Kuuhaku

These are always hype. Korean BBQ > V-13. ... Did the maids serve you Korean BBQ? Because that would be gdlike. Though, I'm happy to hear that people still had fun despite the massive amounts of fail.

Aww... XD; I kinda wish I went down with Veteru and Wuku. But oh well... there's that tourney in March. Hopefully I'll do all right.

Well... unless you have access to a CS machine, it's fine to work on CT for now. Who knows, maybe the tricks you learn with Rachel in CT will help you handle the nerf machine she is in CS. Hmm. I should get some matches up of casuals and not ranked matches which I don't take seriously at all. Might help. Other than me working on the obvious- getting a stick. Right now I notice that I've gotten into the habit of out predicting myself. Like... I see where they're going, but I act early on it. I need to learn a sense of timing.

I'll watch it, but I'm pretty sure what happened with Kijea accidentally used up all his barrier. EDIT: Uh... I actually have no idea what you're talking about. Kijea's health bar stayed in Danger. Though... I thought I did remember someone who ended up having to use all their barrier. Must be the pepsi talking.

Apparently, that's all that Tempest Dahlia is good for, reversal and for stalling time. But if I wanted to turtle all match I'd play Hakumen. Also- Rachel can't turtle because she has only four guard primers. That'd be like trying to turtle with Carl or Taokaka in CT. All you get is a big fat guard crush.

That is a possibility. It might put some use into j2C. But... yeah, TK air iris looks like it's something that's going to be spammed a lot. ... Not that I can blame players as it's starting to look like that air iris traps into air combos (with a jC 2D jC juggle into BBL) is about all Rachel has now. Even George corner lock down doesn't look too good because George prorates so much you're better off going for a reset than a combo. And... is it me, or when George slides forward he actually needs a second to recover before he can activate? If so, that's probably the stupidest thing I've seen other than j2C not linking to anything but cat chair on hit (Congrats! You landed an overhead! Now you can... oh wait, you can't do anything). Even if you slide George forward someone can just IAD over him during his recovery.

So pretty much all of Rachel's matches in CS will look like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzHMejnOhg0 Well... at least it'll be entertaining. Don't forget 6A 6C 8D to also piss people off.

Usually not that bad unless you're Carl or Tager or Hakumen. Then the loli is a major pain in your rear.

Actually, I think it's my fault. Every time I pick a character in anything, it always gets nerfed to hell. My bad, guys. First RO Wizard, now it's my favorite loli.

I think for me the worst part is her ability to guard crush vs. being guard crushed. Rachel can't guard crush for beans now (Tager's like lol guard crush). But thanks to her only having four guard primers, other characters sure can. I dunno. Other characters got buffs and nerfs that make them overall more solid. Rachel just doesn't seem very solid at all (and from nOtoko's information, it seems I'm not alone in that). But I guess that's what picking sub characters is for. It's going to be sad, but we'll see a lot less of our favorite loli in the competitive scene. From what I've heard a lot of Rachel players are switching characters. At least she still has 6A. If that got nerfed too then she'd really be unplayable.

I'll be sure to try that out. But, speaking of Rachel's astral. It's funny the first time someone sees it and they don't know wtf to do so they just block as you wind them into it. And speaking of j2C after that air combo, I kinda wish I saved this match, but I didn't because the Jin player was just that scrubby, but after the super dash 6C8D I did an air grab to knock them down and then they tech rolled forward, only to get a level 2 j2C to their spine. It was so painful looking, I couldn't help but cringe.

I felt bad for this newbie Arakune that I was abusing with cat chair. Every time he threw out the spider super I'd cat chair, look at him funny, and then fork poke him into corner combo. The whole time my friend was laughing his ass off. And calling me evil. ^_^; 6C8D alone won't lift them off the ground. You're right about that. You have to use a launcher first. Example- 6A 6C8D is a direct link. IMO it's more funny when they fly straight up because they're like wtf at being Mary Poppinsed (yes, that's a verb now) for 20 something hits. It's also easier to do a follow up from 6C8D than it is 6C9D, especially in the corner. It works when they get hit by BBL because BBL knocks them airborne and stuns them enough for you to dash in and link the 6C8D. Another thing about that combo is you have to be careful about bursts. There is a way to bait a burst with it and land on their head with j2C, but I'm still trying to work out the timing. If anyone figures it out before me, lemme know. When you get it right though, it looks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PadHvMCsA8I Another not particularly useful but funny trick is to use 7D while you're in the middle of 6C+D you'll fly up again, taking your opponent with you and leaving them confused. It's a waste of wind, but if you feel like messing with it for the lulz, go ahead. Also 7D + j2C for a kind of fake out overhead hit. And also general confusion.

Just 6C8D. I keep wondering if that combo will be less lulzy and more useful in CS when they buff 6C's damage. Cat chair, at best, is used on Ragnas who throw out random 5Bs if they don't have the 50% heat to rapid cancel it. Also, it's decent in Rachel mirror matches when they fall from the sky with j2C. Or when people are being straight up reckless. Or if you're too lazy to properly block the Taokaka pounce distortion... or if they have the tendency to delay Carnage Scissors (and don't have another 50% heat to RC it). Speaking of RC nonsense, I saw wuku RC cat chair into another cat chair. Hilarious stuff. Other than that though, I don't recommend using it. ... Though I should talk. There are very very stupid times when I've used it. Some worked some didn't, but when it worked it was really awesome. My forever favorite is when Jin threw out Arrows of Ice and I cat chaired into it for the winning hit. The Jin was so wtf he left the room. He did send me a mail saying GGs though.

Uh... I'm guessing you mean 6C? You just run up and use 8D and you'll spin into the air. You can also do it after any 6A hit if you feel like being silly/annoying your opponent. But yeah, for some reason with my controller I occasionally have trouble with diagonals. So I think I'm holding 3, but it's not tilted far enough so it registers as a 2. It's also annoying when I'm trying to 7D after a 3C hit or when throwing out 236A but I end up doing 6D instead. The worst part is when I think I'm low blocking, but I'm just crouching so I eat a free hit. e_e; I blame the crappy 360 analog stick. Just recently I did the same thing though to a Tager, except at the end of the 6C I did an air throw, and then the Tager teched on the ground thinking he was safe when TADA! Another super. XD; It's not really a trick I recommend unless you're sure it's going to kill them, really a frog oki is better after the super, but I tend to be a little silly in my matches. Especially on ranked where they usually don't matter much.

Lol. I wonder if I'm the only person who does 4B as an overhead when they're corner locked with George and crouching. If they're high blocking I use 2B. But... yeah, not many people remember to block switch for 4B because it's so rarely used. It's worked out well for me a few times. Also- I don't have the patience for three round matches. Every time I get the advantage in the first two rounds, I lose it in the third round and never seem to get it back. http://www.youtube.com/user/tinymon#p/a/u/0/Dtky7qw0PPI This is a recent match. Yeah, I know I can't block for beans. I always get caught by cross ups and Bang's low hits. And I fell for wake up Daifunka which is pretty embarrassing.

If you have Dazzle, yeah, you can record it. Other than that, I dunno. Hmm... maybe I should post a link to one of my videos so you can see how badly I play. XD;

But that's what pumpkin is for really... not many Rachel will full screen lobelia without pumpkin. At the release, even if he avoids the lobelia, there's the follow up with Sword Iris/BBL and also wind + pumpkin.

No. But full spark bolt meter makes rushing in risky too unless you happen to be really good at blocking on reaction. And if you mess up and he has 50% heat you'll be looking at spark bolt 720 or back dash 720. Oh, and Tager can buffer a 720 during block strings... so if you leave a hole open anywhere you're fucked. The problem with Voltic Charge is the same problem with Sledge well... one of the same problem with sledge. Voltic Charge is invincible, but has recovery frames that are an easy CH (where Sledge can be CHed during recovery and start up). In fact, any time I see a Tager back up and charge, if he needs more than one charge to get the spark bolt, I'll just run up and get a free 6B CH.

Here's a badly drawn MS paint depiction of what happened to George. He was then replaced with his Mexican cousin, Jorge.

Rachel can't block on the way down because of recovery. Well... at least... not after a certain time. And that's not just limited to frog. Pumpkin has a longer recovery time and there's also B and C lobelia which can be sparkbolt pretty easily. It basically comes down to if Rachel makes enough mistakes she's fucked. But otherwise there's not really much Tager can do except bait and try to outsmart her.

Yeah, j2C can be stuffed by jabs. It's annoying really. The only thing is if j2C is done right it's rather fast (TKed low to the ground and winded), so you're better off blocking high and keeping an eye out for her linking to 2B which is the only low move she can link from j2C. If you IB 2B that's pretty punishable since that also has silly recovery. If the Rachel's good at do 6B max range, you could also jump and then TK elbow- she won't have enough time to get 6A out because of it's start up + whiffed 6B recovery. So elbow should hit her. Do keep in mind that these days I see a lot more Rachels using IB + counter assault. So cat chair isn't her only way to get out of pressure if she's got 50% heat (and it's not that hard for her to build it). There's also back dash + wind if she's given enough of an opening (and not in the corner). But if she's magnetized, that limits her options.

There is a punish for 6B. Bait for it then back dash and do whatever you like because the recovery on 6B is crappy. She can only punish you consistently with it if you spam sledge. Yeah, the match up is bad for Tager, but he just needs to catch Rachel in the corner if possible. Because of her large OTG hitbox, I believe Tager has a high-damaging Rachel specific combo, no? Also- if you bait for a summon and spark bolt, there's not much Rachel can do but eat the hit because of the recovery on her summons.

I just have to throw out there- Dio's a girl named Tsubaki.

The thing is, Rachel's moves are pretty unsafe in general without pumpkin. So getting rid of pumpkin is actually a pretty effective strategy. Then again- like I said, this is only the observation I made from watching jp Litchi vs. Rachel videos. I could link some if that would help. o_o Someone else could throw in their two cents too.

Except these are pro Japanese players. This isn't just Billy Bob vs. John Smith. I would think that the results of a match up would start showing up in actual matches, no? I'm not an expert, but I'm just stating my own observations. As for Rachel having better range... uh... no. Her normals are all pretty terrible in range and slow. Litchi makes keeping setups out difficult. Especially pumpkin since she doesn't have a hard time making Rachel block. If there's a full screen whiff punish and insane anti-air damage, please enlighten me. Most of Rachel's anti-air combos do around 2kish damage unless she's got heat and wind for relaunch into super. And even that doesn't do that much compared to her ground and corner combos. I still don't know of this full screen whiff you're talking about. For Rachel to do that she has to be already be rushing at you (pumpkin hitstun into combo). Unless you mean she counters with a lobelia. But that has no follow up other than super or sword iris. And why would Litchi be on the other side of the screen whiffing in the first place? Most are trying to zone you with the stick to get you to block and get rid of pumpkin, then using mix ups to take your butt to the corner where they can rape you. If frog's not out, Litchi can dp out of corner pressure. Rachel has to counter assault or wait for Litchi to mess up and give her an opening.