[P4AU] Ken Amada vs Yukari Takeba

[VR-Raiden]

 

• Use this thread to discuss the Yukari Takeba matchup.
• Please focus more heavily on discussing how to play the matchup properly as Ken rather than who is at advantage/disadvantage.
• This post will be updated as info arises.

Round Start:

• Cannot win here so play defensive here.

 

 

Neutral:

• If she jumps dog is usually ok to harass with but on the ground dog loses to feather arrow.
• In the air you lose to arrows, bombs feather flip garu orbs.
• Her Sweep is also threatening since it beats 5B so watch out.

 

 

Offense:

• Her dp isn't good if the dog is in front of you but she can use it to escape certain corner situations and cross up attempts while hurting the dog.
• Hyper feather shot can punish you for being predictable on offense
• if you read a escape DP you can punish with dash 5B or 236A/B

 

 

Defense:

• Defense isn't a real problem unless she uses magarula.
• Magarula can be guard cancel rolled if she commits, guard cancel if she decides to go for something big.
• Learn to tell the difference between AoA and feather bomb they look similar to one another.

 

 

Punishes:

On Block:

• feather flip that isn't ex is punishable, ground arrows on whiff is bad for her.

On Reaction:

• Feather arrow can be rolled on reaction if its the A version.
• B version is more active and will punish the roll.
• If she doesn't force you to block before magarula you can punish her with fire breath.
• Hyper feather arrow should be rolled if its raw, proceed to beat her up.

 

 

Character Specific Notes:

Combos:

• nothing to note.

Mixups:

• nothing of note

[Zephyrion22]

This MU is kind of tricky  for Ken. Well, take everything with a grain of salt but here are  my impressions

 

- neutral game is kind of balanced in this MU, Koromaru can beat her out of her usual zoning tactics involving D orbs and arrows : if she wants to avoid Koromaru's offense, she'll have to commit to 236A (multi-hit arrow) or  spacing moves, like 2C or 5D orbs. Even though her zoning abilities are a bit hindered by Koromaru, she can still zone to some extend, and also rush you. Remember that Yukari is fast and is also quite good in close quarter combat, so don't be reckless with Koromaru or you'll pay it dearly. Most of the time, using fast attacks like 5C and 2C, depending on Koro's position, works better than using slower attacks like 236/214* series. Try to space well with 5B/jB and your own 236x series in addition to dog attacks to prevent her from jumping out, or using her own 236A.

Yukari becomes a monster in Awakening. I strongly recommend  to de-summon Koromaru when this happens, and only summon him with C/jC for a surprise attacks, or in the middle of pressure/combo : Magarudyne just destroys the dog regardless of how much life he had when she triggers it , and also puts you in a must-guess situation that is very dangerous for Ken : even if you do guard the mixups, you'll be unable to counter her properly if Koro is knocked out.

-On offense, you'll have to be surprisingly careful : Yukari's DP is not that damaging, but it travels a fair horizontal distance and can completely mess your spacing. It also kills the dog in one blow if he was around, so if you're not careful, you'll only have sub-par punishes at your disposition. Worst case is her hitting both you and the dog of course, since neutral without Koro is hardly bearable in this MU.

-on defense, Yukari is often forced to be very close to you to apply her mixups/pressure, so our DP isn't complete garbage here, even though it should be used very sparingly. Be wary though, her high damage output combined to her status alteration  game can completely screw you up if you're not careful. Her 5C punish route will always deal more than 4K meterless, and she can go above 6k with resources in the corner, so be wary of that whenever you want to mash out/throw tech/DP

 

Overall, I'd say the matchup is pretty balanced, with a slight edge for Yukari because of her ability to knock out Koro efficiently. You'll have to be very flexible (transitioning quickly from passive harassment with Koro to aggression with Ken  is key here) and manage your pressure well to get the upper hand !

[Justice7541]

I don't think it''s necessarily that bad, but I play against Yukari a lot cause one of the guys from locals mains her.  Here's just some random stuff I've noted:

 

- Her 5C(? the wind orb) will stuff your normals at match start if you try to press anything.  5C will beat it and take a Persona card though plus she can't do anything to punish it even if she doesn't 5C.

 

- If she has a wind ball out, running at her at an angle overly horizontal to it is a bad idea.  If the orb is above you or something, you can safely run forward as Ken runs fast enough to avoid the homing shots so long as they aren't coming from directly in front of/behind him.

 

- Ken's j.B has a huge upward hitbox above him, you can actually tag her out of the air from below if she tries to jump and set up wind ball zoning or something.

 

- Mashing 2C at neutral doesn't seem like a terrible idea in this matchup.  Koro will basically either hit her (and clear her wind orbs as well as break a card) or otherwise force her to block.  Worst case scenario, Koro runs into a low wind orb and takes a bit of damage and clears it for you so you're clear to approach.

 

- Yukari has a lot of ways to hit Koro but she doesn't really deal enough damage overall to kill him easily.  Sneaking in a Mediarama from time to time to keep Koro up works pretty well provided you cover it with Koro actions properly (i.e blocked 2C > Mediarama) since you will almost always make a net gain in health for both you and Koro.  The exception is Magarula so make sure you hold D during the superflash for that to unsummon Koro.