kara-karakusa is the only way you’re going to get it off post hayate, which is pretty much what made Makoto so scary in 3s. It’s definitely something you’re going to want to pick up, but i’d suggest polishing your basic execution first. You can’t pull off the flashy shit in a match until the basic stuff is second nature. Kara karakusa isn’t going to immediately make you better, but better blocking/footsies/execution definitely will.
Andrew: GG’s. You evened the odds quite a bit once you started AA’ing me, though it’d be a lot easier for me to air throw your j. fierce’s without those crazy latency spikes. Makoto’s a lot like Abel, you really have to learn to block more. You don’t even have EX roll to get away from obvious shit, so pressure is a lot harder to deal with. Just remember: one karakusa into ultra is like half my life, and you have 99 seconds to create an opportunity to do it. Just think of the chip damage i’m dealing as a down payment for that crotch punch.
To DV8: we have sessions usually on friday, sometimes saturday. Keep an eye out for posts on the forums, we’ll try and do a better job of posting times up here. Also, a lot of us have PSN, so feel free to add us on there to get in some games. We’re not total dicks, we just like having some prior knowledge of the people coming to sessions, since these are hosted in our own homes.
I wanted to write a bit on problems i’m seeing from our sessions, but HAV went ahead and beat me to most of it…
http://www.shoryuken.com/content.php?r=677-Strategy-Corner-Blocking
Read that if you haven’t already. Whether or not you realize it, you guys rarely straight block on wakeup. It’s always guess jabs, guess throw, backdash, or jumping out. I’m not playing Abel now, there’s no command grab to deal with, so there’s absolutely no reason for you to use block and tech more.
Additionally, you guys have really strange reactions to pressure. I’ll use Andrew as an example since I just got done playing him in like 100 matches:
After hitting him with st. fwd xx qcb k, he tries to stick out a cr. jab to stop the st. fwd i’m going to throw out. Because I have frame advantage, I get a counter hit and continue the combo. Instead of blocking the next one, he tried to throw out a sweep instead. This makes no sense. Instead of going for a safer option, he tried for something even riskier. You all do this, and while you can argue that it might just be some kind of advanced mindgames, I don’t buy it. Instead of going all in on a guess that’s just as liable to get you killed as it is to get you out of trouble, why not just block? You’re sacrificing like 30 damage in chip in exchange for the guarantee of not eating a fat combo. You have 99 seconds in a match, there’s almost always time to make a comeback, so don’t piss it away by getting kicked in the head. That’s my philosophy, anyway.
