Against jumping in:
- Her anti-airs are basically EX dp, st.hp, cr.hp and st.lp and other than EX dp, none of them are super reliable, but they cover different situation. St.hp is really good against jump-ins from far away and neutral jumps (in the corner, too). If your opponent does neutral jump with a normal, st.hp covers almost half the screen. Cr.hp is good against your usual slow jump-in with heavy kicks, things like random Nash teleports (it auto-corrects left/right and it can crush counter) and Chun's instant air legs if you're ready. Also, you can cancel both hp versions into her command dash for a quick mixup. There are some more specific uses for normals, like st.mp is good against moves that land behind you (missed Ken air tatsu for example) or neutral jumps in the corner. Cr.lp is good against Chun's instant air legs and st.lp is good against neutral jumps in front of you.
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Air-to-air! If you watch high level Karin play you'll see this a lot since it's much more reliable and it keeps your opponent where they were, preferably the corner. Look at last week's Daigo-Mago match:
https://youtu.be/8AiZNqSsW-0?t=56m40s Daigo jumps twice in the first round and Mago answers with air-to-air twice. The concept is basically that the more ready you are for a jump, the slower (and more damaging) the normal you should use in the air is. I really think this should be the preferred option for Karins by now. It also leaves your opponent at footsie range where Karin is at her best
- Dash under. You can go for a good fast normal (st.lk or cr.mp), a throw, a block (if your opponent is mashy) or a neutral jump afterwards.
- V-reversal. Most opponents go for a short blockstring after a jump-in. V-reversal the first blocked attack and they lose their pressure. This will lose to all throws. Not that great of an option.
Against pressure on wake-up:
- Block. It's underrated.
- V-Reversal. Best used against slow moves that leave your opponent + on block and make you guess afterwards like Bison's st.hk and Alex' lariat(?). Karin can get range-specific ambiguous cross-ups, meaty setups and safe-jumps after you hit with it.
- EX dp is your only invincible attack. You have to use it sometimes. It loses to opponents that neutral jump right in front of you.
- Backdash. Kind of sucks in this game, but it's decent against graplers since it beats command throws, normal throws, create distance if your opponent blocks and often you will only get hit once if they use a normal.
- Neutral jump if you guess a command throw. If you neutral jump a normal throw, good opponents will hit you with a standing jab or something.
- Mash your 3 frame cr.lp. This is a weird one. It shouldn't be as good, but it's amazing how well it works. If your opponent has meaty timings down, stop using it.
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Jump back option select (
video)
- If you expect a shimmy, you can do cr.mk xx tenko or cr.mk xx EX kicks as a safe block string that hits standing opponents.
