Okay, I was getting some requests for my thoughts on the Kitana match up. I talked about it on the Kombat Tomb Podcast, but thought I would put it down in this thread too for reference.
I think this match up is 3-7 in Kitana's favor. I will go over the reasons for this.
Kitana's D1 is one of the best moves at keeping characters like Johnny Cage out, who have to use basic movement to get in. It out ranges all of Johnny's normals including D4, B3 and F3. If you think Kitana will D1 and you jump (this is very risky and I don't recommend it whatsoever) she will recover easily in time to block, sometimes even quick enough to D1 anti-air you. There is only two ways Johnny Cage can reasonably deal with D1 keeping his ground game out.
1) Punish D1 whiff with B3. This is something that will only work on Kitanas who are playing sloppy. Being a 6 frame move with incredible range, there is almost no reason to whiff with this. Not a solid strategy versus Kitanas with a good footsie game. You cannot whiff punish D1 the same way you can with other characters, like blowing people up who like to spam D1.
2) Punish D1 on block with B3. I should mention this is extremely hard to do. The window to punish this is small and very awkward/hard to time even on anticipation as the blockstun on D1 is only 1 frame. Doing this on reaction is nearly impossible, if not totally impossible. If react to the fact that you just blocked D1, it is already too late to be hitting B3. Even worse yet, against far/max range D1, if you fail to punish it in time your B3 will WHIFF letting kitana blow you up. In the event you hit this, it will launch kitana nearly 2/3 screen away so you cannot even get a max damage combo. You have to use dash 1, dash 1, dash 1, 44 nutpunch if you launch her with B3 from max range on a D1 punish.
It is possible to use F3 to give yourself a little more time to punish if the D1 is point blank, like if Kitana uses it to get out of pressure. Any further than point blank though, the follow up on F33 will whiff so you must use F32.
Kitana's F2,1 is very good. If thrown out very close, it cannot be walked away from. However, from around sweep distance, Johnny Cage can walk backwards and B3 whiff punish it. This is very useful, but Kitana should not be throwing out F2,1 strings randomly from far distances away. If they choose too, use the opportunity to whiff punish it.
Square boost. This move is what makes Kitana's runaway the best of anyone in the cast, in my opinion. It is only punishable with B3 when done extremely sloppily, about 3/4 screen away or further. It is punishable with shadow kick a little further, and EX shadow kick anywhere on the screen. EX shadow kick knocks the Kitana full screen again, costs one meter, and does 12% damage; not a very useful option in most circumstances. The quick startup makes this move fairly easy to throw out, and extremely good when canceled from moves such as F2. In a nutshell, this makes Kitana one of the hardest characters to keep cornered.
IAF is the glue that holds Kitana's keep away together. If she didn't have this, she would not be able to gain meter quickly, while keeping the opponent out and discouraging/punishing their jumps. She can mix up IAF with her other options such as D1 and F2,1 to keep you guessing. IAF beats everything Johnny Cage does unless he is point blank, aside from EX shadow kick which will often whiff unless you wait for the IAF to be thrown, which causes a 4% trade in your favor at the cost Kitana being knocked full screen again and one meter.
sry
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