Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike/Ibuki/Matchups

Before anything: an extremely important part of each matchup is knowing how your buttons work against each character. Which moves whiff on them if they're crouching, which ones hit them even if they're crouching - those things alone will decide a lot of your tactics. Ibuki, while fragile, is also very versatile - but if you unwittingly press st.MP against a crouching Oro, you may just be launched and comboed for over half your health - all you'll be then is fragile, and nothing else.

It's all noted in the main page - check out the notes for the buttons and go internalizing them well over the course of your matches!

I did still make exceptions for cl.HK and the cl.LP->MP->HP target combo because these are important enough to point out here too.

These matchup notes tacitly assume the opponent is able to keep up with your level. If you're generally better than your opponent, Ibuki's mixups and ability to rack up damage and stun in a flash will get you by a good deal of the time even if you're careless on defense. Just remember that she is not a top tier for very specific reasons that the rest of the cast is able to capitalize on to varying degrees. Also, while I outline a general strategy for many of these matchups, these notes also include many specific details (such as punishes) that you can make use of and implement into your game regardless of your personal approach to the MU.

Akuma

Akuma is similar to Ibuki in that he has a lot of offense and mobility at the cost of low health. The key difference being Akuma's air fireball which is much more central to his gameplan than Ibuki's kunais are to hers. Between air fireball and Demon Flip, Akuma will be jumping a lot. Look for opportunities to dash under him and punish him accordingly; HK is pretty reliable in this case as you'll either launch him or send him flying depending on the version you get, but both will work. You can also wait until he falls and punish with a ground combo instead.

Akuma's tatsus don't travel very far, and so they are the easiest to duck under then sweep once he lands. I generally prefer to stand back up and punish with close LP into combo whenever possible, but if you aren't too sure cr.LK and sweep will get the job done. Make sure to punish any and all careless tatsus the Akuma player might do; you won't get opportunities to hurt him as free as ducked tatsus. Do take care of LK tatsus though because those won't hit Ibuki at all, and mentally it may fail to register fast enough for you if you're first expecting to block something. If you aren't quick to react Akuma can beat your buttons by immediately doing Shoryuken or throw, so if things seem uncertain, just block and let it be.

Watch out for kara throw as Akuma's has quite the amount of range, and he can turn the game around off that knockdown.

You cannot slide under Akuma's ground SA1; you can however get around it with EX Hien (Ibuki's jump kicks special) if he does it from far away, and you can bait it out from the air by pretending to jump in, then using Kasumi Suzaku (your SA1) to stop your fall. EX Hien is also very good for punishing fullscreen Shakunetsu Hadokens.

Any poorly timed Demon Flips that Akuma may do against you in the corner can be ducked and run under with Kasumi Gake (command dash). Not only is it fast but it shrinks your upper body's hurtboxes.

cl.LP->MP->HP target combo works on crouching Akuma. This lets you punish with a faster, safer button that also allows you much more time to hit confirm into whatever you want. Additionally, in this situation you can link into st.MK for extra damage before a special, though the timing is strict. This link works on everyone else that this TC hits while crouching. Of course this applies to the standalone 4MP->HP target combo as well.
Be careful doing frametraps against Akuma due to HK Tatsu being a very good reversal to shut Ibuki out.

Alex

Get him to jump whenever possible. Alex loses quite badly in the air against Ibuki, and the air resets also set him up for crossup j.MKs if he decides to stand in place, due to his large size and slow speed. Bully him whenever you get him in the corner; his only invincible reversals are EX Air Knee Smash and SA2. Just make sure you use kunais during your pressure so that he cannot EX Slash Elbow out of the corner.

While fighting on the ground take note of what buttons the Alex loves to use the most. Watch out for his st.HP overhead and any random cr.LKs - he'll use these a lot to set up command grabs. Odds are high that he'll throw out a lot of cr.MPs as well - his cr.MP is not cancelable and is a mid parry too, so parries on those carry relatively little risk and a fair amount of reward.

Kasumi Gake will get you past any EX stomps and SA3 as well if Alex doesn't set it up with a previous attack. Slide (3MK) will beat any Slash Elbows clean.

Alex will try to anti-air you with cr.HP (it has 2 hits), 6HP, and EX Air Knee Smash. If you're confident, you can bait EX Air Knee with neutral jumps (outside of the range of his normals) every now and then as it's just a single parry and leaves Alex wide open when missed.

Don't mindlessly mash the MP or HP versions of SA1 if you're not far away enough from Alex, as he can punish with EX Slash Elbow. A mashed, poorly spaced HP Kasumi Suzaku can be punished even on hit.

Chun-Li

Ibuki will have to play a technically impeccable game against a Chun-Li that knows what she's doing. What you want in this matchup most of all is certainty; any mistake or unexpected miss can be punished with a simple normal into SA2 for damage that you'll have a hard time coming back from. This means you HAVE to know which of your buttons completely miss her if she's crouching. In the same vein, the j.LK->j.6MK target combo is essential because it's the only one capable of hitting a crouching Chun with both hits.

Chun is tough to approach in general; her back HP beats a lot of the stuff Ibuki can try, including specials like Hien. You can try to poke her or take a few risks while she doesn't have meter, it's the best chance you'll get at rushing her down in fact, just watch out for her kara throw. Otherwise, if she does have meter, trying to forcefully break through her guard is liable to getting you KO'd fast. Instead keep your distance, outside her cr.MK range, and look to score parries on her far HP or crouching HK; forward parry will cover both of these buttons. Do not attempt j.MK crossups on her unless she's visibly on the offensive and moving around. If she's just sitting there you'll likely miss and get cr.MK'd right after.

Look to get parries on her Kikoken, and especially Hazanshu (flip kick); both of these moves are fairly reactable and Chun takes a while to recover from them.

Chun can do SA2 to punish many of Ibuki's moves on block, including her sweep, Raida (her command grab), and any versions of Tsumuji other than LK and MK (without the 3rd hit). Not to mention she can punish poorly spaced and mashed Kasumi Suzakus if the pushback from blocking isn't enough, which will be the case if you have her in the corner or use SA1 midscreen almost right above her.

One thing you can try is take advantage of her attempts to confirm into super by using specials that are airborne on frame 1, either on your wakeup or as anti-parry tech so that you get reset in the air and essentially waste her super. Hien and Kazekiri (her DP) are two such moves.

She has the slowest wakeup of the whole cast, so crossup kunai setups are extremely easy to do on her. If she wakes up with EX SBK, a well-timed UOH will beat it every time.

Crouching Chuns make it very hard for HK or EX Tsumuji to work properly; in fact I would call them virtually useless in this scenario. HK Tsumuji will miss her on the last hit unless you get a very specific, exact spacing that is unlikely to happen. If you go low Chun can just option select this with down parry since HK Tsumuji's low ender never combos. EX Tsumuji will simply miss her altogether, unless you go low for the 2nd hit which will make the rest connect consistently. Stick to Raida, or MK Tsumuji as your safest options here.
SA2 hits Ibuki 17 times and so it must be parried 8-8-1. If you parry the first flurry of kicks, you can dash through her right after. This lets you do a fully optimized punish of your choice on her. If you parry the second flurry, you can neutral jump to fully dodge the final hit and punish with j.HP->j.6MK into ground combo. On parrying the final hit, you can also neutral jump HP into ground combo; the timing requires practice but is fairly consistent (try to time it so that j.HP hits Chun's head). Don't follow it up with j.6MK because you need the extra hitstun from j.HP! If you don't want to deal with any nonsense though, you can keep it simple and just punish with st.MK xx EX Tsumuji.

Dudley

EX Machine Gun Blow is particularly threatening against Ibuki due to her low health, and the amount of space and juggle options that it sets up for Dudley, especially in the corner. This being said, it will miss if Ibuki is crouching. In this case Dudley will have to go for other combo routes, which include MP/HP Jet Upper and MK Ducking Upper (only works if you're crouching), both of which are super cancelable. He can also just duck into super.

It's always preferable to avoid getting hit by EX MGB at all where possible, as it's his most damaging option due to followups - Ibuki is one of the characters that Dudley has a lot of juggle options against. His other combos will hurt you less even with the extra damage against crouchers. Ibuki has the option to land from certain specials in a crouching state, so do keep this in mind if your DP, kunai or Hien gets blocked. Also, just as you'd do against Chun SA2, you can cancel any parried normal into an instantly airborne attack to avoid the EX MGB.

Staying in the mid-range poking him with 6HK, 4MK and cr.MK is a good place to start, as it'll allow you to whiff punish while catching any attempts Dudley may make at ducking into close range. Any use of his ducking move while he's far from you can be punished with Tsumuji or Kubiori but this can be risky.

Kubiori is actually quite useful in this matchup if used properly. It's very good for punishing Dudley's meter build, can catch any Ducking Rushes, and is your best hard read against Short Swing Blow - it's a clean punish even if he does the EX version on wakeup. Keep this in mind because Dudley will use Short Swing Blow to bait your throws or exploit your buttons' short range fairly often.

If properly spaced, cr.LK and cr.MP are just as useful as well. cr.LK is a good way to exploit Dudley's main weakness - his lack of a good counter to low, cancelable pokes. An important fact is that he cannot punish a parried cr.LK with his launcher, which is a very real risk if he parries your cr.MK instead. He is technically able to punish it on parry with cr.MK, MP Jet Upper, and super, but for this he needs extremely fast reactions and it's unlikely to happen if you mix it with Ibuki's other buttons. cr.MP works as a cancelable anti-air due to Dudley's low jump arc, and as a poke from max range to bait out any parries too.

Also, cr.MP punishes any and all Ducking Uppers on block even at perfect spacing. Dudley will be in a crouching state so you can combo into HK Tsumuji as a very reliable option that won't whiff at max distances. Learn to love cr.MP against Dudley.

Dealing with Dudley's jump-ins is vital. You can anti-air him with an attack, dashing/jumping away, etc. His jump height is pretty low; cr.HP will deal with him most of the time, and it'll let you jump cancel on parry. Watch out for his j.HK which can beat your buttons clean. Bottom line is, try to prevent him from setting up high/low mixups, especially if he has meter. To do this you'll have to constantly check his attempts at closing in. Mix up your anti-airs because he will certainly catch on and try to parry. What you ought to be careful with is anti-airing Dudley with low buttons. While it's handy against other characters, he can stuff things like your slide with his j.HP that reaches all the way down to the ground; if you intend to anti-air with a low, take note of the spacing. If there's enough distance you can stick to meaty cr.MK from max range. If he's almost jumping right over you, slide can do a better job instead.

If Dudley doesn't have meter and you find yourself having trouble predicting him on your wakeup, it's better to just block low; even if he hits you with Dart Shot, he cannot combo off it without super. Do watch out for meaty UOH though as it will allow him to link other moves afterwards.

You may find yourself in quite a few air-to-air interactions against Dudley; if he gets an air reset on you he can duck then super while you're falling. At this point you can only parry, but with practice it's easier than it looks.

Ducking Straight always whiffs on crouching Ibuki. If you can react in time those are free punishes!
Ducking Upper's second hit whiffs on crouch blocking Ibuki (first hit forces stand if successful). Setting aside the cr.MP punish mentioned earlier, if you're relatively close you can also walk-up st.MK for a better combo starter.
cl.LP->MP->HP target combo works on crouching Dudley.
cl.HK hits twice on crouch blocking Dudley, so the superjump cancel is always available. This generally does not apply to the cr.HK->cl.HK target combo due to the pushback from blocking cr.HK.

Elena

This fight can be rough due to Elena being a highly mobile character. She has a pretty fast dash; a good zoning game with her normals; a very neat kara throw; and a lot of burst damage off her SA2. At close range Elena has a lot of ways to shut down Ibuki's attacks, especially her st.HK and 4HK buttons since they evade throws, lows (that already rules out any reactable slides on your part), and they deal a lot of stun.

As a result, your success in this matchup will mostly be decided by your ability to stay in (and act from) the mid range. Your jump-ins, dash-ins, and general offense are ideally better off started from a position where she can't just kara throw or 4HK you. Learn to hit with cr.MK from max range - she won't be able to counterhit that with her 4HK, and her st.HK will be too much of a risk for her to just go for it. Your other mid-range pokes work nicely here as well.

What you want is to bait bad buttons on her part. Elena may initially stick to a poking game, taking shots at you with her cr.MK, her overheads, and kara throws to build meter until an opportunity to dash in arises. But if you manage to keep your space against this properly, along with whiff punishes and mixups with your own lows and overheads, she might get impatient and start taking bigger risks to close the distance (especially if you get a health lead). Here is where you can expect specials (e.g. Mallet Smash), slides and random dashes to be more frequent from her. Her slide is *extremely* punishable if not correctly spaced, and if she does it from max range it gives you more time to react with parry. Use st.MK to punish it because Elena will recover in a crouching state.

Try to generally play it safe against Mallet Smash and just block it; it can be awkward to get the double parry on it. Do note that you can punish them easy with slide, but if Elena has meter it opens you up to a reversal super due to Ibuki's slide having terrible frame data even on hit. She'll generally use this move for frametraps since she's always plus on hit or block. Keep an eye out for any Rhino Horns; they completely miss on crouching Ibuki, so duck them and don't sleep on these free punishes.

Her best offensive button is cr.MP. It's her main way to combo into super and EX Spin Scythe. It's not a low hit, and in fact is a mid parry. Elena may throw this move out from max range to bait a parry then super cancel; don't get too hasty trying to punish it or you might end up getting hit by a SA2. You can parry cr.MP then block, buffer another forward parry, or use an instantly airborne move as an option select (the special will act as a punish attempt, and if you get hit by her super a lot of its damage will be mitigated).

Elena's standing hurtboxes are a bit weird, and they affect how Ibuki's air target combos work on her. Jump-ins right above her generally result in you being able to land just one hit. Only the j.LK->j.6MK target combo works on her consistently.

Elena has two air target combos. She can get an air reset on you with them, then use her fast dashes to sideswitch you as you fall.
The notes on how HK and EX Tsumuji work vs. crouching Chun also apply against Elena.
Elena's HK Lynx Tail can be blocked then blue parried on the 3rd hit.

Hugo

This matchup changes a lot depending on the SA that Hugo chooses. It's more than possible for Hugos to pick Megaton Press against Ibuki since she'll be in the air most of the time; others may pick Hammer Mountain based on playstyle. But on the unlikely chance that they pick Gigas, avoid getting hit by it at all costs. Getting hit by regular 360s once, or even twice in a given round is more than survivable, but Gigas alone deals as much damage as two HP 360s and then some more.

Keep your distance and build stun; try to make Hugo get impatient. In neutral Ibuki has reliable tools to keep him at bay. 6HK, 4MK and sweep are good for poking or whiff punishing, and she can also duck under any surprise lariats, meaning Hugo will be forced to either jump at her, parry, or poke her at mid-range.

A lot of your damage will most likely come from jump-ins as his hurtbox is large, his anti-air grab is very weak, and you remove the risk of getting hit by any mashed grabs. Just be careful with experienced Hugos; any Hugo player that has dedicated themselves to getting good with him has likely practiced parries a lot, and Ibuki's air target combos are particularly susceptible to this. He can also jump along with you and then you'll have to deal with his air normals, which are very good against yours.

If you get a parry on his st.MP or cr.MP you can catch the extended limbs with st.MK, then combo. His cr.MK is a more specific case; on parry your best choice is to get him with cr.HK->st.HK target combo. If you're unhinged enough, it's possible to punish a parried cr.MK by LK command dashing and hitting Hugo with st.LP. Far LP and close LP have the same startup so if done with proper timing after the command dash, he cannot recover in time. Ideally you'd aim to get close LP so that you get a full combo off it, but this won't happen if the parry was around max range.

Depending on the spacing, far HK and cr.HP will trade with body splash. HK Kazekiri can beat it due to the upper body invul, if you don't want to spend meter on EX. 4MP also beats early body splashes clean if timed correctly so that only the 2nd hit reaches. If you can see it coming though, the safest thing is to just parry it. You can do anything you like afterwards, just make sure not to let Hugo land before you punish unless you know what you're doing.

Don't get greedy on his wakeup because reversal 360s or reversal supers can happen. Hugo can even catch Ibuki landing from a crossup kunai on wakeup if he does a reversal Gigas. UOH and deep-hitting 6MKs will beat anything Hugo can do on wakeup apart from reversal SA3. Just don't get too predictable or he can simply parry. Standing right next to him then jumping at the last second is an interesting option to keep in mind for baiting out SA3.

cl.LP->MP->HP target combo works on crouching Hugo.
j.LK->j.6MK can combo after a successful EX Kazekiri with a fair amount of consistency against Hugo.
cl.HK hits twice on crouch blocking Hugo, so the superjump cancel is always available. This generally does not apply to the cr.HK->cl.HK target combo due to the pushback from blocking cr.HK.

Ibuki

Ibuki mirrors can be particularly fast games, due to Ibuki's low health combined with her long list of mixups. Meter is extremely important for EX Kazekiri and for chipping out the opposing Ibuki with Kasumi Suzaku. 6MK can only really be punished by jab on parry, or throw if they're in range. Anything else and Ibuki recovers fast enough to react.

The main task in this matchup will be shutting down her movement options; stuffing her dashes, hitting her out of her jumps, and getting knockdowns so that you can set up wakeup mindgames, or just a SA1 for chip damage:

If the opponent Ibuki cancels a blocked normal into Kasumi Gake, reversal Standing LP will punish it no matter the button she cancelled from; she is always vulnerable to anything 3f or faster. Throw will also work but keep in mind Ibuki has the shortest throw range in the game.
Walking under the enemy Ibuki's jump and using close HK to launch her from behind is good to make her think twice about any subsequent jumps.

If you do get knocked down, be careful about what you do on your own wakeup, because of Raida. It'll stuff virtually anything you do other than reversal EX DP or reversal SA2, and it'll deal a lot of damage on its own. The opposing Ibuki can also use her normal dash to switch sides and mess up your guard that way. That being said, Raida is negative enough on block to let you return to neutral without much issue afterwards.

A common sequence that Ibuki does in a lot of matchups is a cancelable normal (like st.MK) into LK Hien, to catch people crouch blocking or attempting a jump; in the mirror match Ibuki can block the first attack, then slide to beat out Hien. Hien is liable to missing Ibuki altogether if she's at point-blank range.

If the opposing Ibuki just jumps and does SA1 in neutral, you can use dashes or jumps to avoid it; this depends on whether you can guess what version she's going to use. Do note that Ibuki falls out of it much faster than other characters if it hits her in the air. In specific scenarios (particularly against the HP version) jumping and getting hit on purpose will get you damaged for less than if you were to stand and block the whole thing.

It's obviously not advisable to just go and jump into it every time, but a lot of the time the super will be used to chip kill, and if you're going to get KO'd by blocking anyway it's worth remembering. Parrying it is an option but it's very inconsistent.

Ibuki cannot cross up a cornered Ibuki.
If you combo st.MK into EX Tsumuji the last hit will whiff on crouching Ibuki unless you go low.

Ken

Ken has a lot of things to watch out for. He has arguably the best versions of the shotos' moves. Though he lacks an air fireball like Akuma, he more than makes up for it with his double LP shoryuken links and a very dangerous EX air tatsu. Ken can read and punish an HP Kasumi Suzaku done from the opposite corner of the screen with a forward superjump EX tatsu; that's how good it is. Your best means to respond are either j.HK, air grabbing him during his startup, or whatever is convenient given the spacing.

Spacing will be extremely important due to Ken's SA3 being a constant threat. What was mentioned with Chun-Li's SA2 mostly applies here too, the only difference is that Ken's super doesn't travel forward as fast, so MP or HP Kasumi Suzakus can consistently push him back enough to keep Ibuki safe. Other than that, any parry on a non-cancelable normal like cr.MK can easily lead to a punish with super, and then you have to deal with wakeup. Take a great deal of care with his j.MK crossup because it's pretty effective and Ibuki doesn't have the health to be taking too many combos.

As is the case against the shotos' crouching buttons, 4MK, 6MK and 6HK are again going to be some of your most reliable assets to go over his cr.MK and cr.HK. Do remember that Ken can walk back to make your overhead/split kicks miss, and hit you as you land.

You can end up cornered against Ken for a good deal of the round. This is one of the few situations in which Tsuiji Goe (command jump) can come in handy for what it is, because it's a jump, airborne on frame one, that lets you do kunai and/or SA1 on the other side. Hien and Kazekiri may be instantly airborne attacks, but they aren't very good for sideswitching, and the punish will be much worse if they get blocked without a super to cover your fall. Command jump will get you over to the other side at no meter cost while letting you toy with the option of a delayed attack. So if you reversal with it and it works, you've jumped across and can attack Ken on the way down. If you get hit during it, at least you'll be air reset and the worst you can get hit for is a double shoryuken.

That being said, learning to fight from the corner is itself a good skill to have because Ken is very good at punishing any impatient attempts at getting out fast. It's hard to do, but if you're able to keep your nerves in check, use light pokes to get him to step back, and force him to wait for an opening. Use neutral jumps as fake-outs. The idea is to fight from the corner just about enough that he stops focusing on checking any jumps over him as much.

If you see an EX air tatsu coming, just duck. It'll never hit you, and you can punish Ken as he lands. Be wary of when he suddenly uses it to cross you up.

DON'T let Ken build momentum. If he's onto you constantly landing pokes and building meter, slow down the pace of the match. Create some distance. This applies to all shotos to a degree since close to mid-range poking is their specialty, but it's specially important that you don't force yourself to beat Ken at his own game. Ibuki just needs a good jump-in or parry into a knockdown to get her turn started. As always, be watchful.

The cl.LP->MP->cr.HK->HK target combo is a good way to deal stun damage to shotos in general and set up a jump-in; after they fall from the air reset they'll have to choose whether to anti-air, parry, or just block. Ibuki can bait shoryukens this way and simply buffer parry while she approaches. If the shoto doesn't do anything you can just land then throw; if he tries to move or use a normal to anti-air you, you can respond with your air TCs to beat his buttons out. This target combo along with a successful jump-in followup back into itself (j.HP->j.6MK, 4MP->cr.HK->st.HK) allows you to two-touch anyone with a 64-pixel stun bar and shorter from 0 initial stun. It depends on your preferences, really - cl.LP->MP->HP xx HK Kazekiri deals the same amount of stun but with a knockdown instead of a reset. Check what combo route your opponent has a harder time dealing with.

If Ibuki parries SA3:

She can neutral jump after the third kick for a full jump-in punish. The resulting spacing allows for j.HP->j.6MK, st.MK xx EX Tsumuji to work consistently.
She can normal dash through Ken after the second kick and punish with the aforementioned combo from the other side, which can be handy if it gets you the corner. This option however gives you less time to jump in on Ken before he recovers, and is very inconsistent if the sideswitch results in Ken running into the edge of the stage; you won't have enough time to properly space j.HP or j.LP. At that point you'll have to jump in with a button that'll inevitably crossup (j.LK or j.MK) and defeat the purpose of it all.

Makoto

Makoto is dangerous in that, while her specials and supers are quite good, it's her normals where she shines a lot against Ibuki, especially her air buttons. Makoto's j.MK and j.HK are both fast to come out and very hard for Ibuki to contest. And given that Makoto jumps and dashes a lot to make up for having the slowest walk speed, these are buttons she'll end up using against you rather often. This is one of those matchups where Ibuki can easily be forced to play a ground game for the most part.

Cover the ground in front of you with fast pokes like st.MP, cr.LK, st.MK, etc. to stuff any dashes; if you use buttons that are too slow she can just dash during your recovery and grab you. Hayate can be punished by st.MK on block (though well spaced LP Hayates may require a slight walk-up beforehand). Makoto can do a lot of jumps from afar to trick you into approaching. Don't be careless getting close to a jumping Makoto for free, because if things go wrong you could end up getting command grabbed. Be precise in what you want to do. You can just ignore her, aim to cross under her, or just throw a well-timed air attack at her.

Also take care not to be careless with kunais or your SA1s as Makoto is relatively small and has the fastest dash in the game, so with a good read she can dodge them with ease.

Makoto has no real reversals other than super; meaty Raida will beat anything she does on wakeup save for reversal super or jump. Everything else will get eaten up. It's important to make good use of Raida because Makoto can still wake up with EX Fukiage, which is fully invulnerable on her upper body - so if you do an attack that isn't a grab/doesn't hit low, she'll blow through it and hit your limb. That's the only way in which Fukiage can hit a grounded Ibuki.

Tsurugi can be punished by walking back so that you're out of its range, then sweeping or sliding once Makoto lands. Parrying it is tricky because you have to delay yourself quite a bit; Makoto first turns around in the air and only then does she extend her leg. Waiting like that when she could surprise you with a sudden j.MK, or empty jumping into Karakusa, is something that's generally not advisable. You can expect her to do Tsurugis off neutral jumps or forward jumps from far away more than anything. In any other scenario, other buttons are likely to happen too. This is an attack Makoto will be using very often, so be sure you have a well practiced response to it.

Makoto's SA1 wrecks Ibuki; getting hit by any Hayate spells doom for your round if she's able to link into SA1 off it. Take Hayates very seriously when it comes to blocking and punishing them, especially in blockstrings that Makoto likes using after a Karakusa, where she can do normals into LP Hayate over and over until she opens you up.

SA2 Makotos can sometimes dodge your HP Kasumi Suzakus by supering through them. It's not all that common but it can happen.

If Makoto gets a knockdown on you, take note of her movement just as you wake up. If she's doing absolutely nothing, or you suddenly see her doing st.LK, it's likely that she's readying to do Karakusa. If Makoto wants to actually press buttons on your wakeup she'll do it early enough for you to notice, because she'll want them to hit meaty. st.MP and cr.HP are two of their favorites in this case. Meaty st.MP can be parried then thrown, and cr.HP can be parried then swept - very likely Makoto will take a few steps back before doing this attack. Your experience may vary though, so just pay attention to how the Makoto behaves.

Ibuki's cl.LP->MP->cr.HK->HK target combo works on Makoto but she can forward dash after landing to completely undo your jump-in. You can stop her with an early LP kunai but this often leaves you at a disadvantage, so you're forced to super. You can still use this TC to bait out her EX Fukiage however, which is a single parry and will lead to a huge punish. Just remember that Makoto will cross under, so you have to parry toward your opposite side.
EX Tsumuji will miss crouching Makotos on the 3rd hit if done high, unless it's at point blank range; the pushback from hitting her with st.MK is enough to get it to miss, so if you use it you have to go low for the 3rd and 4th hits, lest you give the crouching Makoto a free punish.

Necro

Every little detail matters in this matchup, including but not limited to spacing and button choices. Both characters are capable of easily stunning each other, but Necro is more specialized in this regard due to his higher stun output per hit, as well as a super that's especially intended for it.

There are two main takeaways against Necro: don't get greedy, and move a lot.

"Don't get greedy" because while he is slow and his jump is floaty, he only needs a little momentum to stun you and has various ways to get his game started. Don't go overboard if the Necro is good at parrying.
"Move a lot" because Necro is extremely dangerous against immobile opponents that give him time to think. This is because while most other characters have to maintain and respect distances against you during neutral, Necro is different in that he has a fair amount of mixups from the mid range itself. You don't necessarily have to move close to him; just keep messing with the spacing with your walk, dashes and jumps. Keep him on his toes as to what options he has at any given moment. This can bait a bad jump from him as well.

The one button you have to watch out for against Necro is his 4MP. Short of parrying, sliding or using a higher priority move, you don't really have much to challenge it with. No option other than parry really justifies taking the risk of getting hit due to how it singlehandedly launches Necro's offense. Everything good about Necro's gameplan starts from four main options, two of which are from the air, while the other two are on the ground. Those are:

4MP
Snake Fang (low-hit command grab)
j.HK
Drill kicks

All of them lead to pressure or combo options that give Necro a lot of stun plus corner carry, and once he gets the corner his frametraps and forward throws come into play.

The good thing is that you only need to be mindful of two of those at a time. Stay out of his 4MP range whenever possible and throw your pokes at him from there.

Necro's most commonly used anti-airs are his cr.MP, 4HP (uppercut), and 1HP (Elbow Cannon). On occasion he may do Electric Shock but in this specific matchup it loses to your SA1, so he'll mostly stick to normals. 4HP is particularly dangerous because it sets up juggles, so don't get careless with neutral jumps next to him or deep jump-ins.

His own jump is very floaty and you can use similar tactics against it as you'd do against Akuma, Twelve and the like. That is, dashing under, doing HK Kazekiri, and the like - cr.HP can work as well since Necro tends to delay his jump-in attacks until very late. However he *can* do drill kicks to alter his jump arc or to win against your attack due to its fast startup. It is kind of a mini-mixup but if you guess him right (or get him to commit to a specific option) you can launch him for good damage afterwards.

Getting cornered against Necro is comparable to how it is against Ken, in the sense that you'll oftentimes have to stare him down before taking any action; Necro has options to cover any relevant height and distance on reaction. st.MP lets him poke you safely, 4HK is a very fast button that hits high up, and what's more his throw range completely outdoes yours. Patience is key. Even throw is punishable as a wakeup option due to Necro's 4HP which has a kind of built-in shimmy, and as said earlier, lets him deal a ton of damage while scoring a knockdown. Use your light buttons to maintain a minimum distance and look for patterns in his attacks. If he jumps, jump along with him (j.HK is very useful here) or dash under. If you get the read on him, just blow through his pressure with EX Kazekiri. Reversal LP Raida is also very useful for when Necro walks up to you trying to get a throw. You can jump out of the throw, but remember that his uppercut exists, so be ready to parry or super.

LP Snake Fang is generally unpunishable, as Necros tend to adjust the spacing by cancelling blocked normals into it. Short of using SA3, you can't get to him in time. Otherwise, if their spacing is bad for whatever reason, Tsumuji (LK or EX) can catch him.

Electric Shock can be punished by any low poke like slide. If he whiffs it point blank, use cr.LK to combo into EX Tsumuji. Don't be tempted to sweep, it moves Ibuki's hurtboxes forward right into Necro's attack.

Beware of Electric Snake if you intend to use HP Kasumi Suzaku because if you aren't far away enough, a reversal SA3 can punish you on the way down.

Oro

Oro has quite the amount of moves and options that he can punish Ibuki very badly with. From my personal experience I would say he's Ibuki's hardest matchup within the mid tier, though this is debatable. There are several things that make him stand out against her:

The fastest launcher in the game (close MP), which also happens to be his main combo tool. This means your jump-ins carry a lot more risk with them than they do against other characters.
High stun output in key moves such as far HK, standing HP, and his command grab, which he can combo into off a cr.MK.
Very fast dashes that he can use to close in, or to mix up your guard after air resets.
Small, short height hitboxes. If this wasn't bad enough for your jump-ins, he's also small enough to affect how some of your grounded moves work on him.
A fireball that can cover different angles and sets up a juggle on air hit. Being a charge move, he can have it ready for use on reaction much more often than Urien.
A DP charge move with an EX version that he can use as an occasional, effective reversal.

The thing about Oro is that he has multiple ways in which to approach this fight, all of which are viable for him: he can stall you while building meter for either unblockables with SA2, or extremely crippling juggles with EX Tengu Stones. He can actively approach you fishing for a parry or looking for a bad jump to hit you with close MP, which again leads to setups with either super, or large meter gains if he doesn't have it already. He can also just go at you poke for poke until he gets stun. Simply put, when Oro gets momentum he can deal damage and stun that Ibuki's stats are often unable to handle.

To counter this you'll have to be careful about not giving him clues as to when you're going to attack or approach, and take note of how he acts in response. After all, Oro will still need proper reads (and parries, as well) if he's to use his strengths against you to their fullest. As for useful pokes, 6MK will again be one of your go-to's - he'll have a hard time punishing that with anything useful. Slides from just outside mid range will let you option select fireballs or dashes. Properly spaced cr.LKs will let you stay outside of his close MP's range while allowing you to do an anti-parry cancel if necessary.

Getting knocked down against Oro will require you to exercise a lot of discipline. Oro can do basically anything - low, overhead st.HP, close MP, command grab, jumping into late air chicken kicks...and while your EX Kazekiri theoretically could deal with them all, he can just bait it out. Merely attempting to parry on your wakeup is a risk because your low parry gets beaten by close MP, and your forward parry gets beaten by cr.MK. Both of those options allow Oro to combo, either into chicken kicks or command grab - and both will hurt. A lot. The upside of this is that Oro's command grab is very punishable when blocked. Most reliable option to punish it with is cr.HK->st.HK target combo.

You'll have your best chance at hurting Oro whenever he jumps, because his jump is very floaty and it makes him very vulnerable to your mobility options coupled with close HK. You can also air-to-air him with your air grab or j.HP; use j.HK instead if he double jumps and gets above you, same logic as with Twelve. Overall Oro doesn't have exactly reliable air-to-airs outside his own j.HK.

As is the case with Urien's unblockable setups, you can use any instantly airborne move as a reversal to get out of SA2 loops. If Oro delays his followup attack you can also do a down parry to give yourself an extra chance at inputting one of these moves.

If Oro picks Tengu Stone be as careful as you can. If any line of attack during neutral carries the risk of getting launched into EX SA3 juggles it's better to deem it not worth it and to wait until better options appear, unless your back is already against the wall. Once Oro gets a significant life lead and can allow himself to just sit back, short of a blunder on his part or perfect plays on yours, the round is most likely his already.

Against Oro some specials will have to be managed differently:

HK Kazekiri will whiff on Oro on the final hit if comboed into, so it won't knock down. Only exception to this I've seen is if you do a highly delayed cancel into it after the cl.LP->MP->HP target combo. Any other situation and he'll be left standing; use the LK/MK versions to knock down instead. You can still use HK Kazekiri as a meterless option to cancel into Kasumi Suzaku on hit, block or parry for free damage, chip or otherwise.
The notes on how HK and EX Tsumuji work vs. crouching Chun also apply against Oro.

Q

Q's dash punches can be stopped by Kubiori or slide, though ideally you would just parry them if Q gives you enough distance to react. Watch out for sudden C&DBs but don't be too reckless in jumping up close to him as Q can do HP slaps to score a knockdown and a taunt.

Pay attention to Q's voice should he start switching between high and low dash punches; he uses different sound cues for each.

As easy parries as they might seem, don't try to punish parried dash punches every single time if Q has meter; he can just super cancel and punish you. Q players can be likely to pick SA2 against Ibuki in particular because it's really good against her. It hits hard and unlike his SA1, he can land it in full even if you're airborne. It does gives him just 1 bar though, so do take note of when he has full meter and adjust accordingly because his round more or less rides on whether he can land you with it.

In most cases EX Kubiori (neckbreaker) or a super jump with j.LP->j.6HP target combo will hit Q for taunting carelessly. Aim to whittle Q's health down bit by bit at every opportunity, with pokes, chip damage, and the like - weaken his taunt's buff as much as realistically possible. If Q for whatever reason gets 3 taunts at full health it will get very tough for Ibuki due to the sheer difference in damage rates between Q and you.

Q's large size makes landing target combos on him very consistent, and you can build stun off them quite fast. If he for some reason managed to get taunts at high health, go for stunning him instead, then you can burn meter right there to get as much damage as you can.

Ibuki cannot cross up a cornered Q.
cl.LP->MP->HP target combo works on crouching Q.
cl.HK hits twice on crouch blocking Q, so the superjump cancel is always available. This generally does not apply to the cr.HK->cl.HK target combo due to the pushback from blocking cr.HK.

Remy

Meter management is important here due to Remy's reliance on his projectiles. EX Hien can punish booms on reaction, just be careful as doing it late may give Remy enough time to recover and do EX flash kick to keep you out. EX Kubiori can also punish high booms from afar but this is better off done preemptively as a hard read; slide is more reliable if he's within range and you have to react right there and then. If the Remy sits back and is just throwing fullscreen booms, you can treat those as safe parries and farm meter off them.

Try and parry poorly spaced CBKs if Remy gets too predictable with them; he'll land in a crouching state. You can then punish however you like; standing MK into MK Tsumuji with low ender will specifically let you score a knockdown while taking advantage of the extra damage on crouchers. As for normally blocked CBKs:

They are -4 on block, which severely limits your punish options (and the ones you have, such as LP, require reversal timing)
The pushback from blocking guarantees that Remy always lands outside of Ibuki's throw range, even if he does LK CBK point-blank (here her throw misses by a literal single pixel). As such, punishing them with throw is only possible when you're cornered, and this assumes very poor spacing on the Remy's part. So if you aren't against the corner, consider him unthrowable after any blocked CBKs no matter how close he seems to be (unless you're somehow interested in using kara throw, but that's a 4-pixel range you're calling). You can still throw as a tech attempt against any you might see coming from Remy, but he can sometimes create this scenario on purpose just to bait that out.

It's not uncommon for Remy to jump and miss j.HP on purpose to trick you into blocking, then throw you after landing. Remember that pressing a button in the air adds extra frames to your jump's recovery, during which you can't block. So if you can read him, you can do HP Raida to catch him as he lands.

Remy's sweep can be blocked then blue parried on the second hit. It's easy to do; get it down with practice and eventually any blocked sweeps will be free punishes.
Ibuki cannot cross up a cornered Remy.

Ryu

In general this matchup is more about being patient and keeping good fundamentals. Ibuki's health is a particular concern here just like it is against Dudley: Ryu is built around counter-attacking, and so he has quite the amount of raw damage per hit, most notable in his tatsus and donkey kicks. For reference, if Ibuki is crouching, jump-in HK, close HP into HK donkey kick will let Ryu do roughly 50% of your health meterless.

Notes to keep in mind about his moves: his shoryukens are single-hit except for the EX version, and their arcs cover much less horizontal space. This makes them easy to parry and reduces his ability to control the air against you. His tatsus completely miss you if you're crouching due to lacking the first hit that Ken and Akuma's tatsus have. Blocked donkey kicks can be punished with st.MK into a special.

Watch out for throws (Ryu has a good kara throw, even if typically underused) as it lets him set up high/low mixups, or Denjin if he has it. Ibuki can deal with Shinkuu/Denjin by doing a parry into slide, as it pushes her hurtboxes down to the ground on frame 1, so you evade and possibly also hit Ryu at the same time. Technically speaking, your best wakeup option is reversal slide - it eliminates any need to parry at all - but of course reversal timing is never that easy to get. If successful this makes Ibuki one of few (if not the only one) able to render knockdown-Denjin completely irrelevant without even needing meter. Should Ryu insist on delaying Denjin, EX Hien or EX Kubiori will deal with it (you can also just go all out and jump into Kasumi Suzaku).

HK Tatsu goes over crouching Ibuki and travels far, making it tricky to punish in that case. You can stand block to keep him from getting away and guarantee a good punish.
You can deal with shoto fireballs in general with slide, EX Kubiori (though this requires faster reactions), or EX Hien too, though it can sometimes miss and leave you standing behind them instead. Always be ready to react.

Sean

The only things Sean can really trouble Ibuki with are his normals, tackle fake-outs, and supers. He hardly has anything else. You can safely spend most of the time in the air against Sean and he'll usually be unable to do anything about it except defend, unless he wants to spend one SA2 just to get you out of the air. His DP is even more vertical than Ryu's, and if he does wheel kick to hit you in the air, it's an easy punish with SA1, whether he's still in the air or just landing.

He's likely to use his ground rolls to cross over to the other side on your wakeup. They are a fixed length for each version, so you just have to stay calm and switch the direction in which you're blocking if necessary. You can also just hit him during his recovery, or jump away.

So long as you vary your offense enough that he can't guess parry you every time, and prevent him from building meter, you can take the match with ease. In simple words your goal is to stay on the offense, at least until you've established a good life lead, then you can sit back and bait him into making mistakes. Just don't be reckless as you may end up giving him the opening he cannot create on his own; for example mashing against a tackle fake-out and getting your attack beaten by a super.

His supers are Hadou Burst (SA1), Shoryuu Cannon (SA2) and Hyper Tornado (SA3). Hadou Burst is a single-hit hadouken that you can also slide under. Hyper Tornado is in practical terms similar to Alex's EX Slash Elbow, but with a startup as fast as Ken's SA3. So in short don't go using unsafe moves and don't do poorly spaced, mashed SA1s against a SA3 Sean - he might be able to catch you on the way down just like Chun and Ken can. Otherwise, it's a single parry, he can only stock one at a time, and it's a pretty long bar. Shoryuu Cannon is arguably the one you would have to be the most careful with since it deals a lot of damage, he can have up to two stocked at a time, and he can mash it, so parrying it can prove very tricky.

Sean will not be able to do much about your attacks without parries; take advantage of this and mix up his parry attempts with highs, lows, and throws.

Twelve

Look to annoy Twelve by calling out his jumps. Don't rush him down; keep your distance. Weak as he may seem, skipping neutral is more likely to turn out better for him than it could for you. Build meter from afar and force him to take a risk approaching you. Ibuki's quick dashes and air normals make her easily capable of shutting down or crossing under Twelve's glides, at which point she can hit him from behind with close HK, Kazekiri, or even an air-to-air button.

j.HK is a godsend in this matchup because it compensates for Twelve's jump arc going higher than yours, so you can hit him from below with it, and it'll also get you a knockdown.

It has to be stressed that Twelve cannot beat you unless he gets hits. Most of his attacks will be to open you up, and they'll be normals a majority of the time. If you just block you'll be saving yourself a lot of headaches, because you won't even be taking chip damage most of the time. It can be tempting to try to parry but one has to keep in mind that Twelve is most likely hoping you will, because if you miss he can punish then back away to play with your patience. His specials don't earn him much damage even on hit, after all. Simply remember that while his damage is weak, so is Ibuki's total health.

So, in short, be patient and try to react to his glides as often as possible; so long as you deny him the opportunity to do mixups off them, he does not have much to threaten you with. He'll most likely try to fake you out with empty jumps, or very low glides to bait a mistake. Pay attention to the Twelve's playstyle so that you can tell when to go on the offensive, and when to keep your distance to bait his EX needles, SA1, or glide.

He may also sometimes do j.MK off glides, which will miss on purpose to trick you into blocking, to then throw you upon landing; same case as mentioned with Remy.

In general any obvious or thoughtless glide toward you can be punished with HK Kazekiri due to the upper body invulnerability. Twelve usually won't be able to do anything about it apart from switching directions, if he does manage to react in time.

The normal versions of his D.R.A. attack (his headbutt special) can be punished on block with something like standing or crouching MK. It has a lot of blockstun but Twelve always ends very minus afterward. When it comes to the EX version, you're better off just respecting it.

EX Hien punishes needles clean if you get the read on him. Kasumi Suzaku can evade then punish any SA1's that Twelve might do as an anti-air.

If Twelve cannot land hits on you he'll try to throw you as often as he can. It's also one of his more common attacks to do on his wakeup (along with cr.LK), use Ibuki's walk speed to bait these out. You can also do EX Kazekiri to stuff anything he does altogether, short of SA1.

Ibuki's cl.LP->MP->cr.HK->HK target combo whiffs on Twelve on the final hit, so you won't be able to launch him away with it.
Remember that Ibuki's command dash shrinks her upper hurtboxes on frame 1, just like her slide. This can make it more useful than the normal dash in certain scenarios, such as glides followed by a quick downward attack like j.LP.

Urien

Urien has a large health pool, good damage, and one of the best supers in the game. That being said, Ibuki has a fair amount of things she can use to gain an advantage.

Ibuki can discourage careless tackles by punishing with cr.MK on block, or beating them with slide; and if Urien's launcher (cr.HP) is blocked at point blank, you can do a slight walk forward then st.MK to punish with a combo. If Ibuki is crouch blocking, the second hit of his cr.HP misses altogether and makes things even easier.

Ibuki can normal dash through non-EX Aegis Reflectors before they go active, such as when Urien cancels a blocked tackle into Aegis, or does one in the corner without a normal fireball to first cover its startup. If all else fails you can just jump and do SA1; it'll destroy reflectors in no time and the knives will go through, so Urien will be forced to block. Be warned that Urien can pre-empt your jump with HP fireball.

Since Ibuki jumps around a lot, Urien may want to make a hard read and try to anti-air you with MP or HP fireball; don't let this happen or he can follow up with multiple tackles for huge damage and meter gain. Instead try to switch between jumping onto him and simply keeping your distance to make him guess. If he preemptively does an anti-air fireball while you're on the ground, you can punish with Kubiori (HP or EX if you need to be fast) provided he's within range.

Urien can use headbutts to dodge low attacks, as a hard read against jump attempts (they can also just do it on reaction so be careful jumping right in front of Urien!), or just to close the distance and throw you after landing; you can hit him out of the air on reaction with any fast button, like jab. Back MP->HP target combo works as well and leads to a soft knockdown. But if you really want to make it count and you've got the reactions for it...you can tag him with close LP once he lands. That leads to a full ground combo, could end up saving your life. Headbutts recover fast on whiff so you have to be very resolute, but headbutts ultimately DO have recovery frames that Urien cannot do anything about, and this option lets you juice them out for the most damage. Urien will (at least initially) work under the assumption that he can whiff them safely. Destroy that sense of certainty and you'll have sorted out a huge part of the mental game in this matchup.

Ibuki evades any and all headbutts when crouching. If you're standing, only the LP and EX versions can hit you. This means you *can* sit there crouching, at max cr.MK range, for relatively little risk. At this distance use low pokes to discourage/punish dash-ins on reaction; baiting headbutts is otherwise best done by simply sitting there, not pressing any buttons for him to react to. Get him impatient and the odds of him going for a random headbutt will likely increase.

Don't get too predictable with your jump-ins or you might get parried into launcher. Remember that Urien is always looking to land cr.HP to get a combo started. Speaking of which, 6MK will go over his lows and if parried, Urien cannot punish it with launcher, so feel free to poke with it every now and then too. Just make sure to space it properly because it's still punishable on parry by normal throws if you land within range afterwards.

Also, Urien can punish raw, poorly thought out SA1s with his cr.MP, which will move him just about out of the way.

Ibuki can juggle herself out of unblockable setups with any of her instantly airborne moves, which are her taunt, Hien, Kazekiri and Tsuiji Goe. This requires reversal timing.

cl.LP->MP->HP target combo works on crouching Urien.
cl.HK hits twice on crouch blocking Urien, so the superjump cancel is always available. This generally does not apply to the cr.HK->cl.HK target combo due to the pushback from blocking cr.HK.
It's vital that you can tell if Urien has any moves ready; for this, you have to pay attention to how he moves (or doesn't move), and use this information to guess whether he has charge.

Yang

This matchup is similar to the Ibuki mirror in that both are capable of destroying each other very fast with just a bit of momentum. Be extremely careful with your defense, because EX slashes are basically mini-supers, and he has multiple ways to combo into them, most notably cr.MK and st.LK. On corner knockdown or after a neutral grab, Yang can link a meaty UOH into st.LK xx EX slashes for massive damage and stun. Yang is really good at sticking close to Ibuki while still remaining relatively safe from her better moves due to his cancelable cr.MK. Getting stunned by Yang means losing the round in most cases due to the health you're already implied to have lost by then, plus his stun combo and how he secures the corner afterwards.

Fast reactions will help you open up Yang and rip him apart in no time. This is because while Yang is very dangerous up close, his more commonly used normals are too fast for him to correctly confirm into slashes, so he'll either waste meter doing blocked EX slashes, or he'll do normal ones - and here is where you can absolutely leverage a good decision. Yang's normal rekkas can be always considered unsafe starting from the second slash, as even LP slash is -4 on block when done as the second hit, so at the very least any standing LP will punish. Just remember that he can always switch the timing or strength of the next slash to mix you up. MP and HP slashes are very unsafe even as the first hit, but no self-aware Yang will use these as pokes, so unless you get a parry or hard read, don't go overboard on punishing 1st slashes.

Due to lacking a Genei Jin, his divekicks are generally less threatening - most of the time you can settle for just blocking without second thoughts, just watch out for his command grab. Still, everything that has been said about Yun's divekicks applies to Yang's as well.

If you're both far from each other and at low health, Yang might try to chip you out with EX roll or SA2. Rolls have no invincibility on any version so you can just poke him with cr.LK, cr.MK or slide as he's reaching you. You can also parry rolls - down parry is particularly good against them because you need only one (two for the EX version) to sort them out. Forward parry adds extra parries before you're safe.

As for SA2, it'll beat anything you might want to try on the ground against it. Simply jump over it, block, or parry. It's 4 parries whether you're standing or crouching. Remember that Yang can do SA2 on his wakeup, especially if he's at low health - he might want to cash out straight away instead of saving meter for EX rekkas.

You can let him do his rekkas and look for getting a parry on the 3rd slash as your least risky option. Yang may respond by stopping at the 2nd rekka in subsequent chains. Look to confirm this and hit him during recovery. Parrying his heavy far buttons like far HP and far HK also works nicely.

Don't get too reliant on midscreen j.MK crossups against Yang in general. While this applies to all short characters to a degree, in Yang's case it's more important because of his walk speed. It's a logic similar to Chun's: Yang can anti-air a lot of Ibuki's jump-in tactics with a slight walk back (or under her) into cr.MK, at which point he can do EX slashes. Be patient. Save your health for more worthwhile risks.

Ibuki's cl.LP->MP->cr.HK->HK target combo whiffs on Yang on the final hit, though you might value the knockdown enough to combo into sweep anyway.
HK Kazekiri will not knock Yang down if comboed into due to the pushback making the last hit miss. Remember you can still super cancel this on hit, block or parry.
Ibuki cannot cross up a cornered Yang.

Yun

Yun will throw a lot of moves at you that are seemingly inconsequential until you realize he's already built a full bar. Divekicks on your wakeup are tough to deal with due to how utterly advantageous they are for Yun, and because he has a lot of options afterwards to force you to block instead of guess parrying or using a reversal. Oftentimes your best bet will be doing EX Kazekiri on your wakeup because Yun will rarely just sit and block in these cases, at least until you condition him to do so.

As for divekicks during neutral, try your best to predict his jumps; go up along with him to attack with j.HP, j.MK, air grab, or whatever you prefer, like SA1 even. 6MK and 6HK are also good options to use against divekicks that aim to hit you low. In essence, the best response against divekicks is immediate spacing adjustments first and foremost. This can be as simple as a slight walk back. Then you can take your pick as to what attack you wish to counter with, if any at all. If there's one thing you want to deny Yun it's the feeling that he can just jump at you safely. Ibuki more than has the speed to respond with. Any parried divekicks are best punished with close HK to combo off the juggle. Letting him land for a ground punish can be risky due to the move's deceptively fast recovery.

Prevent Yun from getting neutral jumps directly above you, because he can do LK divekick to miss on purpose and throw you on the ground, or attempt an MK divekick crossup; this is generally very hard to react to. Stay in the mid-range or a bit farther away from him so that you have more time to react to any MK or HK divekicks he might do; you can counter those with Kazekiri (due to its load of disjointed hitboxes) or your own jump. Both of you are fragile health-wise so every bit of damage counts.

If he does a special move (e.g. shoulder) into Genei Jin and you parry the special, punish the startup of GJ with a button into Raida. Raida does a hard knockdown on hit which will waste time for him. Then he'll have to rush back into range; he's likely to do dash punch for this. EX Kubiori will be able to catch it if you're fast enough, use slide otherwise. You can also use SA1 to stall him, though you'll have to be careful with what button you use given Yun's high mobility during SA3.

To be clear, challenging Genei Jin generally does not pay, and blocking successfully is more likely to ensure your survival - but if you're going to try for it, you'll want to use moves that waste a lot of his time whether it's on hit or on block.

Defending against Genei Jin ideally should be kept simple. The most no-nonsense way to handle it is by blocking, and if the opportunity arises, using Ibuki's LP buttons to check Yun whenever you predict he's about to do his command grab (you can also jump, though it's way riskier). It's important not to get command grabbed right away. Yun can and will command grab you in many cases, but delaying it enough will significantly reduce his damage as he'll not have much time to combo afterwards. Ibuki's standing LP buttons are 1 frame faster than cr.LP, and far LP has the better range, just be warned that Yun can duck these and he will likely be pressing buttons himself - with all of them having Super Art priority. That, and cr.LP is special cancelable to give you a bit more wiggle room.

Be severe on Yun's wakeup a good deal of the time to make him more likely to get up with an EX move such as his DP, and make him waste meter.

If you're on the verge of being KO'd, it's usual for Yun to build enough bar, then do EX shoulder to chip kill. Be ready to evade, slide, or double parry into your most preferred punish.