Cr.mk is good against her st.hk and catch her dash-in/vtrigger dashes as well.
You can use it to get under her fb as well if she’s using it shield her advances.
Her fb moves her forward so you don’t want to get into a fb war for too long. You can time your fb so that it passes through right as hers dissipates, so you can try to zone that way. But like you said, when she has ex she’ll just blow right through all that (maybe ex fb will beat ex elbow?). Best bet would probably use it as a footsie tool round st.hk or a little outside of it where it’s harder to react to, you’ll risk getting jumped in on if they make a read though so don’t overly rely or get too predictable with it.
Yes I guess ex fireball beats her armor, I actually have no clue I don’t remember seeing this but since her elbow is armored you should beat it with two hits. I need to try to be sure.
So what I need to do is really stay at this “st.hk + a little bit” range?
you definitely want to play a spacing game with her. you want to stand outside of st. hk range until you have momentum. if she tries to throw fireballs make sure you’re at a range where you can dash and then sweep her out of the start up. you have to make use of ken’s fireball in this fight…don’t get predictable though or she’s gonna mess you up. in neutral you just have to whiff punish, i mostly use cr. hk for the long pokes…you want her in wake up situations as much as possible. from there you can really dominate her on wake up…i usually go with meaty cr. lk, from there you can b+mp, go for throw, or shimmy you just have to read the player and make them pay. as far as the ex elbow goes you just gotta see that coming…based on how the player plays. some laura’s will throw in neutral, this is very bad for her, so if you notice they are willing to risk doing that go into a range where you might poke and bait it. Meaty throws will beat it and if you’re quick you can 2 in1 dp
Thanks for posting! I got a lot of little pointers from it. Those stupid EX tornadoes are +6 on block, and he seemed to find that obnoxious spacing where when he neutral jumps, MP shoryu whiffs. I’m thinking LP shoryu or neutral jump j.LK are the best answers for those situations?
By the way, I’ve found that MK tatsu is a reliable (if not particularly sexy) punish for any non-EX eagle strike. At least they set you up to punish any quick-rise nonsense. Been meaning to test and see if EX tatsu and CA also work, they should. Sweep and s.HK usually work, but randomly seem to fail for me.
how are you guys punishing Karin’s sweep? So many players just walk back to max. distance sweep, and I’m having a bit of trouble punishing with normals. Is taste a reliable punish?
You can still beat it, you just need to adjust your timing. Also if you know Ken is going to do it then just duck it and punish it when it hits the ground. It’s got extra recovery.
If the sweep is done far away, you have to use St.Short as early as possible, buffered with another move to maximize damage output. Her hurtbox is extended during the early frames of recovery.
So:
St.Short xx Forward Tatsumaki
St.Short xx Fierce DP (did not test if it whiffs in max distance… my guess is this should work)
St.Short xx EX Tatsumaki
(raw) Super
I didn’t test St.Short xx EX Fireball xx V-Trigger, but I would think it’s too far to get it to properly land. It might work though.
It can be thrown like all others(except vega). You just have to anticipate it. Stupid Nash gets like 4 bars per match haha. More if you throw fireballs.
Hi guys, newbie at fighting games here, Ken Masters player. I saw this thread has a very handy MU summary in the OP, but is it incomplete or am I missing something? Like, some section for some characters are blank, like Birdie for example.
Shame cause it’d be incredibly handy to have those infos briefly summed up directly in the OP without having to read all the posts in the thread. You know, it’d be useful when I’m about to fight somebody I need advice about.
By the way, I have trouble against Birdie. I have the feeling I got no means to get in, he’s got ground and air chain, that banana, an amazing anti-air (cr.MP if I’m not mistaken)… feel like all I can do is zoning him with fireballs but those do low damage compared to what he can do if he gets in… I hear his ground chain isn’t safe on block, can I catch it with a DP at max/near max distance after blocking it? Like Dhalsim’s limbs, for example?
I actually never fought against a very good Birdie but I can see how it could be very annoying.
I guess you need to be very patient, watch out for chains when you block one you can move forward or you can punish it if he does it too close. I guess ex tatsu works from pretty far as a punish too but not sure.
Watch out for his leap, neutral jump it and punish it with full combo if you see it coming.
Once you’re in don’t be afraid of him actually, don’t let go of the pressure. I guess a good idea is to make him use v-reversals if possible because his v-trigger is so annoying to deal with, kinda like Bison once he uses a v-reversal even if you get hit by it it’s still kind of a win imo.
Then he is basically free in the corner since he has no real reversal.
I’m gonna alt. Guile. Figure it’s one of the best ways to be good at the matchup and I think Guile is usually a natural counter to Ken, so being good with both of them should serve you well for most of the cast.