Fighting against the Ninja Glade: Ibuki Matchup Thread *11/5 Update*

I’ll go over more stuff in a bit when I get home. From the limited amount of Uriens ive fought against, f+hk, v skill and kunai are all useful in the neutral. F+hk is really important since it can hit above the hit box of his s.hp. His s.hp beats basically every button Karin has except for her s.hp (which isn’t incredibly useful neutrally) so hes designed to win mid ranged button wars.

His EX dp is fake. What I mean by that is its 12 frame start up so its not a true reversal. Meaty jabs allow you to recover and block before he hits you. Its only good in neutral.

Jist is just to navigate his button game, get in and stay in. Which since he has 4 frame buttons and no true reversal you should be able to stay on him once you get in. Usually most Uriens are going to try to EX headbutt before you get close to them because once you get close you can just close range/meaty jab and block it for CC punish. Should be easy to predict though since he has to be crouched or in an animation to use it. Get him on the ground and then go to town.

Eventually unless he decided to V Reversal (which most Uriens usually won’t cuz Aegis) you will have to deal with Aegis. Button into Aegis is really strong (especially c.MK or s.HP) so just be on the defense and be ready to V Reversal or block it out if you’re forced into an Aegis block situation.

Not sure if this is practical at all or not but I threw out VT and was trying to chip out with super but EX DP came out. Urien punishes me with just low HP into his super, my bomb goes off and absorbs some hits and I fall through his super to punish him back…

As far as footsies goes, max range low roundhouse is pretty much where most of the fighting takes place I think. Low strong is able to stuff his crouching buttons but not his standing buttons. Standing roundhouse will beat all his jumping attacks. Also I think being able to hit a meaty slide in the neutral game against Urien is very important because as you’re jockeying for position this can throw them off and allow you to get in on them semi safely.

Been playing this match alot and these are some things that seem to work for me so far… Then again all this is still new territory you know?

Also one more thing, if Urien is abusing the EX tackle against you, there is a gap between the 2 hits that you can reversal out of. Not much but at least it is not always his turn when you block the first right?

I know it was discussed earlier in the thread but how the hell do you deal with Chun li?

I know supposedly the matchup is in her favorite and I am by no means a skilled player but even when I was trying to problem solve I couldn’t come up with solutions. I just played a long set with a better player than me and I got molly whopped.

First I don’t anti-air well in this game and mixed with air legs I just clam up. I started light command dashing the predictable air legs and it’d give me a free combo but that wasn’t reliable as he just adjusted his setup. it was suggested c.lp and c.mp work so next time I’ll try that.

I’d done my best when i’d finally scored a knockdown and mixed/pressured him to death and he couldn’t get me off of him but it seems Chun resets neutral really well and I feel I can’t base my whole game plan on trying to get him down and just throwing Hella shit at him

I did my best in neutral when I stayed counter poking and while I still had kunai stocked but couldn’t really set up anything sustainable. Trying to out poke chun is a nightmare for me

this is my hardest matchup even with patience I couldn’t find or create an opening consistently. Felt like I was trying to outbox mayweather.

what should I look for? what should the strategy be?

@shoryukid Well first work on anti airing better, and make sure you use fwd.hk often as the move is really good. also ex kunai is good for letting you close the distance because it’s really plus on block if your having trouble getting in. For lightning legs if you have a hard time reacting with any buttons you could just v-reversal too. cr.hp works as well. I’m not really sure how effective cr.mp and cr.lp are though. I’ve never really tested them with ibuki.

okay go it, also this sounds really stupid but I kept getting pushed out with crouch jab. he kept waking up with it and I guess that means I wasn’t timing the oki game well. the only time I was able to beat him out of it is if I hit him with lp raida and dashed up and st.mp him on a quick rise. I just kept that momentum and kept doing it.

he would wake up and spam two cr.lp. maybe I was trying to get to close but I definitely wasn’t timing it right. Hit me out of grab and walk up and I mostly gave up on knockdowns that weren’t lp raida I’m thinking maybe I could’ve hit st.mk since the range is longer.

@shoryukid yeah if his cr.lp was beating you, you were timing your meaties wrong. There’s an app called fat thst yells you all the chars meaties off of moves. I would recommend downloading that to see what her options are off all her moves in oku situations, etc.

If you are ending your combos in LP raida he shouldn’t be able to wake up with anything other than EX SBK.

I meant lp raida was the only knockdown situation where I felt comfortable.

I got FAT and I’m just starting to learn to read and understand frame data. I had no idea there was an Oki calculator which is awesome I’m gonna study it a bit now. thanks.

Well that’s still gonna do you a lot better than most characters who have to deal with her back rolling after their knockdowns.

Probably need to see a video of you playing to see if you are pressing buttons when you shouldn’t be. @shoryukid what’s your CFN?

can anybody post their matchup charts against entire cast? like, advantage/even/disadvantage.
i dont know if i should feel particulary salty when i lose to some characters. wonder if its just a bad match or i am shit.
managed to hit platinum though and i cant even do sako setup or any advanced shit ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Ill post my list with matchup descriptions later on tonight. It will be somewhat of personal opinion, but yeah.

Ok matchup opinions. I went over a few before but might as well revise with what I know for all the characters. Tried to describe about half the characters and finish up later.

Advantaged: Bison, Sim

Even: Cammy, FANG, Guile, Juri, Karin, Laura, Nash, Rashid, Ryu, Vega, Urien

Slight Disadvantage: everyone else

Don’t think there’s any characters she terribly loses to, just since she’s not top tier she doesn’t really beat anyone good either. I do like that she does better vs characters that I previously had trouble with using Chun (Nash, Guile, Vega, Sim). Although I think Guile is the only matchup that is disadvantageous for Chun, the others were just personally more of struggle for me to stay in and open up with than they are with Ibuki

Alex (4.5 - 5.5): Can be tough match for Ibuki. I don’t think it’s bad enough to be 4 6 for her yet as she can really tear him apart if he falls on his back and he doesn’t have a real threatening low game to not make it a good idea to stand block vs him. Command grab game is also rather predictable compared to a Laura or Mika and he has to condition you more with things like f+HP (which you can V Reversal) to set up. Not much need to jump at him since he will easily just s.LP your terrible air buttons and you get put in 50/50 command grab set up. If you are going to jump you better really mix it up with kunais to bait something. c.MP can be tough for her to poke at, but if he’s abusing it you can throw V Skill back at him to knock him back and build meter for bombs. f+HK of course is really important in this match. Don’t throw too many kunais or reload too often if he’s charging as he has good charge special punish options.

Balrog (4.5 - 5.5) Can be another struggle match for Ibuki once he gets started as he has a lot of really good buttons like s.HP, s.HK and c.MP that are longer than most of her buttons. V Skill is not quite as effective vs him as it is vs Alex as he can turn his dash punches into V Skills which pass through projectiles. He keeps you pretty honest in neutral once he has meter as he has a lot of safe fast options that force you to block low immediately or block high (if you don’t stop his overhead with a jab first). His V Trigger is also pretty scary and can turn the match completely back around for him. The idea in this match is just to get started first and keep him pressure or on his back so he’ll be forced to burn V Reversal. If you can force Rog to burn V Reversal then you’ll have a leg up in the match and may not have to deal with his V Trigger as quickly if at all.

Birdie (4.5 - 5.5) Interesting matchup. This initially seems tough for Ibuki because of his long buttons and being able to charge the EX headbutts when has meter, but once you learn spaces to use s.HK, f+HK and V Skill in the mid range you can keep him a bit more honest. Just have to be ready to anti air him if he resorts to jumping as his j.MP can be annoying to deal with if he gets too close. The main thing I think Ibuki really does in this matchup is shut down use of his V Skill. His V Skill is generally what makes him harder to approach and sets up stronger command grab/command dive setups. As long as you have a kunai he should never be able to use a banana or can as you can reaction stuff the start up with a HP kunai and have time to reload that kunai before he can do much. This forces him to play more straightforward and allows you to move in to rush him down easier. Other than his decent throw range you should be able bully him with pressure once you get close to him. Use meaty b+MP since its two hits to stop his armored wake ups.

** Cammy ** (5-5) I think this is pretty even. You both have low health and she has even lower stun so it definitely behooves you to rush her down after landing a LP raida combo or f+HK crush counter. Anti airing her is a bit difficult since she has a dive kick, but late s.HK’s or b+MP’s usually do a decent job with the s.HK’s having crush counter potential. Once you can find a way to keep her on the ground then its just continue use of f+HK and V Skill to build bomb gauge and keep her honest with her pokes. If you can move close enough then you can try to counter poke with c.MP and start a combo. If you get to a bad situation where she’s pressuring you with frame traps or V Trigger don’t be afraid to V Reversal as it will save you taking more damage than you need to.

Don’t bother jumping at her unless you’re going to EX kunai as her AA game is too strong. Jump in at her when she has super and you will probably die. Her V Reversal is short ranged and unsafe on block (minus 8) if you remember to switch and block the other way. Remember to bait her DP as you pressure her as that’s a free crush counter into heavy damage and most likely very close to stun. If you end up blocking her V Skill and your stun is high enough make sure you V Reversal it so you don’t deal with a frame trap that could be deadly.

** Chun ** (4.5 - 5.5) This will be a bit of disadvantage I think. Better buttons, EX SBK covers most of her normal left/right mix up shenanigans and slide into V Trigger can prove to be dangerous with Ibuki’s lower health. Luckily Chun’s jump is pretty bad so she’ll only really be jumping at you with IALL and her regular jump ins should be pretty easy to AA. You’ll have to get a bit more crafty with your bomb setups as the Sako dash stuff will just get EX SBK’s if they ready you’re going to go for it.

** Dhalsim ** (6-4) I’ve explained it before, just comes down to f+HK dealing with a lot of his buttons, kazekiri does a good jump preemptively stuffing some of his air options and MK command dash heavily threatens his regular fireball which he needs to control space and set up offense safely. Dhalsim always has trouble vs characters that can cover the horizontal extremely fast and pretty much all of the DLC characters except Guile are good at that. Jab or s.HK any abuse of offensive teleports. If you knock him down with a raida for meaty expect him to try to teleport on wake up sometimes. It will be attacks but still loses to throws and there probably is some option selects for it. You can also just read and follow with MK command dash or EX kunai.

** FANG ** (5-5) Interesting matchup. Not as easy as Sim since he has good moves that cover the horizontal space that Ibuki would normally use MK command dash to get in with. Arcing poison balls means she can’t as easily air EX kunai or HK command dash to sail in either. Just have to be patient and see if you can find a space to sweep an attempt to ground poison and get in. If you land a CC sweep you’ll get hard knockdown and then have an in to pressure him with. I believe his EX command dash is attack invincible so you’ll have to throw him or follow it with a command dash or EX kunai. You’ll want to use kunais to check him and stuff the start up of his balls or ground poison while reloading to keep stock. Just have to be careful of command dash as it’ll pass through the kunais.

** Guile **(5-5) Just kinda who gets momentum faster. If you can get in quickly early in the round before he gets started you can give him trouble. Once he starts to build meter then it’ll be more of a struggle for you to get in. Can get interesting because his ex booms can threaten your ability to recharge kunais and he also has solid buttons to keep you at bay with. Air EX kunai is threatening for him though if he can’t immediately get a flash kick charge ready.

** Juri ** (5-5) Seems like even matchup. Don’t have a lot of info on it yet, but her s.MK can be pretty good vs Ibukis buttons. Just have to be good with her f+HK’s and V Skills until you get can get in and pressure her.

** Karin ** (5-5) As long as you can anti air her jumps ins and don’t get caught with her being too close to you with EX DP or V Reversal you should be ok. f+HK and V Skill threatens a lot of her good ground buttons and with her 900 health you can make things hurt for her more than other characters. Not a huge deal since she will of course tear you up if you get hit by her stuff too many times. Definitely play to bait EX ressenhas as you will do huge damage to her if you can CC punish one.

** Ken ** (4.5-5.5) This match can be a pain just because of how versatile and damaging he is. I don’t think it’s really bad if you play it right, but he can definitely eat up whatever advantage you got in a couple combos or V Trigger activation. Main thing to remember is to watch out for poor use of s.HK or abuse of his runs. s.HK if not spaced perfectly is easily punishable with s.LK into HK kazekiri. Doesn’t do huge damage but at least deters him from abusing it too close. s.LK/s.MK or throw punish any bad button into run or raw run setups. Air MK tatsu can be annoying, but there’s a sweet spot where you should be able to AA it with a c.HP. EX dive just try to bait and block if you’re afraid to anti air it. He’s burning a bar to use it any way.

Learn which button into VTC strings are negative on block. If he does c.MK or DP into VTC he’s usually at least minus 4 for a s.LK punish. His MK and HK overheads are also minus 4 on block for a s.LK punish. Generally you’re only going to see the MK overhead as it starts 2 frames faster and is visually harder to see.

** Laura ** (5-5) Feels evenish enough. Has 3 frame buttons to keep you in check a bit at close range, but no reversal so you can pressure her tightly once you get in. V Reversal knocks you back pretty far but can bait it with grabs and takes a way a chance to activate V Trigger. You’ll have to use V Reversal against her sometimes as well as her block string pressure can get pressure can get pretty nasty especially if she has meter or V Trigger. Like Ken, you’ll have to watch out for her dash and command dashes as they usually will have grabs or command grabs coming after. Be ready to tech grab or backdash to escape. Jumping can work, but wouldn’t recommed it a lot as her HP bolt can immediately anti air any bad jump and Ibuki has a pretty floaty jump like Chun.

Laura players like to jump so be wary and anti air accordingly. If they try to jump at closer range be prepared to walk under or jump back with button/air grab.

** M.Bison(Dic) ** (6-4) He has a lot of good buttons, but again another character where you can use your f+HK and V Skill to fend off buttons. If he does start pressuring you have a V Reversal ready as a lot of his pressure loses to V Reversal. As you get in on him he’ll have to burn V Reversals himself to not die to pressure so it’s not a bad offset. Most Bisons usually take to the air at some point so be mindful of his different air options. If he does a non EX aerial special have one of your anti airs ready. You can anti air his EX air options, but it can be riskier so if you’re afraid, don’t be afraid to block and then just EX DP or V Reversal later.

After playing this more I realize V Skill specifically is very important in this match since he mainly spends a lot of time on the ground pressing buttons. Mainly because he doesn’t have the walk speed to really do anything other than wall you with buttons if he’s not in the air. This also helps build you the V Reversal meter quicker to back him off of you once he makes you block his plus buttons.

** Nash ** (5-5) Think this is pretty even matchup. Nash has a lot of options to keep you at mid range and can close the gap quickly, but your kunais are good at stopping early attempts to throw fireballs and can force him to play without it. That’s basically how you play the matchup. If he backs up to throw booms, try to check him with a kunai before he throws the next one to stuff him and reload. Once he takes enough kunais he’ll be forced to move in as your kunais travel faster than his booms. Have your anti airs ready vs the moonsault flips if done from range without a fireball coming. If you feel he may do a LK or MK moonsault and he’s really close to you, you can just walk under it and punish the whiff. Just have to be quick as the whiff recovery is very short.

MK Scythe can be annoying if spaced well, but if he makes you block it anywhere inside of max range EX raida can punish or HK kazekiri if he’s a bit closer. Practice in training mode to see the range where it’s unsafe and have those options ready. If it’s possible for you to hold on to super then that can help you as it will punish it on block from all ranges. He can’t use it on block anymore once you have super. The overall goal in this matchup is just to get in and stay in. Has no 3 frame button or invincible move so once you get in you can just wail on him for a while and force him to burn V Reversal or V Trigger.

If he does try to V Reversal this document has a list of options you can use to punish.

His overhead is minus 6 on block so you can punish with s.LK, s.MK, c.MP or c.MK. A lot more options compared to the standard minus 4 overheads.

** Necalli ** (4.5 - 5.5) Interesting matchup. His light and medium buttons generally outclass yours so he really forces use of f+HK and V Skill in the mid range. His walk speed and dash are pretty decent too so you can’t sit long or he’ll close the gap and force you to deal with his plus buttons and overhead/command grab pressure. Check abuse of his V Skills with MK command dashes or HK command dashes into regular or EX kunais. Some of his button into stomp strings aren’t true block strings and can be reversaled so that’s worth researching as well.

Main idea is to not let him get V Trigger too fast. Which means not getting blown up by his CC’s or blocking getting hit by too many V Skills. If you let him get V Trigger too early he can end the round very quickly on you. Stay close and pressure, but be reserved enough to bait a DP so you can get a strong punish and build V Gauge or set up V Trigger combo.

** R.Mika ** (4.5-5.5) This can be an annoying matchup just because her buttons are pretty solid and with one EX meter there’s a lot that you have to be careful about using or you will get punished by EX peach. s.HK is a good button to have vs her as most of her strong buttons that convert in neutral are standing buttons that it can hit. Her crouching buttons are just there for pestering unless she’s pretty close so it’s a good bet to s.HK out to catch crush counters on her scary stand buttons and force her to go for the crouch buttons that you can compete better with. Of coruse f+HK and V Skill typically in the mid range as well.

The ultimate goal in this matchup is to get in and start putting her in meaties and resets as she has no real reversal. Once that happens you can start to go to town on her. Just be careful of her V Reversal as it’s quick, long ranged and puts you in soft knockdown state. Mix up your strings with light attacks or well placed mediums so that you can block her V Reversal if she goes for it.

** Rashid ** (5-5) Seems even enough. He has better mid range buttons including a much better low checker with his c.MK and a c.HP that can stuff most of your buttons, CC’s and activates 5 frames faster than your f+HK. Unless he hits you with a heavy button though his damage mid screen is pretty modest so its kinda just playing against his options with your kunai, V Skill and f+HK until you get room to get in. His spinning mixer stuff can be annoying as its difficult to punish if spaced right. Haven’t really figured out exactly what to do at all the ranges, but I usually just try to tech throw or LK kazekiri depending on what I feel he may do next.

His tornado strings have gaps in them usually at the point where he cancels a button into the tornado. I ould imagine a LK/HK kazekiri could punish during those gaps. If he tries to throw out V Trigger mid screen and you have room try to walk up and block it to negate it before he gets started throwing stuff behind it. You can also throw a kunai at it to remove one or 2 of the hits from the tornado.

** Ryu ** (5-5) This matchup is one where you should be able to fight Ryu’s buttons. Well spaced f+HK and V Skill being your main tools. Use s.MP, c.MP and s.MK as you are able to move in closer to him. Just be weary of stronger Ryus that will try to parry abuse of your buttons or V Skill. You’ll want to get EX meter pretty quickly in this match as instant air EX kunai (jump forward input EX kunai immediately) and EX raida are strong tools vs his fireball game. Instant EX kunai being the best option since you can LK or MK command dash in on hit and go for a combo into meaty pressure or reset.

Most Ryus will either get aggressive at the start of the first round or move back and shoot fireballs. If they move back and shoot remember that MP or HP kunai can angle under his fireball and stuff him. If you’re far enough away you’ll most likely have room to reload that kunai also. This will usually deter him from abusing fireballs from range as he takes stray damage trying to fireball chuck you and force him to get aggressive. You also have other tools like f+HK, df+MK slide and f+MK to hop or slide under the fireballs. Make sure you have your anti airs ready if Ryu decides to jump forward at you. Which include s.HK and c.HP from farther ranges or b+MP or jump back air throw at closer ranges.

** Urien ** (5-5) Seems even so far. Has really long buttons that can really stop a lot of your cancelable light/medium buttons, but f+HK can hop over his s.HP which otherwise beats most of the buttons in the game. V Skill of course important for counter poking his other buttons. Kunai again useful for checking abuse of fireballs to force him to move in. If you get in on him, EX headbutt is the slowest reversal in the game at 12 frame start up and doesn’t have any 3 frame buttons so he’s pretty easy to pressure once you get in. You can meaty him on wake up with a jab and still be able to block EX headbutt. It also requires charge which limits when he can use it. Just make sure you time MK command dash mix ups on his wake up properly as down charge reversals will auto correct against left/right stuff.

Be wary what type of V Gauge use the Urien player uses. Some Urien players aren’t afraid of letting go of Aegis for a bit and burning it on his long ranged V Reversal. Scout players trying to V Reversal and light tick/throw punish them. Those that sit on their Aegis be ready to V Reversal after blocking normal into VTC or V Reversal being forced to block Aegis. If you already burned your V Trigger recently then you’ll have to block it out, jump out or EX DP guess out.

** Vega ** (5-5) Feels pretty even. He controls the mid range pretty decently, but you can check a lot of his buttons with the typical f+HK, V Skill and kunai stuff. Important thing to remember is to watch your feet as you’re playing mid range vs him. Most Vegas are looking to take advantage of you walking in footsies too long with a low sweep that’s hard to react to. Just try to check your low block occasionally as you’re in the mid range with him (especially if you’re both being passive and not doing much). Any blocked sweep should be a free s.MK into target combo and then start meaty/shimmy shenanigans.

General idea in this match is to get in and pressure him to the point that he burns a V Reversal. Getting him to burn a V Reversal is important as once you do this you limit his chances of using his V Trigger which is his main comeback tool and makes his pokes a lot scarier. If he gets a chance to use his V Trigger early in the round you probably didn’t do a great job getting in and pressuring him. Ideally he’s most likely going to be saving meter for super so he can turn any button into 500 plus damage and get free oki to come back with. Stopping him before he gets to this point and forcing him to burn EX meter on EX dive and command grab shenanigans is what you generally want.

If you can push him into the corner this is where your pressure strings can really shine and things like EX kunai can be really dangerous against him in the corner. He definitely doesn’t want you with meter and V Trigger ready in the corner as he pretty much has to eat shit other than mashing EX roll out of your bomb setups. Remember that his aurora spin edge claw specials are negative on block. The LP which you have to block low is minus 7 and the MP one is minus 6 so have your HK DP or EX raida (LP aurora only) reversal ready depending on the situation. Also watch out for button into claw switch “mix ups” as there is usually a gap that you can press in and he’s usually trying to set up command grab or frame traps during these.

** Zangief ** (4.5 - 5.5) Can be a pain once he’s sitting on full super, but other than that pretty fightable. Big 2 things to worry about in neutral are c.LP and s.HP. People complain a lot about his c.LP, but it really doesn’t go into much and loses in priority trades to your medium and heavy buttons. Lights are weak in neutral due to heavier buttons winning on trades so don’t be afraid to poke back at it or space f+HK against it. s.HP is the other button to worry about, but it has no lower body armor so you can chuck kunais at it, c.MK or sweep it if you’re close enough. Best thing to do is just use your back walk speed to make it whiff and then you get a super easy whiff punish with s.MK into sweep target. If he’s forcing you to block the charged one too often just V Reversal and get out of a bad situation since he’s plus 1 after. V Skill flex can be an issue if he reads you are going to press a button from too close a range so try to bait that and use walk or dash up throw to punish.

Most Zangief players aren’t really good at using his other buttons (not that they’re amazing to begin with) which means they usually resort to jumping as that’s the easiest way for them to close the gap and set up a command grab. Most of his jump buttons are easily AAable with s.HK or b+MP. He really shouldn’t be jumping at you unless he’s trying to play shenanigans with his air command grab or super. You can meaty him on wake up pretty easily and he has no true frame one armor or reversal other than super. Just be careful as if you mistime your meaty at all you will get destroyed by Gief’s options which all hurt bad if you screw up. Make sure to go in training mode and make sure your meaties are on point before touching him on wake up.

When he’s stocked on V Trigger and Super that’s where the problems really begin as all it takes is one mistake while he’s sitting on both of those things and you can lose no matter what life lead you had. He has a lot of shenanigans where he can bait you into playing mid range with him, such you in with the trigger then mash in super before you get a chance to realize that’s what he’s setting you up for. The suction can put you in a weird state where you can’t do certain actions, but I believe you can still last minute jump to escape a grounded grab. Have to mess around with it. He’s also much harder to pressure once he has super as his super starts on frame 1 and can even punish things that are normally safe like your overhead. Just have to play real safe once he has super.

i think vs fang we are at advantage.
EX raida goes through his wall, if you touch him he is there for a ride. he cant spam fireballs cuz dash.
i never had too much trouble with fang, it always feels like i can do so much more than he can.

Mostly finished my matchups for all the characters. Can look over and add in to anything I’ve written.

Yeah Fang I haven’t fought too much, but it seems like one of those matchups where you can ride momentum once it starts.

mmmmm i disagree about we having advantage agaisnt those characters… my chart would be something like:

Advantaged: Laura, Mika, maybe Cammy

Even: Karin, Rashid, Vega, Bison, Balrog, Gief, Necalli

Disadvantage: Ryu, Ken, Nash, Sim, Guile, Fang, Chun, Alex

not enough info: Urien, Juri (maybe advantaged)

I disagree so much with the logic behind Ibuki having advantage over Sim. Wont get into that argument though.

Nash is too free on wake up and she has enough options against non perfectly spaced MK scythe and sonics to deal with Nash. Would be even at the minimum. Not sure why Fang would be disadvantageous. You’d have to explain that one.

Sim is also too free on wake up, can easily chase down the few defensive options he has and just won’t survive an Ibuki that really has their offense down. His neutral game options are decent, but he’s walking on eggshells vs her the entire time I feel. One screw up and he may not get to fight again until he’s dead. Don’t have to get into the argument, but I feel as more Ibukis get around in tournaments Sim players will start to consider her one of their scariest matchups.

Laura and Mika she can definitely fight, but I feel their neutral game is strong enough vs her. Mika specifically can grab a lot of Ibuki’s early hurt boxes with clap and c.HP so the neutral game becomes very difficult to play against her. Luckily she is pretty free on wake up as long as your meaty timing is good.

I will make a simple explanation on my logic. Basically, imo, there 4 factors that play out against Ibuki in the matchups:

  1. having a fireball
  2. having good defensive normals to outplay Ibuki ones (specially her cr.MP and f.HK) and invincible DPs
  3. having a ton of damage output from easy confirms and high health
  4. having tools to escape ibuki pressure and resets

lets check out nash according to these factors:

  1. has the best fireball game out of all characters (-1 for Ibuki)
  2. has the best defensive normals, even though not an invincible DP (tie)
  3. has good damage output and once he gets his super and vtrigger everything from him is lethal. Good health. (-1 for Ibuki)
  4. has 5 ways to escape Ibuki pressure (three different teleports, a vreversal to escape pressure and critical art). You will argue that they all need meter, but Ibuki needs meter and vtrigger for her pressure game to be really good so… (-1 for Ibuki)

Now lets check out Laura, a possitive matchup, according to these factors:

  1. doesnt have a reliable fireball for neutral game (ibuki cr.MK, slide and ex specials go through it easily without a trade) (+1 for Ibuki)
  2. Her normals are not very good for defense, the long range one is - on block (her cr.MK) and she has no DP (+1 for Ibuki), her overhead is a free get in for Ibuki
  3. her damage output is too reliable on resets and blockstrings, where ibuki vreversal shines. Her grab game is great though. (tie due to grab game)
  4. cannot escape Ibuki pressure at all, only with critical art. Her vreversal always leave her negative and opened for more pressure if ibuki blocks.

Now lets check out Vega, an even matchup:

  1. doesnt have a fireball (+1 for ibuki)
  2. good defense normals, but no DP (tie)
  3. has good damage output and a command grab, good health too (-1 for ibuki)
  4. can escape pressure midscreen with vreversal, but gets killed in the corner (tie)

Now Sim:

  1. has a fireball and normals that work like fireballs (-1 for ibuki)
  2. good defensive normals to outplay Ibuki ones, even if no DP (tie)
  3. good damage output boosted by critical art and multi ex combos, low health (tie)
  4. can escape pressure midscreen with teleports, but gets killed in the corner (tie)

See? Sim is not as bad as Nash according to the chart but it is still not very good looking for Ibuki.

I know it is an oversimplified way to rate matchups but it works in real life for Ibuki at tournaments.

Btw, If we rate Alex by this chart it give us an even matchup, but his normals, health and damage output are too much… which is why i rate him in Ibuki disadvantage. I think Balrog might work the same way but he is too reliable on vtrigger on his damage output unlike alex

why are those factors so important you will ask?

  1. having a fireball means that ibuki movement and kunai usage will be restricted. Every little bit of chip and fireball damage will make a difference for an 850 health character like Ibuki
  2. having better normals than Ibuki means her approach will be restricted at close range (If her cr.MP was faster and her hurtbox wasnt so sucky she would be sooooo much better at this aspect). same for DP even if it involves more risk, Ibuki still has to restrict her approach.
  3. having good damage output kills Ibuki 850 health in two-three combos, and having good health means Ibuki will need one more combo to win.
  4. having ways to escape Ibuki pressure and ibuki reset setups sets everything back to neutral, taking Ibuki chances to win away.

btw @“DevilJin 01” you watching the redbull tournament? apparently my theory of Urien beating Nash was real! RB 3-2 and 3-1 Bonchan in semifinals and losers finals.