Recently I was thinking about my team in CvS2 and how Maki has gone from my best character to my worst character in the time I've played the game. Maki was one of the first characters I picked up and I've stuck with her on my N-Groove team since then. I considered switching grooves in the past but whether or not Maki would make the switch with me was never in doubt. I'm a fan, what can I say.

I remember how making the King video was a learning process and that I actually found out things about King I didn't know and wouldn't have know if I wasn't looking for things to put in the video. The same thing goes for the ACLA (A Closer Look at) Haohmaru video. Maki, on the other hand, I have played the same way for a long time. I hardly learned anything new and most things I do find I don't end up using because I'm so stuck in my ways. I have a hard time adapting on many levels. During a game as well as in between games and even when it comes to the long term development of my style and characters. I decided to put an end to the staticness of it all and develop a new style of Maki.

Fortunately I had a lot of videos to look at, including vids of Iyo and replays of myself. It's easy to see your basic mistakes, but it's much harder to see in general what your wrong approach is. Some of the things I noted while looking at myself play:

• I used the (unsafe) run->slide to the point of becoming predictable
• When pop a stock, I try desperately to chase my opponent
• I take too many risks to get close and then don't even take full advantage

Those were just some of the things, but obviously the situation had to change. I recently started playing A-Bison. I'm ok at his custom combo as well as doing RC Psycho Crusher. So when I play Bison I notice one thing, people come to YOU. I mean it was obvious when I play against Bison, but it looks very different when it happens to you, especially if you're used to playing very aggressive. I spend all day building meter and doing things from RC Psycho Crusher to glitched stomp, devil's reverse and just plain spamming C.MK. Ok ok, this is not a revelation to anyone, but my point is that I could learn something from the ease with which Bison can control the pace of a match. Whenever I exhibit a lot of patience and don't risk jumping or rolling in on people I usually end up doing better. This, again, is not rocket science, but it just illustrates the direction I have taken to change how I play Maki.

Maki enters the battlefield usually with 2 or 3 stocks, unless King got totally destroyed. I must use this meter to my advantage, obviously. I have to find ways of landing her super, be it the 720 or the kick super in order to be efficient. The problem is when I power up people treat me like a raged K-Groover and run away until it's over and, as I've allways said, Maki is not really good at chasing people. I'll give my argumentation on this some other time. I came up with two ideas: use level1 supers and when you do power up, don't chase people. Makes sense, no? Uses for level1 supers include: the 720 which you can do as a "safe super" and punish ppl that manage jump out, comboing into the punch super on bigger/wider characters for the nasty crossup afterwards and canceling into the level1 kick super which sets up a guessing game if it's blocked.

When Maki gets locked out of her range I usually lose badly. I think this is the main reason why I suck at Maki vs Blanka. I'm passably good at RC'ing and I've always advocated using RC Genko punches, but I hardly practice what I preach. Using this RC gets you out of some very nasty forced choice situations where you either have to block something or psychic hit them with the spin-kicks. They're not safe but have decent pushback. You'd have to be looking for it to punish in which case they're even more vulnerable against rolls and JD's. The most obvious solution to the problem of getting locked out is to stop wanting to get in so bad. Maki has good defensive moves and her normals generally recover really well. Not only that, but her jump arc and wall moves make her good at running away. Lastly, she's a ninja! Ninjas are not supposed to dive head-first into battle like that anyway *stares disappointedly at Naruto*.

On a serious note: I am going to do my best to play a more conservative Maki. I used to THINK I played conservatively, but when I see all the matches where I try desparately to get in with lowjumps and rolls I can not say that with a straight face anymore. I will do my best to only press the action when I can get close relatively safely like after throws. I've put some recent matches on YouTube, where hopefully the beginning of my Makivolution can be seen by the masses.

art by GENZOMAN