CVS2: Mai

Classic Fighting Games Capcom VS SNK 2
21

I haven’t really gotten the chance to play against any real strong Blankas nor Bisons, so I can’t really help you much there. But I’ll tell you my strategy for playing her.

It’s best that while using her rushdown you use her crouching attacks, because that’s where most of her good pokes are at. While the st. far jab and st. close short are good pokes, you have access to her rapid fire jabs and shorts (it’s better to use her rapid fire short), strong, forward (at max distance), fierce, and rh clip while crouhing. Just be wary of overheads and small jumps.

While crouching, if you’re close to your opponent, use 2 rapid fire or shorts into a strong. It’s not a complete stun combo, but if yor opponent tries to attack you after the shorts the strong should stuff his/her attack. If the shorts connect, buffer into either the Ryuu Enbu (test to see if that connects, I can’t remember at this point), or if you’re good enough into her Deadly Ninja Bees. If you have a bar and the two shorts connect, throw out a third short and buffer into Her Super Deadly Ninja Bees (this is your best option obviously). If you want, you can use a fierce after the 2 rapid fire shorts, but just remeber that the attack is slightly slower than the strong. If the fierce connect, go into Ryuu Enbu or, more preferrably, the Deadly Ninja Bees. If you have the bar, Super Deadly Ninja Bees is the best way to go. If the fierce is blocked, buffer into the fan to prevent any retaliation. If you want to do more chipping, and you know it’s safe to do so, cancel any of the following limbs mention into a Super Deadly Ninja Bees. If the attack was blocked completely, you cannot be punished in any way. If you are a certain distance away, you could do her forward slide to poke at your opponent. Be warned, used this move seldomly, for this move’s start up is a little slow, and is punishable if done at a bad distance. Use her rh clip as a surprise attack from time to time, it’s quick, and if your opponent is down, the momentum of the match now switches in your favor. If the clip is blocked, buffer into the fan to be safe, or into the Super Dealy Ninja Bees if you can waste the bar.

If you want to use standing pokes as well (which I strongly suggest), try using her st. far jabs and st. close shorts. The jabs are relatively quick, and have very good range. If you happen to connect one of them, and you have the reaction time to do a lvl 3 Super Deadly Ninja Bees when you have it, waste it. As for the st. close short, it’s undisputedly her best comboable limb in her arsenal. The limb can combo into the following: st. far and cr. jab; st. close, far, and cr. short; st. and cr. strong; cr. fierce; and cr. rh; and any of her ground based special or super moves! Basically every time your st. close short is blocked or not, and your opponent can’t guard cancel counter or roll, you do not have to fear any type of retaliation what so ever. Her st. strong is the limb with the least usage, and should therefore be steered clear from. Her st. far forward can be used as an anti-low poke and somewhat of a carrier move (although not advised). Her st. far fierce and st. rh (close and far) can be used as anti-airs.

For jump-ins, you only need 3 buttons. Those three buttons are her short, fierce, and rh. Her short for cross-ups and air-air combat, her fierce for air-air combat (especially since that is her air grab botton), and her rh for air-ground combat. Using any other attack button is unadvisble (except for maybe the jab for air-air combat) and is used at your own risk (especially the forward for cross-ups).

For combos, I already gave those out is an earlier post, so to not feel redundant, please refer to the earlier post.

To be continued…

22

With what I said in my 3 earlier posts, I shall now go as in depth as I can into the ideal strategy for rushdown Mai.

First and foremost, she MUST, and I repeat, she MUST be pick in either Nor K groove. N for it gives her the most mobility plain and simple. She can run, small jump, roll (and thus roll cancel), and counter roll. K for it’s gives her the ability to help her get in their and do major damage with it’s run, small jump, just defend, quick bar building, power and defense increase when the bar is maxed, and the ability to freely waste a super when you want/need to. The downsides to each 1 is that in N you can’t waste a lvl 3 super as freely as you can in K, and in K you can’t roll (and therefore you cannot roll cancel). Please also note that unlike K groove, Mai’s goal (besides the obvious) in N groove (depending on how valuable she is to you) would also be to build up stocks for the powerhouse of the team. Because of her speed and quick moves, you should be able to build up at least 2 stocks with Mai if she is defeated (unless you were raped).

If you play Mai, she must either be a ratio 1 or 2 charater. She doesn’t have enough tools or do enough heavy damage to be a ratio 3 or 4 character.

First and foremost, you must knock your opponent down to the ground to truly start utilizing Mai’s rushdown potential. This can be done with the obvious clip (which must be buffered into a fan if she misses), or any of her special/super moves except for her fan. Once knocked down, do a deep meaty cross-up (deep enough so that if you connected and land, you can connect a combo) and either do a combo if it connects, or start playing the poking game if it’s blocked. The best suggestion is this, every single time you do a deep meaty cross up (blocked or not), go into the following chain: st. close jab, st.close short, cr. fierce. From that chain, you have two definite options. Either you (a) throw a fan if the chain is blocked and tro to knock the character down again, or (b) do her (Super) Deadly Ninja Bees if the chain connects and repeat starting from deep meaty cross up. Practice doing that until you can do it 80% of the time. If your opponent starts to do quick get up, depending on how you knocked your opponent down, you can either retaliate with the strongest attack(s) you can do with the alloted time you have to hit him/her to knock him/her back down to the ground and guess that he’ll/she’ll either do another quick get up or not (which is basically either attempt the cross up or wait for the next quick get up), or simply do nothing since you do not have time to do anything and must try to knock your opponent down again. If your opponent tries to use slow get up, time your croos ups better, or throw a slow fan so they will get up into it and force him/her to block and start pressuring your opponent from there. This strategy is good in both N and K groove.

In the beginning of the match, it’s best to either do one of three things. Those three things are clip into strong fan, Ryuu Enbu, or nothing. The safest is nothing, but if you can catch your opponent with one of the other two, the match already starts in your favor. If you did the clip into fan, if it’s blocked then it’s no big deal. You just now have to start on your mission to knock your opponent down. If it connects however, it now depends on what occurs after the clip. If you didn’t throw the fan (for what ever reason), follow the instructions in the earlier paragraph. If you did throw the fan after the clip connected, then it all depends on what your opponent does. If he just simply falls, then nothing will occur. If he does a quick get up, the fan should hit him and you should recover with enough time to either do the strongest attack(s) you can do in the alloted time you have to knock him/her down and guess what’s gonna happen next as with all knockdowns concerning the possibility of a uick get up, or run in their and start the pressure game on your opponent depending on how deep in your are. If the opponent does a slow get up, you should recover in time to do the strategy for slow get up based fighters. If you connect with the Ryuu Enbu, if the opponent simply falls, then do a running jump to start the cross up tactic. If he does a quick get up, too bad. If he does a slow get up, it’s the same strategy as it is with all slow get ups. You can try to begin the match with a Deadly Ninja Bees, but if it’s blocked you’ll regret doing so. If it connects, then it’s like doing a regular knock down, in which case just follow the instructions in the earlier paragraph.

To be continued…

23

So now you basically know what to do once you know your opponent down (If there are any strategy based errors that you find in my posts, please address them immediately so that people won’t end up using a strategy that isn’t sufficient enough for usage). Now you’re wondering “Ok, you mentioned something earlier about a ‘pressure game’, how do you pressure with Mai?” Well, you’re about to find out now.

There’re two distint reasons as to why Mai is best played in either N or K groove, run and small jump. Once everything is set to equal momentum (nobody is on top of anybody), try not to really force your way in close to your opponent. Instead, try to break your opponent’s guard with certain attacks that, once you break their guard, you can do a knock down move and start having fun hopefully from there. Try using the small jump rh to poke at a distance and slowly break their guard, and force your opponent to block high (small jumping is your answer to Mai’s lack of an overhead attack). Since her small jump is fast, and her j. rh is quick coming out, you may catch your opponent off guard from time to time. If you’re in deep enough and you land in time if your j. rh actually do connect, do a Deadly Ninja Bees to knock your opponent down and do what is necesary to do depending on the sitiation that occurs. If it doesn’t then keep on applying the pressure with walking distant st. jabs, cr. rh into fan (unless the guard crashes, then you do Deadly Ninja Bees into blah blah blah), seldom fans here and there (just to both chip and break their guard), an occasional Ryuu Enbu to counter limbs along with the ever stuffing cr. strong, an occasional st. far or cr. forward to go over low attacks or slide under high ones respectively and to get in their more, more small jumping rh, more clips, more distant st. jabs, more whatever it takes until their guard breaks, or they try to do something (in which case, mind games will come into play, but I’ll explain that a little bit later). That’s basically her pressure game when you’re close enough to use the attacks mentioned. If you’re in any closer than the distance of her cr.strong, then you’re either doing the cross up chain or doing the 2 cr. shorts into cr.strong or fierce into what is apprpriate depending on the situation (which was explained earlier).

Now then, how would you start the pressure if you are a good distance away. Simple, unless you are a full distance away, you run at him/her. If you are full distance away, and you know that you are safe to do this, throw a jab fan and run after it. In both situations, if while running they try to attack you via jump in, anti-air them. If they try to hit you via super, do what the groove gives you (N is roll or roll cancel a move, K is to JD or get the hell out of their somehow). If they block the fan, you have just ran in so close to them that you can start poking at them to break their guard again. If they parry/JD the fan, stop running and see what happens from there (it’s the safest thing to do if you’re dealing with something of that calibur). If you’re a little gutsy, you should be close enough to poke with a st. jab. Another option you can do is if you’re following the fan, you can do a running jump to do a deep cross up (or a jump attack of some sort) while the fan is making your opponent block. The worst that should happen is that your opponent rolls (unless he/she can roll cancel, or he/she can parry/JD).

On to the next post…

24

Ok, so the strategy is sounding a little nice now, no, yes, maybe, who cares (it’s past 2:30 in the morning and I’m writing what seems to feel like a never ending strategy guide, I can be a little out of it at this point). Anywho, now you run into a obstacle, you’re starting to notice that you can’t take what you can dish out, meaning you can’t handle being rushed down on. What do you do, let ole Dr. Wolfe perscribe the proper medication to your
illness (it’s official, I’m out of it).

Let’s start with the ground game. You’re being outpoked cough**cough cr. fierce cough. Now-a-days that’s considered to be the common cold for most players, with many different strands of the virus floating around, with the worst cases being referred to as the “Sagat” and “Blanka” viruses, with other strands floating around. What’re the remedies for these nasty viruses you’e pondering? Well, here’s how you can fight these terrible diseases.

First off, try a cr. strong, it has stuffing potential. It has been seen to be effective against a Blanka cr. fierce from time to time, but watch out for the sliding fierce, it’s not breaking through that, and I never really tested to see if it works on Sagat’s cr. fierce. other limbs to use are the cr. fierce, the st. far forward (to leap over certain low hits and counter attack), and the st. far jab (it got reach). You can also try to Ryuu Enbu (jab or strong are suggested) certain attacks. If you can, try to roll cancel either her jab Sunfire Samba or her fierce Ryuu Enbu. with Both of those two moves in your arsenal, you can counter attack fast fierces on reaction (at least for sure with the fierce or jab Ryuu Enbu)!!!

Another tactic against the ground game is to quickly move back and forth, in and out of your opponents range. Do it so that when your opponent swings you are out of the range of the attack. With Mai’s speed (being the 4th fastest in the game excluding the bosses and including Blood Riot Iori), it shouldn’t be too difficult once you know where the range of the attack you fear is. Once the opponent misses (if he/she misses), try to find a way to knock down your opponent. From there, it’s all routine.

The final tactic to the ground game is, no not the roll (depending on who you’re fighting, that’s practically useless), the Modified (Super) Flying Squirrel Dance. When you know your opponent is going to do a series of ground pokes that’s gonna leave (her)himself open, do qcb, ub+p to do the MFSD, or qcb x2, ub+p for the SMFSD (don’t get qcb x2, ub+p confused with qcb, ub x2+p, I mean do qcb, qcb, ub+p). What should happen is that (depending on how much height you gained before the move was entered) you should be high enough to evade the move that was whiffed as you are spinning in air, and you should be coming down quick enough to hit your opponent as he/she is recovering. This should apply for both the MFSD and the SMFSD. If done incorrectly, you will either eat the move you were trying to evade, or you will be blocked and punished for your lack of execution. Remember, this should only be done seldomly, otherwise you’ll finding yourself being blocked and punished more than what you should. Try mixing this tactic up with small jumping, and you may find yourself catching someone sleeping on the job as you give him/her the pink slip for doing so (or in lamen terms, overhead into knockdown into deep cross up chain, haven’t said that in a while).

Air-air combat shouldn’t be too much of a problem, since Mai is one of the masters of the air. In air-air combat, you should basically use your jabs, shorts, and especially your fierces to knock people out of the air. Especially the fierce, since it is your airthrow as well.

Ok, now let’s say that your opponent beats you to the air, what can you do then? Well that’s simple enough (or so it may seem). Either jump straight up and use either of the limbs I mentioned earlier to knock the person out the air, or use either her st. fierce or rh (dependind on the distance) to anti-air the person. If you already have it charged, and you can react fast enough to use it, use the forward Sunfire Samba. It has start up invincibility from her head to her knees, and it comes out rather quick compared to the rh version. Just be wary of the fact that there are still air moves that can actually reach her knees before the flames start, such as Haoh Maru’s fierce and Yamazaki’s rh to name a couple. Depending on the type of jump your opponent has, you can simply just run under your opponent untouched (you got to love how Mai runs low to the ground) and anti-air him/her from the back. The most obvious tactic of all is to just roll away. These tactics also work well for cross ups that weren’t deep and meaty (ecxept for trying to jump and anti-air or just doing a st. anti-air). The safest one to do overall is the roll, with the Sunfire Samba overruling that if you can pull it off as a reversal. The run is only for just in case you have the time and space to do it.

Now then, if you are just being overwhelmed by pokes, another tactic you can do is either the guard cancel back roll (if you have the room to do so) or forward (if the limb doesn’t retract quick enough). Or, you can (if you already charged it) do the Charging Flying Squirrel Dance to create distance between you and your opponent. Always use the jap version, that way you won’t end up flying so close towards the enemy. Also, if you are being poked in the corner, you can use that move as an anti-low poke or (if you have or can create enough distance between your opponent and the corner) to gain the advantage in the poking game. If you do the move at the right distance , you should recover before your opponent does (or at least at equal recovery) so you can start poking back with the shorts into your poking game.

These tactics are in the assumption the you are in N groove. If you are in K groove and is being outpoked, you need more practice in JD!!! You can also use the nonroll based tactics that are stated here in K groove, but a major part of your defensive game is JD->punish->regain the momentum.

And yet there’s still more…

25

It’s 3:55 A.M. in Miami, FL. I’m tired, I’m sleepy, I’m sitting right next to my bed, and it’s yearning for me to sleep in it!!! But since this is the last part of this five post strategy guide, I’ll stay up until I finish it. Hopefully it’ll be of great use to people that intend to use this guide. If it’s not, it doesn’t matter. I’ll just shoot myself later on for writing so much for nothing. J/K.

Anywho, it’s time for the MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIND GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMES (which I’m losing now against my bed). These are the things you do to fuck around with your opponent. After you do a deep meaty cross up with short that’s been blocked, do a short jump cross up with either jab short. It’s a little harder to combo off of, but it’s doable. And for some reason you can’t combo a st. close short from the small jump jab or short, just do a knock down move or a fan to make your opponent block. Just remember that the small jump jab or short will only cross up if your opponent is ducking. If he/she stands aw well, you’re still in close to do more psyche outs.

From the same deep meaty cross up blocked, you can tick with the st. close jab into a throw, the cross up into a throw, cross up into stall into st. close jab (your opponent, assuming that you’re gonna throw him/her attempts to go for a “tech hit” while you’re just going for the combo, just make sure you don’t take too long and get thrown), and cross up into st. close into stall into the rest of the combo.

Instead of poking with the small jump rh, if you want to get closer in, use either the small jump jab or short to get in closer and either start messing with their minds or just start breaking their guard.

Here’s a cool one (not really, but it works from time to time), while in the midst of the poking game, twitch your character in such a way that it looks like you’re gonna poke again, but u don’t (like tap forward, or just crouch down). One of four things will happen (depending on the groove or the opponent). Either (a) your opponent will do a super (in which case you just save yourself and wasted your opponents 1/2/3 bar(s)), (b) your opponent rolls (in which case you either throw him/her or combo him/her), © nothing major (like a parry or JD attempt, or nothing at all, in which case momentum has reseted to equilibrium now), (d) your opponent sees you did nothing and takes this opportunity to go on the offensive (it happens).

Here’s an awesome one (oldie but goodie as they say). “Feed” your opponent a tactic (make sure he/she doesn’t catch on to this on). Keep on doing a certain pattern, counter attack something a certain way, let him/her keep playing you with that fake style until it looks like he/she has grown “very” comfortable with that style. Then, when he/she least expects it, hit him/her with the real (hopefully better) style of play that you wield. It should catch him/her by surprise (unless he/she iwas either expecting it, played against that kind of style before, or is just that damn good) and should hopefully give you a free win, or two, or three, or so forth.

This is more of a tip than a mind game (more like an extension of the last mind game), always have a general, open, ever changing style of play with Mai. She is generaly rush down, but you can rush people down with herin slightly different ways, have different mind games for the same situation, so forth and so on, but it’s still the same general rush down Mai. Like one match it could be about breaking the guard, the next match about crossing up, the next match about toss your opponent around, but to do these things she must still be in there putting as much pressure as you can with the tools you plan to use in that certain match. As long as you have an open style of play, you may lose some, but you will win some, and become stronger with each win lose or draw you recieve (I know, it’s all philosophical mumble jumble, but it’s true). And make sure that the style of play you are using fits you. Don’t force yourself to play a style that isn’t you, unless you want to use that style that badly.

Well, that’s all I’m going to type for now. If there are better strats out there (which may be, I’m not one of the best players out there, but I’ve been around with Mai long enough to say that I know what I’m saying about how to use her), I would love to see them. If I can think of more mind games, or anything else for that matter (like fierce throw into jab fan into rushdown), I’ll post it in this thread. If you have any questions, I’ll try to answer them to the best of my abilities. now I shall depart, and pray that I never have to write another start like this again, too time consuming. Then again,… who knows.

26

Longest posts I’ve ever seen @_@
Good stuff Wolfe.

27

don’t forget mai has a very good run away game. after rushing and taking off some life. u can switch to run away mode for a while. This can frustrate ur opponent and it can open up more windows for damage… especially if ur in the lead. just my 2 cents

28

I don’t know about that N or K business. I play her in P just fine.

Does she have a poke, outside of Ryuuenbu, to deal with something like Sagat c.fp?

29

P groove plays almost like K, except that you can’t waste a lvl three Super Deadly Ninja Bees as freely, and you can’t run. But hey, if you can play with the dash and sit on that lvl 3 super, P groove is just as good as K.

Now as for the pokes, the only poke that really comes to mind is the st. far jab. Since I don’t have the game with me at this moment, I can’t confirm it, but that jab should be able to help you poke outside of Sagat range. Also, don’t forget about the Modified (Super) Flying Squirrel Dance. The timing between ub and p gives you enough leeway to jump over the fierce and punish him for throwing it out (just don’t abuse it too much, or you’ll pay for being so obvious). Small jump attacks should also hopefully help you hop over the fierce and let you hit Sagat cleanly.

On another note, I noticed that one tactic that I didn’t get into was the use of the Unmodified Flying Squirrel Dance. There are only two uses for it. One is to make space between you and your opponent. The other (and more practical) is to bait out the anti-air and get a free hit in the process. Thiis will also work the Super version of it, but only use this when you need it most, and when you know that you will bait out the anti-air. Just make sure that you do this move as randomly as possible. Never, and I repeat, never show a pattern of when you are going to use this move (unless you’re “feeding” your opponent). The more random this move is (along with the super version, which should rarely be used), the more free damage you will recieve. Obviously mix this tactic up with your regular jump-ins, cross-ups, small jumps, and other aerial tactics there are with her.

Also note that throwing with her is just as important as it is with most characters when you want to finish your opponent off quickly and efficiently. Whenever you connect a fierce throw, throw a jab fan and chase after it as if you’re trying to apply full screen pressure as I stated in my earlier posts. If you do a rh throw, do a running cross-up. If they have quick get up, all momentum has been reseted back to equilibrium. Slow get up should not affect your gameplay.

Tis true, but I never really try to play her as a runaway character. She’s just too fast for me not to just go all out offensive with her. However, when you do see the oppotunity to win a match or frustrate your opponent via running away, don’t hesitate to do so. The more options you have (and actually use) to win, the better your chances are for winning.

30

Thanks for all that information Wolfe.

I’ve always loved using Mai, she’s a favorite of mine.

:smiley:

31

well i use mai in c groove so i mix the rush and runaway. Suffering from lowjump so i can’t rush alot. but c mai can freely jump back since u don’t have to worry about being hit by a fireball and her jump being so fast makes her runaway game more effective than any other groove imo… She can’t take damage so got to avoid getting hit :wink: If u use her right u can keep the opponent grounded since her fp is so good. and baid rolls which can lead to big punishment:evil:

another note: her s.mk anti-crossup is cancelable. so when they cross u over hit s.mk and cancel into a fan and they will land right on it for a chip and push back…:smiley:

32

That’s pretty cool. Didn’t know that.

Hey, I’ve never checked the damage on it, but I know you can c.fk XX Cho Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi and juggle with it. Is that even worth it?

33

not worth it. it misses most of the hits so i’d rather cancel a c.fp…

34

Her standing close HK is super cancellable. If the crouching HP xx super against mistakes keeps resulting in her Ryu-enbu, try standing HK xx super.

35

You can either do that, or hold down the fierce button while doing the Super Deadly Ninja Bees motion (holding it before you do the qcb motion of the super) until after you do the super. I prefer doing that for combobility sakes when I chain in the cr. fierce from a st. close short and want to link in that particular super (or anything else for that matter).

36

how about st. HP, or walk forward st.HP (far)? that move seems to have quite some range, it might work. i never tried though. never really had to… i really like to fight blanka-ball happy blankas with Mai as i play K groove and JD that ball… then st. HP works perfectly.

on another note, i recently played some more Mai and found that Mai works either as a rush down or a turtle pretty well. i believe she’s actually one of the more well-rounded character in the game, she almost has a way to deal with most (if not all) situations. when i play her i never had feelings like vega getting cornered by kyo’s rushdown.

i have yet to utilize all her moves though, i mainly just use the ka cho sen and ryu en bu only. sometimes i pull out ninja bees by accident and it hits (probably because even i myself wasn’t anticipating it :stuck_out_tongue: ). never ever used the flying squirrel move (is that what its called?) or the flame pillar move in my games. i believe the flying squirrel move has way too much recovery time to use safely, it’s almost as bad as Yun’s air dive kick in recovery… for the flame pillar i guess it just doesn’t suit my play style, as i never charge with Mai. i know that the flame pillar has nice startup invincibility though, does anyone really consistently use it as antiair or antiroll or wakeup? the thing is, if it’s blocked or not even hit you can expect the biggest combos of the game to follow you up, or if they have a level 3, just leave the stick already.

37

SaiYuk

i use the fliying squierl move all the time and it doesn’t
take fore ever to recuporate all you have to do is conect the
bitch by jumping in hk then pop it out right away.it does 5-7 hits
on a level 3 super…
do guys know how to connect any other supers?
and youre right she is really good in k than any other grooves
thats my oppinion…does any body have any really good strats
with her??against sagat,blanka ??cuz i have trouble playing against them…:frowning:

38

i was actually talking about the normal flying squirrel move, not the super one.

but good suggestion you have there. i never really use the super flying squirrel either. i might start to try it.

39

I mostly use the jab flying squirrel to take out fireballers. It isn’t easy to connect because you almost have to anticipate the fireball. But if you activate the jab one when you are close to their head it’ll knock 'em down real nice. The flame pillar is good for stopping rabbits and supers where the other character rushes at you, as long as said super doesn’t attack your legs.

Jeff

40

when using the normal fliying squierl i use it with lp why?
becouse i work beter than if you use it with mp,hp…
example if ure opponent presses down hp as an anti-air you could use fliying squierl with hp but you both get hit…
on the other hand if used with lp you will hit ure opponent
and you will have enough time to recuporate…
i olso highly recomend to use small jump hk…
as soon the hk lands press lk,lk to deadly ninja bees…:stuck_out_tongue:
it does 10-15 hits and it does massive damgae to ure opponent…

                         comments??anyone...:lol: