Clark Still (Console)

[Kane317]

The game is young, but I reject that's he's relatively low because of some bad matchups.

Don't get me wrong, I never insuinated he's low.  He does have bad matchups IMHO.

I would argue that there's not enough people using Clark. As for me I always keep a charge ready if they try to Hadou me, his EX is really good at blowing up zoning. As for air-to-air I think short hop B and neutral D are good against Beni, Kyo, Iori, and Billy. If they're being really aggressive and jumping in, he has the tools to get them off, his st.A is good for that, st.C and A Gatling can do it at certain distances too.

Actually, at TheRunBacks, there's like 6-7 Clark users when Team Chaos shows up...there's a bunch of us.  The Ex Gatling is invincible to projectiles but his invincibility wears off as soon as his hitbox begins--I've been hit out of it way too many times to count.  v1.1 it was pretty good, console, not as much.

You're going to eat a combo if you try to s.A a hyper hoping Iori j.D, he doesn't even get in that close and he'll hit you cleanly.  Hop B is good at a certain distance but not when they're relatively close, the only thing that is decent is his vertical j.CD.

With all due respect, I'm not playing some average scrub, I'm playing some of the top players in SoCal (Team Chaos) and even Reynald agrees there's little he can really do at a certain range.

[LouisCipher]

I understand and I'm not saying you're playing bad players, but I do think there's room to overcome those strategies with Clark.

[Kane317]

I understand and I'm not saying you're playing bad players, but I do think there's room to overcome those strategies with Clark.

I hope with time I discover these strats, I don't want to drop him completely but he only seems to get me to top 10 and I'll need to switch in someone more well rounded =(

I guess in all fairness I should elaborate what these Iori players are doing:  They're not technically jumping in deep with a hop D, they're basically jump in right outside of my hitbox range so if I stick something out it'll snag me. They're sniping me by jumping back and forth hitting the hop D immediately after they leave the ground.  If they know I'm coming in from a higher altitude they'll switch to jump B.   If you factor in that Iori has one of the fastest, if not the fastest, hop speeds it's a real challenge to deal with.

Occasionally I'll do a jump back D and that'll snag them but it's not really a good long term solution if I want to be on the offense.

Anyways, I don't want to derail this tier thread too much we can discuss this in the Clark thread instead.

[LouisCipher]

Have you tried Clark's downfoward A to AA Iori's Hop D? It seems like his st.A will beat and/or trade with it with some timing, same with Clark's neutral hop D.

His crouching C beats Iori's hop D clean, same with hop B.

I could see this being a problem if he gets a knockdown on you and Iori can mix it up.

The way I see it you can play really defensively with Clark and force them to play footies or block at the wrong time.  Because all he needs is a full HD meter and 2-3 bars and do a standing D or C and that's easy 750 damage.

[Kane317]

Have you tried Clark's downfoward A to AA Iori's Hop D? It seems like his st.A will beat and/or trade with it with some timing, same with Clark's neutral hop D.

I've tried df A on slower characters as an anti air and it's waaay to slow unless they're doing a hyper jump with Beni, Duo Lon, or Mai (high jump arcs), it's rather useless for that function.

His crouching C beats Iori's hop D clean, same with hop B.

Hop B works from afar, but not in the close-mid range coz it doesn't come out fast enough.  I am Interested in testing out crouch C...seems counter intuitive but I'm going to try that out.

UPDATE: I stand corrected LouisCipher. I tested it some more and it turns out the A Gatling and to a certain extent Ex Gatling work rather well as an anti air but it's of course distant related.  I suppose because I keep matching up with Iori on the 5th round I'm rather reluctant to try any risky move in fear of eating an HD.  d.C works well also.   Hop B still is situational and it's like 70/30 to Iori depending on the distance.

[LouisCipher]

Glad to help out.

[LouisCipher]

Heard a rumor but is Clark's jumping grab an anywhere juggle now in Climax?

[Kane317]

As far as i know it's character specific, it works only on Iori Vice and some other char ...
And it was on 1.1 too, Kane ask frionel on twitter he has more info I guess.

I'll need to do some further testing but it seems like you're on to something.

Kof XIII - Clark character specific Combo

[LouisCipher]

Been testing out shit. It seems like Clark's jumping A could be his best overall jump in at about mid range. Beats some of the top tiers best pokes in the air. So far it seems to be the only thing Clark can use to get in on a Billy who's waiting to use cr.C. It will not beat it, but it will trade and Billy cannot follow through. Far as I know nothing in the game will beat Billy's EX Upkicks.

[bigvador]

i wonder y they made his jump C soooo slow they could have made it the same speed as ralf

[Kane317]

His j.A has always been good as a jump in all these years, quick, stays out long, and gives him good follow up mixup options.

[LouisCipher]

Never knew that, then again I didn't use him in the OG titles.

I think I figured out the best solution to using Clark against the top characters: Play defensively. Especially against Kyo/Iori. Clark has good overall normals and I honestly think short hop B, D, and CD should be used defensively against them.

Basically poke them to death, then when you get a knockdown or they whiff something punish the fuck out of them.

I should note (not trying to brag about the greatness of 3S ) that I'm coming from a 3S perspective and this would work with Alex and other characters. The problem with Alex is that his footsies were and he couldn't combo off of them. Total opposite of Clark. And I honestly think whoever designed Clark for 12/13 was an Alex player. The similarities between the two characters is scary to me.

My philosophy with Clark is to do be defensive when I have to be. But to use meter every time I see them do a projectile, just blow that shit up and get a hard knock down and try to take control of the fight from there.

I think I'm going to get his Gatling Hyper Drive combos down more consistently. Even if you just do A Gatling and Drive Cancel into C Gatling x2 and end with throw that's 312 damage. Not bad considering you're not even using Meter and it puts them right in the corner. Hwa needs to use Meter or get you in the corner to do that much drive with 1 Drive.

*Also: How safe is A Vulcan Punch on block? How whiff punishable is it?

[R3N]

Hey guys I had a match up question. How do guys deal with these characters kula, robert, andy, kenso,duo lon and ex kyo I'm really having problems getting around these characters? It seems like I keep getting beat out before I get something out I get caught with srk's from running in to start offense and a lot low quick pokes. IDK when I have them caught in the mind games I take out two characters or win but other than that I drop the ball on the match up.

[SPLIPH]

Hey guys I had a match up question. How do guys deal with these characters kula, robert, andy, kenso,duo lon and ex kyo I'm really having problems getting around these characters? It seems like I keep getting beat out before I get something out I get caught with srk's from running in to start offense and a lot low quick pokes. IDK when I have them caught in the mind games I take out two characters or win but other than that I drop the ball on the match up.

i dont use clark and im not so great at this match up, but from the perspective of andy it sounds like you got them scared of you getting in and grabbing them, so they are trying to play hit n run / keep away... if you keep getting caught by srk and low pokes trying to get in i would say just try to make him come to you. andy cant really do anything to clark from far away except throw out fireballs, which you can ex gatling through to punish and get in. as andy, that "defensive clark" Louis is talking about really gets me. that hop D / CD can get me pretty steamed lol

[Mazinkaiser]

How do guys deal with these characters kula, robert, andy, kenso,duo lon and ex kyo

And I suggest Ash, King and Athena too in the list.

All of us know clark have faults... and that's ok he is a grappler and why not great zooner (or if you prefer fireball characters) can seriously give headcache... but I seriously think the matchup with kensou is kinda fucked at all. he have great fireball, awesome recovery, gorgeous shoryuken (hit behind), 1f command grab, combo from low into rekka... I serisouly be impotent aganist a friend who main kensou, I have to counter pick him with shen or king to deal with clark is kinda impossible... the only why to handle that match with clark is the EX vulcan who passthrough plasma and have little invincibility on startup but yeah that solution sucks anyway... otherwise it's the real gamble moment and hope to catch them with air CD (well timed go over the fireball) or roll UAB.