Kitana Matchup Discussion Thread

[xWildx]

I didn’t see this anywhere (shockingly) so I thought I’d create it. Discuss as you will.

Matchups.
Numbers.
Tech.
Strat.
You name it.

I’ll start. How the fuck does Kitana deal with Cetrion using Spring Cleaning? I feel like Highborn is damn near mandatory to learn for this MU alone.

 

[gitblame]

Semiij vs Dragon played that matchup multiple times. You just rush it down and jump and you will win or die by it.

 

[HapHaxion]

I've heard Kitana might do well against Liu Kang; what do you all think?

 

[gitblame]

She can make his F43 whiff if you block first hit standing then crouch block.

 

[Elias6999]

Highborn really saves some matchups, as i’ve noticed recently, especially Cetrion and Sub Zero!

 

[Rozalin1780]

She can make his F43 whiff if you block first hit standing then crouch block.

Similarly, you can make the third kick of f3333 whiff if you crouch block the entire string from a distance other than point blank range. It whiffing allows you to punish with d2, 12, or even b14 if you’re quick enough.

 

[Rozalin1780]

While making my punishment guide, I discovered that Kitana can forward dash under the third hit of Cetrion’s f234 string. I figured that most characters can do this, or at the very least, female characters. Apparently, Kitana is only one of three characters in the game that can do this (the other two being Sonya and Frost). While this string is punishable on block with 12, it is a 1 frame window. Dashing under allows you to punish with b14 for bigger damage.

 

[Vastly]

So far I think Sub Zero (Especially with slide variation), Jade, Scorpion, and Cassie have been some of my hardest match-ups with Kitana.

 

[Under_The_Mayo]

She can make his F43 whiff if you block first hit standing then crouch block.

I recently discovered this on my own yesterday. Bad ass.

 

[xKhaoTik]

Highborn really saves some matchups, as i’ve noticed recently, especially Cetrion and Sub Zero!

Cetrion yes. Sub not so much

So far I think Sub Zero (Especially with slide variation), Jade, Scorpion, and Cassie have been some of my hardest match-ups with Kitana.

Scorpion is even. Highborn against jade is even as well. Cassie is a nightmare tho

 

[Vastly]

Cetrion yes. Sub not so much

Scorpion is even. Highborn against jade is even as well. Cassie is a nightmare though

I still need to learn high born. I just picked Kitana up a week ago. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[KutlessMyth]

im having trouble with kabal

 

[ChaseRLewis]

What makes highborne better vs Jade?

 

[kevkopdx]

What makes highborne better vs Jade?

Maybe if you can teleport punish glow on reaction? I’ve never played that variation

 

[xKhaoTik]

Maybe if you can teleport punish glow on reaction? I’ve never played that variation

Glow, low spark and straight glaive get punished on reaction by her teleport. Up glaive is meh because kitana shouldn’t be jumping anyways and there’s no reason to teleport punish it since it won’t hit you on the ground.

So you take away Jade’s best tools and now she’s forced to stay in. Granted Kitana still can’t zone her either so it becomes a footsies match.

Kitana can literally sit in her stance from a distance and just react to anything jade does since shadow kick won’t reach.

 

[swordiris]

How do I deal with Scorpions 3 or 4 wakeup attack on read? On block it is only minus 2 and he goes straight into jabbing down 1s taking his turn back. Some wakeups I can stuff out on read but scorpions I just can't. Tried everything in the lab. Only thing I got was a forward jumpkick which doesn't feel good because it gets him out of the corner.

 

[xWildx]

Shimmy in front of him for the bait then punish with a b2 into full combo.

 

[ChaseRLewis]

You can't stuff u3 reversals. Kitana can low profile some with d3 but not scorpions. Backdash into b2 or float right outside of range to fake the meaty jump attack and punish with j.2 punish.

 

[DarksydeDash]

I was literally just thinking we needed this, lol.

So thank you for creating it!

After playing both Fanservice and Highborne against the game's cast, I present to you my first rough draft of a MU chart, (subject to change obviously):

Baraka: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Cassie: 4-6 Highborne, 4-6 Fanservice

Cetrion: 4-6 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

D'vorah: 6-4 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Erron Black: 3-7 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Geras: 4-6 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Jacqui: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Frost: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Jade: 4-6 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Jax: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Johnny: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kabal: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kano: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kitana Highborne vs Fanservice: 5-5, Kitana Fanservice vs Fanservice: 5-5, Highborne vs Highborne: CANCER

Kotal Kahn: 6-4 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Kollector: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kung Lao: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Lui Kang: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Noob Saibot: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Raiden: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Scorpion: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Shang: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne (early IK, but feels very even and depends on life lead for both).

Shao Kahn: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Skarlet: 4-6 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Sonya: 4-6 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Sub Zero: 3-7 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne



As always, I encourage you all to ask questions and chime in with your own thoughts. In my opinion Kitana is one of the few characters in the game where her variations' tools make a huge difference (and god forbid if we get low fan toss in her next one). That said, you still gotta out play your opponent, hence why she has lots of 5-5 MUs.

 

[xWildx]

I was literally just thinking we needed this, lol.

So thank you for creating it!

After playing both Fanservice and Highborne against the game's cast, I present to you my first rough draft of a MU chart, (subject to change obviously):

Baraka: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Cassie: 4-6 Highborne, 4-6 Fanservice

Cetrion: 4-6 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

D'vorah: 6-4 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Erron Black: 3-7 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Geras: 4-6 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Jacqui: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Frost: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Jade: 4-6 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Jax: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Johnny: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kabal: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kano: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kitana Highborne vs Fanservice: 5-5, Kitana Fanservice vs Fanservice: 5-5, Highborne vs Highborne: CANCER

Kotal Kahn: 6-4 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Kollector: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kung Lao: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Lui Kang: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Noob Saibot: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Raiden: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Scorpion: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Shang: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne (early IK, but feels very even and depends on life lead for both).

Shao Kahn: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Skarlet: 4-6 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Sonya: 4-6 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Sub Zero: 3-7 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne



As always, I encourage you all to ask questions and chime in with your own thoughts. In my opinion Kitana is one of the few characters in the game where her variations' tools make a huge difference (and god forbid if we get low fan toss in her next one). That said, you still gotta out play your opponent, hence why she has lots of 5-5 MUs.

I actually agree with pretty much all of this. I personally think Fanservice struggles a LOT against Jade, but time will tell.

 

[swordiris]

Thank you wild. Takes some practice but I think I am getting it. He has been the roughest matchup for me so far.

 

[EMPRESS_SunFire]

I honestly feel like Jade is 5-5 vs Fan-Fare. Did you guys know that you can actually do square boost on reaction against her los soark? It takes a lot of practice but it’s very doable, I just think most people get really annoyed by Jade and start making a lot of mistakes, I feel like you have to play this MU extremely slow and obviously square boost is good as a check to most things she does, not to mention that you can react to her jumping into air glaive and jump back into square boost, it will trade or beat her.

Same with Skarlet, I used to think this was 4-6 but Kitana can easily use Square Boost over blood trail, in this case it’s sooo easy since blood trail is slower than Jade’s low spark. Doing empty jumps midscreen against Skarlet is also extremely good since you can react to tentacle and blood trail and punish her with square boost.

I honestly feel like both are even, I could see Jade being losing but I am optimistic on this one.

 

[EMPRESS_SunFire]

I was literally just thinking we needed this, lol.

So thank you for creating it!

After playing both Fanservice and Highborne against the game's cast, I present to you my first rough draft of a MU chart, (subject to change obviously):

Baraka: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Cassie: 4-6 Highborne, 4-6 Fanservice

Cetrion: 4-6 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

D'vorah: 6-4 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Erron Black: 3-7 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Geras: 4-6 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Jacqui: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Frost: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Jade: 4-6 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Jax: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Johnny: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kabal: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kano: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kitana Highborne vs Fanservice: 5-5, Kitana Fanservice vs Fanservice: 5-5, Highborne vs Highborne: CANCER

Kotal Kahn: 6-4 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Kollector: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Kung Lao: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Lui Kang: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Noob Saibot: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Raiden: 6-4 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne

Scorpion: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Shang: 5-5 Fanservice, 5-5 Highborne (early IK, but feels very even and depends on life lead for both).

Shao Kahn: 5-5 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Skarlet: 4-6 Fanservice, 6-4 Highborne

Sonya: 4-6 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne

Sub Zero: 3-7 Fanservice, 4-6 Highborne



As always, I encourage you all to ask questions and chime in with your own thoughts. In my opinion Kitana is one of the few characters in the game where her variations' tools make a huge difference (and god forbid if we get low fan toss in her next one). That said, you still gotta out play your opponent, hence why she has lots of 5-5 MUs.

I think Geras is 5-5 for Fan-Fare, like I actually thought Kitana beat him for a long time but now I really think it’s even.
They key to this MU IMO is having instant air fan toss down to kinda keep him out, Kitana can also d3 or d2 him out of the second hit of f212

As for Jacqui, I really think she loses in Fan-Fare against 1st around KO, easily! Kitana’s zoning can only take you so far, and once Jacqui is in it’s a nightmare, Kitana’s best option up close is her d3 and it has happened to me a lot of times that Jacqui’s f3 actually high crushes her d3 for some weird reason so it pretty much feels like endless pressure.

 

[EMPRESS_SunFire]

She can make his F43 whiff if you block first hit standing then crouch block.

That is AMAZING in the MU.
I used to have Liu Kang beating her but when that was discovered I have it as 5-5 now.

This match-up is super weird because they kinda make their stuff whiff against each other.

Trying to blow up f4 standing is gonna leave you open to his low and throws get harder to react to.

Also he can do literally The same to her b14 string, if he blocks B1 standing and the first hit of b1(4) low, the third hit whiffs and he gets a full combo punish.

 

[Rozalin1780]

While I agree with nearly everything Darksydedash said, I have to agree with EMPRESS_SunFire on the Jade MU. It feels quite even to me once the Jade player stops trying to lame you out due to taking a few asses to the face

Spoiler

giggity

.

I do feel like Skarlet is a losing MU for fanservice. While you can square wave over blood trail, I feel like Skarlet doesn’t have to use it at all to keep you out.

Sub Zero is a losing MU, but I think 3-7 might be excessive. When I think 3-7, I think HQT Predator in MKX and this doesn’t feel that bad, or even as bad as MKX Sub Zero for that matter. But then, I haven’t played Pig, so maybe that’s why.