Siefer

Why does everyone think there is only one way to play Ragna? Ragna doesn't have to be in your face to win, he can play passive-aggressive and take advantage of whiffs and mistakes almost as well as anyone in the game from virtually any distance. He can apply a limited, SAFE pressure game that, believe it or not, doesn't always end with D crap in your face, to keep you honest and to exploit holes at the right time. I don't understand what makes Hakumen so great against Ragna up close that most of the other cast doesn't have. If you're relying on his counters, that puts you into a dangerous guessing game, where if you guess wrong, that's free 35-45% damage for Ragna. It's a guess in his favor because he controls what he does on his strings. Unless Hakumen can IB a 2A or 5B AND punish before Ragna can do anything else, he is no different than anyone else. Why is Ragna taking all of these risks against you when he doesn't have to? He can control the tone and space of the match and break you down methodically, believe it or not, not everyone rushes down all the time with Ragna. Ragna only HAS to play this way against superior zoners (when there's an actual opening) because unlike in other match-ups, he isn't the one establishing the tone, and he can't punish nearly as easily. And uh, it works the other way around too, if you make too many mistakes, Ragna will bust you open for 50% life, except this time, he can do that offensively AND defensively. Hakumen's lack of speed hurts because it allows Ragna to control the tempo and spacing of the match that much easier. If Hakumen had Tao's mobility, Ragna can no longer actively control the space around him, rather he has to take a passive stance and react to HER (and sometimes, guess right), instead of forcing reactions. This is kind of similar to how Ragna can handle Tager, but IMO, Tager is a lot more dangerous to Ragna. What is there to "out-think"? If you jump, and he takes a long time doing this, you will get punished every time unless you block. If you try to be fancy and do counters in the air to mess up the timing of the jump, or think that's going to be your answer to everything, Ragna will adapt and the guessing game will once again be in his favor. Now he can meet you halfway and air throw you, now he can delay responses and DP you, he can just wait for you to whiff and punish you with SJ C or D into combo, etc. I don't see how this is in Hakumen's favor at all. There's obviously something here that you know that no Hakumen I've played has ever known, because I've only lost to Hakumen when he's trapped me in the corner (or rather, I accidently put myself into the corner). I hope you can supply the answer to make this match-up less boring and 1 dimensional for me to play against.

This may be true, but I'm not sure why Ragna would ever do this string on block. I don't know why you guys think this match-up is even. Ragna can stuff every aerial advance Hakumen does, and if you start mixing up counters in the air, it's time for air throws. Take away aerial mobility and Hakumen is exposed for the slow, slow, slow person that he is. Ragna can now approach from the air and generally do safe strings until you guess wrong and get pushed into the corner. The only time Hakumen really has advantage over Ragna is when he's trapped him in the corner and does massive damage nonsense on him. I would love to hear otherwise, but this is my favorite match-up with Ragna because it's so 1 dimensional.

So, there's very little specific info here on how to handle V-13... I didn't confirm this, but I believe it's possible. Anyway, normally V-13 will do 5DD, 4DD, wheel at mid-screen (it's the ones who mix it up once they realize you can block that you should be worried about). I never tried IB'ing the wheel and seeing if you can punish her, but normally, you can't do anything after she does this. The normal reaction after this block string (assuming you blocked it) is to jump towards her, and her normal reaction is a 6D to your face. As long as she does 6D after this string, I'm pretty sure you can punish her with a run up 5B or C. Eventually, they're going to stop doing 6C if you don't jump or punish them enough, but what that will do is open up the airways so you can close the gap between you two. The "normal" mix-up after they realize you can block overheads is something like 5DD into wheel, or 5DD into jump 2D? (the one that angles downward). If you anticipate the wheel, I'm pretty sure you can IAD over it and punish her, although this is kind of risky if you guess wrong. I don't know what you can do if she does the jumping angled D, but because it comes angled, you might be able to hit her with an air GH. I've never seen another V-13 do it, but Goryu during his SBO qualifiers liked to follow up with a jumping B? (the kick) into block string, into back dash. As long as you anticipate it, you should be able to DP it or 6A it, I don't see a reason why you can't, again though, you guess wrong and it isn't in your favor. If they start cancelling into dashes, they're only going to do 1 of 3 things: -Run away. -Hit you with C, probably 2C. -Throw you. If it's during a block string and they aren't in the corner (with you advancing), you can safely ignore the first option. You should anticipate the C, but always be ready for the throw. V-13 does not like being in Ragna's face, the only reason why she'll do that is to throw you, so you should minimize those 50% combos by teching as many of those throws as you can. Against a competent V-13, V-13 will only lose if she is forced to do something risky (or she instigates it on her own...I don't know why she would do that though if she didn't have to) and you punish, or she whiffs and you punish. I've never seen a V-13 lose that effectively controlled space and didn't whiff. I really don't like this match-up, because even a weak V-13 player can still be annoying for Ragna.

I've got nothing on this match-up, this is the only match-up I get absolutely raped and have zero answers to since I play against it so rarely. The person can be absolutely terrible and still rape me with Taokaka. I've tried 5B at "max" range and I still end up getting raped, and I don't even know how. 6A isn't helping me too much when their jumps are coming at me from crazy angles and crossing me up. I really hope there's more to this match-up than those two things.

The only thing Hakumen really has going for him in this match-up is that he can take off massive life with one combo, otherwise, this isn't too hard of a match-up for Ragna to control. Generally speaking, Hakumen can beat you in the air, so I don't engage in air-to-air battles. If he does IAD into...whatever, 6A->combo works pretty well. Do this enough times and he'll begin to think twice about IADing you, or begin doing jump D nonsense. This works in your favor, now you can go in the air again, although this doesn't mean you can recklessly IAD C. If he's in your face, barrier guard him out, outside of his As, I believe a lot of his normals are punishable on whiff, take advantage of that. Throwing is good once the match has stalemated. Air Throwing is also good once he begins J D nonsense. Try not to be predictable on your attack strings. The scariest time is when he's trapped you in the corner, he can easily kill you in 10 seconds or less there. Barrier guard him out, ID, just get the hell out of there.

Learn to block (easier said than done). Her slide is punishable, her 2C is not. You're not going to beat her in the air, don't even bother. 6A isn't bad. Be careful with random pokes, she has a lot of moves with high invincibility that lead into massive damage combos. Keep her out of your face with barrier guards. That's all you can really do. Oh, ID is good.

I fought a decent V-13 for the first time tonight. All I can say is that the fight has to be played very cautiously, and very patiently. You're not going to get many opportunities to hit her clean, so maximize those chances when you can (geez, doesn't this sound like Carl? Just without the loop...). Do not blindly rush into her, you will die. Learn to tech her throws, or she will score free 40-50% every time. Her pokes beat yours (generally) unless you are in her face. You can not IAD + punish after blocked 5DD, 4DD, Wheel string, you will die (it looks like you can, and it's tempting, but you can't). This is probably my least favorite match-up for Ragna.

EDIT: Just don't worry about what I said, although if you IB, they can't do anything to follow-up.

Do not always end your strings into Dead Spike. The key to successful Ragna pressure (and this is only after you feel it's safe enough to do it) is to mix it up, which you even point out. Sometimes it's ok to end strings with moves that will leave you unsafe, or are slow on start-up (dead spike), you just have to know when it's ok to do it. To the OP: Unless you're playing against someone you need to get into to win (Rachel/V-13/etc.), I usually start my rounds safe and go for CHs or punish whiffs. What you do from there depends on the character and the player you're playing against.

Uh...a lot of people get raped when they get hit, that's how you kind of win. The problem sometimes (like against V-13) is landing that hit...