Hisako Matchup Thread: Sadira

Webs and blades everywhere!

I’m going to yield to @STORM179’s experience big time in this thread… more than usual, that is, because he’s a Sadira main with a Hisako in his pocket.

So I’ll start off with a few observations I’ve made, and then step away from the mic:

  • Recluse is upper body invulnerable; that’s to say, it can beat your Air ORZ on reaction.
  • Blade Demon is low invulnerable. I tend to use Cr.MK as a poke VERY often, but it doesn’t work out all that great in this MU for that very reason.
  • Don’t let the threat of cross-up scare you, but don’t be too eager to PPP counter and get baited.
  • Don’t underestimate Sadira’s ground game. Her grounded normals are plus, safe, or might as well be safe and they can all be cancelled into Recluse or Blade Demon.

And with that said, I’m handing over the keys. :relaxed:

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Almost forgot to tag some more Sadiras!

@WebNRaGnArOk @Tswagg @R1stormrider @Sanguithal @MonsieurDerp - If you have any thoughts on the Hisako/Sadira MU, your time and attention would be most appreciated!

Don’t Mind Me. I’ll be lurking in here, since I’m actually trying out Hisako. Trying to leave my comfort zone in order to be a better fighter. Untill the TJ Combo thread, I’ll just ask questions. :relaxed:

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I like the matchup. I feel that when Sadira has momentum she wins the matchup. You need to use L widow’s bite in the matchup a lot to help bait counters and to get grabs. I can go on and on and I will if you want me too LOL

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If you have the time, please do! :grin:

A battle of pressure and patience. The key is to keep the other from manipulating the situation. Need to make sure Sadira can’t maintain her airborne defense, and that Hisako stays in a situation where she can’t do her counters safely. Sadira has the definite mobility advantage, and the added bonus of projectiles. Hisako has an advantage when she’s on defense. If she has wrath, her counters and her massive grounded anti-air should keep her safe.
I think the match is fairly even. I try to play both of them, and I like them both as characters (though I definitely play Sadira more).
Will be interested to see how the matchup between these cuties will turn out. Keep the thread goin’, dudes.

I had no idea you played Sadira! Thanks for stopping by Fwuf!

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I have every character to 50, so I had to play the best girls :wink:
Though Sadira was technically my first KI character. She’s been there with me since the beginning.

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Really sad that we lost all the archived posts from the old forums - actually had a few write-ups on this topic :confused: I’ll do this in two parts, this first post to kind of address the general game plan, and then one with some replays that I can kind of analyze.

Generally speaking, your goal for this fight is mostly to control space. Your job as Hisako is to keep your opponent from getting in that space right above you. You either want to be fighting Sadira from point blank range (on offense), or from roughly mid-screen. This is the only fight where I encourage Hisako to not try to be full on wrath all the time - your options are much better served by throwing out long normals and trying to punish Sadira’s approach. Hisako actually controls a lot of the same space that Glacius occupies when he fights Sadira, that box directly in front of her that catches anyone trying to contest her in the air. Jump+HP is your best friend in this fight, as it will beat anything Sadira tries to do in the air on approach, and none that I’ve fought are conditioned to try to catch limbs the way they do with Glacius. Use jump+HP to bat Sadie out of the sky when she first jumps, and don’t worry too much about whiffs since she can’t really punish it.

The other big thing in this MU is aerial ORZ. Jump+HP is good to knock her down at extreme range, but aerial ORZ is what you’ll use to truly punish her for approaching incorrectly. Any medium widow’s bite done in mid-range (where the kunai does not actually hit you) should elicit an air-ORZ on reaction. Medium widow’s bite is slow and bounces Sadira up in a very predictable trajectory - it is virtually always punishable if the kunai isn’t locking you down. You may need to alter the strength of the ORZ to catch her depending on the range, and you may need to use jump+HP in some situations, but in general any medium kunai in the midrange can and should be punished. If they’re wise to this and use heavy or light widow’s bites, or are just jumping and double jumping without taking any other action, then revert back to jump+hp to check them - it’s fast enough and far enough to do so consistently.

Once you’ve knocked Sadira down, treat it like every other MU with Sadira, where your goal is to ground her and then keep her there. Hisako’s pressure works just fine on Sadie, with @Marbledecker’s caveat that cr+MK is not the ideal meaty button to use against her. I personally use the hard knockdown ender more on Sadira than many other characters, simply because it guarantees the wrath refill that’ll let me counter-cancel or recap off any landed air-ORZ. Whatever your preferred pressure option, however, your goal is to keep Sadira grounded. Once she gets instinct, use a setup that’ll catch an activation web and keep her pinned down.

All of the above is on how to play neutral and offense, but obviously that’s not the situation you’re always going to be in. Your goal for the entire fight is keep Sadira from being right on top of you, but it can and will happen, particularly against a good Sadira. Hisako has decent options to deal with Sadira’s pressure, but how well those work depends entirely on whether and how quickly you are able to get a feel for how that Sadira likes to pressure. My personal experience has been that Sadira has to respect counter as a hard, well, counter to her mix-up game, and so the preferred offensive option will be to come in empty and then throw or cr+lk you, or use light widow’s bite into the same. Be mindful of empty jumps off kunai and respond accordingly. A single throw tech will reset your spacing such that you should be able to get out and back into more favorable neutral. In these cases I recommend jump-back+hp - Sadira will tend to follow throw breaks with a return to the air. If you can manage it, an influence command grab on her landing frames in these situations is the optimum punish for coming in empty off a widow’s bite. On the flip side, know that on occasion she will try you and will come in with buttons, so be mindful of that and do still have your counter option ready. Understand that for truly optimized Sadira/Hisako play, the Sadira has to be willing to eat a counter or two - that’s how she establishes that she is willing to press buttons and make you whiff counter later on.

Once Sadira gets instinct - get out. You need to escape Sadie once she’s in instinct, as she is more than capable of wrecking Hisako once she establishes an uncounterable, safe left/right/throw mixup game. If you manage to get out, immediately up+back away from her and keep running until her instinct ends or she does something off a jump that’s punishable. If you’re running out of stage, Hisako’s command teleport is a good way to get under a jumping Sadira and recommence fleeing in terror.

And that’s pretty much my (not so) short take on the Hisako v Sadira MU. I think the fight is a solid 5-5, as both characters are quite capable of destroying the other if they’re not on their game. As @Tswagg said, Sadira can do quite fine in this MU - your job as Hisako is to control the neutral such that she doesn’t get that opportunity. I’ll post a set of replays after I get home to discuss the MU a bit more.

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My input (which is rather limited) would be that Sadira has a distinct advantage at the mind game.

Hisako players are just itching to catch Sadiras with the counter when she jumps in. Basically, you don’t follow up the areal medium web thingy with an areal normal. Hisakos most of the time will try the counter and this opens them up for a ground combo.

I know about Hisako is to expect the possession when you are on the ground. Light attacks can get you out of it, but not all the time. The double jump is your friend, keep the second one handy just in case.

Same as most other characters, don’t open with a shadow and don’t be predictable with the approaches.

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1- Never stay mid-screen. This is Sadira’s Territory for mixup-land. Respect that
2- Jump + HP is your main tool
3- Be patient
4- When Sadira activate Instinct, be a patient… coward (applies to every characters)

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Was really trying to figure out how to turn this into a video viewable in the chat :confused: If anyone could help with that it would be appreciated.

So these matches provide a couple good examples of things that are important in this match. The first two are against a pretty solid Sadira, the second against a not-so-great one. Would have liked to provide MU’s only against really skilled opponents, but haven’t really run into too many Sadira’s these days.

  1. The ranges and spacings I was talking about you wanting to control
  2. Why cr+MK is a bad meaty button against Sadira
  3. Why you should never, never have your default counter be high. It’s a bad habit of mine, which is why I got opened up while he was in instinct even though I read the timing of his attack.
  4. Why it can be important to vary the strength of air-ORZ. The medium and heavy buttons aren’t great for catching a Sadira bounce if she’s very close to you - they simply don’t come out fast enough.
  5. How to run away at least moderately well once Sadira’s in instinct :grin:
  6. How well a match can go if you properly abuse Sadira on her poor wakeup.

And that’s pretty much it for my contribution to the thread. If anyone can tell me how (or provide an upload to YouTube or something) to embed the video in this post, then I’ll go back and do that.

**EDIT: Big thanks to @Marbledecker for making that Hisako YouTube page. Video embed is now above :grin:

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Sir, thanks so much! I’ll check these videos out when I get home today! :grinning:


A note on Sadira in Instinct - if by some freakish situation you’ve managed to open her up for a combo while she’s in instinct, you should be extremely careful, or avoid altogether, using influence linkers while Sadira has webs up; all too often I’ve made this mistake, just to get hit mid-combo by a web, effectively ending my combo and handing hard damage over to Sadira despite my best efforts to waste her instinct time.

So yeah, like Storm said… run away! :fearful:

You know… I’ve been giving serious consideration to the creation of a Hisako-Specific YouTube channel. YouTube’s Hisako content is, for the most part, glitch and combo videos with the occasional match or preview or reaction vid (save for GeoffTheHero and Sajam’s basic breakdown videos).

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Do you have all 220 fight titles for all characters? I have all of Thunders but trying to get the rest and close to all 220 of Glacius’.

Nope. Sadly I max out around 183 :frowning: I can say I have everyone to at least 150+

That’s pretty cool at least.

Well, I’ve gone and done it.

@STORM179 - Nice video, and a lot of the points in your post really shine through. If you’d like, I can upload that video to my channel (giving you full credit, of course) so you’ll have a youtube link to drop in your post. I’ve already downloaded your video… let me know!

Please do @Marbledecker :grin:

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@Marbledecker I’d support that! Hey Marble, I’ve actually been helped by your Amazing Threads! It inspires me to really want to Start one with Jago! Because I’ve created one, but it’s kinda dead. :frowning:

So, would you mind if I made a thread?:

Jago Matchup Thread: Hisako! :blush:

(As well as the other characters)

(Hisako because She is still my hardest matchup. That, and Spinal… Shudders) Plus, I know most of you would help me with it, because the community is amazing! :sunny:

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