JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future/Khan/Matchups

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HFTF Khan Spin.gif

Avdol

Tough matchup as is against s tiers. You're losing given his huge buttons, and he gets his damage from single moves or s.on chains with an occasional super. You're dominated in every way, you'll need insane neutral here.

Neutral / Approach

You lack options to beat avdol's. Jump ins are a no go if they constantly s.j.c or s.4B you for trying to jump in(aside his great s.on dp), or cover himself with 236aa/623aa. On the ground he can also stop you with 2B/2C/662B/662C, trading or beating your 662a. Try to low hop j.c and into a confirm if it hits low enough. He wont go s.on in neutral much unless he tries to turtle you. It comes down to who gets control of the match, so try to pressure him unpredictably and punish mistakes, keep ontop of him to not make him as scary. Thankfully his damage isn't absurd but beware of confirms into tandem from 662B, mainly if his sensor hits you. It's basically his own shooting star, and gives him a confirm into 662B/662C on hit. Be patient and choose your spots like with polnareff. avdol can block while his sensor is out but it goes away if he gets hit/grabbed, so try to tick grab from 662a or hh j.c to return to neutral. Just blocking the sensor isnt the worst idea either, but not as good as cracking through his defense and annoying him. You can also always backdash away from a 662C as well. Note that 2B/2C/662B/662C are NOT lows, no need to worry about blocking them, well, low. If avdol jumps in on you and he's also stand.off nothing can touch your j.b. His fireballs can also just be ducked under, and his 623x sets up mixups/block strings.

Overall neutral is avoiding his great pokes and managing to get past his defense.

Dealing with Stand On

He goes s.on if he wants to camp you out ontop of making your life harder than it already is. Approaching will be really hard, and his pokes get even better.

Air approaches *will* be beaten out if he wants to, jumpins with j.b and j.c stand no chance if he 623xs properly. Air to airs also optimally lose to s.j.c always, its too long and quick to counter.

Grounded approaches will be you trying to 662a unpredictably if you dont get stuffed or trade with his s.2b anyway. You can luckily just crouch his fireball. Grounded approaches can also lose to 623x as it's huge and has i frames to boot. If you see it in the air escape by holding 4 during a j.s, or maybe beat it out with j.b. If you block it grounded, punish it as best you can. Dealing with sensor is the same in s.on. A turtling avdol is a big pain, but he shouldnt go s.on if he wants to get a life lead back. Be prepared to make some insane reads.

The I-Frames

All his supers have alot of i frames, so don't let him mess with your options (like 236aa for your j.c on your oki) Pay attention to him having meter, and adjust said oki/approaches accordingly. Remember his ankh placement, and his 623aa can also be for cheeky tick throws as well. Blocked ankh is no worry for him as he can block during it anyway. Again, keep tabs on his meter and behaviors to avoid his cheap supers.

Khan2Avdol2C.png KhanAvdol.png

Matchup: 2-8



Alessi

He demolishes low tier passive characters, CC and gun especially dominate you. Damage is too high, what he usually struggles against is no longer a problem, this is free for alessi.

Neutral

At a glance he's got a mid neutral, a weak anti air game and few ways to open you up. His j.c can challenge you if you don't j.b. Block 5C/662A/662C they lead to CC, and you can 662A his sweep on PB if you're on point with it.(it's also seen alot in frame traps and blockstings) Watch out for s.5C it can beat your 662A (it loses to hyperhop j.c) Your j.c beats his main ainti-airs since the hurtboxes come out before the hitboxes. s.665C is a decent button stuffer. He doesn't have as much CC confirms s.on as opposed to s.off.

Respect his options while making him respect yours.

Dealing with Defense

He's fine with laming you out, his gun is a nuisance, the chip is also *massive*. You can possibly dash through his crosshair or a properly timed and spaced 236aa can work as a punish, j.s can lose to gun if he places it right. Most damage done to you outside of CC will be from gun, so be cautious as he'll abuse it. Be wary of his amazing GC when pressuring and himpunishing an IOH j.c with s.2B. His 214aa will beat J.C and 236aa, along with other slow grounded moves.

An alessi good at turtling and punishing properly is hard to bear with, mixing up your approaches and pressure can be more than enough to create small slivers in Alessi's defense for you to capitalize on.

The Custom Combo

BLOCK HIS CC NO MATTER WHAT. 5C/mixes into confirms turns you into khow, and khow stands nearly no chance of hitting him back/fleeing, a.665C easily chains into itself on your big beefy stature. If a poke that confirms into CC hits you can only pray he messes up, he will also mix you with s.6B/close s.6B on a raw CC, hard to react at 11 and 10 frames respectively. If done raw, just PB and flee, punish it if you're ballsy.

His CC is extremely dangerous here. Mistakes will cost you hard.

Extra Stuff

- You can do a tight link that only works on Alessi and other wide characters. (2B, 5A xx 214AA)
- Khow has only one combo and it's extremely tight. (k.j.A, k.5A)
- Khow is one of the few child modes where Alessi's taunt can land
KhanAlessiChildMode.png

Matchup: 2-8



Black Polnareff

You both suck as characters, although he has better damage and overall more variety/range with his moves. It's better for you to be lame in this matchup, here's the rundown

Neutral / Approach

You're gonna play a safe bait and punish game while he tries to punish you when he can. Play neutral cautiously, he has some good ranged pokes with 2B and 5C to stop your approaches. Unpredictable 662a's or j.c will get the job done here, but tick throwing is ill advised, his 236a is an easy punish for it in the corner or midscreen, loop from rekka just does too much damage. If you confirm from 622A or j.c go into 214aa or the [4]6C ender, [4]6A/B very rarely connects to your 623, so just get the knocdown for oki. It should be emphasized you pressure with caution, his 2a is 1f and starts his loop. Keep neutral *safe* most of the time and dont overly approach him, air to airs are free game for you and your j.b though. (he'll mainly be grounded anyway, where he doesn't lose outright) His 662B, 2B and 5B all have good range in neutral and all confirm into his loop but don't forget that 4B can also stuff his 662B. At max range you're beaten out outside of your 662a. You can anti air his j.b and j.c with 5S with some tight timing+spacing, although block if you're not confident you can stuff his jump in as they can also start his loop, as can his 662C into5A/2A. (his 662C can also stuff your prejump) Bpol also has decent anti air options like 5a, 4S, 236aa and especially 214aa. 236aa is air blockable and shorter but 214aa isn't, save yourself with j.s if you see it coming. While grounded play a safe game while bpol tries to punish your attacks. But to piss bpol off, consider the following:

Laming

Likely your best mu for laming. bpol has almost nothing to shut down your lame attempts and struggles to catch you properly. Go ahead and punish his impatience but keep your fleeing unpredictable, his 4s can clip your j.s if he makes it to you. You can also spam backdashes but use your backdash j.s for protection as he can 662B/662C to hit you. His j.c can also still hit you mid j.s and he might also try to 214aa, but you might be able to land prematurely and block+punish accordingly. Again lame in unpredictable ways and kill his patience, then go back to neutral and attack.

Pressure

He's unfazed by pressure due to his 1 frame startup in 5a and 2a, as theyre both mashable close up when you're attacking. 2a beating your 2a and 5a for your j.b/j.c. Mixing pressure is imperative to trip him up. Be mindful of how he reacts and EXTRA mindful of his counter. Lose 2a and it's over, even using 662a sparingly comes with big risk, countered j.c is still playable thanks to j.b at least. Bait his counter attempts, and hope he never lands it on 2a. You'll need absolute perfection if he does learn it

Extra Stuff

- Moves to counter: 5B, 5C, 2A, 2B, 2C, j.B, j.C, 236x

To punish these, just use 5C, and if it’s an aerial move, time your 5C later since the hitbox on it is much lower than it appears.

- The 66C xx 214AA link wiffs on you

- B.Pol’s loop will use the 662C crc. link since you’re so short, so if 236S is wide open go for 214aa if bpol is close

KhanBPol.png

Matchup: 4-6



Chaka

He's better than you at pretty much everything ontop of being able to go s.on, and even his mobility is comparable to yours. Your pokes might be better but this is undoubtedly an uphill battle.

Neutral / Approach

He's dangerous from most ranges, he'll want to sniff bad approaches or make openings by playing smart neutral. You'll be using 662a and j.c to approach. Doing so has risk, he can stop your approaches with good pokes, 662a falls for hh s.j.c/5B (the former high profiles 662a into a combo, the latter is too disjointed to beat.) j.c loses to his s.j.c, and j.b wont usually win outside of rising below chaka and using it then. 236s is his best anti air, j.c and j.b both lose here, and its also air unblockable. 662a low profiles 236s, and mind his s.236aa, beating out your predictable approaches. Mind 5B as a cheeky low thrown out randomly, 236s and it's vast speed. His hyperhop is hard to react in neutral, and he can also do hh s.jc into a full combo. If you see this and wont have time to jump back and j.b, just pushblock it. If you know he'll do it though, do the aforementioned jump back j.b, or even counter with 214x, giving you ice control of neutral with a free anti air if its done again. Trying to anti air will be hard, space your 5B and 5s accordingly, cancelling 5B into 623x if you want to stand crash. You won't GC unless he does 5B or s.j.c, moves like s.2.a it can be done but it's not recommended. J.s gets destroyed by 236S and 236aa, dont use it just whenever. (j.s in this mu used for getting better ground off a backdash if he's in a place to 236s or he's close and going for pressure. Neutral is tricky, he can easily shut down mindless approaches.

Neutral matters more than pressure given his godly GC, so mix up your approaches, especially if he's lacking in neutral. Remember his good mobility and HH attacks, and use your good dashes/pokes in neutral to keep him at bay until he comes close, or you think you wont die for doing so. Learning neutral is crucial for this matchup, most of it should be spent here.

Pressure

You'll both be busy pressuring each other occasionally.

Pressuring chaka takes mindfulness given his good get off me tools and going in when you think he won't kill you for it. Him landing a gc on the ground can even lead to a full combo, and his 236S also works well against you (and can also be combo'd off of) so mix up your pressure, and possibly trick him to gc at the wrong time, dont 2a and j.c mindlessly. Don't rely on tick grabs for pressure as he can punish it with CC. If the CC fails to punish then do 7C xx J.s to escape if youre not cornered. If you are then just do j.c and hope you're safe. Feel free to pressure a failed cc as usual, even you do enough stand damage to stand crash them when it's near empty. Almost never save your meter if you're pressuring, go for a 214aa off of a confirm asap, you need the damage. Pressuring him shouldn't last long, it'll give him more time to prepare a punish. Of course if he wont punish you for it go for a grab amidst your pressure, it beats him countering your 2a anyhow. Speaking of,NEVER LET HIM COUNTER YOUR 2A. Be mindful of your pressure if he's s.on, a countered 2a will make the match basically unwinnable.


Chaka pressuring you isn't as elaborate given your lack of defense options. He'll try to make a good enough gap with his spacing to go in for big damage, use 5a/s.5a, and bait out any gc attempts with staggering pressure, so only gc on moves with high recovery. Mainly just pushblock then j.s/backdash away. Your only real valuable move to counter is his 5B. Also mind his blockstrings of s.off normals into 236S. His pressure lasts about as long as yours thankfully, butt it can still net him good damage.



KhanCounter.pngKhanLearned.png

Extra Stuff

- Punish s.OFF Chaka's grab in corner by downteching (2 + ABC) and doing j.C, 2A xx 214AA or j.C, 2A, 4B + followup. Normally Chaka won't try to pressure you much s.OFF but if you see him try tick throwing then make sure you find this opportunity to reap the damage.

- Moves to counter: 5B, 236S, and s.j.C. Counter them all with 5C, and if it's an aerial, time the 5C later.

Matchup: 3-7



Devo

Mostly a test of patience for Khan, and mostly playing his normal neutral game. Devo will mainly try to keep you away, so you need to try and deal with the doll, it rakes in damage from a distance without closing in on Devo at all.

Neutral

He deals badly with your pressure, so he'll use his doll to keep you away with its fast and safe moves. Wait patiently until he uses it.

MAKE SURE THE DOLL STAYS IN FRONT OF YOU, **DO NOT** GET SANDWICHED.

It gives a tandem confirm and major damage. Use dashing 662a carefully on devo because the doll can IAD in response. While camping he'll have the following responses: if you're waiting patiently he'll s.6A into tick throw or s+9, 6B for a quick overhead, or s.22x because of its low risk. If you're in the air he'll s+8C for a great air to air. J.C for the doll approaching on the ground and a 2A 214AA off it if you can. A well-timed J.C can beat his s.J.C. Push block and punish with a low hop J.C for his IAD.

Your main goal for getting damage is hitting the doll itself. Camp around it, ideally you want it to be midscreen or right next to you. Mind s.J.C or s.5A if it's close.

Pressure

If you knock him down, this is your chance. If his doll is behind him that's even better, pressure is low risk in this scenario by comparison. Because he's so short, doing IOH J.C is impossible unless you press it instantly. You can slip in a lot more 2As because he's wide, and 2A, 2A, 4B xx214AA is much more consistent on him than the rest of the cast due to it. J.C/2A mixes are good on devo alone because he has few options to dealing with it, only 2A, 5C or GC. Feel free to JC his 2A and continue pressure. Tech 5C down instantly on hit and punish it, it's free up close. His GC gives a soft knockdown so recovering is not that bad.

Remember that if he has meter he has a lot of Tandem iframes from full screen off of a 2A it, can lead to heavy damage and hard to knock down too. Mind his super confirms: 5C xx 214AA, 5B x n / 2A xx 214AA 2A cancels will shut down your own 2A since he has a ton of I-frames and the 5C wil beat j.C.

Don't pressure him mindlessly, you will lose. Thankfully his meter gain is pathetic, if he's alone and without bar there's a good amount to punish him with

Extra Stuff

You can do 5C>5C 214AA in this matchup if Devo's doll is stretching the screen to full. Super impractical, but it’s possible.

KhanDevo.png

Matchup: 2-8



DIO

A fairly difficult matchup for Khan, however, not impossible.

Neutral/Approach

His neutral is like yours, built on dashing and good pokes, preferably where he can hit the tip of 66C. He's fast, stay ontop of him. 66aA/j.C are your go tos as usual, but his 66Cxx236S stops both and also safe on block. Bait it with your good dashes but whiff punishing it is hard, 236S is quick and leaves quicker than my dad, making 662A hard to hit in response with. In spite this 66C can be used as a tell for it at least. Don't get cornered, use your solid dashes to be somewhere he cant carry you to said corner, as your defensive options are poor. Minimize his turn as much as possible, getting hit by one of his combos takes too much health. His 662A and 2A are both great pokes, combo starters and neutral tools, your 662A might even lose to his 2A at times. Outside of pressure he has good confirms into combos anyway.5A/66A xx 236S beats out j.c if he times it right. Even though he has big hurtboxes you wont pressure him much, he just has solid get off me options. As for his teleport he tends to 2A/236S right after as he uses it to get in, meaty his teleport with j.c or 2a, he also tends to teleport ontop of you. As for lasers j.s and ducking work fine, this is more of a random thing he throws out.

Playing neutral is hard as he likes to keep you at a range when youre not a threat but he is, preferably where 66C will barely hit, and finds no issue making it his turn in any gaps within your own pressure/ neutral. Dealing with his pressure is mandatory here.

Dealing with Pressure

He'll likely suffocate you, he wants to see bad patterns in your pushblocking, and don't usually GC unless it'll hit for sure, it's not too useful here. Be wary of frame traps, staggering pressure and tandem for unblockable setups. He wants to punish any attempts to punish his own pressure. Don't get impatient, it's what he wants. He'll be making his pressure unpredictable, to escape read a 662A/662C and PB>HH J.s to escape. There's not much to do here because you lack good defensive options, having you eat damage if you don't move with caution.

Catch onto his habits and act appropriately, don't be pressured for too long either. Return to neutral or punish, it's not over unless he hits or has you cornered.

Dealing with Stand On

In s.on he tends to not pressure you nearly as much and gets slower+more defensive. He wants you to approach him while he stalls, after a lifelead post pressure. J.Bxxs.j.236x, s.5A and s.5C All can stop your j.c. He'll push you back via s.f.236x as well, and while not garuanteed he can stop your 2A with s.6B/hopping s.j.c. He wants you to mess up your pressure when he's s.on, but you can't really lame dio out here either, building meter the best via whiffing s.5A. (outside of combos anyway) His hurtboxes are luckily huge in s.on, but be wary of him having meter. He can stop your pressure with 214S and s.236aa, ioh j.c in particular leaving a gap for him to do so. A late pushblock on 2a can let him do tandem too. Said tandem lets him also do plenty like his aforementioned unblockable if he's close enough or 5c if he sees you jump (punish it with j.c).

His s.on knifes let him do a number of options too. Don't bother intercepting it's startup at all, he gets too many i frames. You need to have pressured him in s.on or he'll just have more meter for this super. He can use it to whiff punish, stop pressure, anti air you, and even use it in the air to punish your slower moves. Landing it twice in a row also gives him immense damage, so be careful when approaching and he has meter, it's one of his biggest forms of damage s.on. You can try to block the knives but the chip is great, and he might also use it to follow up with s.2A, or to tick throw you at no health. Even without this option he's a relatively menacing threat due to who you're playing.

Approach with caution, beat his attempts to beat you out. If you get a nice lifelead he'll continue his pressure s.off so switch up your game as you need to. Be ware of knive's flexibility against you.

Extra Stuff

- You are able to punish DIO's grab easily both midscreen and corner, even when he's in stand on mode.
Punishes shown here: DIO Grab Punishes As Khan
- DIO can still punish your meterless BNB even after a stand crash by downteching after the DP ends and doing s.236AA mid-air, or just simply mid-air j.C
- Moves to counter: s.off 2a/5B, 214x
- Due to his height s.on a stupid trick of HH j.s and mixing via 4/6 randomly just might work if he's at 1-3 health.
- If you're a god and he only has one meter right in front of you, you can punish s.on knives with great timing via 214aa
KhanDIO.png

Matchup: 2-8



Hol Horse

A matchup Hol Horse revels in with joy, as he doesn't have to fight a busted S-tier. You'll start believing those Hol Horse OP memes once you fight him, as you're a passive character, not just any passive character, but you're Khan. A character vulnerable to chip, good zoning, and high damage combos. Those are all things Hol provides with repetition and regulation. It's a tough matchup, and also an annoying one.

Approach

You'll be spending almost all of your time in this matchup chasing Hol across the stage as he tries to run away and zone you out. However, this isn't really Hol cowardly throwing out projectiles to keep you at bay. He's carefully waiting on you to fuck up, from small mistakes like dashing into 236C, to huge ones like running into 214x. It's your job to make sure you absolutely don't fuck up here. Hol has many different projectiles that he can use to keep you out, he'll mainly frequent 236x (straight shot), 214x (j.geil trap) and 623x (glass). Your approach needs to be varied and unpredictable, as Hol can easily make the right counter if you're coming at him in a very predictable manner, so trying to mix up your way of approaching him can make him perform the incorrect read thus allowing you to open him up for some decent pressure, however the way you go about pressure will be explained in the below section. You're going to approach him with exclusively 662A, j.B, j.C and j.S, as they are fast and reliable ways of getting in. Hol doesn't even really need to respect those options though, as he has counters for all of those buttons. For 662A, he can set up 214x to fuck you up big time or he can use 236C to get you to run into it. While these can both be hopped over (with some exceptions 214x can hit you if you do a short hop), he also has a fairly strong anti-air game. If he sees j.C or j.B, he has a super good anti-air in 4A, and can cancel into glass for some extra damage and tech chasing. If Hol is at any corner of the screen, you can be double fucked as Hol can combo 4A into 214AA, aka the super unsafe super that does very good damage and looks cool, but fortunately you won't see it often, however if it happens then GGs. The much more dangerous option here is using 421AA (slow bullet). If he lands this move, it does an insane amount of damage, and as if it wasn't enough, Hol can actually combo into another 421AA if he times it right, as you will be unable to tech out of it. However, if you know he will 4A in response to your jump-in, you can use j.B to actually beat out the anti-air if you hit it at the tip. For j.S, he has his S Bullet. While it's not really used as much as his far worse counterpart in Hoingo, it still has use in anti-airing your j.S, however due to it's rather slow startup, you can possibly get in unscathed if you use it at a low enough height. Unfotunately, j.S can also get beaten by both 4A and 5C, which is the win button for Hol in this matchup. Again, this is why you don't want to approach Hol predictably. He can simply just see your next move and make the appropriate counter, which isn't hard at all for him to do. If Hol is in the air, then that's your chance to jump at him and j.B/j.C. He has no real moves that can challenge you in the air as you have full control up there, just be careful of j.623x (air glass), as it can beat your air-to-air approach if Hol uses it below you. One last aspect about approaching Hol is using 236AA. You might think the high i-frames and large distance it travels might make it good for any Hol who makes a risky projectile to try and get you. Wrong. 236AA is slow as fuck. No point in attempting to use it here since despite the fact that it will most likely get past Hol's tools, it only has one use and that's for air glass punishing. Overall approaching Hol is a super arduous task, and requires a lot of working to get up in his face and try some damage. If the Hol is defensive minded, it just makes the matchup even harder as even more attempts at approach are needed and that allows for yet even more room to make massive fuck-ups.

Up Close

If you've successfully closed in the gap between you and Hol, try to stick on to him for a fair amount of time. However, just because you've gotten close doesnt mean it's in your favor, Hol Horse is still a threat up close. He can now use 2A and 5B, both absolutely destroying Khan. Normally buttons like those aren't that useful since he's busy trying to keep you out and beating your approach, but now he has his full arsenal at his disposal. Show complete discipline and patience, as Hol can easily make you look stupid for trying to get too eager. DO NOT FALL FOR HIS FRAME TRAPS. 5B xx 214B is the most notable and it beats out anything, even safe-jumping. Be disciplined and block the 214. He will try other things after it like 5B xx 236C which has to be blocked low, or use j.C to get you high, or throw you if you're about to die. Hol also has a lot of links into 5B xx 214B. 2A, 5A, even 5B, 5B works, as that in of itself is another frame trap. His blockstrings will also do a lot of chip. As for the buttons themselves, 5A is fast and you must respect it. Just pushblock it and hope 5B is out of range. 2A is a super annoying,fast and mashable. It can link into 5B as well so be sure to pushblock it and hope 5B doesn't link. Then there's dreaded 5B itself. It comes out frame 5, so in up close scramble situations 5B is more of a threat than all of your tools. It's the primary frame trap tool for 214, and the primary hitconfirm into 236C, since Khan is too short to be hit by 236B standing and crouching. Then there's 5C, it causes a hard knockdown, untechable, and easily leads into his unblockable oki, hol only needing one bar of meter to take 50% of your life by one rep of his UB oki into 421AA. With more than one bar he can easily ToD you with 662C into 421AA from his UB oki. Avoid getting hit by 5C at all costs as well, as it will mean instant death if hol is nice enough to let you live. What if you pressured instead? It's super hard to pressure a defensive minded hol as they'll block every mixup you do. Use your meter ASAP. Immediately confirm into 214AA once you hit that 2A, no point in saving your meter, and 236AA is almost never a good option as a punish (stated as to why above). If you're low on meter, pressure Hol for grabs as this is to make hol impatient.(This isn't for damage, that's what confirming into 214AA is for) Similar to how Hol makes his opponents impatient and prone to fuck up by repeatedly running away and zoning out, you can make Hol more impatient and less disciplined by repeatedly tick throwing him. Foregoing damage here is perfectly acceptable if you're down on meter. If you have the meter, fuck going for mind games, you need some damage. The up close game is still very much in Hol's control. Block his frame traps, don't get eager to pressure. Don't get hit by 214x or 5C, as that will already lose you the round. Go for grabs if you need meter and want to pressure to irritate hol,if you have meter, *immediately* go for 214AA once you can confirm into it. Patience is the key here, and the more flexible you are with Hol's options, the better you'll handle them.

Khanhol.png KhanHolChase.png

Extra Stuff

- You can punish Hol's air glass easily, here are some examples: SQ's Khan Air Glass Punishes
one punish that was not shown in this video is 236AA. It's not as useful as 214AA due to the lower damage, and it's only really used if you're not good with timing the 214AA.

- You can punish Hol's grab in so many ways, although they are really tight. Downtech for them, it's 2+abc
Here are the examples of some the punishes: Hol Grab Punishes As Khan

Matchup: 3-7



Hol Horse & Boingo

An exercise in frustration. Another matchup you need to learn to bear with, he's hol without his instant kill moves and replaced with one godlike move due to your lack of stand-on.

Approach

Most buttons of his are worse so being punished is less of a risk in terms of a TOD, and his 4A is also worse. Same with 5C, it wont lead to huge damage anymore.

Mind 5B and 2B, he loves those, 5B still being abusable, he gets only 236C and S bullet from it though. (The S bullet is fake)

2B is actually better in this mu too. It combos into S bullet unlike 5B so mind when he can use them. Once you get in, that's the ticket due to him being unable to get you off. Throw him off of a roll, he can't do anything to you outside of right next to the corner, and 5B/charge slash his air glass.

S Bullet

S Bullet is what he'll rely on like salt to meat. It comes out super fast, does a TON of chip and he can move it in many, many ways. The trick is to try and notice a pattern with it and act accordingly.

You're going to want to abuse d.2A as you can do FA otherwise. Try rolling alot but not enough to look mindless, your roll still sucks, but you should avoid his chip, it gains in no time.

-Mind his s bullet pattern that goes behind you and hits low.

-Block crossups with S bullet like you would normally.

-66A sets up super, there's no reason to do it otherwise ever so PB it ASAP or it'll fail to push him back in time.

KhanHoingo.png

Matchup: 7-3



Iggy

One of the more unknown terrible matchups for Khan. Iggy seems unsuspecting against Khan, sure he’s a tourney viable active stand character so it’s almost expected that this Matchup is bad for Khan however it’s not as horrible as you think. It’s near Jotaro levels of ass, and here is why.

Neutral

Generally you want to play the same neutral you play for most other matchups against other characters. Iggy’s main gameplan is looking to either beat you in neutral or keep you out via a certain option he has which will be explained below. Iggy’s buttons aren’t the S-tier ones that completely shut you down but they’re more than effective at stopping you. Just to preface your aerial moves are ineffective at hitting stand off Iggy in neutral, aside from j.C as a jump in and j.B as an air to air. When he’s Stand off you are always going for the [4]6C ender instead of [4]6B > 623C one, as it will whiff on Iggy stand off. 2A/662A is still going to hit, however Iggy has many tools to beat it out. Far 5C and 2A can stop 662A as both have super good disjoint that will stop Khan in his tracks. Since Iggy is so small it’s pretty hard to try and hit him. Challenging stand off Iggy in the air is stupid easy, as j.B beats out anything Iggy will throw. Khan’s j.S is still used for maneuvering into good spots however you’re mostly going to be on offense against Iggy as you can’t really control how Iggy is going to play this matchup. Also be on the lookout for Iggy’s grab. It might happen after he hits you with his 2A or if you hit a j.C and aren’t careful enough of his grab. It gives him his very strong oki and you gotta be prepared for what he has in stock for you. Stand On is a different story. His stand on combos despite not being that long still hurt Khan a lot due to his low defense. A simple s.5A s.5B s.5C s.[4]6C does almost 40% on Khan. The pokes don’t have nearly as much disjoint however they still have high priority and you might get beat in the air thanks to s.j.C. Since his hurtbox is much larger you can hit him easily in spots stand off Iggy would be fine from. Use your pokes with some caution against s.On Iggy as they might get beaten due to the priority and watch out for Iggy’s disjointed hitboxes when he’s Stand Off.

Sandballs

This is pretty much the option Iggy will do against Khan. You simply can’t do anything about it. This one defensive option is simply too much. He can do them from heights that either guarantee a hit or are literally impossible to challenge him at. Khan is fairly helpless against stand balls but there’s always ways to alleviate the pain.

If Iggy goes for a long range Sandball then your best option is to j.B, but note that Iggy can block while using Sandballs, that basically means it will beat your j.B 100% of the time, so you kind of have to use it in a super unpredictable manner, mix it up with j.S if you need to. As long as you hit him you won’t need to worry, however getting to that point is still super hard if not impossible, as the Sandballs are just too effective here. If Iggy goes for a mid-range Sandball it’s the same basic principle. Try hitting one of your air to airs in a very unpredictable manner. If he’s at a low enough height it’s possible to strike him with moves like 5B, 4B, 5S, and [4]6B. [4]6B is a decent option however if the Iggy Sandballs on reaction then you will be open to a free punish and it will hurt. Moves like 5S have a very fast startup and might be tricky for the Iggy to see. It’s still very hard to get a good outcome in your favor when he tries it. If Iggy goes for the super jump Sandball, just don’t even try challenging him. He’s far too out for your range. Just roll and avoid the C Sandball and wait for him to fall down with an s.j.2C. Make sure to block it as a fake crossup and punish accordingly. If Iggy tries low profiling any of these options with 2B when he lands just block it and punish, as your land animation will get meatied. Yeah as you can tell Iggy kinda dominates neutral with this option. Nothing much Khan can do here, all you can do is just alleviate the pain. Your go-to anti airs are fairly ineffective, And the way Sandballs just work are just far too good for Khan to handle. The worst part is that Iggy will do this to every Khan he comes across. Nothing much you can do about it, lame Iggy is very difficult to deal with.

Okizeme

Unfortunately your oki options against Iggy are very limited. You can probably guess why. Your IOH is pretty much useless against Iggy here, but you can at least use your j.C jump-in and 2A. Even more unfortunate for you, Iggy has all of his okizeme options against you.

Sand Dog: This is a pretty hard option to avoid since you don't have much moves with i-frames. You have three options to try and avoid this. You can either use your 214AA/236AA, Guard Cancel, or jump. Iggy can mix up what he does after Sand Dog to beat out what options you'll try to do. If you try and jump, Iggy can use his j.C to meaty your pre-jump frames, so instead of using jumping to beat out this oki if Iggy chooses to meaty your jump, you can GC. However, this option is pretty hard to execute because you have to GC a single hit at a pretty unpredictable and inconsistent time. If you have a hard time getting out that GC, you have one more option, which is using your supers. Super risky option since you can get meatied. If you know the Iggy won't try and meaty you on wake-up then you can use either 214AA or 236AA to beat it out.

IAD Meaty: Very hard to react do. Iggy can either meaty you with IAD s.j.B, or intentionally whiff IAD s.j.B and use 2A or do another IAD s.j.B. Since your wake-up speed is easily able to be meatied off of any Iggy knockdown move, you have to be ready for this oki as well. It mainly comes down to how fast your reaction speed is, and it's not really that easy to react to. If you successfully block this oki, just pushblock. Your guard cancel might work, however it's hard to buffer. It's more safe to just pushblock and return to neutral.

Sandball 50/50: Another okizeme option that is merely just testing your reaction speed. Just make sure to either block the sandball, s.j.B/s.j.C or s.2A. Iggy might hover but not do any sandball, or he could use a sandball, then drop down and either use his s.j.B or s.2A. He can mix up what he can do off of his hover, so be ready to block whatever comes from it. If you do block it, just pushblock or GC.

Close 5C/Tandem: Pretty underused but still an option nonetheless. Jumping won't work against this oki since 5C will meaty that pre-jump. Once he gets you trying to block, he can cancel 5C into tandem and just use 2A, which is a low, and he can just use IOH j.C to create an "unblockable" mix up. If you do block this mixup, either guard cancel (risky option) or just pushblock. This mix up applies to pretty much any active user, however since Iggy's oki options are so abundant you still have to worry about blocking this option.



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Matchup: 2-8



Old Joseph

This is definitely one of Khan's more fun matchups. It's another matchup that's heavily based on neutral, however this time it's not that much of an uphill battle, as Oldseph is outsped in mobility however has the bigger damage output. It's no 5:5 but it's close to one when both players have top notch neutral. Since he has a Stand he holds a slight edge however there's no guarantee that Oldseph will win as he isn't as strong as other cancerous foes in this game. Here's the rundown.

Neutral / Approach S.OFF

The neutral is where most of the match is spent. Both players will try and find any openings they can to either do small confirms or big ones that do the highest damage they have to offer. You'll be using your usual pokes in neutral, finding any good openings to approach with 662A or j.C. You and your opponent are mainly just dashing around before you try and find any opening. In this case Ojo has a fair amount of pokes he can use. If he's Stand Off then he doesn't really have much for damage without any meter as his normals just give him a simple confirm into 236B, however what his normals can confirm into is a CC (custom combo). His CC can do some pretty big damage thanks to his 360 ender so be on the lookout for a 66B or 662A as they are very great long range pokes that can confirm into CC and 236B. His 5B, 5C and 2C are also very good pokes that have easy confirms into CC and 236B. He can try to keep you out or keep you in place via using his 236B, similar to YoJo. However, also like YoJo, if you see this, pushblock it and 662A for that free punish, as it retains relatively the same frame data. When approaching in the air, be mindful of Ojo's 66A, 66B, 5C and 236AA. While they won't net him big damage the 236AA will. You won't get completely shut down but if you do it enough times Ojo will see it and punish accordingly, and those previously mentioned pokes will beat out your jump-in. In the air Ojo doesn't really have a chance against your j.B when he uses j.C, however Ojo's j.C might beat your own j.C, so use j.B just in case. Your high mobility is going to be really useful in this matchup as Ojo's movement and pokes are both pretty slow. Your 662A can low profile 66B, however it won't be able to get through 662A (will most likely trade) or 5C (also will most likely trade), and thanks to this mobility via your dashes the bait and punish game is actually super useful here as Ojo's dashing normals have incredibly high recovery to where you have way more than enough time to react to the move and punish accordingly. Since you'll be moving around a lot to try and find an opening Ojo will be mainly using his dashing normals when Stand Off to try and find an opening to land them. They will beat out a j.C approach (if 66A or 66B is used) as previously mentioned, however as explained earlier they can be low profiled by your 662A, however Ojo's own 662A can challenge it. This whole bait and punish game is far more effective in this matchup than others, however if you do get hit and Ojo has meter he will damage you heavily, so making any big mistakes in neutral will cost you. There is a lot of moving parts against a Stand Off Ojo however Ojo also has a stand mode, so there's still a lot more moves to challenge.

Neutral / Approach S.ON

Ojo's Stand On pokes are essentially better versions of his Stand Off ones. The way you use your pokes shouldn't be too different, however there's still a lot of pokes you need to pay attention to. He has new combos that can confirm into bigger damage meterless thanks to s.236x. Speaking of s.236x if Ojo uses it in neutral, jump over it and punish, since it is super punishable if it is avoided. Ojo won't use this option much if he's smart but if he does then you know what to do. He keeps his 5A and 5C (which is now s5B) and their respective dashing variants. s.5A and s.66A will do more than enough to beat your aerial approach if you're not careful, however they can be low profiled with 662A like s.off 5A. s.66A cannot be cancelled so don't expect big damage to be wrought upon you. s.5A however can be cancelled and chained into a full combo, just don't expect it from the air. Unlike his Stand Off mode, s.662A is a poke you won't see at all since it cannot be cancelled, so don't expect it to challenge your 662A. What can challenge your 662A is s.2C, as it can be confirmed into a full combo, has a fair amount of disjoint, and comes out really fast. Be on the lookout for this poke, as it can easily catch you lacking if you're not paying attention. Approaching in the air is easier here however on the ground pokes like s.2C are going to be dangerous. Don't make any mistakes in neutral as that's what Ojo is looking for to create some big damage off of his hitconfirms.

Okizeme Abuse

Since Ojo's wake-up speed is so slow you can create some super wacky oki. You can do double jump cross-ups and the j.S unblockable (can be crouched to avoid lol) among other things. Oki is a thing you should abuse in this matchup, as you can mix up Ojo with a bunch of setups fairly easily to get him into a vortex. This can rack up some very nice damage, don't overlook this. Sure neutral isn't an uphill battle against Ojo but being on offense instead of being in the neutral is a pretty nice outcome. Note that pressuring Ojo isn't a bad idea however pokes like 5B and s.2C stop you on the ground, and his anti-airs like 5A and 236AA stop you in the air, so don't get rash with your pressure, do it in chunks and occasionally so you can catch Ojo off guard once you get in on him, which is a fairly simple task if you avoided any of his attempts to stuff you out.

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Matchup: 4-6



Jotaro

Shitty matchup, his stand on bullies you and takes your lunch money. Khan’s life is just too low for damage of Jotaro’s caliber. Khan’s pokes aren’t something you should do too predictably, because he can punish you hard for them. It's another matchup where you need to put 1000 times as much effort as the opponent.

Neutral

Another mu needing superb neutral from you. Mind his 662a/S.662a as they lead into his combos and oki. Focus on your neutral as he can just PB your 662a and 6B in retaliation. If this happens, block and hope he doesn't confirm off of it. Mind his 6B in general given it's a 5F low, but thankfully he doesn't have any snappy high hitting moves in neutral unless he's also jumping. Like vice, don't let him build meter away from you, star breaker and tandem chances are too much to ignore, even if his regular meter gain is above average already. Mix up your approaches heavily while being random, and also mind him doing 236S in s.off leading to a free knockdown, and s.2a that goes into his rekka. if you somehow have the lifelead, bait and punish any approaches of his, and don't let him corner you while he does so. Use your dashes and j.s to gtfo in that case with PBing sometimes for good measure. Your dashes will help alot in dire situations aside facing star breaker though. J.s off of a backdash is also handy given it's not as high in the air as regular j.s. Neutral and approaching should be way better than his to stand a chance.

Dealing With Stand On

Behold, the inner workings of why you will hate this matchup. Jot’s Stand On will bully your approach on both the ground and the air. If the Jot sees you doing a j.C, he can easily just s.5A and that’s all he needs to steal your turn. Even if you do low hop j.C the s.5A is far too fast, you will get hit by it. If he wants to shut you down when you’re on the ground he has two pokes in s.2A and s.5B that will shut down your 662A. If you’re really unlucky s.5B can not only shit on you on the ground but it can shut down your air approach as well. Not to mention that he has Star Breaker, the ultimate button checker, however that whole can of worms will be explained later. When Jot is stand on you’re pretty helpless, which is why mixing your approach is even more important here, as the Jot can sniff out a predictable approach with s.5B or s.5A and you’re back to neutral, sometimes you’re even on the receiving end of oki if you get hit by s.5B. Pressuring him should be out of the question as his moves are just too fast for your unsafe IOH j.C and PBed 2A. You should at least try to get him out of stand on with a clean [4]6B xx 623C or 214AA off of a 2A or getting the counter, however whiffing the counter will mean certain death for you. Yeah you don’t really have a lot of options when Jot is stand on, and laming isn’t really gonna do you good either since Jot can just s.5A you. Unless you do your j.S off of a backdash that option is not really going to be effective. In short you’re not going to be doing much to a stand on Jot other than careful approaches and occasional laming, there’s nothing really much else you can do against him.

The Inevitable (Star Breaker)

So, the Jot just got some meter and he’s Stand On. Well, you’re going to be seeing this particular move if he has both of those things checked. This makes approaching Jot a really risky game. SB will deal a lot of damage, so you should either try baiting it with an empty hop or pray that your 2A is recovering and won’t get punished. Most times baiting it is the much safer option, since j.C approaches will get beat by SB, your best best is to bait the SB and have Jot waste his meter that way. I would love to say you can get a free punish for the big brain read, but unfortunately it’s only unsafe on pushblock, so baiting it on the ground and at close range is the only real way you can punish Jot for it. Don’t forget that the SB might not even come out as Jot could just do the usual sike bitch I’m actually gonna grab technique. If you see this option just 2A to catch his dash or tech the grab, however if the Jot backdashes and isn’t going for the grab, your tech grab read will turn into a 5C, and that will fuck you over. If the Jot tries to read your 2A and backdash then come back with a poke of his own, your 2A would have already ended by then and you would be safe and back into neutral. Do not roll against an SB. Your roll is slow as fuck and will be grabbed. The best case scenario here is baiting the SC correctly and having Jot lose that meter. Again though be very careful with the SB cancels so you’re not open to a free grab.

Getting Fingered (Oki)

His oki is a simple 50/50, you mainly just guess correctly here. Both the low and the high can be comboed from so you're eating alot of damage regardless. It's not advised to gc here as he can just fuck off and punish you, PB instead. The high in his oki is easier to react to, I recommend just holding 1 and waiting for the high since it's done far less often than 6B, it's 12F as opposed to the low's 5F. You can't get much by escaping this besides returning to neutral, but this is his main oki at least. This is a high risk low reward deal for an escape attempt but the alternative of eating a 50% combo isn't much more desirable.

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Matchup: 2-8



Kakyoin

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Besides petshop this is probably your worst matchup. Here's your cheat sheet for a test you won't be passing

Neutral / Approach

You’re in Kakyoin’s domain now. You’re powerless in neutral. Even if you’re a neutral master, you’ll still be insignificant in the end. Sure, certain key moves like Kakyoin’s s.5A and 5A will whiff on you, but to him it’s a minor annoyance. Approaching with anything requires a lot of caution. 662A can be beaten by a shit ton of Kakyoin moves like 2C, s.2C, s.5B, s.5C, you get the point. Approaching on the ground can easily get clapped if the Kakyoin sees it. What about your air approach? Well, it’s going to get invalidated thanks to one move, and it’s name is s.5B. Not only does j.C get outright beat by this move but j.B will as well. Even attempts at getting in via using a fast j.S are ineffective. Most of the time you’ll have to approach Kakyoin since he will not even bother to accept your existence if he had a life lead, and if he doesn’t, using insane pressure with his IADs and nets isn’t a problem for him. Unfortunately this is one of the rare instances where your j.B will take out everything that challenges you in an air-to-air interaction. Kakyoin’s j.C has the level of disjoint that can only be produced from 50kg of crack snorted at Capcom HQ. Also note that approaching might be even more dangerous considering Kakyoin literally has the best move in the whole game. Nets is a super, super dangerous tool. If you’re not careful and get caught in this bad boy you’re going to be done in for. Kakyoin has so many confirms and routes off of nets it’s not even funny. Luckily you can take out nets fairly easily however most times he’ll try to catch you when you’re getting rush with that approach, leaving you wide open for an ass beating. Trying to lame here is all but useless. If you gain a life lead and run away, Kakyoin can just clip you with s.5B, or j.C, as they both do serviceable jobs of disabling your j.S laming, and running away via backdashing is just putting yourself in a far les favorable situation, so it’s not exactly in your best interest to run away with a good life lead. The meterless BnB combo thankfully works on S.ON Kak and crouching Kak with a small chance of DP whiffing, but the downside is that he can punish the DP part even if a stand crash has occurred by downteching quickly and turning stand on then doing s.236AA, but this will rarely happen since the DP part will not do as much hits on Kak as often, so it will just end up with Kak being sent up too high, not being able to punish. Due to the nature of Kakyoin’s strength approaching him requires a ton of thinking, caution, and preparation so you’re able to be ready for what comes next.

Okizeme Abuse: Resurrection

Kakyoin has one of the slowest wake-up speeds in the whole game. This means that if you’ve successfully knocked him down, you can set up some pretty good oki, however if Kakyoin blocks it, then you’re back into hell. If you can mix up Kakyoin enough you might be able to get some good damage. Much like Oldseph and Youngseph this should be abused if possible since you can really get good damage from mixing Kakyoin up, dont. Hold. Back. Mind a reversal tandem of course.

Nets

One neat thing is that every move cuts nets. He can still camp behind a net, wait for you to take it out then do a normal like s.2A or s.2C to punish you. The s.2C option will 100% beat out your j.C as it will meaty your landing recovery, aside how he can set them off whenever. You won’t be able to properly disable the net and if you’re really down on your luck then you’ll get hit by the net and at that point you’ve lost. It’s yet another one of those high-risk low reward things. You’re risking a lot by trying to take out the net Kak is camping behind however the reward is just that. You removed his net, ok I guess? Remove nets in neutral with caution and unpredictability. He can also use nets in oki to make you block an IOH or low that can be confirms off of, so yeah some insane reactions are required here too. Overall it’s just another net loss for Khan here, no unfunny pun intended.

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Yeah, there’s nothing I have to say to you fellow Khan player other than good luck. You’re going to need it.

Matchup: 1-9



Khan

Finally, a mfun matchup. There’s no S-tier bullshit, it’s now all about playing neutral, there’s no large uphill battle, it’s all about skill, there's only mental advantages. The Khan with the better neutral usually wins.

Neutral / Approach

Usually dashing alot helps, poke with the usual 662A and j.C. Whiff punishing is hard, 662A ends very quickly, aside a 5C misinput you’re not getting too many unsafe moves to punish. You’ll be playing this match on both the ground and the air frequently, j.S for getting around, but also for potential laming. j.C *is* a primary poke, but not the best for this MU, as j.B beats it out. Remember to tech chase with 5B, If you hit Khan with your BnB, (easy to do since he's wide) track him then 5B xx 5S or 5B xx 623C. Usually when Khan techs they might j.S to flee, but you can mash dash to catch up.Focus on neutral, just doing one mistake might fuck you over still. Mind the easy confirms into big damage like 662A, 2A xx 214AA. Abuse low hop j.C/2B for meter build while full screen, you should be able to react to any approaches. Due to Khan’s low defense 214AA can decide a match. However, use meter sparingly, your meter gain is still below average unless you repeatedly land bnb's. When you do confirm try the [4]6C ender more than the [4]6B xx 623C ender if you’re really good with Khan oki. If you’re just looking for damage Go for the regular ender, whiffing it on khan is rare. your pokes are even more dangerous in neutral, as moves like 662A can land from very long distances. Approaching is nothing special, outside of backdashing and j.S he can do little. Your 662A approach will be beaten out by a j.C and your j.C approach gets beaten by a j.B. If you approach with j.B then the worst thing that happens is that your j.B comes out later and gets beaten by the other Khan's j.B. It's not like the Khan would be able to perfectly react to those options, he's merely going to try and read your approach. However, if he does read it, he has another move in his arsenal that's very dangerous. Khan's learning counter, is crucial here. If you counter his 2A you have him by the balls. If you yours countered? Well, it's like fighting a top tier now. use not countered moves BUT you can use 2A if it's applied occasionally. Preferably try to counter 2A off of a read, thankfully damage received here isn't overly high. In short, Khan neutral isn't complicated, landing counter can be crucial though.

Pressure

You might assume pressure on yourself is free due to no defensive options. Well, kind of. Khan’s pressure can be invalidated by just a pushblock, this is more than enough for breathing room. Mixing up pressure is important as the pressured Khan has options. If possible he can GC, untechable and gives oki in the corner. He doesn’t have any normals that can necessarily outright beat your pressure though. He can escape with his backdash. For the 2A he can only PB or GC. You don't want to default to endless pressure since it can get predictable, and you have few options for it. Tick grabs work but they're useless/punishable in the corner. He can counter against predictable pressure that doesn't have blockstrings. j.C countered is fine, you have j.B. But 2A? Well, you fucked up. If Khan blocks that it's a free combo for him. Not all hope is lost due to 2A's short blockstun, he might not have enough time to react and punish. All in all, pressuring Khan is most likely going to net you either a lot of damage or no damage depending on how you mix your pressure, however it's not recommended you do this against a skilled Khan all the time as they have options of taking the pressure away.

Okizeme Options

OKi is simple, 2A for the low and j.C for the high with grab for blocks (punishable in the corner). However, a vortex is arguably possible, the trick is to mix it up enough. Most often you’ll just try to react to the j.C and 2A. Don’t be conditioned by any tricks as he has ways to punish you for thinking he’s predictable. Most of Khan’s options land into a free combo that can potentially lead into yet more oki like [4]6C or 214AA. Lookout for IOH j.C. It's fast and can be cancelled into j.S so he can run away safely. However, if you time it right, a [4]6B will actually hit the j.S and that can be comboed into 623C. Khan’s 2A is a very difficult thing to react to since it comes out so fast, and usually it’s done after an empty hop. Don’t forget that he can cross you up with a dash hop due to your shortness. His Oki is all about mind games, and you’ll be playing them too once you’ve knocked the other Khan down. You need to mix up your oki while also making sure to stay on top of the other Khan’s mental habits. If he mixes up his oki well it will be tough for you to block it but if you’re able to find a pattern then that’s just going to help you out more. If he goes for a grab for oki it means his oki has ended more or less, it launches you far.

Getting Lame

behold, j.S, the ultimate laming option. Laming is usable, he has no projectiles or godly anti-airs. Only 4 feasible options that can beat j.S laming: 5B, 623C, j.B, and [4]6B, but they all vary in use. 5B wont work unless he lands next to you, 623C has less horizontal reach than a baby, j.B is your best bet in the air, and usually works, and [4]6B can beat out any j.S clean if it’s fairly close to the ground. However, using j.S right for laming will be very effective in terms of mentality. Once they chase you around long enough, they’ll keep pressuring you, they’ll try to lock you in a spot to try to wail on you with mixup pressure. This is where your GC comes in handy, and you can effectively end the Khan’s pressure there. It’s good at annoying them, but of course, spamming j.S won’t necessarily give you the win as they can eventually anti-air you.Only laming probably wont work, so you need to just resort to good neutral and use the laming a little more sparingly. It’s not the go-to option in this matchup however it’s far more prevalent than in most matchups. Use it well, it will help out a lot.

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Extra Stuff

- Khan can punish his own BnB. That sounds really stupid, but it’s true. If the DP ender hits they can actually downtech the BnB and you’ll still be in the middle of falling from the DP. Yeah that’s pretty low tier if you ask me. This is why going for the [4]6C ender is a bit safer.
- Khan’s j.C can actually cross up Khan at a specific height due to Khan’s wide hurtbox and the large active frames of j.C. Might be useful for oki and pressure.
- Khan cannot punish his own throw from midscreen, only in the corner with 5A (if close enough), 2A, and 214AA.
- A good and easy punish for 236AA is 66A xx 214AA or 66A xx 623C due to the speed of 66A.
- Good punishes for a countered j.B/j.C can be 5B (might not work if the Khan does it at high horizontal velocity), or a late 5C (only works if the Khan does their move falling down)

Matchup: the best in the game



Mariah

Time to unleash your inner Jotard. This is one of the two winning matchups Khan has, and you'll feel just how powerful you are against Mariah. It's your big break, you're no longer seen as the underdog here, you're now the man in control. There's little to really know in this matchup since Mariah is just so terrible so this matchup section will be small, due to the simple and very linear nature of this fight.

Approach

Notice how there's no neutral in the title. Yeah, you won't be playing any neutral. Take what you've learned from the Ice's and Jotaro's you've probably lost to and unleash it all on this poor defenseless woman. You're always approaching Mariah. Her main setups are far too slow for your pressure. Her outlets won't do her any good since 2A, j.B and j.C cut them entirely. Her zoning is pretty ineffective against your basic approach, even with all the cutlery and knives she throws at you, it's far too slow to intercept. However, this doesn't mean you'll get away with your pressure scot-free. Mariah can stop your j.C with her 214AA, and if you've let her gain levels from just mindlessly running into her outlets, it will deal massive damage. If she's low on meter her 5C is perfect for getting you off of her. Also her 2A will catch you if you're not ready for it. If she lands it she will get a free knockdown from the autocombo and get a cable set-up. Note that if you gave Mariah too many levels, you can easily tick throw her to take away a level. However it's risky in the corner since she has a punish in 214AA, so use it mid screen and continue your rapid approach. Your approach shouldn't be mindless unga, it should come with some caution, as she can easily stop you from trying to go full on gorilla on your controller. Also make sure you don't run into any outlets mindlessly.

The Outlets

There's nothing special about Mariah's outlets. They can be cut easily with 2A (if its placed on the ground), j.B and j.C (if its placed in the air). You'll use j.B more often than j.C to take out outlets. She will usually use them to give you an extra obstacle but they're merely pushovers against your approach. Mariah can set you up to do a j.B/j.C against the wire and 214AA you when you're in recovery, so trying to j.C mindlessly up close is not a good idea. All in all cutting her outlets is easy and if done right leaves her with very little levels to spare, making the matchup even easier for you.

The Cable

Similar to outlets, there's pretty much little to no threat from a Mariah using cable (623X) in neutral. If you've played your cards right, Mariah should be at around level 5 at most, however if you played your approach right she would have around 2-3. Even then cable is pretty ineffective since you can j.B/j.C/j.S and it cuts the cable clean. While that's all good and easy to avoid she uses cable in another way. When she knocks you down you will see cable done as a meaty. This is to set up her primary mix up of 2A/6B. The good thing is that this mixup is super easy to block. Hold 1 so that you'll block the 2A since it's really fast, and if you see her do 6B, just block high. 6B is really easy to react to as it has a 20 frame startup, giving you a near half second to react, and the voice clip that plays during it compared to having no voice clip during 2A makes the move even more easier to react to. If you find yourself in this situation, just block the mix and GC when cable ends if possible, though you might miss if Mariah backs away.

KhanCuttingWire.pngKhanMariah.png

Matchup: 8-2



Midler

Surprisingly even matchup. You both have a decent amount of tools to use even if she has more at her disposal. Change your playstyle accordingly.

Neutral / Approach

Use your usual pokes, beware of her 662C, great s.off poke that she can use with her decently fast dash for even more reach and sets up oki. It can be canceled into 214a as a safe frame trap so don't always go for a punish when you pushblock it. She also has decent oki, mainly from her j.b (that can also cross you up) 2A for a low, 2C for a meaty low, and grab. (which has easy setups from her normals and reaches the furthest in the game) also be wary of 662a as it's her combo starter with good range and leads to a tech chase. You can beat it out with your better 662a or land a hop j.c. If she's not willing to go for oki she'll approach with 662a, so just 662a or j.c her. As for her air approaches you respect her sexiness and her j.b that's also a good air to air. (you can beat her out in the air with properly timing j.b) Anti-air her on the ground with 5S or PB the jump-in to avoid blockstrings and pressure. Her standon footsies are not as bad thankfully, low profile her s.5B with 662A, jump over her s.5C if possible for extra damage. Also her s.j.B has a fat hurtbox so anti-air it, her s.j.c beats your j.c so just crouch it.

Keep pressure with 662a and mind j.c getting anti aired by her. Stick to the ground, mind her 662C giving her oki and a frame trap.

Pressure

She mainly uses s,off pokes like 662A for tick throws and blockstrings, alongside freeform cancels from harpoon and her tandem. Watch for tick grab setups, they lead to oki and the grab does good damage. PB her as much as you can and even GC some like 5C during her 662A, 2A, 5C blockstring and have it not whiff completely, mind her baiting your GC with her 2A. Once again, keep PBing over and over. Basic combo damage won't do a ton but her corner loop can lead to some issues, nothing too bad all around. As for her tandem she goes for both combos and pressure to trip you up with mixes, avoid GCing here and also being cornered, remember to superjump j.s whilst minding her anti air options to catch you. She can techchase from many moves, mainly her 236S thats confirmed easily from her combo starters. J.C also can work with her making good reads on your tech behavior, alongside her car special. Keep techs unpredictable while changing j.s flying speed if need be. DON'T bother punishing her tech chase options, they tend to be safe.

Find openings and escape. Tech randomly, as her tech chasing is quite good.

Your own pressure consists of your usual random 662a poking, tick grabs and the like. Her best option is an average GC but it does launch so be wary of that. She can mash 5A in reply to j.c or do 236s if you haven't fully started your jump yet. Both otpions launch. She can also meaty your landing frames with 2C, and replying to your 2A with her own 2A. She can also grab you here and there amidst your pressure.

Laming

She has this as an option with a 2f prejump, air guard iframes and good zoning with cars and harpoons. Her cars stop you from j.s laming alongside harpoon chipping. Don't bother laming yourself unless you have a big life lead of 50%+ or so. This section covers her laming and not yours.

She'll double jump stand on, use landing i-frames, s.j.C cars, j.2C, and harpoons. Double jumping avoids most of your approaches and s.J.C also helps stop most of your closing in attempts as well. 5B and 5S are air UB so try to go for those, besides mayyybe dp. 5S may get challenged by her s.J.B but its unlikely. Mind cars as they're also air UB, approach on the ground mostly, PB cars that hit you. Car super is also air UB and also catches you if you're not careful when approaching, and goes for 2A and j.b while you block it, possibly going for a tick throw at the end with a starting 2A. Block her j.2c with 66a>214AA, j.2c can't be punished if you're in the air. Hop over harpoons or roll if you're far.

KhanMidler.png

Extra Stuff

- Midler can just straight up avoid any oki you have by just holding 7 on wake-up. She has a 2f pre-jump, meaning that she can basically escape anything you have, and it can easily fuck off of any low meaties since her jump hurtbox will high profile that 2A. On top of that she is invulnerable to anything while airblocking, so you can't use j.C and then 5S as an air-UB set-up. Best you can do is try your best to begin pressure.

- Midler has a few i-frames when she lands s.ON, so if you intend to punish a bad jump-in, your punish will whiff. Again, just pressure her instead of punishing.

- Midler's "Dinner Time" / "Vore" super (623AA) may seem shit but it can punish a bad approach, but most important of all it can punish a whiffed [4]6x. Don't whiff it or you will eat a ton of damage.

Matchup: 4-6



New Kakyoin

Nerfed n.kak is still kak. Nets are thankfully exclusive to s.on now, you'll need lots of patience. You'll be kept out or be pressured. Play patient neutral and bear the bullshit.

Neutral / Approach

Neutral can't even be played properly here. You'll be kept out by his good normals, he's also s.on 90% of the time. Normals go from good to busted if he turns it on. Goodluck ever standcrashing him, and he has many options, 50/50 midscreen oki, fullscreen meaty lows, nets, iohs. Challenge 2a/5C/66C/2C and j.c. Time j.b to hit him before he can j.c if you have to air to air. Blocking it can even lead into an UB 66A, so air to airs are essentially never an option. If he's stand off you can approach with your trusty 662A, make it unpredictably used or 5C beats it, 5C also beats a careless j.c jump in

Dealing with Stand On

Long ranged pokes, mixing you to death, punishing your mistakes heavily, n. kak in s.on has it all. Neutral doesn't exist, he either waits for bad approaches or mixing with s.j.b and s2a. BE PATIENT. His tools are many, challenge nets by all of your normals, approach and break the net by being random on when you do. Preferably don't cut it with jump ins, landing frames make you suceptible to his s.2c, and 662A can even lose to it as well. If you somehow get in small gaps in your pressure can let him set a free net into a combo. He can also s.5A>s.5A>s.5B>s.5C (its unblockable for some reason) so pushblock s.5B, don't let s.5c hit and punish. Block his s.2a, it leads to oki. His IOH s.j.b is great aside being a good mixup, he'll spam it when approaching, PB it then 7 j.b>j.s or plain 7/9j.s to flee, a sooner 5b just might work too. He also can use nets during slower attacks to cover their bad endlag.

He's really flexible, Look out for nets, mix up approaches, dont fall for net traps, cut them ASAP and always PB s.j.b.

Okizeme

Abuse his slow wakeup and change your oki approaches, do not hold back, he's already so much better anyway. Stuff like HH over him to 2a or faking out your choices is encouraged heavily.

He meanwhile has a ton of options to use on you, most are 50/50 scenarios, he can even potentially loop it on you.

s.2A / s.j.B Mixup: Comes down to your reaction time. block accordingly, PB ASAP and find an opening/run away.

Net Meaty: DONT USE ANY WAKEUP MOVES. You'll be stuck in blockstun if you do, guess if he's gonna s.2A or s.j.B. Blocked like stated above, it can't be I-framed out of so dont use your supers.

s.2C Meaty: Immense active frames on this makes it esay to abuse. Just PB it, if he's close PB into a punish.

Extra Stuff

- If you PB s.j.B and he goes for it again, you can 214AA it, but it comes with a lot of risk as s.j.B comes out and leaves fast, so he can easily block it and punish. It must be done super early into s.j.B's duration for you to get a clean hit. Unfortunately he's too low to the ground for you to land a double 214AA, but you still bank in some decent damage.

- Counter is fairly useless in this match as N.Kak's moves have a lot of uses in varied situations, but the ones you want to counter are s.2A, s.2C, and s.j.B. Counter them all with 5C.



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Matchup: 2-8



Petshop

KHANSCHLOP.png

Getting fucked by 3 mega dildos is more pleasurable than this matchup. If you're somehow wanting to play one of the unironically worst matchups in fighting game history, here's your pitiful amount of options so you don't get deep dicked as quickly. This is near impossible to win.

Neutral

What makes this so bad is that petshop by default ignores your main tool by existing. He won't be crouching besides when he wants to setup icicles, but he's probably got you where he wants you by then anyway. Trying to counter his 3a or 3c is a somewhat decent option outside of the corner, because there he can punish you on hit with his fast wakeup.(*citation needed if it's unpunishable in neutral) Never used moves in the form of 2C and 662C are used in this one matchup as he doesn't highprofile them, and they setup mu specific oki at least. He can also zone you by just flying away, there's no real counterplay in general to petshop. Rush him and do the best you can manage. since 2a whiffs your bnb will look like J.c, 4B xx [4]6C or J.c, 4b xx 214aa. DON'T do [4]6A/B xx 623C as it'll whiff. He's got the lowest health in the game but that matters little here because what confirms do you have into 214aa without 2a anyway?

Constantly approaching with j.b/j.c/2C/662C/4B/[4]6 A/B while avoiding icicles is about the best you can do. Honestly going for counter for his main used approaches is also your best bet.

Weird Oki

You can cross Petshop up after knocking him down by dashing through him right at the moment he's about to wakeup, then stopping and doing 5A 214AA. Petshop's pushbox actually disappears for a split second when he's waking up. Always go for d.2C if you're going to do it as it pushes you a bit further. You can still get a knockdown off 214AA but you can only go through him in corner because of his fast wakeup, downside is that you can't cross him up because of corner walls. So just use 5S if you're ever going for it in corner.
You can learn more about this here: Petshop Oki Crossup
Khan2CPetshop1.pngKhanCrossupPetshop.pngKhan5APetshop.png

Matchup: 1-9



Polnareff

This is another fairly difficult matchup for Khan as Polnareff is another S tier character with an abusive stand on mode. Yet again Khan will have to have some insane neutral along with some calculated reads and conditioning to outplay Polnareff and get through his pokes for some good damage, however all of that is much easier said than done.

Neutral

The goal for Khan in this situation is to prevent Polnareff from controlling the match. Shooting Star (SS) is the best way he can pressure you and get into his flow, and the amount of stuff he will throw at you will be too much to handle as Khan can only do so much when pressured. Disrupt his general flow and neutral to slowly but surely chip at his health piece by piece before you can bank in on some huge damage. Do not stay grounded, Polnareff wants that out of you since he can easily use Shooting Star and start a lot of pressure. However the problem with being in the air is that Polnareff has insanely good anti airs like s.4B that can shut you down no matter what you do, so you need to keep an eye on what Polnareff does in moderation. Your 662A is a very strong tool in this matchup, more so than the other S-tiers since you can use it in situations where Pol has no chance but to respect it or eat it. As Polnareff is fairly tall his standing moves will be low profiled, including his stand on standing pokes outside of some notable moves like s.5C. Using j.C to approach is fairly risky since again Pol has easy anti airs. He can turn his stand on while doing s.4B so even if you’re approaching a stand off Pol that doesn’t have access to the same anti airs as he does stand on, he can instantly get you out of his face and return the game to neutral. You can stay grounded as long as Polnareff doesn’t decide to use SS, as approaching him with j.C is going to most likely end in you getting clipped by s.4B. It’s best to use j.C as an IOH during pressure and using j.S to escape. Keep in mind Polnareff has some pokes that can stop you like 2C and 662C. Don’t try to begin any approach too often, you’re going to try and get your damage little by little until you get meter for some 214AA confirms. Playing neutral with Polnareff is a super hard task and can fail horribly with just one slight mistake.

Dealing With Stand On

Polnareff’s Stand On doesn’t appear to be nearly as intimidating as you’d think. However, it does one job that Polnareff wants out of this matchup and it’s to keep you grounded. You won’t see Pol use his Stand On much unless it’s for approaching or anti airing however these are some helpful tips. Approaching a stand on Pol is very tricky. He has very fast pokes and easy confirms into tandem that will be sure to do you in for the round. Do not try approaching him in the air. His s.4B is just too good of an anti air. If he tries s.4B to stop you on the ground you can easily low profile it with 662A. Note that Stand On Pol is still pretty dangerous in the combo department. He can easily just use s.662A to catch you off guard and get a free confirm into a tandem, which again, is something you do not want to happen. If he tries approaching with s.j.A, just block it. The disjoint is far too good and will best out your 5B, 5S and 623C, aka your basic primary anti airs. If he tries to take you on in the air, the usual j.B will usually take care of anything that’s thrown at you. Just try to be careful with Stand On Pol. He may not be as abusive as Jotaro or Vice but it’s imperative that you still take some caution when approaching as he still has damaging combos and even more damaging anti airs.

Shooting Star

Shooting Star is Polnareff’s primary mixup tool and is very good at pressuring. Thing is, if you can’t properly deal with it, this matchup will be hell for you. Most characters just need to block the low-high-low, however Khan is special. He actually has a direct answer for SS that isn’t just blocking the mixup. If you use j.S as Chariot hits the wall, the hitbox that’s behind Khan will clip Chariot, taking him out and ending SS. This is super useful as instead of Polnareff controlling the flow of the match, it’s now in neutral, allowing for you to try and disrupt Polnareff’s flow. Sure, that’s all well and good, you have a way to deal with SS, but that doesn’t mean it works every time. If Pol knows you’re going to j.S he can instantly release Chariot and trade with you. While that is a more favorable outcome than getting hit you SS on the ground there’s still some more ways where you can also deal with an instant release SS. This is where the calculated reads and conditioning come in. Polnareff players tend to use SS after a 2C or 662C, typically during a 2A 2A 2C or 662C 2C blockstring. If you pushblock the last hit of the blockstring and immediately jump back and j.S you can hit Chariot before he reaches the wall. Polnareff can also just randomly use SS in neutral if he sees that his SS pressure is ineffective. You can just do a quick 662A and since he can’t block he just has to eat it. Be very careful though, the timing is very strict here, and if you get hit, it’s pretty much curtains. Pol has a much easier time using SS while you’re grounded so this option is very risky, however if you time it consistently then you should have no problem. Hitting Pol during SS also removes Chariot, which is great since you won’t have to worry about him until Pol uses SS again. You kind of just have to condition the Pol into thinking you’re going to do a specific thing when he uses SS to catch him off guard. You will also have to read the Pol and when he chooses to do SS. He will use it predictably, you just need to see the pattern, most times if you see that 2C then you know what to do.
KhanShootingStar.pngKhanShootingStarHit.png

Extra Stuff

- You can punish stand off Pol's grab easily in many different ways, here are some examples: Pol Grab Punishes As Khan
If Pol jumps after grabbing to avoid the punish while his stand is still out, hit him with an anti-air. If he rolls then just grab him.

- As mentioned in the Trivia section, Pol has to charge for 90 frames to get his specials to come out. It's not like you should have a counter in your head that goes up to 90 frames to see when he will use the special but keep track of his charge mainly so you know when Shooting Star will come out if he doesn't do it off of 2A, 2A, 2C or 662C, 2C.

Matchup: 3-7



Shadow DIO

Prepare to be seeing a lot of this motherfucker. When those people who dropped DIO because he's too hard actually get good at Shadow DIO you'll be finding out the hard way that this matchup is pretty bad, considering SDIO's bonkers damage will have no trouble decimating your low defense. It is fairly similar to those matchups against those stinky S-tiers, where extremely good neutral is required and the mistakes you make will need to be nonexistent, however it's only made slightly less horrible when there's no Stand mode to deal with. Still, this matchup is very much favorable towards SDIO, so here's the rundown.

Neutral / Approach

SDIO has some decent mobility, similar to DIO, as his dashes are very non-committing and he can do all his essential moves off of them. You're actively looking to not necessarily approach SDIO. He has good moves that can easily disable your approach, you're going to be getting in your damage via a patient and calculated bait-and-punish game using your amazing dashes. SDIO's 5S is mainly going to be used as a way to cancel any moves he knows will whiff in neutral, and unfortunately, only a god-like read can really punish SDIO for using any S move here. The World's hurtbox disappears once it's short active frames are over, so just let it go. His S attacks (mainly 5S) are very strong against you here, if you see it, then you'll just have to respect it and block, however if you think you're in the range where you can intercept it, then use a long reaching attack like j.B or 4B since 2A whill whiff. One thing that you should absolutely not let happen in neutral is get hit by anything that combos into 5S. He can start his soy loop and that deals so much damage that you'll be lucky if the round isn't over. 2A, his main form of starting his loop, can be easily avoided, however. If he tries 2A in an up-close scramble situation or from max range just jump. Khan's legs aren't covered by the hurtbox, and the hitbox on SDIO's 2A is placed below his arm, so luckily just by jumping you can safely escape from one of his best combo starters. This also works on 662A, which is SDIO's primary tick grab set-up, and since his grab leads into his fairly decent oki, it's best to just not get caught by it. In the air, SDIO can challenge your j.B via his own j.B, as it comes out 1 frame later, but has just as favorable of a hitbox. He can also cancel into j.S to fool you and that will for sure hit. It's important to make good reads in the air, as if you see j.S, simply just block it and j.S away. If he tries j.B, read it beforehand and take it out with your own j.B. The aerial game is simple yet it can still be in SDIO's favor despite you having one of the best air-to-airs this busted game has to offer. While it looks like the dreaded d.5C has returned from regular DIO, this move is super nerfed with SDIO, instead watch out for 5C. It deals stupid high damage, free confirm into the loop and comes out pretty fast. He can use it as a good read on your approach. When approaching SDIO, it's best to try only pressure him for a slight bit, then return to neutral and come back at him again. He can easily stop it with his main moves like 2A, 5C, 5B (if he catches you on an unsafe or predictable j.C), and grab if you're not paying attention. Playing neutral against SDIO, in short, don't play too offensively, find a good opening with your amazing dashes to bait and punish, and once you've gotten in, pressure him only occasionally, and end it in a combo or grab, then run away and return to neutral, and don't get hit by any of his loop starters or you're screwed, much like most of your matches mistakes must not be made.

Zoning and the Fake Pressure

As you may know, SDIO has some other options against you. He is a rushdown oriented character after all, so it will be no surprise if he tries to bully you hard in the corner because of your lackluster defense. Also due to the fact that you're a passive character with no Stand to alleviate chip damage, he will also have no problem using both knives and lasers to keep you out from a distance. First, the pressure. It's similar to DIO where it's just constant stagger pressure and blockstrings, however SDIO's pressure is as fake as the jordans you're wearing right now. It's far less complicated compared to DIO, as SDIO has only a select few moves he uses in regularity. Normally he will try and pressure you using his 2A, 5C xx 5S blockstring and build off of that for stagger pressure or just reps of the blockstring. This can easily be avoided. Similar to DIO, your job here is not to counter his pressure but to get away from it. Pushblock the right move and then hyper hop j.S out of there. Unlike DIO, SDIO just wants to go full gorilla on you in the corner and doesn't necessarily look for anything stupid other than a GC, which is an option that you should not do unless you do it against a slow move like 5C. The moves you should pushblock and get away from are 5C and 663C, as they are both rather slow, and once pushblocked, a hyper hop j.S is too out of range for the 5S to stop you. Overall the pressure isn't complicated. As long as you find a good opening to pushblock you should be fine. When does SDIO exactly want to pressure you? Mostly in the corner, or after his oki, since you're very vulnerable once he's really gone on offense, but again it's your job to find the right spot to safely escape. It's very easy to fuck up here, as one bad move that opens you up to a loop starter can do you in once SDIO finishes his loop combo. Then there's his zoning. If you're really far away and SDIO isn't content with trying to close in the gap he will try and zone you out with his two projectiles, those being knives and lasers. Lasers is easy to avoid and mainly used to catch you jumping in from far distances. If you see him try it then j.S so you can float down to avoid it, however if you've done it too late then you're going to get hit. If he tries it again as a form of mindgames then this time a well timed j.S will work as it beats out the duration. Then there's his knives. They're unique as he can throw them out in a myriad of different patterns. He will go for the A pattern as it covers a majority of the range that you'll try approaching from. There's no real way of getting past it other than just trying to predict the pattern and hh j.Sing to get in. His zoning isn't nearly as strong as his pressure but it's something to look out for while you're far away. You'll have to deal with it similar to Hol's zoning, by predicting what SDIO's option will be and closing in the space accordingly.

The Fightcade 2 Special (Oki)

SDIO's oki is pretty decent, he has a fair amount of options he can use against you that at first glance may seem super hard to avoid but once you've practiced all the possible routes he can take it makes getting knocked down much less torturous. Here's some of the oki SDIO might try to give you:

j.S "Crossup": The noob killer. This oki is a fairly frequented option but it just requires simple thinking to understand how to beat this option. This is NOT a cross-up. It's fake. Literally just block how you would normally block any move, just hold back. If you block the j.S, pushblock, then hit him with a quick 5S anti-air. If you want a 2A/j.C mixup, that js fine if you want to get in more damage, since SDIO is pretty minus if you pushblock the j.S.

41236S 50/50: This, unlike the j.S "Crossup" is not fake. This is a legit 50/50 if 41236S is hit meaty. You simply have to react to if whether or not SDIO does j.A or 2A, there's nothing else I really have to say. If you block it, then pushblock and try to jump away during the non active frames of the 41236S.

Throw: A simple yet effective option. He can tick throw, he can empty hop into it, he can do some cheeky setups to make sure your safe jump doesn't work. Teching the throw is an option but he has a 66C meaty so you need to be on the lookout for any meaties that will disrupt your attempt at teching.

623x Meaty: The "Are you mentally there" checker. If you're still focused, you'll be able to jump out and punish this option easily but this can very well hit you if you aren't paying any attenton.

214AA Meaty: Cheeky and unfortunately unavoidable. If the spores have good positioning he can actually confirm off of this into a full combo. You won't see it often due to the fact that you can j.S away from it but when it's properly set-up it's going to hurt.
KhanSDIO.png

Extra Stuff

- Countering SDIO's 2A or 5C makes life 10000 times easier for you, as his pressure can get punished by a 5C for a free confirm into his [4]6x or 214AA for good damage.

- If you can counter SDIO's 5S, then that can slow him down a lot in neutral. If you block it, then use a quicker move like 2A if he's at a farther range. If he's up close, use the usual 5C for maximum damage. Don't whiff this counter, though, as again he can easily punish with the loop and all your life is gone in an instant. Still, though, definitely try it once or twice if you think you can read him well enough. However, there's also one added risk to this option. This is one of the very few times where Khan's counter will outright whiff. Since 5S has no hurtbox once it's active frames are over, if SDIO is far away enough, he nor The World gets hit, and as a result, he gets left wide open. Since he has no i-frames, then it's a triumph turned tragedy as he will punish you hard. Make sure you spaced your counter right, otherwise it's game over.

- If SDIO tries the 214AA into 236AA UB, super jump and j.S so you can avoid getting clipped by the projectiles. You'll only see this once you're at very low life, but you'll see it.
KhanSDIOCounter.pngKhanSDIOCounterHit.png

Matchup: 3-7



Rubber Soul

HARD matchup. Rubber can toy with you pretty easily, as you can't counter most of his good moves consistently. His pressure is hard to push back against and his vortex is it's own barrel of fun.

Approach

Your mobility is your one surefire winning factor here as his jumps and dashes are lackluster, so you can try to randomly toss out 662A or j.c sometimes. He usually plays lame or relies on pressuring you. As for approaching you get beat by his 5B or 2A on the ground, but even still, air approaches are even worse off to even better anti airs with his 4S and 5B, and he'll also want to mash his great j.a (which can also cancel into j.s)that beats out j.c but loses to a perfectly timed j.b. Getting hit by j.s is also untechable and can lead into a combo. Avoid aerial approaches most of the time, j.b will usually lose in the air, and that's if he doesn't go for an anti air anyways. 662A is your sole "safe" way of approaching, but it can get stuffed by 5B and 2A. Thankfully 662A approaches that get stuffed don't lead into much for rubber for the most part. His tech chasing is also great at catching mindless teching so change them up.

Pressure

Rubber's pressure has him going for his nasty 662A that's a go-to blockstring and combo starter, GCing it will usually miss too, try to maybe counter it. As for j.a/j.s counter the j.a if you can see it coming, you can punish with 5C>5C>[4]6C or any other relatively high damage option. GCing the j.s is okay to get him off of you as well. Keep trying to make good PBs to escape choking pressure. He has decent frame traps from 662A/2A alongside 5B xx 236B/6S, and mind his tick grabs that set up his voretrex. Keep pushblocking and don't get grabbed.

Pressuring rubber goes as follows. Go for 662A, sometimes j.c or tick throws. Rubber can't punish your grab outside of face to face in the corner but even then he needs meter for backbreaker to do so. Keep tickgrabbing and aggrivate him if that helps. Mind going for oki on him, 4S and 5B beat j.c mixups, and mashing 2a is something he can also go for. His gc is also one of the best due to it's speed and hard knockdown so he can end up getting oki from your pressure. His counter is also something to not forget as it sets up for confirms or super for good damage. His counter is probably the biggest worry when pressuring rubber, but there's a small wiggle room here too. The tip of 5s, and [4]6A/C will make his counter miss, so cancelling into dp from a whiffed [4]6A isnt the worst idea as a last resort.

Laming

Depending on playstyle and lifelead he might resort to this. You can maybe do the same to him if you're in a position to do so as well.

Your laming is mainly going helicopter mode but particularly backdash j.s as it covers decent ground and sometimes safer than a super jump j.s thank's to rubber's great anti airs. Try not to go for laming unless you have a good life lead taken, and don't get cornered so easily, his pressure can easily make up lost ground if you flub up.

Rubber laming his him doing 44B xx 236B or 44B xx 6S. For the former it's hard to find an opening, there's little to stop him, most you can do is try and time an approach between his 236B recovery and 44B startup. KEEP APPRAOCHES GROUNDED, his anti airs can delete you easily. 44B xx 6S is easier to challenge but also prompts sooner action given it's better meter build. You can low profile 6S with 662A. His 236AA super is also cheeky with laming, as it can be used long range for chipping. Rolling works -ok- here but if space allows try to super jump backwards at the right time to minimize chip while not dealing with his mixups you'd have to face if you rolled.

Okizeme

Avoid him knocking you down, as oki is one of his stronger tools here.

Your oki is the usual, but you'll want to bait more given his counter. That's the main change here given it's a good escape tool for him, play around it.

Empty hop: Great way of making you flail and block wrong for another grab or anything else. Pay attention to his habits and hope for the best.

2A Tick Throw: Likely his best option here, 2A is pretty free for him to use and you need to PB it or he'll grab again, punish a missed grab that comes out as 5C for a combo/super confirm. Rarely but can be done from a j.a.

Late J.S: j.a and j.s are his jumping approaches but he may delay his j.s trying to trick you into thinking he'll go for an empty hop 2A or empty hop grab. Hard to react to, if he does j.a just block high till he lands, or maybe counter it.

236x Meaty: Mostly for catching wake-up move heavy opponents. He'll go right into 662A for more pressure.

Backbreaker: Usually when he has you totally guessing and going for good damage. Just jump on super flash, not too hard if you're paying attention.

KhanRuber6S.png Khanrubber.png

Extra Stuff

- You can punish Rubber's Coconut Backbreaker super with a (downtech) j.B, 2A xx 214AA or any other punish similar to Hol's grab punishes. But do note that they are as tight, however the command grab being punishable actually depends on the last move Rubber has used. It's explained really well in the description of this video: Coconut Backbreaker Punishes
- You can low-profile Rubber's 6S by ducking (as explained in the laming section). He really doesn't try this S button on you as much as other ones but keep that in mind when approaching.
-Both of your charge moves dont get hit by his counter, mainly applying to a/b charge as you can cancel to dp with the right timing and punish his counter on hit

Matchup: 2-8



Vanilla Ice

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This matchup is without a doubt one of the most cancerous for khan, and one of the most cancerous in the whole game. Among Khan players this matchup is the equivalent of getting kicked hard in the balls. It’s an absolute unplayable nightmare. Of course, you could just pick a better character and not play the 1:9 but if you really want to take on Ice as Khan then these tips should help out.

Basics

You’re pretty helpless in this matchup, Ice simply has far, far too many answers for anything you do. The amount of effort you have to put into this matchup compared to the Ice is a 100:0 ratio. The amount of reads and neutral you need to play perfectly to get your damage in is far too high when against a competent Ice. You're mainly the one playing madman neutral while Ice tries to zone you out with his incredibly good normals. Every move you make needs to be taken with some caution, as Ice's combos will deal far too much damage and getting the life lead back is near impossible. Like Ice you're also trying to play pretty lame but unlike Ice you need to spend some effort and brainpower to get damage so at some point in time you need to get on offense a little. However you’re not going to get away with everything you do scot free, that’s just not gonna happen. At some point you will take some damage but it’s crucial that you don’t take any damage from Ice’s killer combos. This is why you will need to do everything with precise caution, however there’s a lot of specific stuff you need to be aware of in this matchup which will be explained below.

Neutral / Approach

You need to play near perfect neutral to survive against Ice. It is absolutely necessary that you do not get touched by any of his combo starters. Your low defense will get absolutely brain fucked by Ice’s huge combo damage, and the life deficit will be far too low to come back from. Approach him with a lot of caution, because one touch and you’re fucked for the whole round. This is why if you plan on approaching him, it’s either off of a quick 662A or an hh j.C. However, he has answers for both of those moves, which will be covered later. Ice may be a combo monkey but he also has some neutral as well. Look out for his IAD (Instant Air Dash) in neutral. It can either be used to stuff your approach or get away from you, and you need to be prepared to deal with either. If he hits you with it, most times he will just confirm into s.2B > s.2C, and it will still do big damage. Your best bet of beating out his IAD is j.B. j.S is an option too however that one can not only be traded with but it can be beaten outright. It’s a far riskier option. His IAD will beat out your approach as well, so if you’re trying to approach Ice too rashly, he can easily stuff out your 662A or j.C. In this matchup however Ice is mainly trying to zone you out with his pokes and keep you out of your preferred range rather than hunt you down and brutally kill you in the corner, however if he is in that situation he can very well just do that instead since Khan’s defensive options outside of a GC are near useless a saving him. You will be dealing with Ice stand on a lot, since his pokes get really good against you there, which means you’re going to need to deal with some real bullshit which will be covered in the next section, though when Ice is stand off, you need to be prepared of Ice decides to poke himself with his own 2A, however he has other moves that can actually beat your approaches like 5A/5C to beat your j.C. Your 2A is better than Ice’s 2A but Ice will live if he gets clipped by your 2A, you will not. This fight really does play out like a boss fight of sorts, because you’re gonna need to land a lot of hits to make it work, while making sure Ice doesn’t hit you with anything that will do over 50% health.

Dealing With Stand On

Due to Khan’s spinal problems, Ice’s s.on standing normals will whiff on you standing and crouching (with the exception of s.5A, s.6A and s.6B), which is all good, the less moves Ice can hit you with the better, however he has one thing in particular that is an absolute cancer in this matchup. Ice’s s.2B > s.2C. It is the Khan stopper. the barber banisher, the low tier thrasher. It nearly invalidates Khan’s entire moveset. The priority and range is just too much for Khan’s sword to handle. However, do not fret, Khan has some answers for this move. A very well timed 662A can actually poke through Ice’s recovery and hit him. If you do, you should absolutely 100% follow up with 2A, 4B xx [4]6B xx 623C or 214AA if possible, because that very well might be one of the few times you can get clean hits on Ice. Another way you can beat s.2B > s.2C is a j.C on Cream’s head. That option is really risky though. If the Ice sees you doing the j.C he could easily just do s.6C and clap your air approach. However a much more dangerous thing that will beat your j.C is Ice’s s.623AA. If he hits that super he gets free oki, and that’s a whole other can of worms that will be covered later. This makes neutral against a stand on Ice very risky. The best case scenario is actually hitting Ice with a well timed 662A, worst case scenario being you get hit by s.623AA and you’re in his oki hell. Most times you’ll probably get hit by s.2B > s.2C and take the damage that way, however in this matchup you absolutely cannot afford to get too far of a life deficit, so avoid getting hit by that as much as possible. The problem is that if you let him do s.2B > s.2C freely, he just shits out meter like he just ate some taco bell, and when Ice has a lot of meter to waste, you’re kinda fucked for that round so you need to make sure Ice is not just getting all that free meter but you also need to make sure you don’t get killed trying. Don’t forget that Ice has the air dashes to keep you out from a distance. These air dashes can keep him suspended in the air for extremely long periods of time, and it forces you to try and make a move since he will be far out of your normal range. Most times if you see it and you think he won’t hit you with a s.j.A you have a surprisingly large amount of options, however they vary in usefulness. You could try trailing Ice with j.S, you could air-to-air him with j.B, you could anti-air him with 5B (pretty difficult and he needs to be low to the ground) or 623C (better than 5B but has a hard timing due to lack of horizontal range). Stand On Ice is very much a cancer in this matchup but you just need to play a very cautious game and deal damage bit by bit.

Up Close Combat

Alright, you just got in against Ice. Not sure how he let you get in, but you’re too close for footsies and too far for throwing. What do you do?
Well this is merely a game of reads. This is Khan’s comfort zone, yet you’re not feeling so comfortable, and for good reason. Khan’s pressure to an Ice is about as effective as getting slapped by a pillow, and he will take no time to ignore it and just use his good pokes to invalidate your turn entirely. You need to predict what Ice will try to do in response to your next move and try to at least create more damage off of it. If he thinks you’re going to 2A, low hop j.C. If he thinks you’re jumping and does a 5A/5C/s.6C/s.623AA, then 2A, and do whatever followup that’s optimal in that situation. He can also just backdash/airdash if he’s not in the corner and ruin your pressure entirely, however if you see it early enough, you can try to keep it going with your 662A. Note that if you get too rash with your pressure Ice’s 5A/2A can stop you since they come out so fast, and if you get touched by Ice’s 2A, you might as well plan for what you’re about to do next round since you’re about to get fucked by whatever Ice combo comes next. When getting in on Ice, it's yet another situation where you need to be cautious as he can easily steal your turn, or just outright start his own big combo and fuck you over for that round.

You Might Be Fucked (Ice Oki)

So you got knocked down. You might think you're screwed because of Ice's infamous near unblockable oki, however most times that actually won't happen, so you need to be prepared for whatever Ice will throw at you. These are just a few examples of Ice's options on oki and what you can do to properly avoid it without just praying to your god.

A) 214X 662A: This is usually the oki Ice frequents the most. If he times it right then you might be fucked since the window to block from high to low/low to high can be a tight as 1 frame. If that isn’t the case, then this oki is a little reaction test. You need to react to if whether or not Ice’s 662A or his 214X will hit first. One is a low, the other is a high, and you need to block it appropriately. If you block the first part correctly, pushblock and immediately block the next move coming. Ice will try to mix it up to make it hard for you to see which one is coming, and if you guess wrong this oki can be comboed into a full BnB and you will feel the pain from it. Note that if the Ice gets predictable with this oki your GC can beat it, however it’s a fairly risky option since you’ll need to GC on the second hit of the mixup which leaves a small window to do it.
B) 214X Superjump: A less frequented option but you will see it at some point. Note that unlike the option above, GC will not work here. Ice will be far too high for your GC to make contact and you’re open to an easy punish. You just need to block and wait for what Ice will do when he lands. He could either do a j.A and combo from there, or empty hop and 2A, he might tick throw off of j.A or 2A, he might do nothing and grab, there’s a lot of things he has from the super jump. Again this is where you need to be on the lookout and react correctly.
C) Dookie Drops: Another less frequented oki. Ice has no few Stand On mixups so he will usually either turn his stand off while standing or in the air on oki, and if he’s in the air, be prepared to see this oki. It’s not special in any way, in fact the mechanics of this oki is comparable to Khan’s oki in a way. Just react to the high (9C) or the low (2A) and you should be fine. Also be aware for empty hops and tick throws. Sometimes if you’re not in the corner he can do his Dookie Drop off of a dash hop and do his oki from the other side so be prepared to block from there. You won’t see this option much since it’s mainly used for characters with a fast wakeup speed.

KhanVSViceIAD.png Khanvice.png

Matchup: 1-9



Young Joseph

A matchup where you'll need to be using a fair bit of your great mobility. Depending on the playstyle, your approach/neutral will vary against YoJo. Your quickness will help you out a lot, especially against YoJo's zoning and laming with your long ranged pokes. This matchup is fairly even, but you need to be on your guard and be prepared to deal with some stuff.

Neutral / Approach

When it comes to the Yojo matchup, you'll be playing your usual neutral, mainly built out of dashes, 2A and j.C/j.B. When Yojo jumps nearby you, there's no other option than to respect it since you have no real anti-air that will beat his air attacks. He will also get a free 5B xx 236B if he hits the j.S. If Yojo frequents j.C xx j.S, you can always just contest him in the air and beat it with j.B. However, a good YoJo won't just resort to mindless hopping if he knows what you're capable of. Your 662A usually beats out all his stuff, he has no real options of stuffing out that approach other than a low hop j.C. While 236B appears to be a pretty decent option, you can push block it and punish with a 662A. An unsuspecting Yojo will try 236B on block several times expecting no consequences. However, you should know to punish that overdrive when you see it. Also be aware of Yojo's 66S. It's his go-to option if he sees you trying to run or hop towards him. Note that this move is very hard to punish unless you pushblock and has a lot of active frames so be on the lookout for it. Yojo's rushdown at a glance seems to be pretty effective against your defensive options, however things like push blocking or GCing should work fine. If you really want to go for it, use counter. When you've learned a move like j.C, you can punish a Yojo hop with ease. While Yojo can rush you down, he will also frequent using his clackers, since his cannonballs can be avoided easily by ducking or even doing nothing at all (C version only). When he does use clackers, that's your queue to do 662A. It will low profile the clackers, and when Yojo gets hit, hit clackers will fall off the screen. However, if you let the clackers go, they come back with a hitbox far to big for you to avoid by low profiling, and you will need to block it. Most times if Yojo hits you with his 2A he will use 5C/3B xx 236B, as 5B is far too unreliable of a link since it whiffs on you crouching. The rekka enders can net him good damage however if they link from less than 2 hits then Khan can downtech and punish them on hit, making the rekka enders too dangerous for Yojo to use as frequently as 236B. Neutral with YoJo is a healthy blend of stopping his air movement with j.B, approaching him/stopping his zoning with 662A, and punishing any unsafe moves like 236B or the rekka enders.

Okizeme

Just like Ojo and the Kaks, if you knock down Yojo, abuse his slow wake-up speed to set up some nice oki. The more damage the better. Similar to Ojo, you can do things like double jump cross-ups for some spicy brain frying, two full empty hops, the j.S unblockable (again he can duck and it whiffs). Yojo can use a fair amount of wake-up moves however they're pretty slow so you won't have to worry about them intercepting your oki unless you try an IOH j.C and he uses 236AA. If he hits that then yeah pretty bad but you'll live if you have more than 25% life. Just try and abuse every shot you have at oki.

As for Yojo he has a few options of his own he can try on oki. His high is generally his 663C which hits meaty really easily and combos into 236B. He can also 66C, but it's a super risky option as if blocked he's left wide open. It's fairly easy to react to so just hold 1 for the 663C, and if you see him do the rather slow 66C then block high and punish. If you block the 663C just PB the 236B as 663C is super unsafe on block so to alleviate that Yojo will confirm into 236B. He may also try using 214S for a "50/50" but it's super easy to react to, just block and punish appropriately and you should be fine.

KhlackerLowProfiled.2A.png

Extra Stuff

There are certain moves that you might not know how to punish that are very much unsafe on block. There also might be some questions regarding what move to do when you've learned a frequently used Yojo poke. These are only listed here because unfortunately this is some rather obscure knowledge but it will be disclosed here. These are examples of the much more important punishes:

236B: pushblock, 662A
5C: pushblock, 662A
236S Rekka: (only they didn't do 2 hits before it) 2+ABC, 2A
214S: 662A (as Yojo is starting up or just threw his clackers)
66S: pushblock, 66A

Matchup: 5-5

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