Here it is guys, long awaited MU thread for 2012. Here’s the format in which it’d be best to break down a match up:
-Perceived Match-up Number (5-5, 4-6, etc) with who is the likely character to set the pace in the match-up
-Breakdown of the match up in flexible order of: space control in neutral game (best distance/position to be in relation to your opponent’s character), dealing with opponent’s character tactics and executing your own, meter management of you and your opponent in the match up, and finally, life management in the match-up (things like best thing to do when down on life, or lead on life)
-Character specific things (set-ups, etc)
-Punishes
-Misc. (favorable option selects, etc)
This is just a guideline for the breakdown, nothing rigid or necessary to include all of those things, any simple input would be fine as well.
I’ll start off vs Abel so see it as a guideline.
Abel
[details=Spoiler]-Match-Up Analysis
This is a 5-5 match up in which Yun pretty much dictates all aspects of neutral game. The ONLY reason why this is a 5-5 match up is because of Abel’s ridiculous damage and the lesser damage output of Yun. If you’re on the receiving side of much of the aggression in this match-up, you’re doing something wrong. Abel almost has no tools to get in on Yun to start his offense, if you play the neutral game against him correctly. Majority of this match up is going to be you trying to wreck him and he reacts to get a knock-down of his own to start his own offense.
Since Yun control the space in this match-up, I found that I can do pretty much what I want in almost all ranges. I can choose to sit back full screen away to build a bit of meter with palm, or I can stay at the slightly-further than midrange where Abel cannot touch you at all without committing to a jump-in. You should have the liberty to stay wherever you want in the match up without too much risk. The best place to be i found is just outside of Abel’s st.lk and cr.hk range where you have a myriad of options depending on how you want to get in.
At that range, as long as you don’t do too much of the same thing, you have all the ways to get in on Abel whose bad walkspeed will make him seem pretty stationary to a highly mobile character that is Yun. You can regular jump in with mk or TC, neutral jump and bait him into jumping toward you in attempt to knock you out of the air or just take a big risk in jumping at you, or just dive kick in. You even have a lot of luxury with your dive kick meaning you don’t even have to have them perfectly spaced because his fastest normals are cst.lp and cst.hp at 4 frames in both cases he cannot hitconfirm off of.
Furthermore, you can just fish for his pokes and play footsies with your fst.mp and cr.mk buffered into a light shoulder and put pressure on him that way.
Overall, if you have a decent grasp of playing Yun, you shouldn’t have a lot of trouble getting in and opening him up at all if he has no meter. You can even play a bit stupid and go for some spaced lunges as he’ll have a lot of trouble dealing with it assuming you spaced it relatively correctly, not to mention this will keep him honest about trying to dash in to get into position. Abel really can’t anti-air you. So if he starts to stuff your jumps ins, you’re making it too obvious, start footsieing or varying your jump ins.
Also, you have complete freedom of your meter management and would probably be best to save it for Genei-Jin for this match-up. However, you will find that it would sometimes be in your best interest to burn a meter for ex-lunge for a safest way in if you’re down on life.
Things start changing though, once he has meter and uses that meter to turn the tide against Yun. Abel will be using most of his meter on his FADC combos but more importantly, to reverse the situation on Yun. He will use use EX-Tornado Throws and EX-COD in attempt for a reversal, as his only way of reversing the situation without meter is just a random reversal throw or a random step-kick (yes it’s pretty random, he’s just gonna have to give his life as currency to take chances as Yun will be all over the place). Another usage of his meter will be trying to escape the corner with EX-Roll, as when you play the match-up correctly, is where he will be forced to be most of the time. Also, if you get too obvious with your dive kicks, they’ll try to ex-cod you when you’re coming down and sky fall u after the EX-COD hits you in mid-air. Bait his EX-cod by staying out of its range if you see them going for this move as a panic-button from your unrelenting pressure, or just palm in front of him during block string or just outside of his poke range.
Once Abel reverses and is on the aggression, you will be in bit of trouble. The main tools you have to weather his offense (in order of safest to worst) before it comes to the worst, AKA a hard-knock down, is your backdash, cr.lp, jump out, and heavy upkicks. When he gets in on you via jump-in or step-kick, make him work for his hard-knock down. The ONLY 3f move he has is his regular grabs, and if you mash cr.lp after blocking a step kick xx dash, which is +1 on block, he will almost certainly have to use EX-Tornado throw to guarantee a hard-knock down aside from the low-reward of regular throw, and if anything, backdashing will save you a lot of trouble of trying to weather his offense before his hard-knockdown.
However, once he hard-knocks you down, most of our remedies goes out the window if you’re playing an Abel that knows his mix ups. He can end up in either side, high or low, with a meaty attack or meaty throw so mashing will do you no good, so it pretty much becomes a guessing game. However, I can list some things that nets him the maximum damage so you can defend against his mix-ups a bit better.
His high-hit game after a knock down will only come from a safe-jump, cross up, and his cst.hk. The jump-ins are easy to react to and sometimes our hard-upkicks will take us to safety from his cross-up if he’s not ready to punish it. So, unless he’s jumping, there’s no reason for you to block high, as the worst you will get from blocking low is his cst.hk which on hit is +5 and he cannot confirm anything off it except a st.strong: it’s just a potshot or a game-finisher.
However, he can confirm off of his cr.lk into 360+ dmg into the exact same situation as before, so block low if you’re gonna guess.
His left-right game is the most dangerous and both of them will consist of the following: meaty throw (regular or tornado), meaty cr.lp or meaty cr.lk into a confirm. Furthermore, there’s one tool that Abels use to get cheap damage which is his cr.hp into ultra after that knockdown. However, there’s a catch. If he ends up on the opposite side, his cr.hp will not be a meaty and you should have a decent chance of hitting him out of it. So, if he’s really down on life and needs to hit that damaging ultra, it’s best to block as if he’s going to end in front of you while timing your mash. This should block the meaty cr.hp if he ends up in the front, and if he crosses to the other side, you should be able to hit him out of it.
All in all, you dictate this match up, and the only thing you should respect and fear is his hard-knock down into his mix-ups. But once again, make him earn it by abusing backdash and cr.lp. I wouldn’t advise sitting duck against Abel, even if he hard-knocks you down.
-Character Specific Things
After your command grab, your maximum punish is cr.mp x2, fst.mp xx medium upkicks/ex upkicks xx light lunge.
Your bnb should almost always include a cr.mp, fst.mp xx upkicks from jabs.
[Spoiler=By Neiburo]Safe jumps:
Fwd throw, fwd dash x2, st.lk, n.j.mk
Loses to lp super.
Mk dp quickst,n.j.mk
Loses to ex TT
Mk dp no quickst, n.j.mk, st.lk , n.j.mk
Loses to ex TT
Hk dp quickst, n.j.mk
Loses to lp super
Hk dp no quickst, n.j.mk, st.lk, n.j.mk
Loses to lp super
Combos:
On standing
Cr.lp, st. lp, cr.mp x2, st.mp xx mk dp
Cr.lp, st. lp, st.lp/cr.mp, cr.mk xx lk dp, mp lunge or U1, ex shoulder
Cr. mp x3, st mp xx mk dp
Cr.mp x2, cr.mk xx lk dp, mp lunge or U1, ex shoulder
On crouching
Cr.lp, st.lp, cr.mp, st.mp xx hk dp
Cr.mp x3, st.mp xx mp lunge
Post cmd grab
Cr.mp x2, st.mp xx mk dp
Cr.mp, cr.mk xx lk dp, mp lunge or U1, ex shoulder
Post lp shoulder
On hit you can press st.hk and beat everything but ex COD.
On block your hk will get beat by ex COD and early timed sweep. N.j. Hk dk beats both ex COD and sweep though.[/details]
-Punishes
He’s -3 after you block any of his COD (first hit), try to time a cr.lp into a punish. If he goes for the second hit (the overhead), it’s -9 so punish with your strong punches into upkicks. (I think you can cr.mp, fst.mp xx hk upkicks, if not just do fst.mp xx hk upkicks or mp lunge)
If you bait out a tornado throw, neutral jump and come down with fierce into whatever combos you like depending on the space. And if you back dash just punish with light lunge or walk-up fst.mp xx heavy upkicks.
-Misc.
His cr.short is total of 15 frames, and since Abel have slow buttons, most Abels with a sane mind likes to late-crouch tech, so your neutral jump lk dive kick will blow up his crouch-tech attempts like mad.
His backdash is really ass so even if you dont option select you should be able to punish on reaction.
A lot of Abels like to backdash and immediately go for either a tornado throw or ex-tornado throw, so it maybe good to option select a light lunge.
If you’re in the corner, option select cr.lp into the ultra and it will destroy anything he tries to do except EX-Tornado throw and EX-Roll. I do this when I think he’s gonna backdash.
His forward jump mk has a deceptively HUGE range, always be on point with your anti-air and be ready against Abels that likes to get a cheap-way in.
[media=youtube]qI7jIkVic6M[/media]
Your match-up should look like this, if not, you’re not doing something right. There is little “scrubby” and amateur shit that Abel can do, so don’t get hit by anything you’re not seeing here.[/details]
[spoiler=Cody]-Match-Up Analysis
This is a 5.5-4.5 match up in Yun’s favor in which Yun will dictate majority of the match. If you have problem against Cody’s offense then you are approaching the match-up wrong, as Cody’s biggest weakness is against characters with high mobility and variety of mix-ups. If it weren’t for easy high-damage punishes of Cody, this match-up would easily be 6-4, as there aren’t a lot of things Cody can do to keep Yun out or survive Yun’s mix-ups.
Although Yun has a lot of freedom of space and mobility in this match-up, Cody can still zone with his stones. They have a good arc and hitbox to them so just be aware of where you are and where you’re jumping and you should be in good shape. If you can deal with a fireball character’s zoning ability then you should be fine against Cody’s stones.
Outside of Cody’s zoning, you have liberty to get in however fits the situation. The best distance I found is just outside of Cody’s fst.hk (aka the boot). Neutral jump from there and get in, it should be very difficult for Cody to anti air you with the boot if you make your divekicks unpredictable and will have to resort to his back.mp to anti air. Either way, he is one of the easier characters to get in on as his slow walk speed makes him rather stationary.
In addition, you have a good freedom of meter management as well, especially since you cannot finish your combo with ex-upkicks into lp.lunge. Since lp.lunge will whiff everytime unless you’re in the corner, finish your combos with heavy up kicks or lunge instead. I usually found myself using my meter for ex-lunge to get in for free or using it for genei-jin to punish jump-ins and random zonks and unthought-out pokes.
Overall, if you have decent offense and spacing with Yun, you should not have any trouble getting in and opening him up at all, even if Cody has meter.
However, I do not advise that you stay too long in front of Cody’s notable pokes’ range, which are his stomach blow (forward.mp), crack kick (forward.hk), slide (cr.mk), cr.lk, and focus attack. These are his main tools to start his offense so try not to give him the chance to start a poke/footsie war with Yun, as chances are, you will not come out on top. Ultimately though, there will be times when you will have to weather his offense and pokes - here’s how:
His stomach blow has good range, start up, hit box, and to top it all, advantage on both hit and block. He can link his low short into his ruffian kicks and criminal upper and gain momentum as well. Furthermore, on counter hit, he can convert his stomach blow into cr.fierce xx special that’ll net him at least 300 dmg, as well as linking his ultra 2. Even on block, his stomach blow will leave Cody at at LEAST +1 and if blocked towards the end of this move, +2 or even +3. This advantage mixed with the fastest and longest reaching cr.short in the game, Cody will use this 2-frame gap to counter any one who presses button or jumps after his stomach blow. Keep this in mind and decide your move from there. A wise move should be to reset the situation and back dash out of trouble.
His crack kick has the furthest range out of his normal and command normal pokes. It has a good hitbox and properties, like most of Cody’s normals. One thing to keep in mind is that Cody is not air-born during this move even though it looks as if he’s off the ground. Furthermore, this move will leap over low-hitting moves (ex: Yun’s cr.mk) and crouching characters. Whiffing crack kick to get in truly a gimmick, especially offline, as it is on-reaction punishable by hitting him during his recovery frame if you’re crouched. However, on block, this move is +1 but will leave you outside most of his poke ranges. If the Cody is using this move a lot, just buffer a lunge punch from your cr.mp and you will hit him every time.
His slide is one of the worse of his pokes, as Cody does not really gain too much from this move except the fact that it hits low. The move, when not spaced, is very unsafe on block and is unsafe even on hit. It is at best 0 on block and +3 on hit, although when it’s +3, he is not in range to link his cr.lk. It is a very conditional move to annoy the player and/or to set-up his gimmick with ex-zonk.
As long as you rush and knock him down, you should be the victor in most cases, as his reversals are horrible and very punishable.
Finally, just be aware of pressing buttons during Cody’s blockstrings, as he can easily convert a simple frame trap into at least 300 dmg to 400+ if you’re not careful. However, the safest option to stop his offense is to mash 3 frame jabs as the only threatening 3 frame-gap blockstring he has is from his cst.mp into cr.hp. Good Cody players will try to prevent you from mashing by frame trapping with this jabs, but this is preferred than to eat 400+ dmg by late-teching against Cody. If you must late-tech, just stand-tech instead, as this will reversal grab him in many cases if his blockstrings are not tight.