[CP] Mu vs Valkenhayn

[pochp]

Neutral :

 

Objective : Run away, but avoid cornering yourself. I don't recommend challenging the wolf unless you have a hard read on something. Good mobility can allow you to outlast the wolf, or the player. When the wolf gauge starts running low, you can assume they'll take a different playstyle, since wolf gauge only refills if they're a human with their feet on the ground. Valk's human normals are still very good so it's not like it's your turn for free. 

 

Specifics : When I say run away, I don't mean go full screen. Know the ranges and angles of his wolf cannons, as well as the distances he can cover by combining human airdash, wolf airdash, rehuman mid air (airdash as wolf then j.d j.c), wolf cannon + geschwind wolf cancels (his wolf command dashes), wolf brake air stalling, etc. Try to avoid the areas where you are vulnerable, or if you happen to be in them, be ready for his offense and either block or DP if you're confident. Dashing under them while they're in the air and coming at you in wolf is pretty important because the downwards wolf cannons make him very hard to anti-air reliably. This is especially important when you're slowly getting pushed near the corner as you keep your distances. He might try to come at you from the air to prevent you from jumping out and escaping, since it's his most wolf meter-efficient way to cover the distance quickly and prevent jumping/air dashing out of the corner, which lets him start his scary corner pressure. In my experience, lots of Valks will want to seize this opportunity, and since 6D wj.A is meter heavy and loses to jumping out (the first thing that comes to mind when trying to escape the corner, really...), expect the wolf air dash rehuman if they're in the right position. Use this chance to dash under his leap arc, which will put you in a more advantageous situation. In general, running away is often a better option than trying to anti-air him, since a wj.B jump in will often just cross you up if you try to anti air, resulting in both moves whiffing. Amazingly enough, he has zero landing recovery and you will get punished. In the worst situation, Valk can purposely space his jump-in in a way that will cover your backdash (no recovery on wj.B puts him at an advantage), make 6A anti-air whiff or hit you standing. You can try some pre-emptive air to air stuff every now and then to catch him off guard, but from close-range, his air normals are much better than yours. I don't mean to never attempt an anti air, if you think have a good read go for it. 6a can work when spaced well. Air to air, j.C is still a decent spacing tool, but nowhere near as dominant as against other characters, his cannons can beat it and have more range, so it's kinda risky to just throw out. On top of that, Geschwind wolf movement lets him avoid air pokes and sometimes punish them, so be aware of that. Valk's ground movement is really fast in wolf, and his 5b anti air can't really be beat when used well (due to mu's lack of good jump-ins, it will always trade favorably for him at best). If you jump and he didn't jump, expect him to run under you and 5b, so prepare that barrier or airdash away, do not challenge. If you're in a position where you can't avoid his anti-air, watch out for cross unders as he's fast enough to switch sides and mess your inputs to hit with the air unblockable.

 

You have a clear disadvantage when fighting him ground to ground, but because he can't block, it doesn't mean you should avoid the situation. IMO the only normals you should use here are 2b, 6a, and an occasional 5c. Do not abuse 5c, with his very fast walk speed and long reach, he can punish a whiff, or take advantage of it more easily than other characters. 2b is good because it has good range, startup, and recovery, but the hitbox is close to the ground, so it won't catch some of his wolf-dash j.A approaches (it'll work if he's close enough when wj.A comes out). 6a fits in nicely as it'll counter those moves that would beat 2b, and has a very good reward. The problem is that his wolf 5c will then beat both these moves clean, and has a very big reward even on normal hit. Wolf cannon will also beat both of these moves. DP the cannon if you can, use 5C to kind of challenge their w5C (they definitely don't want to whiff it either, since it does have some recovery). If they whiff and you attempt to run in and punish, expect the backdash. His new back dash, although not nearly as good as his previous from vanilla, is great for running away, so the match will return to around full screen neutral from there if you whiff your punish attempt.

 

When you're moving around, you want to avoid aimless backdashes, as their wolf cannons, 6D and human 236c can call it out from quite far. Sometimes, the best defense is offense, but not air to ground due to w5B. If you block their 236a or 236c and they have less than 50 meter, there's a good chance they'll cancel into wolf as they're either minus or even (236a is 0 on normal block). If they go straight to 6d cancel from there, you can beat them easily with a well-timed 5a. If they go for something such as 7d or 4d or whatever, it's not always clear what could happen, as you might not recover from a 5a mash in time to 5a again. 6A beats 7D wjA clean, but it's extremely unsafe otherwise. In any case, I have not found a consistent answer to both options. I guess the RPS here is "mu 5a > valk 6d wj.a > mu delay 6a > valk 4d/7d wjA > mu 5a". He can also opt to reset the blockstring with 2A after a blocked 236A, which will trade with your own if you try to mash out, lose to DP or jumping out... more RPS! If you want to be "safe" you can backdash but they can just beat that by cancelling into 6d and wj.a and we're back to square one. Though all in all, these situations also put Valkhenhayn at risk when he really doesn't need to be, so the best players will tend to avoid that themselves. Valk can always 7D 4C and air wolf back dash from there, which is practically safe and puts the match back to neutral. A similar situation occurs when you block a wolf cannon, as it's not always clear who's at the advantage, since it depends on the distance and height at which it was used, and they have the same wolf dash cancel options. Lastly, if you block either human 236A or 236C while Valk has 50 meter, expect RC 2b and another mixup from there (5B jc j.D and from there dash wj.A, empty wolf dash into low, etc), or RC 2A > wolf transform into wj.C, command grab, etc. This is a fairly effective way for Valk to convert pokes and blockstrings as a human into a wolf mixup opportunity, so be prepared for it. His mixup options will be covered in detail in the following section.

 

 

 

Their offense : 

 

As far as their corner okizeme goes, from most knockdowns they'll be in greeting you in wolf form and have the correct spacing to safely meaty your you with their w5a (mid) w5c (low) and brake wj.a(high). On top of that, they can option select a back dash after 

w5A or brwjA meaty which will only come out if you DP. It's generally harder to punish with their new wolf backdash, but wolf cannon will do the job in this case. You DP will whiff, so you can't RC it, so it's not too reliable on wakeup against strong players. DP 

will however beat meaty wj.c (fast overhead), their command grab, w5b or any badly spaced/timed occurrence of the otherwise safe meaties mentioned earlier. Super, however beats any wolf meaty that Valk commits to. Valkhayn does have human safe jump enders though, mainly w236B > 6DD > h[j.C > land > jump falling j.C] and wjB > 3D > wjB dj.D > falling h[j.C]. Be sure to recognize and delay tech those! When waking up against heavy mixup characters, especially in the corner, it becomes all the more important to watch and take advantage of any tendencies your opponent has, since your options are extremely limited in the end. Valk's setplay is effective but there are a few things you can exploit to try and make your life easier. Your objective is to block as less as possible (because you WILL eventually get hit if you can't find a way out). For example, if you notice they like to w5C meaty when you have less than 50 meter, the best thing you can do is block it (duh). From there, their best options for mixup is either high (wjA), which loses to DP, or low again (br w5C/1d w5C) which might lose to DP or beat it depending on spacing. Of course they can 6D 5D block or 4D/7D into nothing/human to bait it, but this is a far better situation for you since they can't cover all of your escape options at once from a blocked w5C. Keep in mind that lots of Valk players will try to immediately go for a mixup when they make DP characters block the first hit, especially earlier in the match or if they don't know your player habits (ie tournament situation), feeling they have succeeded in their primary objective of making  you block and that you somehow respected. The afore-mentioned w5C is an obvious example, since it's such a reliable meaty to beat our DP with great reward on hit and (unsafe) mixup options on block. Take advantage of that, if the situation allows it. Of course, as soon as they become aware of that, they can meaty high and it turns into a tedious guessing game where you are obviously at a disadvantage. If you have super available though, your life becomes a bit easier.

 

Remember they can't block in wolf. Wakeup backdash is decent midscreen and arguably OK in the corner, to throw off their timings or if you think you have a read, but with their tools they can easily call it out, so don't rely on it exclusively to escape. Also, this is obvious but do not emergency tech ever, since it makes their job easier. You can even consider rolling/not teching, but /only/ if you feel your opponent 

isn't solid or prepared.

 

In terms of rewards, wj.a doesn't lead to too much damage without meter (~1900, and wolf meter negative, most importantly), where as w5c leads to much more, including some of the best corner carry in the game, and is wolf meter positive. So, if they're going for dp-safe offense, fear the low more. However, the reward on wj.c is similar to w5c and it's very hard to see, so keep that in mind too. Command grab itself doesn't lead to too much damage, but it will refill all their wolf meter, so look out for it if they start being low on wolf meter. wj.b is another overhead that they'll mostly use in tricky mixups (such (w)236B 6D wj.B wj.C double overhead), and the reward is around 2 to 2.5k damage(?) and wolf meter positive in the corner.

 

Once you've successfuly guessed and are now blocking, no matter what you know, a strong player can turn almost anything into a high or a low, so you need to try to guess what they'll do based off your experience, words can't really help. Besides this, common points to DP are after blocking a w5c and they 6d into mixup (either wj.a or rehuman 2b), as well as before a wj.c. There's always if they wjC, so you can just dp and if they do something tight you're stuck in blockstun and it won't come out. Look out for fuzzy brwj.b or brwjA after a wj.a or wj.c, so don't lower your guard too fast. After a blocked sweep they can also RC sweep to bait out DP as you'll most likely be in a standing part of the motion, which is a little tricky.

 

Valk 5C into mixup flowchart:

 

DP between * *

Jump or DP between $ $

Mandatory IB and DP between ** ** 

 

w5C > 6D *>* wjA               simple overhead

w5C > 6D *>* wjA $>$ wjC double overhead

w5C > 6D *>* wjA *>* w5C overhead -> low

w5C > 6D *>* wjA $>$ w5C *>* brwjB/brwjA triple overhead!

w5C > 6D *>* wjA $> land >$ j.C (fake low) double delayed overhead (fakes the low, most easily escapable but extremely hard to block)

w5C > 6D > wjA **>** brwjA extremely fast double overhead (rare, depends on the player)

w5C > 6D > wjA > 5A simple overhead into pressure - gapless, DP won't come out but you will be vulnerable to the following mixup and most likely not ready to block 

w5C > 6D $> 5D >$ h[2B] fake overhead into low

w5C > 6D $> 5D >$ h[6C] fake overhead into slow overhead, reactable and gimmicky, if you get hit by that you're respecting too much

w5C > 6D > brw5c double low (can't remember if you can jump, but DP could whiff if spaced well)

w5C > 1/2D > w5c double low (can't remember if you can jump, but DP could whiff if spaced well)

 

Anywhere you can DP, you can also back dash, but never do it after w5C!! Be aware that they can "hard bait" your DP at any time with 4/7D (it's technically not a safe bait but it's hard to react to; however wolf meter is less expandable in this version so it helps). Try and notice your opponents' habits, see if you can frustrate them with good guesses and make them fall into predictability. Nothing but experience will help you with that!

 

As for the w5A/w5B brwjA/w5C sequence, nothing to say there; it's pretty much a gapless 50/50, so you have to guess. The instant overhead is wolf meter negative now at least and doesn't offer solid much corner carry as it used to.

 

You can try to counter assault if you don't feel confident, but they can easily bait it out by cancelling any blocked wolf normal into 4d or 7d. On a side note, same for bursts, safe points would be on non jump-cancellable human normals such as 6b or right before a wolf cannon, I guess. Counter assault may also whiff on wolf at a certain range. It got changed a bit so I'm not too sure how they interact now. On the bright side, the more wolf meter they spent at neutral and in their combo to get you here, the less mixup they can do and the riskier it gets to hard bait anything.

 

There will also be a point where they will run out of wolf meter, but they will still pressure you to buy time for it to come back. If they have 50 meter or Overdrive available, instant overhead rising j.c is always an option. Expect it after a blocked 5b since they can jump cancel, or raw on wakeup, or after 2A, but they can also go into lows (2b/3c) which are quite rewarding in the corner and will most likely give them wolf wolf meter back, which isn't a good sign. If they don't have these ressources, their pressure will consist mostly of staggers, frame traps (which lose to DP), and DP baiting, also maybe an occasional re-jump in j.c, or trying to catch you jumping out with rising j.a. All in all, you don't want to only stay calm and down back, because that means they're getting their wolf meter back and once it's back you're going to get opened up unless you take a risk. In the corner, please, please block their 6C, as it leads to ~3.8k without wolf for a mere 25 meter. Daily reminder that it's +5, so don't mash if you block. The best thing to do is either IB > upback barrier (watchout for 5B air unblockable) or DP, if you feel like it (most Valks will not want to give up their advantage after this move is blocked). There's a good chance they'll try to go into 6b which is +8 on block, but also kind of slow so there should be a gap before it where you can DP. In any case, make sure to IB the 2nd hit, or else the link in 2A is gapless.

 

There will also be a point where you'll block some human normals and they'll try to transform into wolf and mix you up. They can cancel C normals into wolf dash on whiff or block (except for 6C which is on whiff only). It's usually done from 5C and their only reliable offensive option from there is 6D > wjA, which can be DPd or chicken block. Do not let them do that, if possible (it's kinda hard to react to it if you where expecting 236A or 6C). They can always 3D from max range 5C which is very safe to do but but leaves the game at neutral (except he's in wolf now). 

 

They can also 2a stagger into 5d > wolf mixup. Be aware of that since it it extremely difficult/impossible to react to the incoming mixup. Fortunately there's a gap to mash or DP. 

 

Finally, there's also 5b jump cancel j.D into whatever wolf mixup. There are many, many mixup options after that, as I'm sure you can guess (we already touched the subject earlier with 236A RC 2B possible follow ups), but expect mostly 3D into either wj.A or empty 3D > w5C. From there, the mixup is the same as the flowchart described earlier.

 

I haven't found barrier blocking to be particularly good, I prefer keeping it for his human strings to push him out so he can't 2a as much (it's +1) and go into wolf transform > command grab/overhead from there, or when I guess wrong and am forced to air block stuff like w5B.

 

 

Your offense :

 

Well, at least they don't have a meterless reversal. Their 5b and 5c are good and fast with long range, so they can disrespect you at some ranges where you wouldn't expect it against most characters. Watchout for his pre-emptive 5C if you try approchaing from the ground when they're out of wolf meter, expecting vulnerability.  If you give them too much space in the corner, they can jump > 214B > wolf dash, or jump > transform > whatever (cannons, 7d...), and escape, similar to Hazama and Rachel, so stay close if you can, you don't really want to return to neutral. He does have 6a which has a guard point of frame 4 and loses to lows and throws. As a human he doesn't have the best anti-airs, but just transforming into a wolf and doing 5b is pretty ridiculous vs rejump or airdash pressure resets as it's head invuln 1-5 on the transformation. 236a is therefore pretty good in pressure, because he doesn't have anything really good against it, and is usually looking for something else so he can beat it.

 

TLDR : you block you lose, move around like a fly, make the most of your defensive options and outlast them.

[pochp]

Updated the first post with the help from our local valk, Samthegreat. Hoping to do similar write ups for other matchups that I know at least a little.

[samthegreat]

Might wanna add w5C brw5C and w5C 1/2D w5C in the flow chart, which both beat DP if spaced perfectly. I guess this also changes one or two things in the first paragraph of "Their offense" section.

[C0R]

Bark Bark Bark!

 

If you are on top if it you can airthrow him into the corner out of 6c for muchos damages.