So after watching absolute battle 6 and sleep basically just dominate all competition I’m left wondering where is kan-ra’s weakness? I understand that without sand he’s weak against rushdown because he doesn’t have self destruct, but it doesn’t really look like it’s that much of a struggle for him to put down sand.
And to be clear, this is an honest question. Sleep makes Kan-Ra look like a rush down zoner, at some point I’ll do the math but his opponents spend a ridiculous amount of time in block stun.
So my question is, are these frame traps legitimate? Or are there some glaring weaknesses that people are not executing on? Are there commonly used strings people could be shadow countering but are not?
I’m simply ignorant to the matchup and sleep took the tournament free I couldn’t help but wonder what could his opponents do differently.
I am still a KI and Kan-Ra beginner (just had the game for about 3 weeks now), so take my post with a grain of salt. I am maining Kan-Ra, however, and I feel like I have gotten a solid basic grasp of him as a character. That said, I do feel that his main weakness is against a rushdown game.
He does not have a great wakeup move (like a dragon punch) with invincibility, etc. and his arguably best wakeup move (shadow tornado - I forget the actual name) gets stuffed a fair amount of the time. Having a sand trap on the board does change this dynamic because of the self destruct, but that sand trap also disappears very easily, such as when using an assisted jump.
But having said all that, Kan-Ra feels very solid to me and I love his versatility. He is one of those characters that really rewards a player for having great “battlefield awareness”, whether that be catching an opponent in a sand trap, using down hardpunch to launch a ranged opponent into a floating swarm, or making use of sand for an emergency evac or attack.
I need to study those videos you mentioned. I still tend to learn something new whenever I see other players use Kan-Ra. I don’t know about all of his frame traps, but I have had a lot of success jumping in with swarm on a downed opponent and grabbbing a “free” throw or command grab. 