Shazam

I'll try Relius out and see if I'd like to sub him, but I certainly won't be leaving Hazama. Vergil is pretty badass though. Maybe he'll get a Terumi color. <__<

Now this thread truly is the longest... :8/:

Why didn't you include the coils link? At first I was like "wait, why only 7.4k" lol. Nice combo though.

Had a lot of fun yesterday, ggs to everyone that I played, looking forward to playing more people next time. Special thanks to Xie for hosting, shtkn for dustloop/AAA and Guymam for helping me not be so free. Dinner crew was awesome. See you all next time :]

Only beats scrubs, and at that usually just online? Check. Extremely gimmicky and situational? Check. Blocking a lot? Check. Extremely slow? Yep. Take all of this, and make sure that every matchup forum on dustloop has a nice and detailed thread with several different ways to get around your techniques. Welcome to playing Tager. Honestly though, it's pretty worth it to just play as Tager online. You will have a blast. Taking him to the tournament is just probably not the greatest idea. This ain't GG. Personally i'd like to see Tager just a bit better. Not in the LAST spot would be nice for once. Pretty unlikely though. Tager mains, if you are reading this, you should just pick up Hazama. Maybe at least Hakumen for proper defensive play :3

This is how to properly fight Tager. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVP8RNfeqs4

It's true though, that nobody blocks 6a online. Might as well keep posting combos to stay on subject! Some of my favorite astrolls! opponent cornered: anything -> 236d -> astral 2c 5c 3c -> astral 5c astral 6a astral works on normal or counter hit 6b works too! 214d~c astral cornered, facing outwards: anything into 623d astral 236c 66 2a 5b astral

This is awesome, someone posted this on the BBCS board at GFaqs.

Lol 9k combos. I really hope such a thing doesn't exist in BBCSE.

Good stuff, I definitely need to work on the RC combos. Been messing around with the mini-relaunch that I posted up there. So far this works on Noel and Valkenhayn: 214d~c (1 or 2) 6c 66 5c(2) j.cx5 2c 6d 4d j214b# I prefer going for j.b j.cx1 etc in the j214b# because it's tricky getting the second j.c to hit esp. on Noel. Of course you can swap around the 5c and 2c but meh. Dash 2c will always be annoying lol. For Ragna and Jin, you must do dash 2c first. I was only able to get it to work with a level 2 214d~c on Jin :[ Also looks really good if you know how to confirm your 5c ch's into 214d~c. Time to see if it works on anyone else.

Not too big on Tsubaki or a master at this matchup by any means but she's pretty easy to zone. You all should get into the habit of using a raw 623d if she's air charging because it is awesome and her "rush in" moves are annoying. Sometimes they cross up on block too. Her 2c is a good anti air and if you just fly in without confirming a chain while she's charging you'll probably eat one of these. Zidane definitely had the right idea, but watch out for air grabs. 3c is very viable in this match. 2c aa for most of the time and 5a if it's a sloppy approach.

on grounded opponent ch j2c optional dash 6b 236236b blah blah blah I like to use 2b where 2b isn't needed sometimes because it looks awesome and reminds me of CS1. Like after 214d~c 6c. Then you can usually reverse the chains by doing 4d first and not going for the whole relaunch. I also like to do 2c j.cx5 5c 4d j214b# after 6c if I feel like it or if it'll take them to the corner. I know that on Ragna you can actually land 5c 6d 4d sometimes and it works, looks awesome too. air to air ch J2c pause jump j.cx5 j214b using j.a in combos ftw

I agree man, no reason to go for optimal every single time. I'd rather do a classy looking combo that I made up myself for a little less damage than be someone who only does combos taken from the Haz CS2 vid for things like 'meter gain' and 'maximum damage'. There's no shame in a 6a or a 6b here or there, and that shit is mad classy. I like to use 2c 5c in combos personally. But I heard we lose that gatling in BBCSE :[

Hazama is a zoning/pressure based character and is best played as a combination of the two. Learn how to spam chains and frustrate your opponent by making it hard to get to you, and confirm any chain that hits them and isn't blocked into a d or c follow up and hit them with a combo. Get used to using a forward dash for command grab, grab, and just any attack. Hazama's dash is used a ton in CS2 combos so get used to it. Learn how to dash 5a/b/c without getting 6a/b/c. Get used to stance and all your options from stance. Sometimes stance cancel is best. Don't go into stance from too far away. Get used to using 214d~b as anti air against certain characters like Rachel and Tager for example. 5a and 2c are the legit anti airs with the occasional 5c. Just practice moving around with chains, his normal movement is pretty ass and if you don't have good chain movement you'll be losing a lot and having less fun. tl;dr troll until you have 50 meter, win match. A little tidbit i'm going to add here for the Haz players is that if you ever have a chain thrown out and your opponent goes for a random super, you can usually react in time with a stock. Just consider the situation and whether b, c, or d will get you out of it. I've avoided carnage scissors and f of g by reacting to the superflash with a d. If I were trying to avoid Jin's wave super for example while I have a fully extended 5d, I would try to use the b follow up. Hope this comes in handy for some of you :]

I wrote up a nice friendly post about this matchup from Hazama's perspective, so you can refer to that and it might give you a few ideas. So, here's a few things that I would do if I was fighting Hazama. *Use drive a lot but be careful. You will get zoned, bitten, and flown in on for trying to pull out an item at the wrong time, and when that time is depends on your opponent. *Jump to use your missiles, or at least be varied with them. Don't just let them all out on the ground with 214d because it's easy to get around. Bombs can be effective if you use them right. *Bat is good in this matchup if you're bad at blocking or want a get out of pressure free card *Try to stay patient *Command grab is less viable because of counter command grab *Use mami circular as a surprise every now and then and you might have good results That's about all i've got for now, good luck to you all.

Woops sorry, I forgot about 6b and 6c, which definitely can't be normally cancelled. Though they are still relatively safe if you use them properly. I try, dedication and character love have taken me pretty far with Haz. Also you don't always have to do 3c into 214d~a, you can use your other options from stance as well, it's basically taking a risk for more damage potential. Stance cancel after 3c however is asking for trouble in nearly any case. I also like the idea of 5d vs autoguard sledge into 236c. It's gunna be a sad day when those invulnerable frames are gone. Oh well, flashkick(s) ftw!

Not to mention all b and c moves are safe with gatlings and/or jump cancels. Combine zoning and running away with explosions of rushdown and you'll be even deadlier. Come on, it's Tager. Don't do stupid shit and you will win. You don't have to commit to anything.

I like to call this matchup "Do whatever the fuck you want and you will still win" I also like to play extremely free and lose most of my health and then run them back while they don't get a single hit on me. Trololol, netplay tactic only. As you can see by the vid negative penalty literally doesn't matter in this match. Thanks mikenapalm for giving us some ways on how to beat up Tager. I usually go for RTSD too in this matchup because Hazama's j.a and j.b have magical anti-Tager properties to them and Tager eats counter hits off obvious fly ins a LOT. I encourage you all to play this matchup as Tager at least once to get a feel for how bad he really has it. That's a nice bunch of tricks you've got listed up there mike :3 let's keep this free matchup as free as possible.

Thank you for linking that here, I love that match <3 Poor Tager. I know it hurts x_x

This matchup is pretty scary. Going out on a whim here i'll say this is probably one of the few matchups that's not harshly in Hazama's favor. I really can't provide much help because I haven't fought enough Valkenhayn yet, but here's a few things to consider. Valk has better movement than Hazama, and thus can get around chains better than most characters. He still has to respect them but if you make one wrong guess he's in and you're at a disadvantage trying to call back your chain. You really want to stay away whenever you're not putting in pressure (welcome to playing Hazama) because he basically has better rushdown and a lot of moves for you to learn to respect. Don't even fly in on a blocked chain ever in this match. Hell, it might be a good idea to just not fly in at all until BBCSE because of the dumbass head invul on Valk's [w]5b. Either wolf 5b will rape your shit or human 6a will. The wolf mixup is really not that good outside of [w]5a,low and [w]j5a,overhead which he can and will use during a wolf dash. Basically try as hard as you can to zone and keep an eye out for your confirm or opening. don't forget that you have j8d too if you really need it. Good luck with this one, hope to see more input.

Wow. Not even a thread was made. Looks like nobody had a lot of trouble vs Platinum when she first came out. I don't play this a whole lot but I have a decent understanding of Platinum, and I can tell you that we are here to make her life hell. Missiles? Bombs? No big deal. Just jump and use your chains to get to her if you want. d~B follow ups are your friend in this match. Her zoning is "WEAK SAUCE" compared to what we have at our disposal. Yes, zoning is your friend in this match. I prefer to try to keep them out with j5d and 5d because her hitbox is so small. When they have 50 meter they're likely to use mami circular, the heart car, a lot more sparingly because if you safely block it -which you should always safely be blocking when at heart car distance against Platinum, respect it, don't whiff your moves- then it will be safe. A lot of Platinum's like to use mixup or try to hit you after a RC'd Mami Circular but I have a feeling our old pal 5c will cut right through them. When she has bat, respect that. Most Plat's will use only this as a reversal (many will even throw it away at you in an attempt to stay offensive) but she does also have a reversal super. Respect the cat..hammer...thing... too. It's almost like a zoning tool. You can pop bubbles in any way you want to as long as you have a decent grasp of spacing. Chains will work, the tip of certain normals (i.e 5a, 5c) will also pop them. Watch her throw away a normal item once. Respect that angle and don't get hit by this extremely slow projectile. Platinum also has a stupid ass command grab. Her command grab makes her slide forward and it goes about the distance of an entire Hazama from head to toe, if not a little longer. Guess who has an even stupider command grab? is right! You can usually just 2c if she tries to swallow moon. I prefer to follow this up with 5c 4d~, but that's just me. Only other things I can think of mentioning are be careful of her quick lows (2a and 3c) and her super drive items. When she has super missiles or a giant cathammer you need watch out for those and block a lot more. Luckily they don't last very long and are numbered. It's worth noting that if you get command grabbed it will fill up her item number and if it was a super item it will stay super, but we've already gone over why that's not important. For the incredibly slow or otherwise challenged who are wondering what i'm saying, you can use your command grab whenever Platinum goes for a command grab and it will make her think twice about going for another command grab. Time to go beat up some lolis :]

I kind of hope to get bodied by a Tao one day, as a sort of justice for all of the other Taokaka's who have been completely bodied by me online. Poor Tao. But really though it's the player's faults for just not being very good From what I can gather Tao basically has to try and bait our chains and anti-airs as much as possible and wait for her hit. This matchup really SEEMS to suck for Tao but i'm not truly sure how much it actually does. That said, the go-to anti airs for this match are 5a and 5c. 5a is a bit risker vs. Tao because it can get beat pretty often. Keep her scared of 5c, and use 2c sparingly as well. 5a is good for getting out of pressure sometimes. 5c is also a good poke because it's quick. See a pattern here? Plus if you're really good and you score a 5c counterhit you actually get a free relaunch. Wow! Chasing around Tao is like, well, chasing around Tao. She has superior air mobility and doesn't have a stock number for her drive. You should be trying to keep her out half of the time and working pressure the other half, just be ready to start the assault once you gain momentum. She has to respect 6d, 4d, j5d, and 5d. You don't want to be predictable with these. Use a stock or two if you have to.

I'm not too close but I am close enough :] I'm only about twenty minutes away or so. Is that where your place is? I heard about the last one and was trying to make it but wasn't able to. Sounds like a great time! I'll definitely make it to the next one. I really look forward to meeting all you SoCal air dashers ^_^ How is the Riverside scene in particular? Biweeklies also sound amazing. Where is FFA? Holy hell we still have an arcade in SoCal. That is great, although playing on pad is now biting me in the ass. Hooray edit: nevermind I see their website in that pic. Granada hills is pretty far for me to drive but I would definitely go with someone else and pitch in gas money if anybody from around here is interested in heading out there.

It is a good idea to learn how to block her shit and get used to blocking crossup. Seriously there's so much time when she tries to "assault through" and theres enough time to react to a j4d. But if she's low enough it's all about dat 5b

Fair enough. Though I imagine it's not always punishable due to the way her drive works. I just beat the CPU's j4D with a 5b ^_^