The King of Fighters 2002/Mai

General Info

Crouch height: Low

Colors

Movelist

	Frames	Advantage	Cancel	Block	Hitbox				Notes
Standing Close
	4/4/8	0/-2	C,S,Su	HL
	5/3/7	+2/0	R,C,S,Su	HL
	3/3/20	-3/-5	C,S,Su	HL
	5/6/23	-9/-11	C,S,Su	HL
Standing Far
	4/4/8	0/-2		HL
	5/6/10	-4/-6		HL
	7/4+3/19	-6/-8		HL
	8/5/15	0/-2		HL					Goes over lows
+	20/6/42	KD/-26	S,Su	HL					Lower body invincibility: Frames 14-29. Upper body invincibility: Frames 38-57
Crouching
	7/3/9	0/-2	R	HL
	5/4/7	+1/-1	R	L
	6/7/16	-3/-5	C,S,Su	HL
	6/8/20	KD/-10	C,S,Su	L					Late cancel only
Jump
	5/8/-	-/-	C,S	H
	3/11/-	-/-		H
	5/3/-	-/-	C,S	H
	5/7/-	-/-	C,S	H
+	12/6/-	KD/-	C,S	HL
Neutral Jump
	5/7/-	-/-		H
	3/10/-	-/-		H
	5/9/-	-/-		H
	7/7/-	-/-		H
Hop
	5/7/-	-/-	C,S	H
	3/11/-	-/-		H
	4/3/-	-/-	C,S	H
	5/9/-	-/-	C,S	H
Command Normals
f+	28/5/9	+6/+4		H					Goes over lows
f+ (cancel)	27/6/9	+5/+3	C,S	HL					Cancel into air moves only
df+	7/9(7)4/32	-18/-20		L,HL
df+ (cancel)	7/9(7)4/32	-18/-20	S,Su	L,HL					Only first hit is cancellable
j.d+	9/3/-	-/-	C,S	HL					Hard knockdown on airborne opponent. Can't be cancelled into.
j.d+	24/ - /17	KD/-		H					Hard knockdown. Active until landing.
j.d+	6/ - /28	KD/-		H					Active until landing.
Special Moves
qcf+	12/ - /33	-1/-3		HL					Kachou Sen - qcf+P
qcf+	14/ - /44	-12/-14		HL
qcb+	14/3+3+4/19	+2/0		HL					Ryuu Enbu - qcb+P qcb+A: Below head Invincibility: F3-13 qcb+C: Below head Invincibility: F9-17
qcb+	5/3(6)3+3+4/19	+2/0	Su	HL
qcb+	15/2+2/31	-7/-9		HL					Sayo Chidori - qcb+K
qcb+	19/2+5/26	-5/-7		HL
j.qcb+	16/-/16	KD/-		HL					Musasabi no Mai (Kuuchuu) - qcb+P in air
j.qcb+	16/-/18	KD/-		HL
hcf+	5/2*2(7)28/16	KD/-26		HL					Hissatsu Shinobi Bachi - hcf+K
hcf+	8/6(6)28/20	KD/-30		HL

Notes

• free cancellable into moves are hcf+K, qcb+P and qcb+P(air)
• free cancellable out-of moves are f+B, df+B, qcb+K, hcf+K, qcb+C on the first hit, d+D(air), d+B(air) and d+P/K followups of _d u+P
• f+B, d+B(air), d+D(air) and d+A/d+B followups of _d u+P, d+A and d+B, are overheads
• qcfx2+P on the last hit, d+B(air), d+B/d+D followups of _d u+P and d+A if it hits an opponent in the air, are all hard knockdowns
• qcb+C is supercancellable on the first hit

Combos

Anywhere

1. Close C, df+B(1), hcf+B/qcb+C- 30%/25%
2. Close C, df+B(1), qcb hcf+K - 42%
3. Close C, df+B(1), qcb+C(1), (S)qcb hcf+K(Buffer:hcf+K) - 50%
4. f+B, qcfx2+P - 33%

Corner

1. f+B, forward+Close C, then any combo that uses Close C

Counterhit

1. Jump CD(counterhit), hcf+B/qcfx2+P - 22-25%/33%
2. Jump CD(counterhit), qcb+C(1), (S)qcfx2+P - 45% (Corner)

Maxmode

1. C, df+B(1), BC, Crouch C, df+B(1), qcb+B, (C)hcf+B(1), (C)qcb+C(1), (S)qcb hcf+K/BD(Buffer:hcf+K/BD) - 70%

Attack Strings

1. Close C, ~df+B(1), qcb+C
2. qcb+P, Far A
3. Jump A/Jump C/Jump D/Jump CD/Jump d+A, d+B(air)
4. Close C, f+B, qcb+P(air)/d+B(air) (Corner)
5. (Already in maxmode) Close C, f+B, d+B(air), (C)qcb+A (Corner)

Strategies

-backdashing with d+A makes her backdash a bit further than usual, just like Iori. In addition, it can sometimes hit opponents out of their long range pokes, such as Billy's crouch A. The shortcut for doing this is b db+A. It is of importance to her for her keepaway game.

-Mai has a great keepaway game, due to her qcf+A projectile which has very good recovery, good enough that she can punish anyone that rolls or jumps them with a qcb+A. It is advisiable that you keep enough distance from the opponent such that if they were to do a high jump forward over the fireball, they would land in front of you, not above you. Otherwise, the qcb+A might miss the opponent and you will likely get counterhit by a jump CD. The reason qcb+A is used over qcb+C is that qcb+C pushes you forward a bit, and you don't want to get closer to the opponent when he is already jumping over the fireball. You can also intercept a jump attack after the qcf+A, with a quick forward jump C.

If the opponent rolled instead of jumped, then it is better to use qcb+C, since the first hit of the move comes out very quickly.

-when the opponent is waking up, throw a qcf+A fireball so that it hits them late as they get up. This gives Mai a frame advantage since her fireballs recover so quickly, allowing you to followup with pretty much anything, including:

-~Jump D, Close C, ~df+B(1), qcb+C, Far A/walk up throw/jump back qcb+P(air)
-Jump D, d+B(air)
-Crouch D
-qcb+C, Far A/walk up throw/jump back qcb+P(air)
-f+B overhead (not totally safe since the f+B has a long startup)

One should be careful about using attack strings with df+B. They are safe on block, but the opponent can guard roll right before the df+B, make it whiff and do two hits, allowing the opponent more than enough time to punish you.

-qcb+P(air) is a high priority move that is safe on block if it doesn't hit too deep (although she can sometimes still be command thrown). After doing a safe ground attack string, you can try either poking with far A or doing a quick jump back qcb+P(air) which will usually hit anyone who tried to attack on the ground, or blindly jump. This move also trades hits with many dragon punch anti-airs, and will almost always beat anti-air normals. That said, anyone with a very fast jump anti-air (such as Clark/Iori jump D) that anticipates the move, can hit her out of the move before it starts up. Thus, it is recommended to sometimes use the backdash bug after the opponent blocks some attack, and see what the opponent did. If he jumped, you can throw a qcf+A or qcb+A to hit him as he lands. If he did nothing and you're far enough, it is probably safe to throw another qcf+A.

-Mai has a huge amount of mixups in the air. When the opponent is waking up from some knockdown attack, hyper jump behind opponent and do d+D(air) or d+B(air) which will crossup sometimes. Opponent is forced to block the backwards (from the jump behind), then block the other way again if the move crosses up. d+D(air) can only be done from a high jump, while it is recommended to use d+B from a hop. Both of these moves have very good priority. The d+D(air) is able to cleanly beat many dragon punch anti-airs, as long as Mai doesn't end up flying right in front of the opponent.

-if for some reason, you are in maxmode, you can try to toss out unexpected hcf+D (which is usually suicidal), and cancel it to qcb+P if blocked, which is safe.