The King of Fighters XIII/EX Iori/Strategy

Spacing

Far Range

• Zone with Yami barai (qcf+P), and hit superjumping opponents with OniYaki (dp+P).

• Meet jumping or superjumping opponents air-to-air with j.B which has good horizontal range.

Mid Range

• Use stand D (heavy kick) against hopping opponents, and crouching C against opponents trying to jump in. These must be used preemptively or else they can be beaten out by the opponent's jump attack.

• Zone with jump B and poke with stand B to stop opponents from running towards you.

• Use crouching B to anti-air opponents performing sloppy jump-ins with normals that whiff on crouching opponents. You can also use crouching B to evade and hit opponents that try to jump over you. Exercise caution with this because certain jump normals cannot be evade with Iori's crouching B, and can hit him.

Close Range

• Hit confirm into a bread and butter combo using crouching B, or stand C. Use j.C to hit crouching opponents.

• Be extremely aggressive in close range because this is EX Iori's strongest combat range.

• Stay away from ending into Aoi Hana (qcb+P) during block strings. A second delayed Aoi Hana may provide a small amount of pushback, but some characters may punish him.

• If the opponent is blocking too much, use Kuzukaze (hcb,f+P) or the EX Kuzukaze (hcb,f+AC) to break their defense.

• Use Iori's cross-up j.b+B (taco) to confuse and open up players who habitually crouch after a jump-in midscreen, or crouch immediately after a hard knockdown. Be sure to properly hit confirm the cross-up into another hard knockdown combo or an HD combo if you have enough meter.

• Occasionally end blockstrings into qcf+P to push you away from the opponent. The opponent can Guard Cancel Roll the attack before the qcf+P and punish you if they have enough meter and if you rely on it too much.

Safe Jump Setups

After a bnb combo ending with qcb+Px3, if you take a very brief pause then meaty jump in with a hyper hopped j.C then immediately crouch blocking, you can safe jump many characters reversals. Some reversals may be stuffed by the hyperhop j.C, while others may just miss.

• Normal Kyo: NOT hcb+BD

• NESTS Kyo: NOT dp+A, dp+AC

• Benimaru: stuffs dp+B, dp+D, dp+BD

• Daimon: NOT dp+K, dp+BD, hcfx2+AC

• Terry: All reversals

• Andy: NOT qcb~hcf+AC

• Joe: All reversals

• Billy: All reversals

• Ash: stuffs hcbx2+BD

• Saiki: All reversals

• Ryo: qcfx2+AC will guard crush

• Robert: All reversals

• Takuma: NOT hcb+BD

• Mr. Karate: All reversals

• Claw Iori: NOT hcf+AC

• Mature: All reversals, DM's and Neomax

• Vice: NOT dp+AC

• Elisabeth: NOT hcb+AC, hcb~f+AC, qcb~hcf+BD

• Dou Lon: NOT qcf+BD

• Shen: NOT C-A-B-C

• Kim: All reversals can be safe jumped

• Hwa Jai: qcf~qcf+BD can be safejumped if the hop j.C is performed as early as possible

• Raiden: NOT dp+AC

• Mai: qcf~hcb+AC can be safejumped if the hop j.C is performed as early as possible

• King: NOT qcfx2+K, qcfx2+BD, or qcbx2+BD

• Yuri: All reversals

• K': All reversals and Neomax

• Kula: All reversals including DM's, EX DM and Neomax

• Maxima: stuffs dp+K, all other moves can be safejumped

• Athena: stuffs dp+A and hcf+K, safejumps dp+C, and Neomax, NOT hcf+BD, hcbx2+P or hcb+x2+AC

• Kensou: All reversals

• Chin: NOT qcb+B or qcb+BD

• Ralf: All reversals

• Clark: NOT hcf+B

• Leona: All reversals

Tips

Frame Traps and Links

• (L) = Link, can be a frame trap as well.

• "(n) frame gap" = The amount of frames that opponent has to counter a frame trap.

1.) far A > far B - 2 frame gap between far A and far B.

2.) far A > cr. D - 4 frame gap between far A and cr. D.

3.) cl. A > cl. C (L) - 2 frame gap between cl. A and cl. C.

4.) cr. A > cl. C - 3 frame gap between cr. A and cl. C.

5.) cl. B > cl. A - 2 frame gap between cl. B and cl. A.

6.) cl. B > cr. A - 3 frame gap between cl. B and cr. A.

7.) cl. B > cr. B - 2 frame gap between cl. B and cr. B.

8.) cl. B > cl. C (L) - 1 frame gap between cl. B and cl. C.

9.) cr. B > cl. C - 3 frame gap between cr. B and cl. C.

Character Matchups

Andy Bogard

• Andy's db~f+A can be punished on block at any range by Iori's dp+A, dp+AC or qcf~hcb+AC.

Ash Crimson

• Around the distance of where Iori's far D reaches, you can punish Ash's A,B,C,D activation with Iori's qcb+Ax3 or his qcf~hcb+AC super.

Athena Asamiya

• You can punish Athena's f+B on block (and even on hit if they don't follow up with qcb+K) with Iori's qcf~hcb+P or qcf~hcb+AC while Athena is landing.

Benimaru Nikaido

• Benimaru's qcf+K on block can be hit at it's maximum distance range with Iori's EX qcb+P or qcf~hcb+AC. At close range, the qcf+K on block can be punished with a raw qcb+P.

Billy Kane

Chin Gentsai

Clark Still

• Against his charge punches (b~f+P) quickly dp+A/C them or super with qcf~hcb+P.

Duo Lon

• Dou Lon's teleport after his 3rd rekka block string can be punished with qcb+AC, or qcf~hcb+AC.

Elisabeth Branctorche

• EX Iori can punish Elisabeth's dp+AC on block by using his dp+A, qcb+Ax3, dp+AC and qcf~hcb+AC.

• At a close range, Elisabeth's qcf+A can be whiff punished by EX Iori's qcb+A rekkas.

Goro Daimon

Hwa Jai

Iori Yagami (Claw)

Iori Yagami (Flame) (mirror match)

Joe Higashi

K'

• K's qcf+AC~P EX fireball can be evade with a close dp+AC. Be sure that the fireball is near Iori before you perform the EX dp because the invincibility is limited during the start and active frames.

Kim Kaphwan

• Kim's qcb+D can be whiff punished at a far distance by Iori's st.D or cr. D sweep. At a mid or close whiff range, it can be punished with qcb+A or far C. It can punished on block at a close range with a far C or a dash-up close C, or mid to a far range (the last hit of the qcb+D) with any punch strength of Iori's qcb+P rekkas.

• Kim's qcb+B is hard to whiff punish with many of EX Iori's normals and special moves. His qcf~hcb+AC can punish it before its recovery ends. On block, at a close range, it can be punished with Iori's far C or a quick run-up cl.C or dp+C. At it's max range, it's best to punish it on block with a dp+A.

• Kim's qcb+BD (EX qcb+K) can be normal thrown during its start-up. On block, Iori doesn't have anything fast enough to reach Kim before his recovery time ends.

• When a Kim player uses his ff+A to bounce off the wall, dp+C as soon as possible to snuff any of his follow ups, except for his air qcb+BD which has invincibility.

• Ex Iori's EX hcb,f+P command throw can eat up Kim's j.A safe jump setup after many of his hard knockdown combo.

• Kim's qcf,qcf+B is safe on block but has bad recovery on whiff. Use qcb+P or qcf~hcb+P (or EX version) to punish Kim while he's recovering.

King

• Preemptive EX qcf+P can hit King while she is falling during her air Venom Strikes (air qcf+K).

• EX Iori's stand D can evade and hit King's stand B (light kick) right outside of its attack range.

• King's stand C whiffs on crouching opponents, so use crouching B to duck underneath it and attack her.

Kula Diamond

• Punish her qcb+B at close range on block with a dp+C. If someone releases the f+B follow-up, the dp+C will go straight through it.

Kyo Kusanagi (XIII)

Kyo Kusanagi (NESTS)

Leona Heidern

Mai Shiranui

Mature

Maxima

Raiden

Ralf Jones

Robert Garcia

• Duck under Robert's j.CD with cr.B or cr.D to hit him on the way down.

• Punish Robert's db~f+B with Maiden Masher (qcf~hcb+P). You can run up and combo Robert after he lands from a db~f+D.

• Punish Robert's EX db~f+K with a close C into any damaging combo.

• Robert's db~f+K can evade Iori's qcf+P projectile.

Ryo Sakazaki

Saiki

Shen Woo

Sie Kensou

Takuma Sakazaki

Mr. Karate

Terry Bogard

• You can evade and punish Terry's j.A, j.B and j.CD with Iori's cr.B or cr.D.

• You can evade and hit Terry out of his standing C with Iori's cr.D but careful that it might trade (in your favor, because Terry will be knocked down) and the sweep has bad recovery if it misses.

• Iori's qcf+AC will clash with Terry's qcf+AC.

• Terry's qcb+A at it's maximum distance is very safe on block, but very unsafe at close range when blocked.

• Iori's cr.B can duck under and hit Terry's qcb+D at close range.

• Be careful of Terry's qcfx2+AC, it can evade Iori's qcf+P projectile.

'Vice

Yuri Sakazaki

• Punish Yuri's EX hcb+K at any distance with EX Iori's qcb+A or qcf~hcb+AC super.