Well, you’re playing against a player that A} knows his own character pretty well, and B} knows a good amount about Xiaoyu’s standard setups. As you point out, there are things you could’ve done to improve your chances, but he is clearly a worthy opponent for you.
For one, he escaped or evaded nearly every throw attempt you tried. On paper, that’s not hard to do vs. Xiaoyu because her only true grab mixup (RDS Distraction throws) is slow, but he still did a great job taking that away from you. Conversely, you rarely (if ever) escaped his throws at all, so that’s an area you may want to go into P-Mode and work on for that match up.
With that said, even though he was escaping your grabs he still ducked a LOT in those matches, and that was the second biggest offensive change I think you should have made. He crouched so much because you were in a predictable flow chart with your low-attempt set ups. Specifically, whenever you went into back turned, you rarely threw out a mid except the occasional RDS u/f+4 for a CH interrupt where it whiffed because he was out of range.
Also, except near the wall most of your poke strings that went into AoP ended up with a sweep attempt. Against experienced players, her AoP sweep can be easily defended with option selecting. I’ve seen opponents who choose to stand and block her AoP 2 or hop kick, and they still have enough time to block the sweep if that’s what she chose to throw out. AoP 1+2 messes up that timing a bit, and that’s why you were successful with it every time in those matches, but you mainly used it with his back to the wall. You can also try slightly delaying the sweep, which again throws off their option select timing, or go for the frame advantage of her AoP f+4 poke since it comes out faster.
The biggest overall improvement you can work on (like for most of us), is block punishment. You would have minimized his use of so many of his pressure attacks and setups if you punished him after blocking correctly. From range 1-3, try to train yourself to look for his d/f+2 and tap the Cloud Kick button (standing 3) to knock him down for your free juggle. BTW, after punishing his d/f+2, I find ending the juggle against him with S! <dash> ~f+3,1,1+2 unreliable. Instead, keep it simple with ~f+2,1,4. You didn’t get a KD against his WS+1 and a few other attacks that were -12 or worse either (f+1+2 Shoulder retaliation). He was able to dictate the pace of the match because he didn’t fear your punishment enough if you blocked him.
Two more improvement observations: number one, try to get better at seeing his arm sweep. You may have blocked it once (and you low crushed his RA once, kudos), so it encourages him to throw it out when he needs some “sure” damage. Number 2, side step/walk a lot more in open ground. Because you played a very linear game, he was able to use a lot of attacks in his move list he may have otherwise been more cautious about had you evaded more moves. You can even evade and punish his awesome f,f+1 if you are looking for it.
Now all that makes it sound like you did a terrible job, and even moreso after losing 9 out of 10. But except for a few sequences here and there where he was in complete control, you made it very competitive in the majority of rounds. In fact, had you done a few stronger juggles and oki set ups, some of those lost rounds could’ve easily been yours. For instance, I’m not sure why you ended a round after a wall combo in an early fight with the slow u+1 low instead of SS+4 or d/b+4 when he was rising. You were interrupted and died because of it.
I also liked your use of b+1 to interrupt some of his aggressive poke strings. You had really good instincts to use it without abusing it. And it was great seeing you get bonus damage after one combo with the oki unblockable option. In fact, since he is a big character (and can’t simply stay down vs. the unblockable), you probably could have done that a lot more often until he proved he can stop it. You didn’t, however, try the big boy combo at the wall (W! f,f+1,3, f+1+2), so keep that in mind next time.
Thanks for posting. Jack is a tough fight for most of us in the right hands, so don’t get too discouraged. I play offline matches against him too and try to do some of the stuff I pointed out when I face him, but it doesn’t always work out as planned either.
Lastly, we can all learn by watching this matchup when played out by some of the tourney warriors out there:
For one, he escaped or evaded nearly every throw attempt you tried. On paper, that’s not hard to do vs. Xiaoyu because her only true grab mixup (RDS Distraction throws) is slow, but he still did a great job taking that away from you. Conversely, you rarely (if ever) escaped his throws at all, so that’s an area you may want to go into P-Mode and work on for that match up.
With that said, even though he was escaping your grabs he still ducked a LOT in those matches, and that was the second biggest offensive change I think you should have made. He crouched so much because you were in a predictable flow chart with your low-attempt set ups. Specifically, whenever you went into back turned, you rarely threw out a mid except the occasional RDS u/f+4 for a CH interrupt where it whiffed because he was out of range.
Also, except near the wall most of your poke strings that went into AoP ended up with a sweep attempt. Against experienced players, her AoP sweep can be easily defended with option selecting. I’ve seen opponents who choose to stand and block her AoP 2 or hop kick, and they still have enough time to block the sweep if that’s what she chose to throw out. AoP 1+2 messes up that timing a bit, and that’s why you were successful with it every time in those matches, but you mainly used it with his back to the wall. You can also try slightly delaying the sweep, which again throws off their option select timing, or go for the frame advantage of her AoP f+4 poke since it comes out faster.
The biggest overall improvement you can work on (like for most of us), is block punishment. You would have minimized his use of so many of his pressure attacks and setups if you punished him after blocking correctly. From range 1-3, try to train yourself to look for his d/f+2 and tap the Cloud Kick button (standing 3) to knock him down for your free juggle. BTW, after punishing his d/f+2, I find ending the juggle against him with S! <dash> ~f+3,1,1+2 unreliable. Instead, keep it simple with ~f+2,1,4. You didn’t get a KD against his WS+1 and a few other attacks that were -12 or worse either (f+1+2 Shoulder retaliation). He was able to dictate the pace of the match because he didn’t fear your punishment enough if you blocked him.
Two more improvement observations: number one, try to get better at seeing his arm sweep. You may have blocked it once (and you low crushed his RA once, kudos), so it encourages him to throw it out when he needs some “sure” damage. Number 2, side step/walk a lot more in open ground. Because you played a very linear game, he was able to use a lot of attacks in his move list he may have otherwise been more cautious about had you evaded more moves. You can even evade and punish his awesome f,f+1 if you are looking for it.
Now all that makes it sound like you did a terrible job, and even moreso after losing 9 out of 10. But except for a few sequences here and there where he was in complete control, you made it very competitive in the majority of rounds. In fact, had you done a few stronger juggles and oki set ups, some of those lost rounds could’ve easily been yours. For instance, I’m not sure why you ended a round after a wall combo in an early fight with the slow u+1 low instead of SS+4 or d/b+4 when he was rising. You were interrupted and died because of it.
I also liked your use of b+1 to interrupt some of his aggressive poke strings. You had really good instincts to use it without abusing it. And it was great seeing you get bonus damage after one combo with the oki unblockable option. In fact, since he is a big character (and can’t simply stay down vs. the unblockable), you probably could have done that a lot more often until he proved he can stop it. You didn’t, however, try the big boy combo at the wall (W! f,f+1,3, f+1+2), so keep that in mind next time.
Thanks for posting. Jack is a tough fight for most of us in the right hands, so don’t get too discouraged. I play offline matches against him too and try to do some of the stuff I pointed out when I face him, but it doesn’t always work out as planned either.
Lastly, we can all learn by watching this matchup when played out by some of the tourney warriors out there:
Last edited by shauno on Sep 1st, 2017 at 17:20
