ehuangsan

Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup See vid at 1:38-1:42. Sensei is the only Ky player that did this mixup, and I wondered why because it seems pretty good. However, after trying to do this for several years, I realized that the reason people didn't do this was because they didn't know how the heck he was doing it. Even Machabo and Kimchi jump straight up, fall downwards, do the FB star on oki and then one frame jump to bait a throw or go for a low. The Sensei FB mixup proper is to do the FB while rising on a normal jump, yet keep it low enough to the ground so that they are forced into blockstun. Tiger knee does not work because you lose the double jump. Jumping straight up and confirming it visually doesn't work because you either jump too high, or you are forced to fall and then FB, thereby ruining the mixup. The actual trick is to borrow time from the recovery of the VT. Sensei only goes for this mixup from a VT. What you do is hold a direction (up back, up, up towards), and then as soon as you see Ky crouching on the screen from the VT recovery, pause for a moment while holding the direction, then do the FB motion without confirming the jump. Ky will immediately jump at the direction you previously held, and then FB, as if by a magic input buffer. This took me years to figure out. Yeah, I suck. Upcoming: Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) The art of preparing good home cooking Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests)

Lord Raptor: I have made a flowchart for you for playing Chizuru/Satsuki. If you follow this flowchart, you will become five times better. Study this before the next NCD.

Reading through the storyline made me literally feel dumber. The netplay is also godawful, though I don't think I played anyone in the US. Still a great game to mess around with though.

Yep, I have his black license now. That means I will never block an overhead again until he gets it back. Lol, after watching the stream, the Aquapazza team battle reads "White People Get Fucked"

Lol, I should've figured that, but oh well. Anji/Ky is 5.5-4.5 in favor of Ky IMO, simply because Ky can passively choose to control space, and is not really compelled to do anything, while Anji has to force his way in by playing a footsie game where he's at a disadvantage. Plus, SVT bails Ky out of a lot of situations, where he can just eat a hit in the air and reset the situation. I think your primary problems are that you just don't blitz all that well, or that you blitz at the wrong times, and you don't really create any openings for yourself. Anji is a very momentum driven character, so you have to blitz the hell out of any opening that you find, no matter how small, and run it for all it is worth, even if you risk getting counterattacked in the process. Learn from watching KBNova play (even though he hasn't shown up that much recently), because he is incredibly good at setting any situation on fire to create openings, and pushing the hell out of them albeit with mostly ghetto tricks. He is easily the best Anji in America. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4HUvyGIw30

FWIW, I think Anji-Axl may very well be the only 3-7 matchup in AC and it's a very good candidate for the worst matchup in the game. I think it's even worse than Pot-Eddie, Zappa-Testament, or Johnny-Zappa. Axl's 3P just eats everything Anji does in like, 75% of the situations, and he can mix it up to answer the remaining 25%. Anji pretty much only gets one chance or one momentum run to turn the thing around, otherwise he just gets BSed to death by Axl 3P. You are pretty much forced to wait the entire round for that one chance, then take it and blitz the hell out of Axl when it shows up, and hope it's enough. It's about as much fun as bashing your head against a wall repeatedly.

Ky vs. Axl Very textbook 5.5-4.5 matchup in favor of Axl. Axl gets draw odds only due to the damage disparity, which causes him to win out in wars of attrition, However, both sides will have plenty of chances to end a given round very quickly. Neutral I think this is the most important aspect of the match, and pretty much determines 90% of how the round will end, as neither side really defends well against each other. A lot of people think that Axl has a clear advantage in the neutral game, but I think that Ky actually has the slight advantage overall, as there are more ways for Axl to screw up versus Ky than the other way around. However, Axl will start doing chip damage from rensens and jack your guard gauge up with random pokes, which is why Axl wins the war of attrition if the round drags out for too long. At far range, stun edge, and jump back HS are your friends to go for a dash in. At closer range, you can tack on 5P, 2P, 5HS, and 5S. Basically, you will be trading chip damage, damage from ticky tack pokes, and guard gauge for a counterhit/knockdown attempt and tension build. The primary focus is to get Axl to screw up so you knock him down, counterhit him, or earn a way in, and tension management is very important for this regard. You will be baiting Axl to do something by doing run up FD dash brake or run up FD one frame jump straight up while FDing in the air. Since Axl is very bad defensively in close range against Ky, Axl is pretty much forced to respond to this with something, and you can counter accordingly. For example, if Axl tries to zone out with a jumping poke, or 5P against an FD dash break, you can counter on reaction with 6P, or sometimes, 2D/Stun Dipper. Similarly, if Axl responded with something like 2S or 2HS, and you did the one frame jump straight up FD, you can punish/earn your way in with an air S SE FRC, or even a straight air dash S/HS. This will also open up chances for you to do riskier but better things such as ground SE/air SE, as Axl may hesitate slightly before committing after being countered several times. Thus, the great yomi game begins, and the person who yomis better will tend to win the round. Another thing about dash break/IB is that if you get the IB, sometimes you can greed sever in-between Axl's block strings and counterhit him. This is well worth it, even if it gets blocked or countered, so this is one of those odd matches where greed sever should be used aggressively in neutral when Axl is in range. Greed Sever also catches stuff like 3K, 2HS and 2D from Axl. Rensen is the more worrysome response, but if you FD brake and IB the rensen, and if Axl doesn't FRC, you get a free attempt at dash up 5HS or 5S, so that you attack Axl just at the outer edge of the poke. Anything Axl does that doesn't involve blocking will get hit at that distance. Even if he blocks, well, at least you got a try in. Unless you have some sort of read (e.g. on a Rensen), do not jump in at Axl, as he has better AAs than even Ky. Similarly, Ky smashes all of Axl's air pokes with 6P. Offense On offense, Ky pretty much has one goal - to shut Axl down from doing anything. Ain's Prison and Sensei's FB mixup work wonders for this as Axl has no answer to these. From there, you can attack safely with a throw/counterhit mixup, which is especially effective against Axl due to his bad defensive options. Starting your oki with CSE also works well as Axl doesn't have a satisfactory answer to keep Ky out afterwards. He has FD, 5K, 2K, 2D, crappy DP, and Rensen. You don't have to do anything fancy, as your katame (especially random SE intermixed with 5S intermixed with run up throw) will eventually force Axl to attempt something, and you don't even have to try for dust or anything special. Further, if he screws up once or twice against katame, you can end the round very quickly. It's very hard for Axl to escape Ky katame and he's almost as bad as Testament in this regard, so push it for all it is worth. This is why meter management is so important, because you want to have 25-50% tension for the intermittent FRC SEs, air FB JDs, or FRC/RC combo extends that push the damage against Axl higher. Defense Similarly, Ky does not handle Axl's katame well at all, and Axl can do 70%+ off of one mistake. Ky is not as helpless as Axl, but it's still very bad. Luckily, Axl does not have many mixups other than air dash rensen, TK bopper, throw, and Rashousen. This is why tension build in the neutral game is important, because you want tension to selectively FD him out or DAA out, or maybe attempt an Ino gambit with an FRC LJ at the end if it goes sour. Axl's 2K is considered by many to be the thing that screws Ky over on oki, but this is actually only partially correct. The reason is that the timing to make the 2k safe versus wakeup SVT is different from the timing versus wakeup HSVT. So if you notice that Axl is using the same timing on all 2ks, you can mind screw him by responding with the appropriate VT, which will confuse many Axl players as they wonder why they got hit. I also think that the overhead off of a block string is a ? move, and should be treated as such, although lots of Axls like to use it. Practice RTL or slashbacking into throw against the overhead. 2P abare works pretty well as Axl's pokes are slow, and is also good for breaking run up throw attempts, but if you get counterhit by TK bopper or rensen, you will probably lose the round. In general, you just have to be patient and look for a way out or a way to push it back into neutral. Although both of us were screwing around and experimenting with random stuff, this set of casuals from 59:20 onwards should provide a good idea as to what works and what does not. Upcoming: Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) The art of preparing good home cooking Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests)

Light pokes do not contribute to guard crush. Everything else does. Guard meter does not change after 50% health or after guard crush, except for Multi, who seems to get a guard meter buff after each guard crush.

Hell yes. I'll take all of y'all on with random select C-Groove

This game is awesome to mess around with. The characters have different levels of guard meter before guard crush. Sasara is the best, followed by Haku/Karlau, then everybody else is tied except for Morgan, then Morgan is the worst. Multi however, gets increased guard meter after a guard crush, which is very interesting.

Any character's katame can be broken, but it tends to be rather difficult to do so, and usually involves a fair bit of risk. Which is why these situations should simply be avoided, if possible. Even breaking or escaping Ky's corner katame is surprisingly difficult, if Ky knows what he is doing. Most high level players opt to enter into a footsie war within Ky's magic rainbow of sadness, but of course, Ky will be at an advantage in that situation. It can't really be helped, but it's better than IAD/normal jump out of the corner, which I think is a ?, and 1F/super-jump airdash out of the corner, which is either a ? or a ?!, depending on the situation. Examples include an Ino Gambit, IBing to build tension to break out with a DAA, slashback, draw Ky in with a normal block then selectively FD to catch him off guard, trying to guess what Ky's next poke will be and trying to counter with appropriate ground poke, etc. There really is no fully satisfactory situation for dealing wtih Ky's corner katame, which is good since that's one of the few things that keeps Ky competitive.

Pretty much. Punish them for blocking, or have them forced to fight from a disadvantage. So even if they block, it doesn't matter since you will whittle them down by repeating the same katame situation again until they do something else.

Offensive Tactics - Corner Katame with Ky Guilty Gear is primarily a game that revolves around the katame situation. You can very accurately gauge how good a player is in Guilty Gear merely by observing how well they maintain katame, as well as how well they avoid or break katame. One huge reason why Ky is low tier is because he cannot establish katame outside of the corner, so he has rather limited offense in punishing people for blocking when they're not in the corner. However, Ky (along with pretty much everyone in GG) can be complete murder in the corner, which is why this situation should be pressed for all it is worth. Lets go back to the Ky versus Testament match vid of Mitsutoshi to illustrate how Ky works in the corner. Freeze frame this video at 1:09 and memorize this distance. Draw a rainbow over Ky from the distance between Ky and Testament to behind Ky. I personally call this the "rainbow of sadness" because when your opponent is overlapping this rainbow and in or trying to escape from the corner, you have an upper hand in controlling the situation, even in neutral. So long as you maintain this distance after a block string, then it's okay to let the situation go back to neutral. Many fighting game players are oftentimes loath to ever let the situation go back to neutral, as they are afraid that their opponent may do "something". However, if the only correct option ever presented to your opponent is "block", then you are not really handing your opponent any chances to make any grevious mistakes (unless you are doing fast rushdown like MvC2 Magneto), as he will always choose "block" and wait. So the point is to punish your opponent for blocking by leaving them worse off than they were before they blocked, and forcing them to finally make a decision to do something or to get grounded into submission/get crushed from a mixup or throw, etc. from over blocking. That is the essence of katame. Ten years ago, Faith posted on a Japanese guilty gear thread about a very good way to practice katame with Ky. Set a training dummy to be on all FD (worse case situation) and on all block and in the corner. From there, practice block strings that use the FD to bounce you back into the magic rainbow of sadness position once the block string ends, as you can run in and do another katame pattern from that position anyway. You will find several effective katame patterns, such as: 2p -> 2k -> 2s -> optional SE far 5S -> slash SE (this one is particularly potent) far 5S -> stun dipper abare -> FRC -> 5S 2S -> 5HS 6HS -> SE 6HS -> 2D 6HS -> j. D -> air CSE CSE FRC -> jump -> airdash/low mixup 2HS -> jump cancel -> air slash SE 6HS -> Ain's Prison 2D -> Ain's Prison CSE FRC -> j. D -> land 2k timed to simultaneously hit with the air D to prevent pushback etc. You can find numerous combinations of attack strings that result in bouncing you back into the magic rainbow of sadness, even if your opponent does full FD, so basically you can experiment and find the ones that work with your temperment the best. The net result is your opponent got chipped/wasted meter/got guard gauge jacked up, and yet did not solve any of his problems as he is stuck in that magic rainbow of sadness in neutral, whereupon Ky can initiate another katame pattern and go for a mixup, a throw, or whatever. Even when it ends, Ky can simply do it again, so your opponent is eventually forced to do something or get grounded into submission. The opponent's options are pretty much restricted to: IAD or 1F jump out - this is bad, since an abare 2HS, or 6P will kick them back into the corner for damage. Also, Ky can react with an air throw to throw them back in the corner. Superjump straight up and airdash away - this is also bad, because abare 2HS will keep them in the corner and even if the escape is successful, the net result is being stuck in the air with no jump options against a pursuing Ky who is eager to AA with 6P or other. Run in and footsie out of the rainbow - this is the best option, but it's still disadvantageous as they are fighting Ky in a footsie match within Ky's optimal spacing. As an example, lets watch the legendary Mitsutoshi at work in establishing katame from that vid: 1:09 - 1:11 - Ky FRC CSE - Testament is forced to block, but this is a katame situation as now Ky gets a free and riskless mixup. Will Ky go high or will he go low? 1:12 - 1:13 - Ky air dash s, HS into knockdown, CSE - Ky goes high. Testament guesses wrong and is downed and forced to face another katame situation as Ky initiates another CSE. 1:14 - 1:16 - Ky FRC CSE -> jump up to drag CSE upwards -> land -> dash up -> 5D (!!) - Damn. Testament blocks high to stop the air dash and gets put into block stun from the CSE. Testament immediately blocks low upon seeing that Ky is not air dashing. However, because of the fuzzy guard glitch, Testament is stuck in a standing block animation, even though he is actually blocking low, so Mitsutoshi crushes that with a stand dust. Shonen probably mentally thought he was blocking high from watching the screen, when he was actually blocking low. Stuff like this is why Mitsutoshi is known as the "elegant Ky". 1:21 - 1:24 - Ky CSE -> 5k -> stagger 2S, 5HS - Shonen probably guessed that Ky was going to run in with a tick throw after the 5k and prepares to jump out, but gets caught by 2s and dies. 1:35 - 1:38 - Ky CSE -> close 5S -> FRC CSE -> j. d x2 -> stagger up walk -> 5k, 2S, 5HS - Mitsutoshi watches Shonen burn all that meter from FDing and punishes him for doing so by taking it all away. There's no pushback against Ky from the j. d so he can stagger in, and then kick himself back to the magic rainbow. 1:39 - 1:40 - Ky abare 2HS/ Testament jump / Ky air throw in the corner - Testament tries to escape, but is still stuck in the magic rainbow, so Ky airthrows him back into the corner and goes for an ambigious air s. Ky is relatively free form in establishing katame in the corner, so experiment and come up with ways to keep katame that work with your playstyle. Upcoming: Ky v. Axl Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests)

The 6K loop made me laugh. I wonder if you can do a touch of death off of that. Like, 6k x n into force break and do something. I dunno.

darn, can't go; guess someone will be keeping my Aquapazza throne warm for me while I'm gone.

The passively controlling space works mostly for match-ups where Ky is even or has an advantage. Axl is not one of them, so Ky has to play an active game. I'll add an Axl writeup sometime. Ky v. Ino This match is dead even, simply because the first person to screw up usually tends to lose, and sometimes, rather horrifically and quickly. I play this match against Honnou quite a bit, and I don't particularly like this match because it can be rather random. Ky has to play an active neutral and attacking game to win out, though one mistake can be very bad. Neutral The name of the game is to not screw up while not permitting Ino to have a way in. Luckily, Ino does not have very good abare, so she does not have that many ways in. The concerns are mostly dive, stroke the big tree, chemical love and note. The most dangerous of all of these is the note. Do NOT let Ino have space to launch a note, or if it comes out, kill it very quickly with an SE or dodge it. Blocking a note leads to an Ino katame, where she can attack you from every direction so this must not be permitted. Even being forced to dodge or cancel the note is bad, as Ino can use that to earn her way in. If you are close enough and she's launching a note, always trade and get hit by the note in exchange for the knockdown, if possible, either by VT, 2D (on note recovery if she messes up), or sometimes 5HS. If you keep your distance in close enough so that she doesn't have a note out (preferrably at 5S distance or closer), then it becomes an odd game of RPS. You have far 5S, 2S, 2D, 5HS, 2HS, 6P and occasionally SE fighting against big tree, chemical, dive, 6P, and random dash in air attack. Far 5S and SE will seal out a chemical love and random dash in, but will lose rather badly to 6P and big tree. 5HS/2HS will stop dashes, and REALLY lay the hurt on a chemical love if you get a counter hit, but if you trade, then you will be downed and that will be bad, and this will also (sometimes) lose outright to big tree. 2S/2D beats out tree and 6P, and will duck under chemical but will lose to dash in air attack or TK dive. 6P will allow you to stop a dash-in and chemical love, but don't whiff this or Ino may have an excuse to launch a note. Basically you will have to out-yomi your opponent. Ky's j.k, 6P and 2HS stop all of Ino's jump-ins. However, the dive move may be too fast to react to with j.k or 2HS, in which case you should just go for the IB and attack with 2P. Defense Ky is pretty helpless against Ino on defense, which is why it is important not to screw up. It's more or less impossible to predict what Ino will do or when Ino's air block string will end. You will pretty much have to guess high or low, and you will guess wrong quite often. Reversal VT or RTL is usually out of the question unless Ino is being greedy, as she should mostly be doing safe jump ins. Sometimes, you can dodge the safe jump in with a reversal backdash and then counter attack with 2P or 2K. Ino may not expect this, but if you do this too often, Ino will go for a straight dash to break the backdash. However, the straight dash will trade with a reversal VT, so it could be good to entice Ino to do that. Otherwise, if you block correctly or if Ino screws up her offense, look carefully for points to DAA/random FD or abare 2P to get out. Offense Similarly, Ino is rather helpless against Ky on offense. Her only real options are to try to jump out/FD out, DAA, reversal upward chemical love as a kurainige, or wake up super. If Ino has >50% tension, go for okizemes that take the super out of the question, while leaving you with the initiative if she does do the super. Star Oki, CSE, air CSE, and Sensei's FB mixup should be preferred. The goal should be for katame rather than damage. Try to keep Ino constantly blocking and guessing. Give her opportunities to hang herself with a wrong move, like big tree into your 2D -> HSSE FRC combo, or stun dipper counterhit, or tick throw versus tick -> 6P CH. Always leave yourself in a position to attack, even if Ino pushes you out with FD. Use Ino's FD to bounce yourself back into the appropriate position to attack her more (which I will explain in the corner katame section). If Ino does escape with a super jump or 1F jump out, then follow her so that you can anti air her with 6P/2HS. Overall, neither side can really afford to screw up or get downed, which makes it even. It is somewhat harder to play as Ino instead of Ky in the neutral game, but that is made up by Ino's superior offense. This match vid from 32:55 to 35:14 illustrates how badly one side could lose off of one or two mistakes in neutral. Upcoming: Offensive Tactics - Corner Katame with Ky Ky v. Axl Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie) Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests)

Sure, I can do that after Ky v. Ino.

People play it a lot in NorCal, but not online, apparently. We hold events for it every month. This game is great. It's full of lulz like Xmen vs. Street Fighter, only without the infinites. I haven't had this much fun playing a fighting game since GGXX first came out. I don't own the game, but literally everytime I've touched Aquapazza so far I have said out loud, "WHAT A GREAT GAME!"

Vid study - Faith (KY) vs. MSY (ED) During the XX and #R era, Faith was considered to be the best Ky in the world, such that the Japanese nicknamed him "the great panda", "onee-sama" and "God". Although his offense was not quite as good as Buppa or Machabo, and his defense was not quite as good as Mitsutoshi, his neutral game, negative style of play and mastery of katame were unparalleled. So much so that even today, the katame tactics and the negative style of play invented by Faith have not changed much since his time, and I fully expect them to work in AC +R as well. It would have been nice to see him play AC, but unfortunately he became a Ragnarok Online addict and retired from fighting games altogether. All of his match vids should be carefully studied, despite their age. It is like an aspiring chess player studying Bobby Fischer's games. MSY was known for an outstanding Johnny at that time, but here he felt that he could not beat Faith with Johnny, and thus switched to Eddie, which is a 7-3 matchup in favor of Eddie. Despite that, and several unforced errors on Faith's part, Faith manages to make the match look even, which is rather remarkable. I have written my annotations to this match below for what I considered to be key aspects. 0:04-0:05 - Opening: Ky backdash/Eddie drill - Already the mindgames begin. Faith opts for the safe opening against Eddie, and MSY guesses with a far drill to catch him. 0:07-0:08 - Ky blue burst - This is not a mistake. Eddie's jump D is a burst point although it is inconsistent as sometimes Eddie will sink too low. Here, Faith is unlucky. 0:27-0:38 - Ky throw attempt (?)/Eddie throw - Too greedy. Faith already threw MSY two times in a row with shenanigans. He should've presumed that MSY would go for an FD option select throw, and tried for his infamous 5k abare or something else instead. As a result, he gets knocked down in the corner, against a character that could possibly win off of one knockdown. MSY demonstrates why and sets up the safe jump unblockable, which seems to end the round.... 0:39-0:40 - Ky reversal HS VT -> RC -> FD (!) - ....but it doesn't! Forced, yes, but I don't think there are that many Ky players that would actually pull this off, so I give it a !. 0:44-0:45 - Ky sliding FD(!)/Eddie DAA->RC - Faith correctly guesses that MSY would dead angle, but MSY is very sharp and immediately RCs to avoid death. 0:50-0:51 - Ky air SE/Eddie jump k - Faith probably thought that Eddie would land, but MSY surprises him with a j.k to end the round. 1:24-1:26 - Ky throw attempt /Eddie throw - MSY consistently IBs the 6HS, so Faith goes for a immediate throw. Unfortunately, MSY reacts faster. 1:34-1:36 - Ky DAA - Faith judged that he probably won't survive another Eddie katame, and tries to DAA out, but is unfortunately incorrectly spaced. MSY punishes accordingly. 1:47-1:49 - Ky Gold burst(!)/Eddie command throw attempt - Faith correctly reads the attempted command throw and opts to Gold Burst in case if he guessed wrong. Better than VT or backdash in this case. 1:50-1:51 - Ky 6HS (one hit) -> Greed Sever (!?) - Faith takes immediate advantage of his newfound tension, and goes for the Greed Sever off the first hit of the 6HS as a surprise. He knew that MSY would attempt to IB both hits of the 6HS, and wanted to see if MSY would tap down back instead of blocking the overhead. Faith turns out to be right, but could also RC to bail out of the situation if he was wrong. 2:09-2:10 - Ky Stun Dipper (!) - Good move. Faith saw the IB on the 2D and figured MSY would try to IAD in reaction to a ground SE, and thus tries to check him with a stun dipper as an abare instead. He is right again, and ends the round. 2:18-2:19 - Ky open 5K (?!) - Faith almost never opens with Greed Sever so I don't think he screwed up a command input and intentionally stuck 5k to abare something. Faith is the absolute king of the abare 5k, but I cannot think of anything that Eddie would do at the opening that would get hit by this. 2:27-2:30 - Nice Ino Gambit by Faith off the two IBs. 2:32-2:33 - Ky 5k - There's that infamous 5k abare by Faith, who correctly judges that MSY would attempt to jump out, and catches him on the standing animation. 2:33-2:40, 2:50-2:56 - This and similar sequences should be studied when watching Faith play. He is extremely good at maintaining katame in the corner and positioning himself perfectly in such scenarios. Here, MSY makes a mistake and smacks into counterhit star by Ky and Faith ends the round accordingly. 3:14-3:16 - Ky whiff 5p->2P->2S - Faith attempts a jab whiff counterhit attempt, but MSY does not budge. 3:37-3:46 - Ky Negative Penalty warning (?) - This is a rare strategic blunder by Faith. After the little Eddie disappeared, Faith opts to play it safe and passive to hold his life lead and compel MSY to do something, but MSY does not have to attack until he is good and ready. Thus, Faith really had to push in harder than he did before Eddie initiates another attack with a little Eddie. It's analogous to being forced to attack Yun in Third Strikes before he builds or initiates Genei Jin. 3:46-3:54 - Eddie far drill knockdown into katame - And here, MSY demonstrates why this was a strategic blunder. Eddie suddenly gets the knockdown off of a riskless far drill, which is all he needs to end the game. Faith guesses wrong off the ensuing katame and is forced to burst with one pixel of life left. 3:56-3:58 - Faith tries for one last attack, but is severely restricted to what he is allowed to do from the life lead and is forced to stay put in response to the far drill, due to Ky's stupid hitboxes which will randomly cause him to get hit. MSY ends the round with a command throw that Faith probably could not escape from in that situation due to the drill, and wins. Upcoming: Ky v. Ino Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup (requests) Maybes: (Offensive Tactics - Corner Katame with Ky) (Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie))

Star Control 2 again? CvS2? Alpha 3? I have a copy of A3 for the PS2. Of puzzle fighter, and I can invite one of the best puzzle fighter players in the world to come and give an exhibition. Or Oregon Trail score attacks. Apple IIC version.

J. HS is very low risk/low reward, but you shouldn't use it exclusively; mix it up with 5S/2S/5HS/SE/air SE. Stick and move. For jump ins, you have to just practice determining if 6P, 2HS, air throw, j.p or j.k is best in a given situation. J.p/J.k are very safe and tend to win very often, though you will get less damage off of them.

Ky v. Potemkin This matchup is a clear 6-4 in favor of Potemkin, as Ky has the same problems that Chipp has in this matchup. Ky is the fly that is trying to ticky-tack the flyswatter, with the knowledge that one momentum run could end the round. Not quite as mistake intolerant as Chipp, but you also don't have as many attack options as Chipp either. Opening at round start Unlike most other characters, for Potemkin, there is only thing to consider in the start of the round: Do I 2D or crouch block? There are no other decisions to consider. 2D beats everything Potemkin has except for Mega-fist. If Potemkin tries to Hammerfall, you jumpcancel the 2D when it hits into an air FD block, then land and punish. Because Mega-fist is Potemkin's only option to beat 2D, he may do that sometimes, which is why the only other decision is to crouch block. If he does it, you can respond with gold burst, or if you have sharp reflexes, HS VT. Neutral Your best poke in the entire match is surprisingly, Jump HS. You should space yourself just outside of jump HS range and use this, and intermittently do far S, 2S, 5HS or Stun Edge to keep Potemkin guessing. Potemkin only has one real answer to jump HS, and that is 2S, but he has to slowly inch in and get it. If he starts to do that, then you can do counterhit air S SE, FRC, airdash to suddenly seize an initiative and do some actual damage. Potemkin cannot recklessly jump in because Ky's jump p, jump k, 2HS, and 6P will keep him out. However, special mention should be given to jump D, which you should either 1) backdash out and punish with 2D, or 2) if you are very sharp, run past him and 5HS for air counterhit. If he does a fireball reflect, you have to make that a non-issue quickly by either blocking or double jumping over it. Sometimes, you can stundipper underneath it to surprise potemkin as well. If he slide heads, airdash HS will earn a combo. If he hammerfalls, depending on your situation, backstep away, do the weird 5S->2S->5HS string to hit him out, or block, in reaction to FRC/hammerfall brake/full hammerfall. As indicated above, basically you are fencing him out and trying to hit him with a ticky-tack if he tries something. Offense You have to attack as if you are a fly trying to attack a flyswatter. Essentially, your play should be riskless, and you should pick up ticky-tack damage off of Potemkin by constantly moving and keeping him guessing, and going for various katame patterns. Especially, on knockdown you should either go for the safe air mixups (e.g. air backdash S), or from a throw, a CSE and then attacking with a katame pattern. One example katame pattern is, from 2D distance 6HS -> jump D/FB D -> air CSE, and occasionally mixing it up with 6HS -> 2D instead. Potemkin has to guess which one you're going to do, and either 6P or block. If he 6Ps and you 2D, you can combo immediately into ground HS SE for good damage, so Potemkin is forced to be somewhat at a watch and wait mode. If he tries for heavenly, you can actually just gold burst in reaction. Another katame pattern is 2S -> 5HS and either SE or not SE. Potemkin has to guess, and if he guesses wrong, you can run up and do it again. You can't really pick up that much damage from this, but again, you are really trying to just ticky tack him to death. Though you have to push the initative when you have it, don't push it too hard. Again, the main concept should be riskless offense by sticking and moving for low damage. Defense The goal is to escape quickly with backstep, or one frame jump and to re-establish your distance back into neutral. However, RTL is also a surprisingly effective option against Potemkin. If Potemkin does a slidehead from half screen distance or less, then that should be an automatic punish with RTL by using the "psychic RTL" trick that I mentioned. For example, if he tries to slide head on your getup, then you can auto wake-up RTL. If he does it off of a 6HS or mirror, IB the 6HS/mirror, then RTL or backstep out. VT FRC is also somewhat awkward for Potemkin to deal with, though this should be used sparingly, and only in reaction to movement or pokes. If you get caught off guard by the slidehead and can't react quickly enough from 6HS/mirror, you can actually DAA or burst to avoid the slidehead, if you time it right. Don't be afraid to part with meter or burst to end Potemkin's offense, as you can pretty much die off of one momentum run. Again, always go for a a stick and move type of play. The first match of this vid is a good guideline as to how Ky should handle this matchup. Overall, this match will be long and drawn out with you hitting potemkin a lot, and potemkin trying to land a haymaker to end the round. Upcoming: Ky v. Ino Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper Offensive Tactics - Sensei's FB mixup (requests) Maybes: (Offensive Tactics - Corner Katame with Ky) (Vid study - Faith (Ky) vs. MSY (Eddie)) (Vid study - Machabo(Ky) vs. Ogawa (Eddie))

I can't really recommend using greed sever purely as a cross up overhead, as the risk/reward isn't really worth it. Especially in the first case, because your opponent is presumably blocking already, so he's not going to be inclined to hit any buttons. That is why it is important to entice your opponent to mash buttons, so you can get a counterhit factor in. I have not tried +R so I do not know. From my understanding of the match vids that I've seen, I think the reason it isn't used is because it's just a knockdown on hit, unless it counterhits. Useful, perhaps, in replacing VT as a defensive option because of its invincibility and because it's safe, but dunno if it's really worth the tension on offense. Especially since the Japanese are not really inclined to mash buttons on defense without a good reason.

Heh, thanks for the kudos. I will await your critique on my upcoming Ky v. Pot, when I get to it. m9(｀･ω･´) BTW, play Aquapazza! That game is a laugh riot. I would like to see the hilarity that you come up with for that game. It also has Tamaki, the best grappler ever made in the history of fighting games. Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Greed Sever A lot of people dismiss Greed Sever as a worthless move, or as a combo only move, especially when watching Japanese match vids, where the move hardly ever seems to make an appearance. Such people dismiss it even to a point where they never use it, and laugh at people who do. And yes, as a straight up overhead, it is quite bad because it's a bright flashy move with Ky screaming "GRREEDO SEBA---!", which many people will block easily. However, it does have some value for counterhitting or attacking whiffed moves. Especially, when your opponent does things like whiffing because of pushblock, IADing too much out of aggressiveness, or pushing a frame advantage situation a little too hard, then it is a perfect opportunity for Greed Sever. The reason you don't see that too often in Japanese match vids is mostly because Japanese players tend not to make these kind of openings, so it's somewhat rarer for Ky to punish such things in a Japanese match, though they do exist. That is also a sign that the Japanese respect the Greed Sever somewhat and try not to let that be an option. So it may be good to either 1) notice when your opponent is hitting too many buttons and pushblock/Greed Sever, or straight greed sever as a yomi, or 2) induce such whiffs with a jab whiff throw/crossover Greed Sever mixup or other tactics. Two examples here from 2:14-2:22, where Slayer was just being way too aggressive and gets caught up in several Greed Severs for his troubles. Some people also try Stun Dipper FRC -> Greed Sever. It seems like a ghetto trick, but there are certain types of people where it will be pretty effective. However, that's more towards understanding Stun Dipper tactics, so I'll explain it then. As I mentioned, it is bad as a straight up overhead, but one exception is when your opponent screws up in an "OH SHIT" moment and defaults towards blocking down back, backdashing or hitting a 2p/2k in a frame neutral/frame disadvantage situation. That is where Greed Sever as a straight overhead may work. 1:45:39-1:45:43 is a hilarious example. Upcoming: Ky v. Potemkin Ky v. Ino Offensive Tactics - Effective use of Stun Dipper (requests) Maybes: (Offensive Tactics - Corner Katame with Ky) (Vid study - Faith (Ky) vs. MSY (Eddie))

WHAT A GREAT GAME! How much does that do?