Atlas Academy > Kouma Kishima

MBAC: Kouma: In Depth, and everything else you need to know

(1/12) > >>

S-Blade:
September 29, 20 days after guide has been started: This guide is, for all intents and purposes, done. It'll take forever to actually find matchup information for every single character, so this is...done.

Introduction:
Kouma....is a manly man. Instead of having a high-low mixup, teleport/spindance mixup, or any other gimmick, he gets the 3D fighter mixup: Hit, Throw, Counter/Shield/Parry. As a character, he suffers from the same one-air-move syndrome as Satsuki, but makes up for it with his solid ground game. At a low level of play, he's an easy character because of simpler, easier combos to help you ease into the game with your shitty execution skills, yet, at a medium and high level of play, turns everything around by being the only character with a real usable command throw that can turn an opponent's (usually) most safe option, blocking, into a dangerous way to eat 3k and die. His normals are on the slow side, but they have many other advantages that make up for it. You might like Kouma if you like Makoto or maybe even Potemkin.

Kouma's biggest strength: Command throws. Enough said.

Kouma's biggest weakness: Because his combos are so few hits, they're easy as hell to mash to reduce the damage of. This can completely turn Kouma's great damage into pathetic attempts depending on if your opponent has gotten used to the MBAC PC mash timing yet  :V

Move by Move

Normals

5A
The hoe slapper. Kouma's 5A is fairly slow for a 5A, but it has a pretty unique hitbox. Imagine an arc starting at his waist, going out and arcing back and ending at his head. Like....a bitchslap. That's where it hits, and because it arcs to where he can hit stuff directly above him, he can hit other jump-ins that a lot of other characters might have trouble with. It's more useful in hitting dashovers, though. When you're getting up and maybe VAkiha is doing her trademark dashover dashback, or Satsuki is doing jump over, double jump up, dashback j.C, give them the bitchslap that they're just asking for.

2A
Your standard 2A. This doesn't hit low. This, in combination of a slow 2C, is why Kouma has near zero high-low mixup. The only reason you use it in the first place is because it has more range than 5A and doesn't miss crouchers.
In your combos, don't use more than 2 2As in the opener if you can (as always). Open with 1 if you're able to hitconfirm it, because a single 2A staggers nicer :V

5B
Facepalm. It's slow. It's slow. It's slow. A slow poke that moves you forward and has good clash frames. If you see them pressing buttons, whiffed something with a lot of recovery, or any situation where you get a free hit, pull this out and combo. The thing is, because it reaches so far, there are more of those "hey free hit" situations than you'd think, but you need to adjust your combo depending on how far they are. More on this later. The clash frames on this move are probably the best ones he has readily available, so use them when you start to smell a heat activate.

2B
Kouma's anti air. It looks sorta like that anti-air grabby thing that Potemkin does. It's pretty good as AA, but it takes a little while to learn how to use it because....it's slow. Gotta time it a little differently, sorta. :S As a poke, it's inferior to 5B because some characters can crouch under it at certain distances (FUCKING CAT). If you clash with 5B, don't follow up with 2B if you think they'll go for the 2As, as you'll likely just completely miss them and get combo'd.

5C
Some kind of....palm smack. It's faster than 5B, but has more recovery and less reach, so use your judgement to what you might want to poke with. Usually 5B works, but when you need speed, you need speed. The problem with using 5C as a regular poke is that you get reverse beat penalty for going down to 5B2B.

5[C]
Not too much use. Less damage than your command throw, and does pretty much the same thing but has tons more range. But I still can't think of a situation where you have the time to charge it, you need the extra range, you're outside of a combo, and that extra range is actually enough. Maybe if Hisui is busy preparing a picnic with chairs :V Or Kohaku is hiding in that fucking spinny plant. However, as a stagger move, it's alright but it's got one major advantage and one major disadvantage. The good part: It's got the best range out of all of Kouma's normals minus 6C, and it's a fast unblockable. The bad part: It wallslams them behind you, and this usually does more bad than good.

2C
A swipe. Note that this move does not hit when very close. However, it's so close that the only time it applies is when the opponent is in the air. This makes following up an air CH with 2C 5C 2B whatever more difficult than it needs to be. Try it if you're Japanese or something. The other thing about this move is that it hits pretty low. You don't get any Tohno or Akiha 2C ridiculousness here, you get a VSion 2C (which is also a swipe).

2[C]
Some extra range, and you step forward a bit, and some FIIIIYAAAAAAHHH (use this as a regular stagger move like how NAC's dragonfoot is so good at doing)

6C
Kouma's launcher. Moves him forward quite a bit. Don't use it outside of a combo...unless....you stagger it (which is still sort of inside a combo....inside the chain, outside the combo). Give them a block string, and pause slightly before the 6C ender so they unblock and throw something out or whatever and end up flying up for a free dunk for a knockdown and some extra damage. Very useful to stagger, but once they start blocking that, exploit their decision to keep blocking by dropping the 6C and whiff cancelling with 5A and dashing in to keep up the pressure.

j.A
Not really useful because of crap range. Go for the dunk.

j.B
Fairly useful at beating jump-ins. Think Satsuki j.B, but barely decent as an air normal. Tradeoff? It's better than j.C for air-to-air more often than not (although a landed j.C on air opponent, even without counter hit, is usually a free knockdown to land then jump back up and dunk). Oh, and since his air normals suck you'll actually use this fairly often despite how bleh it is.

j.C
His best air-to-ground, but pretty slow, even for a j.C. Follow this up with dash-in and combo, or a farther range combo (drop 2b).

His ground throw
Don't bother.

His air throw dunk
Two points

Specials and Supers

236A/B: Triple Sentenced Wisdom
1st and 2nd hits go farther with B version, 3rd hit is overhead and either goes backward on A version or forward on B version. Watch out, you can still completely miss with the B version, even though it doesn't look like it, if your opponent is crouching you'll just end up going over them. A version for first hit isn't so great, but B version sends you FAR and works as a poke and is great for pushing them into the corner and an extra 1.5k and a knockdown if they don't tech it (it usually isn't because it's rarely used but....watch out). These are staggerable, as well. This is useful for, say, first two hits, then pause to bait the low attack and then use A version for the third hit to dodge hit them with an overhead. In a lot of situations, if the first hit completely misses for whatever reason (teleported away or something) it's smart to use B version and follow through all the way so that you cover a lot of distance in a short time to gtfo before they spank you instead of sitting there and eating a lot of recovery time. There's also a little bit of superarmor on the 1st and 2nd hits of this move. Lastly, the third hit (the one where he jumps) can completely hit air at stupid times and it's sort of random, but happens most with the B version ender. They're sitting there blocking low (not in the corner), and you use B version ender and instead of them eating an overhead, you fucking go over them and get punished while they LOL. This can also happen when they're actually getting hit, in which they will LOL even harder. A version is a bit safer just because, but like mentioned, it will completely hit air sometimes. Anyway, this is nice as a long-range poke that you can use and (if you're feeling lucky, punk) you can get all three hits for a knockdown that probably pushes them into the corner. However....the first 236a/b is super cancelable. While you can cancel into EX Dunk and actually have it combo, it's a much better idea to combo into 236C and probably get a corner/wallslam combo in for a lot of damage. Good shit.

236C
You won't use it outside of his corner combo. You have better options (most of which don't even cost meter) all the times you would use this. The few situations you would use this? Random 236b poke (first hit) comboes into this which will probably get you in position for the rest of the corner combo, and this also punishes backdashes, but definitely not all of them, and things get situational on top of that (not a 0 startup move, distance between you and opponent, the velocity of their backdash, etc)

623A/B and j.236A/B: Dual Sentenced Comet
A version doesn't take you anywhere but B version makes you flyyy. However, doing them from the ground takes you a lot farther than doing it in the air, if you're using it to get out of the corner. Also, the off-the-ground versions are air-unblockable and do ~500 more damage. This move is how you keep people from jumping out against you. Since it's common (especially for EX dunk) for people to jump out to avoid grabs, use this to punish them for guessing wrong. This is also for when they're in the corner and try to jump out and/or away, just use this to keep them in. They can still tech the ground bounce so if they're teching it and punishing you, either stop at the first hit or use the EX version....so that you can at least guarantee a bit of damage before they get their free escape. The other option? Jump up and try to dunk them.

623C and j.236C: EX Hotfoot
Used alone, it isn't too bad although it is sort of wasting meter, just don't use j.236C because it sucks. The 623 (off the ground) has the same two advantages over the 236 version as their non EX counterparts (with the exception that the EX ground version gets a full 1k more damage which is nice because 1.5k for the air version isn't much at all compared to the b version), so combine this with the massive amount of fire on Kouma's feet, and it's a pretty nice DP if you're willing to spend the meter, but really you will only want to use it off the ground (623C) when you really, REALLY need to stuff a jump in or someone is baiting heat from you by jumping or something else of that nature. Another thing~ this move basically has three spots to hit someone, and once the opponent is hit by one, five hits are added to the move at the end. The first spot is pretty much the first few frames and it'll only hit if they're on the ground (in which you shouldn't be using this). The second spot is from where he starts to one-third screen length away, and this is where the move is airunblockable. After that, the third spot is the rest of the move (which is a great distance) and IS air blockable (This is all for the 623 version because as said before, the j.236 version just sucks)

22A/B/C: Helm of God
22A is your GTFO ME BIATCH move. It scores counter hits pretty often, so be ready to follow up. One of his safest moves on wakeup, because both versions have superarmor. 22B....has a odd dash after it. The thing about this dash though is that: 1. no one really expects it and it flusters them somewhat 2. it has properties similar to White Len's dash where Kouma will "disappear" for a bit and will be able to go through people. Depending on spacing and stuff, you can use this against a dashin when you're in the corner and you'll end up on the other side of them and they'll just sit there sorta "WTF was that" (or you go in for the grab and wallslam followup if you were close enough to the corner and they didn't dash in). However, it's high risk because...well...you ARE dashing into them and you can't stop it early so if you use it and its not close enough for you to phaze through them but also not far enough to be barely just in distance of them, they can do pretty much whatever they want to you, the worst usually being some mega damage charge up move or even an arc drive. It's much less high risk than I realized now because....you have superarmor at the startup, clash frames during the dash (where they should be), and a bit of superarmor at the end of the dash. Pretty damn good, but not on wakeup. 22C....is 22A that covers more area, Air CHs them (that is, if they are counter hitted they'll be launched in the air and it'll be an air CH so you can follow up with whatever), and launches them straight upwards, sending them falling to their doom (you). But the biggest part of this move....is the super armor. You have roughly...a second and a half? (need confirmation) of super armor after you finish recovering. You can force damage on people with this, which is GREAT for sealing the deal and finishing people off. Got 200% meter when they're within 3k of dying? 22C after knockdown, dash-in (twice if needed since people like to run from this move a lot) and hitconfirm. If they're throwing out 2As, combo them into the corner combo for massive damage. If they backdash, punish that with 236C and follow up with the rest of the corner combo. If they're sitting there doing nothing but blocking, turn on Kouma's Shaq Fu and DUNK THAT SHIT.

Command grabs: Mighty Destruction
Woohoo! Finally. Alright, let's start out with just what these -are-. The A version is a command grab that you need to be very close for (if they are blocking or otherwise neutral, if you poke before you use the A version it'll be too far). The B version has significantly more range to where you -can- poke (twice if it's with As) and then it will be within range to connect. The tradeoff is that it takes a while, and you're risking CH2, which can get you abused hard against anyone who's not an idiot. Once either the A or the B version connects, you can either do nothing, and Kouma will asplode them in his hand, doing 2k dmg, or you can hold down and he will throw them on the ground half of a screen length behind them, doing 2.2k dmg, or you can hold backward and he will throw them at the wall behind them, causing unairtechable wallslam if he's half a screen or less from the wall, which means you can follow up. His last option (which is never really a good idea) is to use 236C to explode them MOAR in his hand, doing the same thing as doing nothing but deals 3k damage instead and costs 100% meter. The reason why this is usually a mistake is because the C version....the infamous EX DUNK also does 3k damage, but has invincibility, the speed of the A version (very fast) and the range of the B version (although it seems even larger sometimes), so you should have used that in the first place :V EX Dunk....is beautiful. You can only escape it by jumping out after the superflash, heating, backdashing (unless they're in the corner then they still eat it lol), or by using some move with startup invincibility and there aren't a lot (any?) of non-EX ones. Because of the invincibility you can throw this shit out almost randomly as long as they're standing/crouching on the ground and not able to jump out from their current state. Awesome on dash-in for EITHER you or your opponent and tons more. Abuse it like White Len in striped panties. Against someone who doesn't know how to stop the monster, you can hit max mode and dunk to your heart's content while they piss their pants not knowing what to do (but don't expect it to work that many times in a row in a match against anyone good). Anyway, more on command grabs in the following sections, since that's where the content mentioned belongs.

Kouma's DAAAIIIIENNNNNJOOOOUUUUU
Don't use it. :(

Kouma's Last Arc (shield in air)
Makoto's SA2 with added flammability. lolol

Comboing

Standard midscreen/meterless BnB: {2aa} 5b 2b 5c 2c 6c airthrow.

Japanese combo: Replace 6c with 236a/b 236a/b 2aa 2b airthrow. The timing from 2c to 236a/b is different than 6c and hard to get used to (but not necessarily difficult), but 236a/b to 2a is hard.

--- Quote ---[15:27] <S-Blade> 2c 236b 236b and then 2aab airthrow
[15:27] <Veteru> about that
[15:27] <Veteru> the secret is
[15:27] <Veteru> you need the first 236b to bounce them outside of the second 236b's hitbox
[15:27] <S-Blade> omg veteru already foudn the secret
[15:27] <S-Blade> wait what o_O?
[15:27] <Veteru> so that they "fall into it" during the later active frames
[15:27] <S-Blade> oh
[15:27] <Veteru> i.e. artificially meaty
[15:27] <S-Blade> so it's really 236b xx 236b
[15:27] <Veteru> then you're further into the move... so you recover sooner (relatively speaking)
[15:27] <S-Blade> in a sense
[15:27] <crispys> can't be as hard as arc's wallbounce timing
[15:28] <RoboDuk> yeah
[15:28] <Veteru> harder than arc's wallbounce imo
[15:28] <CrazyDaze> Veteru: Making Simple Things Look Complicated
[15:28] <Veteru> since that is pretty consistant
[15:28] <Veteru> and doesn't vary by charachter really
[15:28] <Veteru> crazydaze: it's pretty tough imo... I can't do it consistantly
[15:28] <Veteru> or even close to reliably really
[15:28] <S-Blade> so much for kouma having the easiest bnb out of everyone lol
[15:28] <S-Blade> anyhow....
[15:28] <crispys> i was close to ripping my hair out trying to get the wallbounce
[15:29] <S-Blade> does that mean to hit the 236b as fast as possible so they don't get lower to the ground?
[15:29] <S-Blade> the first*
[15:29] <Veteru> the timing varies depending on their charachter
[15:29] <Veteru> hehehe :~
[15:29] <S-Blade> oh lord lol
[15:29] <crispys> lol
[15:29] <RoboDuk> generally the first 236 has to be late as possible
[15:29] <S-Blade> well at least i don't have backdash cancels to grab people
[15:30] <S-Blade> :V
[15:30] <crispys> it soundsl ike you just 236b quickly so you sort of juggle them with the second 236b
[15:30] <RoboDuk> you'll miss
[15:30] <S-Blade> crispys: check out the kouma video thread
[15:30] <crispys> but the second 236b has to hit later
[15:30] <Veteru> some chars if you do a quick 236b you can't hit with the second one no matter what
[15:30] <Veteru> other charachters you can do a quick 236b (like neco arc)
[15:30] <Veteru> then slight delay on the 236b followup
[15:30] <S-Blade> so the 2a timing isn't hard
[15:30] <S-Blade> or is it?
[15:31] <S-Blade> hey whoever the fuck that is, stop raping hisui unnecessarily
[15:31] <S-Blade> hisui needs none of that aoko uppercut so don't keep giving it to her :V
[15:31] <Harem> no one cares about hisui anyway
[15:32] <S-Blade> do you have a death wish
[15:32] <S-Blade> you might be able to get away with that in #meltybread, but.....
[15:32] <Harem> does the truth hurt that much? :'(
[15:32] <Veteru> the 2a timing is pretty hard
[15:32] <Veteru> but getting the 236bs right so the 2a followup is even possible... is the hardest part
[15:32] <S-Blade> man fucking japanese
--- End quote ---

Drop the 2b if you're either against Len or you were too far to open with 2as.

Following up wallslam/CH: 5c 2b airthrow into corner. You can actually do 2c 5c 2b airthrow but....2c get a sketchy hitbox the closer you are to them, so it usually isn't worth the risk unless you've practiced it.

"For the kill": When you see them low on health and want the combo to finish them, replace any airthrow with j.C j.236a/b j.236a/b, or if you think you might need ~200 extra damage for the kill, go for j.C j.236c.

Kouma's Corner Combo: {2aa} 5b 2b 5c 236c wallslam 5a 2b airthrow.
You have two frames to hit the 5a. That would be 1/30th of a second. Practice it.
Anyway, it does tons of damage, and you can do it from pretty far away, some places that some people would even call midscreen. Then it ends in knockdown in the corner which is never good for them. Also, it does tons of damage. Yep. Again, if you're Japanese, you can do 5a 5c airthrow at the end but....again, it's hard. If you need the extra range, you can do 236b 236c, but you get less damage (236c prorates more when chained off 236b).

The Kouma groundbounce corner loop: Do a "for the kill" ender, and when they fail to ground tech, follow up with 5c 2b but, because you can't jump cancel, your next move is to 623a j.236a/b. From here, they get another chance to ground tech out but if they fail again, you have the choice of either gaining the knockdown by jumping up and airthrowing them, or going for more damage and following up again. If you do follow up again, they'll be invincible on the way down from the ground slam and you can set up a tech punish (with anything you feel like, just not one of his grabs) and if they don't tech, go in for some random OTG shit (Kouma doesn't really have OTG because of 2b....maybe try 2As2c5c2b5b?). The biggest problem with this "loop" is that they get THREE chances to safely tech out in the middle of it, and you lose momentum and control and all that good stuff. In addition, if they tech out on the FIRST bounce (the one after your combo) you'll probably get punished with a full combo for free. The thing is, it -is- hard to tech, and they pretty much have to spam the directional button in hopes that they'll tech out. So expect it to work for the first two bounces, and then have your opponent teching out all the time after that. The bonus to this is that you can squeeze large amounts of damage out of your opponent, and it doesn't use meter. It's just that it can be escaped and punished with some timing (PERFECT FOR NETPLAY). Note that you don't need to be in the corner or really anywhere near the corner to do this, but doing even part of it after the first bounce will end up with them in the corner. Anyway, I believe the first I heard about this from Kryojenix, so credit for discovering it goes to him until he says "HAY GAIZ I DINT RLY MAEK IT I SAW IN SUM JPNZ VIDYO THAS AWL"

Mixup/Your Offensive in General

Kouma's mixup isn't high/low, it's poke/throw. You want them to sit there blocking when you go in for the grab, for them to throw out a bad poke which loses to your poke, and for them to poke at your shields.

-If you can cancel into a grab, it's usually a good idea unless they're in the air, or it's a projectile. This is usually a clash from Kouma's dash (yum) or a held shield.
-If they are in the air and you get a held shield, you can choose not to cancel, or cancel into 623a/b, or 22a/b/c. 22b is your best defensive option since you'll phaze through them and end up (usually) midscreen and out of the corner. 22a is your best offensive, you should get air CH and followup into knockdown. Sometimes 22a won't hit, which is what 623a/b is for.
-On EX-Shield, go for the combo and not the grab unless they have you in the corner.
-Any single grab always loses to them being able to throw, and them pushing the button first. Adjust your offensive accordingly (hint: poke more, even drop 2aa if you're feeling fancy)

Basic Dash-in Mixup:
Dash in -> A grab ~ beats block, loses to poke
Dash in -> clash -> A grab ~ beats poke, loses to them pressing the throw button first or a really fast poke (satsuki 5a) on reaction
Dash in -> held shield -> A grab ~ beats poke, loses to throw and shield high/low counter (they throw you something that must be shielded low when you dash in shielding high). Those who play GG and have mastered FD breaking will love this.
Dash in -> EX Dunk ~ loses to doing nothing and immediately heating or doing anything else with invincibility or just 0 startup (hiero)
Dash in -> 2aa into combo -> beats shittier pokes, loses to shield
Dash in -> 623a -> beats trying to jump out of a grab or poke attempt, poking (not guaranteed, 623a is only 4f so you can still get stuffed but only by fast or clashy shit), loses to block and shield, try not to use this unless you're sure that they won't block otherwise you get punished hard for free
Dash in -> EX Hotfoot -> beats the above + poking guaranteed and also beats heat depending on when they activate and how fast theirs is
Dash in -> 236c -> beats backdash
Dash in -> Ticking (see below section)

Note that even though these are Dash in mixups, things change when you use 22b because you can't shield or grab in it, but you have super armor. However, you can be thrown out of it.

"Tick Mixup":
What the Koumas in #SRM like to do. I don't really like it because there are less options, but it catches those who don't have better reaction time. To start it, throw out one 2A at point blank. If it hits, combo. If its blocked, wait a short bit for blockstun to end, and then make your move. Your moves are essentially the same as in the dash in mixup, except that you grab without dashing in (you're still in range as long is it was point blank and ONE 2A). You lose dash-in clash, but you also sort of lose some of these because people will rarely attempt to backdash, jump out of the grab attempt, or heat in this situation. The main difference with the tick mixup and the dash-in mixup is that the tick mixup is dealing more with stuff "on reaction" than raw guessing. This goes for both sides. If you able to reliably hit/block confirm 2a (harder than it sounds), you can go into ticking from dash-in or oki, which can seriously mindfuck your opponent. The problem? It's hard, and really only works best on higher level play where your opponent is doing well at reading your guesses, and then you make them guess again immediately after guessing right. On your part, it's a little like a mulligan (oh, he read the poke and blocked, time to tick for another shot at a knockdown).

Okizeme/Wakeup

Kouma only has one real oki (without this, you wait for them to get up and then dash in for your basic mixup which isn't oki), which is his superjump backdash mixup. His superjump instant backdash (which should be referred to as sjabd which looks more like mashing on keys than a real acronym) puts him....right back where he started if done instantly. If you delay the backdash, you can end up on the other side of your opponent, right next to them. And don't forget that on the backdash, you can choose to throw out a j.C. Basically, it's a crossup, but when you land you're instantly close enough to do his basic grab/poke mixup without having to dash in. This isn't true if you throw out a j.C and it gets blocked, but from there you can just dash in mixup from there instead. Basically, unless your opponent can already read what side they're going to be on, they have to guess between a lot more options than they want to. Then you can shield their pokes if you want to, as well....it's pretty mean. Just make sure that you don't crossup yourself into a 236a. That could end up tragic.

Bara Cancels

....now cost an extra 50% meter. Ouch. Anyway, since the cost is so high, try to bara only A grabs if you can. The only thing you get from going into EX Dunk (and spending a total of 150%...fucking gross) is more damage. Kouma's got the best bara in the game, so use it. Don't bara if their hitbox isn't literally in your face. I can't think of any move that will dodge a bara'd A grab but lose to bara'd EX Dunk, so don't worry about that. Also, when you get good at bara'ing in game and you know when to do it, learn what moves have fucked up hitboxes that you can grab people out of when you shouldn't be able to (I remember someone commenting in #mbac that a V.Sion was getting grabbed out of 236 moves? fucked upppp) Kouma's bara is just really good and really simple so....there needs not be too much explanation here.

Implied Damage

Implied damage is not something that will work on advanced players. Now that that's out of the way, what does it mean? It means damage that isn't guaranteed because it isn't in a valid combo, but damage that is still at least probable because whatever you did before it gave the move some extra advantage. A good, general example of this is tech punishes.

Ways for Kouma to get implied damage:

-after 623a/b x2 or j.236a/b x2, 5c 2b airthrow on non-tech
-groundbounce corner loop
-after hotfoot, back dash and 623b x2

Feel free to be creative and add more.

S-Blade:
Advantageous Matchups
Kohaku
Tohno
Satsuki
Warakia
V.Sion
Sion

Even Matchups
Arc
Mech-Hisui
Hisui
Kouma ---neutral point
Nanaya
Miyako
Nero

Disadvantageous Matchups
Akiha
V. Akiha
Aoko
Warc
Ciel

Largely Disadvantageous Matchups
W.Len
Len

These are ordered. Kohaku is the best, Len is the worst.

9 positive matchups, 10 negative matchups. Three of each are insignificantly +/- enough to be considered an Even Matchup.

Matchup Details

Akiha-
She dies SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWLLLY. Make sure to pull off your meter combos when you can, especially off of wallslam. It's hard to play reversal against her defense because of tk ribbons which pretty much eliminate your option of shielding into grab completely. To make it worse, her 214 flames screw up your air approach. And when on the ground, watch out for the far 2C poke. You can still DP her air ribbons that aren't TKed, but if you're too late you'll get counterhit and possibly comboed. The idea here is that your offensive against her needs to be very good because if you let her keep the offensive you won't be able to do much. One of the easy advantages Kouma has over her, though, is when she sets up firepit and EX flametongue in the corner....just bara it and dunk her.

V. Akiha-
The same as above for obvious reasons, but it's a good deal easier to handle. This is because 1. she dies much, much faster and 2. she doesn't have her flame to own up your air approach, since 2C still sucks to play against. One of the new downsides is that you're going to have to get used to grabbing her a lot less, because she's in the air quite often because of ribbons, two airdashes, and j.C.

Aoko-
Orbs are hard to deal with, so if she sets herself up in the corner, try and avoid her lasers as much as possible. It's common for her to set up orbs and then go for charged B beam (unblockable), don't be a retard and shield this, just jump. Don't stay in the air too much, or her 5[C] foot laser will get you. There is a way to use orbs to your advantage. If they're close to her, run up and shield them. If she decides to poke, wait until its shielded and grab her. The other way to use the orbs to your advantage (which works a lot better) is to 236B through them (super armor), or better, use 22C. If you use 22C, make it count and make sure she doesn't get away with her 2 airdashes and 3 jumps. Keep on the ground as much as possible. She has too many AA options and your air to ground game sucks as it is.

Arc-
Her meterless damage is high, and she can use meter to extend the range of her corner combo, giving her better access to better damage, while her pressure game and high-low is still good. The trick here is that a lot of the time, you're in the corner because Arc just loves to rape you in there. The advantage is that Kouma is still fucking good when he's in the corner because of grab wallslam and EXes that are great at reversing disadvantageous situations. You should either be very defensive on this one where you suddenly grab her out of her pressure and wallslam her for great damage, or very offensive where SHE is in the corner and you fuck her up with your big damage.

Warc-
Blood rings are a bitch. If warc spams blood rings, you're gonna have trouble. You can try 236bing through them so that you can suffer a bit of damage to actually get in, but its hard and I really don't recommend it. 22b will work a couple times for getting past blood ring spam, but remember that although 22b is filled with anti-poke candy, its still punishable. Other than blood rings, in the air warc has a somewhat decent j.B, and j.A spam. Her j.C blows even more than Kouma's does. If she's in the air, either go for the air throw or DP -fast- before a blood ring comes out. Dash-in shield loses to her B uppercut/bloodwall because even if you keep shielding, she gets advantage and throws you for free. EX Uppercut is airunblockable on the last hit, but j.236b x2 lifts and floats you, so even if you've already used your double jump and airdash, you can use it to avoid the uppercut and possibly hit warc for some LOLtastic goodness.
1.30.2008- EX Dash crossup is nothing. Hold shield into 22b to get out for free, or hold shield into 22c into an oki setup WITH superarmor which means you'll most likely win the guess and score another ~4k damage on your opponent. Any other options after shield are iffy because warc ends up behind you (including 22a-- it doesn't hit behind you)

Ciel-
A hard matchup. She has a lot of punishers, and many of Kouma's normals are easily punished because he's slow. A lot of your ground game gets shut down by stuff like knives that pushes you really far back, and she can punish anything, including EX Dunk, with EX Heiro. You have to use your air game to get knockdowns in this one so you can start the pressure and mixup. The last big advantage is that her safest wakeup option (and one of the safest in the game), 22C, gets beat by an immediate EX Dunk because she's on the ground. I don't recommend 22Cing unless she's knocked down. 22C is punished for free by EX Heiro and the superarmor doesn't last long enough for you to punish her afterward, unless you block it which is still a problem because EX Heiro crosses up many times in the middle of the animation.

Hisui-
An all around character and one of the most even matches for Kouma. Hisui doesn't have any particular strengths that work against Kouma's, and vice versa. Play against Hisui as you would...usually play against Hisui...or rather, usually play the game.

Hisui (w/ Kohaku)-
Same as above except that Hisui loses stuff-fu which helps you out in getting in and staying close.

Mech-Hisui-
Two words: Ground approach. AA missiles and tk jetpacks combined with your crappy air moves, and you're better off constantly trying to dash in. Dodge or shield projectiles and you'll have an easier time (but in this case, dodge > shield because you don't have to dodge several times, but you often have to shield several times)

Kohaku-
You have two major advantages over Kohaku. First is her broom. You can bara/shield -> A grab pretty much all normals. The second advantage is while you're saving meter not having to use EX Dunk baras against normals, you get to use them against plants for some hilarious shit. Disadvantages? She can poke with her broom from really far away to stop you from getting in in the first place (shieldgrab that shit), and her offence in the corner is about as deadly as yours (which is why we can bara EX dunk). Most notably though, she can escape out of the corner with 214a.

Kohaku (w/ Hisui)-
Probably worse off because she doesn't get 214a escape and she only really gets Hisui assist (blockstring ender) in return. If you're close enough, you can sometimes just dash up and grab her before the assist completes (ex. Hisui in the process of jumping in the air to do j.C)

Kouma-
If you get caught up with this matchup, and you're still playing Melty Blood, you're going to lose. You're playing a 3d fighter here. Grab and shield a LOT more than you're used to. You should be grabbing and shielding just as much as you're poking. If one in particular works over and over, repeat. This matchup is so retarded that if I ever find myself against another Kouma player in tournament play, I'm just gonna use a different character ;p

Nanaya-
This is where you get pressured up the ass. You need to know when to use 22a, 22b, and 623a/b/c and shield to get out of the corner before you get inevitably screwed. However, don't use one too often or you're going to get baited easily. Also, remember that he has 236a/b as awesome anti-air so you want to stay on the ground a lot for this one. Lastly, he's one of the characters (I believe) that you can accidentally jump over and get fucked with the third hit of 236a/b.

Tohno-
tohno is a simple character so just abuse all gimmicks and it works no matter what character you use eh :V

Len-
(placeholder, waiting for Xie since apparently he has tips for this and I don't!)

W.Len-
Ice traps own you. You can't really get out easily. There's a short gap between ice traps, and usually the best option is to jump out before she grabs you. It's difficult to get in with her far normal pokes and ice pokes, so you will have to do some shielding. Her dp is probably the best in the game and should piss you off. The only real way around it is to bait it by landing and blocking, which should turn out well for you. Her spindance mixup is usually a mistake on her part- just dunk it. Until, of course, she baits it by using her fake spindance (where she creates an image of herself). To top it all off, Kouma's high damage is counteracted by her defense being the 3rd best in the game.

Miyako-
Two short range fighters, and she has the better priority (but still less range). Her rolls will rape your grabs if you let them cross you up. Here's why: She rolls. You attempt to 214A. She crosses you up first, so this turns into 236A in the other direction. She's still in dodging animation so you go through her. This is.....a double crossup :(. If the Miyako player knows that he can abuse this with her dodge roll and her dodgerolling off of dash elbow (which can also be mixed up between A and B to cross up on its own, AND is used in pressure), you will be a VERY sad panda. Her pressure game is a little nervewracking, she often throws a blocksting and then ends it with stomp or dash elbow which is supposed to either keep you locked down or flat out hit you. The nice thing about this is that you can simply superarmor through with 236b if she lets you out of blockstun.

Nero-
DPs are free. 623b is able to hit Nero while he's standing to block it high....except that you have to block it low. The difficulty in this matchup comes from Nero, like Wara and Kohaku, having a lot of range, but you not being able to use it to your advantage to grab him. The next obstacle is that Kouma has no way to deal with beasts. Not a lot of characters have much of a way to deal with them, but Kouma is one of them who has it worse off than the others. Best suggestion would just be to be a trooper and block through all of it. After all, you've still got the best bara in the game and Nero is HUEJ

Satsuki-
Don't go for the grabs on this one unless she's on the defensive. You really need to abuse your AA in this matchup because of the best IAD in the game. Even if she's in the corner and you dash in for an A grab (which is less punishable than the other two), she can jump back -> IAD for a full BnB punish, or worse, a CH2 punish. She also has the best DP in any fighting game. If you can reliably 2b her IAD j.C, her main approach disappears. And then her stronger, crossuppy stuff comes into play :( All of these problems don't necessarily come from Sacchin herself, but that, with so many Sacchin players and Denpa winning SBO, everyone knows how to use top-level Sacchin tactics. Dealing with her mixup after airthrow (it's a four-way mixup to block) can be solved by 22c, but nothing else particularly easy. Concentrate and figure out through the timing and spacing where she's going to hit you.

Sion-
One of the few matches where an air approach is ideal. Sion can control the ground a lot better than she can control the air. Recognize her resets and dunk them out for free. Keep your defense solid, and watch out for her DP on your okis.

V.Sion-
Summons will make things go nuts. Neither player will be able to concentrate if this goes right. Against a summon, grabbing her works. Dashing up shortly and dodging can work as well. Blocking puts you at a slight disadvantage because that's what the other player is half-expecting you to do. Either way, both players trying to do what they need to do to avoid or fully utilize V.Sion's summon will turn into a mindfuck for both. You can grab her when she engages after summoning, or superamor through the summon if you're good, but guessing for grab can land you 5k damage if you're in the corner (and you usually are). Her dive kick is neutral, so each one is a very fast RPS situation: Another instant divekick is her high option, 2a is her low option, and if you're in the corner she can throw you for a good amount of damage as well. Recognize this, because some V.Sion players don't treat divekick as an RPS situation, just a way for pressure and to score an easy CH and combo. Basically, it doesn't seem like it but you can grab her afterward if she decides to do something other than jump for another. Lastly, a good V.Sion will attempt to outrange you with 236a at the end of blockstrings and such....but a better Kouma will just shield it and grab her. Yes, you can grab her from it.
EDIT: If you can stay on the offensive and get out of her offensive consistently, this match will go very smoothly for you. This is because V.Sion doesn't have a lot of good options reversal-wise and usually just has to block everything. Kouma wants her to block because then he can grab her. Moved to (slightly) advantageous matchup.

Warakia-
Probably Kouma's best matchup. You can bara and/or shield->grab many moves of his, and their range works in your favor as well. Just grab the fucker by the cape every chance you get. Oh, and like Nero, 623b hits him when he's standing. Watch out for teleports and the range of his j.C and j.2C, they aren't the most favorable versus your 2b.


----


Taken from the Tier List thread:

These numbers are how many matches Kouma would get out of ten. They're taken by averaging out numbers from the opinions of top MB players, so keep in mind that these assume that each character is playing their character to their full potential, utilizing every mixup and pressure and every other kind of technique they've got. The above list I made is a more practical for US level play.

--- Quote from: Arlieth Tralare on February 27, 2008, 01:57:37 PM ---By the way, for each character, it might be good to put a listing of their matchups in order from Best to Worst.

For example: Kouma

5.75   Arcueid
5.63   Sion
5.42   Satsuki
5.38   Warakia
5.38   Kohaku
5.25   HisuKoha
4.88   Ciel
4.88   M.Hisui
4.88   Nanaya
4.88   Akiha
4.88   W.Ren
4.78   Aoko
4.75   Red Arc
4.75   Hisui
4.63   Ren
4.63   Miyako
4.63   V.Akiha
4.63   V.Sion
4.50   T.Shiki
4.29   Nero

--- End quote ---

S-Blade:
Breakthrough Discovery: 623a/b hits low! Because 623a is only 4 frame startup, this actually gives you a little bit of a high-low mixup that you can work with! Is this a good idea? Not really. The biggest problem is that if it's blocked you'll get comboed for free. But when doing things like double jump airdash in corner for universal high-low mixup, you can use 623a (well you have to really since 2c sucks). What else does this mean? This means that sjbd oki is fucking stuuupiiidddddd. First you've got your crossup so now you're guessing between left and right....now you have high-low so you're now guessing between four directions...and on top of that you have the danger of being grabbed. A shield is fine too....for Kouma. Each one of these options leads to at LEAST ~2k damage, while looking at good possibilities of 3-4k total (wallslam followup, fail to tech 623a groundbounce, etc). Pretttyyy fucked up.

There's also iad -> late/fake j.C -> 623a for high-low, but you're much better off doing iad -> late/fake j.C -> grab instead for many reasons.

linalys:
It only matters if Kouma has an overhead and he doesn't have one?  So there's no high/low mixup?

Only 1st hit for A and 1st and 2nd for B.  Still weird and interesting though.   :psyduck:

S-Blade:
It's still there. j.C is slow enough that airdash j.[C] -> land 623a can work for mixing up into low, and just smacking with j.C for high. Still works on oki, and when not in oki probably best in corner (knockdown in corner, jump over, double jump if it was off regular 214a, airdash above head, then pull the mixup. can cause random crossup as well).

Other than that....nothing.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page