Melty Blood: Type Lumina Kouma Kishima Guide by ScrawtVermillion

Kouma is a fantastic Grappler and brawler in Melty Blood: Type Lumina. His command grabs and combos make up for his slow movement, and his armored moves make him even better in close quarters. His play style revolves around using his long pokes to open up opponents in order to begin his set plays, which include different 50/50 mixups and command grabs. He also has the best defense in the game, with a DP that he can combo, a command grab reversal, and the highest health in the game.

Important Buttons:

• 2b: The best anti-air in the game, it comes out really fast and is a great starter to boot. Very effective at catching opponents coming down from the air or that ran away from you and had no other air options left.
• 3c: another amazing anti-air, it's mostly used as a long-range poke because of its horizontal range 
• J.b: Really fast and good for air-to-air situations. 
• 2c: Another long poke, this button is used when you want to catch back dashes, or contest the opponent trying to press a button, his charged version 2[c], grants armor and extra range to his move, another really high starter.

Specials:

• 236x: rekka series, mainly a combo tool, but 236b has a pretty good range which can be used to contest opponents from mid-range, it can also be armored by charing it up.
• 22x: A really fast move, that gives Kouma armor. 22a is plus on block and the go-to move to end your blockstring, 22b adds a dash but is easy to punish if the opponent reacts to it. 22c gives Kouma 4 seconds of full armor. One of Kouma’s win conditions.
• 214x: Command grab, 214a is fast, your normal combo ender, and has enough advantage to go for your mixups, or set up armor, 214b has some startup, but gives armor to Kouma, really useful to mix in with your frametraps, 214c has invulnerability, and does really good damage, is your go-to ender when trying to maximize damage.
• 623x: dp series, combo tool as well.
• 6BC: this moon skill rekka covers a good distance and has an overhead on the second hit. 
• 3BC: fast generic dp moon skill
• 2BC: good moon skill, gives armor, also one of Kouma’s best starters, used during moon drive combos, or to punish starters
• 4BC: Small dash and command grabs. Useful vs. opponents trying to shield your other moon skills.
• AD: command grab frame 1 super. Beats safe jumps, opponents need to respect it as it lets Kouma do whatever mixup he wants after.

Pros: 

• High damage
• Easy to learn
• Very stable due to 22c armor
• Good defense
• Amazing buttons 

Cons: 

• Slowest character in the game (still has amazing movement, it's just slow compared to the rest)
• Some difficult matchups (Pciel, Vlov, Roa)
• While the basic combos are easy, the advanced routes are difficult for the game's standards.
• The important thing is understanding the effective range of Kouma’s buttons. 

Playing against a Kouma:

• It is really important to use your air movement effectively in order to bait Kouma from using his anti-air moves and punish him.
• Be mindful when using a 50/50 because Kouma has access to a reversal in 623 and 214. So he doesn't need to guess what side you're landing in.
• When fighting armor remember that only ex moves or arc drive, heat, throw, and shield beat Koumas armor. Other moves will get punished by him.

Basic Combos:

• 2A > 2C > 5C > 5B > 236A~A~A > 2B > 2C > 5C > RB1 > Ender
  • Universal Bread and Butter
• (2B) > 3C > j.B > j6B+C > 236A~4A~4A > 2A > 2C > 5C > RB1 > Ender
  • Anti-Air
• 2c > 5c >IAD > j.b > 623b > 236aaa > 2B > 5BB > 214a