GBVS/Katalina/Strategy

General Tactics

Katalina's strongest spacing is at the tip range of her excellent f.MGuardMidStartup8Recovery18Advantage-6, as she can also poke with 2MGuardMidStartup7Recovery15Advantage-5 at that range to stop rolls and use f.HGuardMidStartup9Recovery23Advantage-10 to really wall people out. At farther ranges, she can use Frozen BladeGuardAllStartup16RecoveryTotal 45Advantage-9 to control space safely, but her projectile zoning is typically worse than average. Her goal is to slowly chip away at the opponent and push them to the corner, where she can use the threat of her increased damage output to assert her turn. In order to get in on Katalina, opponents will have to deal with both her excellent pokes and her fireball.

Neutral

Being an all-rounder, Katalina's approach to neutral varies heavily on the opponent. There are some characters she can zone out somewhat easily, some characters she is forced to fight exclusively in the midrange, and some characters that she has to be the aggressor against.

General Approaches to Neutral

Fighting Common Approaches Against Katalina

Against characters who lack range or speed on their pokes, she can harass them from midrange with her own pokes and projectiles. Unless the opponent has a reliable way to deal with these tools they must take a risk to approach Katalina.

Dashing

The most straight-forward approach, and also (usually) the easiest to deal with. Naturally loses to Katalina's pokes and fireballs as no one can block immediately from a dash.

f.MGuardMidStartup8Recovery18Advantage-6, f.HGuardMidStartup9Recovery23Advantage-10, and 2MGuardMidStartup7Recovery15Advantage-5 are Katalina's main midrange pokes (ordered by reach).
f.LGuardMidStartup6Recovery6Advantage+1 is Katalina's last line of defense against opponents who like to run at her.
236LGuardAllStartup16RecoveryTotal 45Advantage-9 and 236MGuardAllStartup16RecoveryTotal 45Advantage-9 are standard fireballs. They control space well but are somewhat easy to roll. Throw a couple M fireballs to establish a dodge timing and then an L version to start playing with their expectations.
214LGuardMidStartup16Recovery18Advantage-7 (at worst) deserves special mention as it travels surprisingly far and can be safe on block if spaced (typically max f.M range).

Jumping

Loses to her anti-airs, of which Katalina has a great deal.

2HGuardMidStartup10Recovery23Advantage-12 is a highly rewarding option against close jump-ins, but must be timed correctly as it only beats air normals through clash priority.
f.HGuardMidStartup9Recovery23Advantage-10 is excellent against farther jumps but shares the same drawbacks as her 2H.
623LGuardMid→AllStartup9Recovery30Advantage-23 or 623MGuardMid, AllStartup9Recovery34Advantage-27 are invulnerable options, but are only air unblockable for a short time. However, they are easily accessable with the Skill button input.
623HGuardMidStartup9Recovery35Advantage-28 is entirely air unblockable, invulnerable, and grants a hard knockdown at the cost of a cooldown. Highly reliable.

Throwing a predictable fireball will let opponents jump in easily, make sure to vary between the L and M versions as well as simply walking to increase the risk of jumping.

Crossover/Roll

After trying the first two options, opponents may try to fight Katalina using system mechanics. She is well-equipped to fight these, but they typically require more conscious counterplay.

Doing nothing is an easy answer.
2MGuardMidStartup7Recovery15Advantage-5 counterhits opponents out of Crossover.
236LGuardAllStartup16RecoveryTotal 45Advantage-9 cancels at max range are safe to Crossover.

Low Profiles

This is character specific, but you as a Katalina player will know these options and hate them. All of her far pokes and fireballs (even 2M) have extended foot hurtboxes that lose to low pokes and especially low profile moves. Her only real option against them is to hard bait or whiff punish them.

Fighting Characters with Better Pokes

Against characters that can match or slightly exceed her poking range your footsies and whiff punishment become more important. Thankfully, her far normals make for excellent whiff punish tools and they convert into okizeme with 214LGuardMidStartup16Recovery18Advantage-7 (at worst).

is great to poke with just outside of the range of the opponents farthest reaching normal. Projectiles have to be well placed because their startup puts her at risk of getting counterpoked by the opponent's far normals. If all else fails, Katalina's walkspeed can move her in and out of the opponent's optimal range to fish for a greedy whiff.

Fighting Characters with Better Neutral

Against characters that outrange entirely, Katalina she must find a way to get into close quarters. Katalina’s tools are at their weakest when she is a full screen away.

Approach Tools

5[U]GuardMidStartup14~??+9Recovery24Advantage-15 is a risky option when midscreen or closer, but it's excellent against stray pokes or projectiles as it can be dash cancelled whether it absorbs a hit or not.
236LGuardAllStartup16RecoveryTotal 45Advantage-9 and 236MGuardAllStartup16RecoveryTotal 45Advantage-9 deserve mention again as they cancel out single fireballs and Katalina can approach behind the L version.
214LGuardMidStartup16Recovery18Advantage-7 (at worst) can be used to cover a lot of space relatively quickly.
214MGuardMidStartup20Recovery21Advantage-8 (at worst) is relatively safe to use at around 3/4ths of the screen. Even though it is somewhat slow, it is Katalina's farthest reaching move outside her fireballs and the backstep before the stab can dodge some far pokes.

Using Katalina's Tools

Normals (, , , and )

Katalina's normals are excellent, especially how they synergize with the rest of her kit. Most commonly, you'll be relying on her quick M buttons for poking and counterpoking, but each listed normal has its own niche. f.M and f.H probably have the most overlap as they have similar reach, but there are very distinct differences between the two. If the opponent is relying on their own M buttons to poke, f.H will crush it with its priority where f.M would trade. f.L outshines them both when in range, as it leads to surprsing damage on counterhit while being extremely fast and plus on block. 2M is also notable as it is very fast and beats rolls where f.M and f.H lose. Unfortunately, as stated before, f.L, f.M, and f.H all lose to low pokes. Even 2M struggles against lows, which may force you do do weird things like pre-emptive Universal OverheadGuardHighStartup26Recovery18Advantage-4.

f.L Hitbox
f.M Hitbox
f.H Hitbox
2M Hitbox

Light Wall ()

Frozen Blade ( and )

Enchanted Lands and )

Offense

Off a hard knockdown use a string like cl.5L > 2L > far 5L 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.

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

-Timed button presses (use cl.5M or cl.5H for this)

-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.

Alternatively she can stay around the tip of 2Ms range. Here she can harass with 2M and far 5M or use far 5H to hit jumps out of their startup and crush pokes. She can utilize the push back of 2M to create whiff punish scenarios as well.

Blockstrings

Cl.5L > 2L > far 5L – Leaves you at -5. This string is a strong sequence because it allows you to gather much information about your opponent. Cl.5L recovers so quickly that you can use it as a meaty and be safe from reversals. The rest of the string is designed to frame trap and stop people from walking away or jumping out of pressure.

cl.5H > 236H – Leaves you at +4. Cl.5H > 236H is a true blockstring. cl.5H is our most rewarding frame trap and will juggle the opponent when cancelled into 236H.

2L > cl.5L > 2M – -5. This string is one of Katalina’s best when dashing into point blank range.

2L x1-2 > Far 5L – -5. This string is consistent when dashing in on an opponent from close ranges.

Okizeme

Katalina is equipped with various safe jump J.U and safe meaty 2L/c.L setups. Here are some of the most common ones:

Forward Throw

Midscreen

66 j.H

High jump j.U

Corner

9 > 2L

9 > c.M (+1)

High jump j.U

Back Throw

6G > c.L

623H

Midscreen

66 j.U or j.H

9 > 2L

Corner

9 > 2L

9 > c.M (+1)

High jump j.U

623H and throw have the exact same knockdown in the corner

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