[SpA]Relentless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1O-EdT9W4#t=20m40s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1O-EdT9W4#t=32m55s Ragna vs Rachel (Jaeger) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O1O-EdT9W4#t=37m35s Carl vs Rachel (Jaeger)

Play/learn another FG. It gets you rid of autopilot.

Some tips from the top of my head: When playing against Carl, you should mainly concentrate on not getting hit instead of thinking about how you're going to hit Carl. Always be aware where Nirvana is. Is he near Carl on wakeup? Forget about Oki. Carl can do Con Brio (Nirvana's DP) during his neutral tech, and it will come out before the invincibility of the tech wears off. If you try to do meaty 236A as a roll tech punish + rod setup, it will bounce off Nirvana as Carl techs and you can be punished or pressured. Just two examples of why Carl is a complete retard If she's behind you during neutral game, attempt to get past Carl as soon as possible. You don't want Nirvana behind you, especially because you can't do anything against her fireball there. When she's in front of you and does a fireball, 236A9D is a nice way to get rid of it, and you get a rod. Run away and play as lame as possible. Carl has trouble catching Rachel. Frog and Rods are really important in this matchup. Even more than Pumpkin. Carl can Con Fuoco (the drill) your summons on reaction, but if he just uses it on prediction, you can superjump over Nirvana, summon pumpkin, then wind in. You can also poke Con Fuoco with 6B, then cancel 6B into a frog. Frogs can be winded past Nirvana so they're a staple pressure starter. j.236A with wind is a great way to force him to block the frog, but always be aware of Nirvana. Rods are great for punishing dashes/airdashes and to damage Nirvana. If Nirvana whiffs something, don't blindly rush in because of that. Carl has some very annoyingly good normals (6A, j.A). Always wait until you get him to block either frog or pumpkin. What's very annoying in this MU is that Carl can now cancel his forward dash into air specials. Allegretto moves him forward when he does this and it's great way to mess up your spacing/punish summons, and it starts a good combo for him. Be aware. If you get cornered with only Nirvana in your face, wait until she whiffs something (like Brio or the clap), then winded sj out. Always save some wind for movement, and don't be greedy with it for that purpose. It's a lot more important than using wind for mixups. If you pressure him when he's got 50 meter and Nirvana is behind you, he'll most likely try to dead angle you into the puppet for a combo. It doesn't do a lot of damage, but it shifts momentum in his favor, and that sucks hard. Another reason why it's important to always have Nirvana in front of you. Gear super is extremely dangerous, it comes out guaranteed, grants a free combo on hit or trade and free pressure on block, and has a huge hitbox. Respect it. If you block a random Rhapsody of Memories (Nirvana's multiple punch super), IB one of the strikes, then jump out WITHOUT blocking. You'll get hit a few times for minor damage, but you can airtech afterwards. A lot better than eating a dozen of mixups and resets. Carl and Rachel both suck at forcing damage onto the other player if the game is in a neutral state. This is a match of life lead, if you have it, it becomes fairly easy to sit on it, and vice versa. I find that most of my damage comes from random sword iris, random frogs or 6A antiair. I don't get a lot from oki because it's fairly dangerous to attempt oki on him, as written above.

I'll post a picture when I come home. Not really that hard, if you have a basic understanding of how electrical current works and have basic soldering experience, it's really easy. PCBs look complicated but the things you need to know to build a stick are easy to understand. The hardest part is to not destroy the PCB by applying too much heat (SPOILER: I did this... now I don't have a Square-Button ). And you need to find a proper PCB that's easy to solder on. It's a lot cheaper than buying a regular stick (at least 50% cheaper I'd guess). I know a guy that maps burst to a button and he plays on stick Release the kraken.

8D/236B on reaction, aircombo.

Are you serious : D It's so poverty...

I love it : D I think most players here use an arcade stick, myself included. I started out on pad originally, then shortly after that bought some arcade parts and built my own stick so I could finally SHORYUKEN FADC ULTRA. Never looked back ever since. I couldn't even imagine playing any Arcsys Game on pad now.

Yukiko is, though <3

You don't really want to approach without wind. Just sit back and wait for it to fill up. If you want to recover wind, have a frog out, it makes the enemy want to approach you by jumping or airdashing. 6A them. If you don't have a frog out, running in carries much less risk for the enemy. Be prepared to either 6B, 6A, jump or block depending on the situation and matchup. Jumping a lot isn't really wrong in BB because of barrier, but you still shouldn't overdo it.

Am I the only one that reads gamester's posts with a British accent?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jiyhGPjzzfY#t=614s Rachel (N-O) vs Taokaka http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=jiyhGPjzzfY#t=1035s Rachel (N-O) vs Noel

I don't think anyone feels like criticizing a player that's better than themselves : D Nah seriously, it's Hakumen, and it's Spark. I generally think you were just too nervous (understandable) and too aggressive because of that, missing opportunities to summon a pumpkin (for example, beginning of 2nd round, when you winded fullscreen and Spark whiffed a 4C) and dashing in instead. Stuff like dash up 2A with no backup, Hakumen's normals are just way better and they trade heavily in his favor. Zoning with lobelias is hard against him, but there are still some angels he can't cover properly. And I believe even if he cuts them, based on the situation, it gives you a chance to summon pumpkin or frog. Really it was just your nerves that got the best of you, at the end of round two you were trying to tack on a 2nd BBL when normal oki would have been the better choice. Those things simply don't happen when you play someone you're familiar with. If you played him a few times in a row, you would've definitely gotten quite a few rounds.

I don't even know where to start. This match was full of online tactics In the match vs Lambda, both of you were on autopilot all the time. Learn hitconfirming. You were doing stuff like 2B 5BD 5CC or even 6CD j.C 5B 5CDC 214A (...) without confirming if it even hit. This is a just a waste of wind and you give up momentum, and set yourself up for punishment. And pay attention to your wind meter, sometimes you hit with 5B and were out of wind, then still attempted 5CC. Learn to do high/low mixups (5B into j.2DA or 2B, occasionally 3C or 4B). When you're in training mode, don't set the dummy to never block or after first hit, but to random. Now do mixups and if you hit, go into a combo. If he blocks, do something else that's safe (further mixups or back to neutral). It comes with more experience. Winded 6C is a big no, seriously what's the point of this? Yes it's plus on block, but any decent Lambda player will punish you hard for attempting this. If you want to get close safely, try stuff like j9 3D with barrier. Get used to canceling your dash with barrier. It's so much safer than just stopping normally or attacking. Mash less. Calm down and just block patiently. It's not like the Lambda player was great at doing high/low mixups. 2C mash is bad against Lambda, she's pretty much immune to it due to her nature of being a long ranged character. Another example is 2:18, your opponent did a random burst, then you got nervous and just.... bursted yourself. In the worst spot you could ever burst. Turn everything into damage. You landed a throw with 2 winds, and did.... nothing same with 2C CH, that shit was godlike in CS2, at least 5,5k + oki with meter. Bait rolls. If you know the opponent likes to roll or delay their tech, do 2A 5B. If it hit, you can go into an aircombo, if they teched, only 2A will whiff and you can still apply pressure. Don't just mindlessly dash towards them, this is one of the worst beginner mistakes ever. You can train this by setting the traing dummy to random tech on everything. Seems like you mostly need to get used to Rachel and the game. Try to find a player that can consistently recognise and punish those mistakes, and play him a lot. Most of these tips are universal to all fighting games, so if you play something else too, try to learn it in those games too - it will transfer over to Blazblue. Good luck. EDIT: Just watched the video vs Bang and that player was fairly good. Watch it and try to understand how he abuses and punishes your bad habits.

Pretty sure you do. Poking Ignis with 6B, then canceling into frog/pumpkin might actually be a safe way to summon.

Am I? :< Secret to Carl MU unlocked. Secret to Litchi MU... Pending answer

So far I think this matchup is in Rachel's favor. During neutral you mainly have to watch out for two moves (I'm not sure about move names, sorry): 1. Ignis rolls towards you in wheel-shape (Val Lyra?): This move has a guard-point against projectiles so it will go through pumpkin and lobelias. It also destroys George. This is your main problem in this MU. It's possible to poke her with normals like 6B during the move, but I wouldn't overdo it. 2. Ignis appears behind you and attacks (Val Tus?): This prevents you from safely summoning at fullscreen. Treat this like Lambda's 4D: If you see Relius doing it on prediction, winded IAD. Due to these moves, you mainly want to stay in the air in this MU. Luckily he cannot do a lot against superjump > pumpkin summon afaik. It's also pretty much free to wind it onto him (at least I haven't been countered yet). From there you can pressure him easily. j.C is a godly air to air, as usual. Relius w/o meter is free on wakeup. His only invincible move at this point is his dodge move. It's completely invincible to strikes from frame 1 to 33, but has a total of 37f animation. You can bait it by starting your pressure with 2A. If he did the dodge, you can visually confirm your 2A whiffed, then tack a nice CH combo onto him during the recovery. It's also vulnerable to throws (and projectiles if I'm not mistaken). If he has meter, you have to watch out for his gear super since it will give him a free unblockable setup. All his normals aren't really that great. 5B is his best poke and j.B and j.C are good jumpins (j.B can also crossup), I even had j.C clash with 6A once from farther away. His 2C is a fairly good anti air (and fatal counters), but a bit slow (think of it like Arakune's 5C) and has long recovery on whiff. Apart from that, his normals are average at best. Just play this MU really lame, and you should be good to go.

I wished more Astrals were easily comboable. Instant Kills are the best feature any fighting game can have :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XepoJ4Ow5Rs#t=450s doraheta ( platinum ) VS memai ( rachel ) (Beginning of the first round is a storybook example of pumpkin and pole usage) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=q4hjZEF2HCo#t=1s Faris Nyannyan/Ryuusei ( carl ) VS memai ( rachel ) (Carl is so full of shit .__.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=q4hjZEF2HCo#t=271s jinren ( lambda ) VS memai ( rachel ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ISYEewV-nR4#t=150s FUNNYCAT (Rachel) vs Ikki (Taokaka) (You can skip this)

I'll see if I can get to play Extend today, if not I'll record it at Saturday. Edit: Okay, I just tested it again and sadly it's not legit. It only 'works' if you do j.B really high, but then it whiffs on crouchers (even if noone would block low in that situation probably). If you do it lower, ID hits you. I guess I wasn't hitting reversal timing when i tested it at first. Better do normal oki

Body lily doesn't take a primer anymore :< Only pole lily does. Still stacks though.

Safejump Setup against Ragna In the corner (this is an example combo to give you an idea at which height have to hit with j.2C): 6A, 5B, j.B, j.C, dj.2C, j.214B, then as you fall to the ground do j.B, then barrier block If Ragna emergency techs and does wakeup ID, you can block in time and punish. If he neutral techs, you can still wind down pumpkin to safely bait a DP. If he blocks low, j.B will hit him, go into a combo. If he blocks high, do the usual pressure. A nice trick would be 5B, frog, then 2D to wind the pumpkin down. This is a pretty tempting situation for the opponent to try and mash out :>

I tested some stuff today. Blocked cat chair punish in corner vs Rachel: 5C(FC), 236A, dash 5B, 5CDC, rest of bnb. You can't loop it after the first hit but this does good damage. Variation with meter: 5C(FC), 236A, dash 5BD, 3C(3), BBL, rest of bnb. 5C proration why so gdlk. Although I have to test if doing 5CD, 3C, BBL does more damage overall. Some other combos 5B, 5CD, 3C(3), 236C, 5A(1), (j.B), j.C, 2D, dj.2C(Lv2), j.214A, 1D, V, 5CC, 236C (frog hits), dash up, 5CC, 214B You can sub 5CD with 6BD, it will actually leave you closer to the enemy. 3 wind, does about 4k, gains ~1 wind back and nets about 40 heat. Doing a short dash before 5A is NOT actually needed against most chars except Hakumen. You can leave out j.B but I strongly recommend doing it, it makes the j.2C and the 1D 5CC part about 10 times easier and does almost the same damage. Against some chars you actually have to do the j.B if you don't want to do dash 5A (Hazama, Carl iirc). Doesn't work on chars that fall out of 3C(3), 236B/C (Relius is one of them apparently). If you started from the middle of the stage, the enemy will land in the corner perfectly. You can do 3C, 214C, 5CC, 214B as an ender then for a bit more damage and 10 more heat. Variation with 2A starter: 2A, 5B, 6BD, 3C(3), 236C, 5A(1), (j.B), j.C, 2D, dj.2C(Lv2), j.214A, 1D, V, 5CC, 236C (frog hits), dash up, 5CC, 214B 3 winds, about 3k, about 40 heat, gains ~1 wind back. Timing is stricter because the proration is higher. Rest like above. I have to test if 5B, 6BD, 3C(3), 236B, 5A works on Hakumen without a short dash since 6BD leaves you closer than 5CD. Fatal Counter Variation (use for punishing whiffed DPs etc). 5C(FC)D, 3C(3), 236C, 5B, j.B, j.C, 2D, dj.2C(Lv2), j.214A, 1D, V, 5CC, 236C (frog hits), dash up 5CC, 214B 3 wind, meterless 4,6k, rest as above.

I'll correct it then. N-O is more convenient to write anyway. Yeah, that was a bit of a herp derp situation, but it's still way too long imo, compared to other games.

:< Too bad it doesn't work on Rachel cause that would be a great punish for whiffed cat chair. I wonder if there's some kind of variation on her.

A-Cho Casuals www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D27-4gUMww 2:20 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel 13:37 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 22:10 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 29:35 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 33:09 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 35:44 Ragna vs Rachel (N-O) 38:45 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 41:17 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 45:12 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 49:30 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 53:20 Bang (Nezu) vs Rachel (N-O) 55:55 Mu-12 vs Rachel (N-O) 59:40 Noel vs Rachel (N-O) 1:03:39 Lambda vs Rachel (N-O)