KutlessMyth
mental and fundamental
He beats Geras. There, I said it. Now a lot of people are probably thinking that this matchup is nigh carcinogenic. That's because it really is if you don't play it right. Geras can shut down a lot of your options in neutral, not to mention Kung Lao's greatest strength is footsies and whiff punishing, while Geras's greatest strength is not having to care about footsies and giving footsie heavy characters a huge middle finger. I was having a lot of trouble until I recently played a FT20 with a pretty good Geras (infinite warden) online. He captured the first 10 6-10. But when we were about 9-14 I realized some great baits and mindgames that help lao do much in this matchup than most characters. I ended up capturing the FT20 20-14. So here's the tech, because f*** Geras, man.
1.) Divekick punishes his sand trap. This one is mostly on reads or mindgames, but basically I've noticed that when you start to shimmy, bait, or try to play any footsies whatsoever a Geras will use the huge hitbox of that sand trap move to shut you down. I don't actually know exactly what it's called, I've never touched Geras, but it's the one where he sucks you underground from far away, mid range, or close. It has a huge hitbox and you'd probably be lying if you said you don't get caught by it. You can bait it by shimmying or walking a good amount from their mid range of the sand trap. Then you neutral jump, if the bait is successful, you can D4 (AMP if you want to) and punish the sand trap. The D4 will also take out most anti air attempts from that range.
Another mindgame for this is instant air jump 3ing backwards or forwards directly to where he can trip guard you with the trap, and then canceling into dive kick to punish, this one is much riskier, but feels pretty swaggy to pull off.
2.) D3 Oh hell yea, it's that button. Geras has a crap ton of 50/50's and I think one of his variations even has a 33.3/33.3/33.4 (command grab, low, overhead?) that being said Lao's D3 will interrupt any special moves he tries to do for his 50/50's, but will be beaten out by Geras finishing the string/using the string's overhead option. If your D3 hits it ensures an F1, and throw. At that point it's just a read on whether your opponent is neutral ducking or blocking (pressing loses to both in this scenario). This D3 also can be used to keep Geras in a throw loop, but if he gets out then you play at a disadvantage for a while.
3.) Meaty F4 stuffs U2 Getup. Meaty ZHat stuffs U2 and U3 Getups. When I discovered that my meaty f4 could stuff Geras' U2 for optimal combo damage I literally stopped and said "oh hellllll yea". This one is pretty self explanatory, end with enough hit advantage to be able to execute the meaty f4, but I don't think the timing is that tight considering I was pulling it off consistently without ever labbing it. The ZHat is also a safer option if you aren't confident in your timing. If you amp you're about plus 23 which is godly, and if they woke up then they just got knocked back down because of the praise lord hallelujah active frames of zhat. D3 Oki can also stuff both of his wakeups, but the timing is much tighter, and the mindgame is risky. But once they start respecting the F4 meaty you can start throw looping them off knockdown, which is Lao's specialty in my opinion.
This should probably be lightly referenced in wherever Lao's matchup thread is but I think, that he actually does sufficiently against Geras. It's most likely 5-5, but I feel like it's ever so slightly tipped in Lao's favor. Unlike most characters who lose to this beast of a character known as Geras.
1.) Divekick punishes his sand trap. This one is mostly on reads or mindgames, but basically I've noticed that when you start to shimmy, bait, or try to play any footsies whatsoever a Geras will use the huge hitbox of that sand trap move to shut you down. I don't actually know exactly what it's called, I've never touched Geras, but it's the one where he sucks you underground from far away, mid range, or close. It has a huge hitbox and you'd probably be lying if you said you don't get caught by it. You can bait it by shimmying or walking a good amount from their mid range of the sand trap. Then you neutral jump, if the bait is successful, you can D4 (AMP if you want to) and punish the sand trap. The D4 will also take out most anti air attempts from that range.
Another mindgame for this is instant air jump 3ing backwards or forwards directly to where he can trip guard you with the trap, and then canceling into dive kick to punish, this one is much riskier, but feels pretty swaggy to pull off.
2.) D3 Oh hell yea, it's that button. Geras has a crap ton of 50/50's and I think one of his variations even has a 33.3/33.3/33.4 (command grab, low, overhead?) that being said Lao's D3 will interrupt any special moves he tries to do for his 50/50's, but will be beaten out by Geras finishing the string/using the string's overhead option. If your D3 hits it ensures an F1, and throw. At that point it's just a read on whether your opponent is neutral ducking or blocking (pressing loses to both in this scenario). This D3 also can be used to keep Geras in a throw loop, but if he gets out then you play at a disadvantage for a while.
3.) Meaty F4 stuffs U2 Getup. Meaty ZHat stuffs U2 and U3 Getups. When I discovered that my meaty f4 could stuff Geras' U2 for optimal combo damage I literally stopped and said "oh hellllll yea". This one is pretty self explanatory, end with enough hit advantage to be able to execute the meaty f4, but I don't think the timing is that tight considering I was pulling it off consistently without ever labbing it. The ZHat is also a safer option if you aren't confident in your timing. If you amp you're about plus 23 which is godly, and if they woke up then they just got knocked back down because of the praise lord hallelujah active frames of zhat. D3 Oki can also stuff both of his wakeups, but the timing is much tighter, and the mindgame is risky. But once they start respecting the F4 meaty you can start throw looping them off knockdown, which is Lao's specialty in my opinion.
This should probably be lightly referenced in wherever Lao's matchup thread is but I think, that he actually does sufficiently against Geras. It's most likely 5-5, but I feel like it's ever so slightly tipped in Lao's favor. Unlike most characters who lose to this beast of a character known as Geras.
