So, I tested out Terry in a match against a dude named Trumpet. I couldn’t tell if he was sandbagging in the first match or he was just unfamiliar against Clark but I beat him 3-2. I fucking hate Beni, I think I hate him more then Karate just because you can’t really safe jump him and he has a 1 frame EX grab AND he can combo off of that. Plus he has one of the easiest crossups in the game.
My strategy with Billy is mostly to poke them (obviously) and try and land that corner combo and drive cancel into EX SRK and end with a reset. That and just generally use his EX SRK to AA. My problem with Billy is his ground game because once they figure out the spacing for his hop C and how gdlk his Crouching C is they can fuck you up. His toward Staff is okay but obviously unsafe and very prone to trading.
So I used Terry in a way similar to Billy minus these really good pokes he has and just AA’d with st.C, downfoward C, and EX Taco. Use EX Fireball to get in or pressure them. The funny thing with Terry is that his Supers and Neomax are terrible but his EX’s are really good. My nubish Terry did a pretty decent job against a mid-level Beni.
Played a dude called Mcbain on Steam. Got like 3-1 or 4-1 on him. He also had Duffman Clark colors but he didn’t use Clark against me, had an okay Takuma in that he demonstrated he knew what to do with him. But the guy started trolling at the end and ragequitting by going AFK. Not sure what his deal was. He obviously didn’t know the Clark matchup because he was free to Autoguard SAB. Didn’t get a chance to test out my Hwa, the one time I did the dude randomed it with Takuma and got an AA Ranbu and put me in the corner, and I guessed wrong and he activated HD and won.
Gonna’ drop Terry. It takes too much meter to make him good and he’s a mediocre point character. I think I’ll be a basic King and just zone and build meter for Hwa. She’s god some good AA normals (st.C and st.D respectively) plus a spaced tornado kick is relatively safe.
I think I’m going to drop Billy for EX Iori. Rekka’s in general have really good priority and AA (depending on distance) and while Iori’s aren’t safe he can still psyche you out with his followups. Plus he has EX that goes through fireballs, really good jump in and air-to-air game and a ranbu that also AA’s. My Billy needs meter and has a tough time getting in. Plus as Loyal said, Billy’s EX SRK is too easy to safe jump (I checked and it’s like 10 frames on startup) whereas Iori’s EX has 4 frame startup.
Also, Iori’s Rekka’s are the easiest to land. I’m not great at Rekka characters and most of the dudes in this game require specific timing to land the followup Rekka’s except for Iori and Mature.
So I’m a liar. Sticking with Ryo, Clark, Hwa. Ryo is one of the few characters that can stand toe to toe with the top tiers. Damn good jCD and probably the best Mexican Uppercut with 3 frame startup. Zoning is top too. Only reason he’s not top tier is that he can’t drive cancel for massive damage.
Beni is certainly to be hated. But you can actually safejump 1 fram EX grabs. If you do a safejump, your jump attack should be meatying his body on wakeup, in other words, you’d still be airborne. If he reversals with a 1-frame grab, he’s not going to hit you, because you’re still in the air.
If KOFXIII is the same as older KOFs, you should even be throw invincible during your single landing frame (and if you don’t touch the stick, for more than that).
So all you need to worry about is safejumping his dp, which is also tough. You just CANNOT go empty jump low on knockdown, because then the EX grab will hit you. But it’ll have to be a guess on Beni’s part, you can’t do that on reaction. So the solution is, not going empty jump low, until you keep them honest and they stop mashing EX grab on wakeup because they’re eating a full jump-in combo whenever they try.
Empty jump low is also going to lose to dp, and depending on how tight your safejump is, he can just back + D, and might end up throwing you into the corner.
And it’s like LoyalSol said: 2 frames reversals are unsafejumpable in KOF, 3 frames are.
So, I forgot how good Clark’s st.CD is. It has 13 frame startup so you can’t really do it on reaction but you can do it preemptively. I feel like this is his best bet when fighting top tier with their gdlk air-to-air game. It has a big hitbox and it leaves him airborne and it’s relatively safe if it whiffs. Pays off when you’re 2-3 character spaces away and trying to work your way in.
As I said in my guide (even though it was harshly criticized by guys who don’t really play 13) his jump away and neutral jump CD are good. I wish his st.D was like in 98 and his jumping grab had a command input. Being able to jump grab on wakeup would have helped tremendously, that or EX Machine Gun having faster startup (at the expense of more recovery).
One note that you may already be aware of, but I’ve regularly been told that Clark’s st.CD still counts as being on the ground for the purpose of throws. That is, it will beat Low strikes but some throws might be able to beat it? I haven’t seen this come up to often, but figured it was worth mentioning as several people keep telling me about it.
Depends on the throw. You would never do his st.CD at point blank (as I said, about 2-3 character spaces apart) but I would guess Vice’s grab might catch you, I would need to test that once I get back from work. At the right spacing I doubt Goro’s grab would catch you.
At the same range your terrible router enables the world’s worst ‘reset’ (of a very different kind) combos. You were kicking my ass, then all of a sudden your router robs you of your win!
Off the top of my head, I think it’s going to be either the same range as Clark’s neutral stand or very slightly behind; it depends on whether the CD moves Clark’s upper body back or not. I couldn’t say, I don’t know his hitboxes that well.
I tested and yeah, Vice can easily grab him out of the st.CD. And once you learn Clark’s oki game after getting a grab, he becomes a deadly fucking force. Possibly deadlier than Goro or Vice.
B Backbreaker someone? Run up and B Backbreaker their wakeup DP. Then run up and B Backbreaker their wakeup DP. Then run up and B Backbreaker them as they sit there crouch-blocking.
…Doesn’t work too well against Ryo*, as you showed me, but it’s hilarious against particularly bad players of anyone else with a wakeup-capable DP of some kind.
*: Or anyone with half a brain for that matter. but ‘a brain’ has not so far been something terribly common for me to come up against. The ones who do have it promptly show me why it’s not a good idea, though. I’m mostly being silly.
So, I learned something after being trolled by Mexican/Brazilian dudes (I just got a vibe) that Rolls pretty much undermine a lot of what Ryo does. I’ve also noticed that Mexican/Brazilian dudes play differently, they’re more likely to keep jumping in and go for Rolls after a reset or knockdown or at about Mid-screen footsie distance. Whereas other dudes are more likely to wait and punish and go for a wakeup EX/SRK/Super after a reset or knockdown.
How to get out of corner hop in pressure when you don’t have a gdlk wakeup move? I was doing some testing against Kyo with my Clark and the only options I’ve found are: Roll out (which they can still catch you with cr.B), Guard Cancel CD (and they can still safe jump that), or backdash on wakeup and take the hit and then block or roll out or punish depending on what they do and how auto-pilot they might be.