CVS2: Mai

I haven’t heard much about her and she’s a character I want to learn. Any pointers would be a great help.

st.fierce for anti air. crossup with lk, walking lk good, standing lp good, combo = cr.hp, qcb hp. jump hk good priority, a-groove ok…cc = st hk x n, cr mk after 8 hits, super. play defensive with lots of st. fierce, but don’t get predictable and rush down if u can…low jump hk is great…run away with triangle jump qcf hp…

i do this too much.

any bread and butters to speak of?

Speed is Mai’s biggest advantage of course. I confuse the schmutz out of slower characters easier. =) There’s a few guides for Mai out there so I’ll just say what I do.

Of course the number one thing is to keep moving at ALL times unless you’re distancing and baiting your opponent. You also have to be careful in how you move as well as you might accidently find yourself at the fist end of a Tiger Upper or any other DP =P.

As for combos, I use the standard 2in1 for Mai (c.hp hcb+hp). It’s easy to do and does a great amount of damage (for mai anyway).

If you ever hit your opponent with a j.hk while moving around go straight into Honoo San Rengeki (tm, a personal nickname I came up with for that three-hit kind of generic though ~_^)

Her sweep has decent range and comes out fast.

Her fan-slap in close is a nice, quick move and should be done straight into her Shinobi Bachi (or Hachi, I don’t remember)

Ka cho sens are good for throwing off the balance of players as well. Definitely mix them up. LP KCS is a JD-ers nightmare I swear :mad:

Her Nanmp Cho Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi is probably her best super at level 3 but it doesn’t connect well in combos (well I haven’t figured one out for it) her easiest to combo into is definitely j.any attack (preferably j.hk) in to qcbx2 +P.

Oh one last tip when you’re in the air, if you’re getting hit with a anti-air standard move (something like Sagat’s s.fk or cammy’s s.fk, whatever that kick for her is) pretend you’re jumping in and go into a Musasabi no Mai. They’ll probably throw their move at but you’ll spin in place and then attack while their recovering =) Just be careful though because they’ll punish you BAD if you miss.

I’ll post some more stuff later since I’m still learning her. Mostly in K-groove though.

yah cr.fierce, qcb fierce

or something more advanced would be cr.jab,st.short,cr.strong,qcf fierce

basically low strong and low fierce are mad bufferable.

A much better and more practical B&B is: crouching LKx2 xx HCF+LK.

  • good amount of time to see if the LKs hit
  • crouching LK is much safer and easier to hit with than a crouching HP

crouching HP xx QCB+HP is much better as a mistake punisher than B&B

Combo her (any level) Super Deadly Ninja Bees (QCB, HCF+K) anytime you land a crouching LKx1-3. If it is blocked, a sweep usually catches any kind of non DP/super counter attempt. It’s really the only super worth using

Best Jump ins:
LK (cross up)
HP (air-to-air)
HK (jump in)

Best pokes:
standing LP
crouching LK
croucning HK xx fireball

Anti-air:
Standing (far) HP

Oh yah…an easy way to combo the ninja bee super is using low short. Do low short, move the stick to back, press low short again, and then hcf k.

And throw a lot…

And stand jab is good

close stand short is good too.

Somebody told me she’s not really good. But I like using her (and it’s not to just look at her).

Well, she’s not mean like Sagat or Cammy. She doesn’t have the weapons they have. You have to work a little. She’s like mid-tier…or lower…ish I dunno I’m stuck on that chick since Fatal Fury 2

I like lookin at her!

Anything else I should know?

Does Mai really say “ME BOUNCY” after she wins a match?
I was just wondering thats all!:eek: :lol:

NO.

She says “Nippon ichi!” Which means “The best in Japan.”

I believe one of her quotes in the English version is “I’m the best female ninja in Japan!” or something. That’s basically a translation of that saying.

hey u guys…im new to this web site but i’ve been playing cvs2 for quite a while. Mai is one of my main characters.

the main super combo that i do with mai is j.Roundhose, c.Fierce and any level super. I usually do the qcb,hcf Kick super. Just remember to hold on to the fierce button to prevent her regular special move from coming out instead of the super.

Does anybody know to retaliate against a blocked blanka ball?
Other than the ninja bee super that only connects for only one hit, I cant find anything.

I believe u can do walk forward st.roundhouse, but u have to have perfect timing. Maybe running low roundhouse or st. jab. I forget.

Haven’t been able to do walk toward roundhouse, but walk toward jab works every time…

When people try and cross you up, s.close forward (her vertical leg split) nulls the crossup. She can also do ghetto rushes with her s.short, and low strong beats out a lot of stuff too. My Chun-Li has the most trouble playing a good Mai. I think she’s an ok counter to her, seeing as her j.rh beats out Chun’s sweep all the time (Chun can’t do low strong tripguard anti-air either.) Low strong pretty much beats out a lot of stuff in the game. Mai, IMO, is an extremely underrated character. She can runaway all day pretty well too with wall dives and such (See ECC7 tapes >_<) but she can rush your ass pretty well too.

Can somebody list the easy and difficult links for Mai?
I use c.jab x3 and a s.jab. Only chip damage though:confused:

It’s been a long time since I posted on SRK, but after seeing this thread I decided to put my two cents in on what I know for CVS2 Mai.

Her best grooves are presumably N and C. N for the mobility that it gives her to maximize her rushdown potential, and C so I can sit on that bar so when a person slips, I can immediately punish him/her with a super. Also the simple fact that you can roll cancel moves in these grooves are a good enough incentive to use either of these two grooves.

For her jab and short, I use her cr.jab and short for rapid fire poking. Her st. jab is also good for poking at a distance, and her st. close short is her best limb to use for combobility. Her st. close short can chain into her st. and cr. strong, cr. fierce, and cr. rh. For jumping, her short is best for crossing up.

For her strong and forward, I find little uses for them. I use her cr. strong after 2 rapid fire jabs or shorts to stuff most counter attacks attempted against my rapid fire poking. I also use her cr. forward to poke at max distance, and to sneak in a little bit of damage if my opponent isn’t paying attention. Her jumping forward is also a cross-up, but it’s hell to actually connect it. Other than that, there aren’t much uses for her strong and forward attacks.

For her fierce and rh, I use either st. far fierce or either st rh that comes out for anti-air. For jumping, her fierce is best for air-air combat while her rh is best for air-ground. Her fierce in the air can also be used to throw your opponent out of the air. Her cr. fierce is best to use after her st. close short, and her cr. rh has nice reach, good speed, and can be cancelled out of if blocked.

Her fans (qcf+p) are best used after a blocked cr. fierce or rh, when a character is getting up (to force him/her to block), or from full screen away when you know that it is safe to do so.

Her Ryuu-Enbu (qcb+p) should mostly be used as an anti-poke or after a b&b combo, otherwise there isn’t much safe uses for it unless roll cancelled as a wake-up.

Her Deadly Ninja Bees (hcf+k) should be used as her finisher for practically all her combos that connect.

Her charged Flying Squirrel Dance (hold d, u+p) only has two uses. One is to quickly create space between you and your opponent when needed. And two is to help fight your way out of a corner. When you force your opponent to block the move, you should either recover before your opponent or at the sametime as your opponent when the move is done at the right distance.

Her manual Flying Squirrel Dance (in the air, qcb+p) has three uses. One is to create space between you and your opponent. Two is to bait out and punish anti-airs (due to the bad recovery time of this move, it is best to use this strategy sparingly, or you’ll suffer severly). And three is to counter attack low pokes by doing a modify Flying Squirrel Dance (qcb, ub+p) as soon as the limb is thrown to jump a little bit off the ground and immediately attack with the move.

Her Sunfire Samba (hold d, u+k) can be used as a anti-air, and much more. Although her short version comes out extremely fast, it lacks priority and only hits once. With the forward and rh versions, Mai has start-up invincibility against any and all attacks that either (a) aren’t throws or (b) doesn’t hit her below her knees. The animation from her knees and below are the only animation with collision boxes during the start-up period (before the flames totally engulfs her) of her forward and rh Sunfire Sambas. It it suggested to use the forward version since it is faster and does good enough damage as compared to her rh version which is although more damaging, is slower to come out. In either case, if the move is used correctly, u can negate and punish a lot of attacks. However, if used at bad timings, Mai is open for any punishment you can think of for it has one the worst recovery times in the game.

To be continued…

Part II

Her Fandango super (qcf x2+p) is the most useless of the 3 supers she has. It’s only real use would be to safely chip an opponent that isn’t hessitant to use a guard cancel roll or a guard counter, or is either proficient with P or K groove. Otherwise, it is best to stay clear from this super.

Her Super deadly Ninja Bees (qcb, hcf+k) is her best super in her arsenal. It’s the most damaging to use in combos, and unless your opponent is prone to using guard cancel rolls or counters, or is proficient in either P oR K groove, this super chips the most life points and you are perfectly safe. The super leaves you a nice distance away from your opponent, and you only recover a couple of insignificant frames after your opponent (insignificant in the fact that she can’t be punished by any super in the game, and your opponent is too far to hit you with any limb without you having the chance to a least block). It’s also good as a wake-up super.

Her Super Flying Squirrel dance (qcb x2+p) should be used the exact same way as her manual Flying Squirrel Dance was used, with the exception of using it to create space between you and your opponent. When using it as a anti low attack, it’s best to do the modify as such: qcb x2, ub+p.

Her B&B combos are usually 3 cr. rapid fire jabs and/or shorts into a special or super of choice, or a simple cr.fierce into special/super move of choice (with logic as to which special/super are actually appropriate to use (no intention to insult anybody there)).

For a more advanced combo, take this chain and do what your heart desires with it:

jump in cross over short (cross over forward) (non cross over rh), st. close jab (cr. jab) (st. close short) (cr. short) (skip if jumped in with rh), st. close short, cr. fierce (any limb except for st. or cr. forward, st. fierce, and st.rh), Deadly Ninja Bees/Super Deadly Ninja Bees (any special/super move that is connectable)

Any move that is not in parentheses is the combo that I do, any other command in the parentheses are the options that you have with that chain.

As for strategy, Mai is basically rushdown. Everybody, although using the same general strategy, has his/her own uniqueness to the style of play and decides what moves he/she chooses to use and not use while using that strategy, so I’ll let you all find that niche of yours with rushdown Mai. If you want to know how I play her (or at least want to), reply and I’ll let you know.

yeah…i would to know how you use mai as a rushdown character? Or any strageties against certain characters such as a N-Blanka and a N-Bison?