BatousaiJ

You can't let em shut down your blockstring and pressure options and let them get free resets when they've got their back to their corner though, make them guess and if they guess wrong and you bait the DP, you can get a juicy CH combo in the corner which leads to big damage. When you've got them in the corner, you can't back off. You have to play the risk vs reward scenario and the reward is much greater than the risk basically everytime you're not going to die from one ID. 5B or dash 2A is generally what I go with. They both work given your timing is right but often times they'll be too far and that second hit of 5BB will miss leading to a derp moment so I think I like quick dash 2A a more. Even if they block, at the very least you can start a block string of your own and hopefully you have one charge in stock so you can 236D during the string to turn the corner against them in a instant.

Some very uncharacteristic choke moments there for ya Kiba in that Ragna set. Also, you really need to stop using 2D and losing untechable corner advantage by charging for too long >_<. Lastly, I've found a lot of success timing neutral tech to invul through dead spike and then punishing scrubedge for being predictable.

I haven't played a good Haku player in ages. I've heard good things about your Haku, Sans. It's guys like you and AXIS that makes me want to get BB for my 360 as well but the whole controller barrier keeps me away since I'm a pad warrior and I'd rather not play than to use the 360 pad to play BB.

You can use a lot of moves to hit her out of her 236x, the choice between the various versions of 236 is a method of feint to the point where you'll only go a few feet or barely half screen to cancel. If the Haku uses 3C counting on the timing of 236C/D(the ones you'd expect), they'll whiff completely and will be at the mercy of the follow up. This could backfire in the way that they'll just expect you to stop short and then try to punish you for it but at that point, you can switch it up and go for 236C/D which will be to your advantage.

^^ Good info. One fun method to shutting down Haku countering your 236x option is to stop it short on purpose with 236A/B and then go directly in 22D/214D. This will result in your stopping short and whooping them in the face with a counter hit with a sub-sequential attack.

6B is her ass overhead, I'd imagine. Ya, I remember trying to mash jab afterwards and getting punished for it so I figured as much. Something about Plat makes me not be afraid of her... probably because it's a bit early for people to truly be exceptional at using her but I do have problems fighting her with my subs so that sounds good. Also, what would be a good way to react and punish to her command grab?

Regular frying pan gets full combo off instant overhead start up without RC? Hum, I guess the guy just didn't know about that. 236B is her heart car? I really should take Plat to training mode to learn her basics but I really have no desire to learn her at all.

Heart car block -> Automatic counter combo. You have all the time in the world. One thing worth noting is that if you punish too quickly, they'll actually still be in the air and you won't get a full punish for some of your options. Also, air to air is really ass in that match up as whatever the jumping normal is for the one where she swings her staff will beat out your air to air options rather easily. They can also hit confirm a CH of that that into a heart car combo which as we know hurts real bad in the corners. You should always have an eye on the tool she's got in hand(especially after the DD item) so you know what options she has available to her. Even good Platinum players get a little overboard with reversals when they've got the bat so it's actually easy to bait. The bombs eat 236x on start up reaction everytime and you can just high jump over the bullets with ease. I think the hammer has moves that breaks primers so watch out for that and the frying pan has that instant overhead going for it so watch out for it especially when it's enhanced by DD where they can get a full combo off of that without RC. I still haven't played any exceptional Plats yet(too early?) but they haven't been too hard to fight overall.

She doesn't shut down things outright but she limits them and makes you wary of using them enough of them to make me think that it's about a notable disadvantage. By how much is something I can't say so sure but it feels like a uphill battle all the same.

I'd have to disagree with you on the match up thing with Makoto Eshi. The problem with makoto is that she has tools to make some of Tsubaki's best aspects difficult to utilize. Starting off the 3C factor and how it slides under 236x/214x attacks. Makoto can also DP without IB in between Tsu's 5C© < 6B link in reaction and continue the DP CH combo. Makoto's parry adds another factor for adding more trouble to what we can do with max range corner pressure with 5B as well as making Tsu players generally watch out for any attacks that you might "expect" like landing j.C hits and the like which becomes the same kind of mind game you have to play vs Haku. We generally also lose out against her in the air to air fight with her j.B/C being a better option than what we have all the while they have a j.B CH hit confirm that's one of the easiest to land after the fact. Then there's the furry tail which changes her speed and angle of falling which makes 2C annoying to land and if you do land it, it will often times just clash getting you no where. Makoto's quick enough to keep pressure on Tsu to keep her from getting charges easily and add to all this her incredible antiair, poke, corner carry and damage... it's fairly obvious that this is a match up in the favor of Makoto. I'm in the process of formulating a decent strategy against Makoto so maybe if I can get one down that works, I'll change my mind in the future but as things stand, it doesn't look all that great.

Ya, Jin players get a little reckless trailing their 236C sword and I often catch people with 214D as they rush in. Don't forget that Jin's 2D will hit you out of 214D and given that's mid-range, if they call out your 214D as they rush in, they'll be able to throw that out there and get a meaty combo off of it.

Haku's wake up 2D eats your wake up pressure options outside of throws and his wake up hotaru will rock your throw option so it's really a pain in the ass to continue pressure on a Haku after you've knocked them down. When you get him in the corner, you can opt to just stay out of his 2A reach and see what he does and proceed to continue with max ranged 5B but it's quite an annoyance to fight Haku. While 2C is a great option against him when he's air dashing towards you, it can be beat with a proper timed j.D so if you're getting too obvious in 2C usage, be prepared to eat some j.D counters. Luckily, j.D counter doesn't equal massive punish anymore so as one of the people I killed for obvious reasons would used to say in regards to Tsubaki... "It's better 2C than not 2C." Also, 22D unblockable is not counterable so abuse this against defense minded Haku players and just be aware of Haku's frame traps after his 6A and don't let him 6B option frustrate you. It's slow enough to block on reaction given decent connection and he can't do anything off of it outside of RC stuff.

Depending on 214x for footsies is a very, very bad idea. It's something you want to throw out once in a while just to let your opponent know you have the option so that they can be afraid of it and try to bait it. Other wise, it's extremely easy to space and make it whiff. Even on block it's - so don't use your 214 options in excess especially if you don't have charge to cancel into 22D as an option.

Mostly a case of untechable time after your combo ender. If you opt for singular 2CC > 236x > 214x > 22x, you'll have a lot of leeway in landing that last 22x to have the untechable time to land that 6C > DD finisher. If you're going with 2CC > 22C > dash 5C > 2C > 236x > 214x > 22x, your timing will have to be a lot more precise in landing that 22x in order to have long enough untechable time to land that 6C > DD at that point. Generally though, you'll get more damage from 2CC > 22C > dash 5C > 2C > 236x > 214x > 22x > 236236C over going with the simpler link to get that easier 6C > DD. Just remember that the 5C and straight sliding 236236C doesn't work on Jin and Jin only so keep that in mind during match ups and what dummy you pick for training mode.

I rarely play against good Aras and when I do, I have a tough time taking them out. Any good advice on approaching this fight? Especially would like to know how to stop them from teleport dashing out of pressure and etc for free once you get in on them?

Played enough against giga and SKD to be able to say yes to the outspacing thing. The trick with tackling Ragna's pressure is to spot his openings and go-to gatlings. I'd agree with Kiba with the preference of 236C/D approach. Good players will catch onto this and will use double jumps and IAD backwards to control space so just anticipate his end spot in his movements before throwing out your 236x moves. Ragna's jumping attacks are free to 2C anti air option so stay grounded and don't jump around too much as his j.C will shit all over your j.C from a mile away. Also, Ragna can close the distance quite easily so don't take too much risk in charging when you don't have that knockaway and etc. Ragna can also inferrrrna divida out of a ton of your blockstring options including transition into 6B and 6A so be wary of that and once you start to spot them doing so, go for frame traps with the 22x attacks or charge cancel into immediate block to follow up with a punish. Getting caught in the corner against Ragna is bad news, you can't 214D out of deadspike pressure as it has feet attribute but you can DP out of the gap before dead spike but watch the distance as if you they space it correct, you'll whiff and just get hit.

The only problem with the 236C > 5C pick up is that it's simply an alternative to the 2CC > 22C > dash 5C > 2C pick up which gets about the same meter/damage. The 236C is handy when applicable to Jin though since 5C pick up isn't possible on his ass.

After taking some time getting blown up by omniscythe, I've learned a few things. Apparently, 214D whiffs over 3C. I knew 236 did but I had no idea 214D did. I totally called out the use of 3C, broke out 214D -> whiffed and got hit. Pretty mind blowing stuff. Also, most of her fully charged drive moves seem to break primers so you gotta keep an eye out on your primers, especially after you burst. I've also noticed that her block string has a lot of room for frame traps that will get you hit with a counter if you try to break the string with a 2A or something so it's often times better just to barrier block and push away. You can DP your way out of her gatling into her overhead but you'll mostly trade so it's not a free ticket out. I started getting a feel of when he would option select to do the teleport(crossover or regular) which you can beat out with a jab if you see it coming. It's going to take a lot of match up experience before I can formulate a good offensive strategy against Makoto but this is certainly a uphill battle.

Well, it does count since it doesn't get broken like every other projectile but rather reflected back. If you're asking if 22B is going to reflect back spark bolt or ice sword or something, no. I don't think anyone has that function in the game.

5B(best all around poke), 2C(best anti air), 2A(quickest and most reliable poke in short range), 6A(only overhead), 6C(only fatal counter), j.CC(best hit stun as we're landing and delay in second hit is good) are all very important normals that should be covered. 6B is only really in notable in gatling situations and should be mentioned in that section. The only "must" cover gatlings in my book are 5B(B) > 2BB || 2B(B) > 5BB > 5CC || 5B(B) > 6A || 2B > 6A || 5C© < 6B. All of Airk's correction to what Ginseng's got is correct except 22B does "break or reflect" most single hit projectiles but it's so not worth using that we can just not mention it.

Gotta be pretty immediate for you to follow up with most everything you want to do.

Woo, that 6C against Noel wake up is handy I'll have to throw that out there more often and get some free practice on that double IAD combo, aha. The only problem with this is while the JC on block is nice, that's an easy opportunity for the opponent to start their counter attack or escape your pressure with relative ease. Keep the 6C in your arsenal but don't overuse it and it should be great addition to what you can use to keep Noel players from being so D spam happy.

Man, we haven't done crap for the tutorial video since ages. I don't even know where we left off and what still needs to be done. We've all had our fair bit of time with the game by now to finish this up I think so lets get to it.

A strategy I like to use against Tao is to block, block and block. Get them frustrated enough to break their tight strings for things like throw, over head and air crossovers then take advantage of those holes and start a block string of your own. The reason why you don't really want to play footsies against Tao or try to mash her out is because you'll... lose. Tao should be taken care of like you would Lambda once you get in on them. They have no reversal outside of their DD and it's free season on cats unless try sacrifice the heat or burst to get you out of their face. You can try to throw 236/214 moves to hope to catch them but it's actually easier for them to bait those moves out of you and then punish you for whiffing them entirely so I wouldn't suggest randomly tossing those out there. Be ready to throw out your 2C anti air for when she goes for a air crossover in the middle of block strings and you can also beat out her overhead with 2C as well if you time it well which results in a nice meaty 2C CH you can continue for a full combo. It's also worth noting that after many of Tao's BnB, you'll be able to tech really high in the air that allows you to get some free charge before landing safely with j.214x.

Psssh. Speak for yourself, PK! All my matches are like combo videos!