Arifureta

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Ohhh. I see. Thanks for clearing that up!

What is AUB?

You can change the button layout at the character select. At least, that's how it is on ranked. Not sure about player matches.

Worse comes to worst, super armor the ground slam and hide in the active frames. Gimmicky as hell though.

^ Anything that involves catching up to a j.214A would require you to be near the corner when you threw it out. Also with the Carl matchup, I think the difficulty is in the fact that it's very hard to get out of sandwich pressure since Relius doesn't have very good poking tools at that range until he gets meter.

Blocking is pretty much something everyone does and not a Hakumen specific thing. If you treat him as a character with a DP then I think you'll be in better shape overall. Worst case scenario, just stick to your actual blockstring and don't get greedy I agree that his neutral game and damage are better than Relius, but his mixups aren't really anything scary. I feel it's the same as Relius in that it's good that he has them, but you're not going to be scoring a lot of overheads consistently. Plus he needs heat for his overheads so his mixup really isn't anything special. In my opinion, if he's close enough to be doing mixups then it's a good thing because now I don't have to worry about getting in, which I feel is the most problematic part of this matchup. Lambda matchup is just hell though. There is literally no neutral game because she will be pressuring you from full screen. Even summoning Ignis takes more thought than usual because if you get careless, that's a free hit. Although thankfully she doesn't have a lot of answers when you actually do get close. Ahaha, yeah. I'm looking forward to Kurushii's assessment of this matchup.

Mm, I see. I haven't actually played a lot of Mu. I assumed she would do good only because she's a zoner and I have a really tough time fighting against Lambda. Not so much a fatal counter, though some Hakumen have a really bad habit of airdashing to approach and that's a free 2C. It's mostly the fact that Hakumen does not have a lot of answers at close range without having to spend his meter so if you find yourself in that situation then you have a bit of an advantage. Of course, it's still not that easy since he has his drive, but at that point it just becomes like playing against any other character with a DP.

Yeah... That's one of the things that's iffy about it. But like I said, at some point he'll have to commit. Those then become the scariest few seconds of the match, but if you survive his pressure then you are now at a very good spot to start your counterattack since he is now in range and most likely out of meter. Of course if you don't survive his pressure then you die because a Hakumen with full meter is a Hakumen who can kill you in one combo.

I play a lot of Hakumen. It's not bad, but it does force you to rethink your gameplan. Anything that relies on forcing him to block from neutral is a bit risky since he can just throw out a 2D on reaction (oki, ley, duo bios shenanigans, so on), so a big chunk of your standard gameplan is now gone, or at least unsafe. Once you get that out of the way though, it's not really that bad. If you get in on Hakumen, your standard blockstring still works. And your answer to his pressure is no different from anyone else. In fact, it's a little easier for you since he doesn't normally have a dash and so can't chase you if you backstep out of his pressure. It's mostly the neutral game that's changed. Where normally you get to dictate the flow of the neutral game, it now becomes his show to run. Although as much as he can be very good at keeping you out, I don't think this in itself gives him a huge advantage since there are still ways for you to safely approach him (e.g. A blocked Lyra). And even if he does successfully keep you out, he'll still have to commit at some point, and I don't think his pressure is any different from anyone else. In my opinion, zoners like Lambda and Mu have the advantage in a Relius match up. I feel that Relius is not very effective at the ideal range where Lambda and Mu excel, and so his options for getting in become riskier.

I agree. In pressure, I would classify it more as a gimmick than a go-to option. It is not completely unworkable though since if you condition your opponent to expect (stuff) > 3C > jc/2D > (continue stuff) then there is a point where you can maybe squeeze it in. Though yes, on paper and in perfect play, this would never work.

Mm, I see. I was worried about the startup but provided you do actually get them to block then you'll be sitting at a pretty good advantage. I think it has it's merits, plus you do get a pretty good advantage if you get them to block it. Though I do agree that it is very telegraphed and easily jumpable. It could lead to interesting shenanigans though where if you were pressuring midscreen with (stuff) > 3C > 236D > jc and you know they'd jump it to escape, you could go for an airthrow.

I got confused. How does this fare against people who like mashing out DPs on wakeup?

I think the early punches don't quite have that much hitstun so it's easier to get the neutral requirement for a green throw. And I'm sorry (again), I had the wrong image in my head. I kept seeing 214D when people mentioned 214C for some reason.

Ah, sorry, I assumed it was oki because of the corner part. You could probably make this work with a simple jump-in right? I don't think 2D would cover your IAD that well. And I think with the 214C oki, you'd be better off setting up an unblockable.