As you know, leixia has a BE (wsBE i suppose) that evade everything i use to call panic button, that leads to huge damage.
Its an absurd move that shouldn t even exist, it GI 2A, evades high and vertical attacks and so on.
Well if you expect that just go for A+B,A it will stop the move while not beeing too risky.
2A early enough will hit before the GI window on Leixia's WS B EX. Lows will hit her out of this, and the attack itself is slow enough to be beaten by throws. It's her best move no doubt, and it is used as a panic button, but it's certainly not without it's counters. You can also commit to a quick step, and walk around behind her reliably for a free back throw or 66B.
This game in general requires that you really commit to your moves, since everything from backdashing to guarding carries some form of risk. This is part of why Raph can find ways to account for his seemingly weak step killing moves. Every time they step, they're leaving themselves vulnerable to something.
As far as Raph not keeping up in terms of damage, he may not have the big 100 damage combos, but find me someone else with an easy i12 CH confirm into 60+ damage, or someone that can safely tap people on the head with 22b from a range where the opponent can't retaliate. Prep/SE are just supplementary mixup tools, not his primary offense. People aren't getting that yet, since Prep/SE was so effective in the early weeks.
I'm not sure what Xiba move we're talking about, but he's kind of a dick lol. I think 3B,K and 3B into stance is the biggest problem he poses to Raph. That being said, each of those options out of stance, plus the standard K ender still has a hard counter, and can be punished. The damage off those punishes are irrelevant, you're showing the Xiba player that you aren't gonna let him throw out 3B shenanigans for free.
I don't wanna post this and get "wahhhh maxi damage" in response. Look at what Saitoh is doing, a LOT of that applies to any character, including Raph.
EDIT: ooh he made a Pyrrha one too, top tiers on blast lol.
Something to note, one of Raph's strengths is punishing moves with pushback on block. So really, we don't need to JG that super if we don't want to, 3B should reach and punish where Maxi's i16 punisher would whiff. Know your i16 punishes, and PRACTICE them too, you have to be much faster with punishes in this game than in past games, it seems.