ehuangsan

The Power Of Choosing To Do Nothing Young players calculate everything, a requirement of their relative inexperience. - Samuel Reshevsky When having an edge, Karpov often marked time and still gained the advantage! I don't know anyone else who could do that, it's incredible. I was always impressed and delighted by this skill. When it looked like it was high time to start a decisive attack, Karpov played a3, h3, and his opponent's position collapsed. - Vladimir Kramnik In pretty much any game, be it GG, chess, tiddlywinks, or whatever, your chances of making a mistake will go up with the more moves you have to make from non-forced decisions. So for two players of equal skill, if one player is compelled to to make more non-forced decisions than the other player who can opt to pass and simply not have to think, the player making more decisions will tend to make more mistakes, and the player who can pass without consequence will make fewer mistakes and thereby tend to win more often. A lot of beginning to mid-level players will oftentimes avoid allowing an advantageous situation go to neutral, for fear of allowing the opponent out of the box or giving an opponent a turn. However, if the only decisions the opponent is allowed to make are forced moves, then good players will simply choose the forced move without having to think, be it block, DAA, or whatever. So sometimes, and especially if you are Ky and you have your opponent in the rainbow of sadness, it can be better to simply do nothing or something non-committal and basically pass your turn, and let the opponent do something. If Ky has the opponent in the rainbow of sadness, a lot of those choices presented to the opponent can be rendered to be a mistake. From a strategy point of view, it's also effective because you don't really have to think as hard as your opponent, which is almost always a good thing: 1) Present your opponent with lots of choices from a myriad of options 2) Make small tactical moves to make most of those choices wrong, like moving in and out of the rainbow of sadness 3) Let the opponent hang himself Your decisions are easy because you get to pass, whereas your opponent's decisions are hard, because he has to choose to do something among many choices, a lot of which are wrong. A lot of negative style players will try to enter into these situations as often as possible. One of the big tell tale signs of a good negative style player is when you see lots of situations where he seemingly does nothing or innocuously safe/non-committal moves, and then his opponent suddenly inexplicably commits suicide. What looks like a complete blunder was actually induced psychologically from allowing the opponent to make the wrong decision. Here is a vid example from 25:08 onwards: 25:09-25:16 - off of a simple block string, since Pot is in the corner and in Ky's rainbow of sadness, Ky passes his turn and just stands there. Pot tries to escape with a suicide dive, which Ky picks off with a 6P without having to think. 25:16-25:31 - simple tactics to put Pot back in the same situation - 2HS abare with the intention to either jump cancel SE if blocked or S/HS to place him back. Once back in, Ky pretty much does a whole bunch of nothing since he has Pot in the rainbow of sadness, Pot again tries to get out, and loses lots of life trying to do so. 25:35-25:44 - Ky just stands there again and passes, Pot does another suicide dive, though Pot FDs the ensuing 6P. Doesn't matter since Pot is back in that situation. Ky essentially passes some more by jumping around in the rainbow of sadness, Pot does a slide head which Ky punishes with air dash. 25:51-26:14 - Ky again pretty much does a whole lot of nothing without really thinking near the rainbow of sadness, Pot tries to do things but gets hit on reaction by Ky. Eventually Pot tries another ill-advised slidehead, which Ky punishes. Though, pretty much the entire Ky/Pot set has good or hilarious examples of Ky doing nothing and Pot committing suicide in front of Ky. Upcoming: Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper Ky v. Anji Ky v. Jam Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) (requests)

Actually, the double jump is done almost immediately after the 5D, like, as soon as you see Ky go into the air. As for VT to interrupt pressure, it's generally not that great of an idea unless you are trying to go for an Ino Gambit. If it must be done as a guess and not on reaction, depending on the situation, SVT is used to try to get a counterhit into air combo, and should be used if you yomi a ticky tack or a jump-in, HSVT is used when invincibility is more important like reacting to May 6P or yoming Ino's super. I'll see what I can do for the Jam and Anji matchup.

The game is great for solo as well. It's like owning a copy of Marvel v. SF or Xmen v. SF, only not quite as broken. Still equally fun though. You will ask yourself "Why am I allowed to do this?" quite often.

Ky vs Venom Arguably 6-4 in favor of Venom, feels like 6.5-3.5 when playing. IMO, Venom has been Ky's worst matchup in every version of GG since XX. Ky is forced to set the screen on fire and keep Venom doing something. Good Venom players can make decisions on ball setups very quickly, and Ky will try to push Venom to making decisions constantly. Neutral Letting Venom set up a ball setup unmolested is a ?, so Ky must always force Venom to react to something. HS SE and Air TK HS SE constantly and aggressively to prevent Venom from creating a ball setup. The goal is to force Venom to react so that you can move yourself within Greed Sever distance. At closer distances (like 5S distance) use S SE and air TK S SE aggressively to push your way in as well. You have to set the screen on fire and force Venom to constantly make a decision at every moment of the game. If you don't, then Venom can lock Ky down rather effectively from full screen, and you will be compelled to do stupid things like IAD -> IB a ball -> air dash again to push in. So rather than letting that situation occur, don't be afraid to trade hits with the balls to force the issue. Offense Venom does not have particularly good defense, although his 2D will beat lots of Ky's pokes and specials. Which is why you should stay just inside greed sever range at all times and again, force Venom to block or put him to decisions at all times. To go for counterhits against Venom 2D or other moves, lean towards 6HS, Greed Sever and 2S to go for counterhit rather than going in close that often. Keep the pressure up, but also let Venom have a chance to hang himself. Against Venoms that like to 2D in between chains to SE to hit Ky out, chain into Greed Sever instead. It's counterintuitive, but like, 6HS -> Sever will work against 2D happy Venoms. Defense The huge reason this matchup is so bad is because of Ky's crouching hitbox, which is extremely wide; almost as wide as Potemkin. Ky cannot break Venom katame of up ball to perpetuity without doing a standing FD/IB/slashback in the corner. If Ky does crouching block, Venom can up ball to infinity in the corner. So anytime Ky is sent into the corner by the Dark Angel super, Venom can keep him there to perpetuity unless Ky does something risky to get out. Even if you FD/IB/slashback standing against up ball, Venom still has frame advantage and can simply block or win any ensuing attack. If you try to one frame jump out, then the up ball will make you block anyway, and then Venom can do a 6HS. So basically you will have to watch for an upball and do a standing FD/IB/slashback against it, so you can try for a trade with 2S/5S/2D to push him out a bit and seize the initiative back, or try for a one frame FD jump and hope Venom doesn't take all your tension away with a 6HS. Venom usually wins out here by choosing to 2D or intermix other things with the upball instead which will trade or win in his favor. Unfortunately, there isn't really much else you can do which is why the matchup is so horrid, so you just have to ante up and try something off the standing FD. Against Venoms that attack instead and don't know any better, 2P, selective FD and one frame jumps will break Venom's offense, and stun dipper will go under stinger. Most Venoms that I have encountered are not that bad though. Yeah, this matchup is garbage. What can you do. Upcoming: Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests)

Yeah, I agree with the above. Also to add as written in the Pot matchup, he shouldn't really be catching your SEs too often as your primary weapon should be j. HS to keep him guessing, as Pot should be devoting most of his mental energy to doing something about that and not worrying about the SEs. And, if he hammerfalls you in a poke (say 5S), practice autochaining into 2S-5HS to hit him out. If he brakes or FRCs, then that's okay since he'll just block. Your SEs should be rather sparse and somewhat unpredictable, as if you're Ryu trying to yomi footsies with fireball rather than zoning with it. The vid at 17:17-54:ish is a good example, even though I was playing troll Ky most of the time.

I'll think about hosting something small for this Sat for AP/GG. Dunno yet. EDIT: I may be able to host in the afternoon. PM if interested.

That could take forever. Why not just have first game must be with Riannon instead? Then we can have lots of Riannon mirrors and it'll take about the same time. Loser can switch, winner with Riannon must keep Riannon for the next game.

In some order: GG, Water pizza, P4U, Gundam. If you go to NCI, then smash bros is also there. Water pizza and CvS2 are mandatory in NorCal. There will be a quiz.

Chizuru needs to tag Tamaki with BC to output Tamaki damage. That's not really a good option for many situations, because good Tamakis can wall smash or german the BC on reaction quite often. You also really underestimate Tamaki's jump C in the Chizuru matchup. At certain distances, Chizuru is forced to block or die, and you can do some shenanigans with the jump C to cause a lot of trouble for Chizuru. That is not always true. Perhaps "mistake" is the wrong word. I should explain it in terms of expected value assuming that both players are playing optimally. My point is that if both players are playing correctly in the rock-paper-scissors war, Chizuru will win 70% of the time for each RPS decision with her zoning/keepaway/katame game and Tamaki 30% with her haymaker/high-risk randomness game, but Tamaki's damage makes that 30% do the same damage as Chizuru's 70%, which makes the match even. Think of Chipp-Potemkin in GGXX; Chipp has total control of the match and can pretty much get away with anything he wants to do most of the time, but Potemkin still wins off the one or two times Chipp loses the RPS game, and the matchup is even considered to be in Potemkin's favor. Chipp could make every correct RPS decision and still lose even despite his massive footsie and air advantages in comparison. OTOH, Potemkin is allowed to lose many times in the RPS war without consequence.

I think that info is dated. Although yes, Chizuru is better ground to ground and has good keepaway tools against Tamaki, Tamaki doesn't need a high success rate against Chizuru; 30% is good enough to cause problems to Chizuru. Chizuru's 5B and j.A for example, only sometimes work against Tamaki's j. C depending on the distance. Yes, you can tag Tamaki out of the air maybe 70%+ of the time, but you don't do that much when you hit Tamaki, whereas if Tamaki hits you with j. C, you are going to lose half your life or more, and the ensuing meaty 5B/safe j. C/ambiguous j. A/Ulthury could cause you to lose the round right there. Tamaki can play a high risk game against Chizuru because as long as she isn't dead and doesn't get tagged by raw BC more than once a round, Chizuru's life lead is irrelevant. Further, when Tamaki has Ulthury assist, Tamaki can start her high risk/high reward nonsense each time she summons her, because Chizuru has to block on the ground (jump back or air block is free wall smash super). Further, Chizuru is forced to stay grounded most of the time, as Tamaki's air pokes are simply better and her air defense is very dangerous. J. A and C beats all of Chizuru's jump ins, and 66C results in getting 360ed if it gets blocked, or heaven forbid if Tamaki reacts to a 66 anything with wall smash super. Yes, anti-air grab will get stuffed by a deep 66C, but the one time she tags you is the one time she can run it all back with the ensuing meaty 5B /safe jump C/ambiguous jump A/Ulthury into oki nonsense. Granted, it feels like a bad match for Tamaki because Chizuru can control most of the match, but it really isn't. Chizuru has to play an almost flawless game and can't relax until Tamaki dies, whereas Tamaki can make all the mistakes she wants and it doesn't matter unless she dies from it.

And GGXX run speed for a CvS2 like game. And unblockable laser. And SSV enlightenment. BEST GRAPPLER EVER MADE IN THE HISTORY OF FIGHTING GAMES :D She can't be 4-6 against Chizuru; the matchup is hella even. One screw up on Chizuru's part could potentially cause a very quick loss, whereas Tamaki can fail many times against Chizuru and be okay.

Ulthury is very good with certain characters. Tamaki/Ulthury is S tier idiocy, Arawan/Ulthury means you could die in like, two hits. Overall, I think it really depends on the character combination, because for example, Yuki would be barely playable garbage overall, but somehow she works out very well with Riannon and iffily with Sasara and Chizuru. I also think Rina is pretty bad, but she works very well with Karlau and okay with Chizuru or Touka, and iffily with Sasara. The only clear ranks are Ma-Ryan is god tier, Satsuki is right below Ma-Ryan somewhere in S or A+ tier because she is almost never a wrong choice, and Octavia is unplayable garbage and is almost like losing at the select screen. My additional thoughts would be Rathy is playable but perpetual mediocrity no matter who you choose, and the rest are meh to S tier idiocy depending on the character combination, and have at least one paring that works out very well. EDIT: Yeah, I also think Chizuru/Llyr is the best team in the game, and I'm transitioning from Satsuki to Llyr. That team is pretty stupid, but somewhat awkward to use. Satsuki does cause you to guzzle lots of meter, but she makes anyone playable IMO.

Yeah, you need better notice than that :/

I think Sasara does all right, but I don't think she wins. The 2ch and jbbs consensus think it's 5.5-4.5 Chizuru, which I agree with. Maybe even or 5.5-4.5 in favor of Chizuru. I think it also depends on the Chizuru assist. Chizuru/Rina is probably worse off, but Chizuru/Satsuki gives Sasara fits as everything becomes unsafe. This is true; most of her offense, especially 66C, is unsafe. Which is why I personally don't think Chizuru/Rina is really that top-tier, unless the person using it is very good at the one-shot-kill kind of playstyle. OTOH, I think Chizuru/Satsuki is pretty braindead, even though that team also has some noticable problems: Then we shall do this :D The game kinda reminds me of GGXX, where everyone had something really stupid. Unlike GGXX, somehow it all works out to be okay in Aquapazza. I don't think there are any matchups worse than 3.5-6.5, unless you purposely choose an assist combo to place yourself into an 8-2/9-1 situation, like say Sasara/Yuki versus Tamaki/anyone.

I read the jbbs and 2ch Japanese forums for the game, and most of the diagrams posted have her 5.5-4.5 or 6-4 at best against the cast, although Manaka and Riannon could arguably be 6.5-3.5. But even if you try playing Chizuru for like, an hour or two against people who know what they're doing, you'll notice a lot of problems that can't easily be corrected: - Her jump-ins, while strong against opponents on the ground, are horrible air to air. Most of the cast beats her air to air. - Her AAs are pretty bad. 5B is okay, but a lot of characters can beat or trade with it. Jumping A is better, but you kinda have to pre-emptively guess with it, like if you were Rolento in Alpha 3. DP is rarely a good option. - 66C looks good at first glance, but it's actually not all that good as a raw abare unless you're in high emotion. Raw 66C without an assist to cover you is just asking for trouble. Her main bad matchups are Konomi and Karlau, who really exploit those weaknesses rather well (although it's like, 4-6 or 4.5-5.5). 5B is not a reliable AA against either character, they both slaughter her air to air, and can shove her into low emotion very quickly off the initative. Karlau is particularly bad, since her air throw hurts and is like the answer to all of Chizuru's air game, including 66C. That being said, she's even against Tamaki and 5.5+ against everyone else, so she's still the best in the game. Just not really by that much. I do agree that Manaka players have a right to complain about Chizuru. That matchup is pretty lol.

Since apparently only Nor-Cal plays this game in the US, I'm wondering if we should have "Aquapazza BS of the day" during the Dogfight sessions to showcase the game to everyone else. The game is a literal treasure trove of lulz, and every character has practical BS. BTW, for the people in the East Coast, Chizuru is the best character yes, but she isn't really that broken and has lots of rather exploitable weaknesses. She even has bad matchups.

Unfortunately, I don't think I can make this one.

Ky vs. Baiken Part of the unholy trio of horrible Ky matchups. Arguably 6-4 in reality, but it would not surprise me if it is actually 6.5-3.5. In previous GG versions, Ky was actually a slight favorite due to various tools, but they took almost all of them away in AC while enhancing Baiken's options against Ky. So the name of the game is to wage a war of attrition, with an occasional haymaker gamble, while realizing that Baiken can crush you very quickly if things go wrong or if she gets the chance. Neutral This is the war of attrition. Ky's goal is to ticky-tack life away and keep Baiken out. Occasionally he goes for a haymaker to see if he can catch Baiken sleeping. Ky wins or dies in the neutral game against Baiken, but Ky is luckily even or slightly better against Baiken in the neutral game. At far distances, you will abuse lots of SEs and mix them between ground and air. This forces Baiken to respond with something other than jump backward door turtling. She can't guard cancel and hurt you at the far distances, and if she tries, you can react with something. If you have a life lead, then include JDs or air FBs to just keep her out and compel her to do something rather than initiate any offense. Baiken in the air is a lot less dangerous then having her run in close to you, and you can counter her jump ins with 6P/2HS/j.k as appropriate. If she doesn't respond correctly, then it's okay to be content with Faith Barraging her to death, but most Baikens aren't that bad. At 5S distances, you will check her every now and then with 5S, 2S, and 6HS, but this is the distance where she can guard cancel you. So at such distances, you stop SEing and try to check yourself back to SE distance or bait her into doing a guard cancel. Basically, you will only put up token resistance and immediately back jump k or jump s to re-establish distance, for example, stutter step in close 5S into back jump k/s, or 6HS into back jump k/s. She may get impatient and try to guard cancel sakura or otherwise, but then you can punish with airdash slash or other things. If you have 25%+ tension, then you will occasionally want to go for a haymaker mixup by an "oh fuck it" close the 5S distance run up and either throw or 2D into HS SE FRC. Baiken does not take damage well, so if she guesses wrong here you can deal some very good damage exceeding what you would normally expect from Ky. It's rather high risk/high reward and things can go sour very quickly if she guesses correctly, but Ky is unlikely to win off of ticky tacks alone so you just have to ante up and go for it every now and then, especially if you are down on life or if she has no burst. If you are REALLY baller, you can punish whiff claw with stun dipper and RC into good damage. This was a lot easier to do in the previous versions of GG, but the timing in AC is very tight due to the slower stun dipper in AC. Offense There isn't much that Ky can do on offense against Baiken, which is why it's such a horrid matchup. So basically, you don't bother with offense too much and just kick it back to neutral. When you knock Baiken down, you can kick it back with a pikachu to tack on damage (Baiken takes fair damage from this), or your favorite OTG combo, or CSE and do nothing. Good Baiken players can do a reversal FD/guard cancel option against all of Ky's oki, so just let her be. One ghetto trick to try is if you're up against a sakura happy Baiken, then you oki with 5K then 6P or stun dipper to counterhit. That will work maybe once. Wake up super for Baiken is a ? or ??. If for whatever strange reason Baiken does this and you happen to be there (why would this happen?!), IB the first two hits, then backdash out of the third hit into an immediate 2D > HS SE FRC for good damage. Defense All Ky can really do is basically FD her out and try to super jump air dash away. Don't let her initiate anything. When Baiken has 50% tension, then she has a very stupid instant overhead/low sweep mixup, where guessing wrong leads to 40%+ damage, and she can initiate this mixup off the block string. If you let this happen, especially in the corner, there is a very good chance that you will die very quickly. You can sorta mitigate this if she's approaching you from the ground with a wakeup FD to try to push her far enough away so that the instant overhead whiffs. If she safe jumps HS though, you just have to guess after the ensuing tatami, land and pause, instant overhead or 2D. If you IB the HS and then IB/slashback the tatami, you can try to Ino gambit out with SVT to pray for a counterhit, but if she reads that and blocks into immediate guard cancel, you are probably going to die. Her jump HS will also counter hit trade Ky's anti airs in her favor, if spaced properly at close range, and most Baikens cancel into tatami straight afterwards and as close to the ground as possible to initiate offense. If you are baller, you can slashback the jump HS and counterhit her out of the tatami with a 5P. I would recommend practicing this, because this happens quite often. Overall, this matchup is quite bad. Basically, don't fuck up in neutral. Or switch to Sol if you suck at neutral. Upcoming: Ky vs. Venom Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests)

Sure, I can do that. Ky vs. Faust Pretty standard 6-4 in favor of Faust. Faust is kinda like a better version of Ky, but with worse defense. This matchup is also very straightforward, although somewhat bad for Ky, so I don't particularly have that much to say. It's basic street fighter of Ryu versus Vega in anything outside of SFIV, only Vega can throw arcing projectiles on the screen. Neutral Faust's pokes are annoyingly better everywhere, however, ground Stun Edge wins quite often as an abare. So basically you will abuse ground SE a lot in the neutral to look for your way in, and ground SEs will also prevent him from doing projectiles or doing FDC jump HS. If Faust doesn't provide an opening, then TK FRC HSSE into air dash will start some instant offense, but you have to find the right time to do that. Faust will trade hits with you by walking under ground SEs to hit 2P or 5S, or whatnot. You can sometimes check him with 5S and 2S, but more often than not, Faust will win out ground exchanges, so just SE a lot, like 80% of the time, and run in 5S/6HS/2HS/2S/throw when Faust tries to avoid the SE. 2HS and jump K will stop the pogo, so use that in reaction to pogo, or 2HS when you think he will pogo. Basically you will be staying at the ground, throwing SEs/2S/5S until you either FRC SE or TK FRC HSSE airdash to get in. Faust will hit you a lot with random pokes from this distance, which is why he is favored 6-4, but basically Ky will trade life away quite often for an initiative try. You will not be jumping in at Faust very often, as even air S SE will just lose out to 6P. Jumping in at Faust in the neutral game is very often a ? or a ?!, because he has the best anti-airs in the game. As for the projectiles, double jump the bombs, air FD block the meteors to avoid 6HS shenanigans, air S SE to kill the mini fausts, dodge the rest. If Faust chucks a chocolate, Faust won't be able to throw any more items for a brief moment, so use that as an opportunity to get in. Offense On oki, you want to do star oki/Ain's Prison/Sensei's FB mixup/air CSE or CSE to ensure a katame pattern, as Faust's defense is rather bad close in. However, 6K should be avoided for katame, as Faust can 5D or FB out. SE katames can also be avoided by FBs, so you have to watch Faust's gauge carefully. Otherwise, Faust will be patiently blocking and looking for a way to 6P or 2P out. 5K will beat out Faust's 2P, so it's sometimes okay to use that as an abare. Just like the Axl matchup, Faust will have some difficulty in keeping Ky out, so you don't have to do anything ridiculous. However, 2HS abares should be employed every now and then to go for counterhit. Combos should end in 2D so you can jump cancel into jump K and do combos that way, if you don't have tension. Otherwise, go for damage with a HS SE FRC or FB. Some lower level Fausts may try to super out. That is a ?? because you can jump over him and IK him when that happens. Defense Don't get overheaded by 6HS or FDC jump K. That's pretty big, and Ky's losses can often be attributed to this. VT is almost worthless, so don't bother. Stun dipper sorta works for a counterhit abare, and greed sever may be slightly better. However, both options kinda suck. Jumping is also more or less banned, so basically, Ky will look for a way to just push Faust away without jumping and/or hit Faust with SEs/5S/2S to keep him out. If Faust goes for 2K, you can use that to FD him away. This match is annoying in a similar manner to Ryu vs. Vega. I recommend playing ST or CVS2 Ryu vs. Vega matches if you are not familiar with the analogy. Upcoming: Ky vs. Baiken Ky vs. Venom Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests)

I don't see why it would be; it is very in-line with that creating chaos writeup. You can employ the alternate play style or strategy to create chaos or induce variance, as you are dragging them into someplace that is far away from the normal matchup. Like that 100% counterpunch, no offense style against Anji isn't really the best way to deal with that matchup, but sometimes, when you stumble across an Anji player that knows a lot more than you do in the classic matchup and refutes every one of your attempts on offense with a lot of damage, you try that instead to see if you can drag him into your game. It's very high variance and rather chaotic since yes, he could crush you very quickly, but maybe you refute his offense with orthodox defense mixed with pure nonsense instead, (e.g. Ino Gambit VTs, air CSEs as he is coming in on offense, very risky slashbacks into counterhit, etc.), which could frustrate the Anji into making even more mistakes, which you pocket to result in a swindled victory against an Anji that was otherwise the better player.

Thanks. The Art of Preparing Good Home Cooking - Part II 2) Developing alternate play styles/strategies Sometimes, you may run into somebody who knows the orthodox matchup better than you do, and playing the matchup straight up leads to an all out loss. Or, they play in such a manner that the orthodox way of dealing with the matchup no longer applies. Famous examples include D.C.'s chuck all the coins and try to win within the first 25 game seconds style of Johnny, and, for those who play in the West Coast, PhaethonH's all out blitz and set the screen on fire style of May. Playing normally against such people may end up in losses as normal rules don't seem to apply anymore, even if they are playing "sub-optimally". After all, the game is played by humans, and sub-optimal strategies or play styles can certainly work against people who have never seen it before, or induce more errors from the opponent than would have happened had the match been played "correctly". This is why I think it is a good idea to have one or two alternate play styles for a match, even if it isn't really the correct way to deal with the matchup. That way, if all else fails, you have a plan B which can swindle a victory if they aren't prepared to deal with it. This is especially effective if you can get a feel for how the other person plays, and switch to a different strategy to more effectively counter their playstyle. Here's an example I prepared against Anji. I had played many casuals against Aquas where I would sit in the corner and play 100% defense, no offense just to see if he could initiate any useful offense. Sometimes he succeeded, other times he didn't. In the course of doing so, I created an alternate play style against Anji where I would not initiate any offense, but instead compel Anji to attack and counterpunch accordingly. This vid (from 2:49:37) is the result, and it's something I can keep in my back pocket if I find that I am failing miserably against Anji on offense.

LIke I indicated in the Sol writeup, it's not terribly important to maintain constant pressure in the Ky/Sol matchup. Rather, you should give Sol some space to hang himself with a VV, and stagger pressure instead. For the oki, safe jump S/backdash S, Sensei's FB mixup, star oki and CSE should be your primary oki choices. After which, when he does do the VV, you should punish him when he lands by using a damaging crouch character combo (5S > 5HS > 6K > HSSE >etc., or something). Whether he does the 214K or not shouldn't really matter, but if you are failing at the timing and can't seem to fix it, then scooping him up with a 2HS while he's in the air for counterhit also works. It's just not quite as damaging.

I guess I'll teach y'all how to prepare good home cooking first then, since everyone likes to eat. The Art of Preparing Good Home Cooking - Part I A lot of people use training mode to practice combos or fix execution errors (which is something I ought to do if I weren't semi-retired). This is good, but there is something to be said for preparing some research or "home cooking" to uncork on an unsuspecting opponent, from research done from training mode and casuals. GGXX is a tactically rich game, so there are lots of subtle tactics that one can prepare and unleash on someone in a tourney, which could result in stealing some wins. Some people may catch on and adapt quickly, but in other situations, your opponent may end up having no idea what the heck happened unless they conduct the post-mortem afterwards. Which, again, is why it is so important to conduct a post-mortem; not only to see where you fail; but to also identify situations where there may be a possibility for prepare and unleash some good home cooking. Since I rarely play nowadays, post-mortems and testing out home cooked ideas in casuals when I do play somehow has let me stay somewhat competitive. So in the next few writeups, I'll show what you should look for and how to implement good home cooking. When conducting a post-mortem of your own match vids or even when just thinking of certain situations or theoretical concepts, there are several things that you may see where there is a possibility for unleashing good home cooking. Basically, the flow process should be: 1) identifying situations where you can unleash something, 2) coming up with a counter and testing it during training mode/casuals, 3) unleashing it in tourney games and adapting it forever. Most home-cooked prep nowadays is rather subtle, and, although perhaps not earth-shattering, can be added into your repertoire which you can unleash to steal a victory. Here are some things to consider when conducting a post-mortem or coming up with new ideas: 1) Looking for and crushing common block strings/pokes Most people have certain auto-pilot block strings that they employ which they consider to be safe, so destroying one of these strings can lead to a severe mind screw, especially when something that is ingrained in their mind to be safe suddenly is no longer safe. It's hard to break such habits immediately during a tourney match. One example is May's 5D. I dunno about other Mays, but NorCal Mays love to chain into 5D, so much so that eventually I could block the 5D about 75% of the time on reaction. During some casual sessions, I noticed, hey, there's an awful lot of dead space between May's spinning dust motion and when I block on reaction, so perhaps I can try to hit her out of it instead of passively blocking. So I tried 2P: Got semi-mixed results as sometimes it would hit, and sometimes it would whiff and I would eat the 5D. After experimenting some more, I thought, why not just 2D in reaction to 5D, and then FB or HSSE into air combo. So I uncorked that in a tourney, and found that I started to slaughter every May player that attempted a 5D with a 40% combo instead of blocking. Eventually, NorCal Mays stopped using 5D so often, but I bet I can mindscrew another May who didn't see that before. To be continued.....

NorCal is now the land of mandatory CvS2 and water pizza.

Sure, I'll do a Faust writeup next. Upcoming: Ky vs. Faust Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) The art of preparing good home cooking Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests)