[CT] Ragna vs Arakune

[Siefer]

Not too familiar with this 'chicken blocking' term. I'm assuming you mean barrier blocking or perhaps jump barrier blocking?

My bad. Chicken Blocking is basically when you jump and block at the last moment. I guess you can do it with barrier, but you don't have to, I mean, if you're already timing it at the last moment, IBing isn't a big deal.

In this particular case (I remember chicken blocking from CvS 2), you don't need to be strict on the timing, just try to coincide the jump back as Arakune is diving. This also helps prevent cross-ups.

[A.X.I.S.]

I'm not much for this match but doesn't ragna's 5b rape arakune when he does his teleport dash? not to compare to a player but the A.I. commonly gets caught by it when he reappears, shed some light on this?

[Shinobi]

My bad. Chicken Blocking is basically when you jump and block at the last moment. I guess you can do it with barrier, but you don't have to, I mean, if you're already timing it at the last moment, IBing isn't a big deal.

In this particular case (I remember chicken blocking from CvS 2), you don't need to be strict on the timing, just try to coincide the jump back as Arakune is diving. This also helps prevent cross-ups.

Alright, I understand now.

Onto more pressing matters:

This is my most hated match-up. I simply just do not know what to do against even a decent Arakune let alone a good one. Getting out of Arakune's pressure when you're cursed is tough and usually results in my taking a risk. The majority of the time the risk fails and I get hit with a big combo. The times I decide not to take a risk and wait for an opening I end up getting guard broken and eat a big combo.

I know there has to be someway to get around all his bullshit but unfortunately I just don't have the match-up experience yet. Arakune players are so few and far between so when I encounter one it'd be nice to have somewhat of a game plan besides-"Try not to get cursed".

[Siefer]

I'm not much for this match but doesn't ragna's 5b rape arakune when he does his teleport dash?

not to compare to a player but the A.I. commonly gets caught by it when he reappears, shed some light on this?

That's only if you catch Arakune during his recovery frames from the teleport. This doesn't help if Arakune teleports across the screen from you. You MIGHT be able to catch him with a hell's fang...but I've never tried this, and I try to minimize my risks against Arakune.

Alright, I understand now.

Onto more pressing matters:

This is my most hated match-up. I simply just do not know what to do against even a decent Arakune let alone a good one. Getting out of Arakune's pressure when you're cursed is tough and usually results in my taking a risk. The majority of the time the risk fails and I get hit with a big combo. The times I decide not to take a risk and wait for an opening I end up getting guard broken and eat a big combo.

I know there has to be someway to get around all his bullshit but unfortunately I just don't have the match-up experience yet. Arakune players are so few and far between so when I encounter one it'd be nice to have somewhat of a game plan besides-"Try not to get cursed".

I personally think this is Ragna's worst match-up, but that's just me. There's no guaranteed way of getting out of curse. Honestly, you'll just have to hit him luckily, or hope he doesn't notice you're trying to burst your way out (if he's near you and hitting you). If he's coming in at you, ID is "ok" at hitting him, but not even that is guaranteed. 5B at 5B range (if he's actually on the ground...) is also pretty decent. When he's up close, he'll do 2A garbage, which I'm pretty sure beats your 5B (and it doesn't help with bugs flying at you from all directions).

The best way of dealing with curse is...to just sit it out. Stay away from him, but make sure he doesn't back you into a corner for his retarded corner trap. If he comes in, you can try to ID him to get out of curse. You can also try j. D or air GH, but with all that crap on the screen, it may not hit. Honestly, if the Arakune knows what he's doing, and you're cursed, you're at a pretty big disadvantage...

When not cursed, air GH is good in certain situations. J. D is also good, and j. A/B/C have limited applications as well. Air throwing isn't too shabby either depending on what he's doing. Basically, I find that if he's running away, air GH is your best option, but if he's charging in at you from the air, air GH may not always hit and you could get stuffed with a CH instead, so you'll have to see what he's doing and react accordingly. 5B at 5B range is pretty good, up close, I'm pretty sure your 2A stuffs his, but I can't verify that. Whenever you get the chance for damage, take advantage of it, and don't rely on pressure strings since the Arakune will try to jump and escape at any possible opportunity. Unless my combo leads into a 22C, I always opt for max damage combos here since I never know when I'll hit Arakune again.

The key to this match-up is patience, having very good control over Ragna's movements, and capitalizing on any opportunity you get. Despite that, as an earlier poster mentioned, the Arakune player will be rewarded for their skill before you...

[Raidhyn]

Well Arakune was my main before I switched it to Rag, although I still go back and play the evil blob from time to time. I'm not the greatest at either character but a couple of the things I noticed are... Arakune has a stupid awesome air game, engaging him in the air is generally a bad idea, however a well placed C Inferno Divider can knock him out of the air quite nicely on the way down. I haven't tested it to see if it can counter the evil dives (j.2A, j2B, j2C, etc) but ID still makes a good anti air for him. Yes, 5B punishes on teleport dash, which is great for Rags. Arakune doesn't react very well to pressure, up close and personal he only has one decent poke and that is his 2A. He has a nasty overhead though that can combo into a curse so be careful. Keeping the pressure up in general is important because arakune will generally try to throw out a cloud, curse you from the air and repeat playing keep away until you're cursed. DONT BE AFRAID OF THE CLOUDS. He only has three, a homing cloud that (slowly) follows you around, a cloud that hovers above your head, and a ring cloud that encircles him and follows him around. The clouds will curse on block so the best way to deal with it is assault through it quickly. Most scrubby Arakune characters will throw out a cloud and then pay too much attention to the clouds position instead of you allowing you to rush in and counter it easily. When you get cursed the best thing to do is to block until he goes for an attack that leaves and opening and go for a quick counter. There are gaps in the bug fest. Believe me lol. Other than that just practice the match up, i'm always willing to play some arakune to anyone who wants to practice it.

[Siefer]

Well Arakune was my main before I switched it to Rag, although I still go back and play the evil blob from time to time.

I'm not the greatest at either character but a couple of the things I noticed are...

Arakune has a stupid awesome air game, engaging him in the air is generally a bad idea, however a well placed C Inferno Divider can knock him out of the air quite nicely on the way down. I haven't tested it to see if it can counter the evil dives (j.2A, j2B, j2C, etc) but ID still makes a good anti air for him.

Yes, 5B punishes on teleport dash, which is great for Rags.

Arakune doesn't react very well to pressure, up close and personal he only has one decent poke and that is his 2A. He has a nasty overhead though that can combo into a curse so be careful. Keeping the pressure up in general is important because arakune will generally try to throw out a cloud, curse you from the air and repeat playing keep away until you're cursed.

DONT BE AFRAID OF THE CLOUDS. He only has three, a homing cloud that (slowly) follows you around, a cloud that hovers above your head, and a ring cloud that encircles him and follows him around. The clouds will curse on block so the best way to deal with it is assault through it quickly. Most scrubby Arakune characters will throw out a cloud and then pay too much attention to the clouds position instead of you allowing you to rush in and counter it easily.

When you get cursed the best thing to do is to block until he goes for an attack that leaves and opening and go for a quick counter. There are gaps in the bug fest. Believe me lol.

Other than that just practice the match up, i'm always willing to play some arakune to anyone who wants to practice it.

-ID is not "the" answer to the dives, if it were, this match-up really would be a lot easier. It will sometimes clash with the dives.

-Air GH is actually very effective for an Arakune that is running away.

-Ragna's pressure isn't as great as people make it out to be, it's very easy to get out of it as long as you aren't in a corner, and it's even better for Arakune because he can jump after he's barrier pushed you out, and then run away and continue to do bullshit. You want to see good pressure, look at Rachel.

-The overhead is bad, it's slow, the real threat up close is the fact that his 2A can beat out your 5B, you can't rely on 5B up close. I believe his 5A can also eventually combo into a move that will leave you cursed, this also beats 5B (maybe his 2A can do that too, I'm not familiar with the specifics of Arakune's combo potential).

[A.X.I.S.]

That's only if you catch Arakune during his recovery frames from the teleport. This doesn't help if Arakune teleports across the screen from you. You MIGHT be able to catch him with a hell's fang...but I've never tried this, and I try to minimize my risks against Arakune.

No i tried to hell fang, that left me open. Your better off running and throwing a 5b, well from my experience thats the case, then again you can always run barrier and throw random ID. god i need more experience on this match.

I personally think this is Ragna's worst match-up, but that's just me. There's no guaranteed way of getting out of curse. Honestly, you'll just have to hit him luckily, or hope he doesn't notice you're trying to burst your way out (if he's near you and hitting you). If he's coming in at you, ID is "ok" at hitting him, but not even that is guaranteed. 5B at 5B range (if he's actually on the ground...) is also pretty decent. When he's up close, he'll do 2A garbage, which I'm pretty sure beats your 5B (and it doesn't help with bugs flying at you from all directions).

yeah i found bug rape from all sides to annoying, especially if he's attacking in the gaps the bugs aren't hitting you, this match isn't all balls thought, you have some decent AA tools, and his ground game isn't spectacular without insects.

The best way of dealing with curse is...to just sit it out. Stay away from him, but make sure he doesn't back you into a corner for his retarded corner trap. If he comes in, you can try to ID him to get out of curse. You can also try j. D or air GH, but with all that crap on the screen, it may not hit. Honestly, if the Arakune knows what he's doing, and you're cursed, you're at a pretty big disadvantage...

yeah i actually sit it out..sometimes i wait for a chance to air IB and throw that bitch, hell if i can get a J. anything i'll be happy, normally i refrain from GH out of fear of air rape into curse.

When not cursed, air GH is good in certain situations. J. D is also good, and j. A/B/C have limited applications as well. Air throwing isn't too shabby either depending on what he's doing. Basically, I find that if he's running away, air GH is your best option, but if he's charging in at you from the air, air GH may not always hit and you could get stuffed with a CH instead, so you'll have to see what he's doing and react accordingly. 5B at 5B range is pretty good, up close, I'm pretty sure your 2A stuffs his, but I can't verify that. Whenever you get the chance for damage, take advantage of it, and don't rely on pressure strings since the Arakune will try to jump and escape at any possible opportunity. Unless my combo leads into a 22C, I always opt for max damage combos here since I never know when I'll hit Arakune again.

The key to this match-up is patience, having very good control over Ragna's movements, and capitalizing on any opportunity you get. Despite that, as an earlier poster mentioned, the Arakune player will be rewarded for their skill before you...

Man this match is stupid, enough said.

[Raidhyn]

Arakune's 5A doesn't combo into a curse. The 2A does however. Bleh.

[feri]

I think you can ID between 6a and 5d (not sure if arakune can hitconfirm 6a which is 0 SD on block) alternatively you can 5a arakune out 6a but im not too keen on doing something like that myself. 6a beats dives but its better to chicken block alot of the times. Ragna's 5a whiffs on arakune crouching. Arakune's 2a only combos into curse from REALLY close. Not sure on the GH while arakune is in the air... you'll get nailed by some j.6a/b/c sometimes and it goes into curse. One thing that irks me is arakune being under you in the air then putting out a cloud... that shit is uber.

[Infectellect]

This matchup is super hard. What can you really do? The start of the match Arakune jumps backs, and starts non-stop bell bugs, spit bugs, and clouds. Non-stop. It's almost impossible not to get hit by one of those and become cursed. Then it's stupid BS.

[Shinobi]

Yea, I've given up on this match-up. You know a match-up is lopsided when before the fight even starts you're already 99% sure you're going to lose. So, my gameplan is to go maniacally ballistic. Spam everything in my arsenal. Something is bound to hit eventually and when it does I'm so far up in that gooey bastard I might as well be fuckin' him. Let loose the Blood-Edge demon and show that broken slimeball that you ain't afraid to lose and that you're going out in a blaze of glory. Honestly, that's what I do now. I lose... a lot, but at least the matches are over with quickly and I can proceed on to the next fight.

[Infectellect]

Yea, I've given up on this match-up. You know a match-up is lopsided when before the fight even starts you're already 99% sure you're going to lose. So, my gameplan is to go maniacally ballistic. Spam everything in my arsenal. Something is bound to hit eventually and when it does I'm so far up in that gooey bastard I might as well be fuckin' him. Let loose the Blood-Edge demon and show that broken slimeball that you ain't afraid to lose and that you're going out in a blaze of glory.

Honestly, that's what I do now. I lose... a lot, but at least the matches are over with quickly and I can proceed on to the next fight.

Too bad the Arakune I play against is my RL best friend, and it tends to be this matchup over everything else. It is a lopsided scenario, for sure, but I am keeping a positive mentality. Playing Arakune over and over is increasing my skills in movement, control, blocking, and timing. Everything has a positive and a negative. The negative being, I want to rip my hair out, and punch my friend in the groin.

[TITANIUM BEAST!!!]

This matchup is super hard. What can you really do? The start of the match Arakune jumps backs, and starts non-stop bell bugs, spit bugs, and clouds. Non-stop. It's almost impossible not to get hit by one of those and become cursed. Then it's stupid BS.

Read your opponent and counter. If they do the same thing at match start every time (which a lot of online Arakunes do), then you have options.

Most Arakunes I've fought online don't know how to deal with someone who actually knows the matchup, so they autopilot a lot. For example, 9 times out of 10, at match start, the Arak player will do their little highjump back, double jump and then summon a cloud trick. I then do a D Inferno Divider and get a free CH to start the round off (juggle with whatever you want). You can also use air GH as others have mentioned earlier in the thread.

This is definitely Ragna's worst matchup, but it's winnable as long as you keep in mind what counters are open to you in what situations. Most important thing is DON'T GET CURSED. If you can avoid getting cursed, the match is really not that bad. Getting cursed is easy though, which is part of why this matchup is so hard. Make sure you have a strategy for dealing with clouds (the one that follows Arakune is probably the hardest one to deal with).

[Infectellect]

Read your opponent and counter. If they do the same thing at match start every time (which a lot of online Arakunes do), then you have options.

Most Arakunes I've fought online don't know how to deal with someone who actually knows the matchup, so they autopilot a lot. For example, 9 times out of 10, at match start, the Arak player will do their little highjump back, double jump and then summon a cloud trick. I then do a D Inferno Divider and get a free CH to start the round off (juggle with whatever you want). You can also use air GH as others have mentioned earlier in the thread.

This is definitely Ragna's worst matchup, but it's winnable as long as you keep in mind what counters are open to you in what situations. Most important thing is DON'T GET CURSED. If you can avoid getting cursed, the match is really not that bad. Getting cursed is easy though, which is part of why this matchup is so hard. Make sure you have a strategy for dealing with clouds (the one that follows Arakune is probably the hardest one to deal with).

I agree, most do the high jump back to cloud spam. I have been starting with GH, which usually can clip them and then followup, or if the GH misses you can time the follow up to hit. They usually see my dash to ID coming, so I tend to stay away. I'm not very good with ID on command and combos yet.

Getting cursed is the problem, of course. I can usually start the round ahead, getting a good combo or a few good counters in. The problem is when they get distance, have a bell bug, spit bug, and clouds going at all times. It's really hard to get through all 3 of those things, since clouds are curse on block. They'll will just sit and wait. I pray for the negative penalty to apply to Arakune, but it takes half the match, especially if they move forward and back to try and stop it.

That is seriously the only part of the match that really gets me. It's like high floating cloud, bell bug, and spit bugs at my feet. High middle and low are covered, and I generally have to EAT a curse, then poke out of it to get any pressure, most of the match I can keep in his face, but sometimes he can get that distance.

[A.X.I.S.]

Yea, I've given up on this match-up. You know a match-up is lopsided when before the fight even starts you're already 99% sure you're going to lose. So, my gameplan is to go maniacally ballistic. Spam everything in my arsenal. Something is bound to hit eventually and when it does I'm so far up in that gooey bastard I might as well be fuckin' him. Let loose the Blood-Edge demon and show that broken slimeball that you ain't afraid to lose and that you're going out in a blaze of glory.

Honestly, that's what I do now. I lose... a lot, but at least the matches are over with quickly and I can proceed on to the next fight.

tch dont give up so early sport, arakune isnt that hard, if he's in the air stay close to punish the cloud, if he decides to dive then block and 5B or 2A his shit, he will get up and 2A you out of after dive, the ones i fought always do.

this guys have the best idea..just take your time..this match isnt even hell, trust me they curse and assrape, doesnt mean you have a 0 chance.

things i noticed about arakune's.

they like to jump alot and dive on me.

they spam 2D and 6D.

they like inching me towards the corner.

when they dive they use small pokes.

they burst early. (have 90% hp.)

and will try to stay out of your range so they can safe cloud.

my counters

i honestly dont get how all these work.

when they dive depending on landing i either 5B them or i 2A into a bnb combo.

when they spam 2D i IAD and jump C them, again a combo.

i love it when they inch me to the corner, they think they have you and get confident and use cloud...dumbasses i rush them and punish, or wait until they get closer but not so close they start that loop and mash.

when they dive and i know their close, i 2A them, this always win for me i just dont understand.

god dont ever burst so early with arakune, i dont care how much i jack you, bursting so early cuts my work in half, and you wont have a defense when i gain momentum on my burst.

obviously rush them when they try to stay away from them..make sure you know your cloud so you wont eat it and take a 5xxx combo, yes i ate several of those....

well thats all i got from arakune, i kept those in mind and manage to win 2/3 arakune's.

need more experience zah.

[Darkhonor90]

Just a small thing. I was watching a Ragna vs Arakune video the other daya nd I noticed this Jap ragna player that would jump into air bell and Instant block it and air dash after the bell. Arakune's would setup a ground curse cloud and then a bell. The Ragna would jump into the bell and airdash forward C to avoid the cloud and advance on the arakune that is on the other side.

[A.X.I.S.]

Just a small thing. I was watching a Ragna vs Arakune video the other daya nd I noticed this Jap ragna player that would jump into air bell and Instant block it and air dash after the bell.

Arakune's would setup a ground curse cloud and then a bell. The Ragna would jump into the bell and airdash forward C to avoid the cloud and advance on the arakune that is on the other side.

can i have a link, i wanna see.

[Xill]

Yeah, I saw that. You gotta run-high jump that bell to get in on him, but you do have to remember that Arakune has a GREAT Anti air. Since he's still zoning you out after that and its your only way in be, a lil cautious flyin' in on him like that. The bell's recover is not something huge. He can still catch ya.

[Shinobi]

Ora.

[Darkhonor90]

can i have a link, i wanna see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX0eTZWB9Qw

He does it plenty of times

[kro_]

I love how that video starts with Arakune practicing 6c loop against CPU Jin.

[A.X.I.S.]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX0eTZWB9Qw

He does it plenty of times

excellent.

[Starplate]

I got hit by a curse and then got cornered and the guy just spammed D till I ran out of barrier . bullshit of a match up

[A.X.I.S.]

I got hit by a curse and then got cornered and the guy just spammed D till I ran out of barrier . bullshit of a match up

lol you got caught in corner loop.

from what i know arakune got plenty of loops, i hate 6a loop.

[Nanaya]

this matchup's a blast... <_< i find that IB -> DP gets me out of a lot of situations against The Blob. but, can anyone help me with a good way to try and stay on top of Arakune? i find that the only time the match can go well for me is if i can stay on him, but when he does a lot of things, whether attacks or movement, it'll mess up his hitbox, making this miss. I literally have seen him finish a move, watch him go to neutral standing animation, thrown a 5B, and have it go straight through his head, causing no damage and getting me punished. Any advice is more than welcome, as I feel this is Ragna's toughest matchup.