cvs2 could have had better characters. i would have loved to see necro, makoto, t hawk, fei long, twelve… the list goes on and on. pretty much anyone from mark of the wolves would have been dope too. a lot of characters in cvs2 are fucking boring looking and uninteresting. i mean honestly, who gives a shit about king, dan, kyosuke, or the evil scrubs?
I’ve been trying to get Steve to play P-Kim for a while now. I think P/K-Kim has a lot of potential. I don’t see why more people don’t use Kim, honestly.
Mid-tier has always been viable in CvS2. Most mid-tiers fight the top tiers pretty well, but tend to have 1-2 shitty match-ups. If you just construct your team to hide the really shitty match-ups, you can win against top-tiers.
major issues against who in particular? vega and bison?
and hibiki’s CC’s aren’t super damaging, but you’ll still take off half life or a little bit more, which isn’t like bison/sakura range, but still solid when you consider the utility of her CC options. anti-air (that catches lots of things), anti-poke, throw into CC, anti-fireball, counter into CC etc. people know about her resets, but i think she gets enough opportunities to land her CC that you shouldn’t be randomly activating.
and i agree that K-groove is tough (that’s when you put in A-vega or A-sakura, lol), but is P really that bad? think about it, the majority of P-groove players down parry everything, but one of hibiki’s best pokes, standing strong, has to be parried high since it’s a standing medium attack. using low jab xx slash on the ground is also good since the parry timing on both hits is weird. anti-airing a P-groove player can be tricky, but instead of always using standing fierce you can mix it up with jump back fierce/strong and RC running slash.
and i’m not disagreeing with what you say completely at all, i’m just trying to pose a different viewpoint and generate some good discussion.
peace
I’m curious…I know how the majority of the fighters in CVS2 play, but I’m not quite sure about their match-ups…and in particular, I’m curious as to what Mai’s best and worst match-ups are, if anyone can answer that one for me.
And to add to that statement before the last statement above…yes, it is VERY possible for anyone to beat anyone; it’s just that some fights are going to be harder to win than others, but are still doable. Hell, if done right, King of all people could probably take down Sagat. And Terry could handle Bison or Blanka just as well as anyone else. It all comes down to how the player uses their character (trying to not sound like a jerk…but I can beat just about any character using Mai alone, though I’ll have to admit, Ken can be quite troublesome for her to beat).
I don’t have problems at all fighting Bison with Hibiki. I actually like that fight.
Vega and Cammy fuck Hibiki’s world up.
As for anti-P… I agree, she’s not as bad against P as she is against K, but it’s still not that great.
As for anti-air… I have tricks. I’m just gonna leave it at that. P doesn’t jump against my Hibiki. That’s just giving me free mix-ups.
Still… if I’m fighting against P, it just makes so much more sense to just switch Sakura in there.
As for her CCs, like most characters, AA CC becomes useless the first time you use it against anyone with half a brain. Same with anti-FB. What she’s left with is having to use it in footsies (which works great if you have good footsies… and is probably one reason why a lot of people don’t use her), or one of her other options which requires point blank range. Establishing point blank range is what’s hard in certain match-ups (and extremely easy in others…), and that’s her major issue, IMO.
i think a-hibiki is a great 3rd character (to the bison/blanka pair, and possibly sak).
If she replaces anyone on team a-are, it’s gonna be Vega/Sak, so I guess we can compare those characters.
Hibiki arguably has a better poking game than vega, though she does move much slower. Definitely better in the anti-air dept.
CC is probably abit more difficult compared to vega CC, though as already mentioned, you have alot more chances to confirm the CC.
RC running slash and a great move to have when you’re in a bind, and gets you out of the corner easily. you lose the ever so annoying back flip though.
rc rolling trumps anything hibiki can do in terms of meter building.
Hibiki has better BnB combos than Vega.
I think the real issue is that Sak is better at everything that hibiki can do…
I love watching Rai too, Mai’s been on my team for years now.
I also love playing Balrog (boxer) against Sagat. alot, to the point where I will give him R2 and just put Blanka in the middle to fight whoever.
I think Mai and Joe are hella underrated though, especially Mai.
<3
If Joe didn’t feel so gimmicky, I think more people would play him than Ryu. His level 2 cancel is good, he has good guard crush, decent RC’s, etc.
Feels like too many of the mid-tiers are forgotten about these days.
Yeah, god damn his c.HK. Speaking of Joe…Why is his best groove C groove? I’ve never figured it out. Is it just the cancels? IMO, I think he’s a BEAST in K groove.
Umm… his best groove is supposedly A-groove. slide slide tigerknee slide slide… I guess he just does more consistent damage in A. I like K-Joe, but going for Double Cyclone gets me killed.
Yang shoulda been in CvS2 instead of Yun.
Oh, A groove? Haha. Okay, that makes more sense. I heard C groove somewhere and it had be kinda baffled. Anyway…
Guard break is scary with a raged Joe, and the sweep is such a brain dead set up for a JD. Which leads to frame advantage in most cases. Which can lead to another sweep. Which rapes the guard meter. If he jumps back, you just got closer to the corner.
K-Ryu is REALLY REALLY GOOD, IMHO, better or at least the same level as N-Groove.
In the words of the great Zoolander, DO it! :lovin:
I honestly think that going with 2 top tiers+your best character is the way to go. If your best character is top tier, go with an oddball that you’re good with. Most people have experience against the top tiers, but those oddball characters can cause problems. It’s especially good if that oddball character is your best. Going into the last tournament, I knew my team had to have Blanka and Bison, but I was debating between Yama and Gief for the 3rd. On paper, Yama is the better choice, but my Gief kept winning. I realized that I am one of the only Gief players, and the ONLY A-Gief, left in Tokyo. There are a few Yama players (albeit mostly C), so people were somewhat prepared for A-Yama, but they were unprepared for Gief. It isn’t uncommon for me to go through 2 ratio 1s with Gief. That makes the job sooooo much easier for my mediocre Blanka and Bison.:wgrin:
Speaking of Yama, you guys that are debating the Yama vs. Sagat match… for what it’s worth, I think it’s fairly even. RC Fierce Snake Arm is godly against Sagat (and really anyone for that matter), and forces Sagat to either jump (countered by far s.strong) or roll (countered by meaty far s.roundhouse, among other things). Sagat needs to guess right to close in the gap, and then when he does, jumping on his head basically wins the game. Theoretically RC Jab Snake Arm or RC Reflect should help in those situations, but my execution sucks. 
I normally just roll under and get the fuck away. When I play smart, Sagat is a fairly easy match - mix up RC arms, keep away with far s.strong. The thing going for Sagat is that he’s Sagat. He can take advantage of a lucky hit better than any character in the game. :rolleyes: If you don’t give Sagat the opportunity to land a lucky hit, you’re okay with Yama. I still like the match for A-Yama tho, if for no other reason then his j.roundhouse CC is fun to do.
Man, Yama is getting popular now, that is too cool. He’s such an underrated character.
I’ve dropped A for C. A was fun with Bison and PTF, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. C-Athena, Yama, Sagat is so good.
I must agree with you Master Chibi. People do underestimate Mai a bit too much. Now, I’m no expert on N-Groove Mai (but been practicing with her in that Groove), but she’s really good, I’ll admit. However, people seem to underestimate her the most in C and K Groove (I hate P Groove with her…or anyone else…Parry is too tight in this game compared to 3S). I don’t see why people do underestimate her at all…she is pretty damn good.
And Joe…yeah…that guy is pretty powerful in his own right.
I think Kyosuke was done incorrectly. He always seems fun to play when I think about it in my head, but actually using him always turns out to be an exercise in futility…especially against RCs…
Hm…how exactly are you trying to use Kyosuke?? And what do you mean done incorrectly??
i lack good memory unless i write it down or something (seriously). its not that i’m not trying to remember what you tell me but its if my thick head can remember it. i can’t even recall what craig told me about yama last week.
I would say Blanka is probably Mai’s toughest match. Vega also is tough to play against.
Bison’s got an advantage against her as well though not as bad. Mai can fight Bison very well when he has no meter, but I don’t think it’s enough.
She does very well against Sagat and Sakura though IMO. Also beats Yamazaki pretty easily too.