Anji Blockstrings?

[Eireprince]

I looked through the Anji questions and answers topic and I never really found useful blockstring info. The things I did find mentioned going into butterfly and never going into fuujin for blockstrings.

The current one I have been using is 5K>5S>5H>Shiitsu. (People usually respect it for 2-3 reps, and then I just AG and got free meter or a combo) But this doesn't really seem to be the optimal thing to be doing.

What are some better options for blockstrings as Anji?

[Toum]

The current one I have been using is 5K>5S>5H>Shiitsu.

To me this blockstring isn't safe at all. Your opponent will probably recover from 5H waaaay before you recover from the shitsu. I don't know if he has the time to counter you (GV with Sol, Stun Dipper with Ky, etc), but he'll probably escape your shitsu, ending your blockstring.

I'm assuming you're playing AC and not AC+R (I don't have it yet so I don't know the new blockstrings with Anji).

Anji is not a pressure monster at all in AC. Pressing with Fuujin could be an option but it's not safe at all (-16 on block). Ok, most opponents tend to stay on guard after a blocked Fuujin to see if there's a followup, which is good for you. But these followups are not what you could call a good blockstring:

- P followup can be easily escaped (or even countered if your opponent is quick enough), ending your pressure.

- K can be thrown easily.

- S isn't safe unless you FRC it.

- HS and D are really easy to counter with a low.

So Fuujins are a very limited blockstring option, which you can use sparingly to vary your game.

For the other options, 2K is +6 on block, so you can do something like 2P > 2K > quick dash > K > S, or 2P > 2K > quick dash > K > P stomp for example.

If you know how to 3S cancel, you can do K > S > 3S cancel > S > HS (unfortunately the 5S doesn't raise the guard bar) or 2P > S > HS > 3S cancel > HS...

I will let some more experienced Anji players say what they think of it, but as far as I know, Anji can just apply quick & short blockstrings in AC if he wants to stay safe.

[Dream Maker]

I agree with the above, I would just like to add a few things regarding the use of shitsu in blockstrings.

Shitsu is usable in blockstrings in vanilla AC, but you need to be very careful about the distance at which you're doing it from the opponent and the move you're using right before.

For example 5K, 5S, 5H, shitsu is going to push your opponent too far away, making the escape easy. If this really works on your opponents, then they probably don't have much experience against Anji because this is really easy to escape with a backdash or even a jump. Actually 5H is probably the worst normal you can choose to shitsu into because of its huge pushback.

5S is usually the move you'll use to shitsu into because it provides decent blockstun and doesn't push the opponent too far back. Be aware though that no matter the move you're using before shitsu you need to be careful of two things:

- That your opponent is still in blockstun while he's about to block shitsu or at least that he just has a few frames to escape if not your efforts will be totally worthless.

- If your opponent blocks shitsu, make sure that he is not too close from you. At point blank he'll be able to block the first hit of shitsu and then punish you before you can recover.

Most of the time it's actually better to just prepare yourself to block after throwing out shitsu on a guarding opponent and see what the opponent is doing from here, because some opponents may try to punish you before the butterfly falls down. So if the opponent tries to attack you can just block and watch them getting punished by the falling butterfly and if they just block you can continue pressuring.

In case you timed your butterfly perfectly it can be very hard for the opponent to escape or try a counter-attack, in which case you could go like 5S, shitsu, small dash 5K, shitsu fall and continue pressure from there. But as I said, in order to leave little room for your opponent to escape, you really need to time and space your shitsu perfectly, if necessary by delaying the cancel into it.

In this regard Anji is blessed in +R by his ability to cancel normals at any recovery frame so this allows larger delaying windows and as a result makes shitsu frametraps easier. He also gets the ability to cancel into specials from 3S and 6H which are decent moves to cancel into shitsu thanks to their good blockstun and their forward momentum. 5D into shitsu also works OK in +R by the way, assuming you are close enough to get it blocked. But 5S is still the move that allows the best frametraps with shitsu.

PS: Also I believe I already talked about Anji's blockstrings in detail in the discussion thread here so you might want to check that out: http://www.dustloop.com/forums/showthread.php?3931-Anji-Mito-Anji-Discussion-Thread/page18&p=1408701&viewfull=1#post1408701

I didn't mention much about +R in this post though since the game just came out in arcades at that time.

[president]

Nothing wrong with fuujin in blockstrings. Look at random matches of known Anji players and you see it all the time. The invul itself is great for catching people mashing, and all the fuujin followups serve blockstrings purposes as well. Getting away with fuujin just recovering is also very common because eating a raw nagiha ch/frc is a pretty strong combostarter.

[Dream Maker]

Nothing wrong with using fuujin in blockstrings indeed but it must be stressed out especially to new players that you can't use fuujin in typical blockstrings (fuujins covered by butterflies are an exception) like you would use other pressure tools in the game.

You indeed see famous players succeed very often in scaring their opponents with fuujin, forcing them to block FB Rin, having them eat CH nagiha or having them staying on block waiting for a followup. But the same players also sometimes get their K followups punished in their recovery, or get hit out in their no followup fuujin's recovery because their opponents read them. Most of the time, using fuujin on a blockstring is basically like setting up a win/lose guessing game on your opponent, you still have the upper hand overall because you get to choose what followup comes next, but you're not immune to being countered by opponents who have good reflexes and/or can anticipate correctly.

In comparison, think about a gunflame FRC used on block for example, if you FRC you're pretty much guaranteed to be able to continue your pressure if the opponent blocks and if you hit, you get a free combo.

If you look at fuujin into FB Rin, the thing is overhead and has huge frame advantage, hurts like hell if it hits but the delay between the fuujin and the followup leaves the opponent time to act and to counter you. So if you're too predictable you're basically taking a risk, a risk that you don't have with the above-mentioned gunflame FRC.

Fuujin into nagiha FRC is totally safe to use on the other hand but just leaves you safe on block. Basically if your opponent doesn't get hit, you used 25% tension just to stay "safe". There are many other moves that allow Anji to stay "safe" without even spending anything.

Long story short, no one is dismissing fuujin as a legit blockstring tool because the variety of followups it has opens possibilities to mess up with the opponent on blockstrings. But in order to use it properly one really needs to consider the risks and the potential rewards of each option and use them accordingly. You can't always expect your FB Rin to allow you to continue pressuring your opponent.

[Eireprince]

Fuujin-wise, if I see I messed up and time the fuujin poorly enough that they blocked it I usually go into the P-followup or K if I see it will crossup.

Thank you everyone who answered, especially Dream Maker for linking that post. It was practically what I was looking for.

I only started playing Anji about a month ago, and am still trying to work out kinks is when and what to do. He is such a fun character to play though that it doesn't bother me.

[Dream Maker]

Well, K followup can work sometimes but if your opponents are used to deal with it, stuff like this can happen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5pSEV40DMm4#t=26

P followup without FRC is also punishable although you can get away with it most of the time because it's probably the least used of them all, so most people do not expect it.

Anyway glad to hear you got the info you were looking for.

[Toum]

Now that AC+R is out almost everywhere, what are the "new" interesting blockstrings/frametraps for Anji ?

I didn't really spend a lot of time studying the new version yet, but I can't really get a grasp of the buffs Anji has in its game at the moment.

What I know so far:

- you can do 6S > 3K (useful for red shitsu UB, and... ?)

- you can cancel to 6H from almost every normal (why's that useful ?)

- 5S raises the guard bar, and there's an easier 3S cancel

[president]

you can cancel to 6H from almost every normal (why's that useful ?)

They increased the FRC window on 6H and gave it special cancel. You can FRC now during the startup, allowing for sick throw setups. I also believe it has gotten some throw invul? Not sure if it was there before.