[CSE] Litchi vs Hakumen

[Lord Knight]

[General Thoughts]

Matchup is more or less even. It's very difficult for Hakumen to approach Litchi - however, his damage is higher and he can carry to the corner consistently. Strong neutral is crucial to winning this match.

[Round Start]

A lot of stuff can happen here, but the usual tools apply - Itsuu, 5B, 2B, etc. Try not to backdash - if they start with Guren, you'll get hit and be in the corner.

[Fullscreen Neutral]

Close the gap, but just a pinch. Remember, he gains meter for doing nothing, so you need to create a little ground.

[Midscreen Neutral]

Essentially a weighted RPS in your favor, the options that Hakumen has access to changes depending on how many stars he has. The foundation here is going to be 5B, 3C, 6B, feint, and Itsuu. Itsuu will beat some ground pokes and should beat IAD's. Also, you can guard point any air attack and follow up. If he has stars, he can follow up with Hotaru - just hold your guard point if you anticipate it (or try to avoid the situation all together). Kishuu > 3C will beat Itsuu (as well as go through 6B) and lead into huge damage, so keep that in check with 3C (or use 2B > 6C). 6B is your longest poke, but use feint in order to close the gap and try to get him to twitch and airdash - from there you can reposition yourself. If you position yourself at the edge of his airdash (where J2C would hit you), you can stuff all his jump ins with 5B. It's crucial that you learn the spacing for this.

Also, if you notice the Hakumen player not doing something in neutral, take advantage of it as soon as possible. If they don't use Kishuu to approach, use Itsuu more often, etc.

[Close range neutral]

A couple of quick notes - You can't beat JB with anything but DP or Itsuu. If you don't have time for either, just block. His 5A is also air unblockable.

[Hakumen's back to the corner neutral]

Litchi is strongest here. Same tools apply as normal neutral. You'll probably be able to get away with airdashing in as well.

[Litchi's back to the corner neutral]

This sucks. As you can't adjust your position, Hakumen has a huge advantage here, especially if you don't have the staff. Your best bet is to watch how they move and try to dash out or airdash out. SJ Daisharin isn't as safe of a bet because he has Hotaru and D.

[Hakumen Pressure]

Scary stuff. 2B is +2, 2A is +1. If you block a deep jB, then you'll have to block 5A, which is +3. 6A and 5B are both even as well. This is all well and good... but if they just use normals, barrier defense should keep him out. If he has stars, you have a lot more to worry about. Deep JB > rising JB > tsubaki or land 2B > renka both lead to high damage. Dash Tsubaki is possible to react to if you're focused. And of course, always watch for the Hail Mary (Zantetsu). If you're midscreen, good defense and barrier should be enough to get you out.

Watch out for TRM setups. He'll try to use a combinations of dash, 2A/5A/5B whiffs, and dash 2B's to get you to mistime your throw tech. React and adjust accordingly.

[Litchi's Pressure]

You have a lot of freedom, but at the same time, you need to restrict yourself a bit. 5A hits him crouching, which makes your pressure safer. Use lows or instant overheads to stop TK Hotaru.

Unfortunately, you can't use Kokushi against him at all, but standard meterless okizeme should work fine. Keep in mind that you can use meterless instant overheads on him as well.

[AUREDO]

thank you very much, everything you've written is useful

[ATG Warlord]

This is my most feared Match-up as a Litchi player since the CT days. Here's some tips,

If the Hakumen uses 2B to prevent rolling in the corner, just do wake-up 4D

If he uses 4C to challenge your 6B, do IAD j.B

For corner meterless instant overhead setup, go for this finisher (3C > 2D > 6C > ItsuuC > Hatsu > Chun) then

j.9C > j.D > j.C > 6B > [M] 2C > 6D > etc

[RushingMonkey]

If the Hakumen uses 2B to prevent rolling in the corner, just do wake-up 4D

If he uses 4C to challenge your 6B, do IAD j.B

hakumen would use 6A to punish rolls out of the corner, 2B is usally used to pickup people not teching at all. but anyway, in that situation, both normals will whiff if you use emergency/neutral tech, then hakumen will recovery and still have enough advantage to try something else. so, well, if you got a read of *another* 2B coming I guess you could try 4D... but this other 2B wasn't done to prevent a roll at that point. so it's not like "hey, he's trying to punish rolls, let's wakeup 4D!" :P it's still very risky for litchi.

about 4C, hakumen won't use it that much to challenge 6B in the first place, because 1) it will lose more often than not to 6B itself 2) it will be easily eaten by itsuu guard point (which you should also use pretty often at that range) and 3) risk/reward is bad for him.

IADing is ok to beat it if you got the read, but it's not like you should be that careful about using 6Bs specifically because of haku's 4C. if anything, it's hakumen that should be scared about using 4C. what you should be scared of is hakumen reading your 6B and kishuu his way in, possibly punishing you. this in turn is countered by [m]3C and [m]2B as LK said, they will score a CH on kishuu and lead to good damage and corner carry.

[DoobyLovah]

Nice! I always thought this match was in Litchi's favor because she can bait his D (especially with 6B feint) then get a free throw counter and Itsuu is well...Itsuu <3, but I guess I was wrong. Thanks LK!

Btw is there a EX Litchi vs. Ragna matchup thread anywhere? I REALLY need help against him.