Kano VS Kabal

[D.Barrett]

Personally I never had trouble with this match up untill the patching occurred. But now i do. Slow knifes, slow up ball. I have no answer to his rushdown and the only thing i can do from full screen is well timed knifes and straight ball to punish saw blade on reaction. But once i start to punish saw blade, a smart Kabal will just sit back and build mete till he feels like rushing in. With that F+3,2 dash cancel string and i cant seem to figure out how to stop that. And teching throws is impossible in this game cuz its all luck unlike SSF4. So does anyone have any tips to handle Kabal when he rushes you down? Cuz just like the Kung Lao match up i feel like Kano is just too slow to deal with this.

 

[Badboy Takuma]

imo the only thing u can do is trade his shit with ur knifes, u will be ahead if u do it with brain!
airball his shit, and trade, dont let him come to u, the smart use of enhanced knifes is very useful here.

bait his enhanced dash, and punish hard.

if he rushdown, upball or throw, in this match i throw a lot.

i feel kano is in lil advantage here, in this match

 

[Embarq85]

<----------Kabal player

I hate Kano. Do everything to prevent comment above me.

 

[Badboy Takuma]

i hate kabal with a passion

 

[Sao87]

If the Kabal isn't mixing up his dash strings then you have an easier window to reverse pressure. Look for the run and respond d1 xx choke or up ball. Kabal's have a tendency to be more trigger happy with their ex runs when you push them towards a corner so just stay close and block a little bit more than normal. Zoning is just something you will have to deal with, knives won't do much for you here since its a lot easier for him to build meter and win the projectile war. Don't spend so much time trying to counter his projectiles just try to stay at a mid range and use the range on your normals to win the mid range war.

 

[MagicMan357]

kabal's zoning needs a nerf im sorry but it does

He has advantage over everybody to the point where its sickening

 

[M2Dave]

imo the only thing u can do is trade his shit with ur knifes, u will be ahead if u do it with brain!
airball his shit, and trade, dont let him come to u, the smart use of enhanced knifes is very useful here.

bait his enhanced dash, and punish hard.

if he rushdown, upball or throw, in this match i throw a lot.

i feel kano is in lil advantage here, in this match

Kano cannot trade projectiles with Kabal. Kano's knife is no match for the instant aerial gas blast, and airball is useless against aerial projectiles. Also, good Kabal players do buzzsaws from the dash which is difficult to react to and punish. Up ball is good but easily punishable on block with f+4~dash.

Kabal wins the projectile war. Kabal wins the up close battle. Kabal controls the entire screen very well with instant aerial gas blast, buzzsaws, and dash cancels. This is a difficult fight for Kano. It really is for almost all characters.

 

[KanoSlayedYou]

MY KANO DOESN'T EVEN SWEAT WHEN HE PLAYS A KABAL.​

​

 

[MagicMan357]

MY KANO DOESN'T EVEN SWEAT WHEN HE PLAYS A KABAL.​

​

you play shitty kabals

 

[Embarq85]

i hate kabal with a passion

lol

kabal's zoning needs a nerf im sorry but it does

He has advantage over everybody to the point where its sickening

No. Let's not nerf Kabal for the 55th time. Zoning and mix ups are what he has left. 24 hit combos with xray @ 45%. We've taken the atrocious damage scaling, so let's just leave Kabal alone. Lol.

Kano cannot trade projectiles with Kabal. Kano's knife is no match for the instant aerial gas blast, and airball is useless against aerial projectiles. Also, good Kabal players do buzzsaws from the dash which is difficult to react to and punish. Up ball is good but easily punishable on block with f+4~dash.

Kabal wins the projectile war. Kabal wins the up close battle. Kabal controls the entire screen very well with instant aerial gas blast, buzzsaws, and dash cancels. This is a difficult fight for Kano. It really is for almost all characters.

Well-said. I still hate Kano.

 

[MagicMan357]

i agree with kabals piss poor damage scaling but im talking about his advantage its really retarded

 

[The Joker]

Well i main BOTH KABAL and KANO.Love them both.

IMO in a match like this KABAL does have a slight ZONING upperhand,since a trade up of buzzsaw vs knife will usually end in kano eating the buzzsaw and Kabal blocking the knife (Kabal's buzzsaw recovery is pretty good).

It all comes to efficient timing and trying to predict KABAL.Also small spam waves of upball at close range usually deals some good chip damage + if you vary the number enough the opponent will try to counter only to find out you did another upball.(dont do more than 1-3,you will get your ass handed out...)

Also use mixups and get CLOSE to KABAL so when he does the ND and tries to cancell it he will have less space to do so.(This trying to get him miss a cancel and bounce on a sucessful block)
As with ANY character,if your opponent is more skilled than you, will probably loose.

KANO vs KABAL, less kombo , +punishment.It works for me at least....It can be boring playing so overdefensively,but Kano can do defense,and it works.

 

[NogunYesknife]

I am SOO tired of people saying kabal is OP at zoning. hes not. "IAGB beats every thing". Well yeah, maybe if it hit 100% of the time it would? I swear. Ias only hit MAYBE 40% of the time you do them. go watch online tony or Michelangelo. They only hit if the opponent jumps. And dont even get me started on his Block trap. Its SOOO DANG EASY TO JUMP OUT OF. Kabal is by far the hardest character to use effectively. And i dont want him to be patched just because a bunch of idiots dont know how to read their opponents.

 

[The Joker]

I am SOO tired of people saying kabal is OP at zoning. hes not. "IAGB beats every thing". Well yeah, maybe if it hit 100% of the time it would? I swear. Ias only hit MAYBE 40% of the time you do them. go watch online tony or Michelangelo. They only hit if the opponent jumps. And dont even get me started on his Block trap. Its SOOO DANG EASY TO JUMP OUT OF. Kabal is by far the hardest character to use effectively. And i dont want him to be patched just because a bunch of idiots dont know how to read their opponents.

THIS ^^^^^^ but less mean.hahahahahahahhahahahaha....

 

[BEENEEWEENEES]

Well i main BOTH KABAL and KANO.Love them both.

IMO in a match like this KABAL does have a slight ZONING upperhand,since a trade up of buzzsaw vs knife will usually end in kano eating the buzzsaw and Kabal blocking the knife (Kabal's buzzsaw recovery is pretty good).

It all comes to efficient timing and trying to predict KABAL.Also small spam waves of upball at close range usually deals some good chip damage + if you vary the number enough the opponent will try to counter only to find out you did another upball.(dont do more than 1-3,you will get your ass handed out...)

Also use mixups and get CLOSE to KABAL so when he does the ND and tries to cancell it he will have less space to do so.(This trying to get him miss a cancel and bounce on a sucessful block)
As with ANY character,if your opponent is more skilled than you, will probably loose.

KANO vs KABAL, less kombo , +punishment.It works for me at least....It can be boring playing so overdefensively,but Kano can do defense,and it works.

upball is no longer safe, doing just one can make you eat a combo, much less doing "small spam waves" of them.

 

[Massive Kano]

I am SOO tired of people saying kabal is OP at zoning. hes not. "IAGB beats every thing".

You're not really describing the complaint very well. The combination of IAGB and instant, unstuffable fast ground saw is the real issue.

 

[The Joker]

upball is no longer safe, doing just one can make you eat a combo, much less doing "small spam waves" of them.

I agree its not safe, but its not 100% ineffective either.To counter upball some level of skill is needed and not everyplayer has it. I understand you point ,but vs Kabal,nothing is a safe bet,so you might as well try it sometimes at least to piss the fuck off your opponent and get some tasty hate mail.

 

[D.Barrett]

I agree its not safe, but its not 100% ineffective either.To counter upball some level of skill is needed and not everyplayer has it. I understand you point ,but vs Kabal,nothing is a safe bet,so you might as well try it sometimes at least to piss the fuck off your opponent and get some tasty hate mail.

I appreciate the info from everyone on this match up but i must point out that im not playing online at all, nor do i care about hate mail buddy. I just wanna dominate with Kano, or play the match up in a way that can help me handle "good" kabals. I dont play kabal and i learned his block infinite among other things. Doing dash block mix ups isnt too hard, and when i sit there and turtle because i have no options to handle this he just gains meter and takes out the throw when he's ready.

It seems that zoning is the best way to play this match, even if i dont think its very successful against Kabal.

 

[MagicMan357]

I appreciate the info from everyone on this match up but i must point out that im not playing online at all, nor do i care about hate mail buddy. I just wanna dominate with Kano, or play the match up in a way that can help me handle "good" kabals. I dont play kabal and i learned his block infinite among other things. Doing dash block mix ups isnt too hard, and when i sit there and turtle because i have no options to handle this he just gains meter and takes out the throw when he's ready.

It seems that zoning is the best way to play this match, even if i dont think its very successful against Kabal.

Thats what i try to do but all he has to do is Ex-dash

 

[EGP Awesomo]

Now.....I aint no Kano scientust or nuffin, but I literally picked him up last week for the soul purpose of countering Kabal(Johnny is my main). And Ive had so much fun using him. Ive had some success against kabal, and all it really comes out to is baiting EX Dash and up balling everything they do. Now take this with a grain of salt since Im not THAT good with Kano yet, but the only Kabals I have played are Teabag(He taught me the match up) and Online Tony(the guy who told me Kano is Kabals counter) and so far im not doing to bad

 

[D.Barrett]

Now.....I aint no Kano scientust or nuffin, but I literally picked him up last week for the soul purpose of countering Kabal(Johnny is my main). And Ive had so much fun using him. Ive had some success against kabal, and all it really comes out to is baiting EX Dash and up balling everything they do. Now take this with a grain of salt since Im not THAT good with Kano yet, but the only Kabals I have played are Teabag(He taught me the match up) and Online Tony(the guy who told me Kano is Kabals counter) and so far im not doing to bad

Well Kano isnt too hard to pick up and is a pretty straight forward character. Glad your having success and enjoying his style. And well i cant say i agree that kano counters kabal. the only thing he counters is saw blade and thats all i can find. Dont jump, use instant gas ball for meter. Rush in when your tired of zoning, run away when your tired or rushing in. Its not hard to run all over kano when you shut down his options and avoid the few moves he can punish.

 

[Crathen]

Okay guys , let me breakdown how you can bypass Kabals zoning game to close the distance and stop making him spam Iagb:

Dash Poke.Simple as that.What is dash poking? If you need to close the distance and to stop Kabals' meter gain&chip/zoning damage just dash and do your fastest recovery poke (wich usually is d3 ) , now in 1 move you are shutting down 50% of Kabals zoning game wich only leaves him the option of the buzzsaw ( wich is easily jumped from fullscreen , throwing BS when the opponent is at jump distance isnt that smart move from a Kabal player since A) Fast Advancing specials can punish BS B) It can be jumped and get a full Jip combo ) , standard gas ball is one of the worst projectiles in the game and it doesnt hit crouch pokes and has horrible recovery ( punishable by almost jump distance ) , i might create another topic in the Kabal subforum explaining the weaknesses of Kabal and proving he has more than 2 or 3 bad matchups.

On the Kano side , here's how ya kill Kabal from fullscreen/midscreen ( assuming you are dash poking/avoiding Iagb ):

- Dash poke to avoid chip dmg and meter buillding
-Punish BS with Ball
- AA jumpins with 1 -> dash 212 -> dash b12 upball for 24% dmg ( dunno maybe Kano players prefer ending with choke for oki )

From upclose the battle is 5-5 , don't spam upballs since Kabal can punish those with 21 or f4 into full combo and reset , Kano has his throw/overhead/low mixup game and choke in the middle of strings to get frame advantage.

PS: Dont judge from effing online

 

[D.Barrett]

Okay guys , let me breakdown how you can bypass Kabals zoning game to close the distance and stop making him spam Iagb:

Dash Poke.Simple as that.What is dash poking? If you need to close the distance and to stop Kabals' meter gain&chip/zoning damage just dash and do your fastest recovery poke (wich usually is d3 ) , now in 1 move you are shutting down 50% of Kabals zoning game wich only leaves him the option of the buzzsaw ( wich is easily jumped from fullscreen , throwing BS when the opponent is at jump distance isnt that smart move from a Kabal player since A) Fast Advancing specials can punish BS B) It can be jumped and get a full Jip combo ) , standard gas ball is one of the worst projectiles in the game and it doesnt hit crouch pokes and has horrible recovery ( punishable by almost jump distance ) , i might create another topic in the Kabal subforum explaining the weaknesses of Kabal and proving he has more than 2 or 3 bad matchups.

On the Kano side , here's how ya kill Kabal from fullscreen/midscreen ( assuming you are dash poking/avoiding Iagb ):

- Dash poke to avoid chip dmg and meter buillding
-Punish BS with Ball
- AA jumpins with 1 -> dash 212 -> dash b12 upball for 24% dmg ( dunno maybe Kano players prefer ending with choke for oki )

From upclose the battle is 5-5 , don't spam upballs since Kabal can punish those with 21 or f4 into full combo and reset , Kano has his throw/overhead/low mixup game and choke in the middle of strings to get frame advantage.

PS: Dont judge from effing online

Ill give the dash poking a try. i love abusing dash D+3 into grabs or B+1 for pressure. Like i said any tips are welcome, im just trying to get ideas on what to do. I just hate getting run over in both zoning and rush, if kano has no options that i can find ill swap characters just so can move on in the brackets. The biggest issue i have with online is. they dont have the ability to react due to lag. if your playing a good kabal offline, he will nomad dash your overhead on reaction, or maybe Eric Warda is just that good. Either way, if your moves constantly get stuffed and punish, avoid them, and when i run out of options on what to do i turtle. And thus i get grabbed, and teching throws is really really tough in this game, so i have no idea what to do but take my chances with zoning.

No disrespect, im just explaining the situation, thing outside of beating people online, and look at taking out tourny players that know their characters like the back of their hand. My lack of knowledge in this match up is what kills me. I only know one thing, saw gets raped by straight ball. dash block then ball. i need more to work with if i want to kill kabal and rip out his heart lol

 

[M2Dave]

Using d+3 is a smart anti-zoning strategy that works against almost all projectiles, but Kabal has ways around d+3. If Kabal is full screen away, he can dash and force a reaction out of his opponent. For example, he can dash and cancel into the buzzsaw which is much more difficult to react to than if he were doing a stand-alone buzzsaw. He can dash and do IAGBs (instant aerial gas blasts) again. He can dash and start pressuring with f+3,2. He can also do a wild full screen dash if you are dashing and doing d+3 predictably.

Kano is usually the one who has to approach Kabal while Kabal is building meter safely from a distance, and most match ups in MK are won by those characters who can build meter more reliably. More meter translates to more combo breakers which allow the player to make more mistakes and take more risks and still have a chance at victory. As I have already said, Kabal wins the projectile war. Kabal wins the up close battle. You may as well use Kung Lao against Kabal. Kung Lao gets zoned as easy as Kano, but at least he has the advantage up close. Or you may as well pick Freddy. Obviously, Freddy is weak up close, but he does not have to deal with the IAGB and buzzsaw nonsense. Reptile is another alternative who fights Kabal well. If you are trying to beat Kabal, there are better options than Kano out there. Just keepin' it real.

 

[ADR Napalm]

Kabal doesn't give me a whole lot of trouble anymore, I can trade games with the best minus Erik Warda but that's only because I haven't played against him. I can even win most zone wars vs GOOD Kabal users. An occasional jump down ball and getting back into zoning works wonders and gives you assurance for life lead.

Only issue I have vs Kabal is starting combos because of EN Dash.

That and I think the hit box on his gas balls are too big.