GGACR/I-No/Matchup/Ky Kiske

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The General Gameplan

Try to dance near full screen and as close as 2/3 screen to create an opening safely. Ky does about as good a job as we do at converting long range hits into combos into knockdown, and while his damage is lower he's much harder to escape once he gets the knockdown or even just gets you blocking. Ky has some highly effective tools that are lower commitment than what we're using, he doesn't have to spend meter to set up as many conversions (and can instead use it to extend pressure and run additional mixups now that the guard bar has been cranked), and since he has a conventional dash he's pretty effective at closing the distance to land a long range hit that he can actually convert. The range where it's safe to dance is actually much smaller than you think when it comes to committed air options like airdashes and note without FRC. It's difficult, but you'll want to bait an over extension from him that you can counter poke such as 6P or 2H that you can dive knockdown, but it's reasonable to get him blocking a note so you can create an advantage or even get a mixup opportunity. Alternatively, if he overextends when you're close to each other you can use that to get in while keeping initiative, or to hit him and start the general gameplan of damage > knockdown > mixup > repeat.

If you're up close it's a lot easier if he doesn't have meter to burn to keep you blocking while he repositions as he wishes and runs mixups. You're going to be rolling the dice quite a bit, and the dice are slightly stacked against you because some of his options will cover more than one of your good options. Generally speaking if Ky doesn't react to your movements to beat the option you did, you can wiggle just enough to get away, but it's reliable for skilled Ky players to react to your attempts to be wild with counterpokes, or your attempts reposition after you condition him into playing it safe against your wild options. That said, you're more explosive if you guess correctly.

This is the kind of matchup where I-No players and Ky players say the matchup is the other character's favor or is even. That said, the key here isn't the damage or lack of it. It's Ky's neutral having an edge, and his ability to control the game when he gets I-No blocking a little better than I-No does when she gets Ky blocking. As I-No if you want to make Ky feel like the matchup is in your favor, learn how to win at neutral since that's "supposed" to be his strong point. Learn to counterpoke with 6P or 5K when he poorly spaces jump-ins or is too predictable with them. Learn to dance around and bait anti-airs. Learn to walk since hoverdashing can get you 6P'd really easily. Watch out for his air-to-air options winning unexpectedly since some finesse is involved (you might do the right thing in IBing a ground string before trying to beat Greed Sever with j.P, just for j.P to barely whiff and you die anyway, because you did the j.P slightly too early). And absolutely make sure to recognize that Ky could run a decent neutral game with just 2S, j.S, and 2H. That recognition alone shows how much more effective those normals are in this matchup than I-No's tools, and how you can't lose focus by trying to "out random" your opponent. There are key moments where that works, but a skilled patient Ky can reliably shut that down, and whoever messes up first may not get a second chance. Ky will of course use all of his tools as he optimizes, because 2D can both beat STBT and also low profile under TK dive... Greed Sever is another such tool that anti-airs while beating lows, but it trades startup speed for massive range...


Your Opponent's Gameplan

Ky will generally get you under his "rainbow" of BS where he's the king. If you're outside of the rainbow you can actually play the game, but he's still highly effective at this matchup even if you can escape.

Generally his "rainbow" occupies a space from in front of him out to maybe as far as Stun Dipper reaches? There's a fun MSPaint diagram somewhere. Between his long normals (some which are disjointed), effective projectiles and irritating special moves such as Greed Sever and Stun Dipper, Ky can easily lock you down. It's very difficult to counterpoke, and can be difficult to escape.

Breakdown By: Insert_Player_Here

Spacing & Advantage (By Screen Position)

Up Close

Round Start Range

Long Range

It's deceptive, but Ky can actually still be in range to blow you up even from around 2/3 screen. Recognize that you have to be somewhat defensive at this range, similar to how you'd fight Axl. What Ky lacks in the ability to harass you at this range (which is still there, just not as good as ours or other characters'), he makes up for by committing a little less and slipping into and out of this range quickly. If the Ky is using his j.D defensively well enough, even if you read his moves and hit him "safely" from this range, the j.D will save him and give him the advantage instead. He's less likely to use it defensively from further away, so you have to dance at and just outside of long range to really create advantage situations... unless your opponent is taking unnecessary risks I guess.

Full Screen

Ky can mash out S Stun Edge faster than we can defensively intercept with notes, and he builds meter faster when we clash projectiles too. Therefore the gameplan is to try to safely shoot notes above them and then force Ky to block them, so that you can shoot another note with initiative and move a little bit to bait Ky to do air stun edge, H stun edge, or some other option. If you have to intercept a stun edge due to poor timing, do it and figure out what to do. If you have to block a stun edge try to air IB it to reduce the blockstun as much as possible. Intercepting Stun Edges with notes is still OK, but it's not a viable long term strategy as he has the edge there. Do it as needed to avoid damage if you mess up.

Once you have Ky blocking a note when you weren't forced to block or dodge a Stun Edge, you get the ability to safely reposition. If you were full screen when Ky blocked you don't have enough time to really enforce a mixup, though you may have time to get closer and use FB note to force him to act, and if he acts wrong you can mix him up or force him to air FD and burn meter (or possibly even air unblockable).

If Ky decides to reposition and "get in" when you're not committing to something, you can out-dance him and possibly either blow him up or safely escape.

Button Interactions

  • 5P:
  • 2P:
  • 6P:
  • 5K:
  • 2K:
  • 6K:
  • c.S:
  • f.S:
  • 2S:
  • 5H:
  • 2H:
  • 6H:
  • 5D:
  • 2D:
  • j.P:
  • j.K:
  • j.S:
  • j.H:
  • j.D:


Special Moves

Pressure

Escaping Pressure

Special/Notable Confirms

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