metsuke

If it's the Matsu I'm thinking of (GG#R SBO 2005), then no.

2a, 6a, 2c, a/b lobelia, and iris are where I'd expect Rachel to be getting most of her hits in. I'm surprised that 2b is getting you anything, considering people don't really have any reason to block high, and frog isn't a threat anymore without Rachel's old RTSD gameplan. Her pressure is so weak I'm not even sure DPing is worth the risk; the only reason I'm not more sure is that even if she reads your DP, the damage she can get by punishing it isn't even that high. But I'm sure you'll still find people on Dustloop who won't admit that ASW fucked up.

It depends on what your definition of "unplayable" is. She's definitely not a character JP tournament players should be using. In the US ... who knows?

Unfortunately, the lols quickly ended. The Arakune matchup is pretty interesting. It seems just as hard - if not harder - to land a curse on Rachel in CS, so this matchup may not have improved that much for Arakune despite Rachel's massive nerfs. As a side note, any idea how many top Rachel players are left? H.H is the only holdout I'm still hearing anything from.

j2c xx 236a is going to get you DP'd. Once everyone gets used to the fact that Rachel can't cancel j2c with anything but ground specials, they will be looking to punish the followup on reaction. I'm still not seeing a solid gameplan. There is really nothing stopping anyone from just jamming the stick into 1 and waiting her out. Her pressure/zoning game is absolutely full of holes, she runs out of wind quickly - and worse, actually needs it to do respectable damage, her projectile startups are so slow she actually loses to basic fireball spam from characters like Jin and Noel, and all of her overheads are reactionable. 236a is good, but not that good.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm9012790 04:41 Rachel v. Ragna 17:04 Rachel v. Ragna 25:19 Rachel v. Hakumen j.2bd is the new (and much shittier) j.2c. Wind animation gives away the overhead somewhat, unless you condition them by 2d'ing for lows also. Multiple pole stuff still hurts, both for normal Iris and BBL. Combo to super followed by lv3 j.2c can break 4k, but at a steep price. Super after frog is too heavily prorated to be worth it. Super without poles doesn't seem worth it either.

The UFO vids were fucking hilarious. Lobelia + Iris spam for the motherfucking win. Unfortunately, I don't think we can reasonably expect that kind of strategy to work against anyone who doesn't suck. Aside from the opponent handing her free combo opportunities by repeatedly running/airdashing into Lobelias, I'm not seeing a real gameplan for forcing damage. I don't think I've seen any oki game from her in any vids so far.

29:58 Tao v. Rachel :3 http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8958987 00:50 Carl v. Rachel 11:12 Jin v. Rachel 15:52 Rachel v. Bang About what you'd expect. Winning and losing aside, Rachel has no tools and no damage.

That vid doesn't really tell us anything; both players were mediocre at best. The match would have been a hell of a lot uglier for Rachel if Uate had played OKA instead of Kyasutaa.

While frog combos may not work, airthrow triggers frog in this vid against Noel.

6a CH dash 5b works in the corner, according to one of the videos. I suspect it would actually work everywhere, but people are missing the dash timing because of the longer recovery on the 6a. Why so glum? Winning with Rachel is going to be a huge challenge now, and everybody loves a good challenge, right?

5dcc/5cdc and 5ccd are different setups, used for different opponents. I'd say the mistake here is doing a blocked 5cdc in the first place. Unless you're trying to guard crush someone stuck in frog blockstun, 5c needs to be hitconfirmed from 5b/6b.

5ccd.

How exactly are you doing it? I am absolutely certain it works on Arakune. Which combo are you talking about? The j.b j.2c seems to be pretty tricky, but it definitely works against more people than just Arakune. I don't know about "consistency", because frankly my execution on the j.2c combos isn't spectacular to begin with. However, if you can hit it even some of the time, then it's theoretically possible all of the time - it's just going to take a lot of practice. That's very different from what I'm trying to do. The combo again is: 6a 5b JC sj j.b (dj) j.2c j.c You go straight from j.b to j.2c, with no wind. It's superior to the {j.b j.c dj j.2dc j.c} version because this combo doesn't use any wind and prorates less (one j.c instead of two). However, it's also much harder to do. Getting this down as part of the normal repertoire would be awesome, as it allows stronger air setups to super for no wind, as well as stronger air combos in general. I know for a fact that this works on at least Arakune, Bang, and Litchi, because I've landed it against all of them (albeit with low success rates). I haven't gotten around to trying the rest of the cast yet.

That's what I've been saying in the video thread; combo to frog gets you more damage and the oki setup is almost as good. The main caveat for me is that actually landing the 3c after frog is tricky on some characters; until my consistency gets better on them I stick to the backdash setup, because having to end with j.2c j.214a/b is much weaker oki. Some other stuff: I've been trying to do {6a 5b JC sj.b j.2c j.c etc.} and it's surprisingly difficult to land, especially on some characters (e.g., Litchi). Anyone able to hit this consistently? On a related note, it seems like the original aircombo BnB {sj j.b-a-b-c dj j.b-c j.236a} isn't really useful anymore, since you could do {sj j.b-c dj j.2c-c land sj j.b-c dj j.2c-c etc.} instead for more damage (also opportunity to hitconfirm to super at j.2c). Finally, {5b JC 3d j.b} doesn't seem to connect against shorter characters. For instance, I hit it >95% of the time against Litchi, but Bang blocks the j.b. Can anyone confirm/refute?

Yes. At midscreen she'll tech the 236a, but in the corner it works perfectly. You mean 3c 236a, super, right? If you're going to go for dual super, I'd do: {super, 236a4d, super}. Generally not worth the meter unless you started the combo without much proration (6b). Standard followup to super is {214a, 3c (1 hit) 236a (frog hits) 214b 3c (3 hits) 214a}. I'm pretty sure you can also follow the 3c (3 hits) with {22a j.2c j.214a 3d}, but it's a waste of a pole in my opinion. In the corner, {214a, backdash, 214b, 236a} sacrifices damage for stronger positional advantage.

The frog 3c (1 hit) 236a combo works in the corner against everyone except Noel and Carl (use walk-up 5b instead of 3c).

Heh, MSY's gotten a lot better since we last saw him at GC (February, I think?). The more I see, the more I think a high j.2c (say, after air teching) is a Bad Idea.

There's no need to do walk-up 5b because you can do 3c in place (no dash) and have the 236a land in exactly the right spot. 6b and 6a aren't a big deal either way; you get 2~4 more meter, stay on the ground for maybe a second longer, and lower your combo damage by anywhere from 500 to 800 damage. I think they're unnecessary, but each player has their own preference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=226j7wDMx9I&feature=channel Starting from 4:18. Neither the combo nor setup make any sense to me. The 6b is unnecessary, the 5b 236a should be 3c 236a, and the 6a is unnecessary. His after-super setup is just a backdash pumpkin - no frog, no pole. He could have done {5b 5dcc 214a 3c 236a dash 632146c 214a 3c 236a 214b 3c 214a} and gotten +1.2k damage, more wind regen, and a pole+pumpkin+frog oki. I can't think of a single good reason to do what he did here. If you can, please explain (not trying to be an asshole or anything, I'm genuinely curious).

Good catch; so distance issue, instead of hitconfirm issue? That makes a lot more sense. Adding the extra stuff at the end just seems like unnecessary prorating though, especially j.c (P2=80). Combo to frog seems to be a stronger setup to me, because 3c 214a at the end has them teching into a frog with a pumpkin floating right on top of them. Outside of combos, it's pretty hard to get Litchi to block a frog (or even get one out safely, frankly). And that's ignoring the extra damage, meter, and wind you get from drawing out the combo. I definitely agree about that distance though. Judgment call, I guess.

Good enough for me. He has odd combo choices (backdash pumpkin after super, instead of frog 3c; also 6a 22a 6a super (wasting the pole) instead of 3c super), and like N-O, passes up several perfect super opportunities despite having plenty of meter. I still don't understand why Rachel wouldn't super in those situations; it would be one thing if these players were actually using RCs or alpha counters with any frequency, but they aren't. What's the point of sitting on meter then? In some rounds against Shonen, he spends a lot of time in the air, which seems unwise given how strong Litchi's anti-air and air-to-air game are, not to mention the fact that you cripple your wind recovery that way. Sure, you're going to jump to summon pumpkins, frog, etc., but the airtime seems excessive in places. He also seems to have the habit of double-tapping c after j.2c, which screws him in a few places (lol@ j.2c land 5c). 5b 3d JC j.b is odd as a hitconfirm string, since it only works against standing opponents (except Tager/Haku). As such, it doesn't give you extra time to hitconfirm since you have to hitconfirm at 5b that the opponent is standing. Yet, everyone seems to be doing it. If you can hitconfirm at 5b, why wouldn't you use something like 6cd, or just save the wind and do straight 5dcc combo to super?

Some interesting misses by the Rachel player in those matches. Is Tobari a well-known player?

In case it wasn't clear, the difference between the combo I listed and the BnB combo you're having problems with is that there's only one 3c, and it only hits once. There are some exceptions, but in general you want the lowest possible number of hits before super; adding things like 6a, 5b, j.b, multi-hit 3c, etc. can make the combos easier, but will cost you damage. In this case, the difference in damage is very small (like 20?), but the more damaging version is also easier to do (at least for me). As for 5dcc/5cdc/5ccd, the distance you travel will vary depending on when you input the wind. For an obvious example, try {5d+c, c}, then try {5c, d+c}. 5cc wind timing is most important for corner pole setups to super, and midscreen two-wind frog combos against Jin, Ragna, Noel, and Tager.

Everything in that combo up to the second frog should be done as fast as you can. The 3c after 236a should hit just as the frog shock is ending. If the opponent is teching before the 3c, you're waiting/dashing too long. If the opponent is teching after the 3c, you're not doing the super fast enough. The input for {dash 3c xx baden} should be done: 653c2146c; this gives maximum execution speed. In reality though, {5b 5dcc 214a dash 3c (1 hit) 236a dash 632146c} actually does slightly more damage and is easier to do.