Hey guys! Been trying Ibuki for a couple of days and she’s been really fun! And I find her to be really good and underrated. I have a couple of questions:
If you know you can’t get normal > kunai > VT off in a match, how do you apply pressure doing the same string on block? What I mean is how do you use your vtrig on someone that is blocking? For both a regular kunai and ex kunai.
How do you guys use the bomb in neutral? If I know I can’t get it off sometimes I just throw it to try and full recharge my kunai.
after st.mp you have 4 options
you can overhead
you can frametrap with another mp
you can throw
you can vt cancel and frametrap with another walkup st.mp > cr.mp and then command dash that will/will not crossup into bomb explosion
Ream explained most of the basic block pressure stuff.
The issue with Ibuki’s V Trigger though is that it’s a 3 bar V Trigger that isn’t a power up. It essentially works like a one shot V Trigger like Nash’s or Mika’s except you get 2 shots. Your strongest shot is obviously your VTC which you don’t want to waste on a block if the opponent has V Gauge. Any blocked VTC can be V Reversaled on reaction and you can be left dealing with meaty pressure or a safe jump after getting knocked down with just one weaker bomb left to use.
Basically, use her V Trigger on block ONLY if the opponent does not have any V Reversals or already popped their V Trigger. In those situations, your block VTC game becomes much scarier. If they do have a V Reversal, stick to hit confirming it or throwing it out in neutral.
I just use the bomb in neutral depending on my opponents options and meter. Against a character like Zangief or Chun it’s generally pretty safe to throw since neither of them have anything that hurls them through projectiles. They are both characters that are very viable to throw the bomb and then reload a few kunais before they get in. Characters like Karin, Alex, Nash and Ken that have a lot of explosive EX and/or super options you have to be more careful with. Better to throw if if they are lower on meter (like 1 bar or less).
If they get antsy and jump you can use that time to move in and continue pressure. Especially if they’re close to the corner. Otherwise you can use it as a guard for you to reload and do your reloading based on the character you’re fighting
Whenever I have a healthy life lead, I tend to use my V-Gauge on V-Reversals because it turns a lot of minus situations into free pressure for Ibuki.
But, if I do end up using VT for block pressure, I only do it when they can’t V-Reversal otherwise it’s wasted.
Here’s an awesome sequence that I like to do in the corner when I’m loaded up on resources against someone who likes to block a lot on defense:
st.MP, cr.MP xx Kunai xx VT, st.LK xx LK Dash, f.MK, st.MP, st.MP xx EX Kunai xx VT, step forward, st.MP, Slide, st.MP, cr.MP xx EX Kunai, MK Dash etc etc etc…
Good luck blocking all that lol. Nobody has ever actually blocked the entire sequence online yet.
They can get out of this during the first LK Dash, but people tend to be hesitant in that situation because you are + on block and the bomb is right under them.
If they block the overhead, it’s +3 on block instead of -2.
If they somehow manage to keep blocking until you do the slide, the slide becomes at least +9 on block.
You can keep the pressure going for as long as you have meter, by doing strings into EX Kunai.
That’s the situation with the kunoichi. There’s always a shit ton of memorization and combo/setup grinding with her. You don’t get a straightforward gameplan with her, you just have to find a way to make her as straightforward as possible with all of her options. In the time it would take you to have a lot of Ibuki’s neutral and setups down, you probably could have learned the neutral and setups for like Karin, Ryu and Nash all at once.
She’s always been extremely fun for me to play due to that. You get neutral options, but there’s so much she can do outside of just typical SF and it all makes her what she is in each game.
I just realized tonight that with enough practice, you can consistently make your st.MP +5 or +6 on hit after the st.MK TC.
That is pretty important because for whatever reason, people tend to get hit by that st.MP but it’s very often not a counter hit so all you can do is link into st.LK which is what I usually do.
I think from now on I will make sure to do the st.MP meaty so that I can confirm it into st.MK TC regardless of whether I score a counter hit.
Good find. Makes sense since you already are at heavy advantage during the TC dash reset as it is. Just keep looping people until they’re stunned. Plus you would get hella meterless corner carry.
Eh some characters are forced to confirm off counter hits or one hit confirms. Doesn’t really bother me since my reactions with that stuff are pretty good and it would be dumb of she could medium medium without counter hits. You cant back rise any of her combos and sweep target puts them in standing reset so it would be definitely OD
S.mp, s.lk is pretty serviceable for non counter hit combo.
Thanks for the quick and insightful responses guys. I love how active this board seems to be compared to other boards.
This will up my blockstrings immensely. Ibuki has normals that deal pretty good white life damage. I try and optimize the white life to compensate for her lower damage output. @inf4my the sequence you mentioned earlier does somewhere around 120-130 in white life if everything is blocked, if they happen to get tagged into a conversion its basically about 300 dmg, 240 if they don’t tech a throw.
Also for vtrigger mix-ups I generally just go for the usual Sako bomb set-up or the 1 hit b.mp > VTC > dash forward whiff throw (to cover quick rise) > backdash > lk/mk dash for either fake cross-up/cross up.
Anything else I should I add to the arsenal? Still a very very basic Ibuki
If you hit someone with a VTC combo near the corner, you can save the EX meter and just juggle them with V Skill after the first bomb explodes and cancel the V Skill into V Trigger again for a second bomb set up as they quick rise or standard rise.
DaFeetLee has written a fairly in-depth oki guide for Ibuki. I didn’t know you could throw a M Kunai after back throw and confirm it into super. I’ve been doing that to people all day today lol
I didn’t realize HK Kazekiri was so advantaged. HK kazekiri is nice cuz it does more damage and I think more stun, but the only issue is that you have to account for backrise. I love LP Raida cuz braindead meaty off neutral tech only.
Would be nice if the document included her sweep target command dash stuff which is plus a billion with no rise lol
You guys are the best. My internet has been real shitty for the past few days so ill be using the bright side of it to lab all this glorious tech until i move next week.
Hey guys. Would you mind watching some of my replays and helping me improve my Ibuki game? I know what some of my weaknesses are, such as my lackluster anti air game which I am working on, but I don’t think I am able to identify some of my others. I am stuck in Super Silver and can’t make progress currently. My CFN is Fysh23. Thanks in advance!
Ok I looked over some matches. Seems like you have some alright knowledge of her pressure and setups. You definitely knew to command dash in and pressure after landing her sweep target and stuff like that.
Main issues are your neutral game needs some work and you need to force more throws as you get near people. When you get near people you usually just keep hitting more buttons. Even cancelling a s.MP into MK command dash for a cross would be better than that. Try to set up those throws so you can get people off of block and set them up for s.MP combos later on. You don’t necessarily get any great pressure off her throw, but it pushes people closer to the corner which is good.
With your neutral game you need to walk in more with s.MP and c.MP. Her fast walk speed lets her get those short, but plus buttons ready to pressure people. If you’re at a farther range you need more placement of her f+HK and V Skill. You would use her f+HK sometimes, but honestly you need to use it a bit more and really force people to change up their poking game to get to you. Mix this in with her V Skill to stop attempts to poke back at you since it retracts her hurtbox. The idea is you use the regular V Skill to beat buttons and then mix it up occasionally with charged V Skill when you want them to block it and build V Gauge.
More walk up c.MK to check walking backwards is good too.
I know this is gonna sound like ridiculous advice, but at silver/gold rank, you need to play less neutral, be WAY more aggressive, and don’t show those types of players any respect at all.
People at those ranks don’t know what they’re doing. They do random stuff in neutral which makes it hard to get a read on what is coming. They never stop pressing buttons, and they have horrible defense.
Just to show you what I mean, I logged into my alt account and recorded the first match that came to me. I literally paid no attention to what this guy was doing, and I just went HAM on him. As you can see, he simply failed to block everything and had no idea what was going on. This is the case for 99% of the matches at those ranks. Just rush people down, and only resort to playing solid when your opponent shows you that they aren’t an idiot.
Obviously I’m not saying this is how you play Ibuki, lol. I don’t play like this on my main account. But you’re better off just disposing of the noobs at those ranks so you can get to ultra gold+ and start playing against people who actually know how to play.
there are a lot of people who actually block and play patient and punish your shit even at those ranks. this karin is definitely a fraud, but most karins are because you just press buttons with her.
just pressing buttons wont work most of the time. i’ll definitely agree that you have to be on the offensive though, but not mindlessly rushing. there are a lot of ryus who just down-back fireball and dp for example. a lot of nashes who runaway and do the same with ex-scythe.
also i think learning how to beat crazy people is just as important. you learn how to deal with pressure, what stuff can you punish, how you can punish that, improve your defence at last. Also, reactions.
