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GUIDE UNDER CONSTRUCTION - SEASON 3 CHANGES ARE NOT REFLECTED YET
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Thanks for checking out my Rainbow Mika guide!

My name is DrC, I'm a Street Fighter enthusiast and I enjoy teaching people how to improve. Feel free to add me on the in-game Capcom Fighting Network to check out my matches (CFN): DrChen

Personally, I don't like to play Ranked matches as I prefer longer sets of Battle Lounge. I really feel it's more beneficial to understand somebody's playstyle and play them consecutively (win or lose) to facilitate understanding matchups. Feel free to watch an example match I played with a Rank 1359 Cammy (This was part of a first to 5 set, I ended up losing at 4-5, shoutout to BacoVEVO for letting me use this footage!)

This guide is designed for people wanting to learn about Rainbow Mika, what she's about and how to use her to her maximum effectiveness. I've played a lot of Street Fighter throughout my days and hopefully I can teach you something. I will be going in-depth with her moves and what tools are effective. Resources will also be listed for beginner/intermediate players as many players need to improve their fundamentals.

If you're a seasoned Street Fighter Player, please check out the Concise Guide section towards the end of this guide. This has all the basic information you'll typically need. (Currently ***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***

Author's Note: Please see the very bottom of the guide for the Update Log. As things are under construction, this is considered the beta release. Sections of this guide are still works-in-progress and will be eventually finished. Thanks for your understanding.

http://streetfighter.wikia.com/wiki/R._Mika


Mika is a grappler type character who mainly relies on utilizing the corner to deal a whirlwind of damage, quickly stunning and defeating her opponents. Her neutral game (normal attacks and tools when both characters are standing apart) is decent but sometimes forcing your opponent to the corner can be tough. Without getting to the corner, Mika loses a big part of her advantage and gameplan, which can make her matchups quite difficult.

Grappler characters demand being played fundamentally sound in order to be effective. If your defense is bad or you're bad at judging spacing of your moves or you can't execute combos consistently, your success with this character will vary wildly. Sometimes you'll get lucky, get them in the corner and just clobber your opponent. Other times, you can't get any offense started and just slowly die in the neutral game. The highs will be high, the lows will be low.

There are easier characters to learn with more forgiving moves and if you're a total Street Fighter beginner, it's hard to recommend playing Mika unless you're ready to lose a lot. It will be your education. Another big part of playing grappler characters is you need to be constantly reading your opponent. You need look for an opening, can you stop a particular string of attacks that they always use, or the fact that they always jump in this particular situation? Find the pattern and see how you can exploit it. Mika has the tools to let you do this for the most part, but you need to see the pattern/habit.

Unfortunately, to see the patterns, you need fighting game experience. It's not like Ryu where you can throw a lot of fireballs and just uppercut when someone jumps in. Obviously this is a grossly simplified explanation but it's a much easier gameplan than actually trying to safely get in with Mika, which can vary greatly depending on who you're fighting against. As Ryu you're forcing a response from your opponent by starting your offense. For Mika and grapplers, this playstyle is more "active play", a thinking-person's character, how am I going to respond to what my opponent is doing. One style is like questioning, like can you respond (Ryu throwing fireballs), the other is the act of responding (Mika trying to get in and reacting to Ryu's offense). Of course, once your opponent is in the corner, Mika will be doing the questioning as her offense has started, but to get there, you're going to need to break open that Ryu's defense.

As a grappler, guessing and feeling the tone of the match and your opponent is also very important. With Mika, you can put yourself in a lot of situations where you are forcing your opponent to guess (sometimes numerous times) in a short period of time. You need to know when to push and go aggressive and sometimes when to feign aggression but back off to let your opponent hang themselves (letting Ryu whiff a big uppercut because you felt/knew he was getting desperate). This comes with experience and observing what your opponent likes to do, but a big down-side of this is that sometimes you're just going to guess wrong and it will be frustrating. This is just the nature of playing this sort of a character.

If you've read this far and can understand what it's going to take to play Mika at a decent level and you'd still like to proceed, please join me with the rest of the guide.
In overall character standings, I think Mika is probably around mid-tier at best, low-tier at worst. The inherent "instability" of the character will make it difficult for Mika to win a major tournament in my opinion, though I still think she's viable. I've played some strong character specialists and Mika has some problems getting in.


In offline play, her charged drop kick can be easily reacted to and you'll either miss totally (low-profile Chun cr. mk) or get stuffed (Karin st. hp, Ryu Parry, Ryu shoryuken etc). You can try mixing it up in footsies but against good players, the move seems to have more limited use and should not be constantly abused like I see it used in online play.

Cr. hk is great when you connect but it's absolutely horrible on block (-12), it's almost like gambling at least 1/4 of your life every time you do it, because the punish potential is high. Even at max range, it's punishable. None of the shooting peaches are safe on block (maybe if done meaty or at the very end of active) and really the only way in asides from that is walking forward or jumping. She does have some moves like cr. hp and f + mk to help her advance, but even they can be negative on block so you kind of have to wait for your opening (usually opponent making a mistake).

Overall, it's an uphill battle and you will definitely need to be good at neutral in order to get anything going. Problem is, the higher level you go, the harder this is to do. Go participate in your local Street Fighter scene if you can, you will quickly see what you can and can't get away with and it will tighten up your gameplay significantly. I think you will also come to realize how honest you have to play against experienced players to get your offense going.

That said, assuming you can get past this and somewhat reliably get your opponent in the corner, then you need to make a lot of good reads to keep the offense going. Thankfully, Mika does have good damage/stun so if your opponent makes a couple of bad guesses you can quickly end the round. She's very much a feast or famine character, thrives when she has the momentum and is very mixup driven once in the corner. Regardless of what I've said above, she's very fun to play and the fact she seems viable means I'll probably continue playing her.

Street Fighter V is probably my favorite Street Fighter to date (after Super Turbo). It's also one of the most honest versions with emphasis on a lot of back-to-fundamentals stuff.

Thanks to the March 2016 Update, there's now a 'Challenges' mode for all the characters. Going into 'Challenges' from the main Street Fighter V Menu has the following options:

1. Trial
   This mode allows you to select a character and perform many basic combos. This includes Rainbow Mika of course but many of these combos are not optimized for damage/stun/pushing to the corner. Make sure to check out the combo section of this guide for that. A cool feature is that you're able to repeat a certain challenge over and over if you're struggling with it, but I typically prefer the flexibility of normal Training mode. This is a great mode for beginners.
   
   
2. Demonstration
   Demonstration is a non-interactive mode that basically explains many system fundamentals of Street Fighter V, like what V-Trigger is and how to activate it. It's great to finally have an in-game mode to show people more advanced concepts.

These are great resources for all players to understand the basics of Street Fighter V.

Another method I like to use is if you want to quickly get used to a character, one of the first things to do is understand their normal attacks. Go into training mode and try out all the normal moves and try to imagine them in different scenarios. Is this move for tripping people? Maybe to hit someone out of the air? Perhaps a long range poke to harass? Get used to the ranges of various normal attacks, the timing of the button to hit someone out of the air, seeing the properties etc.

Once you feel like you have a good handle in training mode, go to the Gauge Settings and set everything to normal. Then set the dummy to CPU Level 4 (default) and restart the battle. See if you can defeat the computer only using normal moves (no specials etc). CPU Level 4 should be pretty easy so feel free to start to crank it up. Ideally if you can beat CPU Level 8 with showing good defense and normals, you've probably gotten a good understanding of what normal to use in different situations. Try against different CPU characters to get a feel of what moves/offense/defense to expect. Chun-Li is a good one to try at CPU Level 8.

Of course playing against people is still the best way to learn (especially by someone who can teach), but by playing this way against the CPU will help familiarize yourself with what a character is capable of. In my opinion it's a good enough primer to get most beginner/intermediate level players started.



Use of Normals - Play against CPU in Training mode with all gauge settings set to Normal and the highest difficulty level you can manage. Only use normal attacks and pretend you're playing against a real person. Focus as much as possible on a concept called "Anti-Airing", hitting someone out of the air with a move, in order to stop their offense against you. So if the opponent jumps in, you need to have a normal attack to response against it. In the Mika normal moves breakdown, I'll talk about which buttons to use for anti-airing.

Defending properly - How long can you last just blocking and punishing unsafe moves with normal attacks against CPU Level 8?

Understand the mechanics - An important aspect is understanding the game you're playing. Without knowing what your options are in given situations, you'll never be able to master the game at a higher level. Do you know how to build V-Gauge? What's a V-Reversal and how do you execute it? What's the difference between a normal/back recovery and how do you execute them? What are your crush counter normals? If you're unfamiliar with Street Fighter V's mechanics, definitely go through the 'Challenges' -> 'Demonstration' mode.

For more supplemental mechanics information check out:

MetalMusicMan's The SFV Guidebook

Bafael's General Tutorial Series

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_fighting_games

In this guide I will be explaining certain concepts that are familiar to many fighting game players. If you don't know what I'm talking about definitely check the link above and I'll be posting links to specifics that I think are good to know and will probably touch on throughout the guide.

Frame Data, Frame Advantage/Disadvantage[en.wiktionary.org]



Low Profile - Moves that typically attack low and lower the characters body to a point where attacks that target the upper/middle part of the body will typically miss all together. This is often used by characters like Dhalsim's slide to move under certain moves or not get hit by airborne attacks all together.

This is relevant when Mika does her charging st. hk, as it's susceptible to being low profiled and the drop kick can miss completely if timed correctly by a smart opponent.

Commands listed here will be assuming Mika is facing towards the right. If your character is facing the other way, reverse the controls. The table below represents a directional pad or arcade stick with the different directions listed.






Example Combo:
jf. hp, st. mp, f + mp, f + mp, back dash, charge st. hk, qcf + pp

Verbose Explanation:
Jumping forward hard punch, next command says st. mp for standing medium punch, which implies that you've landed from the jumping hard punch. Standing medium punch then transitions to forward and medium punch at the same time, which is Passion Press. The next forward and medium punch is Passion Rope Throw which throws your opponent towards the front. Back Dash is back, back. This results in the opponent hitting the forward edge of the screen. Charge standing hard kick (hold down the hard kick for a moment) which goes into the charged drop kick. After recovering from the drop kick, go into EX Shooting Peach, which is a quarter circle forward and any 2 punches.

For a more comprehensive look at Fighting Game notation: http://sonichurricane.com/articles/sfnotation.html

Normal moves are where the majority of the most important tools are in your arsenal. Knowing special and critical art moves is good, but the way to land those moves successfully is through smart use of your normals. Most normals have a purpose and specific situations to use them in. Try to understand what frame data is so you can interpret the numbers below, it will help you with what to do/not to do when looking at your own replays. If at any point you don't understand certain terms described in the guide, please refer to the 'Fundamental Knowledge and Resources' section of the guide.

st. lk, st. mp

qcf + p

hcb + p

mp + mk

By holding down mp + mk, Mika pulls out a mic and starts a monologue. The longer this is held, the stronger the boost to all her throw related moves. She also gains V-Skill meter for this and also has one hit of armor while performing this. The armor will absorb an attack (not multi-hit attacks or throws however).

Right when starting this move, she will be at Level 1, which provides a small damage and stun boost to all her throws (normal throws and all command throws including Wingless Airplane and her Critical Art). The more Mika talks, rings of smoke will come out periodically around her signaling another level up. There's a total of 5 Levels and at the maximum 5 levels, any throw will instantly kill.

Once you let go of mp + mk, Mika will immediately stop talking and throw her mic on the ground and it will bounce forward slightly in front of her before disappearing. This is actually considered Mika's only projectile and does do a small amount of damage (it's possible to get Mic kills this way)

You can use this to nullify projectiles, set up a meaty microphone projectile, or potentially bait your opponent to come and attack you hopefully giving you an opportunity to land a powered-up throw.

Unfortunately, if you are hit anytime after being powered-up, or if you miss a throw attempt (including normal), the boost will be gone.

This is quite an interesting move as you are telegraphing that you will want to land a throw in the near future which can mentally prepare your opponent. On the other hand, the longer Mika monologues, the more V-Gauge you gain which helps you use V-Trigger and V-Reversal more often. Generally in real matches you can get up to a Level 1 or 2 boost before having to stop especially after a Rainbow Typhoon (qcb + p).

hp + hk

Mika's V-Trigger is very unique in that she calls in her Tag Team Partner - Nadeshiko. One of the great things about V-Trigger is that you can use this to cancel normal moves at anytime which can make higher risk moves like cr. hk or cr. hp completely safe. It can also be used to interrupt your opponent or even augment Mika's defense by forcing the opponent to deal with a distraction.

Assuming Mika is facing right when calling for Nadeshiko, there are a total of 3 ways to call her:

b + hp + hk (Left)


hp + hk (Neutral)


f + hp + hk (Right)


The direction dictates which side of the screen Nadeshiko comes from. If you use Mika's V-Trigger by holding hp + hk longer (for any direction), Mika will raise both her fingers up and Nadeshiko will come out with a decent delay. This can help with setups and scaring your opponent as they know Nadeshiko will appear soon.

The back and forward version of Mika's V-Trigger will knock the opponent down into a spinning state which can be juggled typically with Wingless or EX Wingless.

The normal V-Trigger where Nadeshiko comes straight down is primarily used as a combo extender and can also hit opponents that are grounded.

A problem I've noticed is that Nadeshiko can miss sometimes depending on how quickly your opponent moving. If Mika is facing right and is right up against an opponent, if you call Nadeshiko with a b + hp + hk, and immediately after calling her, start dashing/pushing your opponent forwards from midscreen, Nadeshiko will miss. Make sure you get a good handle on V-Trigger and knowing which one you want to use at what time.

f + kkk

Rainbow Mika's hitbox data has been released to the public thanks to Overheat76 (Shoryuken[forums.shoryuken.com]) and eiSH (DeviantArt[eish.deviantart.com])! This is a good reference to see what an attack looks like behind the scenes. Ultimately, fighting games are just boxes overlapping each other and interacting (taking damage or pushing back etc). Seeing what an attack looks like gives you an idea of what sort of moves it can beat.

The best example is this video here that shows all the moves in slow motion:


You can also check out pictures here:
Rainbow Mika Hitbox Data[eish.deviantart.com]

These combos are mostly for quick hit-confirms and are highly encouraged to be used defensively and offensively as they typically start off with a fast attack. These are your workhorse combos that you can commonly land (hopefully). If you don't understand the terminology listed (like qcf + p), please go to the 'Command and Notation Legend' section for more clarification.

Full / Punish Combos are when you get a major opportunity where you can really capitalize, either a whiffed uppercut or if you successfully blocked an attack with major recovery. I will typically omit jumping attacks as you can add these to most of the combos for more damage.

Many of these combos will also involve standing medium punch into Passion Press to Passion Rope Throw (st. mp, f + mp, f or b + mp). Sometimes when the opponent is too far for the st. mp, feel free to omit it and just go straight for Passion Press to Passion Rope Throw.

The entire Passion Press to Passion Rope Throw can be a finicky beast. The way it behaves heavily depends on how close you are to the corner. You will need to experiment with timings sometimes and you will not necessarily be able to use all the combos at any time. The combos below will assume you and your opponent are midscreen (the range that Training Mode starts you off in), unless stated otherwise, like "Corner or Near Corner Only".

Crush Counters are executed by basically getting a counter hit [en.wiktionary.org]while utilizing certain moves. In Mika's case, landing a f + hp, st. hk, or a charged st. hk as a counter hit will result in a Crush Counter. When crush countering an opponent, the opponent will usually be in a particularly vulnerable state (like spinning in the air or staggered on the ground) that gives you quite a bit of time to follow up on and deal more damage.

To practice these combos in Training Mode, pause the game to open the Training menu. Go to 'Dummy Settings' then to 'Counter' and set it to 'On'. All moves you initially hit with will be considered a counter hit and will result in Crush Counters.

The following V-Trigger combos truly maximize the amount of damage Mika can deal off certain moves. These combos are great for getting yourself back into the game or dealing incredible amounts of damage for only one to two bars of meter with a V-Trigger activation. For all intents and purposes, these combos are still considered Full / Punish combos but significantly optimized for damage.

To effectively pressure your opponents, you must understand the options available to you at any given time. In this section, we'll be primarily covering the wakeup/recovery situation and showing the decisions that you can potentially make. If at any point you don't understand certain terms described here, please refer to the 'Fundamental Knowledge and Resources' section of the guide.

One of the most common situations for Mika is the decision that you make on your opponent's wakeup game or hitting someone out of the air into a recovery situation. Both situations are fairly similar in that you have the initiative and can act first while the opponent needs to make a guess.

If you play the neutral game/footsies well, hopefully this can become a frequent opportunity for you to apply pressure and force your opponent to play a guessing game that's relatively in your favor. Below is a decision tree of how each situation typically plays out. We will be assuming that you've knocked your opponent down and are now right in front of them deciding on what move to make. We will also be assuming that attacks and throws will be performed meaty, which forces your opponent to wake up into your attack.

Now that we've gone over all the pressuring options and the pros and cons, you can make a much more informed offensive decision and really start playing mind games with your opponent. Something very important to remember is to keep track of what your opponent did in certain situations.

Imagine Mika vs Ryu.

Perhaps you hit Ryu out of the air while he was jumping in and while Ryu was coming down, you went for a meaty st. mp, but he did a Shoryuken (his invincible reversal). You got hit this time, so remember that.

Next time this situation occurs again, it's a good time to reevaluate the decision you initially made. Let's say Mika decides to block and sure enough Ryu goes for the Shoryuken again, but this time he doesn't connect. Now Mika can punish hard because you had V-Trigger and spent some meter (check out V-Trigger Combos / Punish Combos section).

Assuming the Ryu player is a thinking person and is adaptable, you've punished them for this mistake and hopefully they will respect you more and NOT Shoryuken when this occurs again in the future.

Now if this situation happens again, there's now a prime opportunity to go for a command throw because if the Ryu respects the fact you might block the Shoryuken and ends up just trying to block a meaty attack, instead you've gone and thrown them now.

If you look at it simply, it's just a constant game of rock-paper-scissors. This is what mind games are and why it's important to get information from your opponent by keeping track of what they like to do in different circumstances. There are different types of players, good ones will try to adapt and change up their decisions, bad ones will typically follow the same patterns and do the same thing over and over again.

That said, just remember, in rock-paper-scissors it's not impossible for someone to throw scissors three times in a row, it's just usually unlikely. Just like you could Brimstone (hcb + k command throw) your opponent over and over, it's possible the opponent won't expect such boldness but don't expect to win like this against all opponents.

Other things can factor in such as how much meter they have or how much life left they have as well as their temperament/play style (are they super aggressive or very defensive? Use this against them).

Ultimately there generally isn't a 100% "best" answer and you're just going to have to guess. Just do your best and go with your gut and the historical data you have. As you get more experience, you'll be a better judge in making decisions in these crucial moments.

Frame Traps and Meaties are a big part of what to do once you "get in" and it's important to understand what your tools look like. If at any point you don't understand certain terms described here, please refer to the 'Fundamental Knowledge and Resources' section of the guide.

Whiff Punishing is important in neutral as you jockey for positioning and throw pokes out, it's good to buffer (prepare follow-up attacks in case they hit).

Common attacks to buffer:
st. mp to mp Shooting Peach (qcf + mp)
st. hp to hp Shooting Peach (qcf + hp)

St. mp and st. hp are common moves to throw out during footsies, especially st. mp. By buffering a Shooting Peach, if the st. mp catches and opponent's limb, you'll immediately go into the Shooting Peach move, hopefully for a follow up.

st. hk to EX Shooting Peach (qcf + pp)

Make sure to mentally prepare an EX Shooting Peach if you plan on using st. hk because if you see a Crush Counter, you can combo off and push to the opponent to the corner quite easily. St. hk can also be used to counter low attacks as well as throws if you time it well enough!

Using Meaty Attacks on your opponent's wake up is a very standard way of applying pressure to your opponent and forcing them into a situation you initiate. Typically as an opponent gets up, the following are good to use on their wake up:

st. lp - This move is at least +2 on block and allows for tick throwing opportunities. Strong options afterwards include attempting a throw, command throw or if you get a counter hit, stick out a st. lp into lp Shooting Peach or a Stomp Chop (st. lk, st. mp).

st. mp or cr. mk or st. mk / f + mk - These moves are primarily fishing for counter hits, when you expect your opponent to do something other than block or invincible reversal. During counterhits, hit stun is increased and provides a lot of flexibility for comboing after visually confirming. Good followups include Stomp Chop (st. lk, st. mp) or Passion Press (f + mp) if it can combo. Getting any follow ups off a meaty can convert into EX Shooting Peach or even Critical Art quite easily.

Lady Mika (f + hp) - This move provides the most amount of plus frames and gives you even more flexibility on follow ups if you expect them to block. You do need to be on the ball in case you do hit normally or via Crush Counter and get ready to combo them, most likely with a Wingless Airplane (qcf + k).

st. lp, st. mp, f + mp - This is a standard frame trap and you're generally shooting for an opponent to do something after the st. lp as the st. mp will pretty much catch anything they do. The Passion Press (f + mp) is to follow up if you do hit.

st. lp, cr. lk, st. lp, EX Shooting Peach (qcf + pp) - There's 2 gaps here, between the st. lp and cr. lk and the cr. lk to st. lp. Both have chances to catch an opponent pressing buttons but you can only follow up with an EX Shooting Peach as they're quite far away after this string.

cr. lk, st. lp, lp sp/ex

charge st hk, cr. lp/st. lp/st. lk, st. mp

charge st hk, st. mp, st hp, hp sp/ex/ca

st. mp -> CA
Safer
st. mp, V-Trigger, CA

Safer
st. mk -> CA
st. mk, V-Trigger, CA

light tick to ex sp

cr. mp
throw

cr. hp
throw

Brimstone, dash st. lk is meaty and can go into st. mp into sp or ex sp

After EX SP in the corner, cr lp cr. lp, pp is meaty
After PP -> charge st hk, cr mp sequence, cr. lp, pp is meaty, you can also lady mika for meaty situation

Situational Baits
cr hp whiff into cr lp -> bnb

Most important setups
Post Command Throw Setups
EX SP in corner
Post SP Setups
PP Corner Setups

Mika's arsenal of command throws can be very intimidating to the opponent if you're near them but it's even more important to understand the approximate ranges of throws at your disposal.

The command throw range order is from longest to shortest range:

Overall EX Rainbow Typhoon has great range and has lots of potential to be thrown in after blocked attacks. However, remember the Rainbow Typhoons throws your opponent quite far backwards and could ruin positioning. It'd be a bad idea to let a teleporting Nash out of the corner when it was so difficult to get him there in the first place.

Peach Assault (Critical Art) is technically the longest range command throw you have but does not work in tick-throw scenarios as the startup of the Critical Art is very obvious and people can hold up to dodge it.

While command throws can be used straight up when you're in range, a common usage is to do a tick-throw. This means you get your opponent to block an attack (typically a fast move that doesn't push them too far away), then immediately go into a command throw as they are ready to block another attack.

The following is a list of common tick-to-command-throw scenarios. These scenarios all assume you get your opponent to block the initial attack at point blank range/right next to them (usually when the opponent is getting up or recovering from the air), then follow up with a command throw.

st. mp -> EX Brimstone up
st. lp -> All command throws
cr. lp -> All command throws
cr. lk -> All command throws
cr. mk -> All command throws
st. lk -> All command throws
cr lk, cr. lp -> lp Rainbow Typhoon
charge st. hk -> Depends on range and where the opponent blocks

st. lp allows true meaty command throw, everything else can technically be potentially be interrupted by a very fast 3-frame startup normal unless done meaty (to get more frame advantage). Definitely experiment with this in Training mode to perform your setups with a Recordable Dummy. Then, switch to the other side and try to escape from them with attacks or reversals. This will give you a good understanding of how far you can go offense-wise.

Explain 5 frame startup and consequences of not

Brimstone looping

Example tick throws
lp lp
charge st. hk

Regular throws are still useful, especially jumpy opponents. Practice wakeup option randomization.

Important while throws are awesome to land, opponents are prone to panicking, adapt as necessary

Throw loops against quick rise after throw in the corner
Brimstone, forward dash, throw
Crouching throw, walk forward, throw

Throw loops if your opponent does NOT quick rise after a throw
Brimstone, forward dash, throw whiff, cr. mk, throw

Throw mixup from a sweep crush counter
Forward dash, Forward dash, Forward dash, st. lp (whiff), throw

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xfSUuGMihN36FWE84OfMIMlyMilK-60Bw-E-1S0k0w0/pub

f mp, f mp, f hp, cr. mp reset

command throw
st. mp meaty -> Follow ups
f hp meaty -> Follow ups
Vtrigger shenanigans

Shooting for 1000 Stun

Try to end on a command throw if possible for less scaling.

Explaining 2-3 mistake concept.

Knowing Matchup stun. Cammy has low stun for example.

Setup Example
jf. hp, st. mp, f + mp, f + mp, back dash, jf. hp (Reset)
(Near the corner) jf. lk (cross up), st. mp, b + mp, b + mp, f + hp, cr. mp (Reset)
EX Brimstone (Dizzy)
jf. hp , st. mp, f + mp, f + mp, f + hp, Wingless Airplane

Corner - Over 1000 life
jf. hp, st. mp, f + mp, f + mp, f + hp, cr. mp (Reset) xx V-Trigger, forward dash
st. mp, b + mp, b + mp, st. hp (Reset)
Ex Rainbow Typhoon (Dizzy), forward dash, forward dash
jf. hp , st. mp, f + mp, f + mp, back dash, charge st. hk, EX Wingless

Dizzy
Corner - Over 1000 stun
jf. hp, st. mp, f + mp, f + mp, jb. lk (Reset)
st. mp (Meaty), st. lk, st. mp, qcf + mp (Knockdown)
(Opponent Normal Recovery) jf. lk (Crossup), cr. lk, cr. lp, qcf + lp (Dizzy)

https://www.evernote.com/shard/s306/sh/eaa667f8-464f-4b0e-94aa-3ed75c613f10/f73c8cc5cf42136a6e843d457606ba7a

Screen Freeze

Canceling
common used normal to cancel

Defensive uses
Anti air
creating temporary distraction

Offensive use




Pitfalls
Vreversal

***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***
throw extending



Option select back dash catching

Passion Press Option Select

Dealing with Projectiles (Fireballs etc)

Dealing with Frame Traps (Attack Pressure from Opponents)

Dealing with Throws / Command Throws

Dealing with Jump-Ins / Cross-Ups

Dealing with V-Reversals

Dealing with Throw Baits (Shimmy/Shimmies)

Dealing with Predictable

Dealing with Low Attacks
st. hk

Dealing with Overhead Attacks

Dealing with Baits

Covering different playstyles and approaches

Neutral Game Approach

Hyper aggressive

Reset Focused

Damage Focused

***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***
Hit confirming (emphasis)



execution Practice
Meaty Attacks Timing
Meaty Throw Timing
Meaty Command Throw Timing
Setup Execution
Combo Execution

Situation Practice (Whiff throw in corner), random recovery action

Defensive practice against CPU

setups

anti airing

footsies

The matchup sections will be updated as I do more research/gain experience with these matchups. Under Construction!

Raw Shooting Peaches (qcf + p) can be used to get in during footsies.

Shooting peach over bananas and can (Birdie V-Skill) during footsies
EX SP through bananas and can

Shooting peach to puruse after blocked chain

st. lp to fmp frame trap?

st. mp to st. lp

st. mk / f + mk beats normal divekicks clean if she lands on the leg you're kicking with.
Cammy has good walkspeed but can get too confident moving forwards. Use f + mp to keep her honest and try to convert into f + mp again on hit if she likes to walk up in your face.

Beating EX Cannon Strike:
Cr. mp (Getting the correct angle is difficult though)
EX Wingless Airplane (more reliable but expensive over time)

Neutral jumping is a decent tactic to bait out her forward moving offense (Cammy V-Skill, Spiral Arrow). Don't get too abusive as they can Cannon Spike if you get too predictable.

Be careful of range on Kikoken, some chun lis will dash up after kikoken and light kick to catch neutral jumps.

Cr. hp saves the day for getting in and trading in your favor with a heavy attack button. Remember, cr. hp's hitbox grows the longer the move is out so if you can time it correctly with Dhalsim's button pushes, you can cleanly beat out limbs. It's worth seeing how limbs interact in training mode.

Watch the patterns, use hk Wingless Airplane to punish dhalsims that get too auto-pilot with the float. Even just throw it out there can be good if the Dhalsim isn't going to punish.

You must master meaties. Personally, my timings were off and Dhalsim slipped out of favorable positions for Mika too many times. Do not let Dhalsim escape, it's much easier to clobber him in the corner and keep him when you want. Make sure to put as much pressure as possible if you can manage to get close and start your offense. It may be your only shot.

J. hp blows up slide if you can manage to land on him.

Need to be strong defensively, lots of left/right teleport mixups with the fireballs.

V-Reversal any of Dhalsim's block to V-Trigger. This is typically a "free" setup for him but by V-Reversaling, you nullify most of the effect and can get out. Try to always have 1 bar of V-Gauge ready for this situation.

if you see Dhalsim's teleport, st lp or st hp (if you can time it), typically follow up with meaty when Dhalsim lands as most like to jump or teleport out. If you can condition dhalsim to start blocking when he lands from this, start command throws. Alternatively if you can react to it, you can also use Lady Mika (f + hp) and combo into EX Shooting Peach or EX Wingless Airplane.

Dhalsim slide in some ways sort of beats st. mk/f + mk because of how many active frames it has. even anticipating a slide, st. mk only beats lows for X frames, when Dhalsim has more active frames than that (X). I've been caught a few times from this so just be aware.

Punish missed jump back air attacks with Wingless. Need to test after being hit, using Wingless. Lots of Dhalsims like to use this as a finishing move, be aware of this and get ready to block high if you're low on health. Landing an EX Wingless and a good read on Dhalsim's wakeup could win you the round.

Another tactic is when you're knocked down, back recover then forward dash into offense. This can catch Dhalsims off guard but don't abuse it too much.

Guren Ken (Karin's Rekka)

First, remember this: if you block a rekka just mash low jab. It will punish the rekka if she doesn't do any followup, beat the elbow (down+P) and the throw (up+K) will whiff and land behind you.
Karin can only backdash (K followup) to make herself safe, or use the palm (P) or slide (down+K) to beat the jab.
If she has a full gauge, she can do palm xx super as an elegant strategy to beat the jab, so you might want to focus on blocking if she has the meter.

Mika's option after blocking rekka
cr. lp
EX Shooting Peach (whiffs if up + K)


Countering Moves

Karin's cr. hk:
EX Shooting Peach
cr. lp xx EX Shooting Peach (depends on range)
f + mp, f + mp (depends on range)

Karin's st. hk:
st. lp xx EX Shooting Peach (depends on range)

Karin's cr. mk:
st. lk, st. mp xx mp Shooting Peach (depends on range)

Karin's f + mk (overhead):
st. lp xx lp Shooting Peach

Karin's lk Mujinkyaku:
Blocked 1st hit: f + mp
Blocked both hits: st. mp xx mp Shooting Peach

Karin's Orochi (shoulder check):
Blocked: Go for tick throw situation
You can also go for a neutral jump especially if Karin has no meter.

Karin's hp Ressenha (overhead palm):
Blocked: Go for tick throw situation
You can also go for a neutral jump especially if Karin has no meter.

st. lp xx lp Shooting Peach?

cr. mk to catch Karin's cr. mp. You can buffer a forward V-Trigger after the cr. mk in case you do catch it, then go into EX Shooting Peach into Wingless Airplane

Cr. hk is easy to land against Laura's projectile. I've seen people charge this up from mid-screen and it's basically getting free knockdown. Even if she releases the projectile when you're getting close, the slide will go under regardless and hit Laura's recovery.

cr. mk devils reverse

Stand at the range where Mika can Slide under or range where jf.hk hits.

Be heavily offensive. Keep walking/dashing forward. His buttons aren’t very good. That said, be wary of Nash's dash, it's deceptively fast and it's good to throw out some fast buttons during footsies especially if Nash has no meter. Once Nash has 3 bars and CA ready to go, he becomes a lot more dangerous and must exercise more caution during neutral.

He has no wake-up options other than V-Reversal. He's free to Mika's mixups after a knockdown. Be relentless here as this is one of the only opportunities you'll get to play Mika's game.

Most important thing is keep track of his V-Gauge. If it's full and has (or close to) full meter, it's a safe bet they will try to teleport behind you and do combo into CA. Anticipate the teleport and punish it with a neutral jump j.hk, combo. Or just jf or jb if you’re not sure where he teleports to.

Notable Nash moves:

m.Scythe -8
Moonsault slashes are all + on block. It's a good opportunity to V-Reversal here and not Nash gain plus frames on Mika.

Nash's cr. hp is +3 on block, must be careful of the situation afterwards as you may get frame trapped.

Nash's f + lk (Knee Bazooka) is -5 on block, -1 on hit
Nash's f + mk (Jumping Sobat) is -3 on block, +2 on hit
Nash's f + mp (Chopping Assault) is -6 on block, +1 on hit
Nash's f + hk (Step Kick) is -2 on block, +2 on hit

Cr. mk can be used to defensively to cleanly beat the other Mika's charge st. hk. EX Shooting Peach can also be used on reaction if you're close enough.

Liberal use of V-Reversal to get out of "Blender"/Heavy Mixup situation. This can be baited/defeated by a lp or lk into a throw/command throw however.

beware neutral jumps on rashid when he has full meter (Rashid CA)

Must master the lp to lp sp to stop mixer strings

Dealing with Dash Eagle Spike
After blocking, forward dash, st. lp xx EX Shooting Peach
Hard to deal with this move as Mika

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xWW888u3SuV0oI8xWLqKg5CyDY--cbJZcrO7NSBTpd0/pub
Whirlwind Shot

The first thing to keep in mind is that there is no reason to block HK Whirlwind Shot. The best answer is to interrupt it.
Rashid will most likely Whirlwind Shot from st.MP, f.MP (1), st.HP or cr.HP (1).
st.MP or f.MP (1) xx HK/EX Whirlwind Shot has at least a 5f gap so you can jump or even interrupt it. [That sounds off, f.MP xx EX Whirlwind seems like it has a 3f gap so you can't jump, needs further testing].
cr.HP / st.HP xx EX Whirlwind is more dangerous. It's not a true blockstring but you can not jump and can not interrupt it without an invincible move.
To sum it up:
st.MP / f.MP xx HK Whirlwind : Can jump or interrupt easily. Don't block it.
st.MP / f.MP xx EX Whirlwind : 5f gap so you can jump on reaction [Again, need further testing on f.MP]
cr.HP xx HK Whirlwind : Press a button on the timing where you would have blocked an EX
cr.HP xx EX Whirlwind : 4f gap so it's hard to interrupt. If you try to jump out you'll get hit airborne, the correct answer is to block.
st.HP xx HK Whirlwind : Can interrupt
st.HP xx EX Whirlwind : Has the smallest gap at 3f. You jump you die. If you see the flash, block and maybe V-Reversal.
So there's 2 things to keep in mind
After blocking st.MP or f.MP, if you see a HK Whirlwind press a sweep or another button, and if it's an EX jump out.
After blocking cr.HP or st.HP, press a button on the timing where you would have blocked the EX Whirlwind.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h6Elvj9ZLyga3IUvCcFRuxKNlQQmmHBbpj9goyT63kY/edit?pref=2&pli=1

attack constantly
bait out his 1-meter invi reversal

Rashid OB ACTIVE Mika
d.mp+mk > k -5 4 Max: EX.Peach
Far: mp xx m.Peach
qcb+k -20 ~ walk fw > Clap
EX.qcb+k -9 ~ Clap
mp+mk > k -24? ~ walk fw > Clap
dj > qcb+k ~ ~ walk fw > Clap
f.dash > f+k ~ ~ walk fw > Clap
qcf+lp (3 hits) Unpunishable
qcf+lp (5 hits) mp > Clap
qcf+lp (7 hits) Clap

Ryu CA breaks guard, if they set you up in the corner, you'll be eating a lot of damage guaranteed. If not, it's still safe (example: shoryuken, cancel to CA). Be very careful when Ryu has full meter.

Ryu VTrigger fully charged normal hadoken also breaks guard. Many Ryus follow up with the Solar Plexus Punch (f + hp) for big damage.



Block a lot. His strings are tight.
Use charge.hk if you think he doesn’t kow how to deal with it
Get in by:
walk > block
dash in > lp > mp
dash in > mp / c.mk
dash in > c.lk > mk
dash in > c.lk > slight walk > c.lk
dash in > C.Throw
whiffing c.hp to bait
meaty c.hp
whiffing Dive Bomb to bait DP
dj.hp
dj.hk
dj.lk (crossup)
Meaty Peach
EX.Peach through FBs







Notable Ryu moves start OH OB
lp 3 4 2
mp 5 6 1
lk 4 -1 -2
c.mp 5 4 2
j.lk 4 crossup



Punishes Ryu Mika Difficulty
Blocked c.hk (-11) (max) EX.Peach
(closer) Clap Medium
Blocked f.mp (-4) (max) CA
(closer) lp xx EX.Peach Hard
Blocked Normal Tatsu (-10) mp > Clap … Medium
Intercepted mid-way Normal Tatsu l/EX.Plane Easy
Blocked EX.Tatsu (-19) Clap Hard
Fireball (close) EX.Peach Easy

Beating EX Barcelona
cr. mp
cr. hk to make EX Barcelona whiff, then follow up with st. mp, f/b + mp, f/b + mp
You can also try jumping with hk to catch him out of the air (very dependent on where he is)

f + mp his v-skill and charge st. hp. Depending on how much they like to spam
stand ch. hk is good when you can land, force a 50/50, either lp Rainbow Typhoon or EX, or st. lk, st. mp

Keep distance, his normals are further than yours.

Zangief putting pressure on Mika while she's waking up is very bad news (bad reversals) do your best guessing, this is make or break.

Keep Zangief on his toes, dash in and command throw once in a while. Certain tactics like this can put mentally weaker opponents on tilt. Some try to "get you back" for doing that by trying their own forward dash to SPD. Try to understand your opponents state of mind.

Matchup is very temperamental, are they a defensive zangief or offensive. current exp is with offensive zangief, I could play against him ranged (stand around where f + mk barely hits, harass with it)

You must watch for patterns, what buttons until SPD? cr. lp, cr. lp SPD? remember it. Next time you get hit, jump up. lots of free easy damage this way. What setups did they like to use? I played a Zangief that like to use cr. mp as anti air, and when I landed went for the SPD 2 times. 3rd time, I jumped into full critical art punish combo.

CFN:
ebiumino1 – Ebi (JP)
hameko – Hameko (JP)
hashibiron – Fuudo (JP)
shimolen – Shimolen (JP)
200won – 200won (KR)
BIGDANMUL – BIGDANMUL (KR)
MarnHQ[www.twitch.tv] – Marn (VN)
BS_Dang – Dang (US)
ElChakotay – El Chakotay (US)
Kelvinshouse – Kelvin Jeon (US)
Pavocado – Pavocado (US)
RainbowImpact – Native Impact (US)
Mignon_Luffy – Luffy (FR)
GentlemanThief – Gentleman Thief (US)
OmGiTzRMika[www.twitch.tv] – OmgitzAndre (US)
RainbowImpact [www.twitch.tv] – Native Impact (US)
OlafRedland[www.twitch.tv] – OlafRedland (US)

https://dafeetlee.wordpress.com/cfn-strong-player-list/

FAT
V-Frames
http://watissf.dantarion.com/sf5/boxdox/

http://www.sirlin.net/ptw

http://sonichurricane.com/?page_id=1702

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_fighting_games



https://www.reddit.com/r/streetFighter/

http://forums.shoryuken.com/categories/r-mika-sfv

https://discord.gg/0pfEeEnmg0ere9lk

https://dafeetlee.wordpress.com/cfn-strong-player-list/

http://forums.shoryuken.com/categories/domination-101

http://wiki.shoryuken.com/Street_Fighter_V

Thanks everyone for reading, feel free to contact me if you have any questions or want to provide feedback for this guide. Unfortunately, I've gone home and become a family man now, so while I am busy, I'll definitely get back to you as soon as I can. Suggestions are always appreciated as the game matures things will need to be updated/changed. I also plan to continually update this guide as a personal reference especially for the matchup sections.



Contributors:
Aria - Matchup Notes, big thanks to you for contributing valuable matchup knowledge!

Big Shoutouts to:
ChesterCharm - First major SF training partner, thank you my friend.
Long Beach Street Fighter V Locals - Theo, Darien, Z, Abe, Evan, Porkchop and all the others, thanks all for showing up and throwing down.
Capcom - Thanks for the awesome game, we had a bit of a rocky start but the game itself is still solid. Love the focus on fundamentals.
Shoryuken Forums - Original stomping grounds, tons of knowledge here, thanks guys.
Mika Discord Chat - https://discord.gg/0pfEeEnmg0ere9lk
OlafRedland[www.twitch.tv] - Teaching me a lot about Rainbow Mika and showing me what is/isn't effective
NativeImpact[www.twitch.tv] - Great channel, strong Mika, nice guy.
Vonsock - Kicking my butt in USF4 and cool with adding me (Abel, Evil Ryu)
Gorillacat - Exposing me in SFV, I want some runbacks! (Ryu, Chun-Li)
BacoVEVO - Amazing Cammy player, cool guy
VersacePython - Thanks for sharing your FGC stories, hope to play you with low latency one day!

Under Construction!

Video Links to Authors

Picture Credits

Other Contributors

Version 0.9 (2016-09-01)
Added Aria's matchup notes to the Matchups section.

Version 0.9 (2016-07-30)
Combos are done, finished Mika's Offensive and Defensive option sections. Thinking of removing certain sections due to bloat. If anyone has any feedback about that, please let me know. Need to finish Frame Traps/Setups section. Not sure how detailed I should go into it as there's tons to cover and lots of different setups.

Version 0.9 (2016-04-09)
Combos are almost done, just need to complete V-Trigger Lady Mika combos. Also finishing Pressuring and Defensive options sections, it's helpful to go over everything and truly understand what options are available to Mika. I'm going to focus on Resets/Shenanigans soon and tighten my knowledge . I'm aiming for finishing everything outside of Character Matchups to be considered a 1.0 release.

Version 0.85 (2016-03-25)
Still fleshing things out. Need to finish V-Trigger-izing all punish combos and maximize damage (more testing and recording data for me). Continuing to add more to match up sections and cleaned up / clarified all sections up to the combos.

Version 0.8 (2016-03-14)
Initial Beta Release - Finishing this guide is taking much, much longer than I expected. I wanted to get this out last week but as I get further into the guide, I'm not satisfied with the level of thoroughness and quality as I'm testing everything and making sure what I put out there makes sense. There's still more testing to be done but I think I need to let people see this guide especially before things get too obsolete (March Update incoming). I solemnly swear that I will get this a "1.0-worthy" state and continue updating until then.


cr lk after PP, cr. hp reset

cr. hp, vt cr. lk, jf belly