Exceed Fighting System/Ken

Story

Ken Masters is the deuteragonist from the Street Fighter series of fighting games alongside with his best friend Ryu, having made appearances in all major incarnations of the main series. Together, the two childhood friends seek to hone their martial arts skills and protect those they care about.

Gameplay

Ken is the quintessential aggressive shoto, possessing solid mixups, a powerful if fragile fireball game, and the ability to efficiently approach his opponent. He easily sets up powerful safe attacks, and in particular, his notorious Ax Kick is one of the game's most reliable and high damage methods of confirming power boosts, often ending games in checkmates.

The tradeoff is that Ken's defensive tools are tepid, his obliterating safe attacks all require setup, and like all Street Fighter characters, he demands careful positional play and resource management. One too many failed mixups, poorly considered boosts, or steps into the wrong range will lead into an aggressive opponent outpressuring him and destroying his ability to find gauge and damage.

Strengths

Weaknesses

High damage safe attacks: Ken converts resources into massive, low risk damage. Opponents who play passively or protract neutral can expect to get repeatedly chunked. A rushdown character that rarely struggles with being zoned: Ken's fireball is threatening enough to force many opponents into close range, but even when this fails, he easily closes gaps. Threatening mixup game: Ken has a suite of bread and butter mixup tools that work off of a single gauge at any range from 2-5, meaning the opponent is unlikely to have any completely reliable options on defense.

Careful footsies required: Most of Ken's attacks are awkward except at specific ranges, and until he has 4 gauge to play Shinryuken, he is much weaker at range 1 than range 2. While his unique ability moves him in, neither his ability nor his specials move him out. Resource hungry: Many of Ken's mixups only exist on critical attacks, and therefore do not help him build gauge. Weak defense: Ken has no reversals, and his guarded specials are not particularly punishing on defense.

Unique Ability and Exceed

Unique Ability

Ken Masters

Front Side Exceed Cost 3 As an action, you may Close 1 and draw a card.. This is an extremely efficient approach tool. It also helps mitigate the risk of getting stranded at a bad range that playing Cross or boosting Backstep would otherwise present. Exceed Side Exceed Cost - When you Exceed, draw a card and Close up to 2. As an action, you may Close 1 and draw a card. Then, you may Strike. This is extremely effective in cracking open opponents that try to run a pure zoning game. In other matchups, exceeding is never prioritized over keeping up the threat of Shinryuken.

Normals

Link to the relevant normals page

Specials

Ax Kick / Ki Charge

Ax Kick Range Power Speed Armor Guard Gauge Cost Force Cost 1 5 4 0 0 - - Critical: +2 Speed. Ignore Armor. Before: Close 1. Ken's kit is built around using this attack to confirm power bonuses. This is almost always played at range 2 as a critical attack. On its own, this is on curve and therefore relatively safe against unguarded attacks, but trades very poorly against slows. With a power boost, this card becomes a completely different beast. With +1 power, it stuns focus, and with +2 power it also stuns sweep, meaning it crushes every non-EX normal. With True Master boosted, Ax Kick cleanly beats every EX normal except EX sweep, making it one of the most safe attacks in the game. If you have both copies in hand, it's usually better to use the two copies separately to confirm boosts, rather than playing them EX. Ax Kick's repositioning means it leads naturally into Shinryuken. PLACEHOLDER Ki Charge Type Gauge Cost Force Cost Cancellable Instantaneous 0 0 No Add this card to your gauge. A fine boost which can accelerate your early game pressure. Nonetheless, this is almost never played, due to the potency and ease of use of Ax Kick.

Hadoken / Overpower

Hadoken Range Power Speed Armor Guard Gauge Cost Force Cost 3-6 4 4 0 0 - - Critical: +2 Power. After: If you hit, you may return this card to the top of your Deck. If you do, add the top card of your discard pile to your gauge. Recurring Hadoken (and usually playing it with wild swings) is powerful, but gauge negative if your discard pile is empty, which limits the value you can get from this in the first few turns. Once you have your first gauge from another source, spending it to make Hadoken is cost efficient enough to turn recursion into a serious threat, one which will force even many zoners to close in on you. Landing a range 2 Cross, especially a defensive cross, and going into Hadoken recursion is an easy source of value. Don't get greedy - when things start to feel risky, let Hadoken go to gauge, or just draw it for later use. Defending with Hadoken at range 5 is often reasonably safe, but defending at range 3-4 is almost always risky. Dive is a priority card against Ken, and opponents may actively dig into their deck for it. Playing Hadoken at range 4 on offense is unsafe against EX Dive. Playing a critical attack at range 4-5 presents a move/don't move mixup with Hadoken and Knee Bash. The mixup is significantly improved at range 5, where Knee Bash punishes an attempt to gap close with EX Dive and does not lose to Focus. PLACEHOLDER Overpower Type Gauge Cost Force Cost Cancellable Continuous 0 0 No +1 Power. NOW: Strike. While +1 Power is often a weak stat boost, the speed and low commitment of Overpower makes it an easy way to push attacks past breakpoints. In particular, Sweep is unsafe against a strike from Overpower, since your own Sweep will stun it.

Knee Bash / Custom Combo

Knee Bash Range Power Speed Armor Guard Gauge Cost Force Cost 1-2 5 2 0 5 - - +0-1 Range if you initiated this Strike. Critical, Before: Close 2. A usually mediocre slow, despite its occasionally juicy positional benefits. Critical Knee Bash beats a defensive range 2 Cross. Without stat increases, critical Knee Bash and Grasp are Ken's only defensive answers to range 1 cross. A critical attack at range 4-5 presents a move/don't move mixup between Hadoken and Knee Bash. The mixup is significantly improved at range 5, where Knee Bash punishes an attempt to gap close with EX Dive and does not lose to Focus. PLACEHOLDER Custom Combo Type Gauge Cost Force Cost Cancellable Continuous 0 0 No Now: Draw 2 cards. Hit: Gain Advantage (you take the next turn, regardless of who initiated the Strike). Since Knee Bash is often a below average attack, playing this boost is no worse than preparing. Ideally, Custom Combo comes out when the opponent is low on cards and unlikely to strike into you. If the turn does come back to you with this boost out, you have a strong incentive to confirm it with something safe rather than go for a risky mixup. You may be tempted to create the ultimate reward bomb by loading this onto a powerful attack you already have set up, but be cognizant of the risk that Scramble, Reading, Parry, etc. will show up to expose your greed.

Shoryuken / Burning Passion

Shoryuken Range Power Speed Armor Guard Gauge Cost Force Cost 1 4 5 0 4 - - +2 Speed if you initiated this Strike. Critical, Before: Close 1. Offensive critical Shoryuken is the safest way to confirm Custom Combo at range 2. The low base power means Shoryuken struggles to hit breakpoints, so it is not the preferred method of confirming power boosts. When your hand is stocked, Shoryuken is a high tempo way to move from range 2 to range 1, threatening Shinryuken. PLACEHOLDER Burning Passion Type Gauge Cost Force Cost Cancellable Continuous 0 0 No +1 Speed. NOW: Draw a card. While Shoryuken is situational, Burning Passion is almost always good. Reliably and efficiently confirms range 3 Dive, makes Hadoken safe against EX Dive, makes Shinryuken safe against Grasp, makes Ax Kick safe against EX Cross, and so on. A strong neutral play, since it increases your hand size and creates pressure at the same time.

Tatsumaki / Senpukyaku

Tatsumaki Range Power Speed Armor Guard Gauge Cost Force Cost 1-2 5 3 0 0 - - BEFORE: Advance 2. HIT: If you moved past the opponent during this strike, Ignore Guard. Without boosts, this is typically a slightly worse Spike at range 2, nearly unplayable at range 3, and a worse Dive at range 4. Much more threatening at range 1, where the normal midspeeds are relatively weak. Slow enough to be difficult to confirm with speed boosts. However, Defend makes this a mostly safe offensive option at range 2. PLACEHOLDER Senpukyaku Type Gauge Cost Force Cost Cancellable Continuous 0 0 No +1 Speed. NOW: Strike. Has all the uses of Burning Passion, except Senpukyaku ends neutral rather than extending it.

Ultras

Guren Senpukyaku / True Master

Heavy Mob Cemetery Range Power Speed Armor Guard Gauge Cost Force Cost 1-2 5 4 0 4 3 - BEFORE: Advance 2. If you did not move past the opponent during this movement, +3 Power. Even with the condition met, 3 gauge is a steep cost for this effect. It is significantly easier to get the power bonus against a cornered opponent, especially at range 1, where this forms a mixup with Shinryuken and no longer performs poorly against Assault. PLACEHOLDER True Master Type Gauge Cost Force Cost Cancellable Continuous 0 1 No +2 Power and +2 Speed. Ken's most valuable and most frequently played boost by a wide margin. Immediately turns Ax Kick into a death train, allowing it to beat even offensive EX Cross, but also pairs well with Hadoken, Dive, Spike, Sweep, Shinryuken and the other copy of Guren Senpukyaku. You can expect the opponent to search for and hold on to discard boost effects in advance of Way of the Warrior coming down. Keeping the threat of this boost live can help protect your Fierces and Lights, and opens the opponent up to Parry and Reading.

Shinryuken / Rushdown Style

Shinryuken Range Power Speed Armor Guard Gauge Cost Force Cost 1 7 6 0 0 4 - +4 Power if you initiated this Strike. Crushing, easy to land, and extremely expensive. Ken's range 1 game consists almost entirely of this attack's existence, meaning that as long as this card is not an active threat, the opponent can lessen your short range pressure by closing to range 1. Conversely, getting this threat live and keeping it live is important to shutting down characters with strong footsies or a strong preference for range 1. PLACEHOLDER Rushdown Style Type Gauge Cost Force Cost Cancellable Instantaneous 0 1 No Close 3, then Strike. Not cheap, but this is higher tempo out of strike movement than Street Fighter characters usually get. Even against a zoner, this boost is not necessarily valuable enough to justify keeping Shinryuken in your opening hand. Becomes more useful as the opponent's deck thins and specific ranges become more clearly important to skip past.

External Links