Magaki

Are you referring to charged 6C or dash C ? Charged 6C is the overhead. Dash C is a normal that looks the same but gives you oki instead.

I tested this time Notsu's "infinite blockstring" that he used quite often in matches. Basically, it's 214[A]>]A[>236A>214[A]>]A[>236A etc Obviously, you have to release A right after setting 214[A] to make it work. Well, it technically looks like it's a pseudo-infinite. There is a noticeable gap between the 214[A] and the ]A[ that you can get mashed out of. The interesting part though is that it seems that the 214A/B series got a cool property. If you get hit without releasing the button, the trap disappear. However, if you get hit AFTER you released it, it doesn't disappear and comes out. This basically means that if you get mashed out of it or the opponent use a reversal, he will still get hit and you will be able to followup the combo if you're still on your feet or at least get oki if the hitstun was too big for that. Only way it seems to deal with it is probably with a command grab reversal. But aside from Wald's, I don't see any that would give troubles with the proper spacing. In fact I always make sure that I hit with the tip of 214[A]'s hitbox so that a lot of stuff will whiff. If the opponent mashed, he will get hit by ]A[ which is really easy to hitconfirm. Obviously, the key with the pseudo-infinite is to switch between doing it and attempting to mixup in order to punish shield attempts so throwing it out everytime won't make you win matches unless your opponents never adapt.

214B is air unblockable with or without shield yeah. Whole move is dangerous on whiff though so make sure to always have a finger on the D button to cancel it in order to recover faster if you notice you guessed wrong and the opponent was still on the ground.

Got 2 bad news and 1 good one. Bad news: -After testing it even more, it seems that 22A actually feels like a +1. Or a +2 at best. Nothing really fancy sadly but even the tiniest advantage counts I guess. -Back tech after a 2C knockdown completely screws 236A oki and 214[A] oki midscreen. Seems that you can however deal with back and neutral tech quite easily midscreen with 22C>214[A]>214>Concentration. Basically, after a 22C, run towards the opponent so that you are exactly on him and do a 214[A]. Walk backward slightly and do 214. Then you can use concentration. If you do this, if the opponent does a back tech, he will be in range for 214[A] trap. With neutral tech, he's in 214's range. Good news: -I decided to test what FayeBling suggested and actually, it seems that 5C/2C/3C/6C>22A is a actually a frame trap. Was tested with the same condition as before. I also tested it with Linne's 5A and 2A (which is IIRC the fastest in the game. Not sure.) It's particularly useful to end your pressure if you already used 5A and 2A during your blockstring or make 6[C] hitconfirm easier and safer (in the corner only). Other stuff to note: -His throw makes it only possible to neutral tech so doing throw>214[A] as oki is a guaranteed oki wherever you are. -Command grab super can be back teched. Also, you're in throw range so be careful with that. Throwing out 236A as oki right after that is guaranteed however, whether the opponent neutral or back tech. -Tried to do 5A8AAAA... on block to see if I could get interesting options out of it. Sadly, even though I tried my best to delay it as much as possible, I can't manage to get a frame trap out of it so I guess it can only be useful for spacing purpose.

I tested some of the stuff Notsu does in blockstrings and saw the opponents respecting. He uses 623A/B quite a lot in blockstrings but with or without a puddle, it doesn't seem like it's + on block. Might be 0 or -1. I tested it with a friend and with the 2 Carmines mashing 5A. 22A however is + on block so that's good news. Startup seems a bit long but recovery looks short. 22B however have definetely a longer recovery and it was kind of the same as 623A/B. Safe on block but either 0 or less. So, doing blockstring>22A>5A can be an okay way to reset pressure I guess if the opponent have enough respect/doesn't have a reversal.

Nah. You don't lose vorpal state right away after doing CS. Do a 5A in Vorpal and note the damage. Then, do CS>5A and you will notice it's exactly the same. So it's not that. Edit: Nevermind. In training mode if you tweak the settings so that player 1 is always in Vorpal, it will keep vorpal state even after you used CS right away. My bad. Edit: Actually, a small bar appear to show that the Vorpal state is still going for a while after you used CS. If you have the settings I mentionned before on, the bar doesn't show up meaning you will leave Vorpal state right away. Explains why the damage was different.

Spin around hit Linne twice when she's in the air. You won't have the time to do dash j[C] on her. That's why in order to make it universal, I just walk a bit then do the j[C].

Not sure if it was mentionned before but it looks like CS actually got some kind of forced proration ? Doing 236B>236C>6C with Waldstein will make his 236C deal 1039 damage and 585 for 6C in the combo. Doing 236B>CS>236C>6C will make it do 945 instead for 236C and 6C does 532.

Merkava's flight airbox doesn't reach fullscreen. It does have plenty of recovery too so if you whiff it, it's a free punish for the opponent. During pressure, 2CC is merely a combo filler and should never be used for anything else simply because on block, it can't be canceled into anything and its frame advantage is so bad you will be punished right away. If you meant 2CC CS on hit however as an okizeme tool, I think that doing 4B CS would be a better idea because the former will make the opponent air tech which can mess up your pace based on how the opponent is willing to air tech. 4B will always lead to a knockdown however so if you want more time to do whatever you want on okizeme, 4B CS should be a better choice. Unless you meant something else for 2CC ?

It sounded weird when I first tried it too but j[C]'s hitstun last for a very long time. Most of the time, you will need to do dash 2B to pick the opponent up. I prefer to do dash 1B in order to avoid doing dash B instead. But yeah, there is no trick behind it honestly. Just keep grinding it until you can pull it off.

His 214B (the anti-air version) is air unblockable even with shield. 214A (the ground version) is blockable and obviously safe when done from really far away. Both are however really slow and hard to use on reaction so you actually use it as a read. 214B obviously can't hit grounded opponent and vice-versa. Keep also in mind that both version can be cancelled (kinda like Hazama's chains if you need to compare) allowing to shorten the recovery so trying to rush after he whiffed one of those might not necessarily be a good idea. Especially when he still got moves like his 5B and 5C to keep you at bay. I played a LOT today anyway so GGs to the numerous people I had games with. Seems that I'm doing a load of progress with both Merkava and Waldstein but I still need to work more on my pressure with Carmine. Once I'm done with the three of them, it will finally be grand time to take care of the 2 other characters I love, Yuzu and Akatsuki.

Assault jC is also ridiculously good. Assault jB isn't bad if you plan to poke but low flight jB is a better choice. If you need frame traps, 2B>2C and 5A/2A>4B are 2 pretty good ones that you can hitconfirm with 5B>5C afterwards. Make sure though that 2CC NEVER gets blocked or it's a free punish. 5A,2A and 2C makes his throw game really good too.

Found it ! It's only possible on block. 5A8AAAAAAAA... On hit, it will automatically jump cancel otherwise on block it will do 5A non-stop. Guess it's only used for spacing purpose ?

Also found that charged jC got some rather interesting properties (either a higher attack level or increased pushback) for pressure. With the right spacing, you can do a normal jump (9 to be accurate) and start charging jC. If it's partially charged, you will land behind the opponent. If it's fully charged, you will land before him. Basically, it looks like it's actually because the opponent is pushed back further with j[C] than with jC making it really hard for the opponent to get where you will land. Actual mixup will be jC/j[C]>2B. Considering you landed, the crossup protection won't work anymore. Obviously, it will mostly be used during a blocked 236A and the jC/j[C] must be blocked at the end of 236A to make the crossup actually matter. Not sure how practical that would be in a tournament though.

Indeed I didn't have any. What I meant though was if there was an option to save your replays.

You're overestimating the defense in this game. Why do you think Notsu uses so many assault during his pressure ? That's precisely to punish opponents trying to shield and that's the reason why you don't see so many people using shields against Notsu. They probably played him countless times and know that it's not worth the risk at all especially if you consider Carmine's rewards. After playing something like 200 matches a bit online and mostly offline, I would say that what Carmine needs isn't something to improve his mixup but rather a way to safely uses 236A in blockstrings. If you consider that the only guaranteed way you have to throw it out and make sure your opponent block it is during okizeme simply because 236A is vital for his pressure. It should also be mentionned that his throw game is actually here to deal with particularly patient opponents. His 236B for example whiffs on everyone crouching and the only way to react to that would be to look at the projectile itself when it's going from the shuriken thingy to the wheel which makes it already too late to tech it. Sadly, another problem with him is that he indeed got a lot of potential but he doesn't have that many options that cover more than one defensive options the opponent might try out which means that like the top japanese Carmines, you will have to spend countless hours honing your pressure in order to vary it as much as possible. However, if you were looking for a character with simpler yet much better mixups, yeah I guess you picked the wrong guy. Carmine's mixups will never be as good as Gordeau's or as scary as Waldstein. Despite his many weaknesses and the work he requires before being worth the effort however, he got a lot of potential like you pointed out. I'm certain that competitive players will just go for a much more rewarding and efficient character or simply wait for a next version of UNiEL where he will be buffed. And yeah, 6B is a command normal. You can't gatling or cancel anything after it on block. That's why the fact that it might have been + on block would have been amazing because it means you could reset pressure with a puddle right below your opponent. Sadly, you can't so it's back to neutral. If your opponent respect you though or you got the right spacing, don't hesitate twice before doing 2C>236A. If it doesn't hit, you can still keep pressuring.

Am I the only one who can't access replays ? For some reason when I go to replay mode, I'm greeted with a message in japanese (obviously, I don't know what it's saying) with the choices being Yes and No. Yes makes it loop while No leaves Replay mode. Is there perhaps an option somewhere to activate it ?

6B is safe on block but not +. Considering we want our pressure to be as hard to deal with as possible, I would strongly suggest you to not use it at all at close range otherwise the opponent can easily get away by mashing/backdashing. Carmine doesn't seem to have any normal that is + on block ( at close range at least) so we have to use frame traps against people who doesn't respect his pressure. At close range, the frame traps we have are 5A/2A>5C or 5A/2A>6C (don't charge it). There is also 623A but if we do get a CH, we won't be able to combo without a puddle and if the opponent blocks it, we lose the puddle so I wouldn't recommend it. 6B can be a frame trap with the proper spacing. Will combo into 2C>236A afterwards. If you're too far, it won't combo though. Another thing you can use against mashers is a nicely spaced 236A. They can hit you out of it though but they will have to use moves that are particularly slow and thus not suited for defense. Merkava's 2C for example. It's particularly effective against opponents who rely loves mashing moves with fast startup with standard range for what they do. Every 5A and 2A for example. In order to get the necessary spacing to reset with 236A, you can use 5C,2C,6C and mostly 3C and special cancel them. 3C and 6C's pushbacks in particular are quite interesting but you might want to save up 6C in your blockstrings for frame traps and 2C for hitconfirms. 236A is also really good at catching backdashes so don't hesitate using it against opponents who loves to mash those. As for neutral: If we observe top jap players, we pretty much got the Notsu way and the SAT way. Notsu rely on 6B, dashes and 5B footsies in neutral while SAT prefer to be more defensive and uses a lot of tk 236A. I noticed that (for day one matches obviously), Notsu's neutral is just amazing for zoners while SAT's is much better for rushdown characters (So far, only Gordeau is giving me troubles with SAT's so it's really efficient.) I would suggest you to watch some of their videos and copy them. Will buy you a lot of time for learning matchups.

The 22X series disappears on block. It's even worse than I thought.

You mean 623 EX ? And yeah. The way his throw works is quite odd. Mashing buttons doesn't do anything. Mashing inputs add a few hits but not as much as we saw in vids. Guess there is a certain timing we have to find to get the maximm amount of damage. Edit: Guess I wasn't mashing that hard. Yeah, it has to be buttons and inputs being mashed as fast as possible. What's the maximum damage output btw ?

You actually can use it in a combo. Works on both airborne and standing opponent but the damage obviously suck. Game consider to be a ground command grab however if the opponent isn't in hitstun. I'll also try to find the video I saw before but I'm certain that it was indeed in a combo.

Depends of the matchups. You want to get in against Merkava, Hilda and Vatista because of their neutral tools. Against the rest of the cast, sticking at mid-long range is a much better idea.

Yeah. I use it a lot to end Nero's air combos in MB. Anyway, if it works on airborne opponents, it would become a relatively decent defensive tool. That was mostly what I was thinking when I posted about it as defense is probably what Carmine players will have to work the most with. But then again, shield to get Vorpal and then guard thrust isn't that bad as long it's not abused.

Move is REALLY slow, the blockstun isn't that great and most of all, it disappears if Merkava is hit whether it's the normal or EX version. So yeah, it does seem only useful at the end of long combos in order to get a knockdown in the corner rather than going for B+C or 214B. Saw TatsuE (Best Merkava IMO) use it a long time ago in the corner. After that he walked backwards and waited to see what the opponent would do. Opponent blocked so he rushed to keep pressuring but I think we can either 4B anti-air if the opponent jumps out of it or block if it's a reversal. So yeah, just a basic okizeme tool really. Saw that in neutral they seem to move really slowly so it might be useful in some matchups for space control I guess ?

Based on everything I've seen and concluded so far: Carmine has no reversal meterless and the ones with meter suck. The ones that require meter are: -214EX (he jumps and throw crystals on the ground): Most used reversal. Invul end way before the active frame though so you can get hit out of it. Its vertical hitbox isn't as big as it looks like too. You can however combo after it it seems. -63214EX (grabs): Other reversal. I thought it first was a command grab but I saw that you can use it in a combo too (during a 'spin around' to be more specific) so it might be an unblockable ? Or have the same property as Eltnum's air throw ? Gotta get the game to understand that. Life drained isn't that great though. Life drain from throws is meh too. Moves that uses up his health are 6B and Spin Around (the blood saw). His 2 main zoning tool. Spin around gets you a combo and is easy to hitconfirm in neutral. SAT showed that tk Spin Around is a really strong tool and quite hard to punish for the opponent. He at least doesn't get punished as badly as Notsu who loves 6B in neutral a bit too much. So yeah, you will only risk your health in neutral for zoning. When pressuring, it's really rewarding though because both will allow you to reset pressure really easily. Seems that you can get mashed out of Spin Around but not out of 6B so that's a great way to keep going for long blockstrings. Spin Around is even more rewarding because its nice chip damage will allow to make the health difference caused by the health you used much thinner and it leads to 5K combos meterless as a starter which is one of the reason why your opponent should respect Carmine quite a lot. On block, you can go for: jump>j[C] jump>j[C](1)>2B jump>fake charged jC>2B jump>fake charged jC>throw If you don't go for the throw, you can keep your pressure going and reset it with either 6B or Spin Around once more for extended pressure/hard to react to mixups. So yeah, if you don't like using your health, don't zone at all in neutral. In offense though it leads to godlike rewards and nice mixups.