K played a lot of matches this week one against a guy who was really good with a lot of characters. Lots of new matchups I didn't have experience with.
Things of note.
smoke is so easy for kitana it makes me want to cry. He really can't do anything at all to bully her.
Reptile, I don't know why people have problems punishing elbow dash 21xxfan worked 100% for me. Thing i noticed is that reptile seems to +on block with force ball if he's about half screen or more and for a projectile it's really good/safe. You really have to avoid trades at all costs. However, like all ninja's he kinda has to take risk to open you up unless he wants to throw you to death so be fast on reaction and lots of fuzzy guarding.
Best noob i've played so far this matchup isn't as straightforward as i thought. Basically if noob doesn't press a button your only option is to gradually dash forward. Don't ever jump to fan or do anything in the air unless it is 100% on reaction his teleport is an absolute anti-air that works from anywhere on screen. Also in the corner he can force some damage if he hits you with an up clone or anything by setting up blackhole traps. If you get cornered try to squareboost or something out. You'll eat dmg but you need to be out of the corner.
Cage uhhhhh........i'm convinced this is a bad matchup. I was having trouble in match punishing green uppercut so we went to training mode, IF 21 punishes it the window isn't larger than a single frame. 6 guys there tried it and only we only successfully punished it like 2 out of 80 attempts. Only punish i got to work consistently was d1xxfan lift as the d1 hits him in air. Pretty much if cage doesn't kill himself there is little you can do, as if he convinces himself just to work himself in slowly he'll eventually get in and than your up shit creek. Also didn't help that the player started baiting my d1 and punished on block 100% of the time. Also there is no shame in square boosting if you get any breathing room. I d1~square boosted sooo much to get away. Run like a little bitch or die, those really are your only options. 6-4 cage really seems where this matchup is going. d1 should be safe on block : /
Not sure if i think raiden is negative anymore first time i've really got some good hands on time with him since patch and he doesn't bully kitana anymore. Really i kinda changed my playstyle vs him. In that I resigned myself to the fact I AM going to eat supermen. Not all of them mind you but really started not blocking unless i reacted to superman. Really opened up teleport punishes that were pretty consistent.
Also while i'm accustomed to punishing a crossup j. p after one I had a lot of problems with it this weekend compared to the other players I typically play. Basically they'd throw it out kind've early so that like only the last couple active frames would hit me if i st. blocked it. I tried uppercutting,2~fan, and j.P/K and none of them ever beat it. The only thing i could get to work was EX fan lift but seemed like if they did a j. k they dodged it. Anyone have tips on dealing with that kind of pressure? Never had someone mind games jump-ins so well on me in this game.
Sonya. Man best sonya i've seen anywhere consistently hit 40%+ combo's on me meterless felt like i was playing against a kitana that could rush down 3x better than me. He did some cool stuff like anti-air with kiss into combo if I got predictable with jumps, but anyways. Things to note. 2~fan is a terrible idea in this matchup as if she divekicks you will lose and that's almost half your bar. If she jumps, you should jump away into fan if she's far out. If she's closer j.P~fan and fan lift worked well for me. She has problems with fans so use them often but beware that move she jumps across the screen at you. It's not the best at punishing iAF but it'll punish ground fan easily. She can cancel her military stance lows into safe pressure with the cartwheel so be careful of pressing buttons against her and her d4 is amazing at setting up rushdown. I think this matchup is slightly in kitana's favor but very close to even as sonya is scary if she gets a hit.
