Mai versus Top tiers

Classic Fighting Games Capcom VS SNK 2
1

How do you play against the top characters in the game?
What move beats out their stuff?
What are the strength/weakness you should watch out for?

This thread is specifically for mai strats against top tier characters or in some cases, her bad match ups(which i’m not sure what they are yet)

I recently picked up Mai as my R2 so i’m working on how i should play against other players R2(which are most likely blanka/sagat in a lot of cases).

Sagat:
From what i heard, Mai’s s.fierce is really good against sagat, but when should you use it? after sagat throws out fierces? or just do random ones to snuff sagat?

Blanka:
is there anything you can punish blocked blanka ball with?
Blanka doesn’t seem too bad for me but i dont’ really know good tactics against him, i just small jump roundhouse a lot.

Cammy:
Haven’t had a matchup against R2 cammy yet, so i’m not really sure if she’s a big threat to mai

Iori:
Iori’s main thing that kills me is when he traps me in the corner, thus her wall jump, musabi no mai is really helpful

I play K-Mai.
my main goal is to find out really about blanka and sagat matchups.

2

Unfortunately I can’t help you much…
I’ll tell you everything I know though.

consider this a bump.

only reason I’d think s.hp is good vs sagat is that he can’t crouch under it… I think s.lk is better though. Doesn’t seem to out priortize anything. I guess it’s good for poke strings cancelled into qcf+p or somethin

Blanka ball… can’t find anything. sorry. I’d watch more for his hop and slide though.

Cammy is pretty hard, you really have to run a lot. Again sorry, I got nothin.

Iori and Sagat well Mai’s jump looks wierd and for some reason it’s easy to bait dp with uppercut guys… I pretty much focus on baiting dps. If you just land without doing anything it seems that you can block a lot of things, like say you short jump at Iori and he does his rush super, you can block it after you land sometimes.

-crossover: j.lk(CRAPPY, as in worse than Kyo’s, don’t use it)
-j. lp can be buffered… into qcb+p or qcbx2+p. not recommended for air to ground, it won’t combo
-there’s no reason to use j.mp. j.hp does the same job. plus you might get airthrow.
-j.mk I thnk it’s crap but I’ve seen it trade with cammy far standing hk
-j. hk crosses up Blanka only, and no other top tier(wtf??).
[edit]I found out that Sagat gets crossed up by j.hk also, but only when he’s crouching. So that’s kinda useless
-blanka cannot crouch-evade under any mai normals except far standing hp. Well, when he’s not sliding anyway.

-Every crouching normal except c.forward can be special cancelled.
-Close Standing lp, lk, mp, hp can be cancelled. Far standing HP cannot.
-close standing HK can be super cancelled only.
-far standing mk(hold forward) avoids Iori and Terry fireballs, and not much else :confused: I guess it might be useful when he does c.lp c.lk c.lp fireball strings.

-you can’t juggle with fan super. at all.

-d_u+p has better recoveries than qcb+p

Her punch dodge is the cancellable one, and kick one is the knock down one.

I think, her only good rc are qcb+p and qcf+p.

b/b
c.lp, c.lk, c.lp xx [move]
cs.lp, c.lk, c.lk
cs.lp, cs lk
cs.lp, c.mp
cs.lp, c.hp
cs.lp, c.hk
cs.lk, c.lk, c.lk, s.lk

that’s pretty much it… Hmm I saw few players at camelot doing jump at the end of blocked, distanced hcf+k and it looked safe vs ryu, ken, akuma.

3

Mai VS top Tier

Well im no mai expert myself, but here is some VERY good tournament footage of a K-mai beasting on top tiers. (its a japanese guy in the A-Cho tournies)

http://www.mfr.jp/acho/movie17.htm

i think its the 2nd and last ones. but they are all good DLs. i recomend everyone DLs them.

4

standing jab into crouching fierce is her best bnb, IMO. Its easy to combo into super on reaction, and you can just throw a fan if you have no meter/opponent blocks.

5

Mai can retaliate a blocked Blanka Ball in any groove by late high block -> walk toward, s.roundhouse. In K, a late high block results in a JD, which makes it even easier. K can also run and s.fierce the ball before it lands.

Also, s.jab will always work, whether you were crouching or standing. Not much damage, but it’s guaranteed.

6

hi guys i am new and have a question!!

 can anybody of u guys tell me where i can find a few mai a-groove vids??

                   thx ;)
7

why use mai as your ratio 2? just wondering. she dies a little too quickly for my taste. especially against sagat and blanka and they are guaranteed to be in your face in just about every match you will ever play. have you ever considered playing her as your first character or do you just really like her style?

8

I use a team of Ken, Chun-li, and Mai with Mai as the ratio 2, K-groove.

Um, number one recommendation: move. At least for me, I’ve never felt comfortable standing in one spot and slugging it out with her; most of her strikes have solid priority (I think she’s one of the most underrated characters in that regard), combine this with k-groove (air just defense) and her air throw (don’t hesistate to make this a part of your daily arsenal) means you should have dominance in the air.

Jumping roundhouse is a decent air-to-air and great jump in (um, for k-groove users jumping roundhouse into air super is a needed bnb); jumping jab is another solid air-to-air; mix those in with short jumps [I recall short jump jab being truly powerful but it’s been a while since there ain’t much good comp here in Minnesota…]

On the ground: crouching roundhouse is a good poke if buffered, preferabbly into fan as that will push them away. Can anyone remember if the fan will combo from the sweep, or if there is a second where the oppnent can retaliate? [Can’t hook up the ps2/stick cause roommate is asleep]. If the latter, careful against chara. with lightening fast supers (rock, etc.) Walk up standing jab is good random poke, can be done 3 times in a row (no combo though). Um, standing far fierce should be used sparringly but not put away as it does buffer into super. Standing roundhouse is another good poke if not used predictably.

Randomsuper: I use Mai as a ratio 2 because, well, as you say I do like her style. She’s fast, has air priority which works great with JD and is an underrated character. Most people have never experienced a good Mai player; that gives a surprising advantage, as no one knows what her pokes, bnb, etc. are or how to stop them.

I never really had one particular strat for dealing with sagat/blanka…I just sort of made it up as I went depending on who/when I was fighting.

I recommend being less concerned about match-ups and more about developing a solid, mobile, unpredictable Mai game. Running, hopping backward, short jumping, and Just Defending (ground + air; generally, one way to tell a good jd’er from a scrub is to see whether they’re good at air jding or not) will all be critical to your game so make sure you spend a good amount of time in the training room working on distances.

I wish you luck in your work.

Later,
Alexander

9

kcxj, you’re turning into like Burghy 2 or some shit.

10

This is a pretty late response, I wonder if u’ll even read it.

I’d suggest you learn how to JD well in K groove since its ur best bet.

Against Sagat, honestly I think it’s a matter of skill. If the opponent at your same level, you will probably lose. Some random tips I can think of now while playing.

-learn to low jump well. it’s much harder to hit someone out of a low jump

-if he jumps (which he shouldn’t) air JD(if needed) and air throw

-if they have no supers that can go through a fan, level 2-3 or such, throw fans and play a keep away game. slow fan, run in poke, low jump, throw, whatever

-fierce punch knocks most jumps if done at the right distance (no cross ups)

-if they whiff a fierce, super or s. rh

11

I use Mai as my R2 as well, and I think she rocks. Here are my favorite moves.

Standing fierce knocks out every jump if you’re at the right distance. Sometimes both of you get hit but it’s pretty strong and it slows people down that jump a lot.

Blanka roll counters: I use S-groove and I usually run and c.HK and it usually works. Also, Her level 3 fan super counters the roll.

Blanka also jumps a hell of a lot, I can usually pull off a bunch of air throws against him, especially against c-groove that likes to air block. Standing fierce is also helpful.

Small jump round house is awesome because her jump is super small and her kick is long.

Sagat strategies: He also likes to come in with lk jumps and HK jumps, the key is to knock him out with a couple fierces. Missed uppercuts or open hits = c.HP qcb+HP you get three hits and it takes a decent amount.

For air blocks: You can air throw or cancel a HK or HP into the air super which is unblockable.

best suggestion is to master the air-throw and knocking people out of their jumps with the fierce, that’ll help you a ton.

12

I recently just figured this out:

Mai’s j.lk has some cocky priority on it. Seriously. It almost completely shuts down Blanka’s entire game (and I’m not joking). I go crazy with it, crossing up like wild. Just don’t over do it or you’ll eat super or rc electric.

Regardless, it’s damn good.

:smiley:

13

i agree . i sometimes just jump around with j.lk to get players of their game. if trades with uppercuts if it doesn’t beat them out completly, and it can beat out blanka j.hk and it crosses over. and using Mai as r2 is forbidden, obolished, restricted and Flat out not necessary. she can hang with the top tiers.

14

I have been messing around with c-mai lately and have been liking it. still needs a good bit of improvement, but she can definately fit the role of a first person in c-groove. she at least has a super cancel worth doing and puts you in GOOD position to control the match.

15

yea, i stopped using Mai as ratio2.

for whoever asked for a-mai cc

i just do like 5-7 s.rh’s, then c.fwd until bar runs out, and i do c.fierce, ninja bee super to finish

mai is meant for runaway :confused:

16

best bnb is c.lk, s.lk, c.mp xx fp fire tail thingy.

17

I usually see most people play Mai defensively but she can be a pretty good offensive character too. The common thing I see is people that play her in K-groove tend to play her defensively and people that play in A groove play her more offensively. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Just try not to be predictable and have some nice mixups. I play in in K groove both ways though. Against a blocked blanka ball you can usually try to get close enough a chip with a c.fk but then again I don’t completely know. Blanka tends to a jump a lot so air throwing a j.hk work well, and if your on the ground you can buffer in her flaming tower to get his j.fk’s (great against scrubs who do that too much). Iori’s pretty bad to get stuck in a corner with thus the wall jumps. Her hcf+k works well against his projectiles (well…that’s pretty much it) and her mids and flame tower work well against people who rush down with him. Sorry, but I don’t think any of my advice on Sagat would help. As for Cammy I see most people rush down a lot. JDing the right way is very good against Cammy in Kgroove in the long run.

18

against blanka u mustmustmust stay of out of slide range. use your fans but if blanka gets into slide ranger u either gotta jump away or cross up. A good player can smell a slide coming so jump straight up too and watch for it. Basically you’ll be spending a lot of time dashing back and either throwing a fan or jumping straight up or st.fierce. if they can RC then be patient and jump back rh to get meter at least.

In short you need to understand what blanka wants to do. It’s either charge back, jump at u, or slide. React accordingly and try to control the match.

Cammy is a tougher matchup, she’s either gonna arrow or walk up and RH u…it’s pretty much the same thing as blanka, stay of out range and throw ur fans or jump straight up or roll to beat the arrows.

Sagat is a really hard matchup cuz he’s so big it’s hard to cross him up without getting thrown right after…fans and st.fierce hopefully you’ll end up ahead :frowning:

I think Mai is mostly a defensive character. You have to pick ur spots on offense and occasionally you’ll be able to wail on doods and guard crush them or throw mixup them till they die, but most good players can get out of most mai traps. U really gotta be random and try to control the match as far as positioning and spacing goes cuz you can’t go toe2toe with toptiers.

19

super jump > wall bounce > dive > repeat :tup: thats how you play mai.

20

Very true. Also, as seen in probably every Mai vid.:slight_smile: