Raph's Top Ten Moves

Your strategy is superior at dealing damage, it's also superior at risk taking and giving the opp more opportunity to kill you. BTW, none of what I really posted is "negligible damage" anyways.

To recap,

Your way - allow them to prep or SE and then go very long for big damage.
my way - do not allow them to Prep or SE at all as much as possible while providing the best possible damage for the least amount of risk while limiting to their options as much as possible.

Have fun with your guessing games. Pick up Cervantes and go take Evo you jammy psychic bastard.
 
^_^

I'll be debuting soon. Expect me in some locals to start with. I also plan to go to Cannes, France next year.
 
I have some matches saved. Good players, very flashy games. I have a lot of me playing Caspian VII - If you met him, you'll know he goes hard! I also have lots of others, but they all involve dropping 3 perfects, and no one likes watching that shit.

My main problems with uploading videos (which I already agreed to,) is that, one; I get better and hate my older stuff. Even if I like it at the time, I'll end up removing it 1 month down the line.

Two; You have to make sure the opponent agrees. This is difficult if you bodied them harder than diamonds.

Three; Close matches, the points where my style shines, usually involve the opponent playing great as well. This is getting rarer... "A" rank really means nothing now. My offline friends are great, but as we all know friends vs friends - no matter how skilled - always looks retarded to outsiders not catching on to the 19 levels of mind-games going on.
 
I have always been a fan of playing Raph in a high risk / high reward style, ever since SC2, generally I have played a very different style than most...

The problem with this version of Calibur, though, is that if you know the matchup, all Prep (block) and SE transitions can be stuffed, on reaction, by most characters, assuming that your opponent knows the matchup, or tries.

Note - it kills me agreeing with Bojack, but his analysis here is spot on.

With that in mind, if your opponent doesn't punish as they can, ignorance factor can go a long way, especially as Raph...I mean hell, I still maintain that Evo was won by 50% ignorance and 50% being a great player. In any case, take advantage of any advantage that your opp will give you. I tend to throw out some prep / SE early to see what my opponent does, and if they don't punish me, I can guarantee that they will lose.
 
piggy said:
With that in mind, if your opponent doesn't punish as they can, ignorance factor can go a long way, especially as Raph...I mean hell, I still maintain that Evo was won by 50% ignorance and 50% being a great player. In any case, take advantage of any advantage that your opp will give you. I tend to throw out some prep / SE early to see what my opponent does, and if they don't punish me, I can guarantee that they will lose.
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Can you ellaborate on the EVO statement? Even if I accept ignorance factor helped Shining Decopom, which I do, don't you thing attributing his win to 50% ignorance is pushing it? I think Tira is an underestimated character and I won't judge Shining D without having played him. It just seems disrespectful to the player, that's all.
 
Delloso said:
Can you ellaborate on the EVO statement? Even if I accept ignorance factor helped Shining Decopom, which I do, don't you thing attributing his win to 50% ignorance is pushing it? I think Tira is an underestimated character and I won't judge Shining D without having played him. It just seems disrespectful to the player, that's all.
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NO disrespect at all meant to Decopon, but he got away with a lot of stuff that "shouldn't" have worked, due to ignorance of the matchup, but he totally used it to his advantage, which is exactly what great players do - could the opponent deal with X? NO? Keep using X until they figure it out.

At the top level of play, where most players are relatively even in skills, matchup knowledge is super important. Do I think Decopon was the single best player (skill-wise) at Evo? No, I don't think so, but I do think that he was the best at maximizing the advantages he created for himself.
 
My top 10 moves with Raph in order of use:

22_88B, Grabs, 66B, 3A, 66A, 9K, 2K, 44B, 2A and 6BB.

I liked a lot this Raph, I just started with him recently, but I feel like if I would have been playing him since day 1, is very easy to learn and he is challenging and fun.
 
Seeing as I've been playing a lot more of this guy recently, I'll take a stab at this (teehee) based on my own play at present.

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6BB
Sure it only does 16 damage, but consistently punishing slightly unsafe moves with it will force your opponent to respect your frame knowledge. If they don't, multiple 6BBs will add up. This i12 punisher has amazing range that ought to be exploited at every opportunity. This move becomes even scarier for the opponent if you can confirm counter hits into a BE.

3B
i16 punisher and Prep/SE starter. Depending on range, you can rob the opponent of 38 or 48 points of health depending on range (BB/AB followups). The range on this is also ridiculous, and can deal with things many characters cannot, such as a blocked Cervantes aB.

236B
Huge range whiff punisher that can easily catch the opponent if they do anything but block high or quick step. It can also punish very unsafe moves with huge pushblock such as Astaroth's 1AA.

4B
Tech-crouching combo starter that results in decent damage, or great damage if you know how to tag A+BA onto it after Prep BBB.

3A
i14, semi-tracking and stuns/wall-splats on CH. A fantastic close range poke, or even combo starter.

66B
If the opponent can be kept still, they are open to this. Good damage on hit, whether or not you go into Prep (66B+K works well if you do not) and keeps the opponent on the defensive on block. Or at least it should. Make them pay if they don't with moves like Prep BB* or Prep K otherwise.

33B
I vote this for being one of the best lows in the game, for it's ridiculous range and great damage, even more so if it counter hits. While it's -16 on block, spacing it correctly makes it more difficult to punish than Cervantes aB on block, in my opinion. Mix up with 66A+B and 11K during okizeme to provoke tears.

22B
Patches made this move much weaker than it used to be, but it's still somehow one of his signature moves. Knocks down, can be followed up with 2A/2B/CE and is very difficult to whiff punish if not quick stepped.

33KB*
Ridiculously damaging step punishment that can even be following up with a CE to make half of your opponent's health vanish for the sake of one good read. Massive advantage on block that keeps Raphael at a good distance for most matchups is a great plus too. Applying this to a high/low game will help more of his damaging lows and throws land.

Shadow Evade
All three options in this stance are amazing. A back turning horizontal, a huge damage combo starter that's plus frames on hit and a relatively safe low that knocks down and has a little bit of tracking make this stance incredibly important. If your opponent consistently freezes up when you enter it, they are yours for the taking.

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Honourable mentions go to the following:

2K
It's 2K! And definitely one of the better ones in terms of range.

A+BA
Combo finisher that ups Raphael's wall damage significantly for minimal effort. It can also be used after some crumple combos with some very fine realignment.

8A+B
I rarely use this, due to being a tad talentless with aGIs, but very solid on paper.

66A/22A
Raphael's most reliable tracking moves at range, full stop. Good tools for the goal of keeping your opponent honest with movement.

44K
Following this up with BT 2B makes this Raphael's fastest and most damaging TJ move.

66A+G/B+G
59 damage and gaining some delicious health back as a bonus will make your opponent considering breaking A at the edge of a ring or with their back to the wall. Enough said. B+G at the edge becomes either a round, or 80+ damage depending on the stage.

CE
Combos nicely after Prep BBB and 22B (usually), as well as 33KB*. Also it's i12, meaning it can make for a decent surprise match finisher when punishing with 6BB just won't do.
 
6BB BE/prepBB BE CH confirms is definately one of Raph's key strengths.

Look at confirming prepBBB vs prepBB BE, you can get 36 damage + knockdown if you had 1 bar.
 
Ya but you still get more off when you do 33KBE you don't need to go for CH you can get a ring out good damage and if you are going for knockdown 2B is a hard knockdown after 33KBE and 6BB BE is to dangerous because of if you don't get that CH.
 
6BB BE is hit confirmable, so no worries there. There's enough time to do 6BB, see whether you got the CH version, and then press the BE button. And 6BB is fast enough to interrupt a lot of things, so you'll get the CH version very often. The only meter move that I don't think is very good is Prep K BE.
 
Prep K BE adds fantastic damage (52 + knockdown/ringout/high wallsplat which is the easily the biggest increment due to BE) to NH. The only time you'll get prep K on NH is if the opponent randomly crouches or they whiff after you prep4, so it is a bit of a rarity. In the CH situation, after prep K you get the knockdown guaranteed followup, tech trap or you can blow them up with CE for 90 damage.

If it hits then all the CEs look pretty good, but when the opponent is defending, prep K BE is clearly inferior.
 
My point is that if you mess up just once on those BES (prepBB BE or prepKBE) that you can be dead or have a chunk of your health gone.
 
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