Rikir

Shoutouts to Rikir for the Blade Arcus matches. ONLY BECAUSE I WAS FED ALCOHOL.

I found the qualifier matches for APM: Random neta Misty combo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IHwO99-yAM

Excuse any weird edits or jarring cuts. The streamers would just tune into whatever match was available so there's chunks missing. Uploaded all the Rick matches from last night: The C+ Ranked Rick player is Tahichi (JP Margaret God) Mid-Low Tier Matches: Xiao-Mei/Pairon/Ryuuga/Isaac/Melty/Dylan Isaac Player is @gashisan (The man who found the Isaac infinite to begin with) Melty Player is Ahiru. High-Tier Furries: Rouna/Fenrir Top Tier Matches: Urayukihime/Sakuya/Roselinde/Rage/etc (Note Top 4 at the end) Top 4 placers: 1. gamera (Urayukihime/Pairon)2. Amica Heartom (Rage/Sakuya)3. Emujima (Roselinde/Ryuga)3. Panpina (Sakuya/Xiaomei) -------------------------------- I bring to you, highlights!: Rage being a bully: https://youtu.be/r7Wg_fDCVME?t=200 (zones out Xiao-Mei with normals) https://youtu.be/r7Wg_fDCVME?t=650 (zones out Melty with normals) Melty's slow down overhead loop (I don't really know what this is) https://youtu.be/r7Wg_fDCVME?t=566 Rare instances of players using Reflection: https://youtu.be/r7Wg_fDCVME?t=806 https://youtu.be/Qxht2ThTir4?t=227 https://youtu.be/QDybWyMXPP8?t=309 https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=894 https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=1821 https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2399 https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2424 The one Instance I found of someone using 6BC to armor something: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2619 Rage gets hit by combo breaker during Ice combo only to get back up to get extra hits: https://youtu.be/Qxht2ThTir4?t=123 Yukihime catches backdashes: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2631 Rage Instant Overhead j.A: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2726 https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2917 Rage Instant Overhead j.A + Yukihime setup: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2866 Fenrir Fake-Overhead to Empty Jump Low: https://youtu.be/QDybWyMXPP8?t=252 Fenrir Overhead to 4AC (safe overhead and still confirm able!): https://youtu.be/QDybWyMXPP8?t=344 Fenrir Cross-Under Reset in the corner: https://youtu.be/QDybWyMXPP8?t=396 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyPam4pmQ2Q (From another uploader) Roselinde Instant j.C > Assist confirm: https://youtu.be/QDybWyMXPP8?t=313 Legitimately clutch super from Roselinde: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=1442 Urayukihime literally whiff punishing anything Rose does with 236B/C for two whole rounds. https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=1470 Inexplicable whiff punish with Urayukihime 4B: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=1511 Urayukihime using TK Slashes to build extra meter: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2046 Sakuya Anti-Air confirm: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=1768 Amazing block by Roselinde into punish: https://youtu.be/fe5j1QY07TE?t=2191 ----------- https://twitter.com/tkintheglobe/status/680521264386207746 Tweet reinforcing the tier list previously posted. Recent results confirm the tier placing it seems. Only issue seems to be Isaac but I can't figure out what the note is. EDIT: The note is that Isaac with meter can start the infinite which is when he becomes a legitimate threat. Probably elevates him slightly up the tierlist.

Up to date, High Level Blade Arcus Play: http://www.twitch.tv/segaofjapan/v/31802931 (tournament is done now) Isaac infinites are usable in real matches it seems. This Isaac killed his opponent two rounds in a row with a confirm into an infinite: http://www.twitch.tv/segaofjapan/v/31802931?t=01h05m46s http://www.twitch.tv/segaofjapan/v/31802931?t=01h06m35s Also it seems like JP players don't use their assist meter for anything that isn't burst. I mean they don't really need the assist for neutral considering most of them play Rage or Sakuya as one of their characters. So it's better to save it for combo breaker. I did see someone use their level 4 assist once in a combo and it worked out (other times it was used but they dropped the combo). The only person who I saw use their level 2 assist regularly was the godlike Rick player. He'd get really good conversions from it and it was super hype. The only other times I saw assists being used was for Rage's instant j.A overhead > assist to confirm. So if your character is below the top tier threshold then you probably will need to use neutral assists often. The top tier (Urayukihime/Rage/Sakuya/Fenrir/Roselinde) had the most representation (obviously). It's no doubt that these characters are in their own league and trump all the other characters. There was also some representation from Ryuuga, Rouna, Pairon, Xiao-mei, Melty, Isaac (shout outs to infinites), and the previously mentioned godlike Rick player (he got at least top 8). Most of the time these characters were used as assists though (And by assists, I just mean as bursts). As an example of how much work the low tier have to put in. There was one Melty player playing against Rage. He was actually WINNING for the first two rounds, but then the Rage player decided to stop approaching and just zoned Melty out with normals. The Melty couldn't get in and had to take riskier options as time ran out and ended up dying. There was another instance where a Xiao-mei player was doing about the same thing. Every time she tried to get in she would just get out-poked or anti-aired. JP players don't make much use of the AP Meter mechanics. I rarely saw anyone use Reflector and when they did they would usually miss and die. The risk wasn't worth the reward as those players ate a lot of damage into a bad mixup scenario. Also no one DEFINITELY ever uses 6BC to anti-air or as a focus attack (I only saw it used one time ever and it failed). You only see it in combos. JP players do use 4AC a lot to make moves safe (Ex. Urayukihime often does 236B > 4AC if she accidentally did it too close). Some specific character stuff I noticed: Fenrir had some disgusting resets in the corner where you use 3C to go into the corner as a mid combo reset. Rick gets strong once he builds enough heat. The pressure is pretty scary. Personal Thoughts: I still really don't like this game at all. The poor balance and bad system mechanics/gameplay design are an issue. But I will say that watching this tournament was enjoyable. This game has a Marvel 2 syndrome going. When it's just the top tiers playing then it can be very exciting. When the low tier get involved the horrible 7-3 matchups are apparent and watching the players struggle to get in is every bit as ugly for the viewer as it is for the player having to play the matchup. I can taste the despair on the screen when I see Xiao-mei get zoned out by Rage and it makes me furious. I feel when characters of the same strength are involved, there's clearly more neutral game and I can see a good fighting game. Roselinde vs Urayukihime was one of my favourite matches because of the intresting spacing game they had going. Urayukihime had better pokes but Roselinde could guard point so there was a lot of tension in those matches. Out of all the mid-low representatives only Isaac and Rick managed to get anything done. Isaac because he has the infinite and the Rick player was just absolutely amazing (Edit: Turns out hes Tahichi, JP Margaret God). He was patient and knew his character in and out. Watching him play gave me some small hope for the mid-low tier. Although at the same time I can see that my own character (Misty) definitely has no chance of surviving against any of the top tier. She simply wouldn't be able to handle the tools that the top tier possess. I know this first-hand, I've faced most of those matchups already. Then the despair settles in again for me. Again if you want to enjoy this game, pick a top tier. Or find a scene that plays around the mid tier. Unless you can become (or care) to be as godlike as that Rick player, hope is slim.

Rick/Rouna/Urayukihime/Sonia/Misty Combos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GurGXmW6EH4 Fenrir/Pairon/Ryuuga/Altina Combos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAvd3-fsdA8 Rouna/Dylan/Roselinde/Sakuya Combos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E997heIBYfU Ryuuga/Sonia/Misty/Xiao-Mei/Melty/Isaac/Rage Combos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt442F9c3bQ Sonia/Rouna/Ryuuga/Xiao-mei/Sakuya/Altina/Roselinde/Pairon/Fenrir/Melty/Misty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SNL6Jonwjk (Multi character)

Also here are all the Fenrir Infinites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOM7zbE7Z5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlO1_gsmD78 They work on both standing and crouching characters, midscreen and corner. Crouching infinites only work on Altina and Fenrir. Standing infinites work on most characters (I think Rage and a few others are the only ones it doesn't work on). Rouna Infinite:

Reflector (BC): Is essentially a push-parry. It's really strong against projectiles since you can absorb a single projectile and instantly recover and keep dashing in. (This is bad news for Misty btw). They're pretty active so it's pretty easy to use and you don't have to worry about high/low parries (but still carries the risk of any kind of shield/parry mechanic, IE loses to empty throws). Against physical hits it will push the opponent back a set distance and grant the user a small amount of frame advantage. Your opponent is also invincible until they land on the ground after you push-parry them. The effects sound good, and they are good against a lot of characters (not the top tier though!). Trying to parry against some characters is rather futile and actually shielding the wrong thing can make your opponent more safe then if you just blocked it. Shielding Urayukihime's slashes makes her safe even though you would have been able to punish had you blocked. Also push-parry doesn't guarantee that you get a turn despite the frame advantage. Urayukihime can still keep doing slashes from the distance of a successful parry, Sakuya can still keep thrusting and Rage can keep doing Rage things. 6BC: Can be used as a ghetto focus attack. While your holding 6BC (after about 20% charge) you gain guard point which can absorb an infinite number of hits until you release the attack. You can use this to guard-point jump-ins but actually landing the 6BC attack portion is a litte suspect depending on how much range it had to begin with. Misty's 6BC has short horizontal range and barely any vertical so it's hard to land as an anti-air (I've certainly gotten it off though!). Also don't try to use 6BC against multi-hitting jump ins (ex. Isaac). The guard point runs out the moment you release 6BC and it doesn't carry over as you do the 6BC attack. So you'll end up hitting a FAT COUNTER HIT if you try to use it between multi-hitting attacks. I'd also like to point out that I'm the only person that actually makes regular use of the AP meter mechanics (outside of combos) in my local scene. They're not really all that good IMO. I can get successful push-parries pretty often but it still doesn't guarantee a safe orb set or a chance to run in and get a poke. All it really does is just reset neutral (and Misy's neutral isn't that great so that doesn't mean much for me).

When playing it's really hard to consistently have assist stocks. You only get assist stock by being defensive (which arguably you're forced to do a lot as Misty since thats how a lot of matchups pan out, so you WILL build assist more often than your opponent I guess). I rarely ever get to use a Level 3 assist for neutral and rather opt to save it as a burst instead (and I'm forced to since the people I play against can actually do the Fenrir infinite on Misty). I try to use Urayukihime as my assist since her Level 2 is massive and covers Misty's meh footsie range. The knockdown also gives two orb sets, and on block you get one orb set. I really think that if you want to play Misty seriously you have to play some (high tier) point character first as a battery to build meter so that you can actually switch her in with some resources next round. The only way she can safely set orbs and play her game is if she has a large pool of meter/assist to burn. Playing her with no resources as the first round is TERRIBLE. Your opponent will usually have better tools at the start of the round and can oppress you until you're able to get a good poke in or build meter land an anti-air/reversal 214214C. Resource-less Misty is definitely close to the D-E Tier. With resources she can just barely touch upon B-C Tier at her absolute best. Slightly unrelated but please note that after any of her specials (214A/B/C) you can't set any more orbs after she auto-sets. Any additional orb set is COMPLETELY UNSAFE. Even though I thought I was pretty well spaced after a 214C > 236A, your opponent can just run up and hit you.

I've been labbing Misty extensively, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SxNNpv1k_z2Gf0mZjgVlsa38QpavGwynaRMNV_8r1d4/edit I'm more or less aware of the tech that she has. She does have good things, but it's still not enough to compete with the top tier (or even the other characters). -Orb Set > AC IS GOOD, but you're spending a bar just to have the right to get in. It's definitely good and you should do it, but the fact that you have to really, really sucks when other characters can just run in and press buttons to start neutral. -Superjumping and setting orbs is good, in fact you can get all three orbs out in one super jump arc if you TK the first input. BUT, the problem is that you're cornering yourself if you jump backwards. Losing space against characters like Sakuya is definitely a death sentence. Also characters can still move in on you while you're doing this, so you might not even get to use all the orbs you set down. There's definitely some matchups where this a terrible idea. If you play against Isaac you're going to get bodied by lightning before you even set an orb down. -Another decent approach you can do is super jump at someone 236B and then j.A to hit the orb as you're falling. You're likely to get anti-air'd though but if you get the orb to shoot you might get a trade. -When it comes to zoning, Misty definitely can't keep it up for very long. Her best chance to start zoning is off of 214214C hit. The orbs take too long to replenish once you're forced to use the ones on screen. Once you use all your orbs you're back to square one. So it definitely takes a HUGE amount of effort and thinking to maintain the orbs you need on screen while keeping your opponent out. It's also really disheartening when you try to call something out with the orbs with 22b and you end up losing every orb (and punished!) because you guessed wrong. Honestly it's usually just easier to shoot all the orbs and then try to get in and not have to worry about the zoning game. BTW your opponent can just BC shield your orbs and completely ignore them while moving forward! -------- Also let me clarify her crossup setups. Misty can definitely get crossup setups with orbs but they tend to vary on spacing/tech timing/and timing. Your best setup for a cross up is usually off of a 214A. This lets you get cross ups regardless of tech timing (assuming that you always use 4C > 214A so that they fall close to you, anything beyond that is hard to adjust). 214B lets you get cross ups as well but they vary on tech timing. Keep in mind that you're using the orb that Misty auto-sets after 214X to get a cross up. 214A: 1. jump over j.A >Late tech (real cross up) >Quick tech (fake cross up) 2. super jump over j.A >Late or Quick tech (real cross up) (harder to combo off of because you land farther, also loses if they block standing because they will block j.A and you end up on same side) >You walk back and then super jump j.A (fake cross up) 214B: 1. jump over j.A >Late or Quick tech (fake cross up) 2. super jump over j.A >Quick tech (Fake cross up) >Late tech (Real cross up)

Uploaded Misty Combo Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvTU8Uv5Y5Q Misty 6B sucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-4-ySCqglU Characters 6B has issues on: >Point Blank Whiff If holding crouch: Xiaomei, Misty, Sonia, Rick (in corner only) If holding crouch block: None. >Whiffs COMPLETELY If holding crouch: Ryuuga If holding crouch block: Fenrir, Melty Also Isaac Infinites: https://twitter.com/Gashisann/status/679620765491183616

Uploaded a short Taiga combo video with her new Ignition stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwwUETYZ040 2[C] loops are great. Main Combo Theory Notes: -Against crouching characters you can combo directly into 5[C] allowing Taiga to self launch with 214C -236[AB] is hella fast now and you can combo from most assist calls. It's good if you want to end in just one bar. The attack does 945 damage at max damage scaling. -In Trump you can loop 2[C] easily in the corner just by doing 2[C] > 5A whiff > 2[C] x n -Off airborne j.214AB you can link 2A/5A > 5B when you land and continue the combo anywhere. -Off of j.214AB you can also cancel directly into her Level 2 supers when you land. -Last hit of 236AB will always consistently combo into 426BC.

I hope you get bodied by Rage.

Well winning vorpal is always important and you should be trying for it whenever you can anyway. But it looks like Chaos vorpal trait does a really good job of keeping Wald out (https://youtu.be/CdwwLEHM-fU?t=978) 214A > 214B for zoning looks great. Its still kinda hard to tell how much better the matchup becomes when Chaos has vorpal since the Chaos player didnt gain vorpal very often against the Wald. When he did, he would just do the standard things like 6C > CS which we know is already good. It should be a little more clear when we get to see more matches. But my opinion right now is that it will be really good in the long run.

Are you guys ready for UNIST Chaos footage?! Vs Akatsuki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unmjLvulX7M Vs Merkava: 7/23/15 Battle Arena Shinjuku -https://youtu.be/Vaq-z71GgUc?t=1537 Azhi 214X > whiff cancel example -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vaq-z71GgUc&feature=youtu.be&t=1492 -Azhi whiff cancels may have interesting combo applications Vs Waldstein: -2A hitting low: https://youtu.be/CdwwLEHM-fU?t=891 Shimazaki Chaos: Vs Akatsuki (https://youtu.be/yCOP_nSSi9g?t=11160): -Cool Vorpal Trait combo: https://youtu.be/yCOP_nSSi9g?t=11422 Vs Eltnum (https://youtu.be/yCOP_nSSi9g?t=14434): -j.2C > j.22B oki ender https://youtu.be/yCOP_nSSi9g?t=14509 -XVO Combo (https://youtu.be/yCOP_nSSi9g?t=14598) Vs Linne: (https://youtu.be/yCOP_nSSi9g?t=7164) -Ex. of 214A > 214B > 236A whiff cancels in neutral (https://youtu.be/yCOP_nSSi9g?t=7209) Vs Phonon: https://youtu.be/yCOP_nSSi9g?t=5544 -This matchup looks bad. -Phonon has no trouble punishing lizard from across the screen.

I notated and compiled a bunch of combos: FIXED THE LINK THAT WASNT WORKING. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zPs6r5kKg3DIRMN1_1rOUF082igBUYdOdXVwyp3XeS8/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D3tZSLT67sbwUATuZ7y8GA4y0UCJiCIdqX6FIJQy00E/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ScRXcI7tNKS21vg6kq8nM1HDfi1uHFtnm3P8HC7rOzE/edit