Yamazaki Strategies and Matchups

Classic Fighting Games Capcom VS SNK 2
1

Since most strategies and tricks are matchup-dependent, it makes sense to group the two together. Discuss anything useful in actual matches here, from specific tactics, to character-dependent move counters, to overall gameplans. The more specific you get, the better. It would be greatly appreciated if you took the time to test out everything you plan on saying in training mode to make sure that it works and to provide some numbers for stuff like damage and dizzy amount.

Other than that, try not to piss anyone off or start any flame wars.

2

i’ll get the ball rolling by posting some old stuff viscant wrote (i kinda paraphrased some of it for clarity)…

vs Cammy

That’s one of the reasons I love the Yamazaki fight. I don’t have to take any chances against Cammy. I don’t even have to pay attention to my guard bar, just jab her off me, chain to dust, chain to slash and she’s 3/4 screen away. She’s good at staying in, but not at GETTING in on priority characters.

In a nutshell, the secret to beating Cammy is this. She doesn’t really have that much mixup potential. Everything is straight ahead. So I don’t really see that much problem with just blocking a lot of the time. But the key is don’t let her get any more than 2 or 3 blocked hits before you interrupt her. Common stuff is like fierce,fierce,rh. For 2 frame jab characters, it’s really unnecessary to take that. You can interrupt between the fierce and the rh (then it comes down to priority. Yamazaki jab is very safe for this, it even counter hits the rh if you fuck up and mistime it). Off close fierce, her frame advantage isn’t as gigantic as people make it out to be. If she starts walking with fierces, it’s really easy to just jab her out of it. The trick is just making sure that once you block her, link or chain until she’s out of range for stand rh, then make her earn her way back in, something her character design isn’t really that great at.

Once you know the frame advantages (close fierce is 3, so keep 3 in mind and try and keep your opening moves against her under 3. This means jab and low short), you can really make a solid gameplan against her. Going in on her with low forwards or stand fierces with any characters = a free trip to counter hit and -60% life. Just keep starting small and linking off that in mind and you’ll beat her consistently.

You stop the crossup with low jump (towards or back) and fierce. Also because the game is CvS2 and completely slated towards the defensive, you can just sac it and grab super. I used to do that with K all the time, but you can do it with N also. She goes for crossup short, powerup into it, she hits you, gets grabbed for free. You can also do that with her divekick. Walk into it, free super.

On the outside you can just keep fiercing (and cancelling into whatever) and jump with forward. Stand rh is OK, but it’s better to whiff it to prompt her to try and get closer, then you can set up the low forward option tree. From the right angle, cannon spike will trade (or outright lose). Jump forward also beats stand rh clean so it kills her option select. It also counterhits and leads to stand fierce, fierce whip. Yamazaki has total advantages on the tip of his low forward range and on the fierce range.

vs Guile

It’s hard for Guile to stop Yamazaki from a distance. You actually would be better served to whore the jabs and the sobats on the inside. Guile shouldn’t do low forward against Yamazaki because it’s easier for him to just sweep that shit and Yamazaki’s wakeup game is simply too strong for Guile.
Not a great match for Guile by any stretch of the imagination. Ideally you want to get level 3 and beat on him in close where he’s afraid to hit buttons because of the super, but how often do you have that? Yama vs. Guile looks a lot like Yama vs. Cammy in that respect. Very very bad matches that you need meter and a head start in to have a chance.

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NOW, i remember reading one time how yamazaki beats 4 out of the 6 sagats, then i read that yamazaki gets owned by sagat. i’m wondering what the deal is with that matchup. and i don’t understand how vega counters yamazaki so much. viscant says it’s the worst matchup in the game, but low jabs from a distance and properly ranged jumping mk’s seem pretty safe, and the damage difference is huge.

and shoto’s vs yamazaki is supposedly a bloodbath, but why? and yes, i have watched viscant vs ohnuki on the evo2k3 dvd, but he basically just landed a far jumping mk, standing fierce, fierce whip. swept him, ran up and swept him again to punish his safe fall, then punched akuma in the face with far standing fierce and dizzied him. since akuma takes damage like a little bitch (and has 60 stun), it didn’t give me too much in terms of specifics.

peace

3

As far as i believe… Yamazaki vs C sagat, Yamazaki gets beat 7-3 in this matchup. Sagat’s j RH from max range really fucks Yamazaki up because he can’t AA it properly. My assumption is that the Sagats that beat Yamazaki are C and N because of rolling as well. Roll a RH, and you win. I’ve played C Sagat vs C Yamazaki, and it really seems pretty bad for Yamazaki. Especially if Sagat has a lead. Its hard as fuck to do shit without stuff that might lose you the match.

Shotos vs Yamazaki seems to be IMO advantage to Yamazaki because he doesn’t really have to take any risks. He can just sit on his ass still guard crush them. For them to stop him, they gotta take alot of risks. I like to think of as a ghettofied version of Shotos vs Sakura… cept Yamazaki does more damage but has no crossup.

4

Yamazaki is an excellent counter for Zangief and Raiden…and well, any big slow player. Just keep throwin out QCB+P and an occasional HK if the opponent gets in too close.

5

N/K-Yama vs. Blanka

Hey all,

I was wondering what advice you guys have for N/K-Yama vs. any Blanka… I get outpoked like crazy, and if they’re turtling, it’s hard to land anything that will help create a knockdown and give me some momentum. When that happens, I usually turtle back and whiff dust kicks to build meter in N… in K, it’s basically sit in the corner time. God help me if I’m facing K-Blanka. If I block a ball, I know what to do, but vs. knowledgable types who don’t use ball much and just turtle and poke, I’m stumped. With K-Yama, I fare better, thanks to JD, but still, it’s tough.

Any advice would be appreciated.

6

K blanka can’t RC, so that’s a plus.

Strange and random things:
Get a feel for standing MK. Practically nothing combos off of it, but it beats stuff on the ground like you don’t even know… stuff like Blanka’s cr.HP.

Standing MP is a kinda sorta anti short jump. Do it early.

N Yama has the advantage of getting more Drills, even if they often happen to be lvl 1 ones. K has rage which is very nice, what with the lvl 3 super and the crazy guard crush. But… you still won’t be getting supers that often unless you are either getting hit a whole lot or are JDing a whole lot. Once you start using Drill a lot, not having one or two in stock all the time is a very noticeable absence.

On that note, Drills will handily beat Blanka’s electricity, RC or no (cuz Drill is a throw). Most Blankas fall back on RC electricity for wakeup, so this is good to know. Try not to get predictable with the Drills against knocked down Blankas, cuz they will eventually get smart and either jump out. That said, I think you see just how big an effective wakeup game is for Yama… it’s one department where Blanka is forced to guess.

7

I play K groove Yamazaki as my second character. There’s this one guy I keep facing who plays P Hibiki, Rock, Raiden. Whenever I stick out a s.HK or end a blocked string with a Slash, I get a Shine Knuckle for my troubles. I tried to play cautiously and got hammered. What advice do you have for me not to get railed with Rock’s super?

8

Yama’s dust kick xx slash combo leaves him at -9 and is easily punished by a number of Lvl 3 supers. Basically, don’t do it if the opponent has a full bar. If you must combo something against , do combo into his knife or stop at dust kick. Your opponent probably knows that Rock’s Shine Knuckle is fast enough and is probably looking for your combo to punish.

Likewise, try not to whiff random s.hk when the opponent has a lvl 3 super like rock’s.

[edit to add]
There was a thread somewhere about “What Lvl 3 Supers can Punish Yama’s B&B” … list the forums from the beginning, it’s in there.

PS, Hey Spoony, thanks for the tip re: s.mk. It works well, but the only problem is the lack of range and anticipating the pokes. sigh