Plasma Sword/Kaede

Introduction

Overview

(Insert brief description about character and how they play, other details)

Strengths

Weaknesses

Great mid-range pokes: Kaede's mid-range pokes are a nightmare to get in on, allowing her to check both step, forward movement, and jump with just a handful of moves. True Reversal Super: Kaede's Concealed Technique: Flame Dragon Summon super has invincibility and puts her in the air during recovery, where she's allowed actions as she falls down. If the opponent is unaware of this or doesn't have Plasma Field/another decent AA option to punish it, Kaede can be quite annoying for many characters to punish after it is blocked. Extremely High Damage: Kaede's launchers, though difficult to land versus an opponent that knows how to block 214A, are nonetheless oftentimes round ending regardless of how much health her opponent has. When optimized, Kaede can win on 1-2 rolls of the dice.

All Or Nothing: Kaede is high risk/high reward the exact moment your opponent knows how to block her. Anything resembling damage requires her to swing wildly with a non-confirmable poke into 214A (or 214A on its own) or land a jump in, all of which are unsafe. Even her safer strings like 5BB carry some risk versus characters with forward advancing supers. Gimmicky Plasma Field: While able to do pretty good damage, Kaede's Plasma Field is reliant on the player able to consistently hit the opponent in a game of Whack-A-Mole, which gets increasingly faster. Juggles Required For Supers: Kaede's super conversions are best after j.K, and in order to consistently combo into this, she has to rely on landing Fourth Technique: Paired Shadow Gods, a gimmicky overhead that only combos from specific moves and leaves her wide open on whiff. In other words, Kaede's most consistent starters are gimmicky at best and wildly committal at worst. Weak to Meta: Kaede can't crouch cat jabs, she can't out zone June, and her keep out tools aren't terribly convincing in the face of the grapplers/Zelkin. Until someone solves these matchups for her, she is in a very similar position to Vector/Omega: a strong high tier with crippling weaknesses versus the true stars of the game.

Move List

Vertical Normals

5A

5A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	10	-	-	-	-5	+10	-	Ground
Considering its range, this move being at i10 is quite nice. It has quite baffling frame data on block: +10 feels massive, but it also pushes out pretty far and the strings attached to it aren't great, so it's mostly trivia.

5AB

5AB

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	10	-	-	-	-	-23	-	Ground
Case in point, this low is a whopping -23 on block, meaning that Kaede almost has to cancel for her safety's sake... and her special moves are not exactly great. There are technically supers that can punish this both on block and hit (Byakko dash super, for example)

3A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	25	-	-	-	-	-29	-	Ground
3A is technically a faster overhead than Paired Shadow Gods, but you'll never see it from Kaede players since you can't cancel into it and it doesn't start combos. And that's probably for the best, because it's just as unsafe, too.

While Running A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Horizontal Normals

5BBB

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-31	-	Ground
Kaede's horizontal string should be thoroughly punished if done on block.

Kick Normals

K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Jumping Normals

While Jumping A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

While Falling A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Special Moves

First Technique: Shadow Stich
236A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
A strange, slow, invisible projectile that locks the opponent briefly in place if it hits. It has some height to it, meaning it can catch people in the air depending upon how high they are, but it will not hit stepping opponents. Great to throw out on oki and in long range situations, but it does not go full screen. If it hits close enough for you to pressure, you can technically force a 2KK/Paired Shadow Gods mixup.

Second Technique: Smashing Light Ring
236B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
Despite what it looks like, this move does not have invincibility nor is it particularly good at anti-airing. It is, however, fast, and works well as a combo/juggle ender, and shuts down step when the opponent is near.

Third Technique: Summer Salt Kick
236K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Fourth Technique: Paired Shadow Gods

Fourth Technique: Paired Shadow Gods
214A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	27	-	-	-	-	-22	-	Ground
This is arguably the reason to play Kaede. A fast, long range all-in overhead that leads to a full, high damage juggle. It is technically block-reactable but that requires a certain familiarity from your opponent, and it becomes even harder to deal with once mixing it in places that also have low string filler. She does not get the combo animation on airborne opponents.

Ashura
222

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Gauge Moves

Engetsu
236AB

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Rasetsu Zan
214AB

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Plasma Revenge
AM

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Plasma Reflect
BM

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Plasma Field - Plasma Sword
BK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Miscellaneous

Throw
5AB

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Strategy

Combos