Dream Maker

jD does knockdown only when you are already very close to the ground, jHS and orb also require you to be close enough to the ground. Otherwise you can't KD with those moves. You can't really get knockdown from an air combo midscreen unless you do a very short combo into jHS or unless you RC orb and air dash afterwards into something like jS > jHS > jD > orb (not very worth it). But you can get knock down from a corner air combo, for example against Venom, Sol and most other middle weight characters : 214P > S > JI > 6S > HJ > jK (delay) > jS > jHS > jD > 214P This is sometimes hard and requires some variations depending on the characters, but I think I already detailed the variations of that combo somewhere else on this forum... Also Wolf regarding pressuring, what you are mentioning is IMO the exact reason why Anji is so low in character rankings : he seriously lacks a strong special move that could at least keep him safe while pressuring. I mean plain fuujin isn't safe on block, and all its followups are really easy to punish for a good player (unless you use nagiha RC which is expensive). Sometimes it's better to simply stop your pressure rather than using fuujin in the opponent's guard. Sometimes if you vary your options after fuujin you can manage to surprise your opponent... But this implies taking risks... it's up to you to judge by your opponent's reactions to fuujin if this risk is worth taking or not (and most of the times it's not, sadly). Effective ways to pressure with Anji without taking many risks include P Kai (at a close enough distance) which leaves at slight advantage on block, shitsu at the right distance (can be used in several ways, for example throwing it and blocking if you expect the opponent to attack after the first hit, or using HS fuujin to hit him from a backdash), or 2K frametraps... But all those options have low mixup value and lead generally to low damage, their effectiveness also depends highly on your opponent's state of mind. I mean if he stays calm he will most likely just block and wait for you to make a mistake, or just wait until you have no other way to keep pressure anymore. Pressuring with Anji effectively is really hard, but IMO you have to try every possible solution to see how your opponent will react to it and use those who seem to work best.

Yeah, if you're midscreen but quite close to the corner then you'd better go for corner knockdown is that what you mean ? Because otherwise this combo works no matter your position on the screen with some variations depending on the characters. For mid weights and ABA use the one I mentioned before. Lightweights : S > JI > 6S > HJC > jK > jP > jS > JC > jK > jS > jHS > jD Potemkin and Robo-Ky : S > JI > 6S > JC > jS > jP > jK > jS > JC > jK > jS > jHS > jD Doesn't work on Johnny but you can do : S > JI > 6S > JC > jS > jP > jK > jS > JC~jP > jS > jD > 214P which is quite fun midscreen This way you should be able to get it on almost everyone. On CH it's quite disturbing because you have react to it wait a little before doing the combo, but if you really want knock down then it's your chance to go for dash > K > S > On which works on pretty much everyone on CH. On some characters you can even extend the combo with 236HS > HS with the proper timing.

Some characters have a long enough sprite airbone that allows you to catch them with something like P > On or K > S > On, but many characters simply don't, and often you have to dash after kai in order to catch them properly. That's very specific to some characters like Faust I think. My best advice when you hit an opponent with kai midscreen is to give up the knockdown and go for a combo like : S > Jump Install > 6S > Super jump > jS > jP > jS > Jump cancel > jK > jS > jHS > jD which does shitloads of damage especially after a K kai.

I'll probably be at Vegas friday night and saturday to play some games.

I had a nice week end, though it was pretty hard to get beaten almost everytime, but I hope to make progress soon. There are so many things I've learn, now I've got to put all this knowledge into practice and this is probably the hardest part. It's so hard to keep calm and concentrated when you're fighting such beastly opponents. Anyway @ Mike and Rod : it was a real pleasure to meet you guys, I hope to see you again soon ! @Mike : wish you best luck in Fukushima, hope you will manage to win that damn qualifier. ^^

IMO 5D is very good as an anti air autoguard when you don't really know if you will be hit from behind or not, because all other mid autoguards require you to press forward. You can avoid negative edge simply by not releasing D and doing normal Kou instead. Also while looking at the frame data you can notice that it has autoguard on frames 4-12 which is quite huge compared to other autoguard moves. If you try to use this move as an anti air in a real match situation, you will see that it's not a problem to use it on reaction (provided you have enough time to act of course). Using it as a ground to ground autoguard move is more risky IMO, but if you are psychic then why not. ^^

One thing that is wonderful with Anji's jK is that it causes relatively big hitstun so that you can wait a little before cancelling it to another move like for instance js. So in fact, you can get corner KD orb combos on pretty much everyone in the cast by following this pattern : - For lights + Anji : *214P > S > HJ > jK (delay) > jS > jHS > jD (delay) > Orb *214K (wait a little) > K > S > HJ > jK (delay) > jS > jHS > jD (delay) > Orb - For mids and heavys minus Chipp and ABA that you can't KD orb with this method : *214P > S > 6S > HJ > jK (delay) > jS > jHS > jD (delay) > Orb *214K (wait a little) > K > S > 6S > HJ > jK (delay) > jS > jHS > jD (delay) > Orb I use this consistently in match so it works for sure. Of course there are some exceptions to this rule, IIRC Sol doesn't need any delay after jK, Johnny can only be KDed with an air pattern like jK > jS > jD > jHS, Robo-Ky has another variation that I can't remember of, and Pot can relatively easily be looped with that famous jD > falling jK trick... Also Slayer, Faust and Zappa have a very funny JI KD combo which is easier to do : 214P > S (JI) > 6S > HJ > jS > jP > jS > JC~jP > jS > jHS > jD > jHS

Actually I forgot something that is very important : - Auto Jump Install on K Kai.

I already like him how he is right now but this would be lovely : - 5S raising guard bar like before - More active frames on Orb (corner loops ) - More blockstun on 5HS - 3S coming out faster (like 10~12 frames), higher dizzy value on CH and one more whiff cancel frame just before the present ones. - 6S having larger hitbox close to Anji (this was the case before I think)

I agree with you on that point but in shorter combos like S, HS, 3S, S, 2S, HS, 236HS, HS you should gain notably more damage compared to plain S, HS, 3S, S, HS, etc... If you don't have enough tension or don't want to spend it for whataver reason this should be worth it. Please note that I'm not 100% sure about this 'cause I can't verify right now but I'm pretty sure this info is accurate if I remember correctly what I tried before.

In fact S > HS > 3S > S > 2S > HS does slightly more damage than plain S > HS > 3S > S > HS and in theory should work every time because HS will get them crouching anyway. But it sometimes misses on some characters. Also due to added knockback it's often not really reliable after shitsu mixups. This is still a very good option to keep in mind if you are facing the right characters and if you use it in the good situation.

Certainly, the same way you can bait spamming attempts of various moves from other characters. No, only a few attacks that have a very deep hitbox into the ground car disarm trees without having to actually hit Testament (like Axl's jS). Honeslty I don't know, this is definitely something to verify though I'd say yes for S EXE and no for H EXE but it's just a guess. I'm afraid I can't give some tips on this matchup since I haven't played any serious TE vs TE mirror match in AC yet...

Because it's hard, you have to IB the first hit of mawaru, and then input EXE quite fast, in fact I was trying to do so almost every time but sometimes even if you manage to IB the EXE won't come out if you don't get the good timing. That's what happened when you see me IBing but not doing anything afterwards. Thanks man, but I think that Caer is still waaay above myself in terms of Testament mastering, and the gap will certainly be even bigger when he will be back from Japan. :p Sadly the solo tournament was almost as dead as the qualifiers, we only had 6 players attending, the 2 others being T-nor (KY) and Choco (JO). We could have been at least 12 players but the cost of the tournament was quite high so many players renounced to participate. No big names of the french scene among the other players... That's too bad, but we still had some good games.

Vids from the solo tournament of Summer Lan (the place where the tougeki european qualifier was held) are now available : Semi Final 1, Cuongster (ED) VS Pentarou (BR) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuVXo-CNi7A Semi Final 2, Joe Higashi (CH) VS Dream Maker (TE) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3_2SYFkspE 3rd Place Match, Joe Higashi (CH) VS Pentarou (BR) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkBWBJPVwoI Finals, Cuongster (ED) VS Dream Maker (TE) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5E7GK1ojRA Only youtube links for now sorry...

Forward EXE gives shitloads of frame advantage so you can easily do 2D > Forward EXE > K in the corner without having to FRC. And the combo did unusual big damage simply because Kedako's guard bar was almost flashing.

I hate Baiken so much... Thanks a lot Caer for posting this, it will be really useful for me as I get my ass kicked by good Baikens almost every time.

Wow, I didn't know that it was possible to escape the unblockable by IBing 2HS, I'll have to try that. Holy diver : I don't know what you mean by attacking immediatly, if it's about throwing out a first move, then 6K and HS EXE are your best choices to start the round IMO. 6K leads to BL loop on aerial hit and HS EXE will stuff almost all his pokes attempts and sometimes even his backdash, and it gives you a knockdown on CH.

I'll do my best to cover the Eddie matchup since I've been fighting against him a lot lately. Generalities : Well both characters are extremely powerful, though not in the same way. Testy has superior spacing while Eddie's pressure is arguably the best in the game. In this matchup, the first character to be knocked down has strong chances to lose the round, even though this is true for Eddie in particular. The matchup is pretty even in my opinion (5-5), but if you don't know how to approach Eddie or how to escape his pressure strings, then you will have very hard time to win. Approach : There are several things to take into account when you are far away from Eddie : the shadow, spikes and of course himself. A good use of those three factors from the Eddie player can make this part of the game really tricky for Testament which is quite unusual for him. First, the safest place to be when fighting against Eddie is far enough so that he can't hit you with HS invite hell and you can hit him with S EXE (if you get a CH, it's time to go for pressure). But a good Eddie will try to avoid such a situation and to place himself where you can't hit him with both EXE's. This is the ideal place for him, because it limits your ability to start pressure, and it allows him to get on your face really quickly after a whiffed EXE no matter he has the shadow out or not. You must not let this happen, and if it does happen just air backdash to go back to a more favorable distance if possible. And if you think an EXE will whiff, FRC is far from being a bad idea. That said, let's move on to trapping. Webs placed just before falling from an aerial backdash while being far enough from Eddie are the safest traps you can put, so abuse it. It's always annoying for him. Don't set up trees unless you are at your "safest place". K skull is very useful to stop his aerial progression, while P skull limits the shadow's movement. Again, both have to be done far enough from Eddie. Tk Badlands is really good against Eddie, as it will hit him if he is flying or doing invite hell. It's deceptive range will enable you to reach him in may situations, and the move is safe if blocked unless you land very close to him (in this case, he can punish with 2P, 2D). However if TK Badlands proves to be an useful tool, you have to use it sparingly as he can anticipate it with the shadow, and he can avoid it with break the law. jS and GD (if he is low enough) are safer ways to counter a flying-happy Eddie (though not as rewarding as TK BL), but watch out for the shadow's S (nobiru). About nobiru, please be careful not to be CHed by this move because it almost means death. Never ever jump on Eddie when he has the shadow out or you'll eat a free CH nobiru. And don't even jump on him when he has no shadow out as 6P will own you anyway... From my experience you can hardly do that on reaction, but a non-FRCed invite hell can be warranted, so keep that in mind if you are good at anticipating. And HS EXE is very useful against the shadow if it is close enough. If for some reason Eddie manages to nail you with his shadow then it's your ass, and you will have to be very patient. His pressure / okizeme Well to be honest, there are very few things you can do to counter Eddie's pressure... Burst, DAA, mashing 2P, warrant, Nightmare Circular are all very bad ideas because the shadow will most likely eat the moves instead of Eddie. Even if you are good at blocking his mixups, his pressure will end with an unblockable and you'll lose 3/4 of your life... You have to take advantage of his main pressure move's (mawaru, shadow K) weakness : if you IB the first hit, you have enough time to escape with a backdash. But there is a much better thing to try out : you can throw a HS EXE between the two hits of Mawaru after IBing the first hit, thus getting a free CH that is to say a free BL loop. This is really worth the training, so try to be consistent at IBing mawaru's first hit. This will make Eddie think two times after trying to pressure you with mawaru again, thus forcing him to use for example nobiru in his pressure strings, which will severely limit his options. In that case a good use of the FD will hurt his pressure badly. On okizeme, you also have to be patient. If he uses mawaru, same as above, try to IB the first hit and make him regret it ! If he goes for the FB invite hell + Shadow D unblockable, you can do a reversal nightmare Circular to knock him down (you will be hit too but at least you won't be combo'ed). He can also go for safer okizemes like S invite hell > shadow P which you can't really do anything about... Dealing with unblockables / burst usage Unblockables are... unblockables so there is not much to say about it. But you have to know that good Eddies will rarely go for an unblockable on okizeme if you have a burst left. Keep your burst to escape all type of unblockables, it is a safety card if you don't manage to escape a pressure and he goes for a 22D+ Shadow D unblockable at the end... But be careful if he starts to anticipate your burst attempts. Also note that in most cases, shadow H + random aerial move and HS invite hell FRC > IAD S types of unblockables are not true unblockables. The low move will hit first 90% of the time, so try to block these unblockables by sliding very quickly from 1 to 4. This has very few chances to work, but it DOES work sometimes and it is better than doing nothing... When you have the upper hand Luckily enough, Eddie has very few tools to escape pressure, so you can put pressure on him in a very effective way, with few chances of being stopped. So when you can, just pressure him to death and do not let him escape. His 632146HS super is his only wake up move, so watch out for it if he has 50% tension but remember that it will whiff if you're close enough. Also Eddie's DAA kinda sucks, but if he likes using it a lot, you can counter it thanks to the invicible frames of 6P. So using a lot of 6P's in unusal places of your pressure strings can be a good idea to counter a DAA-happy Eddie that has more than 50% tension left. Always use high damaging knockdown combos in order to give him as few chances to escape as possible and to kill him as soon as possible. He will do the same for you anyway... But that's quite obvious so why the hell am I writing that ? Specific combos IMO Eddie is one of the trickiest characters in the game to BL loop, so your execution has to be faultless and TK BLs often have to be done as soon as possible. This is the generic sideswitch combo I'm using against him (it works better than the classic, jK, jS, jHS variant from my experience) : - 6P, S, 2D, HS EXE FRC, dash, cS, delay, JC, jK, jS, JC, jK, jS, jHS, 1 hit BL, HS, web, TK BL, P skull Also instead of using the curse loop example that you can find on Youtube, I recommend using this one : - throw, 6K (asap), BL, TK BL (asap), walk a bit, HS, BL, TK BL, short dash, 236P Which is by far easier to perform IMO. ^^

Thanks Caer for the tips, I'll have to try this. Good point about the P-skull, I knew it was useful to counter Eddie's shadow but I never thought about it as a counter to Dizzy's fish. ^^'

I recently lost to a good Dizzy in the semi-finals of a ranking battle and I really need help because I have absolutely no idea about how to fight properly against her in AC. My main problem is zoning/approach, the fish totally fucks up my zoning game, S EXE is effective to counter this only with a lot of anticipation but if I mistime it, I'm screwed... I tried to rush her with a dash and then 6K but it didn't work that much. Also her pressure seems nearly impossible to counter, I can't rely on HS EXE, Warrant or NC because that damn fish will always eat my attack... If you guys have tips on how to fight Dizzy it would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully, vids of that Ranking will come out soon so that you'll be able to point out what was wrong in that particular match I lost. ^^

Good matches, you have a pretty good zoning game with traps and pokes IMO. You should FRC EXE HS in combos (you didn't on those vids, got unlucky maybe ?) it is really important in Testament's game because it leads to good damage combos that put your opponent in the corner from almost anywhere. Also it seems you had pretty easy time to anticipate Eddie's HS invite hell with back IAD's, so try going for warrant instead, he won't use this move too often or without a FRC after that. ^^

Lots of matches of me playing Testament vs Maho (Slayer) (plus a few Anji matches) : http://www.dailymotion.com/Maho1378/video/x2oymw_maho-sl-vs-dream-maker-te_videogames You can see the other matches (more than 20) in Maho's profile, any constructive critics and advices for both of us would be greatly appreciated.

Against another Testament you just have to be the first to rushdown. Don't try to runaway unless your opponent is doing so and you have no way to approach. Take the initiative as soon as possible and pressure to death, IMO you should leave him the least possible ways to escape so always go for knockdown in combos. And be careful of HS EXE and Warrant if you let too much holes while pressuring. Anyway it's a mirror match so besides all that it depends on how your opponent is playing Testament.

Great stuff, I have to try this now.

These combos aren't tensionless because gravedigger costs 25% tension to use now. And you should forget the old gravedigger loops this isn't worth the tension in AC, you have better options now for just 25% of your tension bar.