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The Art of Mixup and Increasing Pressure

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So recently I lost consistently against a fairly good Haku-men/Tager player by the name of DinDragmire. He said I did fairly well, but that I should increase my pressure and make my Mixups less obvious.

The truth is, I don't really know how to do that. :8/:

About all I know is that blocking my attacks leads to said mixups and that applying more pressure is risky business.

My main is Ragna, and my sub is Haku-men, but I also like to play with Jin, and know a few gimmicks with the other characters. I'm fairly good at Feints with Arakune, but not so much the other characters, so making myself more unpredictable/less formulaic and flow-chart-y is something I need to do.

So I'm asking for advice in general as a player in CT, but also eventually transitioning to CS what I can do overall to up my game in this regard. For the most part my sense of what is and isn't obvious in regards to what I do is really hard to observe on my own, short of breaking my combo habits and learning new combos or setups.

I especially need advice against "smart players" who've seen what all the characters have to offer and can pretty much read anything you throw at them.

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It's not that they can read anything you throw at them. To have good mixup is just randomly varying through a lot of good options. If he's calling your mixups obvious, you've committed yourself to patterns without realizing it.

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For ragna specifically, alot of Ragna players get in the rut of doing bounce strings and only Doing 6B after 2B. Remember that you have GH, do some 5B>2B>Dash5B type strings, add throws, and gattling 6B after A attacks or after landing from a jump in.

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As a Tager player I think a mix up is all about yomi, but I'm a tager player, we only have yomi. I really do think yomi is the way to go though, especially since you play online where reaction has to be tighter. Just try to think based on how they act and the choices they make what would guesses would They make? So a lot of it depends on the skill level of your opponent and giving them appropriate credit for that skill. Well, you need to have good options too. What mix ups do you use? I don't remember seeing many when I played you randomly online.

And I really can't tell you much on pressure. Again I play tager. I don't have real block strings, just psychological pressure.

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Mixup is mixup, putting it to use and making it not obvious is another thing, then there's factors like how mashy the other player is with escapes(specifically anything with invuln)

the one thing I can say is don't get discouraged if something is blocked or doesn't work, granted BB mixup is almost sf4-lolworthy, it still exists and there are solid options to choose from that leave you safe or at advantage, and there isn't a single player who can predict every mixup option.

for Ragna, probably one of the least exploited things is his ability to whiff J.D after 6D and go into any mixup after. since people will block the j.D high, you can do a fast low like 2B, go for another overhead if you've shown them you can do it, or do a throw to keep them on their toes.

It really is in the power of the player how strong their mixup is though, there are times everyone thinks "there's no way he'll do it again" and you really shouldn't try to think along those lines and try to react(god knows this game's overheads are more than easy to react to except online) to anything you see coming.

Also try to remember mixup comes from everywhere as long as it's something you haven't used before to keep them guessing. Meaties, crossups, tech traps, air unblockable resets all have their own use and it isn't just a simple low/mid/high game.

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Are you confirming? Lots of Ragnas I face don't confirm and as a Tager player they're easy to punish. Granted, Ragna is fast and has good recovery but a jumping attack, for instance, can be punished after a timed backdash.

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even I stop and tick throw man...pretty much what everyone said here is right.

also for haku-men dash hotaru to punish jump outs and tsubaki as a nice overhead are good options.

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Go into training mode and set your dummy to standing/block everything. Practice your mix-ups and try different combinations. Think about how the opponent would react to certain situations and come up with a counter move to that. Once you get all of this down, go play a human and see how well you do.

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if you're playing Jin then high/low is pretty much out, so doing crossups like IAD JB, and IAD 236D are good, and you can do alot of tick throws. If you're tempted to do high/low, then do J2C (in CT JC)>2B or some other variation; 6A is too risky and offers little reward.

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Am I right in saying that Tick-throws aren't Purple throws, but Green ones? I've been practicing doing them, but only certain normals allow for it, otherwise I get pushed too far away by barrier or something else.

For example, Jin can do 5A (wait for them to stop blocking) Throw, but I don't know what other good situations define "tick throw".

For Ragna, so far I can only do it with 5A, 2A, and maybe 2B if I'm fast enough.

And then there's the problem with Tager, not only can he throw me outside my range with normal throw, but also capable of eating normals with his Invincible throws.

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For example, Jin can do 5A (wait for them to stop blocking) Throw, but I don't know what other good situations define "tick throw".

5D/6C>dash cancel>throw

5B>wait a moment>throw

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Practicing ticks-throws (or throws of any kind, except command throws) sounds sub-optimal. I wouldn't waste my time, even before option-selects. I've been out of the loop for like a year, but, above the intermediate level, can people still not break throws every single time?

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Practicing ticks-throws (or throws of any kind, except command throws) sounds sub-optimal. I wouldn't waste my time, even before option-selects. I've been out of the loop for like a year, but, above the intermediate level, can people still not break throws every single time?

I think it's just a mental factor, as long as someone knows you will try to do it, it can catch them off guard enough to land a different mixup opportunity.

even if throws are very lolable in BB, even in japanese videos you can catch some landing or forcing people in bad positions to certain characters.

but yes, it should definitely be one of your last options, I'd treat it like Fei's command grab in SF. Don't use it until you're sure the other person isn't expecting it, and then maybe you might get some damage for it finally showing up in the match, or you might get fucked and lose the match for it :v:

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4r5 you should know that the majority of BB players in america can't break grabs worth shit.

purple still works offline!!

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I don't expect the majority to be good at anything. Just saying, on paper, throwing is a gimmick. 13 frame break window, haven't even counted the startup of throws yet. Tekken throws are roughly 13 frames, and people break them all day. They don't even have the benefit of a huge break indicator. One year has passed. At this point, it shouldn't even be a mental thing. Anyone who's serious about the game have had plenty of time to turn it from a mental thing to a plain reflex, no thought required.

And yeah, I watch a japanese cs video, or two, every once in a while to see what's up. And yeah, I see them getting thrown too, and that's when I close the video. Just because Japan is still getting hit by it isn't a good excuse for mediocrity.

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I don't expect the majority to be good at anything. Just saying, on paper, throwing is a gimmick. 13 frame break window, haven't even counted the startup of throws yet.

green throws are 3 (5?) frames I think, and that's what most people are aiming for, and that's what most practical setups are. The only other reason they can be broken so easily is the games flashes a massive ! to tell you to break the throw.

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In my meager experience, it isn't necessarily that the green throw 3-5 frame window that gets people caught, they also get caught on throw-reject-miss. I've also done throws when breaking out of Jin's ice and it worked quite well.

I don't like to rely on throws, but in some situations every little bit of extra damage helps, especially against opponents who are hard to hit or get close to. And for some reason Haku-men gets more throws in than what I'd usually expect, either that or some players are too lazy to throw-tech?

What I really want is a 50/50 situation that lets me choose whether to throw or do something else, but more often than not I get hesitant and get jabbed out of my offensive or my high gets punished by a low or something else...

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Hakumen gets more throws because his reach is longer. The hitbox for his throws extends farther than you'd guess at first glance.

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Last I checked, green throw break window was 13 frames. And purple throw break window was something absurd. Maybe the numbers I have also take in to account throw startup. It's either 13 or 20 frames. If 13 = throwStartup+breakWindow that might explain why Japan still gets thrown. Viewlex cabs have a bit of display lag. Either way my point still stands.

If you're landing throw-reject-miss on people, then you're just fighting people that are trying to anticipate the throw, when they should be reacting. Just realize that they are using a sub-optimal strategy. You're totally free to take advantage of that, but becareful not to tune your gameplan too sharply towards it.

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