It really bothers me that we can’t combo CA once you land. You’re given so much time when you land, whats the big deal not letting him do it.
Legit question to everyone, been thinking about it recently, why are people not adding transform into blockstrings/pokes? From the few Zeku players I’ve seen, never seen anyone do this.
Everyone knows Old St.Hp into transform because it leaves you +1, but we don’t do it on other normals cause your minus. But, honestly, why do we care?
Compare it to Ken or Laura Vskill cancels. Or even Ibuki Command dash. These are all minus to various degrees but people still get away with it because its still hard to react to when mixed into actual blockstrings or good normals. Zeku is no more minus on a normal into transform than a Ken/laura normal into vskill.
This could also play off the problem Zeku has with opening people up. Establish the fact you’re willing to transform on them and catch them pressing buttons. Adding this on top of the Run stop, high, lows that young gets, or normal into Jakura for old.
Lets use Old St.Hp x transform, Young St. Hp x Transform, Old St.lk x L.koku as an example.
They respect that Old St.Hp x transform is plus or else they get hit by cr.lp x hozanto, so you get away with a slower button like st.hp. Young has St.Hp x M.Bushin sho as a true blockstring, H. Bushin Sho can catch certain lights whiffing, and M.Hozanto will beat 4 frames and trade with 3 frames (St.Hp x Run slide/overhead could also be a thing if you’re willing). Now that we’ve conditioned them that both steps have frame traps to them lets add transform to Young St.Hp. This leaves you at -6 (1 better than Lauras st.mp x vskill forward for example). Counter hit St.lk will combo into Koku. St.lk x koku is also a frame trap.
Obviously cant just do it all the time but this is starting to look like something I should add to my game
You are free to play as you like. That’s one of Zeku’s strengh : variety. Personnaly, when I’m in close range, I don’t bother switching too much. I would only switch into young zeku because he is better at that range (st.hp x change). I will only get into old zeku if I get an opening and finish with vskill, which I tend do do a lot (zeku’s ability to build v is very good). Then I will meaty with cr.hp (4 active frames, CC, reactable, +2) if opponent is in the corner (which is very often the case) or go for corner pressure with grab, cr.lp x grab (os the mk dp), cr.lp - cr.hp (anti late tech), cr.lp - shimmy, etc… mixing it up. Then I’ll find a way to switch into young again.
You are perfectly correct in this assessment. Its also something i brought up awhile back in this thread as well. Im picking zeku back up because hes fun as shit and im subbing him and sakura and urien.
Theres alot of reasons why negative stance cancels can be a boon to your game as well as a detriment… ill give one boon:
If the opponent expects a transform… jabbing you out wont do any good because you are to far away. So the opponent is going to want to do medium interrupts which means they will be easier to interrupt themselves.
Only problems with switching i have is if they are done to close and the generall DD motion as well i dont really like.
As Young you already have better walk/ dash speed along with command run too keep yourself on top of your opp. Bnb leads into easy oki and an easy reset in Ex Bushin sho. You also have cr.Hk or Run slide if they try to walk away from you.
St.Hp would probably be the best button for young? Since it can be spaced out pretty far and still get something like: Young St.Hp x Transform, St.Lk x Koku OR Cr.Mk x VT
Better advantage on olds normals makes it easier for opp to want to block. If they start walking back, you can leave them be and start playing with gram, or you’re now in young and have Cr. Hk or run slide to get back in there.
Should compliment Jakura. Jakura is easily telegraphed on its own. Easily blocked/AA’d on its own but, Medium/heavy normal cancel into Jakura can hop over an immediate normal your opponent does out of block. Transform cancel makes your opp want to press buttons.
So to open them up with Old, Establish basic blockstring, introduce transform cancel to force out buttons, add L/M Jakura for Left/Right and air grab on reaction if they try to walk away.
I’m away of my ps4 at the moment, but i’m thinking of
Young zeku corner combo > vskill ender > oz qcb +k ex version > Jakura (any version). Since the ex special leave zeku at obscene block advantage on the late frames, this might be a real near to 50-50 corner setup!
There’s a lot of really amazing negative stance cancels you can do. A “higher execution” one that looks cool and is fast and will catch people off guard is young cr.lp,st.lp xx stance,st.lp xx flip.
There’s a couple of things in there that will make your opponent have to mindset switch really fast which is what makes the flip easier to get off there.
There’s TONS of blockstrings and stuff that you can do from this.
The most basic application is pretty autopilot strategy but still really hard to apply:
Old or young, cancelable normal into stance change.
Cancelable normal into run, or palm or flip or ex koku.
It’s pretty simple. The only limiter is range and how big of a gamble you are willing to chance on your negative frames. The thing is, with both the flip and the run, you get back in and can do it again or go for tick throw of go for stagger or whatever… so you can keep it fresh without abusing it.
When taken to this kind of conclusion it’s probably next to impossible for the opponent to be able to pick the correct option consistently. It’s bascaly like Fuerte mixups, in theory at the very least.
Another example sequence you could do is:
OZ
Cr.lp microwalk forward, st.mp,st.lk xx stance, YZ cr.mp xx run,st.lk,cr.mp xx stance change,OZ st.lp xx m or h Jakura.
This is obviously just a theory string. It’s to long to actually be considered “real” but you could definitely get this off in a match. To me, at least slightly, this is how zeku is meant to be played.
It’s not gimmicks of your opponent doesn’t know where it will come from or when they should press buttons or not. And zeku has ways to punish people for pressing buttons and NOT pressing buttons.
Tried VT2 abit more and starting to get more use out of it.
There definitely should be some use as a whiff punish tool with how far it goes horizontally. Thinking of it like that I can see more matchups where i’d try it.
Characters like Chun li or Birdie whiffing buttons in your face or going through fireballs like guiles boom.
Also getting fun stuff out of Old CC cr.Hp as an AA.
I think optimal would be; AA CC cr.hp x m.Teki, ex. Teki, l. Koku x VT2. Think that’s 375 damage.
Something more stylish
AA CC cr.hp x ex teki, dashup, m.teki, ex Teki, l. Koku x vt2
The way to get more CC out of CR.hp is as follows:
If the opponent expects you to dp their jumpin, they will generally stick out their move later… this is natural for priority, however since they are sticking out their move later that means it’s in active frames later in the jump. That means that if you DIDNT AA with dp, but instead AA with cr.hp, you have a much bigger chance of hitting them with a CC.
If however they expect you to AA with cr.hp, they will be pressing their button early to try and beat the cr.hp, so their jumpin will be in active frames by the time it makes contact with cr.hp and therefor won’t be crush counterable.
That’s the secret for those that haven’t yet figured it out. So start out by dping them, then switch to cr.hp to CC their late jumpin.
Why doing all of that when you get an easy st.hp xxflip reset?
Using VT2 as a whiff punishing tool sounds good until the opponent will be able to escape the setup right after. If that happens then they will try to jump at you/ press buttons again since the VT2 isn’t there anymore and you can’t use V-Reversal for a bit.
Because I can go for damage and kill them rather than assume they can’t block or AA me? You can also transform throw out a normal into run stop and left/right them that way too.
Those problems with VT2 are the same for VT1. Theres no guaranteed setup in VT1, if they escape the knockdown there going back to whatever it is there doing. Then you still gotta worry about confirming into the dash chain combo or you basically wasted a vtrigger.
I mean, VT1 is worse now with the scaling change. VT cancels do roughly the same or even less than not vt canceling at all.
look at s.mk, s.mp x l.teki l.koku.
that 240 damage. now try s.mk, s.mp x vtc, st.hp x m.teki m.koku. Thats only 251 damage and doing the vt earlier will give you even less damage. Going straight for dash chain combo is gonna give you the same damage to.
Find utility where you can or don’t play the character because neither Vtrigger is gonna be the best.
That’s what Capcom give it to us. I still don’t understand why they decided to give Zeku 2 situational VT’s, I bet they were scared to create a character potentially OP. At the same time they give to the others VT’s way more comeback oriented with reset abilities.
Anyway I think working on Zeku will give us a lot back in the future, so atm I’m more oriented in improving with him. With all the complaints and laughs he gets I think Capcom will improve Zeku more than we can imagine. Til then we have some work to do.
Jibbo (AutoMattock) has changed his tune about vt2. He likes it now. Not that you should be taking all your advice from someone else… but vt2 is far from trash. Best dp in the game and people that complain about YZ not having AA really can’t complain anymore.
VT1 is better against grounded opponents that want to button you down, vt2 is better against opponents that want to jump in on you and get offense started through the air. If you are using only 1 v trigger, you are doing it wrong.
Best dp in the game? Can’t even go through Akuma VT Zanku Fireballs. Close jump ins can make it whiff pretty easily if we misjudged the aerial attack. Would have been more useful if we had at least 2 shots of it, instead after connecting with it better monetize the KD or we waste the benefits of VT2. I’ve used it against FANG during a ft10 this week and every time I’ve punished my opponent with it through whiff punishes or jumps all he does right after was sliding away with his EX crossdown special. Maybe even Akuma could leave with teleport, I have to try.
If trash sounds too much then I can say VT2 isn’t enough for a full V meter. I mean, have you’ll seen what Abi,Ed, Kolin and Menat gets compared to us? I’ve only cited the newcomers on purpose, probably only Juri can compete for the worst VT title this season.
We could argue which vtrigger is better all day. In the end, it depends on your own playstyle or a specific match up. VT1 suits my gameplay as I control pretty well the air space and want to limit my opponent’s backward movement (I have an aggressive gameplay). Plus, I practiced a lot my sweep confirms (if blocked, activate vt1) so that I don’t waste my trigger. But I also noticed that vt2 can be useful against dive kick characters (mostly cammy) because it’s super easy to aa on reaction even to a surprise dive.
It goes through akumas air fireball if you time it right, good enough for me. Spacing it correctly is same as anything else.
So in other news… been finding all kinds of tight gimmicky strings and stance cancels and side switches with zeku. These things are probably why capcom is so worried about him… his gimmicks and the number that he has…is really REALLY strong.