Master Raven BT

BT For Beginners: The Basics

1st rule of BT: Don't be scared of BT. Many approach BT with a lot of apprehension. This stems from a larger problem of people's tendencies to over-complicate Raven. I promise you, BT is nothing to fear. Its not that deep. Treat it the same as any other stance in the game where you can't block.

2nd rule of BT: Always remember that b3+4 exists. This is a very important command as it is Raven's safest BT exit. Also do keep note of which moves enter BT (the most common ones are db2, 4,1, qcf4 and df2). Making sure you don't enter stance on accident and being aware of your transitions/exits is standard for any character with stances.

3rd rule of BT: Don't mistake BT as primarily a vehicle for mid/low 50-50's. Rather than whether your opponent will crouch or stand, the real "mixup" for BT is a bit different in that its more about whether your opponent will press buttons (interrupt) or respect you (turtle). With this knowledge, decision-making in BT becomes much more clear.

When starting out, good BT options you can use are:

• BT f4,3 (beefy low to remind your opponent to watch their ankles)
• BT d4 (fast high-crushing low poke that tracks both ways)
• BT throws (Raven has a 3-way throw mixup that's fully ambiguous. Pure guess for the opponent)
• BT 1+2 (powercrush mid that's useful at discouraging interrupt attempts)
• BT f3 (i13 fast CH mid also good for deterring interrupts)
• BT 1,4 (i8 jab string)

BRINGING SYNERGY TO BT

Getting the most out of BT is an exercise in two things: counter-poking and conditioning the opponent. Both of which require you to be at least somewhat adept at reading your opponent and paying attention to their tendencies.

What do I mean by this exactly? If you notice your opponent keeps using jabs or other highs in response to BT then you should exploit that, by using high-crush options like BT d4, BT b2, BT crouch-turn or even BT d3 if you're really confident. The point is you're looking for options to counter or exploit your opponent's decision-making i.e counter-poking.

This is how you can start using BT with better coherency and as more than a hodge-podge assortment of random moves. Raven's BT stances really shines once you are able to establish a mind game.

What follows from here, is an in-depth break-down of Raven's BT tools as counter pokes and the behaviours they're best suited to exploit.

Intermediate Skill: Counter-Poking

Counter-poking is important to staying one step ahead of the opponent mentally. Counter-poking is knowing what's the best response to a certain action from the opponent. Its knowing that the opponent will commit to an approach, when they're at a certain range. Knowing how they'll respond after being made to block something. With enough experience you can even start pre-empting your opponent's behavioural patterns to get them to behave how you want them to.

This of course requires you to have strong familiarity with your kit. Understanding the tools available to you, that you instinctively know which tool to respond with, in a given situation. Rather than just throwing things out on a whim, in the hopes that maybe you’ll get lucky. That's what this guide will help you to work towards.

You may feel this makes BT complicated, if you have to remember a counter for every option your opponent could take. But really the only thing you have to keep track of is whether your opponent is respecting your BT stance or if they're pressing buttons to interrupt.

Opponent is Respecting / Not taking their turn

If they're respecting it means they've either frozen up or they're twitch ducking. For opponents that freeze up, you can go straight for their ankles with BT f4,3. Or you can opt for BT b3 if you want plus frames and want to hold onto your turn a bit longer to test your opponent's patience or set them up for a BT1,4 frame trap.

Below are common behaviours to expect from opponent’s that aren’t freezing up but aren’t pressing buttons to take their turn back either.

Stepping

Stepping may feel like a silver bullet solution to BT, but Raven has good answers for stepping. Majority of her BT options track SSR but BT b3 is homing, BT d4 tracks both ways and BT f2 and the BT3,4 string both track SSL. Oftentimes opponents might give up on stepping when they realise they can’t avoid BT d4.



Also worth keeping in mind that BT is largely dependent on the frame situation. Entering BT on block means Raven is very vulnerable to being interrupted or stepped. But entering BT on hit means Raven is plus and even certain linear options like BT f4,3 become harder to step.

Twitch-Ducking

For twitch ducking opponents, they're trying to low parry BT d4 and/or duck the BT throw. This might be annoying since it becomes harder to correctly mix them up and feels like you’re putting yourself into a guess. But the important thing to remember is that they’re not pressing buttons when they're twitch-ducking. They’re not denying you, your turn. Thus, the best way to exploit this behaviour is to go for pressure options. Make them regret letting you have your turn free by holding onto it for an extended period.



But how to pressure and keep your turn in BT? This is why its important to understand how to play "small Tekken" in BT (i.e not to go straight for the big moves that end your turn right away on block). This is where you can really make BT shine. When pressuring, you need to have a goal in mind. Don't try pressure just for the sake of pressuring. You either want to test your opponent's patience and see how long it takes them to crack and eventually over-extend. Or you're using options that help you hold onto your turn to throw you off your opponent's low parry timing (i.e using small moves before you commit to something beefier).

Opponent Is Pressing Buttons

So if the opponent is often going for interrupts, then it’s worth paying attention to what sort of options they’re relying on.

The common response tactic is to just use the BT1+2 power crush. Against those with little Raven experience it’s very easy to catch them out with BT1+2 as their usual Tekken instincts tell them that a BT opponent means free hits in the back. But this can only pay-off for so long. As BT1+2 can be stepped, is -13 on block, has small range and quite bad on whiff. Plus BT1+2 won’t protect you from lows. So it is quite a committal option. It is better then, to opt for options that may be less rewarding but won’t get you punished in case you suspected the opponent would interrupt but they didn’t.



Common BT interrupt tactics:



Dick-jab

Easily the most common anti-BT tactic. Dick-jabs are generally very good at stealing back a turn and before they used to be the perfect "I don't wanna deal with BT" option (especially back when Raven's b3+4 wasn't fast enough to block them in time). With S2 turning Raven's BT1+2 into a powercrush, the opponent now has to think twice about using dick-jabs. Because while dick-jabs are fast, they have slow-ish recovery. If you are wary of using BT1+2, you can turn around with b3+4. You'll block the dickjab, leaving the opponent at -5. With the opponent at -5, you can interrupt anything the opponent tries with db2, df1, b4 or 3,3. You could also sidestep. Be sure to never let the opponent get away with using dick-jab on block as a FC setup.

BT f3 also works against dick-jabs. Tho I only use it in scenarios where my opponent is dick-jabbing when I'm plus.

Lastly if you really want to punish your opponent hard for dickjabbing then you should use b2,2 more. b2,2 has more pushback on block and it’s just enough to make dick-jabs whiff if you turn around with b3+4. Therefore, you can whiff-punish dick-jabs with ff3.

Jab Check

Jab checking is common because it’s an all-round safe bet. Jabs also recover in time to block BT1+2 after activating its armour frames. But jabs are highs. So they’re vulnerable to high-crush options such as BT d1, BT d4, BT d3 (if you’re really confident) and both the forward and retreating BT crouch turns.



Df1 Check


Another common tactic, especially for characters who have a df1 with fast recovery. Dealing with df1's means paying attention to the frame situation. After db2 on block (-5), BT 1 will trade with i13 df1's. After b2,2 on block (-3), BT 1 will beat df1's.

b3+4 will also turn around in time to block df1’s but the retreating crouch-turn can get clipped.



;Generic df4/i12 mid


The generic df4 is a i12 kicking mid attack. They’re useful against Raven’s BT because of their pushback. If Raven uses BT1+2, a generic df4 will push her back far enough to make the BT1+2 whiff. Seems like a strong OS but only viable if Raven enters BT with negative frames. Again paying attention to the frame situation and using alternative BT transitions will help.


Hopkicks/Orbital


Sometimes opponents don't want to have to deal with BT at all and will just throw out a Hail Mary hopkick/orbital to see if it works or to low crush BT d4. But they're only a concern when entering BT with negative frames. BT jabs can work on some hopkicks to float them out of it.

 Turning around to block a hopkick allows you to punish with 4,1 so you’ll enter BT with plus frames and not have to worry as much about losing to a YOLO hopkick/orbital.

Lows


Lows can be quite troublesome. Particularly high-crush lows like a generic d4. Its easier to counter non high-crush lows if the frame situation is on your side (the benefits of having an i8 jab string). But of course BT1 won't work on something like a generic d4. BT powercrush and BT f1+2 reversal won't protect you from lows and Raven unfortunately can't turn around fast enough to block low in time (tho she can make some lows whiff using her BT db crouchturn). db2,1 can call out non high-crush lows but will whiff against generic d4's.

So what does this mean for Raven? It means you're going to have to be a bit smarter about how you use BT. Generic d4 is only really problematic against db2 as BT transition. Alternative options include:

• Raw BT - Using BT raw (literally just running up to your opponent and hitting b3+4) allows you to skip block stun and the frame situation entirely. BT becomes entirely based on timing and reactions because the frame situation is basically neutral. Using raw BT also allows you to gauge how your opponent reacts to situations with very little time to respond & formulate a defence strategy. Going into raw BT then BT d4 is very hard to react to and will have your opponent focusing more on twitch-ducking or resorting to panic buttons, which makes them susceptible to being baited.

• b2,2 - b2,2 is always a useful alternative, because of its frame situation as mentioned before. It is less minus on block and more plus on hit than db2. It also has slightly more pushback on block, which increases your chances a bit of getting lows to whiff through BT db. But most importantly in this case, b2,2 has extensions. Many people mistake these extensions as a vehicle for a 50/50 mixup but that's not what they're for. They exist to call out your opponent for not respecting BT. The only reason you'd ever want to use b2,2,3 is to get the CH launch to catch the opponent pressing buttons. Not to catch them ducking. b2,2,3 is indeed very high-risk as its launch on block, but you get a big reward for making the correct read. And the point isn't just to get damage but to make your opponent think twice about using lows. The damage just helps with hammering that point home.

• Plus on block BT transitions - There are only two BT transitions that are plus on block: b4,b4 and b1+2,2 which are +1 and +2 respectively. Honestly its not much, but they do afford you the opportunity to call out any low (high-crush or not) with BT f3.

• BT cancels - More or less similarly to raw BT, the idea with BT cancels is less focusing on the frame situation and more on testing your opponent's reaction time. These cancels may have a longer start-up framewise than true raw BT, but its impossible to visually react to them and then formulate a response. If you do get hit out of these cancels its either because your opponent was mindlessly mashing (and you can then use other tactics to exploit that behaviour) or they called you out on a read.

• uf4 BT cancel - uf4 is already a powerful tool on its own. The extension exists to make people wary of pressing buttons afterwards but because uf4 is only -4 on block, its far better to sidestep after to bait out and punish whiffs. This is an excellent deterrent to pressing buttons, which then gives you leeway to enter BT via uf4,B. Your opponent must risk sitting tight and leaving themselves subject to a BT mix or risk pressing buttons and getting baited into whiffing or being called out by the extension.

• BT from FC - In S3 Raven was given w3+4,B which allows her to smoothly transition out of her CD and into BT. Tho technically its faster to crouch cancel then do raw BT but the idea is the same for either method. When faced with Raven's CD at range 0, the opponent is less likely to press buttons out of fear of CH ws2 (& because Raven can instant block from her CD). So if you've gotten the opponent to sit tight when under CD pressure, you can slip into BT and take advantage of the opponent freezing up as their mind has to switch from defending the CD mix to defending the BT mix which is a different can of worms.

Intermediate Skill: BT Sequences

Counter-poking is all fine and well but it is mostly a reactive way of using BT. What if you want to use BT in a more pro-active manner? Or what if you don't have much data on the opponent to engage in counter-poking strategies? This is where BT sequences come in.

- Why BT Sequences?

Basic Principles

But how to do pressure and keep your turn in BT? This is why its important to understand how to play "small Tekken" in BT (i.e not to go straight for the big moves that end your turn right away on block). This is where you can really make BT shine. When pressuring, you need to have a goal in mind. Don't try pressure just for the sake of pressuring. You either want to test your opponent's patience and see how long it takes them to crack and eventually over-extend. Or you're using options that help you hold onto your turn to throw you off your opponent's low parry timing (i.e using small moves before you commit to something beefier).

Most Basic Sequence

The most straight-forward sequence to pressure with are db2 loops. These are done by looping db2 into itself (db2 -> b3+4 -> db2) or with other filler moves like BT f2 or BT 1 over and over (db2 -> BT f2 -> db2 -> BT f2). This can serve 1 of 2 purposes.

A) To play around with db2 timing; in the case of looping db2 with itself. B) To work on the opponent's patience and force a response out of them, in the case of looping db2 with other BT filler.

This clip demonstrates how playing around with db2 timing can work as a form of pressure.

It allows you to hold on to your turn for a bit longer while making it more difficult for the opponent to determine when they should attempt to take their turn back. Anytime you turn around with b3+4 you could go for the high-crushing d4, you could sidestep, you could crouch-dash or sidestep then crouch-dash. You could throw out a standing 4 or 1,1 to see if they pressed anything.

A sequence like db2 -> BT 1 -> db2 works for the same reason. Except you're replacing the "empty" action of b3+4 with an attack. If the opponent got hit by BT 1 it means they pressed something slower than i12 as db2 is -4 on block and BT 1 is i8. Also if BT 1 hits, then that's a free opportunity to push a CD mixup or go for raw BT.

The db2 -> BT f2 -> db2 sequence is useful as BT f2 being a mid helps to call out twitch duckers (also that it tracks SSL). And even tho BT f2 is -5 on block, the threat of getting CH launched by the BT f2,3 extension, will help to keep the opponent respecting. You can also use BT f2,4 to keep the opponent in check if you want a safe string extension (tho it is a high). And here the same principle is still at play. After BT f2 you could opt for defensive option like back-dash, or continue your offence with another db2 or b2,2 or CD in the opponent's face. Combine both offence and defence with a sidestep into db2 or full crouch.

You can see how this becomes a mental game of you're opponent having to risk pressing buttons or sit tight and subject themselves to continued pressure.

Punishing Impatience

Punishing impatience is about using tactics that exploit your opponent's decision to challenge you. Either because they are generally trigger-happy or you've exhausted their patience and agitated them into over-extending. Punishing impatience is about calling out your opponent for pressing buttons at the wrong time. And this is where counter-poking skills become very useful. Knowing that your opponent will press something in a given scenario is always valuable; but knowing what they will press and how to counter it is infinitely moreso.

So the Counter-Poking section is about common responses to BT and how to counter them. This section is just to lampshade when would the opponent be urged to press buttons and why? Once you can start understanding this in-game, you can start thinking ahead of your opponent and even conditioning them to play into your hands.

So let's go over the 2 categories of behaviours for this section. The most important is identifying what type of opponent you're dealing with. Largely this comes down to observation.

Is your opponent the type to commit to pressing buttons in the neutral without provocation? Do they just starting doing strings at random mid-screen? If so, it probably won't take much to agitate them. Sometimes just occupying a certain range, feigning an approach or making the opponent block once is enough to provoke them into pressing buttons. Such opponents are very common in the "middle" ranks. Some have absolutely no patience and can't help themselves from pressing buttons at every opportunity. You know your opponent is going to press in most situations, it just one you to find the right counter-poke option.

If you're opponent needs a little more convincing to commit to pressing something, and so you need to agitate them. That's where db2 loops come in.