[CS2] Valkenhayn Vs. Taokaka

[NickExtreme1]

Discuss the Valkenhayn vs. Taokaka match-up here.

Punishes:

You must keep in mind though that you will almost never punish Tao for anything because shes at disadvantage. All of her moves are safe so you will have to take a lot of risks and hit some buttons to get some momentum going. What you can punish though is her being to cautious or predictable. If you notice she is constantly doing 3 jumps around Valk in an attempt to avoid or bait an AA, chase her down. If you notice she likes to jump cancel something like 6A/5C and jump away, chase her down. Air grabs or IAD j.B>j.214B are very strong ways to do this. If you she is gonna whore out Crawl against you, run 2B>5B ALL the time then. 2B>5B with Valk is the best answer to Tao's neutral options as it picks up into a normal combo and it acts as a footsies tool to go with it. Not to mention I've used 2B as a low profile move before to get under some of Tao's jump ins.

Anti-airing:

When shes in the air, you do have to bit more careful as her j.C is insanely strong and will beat most attempts to hit her. I personally use 2 options against an airborne Tao: I look to trade a 2C with whatever she does cause Valk will always win the trade or I look for an obvious spot to 6A her. [W]5B can serve this purpose as well, but its a bit harder to work with given the transformation time necessary to do it.

Zoning:

This is more Footsies than anything. Tao's ground neutral game is ass compared to Valk's. NOTHING Tao has on the ground can deal with 5C so use it. CH leads into a nice 4k combo and provides corner carry. 5B can stuff a lot of her dash in moves so space yourself at just past your max 5B Range. Throw it out in an attempt to stuff her throwing something and throw 5C when you think they'll try a more aggressive plan.

Their game plan:

Tao is gonna wanna be in your face at all times. Valk is weakest on defence which is where Tao thrives so be weary of lots of stagger pressure, Drive Shenanigans and throw setups. Your best option on defence is going to be IB>Backdash as that will get you out of most of their mixup with ease. If shes dancing around like a pixie in the air, shes waiting for you to throw something out to try and CH you. Be patient when shes in the air. Remember she only gets 3 aerial actions in the air. That means 3 jumps, 1 Jump/2 air dashes, 1 jump/1 air dash/1 drive cancel etc. A/B/C DRIVE CANCELS USE UP JUMPS!! Thats vital to remember as you will always know when she vulnerable to rush in on. So for those of you who don't know, A Cancel makes her fall to the ground, B Cancel makes her pass through you and C Cancel is a Command Jump. Her forward and backward cancels do not take jumps. So count to 3 and if once you do, shes gonna do something. It may be attack, it may be in an attempt to run away but she is at that point forced to do something.

Strategy:

With Tao's pressure becoming ridiculously powerful and Valk's defence being quite lacking, its a very hard fight. Add onto that the fact that now Damage output is relatively the same for both characters means the risk/reward scales are skewed. Also probably the biggest annoyance is the fact that now, Tao can completely crawl under Valk's 5B which is not how it was in CS1. In CS1, Valk could hit Tao out of Crawl when she at about his knee length on the hitbox, now it completely whiffs and we lose one of our best footsie tools. Thankfully enough though, Tao still has major issues with Valk's outstanding normals. Whore out 5C like hell cause it will beat everything she can do on the ground. Both characters are incredibly offensive characters with very lacking defence which means you need to be more aggressive than the Tao player. Use Wolf form to dance around her and once you can get her stuck on the ground, pressure her till she gets hit. I honestly do NOT like Wolf mixup against Tao, with Dashes being slower and Tao being very nimble, options are very limited in most cases to the point where either she can jump away for free or Crawl for free. But you can use the Wolf mixup to bait her into jumping and nailing her with a command grab. Also I tend to not run a lot a high/low mixup on Taountil I have meter cause she can Crawl under 6C on reaction. I save my meter for when I can do instant overhead j.C combos as she cannot crawl that most of the time. Spacing is a bit weird for it but its the most viable option, I run lots of 2B>5B strings to scare her as 5B is jump cancellable. Stagger 5B>2B and trick her on the overhead.

Char specific details:

Taokaka's crawl can avoid the following normals and specials of Valkenhayn...

Can Crawl: 5A, 2A, 6A, 5B, 6B, 5C, 6C, [W]5B, Rozen, [W]j.A, [W]236B

Cannot Crawl: 2B, 2C, 3C, [W]5A, [W]j.B, Jager, Jagd, Command Grab, [W]236A

[OrionXElite]

I can start this thread since I play a very strong tao player regularly here. This is a fairly even matchup. I'll list the normals/specials she can and can't crawl under:

Char specific details:

Can Crawl: 5A, 2A, 6A, 5B, 6B, 5C, 6C, [W]5B, Rozen, [W]j.A, [W]236B

Cannot Crawl: 2B, 2C, 3C, [W]5A, [W]j.B, Jager, Jagd, Command Grab, [W]236A

Strategy:

So with that in mind, sadly, this matchup got worse for Valk. With Tao's pressure becoming ridiculously powerful and Valk's defence being quite lacking, its a very hard fight. Add onto that the fact that now Damage output is relatively the same for both characters means the risk/reward scales are skewed. Also probably the biggest annoyance is the fact that now, Tao can completely crawl under Valk's 5B which is not how it was in CS1. In CS1, Valk could hit Tao out of Crawl when she at about his knee length on the hitbox, now it completely whiffs and we lose one of our best footsie tools. Thankfully enough though, Tao still has major issues with Valk's outstanding normals. Whore out 5C like hell cause it will beat everything she can do on the ground. Both characters are incredibly offensive characters with very lacking defence which means you need to be more aggressive than the Tao player. Use Wolf form to dance around her and once you can get her stuck on the ground, pressure her till she gets hit. I honestly do NOT like Wolf mixup against Tao, with Dashes being slower and Tao being very nimble, options are very limited in most cases to the point where either she can jump away for free or Crawl for free. But you can use the Wolf mixup to bait her into jumping and nailing her with a command grab. Also I tend to not run a lot a high/low mixup on Taountil I have meter cause she can Crawl under 6C on reaction. I save my meter for when I can do instant overhead j.C combos as she cannot crawl that most of the time. Spacing is a bit weird for it but its the most viable option, I run lots of 2B>5B strings to scare her as 5B is jump cancellable. Stagger 5B>2B and trick her on the overhead.

Punishes:

You must keep in mind though that you will almost never punish Tao for anything because shes at disadvantage. All of her moves are safe so you will have to take a lot of risks and hit some buttons to get some momentum going. What you can punish though is her being to cautious or predictable. If you notice she is constantly doing 3 jumps around Valk in an attempt to avoid or bait an AA, chase her down. If you notice she likes to jump cancel something like 6A/5C and jump away, chase her down. Air grabs or IAD j.B>j.214B are very strong ways to do this. If you she is gonna whore out Crawl against you, run 2B>5B ALL the time then. 2B>5B with Valk is the best answer to Tao's neutral options as it picks up into a normal combo and it acts as a footsies tool to go with it. Not to mention I've used 2B as a low profile move before to get under some of Tao's jump ins.

Anti-airing:

When shes in the air, you do have to bit more careful as her j.C is insanely strong and will beat most attempts to hit her. I personally use 2 options against an airborne Tao: I look to trade a 2C with whatever she does cause Valk will always win the trade or I look for an obvious spot to 6A her. [W]5B can serve this purpose as well, but its a bit harder to work with given the transformation time necessary to do it.

Zoning:

This is more Footsies than anything. Tao's ground neutral game is ass compared to Valk's. NOTHING Tao has on the ground can deal with 5C so use it. CH leads into a nice 4k combo and provides corner carry. 5B can stuff a lot of her dash in moves so space yourself at just past your max 5B Range. Throw it out in an attempt to stuff her throwing something and throw 5C when you think they'll try a more aggressive plan.

Their game plan:

Tao is gonna wanna be in your face at all times. Valk is weakest on defence which is where Tao thrives so be weary of lots of stagger pressure, Drive Shenanigans and throw setups. Your best option on defence is going to be IB>Backdash as that will get you out of most of their mixup with ease. If shes dancing around like a pixie in the air, shes waiting for you to throw something out to try and CH you. Be patient when shes in the air. Remember she only gets 3 aerial actions in the air. That means 3 jumps, 1 Jump/2 air dashes, 1 jump/1 air dash/1 drive cancel etc. A/B/C DRIVE CANCELS USE UP JUMPS!! Thats vital to remember as you will always know when she vulnerable to rush in on. So for those of you who don't know, A Cancel makes her fall to the ground, B Cancel makes her pass through you and C Cancel is a Command Jump. Her forward and backward cancels do not take jumps. So count to 3 and if once you do, shes gonna do something. It may be attack, it may be in an attempt to run away but she is at that point forced to do something.

My honest opinion of the matchup: 50-50 Even. Matchup is all about momentum and who can stay aggressive. Risk/Reward is still in Tao's favor but Valk still hits like a truck in comparison.