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Kazuki Slice

[Xrd] Ky Kiske vs. Axl Low

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  • Use this thread to discuss the Axl Low matchup.
  • If the matchup is giving you trouble, check to see if this post already contains info which will help you. If not, be as specific as possible when asking for help and others will be glad to give advice.
  • Please focus more heavily on discussing how to play the matchup properly than who is at advantage/disadvantage.
  • This post will be updated to collect useful info over time.

 

'Round Start:
  • ...

 

'Neutral:
  • ...

 

'Offense:
  • ...

 

'Defense:
  • ...

 

'Punishes:
  • ...

 

'Combo Notes:
  • ...

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Ky vs. Axl

Very textbook 5.5-4.5 matchup in favor of Axl. Axl gets draw odds only due to the damage disparity, which causes him to win out in wars of attrition, However, both sides will have plenty of chances to end a given round very quickly.

Neutral

I think this is the most important aspect of the match, and pretty much determines 90% of how the round will end, as neither side really defends well against each other. A lot of people think that Axl has a clear advantage in the neutral game, but I think that Ky actually has the slight advantage overall, as there are more ways for Axl to screw up versus Ky than the other way around.
However, Axl will start doing chip damage from rensens and jack your guard gauge up with random pokes, which is why Axl wins the war of attrition if the round drags out for too long.

At far range, stun edge, and jump back HS are your friends to go for a dash in. At closer range, you can tack on 5P, 2P, 5HS, and 5S.

Basically, you will be trading chip damage, damage from ticky tack pokes, and guard gauge for a counterhit/knockdown attempt and tension build. The primary focus is to get Axl to screw up so you knock him down, counterhit him, or earn a way in, and tension management is very important for this regard. You will be baiting Axl to do something by doing run up FD dash brake or run up FD one frame jump straight up while FDing in the air.

Since Axl is very bad defensively in close range against Ky, Axl is pretty much forced to respond to this with something, and you can counter accordingly. For example, if Axl tries to zone out with a jumping poke, or 5P against an FD dash break, you can counter on reaction with 6P, or sometimes, 2D/Stun Dipper. Similarly, if Axl responded with something like 2S or 2HS, and you did the one frame jump straight up FD, you can punish/earn your way in with an air S SE FRC, or even a straight air dash S/HS. This will also open up chances for you to do riskier but better things such as ground SE/air SE, as Axl may hesitate slightly before committing after being countered several times. Thus, the great yomi game begins, and the person who yomis better will tend to win the round.

Another thing about dash break/IB is that if you get the IB, sometimes you can greed sever in-between Axl's block strings and counterhit him. This is well worth it, even if it gets blocked or countered, so this is one of those odd matches where greed sever should be used aggressively in neutral when Axl is in range. Greed Sever also catches stuff like 3K, 2HS and 2D from Axl.

Rensen is the more worrysome response, but if you FD brake and IB the rensen, and if Axl doesn't FRC, you get a free attempt at dash up 5HS or 5S, so that you attack Axl just at the outer edge of the poke. Anything Axl does that doesn't involve blocking will get hit at that distance. Even if he blocks, well, at least you got a try in.

Unless you have some sort of read (e.g. on a Rensen), do not jump in at Axl, as he has better AAs than even Ky. Similarly, Ky smashes all of Axl's air pokes with 6P.

Offense

On offense, Ky pretty much has one goal - to shut Axl down from doing anything. Ain's Prison and Sensei's FB mixup work wonders for this as Axl has no answer to these. From there, you can attack safely with a throw/counterhit mixup, which is especially effective against Axl due to his bad defensive options.

Starting your oki with CSE also works well as Axl doesn't have a satisfactory answer to keep Ky out afterwards. He has FD, 5K, 2K, 2D, crappy DP, and Rensen. You don't have to do anything fancy, as your katame (especially random SE intermixed with 5S intermixed with run up throw) will eventually force Axl to attempt something, and you don't even have to try for dust or anything special. Further, if he screws up once or twice against katame, you can end the round very quickly.

It's very hard for Axl to escape Ky katame and he's almost as bad as Testament in this regard, so push it for all it is worth. This is why meter management is so important, because you want to have 25-50% tension for the intermittent FRC SEs, air FB JDs, or FRC/RC combo extends that push the damage against Axl higher.

Defense

Similarly, Ky does not handle Axl's katame well at all, and Axl can do 70%+ off of one mistake. Ky is not as helpless as Axl, but it's still very bad. Luckily, Axl does not have many mixups other than air dash rensen, TK bopper, throw, and Rashousen. This is why tension build in the neutral game is important, because you want tension to selectively FD him out or DAA out, or maybe attempt an Ino gambit with an FRC LJ at the end if it goes sour.

Axl's 2K is considered by many to be the thing that screws Ky over on oki, but this is actually only partially correct. The reason is that the timing to make the 2k safe versus wakeup SVT is different from the timing versus wakeup HSVT. So if you notice that Axl is using the same timing on all 2ks, you can mind screw him by responding with the appropriate VT, which will confuse many Axl players as they wonder why they got hit.

I also think that the overhead off of a block string is a ? move, and should be treated as such, although lots of Axls like to use it. Practice RTL or slashbacking into throw against the overhead.

2P abare works pretty well as Axl's pokes are slow, and is also good for breaking run up throw attempts, but if you get counterhit by TK bopper or rensen, you will probably lose the round.

In general, you just have to be patient and look for a way out or a way to push it back into neutral.


Although both of us were screwing around and experimenting with random stuff, this set of casuals from 59:20 onwards should provide a good idea as to what works and what does not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3b4A5mVxhM

 

Adjustments where it's necessary :)

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To BladeofJustice7.

I do not really know that much about the game because I do not have it yet but I have been reading all your post in all the matchups discussions and you are saying that 95% of the matchups are bad for him.

Hard to believe considering that he is a mid-tier character according to most of tier lists, so I don´t think he can have those many bad matchups.

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It's meant to be a template for someone to adjust (those are his old matchup charts from previous games), but the more I play and watch high level Xrd, the less a lot of the old stuff seems applicable even on a basic level. The systems and the frame data have changed for everybody, and Ky's average damage has improved greatly relative to the cast. In most cases, a complete rewrite is necessary.

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To BladeofJustice7.

I do not really know that much about the game because I do not have it yet but I have been reading all your post in all the matchups discussions and you are saying that 95% of the matchups are bad for him.

Hard to believe considering that he is a mid-tier character according to most of tier lists, so I don´t think he can have those many bad matchups.

Blade of Justice's posts are quotes of eh-sama's posts from this thread. They're based on #R matchups, not Xrd matchups, but they're still incredibly useful because of how good eh-sama is at breaking down the match into the useful parts, and how Ky likes to approach situations.

 

I recommend reading that thread btw, it's really useful, even if Ky is quite different in Xrd.

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