Kuuhaku

Neutral Gameplay There are a few things you can do at neutral as Rachel. Rachel's normals are very short, but 2A/6B/5B decent for for spacing. However, generally you want to get the opponent to start blocking so you can get out pumpkin/george safely. One way to do this is to set out lightning rods or get your opponent to block a rod/cannon. Keeping your tools out helps you to control space on the screen. From there you can decide to use them defensively or offensively depending on the situation. General Tip- Try to get a feel of what your opponent likes to do and plan accordingly. Managing your resources is also very important as misusing your them will make your gameplay much less effective. Depending on the match up, it might be better to focus on rushdown/zoning or capitalizing on both to make your opponent as frustrated as possible. You're doing things right when you're able to use your tools to force your opponent to make a mistake.

j.2C (L1)- Can be used for pressure/combo filler or as a standard air combo ender for knock down. Landing recovery can be cancelled into normals. j.2C (L2)- Used primarily for adding damage to meterless combos. Ground bounces. j.2C (L3)- Will always Fatal Counter. Used primarily for adding a lot of damage in metered combos. Ground bounces and is extremely untechable. Impish Gysophillia- Will become active and move in any direction Sylpheed is blowing. It will disappear over time. It will also disappear if the opponent is hit or blocks it three times. It will disappear if Rachel is hit, blocks an attack, or her or her opponent tech a throw. Easily Rachel's best and most versatile zoning tool. However, it can be difficult to summon and keep out. George XIII- Used to extend combos, build meter, and to keep the opponent in block stun to continue pressure. Has his own HP and can take damage separately from Rachel. He will disappear if his HP runs out, if he attacks, or after a certain period of time. He will also disappear if Rachel is hit. Once he disappears Rachel may not summon him until her frog gauge is replenished. George will also slide towards the opponent if wind is used. A Tiny Lobelia- Can be used to end block strings. Unsafe at close distances, but extremely plus at max distance. B Tiny Lobelia- Can be used as a standard zoning tool. Recovery is long so opponents can run under it if it is used poorly. In some situations can be used as an anti-air. C Tiny Lobelia- Used for full screen zoning. Also has long recovery like B Tiny Lobelia. A Air Tiny Lobelia- Can be used as an air to air in some situations. Shoots the longest of Rachel's cannons. B Air Tiny Lobelia- Can be used for air to ground zoning. Recovery is long. C Air Tiny Lobelia- Can be used for air to ground zoning. Recovery is long. Sword Iris- Can be used to stop opponents approaches, continue pressure, and extend combos. Air Sword Iris- More plus than the ground version. Serves much of the same purpose as the ground version, but is more versatile as Rachel can move with wind while activating it. Sylpheed- Rachel's drive. Wind blows across the screen. Use directional inputs to change the direction of the wind. Wind is used to move Rachel, her tools, and her opponent. It is useful in all situations of Rachel's gameplay. She has a 4 stock meter which will refill as long as Rachel is on the ground.

Can help- 6C is Rachel's only plus on block normal.

Uh... not really. It probably did wall bound but since that was the loketest it might have changed in the final build. 3C C cannon works on Ragna, Noel, Litchi, Lambda, Makoto. On Hakumen, Platinum, and Valkenhayn, you need to add 5A (probably to follow up 'cuz of hitbox reasons). I think? they did something to make Makoto easier to combo for Rachel. 6B CH is harder to use (it's the most discussed change so far). j.2C I'm like 95% sure is special cancellable on air hit. A cannon whiff into level 3 j.2C looks like it stayed dead.

No link, but random stuff NeoZero has been pulling from the JBBS. One combo posted was 6B CH 4D 5B as a midscreen combo which would not work if 6B CH was still blow back. The idea that Rachel has been pretty significantly damage nerfed is because a combo posted on the JBBS as doing 3k does 3.8k in CS2.

Uh... for future reference, the reason why we're saying this is the Final Changes discussion and not the Loketest discussion is only changes that have actually been posted as part of the final build should be discussed. j.2C being air cancellable does seem to have stayed. I kind of want to see what new affect 6B CH has as it's kind of clear it's not blow back anymore.

The MS paint, bright colors, and this game being out not even 24 hours yet means this list is 100% accurate and should be taken into serious discussion.

Looks like so far sizable damage nerf unless the JPN Rachel players are trolling. Many OTZ.

You should just forward your flight info to Spark/Plastic Chicken on IRC. Their house is pretty close to the airport too, so it'll be easy for them to pick you up.

Nah. I've never been a fan of his MC hammer pants. Haters gonna hate.

Lol. I missed it because it wasn't in bolded font. XD;;

Yeah. Just check your gameplay video and watch your block strings. If you can see a clear pattern, then so can your opponent.

It means you're auto-piloting your block strings.

As someone else stated earlier- if D nails give you a problem, jump so that you avoid them completely. If he uses D nails in a block string, if you IB and he keeps going you can poke him out with 2A. The key is to watch at what distance you block D nails. If he does it far enough away where the third nail hits late, this won't work... but in any other instance, it will. For Ashura on wake up, summon and dash break. If he's just doing it on reaction to your approach and not on reaction to you doing something, this is a much safer option than trying to do dash 2C to hit him out of it.

One question I have is that on the website it only mentions the venue fee, but on our IRC channel someone posted that it's also $10 per game. Clarification would help.

Since IDK if anyone will update the first post or if people have been following the website, but I'll copypasta stuff here. I was following the SRK thread for info, but it looks like that's been kinda dead. As of what's posted on their website today- BBCS2 is confirmed. Important Stuff Venue Fee: $20 Up Till October 28, $25 until November 4, $35 AT THE DOOR on Friday. Registration: Is not live yet. I'll post it as soon as I know it is. You have to register through the NWM site unless you want to register at the door. Payout: They have some list, but it's based on number of entrants. So probably we'll get- top 3 paid + $100 pot bonus. Schedule Saturday: Pools start at 4pm and to up until top 8. Sunday: Finals start 2pm.

Yeah. If you want, we can talk out the details over IRC/Skype/IRL/whatever.

Lol. That's pretty much what I meant by it being an important note. It really sucks when you forget. Mention for situations like that your main pokes should be 2A/6B. I guess you could also mention that you can use 5B (not so much 2B, but I guess you could try) to cancel out some projectile attacks, but it's pretty risky since if you miss it's a free CH for your opponent.

Lol. I added a bit to make it more detailed. Hope that helps.

Yeah. I just noticed that was announced. I thought Dec was Vita only. But yeah, that sounds good. The order could use a little work though. Normals -Shouldn't need to extensively go into all of them, just mention what's used for important stuff (poking, spacing, anti-air, etc). And some important notes like 5B/2B are projectile property, etc. Tools -Same, just a basic explanation of what they are and generally how they're used with a few basic examples Neutral -General gameplans for how Rachel works. Zoning -How to control space with rods/pumpkin/george etc. Rushdown/Offense -Pressure strings/mix up. Should also put in some corner setups too. (maybe oki setups should go here idk?) Defense -Don't spam 2C like a retard. Wind tech, etc. CA is your friend. Combos -Basic windless combo, Meterless BnB, Metered BnB, corner version Omake ^ would probably make more sense. Even though Rachel doesn't have many defensive options, a small section for that should also be mentioned. Just stuff like wind tech, backdash/high jump/jump + wind, using pumpkin, rods, george defensively, the dangers of 2C (to make huey feel better).

Yeah. We could include a section for changes to her in CSX once her changes in the final release are known. The arcade release is not too far away and it's not like we can magically get this done overnight, so let's just worry about that when we get to it. Either way, we won't likely see console release until February (if not later), so it would still be helpful.

You should also include rod placement and how to effectively use rods as traps (EX- airdashing with wind away from the opponent and setting off rods as you fly across the screen to catch them being careless and using rods to stop approaches from Hazama, Tao, etc.). It's something that you kind of pick up intuitively of which rod is best to use at what distance, but a visual cue might help people out. Stuff like winding seeds certain directions to try to read what the opponent will do or react to what an opponent likes to do (IE A cannon to see if they prefer to approach from the ground or the air) should also be included. And since Rachel is very setup oriented (though I'm not sure if this would go under the section with wind/frog/pumpkin), some basic/advanced ways to setup pressure would probably also be very helpful to understanding how Rachel works. But I agree. Combos are actually not the biggest of priorities when it comes to Rachel. Learning her zoning/pressure/neutral game is way more important. Combos kind of come later.

I want to go. :<

Come to NWM so we can go eat Korean BBQ.