Wait, Mak’s getting her 1k health back? That’s the first I’ve heard of it…
Coulda sworn it was in the change logs, but I read through them again and it isn’t. I might have heard it on one of the location test streams, but there were a lot of people saying stuff was changed that were mistaken. Only way I’d believe it is if combofiend said it himself or tweeted it. I don’t wanna spread bad information though, so I’ll edit my post.
Karakusa get nerfed since Super practically. Right now whiffing one means big punish,that’s why I don’t get the nerf. Outside Makoto players dash+karakusa seems free as fuck and don’t forget U1 get nerfed also; karakusa+U1 gonna make a damage below 400dmg thanks to the scaling. All of that for EX Fuki? Think about it,how many times your opponents fall into a reset after a bit of experience against Mak’s fukiage? We need to test those changes out.
There’s a decent Makoto playing against Gamerbee’s Elena in this video
Not sure if same old build or if jump cancel on block is staying. I guess the first.
Honestly, the more you see it, the less crazy it looks. Might be because Elena is insanely good right now tho. Just has to be doing shorts all day into either superfast overhead or low attack that combos into big damage.
The main point would be, you clarly see some situation where karakusa > Ultra 1 would have kill before the nerf, and it cost the Makoto player some wins.
I was excitedly waiting on ultra ssf4 and buffs to our girl, then I got caught cheating on her with catwoman in Injustice. I think I’m in love : )
Uhm,interesting. The U1 nerf don’t seems that heavy,same the karakusa recovery. Ex Fuki cancelable on block…more I see that,more I think it’s necessary: atm Makoto don’t have nothing stupid and/or safe,every special moves are unsafe,plus we need meter to use it. We don’t know how much blockstun ex fuki can do,but I don’t think is that much. Having the best command grab in the game doesn’t mean we don’t deserved something “crazy”.
Despite this,I still don’t think we gonna see more Makotos in majors outside Haitani (or maybe Vryu) after all.
I don’t know if I’d say Karakusa is “the best command grab”. It’s arguably the most rewarding, but it also has a short range and is the slowest command grab in the game. Kara-ing it also adds an additional 3-7 frames on top of the 7 frames of start up unless you’re using meter—which also lowers the range. Everything has its strengths and weaknesses.
Karakusa:
Startup 7
Damage 40 + 80 (FP) + 110 (FP Hayate) not including scaling
Notes: Leads to Mixup, Capable of performing it out of a variety of situations but must condition opponent to block.
Spinning Pile Driver:
Startup 2
Damage: 250
Notes: Leads to Mixup, Viable Reversal Option, Extremely good punish, do not need to condition your opponent in most cases.
Not just that, but SPD beats normal throws which is pretty huge. We can create a frame trap with Karakusa, but if you factor in the difficulty level of everything we have to do as Makoto its a pretty big disparity. Both characters are rewarded heavily for landing their respective command grabs, but as I said I don’t think Karakusa is “the best”.
Karakusa loses to more things than Gouken back throw which can also get big damage. 
Abel has a monsterous command throw too, starts up in 5, throw invul on normal ones, hit invul on EX.
Not to mention Karakusa has pretty damn short range too.
karakusa just isn’t what it should be in this game!
Can you imagine the flood of scrub tears if Karakusa was any better than it is already? Our inboxes would melt from the flood of hate mail.
I can’t count how many times I heard people screaming and crying after a karakusa already,how many times I get hatemails for those crispy grabs. “It’s impossible,I do a grab!” or " You can’t do something else?!". Every time someone start ranting after a karakusa circus of mine,I have a boner.
ex fuki use to do 140 damage!
WOW, they give us a grounded fuki and then they take away her damage and stun and make her karakusa even more useless! thanks Capcom! if only haitani wasn’t such a beast…lol
edit
honestly, this is the dumbest shit ever. i’ll take damage and stun over a grounded fuki any day.
Bolded lines are the newest changes…
Honestly, they could have kept the cancel on block if they were gonna nerf the shit out of ex fuki damage and stun.
I say keep the grounded fuki and give me back my stun and damage for both ex fuki and U1, then give me back my damn back throw range!
these nerfs are just stupid if you ask me.
Take a risk for a 51f recovery grab and take a CH punish if we miss it. Thx Capcom,go on offense with her is even more riskier than before AND with the damage nerf on U1 we are even less rewarded.
Will still do more damage and stun than EX Hayate mid screen thanks to follow up. Just not as much more. And no jumping on block keeps her risky. No “oh, they blocked it? Instant Tsurugi or jump back to safety”.
I feel like nerf looks a lot worse than it is.
Anyway they are really trying to make Karakusa insanely risky. Increased recovery and counter hit damage? OK, let’s just never use it again. Not like we beat moves and throws with it to begin with right?
looks like that counter hit nerf to karakusa is across the board for all non grapplers with a grab.
It’s dumb. Especially with the extended recovery. Karakusa now has more recovery than an Ultra and is a guaranteed Counterhit combo punish.
What you can do to a whiffed kara (after having a month to consider it) is probably more frightening than what can be done from a successful grab now by a fair margin.