Need advice vs. Kabal

[GodsLonelyman]

I recently went to winterfest and was doing great until I faced Kabal :-( I have absolutely no idea how to fight against Kabal. With Cyrax I can deal with any matchup except Kabal, that is the one matchup I cannot comprehend. My major issue is the Air/IAGasBlasts. I cannot anticipate if they are going to come out at eye level or not so I end up dash blocking in and stupidly attempt to trade. Another thing that gets me worried are random ex dashes and buzzsaws. Because of all these variables, I choke and end up dash blocking in and eating tons of chip, then when I do get in, I can barely stay in. I can't mixup Kabal and always end up getting blown up by armor :-( The matchup just frustrates me and I can't seem to figure it out. It seems like every attempt I make to get in was all for nothing and I end up back to square one. Heres the vid, help me understand how to approach the matchup and tell me what I did wrong. I honestly can't figure it out.

 

[NariTuba]

Heres the vid, help me understand how to approach the matchup and tell me what I did wrong. I honestly can't figure it out.

First of all, great Cyrax man! good stuff for sure. The simple answer is of course Cyblax... and goodbye iaGBs, but I understand thats no piece of cake transition if you dont have him down so Ill give you some huble advice for robo:

You need to be more patient, you ate too many saws. Let him iagb himself to the corner and dont forget to walk. If you only dash block he KNOWS when you'll move forward and will make your life hell. If you alternate between slowly moving forward and dashing in he doesn't quite know what to expect between iagbs from you which will make him more hesitant to randomly dash you. If you always dash block in between iagbs he's determining the pace of your movement. Walking will also help you block those random saws. Once he approaches the corner expect him to become more nervous because its easier for you to trade. Bait the ExND.

Another thing I noticed is you weren't capitalizing on your meterless damage as much as you could have. You were getting around 14% with stuff like 1,ff,1,ff,1,2~mb when you could have gone for high 20s low 30s stuff by adding b2 or command grab setup or second net setups to keep the pressure on.

Also Exnet is far underutilized by all Cyrax players at this point. The easier circumstance to incorporate it is when you punish (ie blocked ND) but we should all as Cyrax players be more aware of our meter and theirs at ALL times in the match and start hit confirming into Exnet (this is what Im working on right now). This also ties into interrupting combos at any point to exnet when you see a breaker coming, swithing into bomb trap, CG, 2net setups afterwards. I saw you tried to cut your reset short with a net at some point because of this... remember the second hit of b2 is unbreakable too, so you can do that before you interrupt the combo.

When you were uplclose i saw you pressured on block with hit confirms only (tho your were fast with it which is great) meaning 1,1 / 1,2 / 2,1. I try to mix 1 and 2 by themselves as well for the extra chip and to keep them guessing. If you dash into them when you do a standing 2 or 1 they will almost never try to interrupt you. When you cross over mid pressure try jps and command grab immediately after instead of trying the hit confirm first.

Anyway, much respect to your gameplay man... you are good and your opponents was good too so props. Kabal is no joke. Hope any of this helps.

 

[PND_Mustard]

i havent fought a good kabal in quite some time, but the main thing i remember doing is staying at just outside of sweep distance where the iagb will trade with net in your favour, dont waste bars on exragdolls like you did, i cant comment on much more as i dont really have the matchup experience myself tbh.

 

[Crathen]

First off , capitalize on your meterless damage , many times you caught him with an air net you could have got up to 26% and a bomb on the screen ( air net Njp b2 dash 21 121 bomb of your choice ) , always go for Cyrax best bnb.
Another thing you should know is that Cyrax is a big hitbox character while crouch blocking so Kabal can NDC pressure you with f3 , b1 and 2 NDC , use d1 / d3 when you see a NDC to get some space or to reverse the pressure or in case you read a b12 / f32 you can crossjump Kabal ( if he's coming from a b12 / f32 , if he's coming from a 111 NDC or 2 NDC you can't jump out or counterpoke another f32 or b12 ) , you should check out the guides in the Kabal forum to know how to counter NDC.
If the Kabal player insists on doing Iagb from sweep / jump distance you can attempt dashing into a d1 and it will hit him out of the air while ducking the iagb into a combo ( d1 dash 12 net teleport b2 dash 121 into a bomb of your choice ) , you can also throw out a net and if he mistimes the iagb you can hit him but i don't advice that since he may be baiting that and punish it with a EX ND or a jump in.
From fullscreen you can't do much vs Iagb , you can sneak a bomb sometime from crouching to make Kabal move but you can be hit by a well timed iagb ( but you still get the bomb on the screen ) , walking is important here since you can crouch Iagb and jump saws on reaction until you get to jump distance , beware that the Kabal player can always ND and cancel it to get in / cancel into a buzzsaw / tornado slam / iagb , so react accordingly , if he's doing way too much saws make a guess and jump in so you can go full combo on him.

There's more to it but i guess this is good for starters , remember to practice more and be flexible with you playstyle , i don't wanna sound harsh but there's a lot of room for improvement

 

[GodsLonelyman]

Thanks for the advice fellas much appreciated. I really appreciate the constructive criticism and tips I have received.

 

[A F0xy Grampa]

Can you not end your combos with nets to keep him near? You seemed to crumble once he was able to shoot at you. Dont let him escape so easily after you finally hit him

 

[Verstande]

One thing I saw was that you randomly threw out an enhance net when kabal had half a bar of meter....stop doing that.

I don't think the net has armor on it.

 

[Seapeople]

There were a few times you landed a net and could have cornered Kabal, but combo'd him away from the corner instead (like @5:19). Cyrax is at an advantage when Kabal gets cornered, but it's an uphill battle from fullscreen.

Against the flurry of iagb, you also have the option to far bomb/medium bomb into an ex buzzsaw. Your Cyrax looked really good though, keep it up