kro_

Agreed. As for Nu, it's incredibly hard to get in on her as Rachel. She is way too floaty and her pokes are too slow to even attempt getting in without wind. The best thing to do is to learn how to block and gradually build up your wind meter. Then, expect to use up 1 or 2 winds to get in and another 1 or 2 winds to land a hit and perform a combo. A good combo will do ~50% of her life so you basically have to get in 3 times if you include burst. Don't even try to get in on her if you only have 1 or no wind stocks. As for how to get in, that depends a lot on the Nu player. If they like to attack from full-screen, then j.236a with 3d wind is useful since it will dodge the 5d sword and 236c with 3d wind will dodge the 6d sword. If they like to spam gravity, then just sit there and let your wind meter build up or use wind to break free if you're at the edge of the field. Activate sword iris to keep them stunned long enough to summon a pumpkin and rush in. If the Nu player attacks from midscreen (which is probably best for them) then you'll occasionally want to jump, super jump, or stay grounded while blocking and wait for a whiff. Summon pumpkin or propel yourself directly towards Nu with wind and go for the mixup. Once you're in, watch out for backdash and 2c. If you land the combo, do everything you can to land another combo off pumpkin/frog oki. If the attack fails, just build up wind again by blocking and waiting for another chance. The matchup is definitely in Nu's favor. I feel that Rachel's chance of winning depends heavily on Nu making a mistake and high-risk approaches.

Arakune can always do his j.D to stop his aerial momentum and hit you with a curse bug, so 6a won't always work. He can also cross you up with his j.2a dive attack and avoid the 6a completely. Finally, his j.D attack can trade hits with 236c > 6d but will end up leaving you cursed, so it actually works out in his favor. They are useful strategies, but Arakune still has a lot of options to get around them so there's still plenty of risk involved in using them.

Was browsing around Nico and came across this great Ragna combo video. It has pretty much every Ragna combo you can imagine with the notation at the bottom of the screen as he performs it. The Blood Cain combos are beautiful. http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7503202

Get someone to do the clap loop on you maybe?

Thanks, updated. Esukiu (Rachel) vs Noel http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7196043 3 sets of Rachel vs Noel matches. Some general things to watch out for as Rachel are Noel's 5a and 5d. Noel's 5a is one of the best in the game with good frame advantage and the ability to hit all crouching opponents with it. This gives her the opportunity to go for mixups, tick throws, and 5c counterhit into a devastating meterless combo. Noel's 5d has projectile/upper body invulnerability and decent range. This means that she has a great tool for forcing Rachel to block and lose her pumpkin. So Rachel can't simply airdash backwards, summon pumpkin, wind it forward, and follow it up like she does against most of the cast. Ex: @0:30 and @1:25 Starting @12:10, Rachel locks Noel in the corner for like 40 seconds until death. At the end of the video, Noel's whiffed 6c costs her ~70% life unbursted and the match from a lvl2 j.2c into superx2 and frog/pumpkin oki.

Another Rachel mirror: Esukiu (Red Rachel) vs Masa8 (Halloween Rachel) http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7413067 The red Rachel abuses a nice long range pumpkin+seed strategy in the first round: 1) High pumpkin + 236c + 3d wind - The pumpkin covers the space in front of Rachel while the seed covers the rest of the screen and places a pole at exactly full screen distance away. Good for creating space at mid-range. 2) (Summon pumpkin) + 5d wind (delay) + 236b - The pumpkin and seed attack in tandem pushing the opponent into the corner. The delay prevents the B seed from sailing over the opponents head, giving it the same arc as the C seed above. Can be used directly after the 1st combination without summoning another pumpkin. Lightning can be activated right after Rachel recovers from firing a seed to keep them in block stun a little longer or hit them when they try to jump. Alternatively, you can stack bat poles in the same spot. Anytime a seed hits them in the corner, Rachel can go directly into super with the (stacked) bat poles. Since the wind is constantly pushing them back, it is difficult for the opponent to get close. Finally, because Rachel is grounded the whole time, wind recovers almost as fast as she uses it. Nothing new, but this video has a good example of it and has solid play overall.

Noel isn't getting much love in this section R1 (Noel) vs Unknown (Jin) http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7030901 @2:45 and @4:53 Noel uses her 5d and 6d to dodge bursts. Is that due to upper body or projectile invincibility? Also, do any of her other drive attacks have this property?

I don't really see what you mean when you say he has a guard crush strategy. To me, it looks like he's just adding filler jabs for hit confirming. And since those jabs can be chained into any attack and have shorter block stun, it makes it less obvious when the overhead is coming. Building wind and super meter is just a side effect. I agree that a lot of his combos are inefficient though. He saves wind where it's worthwhile to use it and uses it in unnecessary situations. Like how he holds 3c and uses 2 wind stocks to juggle them. It would be better to just hit confirm 3c and then use 9d if it hits, but what he does is actually easier to pull off execution-wise. And since most Rachel players don't hold 3c, many opponents get hit after blocking the first 3 hits. He also likes to just trip the opponent with 3c and put down a frog instead of using wind to extend combos. But overall, he still does well. They're probably just some habits that are hard for him to break when he's on auto-pilot.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7277336 Shadow (Rachel) vs Kaqn (Ragna) Shadow has godly blocking skills. Good match to study the rachel vs ragna matchup.

Then I suppose it hit me a few times mid-air and chipped me for the rest.

Late reply, but Carl can kill on defensive burst because he can make Nirvana attack as the opponent gets knocked away. Id_asz always knocks me into the multi-hit drill move on his defensive burst and I'm pretty sure I got KO'd by it once.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7213411 2 fights - Rachel vs Jin, Rachel vs Noel Very defensive Rachel. Seems content to just block and let people get hit by pumpkins as they attack. Also uses frog to cover the recovery on a blocked chair. He stays grounded for most of the match and lets time run out for quite a few. @3:15 reminds me of runaway storm.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7196043 Rachel vs. Noel Just a fun match to watch. Noteworthy for the 40 straight seconds of corner rape at ~12:00 and the huge damage from 100% meter at the end of the match.

The hit stun is more ridiculous than I thought.

@0:55 he does 6a 5b j.b j.c dj j.2cdc dash-up 6a super x2 in the corner. Any idea if that works midscreen or on the rest of the cast? Comment says it does ~4700 dmg.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRrY11roRUw&feature=related @2:20 Shadow (Rachel) vs Kaqn (Ragna) @6:00 Shadow (Rachel) vs Manakan (Litchi) starting @7:40 is a great example of a frog combo into frog/pumpkin okizeme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy5RbRP5A1w&feature=channel_page Rachel vs Arakune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL-wFzflEBs&feature=channel_page Rachel vs Carl Same Rachel player and both close matches though I'm not sure who the players are.