Maho

The autocombo bypasses the chain rules, the blockstring he does there is actually 5B 5AA.

The punish use for this was the main point of the vid I posted a few pages back, it can actually be done point blank by doing 41236A(or B)~D so you can use it against anything that can be punished with a fireball, the only thing from your list that it really doesn't work on is Merkava 623C as it's only -3 on block.

You can try to run the arcade version via an emulator maybe?

http://youtu.be/ofIE3-tXWHQ Found this a few days ago with Akatsuki, seems to work with everyone that has projectiles, although I don't know how useful is it for them. Forgot to put this in the vid, but it works with Hilda, doing 236A > IW does 4426 instead of 3431 if you get the bonus proration, (4853 instead 3740 in vorpal).

http://youtu.be/ofIE3-tXWHQ Found this a few days ago, can be pretty interesting for Akatsuki I think. Taking into account that this is a midscreen combo, how do you get way more damage than this?

Well if you go that far into thinking, I guess we could say Azrael can just do the 214 motion and react to Tager doing something with hitting B, if some Tager players can react to 6 framers, I guess some Azrael players should be able to. On another topic, I saw in the Nu matchup thread some talk about MTW, that made me think of something I didn't saw noted here, that's about the good old MTW RC mixup. So against Azrael you have to know that if he wasn't hitting a button before the flash, he can do 6A and beat MTW clean,and depending on screen position he might get a strong combo.

For GF oki you can use the same OS as for Relius Led Ley, though it's a bit harder in 1.1 with the nerfed 5A routes that will need a faster confirm the be safe on block. So you do 5A~5B~BC~3C, on hit/block you'll do the chain, if she TPs you'll CH grab him out of it, the timing takes a bit of practice as if you do it the fastest, the grab might be a few frames too soon and whiff,

I didn't say Growler isn't usefull for Azrael in the matchup, I said it's very bad in the GF mixup because it whiffs if Tager blocks.

Props to you if you can react that fast, I'm too old to even think about doing this Looking at frame data, 5A whiff > 720 should be guaranteed, I don't think we can really call that an OS though as if the 5A hits, we need to react really fast to hit confirm, that's another thing that's too hard for me honestly. For Growler, like I said, I don't really see that as an issue because the risk reward is very bad for Azrael (about 10 to 1) and even worse for him is that if you hold down back after GF and goes for it, it just whiffs and he can't RC it. I would only look for it after a GF if I see the player is Growler happy, especially if he has meter to check if he's aware of the whiff issue.

You react to a 6f button? Seriously?

It doesn't work, you aren't invincible during the frames you hold 360A, Azrael mashing 5A will beat you if you time it to catch his backdash, honestly the risk reward on GF mixup is pretty bad on Azrael, here's a summary of some options you might use. - 360A > if you do it to catch the backdash, 5A will beat it (there's a specific combo for about 2.5k+1WP), if he jumps and punish on landing that's at least 4.3k + 1WP, if you do time it to beat a mash and he jumps or backdashes, he can punish for about 4.3 to 5k+ (meterless without any WP) and you'll most likely end cornered. - GF whiff 360B (or 720) > catches jumps for 100dmg and back into the same mixup, catches backdashes but loses to mash. - 720 > catches backdashes and mash, loses to jumps, can beat or lose to Growler depending of how Azrael times it (but no sane Azrael will do Growler here). - 6C > catches backdashes, loses to mash and jumps, delayed 6A is kinda the same for less reward. - 5A > beat mash and jump, backdashes escapes but you're safe, loses to Growler, but like I said before that's not really an issue. One thing to know is that Azrael don't really have a reason to mash on 5A here, as 5A and 5B will lose or win to the same Tager's options, so if he want to take the option of hit a button, he might as well do it for a better reward, and CH 5B combos can hurt quite a bit. But really, Azrael actually just have 2 options to consider to cover GF mixup, backdash and forward jump jA, the second will cover anything the first loses and actually only lose to 5A and double GF (well and 5B if you use it), also in a lot of cases he'll be able to confirm in a combo for about 3k+1WP if jA hits.

It's in the strategy guide, scroll down a bit and look for "pressure strings".

He used his two trumps cards when he did the super, I guess the bonus proration from those stacks up.

Actually in this combo, it's easier to use 5B than 5A, due to throw being an S starter, the hitstun deterioration makes it hard to land 5A into TCL there, you really need to do the combo as fast as possible to get this, while using 5B gives you more time. What I do is delay the 214D to hit low, then try to hit the second jC as late as possible, this way you should hit the opponent around Azrael knee with the Valiant, then the 5B connects easely.

It still punishes moves that are -2 on block so that's probably more recovery on the other super

Did they lower the SMP on 236D in 1.1? In 1.0, the opponent can tech right away when hit by the second 6[A].

ID is 9F in CP, also Kagura's charge super is 1+1 but as only 1f invuln, so it's not something you safe jump, a meaty jump in should actually beat it.

Honeslty I think we have to wait more to say that for sure, I'll believe in that a bit more when arcade players start to block 6B and don't respect stuff that should get punished everytime like blockstrings with gravitons set in the middle. Anyway for what's going to change, the main things are : - you won't be able to use BH nearly as much. - you won't be able to outzone all the cast thanks to activate, matchups against zoners will change a lot due to that. - her mixups are easier to block, and a good bit of her okis are gone (meaties FBs, 1 hit freezes meterless). - no more j2C spam, also have to think more during blockstrings, 5C and 3C can put you in a bad spot when blocked. - you're gonna need meter to do damage a lot more.

It's just that activate doesn't have a hitbox if done when the opponent isn't in hitstun, but it will still push the opponent away from it.

Drill unblockables : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgftTpT43aE

In 1.1, 6B will be a lot riskier to do, the second hit is gone from lvl 5 to lvl 3 (the first hit is already lvl3 in 1.0) which makes 22A cancel bad with a 8f gap on normal hit, it also makes the move -6 on normal block and -9 on IB so doing nothing will be punishable by pretty much everyone. Now there's the 5C and 3C chains but those won't be really safe if the oppoent as a reversal as there will be a gap between 6B and those two moves if the 6B gets IBed, of course you can cancel on first of second hit to mix things up a bit, but you'll still be at risk with the nerfs of 5C and 3C. - 5C isn't jump cancelable anymore and is -5 on block, on IB there will be a gap with anything you can cancel into. - 3C second hit being changed for lvl 2 makes it -4 on normal block, so most of the cast will punish you on IB, canceling into a 22B is bad with a 11f gap on normal block. So against chracters with very fast reversals, 6B will be really risky to go for as you could get punish pretty much everytime on block, escaping a punish if it gets blocked will depend on your opponent not knowing/reacting, or you doing a hard read with a 22C cancel to avoid the punish, but that will get you killed even worse if he does nothing.

So I saw this video in the Koko forums and it reminded me of an OS I found to work against her midscreen fireball oki that I forgot to post here, I explained it in this post, with this you can safely block or growler all her okis with a left/right mixup involving either a fireball or a 22B.

In 1.0, Kokonoe zoning is actually very strong thanks to Activate, it negates most of the zoning chars tools and is a constant menace for all the cast, so getting in Koko isn't easy for anyone in the cast when a graviton is set, but this will be gone in 1.0 so better don't rely on this too much. Having a graviton set full screen away also gives you an escape route with 22C if the opponent get in, don't forget that you'll still be able to TP to the Graviton location for about a second after it dispapears, but beware that running away with this triggers the negative penalty very fast. 22B is a very strong space controling tool, it acts king of a wall that protects you, so unless you're fighting against a character that can make you block from very far away (like Mu or Nu), you can sit a little behind it and go for a fireball or gravtion and be pretty safe. Against characters that have moves with fast forward movement (Terumi's 6C or Ragna's 214A), against those go in the air to do a fireball while being safe from attacks. Fireball is very versatile thanks to the graviton and 214/236D, aiming the "cannonbal" with 236D is pretty hard, 214D is easier and you can change the speed at which the fireball moves with the graviton position you use and its timing. I think this is really underused by Koko players, you can control a lot of space with this during keepaway. One exemple I use a lot when I go for zoning is a bit before 22B auto-activates, I go for hj214C then 2D a bit after it, it makes the fireball fall fast from the top middle of the screen then bounce one time for about half of the screen height, the opponent is either forced to go above if he wants to come in, exposing him to Koko's strong anti-air, or he stays away giving me time to setup another 22B. Note that in 1.1, the nerf of Activate will make a lot harder to get respect from opponents while zoning, so I think Koko zoning won't be nearly as good, except against characters with slow movement such as Tager or Azrael. Actually this is a bad habit a lot of Koko players have, any character with a 6f or less 5A can punish your for going into 22A, if you don't do anything after it you'll be safe from 6 framers, but be punished by 5 framers, against those you better go for jC for an overhead, sadly it won't work in 1.1 anymore.

Actually, there's an OS with Azrael I found out a while ago that work against this kind of setup (I found it against midscreen FB oki but it works for this too), forgot to post about it in the Azrel forum. So it's pretty simple, if Azrael holds A to tech, then does 2146B while still holding A a bit before touching the ground from the tech, it will barrier block if you crossup and growler if you don't. I tested this against other possible 22B + TP setups as 1hit freezes and freeze RC and it works everytime, actually i didn't think of this at the time but it can be exploited with other characters. For exemple Tager can + 236A to Sledge A against non crossup (he can block before Koko can punish after the TP), [A] + 236236B does whell against non crossup (which hits Koko out of TP), Amane can [A] +632146BC to super escape out of non crossup, all those block the crossup. Of course those aren't as good as Azrael as they can be baited and punished.

For 6B I do those : - Midscreen : 6B > 8D > 6A > delay 236D > 22B > 2C > 6[A] > 6 > 5D > 5B > (5C) > 236A > 3C > 236C for damage (4197dmg) or 214A/B for oki (don't do the last 5C in that case, 3625dmg). I actually don't do this one much because you can corner carry from anywhere with Koko with the combos listed under, the midscreen fireball oki can be interesting, especially against chars that get out of BH setups. - Corner carry : 6B > 4D > 5B > 5C > iad jB(2) > jC > j2C whiff |> dash 5C > iad jB(1) > jC > j6D > j236D |> (dash 2C > 6B if close enough from the corner) > 236B > ender (3555dmg with 5C > 22B ender). - Side switch back close from corner : 6B > 4D > 6A > 22A > dash 2C > 6C > jc jC > j5D > jC > j2C whiff |> 236D > 22B > 5C > walk a bit 6[A] > 5C > 236B > ender (3898dmg with 5C > 22B ender). - Side switch away from corner with oki : 6B > 4D > 6A > 22A > dash 2C > 6C > jc jC > j6D > j236D |> 236B > 5C > 6[A] > 6D > 5C > 6 > 214A (3363dmg). - Corner, optimized for meterless damage : 6B > 9D > 5B > 5C > 2C > 6C > jc j2C > j236D |> 6[A] > 22B > 5B > 5C > 6[A] > 6D > 5C > 236B > 22B > 5C > 236C (4634dmg). - Corner, optimized for superball ender : 6B > 6D > 5B > 5C > 2C > 6C > jc jC > j5D > jC > j2C whiff |> 22B > 5C > walk a bit 6[A] > 5C > 236B > 5C > jc jC > j2C > j214214A > 7D > 236D > 236C (5820dmg). The last two combos does the same damage if you go for a 5C > 22B, go for the first one as it uses less drive meter and is a bit easier. For 6C, I use mostly combos that you can find on the first page of the thread, I also do the same side switches combos that I listed above just replace 6B with 6C > j4D > delay jB(1) and then continue from 22A, of course remove the 6C later in the combo to avoid SMP.