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My liu kang mu chart

After playing mk9 loads latelywith only 2 weeks to mkx I wanna give my final feelings on liu kang.

Personally I think Luis up close game was under appreciated. He's neutral on everything, and his standing 2 and b3 destroy the poke game. He also has dominant footsie tools. I think at the highest level pokes become used even less because characters with exceptional normals will just block and counter with a full string on reaction. Having a 10 frame low to counter pokes, and mixing into 213 when your neutral can starve a few characters up close. Plus you can't even punish him with crossovers usually. Not to mention liu already has great pushback setups and decent mixups. He also has arguably the best aa jab in the game and it's stupidly hard to punish him on whiff. He has a very good neutral.

Baraka: 7-3: low fireball, f12 and Luis overall game shuts down Barakas very underrated blade charge spacing game and trade game. Baraka has a lot of solid mus where he can play his game, this isn't one

Cage: 5-5: liu kang controls neutral game and out footsies cage. It's hard for cage, but liu struggles up close. Player 1 adv is giant in this matchup because it determines whether Luis 8 frame 2 will interrupt even cages 11. If not you have to occasionally d3 or try to read a 11 and whiff it. But having an 8 frame jab camps force cage to poke. Honestly I do not believe thus mu to be bad for liu. Perhaps the opposite, I main both.

Cyber sub: 7-3, f-12 punishes dive kick, iafb and low fbs control neutral, low is good for checking parries, and poke game liu wins. The smoking gun for cyber is op knockdown stuff. I'm

Cyrax: 5-5: liu kang crushes poke game and can punish Cyrax d1 and 2 beats out cyrax 1. Liu also has great recovery and easily out zones Cyrax. But Cyrax does op damage and Luis high hitbox and dealing with Cyrax pressure keeps it tame. Without his broken stuff Cyrax is free but, he has it.

Ermac: 6-4: high fireball is a great tool because of its recovery frames make it hard for tp chars to react and it'll beat out most projectiles. But ermac can still play his annoying air blast game and mid range and Luis high hitbox keep ermac from getting his socks crushed. Luis f12 and up close game seal the deal the and he can flies the gap or zone.


Freddy: 3-7: liu isn't as mobile as johnny, this is a terrible matchup. You can't throw things and ur pressure is your only hope but highest level Freddy is way too good, Freddy can ex claw aa you on reaction to jumping a projectile at full screen and tp forward for 45%. His es ability is to good also. Best projectile game in the world.

Jade: 6-4 minimumI'm presuming Luis normals crush it, but she out zones him due to flow.

Jax: 4-6 player adv. is huge. It determines whether forward 4 or standing 2 wins up close. Jax is too hard to contain and ur high hitbox wrecks you. You can high fireball over gps but jax can trade and fake gopand force you into making guesses and ducking too much. And once jax is it if he's player 1 your done and if not it's still stuff because he has a zillion different setups and safe armor and corner bs.

Kabal: 3.5-6-5: hoesntly this mu is fun and liu kang can out projectile kabal to an extent. The problem is if kabal gets a lifelead it sucks. Between flash parries buzzsaw and kabals always having meter and evading projectiles and murdering up close with ex dash cancels and standing 2s this mu really isn't that close. The more every 1 masters the game the even better kabal is he has everything and has way too many options.

Kano: probably 7-3 high fireballs

Kenshi: 3-7 if kenshis reflect is on point he can just duck mid screen and fuck you over. You're can just cancel pokes I to shoulder, armor and oh slash you to death. You have to guess and get lucky up close and use flying kicks like a maniac to get in. You can mix fireballs I. At diff ranges and make him fish for anti cross ups but it only gets you so far. Kenshi also has amazing offense and his corner game is laughably unfair if needs to regain ground. Kenshi is a beast. You have to get lucky jumping to beat him but a reactionary Kenshi is too good.

Kitana: 6-4-5-5: tbh this is a weaker mu for me. I just think with iafb, and his other fbs kang can Zone her and beat her ass up close. Her crossovers jks are an issue, but when I really think about it he prolly beats her at the highest level.

Kung Lao: 4-6: you need to be quick with you standing 2 and use your fireballs wisely and try to outfootsieing him. But ur high hitbox and all his shenanigans and his op 7 frame standing7 are just too much. 212121 ex tp whiff grab pressure is real. Also bird lao.

Liu: player 1 wins

Mileena: prolly 6-4

Nightwolf: 6.5-3.5: nws only good tool is ex lightning

Noob: 6-4 noibs keepaway isn't good enough to win him this mu. Liu can trade sparingly with the lead and absolutely murders noob up close/ in footsies range.


Quan chi: 7-3 quan has nothing here: he can't do anything but get lucky with stupid runes.

Raiden: 6.5-3.5: the recovery o. High fb forces raiden to guess rather than react. The advance on lius strings make them too hard to punish for high damage on a good tpand raiden can't conpete with lius normals. High level raiden isn't that bad but this mu he doesn't have much. He has to try to react to low fb. I used to main raiden also

Rain: 6.5-3.5: my standing 2, f12, and b312 outclass rains shitty mobility and his good 4 rh. I don't want to see any comments about 4rh crushing d3 because liu never needs to d3 in thus mu. He can blow up 4rh in footies with f12, up close with 2 and whiff punish with 213/b3. You force rain to armor or poke, and rains pokes are bad. Your fireballs control neutral and rains only saving grace is armor which can be jumped backwards against or blocked, and he has a limited supply of it.

Reptile: 6-4: the smoking gun in this mu is punishing ex dash with 213 or ex kick which skillful chris and xarakamaka do fairly consistently. It makes liu dominant up close because reptile has to guess dash and ex dash is his 1 safe option. Because it kills reptiles options. High fbs at 3/4 screen severely limit reptile because the fast recovery stops him from trading. Low fbs can limit reps mobility also. More often than nit reptile isn't going to get his zoning started. Reptile has a great game once it gets going, he can really maintain pressure in the neutral and on knockdown if it gets going. and may e if a reptile consistently dashes under high fb it can change the mu. I just find liu can abuse up close and certain ranges.

Scorpion: 6-4

Sektor: 5-5: sektor out zones liu and is super competitive up close. The footsies game and crossover jks are tough for liu to deal with. Also sektor loves high hitbox es. Could be 4-6, probably is,


Shang tsung : 6-4 / 5-5 fireball game at diff ranges can really disrupt Shang.kang also wins footsies Player 1 is big because if liu has it he can beat out double f3 up skulls. But if Shang gas it double knees are good a and in soul steal double 213s win. Shang has to cancel pokes into armor sometimes if liu is pressuring because liu can beat out knees with 213 and counter d3s well. Liu wins footsies with f12. This could be 5-5 because of ss. Because liu mirrors come down to low fb trades and SS shang wins those. Also soul steal can force you to jump guess. I do think lu outclasses Shang up close and can win the neutral a certain ranges. If Shang gets his fb game started started he can control things. Possible 5-5 but I give it to liu. Doesn't mean I'd beat cowboy In his prime.


Sheeva idk kang wins

Snidely: 5-5?? I know liu has better up close tools, but she definitely wins the neutral and is super slippery and has some stuff. Liu can scarp some trades together but idk this

Skarlet: 5-5/4-6: kang can work in the fireball but the fact that slide is -3 and kang has a high hitbox makes me uncomfortable here. It's a really hard one to judge for me because who the fuck mastered skarlet. She's got some crazy bs and some really annoying stuff. Maybe liu wins I can't remember if he outzones her

Smoke: 5-5: I know some people who think liu wins this. Liu can blow up d1 smoke bombwith b3 but it has to be a read. Liu has better footsies and pressure and can sprinkle in the occasional iAfb. Smoke struggles up close but I find his harssment/pick and pop and damage to definitely even this out. It's similar to smoke cage (which I think is 6-4 cage now) but lius pressure isn't as good as cage and his dash isn't as good for advancing.

Sonya:3.5-6.5: Sonyas ex cartwheel being -3.and down 4 and ia dive kick are way too threatening. It's also a pain in the has to zone her out plus her 7frame jab is an excellent tool. You can scarp together some runaway and footsies but anyone without the op zoning gets destroyed by Sonya. Maybe outside of kitana but I bet she beats her idk that one.

Stryker can gun cancel, all he can do is fish for armored rolls and deep jump kicks. He has no offense.nits probably 8-2

Sub zero: 6-4 liu hates the corner and that annoying ass 8 frame d4 but he has a goid enough fireball game.

That's it guys I'm pretty confident about 80% of these and feel liu is a very strong character whom only struggles with the op ones.
 
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NickDaGreek1983

Oh, my days !
Notice these "player 1 advantage" notes... That's what I am angry about.
Especially match ups like Jax-Kang/Kang-Jax the player advantage is what turns a 5-5 into a 4-6. I guess he beats Sindel too. Sub-Zero's only advantage IS the corner and honestly, his down4 being 8 frames isn't going to make much of a difference since liu's d3 is 7f. Same goes for Sub's 2 (9f) VS Liu's 2 (8F) so yeah, a 6-4.

PS: Remember a time when Noob was considered to be in the Kenshi/Freddy category as far as match-ups go ?
 

Hitoshura

Head Cage
Noob vs Kang is kind of even. With proper spacing and reads he can get ahead of liu kang, and his pressure isn't that good to shut Noob down. When I wasn't awful at the game Peanuts and I would go back and fourth in matches and what not. Definitely not one sided.
 
Where's the explanation on the Mileena matchup? I think that's a 5-5. He can't zone her nor outfootsie her, but he is much faster close and destroys her in corner.

Also I believe Rou beats Sindel.
 
Notice these "player 1 advantage" notes... That's what I am angry about.
Especially match ups like Jax-Kang/Kang-Jax the player advantage is what turns a 5-5 into a 4-6. I guess he beats Sindel too. Sub-Zero's only advantage IS the corner and honestly, his down4 being 8 frames isn't going to make much of a difference since liu's d3 is 7f. Same goes for Sub's 2 (9f) VS Liu's 2 (8F) so yeah, a 6-4.

PS: Remember a time when Noob was considered to be in the Kenshi/Freddy category as far as match-ups go ?
I still think jax wins regardless but it's really a big difference. Sub forces you to d3 which is bad. And sub is super risky to whiff punish. I do agree with you though. The thing is when I'm neutralup close I can throw out 213 and only risk getting hut by unsafe armor or pokes, which outside of subs d4 I'll blow up by counter poking or back312. He's preety cheap close.
 
Noob vs Kang is kind of even. With proper spacing and reads he can get ahead of liu kang, and his pressure isn't that good to shut Noob down. When I wasn't awful at the game Peanuts and I would go back and fourth in matches and what not. Definitely not one sided.
That was so much earlier I. The game and tbh nothing against peanuts(he's a great guy from my scene, but he'd get destroyed if anyone who kept playing went back in time) but at the time he couldn't aa standing 2 even, no one was counterpoiking let alone with full strings. Which makes noibs useless up close. No one was doing 21 ex fireballs, o 2 back 312. No one was super good at whiff punishing. The thing is noibs zoning is solid. But once you get to knee range noob can be whiff punished easily or atleast liu can advance I with f12or his projectiles can be jumped which he has to eventually commit to a projectile and the guessing game is bad. As the up close meta gets fleshed out and people get better at navigating noob becomes worst. You guys were good but the meta was too early to really objectively appeoach a mu. When you consider the way the game is played now. Characters with solid normals up close struggle quite a bit outside of cases like Freddy. I remember the way that peanuts played and he quit before his poke game really got fleshed out.


But I do agree noib has adequate spacing tools, I just feel liu up close nullifies this and in life lead situations liu can begin to make occasional trades or armor stuff. Also a hitbox liu would outzones noib.
 
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Where's the explanation on the Mileena matchup? I think that's a 5-5. He can't zone her nor outfootsie her, but he is much faster close and destroys her in corner.

Also I believe Rou beats Sindel.
He can limit her instant airs. She has to hinge on d4 harassment which liu has tools to deal with. Maybe it's 5-5, but I do feel she doesn't have great options once he gets in, he has great advancing normals and she doesn't do tons of chip I. The zoning.. She's very frustrating but I find when you consider mastery of the game she gets worst. She's forced to make too many reads and is very punishable, some of her mixups are kind of gimmicky too. I don't have too much top level mileena experience, but going with what I jnow about their tools I would think two super high level players for each char the liu would probably have an adv. doesn't mean I'd take out top mileenas. lius high fireball is great against counterzoning attacks because it's recovery is so hard to react to.
 
He can limit her instant airs. She has to hinge on d4 harassment which liu has tools to deal with. Maybe it's 5-5, but I do feel she doesn't have great options once he gets in, he has great advancing normals and she doesn't do tons of chip I. The zoning.. She's very frustrating but I find when you consider mastery of the game she gets worst. She's forced to make too many reads and is very punishable, some of her mixups are kind of gimmicky too. I don't have too much top level mileena experience, but going with what I jnow about their tools I would think two super high level players for each char the liu would probably have an adv. doesn't mean I'd take out top mileenas. lius high fireball is great against counterzoning attacks because it's recovery is so hard to react to.
She is not suppose to IA much vs Rou. Normal sais are better vs him because he can't counter with his low fireball. Also d4 will beat all his advancing normals because low hitbox except a well spaced b3(12) which she can punish on whiff with roll.

I agree that Mileena get worse once you are improving on this game however I see many people overestimate how worse she gets... she is not THAT bad.

I agree though that a top Liu Kang player might have a slight advantage because of much faster normals, and that fact that if he gets a life lead it gets bad for Mileena because forced to take risk.
 

STRYKIE

Are ya' ready for MK11 kids?!
Agree on Scorpion. Not much else to say.

Highly disagree with Kenshi. Kang players need to stop being so hellbent on getting in, and using the most redundant tools possible to get in at that. Don't get me wrong, it could still be in Kenshi's favor, but it generally is made easier for him than it really should be. Not every rushdown character fits the same shoe as Cage.

Mixed feelings on Sektor. It's Kabal without saw, but then Liu Kang's pressure tools aren't particularly effected by Sektor's hitbox.
 
Agree on Scorpion. Not much else to say.

Highly disagree with Kenshi. Kang players need to stop being so hellbent on getting in, and using the most redundant tools possible to get in at that. Don't get me wrong, it could still be in Kenshi's favor, but it generally is made easier for him than it really should be. Not every rushdown character fits the same shoe as Cage.

Mixed feelings on Sektor. It's Kabal without saw, but then Liu Kang's pressure tools aren't particularly effected by Sektor's hitbox.
You can be patient but you have to get in. I mix in fireballs and play guessing games up close. But a super good kenshi doesn't give a fuck. My friend crouches midscreeb and reflects low fireball, it gets you no where. A good kenshi is going to space the living Christ out of you. I feel eventually you have to consider sneaking in flying kick or jumping a shoulder. You have to make jumps to win.
 

STRYKIE

Are ya' ready for MK11 kids?!
You can be patient but you have to get in. I mix in fireballs and play guessing games up close. But a super good kenshi doesn't give a fuck. My friend crouches midscreeb and reflects low fireball, it gets you no where. A good kenshi is going to space the living Christ out of you. I feel eventually you have to consider sneaking in flying kick or jumping a shoulder. You have to make jumps to win.
That's the thing though, Kenshi will never ever have a reason to give a shit about flying kick, enhanced or not. If you're gonna use meter it's probably more worth saving it for X-ray, perhaps just for the threat of it, even though it normally whiffs up close, it will hit Kenshi at any range, even crouching, and gives you a good chunk of unbreakable damage. If you have the life lead from there and Kenshi has to mount the offense, low dragon fire ducks under flurry, and it's a crap shoot as to whether or not TKS will get stuffed in a trade.

Also about reflect, I can't vouch for sure if this comes into play with Liu, but one thing I noticed that KH Cat does in the Kenshi/Kabal matchup is alternating the height of IAGB very slightly, making anticipatory reflects whiff and whiff punishes accordingly. Instant air dragon fire actually has slightly faster trajectory, so it's worth a shot.

I've personally had no problems with the matchup from Kenshi's perspective, but I still feel it's one of the more mis-approached matchups in the game, if not the most.
 
Kenshi doesn't use flurries he uses overhead, maybe if liu has perfect iaf a it's different like 4-6. Even if kenshi loses life it has to be major to have to be forced to rush down, and his rush down is amazing. Either way liu is a footsies char against kenshi
 

ForeverKing

Patreon.com/MK_ForeverKing
Do you guys honestly think Player 1 advantage makes that big of a difference? In my 4 years of playing MK9 competitively, I've never really had any noticeable issues with Player 1 advantage. And I've probably played damn near 30000 matches of MK9 lmao
 

dribirut

BLAK FELOW
Do you guys honestly think Player 1 advantage makes that big of a difference? In my 4 years of playing MK9 competitively, I've never really had any noticeable issues with Player 1 advantage. And I've probably played damn near 30000 matches of MK9 lmao
Gives people a (legit) exuse when they lose
 
Do you guys honestly think Player 1 advantage makes that big of a difference? In my 4 years of playing MK9 competitively, I've never really had any noticeable issues with Player 1 advantage. And I've probably played damn near 30000 matches of MK9 lmao
In on block situations it huge. I can freely 21 out of shangs pressure with p1 adv but I cant without it. Cage it's big too. Depends on the char. Kung Lao it doesn't matter with. Now that I use normals more in the poke game it's a huge deal. It's not the end all be all its more just use mu imo I wanted to include. It's a huge adv. in mirrors. Doesn't mean I cant beat some because I'm p2, bye in mu discussion / theory fighting it's s huge talking point. Your going to outplay people regardless but this is mus not actual gameplay.
 
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