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ehuangsan

My Ky Trade Secrets thread

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J. HS is very low risk/low reward, but you shouldn't use it exclusively; mix it up with 5S/2S/5HS/SE/air SE. Stick and move.

For jump ins, you have to just practice determining if 6P, 2HS, air throw, j.p or j.k is best in a given situation. J.p/J.k are very safe and tend to win very often, though you will get less damage off of them.

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Vid study - Faith (KY) vs. MSY (ED)

During the XX and #R era, Faith was considered to be the best Ky in the world, such that the Japanese nicknamed him "the great panda", "onee-sama" and "God". Although his offense was not quite as good as Buppa or Machabo, and his defense was not quite as good as Mitsutoshi, his neutral game, negative style of play and mastery of katame were unparalleled. So much so that even today, the katame tactics and the negative style of play invented by Faith have not changed much since his time, and I fully expect them to work in AC +R as well. It would have been nice to see him play AC, but unfortunately he became a Ragnarok Online addict and retired from fighting games altogether. All of his match vids should be carefully studied, despite their age. It is like an aspiring chess player studying Bobby Fischer's games.

MSY was known for an outstanding Johnny at that time, but here he felt that he could not beat Faith with Johnny, and thus switched to Eddie, which is a 7-3 matchup in favor of Eddie. Despite that, and several unforced errors on Faith's part, Faith manages to make the match look even, which is rather remarkable.

I have written my annotations to this match below for what I considered to be key aspects.

0:04-0:05 - Opening: Ky backdash/Eddie drill - Already the mindgames begin. Faith opts for the safe opening against Eddie, and MSY guesses with a far drill to catch him.

0:07-0:08 - Ky blue burst - This is not a mistake. Eddie's jump D is a burst point although it is inconsistent as sometimes Eddie will sink too low. Here, Faith is unlucky.

0:27-0:38 - Ky throw attempt (?)/Eddie throw - Too greedy. Faith already threw MSY two times in a row with shenanigans. He should've presumed that MSY would go for an FD option select throw, and tried for his infamous 5k abare or something else instead. As a result, he gets knocked down in the corner, against a character that could possibly win off of one knockdown. MSY demonstrates why and sets up the safe jump unblockable, which seems to end the round....

0:39-0:40 - Ky reversal HS VT -> RC -> FD (!) - ....but it doesn't! Forced, yes, but I don't think there are that many Ky players that would actually pull this off, so I give it a !.

0:44-0:45 - Ky sliding FD(!)/Eddie DAA->RC - Faith correctly guesses that MSY would dead angle, but MSY is very sharp and immediately RCs to avoid death.

0:50-0:51 - Ky air SE/Eddie jump k - Faith probably thought that Eddie would land, but MSY surprises him with a j.k to end the round.

1:24-1:26 - Ky throw attempt /Eddie throw - MSY consistently IBs the 6HS, so Faith goes for a immediate throw. Unfortunately, MSY reacts faster.

1:34-1:36 - Ky DAA - Faith judged that he probably won't survive another Eddie katame, and tries to DAA out, but is unfortunately incorrectly spaced. MSY punishes accordingly.

1:47-1:49 - Ky Gold burst(!)/Eddie command throw attempt - Faith correctly reads the attempted command throw and opts to Gold Burst in case if he guessed wrong. Better than VT or backdash in this case.

1:50-1:51 - Ky 6HS (one hit) -> Greed Sever (!?) - Faith takes immediate advantage of his newfound tension, and goes for the Greed Sever off the first hit of the 6HS as a surprise. He knew that MSY would attempt to IB both hits of the 6HS, and wanted to see if MSY would tap down back instead of blocking the overhead. Faith turns out to be right, but could also RC to bail out of the situation if he was wrong.

2:09-2:10 - Ky Stun Dipper (!) - Good move. Faith saw the IB on the 2D and figured MSY would try to IAD in reaction to a ground SE, and thus tries to check him with a stun dipper as an abare instead. He is right again, and ends the round.

2:18-2:19 - Ky open 5K (?!) - Faith almost never opens with Greed Sever so I don't think he screwed up a command input and intentionally stuck 5k to abare something. Faith is the absolute king of the abare 5k, but I cannot think of anything that Eddie would do at the opening that would get hit by this.

2:27-2:30 - Nice Ino Gambit by Faith off the two IBs.

2:32-2:33 - Ky 5k - There's that infamous 5k abare by Faith, who correctly judges that MSY would attempt to jump out, and catches him on the standing animation.

2:33-2:40, 2:50-2:56 - This and similar sequences should be studied when watching Faith play. He is extremely good at maintaining katame in the corner and positioning himself perfectly in such scenarios. Here, MSY makes a mistake and smacks into counterhit star by Ky and Faith ends the round accordingly.

3:14-3:16 - Ky whiff 5p->2P->2S - Faith attempts a jab whiff counterhit attempt, but MSY does not budge.

3:37-3:46 - Ky Negative Penalty warning (?) - This is a rare strategic blunder by Faith. After the little Eddie disappeared, Faith opts to play it safe and passive to hold his life lead and compel MSY to do something, but MSY does not have to attack until he is good and ready. Thus, Faith really had to push in harder than he did before Eddie initiates another attack with a little Eddie. It's analogous to being forced to attack Yun in Third Strikes before he builds or initiates Genei Jin.

3:46-3:54 - Eddie far drill knockdown into katame - And here, MSY demonstrates why this was a strategic blunder. Eddie suddenly gets the knockdown off of a riskless far drill, which is all he needs to end the game. Faith guesses wrong off the ensuing katame and is forced to burst with one pixel of life left.

3:56-3:58 - Faith tries for one last attack, but is severely restricted to what he is allowed to do from the life lead and is forced to stay put in response to the far drill, due to Ky's stupid hitboxes which will randomly cause him to get hit. MSY ends the round with a command throw that Faith probably could not escape from in that situation due to the drill, and wins.

Upcoming:

Ky v. Ino

Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper

Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup

(requests)

Maybes:

(Offensive Tactics - Corner Katame with Ky)

(Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie))

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Keep being godlike Eh-san. I actually took note of your post mortem procedure but I haven't taken the time to actually execute it on any match videos I have yet. But after this I'm most definetely doing it as often as I can now. An overall better understanding was made when I was watching the video and reading your notes at the same time. I watched it by myself the first time, then watched it again while looking at your notes. Felt somewhat derpy because a lot of things that happened i didn't even take notice of. But that just makes me want to do this even more. I was really looking forward to one of the Vid Studies and you didn't disappoint.

Why is he just getting a award for this amazing thread

Edit: I was wondering if you could do corner Katame next possibly.

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Though this thread has significantly helped me back on the the horse when playing Ky optimally after 3/4 years, despite the fact that I haven't read everything in this thread. I find having the mind state you said of passively controlling spacing and out poking my opponent to death.

This gameplan doesn't seem to apply to Axl, as it feels he can easily outspace and zone you. I never played against Axl before and in a recent tournament I placed 4th, but the two matches I lost were Axl's because I never played the matchup before.

I would also like to thank you for the potemkin matchup info.

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Though this thread has significantly helped me back on the the horse when playing Ky optimally after 3/4 years, despite the fact that I haven't read everything in this thread. I find having the mind state you said of passively controlling spacing and out poking my opponent to death.

This gameplan doesn't seem to apply to Axl, as it feels he can easily outspace and zone you. I never played against Axl before and in a recent tournament I placed 4th, but the two matches I lost were Axl's because I never played the matchup before.

I would also like to thank you for the potemkin matchup info.

The passively controlling space works mostly for match-ups where Ky is even or has an advantage. Axl is not one of them, so Ky has to play an active game. I'll add an Axl writeup sometime.

Ky v. Ino

This match is dead even, simply because the first person to screw up usually tends to lose, and sometimes, rather horrifically and quickly. I play this match against Honnou quite a bit, and I don't particularly like this match because it can be rather random.

Ky has to play an active neutral and attacking game to win out, though one mistake can be very bad.

Neutral

The name of the game is to not screw up while not permitting Ino to have a way in. Luckily, Ino does not have very good abare, so she does not have that many ways in. The concerns are mostly dive, stroke the big tree, chemical love and note.

The most dangerous of all of these is the note. Do NOT let Ino have space to launch a note, or if it comes out, kill it very quickly with an SE or dodge it. Blocking a note leads to an Ino katame, where she can attack you from every direction so this must not be permitted.

Even being forced to dodge or cancel the note is bad, as Ino can use that to earn her way in. If you are close enough and she's launching a note, always trade and get hit by the note in exchange for the knockdown, if possible, either by VT, 2D (on note recovery if she messes up), or sometimes 5HS.

If you keep your distance in close enough so that she doesn't have a note out (preferrably at 5S distance or closer), then it becomes an odd game of RPS. You have far 5S, 2S, 2D, 5HS, 2HS, 6P and occasionally SE fighting against big tree, chemical, dive, 6P, and random dash in air attack.

Far 5S and SE will seal out a chemical love and random dash in, but will lose rather badly to 6P and big tree. 5HS/2HS will stop dashes, and REALLY lay the hurt on a chemical love if you get a counter hit, but if you trade, then you will be downed and that will be bad, and this will also (sometimes) lose outright to big tree. 2S/2D beats out tree and 6P, and will duck under chemical but will lose to dash in air attack or TK dive. 6P will allow you to stop a dash-in and chemical love, but don't whiff this or Ino may have an excuse to launch a note. Basically you will have to out-yomi your opponent.

Ky's j.k, 6P and 2HS stop all of Ino's jump-ins. However, the dive move may be too fast to react to with j.k or 2HS, in which case you should just go for the IB and attack with 2P.

Defense

Ky is pretty helpless against Ino on defense, which is why it is important not to screw up. It's more or less impossible to predict what Ino will do or when Ino's air block string will end. You will pretty much have to guess high or low, and you will guess wrong quite often.

Reversal VT or RTL is usually out of the question unless Ino is being greedy, as she should mostly be doing safe jump ins.

Sometimes, you can dodge the safe jump in with a reversal backdash and then counter attack with 2P or 2K. Ino may not expect this, but if you do this too often, Ino will go for a straight dash to break the backdash.

However, the straight dash will trade with a reversal VT, so it could be good to entice Ino to do that.

Otherwise, if you block correctly or if Ino screws up her offense, look carefully for points to DAA/random FD or abare 2P to get out.

Offense

Similarly, Ino is rather helpless against Ky on offense. Her only real options are to try to jump out/FD out, DAA, reversal upward chemical love as a kurainige, or wake up super.

If Ino has >50% tension, go for okizemes that take the super out of the question, while leaving you with the initiative if she does do the super. Star Oki, CSE, air CSE, and Sensei's FB mixup should be preferred.

The goal should be for katame rather than damage. Try to keep Ino constantly blocking and guessing. Give her opportunities to hang herself with a wrong move, like big tree into your 2D -> HSSE FRC combo, or stun dipper counterhit, or tick throw versus tick -> 6P CH.

Always leave yourself in a position to attack, even if Ino pushes you out with FD. Use Ino's FD to bounce yourself back into the appropriate position to attack her more (which I will explain in the corner katame section).

If Ino does escape with a super jump or 1F jump out, then follow her so that you can anti air her with 6P/2HS.

Overall, neither side can really afford to screw up or get downed, which makes it even. It is somewhat harder to play as Ino instead of Ky in the neutral game, but that is made up by Ino's superior offense.

This match vid from 32:55 to 35:14 illustrates how badly one side could lose off of one or two mistakes in neutral.

Upcoming:

Offensive Tactics - Corner Katame with Ky

Ky v. Axl

Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup

Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie)

Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper

(requests)

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Offensive Tactics - Corner Katame with Ky

Guilty Gear is primarily a game that revolves around the katame situation. You can very accurately gauge how good a player is in Guilty Gear merely by observing how well they maintain katame, as well as how well they avoid or break katame.

One huge reason why Ky is low tier is because he cannot establish katame outside of the corner, so he has rather limited offense in punishing people for blocking when they're not in the corner. However, Ky (along with pretty much everyone in GG) can be complete murder in the corner, which is why this situation should be pressed for all it is worth.

Lets go back to the Ky versus Testament match vid of Mitsutoshi to illustrate how Ky works in the corner.

Freeze frame this video at 1:09 and memorize this distance. Draw a rainbow over Ky from the distance between Ky and Testament to behind Ky. I personally call this the "rainbow of sadness" because when your opponent is overlapping this rainbow and in or trying to escape from the corner, you have an upper hand in controlling the situation, even in neutral.

So long as you maintain this distance after a block string, then it's okay to let the situation go back to neutral. Many fighting game players are oftentimes loath to ever let the situation go back to neutral, as they are afraid that their opponent may do "something". However, if the only correct option ever presented to your opponent is "block", then you are not really handing your opponent any chances to make any grevious mistakes (unless you are doing fast rushdown like MvC2 Magneto), as he will always choose "block" and wait.

So the point is to punish your opponent for blocking by leaving them worse off than they were before they blocked, and forcing them to finally make a decision to do something or to get grounded into submission/get crushed from a mixup or throw, etc. from over blocking. That is the essence of katame.

Ten years ago, Faith posted on a Japanese guilty gear thread about a very good way to practice katame with Ky. Set a training dummy to be on all FD (worse case situation) and on all block and in the corner. From there, practice block strings that use the FD to bounce you back into the magic rainbow of sadness position once the block string ends, as you can run in and do another katame pattern from that position anyway. You will find several effective katame patterns, such as:

2p -> 2k -> 2s -> optional SE

far 5S -> slash SE (this one is particularly potent)

far 5S -> stun dipper abare -> FRC -> 5S

2S -> 5HS

6HS -> SE

6HS -> 2D

6HS -> j. D -> air CSE

CSE FRC -> jump -> airdash/low mixup

2HS -> jump cancel -> air slash SE

6HS -> Ain's Prison

2D -> Ain's Prison

CSE FRC -> j. D -> land 2k timed to simultaneously hit with the air D to prevent pushback

etc.

You can find numerous combinations of attack strings that result in bouncing you back into the magic rainbow of sadness, even if your opponent does full FD, so basically you can experiment and find the ones that work with your temperment the best. The net result is your opponent got chipped/wasted meter/got guard gauge jacked up, and yet did not solve any of his problems as he is stuck in that magic rainbow of sadness in neutral, whereupon Ky can initiate another katame pattern and go for a mixup, a throw, or whatever. Even when it ends, Ky can simply do it again, so your opponent is eventually forced to do something or get grounded into submission.

The opponent's options are pretty much restricted to:

IAD or 1F jump out - this is bad, since an abare 2HS, or 6P will kick them back into the corner for damage. Also, Ky can react with an air throw to throw them back in the corner.

Superjump straight up and airdash away - this is also bad, because abare 2HS will keep them in the corner and even if the escape is successful, the net result is being stuck in the air with no jump options against a pursuing Ky who is eager to AA with 6P or other.

Run in and footsie out of the rainbow - this is the best option, but it's still disadvantageous as they are fighting Ky in a footsie match within Ky's optimal spacing.

As an example, lets watch the legendary Mitsutoshi at work in establishing katame from that vid:

1:09 - 1:11 - Ky FRC CSE - Testament is forced to block, but this is a katame situation as now Ky gets a free and riskless mixup. Will Ky go high or will he go low?

1:12 - 1:13 - Ky air dash s, HS into knockdown, CSE - Ky goes high. Testament guesses wrong and is downed and forced to face another katame situation as Ky initiates another CSE.

1:14 - 1:16 - Ky FRC CSE -> jump up to drag CSE upwards -> land -> dash up -> 5D (!!) - Damn. Testament blocks high to stop the air dash and gets put into block stun from the CSE. Testament immediately blocks low upon seeing that Ky is not air dashing. However, because of the fuzzy guard glitch, Testament is stuck in a standing block animation, even though he is actually blocking low, so Mitsutoshi crushes that with a stand dust. Shonen probably mentally thought he was blocking high from watching the screen, when he was actually blocking low. Stuff like this is why Mitsutoshi is known as the "elegant Ky".

1:21 - 1:24 - Ky CSE -> 5k -> stagger 2S, 5HS - Shonen probably guessed that Ky was going to run in with a tick throw after the 5k and prepares to jump out, but gets caught by 2s and dies.

1:35 - 1:38 - Ky CSE -> close 5S -> FRC CSE -> j. d x2 -> stagger up walk -> 5k, 2S, 5HS - Mitsutoshi watches Shonen burn all that meter from FDing and punishes him for doing so by taking it all away. There's no pushback against Ky from the j. d so he can stagger in, and then kick himself back to the magic rainbow.

1:39 - 1:40 - Ky abare 2HS/ Testament jump / Ky air throw in the corner - Testament tries to escape, but is still stuck in the magic rainbow, so Ky airthrows him back into the corner and goes for an ambigious air s.

Ky is relatively free form in establishing katame in the corner, so experiment and come up with ways to keep katame that work with your playstyle.

Upcoming:

Ky v. Axl

Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup

Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie)

Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper

(requests)

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So having your opponents best option just being block isnt the most effective way to establish katame. Ive gone through this many times myself and ive been the victim of superior katame as well. I faced a Ragna a couple weeks ago and whenever i found myself in the corner (which was often) the player would stay in this specific range from me. This "rainbow" lile Faith called it. He would pressure me but leave gaps between his blockstrings (like whiff 2B and 2C) to give me enough time to try to come up with an option ro deal with being in the corner. 8/10 i would make the wrong decision, either being CH, anti aired, or air thrown. Whenever i was in the corner i felt hopeless. Im coming to learn constant pressure is really not the way to go. Because they would sit and block my strings and escape because my spacing was poor. With Ky, ive been applying some decent katame but its far from polished.

So inducing certain decision making and capatalizing on their decisions and keeping them blocking/where they are is the essence of katame right?

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Pretty much. Punish them for blocking, or have them forced to fight from a disadvantage.

So even if they block, it doesn't matter since you will whittle them down by repeating the same katame situation again until they do something else.

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But I'm sure there are many things that can break katame correct. Like for example, if your trying to establish it to Ky while he's in the corner but your a character with much shorter range than he has. And other then a player making a mistakes or eating a reversal, what are some ways you can break Ky's katame

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Any character's katame can be broken, but it tends to be rather difficult to do so, and usually involves a fair bit of risk. Which is why these situations should simply be avoided, if possible. Even breaking or escaping Ky's corner katame is surprisingly difficult, if Ky knows what he is doing.

Most high level players opt to enter into a footsie war within Ky's magic rainbow of sadness, but of course, Ky will be at an advantage in that situation. It can't really be helped, but it's better than IAD/normal jump out of the corner, which I think is a ?, and 1F/super-jump airdash out of the corner, which is either a ? or a ?!, depending on the situation. Examples include an Ino Gambit, IBing to build tension to break out with a DAA, slashback, draw Ky in with a normal block then selectively FD to catch him off guard, trying to guess what Ky's next poke will be and trying to counter with appropriate ground poke, etc.

There really is no fully satisfactory situation for dealing wtih Ky's corner katame, which is good since that's one of the few things that keeps Ky competitive.

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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.

Upcoming:

Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup

Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie)

The art of preparing good home cooking

Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper

(requests)

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FWIW, I think Anji-Axl may very well be the only 3-7 matchup in AC and it's a very good candidate for the worst matchup in the game.

I think it's even worse than Pot-Eddie, Zappa-Testament, or Johnny-Zappa.

Axl's 3P just eats everything Anji does in like, 75% of the situations, and he can mix it up to answer the remaining 25%.

Anji pretty much only gets one chance or one momentum run to turn the thing around, otherwise he just gets BSed to death by Axl 3P.

You are pretty much forced to wait the entire round for that one chance, then take it and blitz the hell out of Axl when it shows up, and hope it's enough.

It's about as much fun as bashing your head against a wall repeatedly.

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FWIW, I think Anji-Axl may very well be the only 3-7 matchup in AC and it's a very good candidate for the worst matchup in the game.

I think it's even worse than Pot-Eddie, Zappa-Testament, or Johnny-Zappa.

Axl's 3P just eats everything Anji does in like, 75% of the situations, and he can mix it up to answer the remaining 25%.

Anji pretty much only gets one chance or one momentum run to turn the thing around, otherwise he just gets BSed to death by Axl 3P.

You are pretty much forced to wait the entire round for that one chance, then take it and blitz the hell out of Axl when it shows up, and hope it's enough.

It's about as much fun as bashing your head against a wall repeatedly.

I was actually talking about the Anji vs Ky matchup, which I thought was a bit more obvious since I was posting in this thread, but given the placement of the post I realize that wasn't as intuitive as I thought.:sweatdrop:

Anji/Axl is annoying on account of his toolbox just screwing with yours, but I honestly have bigger issues with Slayer and getting destroyed on every move and getting run down to death.

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Lol, I should've figured that, but oh well.

Anji/Ky is 5.5-4.5 in favor of Ky IMO, simply because Ky can passively choose to control space, and is not really compelled to do anything, while Anji has to force his way in by playing a footsie game where he's at a disadvantage. Plus, SVT bails Ky out of a lot of situations, where he can just eat a hit in the air and reset the situation.

I think your primary problems are that you just don't blitz all that well, or that you blitz at the wrong times, and you don't really create any openings for yourself. Anji is a very momentum driven character, so you have to blitz the hell out of any opening that you find, no matter how small, and run it for all it is worth, even if you risk getting counterattacked in the process.

Learn from watching KBNova play (even though he hasn't shown up that much recently), because he is incredibly good at setting any situation on fire to create openings, and pushing the hell out of them albeit with mostly ghetto tricks. He is easily the best Anji in America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4HUvyGIw30

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Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup

See vid at 1:38-1:42.

Sensei is the only Ky player that did this mixup, and I wondered why because it seems pretty good. However, after trying to do this for several years, I realized that the reason people didn't do this was because they didn't know how the heck he was doing it. Even Machabo and Kimchi jump straight up, fall downwards, do the FB star on oki and then one frame jump to bait a throw or go for a low.

The Sensei FB mixup proper is to do the FB while rising on a normal jump, yet keep it low enough to the ground so that they are forced into blockstun. Tiger knee does not work because you lose the double jump. Jumping straight up and confirming it visually doesn't work because you either jump too high, or you are forced to fall and then FB, thereby ruining the mixup.

The actual trick is to borrow time from the recovery of the VT. Sensei only goes for this mixup from a VT. What you do is hold a direction (up back, up, up towards), and then as soon as you see Ky crouching on the screen from the VT recovery, pause for a moment while holding the direction, then do the FB motion without confirming the jump. Ky will immediately jump at the direction you previously held, and then FB, as if by a magic input buffer.

This took me years to figure out. Yeah, I suck.

Upcoming:

Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie)

The art of preparing good home cooking

Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper

(requests)

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Sure, I'll do a Faust writeup next.

Upcoming:

Ky vs. Faust

Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie)

The art of preparing good home cooking

Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper

(requests)

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Sure, I'll do a Faust writeup next.

Upcoming:

The art of preparing good home cooking

(requests)

You need to prioritize on this first before moving on.

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I guess I'll teach y'all how to prepare good home cooking first then, since everyone likes to eat.

The Art of Preparing Good Home Cooking - Part I

A lot of people use training mode to practice combos or fix execution errors (which is something I ought to do if I weren't semi-retired). This is good, but there is something to be said for preparing some research or "home cooking" to uncork on an unsuspecting opponent, from research done from training mode and casuals. GGXX is a tactically rich game, so there are lots of subtle tactics that one can prepare and unleash on someone in a tourney, which could result in stealing some wins. Some people may catch on and adapt quickly, but in other situations, your opponent may end up having no idea what the heck happened unless they conduct the post-mortem afterwards. Which, again, is why it is so important to conduct a post-mortem; not only to see where you fail; but to also identify situations where there may be a possibility for prepare and unleash some good home cooking. Since I rarely play nowadays, post-mortems and testing out home cooked ideas in casuals when I do play somehow has let me stay somewhat competitive.

So in the next few writeups, I'll show what you should look for and how to implement good home cooking. When conducting a post-mortem of your own match vids or even when just thinking of certain situations or theoretical concepts, there are several things that you may see where there is a possibility for unleashing good home cooking. Basically, the flow process should be: 1) identifying situations where you can unleash something, 2) coming up with a counter and testing it during training mode/casuals, 3) unleashing it in tourney games and adapting it forever.

Most home-cooked prep nowadays is rather subtle, and, although perhaps not earth-shattering, can be added into your repertoire which you can unleash to steal a victory. Here are some things to consider when conducting a post-mortem or coming up with new ideas:

1) Looking for and crushing common block strings/pokes

Most people have certain auto-pilot block strings that they employ which they consider to be safe, so destroying one of these strings can lead to a severe mind screw, especially when something that is ingrained in their mind to be safe suddenly is no longer safe. It's hard to break such habits immediately during a tourney match.

One example is May's 5D. I dunno about other Mays, but NorCal Mays love to chain into 5D, so much so that eventually I could block the 5D about 75% of the time on reaction. During some casual sessions, I noticed, hey, there's an awful lot of dead space between May's spinning dust motion and when I block on reaction, so perhaps I can try to hit her out of it instead of passively blocking. So I tried 2P:

Got semi-mixed results as sometimes it would hit, and sometimes it would whiff and I would eat the 5D.

After experimenting some more, I thought, why not just 2D in reaction to 5D, and then FB or HSSE into air combo. So I uncorked that in a tourney, and found that I started to slaughter every May player that attempted a 5D with a 40% combo instead of blocking.

Eventually, NorCal Mays stopped using 5D so often, but I bet I can mindscrew another May who didn't see that before.

To be continued.....

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I'll post this here because it's the most active thread in the Ky forums; I personally have a hard time maintaining momentum against Sol. Volcanic Viper is a very difficult move to deal with and I can't seem to figure out anything to do for oki except try to hopefully cross him up or wait o see if he does it and punish it with a run up grab or lightning sphere if he tries to delay his fall with 214k after VV.

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my first post after hiatus for 5 years :lol

just wanna say this is amazing thread, love it and really help me learn a new trick

especially the analysis really interesting one , love it

good job keep it up :D

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I'll post this here because it's the most active thread in the Ky forums; I personally have a hard time maintaining momentum against Sol. Volcanic Viper is a very difficult move to deal with and I can't seem to figure out anything to do for oki except try to hopefully cross him up or wait o see if he does it and punish it with a run up grab or lightning sphere if he tries to delay his fall with 214k after VV.

LIke I indicated in the Sol writeup, it's not terribly important to maintain constant pressure in the Ky/Sol matchup. Rather, you should give Sol some space to hang himself with a VV, and stagger pressure instead. For the oki, safe jump S/backdash S, Sensei's FB mixup, star oki and CSE should be your primary oki choices.

After which, when he does do the VV, you should punish him when he lands by using a damaging crouch character combo (5S > 5HS > 6K > HSSE >etc., or something). Whether he does the 214K or not shouldn't really matter, but if you are failing at the timing and can't seem to fix it, then scooping him up with a 2HS while he's in the air for counterhit also works. It's just not quite as damaging.

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