I'll ramble about some match ups.
Raiden is an interesting match up because he can punish flip and rekkas. Normally you can go to one or the other, and one will be completely safe. Like versus Kitana you can just use flip instead of rekkas. Unless you perfectly delay the first rekka, which is like a 2 frame link, EX shocker will punish them. If you do do that delay perfectly, he can read it and punish with F1.
Jacqui and Kano can also punish both, however, Kano doesn't get a full combo for punishing flip; Jacqui doesn't always get a full combo for punishing rekkas.
I don't find Goro to be that hard. S1 or B1 xx EX DB2 breaks EX punchwalk. Just don't go into rekkas like crazy because he punishes those for free. Not for free but you know what I mean. Goro is free to Alien's jumps. Alien also has a good post D1 meta with flip/snag/rekkas.
Kano is problematic because you give up neutral control to him, since he has a good projectile and you do not. He also does more damage than Alien and is much safer. I think Cutthroat is probably a losing match up for Tarkatan. Kano also has a safe 11 frame knee in F4, a good D4, and other stuff like that, that helps him compensate for Alien's insane neutral. As I mentioned above he can punish both flip and rekkas. His backdash is also problematic for Tarkatan. The other variations are probably too weak to win, even with these specific match up points carrying over.
Mystic is fine, just never go into rekkas lololol. Really, though, don't go into them unless you really feel like a mix up will hit. Punish regular push at all times with B3.
Kotal isn't problematic but I figured i'd comment on him since I played the match up from the other end. Rekkas punish swords, you can option select B122 staggers and B122 low sword with EX DB2 because of it's speed. Kotal gets bopped imo.
Lao is probably 5-5. I play Zoofs a lot who is one of the only people who didn't drop Lao. If you get sloppy with your meaties, a flip gets blocked, rekkas get blocked, you're getting hit by spin. However, I find them to be just as easy to bait, as they are to get hit by. Maybe Zoofs just sucks. I mean he is a cuck.
I posted my notes on Liu Kang and Kitana in the other thread. I'll paste em over here.
Liu Kang - I don't think he beats Tarkatan at all tbh. Being able to punish B2 for a full combo with Alien's standing 2, having launching armor that Liu can't really break, etc, is pretty big. Kang can punish flip, but tbh his rekkas punishes are whatever. I don't care if you spend a bar to flying kick me bruh nah mean cuz you only gettin like 12 percent.
Kitana controls space. While zoning isn't a huge bigboy omg deal on this game, when you don't have a projectile and your opponent has a pretty good one, that gives them quite a bit of control in the neutral. Obviously Alien has B3 and snag, although, they become less relevant if Kitana is just going to throw fans or jump. Both things will blow them up.
Kitana wins air exchanges vs Alien. This is very relevant because of my first statement. Alien players jump, because they can. Jump 2 does not lose to much in this game. Kitana's jump 2 is faster than Alien's and her fans of course will catch the monster as well. A good Kitana player will use those two moves and blow up jumping, even from Lord Alien the Don himself.
Another problem is that Alien players think "well I can just krawl or EX pounce through projectiles". What if they get blocked? You're risking getting full combo'd, and in the case of EX pounce, being out of a bar, for really almost nothing. Getting full combo'd because you tried to close the distance or get 12%(a bar for 12%, mind you), is terrible risk/reward.
I'll conclude my thoughts with rekkas. Imo rekkas should only be used for confirming mix ups in match ups like Kitana, where they can easily punish them. If you're constantly going into them off of F134 and other strings that people can block at a high rate, you're doing it wrong. Kitana doesn't give a fuck about rekkas. BUT. But boys..... She can't punish flip, and i'm assuming has a hard time punishing snag.
I believe using rekkas to confirm only true 50/50s, reducing jumping, and cutting out krawl/pounce, will make this match up much easier. I hope my rambling will help players who are new to the character, in this seemingly troublesome match up.
Sub Zero can beat Tarkatan, mainly because if he guesses right a few times he just does enough damage to win. Other than that there's no real positives that you can give Sub in this MU lol.
I think Tarkatan beats Boneshaper. Imposter is tricky because Alien can't consistently anti air tricky portal. At least I can't. You really have to read it with NJP, which is a risk. When I play Stabs he runs up and hits me when I NJP a lot. Alien's S1 and D2 suck. Well his S1 doesn't suck, but for this purpose it kinda does.
Takeda obviously gets mauled. You can go into rekkas, and as long as you don't get predictable with your staggers and finishes, he'll never get a punish. Idc about Ronin's armor. 13% for a bar when you already blocked a mix up is not very good. It doesn't sway a MU.
I've played vs quite a few Quan's actually. I feel like Warlock does pretty good vs Tarkatan. Pretty good as in 5-5. The other variations do slightly worse than Warlock. I did discover when playing
@Rude that EX DB2 isn't super reliable when escaping Socerer's portal, because it has poor armored active frames. Quan still gets mauled in this variation and EX DB2 is better than having no multi hitting armor.
Not sure what to think about Reptile. I get bopped by Aura. It's probably just because he's my dad. It is problematic getting past forceballs without a projectile. Reptile is also safer than Alien. It's probably 5-5, though, and i'm just not as good as Aura.
I've played a lot vs
@TopTierHarley and we both think that Alien beats D'vorah. The armor really makes a difference here, because Alien is one of the rare characters that beat D'vorah in the neutral. Krawling out of puddle is also boss. D'vorah is safer than Alien, however, just like in any other MU, Alien is only as unsafe as you make him. If you go for big money EX overheads, you're gonna get punished sometimes. If you just go into rekkas and regular flip, you'll be fine vs D'vorah.
I do have Johnny's to play but I tend to just use Kotal vs them, since Kotal does fine. I know that Sonic thinks that Alien loses to Johnny, so i'll have to look into that.
Jax is obviously really hard since he can punish literally everything. There's no point in going over anything specifically, he can punish everything. lol