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RurouniLoneWolf

[CF] Celica Neutral Tips and Tricks Guide

By RurouniLoneWolf, in Celica A. Mercury

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RurouniLoneWolf   

RurouniLoneWolf
Posted
BBCF_Header_Gameplay_Discussion.png
 
Evernote link for easy passing around:
 
Overview

With a variety of good pokes, standard movement options and a basic fireball, Celica is a simple character that plays her neutral game as you would expect someone with her well rounded toolset. The key to victory in her neutral game is careful movement, well spaced pokes and strategic use of her fireball to both cover approaches and control ground space.
 
 
Murakumo Backdash + IABD
 
Much like Murakumo unit characters, Celica has a backdash that covers a lot of ground quickly. Primarily, it's great for creating space between you and your opponent to start your fireball game with Arc Griller. However, it's also desirable for footsies as well. You don't want to be too close because j.C is going to be your main poking tool. Creating space with backdash or IABD will give you a lot more flexibility in properly spacing j.C for an approach.


j.C
 
Celica's best poke. It has great horizontal reach. While it is lacking in vertical reach on its own, adding falling momentum to it from the end of an air dash or falling down from a jump forward can give it a bit more vertical reach than it would normally have on its own. Using it when falling back down to the ground will also make it harder to whiff punish or put yourself in a bad position because the space that j.C will hit in makes it hard for opponents to maneuver around to put themselves in a good whiff punish position. As a C normal, it has great hitstun/blockstun as well, making it easy to convert into a combo on hit or start pressure on block. However, you need to make sure that j.C is well spaced while falling momentum will give it some vertical reach, it's still easily countered with most AAs if you don't properly space it horizontally.
 
Here's a few examples of well spaced IAD j.C jump ins to get in
Video Example 2  - https://youtu.be/Ozq8EjobCfU?t=694
 
Because of how good falling j.C is as a poke, a common tactic is neutral jump or back jump > falling j.C to both fish to whiff punish people and poke people out of advances. On block, there should be enough blockstun to cover an advance as well. 
 
 
Ground Pokes
 
While Celica's ground pokes aren't as good as j.C in terms of your options on block and safety in throwing them out, they still have good range and can be great pokes. 
 
Dash 5B
Standard ground poke. Decent reach but loses to jumping
 
Backdash 5B
This can be a great tactic because of how quickly Celica's backdash pulls her back quickly, which is great for both getting a well spaced 5B poke and making an opponent's poke whiff.
 
Dash 2B 
Has about the same reach as 5B but can open up an opponent low 
 
2D
Sometimes a great low hitting poke. The biggest pros to 2D compared to 2B is that hits further out than 3C and more importantly, it can be cancelled into other drive normals on whiff, which can be useful for getting out of bad situations or putting yourself in a better one. 
 
 
Arc Griller (236B) 
 
Celica's fireball. Like most fireballs, Celica's Arc Griller is good at controlling ground space.
 
Because of its slow travel speed, it can also be good for covering an approach. On hit, the fireball knocks the opponent down, giving you time to run up and start pressure.
 
However, like any fireball, you have to always be weary of opponents jumping over it. So make sure to not get too predictable with Arc Griller and to space them well to minimize the chances of getting punished for a poor one.
Poor 236B example - https://youtu.be/jjgzZsz_mBU?t=958
 
 
j.D

Because of its hitbox and the guard point that has been added to Celica's drive normals, j.D can be a great way to safely bring yourself back down to the ground when you find yourself directly above an opponent and are worried about getting anti-aired.
 
Video Example 4 -https://youtu.be/jjgzZsz_mBU?t=482


Pic Confit > RC

This is really a tactic you probably only want to go for very rarely but its still a tool in her toolbox so I'll highlight it. For this to work, the dive kick needs to be well spaced both vertically and horizontally. If you can get both of these right and manage to connect the dive kick with the opponent, you can rapid cancel it to start pressure.
 
There are two very notable down sides to attempting this tactic. Because of the angle that Celica's divekick takes, you usually need about double jump or super jump height to get the vertical spacing right for this. As a result, an opponent can have an idea of when to expect this tactic and take appropriate measures. The second down side is that if you mispace Pic Confit and you whiff, your opponent can react and whiff punish it if they're in a good position to do so.
 
 
 
Dealing with Air Approaches
 
6B
Celica's Anti Air. It doesn't have much vertical range but it does have a decent amount of horizontal range. 
Video Example 1 -  https://youtu.be/5AhkMJOc3UA?t=68
 
Jump up j.C 
Against players further out, Celica's j.C is good to stop air approaches because of its great horizontal reach. Converting it into a combo will depend on height, whether you scored a counter hit and how prepared you are to hitconfirm it but just being able to comfortably stop an approach is already a good enough reward on its own. 
 
Jump up j.A > j.B > j.C
While it doesn't have the range of j.C, j.A is quicker and is more likely to hit people out of stuff at closer ranges. 
 
 
Round Start
 
Time to go over round start options now that we've covered everything else. 
 
Back dash
As mentioned earlier, backdash is good for creating space for fireball and to make it easier to properly space Celica's better pokes so no surprises that it's a frequent round start option.
 
Backdash > Arc Griller (236B)
Slight variation on just back dashing. Take the time it takes to finish backdashing to confirm the situation and decide whether you should throw out a fireball or not
 
5B
When deciding on your round start options, be sure to take into account the opponent you're fighting against. A round start 5B poke is not a bad option to go for against characters who have weaker round start ground pokes in comparison to Celica. 
 
Dash 2B 
Good for similar reasons as the round start 5B option above. 2B has the added bonus of being able to open people up low who are trying to stand block pokes in neutral.
 
2D
Good for similar reasons as Dash 2B but 2D has the added bonus of being able to cancel into other drive normals, even on whiff and gives it a bit more freedom. 
 
Walk back > Observe
Sometimes it's best to play it safe and just patiently see what the opponent does. Depending on what they do, you might be able to react with an AA 6B to stop a jump in or poke/backdash poke an opponent out of an approach from the ground
 
Superjump back
A slightly less commital way to make space between you and your opponent at round start. Unlike instant air backdashes and backdashes, you'll still have air options to use during the movement that you can use to respond to what's happening on the screen. 
 
Jump back > air dash (j.B >) j.C
For when you want to go for a jump in at round start. The jump back will help you properly space the j.B/C.
 
Jump Up j.A
Good for hitting an opponent out of a jump in at round start

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Surf   

Surf
Posted

Good writeup. Also very good you showed video examples. Need to be more like this for other characters.

I'd like to input a couple things. Imo one of the first things Celica players understand is how insanely good 6B is. It was one of, if not the best, anti air normal in CP. In terms of vertical range I've seen it scoop characters almost at the top of the screen (the lifebars) and still proceed into the same confirm everytime. This coupled with just walking back/observing the opponent and being patient is usually key to her neutral game.

Another thing that should be understood is just how her hitboxes extend on some of her better pokes (5B, j.C) and how dangerous that can be in certain situations. In some matchups j.C just isnt an option to use in neutral. Jin for example wins almost always if both j.Cs are done in conjunction of each other. Poking poorly with her in neutral can easily spell death. If done incorrectly whiff punishes or just getting stuffed will happen very often. Minerva still counts as a part of Celicas hurtbox is the best thing to try to remember when poking

Also j.C has an absolutely absurd amount of hitstun when you get a CH with it. That's good to remember

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RurouniLoneWolf   

RurouniLoneWolf
Posted

Does 6B really reach that far up? I haven't really seen it in CF footage. They might've quietly changed its hitbox in CF or maybe Ronitta and Shikkoku just haven't been making much use of the vertical reach. I'll look into it in training mode at console release and update the dealing with air approaches portion of the guide if it really does still have that crazy vertical reach.

On the topic of using j.C in neutral against Jin, I wouldn't say Celica's j.C isn't an option. While Jin j.C can theoretically beat Celica j.C 100%, it's not going to beat it in practice most of the time because it requires Jin to be in a good position to counter poke j.C and/or be able to react to what Celica,is doing in time with j.C, which is usually not going to be the case if you are optimizing your spacing and movement with Celica to get the most out of your j.Cs. As a result, you'll find when you watch matches of Shikkoku and Ronitta fighting Fenrich or Jins in general, they don't necessarily try to avoid using j.C any more than usual. They just make sure to be more careful with their spacing and movement. 

Example 1 - https://youtu.be/4lOjYdmzhJE?t=531 
Example 2 - https://youtu.be/4lOjYdmzhJE?t=681
Example 3 - https://youtu.be/EbafCpwR7UA?t=1766

 

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