GBVS/Katalina/Strategy

General Tactics

Katalina's gameplan is to control the midrange neutral and push her opponent to the corner where they will have no choice but to take substantial risks to deal with her fireball, pokes and 2H anti air in order to escape. She aims to score a hard knockdown that she can use to begin her offense.

Off a hard knockdown use a string like cl.5L > 2L > cl.5M first. This will allow you to gauge your opponent since cl.5L is a safe meaty. It recovers so quickly that you can bait their reversal options with it. 2L hits low and will tag anyone that is trying to walk out of pressure. cl.5M is a highly rewarding frame trap button.

Using blockstrings to create space is an excellent strategy to utilize with Katalina because she excels at midrange. She can easily cause the opponent to whiff normals which she can capitalize on using far 5H. If they choose to grant her respect she can walk or run back to close range and continue pressuring the opponent.

Once the opponent is conditioned to block you can enforce a throw mixup. It is key to take note of how the opponent techs throws in order to capitalize. Essentially throw techs lose to:

-Overhead *Most effective against early techs

-Timed button presses (use cl.5M or cl.5H for this) * Most Effective against late techs.

-Moving in and out of throw range to cause a whiff that Katalina can punish with cl.5M or cl.5H *Most effective against early techs.

-Jumping to cause the throw to whiff then coming down with a j.U as a punish.

Corner Offense

Katalina is dangerous when she has the opponent cornered. Due to the threat of her pokes like far 5H and 2M she can keep an opponent contained and apply good pressure. A good range for her to sit at is within her far 5M tip range. At this distance she can easily move in to poke or cause the opponent to whiff pokes she can punish with far 5H or 2M.

Neutral

236x - Frozen Blade

Light version is a slow moving projectile, medium is a faster version, H is the fastest and multihit. H grants also frame advantage on block.

The light version is good to use as a way to test people and cover some real estate. Chances are if they block this you have frame advantage due to spacing. You can use this to position yourself better and react to how the opponent responds. It's also a nice way to set yourself up for spaced 214x.

The medium version is a fast projectile that is suited to be used as a poke in neutral as well as a cancel option off your far pokes. The speed is so fast that the opponent cannot jump out of strings utilizing this. Since it is not that easy to react to from your poke range the opponent has to do something risky to deal with it.

The heavy version is a high damage combo starter in the corner and is an excellent pressure tool.

214x - Enchanted Lands

This is a thrusting special that is unsafe on block unless spaced. It's main usage in neutral is to poke from long ranges and to hit the opponent during actions that leave them vulnerable such as Percival charging or Ferry using Gee Gee.

214M has massive reward on counter hit and has Katalina take a step back before performing it. This makes it a solid tool to dodge and punish long range normals.

Far 5M

Katalina's farthest reaching poke. Due to its reach and safety on block it is one of the go to pokes in neutral. It can be low profiled near tip range however so be careful using it too often.

2M

Another go to poke. It is extremely fast for the range it covers and will likely out prioritize opposing normals. It is also great to defend the space in front of you when people are dashing at you or attempting to use crossover. This move is also good at whiff punishing certain normals that far 5H

Far 5H

This move can crush other normals due to being a heavy attack. The speed and the range it covers make it a great counter poke and whiff punisher alongside 2M.