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Kazuki Slice

[Xrd] Ky Kiske vs. Slayer

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  • Use this thread to discuss the Slayer 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:
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'Neutral:
  • ...

 

'Offense:
  • ...

 

'Defense:
  • ...

 

'Punishes:
  • ...

 

'Combo Notes:
  • ...

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Ky Vs. Slayer

IMO, this matchup is pretty godawful for Ky. I place it as part of the unholy trio of godawful Ky matchups (Slayer, Baiken, Venom). From a practical standpoint, it probably is only 4-6 in favor of Slayer overall, but it tends to feel a hell lot worse than it actually is.

The problem with this matchup is that, although Ky will tend to win out in the air to air exchanges and ground to ground exchanges (maybe even something like 60-65% of the time), that's all irrelevant until Slayer dies. Slayer's HP is completely irrelevant unless it's zero or less; the question really boils down to will he counterhit you with BBU, pile bunker, 2HS or super, sending you into a near or instantaneous loss or not. In that other 35%, Slayer will hit you with one of those, and sometimes it will be counterhit. Slayer is one of the few characters (the others being May and Eddie), where until he dies, your life lead is completely irrelevant.

So basic strategy is to always watch Slayer's meter bar, and be always mindful that if he has 25% tension, you could end up into a situation where not only do you lose, the burst would not have saved you. So the way I deal with Slayer is to get him to compromise or part with the meter with rope-a-dope or blitz tactics.

Neutral

In the neutral game, I try to find safe ways to either score a knockdown or take the initiative. You can't really get away with terribly risky things, as the risk reward is not there. For example, although Greed Sever will beat Mappa and 2HS, it will lose to Slayer stupid moving K to 40%+ life loss. Stun Dipper will beat stupid moving K and BBU, but will lose to 2HS for 40%+ life loss.

Nowadays, I try to keep it honest most of the time by trying to zone Slayer out while looking for my own way in or a way to knock him down. Air dusts work when properly positioned, Air S SE FRC into air dash is an extremely good way to seize the initiative (sometimes Air HS SE FRC, airdash will work as well), as Slayer cannot really deal with that too well. Jump K will beat or trade with him quite often as air to air, jump backwards HS will also zone him as well. Air S SE FRC is also a good way to bait Slayer into hitting an AA like 5P, 6P or 2S, and a counterhit punish of Slayer's AAs off of that will lead to very good damage.

It's also a bad idea to challenge Slayer's jump HS with 6P unless you are perfectly positioned, as you will get counterhit into the air for sadness. However, VT will trade with it in your favor, and if both of you are low on life, counter hit slash VT trade into immediate blue burst will let you recover in time to land and actually go into an air combo. It takes some practice, but it's important to recognize the distances where you should 6P vs. air throw vs. VT versus block.

If Slayer has 25%+ meter, I try to bait him into using it, either by weaving in and out of BBU/DOT range, feinting moves to perhaps get a random DOT, or otherwise, getting him to compromise somehow into parting with it. It's important to try to get Slayer to use meter, either for 1F jumps, or anything. It's also important to stop him from just dicking around and building meter from full screen away by rushing in to seize the initiative if he chooses to do that. Also, keep in mind that using typical pokes for abare, like 5HS or 5S, may lead to instant death, so you will have to restrict use of those more than you might be comfortable with. However, if you do find a way to take the initiative away, you should do so regardless of his tension.

Defense

On defense, you have to keep in mind that every poke of Slayer gives him pretty buff frame advantage. You can't do anything overly risky, so I normally restrict myself to 2p/2K, 1F jumps, FDing to push him out, air S SE FRC and, very occasionally, VT/GS or random stun dipper depending on my read. You will have to part with meter to get him off of you, but that's fine; your tension bar is not nearly as important as his tension bar.

2P is a very good abare on defense, and you should maximize your damage and tension build when you catch him with it with the rather Slayer specific funky combo of 2pxn, 2D, S VT into LJ. In fact, anytime you get 2p or 2k into an abare, this should be your automatic combo, as the godawful proration will typically make the SE FRC or FB Orb combo suck. There are many situations where this could come up, such as if you IB two hit dandy, IB 2D, Slayer screws up a 2D, etc. Of course, if Slayer screws up epically, you should use your best damaging combo instead, but if he does something you can punish only 2p or 2k, you should do the SVT combo.

Slayer also has a pretty lame overhead that he can kill you with by comboing into BBU. You just have to practice reacting to it. If you're really baller, you can CH it on reaction with 5P.

Offense
Once you get a knockdown on Slayer, your mindset is to not give him one moment to even breathe and you should blitz the hell out of him. You want to force him to part with as much meter or HP as you can possibly extract from him for as long as possible. Although Slayer has good pokes, they're kinda slow in comparison to Ky's 2P and 2K, so Slayer will be looking to escape by either 2P, 2HS, BBU, super, or backdash jump up.

If he has meter, you should restrict yourself to safe Oki options, such as safe jumps, backwards air dash, etc, to avoid the possibility of eating a random BBU or super. Once you get him to block something, you should just keep the pressure up with an assortment of 2Ps, 2Ks, 5Ks, 5HS, 2Ds and random throws, to get Slayer to part with meter by FDing or dead angling, or to get Slayer to start mashing buttons or BBU.

The only button that Slayer has that can kick Ky out at in close range is 2P. However, it's not really that good, especially if Ky is up close with frame advantage. One trick that works very well is to start a tick with 2P, pause ever so slightly as if you're going to tick throw, and then 6P 6HS or 6P 5S instead. This works extremely well if you have thrown Slayer off of tick throws or other tricks before. The 6P will counterhit Slayer if he mashes on 2P, and give you good damage as a result.

Slayer can also mash BBU to get out of Ky pressure, which is why you sometimes have to rope him into doing it. One way is to do a block string that sends you a little far, and provides the appearance that you're going to SE. Slayer will sometimes try to BBU in anticipation for the SE, but if you stun dipper (!) instead, you will counter hit him into fairly good damage. If he decided to block instead, then you FRC and continue on pressing. This will even catch a DOT or a jump attempt....sometimes. Some Slayers will try to wakeup dandy, but that's pretty bad, and you can counterhit that on reaction with 5HS.

Overall, this match is very bad simply because Slayer can kill you and take the round at any given moment, and you have to hit him a lot, so you essentially have to play a near perfect technical game in response, and forcing him to part with tension to cut off the ways for Slayer to come back by randoming you out. However, because of your advantages in air to air, in ground to ground neutral and on the initiative, it's quite doable.

Feel free to make the necessary adjustments. :)

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