Orrax

I can't help with Orie, but the best counter poke Linne has really seems to depend on range. 2A and 2B, if they're in range, are ok, but not what I would call great (I don't really think there are any "great" counter pokes in this game from what I've seen). From further out, 2C can work, and so can 5C. I especially like 5C's hit box, but it's slow for a counter poke. In theory, I think 5B should be ok as a counter poke -- pretty fast with decent range -- but I haven't really experimented with it yet. 5A might work better than 2A because the range is better. But with any standing normals, there's a risk in opening yourself open to being poked low. If they're in close exploiting too many lows, jumping and immediately doing j.2B can work. Assault and tk Kouga can work to counter low pokes from farther away. On the whole, though, countering your opponent seems really situational in this game, and nothing is that good on its own. I think the best way out may usually to be patient with blocking and find the right time to shield and then counter. Pretty similar to Melty Blood in that regard. Also, anyone got any initial opinions on matchups? My Linne is still pretty weak, but here are my impressions: Bad matchups: Waldstein, Gordeau, maybe Eltnum Even matchups: Merkava, Nanase, possibly Akatsuki (he seems decent against Linne, but I'm still learning the matchup), maybe Vatista (not really sure on this one -- she's good at keeping Linne out, and her flash kick is strong, but I think Linne's got ways to deal with her) Good matchups: Yuzuriha (maybe? seems like she dies really fast once you get in), Hyde, Chaos, Seth (this one might be even -- when I play it online I lose, but then, when I play it offline, I seem to do pretty well) Unknown matchups because I haven't played enough: Anyone not listed above. Anyway, that's my (probably dubious) take on things. Thoughts?

EX Robo-Ky was never allowed to my knowledge. In #Reload he became tournament legal, but that was his regular version, not his EX version. EX characters are banned for several reasons, most of which have been said already. Probably the biggest reason is that they're not in the arcade version. I like this because it allows for consistency. If someone were to go to Japan and enter a tournament in a Japanese arcade, or someone in Japan were to travel to Evo, they can be sure they're playing basically the same game. Another important thing to note is that there is really very little dissent among the community about EX characters being banned. We (and I use "we" because I think the vast majority of competitive GG players agree with me on this) have agreed that they should be banned, because of the reasons already stated, and they've remained banned throughout every iteration of the game. EX characters were never really balanced for competitive play or location tested, so they tend to range from terrible to broken. They can be fun to mess around with, but I certainly wouldn't want to deal with them in a tournament setting.

EX characters are banned.

The data I saw (again, not sure how reliable it was) said whiff cancelling 2C to 5A was -1, and 2C to 2A was -2. They're probably pretty much the same.

I'd really like to see the frame data as well. I have, however, seen some data, but I'm not sure how reliable it is. What I saw showed that pretty much everything is minus, like every other character in the game. 5C or 2C whiff cancelled to 2A or 5A are still -1 or -2, but since Linne's moves are faster than most other characters' moves, -1 or -2 is safe. I think 5A and 2A were like -1 to -2, maybe -3, which sounds about right. The B normals were of course worse on block, and the C normals even worse than those. I'm pretty sure TK Kouga is plus. Max range Kouga is probably plus as well. EX Kouga is hella plus, both ground and TK. Of course, if you really want to know the minute specifics, I guess this isn't of much help.

GGs to ranked. Shout outs to the multiple Waldstein players who bodied me.

I think you have to air shield, yes. But I've heard there are some air-to-air attacks that can't be air shielded. You can't shield ground attacks when you're in the air, though. You'll just get shield broken.

GGs everyone. Yesterday was fun. My Linne is getting more consistent, but I can't say the same thing about Gordeau. I don't think we have anyone playing Orie or Merkava. Or was someone planning on picking up Merkava already? Carlos has been messing with Byakuya. I don't know if he's going to stick with him, though.

Dive kick is pretty minus on block, iirc, so they're probably risky. I mostly use it to quickly go over lows or mess with my trajectory. That said, I suppose it depends on the set up. What set ups are you referring to?

GGs all. I kept lagging for some reason -- made me sad. My Linne seems to be improving, but my Gordeau is still a mess. And let's not even mention my Hyde, haha. Gordeau and Hyde's music are way better than Linne's. Too bad I picked Linne for my main. From now on I'm maining whoever has the best music.

I visited Japan recently, and it really depended on the arcade from what I could tell. Some arcades seemed to have a thriving Xrd scene, while others didn't seem to have much going on in terms of Xrd.

Sick combo I hadn't seen before, by Mugen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50wUvAQS9lQ#t=148.

Just to be clear, I didn't say there weren't mix-ups. There are plenty of them. I just said they aren't that strong, meaning that reacting to them isn't as hard as many other games (e.g. Guilty Gear, Melty Blood). That's not to say that I'm not going to get hit by them (I will, a lot), but a lot of the system seems to me to be designed around ways to exploit and punish the shield system more than typical mix-ups. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "Melty style" mix ups. The pressure between UNIEL and Melty is similar, sure, and the mix-ups that go along with it. But beyond that, I'm not sure what you're referring to.

I'd recommend starting with Hyde. He's definitely a shoto-type character (good fireball and DP), so he's similar to Ryu in that regard. He's different from Ragna though in that he relies on pressure rather than overheads -- his only overheads are his assault into a jump normal or his charged B+C attack.

I've run into a lot of Gordeau players online, but I might be the only person playing him in Arizona at the moment. I think the character choices are fairly diverse. There's a variety of rush down and zoning characters. Attack range is huge in this game, so a lot of characters can zone. Jack-of-all trades characters and mix-up characters seem less common, and mix-up in general isn't terribly strong in UNIEL. That said, there isn't a huge cast, so choices are limited, but you should probably be able to find something close to what you want.

GGs people. My most sincere apologies to anyone who had to put up with my terrible Gordeau.

Chie requires thought until she either scores a knock down or gets meteors (unless she's playing against Labrys, then add getting her opponent to block to that list). Gordeau is brain-dead from frame one of the match against much of the cast. He probably requires the most thought after he gets a knock-down, kind of the opposite of Chie, because he actually has to think about whether his opponent will mash, block, or dp (I know jump is another option, but no one's been doing it against me). He can apparently do 22A oki to beat EX reversals, though.

Vatista is supposed to be pretty hard for a charge character. If you haven't played a charge character before, you might be jumping into the deep end without knowing how to swim. And despite all my protestations that I would not play Gordeau, I have been messing with him lately. Most brain-dead character ever. ...Ok, maybe not ever. But possibly the most brain-dead character I've played yet, and I played Chie.

GGs everyone. I will (possibly) stop scrubbing out at some point.

GGs everyone yesterday. I guess I'm playing Linne? Although I may still switch -- only time will tell.

Too many games, not enough time. Especially since I'm about to start a PhD program. And John's the real Tsubaki player. He will be missed by all.

Oh, I know. I just meant in terms of Tempe ranbats -- I'm not sure yet if I'll have the time to make the trek down every other week.

I'm pretty much done with BB at this point, but I plan on playing P4AU. Then again, I'll be in Tucson by that point, so it might be better to count me out. EDIT: That poor Slayer player.

You win silver tickets to compete in the tournament for the gold ticket. The gold ticket gets you into Arc Revo.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this in Xrd. I'm not sure where the video evidence is, though.