NeoGio0o

Just saw a bit of the archive.... Bowling ball oki is just fake really can't stop the jump out. Still if it breaks a primer I'm fine with it. Corner Combos look entertaining Throw combo damage looked really good for day 2 Her CA is definitely punishable now as It looks really stiff when I saw it used Overall new loop and Tao is still Tao and last but not least J.D counter hit looks lol. Really looking forward to see how satsuno plays her now hopefully he remains faithful.

Wish I could have seen the stream =// How bad the counter assault nerf we talking can we confirm if it's actually punishable on block or is it still -3?

This is another one of those match ups that never really changes in how you play it and a lot of information remains a constant factor with each version of the game. Outside of Tager getting one or two new gimmicks I feel that even in Extend nothing will really change in terms of overall approach. Tager Pressure- His pressure is really not that great and with a little bit of an IDGAF type of attitude you can really just disrespect any attempt at advance pressure easily and on IB you really limit his options.. Tager has some pretty good frame advantage of some of his normal's the problem he has no good way of using it without respect and fear. *Notable frame advantage* 5A(+2) 2A(+2) 2B(+5) 5D(+2) B sledge (+3) Gadget finger on hit (+3) Despite all the positive frame he has his moves just have too much start up thus making it possible to poke him out of stuff despite being at positive frame advantage. Most of his normal's can be canceled into 5B/2B (his lows). 5B is pretty good for 360/720 buffer motions as it is not JC and 2B is +5 on block and is probably his only safe frame trap.2B is also good for re-pressure and is their go to normal due to the heavy frame advantage,multiple gatlings and its ability to catch jump outs. Tagers anti air's- 5A (decent hit box though not as good as 2A so less used), 2A( very good hit box and generally a better option than 2C), 2C (Ton's of active and recovery frames,fatal counter properties,kinda high risk,high reward,GDLK hit box). More are definitely possible but these are the most common ones and 2A/2C is all he really needs as both of them will get the job done just fine. Make it your best effort to bait 2C as it leads to very good damage and can easily take away half of Tao's health also it can lead to good burst bait stuff which at that point they can 720 punish you to really make you regret bursting. Tao Pressure on Tager- Stick to the neutral in this match unless you got respect,tager has all the tools to stuff any form of mix up you might have and his back dash is really good when used properly. Use 6A for frame traps as it is JC and you can simply run away if the attempt to catch them mashing fails,2A is pretty good if they don't know how to IB and you can really harass him with it as you can gattling into 5B which is JC and you can choose to resume pressure or run away. On hit you can do stuff like ,2A,5C,JC, rising j.2B, J.C whiff into 2A/5B/6B/grab this setup is tager specific and is pretty good when you have respect as he can only get out of it with a well time back dash or churnin. Due to the numerous options you have you can choose to go for a throw reset,bait churnin,return to neutral,punish his back dash,etc. It's very safe and once you get the timing down it becomes a really interesting pressure tool that outside of Tao using 6B/throw cannot be mashed out of with a normal. Overall better safe than sorry in this match up so always do safe things and take as little risk as possible. If the tager player is respecting you don't abuse it as you might do something really stupid and get punished. Neutral game-Tager may have the tools to stuff any of your approaches but overall neutral is all yours. His normal's have a lot of active frames and good reach, but tao's sheer speed makes her drives overall better at controlling space. The tager player really needs to make good guesses and have good spacing to control more space than tao. You can pretty much dash around the entire screen and all Tager can do is watch and wait for the point in time in which he catches you,due to the drive distance nerf it is now harder to run away from him and in most scenarios impossible. Tager's normal's and his over all massive structure cover too much space to truly escape now as even when you sticky kitty away from the wall after a standard ender tager is usually standing in front of you after a forward tech and landing. But overall tao can fish and poke for counter hits all day so be sure to confirm every hit you get. Crawl is actually pretty good in the neutral as you can crawl his 2A,5C,spark bolt and 5D which are generally all his good pokes you can craw 5A but if they are mashing it there is nothing you can do besides rise and block as any option you try will get you counter hit more times than it will win. Air thorw is also a good option against passive tagers as a lot of them do barrier jump to gain some space from time to time so you can get a free air throw attempt against these type of players, truth be told you can air throw tager out a lot of his air normal's so be sure to give it a try as they have tons of active frames and do well at stopping drive happy tao's so air throwing them is a much safer option from those closer distances. Escaping Tager pressure- Though not as strong Tager has the mind game factor of bang in his pressure. Tager has the ability to make you afraid to do things thus making you respect is unsafe things due to fear of taking damage. Like bang tager cancel almost all his stuff into 2B which is the rough equivalent of bangs 6A it's a frame trap and leaves at plus frames,pretty much stops you from mashing and jumping out. Once your not mashing they can command grab you (360A.720) and deal big damage to tao for trying to block. The best way around this is to have a calm mind at all times and to never let one thing hold you down as it may lead to your downfall,an example of this is when tager yomi colliders you don't let this one good guess stop you from trying to jump as you might get 720 for being grounded which is even more damage. Always alter between your options, back dash into barrier is really good at gaining some space from tager and is a good way of escaping 360A without getting collidered. Just be careful as tager can get back dashes with 5D and 5C so try to use it only when you feel a command grab is coming . Gadget finger is usually where all the problems start as tager is +3 and he has many options that he can do. Rest assured all these options are guesses and most of the of his safe option can be back dashed and require him to do very slow normal's to catch your back dash. A lot of tager do gadget finger and mash 5A to stop you from jumping away/mashing out you can back dash this as well as block his attempt to 5C it, this is usually your best option as you escape, 720,360A,yomi collider,5A mash,5B,2B, eventually they will have to start using 5C and 5D after gadget to stop you from back dashing both of which you can crawl/mash out not to mention simply block and counter assault. Overall gadget finger oki is simply a very good game of rock paper scissors and guessing wrong twice is probably game over so work on your guessing skills. Everything else comes down to 5B/2B frame traps and mashing/crawling things like 5A,5A,5D in which case you have to not block the 5D and simply mash or crawl.MTW RC is pretty good at beating a lot of options but it requires 100 heat so a lot of tager players don't throw it out too often after gadget as if it fails they just lost their fear factor (720 mash out).Essentially tao will always have meter to counter assault so the amount guess work you do is really not all that much. Best tools in the match up- Drives are ok if your using them to control space/ be really annoying be careful as Tagers air normal's are active for years and do well at stuffing drives. Be sure to air throw anytime Tager jumps as his normal have slow start up and it can be really easy to get throw reject misses if they are just pressing buttons in the sky, J.C is pretty good some times but truth be told I prefer to not throw it out all too much. Crawl is pretty good as you can crawl a lot of his good pokes as well as spark bolt thus making it hard for him to control space. 6A and 2D are somewhat useful though be careful as they can trade if timed even a second late, and this is a trade tager players are happy to take as the health loss is nothing to them (lol 13K). Tagers 2A/5A/2C/5C do really well at stuffing drive cancel approaches so be unpredictable as these can all lead to damage you can't afford to lose. Patience is definitely helpful in this match as it's required in order to go for time out victories and generally beating overly aggressive tagers (never get into a mash war with tager you don't have the health to do so). What you may want to do/What not to do- Never save your burst as tager breaks primers pretty easily and can now do guard crush 720/360A for solid damage. Tager can use a meaty MTW RC to bait out wake up gold burst and stuff all your wake up options so show some respect when they have 100 heat. Try to burst early as it becomes easier to burst bait the more you wait as well as you don't want tager with a life lead. Don't stick to one game plan as you become very auto pilot this way, always adapt to your opponents tech traps and habits. One thing that you may want to do is purple throw tager when your about to finish the basic loop ender as you can get easy green grab resets/ and drive counter hit's if they are mashing. This is a very good way to avoid getting 720 as you can't 720 in the air, if done properly you can really limit his air options without being at much risk. I see a lot of japanese players do this when tager has low health and has 50 heat as losing to 720 mash out sucks, be sure to experiment with it in training as the fact that you get all your air mobility options if they tech the purple throw gives you plenty of options to choose from. If they don't tech the purple throw it's free damage and you can use 5D-B cancel and go for an air tech trap or do something like 2B cross under stuff the choice is yours. Final words- This match up can be quite difficult if the tager has a lot of tao experience so don't let the whole tager low tier thing get to your head. One of the best ways to start the match as jump back gain some space and see the type of player they are and adjust your play style accordingly. Obviously you will have trouble beating a patient player with patience so be more aggressive if they are very aggressive switch to a more passive play style as this will fluster them and cause them to take more risk. Try to be quick on what you want to do to tager when he is blocking as you don't want to be in his face for too long. When you have a good life lead don't be afraid to back off a bit as you might find yourself losing to a tager player throwing out an act of desperation (720/random MTW). Remain clam at all times and try to pick off any bad habits the player might have this match up can be either really bad for tager or really simple as catching you and making 2 correct guesses should kill you. As for which play style is best to play it all comes down to who your opponent is and how he acts to certain situations. Adapt accordingly and abuse your superior mobility if worst comes to worst

214214C was always for trolling purposes even against Zoner's it really wasn't all that legit unless they are very inexperienced in the match up. Has the bowling ball change been confirmed?

This match isn't all that hard truth be told you can almost do anything you want until you get cursed because that is when Arakune automatically kills you. Arakune Pre-Curse pressure- He received a few buffs in his pre curse pressure, one notable one is that now he can do 2A,5A,2A,5A and his 2A hit's low so it gives him some form of reason to block low now. As for his actual pre curse curse pressure as a whole it actually sucks he really can't overhead you as you can mash out any normal into 6A which pretty much limits his pressure without respect. 5D is pretty good for frame traps and is JC but if he tries to follow up with a jump in it can be easily 6A regardless of IB, so it pretty much ends his pressure and he is forced to run away or risk getting AA. If he even tries to do something silly like j.D mid block string you can use 2B to cross under him and get a nice 5B,3C.... whiff punish. Overall if you got the reactions/good yomi never block his overhead as you can easily 5B it for free, if your not comfortable mashing out of it blocking is just as fine as he is forced to use 5A/5D to stop you from mashing out on regular block.5D ends his pressure and 5A will frame trap you if you try to 5B him, essentially he can do 6A,rising j.C if he knows your mashing after a blocked 6A for a fatal 100% curse combo. You will generally see them always cancel into 5D or rising J.C if they know your mashing this way they remain safe and have potential to build a lot of curse meter if your pressing buttons so on block respect his 6A. You can back dash the rising J.C fatal attempt and get a counter hit 6A if you got the reactions, so long as your not mashing buttons after a blocked 6A you will be fine in this match up. His pre curse stuff is not that scary for you to actually have to take the risk of mashing out of his 6A attempts so just relax and block as it beats getting J.C fatal into 100% curse. Arakune Curse mix up- Good luck.Due to the drive distance nerf and Counter assault nerf you will be getting caught blocking easily and shall remain blocking until that curse meter is zero, the D bug is air unblockable and with proper use of bugs Arakune can easily catch jump out's and be reversal safe so neither of these options are recommended. His teleport fake outs now play a bigger part in his game play for fake cross up's and just general switching sides to block harassment, j.C and 2C are his best starters and they can choose for j.C to cross you up or just hit high, truth be told due to how low tao's health is he doesn't really need a good starter to kill her off so if your hit your probably dead. In curse due to bell bug hitting high and 2C hitting low he has access to an unblockable in the corner which if done correctly it's reversal safe and gold burst safe. Overall for about 1 entire minute his mix up becomes the best in the entire game and his guard primer breaking skills are just insane so counter assault properly and stall as much curse meter as possible as you might get lucky and still be in the match when curse is over. Arakune's anti air's- 5A ( his fastest poke pretty good hit box), 2A ( not all that reliable but possible), 2B ( Really underrated he doesn't get anything without heat,but his box becomes almost as small as Tao's crawl.),6B (really good hit box and kinda fast if you ask me),5C ( slow but very rewarding if it hit's,easily whiff punishable). 2B,5A and 5C in this order this is how reliable each move is an anti air and in terms of reward the order is backwards. You have three jumps so you should have zero problem with any of these bait them like you normally would and you will be fine,2B is a really funny anti air. Tao pressure on Arakune- Arakune has no reversal outside of Counter assault and his beam super so you have nothing to fear when pressuring him. Really try to lock him down as he can be quite evasive, when going for air throw resets be mindful of rising j.B as he can simply jump and j.b and it becomes very hard to air grab him out of this move. His counter assault is unique from the cast as it is actually a throw that can be teched obviously if done properly they are suppose to get a throw reject miss ( grabbing you out your normal duhh), but if by some off chance you somehow bait it out you can tech the throw and resume pressure/punish. Nothing much more can be said besides do what ever you want and simply bait out his beam super when they have 50 heat if they try to do it, pretty basic stuff overall. It should be noted that 214D,J.C,dash 5B,3C,236A,loop does not work on Arakune (small horizontal aerial hot box) so just hit confirm with 6A. Not 100% sure how accurate this is but on Arakune you can do more reps of the loop on him off of better starters than the rest of the cast more info on this needed as I only seen it once in a video and my memory of it is bad. Neutral- Tao can control space better than him with her drives and with proper spacing there is nothing arakune can do in the air against her that is safe. His ways of stuffing drives are J.a,j.B,j6 (ABC) aka bird and lol pin wheel, Bird is a really good way to stop drive mash but it needs to be used preemptively and is sorta a guess if your grounded you can 6A/2D this for free and in the air well spaced j.C will get the job done easily. Pin wheel is pretty consistent in stuffing your air to air game it's just not safe so be sure to block it when they are overly using it and punish the recovery (you got about 11 frames after he lands). Arakune doesn't have the tools to keep you still or zone Tao so simply never stop moving and it becomes really hard for him to get momentum. As tao just do stuff and chances are you will counter hit him out of something if he tries anything in the air, the match up is really bad for him in his pre curse state. Best tools in the match up- You can use your mobility any way you like as Arakune cannot either zone or catch Tao so be sure to be extra annoying when playing as a flustered player will not be making good decision most of the time. 2D,J.D,j.4D, and J.C are just godly in controlling space against him and are very good when fishing for counter hits, air throws can be good vs Arakune that don't just mash J.B all day as he cancels a lot of his air movement with barrier and teching a throw while holding barrier is an akward transition. It is possible to combo into 5B,6A,loop off of non counter hit 6B but the timing is very strict still the damage is always helpful if you are willing to take the time to practice. 6B into 3 reps of 5B,5C,J.D-B works really well against Arakune when he doesn't have heat as without a reversal he is forced to block the following mix up that comes afterwards. Overall you can do what ever you want in this match unless you are cursed, Arakune has a hard time stopping you in his pre curse state. How the match up works/Final words- Pretty much this match up is advantageous for Tao until she gets curse, and that is why you have to beat him before you are cursed. A lot of Tao's make the mistake of saving their burst for getting out of curse as hard as it sounds you need to beat Arakune before you are cursed as once he starts his game stopping him is impossible. In curse he can break your primers and kill you off in seconds and if you somehow survive he will definitely have 50 heat in which case any combo's he does in pre curse that end with j.D can now be replaced with F of G (automatic re-curse super). Arakune builds tons of heat off his combos and blockstrings while in curse so F of G after curse is pretty much guaranteed. BURST BEFORE YOU GET CURSED! It rhymes for a reason so please take the advice because you simply cannot win when arakune has you cursed, your drive is still good for running away but the distance nerf really hurts trust me your better of killing him off before he gets his momentum going. I recommend bursting any of his fatal starters ( unless you got anti aired with 5C don't mash buttons and this can be avoided), any time he has F of G as if you let the combo play through it will end with you cursed and his air throw (possible to get 100% curse off of it), sometimes when locked down in the corner essentially he can build more curse meter and with j.B can really lock you down from moving. Outside of curse abuse your mobility and the fact that he cannot catch you, do your best to never give him momentum as that is what he relies heavily on in order to win matches. His Pre curse pressure is so bad there is no real reason to be trying to mash out unless your just being a D*** as the risk of fatal J.c is something you should never gamble with IMO. Drive around, get damage, don't get cursed, win this is how the math up goes in a nutshell.

so are people still up for going on the 7th? Around what time will people be there.

Well since BBEX is already out for japan I'll be sure to finish everything with the match up section soon. Hopefully by the end of the week we should have some form information for every match up, this way we have something concrete in the archive section rather than just a bunch of empty threads. Really looking forward tho the flood of videos that will be coming in this week

Damn my son color blind . DAMMIT top player opinions say that as it stands Relius is not broken hopefully this changes so I can lol.

Your welcome I figured it's the least I can do to help some of the tao's in trouble as well as the fact that our match up forum was dead and I got tired of seeing blank pages. Hopefully this helps attracts some new players, as for your question TRM stands for throw reject miss.I'm sure a detailed explanation on what it is can be found some where on dustloop but if you need one I'll be happy to provide you with one via PM just ask.

This is one of those matches that look easy on paper, but actually play out to be very difficult if you lack match up knowledge. I am lucky to be blessed with the ability to play in perfect connection one of the better Rachel's which allows for some concrete match up info. If your one of those players that have no rachel in your local area I highly recommend looking for one on netplay as this match heavily requires the experience. Rachel Pressure-5B,2B,5B,2B truth be told this is her main pressure tool outside of frog oki and cross under stuff. Pretty much she can input 5B,2B twice before she is out of range.5B,5A,and 6B are JC combined with her drive which is able to accelerate the speed in which she lands after a jump Rachel has access to IOH setups and very fast empty jump lows. Rachel's pressure is filled with very solid 50/50 stuff and the IOH j.a is insanely fast and has no gaps for any sort of mash out. A lot of her normal's that are unsafe can be canceled into 236A to make it safe outside of instant blocking. So for the most part her pressure is very safe and all her combo's lead into frog oki with taking a good 3-4K on average out of your health. As far as frame advantage goes she really doesn't have anything outside of the frog,tempest dhalia, and tk sword iris that really give her heavy frame advantage most of her normal's are all negative but the amount of block stun they give is high so essentially even on IB you won't be able to mash out. She doesn't really need to rely on frame traps due to the amount of block stun her normal's have and truth be told all her mix up is based around IOH,empty jump low, empty jump grab,cross under stuff,etc. so overall her mix up is pretty basic but definitely get's the job done. Rachel's anti air's- 6A ( crazy good due to it having guard point over the usual head invulnerability,really good hit box),2A( not all that reliable due to it being 7 frames but works occasionally),5A (6 frames better than 2A,but doesn't really have a great hit box like others), 2C (Bootleg DP,poor anti air choice,but on counter hit leads into big damage with heat),5B( good hit box air unblockable). 6A will always get the job done and despite it's slow start up (13 frames) it will stuff everything you do as an air approach (never trading due to it's guard point). DO your best to stay out of it's massive range, also it can be quite hard to punish due to only having 15 frames of recovery so your best bet is to avoid it all together.The last thing you want if to get counter hit 6A,BBL,frog oki giving her the momentum and losing 1/3 of your health. Tao pressure on Rachel- You can pretty much do whatever you want ( when you catch her) 2C has guard point so it's not a reliable reversal due to being able to grab her out of it, she has a 7 frame 2A so it's not all that good for mashing so long as your pressure is air tight. Do your best to bait 2C as much as possible as it's a free TRM punish or better yet 2C,dash 3C,loop counter hit punish which deals a good 4K. Rachel's back dash is pretty good and when she has wind with the proper amount of space she can really get out of there. So make it in your best interest to react to her back dash with 5D as she will be air borne so you can do 5D-B,5B,5C,loop. When she wind's away chase her as all she can really do is throw lobelias which isn't all that bad. Never give Rachel space to breathe and you should be fine, throws (purple/green) work really well on her as she can be grabbed out of 2C start up so take advantage of Tao's great TRM setup's. Neutral game- Rachel is very versatile and can switch from zoning to rush down in a heart beat, most zoner's in the game really can't zone Tao effectively unfortunately Rachel is a special case. When combined with wind her Lobelia's cover very advantageous angles for her making random drive cancels for gaining space not that great, her wind also reduces the distance in which your travel as well essentially slowing the pace of the match down. Things like 236A winded and non winded cover the space in front of her and and drive cancels done in the 1-2 jump air space. 236B winded and non winded is good for covering the jump air space of 2-3 while making a low curve towards the end covering a little bit of jump air space 1 from full screen. Lobelia's also make rods on the ground which Rachel can detonate (sword iris) they are very good at just controlling space as they are good at catching random air drive cancel's and are quite easy to hit confirm when Rachel is in range. They can lead to solid damage with 50 heat (BBL) and will end with frog oki which is never good for Tao. When the rods are out simply use your three jumps combined with barrier to approach, it's very good to IB sword iris in the air as you will still have access to your unused jump's,it's really easy, and it's free meter. 214D is pretty good as well, closes the gap and you can barrier block through out the entire animation. Avoid taking as much zoning damage as possible and just overall don't let Rachel control the pace of the match. Escaping Rachel pressure- There actually is no escape her IOH j.A has no gap (can't even hexa edge) and her moves all have ton's of block stun , so all that is left is Counter assaulting. If Rachel ever does 3C she pretty much just ended her pressure so use this time to get away you could also try to IB all the hit's they choose to do of 3C and start some pressure with 5B but it's not recommended as she can do one hit of 3C and cancel into 236A to be safe or do 3C,sword iris, 5A for a frame trap. If you ever IB 236A you can either go for a punish if it's point blank range (-7 on IB) or just start your pressure if they are a bit further away from you generally if your not punishing it I recommend just returning to neutral or trying to close the gap a bit. outside of this her pressure is really hard to get out of not to mention block as it's filled with a bunch of fuzzy guards and empty jump stuff. Barrier blocking help's a bit as her normal's have some push back and when combined with barrier you can really make some distance to get away just watch out for pumpkin as when it's out she can not only make things unsafe stuff safe she can also get in on a grounded Tao for free. Best tools in the match up- Triple jumps is all you really should be doing to be honest, drive approaches can be easily stuffed by 6A or random out by lobelias so try to use things like j.4D,j.D,2D conservatively, but still sometimes you just got to let a drive go fully through and see what happens. Rachel cannot and will not be challenging you in the air all too much, but if they attempt anything use j.C/j.D to remind them where they belong ( on the ground throwing lobelias). j.D is really good when they are trying to do stuff like tK georger or summon a pumpkin in the air so be sure to take advantage of these small opportunities when they come. 6B is pretty good as well as it is +2 on block and can be combo into 5B,6A, 2-3 reps of loop on a crouching Rachel (no counter hit required). Barrier dash cancel is good as well for covering some ground space as staying just to the air just wont cut it all the time. Always try to go for the loop oki ender on Rachel as she can do a lot of stuff high up in the air so making her air tech low to the ground gives you the chance for green grab air throw stuff or random cross under 6A with Tao. *oki ender* Corner/Near corner only: (loop),High jump -> 236B x2 -> j.5D~B -> j.2D~C -> 236B x5 (oki finisher) You may get less damage but having Rachel tech so low to the ground really helps in pinning her down. And last but not least Crawl remains to be high risk, mid reward so use it as you see fit you can crawl 5A,6A,j.b,j.c,first hit of 5C (as stated by X AJ X). I personally don't see it's use in this match as I got perfected for trying to IB crawl stuff and got hit by 5B/2B when using it in the neutral. You can crawl all the hits of Tempest Dahlia (projectile super) besides the last one so I guess this is a legit usage for it not sure how much it helps. What to watch out for/What you may want to do- Cross under George can be deadly so pay attention, IOH j.a is a really fast over head and can go straight into a low or fuzzy guard when blocked so work on that defense as much as possible. Rachel has access to cross under neutral tech shenanigans and stuff like cross up j.2C ( not a high but breaks a primer and can be canceled into lobelia to make it safe on block) so always be ready to block from either direction. When she has 50 heat don't get cat chaired (2C) as on counter hit it leads to big damage and frog corner oki. 4B is an over head and also breaks a primer,but she needs to win to really make use of it, still it's an over head and last time I checked were still in america so yea do your best to block this as it is very slow and you don't want to give her any free damage. Do your best to IB george (lol just mash back) as you can gain a lot of free meter for doing this up to 25% I believe which can be really helpful for counter Assault mashing, like in every match never sit on your meter counter assault when you can and just like makoto's orb don;t counter assault george as it is a free bait/waste of heat and your still stuck in the mix up. TK sword iris puts her at a lot of plus frames so as tempting as it is to press buttons you can't so just remain patient and block. Blocking will be your best and only option from time to time unless you get lucky and they want to 4B you (hexa edge this please) so just remain patient and wait till you have the heat to counter assault. Try your best to avoid letting Rachel summon her minions (george & pumpkin) in your face as it is a free mash out. If they try to summon george in the neutral and he is approaching you as you are pressuring her grab Rachel (purple or green doesn't matter) as it will make george disappear immediately regardless of whether they tech the throw or not. Tempest Dahlia is pretty much her momentum switcher so just block this or crawl it when ever you see it as they will throw this out to switch momentum in the match whenever they can. Final words- Overall this match up is really random and it is possible to lose a lot of damage by getting hit with random lobelias so do your bets to avoid them. Most of Tao's matches are hit run this one is more like hit and don't stop she has no DP so keep the pressure on her. You might spend an entire match catching her so when you do catch her make it your best interest to make the best out of the small opportunity. Rachel is really good at running away and with her drive is good at stopping your advances so don't get flustered when you can't catch her as this will lead you to be make bad decisions in your approach, keep a clear mind and wait it out if need be. Always end with the oki ender as the standard ender leaves her really high in the air to wreak havoc on you from above without you being able to do anything about it plus she can just wind away from you making trying to predict her landing hard to do. DO NOT SAVE YOUR BURST Rachel is a primer breaking machine and can just eat away at your barrier gauge safely,so try to burst in between rounds as saving them is just not worth it at all outside of maybe wake up gold burst. Overall the hardest thing to do is catch her and pin her down,I find myself relying a lot more on reads rather than spacing when I am approaching her because of how random the match up feels in terms of controlling space. Both characters feel like they just do stuff in the neutral and make the best out of any random hit. Now that Rachel has damage and overall better mix up than CS1 this is definitely a harder match up than before so much practice is required you can't just abuse drives any more now you need to properly space yourself or be put in oki for your mistakes.

lol of course. you planning on going? If not I'll hire an asian hobo to be my partner so he can be the anchor of the team, shouldn't be hard to find got dat google.

Jin is a very versatile character with everything a person needs to overcome any match up in the game. His air normal's are insanely mashable GDLK so you definitely need good spacing to beat even the lowest levels of Jin. With more throw setups/resets than a person has teeth in his mouth you better do some homework or else you will find yourself dead fast. Jin pressure- His pressure is very safe much like yours he can't get much from his overhead without 50 heat so he relies heavily on frame traps/throw setups/proper spacing of normal's to get damage. He can cancel a lot of his unsafe stuff with either a jump,6D (+3 on block),236A (-6 ends his pressure and has some push back can't really stop him from jumping away without taking a risk), So generally your not really going to get any real punish unfortunately. *Notable frame advantage* 6B(+3,goes over lows,used for fake throw setups,leads into good damage on counter hit) 6D(+3 same as dead spike) 236D (+31,used after a knockdown sometimes for solid mix up,leads into good damage,requires 25 heat,breaks a primer) All his unsafe normal's can be canceled into something to make it safe so don't bother pressing buttons in the middle of his pressure as he will be fishing for counter hits this character is designed to press the most buttons in the game. Jin's anti air's- 5A ( very reliable don't underestimate it), 2A( same as 5A), 2C (tends to trade most of the time in Jin's favor), 5C (good hit box requires proper timing),5B ( meh happens once in a while), 623A ( fast,air unblockable, can be sometimes hard to punish due to quick recovery and barrier push back), 623B (same as 623A more recovery so easier to punish), 623C (really dumb hit box but very easy to bait and punish). A good mix of 5A and 2A is all he really needs to get the job done,623A is a very underrated option and on counter hit can be followed up in the corner without 50 heat so be careful as for everything else it's possible to happen as well just less likely unless your opponent is mashing which is normal because that is what jin is designed to do.All 623 series of moves are air unblockable. Tao pressure on jin- He has a real DP (623C and 623D) so always try and bait it out and always go for a 2C punish to really make them think twice about doing it again. The hit box on 623C was changed so you can't crawl it anymore but a back dash will put you out of it's range. Both hit's of 623D can be crawled which is good because then he can't RC it to make himself safe, be careful as the first hit will catch a back dash. Jumping back is the universal bait so stick to that just to be safe if you see them move as you jump back you can just back off and return to neutral if your not comfortable with baiting DP's. keep your pressure to 2A,5B,2B, and if they are not IB it's okay to cancel into one hit of 236A every now and then. 214D is good at baiting 623C as it will make it whiff completely if not inputted backwards as for 623D only the first hit will hit you can you can thaw out and punish him as he recovers from the second hit. He needs to RC the first hit to combo requires a total of 75 heat so you generally won't see this too often. Save things like 6B and throw setups when you got respect or else you will just get flustered as they 623C you out of your stuff. Something to note on counter hit 623C can be followed up for a nice corner carry combo into some basic oki. Jin air normal's-These things are so mashable GDLK they need their own section. Truth be told all he need to do is j.B XN and it will stuff anything you do in the air that isn't timed preemptively. A good combination of barely well spaced j.C and j.B is all he needs to stuff you in the air they are just that good. j.D,j.A,J,236D should also be noted, but truth be told it does not matter what he does in the air so long as he is pressing buttons you can't it's just that simple. Also he has one of those dumb air throws in which it will magnet grab you from weird heights so always be ready to tech throws in the air from any distance. Neutral game- Neither of you really control the air but Jin does have more air options than Tao, if you want to stuff his air normal's your going to have to do it preemptively same goes for him. In the air it boils down to who throws their normal out first as for the ground you generally take less risk than him on the ground Jin's dash 5C is pretty good for covering space both in front and slightly above him,but it can be whiff punished so it's not something they should be throwing out all too often. Both your 2A's have about the same reach so the real difference in ground movement is that Tao's 2B is 7 frames and pushes her forward whiles his is 9 frames and doesn't push forward making it really good move for those anime footsies. Overall both characters can control space really well and it comes down to player skill in terms of advantage. Still Jin got those mashable "legit" normal's so again don't underestimate even the lowest level of jin players. Best tools in the match up- I find 2B and 2A to be really good for dash ground approaches, 2B is especially good at quickly controlling that small akward space between characters after some push back from blocked normal's has been established. For the most part J.D is fine if used preemptively sometimes if you pray enough to the tooth fairy it will beat Jin's j.B and j.C, but no it doesn't it just really doesn't.....so for those situations use a preemptive j.C and you should be fine. Crawl has not uses IMO due to the fact you can't crawl Jin's 2A or 2B so again it comes down to taking a risk in it's usage in the match up. Escaping Jin pressure-This guy can really just push buttons all day if you let him as all his normal's can be jump canceled, so in order to get out of his pressure you really need to have those good 6A reactions especially now that it is 1 frame slower thus making it trade or worse lose if times even a second late. 6D is plus 3 on block, but just like dead spike it is something you should not be blocking super jump away and J.D him on recovery to start your pressure/Bait the DP mash or straight up disrespect it's slow start up with 5B/2B,6A,loop it doesn't break a primer anymore so it's not as bad to block but still you can't just let him get away with murder (this ain't story mode). 6B is also +3 and you can actually 5B him out of it,but truth be told you really have to read it and mash out so I suggest letting this one slide unless they are getting predictable with it's usage. IB back dash and regular back dash works really well and are definitely options. You can back dash his 6B if timed right so make use of this as well as back dash any JC air normal shenanigans he might want to do.A good example is when jin's do something JC into whiff J.a, j.B/j.2C I swear the J.a is just for mashing purposes but that aside back dash your way out of stuff like this as you don't need to IB anything to do so (might have to still block the J.b because it's just that good,but at least you made some space forcing him to do some form of run up normal to resume pressure which gives you the frames to 2B). As for 6A his overhead he needs heat to combo off it and it's negative on block (-4 and breaks a primer) still they will tend to throw this out to get you to stop blocking low it's plus frames on hit,but if you ever block it use the time to get out or start your pressure. Overall his pressure is very safe so respect his frame traps just don't respect 6D and the other stuff mentioned it's too slow to be respected. What to watch out for- The way Jin's combo's work leave him with plenty of "creative" room to go for an unexpected reset mid way through whether it be a throw,low or an over head always make it your interest to pay attention even when being hit as the reset might just kill you. If you have bad reactions to teching throws and you flinch easily OS throw break (1ABC) Jin is very good at fake throw setups (Ex:run up-6B,623C RC,j.B,etc.) 6B leads to about 4K off counter hit and it puts him air borne so something they will do is get some space run up to you throw one time and then do run up 6B the next. If you try to break the throw preemptively your throw animation will come out and you will eat that 4k counter hit damage. With OS throw break barrier will come out on 6B instances and if they do run up throw you will tech just be sure to input only once and be careful as the window for TRM is bigger when you OS throw break. Same thing with run up 623C RC looks like a waste of heat but it's meant to stuff your hexa edge and force your throw animation out. Some jin's might do this on your wake so keep this in mind when you want to mash out hexa edge as jin really doesn't need heat to do good damage.Also 623C and 623D break a primer so remember to barrier block when your on your last primer and are trying to bait them out. Essentially Jin has endless reset potential from cross up J.D to fake cross up j236D to random tech trap,etc.So always keep those eyes peeled at all times and be ready to tech a throw/block the reset (he has a really good throw range above average if you ask me). One final thing j236(ABD) is good at slowing down his landing momentum and is good for baiting out anti airs so be on the look out when using 6A. Final words- Jin is very versatile so he is not limited to just one play style it's important to find out quickly what type of jin you are facing some go for more resets than others, some stick to just safe pressure, some play passive, some are more aggressive, the list of how he can be played is endless. Another character with an answer for everything so look for the weakness in the player rather than a weakness in the character. Spacing is very important in this match and you really need to stay firm on your reads and control air space or else he will walk all over you. Use your mobility to dodge things like j.C.j.B.,J236(ABCD), as well as a good mix of dash 2A and 2B to get in on him, never just stick to one method of approach.Bait his DP's and go for a 2C punish, drill it in their mind to block before going for things like fake throw setups and 6B mid block string. Despite having so many JC normal's don't sit on your meter counter assault when ever you get the chance as you don't want Jin getting too comfy. IB hexa edge and hexa edge in general can be used on reaction to his over head or 6B as those normal's are very committing. Be patient and avoid getting impatient with Jin as it has already been established how dumb he is in the air and just in general.

Just edited the post adding in anti air 5B (thanks to Ronove for the input) also I added my personal opinion on Crawl in this match up.

Ahh this "character" the one with an answer for everything and just on eof those match ups where you make one mistake lose all your health and wonder why is this brain dead thing in the game. Makoto has everything a character needs to not only overcome any match up,but completely rob you of a win that should have been yours. Makoto pressure- Her pressure is nothing to joke about, her normal's are all good for stagger pressure essentially making it impossible to mash out of her block strings. Despite how telegraph 5B,5CC,6B may look you can not mash out of it without instant blocking IB 5CC. The only weakness I think Makoto has is her lack of gatlings into her lows and over head which makes blocking her pressure rather easy than one would expect. The real problem is trying to get out her pressure safely. Her 5B is a really good poke it's air unblockable and pushes her forward allowing her to cover good space, 2A is another good one in the sense it has a really obnoxious hit box and is really fast, 3C isn't all that good but if you block it shes at frame advantage (+2) do your best to avoid blocking this at all cost. Below I will show a list of her gatling's into her low and over head so you can get an idea of how limited her mix up is outside of orb oki. 6B(overhead)-2A,6A,5CC 214A,C cancel, A cancel (high)-everything 214A,A cancel, B cancel (low)-everything ( cannot combo without RC) 2B(low)-2A,5B (1x per string) 2C(low,high damage starter but very slow)-2A,5B,2B,5CC As you can see she only has 3 ways to get to her over head on Tao without RC all of which are predictable to block because it's either go for an over head or return to the mid, 5A is not listed here because it will whiff on crouching Tao so it's not used in the match up at all unless they are trying to do something like 2A,whiff 5A,grab,6B,2B it's legit but rearely used from what i seen. Outside of 2A she doesn't really have a universal normal that goes into both her over head and a good low. 2C is a low but it's so slow and ends her safe pressure immediately that is generally not all that good so long as you just react properly. but be warned 2C stater leads to about 5K+ corner carry and orb oki so make it your best interest to block this move at all cost. As for 214A stuff it's always safe to just stay blocking high and just react to her screaming star gazer to block the low. Without heat the over head version leads into big damage and doesn't require an RC to combo. Mashing of any kind is not recommended her frame traps/stagger pressure and damage output is just too good to take the risk even on instant block. Makoto's Anti air options- 2A( you all saw this coming), 5A ( 5 frames nuff said), 6A ( standard anti air with the standard backward hit box) ,5B ( As stated by Ronove it has a ridiculous hit box and it's possible to get anti aired by this move also it's air unblockable), Parry ( she can parry air to ground). 6A and Parry are probably her best anti air options and both have the potential to lead into big damage and end with you in the corner blocking orb oki mix up. The most dangerous thing that could happen is getting parried and makoto having heat to RC as the combo breaks 6K easily so what ever you do never get parried when she has 50 heat or you will most likely die.Parry does not put her in counter hit state and recovers almost instantaneously so don't waste your time trying to bait and whiff punish it just avoid it all together. Proper use of triple jumps is always essential and never forget the old school trick of empty jump low. Tao pressure on Makoto- Her DP can be low profiled so be sure to use 2A and 2B as much as possible in your re-pressure strings as it will go right under her DP and allow for a nice punish. Be very careful on doing things like 5B,Dash 5B frame traps as she can IB 5B and parry the next one which switches the momentum back in her favor or worst kills you if she has 50 heat. Makoto cannot parry lows so again be sure to use plenty of 2A,2B stuff in your block strings. For the most part never stop going for lows as there is nothing she can do to stop you without putting herself at some form of risk. Try to stay away form using to many air normal's mid block string as you might get a DP or parried for your troubles try to condition them to look away from these options before attempting any form of advance pressure. Confirm what ever hit you can and return to neutral or pressure her with lows forever both strategies work just fine and a perfect balance of the two is definitely recommended. Neutral Game- Makoto's ground movement is unparallel so be careful when making ground approaches as the slightest mistake can have you eating her pressure strings or even worst counter hit damage. In the air Makoto should be fishing for counter hit j.B so keep those j.D to a minimum unless you want to see your life bare suddenly deplete to zero.Well spaced j.C are good in this match and are more reliable than j.D as an air to air at worst j.c will trade with her j.b and neither of you will be able to pick it up. A lot of Makoto's like to do run up 6A since due to it's silly hit box they can essentially throw this out without having to space it at all so I suggest you switch between air approaches and ground approaches to keep them guessing ( a well timed and spaced dash 2A can beat out her run up 6A). As always be unpredictable and wait for your time to get in eventually they will grow impatient and make a bad decision in your favor so stay patient. Makoto has really good ground movement but outside of astral vision stuff her air approaches are bit lack luster so always be ready to 6A overly aggressive Makoto players. If they are abusing furry tail simply backdash away and whiff punish it with 2A (just in case they parry) another option you have is to block it and go for a 5B,6A punish only problem is they can parry the 5B so essentially it's a risky option. If timed properly you can get 6A or 2D to trade with it ,but the trade is very inconsistent so I would avoid attempting this option when your low on health and you can't get anything out of it so stick to the whiff punish. Best tools in the match up- Your mobility will always play a big part in your neutral so work on spacing your drive cancels out properly, j.C is very good in this match up as an air to air poke and is very good at netting counter hits be sure to use this more than j.D as j.D will lose to Makoto's j.B,j.2C,j.C more times than win against them. When throwing out j.C always be ready for a counter hit/hit confirm as this normal covers a lot of air space and is free damage against makoto's that try to do stuff in the air vs tao. j.4D is pretty good at switching your momentum when your really high in the air and can sometimes be a very good way to get in, but it leaves you vulnerable to things like run up 2A,6A,parry so try not to use it too much. Overall avoid making too much physical contact with your drives to avoid the risk of being parried for all your life or a change in momentum. Try to space yourself outside her normal's and control the space around her to limit her advances and you should be fine.It's important to note that 214D,j.C, dash 5B, 3C, 236A,loop does not work on makoto so you have to do 6A into loop instead after 214D,j.C,dash 5B in order to properly combo. Escaping Makoto pressure- Unless you IB 5CC ( a bad pressure tool overall) your not back dashing anything that isn't either 6B or 2C it's just that simple. To back dash her 6B you need to input it a bit late and you have to IB the normal beforehand so be sure to hit up training mode before attempting anything. Due to being able to cancel to her normal's into a parry hexa edge should only be used on reaction to 6B or 2C as any other time it can be parried if they yomi it out and can become a waste of heat. Makoto can parry your counter assault but rest assured have only had this happen to me once i think ever in playing this match up (curse you counter assault nerf). Orb Oki with OS parry is 100% reversal safe so never ever wake up hexa edge as you will look free and eat damage for trying to avoid blocking. Counter assault her normal's not the orb itself or else it's a free bait and punish same thing applies to busting. Makoto can also parry both gold and green burst so be cautious when doing wake up gold burst against her because you might just get screwed over. Astral vision pressure is not safe so you can either mash out of it or just jump away take advantage of the rare opportunities in which they use astral vision mid block string. Her pressure is not that serious once you get a real feel for her gattling's so just remain calm and be patient on your escape. If you ever block her overhead the only two things Makoto can do is either block (shes at frame disadvantage) or cancel it into one of her astral vision (A + B cancel=cross up, B= puts her air borne J.2C is the only way she can resume pressure) so be ready to act accordingly. Things to look out for- Avoid being hit as much as you can as anything can lead to some sort of corner carry and off counter hits she can end with orb oki. After orb oki try to delay your neutral tech a bit to avoid as much mix up as possible and keep in mind the orb's active frames are over far before the orb leaves the screen, this allows them to go for a green grab setup despite the orb being over you. With the help of orb oki and astral vision she can do a few cross up shenanigans so be on the look out for this as the only way she can do it is when your back is not completely towards the wall so pay close attention to where you are on screen. As always avoid her AA and avoid being parried if you can as the change in momentum is something you cannot afford to let happen. Her 2A has a dumb hit box and can catch wake up back dash for free if they simply get to point blank range and mash it, A lot of her legit stuff will be things like 2A mash,2b or 2A mash,6B as it is her universal normal that can go to both a low and an overhead as well as a grab setup so do your best to make some distance with barrier as her normal's lack range. Crawling-I tend to find crawling to be less useful than it was in CS1 as before you could crawl Makoto's 2A now they seemed to have changed it's hit box so that it hits Tao when she is crawling. You can still crawl 5B and for what it's worth 5CC though even in IB you can't crawl these normal's mid block string unless they do some form of big delay which is likely not going to happen. I have seen Makoto's do dash 5B and it looks tempting to crawl this but I tend to avoid it all together due to the risk of them just doing dash 2A as their form of approach. Again I feel that her damage output is too high to be taking risk for damage she can deal back in double if you guess wrong, but if you feel the risk is worth the reward by all means go right ahead and crawl her dash 5B for a nice 3K+ punish just know you will lose at least 4K and be put into orb oki if you guess wrong. A notable use of crawl in this match is the fact that you can crawl 236A,Break shot follow up though It's rare for Makoto's to do this full screen vs a character that doesn't stay still as well as it being easily whiff punishable.I guess it's useful when you have one guard primer and they want to try and break it with 236A,Break shot as you can just neutral tech crawl to go right under it and punish fro some damage, but again 2A saves the day as they can just do 2A,5B,5D lvl 3,RC for a hit confirm into combo if you crawl and just a better way to break a primer if your blocking .Overall crawling is something I find to be mush riskier in CS2 and just ins't as good as it use to be. So i don't really recommended using it, but if your the type of player that enjoys taking risk for damage go right ahead. Final words- A calm mind and good spacing is needed to defeat this brain dead squirrel and even then you can still be robed a match by just her sheer damage output and her solid orb oki. it's important to avoid being too random in this match up and pay more attention to what your opponent it doing try to get a feel for how they are approaching you and find a way to counter act them in a safe coherent manner. Burst early to avoid giving her too much momentum and never sit on your meter counter assault ASAP. Makoto has an answer for everything so it's only natural you might find yourself without options remain calm and look for the weakness in the player rather than looking for a weakness in the character because outside of lack of gatling's she has everything she needs to be brain dead a "legit" character (dat S tier). Will edit this post if I find new information and fix any grammar mistakes I may have made.

GG, eightman sucks that no one showed up, but still it was good to get some offline games in thank god I didn't get caught in the rain.

Will try to get there some time around 3pm or 4pm today. need to do some fixes to a job application.Hopefully im not the only one there T_T

lol Mintberrycrunch I just finish seeing the episode for your name, what a coincidence also the 2nd way crying void mentioned is probably the easiest IMO.

Not sure if the Pm went through I watched the video and sent you some advice you might want to try out.

This does seem like fun, will we all have to get our own partners or will they be decided randomly?

*Excuse the double post* I have given an in depth opinion on the Valk,bang,hazama,carl match ups and I would like them to be reviewed and deleted if any of the information is wrong in any way. Trying to have information for archive purposes so that some of the newer players can at least get a grasp of how certain match up's should be played. With each BB game the match up doesn't change too drastically so I guess some of it can be of use later on in the future.

After trolling playing some pretty decent level carl players (ones that can actually do the unblockable reset on a consistent basis) I think I have finally got a good grasp on how I would personally approach this match up. Carl's pressure- They don't call him the mixup master for nothing when stuck between him and ada his mixup is on a whole different level then from when he is pressuring you by himself. When sandwiched you are at Carl's mercy his pressure is something you just can't sit there and try to block with the help of Ada's 2D (overhead punch) and 3D (ground had rotation) Carl can easily setup unblockables for free damage->100% unblockable reset->more damage->rinse and repeat till tao is dead. Tao's below average health is very advantageous for Carl since he doesn't need to much Ada meter to actually kill her with just a rinse and repeat of his 100% unlbockable reset this gives him freedom to waste a little more Ada meter than normal to control space and close the gap. As far as frame advantage goes you can't mash out of his basic block strings unless he says he you can. You can crawl Carl's 5B and Ada's 6D, but not only will Carl players be looking out for this the risk is insanely high and the punishment for failure is legitimate death. Luckily he needs to position you in between him and ada to gain access to his god like pressure, with tao having the most mobility in the game this is a very hard task for him to do. Carl's anti air's- 6A( got buff since CS1 and get's the job done),2C(lol probably the worst anti air in the game but it does work once in every 3 blue moons),Ada 8D (not sure whether to count this as an air to air but it will stuff approaches), Ada 4D ( has super armor and cannot be interrupted so I guess it works),623D (Brio is another one of those moves that will just stuff air approaches). 6A is his best option overall and it isn't active for too long so it really need to be timed in order for it to work properly with triple jumps and good C cancels you shouldn't have too much trouble with it outside of punishing due to it recovering pretty fast. Brio is pretty good as well due to it's good hit box, but it's more of a normal that controls space rather than anti air. Tao's pressure on Carl- Carl has the least amount of defensive options in the game due to his gear super not being fully invincible on startup except during the super flash means he can be hit before the super actually starts and his counter assault is kinda fast but doesn't have much range. Vivace A lost invincibility frames and combined with the instant block nerf has become less reliable for getting out of pressure, but vivace is still pretty handy for dodging air normal's (good amount of head invincibility frames) so stick to ground pressure strings to avoid him from escaping. Carl's backdash is not bad at all, but it's not something that you really have to go out your way to bait out , if you do hit him out his backdash it's important to remember that he is air borne so use 5B/2B hit confirmed into 5C or 6A into j8D-A loop. When you get Carl blocking don't give him any room to breathe he has no DP and needs to heat to get out of tough situations. Though one thing to look out for is that if you are pressuring Carl while in between him and Ada not only is this a tad bit dangerous rapshody of memories(multi punch super) becomes a pretty decent way out of pressure due to the fact that you will hit Carl,but Ada will keep swinging her robotic fist. Neutral game/Positioning- Tao's mobility definitely gives her the advantage in terms of neutral game, since Carl cannot run or Cancel his forward dash with barrier (will go in depth later) he has an extremely hard time catching Tao and has to rely on his above average air normal's to try and fish for a counter hit. Truth be told I suggest you polish up how to be annoying with tao because due to Carl being able to actually kill you when he catches you in between him and Ada time out's will be what you are aiming for, simply put get the life lead and run away till the clock run's out there is nothing Carl can safely do to stop you. Generally Carl will be fishing for air normal counter hit's as well as Brio and clap counter hit's all of these can be and should be avoided. Tao should only be fishing for counter hits when she doesn't have the life lead or when Ada is not near her other than those two situations running away and holding a life lead is top priority. Carl air normal's- Must admit the little guy got some pretty good air normal's, but they are still nothing compared to lol Jin J.B. His J.B,J.A, and lol allegretto are all good at stuffing Tao's drives so spacing yourself is a must his j.A is 5 frames ( fastest on the game?) and is really good at stuffing air grab attempts and stopping you from getting out the corner with drives. J.B has a good hit box and good active frames and can really be tossed out to control air space and occasionally stuff Tao's j.C and j.D. Last but not least is Allegretto do not underestimate it's hit box and active frames that is all besides that it's a poor way to stuff drives without Ada to cover the recovery. Best tools in the matchup- Your mobility is your best tool in this matchup I am extremely serious when I say go for timeouts not only is it the safest option. Unfortunately for Carl no matter how hard he tries and wishes to Santa clause can never catch Tao. For the most part space your air normal's out and don't get predictable with your approaches (when you don't have the life lead) and you should be fine nothing all that special besides the usual of not getting touched and avoid being sandwiched at all cost. Getting out of pressure/Things to exploit- Obviously there will come a time in which you get sandwiched when this time comes I suggest you read the following. First things first you can not block an unblockable hence the point of the name so the only real way out it is to wait till he is about to go for one in the middle of a blockstring usually Ada 2D/3D are the Cue's to look out for and simply either jump barrier away or mash out. it is possible to mash out/ jump away out of every one of Carl's unblockable's besides the 100% guaranteed reset one and when your getting hit (Also if Carl does 2B, 2D release, 5B,6B it is both anti mash and unblockable,but the timing is very strict so you don't see it too often) . The only problem with mashing out is you have to pay very close attention to what move ada is doing and you generally need to kinda read/react to it very quickly, but rest assured it is possible. Something you may want to exploit is the fact that Carl cannot cancel his forward dash into neither a normal or barrier block, so he has a lot of problem with barrier defense due to the push back this and the fact that 8D(the clap) is not unblockable anymore now it's air unblockable (must be barrier guarded in the air) and breaks 2 primers which is still deadly, but this really makes his ability to lock people down weaker. Barrier blocking and mashing when you see him froward dashing is also another option but more riskier since smart Carl players will cover the forward dash with Ada and it's not really guaranteed you will avoid being hit by her. Burst early and logically Carl is a very good burst baiter so choose your spots to burst wisely or be punished with death. Never sit on meter always CA, IB hexaedge if you want not really recommended but it is a way out and if you get it to hit you just knocked of 1/3 of Carl's health. If the Carl is not using 3D to stop you from crawling his air normals mid blockstring feel free to Crawl, you can crawl everything besides J.2C which can be canceled into allegretto to reduce it's recover frames but if your feeling risky and got the reactions go for it just know the punishment for failure is death. Things to look out for- Carl can Cancel his j.2C with allegretto to make this terrible move into an extremely fast cross up that is safe and plus frames on block (even on Instant Block)this is what Carl player will most likely be going for when Ada is right behind them and they are trying to position in sandwich position. Fueco/3D/2D/4D into vivace is another cross up attempt that they might use to get you sandwich so always be prepared to switch the side you are blocking in. Carl can change his air trajectory to descend faster than normal using his glide throw trick be careful as this can be done both backwards and Forward, as well as it's a good way to setup empty jump lows/catch jump outs/close the gap and randomly grab you out an air normal. The last thing to note would probably be that only the first hit of 3D is a low everything else is a mid so keep this in mind when blocking sandwich pressure as you might get caught in a fake unblockable and die for your lack of knowledge. Final Words- I can not stress how important it is to go for timeouts and to avoid getting sandwiched at all cost, seriously it's an experience I guess most of you all will have to behold first hand in order to understand the importance seeing it is just not enough. If Carl ever catches you sandwiched and you have no burst consider yourself dead because if you get touched with him having at least 50% Ada meter you will get unblockable rest XN until you die Tao's health is just too low thus meaning he requires less Ada meter to actually kill you. Never stop moving around and whatever you do never get gutsy and try to approach him if you already have the life lead please do your best to lame it out as much as possible even if you have negative warning keep running and just let the time run out. Picking good times to jump out of his pressure,know when to mash out as well as proper usage of bursting and CA is key in your survival As always will edit this post to fix grammar mistakes and for accuracy. More information is definitely needed and any fixes or constructive criticism that you all have for this post is more than welcomed this is just my opinion and collected knowledge of what I presume to be a good way to approach this match.

From what I know not regularly most of the time the BB players just wait till the bi weeklies to all go play,but from the looks of it people are planning to go this saturday to get some games in.

Anyone planning on going this weekend/next week?

This matchup can be really scary of you don't know what your doing, but overall I find this matchup to be heavily in tao's favor for some really silly reasons. Valk's Pressure- His pressure is a walking frame trap if you press buttons between any of his block strings even on IB your probably going to get counter hit into 2-3K+ with corner carry so I highly recommend being patient. Some notable frame advantage normal's he has are 6B(+8), 2A(+1),and 6C(+2) this combine with his wolf cancel mixup makes him a character you don't want to be blocking for too long. Nothing much else can really be said here besides not to mash in his block strings, all his human normal's easily catch her back dash on wake up and he can do the 2A,2A,2C frame/tech trap to punish mashing and tech rolls. Wolf Pressure- As said by many high level tournament players including LK himself his wolf mixup is unseeable and impossible to react to your only real option is chicken blocking because his wolf normal's and wolf specials can all be canceled to one of his dashes to make them safe. wolf 5B is air unblockable and also the best anti air in the entire game so if valk is under you mashing wolf 5B the only thing your doing is barrier blocking. His wolf pressure is filled with a bunch of empty dash lows and instant over heads so you don't want to be on the ground blocking I can't stress enough how pointless it is to try and block his pressure strings, and to top it all off he has a command grab that he can combo off of with 50 heat/ in the corner. Tao's pressure on valk- Valk has no DP and is the same as tao on defense as in he has to rely on things like an above average backdash, and distortion invincibility frames to really get out of tight pressure. His 6A is kinda like a DP and he can get a really nice corner carry combo on counter hit only problem is the guard point doesn't kick in till frame five that combine with the 10 frame startup makes it not all to reliable when getting out of pressure, IB 6A is legit though so keep this in mind when you see your opponent instant blocking a lot. Valks fastest normal is 5A (6 frames) but it whiff on crouching hit boxes and with a 7 frame 2A he really can't mash out of your blockstrings unless you really let him. Valk's anti airs- 2C(still good),Wolf5B(probably the best in the game),6A(has guard point so it does work), and 5A?( not too sure about this one but it looks possible). Outside of wolf 5B you can generally use triple jumps and drive C cancels to bait them and either go for a whiff punish or just return to neutral. Neutral game- tao and valk in wolf from have really good neutral games so it's really hard to say who is at advantage here. I guess it would be tao since valk can only stay in wolf form for a limited time before he has to let his meter recharge, but don't quote me on this since it's really hard to determine. When I was playing against some good valks I noticed we were both fishing for roughly the same thing anti airs,J.D for tao and beast cannons for valk. So what it really boils down to is who has the superior spacing and smarter reads. Best tools in the matchup- The only reason I find this matchup to be bad for Valk is because of crawl,yes you can crawl all his human normal's besides 2B,3C,2C,236A,236B everything else you can just crawl and throw out 3C for free damage. Even in the middle of his blockstrings you can crawl for little to no risk mid-screen and get some free damage from time to time. This forces the valk player to simplify his pressure to just 2B,3C,236B stuff or else risk taking damage.Crawl does not put tao in counter hit state so you can still tech grabs and Valk has a hard time going back into his lows in blockstrings without tao crawling and making the normal whiff. On Tao's wake up valk has to either do meaty grab,2C,2B,3C(lol) or wolf in order to stop her from crawling, the problem with this is that she can simply tech the grab/ and or block the 2C and crawl afterwards. Overall crawl limits his options against you thus making it easier to escape his pressure. I notice a lot of valk like to cancel into wolf mid block string to get some better mixup options this is legit but is very vulnerable to mashing and if decides to cancel in to his dashes (7D,4D,9D) 6A is really helpful when timed properly seeing as how it's 2 hits valk need to use more than 1 wolf movement to evade it which wastes a ton of his wolf meter. Less wolf meter=Less damage/Less corner carry=happy tao Things to look out for- Valk cancel into wolf on a lot of his specials and normal's on whiff to really keep the pressure be on the look out for this and be ready to chicken block your way out. 6C (the overhead) can be canceled into wolf on the startup, I generally find myself reacting to 6C by crawling and using 6A if I feel they are going to cancel the starup into wolf worst case scenario they use two dashes to bait my anti air and I recover in time to block. As for 236A I just look out to instant block it and 6A seeing as how on IB it's -6 so if he wolf cancels it's a free 6A or if he tries to 2A it's 6A into JD8-A loop. 236B prorates pretty bad if they use both hits so I don't see this move used too often I treat it the same as 236A and last but not least 236C will whiff tao if she crawls and on block is another free 6A you can throw out and see what happens. Occasionally 6A might trade but for all the times I've used 6A it has always trades in tao's favor. The last thing to look out for is valks 5B into rising j.C RC combo starter deals good damage and it's a really fast overhead so be on the look out. Final words-Valks mixup potential in wolf is endless that is why chicken blocking is the best option for the most part abuse the fact he doesn't have a DP and just don't give him room to breathe on defense just try and stall out his wolf meter. Never ever block 6C always crawl it and try not to sit on your meter counter assault ASAP and early burst are recommended to avoid valk from getting his game started. Saving your bursts for the final round isn't all that bad because the moves that he has to break primers can crawled,Overall Valk is a very complex character to truly understand so more information is definitely needed but for now this is all I can give without access to training mode. Will edit this post for accuracy and to add anything I discover in the matchup.

Making this post to give people and newer players a general idea of where you want to be when fighting/approaching hazama. The most important thing to remember in this matchup is that hazama cannot zone tao with chains so long as she is constantly moving and changing her current position. Where you want hazama to be- Generally I try to keep Hazama mid-screen my reason for this is because if he gets a random 6D/4D, 623D his best option is 3C, 214D-A for oki because of tao being too far from the corner to get jabaki to wall bounce. Despite how good hazama's pressure is his damage midscreen is really low unless he has 50 heat or got a counter hit 5C,3C, and or random 214D-C hit. So long as the match is played mid-screen tao is definitely is at an advantage in terms of damage out put and meter gain. Where you Tao want to be- For the most part tao wants to avoid being in the corner for too long, using her superior mobility to dodge chains and slowly approach taking as little damage as possible. Staying in the air space between 4D,6D in the air is highly recommended and extremely advantageous seeing as how tao can quickly use J.4D to punish 4D/6D on whiff from closer distances. With proper usage of triple jumps and a good mix of ground/air movement getting in on hazama isn't to problematic just avoid being predictable with your movement. Blocked chains/hazama approaches-Despite how great tao's mobility is you have to be really gdlk to avoid blocking a chain for an entire match, but rest assured I find that tao has very good options against hazama chain approaches. Hazama's IAD doesn't travel far and he can't run, so all he really has is his chains to zone and approach from high speed angles. I'll break your options into two sections "instant block options" and "normal block options".... *Normal block* 1)Tao can crawl all his air normal's bearing J.2C thus making it one of the best options you have on block chain seeing as how J.2C isn't good for approaching you can easily switch the momentum on a blocked chain to your favor by simply crawling his j.B/J.A (most commonly used normal's to approach with chains) and using 2A to force him blocking. 2)Tao's 6A has gotten one frame slower so it trades/loses to couple of things now, in CS1 you could 6A all his chain approaches regardless of the distance but now it's much more distance specific in usage. Hazama needs to be approaching from much further in order for 6A to anti air him on normal a lot of the time it will just point blank lose out to j.6D-D, j.B approaches. The only good thing about 6A is that it will always beat J.2C and if hazama chooses to C cancel his chain 6A will hit him despite him being behind you (lol BB hitboxes), but being overall inconsistent and hazama having a relative ease baiting anti air's it's the option I suggest using the least if your not familiar with the distance in which it should be used. As for the tao veterans use it sparingly and with good judgement of distance. 3) This last one is a little weird and I haven't really used it too much myself but I assure it works. Crouch blocking the chain is actually better than blocking it standing apparently outside of j.2C tao's crouching hit box goes under his J.b and j.a and it forces hazama to cancel into his air normal later than he would normally in order for it not to whiff. This allows for tao to use 5B as an anti air since he has to delay his input in order for it not to whiff on her crouching. Now if the hazama cancels into his normal immediately anti air 5B will not work and you will eat counter hit damage, but if you choose to stay crouching you can use 2A as an anti air as it will go right under j.B and j.A. The only thing to keep in mind is that anti air 2A will lose to his j.2C. So all in all this is a very risky option and requires you to know exactly what normal hazama will be using and observing the time in which he cancels his chains.Alternatively hazama can choose not to approach in which case you will recover from 5B before he can actually punish. *Instant Block* 1) Anti air 5B now becomes the least riskiest option and no longer loses to any of his air normals not even j.2C so long as you time it properly (slight delay compared to j.b and j.a). Seeing as how 5B 6 frames it will be almost impossible to punish it on whiff due to how fast it recovers, but unfortunately a 6 frame air unblockable anti air it far too perfect to be 100% full proof, 5B will not auto correct itself when hazama does (chain),C cancel,j.B so you will whiff and be force to eat damage. Still this is an option that should not be forgotten and definitely has it's uses. 2)Crawl, nothings changes still faces the same problems of J.2C but remains a good option due to how bad it is for hazama to approach with J.2C. 3)6A is now insanely more consistent I want to say full proof,but I haven't tested it all that much to really be certain. Still due to hazama being able to alter his chain in momentum I find it still hard to use properly and if you lack the reactions easily punishable on whiff. When to NOT approach hazama- Never ever try to come at hazama when he is at the distance in which he can get a 4D/6D,623D, Jabaki wall bounce combo, not only does it build him good meter it takes away tao's only legit wakeup option without 50 heat which is her above average back dash. Mid screen you can back dash his 2A,2A anti roll setup on wake up after a 3C,214D-A emergency tech, but in the corner hazama catches your backdash for free into either big damage (hit confirm corner specific houtenjin combo) or more meter putting you back in the same situation in the corner with less health. Another thing to watch out for is when hazama has his back against the corner, tao does deal more damage in the corner than mid-screen but her mix up is much weaker due to losing her cross ups. Sure you have the corner specific option of 2A,5B,IAD J.2B, 214D,j.A,hit confirm into J8D-A loop, but due to how vulnerable it is to mashing and his anti air 5A it's generally not a good idea, Plus if he blocks it now your back is to the corner and he can score bigger damage and meter gain than before. Hazama being too flashy?- A lot of good hazama players have really good movement and understanding of his chain cancels and they have all these flashy ways of getting on on people. As nice as this movement is it doesn't work against tao all to much and is more advantageous for tao than it is for hazama. If you find your self fighting a hazama being to fancy with his movement it's safe to start fishing for high in the air counter hit J.D's, for the most part the constant movement wastes his Ouroborous stocks which will eventually leave him grounded for sometime and force to eat some pressure strings before returning to the skies. Hazama air normal's too good- His air normal's such as J.B,J.A and occasionally 214.B are very good for keeping J.D mashing in the air at bay, generally I treat it the same way I treat everyone else's a constant switch between Air movement and ground movement nothing much else can be said about it besides that if you are having problems please redirect yourself to my post in the "tao vs Bang CS2" section for tips. Final- Approaching hazama can be a risky task having such good normal's and anti airs a lot of your damage will have to come from a strong neutral game, knowing how to keep the pressure and knowing when to back off his key in this match up IMO. Generally if you see them almost all the way on the corner and you have the health lead just lay back and wait for him to come to you everything else really comes down to who has the better spacing/movement. Stay patient, don't mash and avoid being hit at all cost. Will edit this post for accuracy from time to time so always look back for changes, if anyone would like to add anything please do so I'm not perfect and I do make mistakes thi sis just my two cents on the matchup.