K vs. A strategies

Classic Fighting Games Capcom VS SNK 2
1

I’ve been playing cvs 2 4 a while, and in my town i’m a decent player. I recent switched from s 2 k groove (vega, bison, r2 sagat). Every1 says that A groove counters k, but in my opinion, only an FULL meter A counters K. Meaning all the time b4 that lil bitch charges up his/her meter, it’s ass whooping season. So in essence u could say fighting A with K(or P 4 that matter) groove is a race against time(meter). I usually put bison in first and try 2 rush the shit out of their 1st character. sometimes it works, but often enough, the inevitable occurs,-activation custom 40-50% damage lost blocking or not. I’m not complaining, as a matter of fact I welcome the challenge, the abundance of A groove players gives in my city gives me more practice against them. I know there was a K thread but this is more specific 2 the K vs. A matchup. Any suggestions, tactics, general or character specific are encouraged and welcome. I know this is one of those trying matches so this thread should be helpful.

i’ll start it off with the topic of K vs. A sakura. Every and any decent A groove will have this lil hore on her team. iv’e noticed that no matter what level of gameplay, the basic strategy 4 her is 2 land, in somewhat shape or form, her custom combo. Now the focus should’nt neccesarily be on how 2 counter it(though it’s important) but what 2 do b4 she charges. In the overall scheme of things, I consider sakura’s gameplay, 80% CC, and 20% RCling and playing chicken while charging up.
Any comments or tricks on this matchup? Use ur own K groove characters as an example.
1

2

DON’T GET SHOT

oops, wrong game. vs sakura, you have to realize HOW she can land her custom from a distance when trying to chip a K/P groover…

-roll, activate
-jump in, activate
-activate, far standing rh, shoshosho

now, if you are fast enough to punish rolls, jump away when you see her activate at far standing rh range, and can punish jump ins (OR jump away at the last second), then you’re making progress. just play cammy vs sakura and zone her, that works really well.

but yea, rush that shit down while she doesn’t have meter and watch out for obvious RC’s.

peace

3

if you get activated on (chinged :razzy:) from up close, use the fastest special your character has to try and beat out her attack. with cammy, cannonspike for ex. risky? yes. but it’s better than blocking and taking the damage guaranteed.

and always mash your super out while she’s doing her custom. that way if she messes up, ghetto k groove super shuts her down.

4

Hell yeah, those are good suggestions.
A trick I sometimes use(but don’t abuse) is_
when fighting sakura, i’ll become suicidal and try 2 bait the CC.
4 example, when using sagat vs. sakura i’ll empty jump in, and when I hit the ground, sometimes they’ll activate 2 custom,thinking my I’m gonna give up my tripguard. Then I tigger uppercut her, or level three super. I know they’re going 2 do it(activate) so I try 2 make them do it on my terms so I could punish it. Hella risky, but that’s kinda what k’s all about.
Any more suggestions?

5

Rush that ass down and try to KO her before she gets meter. Don’t turtle and let her get free meter with her whiffing dive kicks. Sakura is ver good and very dangerous when she has meter, but without it, she can’t do any significant damage like Blanka or Sagat can without meter.

6

I’m also a K-groove user. But the problem is that when you get hit by Sakura’s multiple sho you can’t do anything is to block. My only counter for that is take her down asap!!! Do rush down, if that doesn’t work take her off with her game plan take her in a defensive position. You may get a Win for that

7

turtling against sak is generally a bad move. she builds bar too quickly. if she has no meter, press her. when she has full bar, then you turtle up.

imo, k vega (claw) and mai do well against sak because of runaway. vega can keep away all day with wall jumps and dives as can mai. vega can also poke her to death. mai not so much but once i get a lead in life with either character i will just sit back and run away that shit down.

btw, i know the 2nd paragraph totally contradicts the first one but different tactics for different characters.

8

I agree. That might be the worst thing 2 do against sakura(turtling). In A groove that bitch gains meter from damn near anything. I also use vega in K groove, what I noticed in this paticular matchup is that vega can out poke the shit out of her, but by the time u get her down 2 half-life,less than half, she has a full bar. It’s almost like Vega can fuck her up but it takes 2 many hits 2 kill her( remember she gains meter 4 damage taken as well). In a way vegas minimal damaging pokes can help her gain meter. This match 9 time out of 10 ends up either in vegas favor with about 30% health left(which is not practical for vegas weak ass body) and Sakuras bar about 30% full 4 the next character, or sakuras favor with 30% health left and about a half 40-50% bar( very practical 4 sakura). she can still get hit and build bar enough 4 another custom 4 ur second character. Sakura needs 2 be put in a position where she’s overwhelmed by ur charaters rushdown, attacks. One thing about her is that she does dizzy kinda fast, I suggest facing her with a character that can kill her fast or dizzy her fast using minmal hits. ex. bison, sagat, blanka, geese, etc. there are other but these are ones that I use. If u play ur cards right, u can kill her off fast enough 2 where she dies with 20% bar 4 the next character, and a substantial amount of health and bar 4 ur charcter.
That’s the kind of advantage u want over A groove.

9

ok, practical stuff u can do if she activates next to you:

Hibiki- After the activation and have time to KKK,fwd.K to ground cross her up and run the hell away.

Maki-KKK after u see the activation.

Chars with a charge “flashkick” move like Rock, Guile, Terry: if u happen to charge down(or bait them by sitting there doing nothing but charging), when they activate immediately perform ur “flash kick” after the activation animation.

And some other stuff u guys can make up urselves. Remember, except for charge moves, NOTHING u input before CC activation animation finishes counts. If u try to do a super by inputting qcfx2 as you see the activation flash and hit p or k when its done, ur super wont come out. Thats why its hard to do a shoryuken move after they activate, because you dont have enough time to do the whole motion in between the time the activation animation finishes and when she sticks out her move.

10

Mix that shit up.

Knockdown, whiff jab, throw…, whiff crouching short, throw…, blocked jab, throw…, walk back, walk forward, throw…, meaty roundhouse, walk up throw…

Sakura gets very little meter for landing a throw. She gets even less meter from eating a throw. Sooo, throw her ass.
Since you only get meter from eating hits(+ counters) or JD, you don’t care about throws.

11

lol, nothing counters A-sak better than that.

12

a good a-groove player isn’t going to miss sak’s custom on a k-groove player. the end. how you ask? standing close mp, activate (nothing you can do) or they are going to hold their meter till YOUR meter breaks. then of course, natural instinct says to go to him. iono, its juss a suck ass situation when u play a good player.

13

the easiest ways are to stay out of range of her RH, and if she gets close, jump…alot…just make sure you’re not on the ground when she activates…that way she can’t get full damage from the CC. you can also not block, so at least you get meter from the CC.

14

With the exception of a few characters, K is actually one of the better grooves to match up against A. (Okay, after N, A, C, and S…but before P!)

Think about it. Excepting Sakura, with all of the really damaging A-Groove combos, especially Akuma’s and Bison’s, they’re not going to activate unless you’ve already been hit and are helpless. As the combo goes off, you’re eventually going to Rage, and with it get a nice 20% defensive bonus. This means that if you’re going to get hit with a combo no matter what (which is what the good A-Groove players will do to you anyway, regardless of what groove you’re playing in), they groove that you want to be in is K-Groove.

I have seen more than a few times when this situation greatly favors K. You’ve got an A-player with full meter on the ropes, and they get a CC off that would kill any player in any other groove. However, the defensive bonus in K keeps you alive, and raged to boot, putting them on the defensive right after landing what would have been the winning combo in any other groove. Chip damage or easy throws is all it takes to finish them off.

The majority of CCs are made up of normal moves, which are harmless when blocked, and really easy to JD since you know what the sequence is made up of. Again, even if they manage to hit you with a normal-linked CC, the damage you take will be reduced.

Sakura is the exception, of course, because she’ll crush your guard and drain your vital anyways. The best thing to do against Sakura is to pressure her like there’s no tomorrow. Do not give her a chance to build up meter the cheap way. Pressure her until all your attacks on her fills up her meter (and not her whiffs), then be cautious. She can do anything she wants, as long as she does it from half screen away of more.

It’s also handy to use a character in K that has built-in anti-A defenses. Hibiki and Maki, as mentioned earlier, are perfect examples. I know this personally, any groove Maki’s :3k: is unstoppable against A-Groove activations that you know are coming. Instantly invincible. If they roll through it, they’ll get hit on the other side. If they jump it, they’ll be hit on the way up. They can’t block it, and if they super you out of it, they waste their meter for a relatively small amount of your life.

I like to use my K-Team (K-Nakoruru/Kyosuke/Maki[2]) against A-Groove teams all the time. I try to match up Maki against Sakura for the above stated reason, but if I can’t, I just go with it. Sak lands her CC on me, big deal. I’ll just take my rage and land my super right back. Equal trade for me.

15

Maki’s kkk is good against activations, but it’s not unstoppable. You do it often enough and sak can just rc hk through it after activation. Also, I don’t believe you’re guaranteed to hit them with kkk if they activate and roll. The kkk move isn’t in a constant attack state so it’s kinda random as to whether or not they’ll get hit after the roll, or if you’ll eat a c.wk xx whatever yourself.

Overall it’s really good, but it’s not gonna work 100% of the time (I guess that depends on who your comp is though).

16

I think a good strategy is 2 bait the custom
4 example, a few days ago I was playing a homie who uses A groove fairly well(actually the best in my city). He has this set up which I always fall for, but then I thought about how I can use this 2 my advantage. He’ll do the dive kick with sakura, i’ll just defend it and go 4 the throw and he’ll activate. I’ve seen this setup millions of times at my arcade and in other match videos, it’s a common mistake k groovers make but it’s not foolproof. I guess what i’m saying is, invite
sakura 2 try 2 do this, then while she’s anticipating the throw, dragon punch the bitch out of her custom. I know this strat is circumstantial, but if worked often enough 2 where he had 2 become more elusive with his activations.

17

it’s a little late to be replying to this old thread, but i gotta say that is a straight up lie.
motions done before flash DO COUNT AFTER FLASH.
im fucking 100% sure of this from experience.

18

so about that defense bonus…is that only if you’re hit or does it apply to blocking as well?

19

Just hold up and you’ll take less damage if you can’t JD in the air.

20

if you’re a boss in p groove, you’ll parry the first hit of sak’s CC (which is typically right after the activation) and uppercut that shit down