[CP] Kagura vs. Bullet

[MikelAL93]

Discuss the Kagura vs. Bullet matchup here.

[Harukasan]

HAHA TIME FOR WRITEUPS

 

I had a nice set with resident Silfer, and I can say certainly that this is not in Kagura's favor. Bullet's got pretty much everything to make Kagura's life hellish. Not unlike a good amount of the cast. 

 

Bullet's buttons are way better than ours, so we don't really have a lot of choices here. Bullet's 6B is her go-to anti-air, and it does a damn fine job of keeping us from jumping in. Thanks to our less than stellar air to ground game, we don't have many options in the air. On top of that, her air to air game beats ours too, so try not to jump if you can help it. Her 2B low profiles our 5C and 6D~C, and she can totally do it on reaction. As such you should only use 6D~C if your certain it will hit her while she's charging her heat levels. She will be doing that a lot as well, since we don't really have a way to punish her for doing it fullscreen. Neutral becomes a total pain in the ass because of her 2B and 6B, so you have to be particularly careful about how you handle yourself.

 

I found that I felt safest at fullscreen playing the fireball game. We can't stop her from getting heat levels, so keeping her at bay is one of the few things we can do. A orb trades with her Flint Shooter with level 2 heat, and B orb beats it right out. Do be careful though, it moves pretty fast and has an assload of hitstun, so she'll be able to convert off of it if you get hit. For added trouble, while she's got both heat levels, two dashed forward from fullscreen and she'll be right next to us, 2B at the ready to go even further. Be cautious.

 

The next big problem is her safejumps. She can safejump off of essentially any knockdown and be safe from our flashkick. If we do flashkick, she'll safely hit the ground and block. If we don't, her j.5C will come out before she lands. This forces you to block high on wakeup pretty much all the time. Her mixup isn't very scary, but she has a lot of options that will be annoying to deal with on every single knockdown. I recommend always blocking high on wakeup, but pay extra attention if she goes for empty jump low or grab. She also has the option to empty jump 720, which is a real pain. You should only be flashkicking if you're absolutely sure it will hit, or if it is in anticipation for a 720. You pretty much need to beat her offense through blocking, and use your chance to swing or get out after her pressure ends.

 

On the other end, once we can manage a knockdown, we still have troubles dealing with her. Don't forget that she does actually have a DP, and can beat our Orb oki outright. Bullet doesn't really have to respect any of our pressure, so be wary of mashing too. Other than that it's basically the same as pressuring anyone else. Our damage is pretty much the only thing Bullet hasn't taken away from us, even though she can match it almost outright due to getting heat levels for free. Like always, using your drives for pressure isn't exactly the greatest thing in the world, so think twice before using 5D~A and 2D~B in pressure.

 

A few extra things to be aware of:

 

If you catch bullet with a non-CH flashkick, do not go for Orb OS! She can jump back down and smack you with j.5C, dissipating the orb before her hurtbox reaches it. The best thing to do is go for flashkick OS if she jumps back in. Be careful though, she can bait it out by holding herself in the air with her j.5D.

 

Bullet's DP beats ours! Or something. It's actually pretty hilarious, but I suppose it's worth knowing. You can see it in this ancient clip here (somehow featuring me!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6uhmFL0tU#t=1m34s

 

Bullet's damage skyrockets when she goes into Overdrive, so be sure to burst appropriately so you don't end up dying without being able to use it.

 

ＳＵＦＦＥＲＩＮＧ

[HyroXIII]

just going to say this here from my experience. 

 

whenever fighting her, remember she has many safe attacks. I DP'd as she was right above me in the middle of her j.5C and she was able to outright block it in the middle of an attack (it seemed). being patient is a big part of this battle, find out and memorize where she has the longest recovery frames and try to get her then.

[Angry Guy of DE]

Playing smart is key in this matchup.  You'll likely spend most of your time on the ground and you'll learn quickly if you have a good sense of neutral or if approach meant just doing Stance 6C to get in.

Everyone should know the Bullet safe jump etc. by now so don't attempt flash kick but delay your wakeup so you can avoid the j.C and start your down-charge and react to her overhead.

Learning to IB Bullet's 5C and 2C are what will let you end her pressure.  If you IB 2C Bullet is now put into a situation if she doesn't have heat-up levels already:

• 2C is IB'd : she is now minus enough that your own 2A will CH her attempts to 2A to keep pressure.
• She can attempt to use 5D to catch you pressing buttons, if you see it and don't press buttons Bullet is now VERY minus on block.

While Bullet can attempt to use her DP to avoid orb oki the range on it is very lacking (but don't attempt cross up j.B since you will likely be caught by it).  A slightly delayed 5B on orb oki and bait DP's if done on wake-up but still can catch button presses with the orb frame advantage.  Don't forget you have a command grab as well, a person that assumes block strings can fall for it especially when you do a delayed 5B on orb oki mixups.

Air to air is not advised as you are better off trying pre-emptive 6C's to catch airdash approaches since it puts a good hitbox even if it doesn't have head invul anymore.

Don't panic during her pressure strings and IB her 5C and 2C so you can get breathing room to get distance and throw down an orb and make her play your ground game or have to get around your 6C if she tries to do airdashes or lock-ons done too close.

4-6 Bullet's favor simply because of her low-profiling of normals.  I treat the neutral similar to the Noel matchup where Stance 6C is not done as an approach option but instead done when you predict a projectile thrown out at a distance.