[CP] Hakumen VS Rachel: Rabbit Season

[mAc Chaos]

I hope you like bats.

[someonewhodied]

Duck season....

Im guessing rising j.2A isn't as good as it was in CSE?

[Raziul]

If they're brkrDave, you don't get to jump.

[gli]

I played this matchup a bit last night.

Hakumen dominates Rachel in neutral for the most part. I had a hard time getting in without pumpkin or frog since Hakumen can mostly just react to her winded approaches.

With pumpkin out she can threaten safely and can approach a little more freely. With frog out she is mostly using it as a distraction as a means to get in. Kishuu is your answer to both of these I think. It can also catch Rachel backdash if you can make that read.

Frog okizeme now works on Hakumen so if you attempt to counter frog on wakeup you will most likely get baited if the Rachel is aware of the change.

Hakumen can approach air-to-ground rather easily. With Agito you can hover above Rachel and then do a falling j.B without much hesitation. 6A loses to j.B a lot (j.B THE GOD).

For the most part Rachel wants to zone you out and wait for you to make a mistake.

Overall this matchup is a battle of patience. Luckily, Hakumen benefits from waiting :P

[mAc Chaos]

Good work. I have to quibble with just one thing:

Frog okizeme now works on Hakumen so if you attempt to counter frog on wakeup you will most likely get baited if the Rachel is aware of the change.

You can't get baited. Even if she blocks the counter you are still invincible until you can block, and it will still catch her if she doesn't. Of course, if you Enma then you will eat lightning.

It is still more dangerous though because it lets her try some mixups that weren't possible before, but just doing 2D won't kill you.

[gli]

Oh didn't know.

Also forgot to add that I haven't found a Hakumen's answer to random Lotus Bats.

[BlackYakuzu94]

I find J.2A very useful in neutral, other than that. I need to play this matchup some more, patience is what's killing me honestly.

[Raziul]

Evil wind mix ups!

 

Pretty tough to gauge when she's gonna suddenly lift off and slap you in the face. Not to mention the set ups she has when you're trying to get up.

 

This seems like a match up where investing stars into Counter Assault might be a good idea.

[BlackYakuzu94]

In a weird twist, its probably better to block high during her mixup and just react and block low. Most Rachel's seem to try and get you with the fuzzy j.A. I don't know how good 2D is against Frog oki now.

[mAc Chaos]

Keep in mind CA can get blocked and punished. If you're on wakeup in the corner, chances are Rachel is already looking to block anyway so you can deal with frog oki.

You might as well just use the 4 stars on Yukikaze instead, and at least get out of the corner.

[BlackYakuzu94]

FYI 2D isn't as effective on account of it being blockable now.

[mAc Chaos]

Yeah but it's still worth doing. You get a star and she still has to block or jump over it.

[BlackYakuzu94]

True, abuse dat invul.

[Moblin]

Some things I've noticed on this matchup:

 

Pressure:

 

Hakumen is one of the easier characters to do her instant overhead mixup pressure on, so don't expect her to mess them up much.   Barrier blocking does help, since her pressure is not as endless as pre-1.1 Valk, but it's still just as ambiguous.

 

If you manage to block a few mixups, she has to use wind to close the gap after you barrier block her out and keep the string going.  This is the only reliable gap in her pressure.  Most Rachels will wind > j.a or whatever just as you push them barely out of range with Barrier.   Use this to Yukikaze out.  Then they'll be conditioned to think twice before going in with that after you hit her for 3.8k, giving you some breathing room.  

 

Counter assault is also really good, since she doesn't have to meaty you at all on wake-up and can continue pressure even if you manage to get a D counter off as soon as Hakumen's invuln ends.  Make sure you counter assault at unpredictable times.

 

 

Neutral/full screen:

 

I feel like Hakumen can actually out-zone Rachel if the Rachel doesn't play the matchup right.  

 

Any seeds that are shot out are easily voidable/counterable for free stars.  Once he has 4 stars, Rachel needs to be in the air to summon pumpkin/shoot any projectiles.  Shippu can punish any summon for free if Rachel is standing on the ground to do it.

 

Pumpkin is Rachel's best tool in neutral and it's really hard to see coming and locks you down very well.

 

In patch 1.1 especially, Hakumen needs to stay on the ground a lot more for better meter gain.  Because of this you're also an easier target to lockdown with pumpkin for Rachel's approach.

 

6a is soooo freakin' big that Agito actually gets stuffed by it at least half the time.  If you want to hard bait her 6a, just use j.D.  

 

When you have a lot of stars and need to get in, kishuu is ridiculously good.   A lot of the time rachel will knock you down, summon George, and shoot a seed at you on wake-up.  Kishuu will hard punish things like this.

 

Save your stars for counter assault when you can.

 

 

Offense

 

When you have a Rachel in the corner, she will, at the very first opportunity, super jump and wind out across the screen to reset the situation.  Hakumen can't keep pressure up for long, so start baiting this if i happens a lot.  I've had a lot of success with either 2c OR you can super jump up with her and Hotaru as she uses wind. It'll counter hit if timed right and give you a nice combo, no matter how high up she is, since CH hotaru has ridiculous hitstun.

 

 

 I can't count the amount of times I've been cat chair Astraled.

 

 

edit:

 

And INSTANT BLOCK GEORGE.  You might as well get some meter while you wait for the unreactable mixup

[rweezy]

So I got recked by a rachel today. I was blocking 90% of the time and he pumpkin'd me with instead overhead and everytime i thought he was going to do it again he just went low low low . idk what to do...

[mAc Chaos]

Here's a post TD wrote about Rachel VS Hakumen.

 

 

Alright, so just so everyone is on the same page, I will be referring to hakumen playing "cowardly" - I have a pretty clear indication on how that would be, even though I haven't seen the matches (by the way, I can give a more accurate process if I actually did see the matches). I will also assume Errol was simply playing rachel. If that is not true then I will stand corrected.

Now. I believe that hakumen can get away with playing a run-away play style, for several reasons. I would even say it's not much different than playing a passive, defensive style with him, which at one point was the intent with his design.

As everyone knows by now, hakumen passively gains meter for doing nothing, whether he is standing or jumping. If nothing is happening on the screen, it's safe to assume that he has the advantage and you have to strike him while he is weaker. However, he is not going to make that easy, because he has many tools to deal with most situations in this game.

In regards to fighting rachel, as unorothdox as it may be to see a haku running away and let her set up, there are some merits here. First, his sword deals with all of her projectile zoning, so if he can cut a lobelia or pumpkin on reaction, he would be fine. His normals are powerful enough to one-shot George, particularly 5c, and with the meter gained from running, he has a myriad of options at his disposal to deal with many situations afterward, assuming the rachel decides to attempt a punish for killing her pet.

His normals also outranges hers both on the ground and in the air. He can air jc her out of the air very reliably. His 4c cuts any attempts at midrange zoning. 3c in midrange deals with her 236a, arguably her best poke. He has good anti airs in counters, 5a, sometimes 5b and 5c, and 6a. Rachel will not be winning by simply chasing him down like a hungry cat, she definitely needs a plan. To add insult to injury, he can counter her normals on approach quite easily, because her hurtboxes are naturally very close to hitboxes during normals use.

So, rachel can't just stay back and zone exactly, but she can't let him sit around and do nothing. She can't just rush him down either, her approaches are not varied enough like say, litchi, and her moves aren't as ranged either. Since her defense sucks, she can't just "not care", so a lot of pressure is put on rachel to make the right reads and get in or keep him away safely.

But how, you ask? It sounds like he beats everything she has.

Well, he does. But rachel does have ways of dealing with this behemoth.

First, the pumpkin. Once this little ball is out, it can be controlled on a whim so long as she isn't hit or is blocking. She can use it now, later and anytime in between. Why is this important? Well, haku needs to cut a projectile during the active frames of his attacks. Pumpkins are technically ghosts without wind, he cannot do anything to them while they are dormant, so even if he "cuts" one near him, it will stay there. Rachel is free to wind it down and do whatever from there, and haku is possibly disadvantaged now. This is a HUGE reason why he cannot consistently do this alone, because pumpkin can shift momentum so fast, and is easily controlled.

He needs to be on point with cutting lobelias and lumpkins. Yeah, it's not that easy. Even if it makes the matchup easier for him, messing up his timing once again puts him in the shit hole. She is free to rush him or set up some more, giving him more to deal with in the neutral.

Sword iris is harder to cut. He needs to literally predict this. He can counter it, though it's not as strong. A random lobelia can turn into a momentum stopper for him if he runs at the wrong moment, as he cannot cut behind him, and countering stops his backward movement.

I general, against a good rachel, counters are plain risky. Enough yomi or knowledge of the player will give Haku habits away. She has enough variety in mixup to catch him slipping (more like, recovery makes it hard not to punish lol). They don't offer much, except s knockdown, which I guess is good, but since rolls are a thing in this game, and rachel can wind tech, it is still difficult to pin her even after a counter, meaning he has to risk offense or do damage with 4 stars.

Get hit enough times and hakumen can very well find himself in the cat position, because of the timer. Rachel is probably the best time scammer in the entire game because of how long she can stay in the air. He can stop her in the ascent with a grab, and it's very profitable, but it's a grab, so not likely especially is she expects it. And he has to be close to the initial jump in the first place. This, along with pumpkin, are the two big reasons why this method is inconsistent.

The whole running away as hakumen would vary based in the matchup. One must ask themselves if hakumen can afford to do this, and if he can get enough damage in doing so. He definitely will not be running vs someone with high physical range (litchi again, amane) as he cannot cut their attacks so easily. Nu is a good special zoner as though her moves can be cut, her swords deal with all his movement in an rps fashion.

It's a matchup specific thing, but in general, it's a feasable strategy that is not done enough. Strategy in the face of cookie-cutter tactics are excellent, as long as the player running knows how to adapt and play the matchup. So my verdict is that it definitely is useful every once in awhile, at least vs rachel, and especially when he needs to sit back and feed (evolve reference - if you get this, it's actually a great way to describe haku in general, he is the monster.)

DISCLAIMER: did not spell check!