[CP] Hakumen VS Hazama: Snakes on a Chain

[mAc Chaos]

so easy a monkey could do it

[Raziul]

Anyone who tries to tell you Hazama isn't imba is full of crap.

[SansProtocol]

What do you mean "imba"? As in "imbalanced"? And why's that? Any insight on why you think that may be helpful to figuring this match-up out.

[Raziul]

Full screen confirms, amazing neutrals, absurdly difficult to follow air movements. Adding a command grab DD to a mix up game that was already mind blowingly strong. Most of this should be fairly obvious.

 

Snake chains interrupt nearly any approach you attempt. Can't jump in on him because all of Hazama's standing normals are pretty much legit anti-airs. Snake chains make his approach completely safe.

 

His stance changes are stupidly good with almost no way to punish. He has a plus on block overhead that resets pressure, a delayed low that nets him 4-5k dmg on hit, and then he has an anti-air DP that's completely invincible. He can stance change into his DP on wake up and still beat a meaty. The only time I've really been able to punish his stance crap is with just the right spacing to get him with 3C. Also, you can't try to jump over him while he's doing stance moves. This frustrates me to no end but if you jump over him while he's going into stance change, his follow up will auto turn and hit you anyways. They could at least give it some danger by making him commit to the way he is facing when he made the stance change.

 

5C confirms into 5K+ and catches Hakumen's fat ass constantly.

 

Tick grabs, unblockable command grab, fast overhead that is difficult to predict.

 

His only normals that are negative enough on block to try to punish are jump and special cancelable, so it doesn't even matter. His 3C spaces him out too far to punish. Devouring Fang has huge push back and will put you too far to punish as well. The most you can usually do is use the opportunity to jump out or be reckless and jump in on him just to get anti-aired into another 4k+ combo.

 

They took a great character and made him better. Gonna try and fight some more Hazama's and see what I can find, because this match up has been giving me a lot of trouble.

[mAc Chaos]

The stance has a 7f startup before they can cancel into anything, so you should still be able to meaty him. It is definitely a pain though.

 

The one new wrinkle that Chrono Phantasma adds is that he can immediately cancel his stance into a dash, but that shouldn't save him from a meaty.

[Raziul]

The emergency techs might be throwing me off when it comes to his stance DP.

 

You can 5/2A his stance overhead if you see it coming, but 2A can whiff if he's too close sometimes. If you're really good you can TK into Hotaru against it.

 

Instant Blocking the snakes is a must and makes it more likely that you can punish his approach with 2C or Hotaru. If you regular block them and they're coming in from a decent distance you can usually jump and make him whiff is incoming j.B. He can still land and anti-air you on reaction though.

 

If he jumps up and tries to snake you when he's close by, 2C is usually a good option.

 

Kishuu through ground snakes is a good option, but most Hazama are going to be in the air.

[mAc Chaos]

Kishuu through snake is still a good option if he's in the air. He recharges his stock of snakes on hit and block, so making them whiff is important.

[BlackYakuzu94]

Looks like the most you can do is try to IB and punish most of his moves, and capitalize on the mistakes they make. Hazama does feel little too lopsided this time around.

[BlackYakuzu94]

Holy fucking shit Raizul isn't kidding about this matchup, it just feels so imbalanced.

 

 

The best I can tell you at this point is do not delay tech, because they can dash back in their stance and catch you with the overhead or the low.

[Raziul]

It's definitely a tough one.

 

Kishuu in general is a great tool for spacing against Hazama since a lot of them will want to do either 3C or the stance low which will space out all of your A's and B's.

 

I've been catching a lot of them upbacking with 2C after blocking out their pressure strings. Every little bit helps in this match up.

 

You can 3C his stance low with a hard read, but if you guess wrong the overhead will give him a counter hit that usually turns to 3-4k dmg, so beware.

 

He has very limited defense tools with out meter. You're probably gonna be dealing with things like late techs, rolls, and tricky emergency techs more than any sort of wake up reversal. Keeping him pinned down helps a lot.

[Koopa_Klawz]

So is there any reason to cut the chains or should just focus on avoiding them? The only time I find them useful is when they accidentally fling themselves into it. 

[BlackYakuzu94]

Well you get free meter for one.

[Raziul]

As one of those match ups that I started out hating but have really come to love, I'd say it's pretty even the majority of the time.

 

One of the most important things to think about in this match up is that Fumajin gives Hakumen a tool in this match up that the rest of the cast don't have the benefit of versus Hazama's snake chains. I start almost every match doing 7 > j.2A, simply because there are very few situations where you can be punished on it. Because most Hazama players are eager to up back and fire off a chain at start, it usually lends to you getting a free void and star, and sometimes a hit that you can confirm into at start. Generally speaking, unless you get read doing something like IAD at start, you'll have the immediate advantage. Common start situations I see also include them high jumping backwards (answer with a 29j.C), or doing an early ground move like 2C or 3C, which you can usually beat with your own 3C.

 

"Neutral" in this match up generally devolves to Hazama spamming chains while you try to get a read on the chains. In this situation, j.2A is one of your best friends in the world. You have to remember that it takes a bit of time to jump and get j.2A out, but if you've got an idea of when and where the chains are gonna be, not only will you start building up extra meter faster, it will keep you somewhat safe from the chains themselves. Remember that good Hazama players can cancel chains and adjust their movement haflway through, but don't be surprised to see some Hazama players dashing into Fumajin because they can't correct themselves quickly enough.

 

The next part of this match up will usually involve Hazama using chains to close on you. If there is one trick to learn in this match up, this is it: LEARN TO IB CHAINS

 

Instant Blocking chains is the difference to being able to punish him, or not being able to do anything at all after blocking. For some reason, those couple of frames give you just the right gap that you can hit Hazama on his approach with a few options, most notably Hotaru, 6A anti-air, and 5A/B. If they come at you with the cross up, you can jump out and space instead, and they'll generally whiff on you (look out of air grab though). Not Instant Blocking the chain will generally give Hazama a safe way in after forcing you to block chains, because if you try to mash, his flying j.B or j.C will almost always win. In that case you're stuck dealing with his pressure game. 5D also works as an effect anti air in this situation too.

 

Alright, Hazama is in on you, what now? Get ready to block some mix up.

Important things to know about Hazama's mix up are that his stance overhead is pretty much completely plus. You pretty much have no choice but to block it, and get ready for whatever he does after too, because you can do very little other than drive or Yukikaze after. Successfully blocking his stance mix up will be important, but an interesting tid bit is that if you get a read on when they do go into stance, you can punish them with 3C on either the low or the high. Key part, on a read. It's also important to respect Hazama's pressure pretty well, since he has multiple ways of getting at you. He's got a couple of staggered pressure tools, his sudden overhead which they usually don't you use until they get 50 heat to confirm it with, a command grab, command grab DD out of stance (if you see him enter stance with 50 heat, you better jump), and his afore mentioned mix up. He's also got some pretty great anti air tools too in his 5A and 5C (this hurts, a lot), so IAD cross up and other jump ins aren't too great of an idea.

 

Hazama likes being in the air a lot, so IAD air grab is a fun thing to frustrate him with. It can make him calm down a bit and stay on the ground a bit more, where generally the worst you'll face is another chain, which you can kishuu through or jump over. Generally trying to harry him with things like j.C and 2C also help out a bit.

 

Other goofy tidbits about this match up also include interesting things like:

 

A. He can counter Shippu with his DD that hits you on the floor if you do it raw

B. You can hit him with shippu wave if you get him on the start up of a chain

C. You can counter his floor DD with Yukikaze if he does it raw

D. Chains are both projectile and body. Yuki freezes him if he hits it with a chain, and chains WILL activate your Astral.

 

This can often be a fun match up with a lot of good back and forth, but definitely don't underestimate the character.