Online?

keep in mind Kitana's fans can be ducked man. Its her insanely fast pokes that always fuck me up. A pretty good counter would be a character like Smoke I think since he is an anti zoner and most Kitana players will try and zone you. Just be careful of getting rushed down tho, know when her strings end

Cage can eat them both up.

I do well against both with Kung Lao. Can punish them both.

Roll out Kano, he can put them both in check with his zoning game and that ball, he has pretty good combo mix ups too.

Yup. Kano is the man to take Raiden down. His knifes beat Raiden's dive and if you want to throw a knife and he teleports, the input is reversed and you do an upball which will hit him in his face.

Thanks for the tip with Kano vs Raiden. It worked perfectly when I came across a raiden player. I think I pissed him off but he wouldn't stop teleporting lol. I already planned on learning Kano and now this gives me a little incentive. I like how he reminds me of his mk3 self because he kicked butt in that game too.

Now about a surprise to myself I wanna share.... it's about Scorpion.... first off I've hardly played with Scorpion, only have in story and challenge tower, and I've never cared much for playing with him besides in mkda. However a few different times I've thought about Scorpion and his specials and thought about how they are solutions to just about every situation. Meaning almost any situation you're in there should be a special move for Scorpion to use to constantly counter the opponent. Well with so little experience with him in mk9 I still wanted to just test this theory and I ended up winning 14/20 matches being a Scorpion noob. That's a 70% win percentage. And here is what I'd do....

First off I like to start matches off with the leg takedown to get first hit.

Secondly I like to be a little jumpy. Jump kicks + air grab followed by a Hellfire works pretty well for me. Or if a blocked jump kick then keep grabbing and catch them and follow with Hellfire. Hellfire good against standing spammers as well as telepunch.

Leg takedown good for some mix up up close. Mix FP, FP xx Spear and FP, FP xx Leg takedown. Great how the second punch in FP, FP, FP will hit low blocking opponents.

Besides all that and just using the specials primarily to counter what the opponent is doing, I was making up some combos off of the spear.

Just that strategy fsrom a Scorpion noob and I won 70% of matches. So Idk if imma end up being a Scorpion player or not or if this was a fluke series of games but imma explore him a lil more now. I don't like the idea of being another Scorpion player though lol

Its an OK Scorpion strategy but Im pretty sure I can take it down. The leg takedown sucks. You also get a free safe jump-in after a naked teleport.

I appreciate the Scorpion info. I am gonna master him next. Not because I like him or even really want to play as him, but I will finally be getting a nice new line at my house so I can play online again. And since it is apparently a Scorpion-a-fucking-rama on there I want to be able to deal with him effectively. He does have some very basic but very effective tools.

Youll be able to handle him. Its not full of a lot of GOOD scorpions, just a lot of them in general.

I'd like to play against either of you on xbl if you're on Xbox. If so my GT: Icy X, and I usually am on some time at like 8 or 9 am Pacific time. I work graveyard five days a week so usually play when I get home from work and then later in the day I'm usually having to share internet connection with my fiance. Anyways hit me up. I'd like to play :)

Love to man but...I'm in Africa. I play on the European servers though. Not sure how good my connection is gonna be there. Used to be fine for shooters and stuff.

Correction on my part.... Scorpion's second hit in FP, FP, FP isn't a overhead hit so it wont hit low blocking opponents. At least it wasn't working for me today. Started doing a 39% combo though and can't believe it but I think Scorpion is becoming one of my mains.... he just seems really easy to play with except for.his.more advanced combos, but they overall ain't too difficult to do.

Reptile still my number 1 though alwaus in this game.

You're already playing a Kitana counter. Reptile is one of her bad matchups. She shouldn't be able to zone you out for long. She has to use instant air fans to stop you from force balling and to keep up with acid spit, that means you can try trading with acid spit. When you get the trade she's knocked down and you can begin putting force balls on screen. She'll never be able to catch up. Now you're in control of the projectile battle and you don't need to jump to get in so there's no danger of eating a fan combo. You can put out a slow ball and work your way in with dash. Once you're in you still have the advantage since she has to respect the dash. She can't be so careless with blocked f+2,1 and d+1 with the threat of that dash. Plus if it's online since her jab is slow it's basically impossible for her to correctly punish dash which is ridiculous.

How does Cage eat up Kitana? He has to spend the whole match chasing her while she's building meter. His only answer is an EX Shadow Kick that costs meter, is punishable on block, and the reward is just a knockdown not guaranteed pressure. Kitana is one of his worst matchups.

I actually think Kitana isn't a good matchup for Reptile. Every time I use Reptile vs Kitana I get fan spammed. I've started to basically just duck all fans forcing the kitana player to do something else or wait til time runs out. I've tried what you suggest best it hadn't worked very Well for me. I get hit with fans before getting forceballs out or hit right after acid spitting before I can block.

All in all I've been using Scorpion against her to counter.

Keep working on Reptile's zoning and you'll see. As a Kitana player there's almost no one I hate getting into a projectile battle with more than him.

What you describe for Scorpion doesn't sound effective against a good Kitana. With Leg Takedown you're risking getting punished with a full combo for a knockdown and minor damage. Trying to counter her instant air fan with his special moves isn't a guessing game in his favor. If you teleport when she's throwing an IAF she will often have time to land, recover and block. Hellfire only works if she's grounded and she won't be often. If you're wrong you eat a fan or worse if she's close enough to jump in. You could try reading the jumps and spearing her but you're in trouble if you guess wrong and whiff. Jumping in on Kitana is always extremely dangerous, especially in a matchup were she'll be air fanning all day. Scorpion really needs meter against her for EX Spear and EX Teleport. Then she has to be careful about IAF. Without meter she dictates the matchup and your only options are guessing games in her favor.

Well I guess I'm good at guessing.... and I don't zone with Reptile ever. I don't see him as a good zone character. Any time I see someone try to zone me using Reptile I just laugh and kick their ass.

Agreed. Would really like to know how Cage can "eat up Kitana" assuming its not a crude sex joke . I assume its just mindless internet bragging until proven otherwise.

Taking notes, taking notes...

He has to be very patient, but once he is in, she can't handle his rush down very well.

She has d+1 and the one of the best escape teleports in the game.

Yeah she has D1 which is like the fastest poke in the game. And anytime she gets knocked down the Cage player has to guess which wake up attack she'll do or if she'll do one at all. Either her flying punch move will get her out of pressure or her levitate fan move will set her up for a big combo.