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

Some of it I think is matchup inexperience, but yeah Urien should be able to hold his own vs Nash. He has solid options around projectiles but can play a projectile game himself. Long as Urien doesn’t get rushed down too hard he should be fine.

Personally I don’t think projectiles are a big deal for Ibuki. She has too many ways around them and all it takes is one instant air EX kunai to ruin a fireball character’s day. Characters like Gief and Mika actually have to legitimately work around fireballs. Ibuki just has a ton of tools to deal with them. When I played against Nuckledu’s Nash he was forced to rush me down because I kept checking his fireballs with kunais since they travel faster and kept stuffing his start up (and reload after). Which forced him to rush me down where he tended to do better. Kunais are inherently an anti projectile tool in themselves that should be used often to check abuse of them. Fireballs just aren’t that good in this game (it’s extremely hard to be walled forever by them) and Ibuki’s walk speed and options around them are too good. It makes me wonder how you do vs Guile if you’re having that much trouble vs Nash since his fireball game is the closest to an actual wall.

I’ve also played a set vs Otter’s Nash and he was generally forced to play offensively most of the set without much fireball use. When Nash does well against my Ibuki it’s mostly due to not seeing his moonsaults and pressure options while he goes in and out with dashes. The projectiles don’t play a huge factor for me and generally end up being more or a risk for him. Ibuki has a lot of options vs his V Reversal so it’s not really an option vs her and V Trigger doesn’t become invincible until like frame 2 or 3 so it’s not really that great for getting out of any tight pressure or resets.

Sim doesn’t really have a traditional projectile without burning meter which kills his chance to use super any way. His arcing fireballs is nearly useless vs Ibuki because Ibuki like most of the other DLC characters can just bum rush the horizontal area with forward moving options that will blow it up. His normals can wall, but he has to stay stationary during his grounded normals and taking to the air with v skill and teleport opens him up to pressure from Ibuki if he makes the wrong move from the air. The risk/reward just generally isn’t in his favor since he has to play a bunch of crazy neutral and one mistake will have him on his back as a 900 health/950 stun character.

Oh and Ibuki has 900 health, there’s no 850 health characters. Cammy is the only weird character that has only 900 stun. It’s not like 950 health is a whole lot better since I use Chun also and Zangief still hurts a lot when he hits you with her. Nash has the same health as Chun so he also falls into the pool of lower health characters. 1,000 is average and 1050 is slightly above average but the highest. There’s no big beefy characters anymore and everyone can do damage in this game.

im curious at what you call “tons of tools to deal with” fireballs.

We got slide, v.skill, air ex kunai and grounded ex kunai, ex raida, critical art, and they all involve a big risk or a trade or a huge price to pay or finesse in execution.

Im not saying having a fireball defines a matchup, but it is an obstacle to Ibuki gameplan and definitely affects her chances to win. It is not a surprise that characters with fireballs are her most tough matchups outside of theoryfighting.

you can dodge fireball with f+mk or even f+hk

those options are nice at fullscreen distance, and f.HK is good right next to the opponent if you make the read. I agree. But f.HK has only a couple of antiprojectile frames and f.MK is way too unsafe on whiff. They are situational anti projectile options. Ibuki best anti projectile option is ex raida and its range is sad… it will get you killed if you miss.

I use Ibuki specifically vs the fireball characters. I don’t use Chun vs Nash or Guile anymore because Ibuki just naturally does much better vs them than she does. If they make one mistake in the fireball game at all I’m in and can stay in. Doesn’t really work as well with Chun since she just doesn’t have as many moves that disrespect or move her immediately in on fireballs. She does the worst vs fireballs of all the of the high tiers and it shows with Chuns consistently struggling at high levels vs Guile. Even recently MOV losing a 3/5 vs ISDD’s Guile which arguably isn’t even as good as Nuckledu’s.

Just for reference I never use EX raida other than for combos. Her options are already so good that there’s no need to use it in neutral to get around a fireball. Pushes them back where you won’t get advantage any way.

I feel you should just watch more matches of the Japanese Ibukis online. They usually get around the fireball game well. I can post some matches I had vs Guile players recently if you need extra reference.

I’ll go ahead and post a recent Majorboy vs Bonchan for reference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GEQGtafs1A

Even in the first match you can see how inoften Nash throws any fireballs. Ibuki’s neutral is really tough for him to deal with because there are so many options that constantly threaten his fireballs. He won’t fireball because HP kunai, EX kunai and air EX kunai if majorboy goes for them will snuff them out. Bonchan is aware of this so he keeps his fireballs to a minimum and opts to just bulldog with dashes and normals. Which opens him up to counter poking from f+HK. Then once majorboy gets comfortable with him not throwing any fireballs he moves in with HK command dash. Initially it seems risky but if you HK command dash at a point where the Nash player is already worried if he should throw a fireball then they will get flustered and you can be on top of them for a mix up or pressure. He generally played a game of scaring him out of playing a grounded fireball game and then jumping on top of him with the HK command dash in a spot where it’s difficult for him to AA with consistency and then continued pressure.

This on top of majorboy being the most aggressive Ibuki out there who isn’t afraid to just raw MK command dash in and you have a lot of things that just overwhelm Nash’s zoning to the point where he just can’t reliably throw fireballs anymore.

Then once majorboy gets in he’s of course in his confort zone vs a character with no 3 frame jab, invincible reversal, v reversal that she has options to punish and a v trigger as the only other escape that isn’t invincible on frame one. Bonchan is still generally a better SF player than him, but even someone who isn’t as fundamentally strong like major can force him to play without fireballs most of the match.

Adding to the Cammy mu, you can use normal DP to stuff everything she does in the air(you have to do it early). But any time she jumps forward, dp will stuff her because it stays out for a long time. Use the appropriate strength for the appropriate distance.

In the event you do it too late, you will trade and you both get knocked down, which I consider a win for you since she doesn’t get in and it just resets the neutral.

Ibuki vs Balrog? how is that matchup. Im thinking on dropping vega for the balrog match and sticking with Ibuki regardless of consequences. Any high level footage available? i think Ibuki might be good against balrog due to her ability to get in through poor defense

He beats you neutrally pretty well but its offset by how bad it gets for him once you get in.

Typical counter poke with c.mp and f+hk. Learning things like punishing the start up of dash punches (right before it hits) with s.mk into target can help counter his game a bit. AA is pretty solid but you can mix up your jump trajectory with a kunai to throw him off.

https://youtu.be/7ckupapM9VI

https://youtu.be/_0J22SmzkmA

oh look the Elder is back! Thankyou for your response, i will be mastering that matchup soon

I prefer the risk of losing in neutral but stomping when Ibuki gets in on Balrog, than having to deal with Vega vs Balrog neutral. Vega vs Balrog neutral is a lot of pokes that lead to nothing, cause Rog can always stay at safe ranges and be a menace, Vega will counterpoke with claw normals but rarely ever starts anything. Ibuki simply gets in and breaks Balrog easily for one mistake.

Ibuki is basically the Firebrand of this game, for the marvel lurkers around here.

Advantage: Rashid, Guile, Bison, Dhalsim, Laura, Balrog, Juri

Even: Ryu, Cammy, Necalli, Nash, Karin, Birdie, Fang, Urien

Disadvantage: Ken, Chun-Li, Zangief

Undecided: Vega, R.Mika, Alex

andddd this is what happens when your opponent punish your unsafe approaches and knows all of your shenanigans. This is why i dont say ibuki vs fireball characters are 5-5 matchups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6KXHG6uxZA

I don’t really consider Chun a fireball character. She has to charge for it, its slow traveling and doesn’t do much damage so it doesn’t play a heavy factor in the neutral. All it takes is one bad one vs Ibuki with meter and shes in trouble. Its just a passive thing that takes up space during footsies. She cant wall with it like Nash or Guile.

Chun wins mostly because she outperforms Ibuki button for button and has a reversal that shuts down left right mix ups.

those hk dashes hurt my soul. it worked out literally 0% of the time first 2 matches and he kept doing it.
10 minutes, 2 bombs, sick v-trigger. season 2 pls

There isn’t much reason to do HK command dash against Chun any ways. Her fireball isn’t good enough where you would need to do it and her s.LK or j.MP can easily stuff any attempt to use it especially with how long you have to wait to be able to press a button. This is not considering that Ibuki’s air buttons are about the shittiest in the game priority wise so it’s risky for Ibuki to be in the air in general. Chun Li’s fireball patterns are very telegraphed because she has to be crouching or walking backwards to do them. Just use that as a tell for when she will throw one and adjust based on that.

I feel he just didn’t capitalize more on situations that he could have. Sako was playing extremely passively as if he was just trying to sit and react to MK and HK command dashes. He could have used that time to just throw V Skills at Sako to build meter for bombs. Which could have gotten him to move in hastily and possibly land some buttons into combos or crush counters. Sako usually plays much more aggressively with IALL’s and such than he did in that video which shows how much energy Sako was putting into just avoiding command dash mix ups. If majorboy pestered him with more V SKills he could have had V Trigger earlier in those fights and possibly got damage started quicker. He was unnecessarily low on health by the time he had V Trigger against Chun who can’t damage you heavily from a range.

I’ve been watching some of isa’s matches vs Nuki and it’s similar issues there. Nuki just stands his ground vs him and just beats isa neutrally. Isa is a much more solid Ibuki player and doesn’t go for command dash setups and jumps as often as majorboy. It’s just majorboy ends up being stronger in the rankings most likely due to having the most setups and people not being ready for them.

Majorboy has jumped into the top 100 since that video (isa has also) so they may have learned some things since then.

Sorry I’m late to chime in, but I’ve seen st.hk CC punishes for raw rush punch happy balrogs be effective.

balrog is there for a ride after ibuki gets a knockdown. i think matchup is decent.
if ibuki gets touched however, balrog dmg is just too much

Any tips for how I should fight against Bison? I’m not sure when I can press anything. What should I be doing to keep him in check? I’m not sure why people think this is a 6-4 matchup in her favor.

Imo on s2 this is the matchup chart for Ibuki

Wins agaisnt: Ken, Chun, Vega, Alex, Ryu, Guile, Nash
Even: Laura, Mika, Cammy, Rashid, Balrog, Karin, Necalli
Loses to: Gief, Akuma, Urien, Bison, Fang, Sim, Juri

Juri is my wild pick. Others would say Ibuki beats her but long range normals + hit and run + vtrigger make her a bad matchup, specially when she is charged.

What makes you say she loses to akuma? And wins against guile?