good games.
vs. Q-chu : 8 wins, 35-40 losses
insane, dude. we used to be equal, but you leveled up for sure. I lost so much for the same reason I lose a ton to Choco: I suck at watching my opponent when I'm getting up. my reflexes were slow on adjusting to whether you were gonna do the semi-charged overhead or the low for oki. then when I was actively thinking about blocking high for the semi-charged overhead, my stupid self forgot about the low that came next.
I already know that if the hits connect, you take it to air combo. if not, you chain into your ground blood rings which seems safe on block. (I'll address this later) if you have the meter, you burn it on ex blood rings right after... and the chip damage doesn't look worth it. I didn't question you on it at the time because you were winning, and I didn't want to look like a sore loser or something. after I block all the blood rings, you'll do a jump in. if I jump as well, I'm air-thrown. if I don't, I'm back in the same block string.
in later matches, you would start doing variations like a double jump... you started doing that after I started ex-shielding a bit. that's good. I'm sure you noticed that I also started using shield bunker more. I was testing around for places in your blockstring to use it.. it seemed like if I shield bunker'd the first blood ring on block, we'd trade hits. either way, I'll test around and see if there's an obvious place to shield bunker the same old blockstring you use. I was mostly frustrated because you were using the same blockstring over and over and I wasn't having much luck in finding openings. If I lose horribly, I want it to be because your blockstring mix-up was so intense that my eyes couldn't keep up. not because you're using the same one over and over, and I'm getting randomly hit because I'm trying to find gaps. I'm sort of obsessed about this sort of thing, because it almost reminds me of GNT. I wrote a guide that's on gamefaqs about interrupting block strings with back+B, and shield bunker for MB is sort of the equivalent. either way, I'll take this to training mode.
vs. Lokanas: 5 wins, 16 losses
told ya I was gonna get my bnb back together, man! you beat me soundly, but I can feel satisfied knowing it wasn't because of me struggling with re-adjusting to MB w/out netplay delay on top of other crappy delay settings for MBAC PC on my laptop. you are an excellent Ciel player, and you need to stay in AZ!
you're telling me that I'm predictable. that may be so. but I'd love it if it's possible for you to go into more detail. when you critiqued Ted's Aoko and showed him holes in his game by actually punishing him in that hole, that was educational. I'm sure I have plenty of bad habits that you're probably exploiting to get combos off me. feel free to share!
as for the times I landed combos off you, I recall it was usually from a CH jetpack or a 2b (low extendo hand push). I remember the 2b hits the most, because you noted that I improved, because I wasn't spamming jetpacks as much anymore. spamming jetpacks is where I get my CH combos, so I didn't understand what you meant at first. then I did some thinking and I remembered your fast dash, and realized that you were probably starting most combos on me from dashing in and hitting me in TK jetpack startup. with that knowledge, I mixed up my game. I spammed my jetpacks whenever at a distance, but I'd purposely shoot a risky jetpack closer to you in order to bait you to dash in... in which my 2b is ready to intercept.
I'd love to analyze the gaps in your blockstrings when I'm cornered and you're up in my face, but I need to play Ciel a tiny bit more to understand her options. as of now, I'm only using mind games when I'm playing a successful keepaway game. when I'm under heavy pressure, I'm going by gut to shield bunker/ex-shield/counter-poke you. and that is bad. going by my gut is barely better than random guessing. course, if you want to share your fav. block string options, I'm all ears : )
vs. Jaxx: 7-8 wins, 4-5 losses
tellin' ya man, I upped my game! I realized that 70% of the time you're comboing me, it's because I was in the air. you caught me inputting my aerial backdash. interrupted my crossbow. HUUUAAAA'd my face for jetpacking too close. and a classic, locking me in aerial blockstun and doing an air-unblockable normal into combo since you land before I do. I found that I often caught myself in these situations because I was mashing whilst being combo'd and air recovered out... and back into another combo.
How did I solve this problem? don't be in the air. I've tightened up my execution on TK jetpacks, so you'll see fewer random jumps (sign of a failed TK jetpack). I'm cutting down on the random crossbows (that urge is hard to kill!). I definitely won't challenge you in the air; although I am curious if my j.B could slap ya out the skies if I'm under you.
and I just blocked better. Nero doesn't really have high/low mixup, so why was I panicking before? the setups with the animals aren't that hard to block, either. The only mixup I found threatening was when you jumped in with j.B and went for a throw or 2b. sometimes I screw up on blocking jump-in j.Bs and start crouching too soon. if I block it right, I gotta keep focused and see if you're walking towards me for the throw.
anyway, I look forward to more matches : p I'm gonna step it up, man!
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Here's something fun I tried today. I made a few attempts to land an air unblockable normal (5b)-> combo whenever someone air recovered from a non-CH jetpack. everytime I tried it on Quinn, I got hit. his j.B (double red orbiting slashes) probably has enough range and priority to beat my 5b. I remember landing it twice on Will. maybe Ciel's air normals just don't have the range and priority vs. Mech-HISUI? don't remember for Jaxx. I've been slammed by Nero's j.B and j.C too many times to remember.
in short, I need to use 2c instead.
