crazycrackers

Litchi win streak was tight.

Litchi always had to use all of her relevant tools/tricks to be effective. She just has a few more relevant tools now (ex: 6c, j.2d crossup).

itsuu C removed a primer and also put litchi at a frame advantage after the second hit where litchi was free to do whatevah. I just hope there isn't some dumb crap like "IB the first hit, then jump out"

do we know if you can combo off of 4d midscreen with this new slide (if its actually there)? If so I would think that 5b>2c>4d>... would work for a new staff starter BnB. 2c>6d could even work in the corner, though I doubt that would do more damage than 2c>4d options. Also, do we know how 6d hits standing/crouching and if we can combo off of it? If the standing/crouching hits are the same as CSI (although the air hit seems like it would only be good for corners) we could connect 5b>whatever afterwards. God dam I wanna see how this character turns out.

How the matchup should be played: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncuThjnjMQw Goro

Don't worry, I already do my fair share of air dash cancel spam. An indicator of gifted arakune players.

CT: Rachel- Quite some time. Probably like 3 months, though I was new to BB/GG Litchi- A month. Once I got her combos down everything fell into place well. Nu- A day. Lol nu. CS: Rachel- A couple days to learn new stuff/adapt. Took a week for lvl 3 j2c combos though. Lambda- About two weeks I think. Playing the character felt natural to me, it just took a little time to get the tk loop/midscreen tks down. Also to learn matchups with hazama (now one of my favorites) bang and tao. Arakune- New main.I've been playing him for a week and I'm pretty proficient. Got all his loops down, pretty good pre-curse. Got his technical stuff learned. I just need to learn the lambda matchup in greater depth.

Lambda used to be my main, but I'm switching to arakune. So I guess consequently Lambda is my sub. Rachel also became my sub since I dropped her in CT. In other words, I've never really tried to have any real subs, I just "acquired" them.

I played Rachel in CT because I liked her style. Unfortunately she's a bag of piping hot fail in CS so now I use Lambda

No problem. Lambda is really difficult for anyone who's not really experienced against her.

Nope, whatever the case though, this patch is very promising for Rachel. I just find it strange that they added back j.2c being normal cancelable when it lands. Not that I'm complaining, because I love CT Rachel mixup/lockdown, but I sort of thought they were trying to have rachel go in the direction of a good TRAPS character, not a traps character that has crazy ass mixup/lockdown as well.

Tempest's projectiles looked a shit ton faster lol

As a Lambda user I can tell you that this matchup is without a doubt in Tao's favor. If you can't get in on lambda you're being too predictable. This is not the kind of matchup for Lambda where she can just react (such as her matchups against Tager/Haku) to approaches. Tao has some of the craziest mobility in the game, and can cross the screen extremely quickly. Lambda has to PREDICT tao and not make mistakes. If Lambda misses a single sword Tao can drive across the whole dam screen and punish her. Hell, if Tao gets a CH its a taunt loop right there. And yes, 2d is very good and hits people high up in the air. If Lambda has a habit of doing this you can surprise her by using your 4d, which will immediately take you to the ground and then straight at lambda. Use the B cancel to your drive when it hits (not sure on Tao specific terminology). If she blocks you can probably start to pressure her. If it hits then you're in and can start pressure. If it gets a counter hit you have yourself a taunt loop. Ok, gravity well is the worst reversal in the game besides Rachel's cat chair. Its slow, clashes with some normals (hell, Tagers jab clashes with it), has piss-poor range, and has a cooldown after you use it. Against Tao, its not even that useful. As long as you're not predictable with stuff like your 6b overheads you should easily be able to bait this because there aren't many good times to use it against Tao. After you bait it and punish its still in cooldown and you can go to town with your pressure. Gravity well, to be honest, is just sort of a scrub crusher. Now then, Lambda's 6a, no argument there. Its a serious anti air. You just have to be smart about your jump ins, but really if you surprise the Lambda player with an approach and get them to miss a sword, there's no way they're going to anti air you since you can punish sword whiffs, something other characters can't do to lambda (at least full screen that is). Regarding guard breaking. Lambda is probably the best guard crusher in the whole game (I've heard Mu is nuts at it too but who even uses Mu). But, lets just take into account Lambda's guard crushing moves and how effective they are against Tao specifically. 214d, this is spike chaser, her trademark move in CS really. While amazing against most of the cast, Spike chaser is complete fail against Tao. If Tao just reacts quickly enough to it, she can super jump above its height, and then drive>b cancel to the other side of lambda and hit her with a falling aerial>whatever. 236d, in case you don't know this is the move that creates the sickle on the ground that keeps you in stun. If she ever do this its easy for any character to punish, and you can jump on reaction if she does this to you because its just horribly laggy. 236c, cavalier, watch out for this, its an air unblockable, but if you block it Lambda is at a disadvantage. Finally, j.214d, crescent saber. Not bad, I guess, but if its not properly spaced its punishable. In other words, Lambda's guard crushing isn't that good on Tao at all unless she does her 236236d distortion. You're thinking of 4dd, not 6dd. And actually it fully combos into her distortion, not just forces you to block. But while you're blocking this, honestly, you just have to try to block whatever Lambda dishes out. Sorry. Still, why would you get hit by her 4dd in the first place? Its a slow overhead, and from 5dd its her most used option by far since if she goes low with a teleport you can IB the 5dd and 2a her out of her teleport. Tao is also probably one of the characters who can IB the low teleport itself and punish her with 2a I'm assuming. After 5dd, block high for 4dd, and react to her low. And you're just going to have to learn to react to that air overhead lambda has. Its not actually "instant", not CT Rachel j.2c status at least. And it doesn't combo into anything without meter. Also, cat crawl is legit. Its not like you should just keep using it, you should wait for her to whiff a 5d and immediately 5d~b her. If she uses 4d you can react and run at her (which will cause 4d to miss behind you). If she uses spike chaser you can react to that as I've already stated. If she uses j.214d, you are too close to her while cat crawling in the first place. Gravity well is the only good option against cat crawl that you listed, and if she uses it she'll have no reversal for a while, and the gravity well itself only lasts a few seconds. And trust me, it is not at all difficult to block against Lambda for a few seconds. And you're right, this matchup IS impossible unless you get it in. Thats how Lambda is against any character. But its easier for Tao to get in on Lambda that it is for any other character. What? First of all, Lambda's damage output is pretty bad unless she either has heat or gets specific hits (236c, CH 5d, CH 6d with specific spacing, 2d at closer heights, throw...etc). Second, its WAY easier for Tao to make a comeback against Lambda than vice versa. Tao has her taunt loop, which you can start off of a plethora of options, including a drive~b counter hit for a single missed sword. In general it sounds to me like your problem is that you're either getting outplayed/outpredicted, or you're inexperienced against Lambda, or both. This is definitely Tao's advantage.

Crescent is a pretty fast overhead, relatively speaking, but its bold animation makes it easier to react to. When you see it coming out block high and if its a feint then poke him out. Feints are only to be used once in a while in cs because they put lambda at a disadvantage and are simply reliant on your opponent not reacting fast enough to them. If you don't think you can react quickly enough to poke her out simply IAD away>j.2dd or something. Lambda really doesn't have a very good melee game. Lambda, like tager though, will destroy opponents who are inexperienced against her, and that seems to be your problen. As for the zoning, don't use 5d very much unless you know you can. When you have the urge to make that first move I would recommend throwing out j.2d. And zoning her in the air is pretty simple so I'm not going to get into that. This matchup requires you to out predict the other lambda player initially, and then take control of the match as long as you can. Use your melee game when its appropriate, not as your absolute backbone as "melee lambdas" would.

So true. Against anyone mediocre even, its pretty easy to just react to 236d and jump the hell out of there. I guess this might be a useful tool for baiting people to jump so you can hit them with your air unblockable 236c, but spike chaser can do that way better than 236d can. 236d is really just a tool against Tager, an occasional gimmick, and a nice primer/lockdown move to use after 236236d.

6a>6b is pretty meh. Its not like 6b has some huge advantage or anything. Plus there's not much Hakumen can do about getting counter assaulted after 6a. After his double jump I'd recommend running under him rather than using 236a. If you run under him you can easily throw swords at him afterwards. Use 2d/6d/5d depending on what will work. @ His command dash. Just IAD away I guess or air dash over him to the other side if you're going to get cornered. It costs his 1 magatama so its not like he can use it forever. Plus its not like the thing is fully invincible, you can probably punish it if YOU react to it instead of throwing out swords and letting him react to you. @ the anti air thing? Why not? 2d is pretty dam good. Although if 6a works for you it doesn't really matter I guess. @ 2d vs meaty knockdowns. As stated, meaty 4b. Though thats a bit risky. You can also throw out a TK or feint it and punish a counter with w/e. Finally if you're jabbed out of TK feints then just space yourself better and I don't believe his jab can hit you.

Lambda doesn't really use much 5c in blockstrings anyway. But does it really beat 3c? Actually now that you mention it I think it does beat 3c. Not sure about 2c though. However there's now way it beats gravity, though thats pretty gimmicky. Not really much use for 5c in the first place but good to know

I usually do it against characters like Tager, Hakumen, Ragna, Bang...characters with easy hitboxes. Against other characters I just go 6a.

the only time gravity well is really even that useful here is if you predict a 4d from her. Besides that, all of her moves have too much potential to be spaced well for your reversal to even be in range. Staffless her normals have a lot less range but her strings are a lot tighter. Mostly with Litchi the idea is that you look for an opportunity out of her pressure and be patient. If she does staff canceling in her strings (canceling a normal with her guard point stance, then canceling that immediately) you can hit her with a low, but you pretty much have to predict it by observing patterns the Litchi might have (and she'll mix up when she does it) because its pretty much instant. Honestly when she has her staff, you should just IB a lot to find a way out. If she's staffless, you might as well save your meter in this matchup for counter assaults. Also try not to jump out of pressure, seriously. You don't want to eat an air unblockable 2c for 6k. If you jump just make sure you barrier immediately afterwards. The zoning in this matchup isn't really that difficult. 2d easily takes her out of the air. The only thing you have to watch out for when she's in the air is her air kara throw (its similar to Carl's). If she's going to land behind you with this dash under her and 5d CH>236c since its really vulnerable to counter hit. If she's going to land in front of you 2d or 6d might hit her, but 6a is your best bet. Spike chaser is pretty good in this matchup except Litchi's 2d staff release will just cancel it out. Still, ending strings with spike chaser is pretty viable nonetheless. Really, zoning Litchi isn't terrible difficult, you just have to watch your spacing a bit more than usual against her because her normals have huge poking capabilities. Zoning her should be alright, the problem is when she actually gets in.

Um...this is without a doubt an advantage for Lambda. It sounds to me like your friend is just outplaying you the way you're losing to him, not like its the matchup lol. Anyway: Minori vs Yumura http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoCeXoijG8c Goro vs Puu http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQkZoTpE7Ek

I don't think it tracks lol (thought not 100% sure). I just dash under her then punish with 5d. If its a CH go straight into 236c>etc.

He's had two combo videos from what I understand.

Agreed, though IMO Lambda and Jin should switch spots. Though its just a minor kink I guess.