[CS1] Hakumen vs Arakune

[ryokoalways]

An additional note: If you are too slow to punish jD via AD, use 6B to step over it. Unless you are asleep, you should react in time.

[BladeOfJustice7]

If you've blocked the legs once, he won't be able to walk into and launch you.

True, but I'm saying this to people who haven't gotten hit by the legs after he starts up the attack, he may have fired it without you touching him, and you'll be in for a surprise when he moves and knocks you into his beam.

That's all I was trying to get at.

An additional note: If you are too slow to punish jD via AD, use 6B to step over it. Unless you are asleep, you should react in time.

Wow that's a useful bit of info tested it out and it's true, and uses for 2d against arakune's jd? I see it used in matches occasionally.

[Tofu Warrior]

This channel is an excellent resource for Haku-men vs. Arakune match videos. There are maybe 30 - 40 videos here alone.

[Warhound]

Here's how I fight Ara. And cut me some slack, I'm not as high-tier at giving out advice as Spark is.

Offense

Many times, starting out the match with a sj.C or IAD j.C will be sufficient as a lot of Arakunes think: "get away and set up curse traps". That doesn't mean you should start every match with one, just confirm that he starts jumping away and react accordingly to it. Don't let him set up his little obstacle course, keep on him.

If he does slip away, just wait for an opportunity to hit him while he's doing something. Deploying a cloud or j.D, for example. Even if he blocks your j.C it will still ground him, and give you an opportunity to do some ground pressure, and possibly get a hit confirm into a nice meaty combo.

Clouds are a pain in the ass, but they aren't something that should dominate your entire offensive strategy. If you see an opportunity to hit him, the pay-off will be worth the little bump to his curse meter. But that doesn't mean you should just absorb every cloud he puts out, that'll put in you some real trouble. Only take the cloud hit when you can afford it. Spark has some excellent advice to weave around and deal with clouds in the above post as well.

One thing to really watch out for is Ara's 5C. This thing has excellent invul frames and IIRC it's jump cancelable on block and the hit box is quite large. So IAD into a barrier block isn't the best answer for this situation as the offensive could be turned against you instantly. Try to land just shy of 5C's reach and begin pressure there.

Defense

Arakune's mix-up is pretty weak. 6A is his only really notable threat, and often times it follows a series of 2As. So if you see the low jabs, chances are a 6A is going to follow. j.B is a major pain in the ass, and he will use it to close gaps. It can be countered with a j./6/5D if you can get the weird timing down or a real quick Hotaru.

Something to watch out for is his 2D, which is very spammable and you should do your best not to block too many of those, because the curse he can get off of those builds up pretty quickly. Not much I can really say about this, just jump out of it and keep going.

Defense Under Curse

As long as you entered curse mode without being hit initially, you still have a chance to come out of this round mostly unscathed. There are few things to watch out for:

1. Teleport (spam) cross-ups: Some Arakunes will literally just spam teleport back and forth in an attempt to get you to block in the wrong direction. It's pretty easy to see coming, and shouldn't give you much trouble. Regardless, watch out for it.

2. Grabs: I'm not sure if getting hit by bees first makes all of Ara's grabs become purple/pink grabs, but I think it is. So grabbing won't be a huge concern, so long as your reaction time doesn't suck that bad.

3. Mix-ups: Like I said before, the thing to watch out for is 6A, which usually follows after a series of 2As. Occasionally, they'll confuse you a little and appear in front of you only to instantly do 6A. The only other mix-up on the ground I can think of is his 6C. And if you goes ahead with all three hits, well then you have a free pass to mess him up. Just use 6D on the third hit of his 6C and you can do some damage to him while in curse.

4. Projectile Barrier: If you do manage to make one, make sure to protect it. That's right, protect it. Do that and it will protect you in turn. Reason why, is because Arakune can easily disperse the barrier by jumping into it while blocking, so if you can keep him out, he'll likely spam bees, and if he doesn't, then go on the offensive. I've never really made good use out of this method though, it's a thought however.

After Curse wears off, it's just the same stuff as before. Keep pressure on, pick the right moment to go on offense and block block block if you get cursed again. Anyways, this is just my mindset when it comes to the match-up. I don't know how much it'll help against pros and such.

[qwerty]

walljumpman vs copperdabbit @ 59 minutes in

let's see if anyone here can point out what he did wrong

[mAc Chaos]

I'll give it a shot. :3

59:30 Oh man, he's up against Arakune. Mistake #1!!!!!

59:40: OK right at the beginning I feel like you should've been going after Arakune, instead of launching yourself full screen and letting Arakune set up his traps. Now you're screwed.

60:21 Feels like you're trying to jump in on Arakune too much. Arakune's 5C is ridiculous. I have a hard time thinking what you can do when Arakune has all that stuff set up though.

60:55 Time for round 2. You jump full screen again.

61:32 I would've just tried to block out the curse, since what just happened here usually happens, but I can understand trying to make the bubble.

62:00 Good, didn't get CH this time. NICE counter assault!

63:00 lol they're freaking out, but at least you're building up stars. Copper was obviously fine with just running down the clock on you from the way he kept sustaining the void. I'm not sure if zoning is the best approach. But you can build up stars, and you're likely to get cursed if you try to get in through his obstacle course. On the other hand... it seems like it would just give Arakune the chance to completely tilt the field to his advantage.

63:17 Argh, that was an expensive use of stars. I don't even bother with Zantetsu. Just Tsubaki if you want an overhead.

63:30 Good Hotaru FC into the corner. But then you just let him out for free. Yes, you were almost cursed, but backing out just makes it easier for him to fill the bar.

63:58 Ah, now you're pressuring him. Too bad you don't have any stars left.

64:00 Now you start the round off by going right into his face, and get him in the corner right away. It looks like this was the right way to approach.

65:00 That curse mixup...

66:01 Good Tsubaki.

66:52 Trying to pressure Arakune while cursed... that's just asking for trouble. I guess you thought that getting caught in curse mixup guaranteed getting hit anyway, so you wanted to keep him away from you.

67:23 Awesome.

68:20 Argh, you jumped into like every cloud.

There were a lot of specific situations where certain attacks might have been better than others, but those were pretty much judgement calls in the heat of the moment. Seems like you had some tourney nerves too.

Anyway, there's what I thought while the match was going on, although I don't have that much experience against CS Arakune, so maybe there's some matchup specific stuff that could help instead of general things. Plus, Copper is just a great Arakune.

I can only imagine what this matchup will be like in CS2.

Edited January 9, 2011 by mAc Chaos

[Sophisticat]

Too many/bad use of counters. He also let the Arakune faceroll over him when he should have had him respecting his space. Zoning seems a bit disordered and without a strategy in mind, but that might just be me. I saw a couple spots where meter was blown for no reason instead of setting up mixup, too.

Technically, good Haku, though execution seems a bit rough in some areas. I'd also have chosen different combos in some situations, but whatever. I'm guessing this was a tourney setting, so not too much judgement on my part here. Everyone drops combos come tourney time.

That's about how I see it, basically.

[qwerty]

you guys aren't exactly wrong, but you're thinking too technically. yeah, vineeth could stand to learn the double j.C combos and he needs to learn to play footsies vs arakune, but those aren't his biggest problems.

quite simply, he gave copperdabbit too much respect. it was probably a combination of choking and lack of matchup experience as opposed to a conscious effort, but the point remains. notice how he stopped using counters almost entirely in the later rounds? or how he stopped blocking 6A? or when he blocked the crossup, only to get nailed by the low? stuff like that is telling me that he's overthinking and giving dabbit too much credit. as good of a player as dabbit is, he struggles against people who can block his mixups because his footsies are rather subpar (sorry jared ).

but yeah, i think you guys were on the right track; though like vineeth, you're thinking too much and about the wrong things.

[Sophisticat]

I see, thanks for the explanation. Nice to see I was right with him respecting Arakune too much, though I should have known it would be part of something larger.

And lol, I half expected you to bust out with "dudes, he mashed Hotaru, wtf is wrong with you?" (Which he did, actually. Those air Hotarus should have been air throws imo. >_>)

[qwerty]

oh no, mashing hotaru is a good thing; especially when you've learned from the best.

[WallJumpMan]

ok honestly i probably should i have look at this match up thread before going to the fucking tournament :/

i have always been getting pwned by arakune at tournies which means especially by Whiteboywilly and Jared

its a match up you have to play sooooo differently then all of your others and wasnt rly experienced in it ....at all

i literally jumped into to every fucking cloud also i didnt really know about the whole 2ding the second hit of arakune's 2d (which jared told me after the match cuz spark did it to him alot apperently) and could have been pretty helpful cuz i was eatin alot of curse meter from that

i guess the few little execution problems may have came from first time grand final tourney nerves (i usually dont drop anything honestly)

also the thing about me just over respecting jared is kinda true

at one point i was just like WTF DO I DO

if i jump in i will get anti air 5c'd and if i dont clouds make me eat shit and just made me overall flustered/afraid and kinda backed off a few time in which i shouldnt have

also i just stopped attempting to counter almost completely

*sigh* what do you expect tho honestly jared has been playing blazblue since beginning (just rly good at fg games in general) and i just a totally overall better player than me (same thing with alot of other players there)

next tournament i honestly dont care about placing high

I JUST WANT TO LEARN THIS FUCKING MATCH UP

and also maybe just learn guilty gear with alex

[qwerty]

i was talking with copperdabbit yesterday about this matchup, and how skewered it is in hakumen's favor. we both came to the conclusion that anyone capable of blocking arakune mixups is untouchable while sitting in the void. plus, any method of approach arkaune tries can be easily punished, be it with 5/6A, hotaru, j.D, whatever.

just something to keep in mind if you're struggling with this matchup.