The King of Fighters XIII/Vice/Strategy

Spacing

Far Range

• Vice's tools at long range are limited. Deicide is your good tool at this range, but trading with it will do no damage to the opponent.
• Splash C will hit at this range, but it is easy to react to unless they are unprepared, and overall not too rewarding.
• Your safest option at this range is to avoid projectiles and patiently approach your opponent.

Mid Range

• In mid range, you have a lot more tools to threaten. Remember that any hit that knocks them out of the air can turn into a full combo with EX Decide, including a lot of trades. Focus on baiting them into the air with short-recovery pokes, and nail them in the air.
• Hop CD is useful as an air-to-air wall. Be carefully about using forward hop with it, as you can be low profile anti-aired with a crouching light kick or sweep easily. Mix in j.C and j.D to cover several angles.
• St. A is your go-to reactionary anti-air against regular hops, while EX Mayhem is great against regular jumps or floaty hops.
• Far D is great to pre-emptively stop hops and jumps, and if you hit it meaty you can link EX Deicide. For style, if you have the meter you can also anti-air with far D, HD cancel, then EX Deicide.
• Vice's CD, cr. D, and cr. B all have great range. Poking at their max ranges can be a safe and viable option, as not many character's can match their range.
• Splash can be used here if the opponent refuses to jump, but it is easy to stuff with standing jabs.

Close Range

• Cr. B, f+A, and Gorefest (hcb~f+P) are your primary mixup tools.
• EX Gorefest and Negative Gain both have great and deceptive range.
• Cr. B is +1 on block, and Gorefest is a 1 frame command grab, which makes Vice's tick throws very strong.
• If the opponent is blocking too many hop attacks, consider using empty hop Gorefest.

Cornered Opponent

• Keep at close/mid range so you can still threaten with hop CD.

Cornered

• GC Blowback(or Roll) and get out of there!

• EX Mayhem is great to get through fireballs and unsafe blockstrings, but it's use as a reversal is limited as it is slow and easily safe-jumped.

• EX Splash can beat some jumps and normals if timed right.

Tips

• Vice has two useful links that increase the damage and meter gain in her basic combos: st.A after a grounded hit of her qcb+C, and cl.D after the sequence qcb+P, (DC) qcb+AC, qcb+A. In both cases, connecting the link can either lead to a reset mixup, or can be canceled into EX Deicide for what is typically a highly efficient and damaging combo.

Frame Traps

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

1.) st. A > cr. C - 4 frame gap between st. A and cl. C. St. A whiffs on couching opponents, except on Daimon, Raiden, and Maxima.

2.) st. A > cl. D - 3 frame gap between st. A and cl. D. St. A whiffs on couching opponents, except on Daimon, Raiden, and Maxima.

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

4.) cr. B > cl. D - 4 frame gap between cr. B and cl. D.

Whiff Cancels

• Using whiff cancels can help increase the effective range of Vice's Deicide specials. This technique allows Vice to reach almost a full screen distance with the move quickly.
• Canceling cr.C and cr.D are both quick ways of adding range, while canceling CD will take slightly longer but will move Vice a considerable distance forward.
• The window for canceling cr.C is tight, so inputing the C in the middle of the hcf is an easy way to get it.
• This is an especially important technique for connecting EX Deicide after a j.CD hit. j.CD *land* CD~hcf+BD can help improve consistency when trying to get combos from j.CD.

Meter Options

With No Meter/No Drive

• Gorefest builds a lot of meter, so use that to end combos at first.

With 1+ Meter/No Drive

• Always be ready for EX Deicide
• EX Mayhem has a lot of combo possibility, especially with 2 meters.

With No Meter/50%-100% Drive

• Vice only gets a lot of damage from drive cancels if you also have Super meter, so don't do one without the other.

With 1+ Meter/100% Drive

• Be ready to confirm a HD combo, With 100% drive, Vice is going to make any hit hit hard. don't be too obvious if you are trying to connect a j.CD though.
• Consider using empty jumps if your opponent is being too cautious. mixup situations after Gorefest are very effective.

Best Team Position

• Vice's options without meter are severely limited, especially against projectile characters. Always use Vice 2nd or anchor to take advantage of her strengths.

Character Matchups

Andy Bogard

• Stay at the mid range to punish badly timed projectiles and work out Vice's offense.

Ash Crimson

• Stop Ash's jump in's with a neutral jump/hop normal.
• Stay about two character distance/mid range distance from Ash and try to eke out some weakness off of the Ash player.

Athena Asamiya

• Retain a two character distance/mid range distance from Athena. There is no need to get zoned out.
• Don't get too jumpy when Athena is on the ground. Constant movement and whiff punishment is going to be rather pivotal in this match up.

Benimaru Nikaido

• Stand B is good to punich Beni's rekka kick.

Billy Kane

• Vice needs to play a little more offense in this scenario because Billy does not have any really trustworthy reversals without meter.
• Work your way in so that you can avoid Billy's normal moves.
• Retain a close to mid range distance between Vice and Billy. Billy
• Billy's f+A is negative on block, so get ready to get an offense started when Billy starts to rely too much on this.
• Avoid getting the corner as much as possible, because Billy can use his normal moves to control space. Her EX QCB+P can cause problems for Billy when he is up close try to pressure her, however.

Chin Gentsai

• Use command grabs to punish blocked overhead
• Stay out of the corner as much as possible. In this particular match, Vice needs to be the one on the offense, not Chin.
• Preemptive j.CD will put a stop to Chin's hop pressure. Vice also jumps higher than Chin so from the far to mid range, Vice can smack Chin out of the air. She will combo after the fact if she has meter.

Clark Still

• Retain a mid range distance between Vice and Clark. Clark is a grappling character like Vice does.
• Discourage jump ins with a preemptive j.CD. If Vice has meter, get ready to go for the EX Sleeve and metered combos for big time damage
• Stay within the mid screen and drive Clark into the corner so that Vice herself can continue her pressure.

Duo Lon

• Command grab with punish teleport after the blocked rekka, but do it the reverse direction
• Duo Lon's rekkas in general are actually punishable, including the first hit.
• You can use Vice's Sleeve to catch Duo hopping/jumping backwards while he is trying to poke in mid air from Vice's own pressure
• Retain a close to mid range distance between yourself and Duo Lon because Duo is a threat at longer ranges too.
• At the mid range, beware of Duo's poking options. Cautiously wander in to Duo's space while avoid/blocking attacks and crush Duo Lon.

Elisabeth Branctorche

• Both characters excel at the close range while having good metered options.
• Vice appears to have better mid air options than Elisabeth does
• Elisabeth does not get any real reversal unless she has meter. Even then, the said reversals are very risky/unsafe on block.

Goro Daimon

Hwa Jai

• Use command grab to punish bad slides and flip kick.

Iori Yagami (Claw)

Iori Yagami (Flame)

• Use stand B to punish rekka.

Joe Higashi

K'

Kim Kaphwan

King

Kula Diamond

Kyo Kusanagi (XIII)

Kyo Kusanagi (NESTS)

Leona Heidern

Mai Shiranui

Mature

• Command grab to punish her DP

Maxima

Raiden

Ralf Jones

Robert Garcia

Ryo Sakazaki

Saiki

Shen Woo

Sie Kensou

Takuma Sakazaki

Mr. Karate

Terry Bogard

Vice (mirror match)

Yuri Sakazaki