Advanced V.G. 2/Ayako

Introduction

Ayako is just straight vibin'.

Ayako is, despite appearances, a character who excels at space control and grounded footsies. Sporting great pokes, solid anti-airs and a reliable tool for low-profiling moves in neutral, Ayako has just about everything she needs to play the ground game, and play it well. However, despite having an air throw, her air presence is hampered by a relatively weak set of air normals, and her overall damage output leaves something to be desired, even with her solid meter efficiency.

Pros	Cons
Fantastic grounded space control tools that convert into easy damage Scary throw game thanks to a normal throw that starts combos even if the opponent softens it Very meter efficient, with plenty of ways to build and spend bar Unique glitch allows her to guard cancel aerial blockstun Greatest idle animation ever	Fairly weak aerial presence, despite having an air throw Lack of solid jump normals means you'll be relying largely on grounded approaches Somewhat low combo damage

Movelist

st.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A standing slap, good range and nice upward angle, but is outclassed by her other buttons. It does chain into all her other standing buttons, most notably stHP for a juggle comnbo.

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st.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
One of Ayako's strongest buttons. It has phenomenal range and easily links into itself repeatedly, allowing Ayako amble time to confirm into Rave Storm. This defines her ability to control grounded space.

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st.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
Ayako's signature anti-air. Her upward fan strike will reliably knock opponents out of the air and also covers space vertical for when she has the opponent in the corner and they want to jump out. This will whiff on crouchers however.

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st. (hold)

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High		-	-	-
After her stHP, if held down Ayako will twirl her fan and do a standing overhead. Not particularly fast or anything, but it's worth having in the back pocket.

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st.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A stiff mule kick, not a good horizontal poke but it is a little wider than the normally superior stHP. She is the only character who's dashing attack is her stHK instead of stHP.

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cr.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A crouching hand strike. It has no chains and is not particularly worth ever pressing as a starter

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cr.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Low		-	-	-
A crouching kick that chains (not links!) into itself, into crLP, and into stLK. This makes it an awesome low option with amble selection of confirm routes. It's also her OTG pickup normal.

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cr.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
With the majority of Ayako's standing attacks being upward angled, her crHP becomes her biggest horizontal poke. It natively special cancels so you can poke into Rave Storm if your confirms are on point

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cr.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Low		-	-	-
Ayako busts out the moves with a breakdancing spin that has 3 hits during it's long active time. Due to pushback, if this gets blocked it can wind up being very punishable. The flipside is that the 3rd hit has the most range so you might be able to tag them if they go in for an early punish but this is not a plan you want to set your clock to.

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j.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High		-	-	-
A downwanrd chop, decent enough aerial button. Chains into jHP and jHK. Can hit a standing opponent while rising.

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j.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High		-	-	-
A very fanciful looking knee strike, the hitbox is at the point of her knee so it works best as an air-to-air even if it can hit a standing opponent while rising.

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j.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High		-	-	-
A downward angled fan chop, probably her best choice for a jump in. It's best strength is that if you do rising jLP or jLK you can chain into this and it will connect, but that's really all you get so don't go planning your day around it.

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j.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High		-	-	-

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nj.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High		-	-	-

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Command Moves

Any Direction (Besides Up) + In air

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	N/A		-	-	-
Ayako grabs the opponent and flips down to Earth to slam them, probably her best aerial option as other facets of her aerial game are purely fine.

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Target Combos
st.LP > st.LK > st.HP > st.HK
st.LP > st.LK > cr.HP
st.LP > st.LK > st.HK > st.HP
st.LP > st.HP/HK
cr.LK > cr.LP > cr.HP
j.LP/LK > j.HP.HK

Guard Cancels
LP: st.LP (cr.LK while crouching)
LK: st.LK (cr.HK while crouching)
HP: Mach Spin (qcf+K)
HK: Rave Storm (qcb+K)

Which guard cancel you want to use largely depends on whether or not you're stand or crouch blocking. When stand blocking, you want the LK guard cancel, but you want the LP guard cancel if you're crouching. Both of these lead to a combo into Rave Storm, which makes them your most rewarding options.

Special Moves

Mach Spin

+

Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
		Mid		-	-	-
Ayako Spiral Arrows her way straight up into the air. Despite appearances, it's kind of hard to use as an anti-air. She does however recover in air, allowing her to stick out an air normal and come down with an overhead.
		N/A		-	-	-
Moves Ayako forward before shooting into the air. Afterwards Ayako will come down with an equally vertical attack, but if the rising attack hit the descending attack will whiff.
+		N/A		-	-	-
The EX version is Ayako's instant super, giving it some risky offensive and defensive utility outside of also being a situational combo ender.
+		N/A		-	-	-
In a word, it's EX Mach Spin without the superflash. Not awful, but it's really just kind of there, so you don't need to worry about it.

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Rave Storm

+

Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
		Mid		-	-	-
Ayako's primary combo ender, this is what you'll be defaulting to every time you hit a button in neutral. This is the only version that will hit crouchers so make sure to have it at the ready. All versions of Rave Storm are horribly unsafe on block so even if all version are able to low-profile moves and projectiles (yes, this has upper body invincibility for some reason), do not throw it out willy-nilly in neutral. The LK version does not knock down.
		N/A		-	-	-
The preferred version to end combos with, but the later half of the HP version will whiff on crouchers leaving you open for a massive punish. This version travels much further, so outside of really slow fireballs you can pretty confidently HP Rave Storm through a projectile to bop your opponent. The HK version DOES knock down, so get that OTG pickup afterwards.
+		N/A		-	-	-
The EX version is fast and great as a super cancel, but also whiffs on crouchers, so make sure to stand confirm the opponent before letting this rip.

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Tornado Attack

+

Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
		N/A		-	-	-
Basically a Demon Flip. Can help with aerial approaches in neutral, but it's also surprisingly useful for mixuups.
		N/A		-	-	-
the HP version goes further.

Fan Chop

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	High		-	-	-
If you input this move just before landing, you essentially get an empty flip without any landing recovery. Since the Fan Chop itself is an overhead, you can set up some very tricky high/low mixups if your opponent is respecting you.

Frankensteiner

above opponent

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	N/A		-	-	-
Ayako's throw option out of Tornado Attack, getting the timing down on where exactly you need to input it to get Frankensteiner and not Fan Chop is tricky.

Slide Kick

No Input

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	Mid		-	-	-
A slide that knocks down, but is NOT A LOW. Her mixup is actually delayed Fan Chop overhead or land and then cr.LK because this is not a mixup tool. Quite punishable if it gets blocked, but it very easily leads into a combo on hit in the corner.

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Super Moves

Spiral Dive

cl. +

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	N/A	1	-	-	-
A 1F command throw super. Although it costs two bars, it's an incredibly useful tool to keep in your back pocket. It also doesn't have a whiff animation, so if you're not in range for the throw, you'll just get Mach Spin, which makes it pretty strong against jump-out attempts.

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F･T･I･C

+

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	Mid		-	-	-
Stands for Final Tornado Illusion Crisis. Although the damage on this attack is huge, only use this when you're sure it'll get you the win. The startup is very slow, and because Ayako poses after the super finishes, the recovery means that sometimes you can be unsafe on hit.

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Strategy

Ayako thrives at the midrange. You can honestly get a lot of mileage out of basically spamming st.LK, since it's fast, has fantastic range, and links into itself, allowing you to easily confirm into a combo. If your opponent decides to jump at you, st.HP will very easily swat them out of the air, and since this normal is also a launcher, you'll often be able to convert into a combo even if it trades.
On defense, you can use EX Mach Spin as a reversal thanks to its speed, but your best bet is to try and land st.HP anti-airs, since most characters will try to start offense with jumping normal chains.
Ayako is also able to very easily punish throw techs with her st.HP, and combined with her ability to combo after her throw in the corner, this gives her an unexpectedly scary throw game. Learn the timing for st.HP after a throw tech so you don't have to react to it.

Combos

Basic Combos
st.LK x1-3 xx Rave Storm
You can cancel Rave Storm into EX Rave Storm if you want to cash out some meter. If you want even more damage, cancel EX Rave Storm into EX Mach Spin or FTIC.

cr.LK > cr.LP > cr.HP xx Rave Storm
(corner) Throw, st.LK xx HK Rave Storm
(anti-air) st.HP, sj.LK > j.HK, dash st.HK xx EX Mach Spin
You can also use this combo to punish throw techs.