Baraka Match Ups

[xSkeletonSmasherx69]

Jax definitely wins this matchup (6-4). I am a firm believer of that. Baraka may get 40% off and throw what like 2 or 3 blade sparks, but he's back in after that. It's so hard to deal with pressure.

 

[ColdBoreMK23]

I think a good Jade gives Baraka a hard time, at least for me. Any tips?

 

[Dreamcatcher]

I think Baraka v Jax is 6-4

I agree with that. Gunshow vs. Tweedy, great set to check out if any of you haven’t seen it yet.

 

[Chi-khan]

I think a good Jade gives Baraka a hard time, at least for me. Any tips?

Shes tricky but super punishable & she cant keep up damage wise with maruader. D4 is one of her best moves because it creates a ton of space. B4 after you block her d4. If shes jumping or throwing a lot of air glaives, read it with jd1~f4 etc. Her green kick is high so duck and shit on it if they're throwing it out willy nilly. Scrub jades will meter burn green kick on block to try and mix your punish. You can option select by timing your 112 with the meter burn sound and if they dont meter burn you'll punish and if they do, you'll, turn around and inturrupt the second hit. Try and stay within b2 range in case they jump/start glowing. Shes tricky but I think baraka-flocka-flame has the edge here. Lab them punishes guuurrrrllll

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

Is this matchup in Jaxs Favor, Barakas Favor or even?
On one hand Baraka(Marauder) has awesome range with his buttons F212 and F4 DF1/3.
Above average zoning and great close up with the best jailing from pokes in the game. Not to mention inssine damage from each touch.

Jax(Hunker Down) is great at footsie range and above average close up with limited zoning until heated up but has BF2 and Fatal blow for range and his Fatal Blow heats him up and sets up KB and facilitates clutch.

I think they are relatively even but a friend thinks its in Jaxs favor so I'm asking TYM.

 

[Chi-khan]

I'd say it's in jax favor but only slightly. 4.5 - 5.5. The reason is because HD jax gets to do what he wants regardless and all of the pressure is on you to stop him/make reads.

It's tough for baraka to stay in optimal range because of amp dash punch. It's also difficult to stay up close because of jax 9frame true mid, f33. Full screen is pretty even considering the damage of both projectiles is the same but jaxs projectile knocks down & his amplified ground pound is +2 on block.

As baraka, you really have to practice flawless block punishing his overheads. If you cant do that consistantly you're probably going to lose. The idea is that you want him to start thinking twice about throwing out save overheads all the time. The downside is that you get significantly less damage by flawless punishing & you come off defensive AND offensive bar to do it. But again, it's more for conditioning than for damage.

Once they accept that they cant just throw out safe overheads they are going to try and stagger f2 & f33. When they do that, you want to inturrupt their throw attempts with 112 for big damage. The downside here is that they are going to mix up with the low and stagger d1, d3,d4 to beat your high starting 11. You just have to live with this. Try and read the low if you can an punish with f4. Whatever damage you take for eating a few d1s is irrelevant if you land 1 combo.

You really have to play the percentages on the match up and live with a lot of bull shit. there is plenty of room to out play jax, but like I said, it's all up to you, his gameplan never changes. You have to read, you have to flawless block punish, you have to risk shit. He just walks in like "hur-dur safe overheads, grabs, 11 frame advancing mids, durr da durr"

 

[BeastOfManila]

damn. just got my ass handed to me by a jax. need to lab. the times I did win, its because I stayed a bit away to abuse blade sparks. its indeed a tough MU.

id still appreciate ref vids how to beat jax.

 

[BeastOfManila]

you guys have any reference match videos on dealing with the jax, eblack and geras MUs?

currently at a loss on how to handle them.

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

I'm still trying to figure out the Scorpion matchup.
Up close death spin (DF4) is -20 so you can punish on block with F4, but at mid range and beyond I don't know what to do about this move. I also don't know what the proper response for full-screen spear is

Scorpions death spin at max range is punishable by the entire cast. walk out of its range and jump in punch the last hit getting full combo punish.
Almost max range baraka can dash cancel into F4 for punish(tight timing).

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

you guys have any reference match videos on dealing with the jax, eblack and geras MUs?

currently at a loss on how to handle them.

Erron and Geras are bad MU's but Jax is punishable on F2D4 and is -20 (use F4) F33-1+3 F21+3 are flawless blockable. BF2 is punishable on block using 112. Amp BF2 is duckable for D2 KB. You can zone jax out all day or punish all of his options for massive damage.

 

[1man3letters]

Know its early but i think bone picker might be better vs warlock shang.
Blood lunge can be used just before 2nd spark, far easier and more consistent punish over marauder options vs it.

Also who wants to be vs a damage boosted marauder

 

[WhamBamThanxSam]

The guy i play doesnt do the frog splash so i dont have to worry about that too much. What he likes to do is poke me with d1 and then move into that string which either ends in an overhead or the low sand trap. I find it really hard to punish either of them when i block. As he usually goes straight back into a d+1 after i block its even worse as most of barakas high moves go straight over him. Maybe i can punish with f+4...

I know I'm late in seeing this but since I play Geras and just picked up Baraka I can help you with this problem. I think you may be talking about Geras 241 string which hits Mid, Low, Overhead. You can interrupt the string after the low so it doesn't matter if he ends in sand trap or overhead, you can punish it. Just D+2 it.

 

[BeastOfManila]

Know its early but i think bone picker might be better vs warlock shang.
Blood lunge can be used just before 2nd spark, far easier and more consistent punish over marauder options vs it.

Also who wants to be vs a damage boosted marauder

I play with solid shangtsung main-ers and I can attest to this. blood lunge/sweep mixups make the match up easier. also a better way to close in once they do their fancy spark zoning.

 

[_raf_]

Can anyone give some insight on the Jax matchup

 

[_raf_]

Disregard, found previous post and am looking up Tweedy vs Gunshow. Thanks

 

[One Trick Pony]

I know I'm late in seeing this but since I play Geras and just picked up Baraka I can help you with this problem. I think you may be talking about Geras 241 string which hits Mid, Low, Overhead. You can interrupt the string after the low so it doesn't matter if he ends in sand trap or overhead, you can punish it. Just D+2 it.

He's talking about 1,1,1 or 1,1 Sand trap. High, mid, overhead or high, mid, low. Fast start up and leads to a KB if you guess wrong.

 

[WhamBamThanxSam]

He's talking about 1,1,1 or 1,1 Sand trap. High, mid, overhead or high, mid, low. Fast start up and leads to a KB if you guess wrong.

Always block high. If you see a pattern of the opponent abusing Sand Trap after 1,1 then block low but I advise always blocking high. Hurts much less.
Most Geras players don't want to use Sand Trap after 1,1. Thats a full combo punish if blocked.

 

[4x4lo8o]

To combat poke mashing you need to land a d3 and then jail into 112. The timing is a little bit tight, but once you get it you should be able to land it pretty consistently.

 

[Deleted member 5032]

After extensive testing and talking to other users who have also been testing, we’ve confirmed that Baraka cannot punish Shang’s up-skull unless the 2nd skull whiffs. Even if you flawless the 2nd skull, the best you can get is a f4 that Shang can block. You can also try dashing into f2 or b3, but Shang can poke out.

Baraka simply has no answer to this insanely-stupid move. Between up-skull, soul steal, f2, f3, and f4, Baraka has no avenue to get within range to pressure. Shang out-zones Baraka just enough to make it impossible to play defensively. You have to try to get through Shang’s death zone.

The only way to win is for Shang to mess up. If you can somehow get through all Shang’s nonsense and start your pressure then you can do ok, but it’s very easy for Shang to push you back out to no-man’s land.

Based on dozens of matches and hours of labbing, I’m putting this down as an 8-2, though I wouldn’t argue 7/3 if you wanted to be conservative.

 

[Chi-khan]

After extensive testing and talking to other users who have also been testing, we’ve confirmed that Baraka cannot punish Shang’s up-skull unless the 2nd skull whiffs. Even if you flawless the 2nd skull, the best you can get is a f4 that Shang can block. You can also try dashing into f2 or b3, but Shang can poke out.

Baraka simply has no answer to this insanely-stupid move. Between up-skull, soul steal, f2, f3, and f4, Baraka has no avenue to get within range to pressure. Shang out-zones Baraka just enough to make it impossible to play defensively. You have to try to get through Shang’s death zone.

The only way to win is for Shang to mess up. If you can somehow get through all Shang’s nonsense and start your pressure then you can do ok, but it’s very easy for Shang to push you back out to no-man’s land.

Based on dozens of matches and hours of labbing, I’m putting this down as an 8-2, though I wouldn’t argue 7/3 if you wanted to be conservative.

BP is way better in this matchup. Reversal command grab makes this matchup winnable. This is really the only match up where I think BP should be picked over maruader.

 

[Chi-khan]

BP is way better in this matchup. Reversal command grab makes this matchup winnable. This is really the only match up where I think BP should be picked over maruader.

To clarify a little, if shang does dumb shit like d4xxskulls to create space, you can block the first skull and reversal cmd grab punish it. A lot of his zoning pressure can be challanged with cmd grab to the point where he obviously has to respect it. Another thing to keep in mind is BP has better flawless block combos because they are meter less. So make sure you're fb punishing shangs gaps(he has a lot of gaps).

Once they realize they cant endlessly keep you out with pokexxskulls, they will try and play closer to you. A lot of terrible shangs will try and mash d3 to keep their turn. Obviously we also have an i7 d3 to keep them in check but more importantly, b32 will step over shangs d3 for a combo. Add in BP tick throws and this match up is bearable. It's still a hard fight, and you have to be okay with not doing half life damage( which admittedly, is a hard thing to let go of lol) but it isnt as one sided as it is with maurader.

 

[4x4lo8o]

Anyone got advice for the Shao Kahn or Frost match ups? I don't own either of those characters so I can't lab them out, and when I do run into them online I have no idea what I'm doing and win or lose based on how much I can keep them knocked down. None of them will ever play in longs sets either. I'm super worried about ending up in a bracket full of Shao Kahns at Evo.

I think Bone Picker Baraka does really well against Shang. It's possible I just haven't played a good Shang, but I frequently beat Shang players online, a lot of them immediately switch after the first match. You basically just patiently block and walk forward through the fireballs until you're in Blood Lunge range, then he backs himself into the corner and you can just mix him up til he's dead. Spikes is really good in that match up too - it blows up his forward advancing strings and goes under his straight fireballs if it's time right. My biggest problem is I always get hit by that mid-low string that looks like it starts with an overhead.

 

[Deleted member 5032]

I haven’t fought Shao with Baraka yet but I think Frost gives him a lot of problems. I played several very long sets against @The Slaj Jazz and his awesome Frost, and when played correctly, Baraka can never really go on the offensive. You just have to carefully zone, trying not to trade, and turtle up, since her strings will keep you from being able to get into your desired threat range. Eventually she will over-commit into a negative string and you can start your pressure.

Overall, I’d say she totally controls the pace of the match from everywhere except point-blank range, so I’d put it at a 6/4 in favor of Frost, purely based on my sets with Slaj.

 

[Espio]

Anyone got advice for the Shao Kahn or Frost match ups? I don't own either of those characters so I can't lab them out, and when I do run into them online I have no idea what I'm doing and win or lose based on how much I can keep them knocked down. None of them will ever play in longs sets either. I'm super worried about ending up in a bracket full of Shao Kahns at Evo.

I think Bone Picker Baraka does really well against Shang. It's possible I just haven't played a good Shang, but I frequently beat Shang players online, a lot of them immediately switch after the first match. You basically just patiently block and walk forward through the fireballs until you're in Blood Lunge range, then he backs himself into the corner and you can just mix him up til he's dead. Spikes is really good in that match up too - it blows up his forward advancing strings and goes under his straight fireballs if it's time right. My biggest problem is I always get hit by that mid-low string that looks like it starts with an overhead.

I think Bone Picker also does great against Shang. It's amazing how much easier it feels playing Baraka than Jade against Shang Tsung. He can contest and counter zone even at times, feels like it would be no worse than 5-5 for Baraka. Baraka with the mix and his pretty solid projectile work really well together.

I need to play more Frost, I didn't feel outrageously threatened by Frost, but of course I need to play more. I'd be interested in going against @The Slaj Jazz this weekend if he would like to play.

 

[_smash_]

It seems that Baraka's b4 is really good against liu. After the knockdown from b4, baraka can dash in to d3 and then hold block. If liu goes for u3 the block comes out in time and it's your turn. This os also works against liu's u2; it blows up u2. Additionally, this is better than attempting to meaty with a string, since liu can still roll out and whiff punish the meaty attempt. This os (dash-->d3-->block) invalidates attempts to whiff punish after a roll. I need to test this against other characters. More to follow in a few days