After watching WCW5, Justin seems to get wrecked by Chun-li. If both are playing high level, Karin seems outclassed in all department. What kind of adjustment needed for legit Chun players?
The Chun matchup might be her worst. Even Sako said he had trouble which was one of the reasons he switched to Chun. She beats Karin at the ground game so you have to be a bit more aggressive also cr.HP to sappo when she does instant air legs.
Yeah, Justin wasn’t challenging the air legs correctly. Cr HP or EX Ressenha should be your answer, he was going for some other nonsense. Also, he really needs to optimize his combos and setups. He’s doing basic Justin stuff. Even though his footsies are A+, Karin isn’t strong enough to win with just that. He’s either going to have to put some work in to really develop the character or switch to Chun. I don’t think the matchup is really even that bad. Vega is definitely Karin’s worst.
I was thinking the exact same thing. He really didn’t answer IALL at all. The matchup becomes much more manageable once you make it clear that you can’t get away with those for free. I still think Chun has a slight advantage, but only a slight one. Karin definitely has every tool necessary to win this match.
I also don’t agree with the “Chun is just a better Karin”-sentiment that some people seem to have. They have somewhat similar gameplans (win the ground game with great buttons and walkspeed, then get in and wreck face), and Chun is the stronger character overall, but there are enough areas where Karin is flat-out better than Chun.
The only matchups I think are fairly difficult for Karin are Vega, Birdie and Bison. Vega just dances around her in neutral. Birdie and Bison are better than her at her best ranges, as their grounded pokes and their jump arcs/air normals are really annoying for Karin to deal with. Thankfully Karin’s offense is very effective on all three characters, so if you get the momentum, you can ride that to victory. The problem is just getting said momentum when these three characters are so good at preventing you from getting it.
A point can be made for Nash being bad as well, though I suspect that may be just me since I have no idea when I should be pressing buttons against him.
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People tends to say that Bison is a good MU for Karin but I do not find that easy, they say that Karin’s pressure it’s too much for bison who do not have a wakeup reversal. However I’m just not able to pressure continously and every time that I finish a block string the momentum changes and I start to have so many problems taking the offensive again.
My main problem is that I can’t punish his scissors well. After a scissors, if he did them close of me, there are many ways of counterattacking (s.lk, mostly), however a smart Bison don’t do this, he do it at mid distance. The most I can get after ones is a blocked s.mk which gives no any oportunity of going on attacking.
I originally thought Bison was an even matchup but the more I play it, the more I think it’s a bit in his favor. He dominates the neutral game despite his slow walk speed speed, simply because of the range, priority, and frame advantage of his normals. It’s really hard to make his moves whiff and you don’t get much for punishing them unless you have V-Trigger. Trying to counter-poke him can have some pretty disastrous outcomes too.
His hurtbox is also very narrow. It’s not uncommon for me to land a counter-hit st lk my pressure but the cr mk wouldn’t link afterwords since he’s too far away, a problem I don’t really notice with other characters. Coupled with his high damage output and V-Trigger mixup potential (I think he’s a contender for best V-Trigger), you really don’t have a lot of room for error.
His defensive options are somewhat limited but there’s really no reason for him not to take the throw mid screen since Karin gets no setup off them. You really only get to really dominate the match when you have him in the corner, but that’s pretty much the same for everyone.
When defending against an aggressive Ryu, what moves do you think are the most punishable? I have trouble realizing when to counterattack.
From my experience, Tatsumaki punished by cr. HP. Hadoken is punished by st. mk, sweep, V-skill at mid range. At long range, Ressenha HK, They could DP though,
If they can dp it’s not a punish now is it.
Don’t punish tatsu’s with crhp, that’s bad. Every tatsu is -10 on block, so you can do either sthp or crmp > stmp into full combos. If close enough you can punish hadoukens with crmk xx tenko. You can also punish it with super on block if you have the meter.
From long range you can do HP ressen on reaction to fireballs. Vskill doesn’t punish anything…
Don’t forget to punish his sweep, Ryu sweep is fast but very punishable.
How are you guys finding the Alex matchup? Is the elbow slash unpunishable unless they rly space it too deep? Its really frustrating to play footsies with random elbow slashes, and his far reaching normals. AAing is tricky too cuz of the stomp, flip grab and “divekick”. I rly like using shoulder to get in, but with him i stop using it because it kind of puts yourself into a mixup afterwards. (powerbomb if i block and button if i try to hit a button or jump to interrupt the powerbomb). Any advice? Thanks
He loves powerbomb after a blocked Orochi? EX Ressenha that shit. After eating Karin reversal once he’s gonna think twice about press a button after it. The Slash Elbows aren’t safe,the safest and short one (LK) is -4 on block,cr.lp right after to take him at the bay. The EX version is -10. I didn’t test if there’s pushback,but if cr.lp touch then you can jft after it. He need charge for the stomps so if you see him crouch you know stomp could come. Probably your best way to stop all his aerial option is nj/bj.HP to cover all his options.
I tested it and i think lk slash elbow is impossible to punish. Theoretically its -4 and 4f slk should work but i couldnt get it to hit on a dummy once. The range is such that crlp will not reach and just the tip of slk will. He’s not powerbombin EVERY time after orochi so its too risky to dp. Are there any vids online of high level karins vs alex? i’d be very interested to see how they approach this MU
Doing an EX Ressenha after a blocked Orochi isn’t something to do every time,but doing once makes the Alex player remember you have that option,he needs to respect your possibilities. Powerbombs startups are 6f,probably you can also walk back out of his range. If the Elbows pushback is farther than our cr.lp range then counter it with a sweep can be a good solution,only the LK is -4,the MK is -6 and the HK is -7.
Okay ex ressenha might be a decent option when used sparingly. But i think sweep is a terrible idea. Its 9f startup so it doesnt punish anything but ex slash and even then shp or crmk full combo is better. Against every other slash it gets blocked and punished HARD because its -14f and wayy too close.
I’ve tested it:
[x]= number of frames you have to punish
lk slash: slk [1f]
Too hard and risky since slk only cancels into unsafe specials
mk slash: smp [2f] or crmk[1f]
(smp orochi is a rly safe punish option even if u miss)
hk slash: crmk [2f]
ex slash: crmk [5f] shp [3f] or shk [1f] FREE
But im just wondering if its feasible to block a slash, confirm the strength of it, confirm the distance and punish all in a split second.
I mean punish the Slash on reaction,obv not when Alex is up close.
I wouldn’t want to preemptively whiff a sweep too often either, Alex has some pretty good whiff punish options, but that does give me an idea. Karin could probably throw out a slk buffered into mujin/sappo(negative edge> jft if you’re a boss) to interrupt a slash.
In all cases his turn is over. Press a button. You always have at least 3 frames to punish with the input buffer. With the proper amount of experience you will be able to ID the move used OR just use ST.MP. I would assume they almost always use lk slash. St.mp ends their turn and you can then cr.mk for the potential to hit low or take advantage of a counter-hit. Then, cancel into dash for tenko or orochi. You should be able to confirm a ch.st.mp into tenko.
Not trying to be mean but it sounds like your complaining that a character has a chance or you have to take risk.
That is not the way I’m intended to ot come off as. I thought of it more as a discussion as to which options were more viable. I genuinely just want to find a strategy to deter Alex even a little bit from using slash excessively because it makes it rly hard to take advantage of Karin’s superior footsies while dealing with slash. Smp is definitely a good option on block. Just a note though, Smp can whiff at alot of the ranges after hk slash is blocked at. Its true his turn is over and we can hit buttons after. I guess I’m just trying to get a little greedy afterwards.
I get what you’re sayin’. If you’re greedy, get into training mode and figure out what they all look like. Street fighter takes so much work! 
OH and the lazy greedy move is to st.hp after all of them. Just cancel into orochi to make it safe but if you hit, you have tons of time to confirm into tenko. It’ll never be just frame this way but, it’s awesome damage. And he basically has to take it because he’s at such disadvantage.