A lot of people talk about Pai's Bokutai stance as if it's an indispensible part of her gameplay, but to be perfectly honest, I have never been able to effectively integrate it into a match. I feel like there's something wrong with me. Could someone educate me on the best times and places to use this stance, and what to do out of it?

Bokutai is a vital part of pai's game it avoids jabs automatically and if they do jab you can punish them right away because of the disadvantage they would be at for missing their jab. It also avoids alot of mid attacks as well like elbows and kicks unless the mid starts low and rises upwards. Her attacks off of it are just as good and it even avoid crouching grabs as well.

the K off it it is a low leg sweep good for people that try to sidestep right away, follow the K with a P then the attack will negate any other attack that tries to hit pai even if pai is turned backwards it still negates their attacks this is called a sabaki. The sabaki tends to be a bit slow and a fast attack can hit her before she can get her sabaki off so don't abuse it too much.

The P+K is a rising elbow that stuns people that attempts to duck under it or pops people up on a normal hit. It is a great move to use when an enemy misses with a jab or mid attack.

punching out of it makes pai do a quick mid punch that hits people out of their attacks at point blank range and if you go P,P after it would be the same as doing her pppk combos high, low, or mid the only different being you hit with 2 punches instead of 3. It makes for a great way to interrupt people as they try to attack out of bokutai stance.

K+G out of bokutai makes pai do a cartwheel of sorts with good range as well. It pops up on a normal hit so if you have them guessing low legsweep all the time do the K+G once in a while to get a free pop up on them at will to make them think twice about ducking right away after pai goes into bokutai stance.

If you delay it and do nothing and get up from it pai can do any of her normal rising attacks off of it or do any of her or moves like her counter hit pop up as one example.

It is a very important part of her game just don't abuse this stance too much things like wolf's shoulder charges, vanessa's defensive elbow, goh or brad's low kicks or any quick low attack can hit her out of the stance.

getting into bokutai kan be hard sometimes.
+



++ followed directly with or
can all get her into bokutai

the low sweep goes under a lot of opponant retaliation, so if you are playing very offensive players or people that don't know pai use this option to force them to think differently than just attacking you.
has a followup that can be charged and the charge can be cancelled even, so use this together with to keep the opponant honest and give you time to go to bokutai.
+ is a great way to get into bokutai, keep in mind the attack is pretty slow, but if you are on the offence or see the opponant whiff an attack you can try to get this attack in and go directly to bokutai.
also mix up , delay , the strings and just a seperate to keep the opponant on it's toes, giving you just that little breathing space to go to the stance after .

hope this helps.

What an understatement! It's like saying "Shun's goes under a lot of opponent retaliation" More like it goes under everything EXCEPT some very specific moves from each character, eh?

I like the title of the thread too, what next "Is Aoi's yin-yang stance useful? Getting into Bokutai means Pai has the advantage, no matter what the frames say, the more you get to it the more you'll win, it's that simple.

And, for the record, you're also selling + short - it's a -cancellable low attack that jumps over lows, has crazy range, goes under mids in the later frames, gives advantage on simple hit, foot crumples on CH and is safe on block

Wow...I have a lot of learning to do! After the tournament I'm entering today, I'll double my efforts for sure! Thanks for the information, everyone. I appreciate it.

shhhhh erdaug, those are trade secrets!! do you want everyone and his mother playing pai? cause that'll happen if they find out how good her bokutai actually is :P

seriously though, everything you said is true so don't forget to copy/paste them in your pai notes too lobelia

any tips on following up on a ch +?

Everyone already uses Pai now... I'm seeing her more now than any other character; at least in player match.

NGCrush a basic combo to use is CH 66P+K, dash, 2P, 66PK.

Also bokutai is only supreme until your opponent finds the universal option which "beats" all of the options from bokutai, as a Pai player myself I will not disclose this however :3
When they find this you can create a whole new world of mindgames instead and use bokutai more as a "Haha, you didn't expect me to go into it now"-stance.

edit: typo

Just an update for you guys: I've been playing a lot more recently and employing the Bokutai like you all said. It's been doing wonders for me! It's definitely one of my favorite defensive tools, and Pai has a lot.

Great job dude just remember this little tip her best defensive abilities are her inashis and reversals they are hard to land on good people that mix their moves up well and I can tell you that from experience as I am trying to use it more than I usually do. remember to mix things ups to and from bokutai otherwise people will catch on to it quickly and make the stance useless.