Airk

The "trick" to using 6A is that it's much harder to react to it when someone ALSO has to react to tick throws, charge cancels, and random D-moves. If 6A is the ONLY thing they need to watch for, it's not too hard to spot, but when someone is sitting there thinking "Crap. If he tick throws me into 3k again, I'm done." suddenly 6A is much more surprising. :P There was definitely some bad combo choices/positioning action going on there too. There's really no reason to EVER do 5BB>5CC>22C by itself in this matchup (It could probably be argued it's not a good idea in almost any matchup, but there are probably situations in matches with no zoners where it's desirable to use this to create space to charge). If you have no charge midscreen, you should at least do 5BB>2BB>5CC>236A>214A>22A for something resembling corner carry and also more damage. If you've got them in the corner, then 5BB>5CC>22B>6C>236C>214C>22C is acceptable for no-charge damage with a little charge time at the end. (It's also so crazy easy than even I can do it.) Also, don't jump in with j.BB. j.B is okay to jump in with, but mashing B for j.BB is just going to mess you up because the 2nd attack will whiff on a crouching target AND it gives you 3 frames of landing recovery, which will make it harder to follow up. I saw you get punished for this several times when a j.C would've hit just fine. More liberal use of run in>214X would put paid to his habit of trying to keep you out with explosions or the Glowy Ball of Doom. Also... SoD is NOT SAFE on block unless it's been charged for a significant amount of time. At the very least, dash 5B after that gives you pressure, at best, a combo. Do not respect "blockstrings" that end in SoD. And for heaven's sake, if he whiffs it, punish with something. I'm pretty sure you can backdash out of 6C>SoD as well, particularly if they try to hold it for some reason.. and if you do, they're screwed because you're now out of range of SoD and can punish when it releases. Other things not to respect: Setting steins at fullscreen from neutral. Unless he's already got a wall of steins out to protect him, you can pretty much 236C in on him for free - at least until he starts trying to special cancel to protect himself, in which case you can play mindgames with 236B or 236C > 214D since 214D beats every special option he has as long as you time it right. I'm not sure how good an idea it is to start this match with a backwards airdash either - you don't really want to be relinquishing position on Mu. If you're nervous about starting with 22A or 214B, you can start with 5B or just a crouch block. And uh... I'm sure someone said this already, but less jumping. Never deliberately try to meet Mu air-to-air, because her air-to-air options are very good and yours are poor. The only time you really want to "air-to-air" her is if you anticipate her trying to jump out of the corner, jump and air throw.

Then the question becomes "WTF were they thinking deliberately giving Makoto oki like that?" which amounts to pretty much the same thing. I'd rather believe that they weren't thinking about it than believe that they intentionally made such a dumb decision, personally. Either way though, the net result is that oki is distributed somewhat poorly in BB. Not egregiously so, because there are balanced characters like Litchi and Rachel who have it too, but...somewhat.

Wouldn't immediate wolf-and-rush run into problems with the fact that Mu has moves she can hit you with right off the bat at round start? Is there any reason Mu wouldn't want to start with 6C here? Wouldn't that stuff attempts to immediately wolf and close? I guess it depends on whether you can get out of the area of effect before it hits.

There's nothing wrong with the ground tech system in BB. The problem is twofold: #1: Players feel entitled to oki. This is a street fighter mentality that needs breaking out of. The automatic assumption that strong oki makes a game better is far from universally true. #2: The distribution of who has stronger oki in BB seems to have been determined by the "oops, that move can be used for oki" system. Now, to be clear, it's PERFECTLY FINE that some characters have better oki that others, in the same way that it's fine that some characters have invulnerable DPs, some characters get more damage from throws, some characters have better zoning, etc. The problem arises with the fact that Arksys doesn't seem to have thought about it. They give Makoto her sparkle ball and think "What a clever projectile we came up with!" without seeming to realize that it's a tremendous tool for locking people down in the corner on wakeup. Same thing with Litchi. But obviously you don't NEED to have "good" (quotes, because someone will come in and complain that all oki in BB is weak compared to Millia in GG, so heading that off at the pass. :P ) oki to be strong in this game - Hazama and Noel don't have particularly strong oki games, and it sure isn't holding them back. I encourage everyone to take a step back from the preconceptions and actually consider oki as a game system, what it adds, what it takes away, and why. Think like a game designer!

I'm taking a breather! Really though, the Lambda match only seems to get hard if: A) Lambda spends a lot of time jumping around (this is a theme for Tsubaki matches) or B) You're up against the rare Lambda that is actually comfortable going on the offense in a sortof rushdown way. (The best Japanese Lambda player I've seen, who always uses that dreadful colorscheme, is one of these, and the matches are very different because he basically doesn't try to zone except to throw off his opponent's groove. This is why he's deadly.)

General advice, since I'm not allowed to talk about Lambda anymore: Anytime you find yourself getting counterhit out of 5B by moves that low profile under it, mixing in the occasional 22X can make your opponent more wary of doing this, since it hits lower to the ground than 5B. Generally you'll want to use 22A or 22D for this, since the others are a bit slow, but 22D costs charge and 22A is unsafe on block (it's not too bad as long as you space well though - most moves that can hit you at -9 won't reach you at near-max 22A range, just don't do it up close where you can get jabbed.) so don't get too predictable, but in most circumstances where you'd be 'poking' with 5B and getting CH'd by Lambda/Hazama 3C, 22A is pretty safe. It only takes a couple of CH 22A combos to discourage people from throwing out 3C's quite so much.

This is good advice, and I meant to put something to this effect into my post and forgot. x.x Starting with Ragna, Jin, Noel, Bang or Tager is probably safest - even though Tao and Hazama and Arakune technically have attacks on their drives. Makoto, Tsubaki and Platinum aren't bad either. But really, kinda like Street Fighter where you can learn the basics with Ryu, here, you can pretty much learn the basics with Ragna.

Well, I don't know what level you were at in Street Fighter 4, but while there are significant differences between the two games, the answer, sadly, is that you have to learn to play BB in much the same way you learned to play SF4 - with lots of practice. A few things that are obviously different about BB and how it might help to think about them: #1) Everyone is a heck of a lot more mobile. Most characters can run (rather than those ghetto SF4 'dash' things), and everyone except Tager can double jump or airdash during a jump. (Most characters can only double jump OR airdash during any given jump, but some characters like Tao can do multiple "air actions" during a single jump.). This means that jumping overall is significantly safer since you aren't necessarily committing to being in a particular spot when you jump. Also, you can block in the air. :P #2) To balance out the added, most characters have one or more 'anti-air' moves that are actually invulnerable to airborne attacks for at least part of their duration. These moves prevent jumpins from being 'free'. For the characters I see you have interest in, these moves are Tao's 6A, Tsubaki's 2C, Carl's 2C and Valkenhayn's wolf 5B (And kinda also his human form 6A). Defensively, learning to use these moves to beat jump-ins is key. Offensively, learning how to jump in without getting hit by this sort of thing (generally by catching your opponent off guard, or by creative use of double-jump) is key. #3) Spacing and 'footsies' are still absolutely fundamental, but more complicated. #4) Blockstrings play a much more significant role than they do in SF4 - in SF4 blockstrings are generally limited to a couple of linked normals, and maybe a special at the end, and don't really involve much 'mixup'. In BB, blockstrings are generally longer, and may contain lows and highs that need to be blocked on reaction or anticipation. There are also usually 'holes' in them where a careful defender can force an opening with a "dragon punch" like move by using Instant block. #5) Characters do weird stuff. There's no real way to adapt to this other than to get experience playing against the whole cast. I'd suggest you take the time to go over Dustloop's very solid System Guide. It's a LOT of information to absorb all at one go, but reading it over at least once will at least get the ideas simmering. Beyond that - practice. If you don't want to get beat up online, doing Arcade Mode or even Training Mode with a CPU dummy will give you a chance to feel out your character and get a handle for how to start landing combos. Don't be ashamed if Score Attack blows you up - especially Tager, who can be hard to deal with due to the CPU's magic reactions and not actually needing to do joystick inputs. I'm on XBL, and while I don't claim to be an expert, I might be able to lend a bit of a hand. What time zone are you?

Well, the super basic 1-charge standing B combo is: 5BB > 5CC > 22C > 236D > 5B > 2CC > 236B > 214B > 22B. This carries almost from one corner to the other, and does significantly more damage than the very basic 0-charge 5BB > 2BB > 5CC > 236A > 214A > 22A combo. More advanced 1 charge stuff from 5b gives the option of: 5B > 5C > 2C > 214D > 2CC > Instant Air dash > j.CC > 5B > 2CC > 236B > 214B > 22B (I think this only works on crouching characters) And there are more complicated things involving 5BB > 5CC > 623C > j.214A (whiff) stuff that take a lot of execution to pull off. Also, on a Tao note, I thought the Taunt Loop had gone out of style with CS2.

If you are doing bad damage with Tsubaki, you need to: A) Charge a little bit more. Being able to spend even 1 charge in a combo can lead to greatly increased damage. B) Work on your execution. Tsubaki's 'basic' combos are okay, but don't hit especially hard. There are several more advanced versions of various combos that can add fairly significant amounts of damage.

Heck if I know. I don't keep track. But fine, if we're going to play the "you don't have enough experience to discuss this" card, I'll just shut up. I don't usually tend to base this sort of thing on my own experiences though. I base them on analyzing better players. The weird thing is that toanenadiz pretty much said I was right, since, well, what're you doing at full screen in this matchup if not charging? Oh well, as mentioned, shutting up.

Didn't look like that much; Offhand, I'd say: Tager loop is obviously Tager specific. the Valk combo is mostly generic, but the 236C pickup at the end only works on a couple of characters. The Makoto combo would shock me if it were character specific, since her hitbox is so sucky. -_- Combo on Tsubaki should work on most people, might drop on Carl. Combo on Carl probably works on anyone, but sortof irrelevant since that one is a total showboating combo. Stuff that works on Hazama tends to work on everyone, same thing for Bang. Crossup shenanigans on Rachel are probably Rachel specific. They look like they're hitting the very edge of her goofy hitbox. No idea about Tao, but again, showboating combo. Tager super loop is probably Tager specific again, and sortof irrelevant since I think that's basically a 150% heat combo. :P Jin Hilarity should "work" on anyone, but mostly irrelevant, since this is more of a "haha, burst bait" demo than a combo. Noel/Lambda/Mu crossups look like they should work on anyone.

I've never seen a Lambda player try to use 3C against 236C, so I dunno. Sounds kinda risky. Also, if they start doing this, you can try to bait it by doing 236A or B instead, which will move you closer without putting you in range of 3C. Lambda's 214D isn't really much faster to come out than 214D - it's 35 frames of startup...and doesn't even reach full screen, so if you're at max range, it's irrelevant, and she can do it all she wants. If she wants to do the version that reaches the entire length of the screen, it's 63 frames of startup. There's room for some mindgames here on their part, where they can do the 'short' version in an effort to try to bait you into attacking, but it's not really that threatening. At full screen, as long as you can react to 4D and 236D~C, you're fine. You don't lose anything for having to jump and block, since you can't get any further away anyway. At "not quite full screen", Lambda basically can't throw stuff out, because 5D can be jump>barriered on reaction, 214D and 236D can be 236C'd on reaction, and any other sort of "guessing" with swords leaves her open to a 236C punish. She has to jump, or bait you into getting overzealous with your approach. Dash > 5D shouldn't really be a problem if you are charging intelligently - i.e. tapping 5D. The worst that happens there is you're forced to block a 5DD, but her options from there are pretty limited. Lambda's goal in this matchup is to frustrate you into doing dumb stuff while trying to get in, but she can't REALLY do that without taking some risks due to Tsubaki's ability to cover ground so quickly. Additionally, Tsubaki's payoff for getting in on Lambda is much bigger than the payoff for Lambda forcing most mistakes (there are some that will set you up for gruesome bad things, but overall, getting hit by an air sword, for example, doesn't really do that much damage.). I'm still arguing 5.5 Tsubaki's favor here.

Buh. Yes. Go me for losing track of the original question. x.x Still, I think the 4k combo in question is practical, valid, and technically 2 charge. :P

16.5 seconds, or 11 seconds if the move hits. (I assume that means the damage dealing part, not the field.) Assuming 60 FPS. If you are having problems with 4D and the "circular blade" (236D, aka "Sickle Storm") then you need to learn to recognize the startup of both moves, and keep an eye on Lambda; 4D has 30 frames of startup, which is more than enough to scoot forward by any of several methods and make it whiff. Sickle Storm is 38 frames of startup - 44 if you want the back-to-front version (which, I believe, is the only version that hits at full screen distance). No Lambda should be throwing that out randomly at full screen, because it's a huge invite for you to to airdash in for a beatdown. The trick is that you have no NOT block this stuff. If Lambda is doing random crap from fullscreen, you have to take that opportunity to close in, because once you start blocking stuff like Sickle Storm, you're locked down for a week. (4D is actually -11 on block and 4DD is -18 though, so, after blocking that, do something, she has to special cancel or be heftily negative.)

Holy ****, 6k zero charge fatal counter combo. o.o

It's NET two charges. I guess it depends on how you define it. If you earn 50 heat during a combo and then use 50 heat at the end, is it really a 50 heat combo? You tell me. But theoretically, with two charges stocked, you could do that combo. Edit: But apparently I'm wrong anyway, because there's a pure 2 charge combo in the latest combo vid Pktazn posted that's like 4.3k with no super. :P Yeah yeah, fine, combo movie stuff. Was the question what's the most PRACTICAL damage Tsubaki can get in the corner? Erm, actually, now that I think about it, you can get 4k in a practical combo (heck, even _I_ can get this one) - the catch is that it's a 22D opener. 22D > 6CC > jc > j.C > jc > j.CC > j.214D > 5C whiff > 5CC > 236B > 214B > 22B just barely breaks 4k and that's probably not even the optimal version of that combo.

4883. :P 4043 with no super.

Well, honestly, it might not work anywhere; I've not tried it myself, and I've no idea where that info came from. Ginseng?

Uphill! Both ways!

They can't exactly use gravity seed before spike chaser all the time, since the move has a cooldown period. And using it will lock Lambda out of a lot of her good combos. The thing is that it breaks out like this (Once you're inside 'full screen' range, since neither 236C nor Lambda D reaches there - complete fullscreen is almost free charge as long as you watch for 4D). Lambda has to either work entirely on reaction - which is VERY hard, since 5D has 15 frames of startup, and it's no easy task to stuff 236C with it on reaction - or she has to commit to 5D to control the space in between you and her, in which case you get a free jump in over 5D and you get closer. Spike Chaser and Sickle Storm can't be thrown out at full screen either, because they have tons of startup, so you can either dash>Barrier, or jump>barrier if you're not fast enough to 236 it. This forces Lambda airborne, and reduces her options, because she has no lows, no moves that will beat 214X, and all her airborne specials/drives have landing recovery, so if you can maneuver into an appropriate position from there, you've got her. With patience, it's very hard for her to zone you out, so long as you don't get predictable. Once you're in, it's very much in your favor. The only time this match gets ugly is when Lambda scores a knockdown, which lets her set up all kinds of stuff.

So you are just blowing up the competition then?

Well, if it prevents you from having to learn how long to delay the 2nd C, I don't see how that's not valuable. -_-

So now that you have your new recording widget, are we going to see a shiny HD combo video from you? Or, heck, I'd be interested to see you PLAY, too. :P

Could be; Honestly, I don't know if you hold the first button press, or do the second press and hold that. For some reason, I had it in my head that it was the latter, but the former would make a lot more sense, in which case, yeah, your notation would be right.