I don't think Guiles ability to fight top tier makes him top tier
Ibuki is the strongest character I've used in this game which doesn't mean much because Juri and F.A.N.G are terrible but she does have tools. V-trigger set-ups in the corner, raida negating backroll, oki off a throw in the corner, very difficult but confirmable st.mk target combo that covers 1/3 of the screen and air resets and then command dash which in this game is more legit than Ken run and Laura v-skill
It's interesting you've found her dashes useful, once someone adjusts to them they become a liability, unless you can another the other guy so much he's just terrified to hit a button. comparing them to Ken's run isn't fair though.. he gets WAY more mileage out of his run in pressure and in extended combo damage than Ibuki does.
The st.mk TC is ok I guess.. It has great corner carry, I won't dispute that.. but the only time your landing a st.mk is a punish, a meaty or a loose-ish frame trap. It's 5f startup and -1 on block, so yes, off a st.mp (just one, and close, otherwise the push back is too much) your +2, so it's doable but you aren't going to land this often. If you land the.mk and move in to the TC you do get to continue pressure if you mk.dash and if you've pushed them into the corner you get a choice of options, you can cancel into the HK.dash and lk (I can't remember if mk works or not) and depending on how you time it, it will crossup, but you'll land in front, or you can hesitate and you'll crossup and land in back. Its super tricky until they see it a xouple times. It's reactable once they know to always block crossup and just wait a sec to see where YOU land and if I'm not mistaken the crossup but land in front option requires hitting it so early that I'd they block.it, you land at disadvantage.
She has stuff, and for running through online short set stuff, she's 'ok' because a lot of people just aren't familiar with her little oddities and you can get away with a ton of shit. Just dashing and mixup throw/TC gets insane mileage wheb they don't realize how negative you are.
But unfortunately, against good players, or at least players who know Ibuki, her tricks don't work. You'll have to just play a more straight up game and her short normals, low damage, insanely resource intensive kit, lower health and general lacklusterness is going to cause problems. Her vtrigger also requires a hit confirm to make decent use of unless you're in the corner and the list goes on.
I WANT to like Ibuki. But for all intents and purposes she's garbage. There are some Ibuki players like MajorBoy and Rom that are quite solid, but they are good as players and are winning because they are good at the game . They'd be having the same, or more, success on almost any other character.
You mentioned Juri and listed Ibuki as being better than her.. I heavily disagree. I've tried to main both of them and I found way more success with Juri. Low fireball gives her an in for pressure Ibuki totally lacks without spending meter, her dp is better, her vtrigger is way way more universally useful, her VSkill is still meh, but better than Ibuki's, her damage is (not by much) higher. Etc.
I'm in no way making the argument that Juri is 'strong' in a general sense, just that I think she's much stronger than Ibuki.
Ibuki suffers from situational excellence. In certain situations, with certain stipulations and specific conditions, Ibuki can so work. She can maul. She just needs these situations to excel and in a dynamic and moving environment with a myriad of factors beyond your control, you simply cannot set these situations up on a regular basis.
I.mean, Ibuki can convert a wakeup dp into 284 damage and it's hitconfirmable. Shit, that sounds dope.right? So that once or twice and no one is going to risk pressure on your wakeup! Only it requires two bars, all your kunai (you get a guaranteed reload of three though.. I don't know if, say Guile could punish with ex boom..) and only works on certain portions of the screen. Too close to the corner and it wont work.
Situational excellence. Sigh.
