Liu kang's dragon's fire variation IMO is hands down the best variation Liu has. He's got practically a safe fly kick, late MB specials that are great for combos and chase downs, and fireballs that recover pretty quick
Footsies/play style:
In this variation liu kang can control the neutral very well with low fireball. Its got pretty decent recover and could pressure the opponent enough to jump.
Liu Kang can bait jumps and anti air uppercut. IMO Liu Kang has one of the best uppercuts in the game. You can also make jump ins whiff and then punish them with a f44, OH b2 or grab. Armored moves like armored double kick are good for anti airs as well. Stay away from using armored dragons roar for anti airs because sometimes it whiff them and leaves you vulnerable for a punish. One unique asset to this variation is Liu's fireball cancels. Liu has ALOT of cancel strings that are plus on block. I'll get into which ones to use when and how to pressure later on.
Liu Kang does not have Kung Jin mixups with OH and Lows but he does have pressure mixups that are incredibly good and prolly on the same level of intensity as the 50/50s other characters have. Between his neutral strings like f21, b34, 111 and some of the cancels, liu can put crazy pressure on you and force you to press buttons or mash out armor moves which he can stuff for full combos.
Liu Kangs pressure and how to apply mixups:
First off let me give you the liu of fireball cancel strings that are plus on block. Note: every string I'm about to list grants at least a b34 followup afterwards. B34 is ~12 or 13 frame startup I believe? Its pretty slow but point is these cancel strings leave you at a significant advantage on block.
List of plus on block fireball RUN cancel strings:
B3
B34 (after second hit)
B34 (after third hit)
F213 can
F44
112
B33
44
I tested f4 after the 1st and 2nd hit but completely forgot if they were advantage.... I'll update this when I retest.
String that is advantage after a normal fireball DASH cancel:
F213
Now f213 is really special. It is the only fireball run cancel that is a true blockstring and also the only normal dash cancel that is plus on block.
Fireball run cancel strings that combo on hit:
112
F44
B12
B1
B3
B34 (after second hit)
4
F1
F12
Strings that are neutral on block:
F21
111
B34
3
If anymore I may have forgotten, I will update.
Now how to apply this pressure you may ask? Well Liu kang has a really really great normal that breaks pretty much every 1 hit absorbing armored moves. Key is to pressure them to death so you can get them to armor out and then when they attempt to do so, break it with b12 and get your combo. You can also pressure them on knockdown because b12 eats up their armored wakeup attacks
Pressure applications:
Like cage in MK9, liu pressure with lots of normals that are neutral on block and staggers some to bait players that react slow to mixups. However liu has meterless frame traps that can lock your opponent down.
Examples of pressure/mixup w explaination:
B34, f44 or b34 fireball cancel f44
How does this mixup work? You use a neutral on block string like b34 to pressure your opponent. It is fast on recovery and if your opponent hesitates, you can get the f44 off.
If they decide to try and interrupt you after b34 and you read them, you can fireball run cancel into f44 and you will stuff out any sort of poke or normal attack.
NOTE: When you condition your opponents on the frame traps, you can start ,grabbing or throwing out the overhead.