Neutral (Awareness Priority)

• 236PP
  • After Blocking Ken’s 236PP fireball, he can continue offense with Rush
  • If you see Rush after Blocking, prepare to counter with 236PP invincible
• 2MK
  • Ken’s cancel options from 2MK are strong — recognize that the range where 2MK reaches is dangerous
  • Getting hit easily can directly lead to a loss
• Grappling
  • Ken’s grappling with +5 throw is difficult
  • It’s important to make him take risks with backdash and forward jump

Recommended Counter

• 236LP
  • If you Parry, buffer a jump
    • It tends to be a safe fireball, so Ken often buffers the next 236P as well
  • If you Block, the next 236P is often a safe fireball, so don’t jump after Blocking a slow projectile

• 236MP
  • Same counter as 236LP
• 236HP
  • When Parrying up close, buffer a heavy attack or raw Rush
  • When Parrying from far, buffer a forward attack to get a return on safe fireballs

• 236PP
  • After Blocking OD fireball, depending on distance it becomes a mash punish allowing offense continuation
  • When you confirm this string, be aware of countering with a fast long-range invincible move on Rush flash

Recommended Counter

• On 623P Hit
  • Recognize there’s a mixup between Quick Rise and Back Rise
  • During Rush Oki:
    • Quick Rise denies the walk Shimmy option

• During walk Oki:
  • Back Rise denies the Oki
  • If you used Quick Rise, it becomes Oki where Shimmy is possible without Rush

• On 623PP Hit
  • Ken has +22F Advantage
  • Using Rush gives complete Oki
    • Quick Rise
      • Throw is meatied
    • Back Rise
      • HP serves as mash punish
  • Recommendation
    • Take Back Rise and try for Just Parry against HP, or since throw doesn’t connect, hard Block is fine

Recommended Counter

• 623HK in Neutral
  • Just Parry

• Drive Impact
  • Guaranteed on reaction
  • If your reaction is late it can be countered, but try it

• Standing 4F move

  • Ideally you’d react with a 4F move, but it’s impossible in practice
    • Even slightly late results in Counter Hit into big damage — risk-reward doesn’t balance
  • This guide recommends Just Parry or Drive Impact

• After Blocking 623HK

  • +1F within throw range
  • Using OD invincible or delayed tech here doesn’t balance risk-reward
  • Recommended options — these 3 options are all you need:
    • Fastest 4F mash
      • Beats Ken’s tech
      • Also beats caveman anti-air
    • Fastest tech
      • Beats Shimmy options
        • Make sure to watch for anti-air
      • Loses to fastest moves, but accept the tradeoff
    • Just Parry
      • Beats the opponent’s fastest 4F
      • Scary if it’s a throw, so don’t do this often
      • An option for when the mixup evolves and the opponent only does 4F mash punish

The video below has the following recorded after Blocking 623HK:

• Fastest 4F move
• Neutral jump
• Throw

Recommended Counter

Light/medium/heavy versions can be distinguished by sound and motion, but it’s very difficult mid-match and memorizing sounds is tedious.

The recommendation is to change your response based on what normal cancelled into it.

A characteristic of 236K: each strength only combos from normals of equal or higher strength.

• 236MK doesn’t combo from LK
• 236HK doesn’t combo from 2MK
• 236MK combos from 2MK
• 236MK combos from HP

Based on the above, assume the base case is that Ken only uses the same strength as the preceding normal.

• LK > 236LK
  • You can mash before the follow-up, so mash

• 2MK > 236MK
  • Mashing loses to 623MK > LK follow-up
  • It becomes a mixup with Overhead, but if the opponent only does fastest follow-ups, Fuzzy is possible — give it a try
    • Note it’s Punish Counter on this, so make sure to start with a Punish Counter combo

• HP > 236HK
  • There’s a gap between HP > 236K that can be interrupted — it’s hard but you want to press jab
    • Even if it were 236MK, it’s a true Block string so mashing is risk-free
    • It’s hard and mistakes are painful, so only for those confident in their reactions
      • The author of this guide can’t do it either

• If you can’t interrupt, hold Block and don’t mash recklessly
  • If you read a follow-up, Drive Impact is very effective
  • If you don’t use Drive Impact, note that Ken does fastest 236K > 6LK, so keep that in mind as part of the mixup

Once you get used to it, you can handle all the above options:

Recommended Counter

• On KK > 623P Hit
  • Quick Rise makes walk Shimmy impossible
  • Don’t habitually take Back Rise — use Quick Rise and make him take risks with invincible moves and early tech

Recommended Counter

Even with Back Rise, Rush Oki is possible. Even with Rush, OD invincible is not guaranteed, so the situation is very good for Ken.

• After LPLK Hit > Quick Rise
  • Ken’s only Shimmy option from Quick Rise is Rush > LP, which leaves Ken at -4F
  • Fastest mash gets Punish Counter, so keep this as knowledge

• Showing this makes the opponent meaty more often, so use Quick Rise OD invincible

• After LPLK Hit > Back Rise

  • No Oki if Rush is not used

Recommended Counter