I really need help in this matchup.
She rushes the living shit out of me and before I know it I’m stunned. I’m still really an intermediate player, but I’ve never had trouble like this before, maybe with makoto but thats about it.
What should be my strategy in this matchup?
Here’s some stuff I wrote to nomorefunland recently about Ibuki. Hopefully it helps…
Ibuki is definitely gouki’s hardest match up outside of Chun and Ken. What works for me against Ibuki is a really strong ground game and zoning.
Playing on the ground w/o meter- cr.mk into hadouken instead of tatstu. Your tatstu will whiff if she blocks and you will eat a hard punishment. If you have to link the cr.mk into something do a hadouken instead of tatsu unless your confirming. All I have to say is cr. mk and block. Also cr.lk and cr.lp come out fast and can stop the pressure and you can tick into kara throw. Also, standing close hp and standing hp are your best friend. Ibuki’s like to be very mobile and jump out of block strings and just jump in general. I find that your standing hp close will stuff her jumps and the standing hp can stop pressure and give you some breathing room. Once ibuki starts getting knocked down alot she likes to wake up with the ex rising kick. Even if you block it while shes falling she can still combo you. My best advice is if you have knocked her down a fair amount of times start moving in and out of her wake up range just enough so that ex rising kick will whiff and then you can bnb or kara throw. If you get confident just keep kara throwing and force her to wake up with something stupid and punish. Demon flips are good but can’t be abused due to her mobility. When ibuki starts jumping in be ready to parry two hits or be ready for an empty jump in. If you see her start to attack or throw kunai just lp shoryu. Eventually she will stop attacking and just anticipate your shoryu. Then you can jump in air to air tatsu or dash under to whatever. On ibuki if you air to air tatsu if it hits once or twice you can then follow up with a lk tatsu and then either reset or shoryu.
When you have meter you control the pace of the match. You need to play extremely agressive as ibuki takes damage hard. Spam meaty close standing mk or uoh’s into super. cr. lk x 2 into super or cr mk/mp into super and jab shoryu into super. The jab shoryu into super is pretty much only wake up or anti air but everything else can be mixed up. For example you can cr lk and if ibuki blocks walk in a little and standing cl mk into super or walk in a little and cr lk x2 into super if the follow up hits. You just need to be agressive and always be ready to confirm into that super.
If you can at least trade hits with ibuki you will win she takes just as much damage as akuma but has a harder time dealing it out.
This is awesome guys, thanks.
I think a big problem I have, not just in the Ibuki matchup but in all of my matches, is that I jump when I feel pressured. I guess a whole lot more patience and groundedness in this matchup is what I needed.
lol I don’t know if I’d say that.
A lot of Gouki v Ibuki matches I’ve seen though are kinda dirty. Both characters are pretty offense oriented so it makes for a weird dynamic. Plus her relatively small hitbox is annoying. Tatsumaki is probably weakest in this matchup more than any other matchup.
I didn’t want to sidetrack the thread. Ok, I’ll explain why I said that. Yun isn’t really that difficult of a match up for me. Of course an amazing Yun will wipe the floor with me but Yun has the advantadge against everyone. So I don’t count Yun. Makoto is a 50/50. I beat good makotos all the time as long as I out smart them and don’t get caught in karakusa. So I don’t count Makoto at all. That Leaves Ken, Chun, and Ibuki/Yang. With Chun definitely being the hardest match up. Once she gets super your a fish out of water. Ken is just an overall struggle. Ibuki is about controlling the pace of the match and so is Yang. So I would put Yang/Ibuki in the same bracket as tough matchup. Ken as really tough and Chun-li as impossible. The rest of the cast depends on your skill and luck.
This is of course my opinion over the years and is more biased to my akuma playstyle.
If you feel pressured when jumping work on your air to air/ground parry’s. The stuff you have to watch out for the most is 2 hit if you are air to air and standing heavy kick (the knee that hits twice). Also work on those tatsu combos after a parry or a tatsu hit in the air. I cringe when I see a gouki player going for a fierce punch/kick after an air to air exchange instead of blowing up half of the opponents health with a combo.
When playing footsies and ground game you have to remember that ibuki’s most damaging stuff (mk into spin kicks etc.) comes from being up close to you meaning that you shouldn’t be afraid of eating 1 or 2 crouching medium kicks from medium range while looking for forward parry or a combo. Also don’t be afraid of her forward+mk overhead you can easily see it and react for a parry/srk just be careful if you parry it late couse she can block after that. Oh and use your far HP when in that range you will be surprised by how much stuff it stops and it deals decent damage especially if you stuff a cr.MK attempt.
The most useful thing I can tell you is to use kara throw not just in the ibuki match up but in all of gouki’s other match ups as well. If you are fast enough you can do close MK spin the stick to confirm for a SA1 if it hits u do SA1 if they block you do kara throw which catches your opponent just as they get out of block stun.
When you parry an air hit while on the ground and you want to punish with whatever hit into lk tatsu if your opponent is holding down on the stick they will always fall on the ground crouching after your parry. If your opponent likes to abuse this so your lk tatsu whifs use HP or MK into whatever.
Learn to red parry ibuki’s target combos it may sound hard but it actually isn’t. Go into training mode and record the dummy to do …say cross up medium kick into a target combo most ibuki players will go for that.
And lastly if you make a mistake and lose half of your health don’t freeze up, gouki may have the least health of all the fighters but that doesn’t stop him from dishing the same damage to his opponent with a cr.mk->hadou-> super or a simple combo.
Edit: Forgot to tell you most ibuki players rely on other player’s mistakes so they can gain advantageous positioning or cross ups when you jump. So try and play the match up a little more cool headed meaning stand like a brick wall and slowly go toward your opponent blocking and punishing his attacks until you feel comfortable in the match up.