Eddy Wang
Skarlet scientist
This will be my final Skarlet Detailed Matchup Thread, i will go in deep and explain how to proceed on every matchup i have exploited to the fullest.
How to understand this thread?
The colors selected will go accordingly to what will be explained, Green means it works great for you, red means its bad but you have to do it, orange means, you will have to be cautious of your actions, and blue will be the alternate advice.
Every Matchup will have a skill requirement, which means that at some particular skarlet tool or strategy, you will have to be on point with it, it could be execution accuracy, reaction speed, patience, movement, etc.
Meter Interaction with the matchup: Skarlet ability to build meter is a factor that not every Skarlet can put a good use of it, i understand because is extremely dificult, but is not impossible, because this is a key factor that builds part of her metagame and make her really hard to read, every Skarlet even at early stages of style development, SHOULD learn how to use her meter, and how to play with it to threat your opponent, how to make him play your desired game based on his decisions, and finally, how to play without it.
it can generate different fuzzy guard layers, where most of them can work into your advantage if you know how to deal with them.
Yomi expertise: A good Skarlet player has very good Yomis, the greater they are, the more her setups will work on your favor. Yomi is the player Ultimate Power to build up reads behind reads, with skarlet this makes her counter-reads and counter game more powerful because she punishes real hard.
Defaut threat: When Opponent blocks standing out of mixes, go for blockstrings, when he is crouching, he is avoiding blockstrings, go for 13f overheads, slide is not part of the mixup, is just a safe low ender. Safe blockstrings enders are 114 without red dash out of a ex DC blocked standing or F43 under the same conditions. If the opponent is fuzzying, he is open to throws or combos in case he goes for a throw escape.
So lets skip all the non important sentences and go to the actual MU breakdown.
Cyrax 4-6
Skill Requirements:
-- Very Fast Reactions
-- Ability to think on 2 possibilities as fast as possible at minimum (Quick Judgement).
-- Perfect iaD execution
-- Multiple AA options for crossup or far jump on point.
- Patience
- Perfect iaBlood drops (teleports)
Kabal 4-6
Skill Requirements:
Multiple Oki Setups
iaDD
Quick Gear change up (ability to switch to footsie to rushdown at any given time due range issues)
Yomi layers (includes Counter-reads, or bait up crossovers)
Patience
On frame with gaps punishes
Kung Lao 5-5
Skill Requirements:
Blocked Slide Mind games.
Ability to punish teles
Footsies
Kenshi - 6-4
Skills Requirements:
- Counter Reads
- Blockstrings
- Fast Reactions
- iaD
Jax - 6-4
Comming Soon
Sonya - 5-5
Comming Soon
Kitana - 5-5
Coming Soon
Reptile - 6-4
Comming Soon
Cage - 5-5
Comming Soon
Ermac - 5-5
Comming Soon
Mileena - 6-4
Comming Soon
Rain - 6-4
Comming Soon
How to understand this thread?
The colors selected will go accordingly to what will be explained, Green means it works great for you, red means its bad but you have to do it, orange means, you will have to be cautious of your actions, and blue will be the alternate advice.
Every Matchup will have a skill requirement, which means that at some particular skarlet tool or strategy, you will have to be on point with it, it could be execution accuracy, reaction speed, patience, movement, etc.
Meter Interaction with the matchup: Skarlet ability to build meter is a factor that not every Skarlet can put a good use of it, i understand because is extremely dificult, but is not impossible, because this is a key factor that builds part of her metagame and make her really hard to read, every Skarlet even at early stages of style development, SHOULD learn how to use her meter, and how to play with it to threat your opponent, how to make him play your desired game based on his decisions, and finally, how to play without it.
Playing Skarlet's game
Guard Reading: is the player capability to see trough what the opponent is trying to guard, to this, is necessary to understand what your actions are causing.it can generate different fuzzy guard layers, where most of them can work into your advantage if you know how to deal with them.
Yomi expertise: A good Skarlet player has very good Yomis, the greater they are, the more her setups will work on your favor. Yomi is the player Ultimate Power to build up reads behind reads, with skarlet this makes her counter-reads and counter game more powerful because she punishes real hard.
Defaut threat: When Opponent blocks standing out of mixes, go for blockstrings, when he is crouching, he is avoiding blockstrings, go for 13f overheads, slide is not part of the mixup, is just a safe low ender. Safe blockstrings enders are 114 without red dash out of a ex DC blocked standing or F43 under the same conditions. If the opponent is fuzzying, he is open to throws or combos in case he goes for a throw escape.
So lets skip all the non important sentences and go to the actual MU breakdown.
Cyrax 4-6
Skill Requirements:
-- Very Fast Reactions
-- Ability to think on 2 possibilities as fast as possible at minimum (Quick Judgement).
-- Perfect iaD execution
-- Multiple AA options for crossup or far jump on point.
- Patience
- Perfect iaBlood drops (teleports)
Starting the match can be a real pain here, just don't do anything in rush because the moment you give cyrax the 1st hit, you're losing the game already, make sure to always retreat backwards and get ready to block an ex donkey kick, as you consider his other options coming from air, as jump, jump/tele to bait AA, or air grab.
You don't want to be close in this MU, Cyrax is a character with a 9f string that is safe on block (0f on block) and is dificult to deal with up close without wasting meter, yet, you can still uppercut after ducking under standing 1 (only), to get him off you and get into neutral game position.
Full screen is a position where you partially don't want to be, but is still better than staying face to face with Cyrax, this matchup is played by Zoning, not in the sense of throwing projectiles to keep him out, but by keep a safe neutral distance where Cyrax has to risk for damage without letting him getting too close.
Cyrax will be able to spam bomb toss if you're outside of red slide punish range, and will flood the screen with unblockable explosions all over the place, while you carefully avoid them, he is building meter.
Its possible to teleport a bomb on reaction before he recovers, but has to be done at the very 1st frame you listen his chest open, and has to be done airbone wich is 11f startup instead of 20. DO NOT randomly teleport without understanding if the opponent is on the auto-pilot mode or not.
Its also possible to throw ground daggers from full screen to prevent Cyrax to flood the screen with bombs, but you also face the risk of Cyrax deciding to trade a net with a dagger, if your character do not recovers in time you're done, so this is a unfavorable position to be, D3 to cancel dash cancel daggers might be a good decision.
To have iaDaggers on point here puts fullscreen on Skarlet favor, and force cyrax to completely discard bombing game, or net game from full screen, when this happens at this same instance, Skarlet is allowed to start her own game.
Put him at max range slide distances everytime you can, do not let him hide in the corner, punish every bomb toss with slides before he recovers, and do not perform oki setups against him (unless he is on the corner with iaDD ONLY), let him stand up on his own and pay really good atention to his next move.
When Skarlet has 1 bar of meter, Cyrax might feel himself a bit restrained to throw off nets, so he can easely bait with bombs to make you spend the bar, or carefuly play footsies to get in, make sure to keep him out with all footsies tools at your disposal. If Cyrax at this point is not either throwing bombs or net, he is respecting Crimson Dash, this is a good chance to start playing your basic game for an instance, instead of constantly try to counter his game.
Crazy Cyrax
There is Cyrax's that will trade a bit of life to make you spend the bar that is blocking his gameplay potential, this means,he may try to offer you free damage with a net so you can armor out of it and punish him leaving you meterless afterwards, you need to be really careful with this.
If you face this type of situation make sure you punish his net in alternative ways most of the time, jump over nets and punish him when given the chance is one of them, other one is blood drop him at the use of every net he releases it. As far as he decides to make you waste meter he will lose more life and later when he realizes you're not falling for it, it will be already too late.
Bomb patterns
His bombs can be a huge pain in the butt, but still can be punished, fastest slide are a total of 18 frames, which is Kabal Nomad Dash startup, so when Kabal spends a bar to punish Cyrax, Skarlet as long as she is at slide range, will block Cyrax bombs at will.
Bomb Toss options:
opt1:forward dash away from mid bomb as short bomb goes off, jump over net on reaction and punish.
opt2: (inside slide range) Slide punish at the first bomb toss, then quickly dash in to avoid the blast (you're now close to Cyrax, need to get off)
opt3: Slide punish at the first bomb toss, then red dash in to threat his oki game as you avoid the blast (get ready to counter accordingly to his actions)
opt3: forward dash away from mid bomb as short bomb goes off, ex dash net on reaction and punish
Opt4: ia Tele mid bomb (you need to captalize this)
opt5: iaD any bomb toss on reaction (it needs to connect) to prevent him to build meter or throw more bombs, this tickles cyrax to let a net go off.
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You don't want to be close in this MU, Cyrax is a character with a 9f string that is safe on block (0f on block) and is dificult to deal with up close without wasting meter, yet, you can still uppercut after ducking under standing 1 (only), to get him off you and get into neutral game position.
Full screen is a position where you partially don't want to be, but is still better than staying face to face with Cyrax, this matchup is played by Zoning, not in the sense of throwing projectiles to keep him out, but by keep a safe neutral distance where Cyrax has to risk for damage without letting him getting too close.
Cyrax will be able to spam bomb toss if you're outside of red slide punish range, and will flood the screen with unblockable explosions all over the place, while you carefully avoid them, he is building meter.
Its possible to teleport a bomb on reaction before he recovers, but has to be done at the very 1st frame you listen his chest open, and has to be done airbone wich is 11f startup instead of 20. DO NOT randomly teleport without understanding if the opponent is on the auto-pilot mode or not.
Its also possible to throw ground daggers from full screen to prevent Cyrax to flood the screen with bombs, but you also face the risk of Cyrax deciding to trade a net with a dagger, if your character do not recovers in time you're done, so this is a unfavorable position to be, D3 to cancel dash cancel daggers might be a good decision.
To have iaDaggers on point here puts fullscreen on Skarlet favor, and force cyrax to completely discard bombing game, or net game from full screen, when this happens at this same instance, Skarlet is allowed to start her own game.
Put him at max range slide distances everytime you can, do not let him hide in the corner, punish every bomb toss with slides before he recovers, and do not perform oki setups against him (unless he is on the corner with iaDD ONLY), let him stand up on his own and pay really good atention to his next move.
When Skarlet has 1 bar of meter, Cyrax might feel himself a bit restrained to throw off nets, so he can easely bait with bombs to make you spend the bar, or carefuly play footsies to get in, make sure to keep him out with all footsies tools at your disposal. If Cyrax at this point is not either throwing bombs or net, he is respecting Crimson Dash, this is a good chance to start playing your basic game for an instance, instead of constantly try to counter his game.
Crazy Cyrax
There is Cyrax's that will trade a bit of life to make you spend the bar that is blocking his gameplay potential, this means,he may try to offer you free damage with a net so you can armor out of it and punish him leaving you meterless afterwards, you need to be really careful with this.
If you face this type of situation make sure you punish his net in alternative ways most of the time, jump over nets and punish him when given the chance is one of them, other one is blood drop him at the use of every net he releases it. As far as he decides to make you waste meter he will lose more life and later when he realizes you're not falling for it, it will be already too late.
Bomb patterns
His bombs can be a huge pain in the butt, but still can be punished, fastest slide are a total of 18 frames, which is Kabal Nomad Dash startup, so when Kabal spends a bar to punish Cyrax, Skarlet as long as she is at slide range, will block Cyrax bombs at will.
Bomb Toss options:
opt1:forward dash away from mid bomb as short bomb goes off, jump over net on reaction and punish.
opt2: (inside slide range) Slide punish at the first bomb toss, then quickly dash in to avoid the blast (you're now close to Cyrax, need to get off)
opt3: Slide punish at the first bomb toss, then red dash in to threat his oki game as you avoid the blast (get ready to counter accordingly to his actions)
opt3: forward dash away from mid bomb as short bomb goes off, ex dash net on reaction and punish
Opt4: ia Tele mid bomb (you need to captalize this)
opt5: iaD any bomb toss on reaction (it needs to connect) to prevent him to build meter or throw more bombs, this tickles cyrax to let a net go off.
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Kabal 4-6
Skill Requirements:
Multiple Oki Setups
iaDD
Quick Gear change up (ability to switch to footsie to rushdown at any given time due range issues)
Yomi layers (includes Counter-reads, or bait up crossovers)
Patience
On frame with gaps punishes
What does works well for skarlet in this matchup?
+ Armor
+ Damage
+ Oki games
This Matchup is a little bit easy compared to Cyrax, Cyrax is a touch to death character,which is why makes Skarlet matchup more dificult, in this one besides all Kabal tools almost all of them are nulified with Crimson Dash alone, this includes flash parry, saw, Tornado Slasm, and NDC stuffs, what you need to be really carefull with this Matchup is Kabal's Zoning, specially on a bigger stage, his Gas blast, as he gets further away it makes dificult for Skarlet to deal with him, in other hand, once Skarlet gets close to him with a knockdown, it becomes really dificult for Kabal to get off Skarlet without taking risks as long as she has one bar of meter at least.
Blockstrings into tornado slams are punishable because there is enough gap for a ex dash, Skarlet can punish Kabal before he recovers.
Ground Saw is about -14 on block and in close range, Skarlet can punish with F4 without even need to dash in.
Kabal's F4 is -11 on block, Skarlet can also punish it because of her 10 frame string.
NDC game can also be dealt with if you're good a entering your opponent's head you can punish him between gaps with the 10 frame string into launcher,. Its not favorable to you, however, skarlet has a small hitbox so if you pay really close atention to how kabal perfoms his blockstrings you shall be able to get him off you simply or with a punish.
Starting the match it works good or bad for both sides, a good Kabal in face of a good Skarlet will not rush in imediatly trying to start something, same goes with Skarlet, i strongly advise to not start by wasting your bar right away, every time you have at least one bar it counts to force them to respect or to not respect your options.
The more they believe you can start something at any given time and are respecting your options is good for you, careful on your aproach, in other hand its also good to have at least one bar, and they're trying to force you spending it, knowing alternate ways to go around when they're into this strategy is what boost up the game, because at this point, the opponent is underestimating you at the minimum, or he wants to play a different game but he needs that bar to go.
Dealing with him without using the bar in this strategy will force him automatically to instinctively enter your type of game.
Kabal might have the best wakeup game with meter against almost all the cast, but not against Skarlet, in terms of armor competition Crimson dash has 27 lasting
frames and 29 more of armor with 2 frames startup, so Flash parry will not work if you place your counter-reads very well, the key factor in this game, is knocking kabal down, then use a bunch of oki games against him, he can be punished if he tries to jump over it, flash parry, ex ND or wakeup with any other option, you just have to expect it.
Measure your range and put Kabal inside a Crimson Dash range where upslash will reach it 90% of the time, this will somewhat prevent him throwing groundsaws, but still won't stop him to gas blast you all day.
You can start gaining some space between gas blasts by throwing a ground dagger to force kabal to interrupt his rythm for a brief time, but it won't help much, a good kabal will be able to ex ND your daggers in time to punish you if you choose to throw it inside a range where skarlet can't sucessufly recover after one.
Teleporting is a risk you shouldn't take in this matchup, they will hardly hit him, and everytime he blocks it, you will pay the price, aproaching carefully is required.
A good way to stop gas blast spamming at non favorable range is use empty crimson dash, kabal most of the time is gas blasting for skarlet to spend a bar getting in so he can punish the slash, you can either way go imediately for blockstrings if he blocks it. Just be careful because kabal can still ex ND to go right through you right at the end of your last frame of armor, so is a option to consider.
Remember that even if you slide at the very end of your crimson dash your slide will be armored all the way in, but blocked slides or empty dashes up close will lead to the yomi game that can be played by each sides, buy pays really well if skarlet suceeds it.
Don't stay too close to him when he has meter and you have none unless you pushed him into the corner, however, getting knockdowns is what you really want to aim in
for this battle, everytime you get one, you have big oportunities to start oki games.
There is more than 2 ways of starting your Oki game based on kabal actions, you can slide him everytime he tries to wakeup to preventing him to jump backwards into
gas blast to stay away, but doing this you face the threat of flash parries. However, this is where the yomi comes in, out of good knockdown advantage, you will want to mix between, empty dash, slide or empty dash into crimson dash, iaDD, bait
crossup jump, jump over in case he goes for a different wakeup or simply f212,1+2 blockstring as he is getting up to boost your bar and end with more mixups, if kabal is respecting counter-reads(anti-armor techs) he will start to hesitate on commiting to ex nd and will block after wasting his meter, which leads to jail him with blockstrings everytime the opportunity is given.
DO NOT constantly spend your meter to trap oki games unless you're sucessfully building it back, it depends on how the match goes most of the game. Many players
do believe skarlet can be jumped at, if you're ready to deal with this situation at any range that won't be a problem, instead it might be their demise. During constant skarlet's pressure, mostly cornered a lot of players just try to get out of there by jumping, so you must be ready to anti-air all the time they jump.
At mid range be aware of F32 string, if you space out correctly f3 might whiff all the time because of range, you can either d4 on reaction, or whiff punish it with f4 or 21 and hit confirm into combo, at this range is also advisable to expect jumps or gas blast.
If you successfully jump over a gas blast without another incoming barrage on the way, or successfuly jump over a ground saw, you can block the air with a air dagger, kabal can't punish it on reaction because is safe, specially if you do it low enough, if he risks to gas blast afterwards, and get hit by it, might give you a full combo, this tool is so annoying that you must to used everytime the oportunity arises even if is just one to open a big room so you can dash in.
The corner game is almost the same against all characters, just be carefull with ex nd, otherwise, u34dd all day on the wakeup into corner pressures and mixups, alternating between dd and exdd after u34 will change the frame trap for them to react to, the main goal is to keep forcing them to guess wrong any time, and paid the price by taking either, chip damage or worse.
Most skarlets are destroyed in this matchups for the following reasons:
1. Lack of patience (can't avoid gas blast properly or patiently commiting lots of mistakes in the process, like taking hits or wasting meter)
2. Trigger happy with armored slashes (crimson dash baitups and still slash giving kabal a free punish
3. Lack of oki games and yomi layers (Skarlet pays really well when she gets the opponent to continuely guessing wrong because of her damage output or blockstrings)
4. very bad spacing (footsies game is really important here at some point)
+ Armor
+ Damage
+ Oki games
This Matchup is a little bit easy compared to Cyrax, Cyrax is a touch to death character,which is why makes Skarlet matchup more dificult, in this one besides all Kabal tools almost all of them are nulified with Crimson Dash alone, this includes flash parry, saw, Tornado Slasm, and NDC stuffs, what you need to be really carefull with this Matchup is Kabal's Zoning, specially on a bigger stage, his Gas blast, as he gets further away it makes dificult for Skarlet to deal with him, in other hand, once Skarlet gets close to him with a knockdown, it becomes really dificult for Kabal to get off Skarlet without taking risks as long as she has one bar of meter at least.
Blockstrings into tornado slams are punishable because there is enough gap for a ex dash, Skarlet can punish Kabal before he recovers.
Ground Saw is about -14 on block and in close range, Skarlet can punish with F4 without even need to dash in.
Kabal's F4 is -11 on block, Skarlet can also punish it because of her 10 frame string.
NDC game can also be dealt with if you're good a entering your opponent's head you can punish him between gaps with the 10 frame string into launcher,. Its not favorable to you, however, skarlet has a small hitbox so if you pay really close atention to how kabal perfoms his blockstrings you shall be able to get him off you simply or with a punish.
Starting the match it works good or bad for both sides, a good Kabal in face of a good Skarlet will not rush in imediatly trying to start something, same goes with Skarlet, i strongly advise to not start by wasting your bar right away, every time you have at least one bar it counts to force them to respect or to not respect your options.
The more they believe you can start something at any given time and are respecting your options is good for you, careful on your aproach, in other hand its also good to have at least one bar, and they're trying to force you spending it, knowing alternate ways to go around when they're into this strategy is what boost up the game, because at this point, the opponent is underestimating you at the minimum, or he wants to play a different game but he needs that bar to go.
Dealing with him without using the bar in this strategy will force him automatically to instinctively enter your type of game.
Kabal might have the best wakeup game with meter against almost all the cast, but not against Skarlet, in terms of armor competition Crimson dash has 27 lasting
frames and 29 more of armor with 2 frames startup, so Flash parry will not work if you place your counter-reads very well, the key factor in this game, is knocking kabal down, then use a bunch of oki games against him, he can be punished if he tries to jump over it, flash parry, ex ND or wakeup with any other option, you just have to expect it.
Measure your range and put Kabal inside a Crimson Dash range where upslash will reach it 90% of the time, this will somewhat prevent him throwing groundsaws, but still won't stop him to gas blast you all day.
You can start gaining some space between gas blasts by throwing a ground dagger to force kabal to interrupt his rythm for a brief time, but it won't help much, a good kabal will be able to ex ND your daggers in time to punish you if you choose to throw it inside a range where skarlet can't sucessufly recover after one.
Teleporting is a risk you shouldn't take in this matchup, they will hardly hit him, and everytime he blocks it, you will pay the price, aproaching carefully is required.
A good way to stop gas blast spamming at non favorable range is use empty crimson dash, kabal most of the time is gas blasting for skarlet to spend a bar getting in so he can punish the slash, you can either way go imediately for blockstrings if he blocks it. Just be careful because kabal can still ex ND to go right through you right at the end of your last frame of armor, so is a option to consider.
Remember that even if you slide at the very end of your crimson dash your slide will be armored all the way in, but blocked slides or empty dashes up close will lead to the yomi game that can be played by each sides, buy pays really well if skarlet suceeds it.
Don't stay too close to him when he has meter and you have none unless you pushed him into the corner, however, getting knockdowns is what you really want to aim in
for this battle, everytime you get one, you have big oportunities to start oki games.
There is more than 2 ways of starting your Oki game based on kabal actions, you can slide him everytime he tries to wakeup to preventing him to jump backwards into
gas blast to stay away, but doing this you face the threat of flash parries. However, this is where the yomi comes in, out of good knockdown advantage, you will want to mix between, empty dash, slide or empty dash into crimson dash, iaDD, bait
crossup jump, jump over in case he goes for a different wakeup or simply f212,1+2 blockstring as he is getting up to boost your bar and end with more mixups, if kabal is respecting counter-reads(anti-armor techs) he will start to hesitate on commiting to ex nd and will block after wasting his meter, which leads to jail him with blockstrings everytime the opportunity is given.
DO NOT constantly spend your meter to trap oki games unless you're sucessfully building it back, it depends on how the match goes most of the game. Many players
do believe skarlet can be jumped at, if you're ready to deal with this situation at any range that won't be a problem, instead it might be their demise. During constant skarlet's pressure, mostly cornered a lot of players just try to get out of there by jumping, so you must be ready to anti-air all the time they jump.
At mid range be aware of F32 string, if you space out correctly f3 might whiff all the time because of range, you can either d4 on reaction, or whiff punish it with f4 or 21 and hit confirm into combo, at this range is also advisable to expect jumps or gas blast.
If you successfully jump over a gas blast without another incoming barrage on the way, or successfuly jump over a ground saw, you can block the air with a air dagger, kabal can't punish it on reaction because is safe, specially if you do it low enough, if he risks to gas blast afterwards, and get hit by it, might give you a full combo, this tool is so annoying that you must to used everytime the oportunity arises even if is just one to open a big room so you can dash in.
The corner game is almost the same against all characters, just be carefull with ex nd, otherwise, u34dd all day on the wakeup into corner pressures and mixups, alternating between dd and exdd after u34 will change the frame trap for them to react to, the main goal is to keep forcing them to guess wrong any time, and paid the price by taking either, chip damage or worse.
Most skarlets are destroyed in this matchups for the following reasons:
1. Lack of patience (can't avoid gas blast properly or patiently commiting lots of mistakes in the process, like taking hits or wasting meter)
2. Trigger happy with armored slashes (crimson dash baitups and still slash giving kabal a free punish
3. Lack of oki games and yomi layers (Skarlet pays really well when she gets the opponent to continuely guessing wrong because of her damage output or blockstrings)
4. very bad spacing (footsies game is really important here at some point)
Kung Lao 5-5
Skill Requirements:
Blocked Slide Mind games.
Ability to punish teles
Footsies
Kung Lao is an even matchup, there isn’t much of difficulty that can give Skarlet a hard time, though he is a small hitbox character he equally lacks fast mid hitting strings, if you can control the air space well you will have the upper hand.
Different from the matches where Skarlet has to necessarily be on point with her tools, this match can be played by footsies alone, armor will also keep KL in check as spin keeps ppl in check. What Skarlet really has to learn about Kl is how to stop the big 4, Dive Kicks, Teles, F3, and low hats.
Hat Throw can be punished by teleport, or crimson dash into downslash if you do it at the very early reactive frame of crimson dash, low hat can only be punished with crimson dash on reaction, but that move alone can be jumped and scarlet can block all KL’s way in to get close.
Its advisable to stay inside the range where crimson dash max ranged will punish low hats, but will also whiff dive kicks or bird Laos startegies, and still you can whiff punish F3 aproaching atempts.
Off any blockstrings you can always end with slide and D3 KL afterwards, it’s a 50-50 risk worth taking, because off to this, the there is only 3 things Kung lao can do to stop your D3 offense.
1. Spin, which is crazy but not unlikely, if KL Spins and you block after a slide he will give you a free combo.
2. D1 to stop your D3, sure you will be -1 after that, but you can still armor out of his next offense safely
3. Jump over (Crossup) to avoid D3, once jump is only 1f he will be able to avoid pressure, however, any other option that is not spin, d1, or xray like, standing 2, grab, B3, or B1, will get overthrown by D3 alone leading you for more pressure or counter right after wards.
This is where the mind games begins, you can bait D1, and punish it on the frame with F4 before he recovers, same goes with spin. Or AA the crossup on the second it happens, what can go a bit bad here, is if he you block and he uses a blockstring instead, this equaly give him mixup options that you will have to deal with like his 21, pressure, to check you with spin, or bird Lao tactics.
DU instant 3, can be crouched, however any delayed option from Tele, can be punished with Standing1, back dash to whiff punish or F4. Armored tele can also be avoided by backdash and punish him.
KL has this 90f armor of the teleport that he can combo ppl afterwards, Skarlet counter-read can beat that.
Its more a life leading match, however gets to be on the lead forces the other to attack, which is easier to deal with. Isn’t much of difficult, once you learn to deal with his tele, F3 and dive kicks.
It will all become a poking and whiff punishing game, however Skarlet excels at damage in this matchup, as long as you don’t enter in autopilot mode with daggers, as long as you occupy space on spots where his dive kick should land you’re controlling the game.
Different from the matches where Skarlet has to necessarily be on point with her tools, this match can be played by footsies alone, armor will also keep KL in check as spin keeps ppl in check. What Skarlet really has to learn about Kl is how to stop the big 4, Dive Kicks, Teles, F3, and low hats.
Hat Throw can be punished by teleport, or crimson dash into downslash if you do it at the very early reactive frame of crimson dash, low hat can only be punished with crimson dash on reaction, but that move alone can be jumped and scarlet can block all KL’s way in to get close.
Its advisable to stay inside the range where crimson dash max ranged will punish low hats, but will also whiff dive kicks or bird Laos startegies, and still you can whiff punish F3 aproaching atempts.
Off any blockstrings you can always end with slide and D3 KL afterwards, it’s a 50-50 risk worth taking, because off to this, the there is only 3 things Kung lao can do to stop your D3 offense.
1. Spin, which is crazy but not unlikely, if KL Spins and you block after a slide he will give you a free combo.
2. D1 to stop your D3, sure you will be -1 after that, but you can still armor out of his next offense safely
3. Jump over (Crossup) to avoid D3, once jump is only 1f he will be able to avoid pressure, however, any other option that is not spin, d1, or xray like, standing 2, grab, B3, or B1, will get overthrown by D3 alone leading you for more pressure or counter right after wards.
This is where the mind games begins, you can bait D1, and punish it on the frame with F4 before he recovers, same goes with spin. Or AA the crossup on the second it happens, what can go a bit bad here, is if he you block and he uses a blockstring instead, this equaly give him mixup options that you will have to deal with like his 21, pressure, to check you with spin, or bird Lao tactics.
DU instant 3, can be crouched, however any delayed option from Tele, can be punished with Standing1, back dash to whiff punish or F4. Armored tele can also be avoided by backdash and punish him.
KL has this 90f armor of the teleport that he can combo ppl afterwards, Skarlet counter-read can beat that.
Its more a life leading match, however gets to be on the lead forces the other to attack, which is easier to deal with. Isn’t much of difficult, once you learn to deal with his tele, F3 and dive kicks.
It will all become a poking and whiff punishing game, however Skarlet excels at damage in this matchup, as long as you don’t enter in autopilot mode with daggers, as long as you occupy space on spots where his dive kick should land you’re controlling the game.
Kenshi - 6-4
Skills Requirements:
- Counter Reads
- Blockstrings
- Fast Reactions
- iaD
Skarlet beats Kenshi, because she is a character that doesn't exactly follows the rule of the game, this is a Matchup were everything can go wrong for Kenshi.
His big size hitbox is the main problem, Kenshi is a lot bigger than regular characters, so there is character specific blocktrings that will work on better, so Skarlet can always end her combos with 112~ex DC into F212, 1+2 blockstring it will always connect, it doesn't matter if he is standing or crouch blocking, this loop will always fuel Skarlet's meter and keep coming back for more.
Kenshi doesn't have a fast and long range normal, so he lacks a good anti- air when he is meterless, basically he has a weak defense when he is meterless.
Kenshi can't escape without meter, Skarlet on the other hand is a character that can bait meter with counter reads and win the trade, this leaves him with no real answer to frame traps, since he can't cancel his special moves, he has to commit to them or block endlessly a variety of Mixups.
Starting the Match, you can use your meter right away, but you have to make sure that what ever you do after it hits and give you the first hit award, the reason you might want to do this, is because this way you prevent Kenshi to break your next damage right away, and you force him to start building his meter by using his projectiles.
Skarlet can go over them with Krimson Dash and punish them accordingly, the only special move you have to keep yourself away from such distance is Spirit Charge and Ex Spirit Charge, those can't be ducked and are fast, those can't often be avoided if you're inside Keshi's SC range, even if they're weak against krimsom dash, play outside that range and bait reversal with iaDs.
Remember, you don't want the Reversal to hit your kunais, so throw them a frame higher, it will give the impression that it can hit him, so if he tries to sent it back to you it will leave him frozen in the whiff frames because it won't connect, which allows you to get in faster than any character, so this strategy will give him the following options:
Option #1
When he starts to respect this option he will start to second guess his decisions, by forcing his mind into this situation, since he can't aproach because of his slow normals and big hitboxs by doing that he would just step inside your playground, it will leave him more open to try projectiles when he shouldn't, like teleflurry and the DU4 since spirit charge can't hit.
There you can counter at will with crimson dash into a big punish.
Option #2
If he starts decides to let the daggers trough to counter red dash when you aproach, you can play this both ways:
a) You exhange between whiff an iaD, or hit him with iaD, if is intention is to let the dagger trough it will hit him leaving you 25 frames to perform a red dash, which will be reacted to, so get ready to counter
b) You intentionally whiff the dagger, but instead of red Dash you Krimson dash to get close, since he can't tell which one you will use he can only counter the approach, you get a free counter hit if he tries to stop you to get in, if he respects you're in anyway so refill your meter.
The option #2 will lead back to the Option #1 and if he can't deal with it, you can loop there.
Up close is a different game, you you're in Kenshi is forced to play the defaut Skarlet's game where, he is forced to guess between red dashes if its a low, overhead, or blocktring into another red dash loop, so pay attention to what he is guarding or avoiding and counter from there into the loop.
What you can't allow yourself to, is to stay meterless for too long, if Skarlet becomes meterless in this MU she has to play by the rules that the others characters plays, and those same characters are easely defeated by Kenshi.
Without meter you can't get in close, you can't force Kenshi to play your game, you will recieve a load of special moves from distance which red dash, F4 or iaD won't cut it.
His big size hitbox is the main problem, Kenshi is a lot bigger than regular characters, so there is character specific blocktrings that will work on better, so Skarlet can always end her combos with 112~ex DC into F212, 1+2 blockstring it will always connect, it doesn't matter if he is standing or crouch blocking, this loop will always fuel Skarlet's meter and keep coming back for more.
Kenshi doesn't have a fast and long range normal, so he lacks a good anti- air when he is meterless, basically he has a weak defense when he is meterless.
Kenshi can't escape without meter, Skarlet on the other hand is a character that can bait meter with counter reads and win the trade, this leaves him with no real answer to frame traps, since he can't cancel his special moves, he has to commit to them or block endlessly a variety of Mixups.
Starting the Match, you can use your meter right away, but you have to make sure that what ever you do after it hits and give you the first hit award, the reason you might want to do this, is because this way you prevent Kenshi to break your next damage right away, and you force him to start building his meter by using his projectiles.
Skarlet can go over them with Krimson Dash and punish them accordingly, the only special move you have to keep yourself away from such distance is Spirit Charge and Ex Spirit Charge, those can't be ducked and are fast, those can't often be avoided if you're inside Keshi's SC range, even if they're weak against krimsom dash, play outside that range and bait reversal with iaDs.
Remember, you don't want the Reversal to hit your kunais, so throw them a frame higher, it will give the impression that it can hit him, so if he tries to sent it back to you it will leave him frozen in the whiff frames because it won't connect, which allows you to get in faster than any character, so this strategy will give him the following options:
Option #1
When he starts to respect this option he will start to second guess his decisions, by forcing his mind into this situation, since he can't aproach because of his slow normals and big hitboxs by doing that he would just step inside your playground, it will leave him more open to try projectiles when he shouldn't, like teleflurry and the DU4 since spirit charge can't hit.
There you can counter at will with crimson dash into a big punish.
Option #2
If he starts decides to let the daggers trough to counter red dash when you aproach, you can play this both ways:
a) You exhange between whiff an iaD, or hit him with iaD, if is intention is to let the dagger trough it will hit him leaving you 25 frames to perform a red dash, which will be reacted to, so get ready to counter
b) You intentionally whiff the dagger, but instead of red Dash you Krimson dash to get close, since he can't tell which one you will use he can only counter the approach, you get a free counter hit if he tries to stop you to get in, if he respects you're in anyway so refill your meter.
The option #2 will lead back to the Option #1 and if he can't deal with it, you can loop there.
Up close is a different game, you you're in Kenshi is forced to play the defaut Skarlet's game where, he is forced to guess between red dashes if its a low, overhead, or blocktring into another red dash loop, so pay attention to what he is guarding or avoiding and counter from there into the loop.
What you can't allow yourself to, is to stay meterless for too long, if Skarlet becomes meterless in this MU she has to play by the rules that the others characters plays, and those same characters are easely defeated by Kenshi.
Without meter you can't get in close, you can't force Kenshi to play your game, you will recieve a load of special moves from distance which red dash, F4 or iaD won't cut it.
Jax - 6-4
Comming Soon
Sonya - 5-5
Comming Soon
Kitana - 5-5
Coming Soon
Reptile - 6-4
Comming Soon
Cage - 5-5
Comming Soon
Ermac - 5-5
Comming Soon
Mileena - 6-4
Comming Soon
Rain - 6-4
Comming Soon
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