[Xrd] Faust vs. Ky

[Grimsley-San]

Discuss match-up here.

[Mr.Minionman]

Ky is a bit like a second Faust. They try to play similar games: projectiles > pressure game, but Faust has some great ways to handle it. To start with, Faust can crouch both versions of ground stunedge. Ky relies on getting you to block one and getting in, so deny him the satisfaction.

 

Ky can be played many ways, and one of the things Ky often tries to do is to stand outside of your normal range and throw fast projectiles from farthest range. to handle this play a careful approach avoiding projectiles on the ground, and then try to tag him with a normal or an anti-air when his back is on the wall. Ky's anti-airs are amazing, so don't try to compete with them with jump-ins.

 

A second way you see Ky playing is with a careful rushdown game. it's still generally projectile based, but his jump-ins have insane priority and he has some decent frame traps and mid-range pokes. His high-low is easy to block once you are familiar with it, but be VERY careful how you get out of his blockstrings, because he'll crank your guard bar quickly and it'll HURT. On oki he also has pretty safe crossups. Safejumps and j.D are common if Ky jumps. Faust has a knack for low profiling the j.D but you still need to be careful.

 

Finally I suggest an exercise (new to Xrd <3) for getting comfortable punishing his specials. Record 3 things in training mode for Ky, and set it to play randomly:

1. dash forward f.S > 2D > Stun Dipper *block*

2. dash forward f.S > 2D > Greed Sever *block*

3. dash forward f.S > 2D jc forward 6+HS *block*

 

Basic Ky players often try to scrub you out with strings like this, and it's important to be able to punish them reliably. Use Just defend on greed sever and punish with c.S. You can just block the Stun Dipper and punish with 2S, or you can 5D before the second hit. This is helpful because it's not uncommon for Ky to RC the last hit of the slide (or the first, really). As for the jump cancel you have a variety of anti-air options, but mistiming them could get you hit by the jump-in or an airthrow (hence the 6).

This set doesn't handle all the many others things Ky could do and will do if he's competent (like cancel or jump into a stun edge, frame trap, or 5D), but newer kys tend not to go for them anyway.

[SoWL]

It feels that crouching under Stun Edges gets me Stun Dipper'd every time just because it comes out so fast Maybe I shouldn't just crawl under it at every possible opportunity because I can...

[spec]

Dash > Faultless Defense cancel > Crawl (down forward). Practice doing this quickly to get into Faust's range and avoid Stun Edge. Throw Items when one whiffs. 2H > Scalpel when in range, the huge range of 2H often catches them off guard and if it hits them out of the startup of Stun Edge you get a counter hit and combo into Scalpel.