Hi everyone
Sorry in advance about the long post. Ignore it if u want, I dont care.
There have been a lot of posts here lately, mostly good stuff. I thought I would share some things too. IMO Maki is very weak against the top tier. My game revolves around hitting cr.hp AA, and hit and run tactics. The only thing that can save u against the top tier is not being predictable, the bane of Maki’s play. Fortunately, she has quite a selection of random, if risky, tricks up her sleeve. Here are some that I use.
General Maki stuff
Everyone knows Maki’s basic mindgame is a classic high/low mixup… ie knockdown with KKK or whatever, Maki can start a forward run, then as the opponent is rising, hit mk to slide low, or hk to hit high. Duh. Unfortunately for Maki, among many other factors in the opponent’s favor, the slide is very vulnerable if blocked. Secondly, the hk option is easily blockable on reaction. Once the opponent gets used to things, they can just hold downback to block the slide, and move to back if they see the start of the hop.
Thankfully the recovery on a run into the hop is short, and relatively safe. Maki’s only real option (statistically) is to run+hk, expecting the opp to block this. Fortunately, this does set up a mindgame where by you can do this repeatedly, and then after the fourth or so blocked overhead kick, the opponent would have to be a robot not to eat a slide.
Try it, it should work. The secret is to slide vary rarely. Again, the downside is that the recovery on the slide is horrible, you have to pick your moments.
Of course, this is all void if opp has a wakeup uppercut or lvl 3 ready. However, they will have to have perfect execution to reversal here, Maki’s run+mk/hk seem to hit fairly early. The priority on these is also quite good. Many times I have beaten Blanka Balls, Spiral Arrows etc, use wisely.
One option is to run up to the body, keep running, and the hk just as they wake so that your hop goes over their wake up attempt. This works against Tiger Uppercuts and Cannon Spikes, also most wakeup supers. Combo to retaliate. Use this very rarely. If the opponent expects it, prepare to be punished.
Actually the best option is to run forward and then stop. Time it to so that a wakeup super (if any) is blocked. This sets up the following:
- do nothing (to bait DPs and supers)
- throw, repeat
- 720 super
- wait, block string (use whatever, jabs, shorts, st.mk)
- wait, kkk
- wait, RCd qcf+p
- instant ohead kick (run+hk, performed so that the hop comes out immediately)
At some stage you will probably be at the Sirlin distance (just outside of the st.mk range) and eating cr.fierces. Some options here include:
- whiff st.mk repeatedly (but not predictably, otherwise eat super)
- instant overhead hop (run+hk instantly), downside is that this is beaten straight out by cr.fierce or any short jump counters
- run back, immediately run forward and slide (!). Actually works from time to time.
More pressure tactics include using her wall dives offensively. Unfortunately, her best wall dive (qcb+lp) is often Tiger Uppercut fodder if timed incorrectly. Usually, I favour using mk after a qcb+lp dive as a crossup. But since her arc is so long, the opp usually has enough time to prepare a counter (uppercut, counter, AA super). One solution is to start the wall dive very low. ie jump back, but do qcb+lp as low as possible against the wall… the closer to the ground the better. Not only will the opp be thinking about ground pokes, but the arc of the jump is shorter (basically its a horzontal jump) and still possesses a fat crossup box (if using mk). Think of this as a short jump, but better, you can go straight into normal moves if you want to after the air attack.
Actually this is my best setup for the 720 super. LOW Wall dive with lp, do nothing, land, 720. Hell, at least its better than normal jump, land, 720!
Another thing… Buktooth awhile ago posted the strat of crossing up opp with a mk wall dive. ie knock opp down in corner, jump FORWARD, and then mk wall dive directly above them. True, this can crossup, but I would only ever attempt this on big charas. This almost NEVER hits shorter characters, but does depend on how low u can execute it. Again, the lower the better.
One last thing, scraping the bottom here but anyway, if you cant manage to create an opportunity to combo the qcfx2+k super and start getting desperate, instead of trying to roll>super, after a knockdown activate the run portion of the super and let the opp just sit there going wtf… you are now just running into the opp, going nowhere, at the slightest twitch press kick to nail it. Same principle as whiffing a meaty attack to counter their wakeup with your own (better move). Obviously, dont do this too often.
That iss all, hopefully I added a few more little tidbits here.
It’s strange but I find S.RK into Tesshinhou pretty easy, just do RK, QCFx2 and tap Kick twice. Learning it only took me 30 minutes. Also c.mp, s.hp is VERY hard to chain too.
Sorry I wrote that like 11:30AM, what I was trying to say was that running back and forth (the QCF&QCB K move) was good in N-Groove because you could build meter that way.
