I’m not really understanding what you’re saying about the Necalli vs Rashid matchup King. Necalli is one of the better rush down characters in the game and I think Rashid really struggles in that space. You say in a previous post that Rashid beats him at every range but I would argue that isn’t true. Necalli charge goes right through Rashid’s whirlwinds without issue at long range, so your options are pretty unsafe there. Up close Necalli’s frame traps and damage just outmatch Rashids. He can pull off similar pressure but ultimately when Rashid does hit Necalli, he doesn’t do anywhere near as much damage so fighting in this space carries much more risk for the Rashid player. Not to mention Necalli can put a stop to your pressure with a meterless DP at any time, a luxury you don’t have yourself.
The only space in which Rashid really wins out is in mid-close footsie range. cr. hp is an amazing poking tool and conveys less risk than many others as it causes cross ups to whiff, that allows you to place more pressure on the ground than you would otherwise be able to, without having to worry about the risk of Necalli jumping in and destroying you for pressing a button. Fishing for CC with St.HP is also good, as is being aggressive with CR.MK xx Mixer. St.MP is okay but I think you get a lot more out of cr.MK with similar functionality (range, frame advantage etc). Obviously anti-airing him is essential and whoever said it’s good to get familiar with all of your AA options was right, though it’s sometimes hard to react to Necalli’s divekick. Sometimes jump back cr.lk seems like a better option to get out of that situation than risking the AA, because if that whiffs and they cross up you’re suddenly in a hell of a lot of trouble.
Still, I struggle with the matchup because once Necalli gets in it’s very tricky for Rashid to do anything under the pressure. If you end up playing passively for even a moment you can find yourself stuck in a command grab and the Necalli player can use this to carry you over to stun if they recently opened you up. Again, Rashid doesn’t doesn’t have a similar momentum shifting tool, Necalli is much more of a thread up close than Rashid. Despite that, if you can keep Necalli out you can get some pretty clean rounds.
A friend of mine that I play locally with is a Necalli with 8-10,000 LP on the board, he’s decent enough to practice the matchup against and for the most part he gives me a hard time. Recently I’ve been having much more success when playing defensively, punishing his mistakes, pushing him to the corner and trying to hold him there with the tools described above. It still doesn’t feel as though the matchup is in any way in Rashid’s favour, and I’m inclined to say it’s 6:4 for Necalli, but I managed to frustrate him on quite a few occasions as I completely locked him into the corner for some pretty clean wins. Necalli’s weakness is his normals and absence of a decent footsie game, so if you play that against him then you’ve got a good chance.
That’s just my take. I appreciate the insight you’ve provided us on that matchup and others. It’s always good to have more opinions.