Moroha

Hahaha, you got it man. Good luck. Jan eliminated me at Evo. It was a rough match, and he played it exceptionally well. I ended up getting 13th, which isn't the Top 8 I was shooting for, but I'm still happy with it and had an absolute blast. Some of my matches are up on my youtube account. http://www.youtube.com/user/sephzer0

I'll be back for Evo 2010. Baiken vs. my ABA is roughly 11/-1 in Baiken's favor even with Tequila assist, mostly because we have zero Baikens around here. But I had my horrible 5K oki ready for your Baiken if I saw you in tourney. I'm sure you were ready to Sakura or Baku some Danzai. See you next year.

I would say May / ABA is roughly 11/-1 in ABA's favor when I've got that tequila assist. Also reversal Danzai is very chancey against May; she gets 3K on block or OHK on slashback, and if you're in the corner and may does 5K oki, she can JC into a 2H or block danzai punish for free.

Frank Tank and I talked about it, thinking 6/4. ABA does trump May on the ground and has Danzai/2S for anti-air, but 2S can still be baited / punished, Danzai can be crossed up for confusion / j.2H can land and recover if the Danzai wasn't early enough, and everyone knows what one knockdown can do to ABA. May can't go around throwing many hit/block dolphins and needs to have some solid moves/smart approaches with the j.2H. It's no Potemkin v Testament, but ABA does have all the tools to shut down May in Moroha mode.

Red ABA, Black Key. I miss my Slash White ABA Red Key. :x

In regards to Butt in pressure, you can reset into like 5S 2D Butt; the 2D pushes you back far enough to make the Butt safe, catch / pin jumpers, and give funny frames without a cancel. It's pretty sweet.

Man, if either of the Veronicas played ABA, they'd totally not be as good as me anyway. But I'd still take either.

See, Danzai spam is something that is both characteristic of newer ABAs yet something you should exploit until your comp learns to punish it. (Important.) If somebody doesn't punish Danzai, ABA's basically unbeatable, as Danzai becomes a shoryu that takes up half the screen, is safe on block and leads to extremely high damage combos on hit. When I started playing ABA in Slash, nobody really punished Danzai seriously; she was new, nobody played her or knew anything about her, and I got away with a lot of Danzai. I was caught off guard when people first started really punishing it, but from there it definitely forced me to improve my game exponentially. It was a natural process. So don't sweat it if you panic button Danzai when you first start playing. :p Ideally, use Danzai sparingly and as intelligently as you can, and when you catch one, make heads roll with the following combo. I don't know what % of Evo players will punish Danzai, but I can tell you Kentucky loves their Danzai punishes. :p

2HS FRC is great because you can rush a mixup if you need it and completely change the tempo of your pressure. Well timed 2K crushes anyone trying to get out or guess a dust, throw takes care of the rest, and if the 2K is blocked you've reset ABA right in the opponent's face for a complete 2HS pressure reset AFTER they've already blocked one 2HS. It's also a very safe way to get in there for a mixup. The issue with chaining 2HS into Rekkas FRC is everyone's going to IB second hit rekkas all day and act, plus Rekkas 3rd hit FRC even if they block it doesn't provide you with nearly as safe a mixup. The advantage you get is if you delay the 2HS and are fishing for a Rekkas HIT, since you can't confirm Rekkas 1 Hit into a Rekkas 2 Hit, you just gotta do it, they block the two hit rekkas and you just go Rekkas FRC. But people LOVE backdashing / SRKing the third hit, so I generally don't view Rekkas FRC as a pressure situation and more of a neutral situation (and block that dumb fuck's shoryu on that FRC :p) But despite all that, 2HS TK Orbs FRC is amazing. It doesn't provide as safe a mixup as 2HS FRC, but good lord does it crank guard gauge. The only issue is of course hitting that FRC in one of those two frames or die. (Ha! ) Also I have no idea wtf is up with the Danzai combo. lol

I still check DL daily and make sure people aren't too confused by the key wench. Also, the more I play, the more I feel like TK Orbs FRC is more useful than 2HS FRC in almost every way.. be sure to mix up the two though since you can really force a quick mixup with 2HS FRC

If you begin a combo when they have some cranked guardgauge and you're unsure of what to do, if you can hit them with a j.H it will auto-groundslide, and you can repeatedly combo c.S into itself when they're airborne until you run out of counterhits.

Who's repping ABA at Evolution this year!! Don / Josh I'm looking at you guys, anyone else? Furix? lol. I'd love to meet up with you all and watch your matches too.

Guard gauge combos are soo much fun with ABA. My favorite is throw, 5S, Unblockable (Counter Hit) into whatever combo you want, or throw, 6H (1hit), IAD j.H (Counter hit groundslide) into whatever combo you want. There are a couple I recorded awhile back here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qscRK7o-l0g&feature=channel_page 3:38 for results when messing with guard gauge ABA combox. I really should go back and actually finish that damn video sometime.

^ Yes. If I 5H, it can beat some stuff and beats block, since I chain into bloodpack. Sol can beat with I believe 5S, but ABA can Slide underneath and (from my experience)punish the whiff into a Keygrab. If you do nothing and I slide you get knockdown into pressure. If you do nothing and I do bloodpack, I'm in the mode for free. I can jump and you can AA, I can backdash but you can dash at me, but if you dash and I 5H, then we're back at the beginning. It's a funny rock paper scissors that ABAs have to play and differ depending on the matchup. I don't know entire Sol specifics but a lot of basic Sols love starting with 5S, and I as ABA love seeing that 5S because it loses to backdash and slide. When I'm in Moroha, VV is not something you should ignore; the fact that you have a VV makes me wary to try more things as ABA, because a VV = a knockdown, which is 1/3 of my virtual life. If I block your VV, however, that's at least 1/3 of your real life. So it's something you need to be careful with, but is powerful both as a mental weapon and an actual weapon. Outside of that, your normals get outranged and bashed around by ABA's Moroha set of normals, so it can be really tough to get that knockdown. And yes, you have to punish Danzai every time you block it, or else ABA gets a free trip to the next round of the tournament. ;p Hope that helps some.

Meaty 236K RC 2D Keygrab isn't getting blocked ever. If the 236K hits, the 2D combos into Keygrab. If the 236K is blocked, the RC 2D low hits immediately after. You make a pseudo unblock for 50% tension that gets you a free transform and good pressure. Use it in the corner.

There's plenty of info in the ABA 101 thread on oki / blockstrings. 2H, 2K, 5/2P, j.S are your main oki starters. If you have any specific questions I'd be glad to answer them.

It depends on the angle and timing, but j.S / j.H / j.D can do fine against j.K. j.K is a faster move and can knock you out of those options. I bet j.D is probably the best option, but j.H yields better rewards.

Always gatling 6P into 2S. If they are airborne, which they likely will be, you can follow up the 2S into sj j.K j.S etc. If they are grounded when you 6P, and you are close enough, the 2S will connect, and even if they block, you can jump cancel the 2S into pressure or a free jump out. It's a win/win. You should also def start learning to use 2S as anti-air. It's not an easy move to use, but the hitbox is huge, and on counterhit it is godlike. It also completely shuts down May air to ground pressure. Non-Counter hit unbrock you can follow up with OTG whatevers, I do OTG 6H (2hit) into IAD oki. If you're in the corner you can also combo Potemkin as he falls with 5P. Otherwise just oki. You only get a combo on CH or RC.

Best tensionless combos for CH j.H: Fullscreen: CH j.H; Dash in, 2K, 6P (1hit), 2S, sj j.K, j.S, j.H, Keygrab. Or any other 2S SJ variant. Corner: CH j.H; Dash in, 2K, 5S, 2S, Butt. Dash in, 5S, 2S, Butt. Dash in, 5P, 5S, j.D, Orbs. If you have 25% Tension, you can often FRC the Orbs, airdash in with a j.H and gatling into a Keygrab. This combo is probably my favorite of hers, because it's TENSIONLESS and completely destroys their lifebar. This combo is wild. Learn it! The tough part is the timing between the first Butt and the 5S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oKXMPxSa3A 4:28ish, but instead of JCing the 5S into j.D Orbs, I gatlinged into Bloodpack instead. Also if you have 50% tension, you can of course RC the Butt into 2hit Orbs or dj Orb Loop.

Does she have that Hsien-Ko esque ground wave of blades? I don't know the name of it on the 'actual' command list Kyle posted earlier.

You'll likely want to impossible dust. Her ID combos open up a plethora of options for you that a normal dust combo just wouldn't. A regular dust combo gives you damage into a keygrab. An ID combo leaves room to freestyle based on your tension and their guard gauge; lets you end in a keygrab, double keygrab, or butt knockdown for prime oki; and it will net you just as significant damage. Impossible dust is 5D, hold 9, (Dust attack hits), 5, 9, j.H. You want to hit the jumping hard slash right before ABA and the guy getting launched hits the level of the "burst" icon at the top of the screen. At that point, you'll land before they will, and now you've got a lot of options. You can go right into a butt loop (5S 2S Butt, RC if you have 50% tension, etc); you can go into an orb loop (dash jump j.S j.HS j.D Orbs, etc); you can Danzai/EX Danzai into combo; you can TK orbs FRC into combo; be as practical or as flashy as you want. (If you can't get the hang of Impossible Dusting, look around dustloop for posts on ID, or look at the ABA 101 thread for vanilla dust combos.)

FD = Faultless defense, AA = AntiAir.