crazycrackers

j.236a lobelias word the best since it keeps you out of the way of his j.d, has a nice arc, and will often allow you to block a surprise 2c as well. Also have a pumpkin out in case he gets past your lobelia zoning in some way that you hadn't immediately prepared for so you can defend yourself.

Well yeah, the point of the bugs is that they keep having to block everything he does for like 20 seconds straight. I don't know how helpful something like "just watch arakune and block all of his stuff" is honestly. If you can do that, either your blocking is really dam good or the Arakune is doing something wrong. >_>

basically her new frog combos (you can now use 2 lobelias>3c or 6a>iris>whatever), her 236b combos: good ones to get down would be ...>5cdc>236b>IAD iris>6c>j.c>236a and ...>5cdc>236b>TK iris>236c>iris, and also her wall bounce 5cc combos for pumpkin/frog oki in the corner, oh and also lvl 2 j.2c combos are really important. Honestly, you should just learn everything, Rachel hasn't had any huge developments since MaDao's last combo video, and Rachel is the sort of character where you're going to be using different combos pretty often depending on really situational stuff.

...too....legit...*head explodes*

I think Makoto is pretty good, her range is just really lacking. The matchup with her is probably tricky (I don't really know, I haven't played any GOOD makotos), especially since her super shuts down some zoning options, spike chaser especially. And yeah she might have some ways around spike chaser besides the super, but I don't think they're that difficult to deal with in the sense that they don't end up with Makoto reacting to spike chaser and getting a free hit on Makoto, rather they just make spike chaser a little harder to apply into zoning.

@Arcade, yeah I've poked them out with a second j.2dd too now that you mention it 0_o. Though he can probably get a spark bolt out if he IBs the first j.2dd, but I'm not sure. @Lime, you have to learn to watch for the startup of 2d. As soon as you see it 5d immediately. His 2d has a huge amount of CH vulnerability so the 5d will get you a CH to combo into 236c. By the time you finish your 236c combo the magnetism has a high chance of being over, and if its not, just keep him under sword pressure for a tad bit of time and it will end. Also, 3c beats his 2d I think, but you should try it out for yourself since I don't remember atm.

When I get magnetized I like to use 236236d>236d~c>whatever to knock a bunch of time off of his magnetism. Other than that there's not much I can say, you just have to be smart really and try to react to what he does to get in...don't be proactive yourself. When he has spark meter, you can try jumping a lot, checking for spark bolt, then j.2dd>j.214d~c and all those shenanigans. Though don't be patterned about your follow up after j.214d~c, because if you do more j.2dd he can spark bolt in the gap. However, you can use this to bait spark bolt I guess. Really when you're magnetized or he has spark bolt, just keep your distance and play the reactive game. Often when a Tager has spark bolt I don't do very much but back up, and if he does any sort of approach besides walking, I react to it. Against a flat out walking approach, 5d>other stuff but don't be predictable about when you use it.

Lambda's pressure isn't very scary, and pretty easy to IB. Use IB...a lot. I've had people not IB my 236b, then actually 2a them before their attempt to punish hit me, so without IB, 236b is actually really safe. And of course you can always IB the swords before the 236b itself and 5a the poor girl. She'll be using 4d a lot more than 236b just because of the relative safety between the two so 236b will be intended to be a surprise. Don't try to jump out of her D strings. Lambda players like to catch people in the air as it gives her a good amount of options, where as her ground lockdown is pretty limited. Not to mention she might try some 236c shit on you for the air unblockable, so just always barrier if you see her trying this. Still, Bang has a lot of great air movement so use that to your advantage. Honestly, that was really general, and thats because this shouldn't really be problematic for Bang. Its a pretty dam lame matchup for Lambda this time around.

Her block strings really are NOT good. First off, without heat, if she wants to extend her pressure past a certain point without jump canceling, she'll have to do stuff that puts her at a frame disadvantage, especially if you IB (like her lunge attack where she can possible cross you up on it). Use this to your advantage. Also IB a lot. And barrier a lot, her range is really really bad, and she is often forced to whiff a move and won't be able to keep her blockstring going. While her moves don't have that much recovery relatively speaking (for a whiff I guess), its still not hard to learn to just react to this situation and punish her with 3c>214d oki/3c>236b or even 2b>6b>5c (8)>3c/6c>214d oki/236b. If she tries to jump cancel her crap to keep her pressure up without being too risky, 6a her if she's too obvious with her JCs, and you can probably learn to at least react to get out of the situation when she jumps. Also, because of her terrible range your reversal is pretty legit here (its range is kinda bad, but so is hers), just be smart and varying with it because she can easily punish it if she predicts it. As for the actual zoning, don't be predictable with your spike chasers. From almost the whole screen she can do that lunge thing and CH you (though if you just do 214d and not 214d~c YOU might CH HER). If you think she's going to attempt this just 5d CH her into 236c. NEVER let her charge because unless she just finished a combo on you, you can pretty much ALWAYS punish her for this. Even if she super jumps>double jumps to charge, 2dd will work. Then there's her aerial dive thing, it can be pretty hard to 2d at times, so just run under her. Maybe you can punish her, I'm not sure since I don't know the landing recovery frames on this move. If anyone does that would be helpful. Pretty much just be careful about spike chaser use and run under her dive if she ever tries it. Her speed can be pretty annoying I know, but if you manage to get out a spike chaser its easy to deal with from there and take control of the match. I'll give more input on this later.

Agreed, Rachel sort of has the basis to be alright. If she did legit damage she wouldn't be that bad. Tsubaki on the other hand, she's just shit. Period. Her entire game is just a bag of tricks...shitty, shitty tricks.

I dunno. Rachel herself isn't terrible, if she could do some legitimate damage she could be...respectable. Tsubaki on the other hand, as a character, she's just terrible.

First off, yes you do have to learn to zone. Its by far the best part of Lambda's game and the entire point of her character. The goal of this matchup is to zone him the whole match. Try to use spike chaser from a distance and if he jumps 2d>236d, he'll land into the 236d (though if you hitconfirm the 2d just combo from there). Eventually you can get a guardcrush on a patient Tager between the 214d~c and 236d. Use 5d, but try not to be predictable about using it in a pattern. Your follow up to 5d should mainly be 4d or more spike chaser. If he's used to 4d you can go from 236b. If he's in range to hit you and you 5d and he sledges it, just cancel it into 214a and score a CH and a free combo. Against a "camping" Tager you definitely have the advantage (well, against tager in general but still) since all he has is spark bolt. When he gets spark bolt be really careful about using spike chaser at all and don't be patterned about your other D moves or he'll just slam you with his projectile. And uh...do you mean 4b? Because I don't even see how its possible 6b would create that combo.

The DP is legit. Learn to react to stuff like 5d>236b and DP him in the gap. DPing after gadget finger is funny because it can make him a bit cautious about attacking you and thats your gateway to getting out of there or turning the tables somehow (like if he decides to block just start your own blockstring). At mid range bait sledge with 5d and if he learns to sledge it cancel into DP. If he starts charging spark bolt 5d>236c usually deals with that (either with absorption of 5d>236c hit or CH 5d>236c). As for the actual how-to on zoning in this matchup, I usually just try to zone with 214d~c/214d and 5d (as long as you're not too predictable with 5d you should be fine). 214d~c creates jumps, when he jumps 2d>236d/236d~c. You can also do stuff like 2dd>6dd>j.2dd>j.214d~c AD j.b>j.c to get in and do some close range mixups but I wouldn't recommend you do this as anything but a "once in a blue moon" sort of tactic. If he has a habit of not barrier guarding while in the air 2d>236c for the air unblockable can work but its very gimmicky and I just use it if I ever see that from my opponent. Just be patient and zone methodically, you can often get a guardcrush against a patient Tager player with spike chasers and 236d. When you hit confirm a close range hit on him its probably best to end with 236b instead of knockdown>214d since he can sledge that, though you can probably counter that with the DP. Thats how I've learned to play this matchup I guess.

Agreed, unless I know its spaced in a way that I can AA it (and I mean KNOW) I just dash under him and 5d him when he lands.

Agreed Q_Q

You're probably just doing super jump+7d. Do super jump+8d, THEN do 7d after you've risen enough.

I like her pressure game since it has refreshing uniqueness. I also love high execution characters and I've been maining Litchi for like the past month (mained Rachel for the rest of CT but CS..nah). Now I'm going to feel like a complete idiot though for spending all this time with her and suddenly having to relearn all my stuff. Her CS combos look much more difficult than her CT combos as well, but whatever I don't mind.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11390567 Some really cool Rachel shit in there. Some of it being extremely flashy while useless, but some of it actually seems pretty nice. About the guardcrush set up on Tao, does BBL break guard primers even through barrier (I know some moves do), because that could be pretty dam useful if it did with corner set ups. However, seeing as how Rachel is terrible, it most likely doesn't and I'm just getting my hopes up for nothing. I also notice that after BBL hit, the Rachel did super jump+8d and then a 7d dj. Wonder if the 7d dj is even necessary there. Also, the mixup bit is pretty cool, though there's nothing new there besides the 3rd mixup I believe. I also like the combo: (Moving into corner) 5b 5cdc dash 6c (2) j.c2d dj lvl2 j.2c 5cc wallbounce (214b) 3c (3) (214a) And it doesn't seem really impractical EDIT: Regarding this combo, I believe I remember seeing 5b 5cdc 236b dash 214c j.c2d dj lvl2 j.2c....... Can you combo that into 5cc for a more effective version of the first combo I posted, or is it impossible (it seems like they'd bounce too high)?