TD

Introverted.

It doesn't have to be today, it can be any day during the week. I was probably only playing icing tonight.

lol. I wholeheartedly agree.

The time for mercy has long passed. No, instead, you will serve until you can serve no longer.

you're pretty smart errol. you've come to the same conclusions (and conundrums) that l have. it seems one must play grounded vs her, get b lotus if possible, and fire a lobelias in moderation. j236b seems obsolete dealing with h2. hell, so does 236a9d. the angles just don't work here, and these are some of rachel's best pokes. it is very possible you got high profiled and her hurtbox shrinks at that particular spot. looks like you have to aim for the grounded leg... you must have fought giga. yeah that doesn't work sadly. it's a frametrap iirc, so outside of h1 it cant really be punished. maybe ib 2c? very risky. the last part is the biggest issue. it's just not consistent to basically play perfectly 100%, and we don't have alot of true options vs her once she evolves. even before then she could be a pain, and it takes -one- hit for us to be in serious trouble, while we need one good hit or 10 small ones. l think this MU is all about reaction, reaction, reaction

controlling pure horizontal space seems to be key. l know her FS is beat by all of rachel's projectiles including 5b and 2b. though george is pretty free to h2 FS if you don't protect him in time. pumpkin l need to experiment with more. l really think summoning it on/near ground is best, to stop her from doing FS, IAD in and adds a layer of projectile to lobelias and george. angled lobelias do more harm than good it seems, but if she's trying to rush normally or h1, they seem ok. b lotus is great but it encourages wind use... running out is step 1 to almost certain doom, because not being able to punish afterburner. pokes are... not too great. 6b is too slow. 6a loses to jd(w) normal. 6cd seems ok sparingly. testing out 3c5d w/without lotus. and of course having to block her means dealing with the fact that one could very well kiss momentum goodbye for quite awhile dependant on h1/2.

it probably does get eaten, l don't remember. my thoughts exactly. l actually spent an hour today trying to neutral vs bullet in training. if you know she'll do h2 d, 6a before the startup will either guard point in bullet's favor, or hit her. jb for some reason works like this too. otherwise... thats it. and bullet's 5b and 2b beat rachel's moves. 2b low profiles her a lobelia. this matchup is extremely annoying, especially comparing the work each char has to do to win.

it is barely. l think a lobelia clashes with 5d, but jd is a total loss for rach. she cant aa it and if spaced right theres not much she can do. its slow, and the frame adv is inconsistent, thankfully. bullet is... that wench is very difficult to fight. if l had a twitter, i'd ask him myself who he is fighting and what he's doing. l don't see how he thinks its easy. she can end the round on one hit, not hard to do. cant zone or poke. but that would be fine, all of it, if h2 5/jd wasn't so fraudulent.

interesting thought because right now he struggles to get in. doesn't look like that aspect will change. once he gets in he stays in, moreso than other chars, so that will be a huge issue. his new tools will give her trouble, and he probably will be difficult. hardest though? maybe. possibly.

Happy bday! since you always say it for mine cake is boring, have a drink instead.

Sounds thoopid. I still don't know how that is possible. Especially since dp's lose to rachel strings. Meh, doubt it'll be much trouble in America. If it is there are likely ways around it. I have a few ideas.

How is that I have never seen 5d beat anything in the middle of pressure.

Thank you. That would be nice. I'll see about taking a vacation during that time.

I can. I have some vacay time saved so hopefully I can use it. There is the issue of a room though. When is it?

not really besides 5d with b lotus and 6d. other winds are really for zoning.

yes. also, 3c 236a is ok too, it can setup + frames by doing 236a again on wakeup, and can beat delay tech. not to say it should be used over better summons. yeah 5cc is great for fortifying your defense. you can get quite a few summons out safely after it, at least 2. 3c is for if you need pressure now or you have wind to spend. as for mu, wherever you think she'll be, if you can, attack that area. rachel can do that and mu is in a tough spot. if you can convert a hit into a combo, even better.

Mu running in is only mildly threatening. Getting a 236a out will combat most of her normals at midrange. It will lose to 6c, which loses to you running inside its range. Her jc is easy to anti air. Reacting quickly is key. 64321b is a new addition it doesn't seem too strong as an option in neutral though. Once started lasers are very disrupting to rachel, she must adopt a different strategy and try to gain momentum at odd angles. Rachel is at an advantage right before this happens, though.

I focus mainly on regaining wind. If the foe is near the corner I'll bully them try to get damage from them trying to escape. Pumpkin is usually what I go for but George can be strong in certain tech situations. I like 236a knockdown, it sometimes adds two summons. In the corner I go crazy with mixups and really prioritize not letting the foe escape. Either knockdown is fine, I will get the necessary resources from most knock downs. Whichever suits the situation.

Because of the time needed and the penalty for blocking an attack, steins vs rachel are also difficult because there isn't a range mu can go into that rachel cannot hit with a lobelia, pumpkin, or lightning/lotus. Rachel can make her block after all that setting up. Now mu has to not only start over if she wants to win the zoning war, she needs to contest with whatever summon rachel threw at her, maybe more. Also, while laser pressure is happening there is an interval of 2 lasers and a cool down period, not including big lasers so there can be variety but keep in mind the added recovery and the point above.

Stein timers, placements, if she jumps, whether I'm midrange or not Steins are a move that becomes a homing combo able hit in two seconds. The time it takes setting up is when rachel can set up depending on the characters positioning a. At one second, they aim, taking your current place into account. Then, they fire. Lasers are easy to get around before it gets too hectic, and there's even strategies for when that happens. Midrange is where rachel loses basically, I just try to stay out of there without pumpkin.

besides KOKONOE??? haz because he outzones her hard. otherwise l think she has mostly fair matchups.

tao is one of the few chars l have limited xp with, though ive played some of the best in cse. l use the same strats. basically play really patiently, be prepared to block more that you would most chars. she has quite a few ways to reset pressure quickly, you'll mainly be looking to ib key points to backdash or 2a/6a. her offense isnt too scary, crossups mostly die to 6a or good blocking. if you know tao's movement the neutral is mostly ok. all of rachel's summons for the most part are good against her, get pumpkin out and you pretty much control the neutral. 236b/c deter angled approaches as well as prevent her turtling fullscreen, george aids in your own turtle. 236a beats straight dashes, use often with pumpkin out. l think midrange is where rachel loses. tao 6c has deceptive range and priority, it can be hard to beat on reaction and hurts alot. her d-b move can also go through projectiles with timing, thats why pumpkin is useful. theres more but thats enough for now.

It looks largely the same as vs lambda, though with each characters changes I think rachel can gain/keep momentum quicker and more efficiently, which is big. Lotus bats give nu new projectiles to worry about and put Rachel's zoning on par with hers. Nu cannot roll in the corner anymore and she cannot dp without certain aspects. This biggest thing IMO was the loss of primers. There isn't anything really stopping rachel from sitting and blocking until she punishes a mistake, 214d used to be a huge problem in previous games. This matchup was merely 5.5- 4.5 in cse. Even with the changes in cp, I think it will stay like this. Rachel still has problems against the 3 d's (5,2,6d) and can still be zoned out rather well. But rachel has a very good chance and even if she screws up now she has a chance to win.

she does require a certain amount of matchup knowledge to go with her move set. you do have to know every matchup on a basic level to win with her at decent levels. she has a lot of good tools and usually she just has to use them differently instead of coming up with a different gameplan. so there is versatility if you know what you are doing. matchups are emphasized because she cannot afford to make too many mistakes. sometimes one is enough to do her in.

cleared