Who is your most difficult matchup and explain.

Mine would be Kitana, since I dont know anything about her lol. Im not familiar with her strings, what is + and - on block.

Another one would be Ermac. My brother plays a very good and annoying keepaway Ermac. So im having a hard time getting in for the pressure.

Yours? Lets exchange tips maybe? lol

I think Milleena, Cyrax Mirror, Sektor and Sindel.

For some perspective, I play Scorpion. So...

I hate Johnny Cage. I don't know what to do when he starts doing his block strings. Next is Reptile, because of his speed dashes. It's pretty confusing for me.

But I just need to play more and get more experience with the match-ups.

Some tips for playing against Cage... based on my experience.

Keep him away from you, watch out for those F3s. Dont jump unless its safe, his 1 AA into reset is annoying, 1 has great range as well. When hes doing something like F3,3,EX fireball... that cant be interrupted, wait for an opening after the series then poke. Bait shadow kicks and punish.

JC: Even though I play with my cousin a lot, I still get blown up by his Cage. (stupid F3).

Kitana: D1 = hell. And I still can't determine most of her normal's range.

Jax: Coz I don't know his frame data and strings. (Help Marc!).

With Jax.. always block low. F4 is much faster than his overhead so you can just stand block if you see the overhead coming. After Jax's blocked F4,1,3 string.. he can immediately poke with d1.. it will AA if you jump so look out for that. Dont jump towards him, his standing 1 is very fast and can AA.

I still dont know how to punish Jax lol. I think his overhead smash is - on block, so that may be a window for string with fast startups. I think his super punch is neutral on block so its very hard to punish lol.

And yea, watch out for the armored moves.

Scorpion vs Reptile.

If you blocked Reptile's command elbow dash, punish with 33 cancel into spear.
33 has less start-up frames than the Scorpion's 11 or 21 normals.
I'd say he is hard to deal when he drops his combo/s just to do a stealth.
EX or not, you can hardly see what normal is doing, a free mix-up to say at least.
Reptile's zoning is pretty decent, above Noob Saibot's standards.
His rushdown consists of command elbow dashes, ending combos with orbs then elbow dash mix-ups, etc.
In corner, you better know his Option Selects during your wake-up.
He will either overhead, sweep, throw, low slide or just a tick command elbow dash.
It is a 4.5 - 5.5 match-up.

Scorpion really needs to get in to play effectively.
He can trade in zoning but he is just a poor zoner.
His playstyle is like Ibuki's, Vortexes and such is the only way to lengthen his option selects into further results
Kabal, Jax, Mileena, Kitana, Johnny Cage, and some other characters with decent zoning is likely a below average match-up for Scorpion.
I recommend watching some matches of great players such as Check's, Slips, etc.


Honestly, I haven't fought competitive Jax, but I will experience some.

Cyrax who knows resets. Why can't I shoulder charge the bombs? :<

This is good stuff. I'm reposting this in the Scorpion thread if you don't mind.

We can do some matches for you to learn the matchup, i think I play a decent Jax naman lol. Aside from the tag team strategy of Jax and Sindel.

hmmm not familiar with how NW is played but i think you cant be aggressive against a Cyrax. Cyrax has fast.normals that can link into a reset so I think you should wait for the punish and capitalize. *shrug*

In my experience with Cyrax, patience is the key in playing against this character.

i guess my hardest matchups are the characters who have teleports

Just don't let him set up those bombs and do those resets and you're set.

But seriously, I also recommend that you get familiar with the poke strings (Special mention 2,1,2 , 1,1,1 and 1,2,1 strings and inserting d3 somewhere between those poke strings) and the things that Cyrax players do after you get knocked down or when they lay down their obstacle course of bombs to set-up their, um, set-ups.

I'd also add that Cyrax has basically no dependable wakeup (besides EX teleport that's often predictable.). The b1 grab and the b2 overhead are also things to watch out for. Just find a way to close the distance and you're good.

To Nightwolf players:
* Wake up and EX Shoulder Charge goes thru the Net
*Whenever you see (or expect) Cyrax pull out that EX Ragdoll, a clean f3 boots out that kick all the time.

We have plenty of Cyrax experience because one of Bohol's best players (Jayson Mr.Slipper) is a Cyrax user. The ROBOT Cyrax, not Cyblax (Human Cyrax) hehehe.

Great tips Chady!

Ive been annoyed by Cyrax back then and I cant agree more on what Insane said about fighting with him... PATIENCE is key. lol