You're a beast. And I'm glad somebody else knows the power of Raph 2K! You just played really smart in general and earned your wins what can I say? Made really good use of Raph's range and spacing. The only problem maybe is you never did 22B into CE. I think Raph should spend the CE there whenever he can unless he's really sure he gets the round but you already know.
I agree. I should start learning to do 22B ~ CE, but I never learned the muscle memory for it pre-patch and thus my brain never considers it with 22B on hit. Against Ω especially, it's a good use of the abundance of meter I always seem to build up.
I wish you played on Xbox Live.
I do own a 360, but I just never renewed my Gold. If and when I do, I'll be sure to add you if you'd like.
All raphael users should watch these matches imo to watch how "simple-at-first-glance" play can be highly effective.
You flatter me with your praise.
In general, I prefer to be much more flashy and visually impressive with my play, but there is some amount of flair in pragmatism. Raphael's basics are fairly strong, and compliment his spacing game fairly well.
To sum up what I remembered, your ability to keep 2K on hit into QS while maintaining just enough spacing so that her 2A would whiff was really key for your dictating the pace of the match imo. 2K has better tracking than most people give it credit for, and will be + on CH if you catch them stepping. You rarely use 2K as a panic tool (which, if used as a panic-tracking tool, is outside the range of most of your opponent's setups and blockstrings which will make the move appear unreliable) so good on you for patient play. Also, because you space your 2K into 22B properly, she cannot always punish with AA. She whiffs her 1st and you can just 4(B) the 2nd hit and cause your opponent to take a hit psychologically.
A pretty much spot on analysis. A centimeter here and there can mean the difference between being punished and being completely safe. Partisan wants to murder me for all of his whiffed 2A.
I would like to see a game where Raphael handles rush down from a very aggressive character. You managed to be pretty much in control of the game from what I see as it turned into a poking match, and your 2A, 2K, wrB seemed to discourage her fairly easily.
There were some other matches Partisan and I did with my Raphael VS Patroklos, and...it didn't really go so well. Patroklos is basically built around rushdown and aggression, where as Raphael's is more supplementary to his spacing game. Raphael can contend with Patroklos at close range in terms of frames and move properties, but Patroklos out-damages Raphael up close at a ratio that feels like 100:1. I need to work on that match-up a bit more
Lastly, 33k BE isn't even that great on block sadly. All those + frames on guard get wasted because they get pushed so far that AA doesn't appear to connect, and most of the time they'll just opt for the step-guard (and I don't like risking 66A or 4A unnecessarily).
That's what I'm starting to like about the move. My general rational for using the move is thus: "Yeah, I'm not fond of fighting at this range anymore. Let me just make you block this and we'll back off, alright?" What's nice about it is that it's essentially a 50/50 mid/throw mix-up, and the mid is actually pretty powerful. When using this move in this fashion, you generally have four outcomes:
- You hit 33k(BE), do damage, and get a free entrance to SE if you want from 6B(B)
- You get a Side Throw, do damage, and either automatically reset spacing or get a KND to do with as you wish
- They break a side throw, fall back a ways or get KND, and spacing is reset
- Something goes terrible wrong and you got CE'd or something. Tough break.
If you read your opponent sufficiently enough, the last one will almost never occur. Essentially, 33k(BE) is a way to use meter to get out of close range fighting if it's not going your way, and it takes you out of the fray even on block. The post block offensive mix-ups aren't so hot, but you can almost always just back away and end up quite a ways away from your opponent. Think defense.
So now I know who is resposible for Partisan's Raph knowledge.
Also Taunt into 236B is tech.
Haha, yeah, Partisan and I play a shitload together.
Raphael's taunt is very good for him because of the fact that it moves him around so much. On certain KNDs, you can K+G into 50/50 mid/throw mix-up range.
Good use of 2K Heaton. Very good zoning, spacing, and other techniques. A beastly Raph I agree. Love how you safely taunt in battle and mock them when she's down. This is what Raphael should be like lol.
Thank you very much. Provocation is one of Raphael's strengths that isn't entirely gameplay related. He has a lot of ways to annoy an opponent, and the fact that's he's "garbage tier unviable worse character ever" (yeah right) can cause people to get pissed that they're losing to such a terrible character, and thus lose focus that way. Doesn't work on everyone, but it's worth a shot.
Btw what's up with Raph and the ladies these days?? Is Raph getting lonely after years of looking after Amy and searching tirelessly for her?? Why not forget about Amy and settle down with one of those other chicks you're fighting Monsieur Sorel lol.
What part of "Raphael is Amy's father" do people misinterpret as "Raphael is fucking Amy"?
