[CS2] Lambda vs Arakune

[kenja0]

Matchup: 5.5 - 4.5

CS2 Arakune vs Lambda

"You're a shadow of your former self, Eddie." -Random person opinion of Arakune.

2D the game. What? Arakune buffs? Fine.

General

6D and 2D poop on Arakune. He's an air combat character that sets up traps to catch people in curse. He has to fight against someone who's main job is to punish, especially easy against airborne targets. To make it worse for him, his air mobility isn't any faster than that of Tager walk speed. The floor is just filled with AA guns swords.

If you aren't in position for a 6D/2D, dash to position oneself or jump for a j.(2)D. Mobility is not only good, in this match in particular, it's devastatingly difficult for him to catch a moving target. Even though it's hard for him to hit you, you should never let your guard down just in case. He may trap you in a way that blocks your positioning and movement and you have to do something risky like absorb a bit of curse.

Curse Attempts: 2D/6D/5D

6D for Arakune seems to have changed slightly. Now the bellbug falls slightly faster and farther away from Arakune. This makes the sweetspot for one of his blindspots even smaller than before. It makes it harder to calculate when he gets in the air. If Arakune is grounded, don't be in range for this.

2D hits twice. Sometimes, if you get hit by the first, it vacuums you into the second.

5D is only going to be done in blockstring. It's pretty hard to stop it from happening but if you can predict it, backdash before it happens. It's got abysmally low range.

j.D

One of the biggest games for Arakune to play. A bug can appear only the ground in five places: in front of Arakune (5D), below Arakune (2D), behind Arakune(4D), bellbug range (3D) and far forward in front of Arakune (6D). You can completely nullify them by hiding in Arakune's blindspots. Learn those blindspots and hide in them, dash around them, jump above them, aerial swords him (for air stall), etc. You can shoot him while he's doing it on your spot to stop its hitbox from touching you, but that's not preferred if you have to guess it. Trading with him is not preferred. The bugs also hit low, so if you get stuck between a bellbug and a curse cloud, block it.

Curse Cloud: j.236D

3 different clouds that Arakune can summon with 3 different behaviors. One follows your x-axis movement and stays at a set y height. One covers Arakune and moves to his location. The last one follows you and attempts to move to your location. These clouds are pretty slow, but don't get trapped in them or by them. Also, they seem to have gotten nerfed now and they last for only 7 seconds. Doesn't mean they can't get you. The player tracking one is especially dangerous when Arakune teleports from one edge of the screen to the other.

j.236236D

This super for Arakune has gotten revamped. It's now low blockable, however, it now tracks the opponent and nets 100% curse or 50% curse if he started a combo while in curse mode... fuuuu. This is the only thing- THE ONLY THING that makes shooting 2D hard. All those blindspots go away as soon as he gets that 50 meter, and he has invincibility with it too.

Curse Mode

Obviously, who the hell wants to mess with that crap? If Arakune scores that hit, you're going to get combo'd for a ton of your health. Dashing is vulnerable to getting hit by bugs. Jumping and air blocking is only a bit safer because of unpredictable movement from blockstun. Try to make sure Arakune has to aim to hit you and never get locked down in a blockstring- it's bad.

Arakune can aim his bugs to come at 3 different distances on the screen: left side/center/right side. The trick is, Arakune needs to hit with C and D bugs to start his combo. C (underground bug) has mega hitstun that locks the player in and D (heaven bug) hits a million times with hitstun preventing the player to do anything. These bugs also require the longest startup and recovery. A and B bugs are not as severe: they can still lead into C/D bugs, but at that point your opponent would have to be planning the trajectory a considerable amount ahead of time. No one likes moving across the minefield, but watch your openings and make it through the fray. If you have to take a hit that won't lead to C/D, then take it. Remember, your goal is to be as far away from Arakune as possible- that mixup potential covered by bugs is extremely scary.

Blockstrings

Super Gay with Curse. Arakune has multiple tools to teleport, whether it be at the edge of the screen, dashing in front of you, diving or even doing his movement feints (214A/B/C). You have to judge what direction he's coming from and when it's going to cross you up. Arakune also has an invisibility mode which kinda makes it worse, but a good player should always have their eye on the opponent, even if they're harder to see. However, the invisibility is not there to hide Arakune's body, it's there to mask his attacks.

Arakune's best approach move is a j.B. This attack hits a random number of times with little hitstun- doesn't mean it isn't useful though. This attack hits everything below Arakune. The fact that Arakune can cancel his wonky airdash means that he's a falling j.B waiting to frametrap you into some close range cursing setups. Don't let him get this off... especially since he's not supposed to be that close anyway.

Arakune can start his own physical blockstring with his fast overheads and lows (6A/2A/j.C). He may also start eating at your primers. Luckily, Arakune's blockstring potential is as fundamentally weak as Lambda's. The overheads are the only thing you have to worry about. If Arakune jump cancels, he's not fast enough to get a good mixup in from the air. And then suddenly, curse makes this scary...

To Tech or Not To Tech

At some points, he may want to end a curse combo. The question is, should you tech or not? Think about the mechanic of the game: damage and hitstun prorate over a combo that by the end of it, the combo becomes techable and the damage is minuscule. People usually hang around in blue beat heaven because the damage remains small. It's better to take an extra 10 or 20 damage during a blue beat combo in place of a new mixup that may lead to an extra 4000+ damage on you in a new combo. Opportunities for that curse meter to drain don't come often enough.

The downside to this strategy, however, is what if the blue beat lasts too long that it automatically starts a new combo? That's something you have to judge.

Another downside is, if his combo blue beats at the beginning, you may be better off teching so he has to work for another blockstring (a blue beat combo usually means his timing went off somewhere and that can potentially force the remainder of the combo to be more techable in places than other since positioning can get messed up as well). No use getting hit with a combo he can't confirm for full damage.

Exp. Share with us some knowledge.

I'll update with feedback

Edited August 25, 2011 by kenja0

[Fireryda]

It's also something to note that FoG (j.236236D) is fully invul and if you're utterly destroying him with swords from full screen, by the time he's almost dead he'll guaranteed have 50% from getting beat up so be careful with that.

But yeah just run around and 6d/2d him out of the sky and 6D his bellbug when you can cause he can use it as a shield to set up a cloud which is.. annoying. 214D is used sparingly in this matchup as he can just nullify with 2d and j.d.

Watch out for j.d's (not good if he hits you before swords) and 3C's (which is about 3/4 screen distance low ?). He can only cross-up teleport when he's on the edge of the screen and it'll move him to the other edge at the same height so just 6d/2d him. If he does a 2C to catch you landing from a whiff'd sword or something, just block it. That land shark has stupid priority that any chances to stuff it outside of 5c/5d/3c will probably earn you a FATAL.

His blockstrings aren't that troublesome as long as you remember your no.1 priority is to get away. Don't try to fight him up close when he has momentum as j.b shits all over 6A and will probably stuff 2c before it comes out, or he can bait it with a j.d into 100% curse.

If he ends his blockstring with 5D you could probably get out there as it's massively negative and he has to jump cancel. Backdash beats iad j.b,j.a but loses to j.6a/b/c.

If i'm not mistaken, these things lead into 100% curse.

FoG

Low Air throw

j.D

2A

6A

[someonewhodied]

Any of these will instacurse you so watch out:

5D (CH)

5D (Air hit)

Low Air throw

236236D

2C (FC)(RCed)

6B (to 236236D)

6A(Leads to 6B)

5A (Leads to 6B)

2A (Leads to 6B)

And these will curse you ~60-70%

5C

j.4/2/5D

You know what? The instant you hear "COUNTER!" or "FATAL", burst. Makes things easier. You shouldn't need more than 1 burst a match anyways.

[cookiehours]

Against a really good Kune, this matchup is a nightmare. Recently fought an arrogant Kune player and had some trouble with his movement.

[lilseph]

Against a really good Kune, this matchup is a nightmare. Recently fought an arrogant Kune player and had some trouble with his movement.

That could be said about a lot of things. I play against a very solid tager friend and me and him go even. Should we go even in that MU, NO! but he is a solid player and he is good at approaching. Same thing can be said about kune, this MU is one of the easiest MU's Lambda has and people best start learning how to abuse his shitty movements.

[cookiehours]

That could be said about a lot of things. I play against a very solid tager friend and me and him go even. Should we go even in that MU, NO! but he is a solid player and he is good at approaching. Same thing can be said about kune, this MU is one of the easiest MU's Lambda has and people best start learning how to abuse his shitty movements.

Maybe Kunes are a rare breed but I'll figure out his movement one way or another.

[someonewhodied]

oh yeah. one more thing. Arakune has 5 j.Ds

4D makes it appear behind him

2D makes it appear under him

5D makes it appear right in front of him

3D makes it appear at party bug range in front of him

6D makes it appear nearly the entire screen from him