[P4A] Mitsuru VS Akihiko Sanada

[Jourdal]

Discuss the Mitsuru VS Akihiko match up here!

[Jyosua]

Yo, how is this matchup supposed to be played? I'm definitely doing something wrong here.

[Thanos Supreme]

Same here. The only thing that has worked for me is playing keep-away, attacking with sweep, and using 2A. Well unless he gives me something good to punish, lol.

[D_money01]

i just keep him away and punish his random rush attacks with sweeps. he really can't get pass mitsuru 5a, sweep, 2b, j.a without taking some serious risks.

[Jyosua]

Yeah, I found out I was just going in too much. DO NOT USE COUP! Unless it's in a combo, a good Akihiko will punish coup every time. if you stay in your 5A/2A range, you're golden. Just don't get hit by Caesar :P.

[Thanos Supreme]

Yeah, I found out I was just going in too much. DO NOT USE COUP! Unless it's in a combo, a good Akihiko will punish coup every time. if you stay in your 5A/2A range, you're golden. Just don't get hit by Caesar :P.

Speaking of Caesar... if the AK you're fighting likes to j.C (at least I think it's C, it's the stupid jumping Caesar attack everyone spams to zone .), neutral/ back jump as he does from range and punish with j.D.

Also, I found out you can j.D his weaving movement.

I think the main goal of fighting this douche is to play keep away. If he weaves outside of 2A range... just chill out, j.D, or feint sweep. Feint sweep is to bait out a jump and maybe score a 2B. Sweep is a gamble, because it can be j.C on reaction from his weave. But because it can be punished so easily, play with their heads. Make them think they get a free punish, and 2B them to oblivion . Contrarily, with 50 meter for an OMC combo, sweep can have enough payout to make it worth the gamble.

[Jyosua]

Speaking of Caesar... if the AK you're fighting likes to j.C (at least I think it's C, it's the stupid jumping Caesar attack everyone spams to zone .), neutral/ back jump as he does from range and punish with j.D.

Also, I found out you can j.D his weaving movement.

I think the main goal of fighting this douche is to play keep away. If he weaves outside of 2A range... just chill out, j.D, or feint sweep. Feint sweep is to bait out a jump and maybe score a 2B. Sweep is a gamble, because it can be j.C on reaction from his weave. But because it can be punished so easily, play with their heads. Make them think they get a free punish, and 2B them to oblivion . Contrarily, with 50 meter for an OMC combo, sweep can have enough payout to make it worth the gamble.

Be very careful with j.D when he's weaving. A good Akihiko can close in and punish you before you land if you whiff.

[icilby]

You can try getting into Sweep range when he's on weave and try to sweep him. It's not that hard to react to, but the trade off isn't that bad.

Also if he weaves, you can just summon a mirror and then try to safely execute some anti weave options afterwards.

Added note, it's an interesting counter, but if he does the cross-up punch thing that'll wall bounce you in a blockstring, you can hit sweep to low-profile under it and Fatal Counter sweep him. Haven't tested it out, but it'll probably lose to throw but beat out the punch cleanly. So if he does the crossup gimmick and tries to throw afterwards, you have 4B to avoid that, so if he takes the risk, you have a good risk/reward chance to score a fatal of some sort. Haven't totally tested it out, but it happened to me on a match before.

[Jyosua]

You can try getting into Sweep range when he's on weave and try to sweep him. It's not that hard to react to, but the trade off isn't that bad.

Also if he weaves, you can just summon a mirror and then try to safely execute some anti weave options afterwards.

Added note, it's an interesting counter, but if he does the cross-up punch thing that'll wall bounce you in a blockstring, you can hit sweep to low-profile under it and Fatal Counter sweep him. Haven't tested it out, but it'll probably lose to throw but beat out the punch cleanly. So if he does the crossup gimmick and tries to throw afterwards, you have 4B to avoid that, so if he takes the risk, you have a good risk/reward chance to score a fatal of some sort. Haven't totally tested it out, but it happened to me on a match before.

That's a good Idea. D Bufula and j.D in tandem could make for a good weaving counter, because if he tries to punish j.D he'll get frozen by the bufula. I'll need to try how this works in a match. Man, I use D Bufula so rarely.

So you're saying that 2AB should beat out the multiple cross-through punch blockstring?

[vmcoelho]

Started to play online recently and hasn't had any problem with any particular match up, until yesterday... found this NAAASTY akihiko that punished ALL my A coup and rushed me down with sweep combos that took 3k of my health bar in seconds! Not to mention the fast airdash followed by overhead punchs and thousands of fatal counters combos. Got really rapped... opened a FT 10 room and the result was 10 to 1 for him.

Guess this is the kind of match up that really breaks the preassure/spacing pace of Mitsuru common strategy. Need to study this match up carefully to do a good job next time. Havent seem any akihiko on his level. His PSN ID is "TTrema" if anybody wants to check it out.

[Jyosua]

Started to play online recently and hasn't had any problem with any particular match up, until yesterday... found this NAAASTY akihiko that punished ALL my A coup and rushed me down with sweep combos that took 3k of my health bar in seconds! Not to mention the fast airdash followed by overhead punchs and thousands of fatal counters combos. Got really rapped... opened a FT 10 room and the result was 10 to 1 for him.

Guess this is the kind of match up that really breaks the preassure/spacing pace of Mitsuru common strategy. Need to study this match up carefully to do a good job next time. Havent seem any akihiko on his level. His PSN ID is "TTrema" if anybody wants to check it out.

This is why I warned against using coup too much in this matchup. Use it only as a punish or as part of a combo. What you want to do is prevent him from rushing you down by spacing so that he can be hit by 5A, 2A, etc, but can't punish you. And watch out for the Caesar overhead. They like to do that when they see you spacing like that. Don't rush him down, just punish his mistakes.

[Synthesis]

This is why I warned against using coup too much in this matchup. Use it only as a punish or as part of a combo. What you want to do is prevent him from rushing you down by spacing so that he can be hit by 5A, 2A, etc, but can't punish you. And watch out for the Caesar overhead. They like to do that when they see you spacing like that. Don't rush him down, just punish his mistakes.

How do you punish A coup with AK? F-Action? This is too much of a risk in a blockstring. I was playing a good Akihiko near me and this is how it went for blockstrings:

5A(x) 5B 2AB/Feint (bait F-Action) A coup/4B (bait F-Action) 4B (bait F-Action) A coup/2AB/feint (bait F-Action)

Pretty much I was just baiting 100% of the time randomly. Any time he tried to get out of anything, he was punished with a 4B/5B counterhit until he decided that F-Action just was never worth it.

What can he do to punish A coup?

[Lord Knight]

5A

[Jyosua]

5A

Plus, if they yomi it, he can use SB ducking (and possibly other versions as well) to low profile it and cancel into an attack for a counterhit.

[Kanoleon]

So say when Akihiko does gets in, what should I be doing? When I slip up and he starts pressuring me I get overwhelmed hardcore.

[Jyosua]

Be able to react to his mixup. At the end of his blockstrings, if he's not trying to jump and crossover, he'll usually go for either a low or an overhead as a 50/50 mixup. If you see him flashing from an SB move instead, immediately change block directions because he's most certainly going for the crossthrough.

You just have to react to his crap. Find a good Aki, play matches against him and focus on blocking, You'll pick it up pretty quick.

[Lord Knight]

General thoughts:

Probably in Mitsuru's favor just because of neutral/safety. Akihiko is high risk/high reward in this matchup. You'll need to adjust your tactics quite a bit depending on their skill level.

Round start:

-Varies.

-Air backdash, back jump or back jump are good passive options

-If you're unsure of their skill level, 2A > Sweep. 5A is all right sometimes.

-If it's the 2nd round and you have a burst and they don't, sweep and confirm OMB on hit.

-Akihiko may try duck/weave, jumping in, or just retreating.

General Neutral:

-Best thing you can do is stay around the tip of A droit (6) range. This gives you ample space to maneuver around him.

-Akihiko's jumps are low and he has jC. It's difficult to AA him.

-VS duck midscreen, just jump or move. If you have the hard read, sweep or 2A > Sweep.

-At some ranges, you can punish whiffed jC's with A Droit > crouch confirm.

-VS sj jC - Bufudyne or 2D

Fullscreen:

-Neither of you really have anything. He might try to use D to get in, you can try to move around it or use Droit.

Akihiko Pressure:

-First and foremost, IB Kill rush for free meter.

-He has a ton of ways to attack, so here's a quick list of some stuff he'll go for -

Lvl 3 AoA (22f)

EX Duck > (ex) hook/corkscrew (crossup)

EX Hook (safe on block, armor, FC)

Dash > backstep 5B (throw bait, big damage)

Sweep (Low)

5C (Decent speed, dash cancellable)

2C (Bit slower, even on block)

B Hook (+3 on block)

Whatever > weave > throw (raises Cyclone to get higher throw damage)

Mitsuru's pressure:

-The usual stuff is fine, except that real strong Akihiko's will try to duck out of A strings. Mix it up by including random 2A > Sweep or just raw sweeps in your pressure.

-His DP doesn't have much horizontal range and you can attack from max 5A range, so in the corner try to stay at that distance.

-Don't try to cross him up midscreen, it's a free 2B for him.

-Like any other character, if they try to roll sweep just laugh and punish. If they roll 5A, judge the distance they are from you and punish or move.

Okizeme:

-Standard stuff is fine for him, for the most part. If he has meter be cautious. Also, he can do Maziodyne in Awakening > OMC to beat Bufula setup.

IK Punishes:

Maziodyne