[Xrd] Ky Kiske vs. Zato-1

[Kazuki Slice]

• Use this thread to discuss the Zato-1 matchup.
• If the matchup is giving you trouble, check to see if this post already contains info which will help you. If not, be as specific as possible when asking for help and others will be glad to give advice.
• Please focus more heavily on discussing how to play the matchup properly than who is at advantage/disadvantage.
• This post will be updated to collect useful info over time.

 

'Round Start:

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'Neutral:

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'Offense:

• ...

 

'Defense:

• ...

 

'Punishes:

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'Combo Notes:

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[BladeOfJustice7]

You should refer to Eh-sama's posts on matchups even when it comes to Xrd. Since not that very much changes from one version of GG to another. I'll do a quick double post and you can do what you want with it.

[BladeOfJustice7]

 

Ky vs. Eddie

 

6-4 in favor of Eddie. If Ky gets caught, Ky loses. If Ky can avoid getting caught while attacking, Ky wins. For those people who play third strike, the matchup is like Dudley or Ken vs. Yun. The little Eddie is basically equivalent to Genei Jin.

 

Neutral

 

Ky must attack, either directly or indirectly. If he doesn't, then Eddie can start his very dangerous offense off the little Eddie so this must not be allowed. However, what makes this so difficult is that Ky must attack while avoiding the knockdown. If he gets knocked down, then Eddie can possibly end the round right there.

 

So Ky has to attack in a rather oblique manner to reduce the risk of knockdown, and constantly harass Eddie. He can do this by staying in lock step with Eddie at about 5S range and attacking with 2S, 5S, j.k, j. HS and TK SE. Basically you use these pokes to approach Eddie and dance around the 2S range. If he jumps, you can counter with 2HS, j. k or 2HS. If he steps within range of the 5S, the 5S, 2S chain is very helpful.  TK SE FRC is a good way to seize initiative from Eddie, as it is rather difficult for him to counter that. Staggered strings into stun dipper/SE also work as Eddie might look for the SE to try to IAD. If he does, the stun dipper will catch him.

 

Eddie will try to knock you down with drills and try to create space for himself to launch little Eddie. Once the little Eddie is out, Ky has to basically stay far back and try to kill the little Eddie with air SE or 2S, or trying to make Eddie block something with TK HSE.

 

Avoid getting knocked down as much as possible. Even eating a Noboru combo that permits an air tech is sometimes preferrable to getting knocked down. Yes, it is that bad.

 

Defense

 

If you are here, you have screwed up somewhere. If Eddie tries to go for high/low/command throw mixups, the best you can do is either DAA, burst or try to one frame jump out. However, if he goes for the unblockable projectile/drill setup, there isn't much you can really do about that and he will basically take most of your life away from that setup alone.

 

Some Eddie strings into little eddie are illegitimate.  For example, his 5S into summon loses instantly to 5K, however, clever Eddie players may try to go for the drill instead.

 

If you manage to escape and the little Eddie is out, then you have to try to kill it with 2S or jump back air SE.

 

If you get knocked down and sent into the puddle for the unblockable setup, you can actually reversal SVT out automatically. Even if Eddie does a safe jump, blocking the SVT will cause Ky to get sucked into the puddle, whereupon the game confuses itself by registering the block animation on Eddie which makes the puddle vanish, handing Ky the imitative.

 

Offense

 

Because getting knockdown is so bad, Ky must be aggressive but not overly aggressive. Best is to stay just inside 5HS range and go for katame patterns. Eddie's defense is not very good, so going for throw/counterhit setups are very good. 2S/5H stagger patterns are especially good IMO.

 

The analysis on the Faith matchup video in this thread should give you a good idea of what both sides are doing in the matchup. This matchup hasn't really changed, even since the XX days. Another good video to watch is the Machabo-Ogawa SBO finals from a few years back. Machabo has the right idea, but....Ogawa is frighteningly good. Someday I will do an analysis on that match vid.

 

 

Please feel to look through the Ky Tricks and Trades thread in the Ky ACR forum. There's a lot of good info there that translated easily into Xrd, with only slight adjustments due to new moves for both Ky and the said character he's playing against.

[Sytha]

This is a match up much closer than 6-4. Ky is one of the best characters fighting Zato. Hell the match up was 6-4 in #R (tied for 5th best against that character.) It's likely closer to 5-5 or 5.5-4.5 one way or the other.

 

Anyway. Basic idea of this match up is focus on killing the little eddie when it's out. If the Zato player is bad at defending Eddie then you can basically win for free. You can afford to be patient on the defense. There is no more vacuum on the K summon so his mix up potential is more limited since his 6K will basically kill his ability to make his string airtight. So just block low and look out for the command grab that likely coming at somepoint. Most Zatos like doing it near the end of the Eddie meter or when they have you in the corner so they can set up the Delay drill+overhead unblockable. If you find yourself in a sitaution where that is about to happen your forced to make a guess that is not in your favor before it happens. Because after it happens all you can do is go for the 1f block chance, wake up burst, burst when it hits, wake up uppercut. Haven't tried wake up RtL but I bet it works great since it's immune to projectiles. so you likely just go straight thru the drill.

 

Neutral you want to get in on him which is pretty standard vs. Zato. He can't really force you off him at close ranges that well your normals are just better than his. He'll try to go for stuff like fly neutral or drills. One or the other. Maybe a fireball reflector in there if your giving those away for free. Air to Air is mostly in Ky's favor so meeting him up there is not a bad idea. for the drills either block them or just try to stay at ranges where the Drills can't reach you. Drills are pretty much the best thing he has.

 

Mix up wise it's pretty much standard, combo wise his hitbox seems easier to combo than it was in AC/+R at least everything seems to work on him. CH 2H>2D whiff doesn't work on him but that's like only Sin/Faust/Millia anyway.

 

But yea closing this match is pretty much whoever has control of the match can steamroll. Ky is a bit better at taking control of the match and regaining it. Zato when on offense is really scary and run a train on you very quickly. Not sure who is supposed to be favored. Feels pretty even to me tho.

[BladeOfJustice7]

RTL is immune to everything from frames 1-22 according to the frame data, and my own personal experience using it. Well I'll post more of these matchups in the other mathcup threads. Feel free to add extra Sytha, I know you're OG so your input, along with eh-sama's is greatly appreciated.

[yashanyu1]

Not had a ton of experience in this matchup but I do know that anything that Ky can punish with a point blank 5K can go into Cl.S into a GS combo.  Free damage that can lead into Oki as well as good corner carry.