Chernyy Volk
Wolf lord, footsie bully, chronic corner abuser.
Getting started as Manta
Health: 1050
Footsies: A
Pressure: A
Punishment: A
Damage: B+
Hit Confirmability: S+
Counter Poke Game: C
Screen Control: B+
Chip: C+
Corner Game: A+
Footsies: A
Pressure: A
Punishment: A
Damage: B+
Hit Confirmability: S+
Counter Poke Game: C
Screen Control: B+
Chip: C+
Corner Game: A+
Yomi
I've been thinking long and hard about how to describe what exactly it is Manta DOES, and it's a bit difficult explain. There's a huge misconception that he's a chip out character, not only do I think this is a HUGE misunderstanding of him, I would argue that the Manta is losing if he's having to resort to chipping somebody. Manta is essentially a bully, both in terms of real threat and implied threat. Manta has good footsie tools, not great, and he has great space control inside his personal death box (this is inside f2 range, outside of d1 range) and uses pushback and ambiguous spacing scenarios to make the opponent think hard. He's the best anti masher character in the game, a lot of his slightly negative on block situations having block stun that punishes people for not having precise counter poking practiced up. He's 100% a space/corner control character, and everything about him is built to facilitate that. I firmly believe Manta has some of the best corner pressure in the entire game. We'll go into this later.
The Good Buttons
1 - It may be 8 frames, but it has long reach and punishes a lot in this game other characters can't. 123 is the most versatile s1 string in all of inj2, and it might be THE best one in the entire game. This string will have it's own entire section.
b1 - Manta's go to footsie tool. Superb for whiff punishing, he gets a solid meterless BnB off of this. At the highest level though, this string becomes a bit obsolete once you learn how to microwalk s1 punish things.
f2 - It's a half screen mid that leads into a -2 string with pushback and allows him to whiff punish things no one else in the game can from distances no one else can. It also sets up a lot of his frame trap game. This is also what you'll start flight pressure mindgames off the most.
b2 - The primary function of this is catching people walking backward. It's one of the best lows in the game for doing this. It's also obviously used like every other low for just catching people not ducking. Manta gets solid meterless damage off of this (30%), and this opens up his reset meta. This is also a key flight cancel pressure normal.
d1 - Manta's d1 is good for stopping neutral advances and that's about it. d1~ray is one of the worst d1 punishes in the game for reason I'll cover later. It's only good in the corner due to d1~ray on hit jailing into d1~ray again. We'll get to that later also.
3 - YOU NEED to learn to use this for the relevant punishes. It leads into Manta's highest BnB damage as well as into float cancel meterless combos. 33 is a forbidden string though, never use it. It's utterly useless.
2 - I used to think this normal was garbage, but it's actually insanely useful in selective applications. 2d3 is an excellent meaty string easily hit confirmable into ray if blocked or rockets or float (in the corner) into a full combo. 21 primarily serves the purpose of being a battery (meter build) string.
j3 - It's the best j3 in the game. +3 minimum at almost any height when blocked, consistently gives full combos on hit that do significant damage, also another primary way of starting your flight pressure meta.
Combo Logic
Cancels into Teleport (df3)
123
f21
Cancels into Rockets (db2)
b22
2d3
s3
Float Combo Starters
1~4
b22~4
3~4
2d3~4 (corner only)
Bounce Cancels
123 (f3 only)
f21 (f3 only)
b22
2d3
s3
Combos
I was gonna be comprehensive but honestly just watch my video.
General Gameplay Strategy
Alright, I know the Yomi section brushed on this but I do want to get into more detail what this character does. The thing I love about Manta most is that he's one of the most playstyle flexible characters in this game, but he also does the two things that make an ideal Injustice 2 character exceptionally well. He takes away your turn for absurd periods of time and turtles super well. He's also capable of rushdown, although this is done by using sequences to build meter, make people afraid to move, make them guess on gap based offense over and over again. Manta's corner game is also top 5. He puts you in the corner box of death WoWo style where most characters are forced to take life or death risk reads to get out. Once you corner somebody, whether by turtling and side switching them there, he kinda does the same shit to everybody. If it's especially a MU where you can bully the character, pushing them to the corner ASAP is recommended. It's worth giving up damage for.Cancels into Teleport (df3)
123
f21
Cancels into Rockets (db2)
b22
2d3
s3
Float Combo Starters
1~4
b22~4
3~4
2d3~4 (corner only)
Bounce Cancels
123 (f3 only)
f21 (f3 only)
b22
2d3
s3
Combos
I was gonna be comprehensive but honestly just watch my video.
General Gameplay Strategy
If a character has no zoning options or, very limited ones like Robin, Canary, Aquaman, Sub Zero etc the strategy is to get the life lead and just run away using stutter stepping. Manta has the best backwards stutter step in the game period, making him ideal for clock running especially in MU's where it isn't ideal to even risk getting touched once (I.E Robin, The Flash etc). Against zoners, usually the strat is to get in and bully them with flight pressure mind games and just constantly using f213, whether it hits or gets blocked, to push the corner positioning. Obviously air harpoon and teleport are there to help you out with this, but both of those tools are selectively useful, and against some characters just not worth using at all. It's sometimes better to just block and walk your way in.
So, Manta's gameplan is more or less built on four gameplay pillars. These pillars are...
1: Consistent harassment to bait the opponent to crack
2: Abusing pushback based situations where you might as well be plus despite being minus
3: Turtling and running away with the life lead if the opponent doesn't have enforceable zoning, having to come to Manta pretty much constitutes a winning MU for him
4: Optimization optimization optimization. Manta's damage is above average. Squeezing out every bit of damage or situational benefit is essential, especially because at the highest level clean hits are few.
We're going to do sections covering all of these things.
Flight Cancel Pressure
This is Manta's main way of running offense. This is extremely mindgame and conditioning heavy, but it's so oppressive and there are so many permutations that the opponent has to worry about that the chances of this getting consistently interrupted are few. This might be the longest section of the guide, and for good reason. There's a lot to go over.Flight Cancel Pressure
So for starters, here are the useful, usable flight cancels in order from most to least plus.
J3
F2
12
F21
B2
D1
F21 is the flight cancel you'll tend to use the most often just due to accessibility but also due to the positioning your flight leaves you in. The thing is, how plus these are matters, but it also matters where the flight cancel leaves you, some of these less plus or slightly negative cancels still body certain characters. We'll also get into that.J3
F2
12
F21
B2
D1
So... how this works. J3 out of flight is always +3, J1 out of flight is always +1, J2 seems to be -2/3, something like that. These are only relevant to perfect cancels and landing, because your pressure while in flight is based on your opponents inability to reach you + wonky block stun making gap interruptions either difficult to do or require reversals that can be blown up if the Manta makes the read.
Last edited: