[CP] Izayoi vs Kagura

[Velvien]

Discuss the Kagura matchup here.

Pros

Cons

Details

Ratio

[Tari]

Blocking and getting shoved into the corner against this guy can be pretty terrible. His corner damage and pressure is significantly better than his midscreen and neutral game. Once you're in the corner and blocking, he can choose to do strings that have highs, lows, command throw, corner crossup, guardpoint frametrap (fatal counter, too), and other crap. Can be fairly confusing and difficult to deal with. It doesn't help that pretty much any corner hit will lead into 4k+ damage without meter, and he can pretty much always opt to end in air combo into super for the additional 1k minimum damage.

Fortunately, 6A is good against some of his blockstrings and really slow normals, especially since his blockstrings are often spaced too far away for throws, and it's hard for him to gatling into lows or throws fast enough to deal with it anyway. This, obviously, might only be true at the moment, since people are just learning Kagura.

In neutral game, he becomes significantly weaker, and his midscreen damage is pretty average (around 1.6-2.2k, I believe) unless he lands a good counterhit, at which point his midscreen damage still goes up to 4k+ without meter.

Remember that his 2A isn't a low, but his 5B is. If you get hit by 5B, expect to take a pretty decent midscreen combo. If you get hit by 2A, his combo path gets significantly shorter.

623B and 236C are really useful in this matchup, as are the Sonic Sabres (A/D versions). He has difficulty dealing with zoning, so trying to keep the game at your pace and yourself away from his mixup is pretty straightforward.

His jump-ins can pretty much all be stuffed with 623B (or 623C if he gets on top of you somehow), especially since he literally has no aerial special moves. He can choose to do something like drive cancel into a reverse dive away from you to get away from it, but it's pretty much not something he can react to, so he'd have to preemptively choose to do so.

Kagura has some fairly slow normals overall, with his only fast ones being very short ranged. He doesn't have very many options at the sorta closer edge of mid-range, but his close-range and far-range are pretty good. Fortunately, 236C exists in that mid-range area.

If you see him starting up a fireball, and you're positioned right, you can actually just 214B past it and hit him in the face. In GA mode, you can just 214D it.

Justice Phorizer does not beat his fireballs! If he summons one and then blocks your JP, the fireball will continue through the super and hit you. If you're in GA mode, you can of course just teleport out.

Some general tips that aren't matchup specific:

- if you see Kagura do his 2-hit sword surf move (probably Ryuusenken, his 2D~B, but I'm not completely sure), you can IB the second hit and throw him out of pretty much any followup attack.

- if you're doing a blockstring and Kagura stands up, then he can't DP you for a while, because his DP is a charge-down move.

- Similarly, Kagura can't wakeup super you if he neutral techs, because his super is a charge-back move, and neutral teching requires that the player let the stick go to neutral.

[PZ__]

The neutral teaching is great to know. I'd also emphasize on the zoning game. Don't be afraid toss out sonic sabers from full screen constantly, his heavy projectile takes too much time to release and he'll eat a blade and u get 2 stars

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[Airyaxe]

The neutral teaching is great to know. I'd also emphasize on the zoning game. Don't be afraid toss out sonic sabers from full screen constantly, his heavy projectile takes too much time to release and he'll eat a blade and u get 2 stars

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This is incorrect, Kagura's surfboard attack is projectile invulnerable. So if you're predictable with your sonic sabers you'll get counter hit for a big damage combo.

[Tari]

This is incorrect, Kagura's surfboard attack is projectile invulnerable. So if you're predictable with your sonic sabers you'll get counter hit for a big damage combo.

It's not the surfboard attack that's projectile invuln, it's his super-long range sword thrust that is. Well, I guess you could argue that his sword is just a surfboard anyway, but yeah. When people say "surfboard attack" I think of the two-hit surfing move that hits low and then mid (the same move I was saying should be IB'd every time he does it on block).

Anyway, yes, like Airyaxe said, don't be predictable with your sabers. You probably don't want to spam them too much unless you're confident with your spacing, anyway.

[Surf]

Treat him like Tager. Lame it out as much as you can. Time out if you have to. End your NM combos with j.236C in the air or 623B smp. Try not to end them with j.C. You don't want him anywhere near you. They'll start using 6D~C (Wyvern) due to the sonic sabre assault. In NM 2B goes under it. But if you don't want to take the risk just super jump and maneuver around him. In GA 3C blows it up everytime, giving you good damage. Theyll become more wary of its use after that. But still be mindful of your zoning. Super jump j.236 keeps your air option after you recover so double or airdash if need be. Never be greedy. Ever. If you missed up or made an error get the hell out of there and go back to zoning. If they do 5D~A~66 (Shield bash) and they press a button, 2A them the next time they do it. Its never safe. You don't have to fear DP since they just pressed 66. If they start backdashing after the attack instead you can either 5B them or get away. Usually just get away, as I said, don't get greedy. Don't go air to air with him either

This matchup actually isn't hard at all. Just don't get caught.

[crimsonstardust]

I played this match today and found Izayoi can challenge the charging stab move with 236C or 6A, and I learned I don't like this match. T-T I have no idea how Izayoi can keep pressure on Kagura in this match when she's in GA mode, it feels like flying in is a good idea to let yourself die.

[Codename Exia]

Optimal range for this match like people have been saying is full-screen to keep his stinger reactable.

Assault him with Sonic Sabers and 236C/623B his approaches accordingly.

When you're sitting on stars feel free to go into Gain Art. Personally I don't feel like going in is worth it. Play your fireball game, but use the follow-ups from your specials to punish him harder for approaching badly.