I won by a pixel against a Gargos, is that not enough? XD
Based upon what I’ve seen with your Sadira today, I think you’re already there, but simply can’t come to terms with actually believing that.
For you perhaps.
What you see is my day 1 sadira play. I practiced with her back in the day during S1 alot. But then I stopped playing altogether for a long time. Then I got back into it, I haven’t practiced much with sadira, sadly I’ve been neglecting her 
training. Besides ARIA is far more complex then sadira is by a mile and a half.
Like I said, if ARIA was a more standard character I would probably be playing her right now.
I’m actually thinking Shadow Lords probably won’t be where you want to learn/test almost any characters - there are a host of modifiers that we’ll apparently need to be viable, so I don’t think it’ll be anything close to “standard” play. I think that’s supposed to be part of the fun 
I apologize for continuing to respond on this (as I don’t wish to harp), but I just find this a very interesting perspective to take on things. You’re speaking of a hypothetical “crunch time” where your Aria will be tested, but there’s only so much that lab time will teach you on this in any case.
You can know the ins and outs of each of Aria’s bodies, but what makes it “crunch time” is the guy on the other side of the screen trying to stomp you into the ground. Unless you mean to run endless sets with the CPU in a particular body for all MU’s, you’ll never be truly “prepared” for that upcoming crunch (and probably still wouldn’t be, as the CPU neither plays nor responds to stimuli the way a human does).
I didn’t see that match from Zero, but I’ve played and seen him play enough to have an idea of what you’re talking about. I guess my point is that while having an accurate and complete view of your bodies’ toolsets is theoretically possible to lab out, that actual crunch of MU knowledge and experience is only going to come from play against human opponents who are adjusting and adapting right alongside you. The base that you need to build on that account is incredibly high, and (it seems to me) your play will improve far more from that MU knowledge and experience than from an extra three weeks in practice mode.
Apologies again if it seems like I’m nagging or anything. As I said before, I think you should play the game in the way that makes you happy. I do think however that relying too heavily on Practice Mode to “perfect” your Aria is probably not the best path to take if your goal really is to optimize her play. KI has too many MU quirks (and Aria especially) to be able to lab out everything you’ll need to win with her. A lot of it is going to have to come from getting those MU experiences, and the only way to do that is to take her into the wild.
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I know but I can, still things need to be accounted for that I can actually control. such as punishes. I’ll give you an example, did you know that (not ARIA related) that shago can’t punish jago’s Heavy windkick with annihilation other then point blank range?
I didn’t know that until about 5 minutes ago. These are the things I’m talking about. things how despite heavy windick being -7 on block annihilation can’t punish it outside point blank range. It’s these things I’m taking into consideration. Because everyone can uses characters differently, BUT every characters frame data doesn’t change for the most part (outside a few exceptions like instinct cancels for example).
As for SL, I just need to get a feel for switching bodies against a moving target on it’s own when I’m ready. Get a good feel to switch bodies when I see fit and do it safely. Put it to muscle memory basically. I don’t care for the AI’s/modifiers since that’s part of the mode. It’s giving me a basic idea on what to do in certain situations. Because despite the AI not being on human levels of interaction it can still punish sometimes with precise accuracy and all that jazz.
SL will be a way to break in the new metal, understand what I need to do THEN get the field work ready.
GG this time goes out to @DarkLrdChuckles. He, like @FengShuiEnergy, played Sadira. However, his spider-assassin focused a lot more on her in-air game shenanigans than Feng’s ever did. Because of this, in our 1st-to-10 match set, he started off strong, easily taking the 1st few matches. However, as I started to adjust via warm-up (and actual in-field training, Feng 
;)), I was able to quickly adapt and start getting wins myself. Eventually, I found myself at 9-6 on the losing side. However, with confidence and with what I had learned, I managed to show the true grit and stone-headed nature that the golem offers through his millenia of war-like experiences as a battle golem and make a comeback with a final score of 10-9 in my favor. It was truly an epic set.
Between the tournament at CEO, various and very skilled Sadira players in ranked league and exhibition play, as well as from fellow site members, @SoSRaGnArOk, @FengShuiEnergy, @DarkLrdChuckles, @ZDhome, and @STORM179 (despite the latter not being a Sadira player himself) I can confidently say that I think I can (mostly) handle the Aganos/Sadira matchup now.
I have learned things. Thanks for helping me do that, guys. 
Anybody up for a lobby?
Not a lobby, since my connection can’t handle more than 4 people (and I’d have to wait for my turn to boot), but I’m all for a 1v1 set in exhibition. I seem to be on a bit of a roll today and want to find out if I’m eventually going to hit a wall or just keep on rolling over things.
Okay, send an invite.
Just a heads up, my mic doesn’t work, headset does, so I can hear you, but I just can’t say anything.
@GalacticGeek Can’t talk.
Baby’s awake.
Profound sadness😞
Ouch. That hurts 
If you really want to test yourself Geek, you can try your hand at my Hisako…
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When life kicks you in the face:
Not tonight; I just went 11-6 against @DulXboxOne with him taking the victory and am super-salty as a result. What kills me about fighting him is that things that don’t normally happen happen. Here are just a few examples:
- Despite holding my block, it releases mid-combo allowing him to hit me and continue his combo (with no lows or overheads to open me up either).
- Despite pressing LP+LK to tech his throws, they never work.
- a natural disaster or ruin (or their shadow variants) come out when I’m simply trying to perform a normal (and combo-assist is disabled).
- Despite hitting him mid-combo, he manages to block a natural disaster opener/linker.
- He manages to stay out of my grab-range after a blocked attack, and without back-dashing (and it’s not a whiff from block-stun either - I know what that looks like).
- His slide is always outside of my grab-range on a block (but never is for anyone else playing Omen).
…and these are all not even counting the legitimate mistakes I make, like using a chunkless shadow natural disaster while his Omen has meter, only to have it get blocked and shadow-countered.
Nothing against Dul, but it absolutely frustrates me that I literally have these problems nowhere else. For that reason, and that reason alone, it was NOT a GG for me.
After my long line of winning-streaks today, I know it would eventually have to come to an end, but did it really have to come at the end of the day right before I was going to retire to bed? I would’ve preferred it happened tomorrow instead… 
With that said, I won’t discount Dul’s skill with Omen - it’s good. I’ve always believed that Aganos had the upper-hand in the matchup, but Dul’s actions speak otherwise.
…and I still hate Omen’s throw - always have. It’s so stupidly easy to use it to start virtually any setup he wants AND damage my walls while he’s at it. You can imagine how frustrating it is when no matter what I do, I can’t seem to tech it…
I’m done for tonight…
…and Dul? If you fight me again… Pick someone else.
Also… Why aren’t you in any tournaments!? You’re so tournament-worthy!!! Sign up for 8-Bit Beatdown or something already! You deserve it!
@STORM179, I look forward to fighitng your Hisako again.
Heh…one day, Geek, you are going to be able to take a super introspective look at at why you lose on any given occasion. You’ll be able to evaluate “where did I go wrong, where was I being predictable/stubborn/etc, and here’s where I’m going to focus on improving for next time.”
And on that day, you will be truly dangerous.
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Calm down Geek. We all have our off days.
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…but, but…
…I already do that…
With that in mind, though, it’ll be hard for me to stomach, but I think I’m going to go back and watch some of these matches against his Omen just so I can evaluate the fights without being distracted at actually having to participate in them. I admit, I don’t watch the replays in this game a whole lot unless I’m recording it to share as a clip (in which case, I’m usually not the one losing). I’ll have to start doing that more often, I think.
Yeah…yeah…Juri is life. Kicks hurt man.