Bullet vs. Kagura

[Prototype909]

Discuss the match-up here. Feel free to link videos as long as they're relevant. Stay on topic.

[Lunar_Divider]

Is this matchup in his favor or am I just hallucinating that all of his moves have priority and range over mine? It doesn't seem like I have a ton of options other than jumping when he runs in with his projectile in front of him.

Plus I can't get momentum on him thanks to his crazy DP. Assuming I predict it what options do I have to punish him for it?

[Wild Candy]

I only played against a Kagura once, but his pokes were freakishly long, and had crazy priority. But, they seemed kinda slow, so it's possible that his blockstrings have gaps in them like Hakumen.

[ThatHiroGuy]

The Kagura matchup is easy so long as you play defensively, and patiently.

Kagura must use stances (or so it seems) in the middle of blockstrings to keep attacks flowing. You can catch him in the middle if you just pay the slightest bit of attention. DP's are easy to bait, and give you free damage, and respect. If he covers his approach with the projectile, there's an attack Bullet has that dodges projectiles. It's not too bad actually. It's all in the mind.

[WintySoSolo]

Since I had 0 matchup experience against kagura I went and hunted down a guy for an INTENSE TRAINING SESSION. He had no bullet experience so it helped both of us.

seems that you don't have time to FC 5C his DP if you block. Or maybe I'm slow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6uhmFL0tU#t=0m50s

His lunge dash is projectile invulnerable, so it goes through flint shooter, and gets like 4k+ on counter hit. Be careful of doing flint shooter of afterburner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6uhmFL0tU#t=1m26s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6uhmFL0tU#t=2m28s

you can grab his DP lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH6uhmFL0tU#t=1m34s

his overhead seems really fast!

also he has a command grab from a stance.

[TheBossGiga]

This matchup like most of kagura's match-ups is not in his favor. I think bullet has every tool necessary to make this match-up hell for him. A not commonly known fact is that kagura's neutral is Trash, worse than tagers. His pressure doesn't need to be respected really, In fact if you respect it its crazy strong

NEUTRAL: The short simple unspecific version that will most of the time work is Rush his shit Down Kagura is not able to counter poke at all his run speed is to slow and so are his far reaching normals. Don't respect his neutral ever unless he has the projectile out in which case your better off not playing neutral just back off he wont be able to chase you. I'll get a lil more specific below

Heat 0:

((mid-range))(2-4 character widths away) you WILL win with dash 2b from anywhere it works if he decides to poke or counter-poke you so don't respect him, If he jumps away close distance and do it again he won't be able to stop you, if he jumps over it(which is a specific read) you'll recover fast enough to block or dp the following atk. If he air-dashes back you do the same and you will be able to get a free charge off. anything more that 5 character widths away you can flint shooter pretty safely otherwise your better off backing up unless you see the 6D stance in which case you dash 2b him again lol

((Full screen)) he has a chance to win just a very very low one but hey you get a free charge regardless, If he 6D C's your 2b will beat it on reaction actually any of your lows can beat him on reaction just 2b is the only one where you can start a decent combo without heat. If he throws out the orb full screen just play defensively and react to what he does it'll be very hard for him to get a hit but if he reads you correctly and you react badly he can get you blocking

((Close range)) If your close range(1-2 character widths away) u either hit him or may have messed up. from here u still have a advantage but its not huge. Your 2a is faster and longer than anything he has at that range so you should stick to it.

Heat 1: Basically the same as Heat 0 but the mid range strat has extended to 2-6 character widths and now at close range 7 jump D will beat almost everything he can do offensively besides dp of course

Heat 2: Same as heat 1 but now the mid range strat has extended to 80% of the screen lol. you shouldn't lose neutral at heat 2

OFFENSE:

First thing first if ur on the offense Respect his DP that said don't respect it too much(i'l go into why below) so don't be afraid to overhead or grab him just remember 2 things.

1.His Dp will lose to gapless lows naturally in your pressure because of the motion for it so you can safely beat it with 5b 2b or anything into 2c.

2.If you ever see him block high in your blockstring KNOW that he will commit to defense for about the next 2 attacks because

he has wasted his charge and wont be able to dp for about 2 secs so if he ever blocks high ur safe for a little bit.

DEFENSE: His mixup is relatively strong its just you don't have to respect it At all for the most part. Know that with most of his normal if he transitions into any stance have a huge gap. so if you think he will go into a stance attack do 5b or 2b depending on with you think he'll do. Between stance and stance attacks the gaps aren't big enough for us to take advantage of so you might as well block. If you can recognize when he goes into 2D just block high when you see it if he does 2D C you can react to the low If he does 2D A you can block it and 2D B isnt safe on block. If they end their Stance strings with 5D A you can mash 2a for a free punish unless they cancel into 44 in which case u recover fast enough to chase em. Bullets DP is also decent against his or Oki since it has long invul and its invul through out the animation.

All in all this MU is easy for bullet you get so many opportunities for free charges and his neutral is so bad that its extremely hard for him to win if you play right. imo Kagura's probably the worst character in the game. sorry if i ended abruptly i got tired of typing