KM Riku Posted October 1, 2010 Posted October 1, 2010 I think this need a topic, right? Well...for the first time today I fought against a very good Valkenhayn...it was awesome to meet someone that could do all his combos without problems. Anyway, this matchup seems kinda annoying for Tao. Valk's 2C is a fucking good anti-air against her, I found myself falling for it a lot of times until I get used...it gives me Nu's 2C feelings. Valk seems to beat Tao air-to-air completly, his j.B beats both Tao j.C and j.B and he still get a pretty good damage from it. I didn't see any good advantange in this match for now since getting close to Valk is difficult since you have to be careful about his 2C. For God's sake he doesn't have any DP, so you can pressure him fine But anyway, I still need to get more experience with this matchup...but for now this seem a very unconfortable matchup for Tao.
Cryingvoid Posted October 1, 2010 Posted October 1, 2010 I'd say more tricky stuff for the old man might work. Say, triple jumps, sticky kitty crossup jumps, of course j.4b, and so on. Valk is doubtlessly a character with amazing spacing potential, but he has not many tricks up his sleeve, so spacing and big dmg is all he's actually got against Tao. Speaking about his spacing, it looks very much like one of Litchi. Litchi's is a greater one even, I dare say. So just be quick (or be dead), and since he has no DPs, - assault him hard as you see the opportunity.
Ronove Posted October 2, 2010 Posted October 2, 2010 It's still too early to be able to give a solid opinion on this matchup. Right now I'd say this matchup is slightly in Tao's favor, because her mobility is simply better (even against Valk's wolf form) she can bait a lot of Valk's pokes and get in on their whiff. Watchout for Valk's frame traps (6B, 6C, 3C all set up frametraps) and fakeouts (his 4D when wolf canceling). His blockstrings are pretty good and have a lot of high-lows, but they're also easy to IB. If Valk is approaching from midscreen by doing j.D > C > D he is likely going to j.B or barrier block, in both cases Tao's 6A should be good enough, and of course airthrow. As for air vs air when he's in human form, his j.B is only good at horizontal range, don't forget Tao can use three jumps, and you want to be above him rather than below him (he has j.214B for that but it's too slow) Besides that, he's not that great upclose so RTSD once you get in.
OrionXElite Posted October 5, 2010 Posted October 5, 2010 When blocking against Valk, you HAVE to watch when you try and IB>Poke or whatever out of pressure, some of his best stuff is the slowest. For instance, his 6B is +8 on block so on IB, you HAVE to keep blocking! 6C is +6 but easy to read so if you IB just watch for Wolf cancels as he can Kara Cancel it as well for extra shenanigans. Also in case no one knows, it may not LOOK like one, but his best launcher, 236C IS an overhead! If he hit confirms it well, he can cap out at about 5.5k from it so be careful. Low profile is gonna be your best friend for this as it should go under everything except 2B, 2C(point blank), 3C and 236A/B. Also watch how you bait his wolf dashes. If he cancels into wolf form with 4/7D or he just does [w]4/7C, the little back flip he does has invul frames on it so he can actually bait out some moves very well. One other random thing to note, depending on his spacing, some general things won't combo such as 5B>5C>236A won't combo at max 5C range so just something to keep in mind that spacing of his normals can very much vary his combo abilities. Best place to be is somewhere just out of Valk's 5B range so you can make him commit to some slower normals and punish from there.
Ronove Posted February 27, 2011 Posted February 27, 2011 Don't know if it was already mentioned somewhere else (not in this thread though), Tao is able to go into her TL from 5B > 3C at any range against Valk, no matter where you are. Valk's hitbox when falling in the air seems to be big enough that she can reach with her taunt without having to hitconfirm really close to the opponent. This means that any hitconfirmed 5B leads to 4.3k damage anywhere on the screen. It's a useful thing to know considering that it's important to get a good life lead in this matchup since Valk can be pretty damn annoying once he manages to start his pressure game when Tao doesn't have 50% meter to use yet.
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