Naphiel

A good shadow route for when your back is to the corner. 5C > 236A > 236C > SB > dash 5C > 236CD > 214A > 5C > 236CD > 214A > 5C >236CD > 214CD > B+D (1) > 214B > J.214A > SB CS > SB Issen. (~6900) Works off 5B and 2B as starters as well for around 6100 damage.

If you input 236C too fast after a forward throw, Valk will go in front of Arakune causing the move to whiff. You have enough time to pick them up with 2C afterwards which leads to 2C > 6B > 2C > 5C > J.BAB > j.c > J.BC. It's nothing match up changing but it's something to take note of.

Figured out some ways around her reversal super. In human form we can use CH 5C > 236C > 4D > w.jB > w.5B > w.Jb > 3D > w.jA into the standard corner combo stuff on whiff or on block. If done on whiff, you should delay just a second as doing it too early gets you hit by the fireball because the invincibility on your 4D ends too soon. In wolf form we can backdash after the super flash and then do CH w.5C > 6DD > 2C > Sturm wolf.

His new special cloud makes running from him in curse almost impossible. Not that it was ever easy when against a good Arakune anyway. New spider special seems decent if you have a few other things on screen already. Can probably stop you charging from full screen but it should be our goal to rush him down over doing this anyway. As stated above he has a million ways to bait 2C, I'd never even consider using dp as a anti air unless he started J.B way too early. On block he'll go into 5A which leads into a high low mix up. I just hope for our sakes the J.B instant overhead is gone. He's always been able to force you to block a strong bug after shark in curse. You just hold the C from the input until the end and let it go with the appropriate direction. I'd honestly say it's worth CA'ing if he's just about out of curse and has 50 meter. You don't want to be in that situation again. Just never hit buttons in curse, it's always a horrible idea. DP is the only thing worth considering and the risk reward is really bad for us. Unless he got something new, J.C is still probably the thing to watch out for in curse. His backdash has a lot of invincibility (from frame 1) but is very long so if you call it out and use normals without much recovery we should be able to maintain pressure. FC 3CC > 5C > 2CC > CT whiffs. Like Bat suggested in the Hakumen thread, you can use 5B > 2CC or do a microdash instead.

After finding out that 3CC > 5C > 2CC > CT didn't work on Hakumen, I checked it with the rest of the cast. Works on everyone except Hakumen and Arakune. 5B > 2CC > CT works on both of them.

3C has more pushback than I remember. Dash 5CC punishes it at everything but max range. Dash 5B 22B/D works at max range but it's tricky. When you charge cancel off any normal with good pushback like 5CC you're putting yourself in a pretty bad spot. His 2A and 3C beat out a lot of our options at this range. I'd only use dp as an anti air against his air dash, which is really long. Otherwise I'd go for 2C or just block. I phrased it poorly before, I mean it's well worth our time to get familiar with his overheads and at what ranges to be concerned about them. He gets a ton off damage off all of them except for 6B, which does crazy damage on CH. I meant to emphasise blocking standing in response to his forward dash. It's good to hear we don't have to worry about blocking dash Agito high, it's really fast.

6B to counter has never been a thing. Or at least since CS2. I mained Hakumen in CS2 and Extend and still play him to some extent in this so I'll post what I know on the match up. 3C is fast (8 or 9 frames) but he shouldn't be able to hit you out of any charge cancel with it. 2A is a better option for him since it's faster and plus on block. If a Hakumen is attempting to 3C you out of your pressure, block it and hit him with 5B or 5C (whichever you're in range for) as it's unsafe and he's left crouching. Although I haven't been able to put it into practice yet, Agito/J.2C "mix-up" shouldn't be too much of a problem for us because of the angle of 2C. DP should beat both options clean. If he's directly above you, I think both of his options will beat your 2C. I'll test DP later. 6A is a much better tool in this match up now as he lost his 1 frame high counter. 6D has crazy start up now and 5D is 6 or so which is harder to react to overheads with. 2D is still 1 frame and a nuisance. Throws are great in this match up. At worst he techs them but it stops him from abusing counters. From tech throw range I think only his 3C can connect (I'll check on this later) and if that's the case it'll beat 5B, but if you block it you can reapply pressure or potentially punish it. Once they start respecting that you're going for throws a lot you can start delaying your gattlings more as they're watching out for them. 4C is -11 uncharged. Use this time to approach and start applying pressure. If he follows this up with Gurren (the shoulder charge) be careful. It's +1. I disagree with throwing 5D. Since it has a lot of recovery anyway, most Hakumens hold it since they're in a bad situation either way. Get that counter hit 2B/3C and make him think twice about doing it again. Even if he doesn't hold it both should work depending on how fast you react. I want to stress the importance of blocking high when needed in this match up. 6B leads to good options on regular hit and a lot of damage on CH. Dash or tk Tsubaki hotaru leads to absurd damage and is a great OD starter. Hotaru only connects if he's up close so if he's looking to TK it he has to be right beside you can he has no low follow ups to his dash so make sure it stand block if he forward dashes. I'm not sure if dash Agito hits overhead (likely) but careful if you block this. He can follow it up with an extremely low to the ground j.B which leaves him at a lot of advantage. I'm heading out to play now but I'm going to check up some more things on this match up in training mode when I get home. If there's anything in particular that's giving people problems post here and I'll see if I can come up with something.

Relius is a monster now. His new 22A/B/C as well as his other various doll options ensure that you're not getting any charge from anything outside of charge cancels and knockdowns. His 5B is better than ours. It's 2 frames faster to start up, active just as long and recovers faster. Not to mention he can use any Ignis command from it. He doesn't have many air normals with good horizontal reach unless he's in the air long before you in which he can send Ignis at you. His 2C is really good for anti-airing all of Tsubaki's air normals and leads to big damage, so you have to be really careful with your jump ins. If you try to cross him up he can also use 4D which is really good for anti-airing things above him. 5B > 3C > 6D > J.B > 5B is an airtight blockstring. It's when he's convinced you to block this that he can start playing with you with empty jump throws and lows as well as low air dashes for tricky overheads. Never burst after 3C, as you can hold back after inputting your jump forward and 6D (which is done at the same time) and you'll bait bursts with it. Two changes he got in this version really help him out. Off a lot of things midscreen and almost anything in the corner, he can OD and get almost a full Ignis gauge again to maintain his momentum. The other change is that with the addition of Gad Leis you still really have to respect his normals even when the doll is dead if he has 50 meter. Off 5B anywhere on screen he can get over 3.5k and kill enough time for Ignis to come back.

Was playing around with different things and it seems better to just lose a bit of damage, follow the first 2DC into 46B which lets you use 6C and a ton after that to punish them if they don't tech.

Is there much I can do to punish somebody for just refusing to tech into my orb oki after using 2 2DCs in a combo? Seems that the SMP ruins anything I can do too punish them for it.

I've made a fair amount of progress in the last few days in that I'm using single reps of the wolf loop for pressure and stuff like w5B > 1DCA on a consistent basis now. I got motivated to get better after watching and playing a set in which I was really rusty. I'm still not happy with it though. While I'll get it 10 times in a row in one set, I'll completely throw myself off the right wolf brake timing in one game until I tell myself to slow things down. I also really want to work on wolf movement. Two things I have particular difficulty in getting consistently are wJ.C > 6DC > falling wJ.B and comboing after w5C > 3D > w4C midscreen if both of the WCs connect.

I had been using 6D the entire time. Thanks.

Is there a certain trick to getting Rachel's 6A to launch grounded opponents into the air (when used with wind) or is it a timing thing?

Yeah it works.

Agreed. Best just finishing off the TCL. I just mentioned that combo specifically because it's the only one that seemed to not land consistently. Even though the 5A after 214D clearly is hitting nothing but thin air yet works every time.

Kokonoe, since people are saying her hurtbox is weird.

So far everything I've tried except this works. I noticed that throw > 6A > IAD J.C > 214D > 5A > TCL X2 > 236D is fairly inconsistent midscreen. You can get it to land but it has to be real tight (problems connecting 236D, 5A seems to hit thin air but catches all the time). It's whiffed 8/10 times for me. I've tried pretty much everything I can think of and everything else has been fine. If there's anything anybody wants me to check just post.

I've got her and play Azrael so it isn't too much hassle. I'll do a run through of what I can think of that might now work on her in the next few hours and post if I find anything.

Well I didn't mean that was her only problem or anything, I just didn't want to go into massive detail because I don't know tons about the character. I just looked for something else to say besides she has trouble with top tier, because so does most of the cast. They're considered top tier for a reason. A weak neutral game is her biggest flaw.

Oh, well Makoto players have really put some work in since I last checked. Never mind, her damage isn't as bad as I thought.

She suffers because any damage she can do is off hits you shouldn't be using in pressure and that she has a lot of trouble dealing with any of the top tier characters.

I wouldn't compare most characters to Valk, some of the stuff he's capable of is fairly silly. I know what you're getting at though. The only other character I can see having trouble getting decent damage for affordable meter usage is Makoto.

I've only ever use sparingly and that's either as a midscreen overhead (almost never) or to break a primer if they're about to be guard broken and I have tons of magatama.

Never really used Shippu in CS2 unless it was going to kill because I preferred to save my meter. What new uses does it have at 10f?

Can't believe I missed that. Will try it out in training mode now. This should work nicely considering I only really need to make him cautious about using it. Thanks.