Well, season 3 has kind of change the game a little and as a result, Kan Ra isn’t quite the threat he was, at least, not in the same ways he was previously. Much of his setups, traps, and things have been impacted and have shifted most Kan Ra players to use different tactics. At the moment, I really haven’t played a lot of season 3 Kan Ra’s to know enough to give you very good advice, most of what I offer will be very basic.
I can say that aerial Trailblazer is extremely helpful in most cases as it tends to destroy sky level bugs real easily if spaced right (no real big effort, something you can get a very easy feel for in training). Staying on Kan Ra is important, and giving him any kind of distance begins to be risky to be momentum for his long game. Trailblazer gives you mobility needed to keep at him. However, be aware it will lose out to his j.HP if you are too close, that move is anti trailblazer.
I also say use aerial trailblazer because it will allow you more options and more room to cover more ground. Also, don’t be afraid to use the down forward followup where he does that super hero landing like deadpool talks about and causes an explosion. This will destroy bugs traps he sets up in front of him to keep you off him at face to face range.
Try to conserve meter for your shadow trailblazer if you can, some projectiles your just going to need the projectile invincibility, like Kan Ra’s shadow bugs. If you are keeping an eye on him, and you see him in startup for bugs, you can beat him out with shadow trailblazer easy. Also, if you have a fired up Inferno, it’s a great way to strike him at distance if you spot a moment, and if you have meter for shadow trailblazer, it’s a great way for a long distance opener into combo, as you can’t combo off inferno without shadow moves of some kind.
Inferno’s changes make it MUCH more useful in this fight, as it is an effective anti air to some of Kan Ra’s jumping normals, projectile destruction, distance fighting, adding potential damage, and opener if you can cancel into shadow trailblazer or some good shadow move. All three heights of the move are individually useful given different situations. More trial and error is needed for me to identify more matchup specific uses.
The pyrobombs can be helpful if you can manage to get them stuck to Kan Ra, but with the frequency he uses bugs, they can be difficult to connect with. His floaty jump though means any jump he makes with pyrobombs attached is really punishable since he can’t block them in the air.
A VERY big and important thing you should know. I encountered one Kan Ra player who was clever enough to figure this out in the middle of a set, and it can really make him SUPREMELY annoying. Basically, this player wasn’t doing so well at basic fighting styles with Kan Ra’s captures and traps, so he improvised and made an alteration to his gameplay to play a more lame, keep out style similar to the Fulgore vs Thunder matchup. So he would create a sand trap at mid screen and would NEVER move it for any reason. At this point, he makes it a point to make it extremely difficult to get to him, and puts himself in a corner, and when you get too close, he simply uses his sand trap teleport to return to mid screen.
This setup allowed him a constant runaway game, freeing him to do little hits for some measly damage, but allow it to add up over time. He could then either throw sand at mid screen, do his j.HK for a sand trap, or when you are at the mid stage position, use his tracking sand trap, or worse the shadow version, to give him another teleport point. Rinse, repeat, you have to be on guard for that player, and I’m not gonna lie, he’s gonna force you to think harder than most matchups you’ll have. It’ll turn into a thing of patience, time, and caution.
Since most Kan Ra players care about distance, it’s in your best interest to close it quickly and give him little room to breathe, and if he has a sand trap out, he will most likely teleport on wakeup if you are too close to him, since it is an invincible reversal. You can bait him to use it by standing over him and making him think you are gonna try something and punish him when he doesn’t connect it and is in teleport recovery (and given Cinder’s speed on trailblazer, even long distances aren’t too difficult to rush him down on for a punish). However, it’s incredibly difficult to deny him his runaway tactic, so realistically, I would say be more prepared to take advantage of a combo opening and get good, quick damage from short combos when you can, and just be prepared to chase him down a LOT.
Burnout his legs for the most part, as Kan Ra’s projectile and distance game is much more important to him and he will most likely want to use his spike and bugs moves more frequently than Whirl or grab. This will give him pause for thought as he uses tons of bugs and sand spikes and pours on the white damage. At this point, you may be chasing him down, but either he will have to relent a little on his projectile offense, or be pressured into SUPER perfect play, as one mess up will allow you huge damage. Not saying his punch normals or punch specials are not worth it to him to use, but you’ll see Kan Ra using moves to keep you out or pinned down (which are kick commands) and then under adequate conditions, he’ll switch to his punch specials.
That’s a good bit off the top of my head. Kan Ra is a pain no matter who you use to fight him, this is mostly Cinder matchup advice. Any good mummy player is gonna be adaptable though, so be ready to roll with the changes.
If there are any questions you have regarding anything specific, I’ll try and answer them as best I can, or I can try and hit the dojo and try to formulate a counter measure and get back to you. If there is any specific issue you are having with this fight, the more information you can feed me on the problem, the better I could help.
At any rate, I hope this information is helpful to you.
