Airk

Well, you can tell if he's in a position to do wakeup Hotaru, since it requires 2 stars. While he'll USUALLY have this, he won't always, so keep an eye on that gauge in the corner when you knock him down. Properly spaced, 22D "oki" should at least be safe from wakeup Hotaru, and will stuff any counter he decides to wake up with, and, well, you can always try the ol' "mash 2A over them until just before they wake up" and see if you can bait something - a whiffed 2D gives you a ton of time for a punish. Blocked Hotaru..er..well, he wasted 2 stars, I guess. -_- Another goofy option on him at wakeup is 6A - since 2D doesn't counter high attacks, you might catch someone thinking "oooh! Here comes an attack! 2D!" only to get stuffed by the overhead. 6B is annoying, but not really very dangerous. Just condition yourself to do more high pokes and less 2A.

Good news: 236C can clash with chains too. Bad news: Neither 236C nor 236D clashes with chains RELIABLY. I don't even really know what causes it, so don't EVEN try to rely on this. If I had to guess, I would suspect that active 236C/D (heck, probably A/B too, but...) will clash with SHORT RANGE chains (Hazama's chains are kinda like two moves - they have seperate properties (hitstun etc) for when you are close and when you are far. As a rule, they suck when you're close and are dangerous when you're far.) but will get stuff by long range chains, but... don't count on this. Find another way to get around this. (Any suggestions? x.x)

Clashes are funny. Technically I think almost any pair of moves can clash with the right spacing - I think it happens when a move's hitbox overlaps another move's hitbox, with neither hitbox contacting a hittable box. So any two moves that have hitboxes that extend beyond their hittable boxes should theoretically be able to clash. Which reminds me... <goes to post in Hazama thread>

No, it's not. It's not nearly as punishable. Really though, I think Ragna has two advantages here and neither of them are in the footsies space. #1 is that a good Ragna has relentless pressure that is hard to get out of. This is nothing much to do with his spacing. It'll take a lot of experience and a deft hand with the DP to slow this down. The other advantage is that, like most of the cast, he beats Tsubaki in the air, and it can be very hard to anti-air him effectively. There's not much of an answer for this except mixing up your anti-air game, since relying on 2C isn't sufficient. Edit: Oh yeah. And Inferno Divider is way nicer than 623X, so he has an easier time breaking out of our pressure than we do out of his.

Hrm, I hadn't noticed that Ragna has a 5 frame jab. That means it's THEORETICALLY possible for him to punish 214X. Maybe. but I doubt it. Once you're in 'poke' range, it's not really possible to jump out of the way or counter these on reaction - except with 2A, and you have to be pretty speedy even for that, since 214B is faster than our overhead. :P I'm not proposing that you just spam these moves around, but I think they're going to be crucial against Ragna because they beat all of his traditional spacing tools and force him to start playing with moves that you can beat with your normals. Of course, ideally, you're not going to be playing midrange footsies, because Tsubaki isn't very good at them, but this matchup is by no means "Ragna wins spacing for free".

The forward dash at the start is dubious opener against Noel. Learn a better no-charge corner combo. 5BB>5CC>22C>6C>236C>214C>22B is so stupid easy even I can do it, and the 5BB>5CC>22B>dash 2B> 2CC > 22C > 5C > 2C > 236B > 214B > 22B is less hard than it sounds. The random 5CC was probably a input error? Honestly, I think that round 1 burst was unnecessary. You had tons of health left. That random 623C in round 1 was just a bad idea - she wasn't nearby, and you don't really want to do 623C outside a combo anyway. At the very least, D-cancelling to j.214D would've salvaged it, most likely, but be careful with that move in general. Same with the random 623D and 623C in round 2 - if you're not comfortable doing these moves at point blank range, it's probably safest not to use them at all. Try to remember that there's startup on 236X, so if your opponent is already in melee range, it's probably bad to try to go for one. (I have this same issue where I just don't process fast enough, and someone running towards me is close enough to hit me by the time the move starts to come out.) You probably want to avoid using the 22D reset (or 22D in general) midscreen unless you have a 2nd charge. Otherwise, it's basically a waste of a charge that you could've used for more corner carry with 5BB > 5CC > 22B > 236D > 5B > 2CC > 236B >214B>22B or for more damage and a position switch with 5BB > 2BB > 5CC > 236D > 5BB > 2BB > 5CC > 22C or thereabouts. I know this is a CS1 habit, and we ALL miss it, but...well... get a knockdown and get another charge. Oh, well, there're some good 623As! Next step is to learn to follow them up with a j.214C for more damage and much better spacing. You seem a little timid about mashing the heck out of D on a knockdown. If your opponent is going to give you space by neutral teching your 22C, you should be able to get more than a charge. Just watch for forward rolls. A lot of CS1 nostalgia sadness with midscreen 22D in this match too. =( Like me, you really need to mix up your blockstrings. 5BB>2BB>5CC>22C is solid and fairly safe, but it's not going to break through anyone's defenses anytime soon. 5BB>6A>5CC>6B will at least make them work for it. And eventually we'll both need to learn proper jab pressure. =/ You missed a 22X counterhit pickup in round 3. Normally I don't point out when people have trouble with hitconfirms, because I suck at them, but this one is really pretty easy and merits some time in training mode. This is also the first time I've seen you use heat for ANYTHING. Honestly, probably the BEST thing you can do with heat as Tsubaki is to spend it on counter assaults. I know I ALWAYS forget about these, but I've been working them into my game lately, and holy cow, they make a huge difference. It's almost as nice as a burst, and costs you no primers. Not much to add, except that I noticed that since I don't think I ever saw you do a two-charge combo, it's probably better for you to spend your one charge when you have it, and get some more off that knockdown rather than doing another 0-charge and charging some more.

Even the A version of Ice Car is -7, which is punishable - barely - by a 5A if you're in range. The dashing might add enough overhead for it to be blockable or DPable though. B and D versions are -9, so with precision, those can be punished with 5B. C version is -12, but no Jin in their right mind is going to throw that out unless they know it'll hit. Also, if your opponent is constantly hitting your punish attempts with a DP, what that really means is that he's gambling - he thinks you're going to go for the punish, so he goes for the DP. Wait for him to instead whiff the DP and you've got the punish of your choice.

Er, not unless your opponent is hitting buttons or trying to jump out. 236C is only -6, so if she just blocks, she should be able to block anything you pull out. On IB, you might be able to get a 5A in, but nothing much else is fast enough. Lots of Lambda players DO feel... uncomfortable being that close though, and will try to jump out or backdash immediately, but that's actually less safe for them, overall, than just holding down back.

But 214X beats out all of those, charge free. If Ragna is flailing around trying to control space, it's up to you to remind him that he can't do that. You have the tools to make him respect you. Once he's throwing out random 2Bs and 6Cs in an effort to keep from getting yet another CH 214B, the spacing game changes a lot. Yes, you'll lose trying to play 'normals footsie' with him, so don't play that.

I don't think Arakune's dash teleports are particularly safe. As long as you're not committed to an attack with a lot of recovery when he dashes, you should be able to punish with 236C. The air teleports are much more tricky. Edit: Yeah. Forward "dash teleport" has 14 frames of recovery, backwards "dash teleport" has 11. That's technically not enough to 236C punish if you don't know which way he's going, but by keeping an eye on what the camera does, I think it's possible to tell where he's going to end up. I'm not super familiar with Arakune either, but I don't think he's actually particularly good at getting out of pressure.

This is another of those matches where counter assault is your friend. Overall, Ragna is pretty easy to block, but not so easy to get out of the pressure on, so counter assault early before you have too much time to mess up. You can't frametrap Inferno Divider with 22X - trying to do so will get you hit. On the other hand, you can bait ID ALL DAY with 214D (and, carefully, with 214B and C). Anytime you get to a point in your blockstring where he likes to ID, just throw that in there. You can also get a lot mileage out of D-cancelling 236C into 214D when he thinks he's being all clever by jumping. He doesn't win spacing "for free" but he does make you fight for it in ways that you generally won't have to against a lot of other characters. Like most characters, his list of moves with foot attribute is small, they tend to have short range, and aren't generally go-to moves, so there's a lot of room for hitting him with 214 series. It may also be worth learning to use 214X as an anti-air, because there is literally nothing he can pull out in the air that will beat the invulnerability frames. Ragna is also dependant on a lot of short-dash nonsense to maintain pressure, so it really comes down to mindgames on both sides. Very even matchup, IMHO.

Played a pretty dangerous Makoto today, and only pulled out a win because he really wasn't watching his primers. That said, if Makoto is actually using drive moves in blockstrings to try to break your primers, for heaven's sake, PUNISH. She can't cancel them with anything other than a rapid, and she'll be at negative something-teen. I find they're more likely to try to use Break Shot to er...break primers. And yeah, Kiba is spot on about why 214D misses - it's NOT a hitbox thing. Makoto's 3C has the same type of invulnerability that our 214X moves have. 214X doesn't "whiff over it" it just gets ignored because of the invulnerability. The other thing I learned from this match is, holy cow, counterassaults are your friend.

I guess I'm a little mindblown that you can hitconfirm a 5B into 236D, but not into sjc > J.B? They seem pretty comparable in difficulty to my untrained hand.

22A and B are on par with most normals that reach that far. (22A is actually really quite fast, at only 1 frame slower than 5B, but it's pretty negative on block.) At max range 5B pokes, how are you landing a 623C combo? I'm not really aware of anything except 5B > 22X that works at max 5B range. But yes, basically, you have to learn to hitcomfirm something tricky if you want to get anti-air benefits from your lazy playstyle.

Well, the really good Japanese players seem able to confirm it. At closer range you can also do 5BB>same stuff for a little extra hit confirming. You might want to try using more 22A/B stuff and less 5B at max range if confirming this is a problem. (I can't do it with any reliability, but I suck, so my performance should not be used as an indicator of what is possible.)

I don't think you have any options other than confirming that 5B in to j.B > j.C > jc > j.CC > j.236a > j.214X. With no charges, that only gets you like 1800 damage or something, but with two charges you can make that a j.214D > 236D > stuff that hurts a lot. Or if they're in the corner, you can do whatever after j.214D without another charge.

Out of curiosity, what projectiles are actually REFLECTED by this? (making Tiny Lobelia bounce doesn't count. That's just what it does when it hits something.)

I still feel that we should err on the side of giving too much information here - the various other communities aren't debating this - if you read the thread for this stuff in the Lambda forums, or the Jin forums or any of the other forums where there's a public thread for this stuff, they write out all the normals. SJ can't put in any information we don't give him, but is entirely capable of leaving out information. I propose the following - we do a list of all normals, and we arrange it roughly in order of importance and give a couple of 'break points' where it's like "everything above here is crucial and must be included" and "everything above here is good information" and "this last section is basically just filler" :P So like: 5B 2C 2A 6A 6B 6C --- j.C© 5C© 5A 2B 3C --- j.B j.A Or something. :P With regard to specials, I think the information in Ginseng's guide is fine for that. Though, er, there are a couple of things that need changing there, most notably: since, really, only 22B does anything weird with projectiles anymore, and that's hard to use and not that important 623C doesn't break a primer either D-specials can be D-cancelled as well, if the frame data is any guide. I'm pretty sure 22B doesn't REFLECT projectiles? Otherwise, the info in the guide looks good enough to cover the "overview of specials"

Rachel's overheard is slower, but it also breaks a primer on block, which is an increasingly useful function. I need to work more 6Bs into my game.

That's genius! Well, pretty darn smart, anyway - the problem is that 6C, even flawlessly meaty, is still minus a bunch on block. In fact, from a frame advantage perspective, it doesn't really matter that you do it meaty - 6C does 6 hits with no gaps in between, so there really aren't any "trailing active frames" before you go into recovery, which is what doing a meaty avoids. OTOH, obviously, the reason you do this meaty is because if your opponent sees you throwing this out, they're not going to wake up with a drive. Worst case, you can always jump cancel if you get blocked. 6C looks like a better choice than 6A, because, believe it or not, it has less startup. (Thanks, Arcsys, for giving us the worst overhead in the game. :P)

Again, this is NOT really true. If you keep playing like "Oh, 236C is -5 on block, I can throw out a 5A" you're on the fast train to counterhit city against Tsubaki. How negative or positive she is on that move depends on how many active frames still have to pass after she hits you. If it's small (i.e. at near max range for the move) she is positive, if it's large (i.e. hitting you at close range) it's negative. Unless you are aware of this, you will get hurt by attempting punishes that don't work. Ragna's 5B has a much nicer hitbox, and as you say, more active frames. However, it's a less good combo starter, with less P1, and is unsuitable for being a standalone poke since it leaves you at -7 vs +1. So I'd call it a wash. Both sides probably appreciate the other's features more than the ones they have.

This is not, in fact, universally true. Unlike some moves like Hell's Fang, Tsubaki's 236 series doesn't immediately go into recovery on contact, so her frame advantage off the move is based on her spacing. 236X at max range can be up to +4, whereas if done too close, they can be as bad as -5. Needless to say, if she spaces properly, even IB>5A will get you 5A'd in return. All THAT said, this is MOSTLY only a threat longer ranges; Most Tsubaki players won't use 236A/B outside of a combo, because you can't START a combo off them, except for little special cancel 236X > 214X > 22X things, which are mostly only good for knockdown. So you really only have to worry about 236C, which is only plus on block at about 3/4ths of fullscreen (and will actually stop short at absolute max fullscreen range - if you are at a distance where you're safe from Hazama's chains or Lambda's 5D sword, you're probably safe from 236C as well, and you'll get a free punish if she tries it because she'll go right into recovery in front of you.) The exception to THAT, of course, is if Tsubaki has charge, she can go from 236A/B into 214D into IAD beatdown, or other options - though most players will instead just go for 236D if they have charge. The short form, though, is that you should never assume you have a punish after blocking one of these moves - though going for an Inferno Divider will stuff her followup jabs, it has all the usual risks if she decides to just block after you block 236X. This move is definitely punishable - probably a shortdash 5B would be the easiest way, but there are probably other options. There are no shenanigans possible here except for Rapid Cancel. Smart Tsubaki players will not use this move randomly. This is basically it. You'll need to apply pressure and keep it on. As soon as Tsubaki starts getting charge, this match goes from "okay" to "uh oh" for Ragna. But you're going to have to pressure smart, because reckless pressure will get you comboed and THEN she'll get charge and you'll be worse off than if you just sat there and let her do it.

Tao is basically a question of who can turn a couple of random hits into damage first. If you can actually pin her down into blocking, you've practically won the match right there. :P As for "approaching" Tao - just stand still a moment and she'll be close enough. In all seriousness though, most Tao players space poorly, so you can toss out the occasional almost-random 2C and see what you can get. You can also stuff a lot of air approaches with careful 214X usage, since there is literally nothing Tao can do in the air, Drive or otherwise, that will hit 214X during the invulnerability frames. 214D is of course preferred, but getting charge can be tricky against Tao, so 214A/B may be your go-tos here (214C just takes too long to get its invulnerability frames on). Against a really GOOD Tao? cross your fingers, block, counterassault, and try to pin her down after that. You don't really have good tools for controlling a lot of the screen (Though 214X and 236X help) so your best bet is to be patient, block well, and make the most of whatever opportunities you can get. I know that's not good specific advice, but Tao just sortof "does stuff" and while none of her stuff is particularly deadly in and of itself, most of it is pretty safe, and sooner or later something hits... so you kinda just have to defend well and try to random her out. There really aren't any "punish" opportunities in this match unless your opponent does something really stupid or you block a Hexa Edge DD or something. You're right about staying grounded, but sometimes you can land a 'raw' j.214D because Tao is zooming around up there so much.

So you're saying that even backdating the system data doesn't actually undo this change? Seems sketchy.

You don't have to imply, I freely admit that I can't do that combo. I haven't really even put in any practice on it. (Grand total practice time, less than 10 minutes. It goes along the lines of "Let's try this challenge...hmmm, this is hard, maybe later.")