At the higher and higher levels of the game, your opponents will tighten up their rushdown, mixups, and wakeups. Options such as Kohaku 22C, V.Sion Akiha summon, Aoko 421A, And Akiha/Red Akiha pits are all setups that will lead into those characters getting 2 to 3 mixup attempts on you for blocking. Your chances of success against these tactics are always in the opponent's favor -- you have to guess right just to survive, while the opponent successfully hitting you leads into that opponent gaining good damage and in many cases resetting you right back into the setup.
However when you acknowledge this, you can take advantage of the 'flaw' of these setups. They give the opponent confidence in their attacking, and thus by using skillful reversals you can damage the opponent in situations where they are highly unlikely to bait you or even expect you to attack.
Reversal option #1: Heat activation.
People are less likely to heat activate when they aren't actually waking up or do not have a high amount of red life. Your opponent knows this, so after you have woken up completely he is less likely to bait this tactic. However it is bar none the best reversal against many of these mixups. When Akiha knocks you down and sets pit, wait for the spot where she should go for high/low/throw and activate to push her away safely. Sion Warning shots/V.Sion 236A xx 236C? Wait for her to dash back in and activate. Most mixups of this type involve the idea of the opponent dashing in to you while they have something covering them or just have massive frame advantage -- heat activation will nullify these immediately and give you breathing room instead of having to guess.
Reversal option #2: Setup specific bunker cancels.
We all know about the basic bara 214C options. However, this does not apply to all characters, as some of them have poor 214C options. Also the opponent is aware of your bara options, and portions of his setups may look to bait your bara or just insure they are out of range. So in this case we need to look to the bara options that the opponent is not going to look for or count on often.
Example A: Bara dash
This type of bara nullifies frame advantage, and thus can be used against many frame advantage setups. Bara dash defeats Sion warning shots, Ciel 5CC, Sion 6C 4C, V.Sion 236B, Miyako stomps, and any other such pressure that involves forcing you to block a move with high frame advantage and following up. Although you cannot directly punish them in this manner, the fact that you are nullifying their frame advnatage reverses the situation. An immediate dash 2A or dash throw may catch the opponent off guard for some easy damage, or just plain old put you at advantage and force the opponent to have to block in a situation where he should have been on the offensive.
Example B: Bara Superjump
This type of bara is used to reverse primarily Ciel 214C, but allows you to escape other things as well. You can escape Kohaku 22C, Warakia 5C or 2C xx tornado, and other similar ideas that involve a short continuous string of blocked attacks, although the opponent himself can reverse your reversal if he is looking for it.
Reversal Option #3: Clash Frames/Super Armor/Random EX.
Using an attack with a high amount of clash frames during it's startup will allow you to attempt to reverse the opponent while you are at disadvantage, since during your disadvantage they are more likely to clash with the startup of your move. Also the opponent is gong to be looking for wakeup EXes less often since you are no longer waking up, and this option becomes stronger, though more dangerous because of execution miscues or the chance the opponent screwed up and thus has time to block after your ex flash.
Example attacks:
Sion 2C or 623A/C
V.Sion 5B
Shiki 2C or 623A/C
Kohaki 2B
Kouma 2B or 22C or 214C
Hisui 5B
Reversal Option #4: "Defensive Offensive"
The opponent will often use wakeup EXes to stop you from rushing them down on wakeup. Most of these options are actually unsafe if blocked -- their real threat is in the fact they will out prioritize your meaties. You COULD just stop to block them, but now you've put yourself into a guessing game -- will they do it or won't they? Baiting nothing is not in your favor and can allow a quick on his feet opponent to detect your attempt to bait and escape or attack you with 2As. We can defeat this with attack strings with built in failsafes. You can never capture all of the options in one shot, but by covering multiple options at once you give yourself higher ratios of success over a waking up opponent whom you do not want to give priority back to.
Example A: Abusing empty cancels.
All A attacks in the game can be canceled empty into another attack or shield. This can be abused to cover multiple of the opponent's options when they are cornered
Meaty 2A --- opponent blocks ---mixup
--- opponent backdashes --- empty cancel to more 2As to hit them during their backdash recovery
--- opponent performs wakeup ex -- cancel the A into a shield
This does not defeat all options of course. Some wakeup EXes cannot be shielded in time due to their fast startup, and unless you are very good at detecting a wakeup heat, you will not be able to shield it in time.
Example B: Backdash into long range attack.
This will often defeat heat activations, and can lead into another mixup for you or even a BNB or OTG combo.
Sion: Backdash 2C. Goes under most wakeup exes.
Kohaku: Backdash 2C. Allows meaty 22C after.
Shiki: Backdash 2C
Example C: Throw setup
Many wakeup exes can be jumped out of or thrown during their startup. Thus going for the throw setup allows you to be prepared to cover these. Akiha's 236C can be thrown during startup, Kouma 214c can be jumped, etc etc. When you are looking to bait these specific moves, the throw setup allows you to cover 2 angles against it.
Topic: Expert Strategy: Reversing the opponent's options rather than just blocking (Read 5721 times)
