J2c is your best air to ground move and will prevent litchi from anti-airing with 2a. I don't use mu-12's 6c just because itsuu can counter it easily for 3k. My biggest problem for me is Itsuu because that move is just too good imo. mu-12 6a and 2c aren't that great cuz you will get a pole dropped on your head. This match feels even maybe I may be wrong. Its hard to get exp cuz Lord Knight plays on ps3 now and there are only 3 litchi players left on XBL. The match-up is far better than cs1 and cs2. Just my 2 cents

[Zeromus_X]

To elaborate, I mention 5B[m] because the Litchi caught on to me dash 2B/3C'ing at the start of the round to catch an Itsuu. So they started using that more and CH my 2B/3C/5C every time. So just thought I'd mention it as a good round start option for them; especially if they mix it up with Itsuu.