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 or 5BB

5AB or 5BB

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), so be prepared to play the "reversal super after a super flash" game versus players that know this move's frame data/properties.

3A

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	25	-	-	-	-	-29	-	Ground
3A is a move that looks like an overhead but isn't and is wildly unsafe on block for not a tremendous amount of reward. You might as well just used Paired Shadow Gods.

While Running A

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

Horizontal Normals

5B

5B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	10	-	-	-	-6	-6	-	Ground
A premium, fast, long range horizontal that should make up the brunt of Kaede's offense. Can be special cancelled,, though none of her special moves will combo from it.

5BB

5BB

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	Low	-	-	-	-	-22	-23	-	Ground
A premium, long range horizontal low. Despite what the combo counter says, 214A does not combo from this universally: most of the humans are able to block 214A afterwards (Both Hayatos, June/Ele, Gerelt/Claire) and anyone else you have to be frame perfect on the cancel to get it to combo. This does not make going into that move worthless, particularly if you've conditioned the opponent with other options, but it is worth noting that the in-game combo counter will lead you astray here. If you see this hit, hit confirm into 5BBB to launch the opponent full screen and score decent damage from a truly massive horizontal string. Be careful, though: at -22, there are some characters that can blow this up on block and hit. In those situations, you should be prepared to use your own reversal super after their super flash.

5BBB

5BBB

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	X	-31	-	Ground
Kaede's horizontal string should be thoroughly punished if done on block. Pretty much just used as a hit confirm off of 5BB or as a way to check if the opponent knows how to deal with the post-block/hit 5BB situation.

2B

2B

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	13	-	-	-	-13	+1	-	Ground
Unusual frame data. A fantastic anti-step poke in terms of hitbox and speed, but its frame data on hit is pretty bad, forcing Kaede to commit to cancels in some matchups. This is to balance out the fact that she can cancel from an i13 low horizontal poke at all, which is pretty fantastic for a character like her. Much like 5BB, the combo counter will lie to you about 214A comboing from this. 236 super, however, does work. Does not cancel on whiff.

Kick Normals

5K

5K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	10	-	-	-	+0	-1	-	Ground
One of Kaede's most important buttons. This 10 frame unparryable kick is your close range whiff punish/all-in panic press of choice for a few reasons. Speed and move-type are great, but more importantly, it is one of your few moves to combo into 214A. Landing two of these in a round with even sort-of optimized 214A combos is death for the majority of the cast. Unfortunately (or, rather, fortunately for the balance of the game) 214A cannot be confirmed from this, and it always comes out even on whiff.

2K

2K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	Low	11	-	-	-	-10	-11	-	Ground
Everything above about how strong 5K is as a combo tool also applies to 2K. It's a frame slower, but also a low. Even better: 214A doesn't come out on whiff.

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
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-13	-	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. Shockingly safe for how much it pushes out, it should be the thing you do to keep bad blockstrings safe. It does have the drawback of whiffing badly versus pushout and specific character hurtboxes, however.

Third Technique: Summer Salt Kick
236K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	15	-	-	-	X	-24	-	Ground
An unsafe flip kick with lots of pushout on block. Straight up whiffs crouching smaller characters like Gore, and can even whiff the cats while they're standing still. Can anti-air pre-emptively but still can also lose to air attacks if done too late, generally limiting its usefulness.

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. Carries her online with any delay.

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

Matchups

Vs. June (3.5:6.5)- June punishes 214A with a ToD (dash 5A), has a fireball that's generally difficult for Kaede to deal with, and June's 236 super beats all 5BB/5AB options. Definitionally a bad matchup in every way shape and form, only really salvageable by the fact Kaede has better movement and somewhat comparable damage. 5BBx214A also doesn't work on her.

Vs. Ele (4:6)- Ele has the same 214A punish into death, same fireball gameplan as June. However, she cannot OS all of Kaede's post 5BB options with a super, so this matchup is slightly worse for her than June.

Combos