TheArm05

Team Name: Fair Characters Player Names: TheArm, Genosade, Mystic Characters: Rachel, Nine, Arakune Twitter: @TheArm05, @Genosade, @Mystic305

For Daiji's stream he is only on Nico and it only allows for 30 min streams at a time so the only way to catch him is to be on twitter and be ready to get in there. His twitter is @1_daiji My twitter is @thearm05 I play in our weekly streamed Xrd tournaments and always place at least top 4 so you can check that out for some Ram tech. As for sword sets in neutral its 100% matchup dependant (and player dependant). If the player doesn't know the matchup you can run 1.0 Ram on them all day until they figure it out. For people that do know the matchup there are the chars where unequipped is useless/needs meter to function like Chipp,Millia, May and Sol. Sometimes you can get away with HS deployed vs these guys but its hard. For the rest of the cast deployed works sparingly but you still mostly want to keep S sword and not rely on deployed HS too much. Also yeah I am a huge fan of 2S yrc against airdash happy opponents. Make sure you do it preemptively or you will get bodied. With the release of new dustloop the links in the video thread died so I just made a link to a Kuni playlist for the videos on Hotashis youtube channel.

I think Kuni is 100% worth watching. Especially since he has videos even as new as Evo (opposed to Daiji who I havent seen content for in a long time). Best NA Ramlethal imo is Pain free atm but unfortunately he did not do very well at Evo. He died in pools if I heard right. Also yes I play Ram in tournament and usually do relatively well. I would be willing to discuss more tech/matchups/strategies etc. but I need people to bounce stuff off of. A lot of the times I post stuff and come back days later and it is still the most recent post lol. Lastly on the subject of whining. The reason why people often cry about Ram is because she takes WORK to play and that work is rewarded with mediocre-bad neutral (matchup depending) and amazing setplay. Even once you reach the setplay level though if your execution falters for a second you very well can just get rolled over and lose the whole round. Ram is very unforgiving and the reward given =/= the time invested. That is why I absolutely do not recommend Ramlethal to newer players.

No need to do super jump. Just do 4k regular (9) jump 6HS/6S yrc then double jump the direction you want them to block (7 for same side, 9 for crossup) 2S/2HS. There is really no way to react to it the sword hits immediately as you choose your side. They are able to get out of this setup if they hit the wakeup blitz timing since they don't have to guess the side. You still get pressure however and it is hard to blitz haha.

The one I find the most stable and use the most for corner set swords is splat IAD delay j.k j.2hs cS (2HS hits) j.2s 5k(2s hit)4k It is stable even on rather long combos pre splat on most the cast tho it can be tricky on the lights.

I have seen Daiji practicing the setup on stream. Can confirm it works on standing block. Also can confirm the setup is rather mechanically difficult to pull off LOL. One of my friends recorded quite a bit of Kuni Ramlethal at Evo btw. I will post up the link when he gets the footage uploaded. Kuni is quite good.

Hahah Most of what I say in that old post is still relevant (aside from the overwhelming advantage part lmao) in 1.1 however it is all just a lot harder since he is so much better and our neutral is so nerfed. I don't think the Axl matchup is nearly as bad as Chipp/Millia and getting in on him is much easier than Venom so it isn't that bad imo. As long as you don't give up free hits to not using air faultless/obvious air techs you shouldn't really be getting hit that much.

Welp looks like its time to go relearn a bunch of new combos lol. It shouldn't be hard since I don't usually try to do super crazy stuff pre splat. The damage post splat is real tho especially on those combos that splat early. Good stuff.

Yes it is true if you do Calvados and she has a grenade held (even one just pulled) she gets 100% unblockabled. It ends up not being so useful in matches since good Elphelts won't just simply ground pull really. Not sure if this has been discussed but there is similar tech you can use with Cassius since it still travels during super flash. Cassius > YRC > Calvados hits on frame zero DURING the super flash. If they weren't already blocking before Calvados starts then they will get hit every time. Also not to rain on anyone's parade but I saw Daiji playing Elphelt on his stream last week >.>

That daiji loop that works on Millia is EXTREMELY difficult. Far beyond what I am capable of in a match so far. Personally I use cS (2D) (regular)Dauro dash pk dash pk kp ppp > splat combo ender (cS fS 6S dash cS 6HS dash cS dash cS 2D > oki) That only works from about 60-70% out of the corner depending on how well you microdash. If you are starting the combo back to the corner I do cS (2D) (regular)Dauro dash pk dash pk kp kk6HS > midscreen oki I am not confident in any full corner carry combos on light characters yet and midscreen kk6HS oki is super legit. Anyway combos aside I think Millia is the hardest matchup we have in 1.1 She completely outclasses us in movement. Her normals are all really good. She really has no problem challenging us anywhere and she does not have to commit to any real risks most of the time. Once she hits us we are going for a ride. We have to fish for hits with jS and just attempt to not get locked down. Try to stay away from the corner and do whatever you can to tag her then knock her down. Once she is knocked down run your game and don't let up. Being in neutral in this matchup vs a good Millia means you are probably losing.

fS deploy is ok until they start just completely disrespecting it. Tho I catch people with fS 6S 3k all the time. The best by faaaar is fS (sword already in position to swing) 6HS. This lets you run up 4p/cS whatever and often frametraps them if they try to mash. Similarly the fS j6HS version is good too as you can combo off the sword hit with airdash jk. fS Cassius yrc 6S/6HS is strong for gaining time to set swords up. Honestly it is important to figure out the way your opponent likes to react defensively. Most of Rams options after blocked fS are easily beaten by iad buttons or good long range pokes. Figure out how they react and adjust accordingly.

Yeah 1.1 made this matchup way more difficult. Prepare to be absolutely overwhelmed in neutral now. Simple ball zoning shuts down most of your options automatically and his 6p is the bane of Rams existence. Learn how to use the air delay from sword sets to help you maneuver around incoming pool balls. Getting a 6HS out in between his ball zoning is good as it forces him to move or slow his game down. Every time you hit him you better make it count. His defense sucks so if you get in you have to run game as hard as possible. One of the biggest things to watch out for is Bishop Runout. This super is RIDICULOUS for closing our rounds now. If he does this super you do not really have a choice but to try to stall for time bc even if you hit him the ball will bounce off of the wall and come back to knock you out of your combo.

Autopiloting fS > Dauro will get you punished vs experienced players since quite a few characters can punish Dauro (even green) on instant block. Elph can IB 5p punish, Pot can IB pot buster etc. Once you fight a player who can do this consistently it will discourage this tactic quite a bit as you will just start giving them free hits. 2s is best used as a preemptive anti air. Again against experienced players a blocked 2s is hanging yourself so it needs to be used sparingly. 2s yrc is extremely good. I agree with most of the posted complaints about new Ram. The 1.1 changes basically boil down to flail wildly when you are against Ram bc you will accidentally kill swords while also putting pressure on her. I understand they wanted to put counterplay to swords but the way it came out the counterplay is so free that the Ram player has to get extremely good reads to punish. In 1.0 Ram destroyed people for disrespecting her swords (except for her already bad matchups like Chipp) in 1.1 disrespecting them is absolutely the go to as the payoff for it is usually huge.

Stun dipper frame advantage isnt based on distance at all dauro will punish it at all distances where dash up cS might not. Just practice IBing the second hit and doing dauro. It really isnt hard.

I agree I think Ram has an overwhelming advantage both in raw damage and in neutral. If you get careless you can easily die in 1-2 resets tho and his midrange control (especially against air targets) is extremely strong. Just be patient and understand which spots are dangerous to be in. Blocking is not nearly as bad in this matchup as it is against other chars. His command grab is hilariously slow so just jump over it and hit him. His DP is legit but doesnt have much range so just run oki that is safe to it and its fine. I think this matchup is all about taking it slow and waiting for an opportunity to get in and knock him down.

So how do we beat Chipp? I think this is probably the only matchup I have played where I just don't even have a solid gameplan. Definitely need to have swords most of the time although throwing them out for a couple moves then calling them back is fine imo. His air approaches are so strong. His j.D pretty much can't be anti aired or beaten out. Best reliable punish is IB throw. Only answer to teleport YRC we have is to read it and cassius YRC or just YRC. If you jump sword and he has meter you just ate a throw guaranteed if he teleport YRCs. Watch out for his 2D. Chipps love to do that move. It can low profile equipped fS but can also lose to fS depending on timing. Honestly my entire strategy is to try to run and punish approaches but he can outmaneuver you and your swords so easily. It ends up just being me fishing for random hits and if I get one lifebar explosion lmao.

So there aren't many matchups where you have to play the aggressor. Hilda/Yuzu and to some extent Carmine being the notable exceptions. Against most characters it is fine to get some space and see how they deal with fireballs and steins. If they are sitting and just building grd you can start advancing slowly behind fireballs and placing steins as you move forward. If they are approaching aggressively jump back fireball and just holding downback waiting to reaction flashkick are your best friends. Once you tag someone with a stein or flashkick its a good idea to approach and apply pressure. Most characters cannot deal with meaty stein explosion aside from just blocking so ending your combos in bomb setups is strong. Steins are the key to pressuring as Vat. Frametrapping with stein explosion is your best friend and the best way to get people to respect your pressure as they take 3k for any bomb hit. For the Hilda/Yuzu matchups you pretty much have to go in as both of those characters destroy you in neutral. Dash block a lot and push them to the corner. Try to get a read on a low/mid to assault over or dash C if they are doing jump back specials. I can go into more detail if you want but this is my basic approach to matchups.

So how do you guys play this matchup? I do ok in it but I always hear people talk about how Ram beats Elph and I have never felt exactly comfortable in this matchup. I don't feel like I can poke anything she does without taking a huge risk since she has so many answers to fS. A lot of the time I play unequipped in this matchup because it forces her to move and play aggressive which lets me try to take the fight on my terms but sometimes I just get brute forced by grenade and 2S/6HS. Once shes in on you it is really easy to just lose the round instantly to any random hit/command grab. Elphs cS is also the anti air I am most afraid of in the entire game. I am really unsure about what to do to beat that move. Only time I can reliably beat it is when a sword is already in range of her and I can counterhit her with 6S/HS. I want to know what you guys are having success with in this matchup. Maybe I need to approach it differently.

Agree with Killey that this matchup is tough because if you get knocked down with no burst/meter to Dead Angle you very possibly just lost the whole round. Can't block good Inos and VCL YRC is ridiculous tier oki. I don't really like staying on the ground in this matchup since eating a HCL at neutral lets her get in everytime (even blocking it is pretty bad). HCL is easily her strongest neutral tool and what you should focus on avoiding imo. If she comes at you air to air j.P is the god like always lmao. TBH I don't really feel like deployed HS sword does anything in this matchup unless shes in the corner or you can actually get a 2HS out. S sword j.6S can catch her trying to hover dash in/note/hcl and is especially strong if the sword doesn't have to teleport. Other than that she is another "no reversal until 50 meter" character who gets completely mauled by Ram once you get your offense going. Her reversal supers aren't particularly fast (7f iirc) so they aren't hard to safejump although if you don't time a sword hit to knock her out of it the ground super is crazy + on block so keep that in mind. Extremely momentum based matchup

Make a Line chat imo. Line >> Skype for keeping up with new/current info. My id is TheArm05 on both tho so someone can toss me an inv.

Been seeing Batoko go for splat > iad j.K j.S j.8D land j.2S land j.2HS oki quite a bit lately. It seems to be one of Rams safest oki setups since it relies on swords putting them in blockstun before going in for a mixup. Again j.2S + j.2HS oki can be done off of 2D ender after a splat. I really think 2D is just Rams best ender since she can go into so many different setups off of it. After both sword sets you can do dash up 2D/6K or dash jump j.K/empty 2D/late airdash j.K as usual

Impact Skills are armored attacks. Easiest way to beat them is to 2a their wakeup and react to the armor sound/spark with your own A+B. It is a little easier said than done tho. As far as clashes go I have no idea.

Video posted earlier was taken down. I got a chance to play Marie but I really wasn't able to come up with anything beyond basic combos. Can someone post notation for some decent combo so I can get an idea how she does damage?

TBH I could use this in tournament. With a little more practice I am sure I could get it rather consistently. Also someone like PAIN (played pad Vat already) can and most definitely would use it if it isn't banned. The main thing is... It really isn't a big deal lmao 1. You can dash block in this game 2. You get free vorpal and tons of meter for shielding the spam 3. Chip sucks 4. The only method to charge down while doing it (that I have heard so far) gives up the ability to alternate lasers and fballs For most characters it just means they have to dash block in and approach a little slower. For Akatsuki and Hyde (who really had no business trying to zone Vat in the first place) it means they can't try to fireball war you. A banning wouldn't be hard to enforce at all. You could look at their hands and tell immediately and anyone who knows Vat could tell after two fireballs just looking at the screen.

It is doable on stick. I can't reliably get the exact projectile I want to come out yet but I am sure the timing would come with practice. This shit will RIP my stick though if it is let rock. I wouldn't use it much just based on that alone. As far as I can tell (testing on pad and on stick) there is no way to charge down while you do this. As long as that isn't possible I don't think this is really gamebreaking. Just makes Vats zoning go from meh to pretty good. I don't care if people want to ban it though. It'll save me a stick or two in the games lifestyle and its whatever anyway.