Magatama Junkie

Ok, I play this match up all the time and here's my advice on it. Counters: Timing counters against Taokaka's drives seems hard/unreliable. Taokaka's drives: I've had moderate success with 5c, as well as trying to jump back and up above their drve to swat it with j.c. Also, 2c can be useful as well. Hakumen's C moves: are extremely punishable on whiff or block and shouldn't really be used to fish with. Tao's standing C: I've had almost no success poking her out of this. If she misjudges her spacing, 2b will stuff it, but if she doesn't you'll get counter hit. Hakumen's 6a: is good vs non-drive Tao air attacks, but it prorated really poorly so just do 6a, 5c, 236a, 6c. Adding the super doesn't seem efficient and you really need stars to fight her. Hakumen's 6b: this works extremely well for a round or so, and then Tao stops going low. When I first started playing this match I'd catch taokaka going low but eventually she stopped going low predictably. Hakumen's 2b: get him lowest to the ground, and can be ok stuff dash in stuff. Instant blocking: learning to instant block Tao's guard strings is paramount. When you can ib and drive counter her low block string, she will stop using it as much, which takes a bit out of her mix up. Throw breaking: Tao gets in way too easy for you to give her free throws too. Learn to tech at LEAST all purple throws. Taos damage: anyone who says Tao can't deal damage obviously hasn't played a Tao who can drive loop and taunt combo consistantly. Learn to see her overhead and block/punish it. That's all I got for now. This match up is only hard until you get your basics up, then I think it favors hakumen.

EDIT: Oops. This is Icege. I'm on my buddy's laptop Not sure if this has been mentioned, but it's infinitely easier (at least for me) to hit and hold B when going for Taunt combos. By that I mean: B-6A(1)->JC, j.3D~, S->236CC->[3]D, j.C-[8]D, dj.C-[8]D, tj.236BBBB I remember a friend mentioning something about holding down a button in BB making it so that it inputs that button for 5f. I don't know. I've been sitting here for over an hour trying to land Taunt combos and suddenly started getting a lot more consistent with them when I held B. Not just consistent from practice, but it felt like it was much more reliable that way. A question I have though: I have a lot of difficulty with connecting 236BB, 236BBBB at the end of combos. I've actually gotten it a few times when accidentally doing 3 slashes. Am I going to want to end it at 2 and then do another set, or am I trying to get them to a certain height with the first set of scratches?

You talking shit was easily the best part. Good ish!

Also, if the problem is you're hitting the button too soon, you can hold the button down to do the advanced input thing and that might help a bit. Training mode! Get there!

I haven't tried it, but make sure you are CANCELING 236a into 623a, and not just doing 623a after 236a is finished. Also, you don't know if the guy couldn't tech, or just forgot to tech.

Purple throws really are easy to block on reaction, not to beat a dead horse of anything, but air throw resets probably won't work at all in high level play. It feels like the break window is open forever. Now if you want to go for a air throw, it might be better to try to get a legit reset, like let them actually recover from the combo, THEN throw so you get the normal throw window. This might work a bit more, but if your opponent sees a long pause in your combo, they might realize the throw is coming so who knows.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7659219 this video has a lot of really good stuff I can't tell what's going on cause it's japanese. Use the mmcafe link if you can't watch nico like me.

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm7659219 this video has a lot of really good stuff I can't tell what's going on cause it's japanese. Use the mmcafe link if you can't watch nico like me. Credit goes to Zazzarius from SRK, though I could have sworn he had an account over here.

0, Shadow, and Buppa are big Japanese names as far as hakumen players go. Ike Man qualified for sbo with hakumen but I've never seen any of his match videos personally. I don't know any good American hakumen players, though Jack and 4r5 have a lot of knowledge of the character. Check leader boards on xbox, there are a few replay vids of some good hakumen players. And of course, if you find anything really nice feel free to share :3

So couldn't hakumen cancel 6a? Even if it's only a little more range it'd still be worth it right? And what about Kara specials? Do they not exist in this game? I'm a completely GG noob so I still don't get the system 100% yet.

I've also noticed times where j.c won't cancel into 5c. I typically use 5/2a to continue the combo but that's because I didn't know I could land a special (quickest is 214b at 9 frames? Or is 236a faster? 214b prorated less for sure.)

Can you explain the option select?

Question: Because hakumen's jab is +3 frames on block, is it good to tick throw with? Is tick throwing as effect in this game as it is in other games? I ask because obviously you can't throw until they are out of block stun, so where as most chars with even frames or negative frames can throw as soon as they finish their jab, Hakumen has to wait longer. Or do those positive frames give them even less time to react to the throw? What characters can and can not duck Hakumen's standing A?

Vid 1: Hakumen v Taokaka You used 6c way too close at the beginning of the match. Luckily you CH. You did not follow up CH 6c with 6c. You missed the follow up to your neutral throw even though you had 3 stars. You stopped blocking during the claws swaps, but if this was because you were attempting to IB into 6d it's not so bad, but if you just stopped blocking then that's terrible :P In the corner vs Taokaka you kept getting hit after teching because it looks like you where trying to out poke her? Hakumen has the fastest jab in the game at 5 frames, but that's only on his standing jab. You should have just barrier guarded to get her off you. You 3c too much. I don't know if this is intentional, or if you where going for 2c. 3c isn't cancelable and has no follow ups, where as if you had landed a 2c after your j.c, you could have gone for some serious damage as you still have yet to use any stars this match and you currently have 8. You got helped a lot round one because the Tao player burst way too soon. Kudos to you for not panicking in the corner and bursting unnecessarily. End round one. You hit a fairly low air dash j.c, landed, and didn't go for anything let alone 2c. You can't miss damage! Nice low counter into j.c. You had three stars, so you could have followed up with 214c into more damage, but at least you're going in the right direction! Nice 2c after catching her teching, but even better by jumping to follow up with j.2c, j.c. You probably could have hit j.2c, j.2c, air dash forward, j.2c, j.2c, j.2c, but at least you're training yourself to follow up stuff. Bad random 2c on the ground though, and I'm not sure if 2c is special cancelable, but if it is, you could have easily hit 214b (It's a 9 frame low!) for sick damage in the corner. Instead you whiffed a throw. Throw range isn't that great in this game and Hakumen can not tick throw with his c moves. Silly :P Again, good job with the counter. You seem to have realized the Tao player is a bit jab friendly when you're up close and you took advantage of it. Here's something scary I've noticed. You haven't thrown a single A or B in the entire game so far. You know you're wrong for that. :P Took me a second to realize you FAILED at your super counter :P I was wondering where your stars went lol. And you missed the follow up to that counter, but you at least jumped and tried so kudos, just work on the timing a bit more. You are whiffing throw. A lot. Stop that. You are clearly saying to the Tao player, "Hi, I'm Hakumen and I'm looking to throw to get DAMAGE." Another whiffed throw. This time Tao punishes you for it. A non jc'd 2c. I think this had more to do with you being frazzled after having your throw whiff punished, but get in the habit of always JCing 2c. I can't think of too many reasons to NOT jc it and doing it by muscle memory will help you land the loop off random hits. Too many whiffed d's in a row. It's like you where expecting her to drive attack you, and you guessed wrong, which isn't bad except you kept guessing wrong allowing her to walk up and punch you in the dick. Again, point blank range AND she's standing and instead of hitting A, you go for 6c and this time she just jabs you out of it. Then, instead of throwing out 2a or B to make her block, you go for 5c. Luckily it hits, but again, with 6 stars, you don't even bother canceling it into a special move. You 6c'd her out of the air, but no super comes out. If you're gonna fish with 6c, at least be ready to super! Counter super vs predictable drive attack, and I bet you felt good about yourself, but you didn't even TOUCH the A button the whole match. Real talk. Not even once. You should be ashamed of yourself :P End round two. I'll do more in a few. <3 I wish I could post vids so I could get help

Of note, the combos I posted where all tested on Jin.

http://mmcafe.com/nico.html

Wasn't debating better, was debating faster. This shouldn't be in the combo thread, it should be in the hakumen thread. Combos here, theory there :P

It depends on how fast hakumen's jump is compared to how faster the dash start up is. And obviously it'll be hard to know which of the cancelable frames you're canceling your dash on, because I can't see individual frames, can you? Lol

Posted this elsewhere, but really it should be here. I agree. I actually get complimented even when I lose because I'm hit confirming single hit jabs into specials. 2a, 214b (1), 41236c, 3c does 3519 damage for 6 stars. 2a, 214b, 236a, 6c does 2278 damage for 3 stars. Didn't charge 6c. 2a, 214b, 236a, 6c, 632146c does 3975 damage for 7 stars. I didn't charge 6c or the super. 2a, 214b, 236a, 41236c does 2366 damage for 6 stars. 2a, 2a, 214b, 236a, 6c does 2157 damage for 3 stars. That's 121 damage less than just one 2a. 2b, 214b, 236a, 6c does 2715 damage for 3 stars. That's a noticeable increase from 2a, but remember 2b has slightly less range than 2a and is slightly slower. Ironically, it being slower means it's easier to hit confirm. 623a, a, 236a, 6c, 632146c does 4153 damage for 7 stars. I'm done playing around for now. Well, one more. 2a, 2a, 214b (1), 41236c, 3c does 3275 damage for 5 stars. That's 244 less damage thatn just one 2a. 2b, 214b (1), 41236c, 3c does 3883 damage for 5 stars. That's 364 more damage than 2a. 2b, 214b (1), 41236c, c does 3837 damage for 5 stars, but lets you continue the combo like so... 2b, 214b (1), 41236c, c, 236a, c (near corner only probably, I just did this accidentally so I figured I'd record damage just cause) does 4536 damage for 6 stars. Worth noting, to hit the c after the 41236c requires stricter timing on canceling the first hit of 214b. 2b, 214b (1), 41236c, c, 236a, 6c does 4749 damage for 6 stars. Mmm. 2a, 214b (1), 41236c, c does 3472 damage for 5 stars. 2a, 214b (1), 41236c, c, 236a, 6c does 4447 damage for 6 stars. Note, the timing for these combos off 41236c have way stricter timing than the earlier combos. I sometimes had them able to tech the 6c, and once the 236a missed after 5c, not to mention 5c won't hit if you don't cancel 214b really early. I'm done playing around for now FOR REALS THIS TIME. Next time I might play around with adding 623a, a instead of 236a. Hrm, I just realized I was in mugen maybe for one of the above combos, but I don't know which one. I might not have been, I'm not sure. I wasn't paying attention because I had forgotten mugen increased damage dealt. Check my math if you want! I'm lazy. 2b, 214b (1), 41236c, 623a, a does 3710 damage for 7 stars. I don't think any combo off of this is going to be worth it damage wise. 2b, 214b (1), 41236c, 5c, 623a, a, jc j.c did 4636 damage for 7 stars. Keep in mind, for 7 stars you can get 4153 with the much easier 214b, 236a, 6c, 632146c. Which means doing the easier combo loses you 483 damage. That's actually kind of interesting because 2b, 214b (1), 41236c, 5c, 623a, a, jc j.c wasn't hard at all. Keep in mind supers aren't burstable, and the longer your combo is the more chance your opponent has to burst. Plus, if you have 7 stars, your opponent probably doesn't have max life and will definitely burst during this combo, so it might be worth it to keep it short and use the super to guarantee your damage.

We aren't talking about 41236c as overhead, we're talking about tk'd and dash canceled 63214c's as overheads.

I wish someone would do the frame math and find out if it's faster to JC the A follower into 63214c or to just dash cancel/tiger knee it. Well, I did some testing and it definitely looks faster to just tk it or dash cancel it, plus JCing the A follower puts you too high to really do anything, as the move will just miss. Maybe I'm just not fast enough. Eh. I use to think 623a, a went into the loop but I just can't do it. I can get the late j.c, 2c, but I always miss the super jump follow up. I'm not sure if it's due to spacing, but it technically shouldn't be due to timing as if you can hit 2c, it should always give the same tech window. Maybe I'm messing up because I'm trying to do 623a, a, jc late j.c, 2c, sjc j.2c. Maybe I should instead try to do 623a, a, jc late j.c, 2c, sjc j.b, whatever... I dunno, I'm failing in training mode right now, but I'm really starting to get a feel for when to hit the late j.c so not all time spent is lost :D Give me more stuff to try out! I find trying out new things is keeping me interesting in training mode, it doesn't matter if it seems worthless or pointless or whatever, give me a reason to get my execution better :P

Ok, you can't cancel ground specials into tk'd air specials. However, you can still kind of be tricky with them buy doing them after 623a. Edit: Looks like the recovery on the a follow up to 623a is fast enough that you can tk the overhead for semi decent mix up.

I just roll the joystick from forward to back after the 66 cause it's easier for me :D Don't be such a haaaaaater ;P And there's absolutely nothing wrong with going from anything into 623a, a, since that leads to his loop or bnb air combo. It's a waste of stars if you aren't hitting anything after it though :'(

If you have 8 stars, and you hit CH 6a, and you don't do the mugen combo for 60% life, I mean, I just don't get you? More than likely it'll kill them so why not kill them? Thank being said, here are useful special links. 214b (1), 63214c 214b, 236a 663214c, 214b (I've hit it in training mode with the computer teching as soon as possible, and it hit. If it doesn't work on people, I'll find out when I try it or if you guys tell me) I personally think that comboing into 623a, a is good even if you aren't in the corner, because it keeps them defenseless while you build meter and it carries them a pretty good distance so it can help you corner them faster, but that's just me. I don't know his special moves names, so you fancy pants people can just keep that ish to yourself :P I wonder if you can tk 63214c during 214b or 63214c or even 236a. It might not be worth the stars, but it also might be able to catch people off guard as an overhead since they probably won't be expecting it. Same with 214b, if you catch an opponent in the air blocking with a special, could you tk the 214b to guard break them into a combo since it can't be air blocked? Just some ideas... I'll have to test them later tonight. could be useful, who knows.

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