[CS2] Taokaka vs Valkenhayn

[Domethieus]

Will edit this once more information is collected. Till then, discuss.

[NeoGio0o]

This matchup can be really scary of you don't know what your doing, but overall I find this matchup to be heavily in tao's favor for some really silly reasons.

Valk's Pressure- His pressure is a walking frame trap if you press buttons between any of his block strings even on IB your probably going to get counter hit into 2-3K+ with corner carry so I highly recommend being patient. Some notable frame advantage normal's he has are 6B(+8), 2A(+1),and 6C(+2) this combine with his wolf cancel mixup makes him a character you don't want to be blocking for too long. Nothing much else can really be said here besides not to mash in his block strings, all his human normal's easily catch her back dash on wake up and he can do the 2A,2A,2C frame/tech trap to punish mashing and tech rolls.

Wolf Pressure- As said by many high level tournament players including LK himself his wolf mixup is unseeable and impossible to react to your only real option is chicken blocking because his wolf normal's and wolf specials can all be canceled to one of his dashes to make them safe. wolf 5B is air unblockable and also the best anti air in the entire game so if valk is under you mashing wolf 5B the only thing your doing is barrier blocking. His wolf pressure is filled with a bunch of empty dash lows and instant over heads so you don't want to be on the ground blocking I can't stress enough how pointless it is to try and block his pressure strings, and to top it all off he has a command grab that he can combo off of with 50 heat/ in the corner.

Tao's pressure on valk- Valk has no DP and is the same as tao on defense as in he has to rely on things like an above average backdash, and distortion invincibility frames to really get out of tight pressure. His 6A is kinda like a DP and he can get a really nice corner carry combo on counter hit only problem is the guard point doesn't kick in till frame five that combine with the 10 frame startup makes it not all to reliable when getting out of pressure, IB 6A is legit though so keep this in mind when you see your opponent instant blocking a lot. Valks fastest normal is 5A (6 frames) but it whiff on crouching hit boxes and with a 7 frame 2A he really can't mash out of your blockstrings unless you really let him.

Valk's anti airs- 2C(still good),Wolf5B(probably the best in the game),6A(has guard point so it does work), and 5A?( not too sure about this one but it looks possible). Outside of wolf 5B you can generally use triple jumps and drive C cancels to bait them and either go for a whiff punish or just return to neutral.

Neutral game- tao and valk in wolf from have really good neutral games so it's really hard to say who is at advantage here. I guess it would be tao since valk can only stay in wolf form for a limited time before he has to let his meter recharge, but don't quote me on this since it's really hard to determine. When I was playing against some good valks I noticed we were both fishing for roughly the same thing anti airs,J.D for tao and beast cannons for valk. So what it really boils down to is who has the superior spacing and smarter reads.

Best tools in the matchup- The only reason I find this matchup to be bad for Valk is because of crawl,yes you can crawl all his human normal's besides 2B,3C,2C,236A,236B everything else you can just crawl and throw out 3C for free damage. Even in the middle of his blockstrings you can crawl for little to no risk mid-screen and get some free damage from time to time. This forces the valk player to simplify his pressure to just 2B,3C,236B stuff or else risk taking damage.Crawl does not put tao in counter hit state so you can still tech grabs and Valk has a hard time going back into his lows in blockstrings without tao crawling and making the normal whiff. On Tao's wake up valk has to either do meaty grab,2C,2B,3C(lol) or wolf in order to stop her from crawling, the problem with this is that she can simply tech the grab/ and or block the 2C and crawl afterwards. Overall crawl limits his options against you thus making it easier to escape his pressure.

I notice a lot of valk like to cancel into wolf mid block string to get some better mixup options this is legit but is very vulnerable to mashing and if decides to cancel in to his dashes (7D,4D,9D) 6A is really helpful when timed properly seeing as how it's 2 hits valk need to use more than 1 wolf movement to evade it which wastes a ton of his wolf meter.

Less wolf meter=Less damage/Less corner carry=happy tao

Things to look out for- Valk cancel into wolf on a lot of his specials and normal's on whiff to really keep the pressure be on the look out for this and be ready to chicken block your way out. 6C (the overhead) can be canceled into wolf on the startup, I generally find myself reacting to 6C by crawling and using 6A if I feel they are going to cancel the starup into wolf worst case scenario they use two dashes to bait my anti air and I recover in time to block. As for 236A I just look out to instant block it and 6A seeing as how on IB it's -6 so if he wolf cancels it's a free 6A or if he tries to 2A it's 6A into JD8-A loop. 236B prorates pretty bad if they use both hits so I don't see this move used too often I treat it the same as 236A and last but not least 236C will whiff tao if she crawls and on block is another free 6A you can throw out and see what happens. Occasionally 6A might trade but for all the times I've used 6A it has always trades in tao's favor. The last thing to look out for is valks 5B into rising j.C RC combo starter deals good damage and it's a really fast overhead so be on the look out.

Final words-Valks mixup potential in wolf is endless that is why chicken blocking is the best option for the most part abuse the fact he doesn't have a DP and just don't give him room to breathe on defense just try and stall out his wolf meter. Never ever block 6C always crawl it and try not to sit on your meter counter assault ASAP and early burst are recommended to avoid valk from getting his game started. Saving your bursts for the final round isn't all that bad because the moves that he has to break primers can crawled,Overall Valk is a very complex character to truly understand so more information is definitely needed but for now this is all I can give without access to training mode.

Will edit this post for accuracy and to add anything I discover in the matchup.

Edited September 25, 2011 by NeoGio0o