Synthesis

This is the EXACT reason I can't play her against people currently. If I can't read the opponent because their risk v. reward assessments make no sense to me, I'll never land hits and I'll never do anything. This is the exact reason I picked up Mitsuru and Yukiko. =D

Thing is, conditioning foes with Liz is almost non-existent in certain situations. Why would you ever just sit still on her oki? Her options lose for every 2/3 options they use: I'm at a disadvantage on oki. 5A/2A: Loses to F-Action, certain pokes, Supers. Beats jumping, other pokes. 5D: Loses to jump, F-Action, Poke, Super. Beats roll/blocking. 5C: Loses to jump, F-Action, roll. Beats pokes. 5B: Loses to rolls, F-action (certain characters), super. Beats jumping. 2C: Loses to supers, blocking (outside of the corner), Jumping. Beats Rolls IABD j.B: Loses to jumping, anti-airs, Certain supers. Beats rolling/F-Action. j.D: Beats jumping. Loses to everything else, essentially. Zio: loses to any super/projectile invulnerable move that reaches her. Leaves me negative on block. Is punishable fullscreen by many characters on block. Beats poking (who pokes at that range) and jumps. Agi: C/D agi startup is laughable; super jump out of it. SB.Agi loses to certain moves (SB.TV, Naoto F-Action, Kanji chair super etc...) Beats random pokes and stuff. Seriously, just block it. It's only +17. Without oki, I'm forced to zone and play footsies, where my normals are awful, and although I have Zio/Agi, they are so punishable it's almost not worth using. j.B is almost my only zoning tool that can't be punished for free. EDIT: GGs Rath. I'll learn how to force respect eventually. D= But until then, enjoy the free wins. EDIT EDIT: Normals are awful outside of 2B and j.B. Although they count as projectiles, so any projectile invulnerable move will beat my normals outside of Thanatos or A moves.

You're right, and I'm not used to people blindly disrespecting after so many punishes. And it does make me safe, if I choose not to attempt to attack with it simultaneously. What I think I'll be doing is forcing the meaty with the fire and then just watching and attempt to pressure safely at a specific spacing. It's why I switched to Yukiko over Elizabeth: Elizabeth can't force blocking on wakeup and I have to commit to things that have AWFUL recoveries if I want to oki, and due to lack of respect of any account, I prefer the Yukiko setup. What I think bothers me the most is that these suboptimal options that I have to look out for actually limits my own options, making me feel like I'm playing a suboptimal game. But I've got to learn to deal with these situations, and punish accordingly. And remember how I've mentioned multiple times that MBAA angers me? It's because the guard bar forces you to respond to long blockstrings. I loved MBAC because sitting there and blocking was my FAVORITE thing to do. =D

I can't play you guys. D= Your risk v. reward assessments make no sense to me, so I can't read into the situation. Example: Yukiko Oki: 236[A] ]A[ watch. The risk of you getting hit is getting placed right back into the corner with the exam same setup. The reward of doing F-Action gets me off you, but at the cost of blue life. And to be honest, I shouldn't be rushing in. I understand getting me off you is a huge reward, but consider how safe I am with that 236A held there. I can safely (risk-free, even) set it off and pressure, and thus the chances of a successful F-Action (coupled with my AoA) is extremely low. Knowing this, it is only logical to assume you'll try any kind of reversal attempt after the fire hits you as you wake up, which greatly increases your chances of getting out of the corner. I need to prepare for every possible attempt my opponent can make. It makes it exceedingly difficult to play people who can't be read because of suboptimal plays, but I guess that's a form of mixup and although the play is suboptimal, if it works it was worth it. I apologize for my rant. xD I've always had a problem with this exact thing, but Kanji has made it exceedingly apparent that I need to overcome expectations in order to win more often.

The more I play Liz, the more I realize that hitting 2B at any possible time is the best possible strategy. If there's a hole at all that you can fit it in, do it. It will beat throws and jumps, and if they block it, it's jump cancellable, so you can jump and do whatever you want. Really. 2B more. It's amazing.

But Liz v. Mitsuru is gay, and so is Liz v. Kanji, albeit in different ways. And I can't play Mitsuru lest I force you to play Kanji, which is also a gay matchup. So I'd use my current alt, which has gay matchups against those characters as well. I'll be on tonight at 7:30PMish if you want to play. Just let me know. EDIT: Gay.

If you're down to play some netplay, we could do that. I need to get some more practice in with my new alt. >:3

But then again, Yukiko made it into top 8. >.>

Well, since you can't use twitch, they finally uploaded it to youtube. Here are those matches: Hateraid Red (Narukami) v. Synthesis (Liz) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Yt5OoZaJ-3o#t=2900s Synthesis (Liz) v. AIAB Rochus (Naruto) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Yt5OoZaJ-3o#t=6900s Synthesis (Liz) v. Kensei (Kanji) www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Yt5OoZaJ-3o#t=7690s Zeromus (Naruto) v. Synthesis (Liz) www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Yt5OoZaJ-3o#t=8590s And again, be gentle. D= I know I did awful things. xD

B.Bufu was hitting them, but because of the long startup, they were too high in the air and so the sword would hit, but the ice would whiff. A.Bufu freezes, but I can't get a full combo off it. SB.Bufu has the speed of A.Bufu with the freeze of B, so I used that to get them to get hit AND frozen, so I can follow up with SB.Agi for the combo.

I couldn't get B.Bufu to freeze the opponent, so I just used the SB version to force freeze. And sorry about this information. xD I hadn't seen it posted anywhere, and I haven't seen any Elizabeth use it in a match. I was just using the 5D version, but people started jumping it, so I went into the lab. Eshi: tried your setup. It's hard to force them to respect the intial jump, but I'm thinking something along the lines of 5AA IAD turn/no-turn j.C 236D mixup. It's a 50/50 crossup. The person I was playing just mashed 2B/DP if I went to the air, though, so I tried baiting with 5AA IABD j.B

Super fun stuff I've been working with. After a combo midscreen into 214B 214B j.C, I've come up with a 50/50 mix-up. 214B 214B j.C land 5D or 214B 214B j.C land EX.Bufu (air unblockable) Tech or no tech, the 5D will catch people staying on the ground. The EX.Bufu catches teching > jump. You can also use A.Bufu or B.Bufu depending on the tech timing to catch jumps, although this isn't an issue at all. Just use EX.Bufu or A.Bufu if you don't have 25 meter to follow up with EX.Agi for a combo. Off 214A, you get j.C into the same setup, so don't feel bad about using it without the meter. And for Naoto, Teddie, Yosuke who might try to F-Action to get out of this mixup, you can always just opt for the unblockable 2D to inflict poison full screen while you zone. Free damage is free damage.

I'm pretty sure with specific spacing it's still in her advantage to use it. If I end the Garu at the max range I can possibly hit with it, even though it's -2-6, it's almost completely safe. I don't think anything will punish it at that distance. The move they use has to be on the EXACT frame they recover, and it has to come out within 1-5 frames for it to punish you. And at that distance. Most normals won't be able to punish it. If they attempt to dash and poke you to punish, you're still safe. With dash startup taken into account now as well as move startup, the situation is essentially at neutral, if not in your favor for certain matchups. Since some characters (Chie, most notably) will have to dash at you to punish it, you can 5A to catch their dash/poke startup if they're even remotely off on their timing. Granted, it's still not good to be in that situation all the time, but if you're using D.Garu as an approach tool, don't worry if they block it. Just space it at the very edge of the hitbox for a better advantage. I'm going to say this now because I don't think a lot of players understand this concept: a blockstring can be minus but remain a strong blockstring depending on spacing. C-S.Akiha in MBAACC is a good example of this. Her 214A is -1-2 on block, but it's still a near air-tight string to reset into 5B. This is because the space at which she uses the move keeps her safe from retaliation, and if the opponent attempts to poke her afterwards, she gets a counterhit because of her spacing and the speed of which her poke comes out. I feel like D.Garu works this way in certain matchups.

http://www.twitch.tv/teamhazmat/b/333109061 Tournament that happened today. I should have gotten second but I made too many stupid mistakes and mashed F-Action too much. xD We're all still learning. My matches are at: 3:15:55 4:22:30 4:34:55 4:50:45 Be gentle.

You guys make my night. It's the best part of these events. =D

That's what I meant. If she uses 5C, that's a broken card because if she does any of the follow-ups (2C/5D/jD) You can droit them. You have to wait for the followup and react, but it's still a free broken card.

Justin, why you so bad? In other news, just learned some stuff with Mitsuru. Got some grinding to do.

Yeah, I really feel like the Kanji matchup isn't nearly as bad as 7-3. Probably 6-4 or even more even. Kanji F-Action beats any kind of Thanatos attempts midscreen, his dive can punish Zio, and he has good zone control with his air command throw and his insane normals. It's really all about who gains momentum first. But dat Teddie matchup is insane. D=

Shield super punishes A zio attempts on block at fullscreen, so NEVER use A Zio if she has 50 meter. It also beats SB.Agi so..... full screen you're just gonna have to respect her super. =/

I love you guys so much. That droit control info is a necessity in many matchups. Thank you so much! =D EDIT: And with Elizabeth, all you need to do against her is watch her, as many people have already said. Always charge droit if she's trying to pressure you. If she does 5AA 5B 2B j.B, you can DP after the 2B for a counterhit on reaction to her j.B, since she has to be falling for it to hit you crouching. And let's be honest, you should always be crouch blocking her. Her only overheads are j.A and AoA which are both pretty obvious and she can't cancel into j.A from 2B. She can double jump however, so don't mash your DP; do it on reaction to j.B. For Thanatos pressure I'm pretty sure if you're charging droit no matter what Elizabeth does after 5C is easily beaten. Watch for 2C and B Droit to get closer (you might even punish Liz with it as well). If she tries to 5D you, A droit will break the card. If Liz is close enough (like in the corner) you can 5A or A droit to hit both her and her persona if she tries to pressure you.

I've played mirror matches against Bellreisa a bunch. That was fun. Pretty much on the last match neither of you can do anything without fear of mortal blow. Landed it on Bell after he SB.Agi'd me on oki. Just hit 5As and cry.

Why are you trying to learn every character? That's just asking for heartache. D=

We don't use cadavers. We use pictures and microscope slides and cartoons. My school is cheap as hell and I fucking hate it here.

How do you punish A coup with AK? F-Action? This is too much of a risk in a blockstring. I was playing a good Akihiko near me and this is how it went for blockstrings: 5A(x) 5B 2AB/Feint (bait F-Action) A coup/4B (bait F-Action) 4B (bait F-Action) A coup/2AB/feint (bait F-Action) Pretty much I was just baiting 100% of the time randomly. Any time he tried to get out of anything, he was punished with a 4B/5B counterhit until he decided that F-Action just was never worth it. What can he do to punish A coup?