Izanami vs Valkenhayn
Slight Izanami Favor (5.5 - 4.5)

Round Start:
General advantage to Izanami here. The only normal that can reach Izanami is Valk's 5C, which is reliably beaten by our own 5C and even trades with 2B. Try to be generally aggressive as Valk can chase after your defensive options like high jump back or backdash easily, if he expects it. Valk's forward wolf movement costs no meter, so he can easily just run forward and react to whatever you do.

Good Options to use: 5C~C, IAD Backwards. Be wary of aggressive chasing.

Neutral:
You generally want to respect Valk's neutral as his mobility is absurd. Keeping Exodus Arc out, carefully zoning him with 4D/3D/j.1D and being evasive when it's on cool down is essential to playing the matchup. Valk's movement options allow him to close in on you regardless of how far or how high you are, along with having an ability to reliably convert into a strong corner carry combo anywhere on screen.

The goal is to generally force Valk into the air. Wolf form loses a majority of it's meter through simply being in the air. 5CC will likely see it being used here out in neutral more than any other of Izanami's matchups. It covers a huge amount of ground, and it's high amount of active frames deter Valk from simply using his high run speed to just go straight in on you. 214B is also very valuable in this matchup, as it forces Valk to jump or 4D due to his inability to block the move while he's in wolf form. Always have Exodus Arc ready and able to fire 3D to cover both Valk's jump and 4D. This is a great way to add pressure, drain wolf meter and make him scared of reckless approaches. It's also a good way to evade air approaches and maintain or gain some space.
If you cover the ground well enough between 5C, 214B and Drive projectiles, Valk will likely try coming in via the air, a much more costly but just as strong approach for him. His ability to constantly change his movement makes anti-airing him with 6A very troublesome as a wrong guess can let him punish the recovery with ease with a wolf cannon or a simple 3D. 2B works as a decent anti-air option in this matchup as Valk's sharp and speedy approach can often let you slide under him, often making him land behind you. Izanami in the air has a notable blind spot right below her. Valk can get under you very fast and use his strong w.5B anti-air to tag you. You want to make sure you switch between being evasive, dropping down fast with a j.C, or using j.63214B as a pseudo divekick to bait the early anti-airs. Be careful of this however as human form Valk 6A has a guardpoint and is particularly effective at beating out j.63214B.

Offense:
Valk has no notably unique defensive options once he starts blocking outside of the standard ODGC. His super has good reach and his normals are also particularly long so be wary of using blockstring options that leave you open at ranges that would be safe in most matchups. Valk can also utilize gaps in your pressure to jump out and change into Wolf, allowing him to dash away or counterattack you incredibly quickly. Try to keep your mixup as airtight as possible and avoid relying on risky mixup options like grabs to open him up.

Defense:
Valk's pressure and mixup potential anywhere on screen is certainly one of his biggest selling points. Wolf Brake j.A is a technique that allows Valk to do an instant overhead in essentially any situation as long as he's close enough to pull it off. You are NEVER going to block Valk consistently most of the time, so keeping your composure and remembering that his overall damage output is rather low, is essential. Blocking for as long as possible has it's benefits as it uses up a lot of his wolf meter, making his later strings and mixup attempts bring him even closer to just running out meter altogether.

The general rule to his wolf string is to block low, then high, 5A or 236236B him when you expect a 6D Wolf pressure reset, which is a common thing Valk's do when they're pushed out enough. Grabbing in wolf form restores all of his wolf gauge so be ready to react and tech that when he's running low on wolf meter. Human Valk has a particularly dangerous overhead with rising j.C that he can do for 50 meter. It's a pretty strong instant overhead that hits you crouching and allows him to get pretty high damage by Valk standards. Be ready to block high on wakeup if Valk stays in human form for oki. Wakeup OD is invaluable and essential on defense, as Wolf is forced to evade and give up pressure in order to not get tagged by Exceed Accel or 4D.