Manas Ayus

I am at the same place as you; though I am going to practice a lot with Arakune to keep my play most-focused on him... Still, the allure of Tsubaki's play sometimes gets the best of me.

214214D->6D combos... That makes for some silly situations.

ask blargh. :p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq8pCpfK1Lo this is me and blargh in the last gf vs. dl tourney. as you can see; most of us tried playing it safe the whole time. so uh, yeah.

I don't know why there isn't more content here. I've been having a lot of trouble with this match-up when it comes to high-level play. I run into Bang's on ranked that have 80% ratios and upon playing I realize why. I will talk a little bit about what I learned. Bang can use his drive move on your clouds to teleport, so even if you're on the other side of the screen, if you have a homing cloud be wary of his options. I fought a Bang who was saavy enough to not only use this to get out of my aerial distortion but punish me for doing it. At the start of a fight, be aware that Bang has a few options to punish you for super jumping. The most common will probably be his 3-nail toss; or he will use his drive if you come down with 2A,2B, or 2C. When he's laying the pressure on you, try to get off an instant block and punish with a 5A or 2A into mix-up ending in curse. Once he's cursed his options become limited, but be wary of his nails and the invincibility he has on his distortion drives.

Jump higher than he can. Then, j664B into mix-up consisting of 2A,5C,6C, or 6A followed by 6C loop.

You can play anything effectively on a pad if you've worked at it. I'm on a pad and can do all the bnb's necessary.

So I finally found a sub! I chose Noel, as I feel gimped being unable to quickly react and move. Arakune has a different type of mobility than the other characters in the game; although it's by no means slow, considering he can teleport and whatnot but... Noel's speed is just really nice, it's super fun jumping over people and hitting them with a 5D, having simple and quick aerial combos, and being able to cancel all of her moves into different things. I am enjoying it, and I believe she compliments my play style with Arakune quite well!

XBL: Manas Ayus, a little redundant I suppose, since it's also over there. <---- I have a lot of fights under my belt, 600+ ranked with a 70% ratio. I got the 6C loop down and am currently working on the basketball combo. Find me if you'd like a potential challenge. :D

Rachel is one of the only fights I stay close to the ground on, her 236 beans are kind of daunting and they always hit me when I'm doing an j4B>Mix-up. Oftentimes what I will do though is 214A(to bait her into launching a bean) and then 2C. I'll get off a curse with 2D from there or 5D on her recovery if I'm feelin' saucy.

Rachel is one of the only fights I stay close to the ground on, her 236 beans are kind of daunting and they always hit me when I'm doing an j4B>Mix-up. Oftentimes what I will do though is 214A(to bait her into launching a bean) and then 2C. I'll get off a curse with 2D from there or 5D on her recovery if I'm feelin' saucy. also, this thread already exists.

The title says it all. Who is your secondary and why? The reason I ask this is because I have around 800 games played with Arakune online and probably around 40 if I added all the other plays I have with other characters. I'd like to find a secondary! Do you prefer to play other characters who you can zone with as well, or do you prefer a pure melee/rushdown character to compliment Arakune's style? Post it here!

Back in the day, all I played was SoulCalibur, I mained Voldo. My handle here and on XBL is Manas Ayus, which are the names of Voldo's weapons. I liked him because he moved so erratically, and it was very easy to trick the opponent with him. When I first started playing, I figured I would main Tao because she has a lot of cross-ups and her speed seemed as though it would overwhelm most of the characters. After going through the whole tutorial DVD I watched Arakune and realized how involved playing him was; at the same time I noticed he has a lot of mix-ups, traps, and ways to disorient the opponent. Also the way he does not speak well reminds me of Voldo... So Arakune is was! Still looking for a sub though...

Arakune main here to tell you why this is such a hard matchup for you and what you can do to swing it in your favor more. Ragna is a rushdown character in many aspects including his speed and his special inputs such as 214A and whatnot. Unfortunately, I am generally waiting for these moves to come out so I can punish them with clouds, bellbugs, or a well-timed 2D (spitbug). Ragna does not have the range to zone Arakune (obviously) and even though he is very fast, Arakune can move higher than he can, and teleport to cancel out the fact that Ragna will move so fast. Arakune can only teleport through the air though, so when you see him beginning to jump towards the back of the screen realize that he will teleport and make sure you punish accordingly (Inferno Divider?) IB's and punishment are your friends in this match-up. Take any change you can to get combos on him and make him feel as though the air is unsafe. If he can't go in the air, he can't make clouds. If he can't make clouds, then you're safe to block and not get cursed. If you need an Arakune to spar against, I can be found on XBL under Manas Ayus. Good luck!

Arakune main here. I will tell you what I do against Tagers and what they do that messes me up: First off, I make sure that I get out a cloud and a bellbug, a good way to blindside an Arakune from the get-go is with a jD, now that he's magnatized you can go on your merry way about keeping him down to your liking. Once I get my opponent cursed, most of them attempt to sledgehammer through my bugs, I punish this by following my bugs and doing my spiky on Tager as he attempts to destroy my bugs. Speaking of which, I love using my downward spiky on Tagers, and my premium choice of how to curse them is through applying mixup afterward. This gets bested when I finally do go in for the curse with a 5D and the Tager player is smart enough to him me with a couple jabs before it goes off (5A). Remember Tagers, that this is a fight of patience and you are rewarded for defense and punishing. A 360 grab will take off about 35% of Arakunes health, as will a lot of Tagers BnB combos, preferably the ones that magnetize. Best of luck to you all, I can be found eating Tagers under Manas Ayus on XBL.