Lightning strikes twice! (and even more in a vortex) - Season 2 matchups thread

Street Fighter V Laura
1

Season 2 has come, and with it a whole bunch of obstacles to Laura’s amazing oki and pressure have been lifted, whether via DPs requiring meter (which builds slower anyway) to be fully invincible, or the 5 frame command throw, or many other changes. I thought I should make a thread to gather up our collective knowledge on Season 2, and let the old matchup thread serve as an archive of what we had to go through last year.

It’s been rough in terms of getting variable opponents to fight online this week, but so far I’ve seen:

Guile
This was hell in S1. I thought the changes would change the fight against Guile drastically, giving us the advantage now that we can EX Command Throw even through his V-Skill fireballs, but because of how slowly you build meter now, getting your first bar can be pretty challenging, and he can wall you off for quite a while. That said, if you can build meter he doesn’t get to dash in to the 2-hit fireball for free anymore, which I think has changed the way Guiles behave quite a bit; they tend to jump now, and it becomes a real mixup that you can control rather than Guile being free due to his booms recovering too fast for you to actually get jumpins.

Ryu
I felt the same about turtle Ryu as I did about Guile, but the EX command throw seems like it might be less useful here because the range at which you can do it is also the range at which you can just jump onto the Ryu. I need more data on this, since I’ve barely gotten to play any Ryu this week - it’s been pretty much Week of Gouki online. I have a good feeling about the combined effect of nerfed DPs and our command throw changes though, the few matches I’ve had really showed how big a deal it is that you can’t invincible reversal us all the time.

Akuma
Even accounting for the fact that this is pretty early, I think he is at worst a good matchup, and at best pretty much free for us. His air fireball is something we can V-Skill forward through and then punish him, his demon flip is super slow and easy to punish with HP Bolt, and his fireballs are slow enough that EX command throw is a much more valid reaction than against Ryu or Guile. He does do a ton of damage if he manages to hit you, but if you play defensive it doesn’t seem like he has many ways to get in that you can’t react to easily.

Zangief
I didn’t actually fight one. I wish I could get to fight a Zangief, both because I find him to be the most fun matchup as Laura, and because the rest of the forum seems to be having a lot of trouble with him. I didn’t think he was much of a problem matchup in S1 (5-5 at worst; 6-4 on average), and I don’t think his changes have shifted him that much, but I haven’t seen any in the sea of Gouki that is CFN right now. I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do with 5MK and command throw loops in this matchup.

Overall, I think we’re in a good position. Even the roughest matchups I could think of last season don’t look too bad right now. Like I said in the other thread, this is the Year of Laura, for sure.

How do you all feel Season 2 has changed the matchup landscape for us?

2

I haven’t played Guile yet since the update but evidence suggests he should be a total nightmare for Laura. He was one of her hardest matchups in Season 1 and as far as I can tell he’s only gotten better. Of course, as always, if you manage to get in it’s in your favour but getting there seems to be harder than ever. But as I said, didn’t play one yet.

Ryu on the other hand is a lot easier in S2, I’d even argue it’s in Laura’s favour now. His fireballs are easier to punish with EX Bolt than Guiles because of their increased recovery. He has no get-off-me moves except EX DP anymore and whenever he lands one of those, he doesn’t have resources for his most damaging combos left. Plus the nerf on his forward throw means you can just safely block all the time and take a throw or two without having to fear landing in a throw-loop or b.HK mixer and whatnot.

Akuma I have no idea really. Can go either way because his damage is insane and Laura’s damage combined with his low health is pretty huge, to. His zoning can be surprisingly effective though and he has very solid confirms, meaning that every frametrap or shimmy mixup is going to hurt like hell. I’ve won against pretty much every Akuma s far bar one and that guy showed me that he can become really dangerous. But as you said, his health is a problem for him meaning comebacks are really easy to pull off with one opening.

Zangief destroy Laura after knocking her down and I don’t see that changing in S2. I’m unfamiliar with his changes but his jabs, headbutt and EX SPD still work as before so the matchup is still bad for Laura as before.

3

What about Chun? Is she as bad as before? Are there even still Chuns online lol?

P.S. @Pertho can you pin this thread and unpin/lock the old one please?

4

I’ve seen one Chun so far but the connection dropped during the match, so no idea. I know IALL is negative on block now which is a game changer when your getting pressured but her neutral is a good as always. It’s probably not as hard as it used to but still not remotely in Laura’s favour.

5

st. HP is also -5 on block so they can’t really spam it like before. And IALL is now very likely to whiff on crouchers.

6

s.HP being minus 5 will help depending on what EX moves she has to punish. There’s a lot of stuff that still can’t punish it even though they have the speed to punish it.

I haven’t really had much problem hitting crouchers with IALL so I’m not sure if that’s just people having sloppy execution or what. The hit box is changed a bit, but as long as you do a clean, low IALL should be hitting crouchers without much issue.

7

I didn’t think she was that bad before. She will beat you if you try to play fair footsies against her, but you can…not play footsies. I’m not going to say we’re in favor because that’s hard to judge, but it’s definitely not the “oh god it’s Chun-Li all hope is lost” I keep seeing here and on Twitter. It doesn’t seem like S2 has made that much different, if anything we probably come out ahead a little bit.

For IALegs, most of the things she can do at that range (including IALegs itself) can be beat by 8MP. It’s a weird-ass button for sure, but I keep testing this against my friend who plays Chun and there just isn’t anything you can do to beat 8MP at that range.

Also, if you’re in footsies range with her, one of the best things you can do is to stand in the range of for example her 4/6 MP, and immediately VSB > L Bolt. For that button specifically and I think 5HP, this will dodge the attack and then strike. I like to think of it as Laura’s version of short swing blow lol. Try it, I was shocked when I found out. I don’t think 5HP being -5 will affect us much, but the 2 extra frames of recovery means this sort of whiff punishing using VSB is going to be easier.

Her biggest threat in the matchup imo is something people don’t talk about a lot, 8HK (the split-kick), which was really hard to deal with in S1, but they made it 2f slower, so it’s probably not as big a threat anymore.

Overall, don’t try to out-footsie Chun-Li, and don’t hit 5HK, and it should go alright.

8

I just got blown up by a Balrog who did pretty much 80% of all his damage in V-Trigger as a comeback. He didn’t get the memo about the damage reduction in S2, am I right? Feels a bit weird to die in two combos now despite S2 being only four days old.

Used to think that matchup was in Laura’s favour but now I think it’s dead even. Whoever get’s the V-Trigger hit gets the comeback and the win, basically.

9

Yeah Ive been blown up by Balrog’s VT too. Youll have him down to 25% life and you foul up gaurding his low stomp = you just lost. Or just above that you find yourself in the corner dealing with shimying.

10

I’m still having good luck against Rog. Only thing I’ve noticed is that his stomp hits low on both hits now so basically just crouchblock (you’ll have time to see the overhead). I just wait to get a read on their dash punches and CC HP that baby into a knockdown and then mix up until dead. Has he gotten any other game changing buffs that I just haven’t seen yet? I know his anti air changed to DP motion but the rogs I’m playing are still free against crossups.

On a side note, and I’ve said it before, but god I just love 5MK. Even if it’s often too far to combo or you don’t have VT, I just love having a button that can check people here and there when they’re mashing whatever the hell they want whenever they feel like it. Makes Laura feel like way less of a punching bag.

11

What do you do against Urien? Guy has so much space control and damage.

12

Zone Zone and Zone. When you finally get to apply pressure most of the ones I play abuse ex shoulder so I just block and make them regret it. I had to spend some time in training to get the HP bolt timing down on his dive/air slam move. I always save v reversal meter to get out of his aegis reflector hell. Still, the range on his normals is baffling and I hate the animation of his regular shoulders- I still foolishly try to punish it and end up thrown when they space it well. Other than that just try to get the pattern down on his high/low strings. It’s not an easy match but I think it’s very winnable, probably even IMO.

13

Urien hasn’t really changed much despite all the noise people are making; if anything the matchup against us got a little easier since his 5MP and 5MK are actually slower to come out and we can grab or whiff punish. Plus, we don’t really care about an extra 25 health much when all our 1-meter combos do 300+. It’s moreso that now that people saw the patch notes and got excited, people are paying closer attention to the exact same stuff Urien was doing before.

If he’s keeping you out with 2MK (which is now +2 on block), then yeah, that’s new and my recommendation is to hit 2HK when he’s keeping you out; it’s the best button you have for whiff punishing his long limbs. Otherwise, it’s the same approach as in S1 - keep him out, whiff punish his long limbs, and on the knockdown move in for big damage. And like Tiers4Fears said, definitely keep that V-Meter, it will save you from the crazy Aegis setups.

Also, remember you can EX Sunset not only through his charged metallic spheres, but also through Aegis!

14

Aegis counts as a projectile? That’s nice to know.
On that matter, it’s sad they removed the projectile hitbox from Necalli’s stomps right now that Laura got a projectile invincible grab, would’ve made for some funny punishes.

15

What are you even supposed to do about Rashid? I have no idea when to poke him and I just get mauled.

16

This is one annoying matchup.

One thing though, is you can punish most of his dive kicks hard with F+hp > hp > etc.

Be ready for the ones that mash his dp on block of spinning mixer. Take the throw

when he gets v trigger I tend to neutral jump mk, as most of the ones I played use the tornado jump boost to get in. STuff that shit.

HP elbow is your friend in this matchup.

17

Yep, all eagle spikes and his vertical tornado spin (H Mixer) all get punished by 6HP > HP > stuff. Big damage, especially now that we can cancel the second HP. If he does the eagle spike through the tornado, he seems to get extra bounce and you become unable to punish him, so be careful. If you have trouble with the timing for 6HP, M Bolt will also punish all his eagle spikes for easy damage.

Don’t be afraid of wakeup EX DP from him; it does so little damage and doesn’t really give him any advantage. You may as well let him do it and eat his meter. Standard 5HP CC > MP Clap > 2HP > EX Clap > mixups combo doesn’t work as a punish for his EX DP, so go for either 5HP CC > 2HP > M Bolt or 6HP > HP > stuff.

I like the 8MK approach Alki put up above. Normally I EX Clap in order to discourage eagle spiking through it, and wearing down the tornado some if the Rashid decides to stand still. Interestingly enough despite EX Clap having a ton of hits normally and the tornado only having three, if you throw EX Clap at the tornado it only eats 2/3 hits. If you’re at far range, throw EX Clap to discourage them, and if you’re at mid range the 8MK will probably work best.

Sometimes it’s best to just eat that last hit from the tornado instead of letting him have free pressure.

This is all S1 advice that hasn’t changed. As for new S2 stuff:

His tornado is NOT something you can EX Sunset through. It’s no longer classified as a projectile, so you have to respect it.

His stretch kick (5HK) is now punishable by jab since it’s -4. I know 5LP > LP Bolt is a hard link, but it’s really useful in this matchup now.

His overhead is now unsafe and punishable by 2MP, so it leads to big damage.

Overall his pressure seems to be a little easier to deal with now that 5HK is unsafe, but it’s not that much different from S1. Don’t let him make you twitchy or salty, that’s how they win.

18

So, Urien can beat Laura with just both mediums buttons, right?

19

If you’re staying in the range of those and blocking, yeah pretty much, he’s good at that.

What I found works great against Urien is standing close to the range of those buttons and hitting sweep. 2HK goes under at least his stepkick and possibly other stuff, and his moves tend to have enough frames of recovery and lanky-ass long limb hurtboxes that you end up smashing him. I found this out testing against one of my friends when Urien came out and it’s shockingly effective given how slow that move is.

Need to fight more Urien to give you a better answer than that, though. If anyone can test EX bolt after a blocked 2MP to stop the rest of the block string, go ahead; I do that against Sim to discourage limb spam but I have no idea if it’ll work against Urien.

20

I’ve hardly seen any Urien use step kick as a footsie tool, it’s mostly just st/cr.MK or f.MP. Those three buttons are hell for Laura because there’s really no reliable way to whiff punish them. I haven’t tried sweep but st.MK is so fast I can’t imagine it catching it on the way back. Going to give it a try though.

It’s sad to admit but I think most of my damage on Urien usually comes from punishing his EX headbutt and maybe punishing the occasional fireball with EX Bolt. I honestly have no clue what to do in neutral in the matchup.