Hey guys,
Need some tips regarding Shen on:
Applying pressure.
Great tips from everyone. Just wanted to add that since players are generally good at blocking against Shen, be happy with dealing guard crush and don't feel pressured to go for a command grab! Command grabs are really strong but you'll be punished big if your opponent reads them; command grabs are as risky as antiair DPs imo. If your opponent seems worried about your hop C combo starter and is happy with blocking high, you can lead with Shen's j.CD for extra guard crush. Follow up on the ground with cl.C-f.B as normal or use his st.CD if too far for cl.C-f.B. Although it is safest to cancel Shen's charge punch, using the level 1 charge release for it deals more guard crush and it's -1 on block which you may or may not be comfortable with. Messing up the charge (too short) will make it -6 though which is pretty bad. An alternative is to cancel his the cl.C-fB or CD into qcfA. It's -3 which is still fairly hard to punish and there's no chance of messing up the charge timing. If opponents are recklessly trying to pressure you when you're slightly minus, you can hit them (hopefully counter hit) with Shen's DM. When you're -1 or -3, be wary of throw attempts. Of course, never use minus on block moves against characters with 1f grabs unless you think that it will be so unexpected that they won't punish.
Keep an eye on opponent's guard gauge. Shen's power-up EXDM does 50% guard crush (but opponent recovers from guard crush before Shen recovers from his EXDM, so all you could really do is max cancel and you'd have to be in HD for that). Shen's fully charged qcfC does 40%. Experienced players will roll during the time stops, but you can still use Shen's qcfC (level 1 charged) for a quick forward advance plus a bit more guard crush. I haven't had luck with this, but you can also try timing the timestop guard crush attacks just before opponent is in a ready state to prevent them from doing the easy-mode roll to avoid the guard crush.
Try not to get too desperate to guard crush once their guard gauge is low since opponents tend to get desperate; consider baiting your opponents' invincible specials and supers. Be ready to punish jumps and rolls too.
Dealing with pressure. I have difficulty dealing with Kyo XIII.
As everyone else has said, Shen has great normals. He can shut out hop approaches with st.A or far C (extra leeway for timing thanks to armor) and antiair with cr.C. Shen has fast far-reaching cr.B and st.B too. It may seem risky but you can even attempt antiair trades using qcfA, qcfC(level 1 charge, but cancel if you feel like it) or qcfD.
Although I prefer far C for the armor and speed, the slower st.D has further range and can catch unsuspecting opponents. Shen's wakeup CABC EXDM and EX command grab are both 3 frames. A perfect safe jump that let's the attacker block Shen's CABC EXDM will be caught by Shen's wakeup EX command grab before the safe jumper is able to jump again (the safe jump attack adds landing recovery preventing a jump escape from Shen's EX grab even though they can block upon landing)
Zone Control.
Great tips from everyone again. Just wanted to add Shen gets meter from qcbC as opposed to using armor far C. Moreover, you can cancel Shen's qcbC(if it eats a projectile) to any special or super at no drive cost.
If an opponent recklessly hops towards you taking their projectile's hitstun/blockstun (or the recovery of Shen's qcbC) for granted, you can cancel qcbC to qcfA or qcfD, which both work as combo starters(even on trade!). After a qcfA, you can use punch DM/EXDM based on their height. After a qcfD, you may be able to fit in qcfA right after before punch DM/EXDM.