Introduction

Like in 3rd Strike, Yang is a fairly straight forward rushdown character with great pressure. However, this is amplified to a ridiculous degree in 2nd Impact. Yang has TCs with all his light buttons into mediums, giving him incredibly easy and damaging confirms from just about any starter. With no red parry, rekka pressure is harder for opponents to deal with and a lot safer. He also has two incredible supers between SA1 and SA2, both of which deal huge damage off any confirm with great oki situations. On top of that, he still has his incredible mixups between overheads, command throw, very plus normals, and divekicks. While his normals are a bit lacking and his health pool isn't great, his neutral tools and offense more than makeup for them.

Moves List

Normal Moves

Standing Normals

stLP - Fast jab tied for his fastest move. Goes into his stand punch TC but can go into any of his TCs for slightly easier confirmability.

stLK - Fast and relatively long-reaching move. However, it doesn't confirm as well as his other lights, its TC from specific ranges can link into SA2, but won't go into a knockdown meterless. Generally you'll want to buffer it into EX Mantis Slashes.

clMP - Fast and incredibly plus normal. Useful for max damage combos thanks to it linking into many normals. Gives easy tick throws and staggers. Can be used as a niche anti-air.

stMP - Fairly fast normal but lacking in range compared to other characters. Still needs to be used since it's less committal than some of his other pokes. Should always go into the TC on hit or block for safety. Can be used as a kara cancel into command grab as well as a throw tech OS

stMK - The twins' launching kick. Leads into a good meterless damage on hit. Also a consistent anti-air but as always parries must be accounted for. Can be cancelled into super jump on block and on hit for combos or general escape/mixups options.

clHP - Two hitting punch. First hit is cancelable. It does less damage in combos than clMP and while lacking its frame advantage, but is useful as an OS with throw and option off frame traps.

stHP - Relatively long range poke. Has good frame advantage for its range, and generally won't be punished even by supers. However, it's on the slower end for his moves.

stHK - Somewhat long startup but long range kick that knocks down. His longest range normal so you might use it occasionally but it's punishable by supers and isn't too hard to react to and parry. Decent counterpoke as it shifts its hurtbox a bit and has an extended hitbox on the kick.

Crouching Normals

crLP - Tied for his fastest jab, can TC into crMP for great frame advantage and hit confirms. Can beat out options to get out of pressure e.g: Urien Headbutt

crLK - Fast low, your main combo starter and great pressure tool. Has decent range and TCs into crMK for some of the easiest high damage confirms in the game.

crMP - Quite possibly Yang's best normal. While its only a tiny bit bigger than crLP, it's great for building meter on whiff and is incredibly plus. This allows it to link into other normals for easy and high damage confirms along with continuing pressure on block. Leads to some of the most free super confirms in the game.

crMK - Great poke with long reach that goes into rekka on hit or block. Leaves a long lingering hurtbox on whiff however, leading some characters to get clean punishes from ranges they probably shouldn't be, so be careful. It can TC into cr.HK but this doesn't combo and is unsafe.

crHP - Bizarre double swipe. Can anti-air but stMK is always better. Slightly plus so it can link into super but there's too much pushback to continue much pressure. Might catch an opponent try to parry.

crHK - Mediocre sweep. It's not particularly fast but it is still longer than most of his normals.

Jumping Normals

jLP - Active but small aerial. Nothing notable.

jMP - Downwards poke. Decent jump-in but there's no real reason to use this over jHP.

njHP - Horizontal poke, fantastic air to air and his highest damage aerial, there's a disjoint on this normal allowing him to a2a attacks that his other normals might struggle to do, it being off a neutral jump allows him to mix up and bait out the opponent's air to air attempts on his divekick.

jHP - Downwards poke like jMP. Good jump-in although it's a bit outclassed by jMK with its TC.

jLK - Air to air kick, only really useful for if you're trying to air to air and don't have time for something better.

njMK - Identical to jMK except it doesn't lead the to the TC. Decent vertical hitbox but nothing special.

jMK - Decent jump in with an alright hitbox, but it becomes especially powerful off a forward jump thanks to its TC into divekick. This makes it great for starting up pressure, mixing up anti-air parries, and hit confirming.

jHK - Big vertical kick. Great anti-air and decent as a jump-in. Used for optimal combos.

Command Normals

f+MK - Senpuu Kyaku: Quick overhead with less frame advantage than UOH. Can combo into super if meatied or spaced to hit later. Be careful as if it hits too early against standing opponents it can be punished by supers. Can be comboed off while SA3 is active.

clf+HP - Koushu: Far HP but close. No real reason to use this.

df+K (in air) - Raigeki Shuu: The twins divekick. Incredibly powerful tool for neutral and mixups. The distance traveled changes with the different buttons, with heavier buttons traveling further. Can only be done off a neutral or forward jump and only after reaching the apex of the jump.

UOH - Average UOH, can be used for mixups and when meatied well enough it can lead to a full combo although this is fairly reactable.

Throws

f/b+MP/HP - Monkey Flip: Launches the opponent far away. The oki isn't especially good but super jump divekick can close the distance quickly enough. Generally the worse throw but has a significantly better OS with clMP.

f/b+MK/HK - Hiza Geri: Better throw, does mildly less damage but the oki is significantly better. However, the OS options are a lot worse so it may be less preferred in the corner.

Special Moves

Tourou Zan (QCF+P): Yang's rekka series. This move is great for pressure and combos, as it's very easy to convert into and does great damage. While all of them are punishable by supers, the pushback is pretty high especially when going into it from TC. On block LP rekka is the best since the first rekka is -4. All versions are unsafe but as stated the opponent needs meter and is taking a risk meterless, but when the opponent has meter it is a liability to be using rekka in pressure, I'd make sure to always confirm into this on HIT when dealing with a stacked Sean or Ibuki. Without red parry, interrupting rekka strings a lot higher, but there is always be a gap between rekka 2 and 3 that is parryable. EX rekka can be used for extra corner carry, damage, safety, and staggers. It's also vital for confirming off stLK, EX rekka is safer than L.Rekka due to it being -1

Senkyuutai (QCF+K): The roll kick. Still not very useful in this game outside of situational confirms. It can low profile some things but 90% of the time you're better off just parrying.

Byakko Soushouda (QCB+P): The palms. Useful for baiting parries and shimmying. Leads to a very short juggle in the corner. Safe for the most part but it can be punished by a few supers like Ibuki and Sean SA3.

Fake Byakko Soushouda (QCB+PP): The fakeout. Use for level 3 yomi and throw the opponent. A bit hard to use since it's not too hard to react to but it can work with some conditioning.

Zenpou Tenshin (HCB+K): The twins command throw. It's the same as usual, a long startup but high reward command throw. Even more rewarding in this game with how damaging Yang's supers are. Kara crHK into it gives it ridiculous range. Pivotal to his SGGK OS as well.

Super Moves

SA1 (Raishin Mahha Ken): QCFx2 + Punch

Unlike in 3rd Strike, this super is pretty good. It has a long bar with 2 stocks, which is great for EX Mantis Slashes. Thanks to Yang's light to medium TCs, it has relatively easy confirms which do a ton of damage. However, it is a bit lacking in some utility that SA2 has. It's range isn't great, so you won't be able to use it as a punish in many situations. On top of that, on anti-air or from some confirms like stand MK and Byakko Soushouda, it won't fully connect and miss out on a lot of damage. Still, if you prefer more explosive damage and having more EX moves to throw out, SA1 is a good choice.

SA2 (Tenshin Senkyuutai): QCFx2 + Kick

Yang's super roll. While it doesn't store quite as much meter as SA1, it still has 2 mid-length stocks. It is a bit less damaging than SA1, enough to make a difference but not a big one. It does gain a couple confirms that SA1 doesn't get, most notably the standing punch TC, but these do less damage than a regular kick TC so it doesn't matter much. The oki is about the same too, with SA1 maybe even being slightly better with ambiguous heavy divekicks. However, SA2 is significantly better at punishing. While it's no Ibuki or Sean SA3, it rolls fullscreen with invincibility, allowing it to punish fireballs and other committal moves on reaction. While its travel distance at frame 1 isn't as good as other characters, it's still bigger than SA1 allowing it to pick up punishes SA1 cannot such as Ken's far kicks. This makes it worth considering over SA1, although which you prefer is ultimately going to be up to what you value more. They do similar things, just one is focused more on punishes while the other is focused more on damage and ending combos.

SA3 (Sei'ei Enbu): QCFx2 + Punch

Yang's clone install. While it's not easy to confirm into and his setups aren't too consistent, this super allows Yang to turn his mixups into long, high damage combos. It also has one of the shortest bars in the game meaning the downtime between supers isn't long. However, this shorter bar means you effectively give up on EX Mantis Slashes, one of Yang's strongest tools. In addition, the combos from it aren't especially damaging, doing less than a super confirm with SA1 or SA2 while not giving nearly as good oki. It also lacks the punishing potential of either. When combined with the infinite installs bug it can lead to an infinite combo but this is hard to set up and isn't worth the loss of utility of giving up SA1 and SA2. Overall while it's not a bad super, it gives up too many of the advantages given by SA1 and SA2 to be worth it. Unlike 3rd Strike, it can't lead to unlockables due to high/low and left/right protection, hurting it's value.

Combos

Meterless

Any TC into rekka (i.e. crLK x2 xx crMK xx Mantis Slashes). All TCs excluding the standing kick TC can go into rekka during their medium stage.

Zenpou Tenshin, Anything: Command grab gives enough advantage to combo into anything, even stMK when combined with a micro-walk.

crMP, crMP/crLK xx crMK xx Mantis Slashes: Link from crMP, adds a good bit of extra damage and is easy to confirm.

clMP, crMK xx Mantis Slashes: Similar link as crMP, it's actually plus enough to go into crMP but the pushback is too high to extend any further.

(stLP xx) stMP xx stHP xx bHP: Target combo into palms. There's not much reason to do this since any confirm into rekka does more damage and the oki isn't any better, but it's occasionally useful from long range stMPs.

stLK xx stMK xx stHK: Standing kick TC. Your only meterless option from stLK, and while the damage isn't bad, it doesn't knockdown.

stMK, MK Senkyutai, stLP/clMP: Conversion from stMK. Does good damage. The stLP/clMP can be removed if you want a knockdown.

stMK xx sjc jHK: Air reset route from stMK. Leads to continued pressure.

(stMK xx) sjc QCB+P, LP Mantis Slashes (1): Corner palms combo. The juggle value is lower in this game so this is the most you can get.

[clMP, jMK xx MK Rageki Shu xN]: Infinite on Urien/Gill only. This isn't easy and is basically limited to being a stun combo but it means he has a way to immediately end games from a stun against characters like Urien.

Metered

Any TC into EX Mantis Slashes. Adds a bit more damage but more notably the corner carry is a lot better.

stLK xx EX Mantis Slashes: Better conversion from stLK, although you need to cancel it quickly or it won't combo.

(stLP xx) clMP xx EX Senkyutai, stLP/clMP: Combo with EX roll kick. Not many situations where you wanna go for this but it has its place.

Supers

SA1/SA2

The confirms for SA1 and SA2 are basically the same. Any combo into SA1 will do ~45% while SA2 will do ~40%.

Any cancelable normal into SA1/2. This is especially easy to do with Yang because of his TCs.

crMP/clMP/crHP, SA1/2: Hit confirmable links into SA1.

UOH/fMK, SA1/2: Meaty overheads into super.

Byakko Soushouda xx SA1/SA2: While this is possible with SA1, you'll only get two hits. SA2 on the other hand will get a full connect. The same applies to the standing punch TC. However, for some reason this still does less damage than doing it from the medium step in a TC, so it's not really worth doing.

stMK, MK Senkyutai, SA1/2: If done with SA1 you'll only get 1 or 2 hits so it's not worth it ever. With SA2, if done outside the corner you'll only get 1 hit before whiffing the rest of the super, meaning the combo is restricted to the corner.

(stLP xx) clMP xx EX Senkyutai, SA1/2: Same deal as the stMK confirm, this isn't worth it with SA1 and it's only worth it with SA2 in the corner.

stMK xx sjc Palm, L.Rekka, L.SA2: Big Damage confirm, does a lot of damage, don't go into SA1 with this it's not worth it.

SA3

Will lab later.

The Basics

Yang's gameplan is simple. He wants to get in and pressure the opponent with his many options. This isn't hard for him to accomplish either thanks to parries, and his divekicks. A lot of neutral is going to be using your fast walk speed to your advantage to slip in and out of the opponent's range while throwing out pre-emptive or reactive normals like stLK and crMK into conversions. You can also mixup your air approach between parries, divekicks, jump-ins, and the air TC to force your way in. Once he's in, Yang's pressure is powerful and highly rewarding. He has multiple plus on block normals that lead to tick throws on top of overheads. His confirms are easy and with no red parry his TCs aren't easily dealt with on block. Once meter is in play, his confirms start to deal very high damage.

Notable Normals

stLK: Fast and long ranged 4F normal. Great for punishing and is safe to throw out while buffering into EX Mantis Slashes.
crLP: Tied for his fastest normal and converts into a full combo. Best normal for mashing.
crLK: Fast and fairly long normal that converts into a full combo. Very useful starter and for pressure.
clMP: Obscenely plus normal that's great for pressure and confirming combos. Also OSes with throw.
stMK: His best anti-air and also good for meterless punishes.
crMP: Very good pressure normal. It's very plus on block and hit, leading to links and tick throws. Also your best normal for building meter.
crMK: Very nice crouching MK. Not especially big but it's big for Yang's moveset, and thanks to no red parry, it can be safely buffered into light or EX Mantis Slashes. Also good for whiff punishes.
stHP: Good poke but it's not as fast as his other tools and can be whiff punished.

Super Art Selection

Yang's SA1 and SA2 are both very good choices while SA3 is workable but generally worse. SA1 and SA2 functionally both work as combo enders and punish moves. SA1 is the better combo ender while SA2 is the better punisher. Additionally, SA1 stocks more meter but not so much more that it'll affect the game too often. You can prioritize your choice based on MU, picking SA2 in matchups where punishing neutral options is more important such as Ryu and Ken, while picking SA1 in matchups where this is less important or you want to kill the opponent faster, like Ibuki or Akuma. However, both are workable in any matchup and it really comes down to what you personally value more. SA3 is a bit more of a wild pick. While it gives you access to better mixups and situationally an infinite, it lacks the explosiveness of SA1 and the utility of SA2. It's definitely interesting and has the most room to explore, but it sacrifices a bit much to be a good choice under most circumstances.

Advanced Strategy

SGGK: If you input your command grab as down, forward, down, back (2624) then piano MP~HK, you'll buffer low and high parry, as well and cover throw and throw tech, also allows you to kara grab which forces your command grab from ranges outside of their own throw range. Really strong.

Match-Ups