Airk

Actually, it depends. If you do 22A after 5CC you're safe as long as you're not magnetized (but you're at disadvantage) - there's no gap there. And I'm not sure, but I suspect strongly than 22B is also a gapless string, and much safer on block than 22A. You should be able to use those options with 623A as well? Unless you're worried about getting hit out before you can exercise them?

Well, that stick may well be newer than my info, so take with a grain of salt. Plus, if your previous stick was crud, this one is likely to be a step up. Some people's (read: SRK's) standards for what constitutes a "good stick" can be a bit higher than some people's.

Ohhhh. So it's about not triggering it in the first place by using a cancel to delay hitting him. Got it. Makes sense now.

I've never used one, but overall, I haven't heard good things about Hori's 'lower end' sticks. Actually, I've not heard good things about ANYONE'S lower end sticks, but Hori's are apparently difficult to mod/repair when they break. I can't find any mention of that specific stick on SRK though, so take that with a grain of salt. Hey, you just said you needed an opinion, not information.

Ragna is pretty good for footsies, actually - if you force yourself to play them. You don't need footsies to win as a scrub Ragna, but they're actually one of his strengths at higher level play because his normals have pretty good reach. If Ragna wants to win a match against, say, Makoto, he has GOT to play the footsies and spacing game properly.

This is odd - the Yukikaze attack has foot attribute, so should hit any of the 214 series attacks at any time without issue. o.o I'm starting to wonder if there's something weird that happens when you D-cancel.

Yes, really. It's been up there for a couple of weeks now. It's not PERFECT - there's a bit of stuff that isn't quite right, since for example, they use the same image for Tsubaki's 236A/B/C/D, but the D version will OTG the entire cast, whereas the others will only hit like, Tager/Valk/Rachel/Hakumen or something on the ground, so obviously there's a hitbox difference there that's not reflected in the images, but it's pretty good.

I dunno; I thought James mostly had the right of it, but whoever that other guy was, was like "..." And honestly, I think it's a good idea to explain basic stuff sometimes. Not all the time, but if there's nothing super exciting going on, hey, if you convert one curious person because you explain something and they think "Oh hey, that's a good idea/cool feature", that's a win. What's the alternative anyway? You can be a hype machine and yell stuff like "OHHH! He misses his combo!" or "He doesn't block the overhead!!!" but seriously, while that's amusing, it doesn't ADD anything. OR you can try to talk about the strategy and maneuvers of the players, which is nice, but this isn't Street Fighter (and even then, this is a problem) stuff happens fast in this game, so you don't even hardly have time to finish explaining one thing before it's gone and replaced by two other things. I mean, even the guys commenting on the SSF4: AE finals kept saying stuff like "He's okay, he's still got the life lead." when he'd just lost it a couple of seconds ago.

I guess I don't really think of Arakune as a 'mixup' character because what his pre-curse mixup is completely meh. Also, he seems to have a low execution 'ceiling' - I virtually never see a high level Arakune player and go "Holy CARP! Crazy Arakune skills!" I see a high level Arakune player and go "Oh. Standard curse startup, oh, hey look, it's that combo again.". Maybe I just don't appreciate the subtleties of Arakune.

Litchi or Rachel would be my guess. Probably Rachel. One of the fastest overheads in the game with winded j.A, "invisible" mixup behind Tempest Dahlia, high mobility with wind. That's probably as close as you're going to get to mixup that is 'impossible to block on reaction' - BB mostly doesn't have that. You need mindgames with your mixup here.

I should publish a book entitled "How to get better at fighting games". It would be two pages long, with "Play" on one page and "More" on the next.

Well, here's the thing. This game is BALANCED. :P Seriously though, you're going to find several different ways that question could be answered: Litchi is highly rewarding because of her strong mixup games and powerful oki. Makoto is highly rewarding because excellent execution can lead to impossible damage. Carl is highly rewarding because mastering his resets will make you a monster. Hakumen is highly rewarding because if you can get in your opponent's head with counters, you become utterly unstoppable. Mu is highly rewarding because a strong grasp of how all her projectiles can interact can lead to things seen nowhere else in fighting games. Rachel is highly rewarding because really mastering her wind mechanics lets you do crazy combos and mixups. Jin is highly rewarding because his basic mixup is terrible, but he has the tools for all kinds of nonstandard mixup mindgames. Tsubaki is highly rewarding because if you master the balancing act of both getting and using charges, you can leave people wondering how you can possibly be all over them like that. Lambda is highly rewarding because if you understand her spacing, your opponent won't even ever get a chance to try to hit you. I could go on. But the gist is: This game is full of rewarding characters. The closet thing I think it has to an "un-rewarding" character is Noel, because while she has some strong setups and some sneaky tricks, the majority of her power comes from stupid gambling drive moves that apparently a trained monkey can do with proper Pavlovian conditioning. :P Even Ragna has pretty good depth of options when you start factoring in his 22C oki setups and blood kain. You'll probably have better luck looking for a character whose playstyle matches what you enjoy than by trying to narrow it down to "deep, rewarding characters", because that doesn't narrow the field much at all.

This; Some people just synergize with different playstyles better than others. But not this. There's playstyle, and then there's execution threshhold. Some things are, in fact, objectively harder. (Note: I don't know if Carl is actually one of those things.) Yeah. XBL is FLUSH with Hazamas. Can't throw a rock without hitting one. Tao is.... I dunno. I don't get annoyed by Tao. Even really good Taos, I feel like they're really earning their wins. The characters who piss me off are Hazama (Lala, ohhhhh, CH 3C? That will be 5k whatever please. Sorry, but IMHO that's too much for a move with the risk/reward that one has, especially considering it doesn't require corner positioning, meter, or ANYTHING.) and Noel (4k from WTFEver with random invulnerability, yay!). Even Arakune doesn't bother me the way they do.

Sorry; Dissecting things is just what I do. Since that's apparently not how you guys roll around here, I'll shut up.

Protip: All white dudes look the same too. So do all black dudes. In fact, most people can't tell other people apart at all.

This really depends on Stein placement; Steins that are closer to Tsubaki are actually LESS of a threat, because by the time Mu has done something to make them dangerous, you'll be past them. It's Steins that are towards Mu's end of the field that are risky to try to zip in on. I think a lot of the frustration some Mu players have with Tsubaki matches is just inexperience - she controls the ground in a way a lot of characters don't, so things that are okay vs Ragna and Jin are NOT OKAY AT ALL against her, and vice versa. The funny thing about this is that, fundamentally, it's still not actually SCARY. Just like Mu has to learn to just be patient and block until the right moment when under pressure, the same concept applies here - Totsuka + steins alone isn't really a threat unless you're pushing buttons, you just have to block and keep an eye on Mu; The only real problem this creates is the fact that she can use the blockstun created to set it up again. If you have time, jump barrier to eliminate potential mixups. 214C works at a certain distance - it's actually the easiest to use to go through the projectile since it has the most invulnerability frames - but unless you are VERY fast and basically read the Habaya coming out, it doesn't really get you anywhere because Mu will recover and be able to block before you hit her. (You'd have to 'react' to Habaya in the first like...13 frames or something, which in the realm of predictions, not reactions.) 214D doesn't actually have THAT much more invulnerability than 214B though, so someone with enough practice should be able to react to Habaya with 214B without too much trouble, so it's probably wisest to just understand the range 214B/D travel (They go the same distance, I believe, and it's not all that far.) and not do Habaya from inside that range (There are probably better options at that range anyway - like 5C). 214D is more threatening when used to cancel a 236 move, generally.

The 'safe' answer to the 6A > unblockable setup is, I believe, to just not quick tech; If you just don't push any buttons, you don't tech, you stay on the ground, and 22D hits you but doesn't really do anything because I think it prorates as part of the original combo or something - this is how I've been seeing various Japanese players deal with that setup. The downside it doesn't get you out of the corner, but the upside for you is that Tsubaki just more or less 'wasted' a charge. An 'empty' 6A might be able bait the DP,but the whole thing is probably slow enough that you can just DP on reaction to the 22D charge - the timing for the DP is pretty precise, but you have the opportunity to see the charge for a moment before you have to stand. Backdash is a valid option for avoiding 22D stuff, but honestly, you won't see those happen midscreen very often - it requires another charge to follow up unless you get the corner bounce. Really though, the whole trick to dealing with any of Tsubaki's 22D unblockable stuff is to be watching for them - neutral jump beats a 22D unblockable 'reset' for a jump in combo, but you have to be alert for it the same way you need to be alert for someone throwing an overhead into their blockstring for a reset. Vs almost any character, at least half the battle is knowing what their options are and how to beat them... while knowing that they know you know. Oh, and lastly, yeah, it's not just 214 but also 236 that can cancel into 22D - makes for great fun with Hakumen players who try to counter your 236C. :P

That was EPIC! No question! GOOD JOB! And screw you, tier lists.

Today's fun but not very useful fact - Astral goes right through Tempest Dahlia for the kill if they're trying to use it for space/chip/wind regen.

It MIGHT be possible for Tsubaki to space the 6A in such a way that Origins will whiff - I know that 22X can hit from outside the range of origins, but I don't know if Mu's 'prone' hitbox is big enough for the 6A to land and leave Tsubaki far enough away. Something to try in practice mode and see which combos leave the spacing right.

B-Vivace is head AND body invulnerable, so can get you out of way more spots than the A version. There's some vulnerability at the end though, and it can be caught by foot-property attacks (Generally lows and moves that come up out of the ground, like Jin's 2D and Ragna's Dead Spike.). As Reverals, Carl's supers leave a bit to be desired as well - if you really want out of the corner and can't find space for Vivace, I suggest a counter assault. It costs 50 heat, but it gets them out of your face something fierce. That should really be a last resort though - barrier followed by jump out should work in a lot of situations if people don't anticipate it.

If you get a counter hit or hit a crouching opponent you can omit the 5A as well, which will probably net you better damage.

This is probably true, but I don't think it's necessarily the best way to encourage offensive play. I'd rather encourage offensive play by making defense difficult - this is why I think you still, to this day, don't really see a lot of turtling in 3D fighters, is because it's really hard to block for a long time in them. Exactly! But there are lots of ways to reward offensive play without stacking the deck in favor of knockdowns. Honestly, I find heavy oki games boring to watch - "Ohhh! Player 1 has the knockdown! Oki! He guesses wrong! Combo! Knockdown! Oki!" repeat. =/ I don't think having "weak" oki makes offense "ambiguous" or "unsafe" it just means that it doesn't get a big bonus. Correct, but if you don't try to think like a game developer, you'll never understand why things in the game are the way they are. You'll just resort to writing rants on the internet about how aspect X of game Y sucks. Of course, you're still free to do that once you understand why it is the way it is, but at least you'll be more informed. Plus, I am compulsive about understanding the why's of things.

My services are available for a nominal fee. :P

This is because Tsubaki is awesome and her learning curve isn't terrible, and now that she's not really bad, everyone's Valkyrie-Angel-girl love is coming out. :P Online, I see way more of Hazama than I'd like. Lots of Jin, which doesn't really bother me. A good bunch of Tager. Very few Valk/Arakune/Tao/Rachel, and a moderate number of everyone else. Really, really wish I saw less of Hazama. He's just annoying.