ryokoalways

Basic: Get good at keeping distance till hakumen can build up gauge. Once you have 5 magatamas or so start the offensive. Be aware of: All- 6A, 3C, jA, Carry-throw, Ryuiijyo With staff- 6B, 4D, 6D, jB, jC, carry-throw, straight through, dp, daisharin Staff set- overhead kick (don't remember what it's called, super, and something I'm not sure what it is (三元脚・發or中、東南西北、国士無双) Initial: Jump barrier and watch for throw or crouch and block. Okizeme: Hop tsubaki, hotaru, renka, throw. Bait dp and punish (either by blocking or meaty j2C, which will beat tsubame since it's a projectile). Against okizeme: Beat meaty staff with catch, watch for overheads, then throw. Use barrier to create distance. Jump escape is effective, just be aware of air throw. regular hits aren't dangerous in the air (shouldn't be at a height where you may get caught by straight through) Long range: Try to stay in the air, use 4C, jC, j2C at this range against long range staff zone and build meter. Too much 4C will result in all green/ air dash jb punish, both of which hurts a lot. When attacking mix it up ground approach and air approach (hotaru, j2A, j2C). can beat litch's air approach with 5A, ,jA, hotaru, 2c, air throw, and catch (from safest to most risky) Mid range: Try to stay on the ground, zone with 5B, 3C, and jC. Litchi has air advantage so don't get into air vs air. Use kishuu against litchi's 6B, high risk/high return. Don't spam 2B and 6B as litchi can jump over both into jB/jC>dmgs. Close range: Be aware of dp, use hakumen's superior A and B moves to apply continuous pressure. dp cannot be RCed so make sure to get maximum punish off bait. Be aware of 6B feint from litchi. And must be able to catch overhead. Catch: All- 6A, All green With staff- 2B>6B, C>3C, daisharin Set Staff- 6C>C?, the aerial kicks, super Punish: All- 6A With staff- 2B, 6B(distance dependent), dp Set staff- 6C(IB)?

Basics: Be aware of 6C, Drive, Ground throw, Air throw Initial: No gauge, play reactively, be aware of throws. Long distance: While taokaka can charge in with drive, it's easy to block. As long you don't get counter hit you will be fine (dmg return in 5k+). can cut projectiles on reaction. Mid distance: Taokaka's best range. 4C is dangerous at this range due to taokaka's 6C (either empty or frame trap). Air dash throw, 6C, jC are all available to tao at this range, and all hurts a fair amount. Try to get closer or farther, and uses hotaru and jD to prevent taokaka from doing things freely. Close distance: Taokaka's pressure is weak without RC, throw is first priority, and look for other mixup after that. Read overheads and throws and counter with hotaru. Air to Ground: jB, j2C Taokaka's 6A has head invun, and drive counter is dangerous. Trade-off is in taokaka's favor. While jD and hotaru may win, tao can also crouch walk as AA, so it's not good to do often. Avoid this situation Air to Air: j2A, jC, hotaru, jD j2A beats drive unless done way too late, can evenly match tao's option in the air with hakumen's options. Trade-off in hakumen's favor Okizeme: Lack of reversal option makes it easy. Super reversal will happen rarely, just be aware when tao has 100% meter. Normally tao will use meter to DA to escape oki pressure, so be aware and tap>air throw to counter. Another option is to bait tao into jumping and make tao guess between throw and hotaru. Getting a basic okizeme set-up early in the round will help hakumen pace the rest of the round, very important. Against Okizeme: Most often is 2A meaty, normally the most dangerous thing here is throw, so again that should be your defensive priority. Must be able to block 6B on reaction (really easy), and Taokaka's pressure is fairly weak. Counter with 2A>combo, hotaru, and occasionally IB catch Overall: Taokaka has low hp, if hakumen has some gauge he can kill in 2 regular combos. Both sides are high dmg char so player that can zone better will win. Do not gamble with catch. Most important thing is to be aware of throw. If hakumen player can defend against throw the match will be much more favorable. What to catch: 6B, 2A>2A, bowling ball. Use 5D to beat frame trap in zoning. Keep in mind that catch should be used very convervatively.

1/24 Game41 Tournament Part 1 Part 2

a-cho has new vids up.

renka>zantetsu is only worthwhile in the corner. And you still have the high/low zantetsu meaty (albeit the low option now does much less damage due to readjusted dmg). Just an FYI, I rarely use zantetsu anyways as I find it lacking when compared to other moves, and it's basically guaranteed that there are more efficient combo options in the corner now. Taking the combo aspect out, the only uses left for zantetsu are gimmick mixup, or crap overhead. Although I'd think renka(1)>zantetsu is still the highest dmg output for 5 magatamas use. The zantetsu combo option may have better options itself though due to the change in tech time calculation. Most importantly would obviously be if you can secure a knockdown from that combo. For now, the only thing that zantetsu really has going for it is that the increased dmg on the first hit helps the mugen combo's dmg output, but that's not really going to be taken into consideration. Hakumen in CS should be maintaining meter with 3k dmg options, going for bursts of dmg ranging from 4-5k with 4 magatamas or so, while trying to secure 6k+ off specific situations (hotaru, shippu in the corner, blow all meter for the kill, etc). I'd say zantetsu has a likelihood of following into the second category, depending on what I said above.

First hit has slightly higher dmg, second hit has moderately lower dmg. Total dmg may look lower by a fair amount, but in reality the actual dmg dealt is not off by too much. As for if it's still useful, sure, it's still a combo tool. Most of the new/better options don't overlap with the situations where you would use zantetsu anyways.

1/23 nebaran2 2on2 Part 1 part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

1/17 Tsurumaki random 3on3 Part 4 White ragna is tetsu. And lawlz at kyaku.

1/22 Yuukoku Magician 2on2 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

12/31 5on5 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 1/17 tsurumaki random 3on3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Edit: part 5 and 6 are the same. Will have to wait for a mix on nico.

That barrier is plenty useful in many match ups already. I'm not sure what more you are expecting. People can probably get more consistent with cutting certain moves, but that's about it.

1/6 Chariot Pickup 1 Pickup 2 Finals Roku vs Jamuo, Paragasu R-1, Akigetsu, hima vs Kazu hima vs Kazu 1/22 Tachigawa♂ 3on3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

1/16 A-cho Versus Part 1 part 2

3rd Kohatsu 2on2 Semi 1 Semi 2 Final

1/19 random 2on2 ranbat Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

1/3 Chariot Tournament Pickup Tournament Final Large team versus Part 1 Part 2 Kaqn vs Keita, R-1, Aatei Kaqn vs Zakiyama Kaqn vs Aatei, Zakiyama Minori, Akigetsu vs KC, Waku Aatei vs Zakiyama Minori vs Shadow 12/25 Alpha Station Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

1/17 Maximhero Pickup Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

1/7 Tokyo Rejarondo Ranbat 2on2 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14

1/16 Mikado 3on3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 1/16 Omitan Tournament Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

1/7 Tokyo Rejarondo Ranbat 2on2 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

1/15 Tachikawa♂ Ranbat Singles Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 12/30 Chariot Ranbat Semi-finals, Final Zakiyama, Keita vs Kaqn R-1 vs Kaqn Zakiyama vs Keita, Gussan, R-1 Kaqn vs Zakiyama

In all honesty, I don't believe there is a need to blow over 4 magatamas for any circumstances outside of going for a kill. Most of the time you want to burn 2-4, dish out 4-5k, obtain knockdown and set-up and go for another combo for the kill. The common example here would be if your opponent is in the corner, has 8k health (or some arbitrary number above 7k), and you have 5 magatamas. You manage to land renka, would you do zantetsu? The answer should be no, as you are choosing between the following two things: renka>zantetsu, 6.5k or so damage, magatama 5 spent 1 recover , no knockdown renka + gurren to set-up knockdown, 4k or so damage, magatama 3 spent 1 recover, and wake-up game. In the latter case, you'd still have 3 magatamas, so you still have all your mixup options available for one more combo to kill your opponent. Again, there is no one sentence rule as to how you should spend your magatama. There is only an one sentence rule as to how you should not spend your magatama, and that is unless you are going for the kill, never burn all your magatamas, ever. As for hop, it covers less distance, so it's faster because of that. How hard it is to do hop hotaru/tsubaki is going to depend on each individual. Personally, that should never be a problem. There is more than enough time to do it just by looking at the hop.

1k per magatama only applies to max damage combos. Low damage combos (5k or less) generally needs a higher ratio. Other factors to consider are starting position, set-up position, magatama gain, etc. Of course, these factors will all change in CS. So basically, the misunderstanding here is that the idea is not "All combos that are 1k per is ok", but more "All combos should not be below 1k per". 1k dmg per magatama isn't good, it's the bottom line. Regarding gurren >5B, it's not usable mostly in CT due to longer hop time (currently the only universal option is gurren>5A>jA>etc), but in CS I think it's a staple combo if you are conserving magatama/going for magatama gain. kishuu> 2C is mostly restricted to a small range of area just outside the corner.