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mAc Chaos

[CP] Hakumen VS REALius: Duel of the Masks

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lol @ opening post.

Ok so I just got blown up by this matchup online just now. Pretty fucking salty about it but I'll do my best to give honest impressions.

Neutral: Relius has the advantage since he simply needs to land a few pokes to lock you down with Ignis pressure while he mixes you up. In CSEX his mixup and pressure game were largely gimped due to Ignis dying quickly and Hakumen catching Relius with counters whenever he was too close when/if Ignis activated them. Your main goal is to get in on Relius when Ignis is not summoned. DO NOT approach Relius when Ignis is out, neither in the air nor on the ground. If you do, he has a number of options to turn your pressure into damaging combos that lead you into the corner, which is the worst place you want to be now against him.

IAD>Agito is easily stuffed by Ignis' 4d, only use this when Ignis is gone and must be done at the equivalent tip of a j2c. If Agito is not spaced well enough in the air, Relius' AA will stuff Agito for a free FC combo for him into the corner.

Jc and 4c while decent at keepaway to hold the married couple away while you build stars, both can be beat with a well spaced 2/5b, once against pushing you into the corner. However, if you feel that Relius will try to get under jc you can use a delayed jb to CH stuff him into a nice combo, but be careful since jb also loses to 2c, if Relius decides to bait you.

Ultimately you'll have to wait for Ignis to go away like I said, or die, in order to get an opening to attack Relius. Otherwise you'll need to play patient and just build stars.

Offense: Provided you do manage get in close on Relius, it is imperative to stay on top of him in whatever way you can since you don't want him to bring back Ignis into play. A well placed Led Ley+6d while Ignis is out will lead into another damaging combo. I found it was best to back off, since nothing fruitful ever happened while trying to force a bad decision on Relius' part while ignis was out. Backing off is probably the best thing you could do. Relius won't use led ley on defense if Ignis is not out since it is not invincible to grabs.

Defense: Learn to block perfectly. That's basically the name of the game, with counters virtually gone. You'll basically have to survive Relius' onslaught on pressure by blocking perfectly until you either see an opening to hit him or jump out. The only way for Zanshin to be effective is through IB'ing his pressure. But with the lack of 6d, the only effective frame 1 counter is 2d and Yukikaze. Relius will try to pressure you into the corner and hopefully open you up near the corner for some corner screen oki. While in the corner it is important to barrier block at all times in the air ESPECIALLY if Relius ends his combos with an SMP. He is going to try and reset you with an air unblockable 4d, which has HUGE untech time in the corner.

Yukikaze should not be used at all except on occasions during wakeup. Since this is the only time you can be sure Relius will his own normals, by trying to meaty you with 2/5b/jc to keep you from jumping you out of his corner pressure. Otherwise Yukikaze will either be baited by Relius or he'll just Led Ley right through it since it's usually Ignis that triggers yukikaze. Since he can easily bait it, it's best to go for a CA with your 4 stars when being pressured by him, especially in the corner, in order to get him off of you.

2d is also dangerous to use since it can only catch mids and lows, making it nearly impossible to catch Relius since he is usually hovering above you commanding Ignis to continue his pressure on you.

This matchup feels like a 4/6-3/7 matchup in Relius' favour. Keep in mind it was Netplay so I couldn't IB for the life of me and sometimes the game didn't always input I reacted adequately to overheads. But it is in Relius' favour since there are few opportunities to land any substantial damage on Relius with or without OD in hand, and with gimped defensive tools, it's much harder to deal with Relius improved pressure which aids his good neutral game now since Ignis's health improvement makes it hard to find opportunities to go on the defensive.

I'm one person who's good with using hakumen, don't take my thoughts as absolute. Just posting these write ups until more people have the game.

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Just finished a salty runback in this matchup. I should also post it's very important to hit Ignis whenever you have, since it affects her health recovery time making the neutral game when trying to get in a bit more bearable. But be sure to not get CH by Ignis or trade since that allows relius to oki you once you're down. Also be careful of 2d due to it's new super armor attribute.

mAc, feel free to compile these notes into the format we spoke about whenever you feel like it.

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Strange, usually Relius players emphasize that you can't really hurt Ignis unlike Nirvana so it's not worth it. Maybe it changed.

And I won't be doing those comprehensive formats until later when we've collected more information. What you have now is already good.

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Before in CSEX maybe, now it's pretty important, since Ignis plays a huge part in Relius' amazing neutral game. Hitting her slows down her recovery which allows you to have more time to get in and pressure him, Led Ley becomes less of a threat without her being out. But once he brings her out while on defense, I would say it's best for you to back off since Hakumen's mixup game is already kinda weak and transparent somewhat.

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Hitting Ignis (Haha good luck) causes her to despawn similar to hitting Relius, but it will not interrupt Relius, so think about what you're going for if he's jumping at you with a follow up. I think part of our game plan now will involve trying to poke the doll to interrupt Relius' game plan. Typically they'll either try to upback away and respawn her, or they'll continue with out her and go for a combo to spawn her safely at the end. I've had some mild success blocking the combo attempts and getting at him as he's recovering there.

In retrospect, I think it has to be done while she's doing an attack. So in other words, you have to counter hit her to despawn her.

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So in other words, you have to counter hit her to despawn her.

That's what I was referring to when I said you had to hit her. When she's attacking you, you're better off hitting her then trying to block/counter her attacks. Once she despawns it takes her longer to recover her health, giving you a chance to open Relius up in that short time span.

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ignis' 2d still has a gap in it in which you can use hakumen's 2d, so if relius is using it to repeat pressure it is free

assuming it's in range, anyway.

No sane man uses 2D against Haku and isn't airborne immediately afterwords (or so I'd like to think.) But yeah, BOLO for Reliuses players like me who bait haku's 2D every time with a jump. In the matches I've had, against my Haku maining friend, 623A (his command dash, I think it is,) really has worked out for him when trying to get past my neutral. Could just be that I'm scrubby enough never to expect it coming and call it out though.

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Hotaru can be used to cancel Ignis' Val Tus. The 3 blades spinning move that Relius loves so much. I recommend hop Hotaru so the forward moment puts you in her face for it.

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Seems like most anything will work if you hit her before she starts the blades, otherwise you're pretty much gonna trade and get hit. Hotaru can get through the blades if she starts up on you.

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