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The Real MK9 Top 10 Characters

Pig Of The Hut

Day 0 Phenomenal Dr. Fate and Darkseid player
Alright, since our community loves lists, MK9 has been out for over two years, and we have never been able to settle on the top 10 characters, I figure that now is the time to decide. Here is my attempt at placing the top 10 characters in the game:
1. Kabal
2. Kenshi
3. Sonya
4. Cyrax
5. Freddy
6. Kung Lao
7. Smoke
8. Jax
9. Kitana
10. Skarlet

Feel free to discuss and critique the list and please post your own.
 

xKhaoTik

The Ignore Button Is Free
She's in slight disadvantage in each of these MU's. You might be able to argue a 5-5 but that's pushing it.

Mileena keeps her out with d4 and shuts down kit's zoning. Liu's rushdown is much better than kit's and he out-zones her, has amazing counter-poke game. Idk what specifically Rep does to kit besides annoy her with force balls and D4 acid-hand, but it's been said countless times this is tough for her.

There's no aspect of Kit's game that these characters have problems with, whereas Kitana has a few obstacles to overcome. And even so... she has 4 bad mu's without these. (I'm not even gonna mention Smoke)
Again, no. Just stop because you don't know what you're saying.

Mileena: who cares if kitana can't zone. I HATE when people think kitana loses a match because she can't throw fans. That's dumb. She has numerous winning MUs in which she can't throw fans, and this just happens to be one of them. Mileena's d4 is just a nuisance, that's it. She doesn't even get anything from it on hit. Its +12 but all she can get is some whack pressure with 42. Its nothing like Sonya's d4 or smokes d4 where they get In for free and get mixups. Mileena's d4 is just a poke away tool, and even then, kitana has tools to blow up the d4. Kitana dominates her upclose with her footsies, speed and range. Mileena is also a very risky character and she has to take risks to get her damage, and kitana loves that. One mistake and mileena loses half her health. On top of that, what is mileena doing to kitana when kit has the life lead? The only advantage mileena has is the air game. Kitana has a superior air game, but mileena beats her at that. The ground game, punishment game, footsies game, etc, all in kitana favor.

Liu Kang: again, this is another mu that kitana gets outzone in, but doesn't lose. She can actually trade with the zoning in this MU with ground fans and liu kang has to respect that. On top of that, his zoning isn't even scary. Just jump or duck. Upclose, its all a footsies battle. Liu Kang beats her with the speed, but she beats him with the range and damage. This is definitely an even MU.

Reptile: I was the only person on the planet who thought this MU was even, and I still do. Other reptile players, and even kitana players were starting to think so as well. KItana has to fear spit more than forceball IMO. Ground fans throw off his forceball crap, and forces him to come in. Reptile definitely wins the zoning battle tho. Upclose, she wins that hands down. Once people stop playing so aggressive against him and play more defensive, they would see that reptile isn't scary at all. I Love when reps to d4-acid because it puts him in a sweet spot where kitana and punish anything he does. If he jumps, AA. If he dashes, loses 50%. If he d4s, f21. If he does forceball, ex iaAss or ex fan. This mu will forever be even IMO.
 

Dizz_88

Noob
Kung Lao is better than freddy in my opinion. A majority of kung laos match ups are in his favor, and has maybe 2 or 3 bad mu's (i think, not sure though. Lao also beats Kenshi 6-4 and can put up a good match against Kabal but still loses 4-6.
 

STRYKIE

Are ya' ready for MK11 kids?!
I would put KL ahead of freddy and replace jax with cage other than that solid list.
This is why I say that the cream of MK's crop is a top 6, and not a top 5. Kabal, Cyrax, Kung Lao, Kenshi, Sonya and Freddy are all notorious for being characters that destroy footsies and only have problems against other characters that.. destroy footsies.

Jax, Cage, Smoke, Skarlet etc, while all having ridiculous shit in some form or another, all have at least one matchup they lose legitimately. If that makes sense.
 
Alright, since our community loves lists, MK9 has been out for over two years, and we have never been able to settle on the top 10 characters, I figure that now is the time to decide. Here is my attempt at placing the top 10 characters in the game:
1. Kabal
2. Kenshi
3. Sonya
4. Cyrax
5. Freddy
6. Kung Lao
7. Smoke
8. Jax
9. Kitana
10. Skarlet

Feel free to discuss and critique the list and please post your own.
replace jax with reptile and we in the same boat, and switch freddy and sonya (they are about the same in my eyes though) and we are in agreement

cage has a rough time with freddy and sonya also, freddy is really rough
 
Again, no. Just stop because you don't know what you're saying.

Mileena: who cares if kitana can't zone. I HATE when people think kitana loses a match because she can't throw fans. That's dumb. She has numerous winning MUs in which she can't throw fans, and this just happens to be one of them. Mileena's d4 is just a nuisance, that's it. She doesn't even get anything from it on hit. Its +12 but all she can get is some whack pressure with 42. Its nothing like Sonya's d4 or smokes d4 where they get In for free and get mixups. Mileena's d4 is just a poke away tool, and even then, kitana has tools to blow up the d4. Kitana dominates her upclose with her footsies, speed and range. Mileena is also a very risky character and she has to take risks to get her damage, and kitana loves that. One mistake and mileena loses half her health. On top of that, what is mileena doing to kitana when kit has the life lead? The only advantage mileena has is the air game. Kitana has a superior air game, but mileena beats her at that. The ground game, punishment game, footsies game, etc, all in kitana favor.

Liu Kang: again, this is another mu that kitana gets outzone in, but doesn't lose. She can actually trade with the zoning in this MU with ground fans and liu kang has to respect that. On top of that, his zoning isn't even scary. Just jump or duck. Upclose, its all a footsies battle. Liu Kang beats her with the speed, but she beats him with the range and damage. This is definitely an even MU.

Reptile: I was the only person on the planet who thought this MU was even, and I still do. Other reptile players, and even kitana players were starting to think so as well. KItana has to fear spit more than forceball IMO. Ground fans throw off his forceball crap, and forces him to come in. Reptile definitely wins the zoning battle tho. Upclose, she wins that hands down. Once people stop playing so aggressive against him and play more defensive, they would see that reptile isn't scary at all. I Love when reps to d4-acid because it puts him in a sweet spot where kitana and punish anything he does. If he jumps, AA. If he dashes, loses 50%. If he d4s, f21. If he does forceball, ex iaAss or ex fan. This mu will forever be even IMO.
not disagreeing but liu kangs grounded high fireball will most of the time allow him to block ground fans(he has to grab the advantage), and he can low fireball under air ones... itd help dealing with her floatiness if kangs down 1 was faster frames that way i would have to stand a lot... liu has a better mixup game but its not easy for him to deal with her pokes... if kangs could instant air really well i'd say 6-4
 
This is why I say that the cream of MK's crop is a top 6, and not a top 5. Kabal, Cyrax, Kung Lao, Kenshi, Sonya and Freddy are all notorious for being characters that destroy footsies and only have problems against other characters that.. destroy footsies.

Jax, Cage, Smoke, Skarlet etc, while all having ridiculous shit in some form or another, all have at least one matchup they lose legitimately. If that makes sense.
freddy gets dickrolled pretty hard by smoke... sonya kenshi aint as bad as that buts its rough...
 
Why did Raiden drop so much?
a lot of characters shut down his footsie game and he often doesnt get rewarded heavily unless he makes a read (which can be punished) against zoning... hes good at shutting down pressure but if you play as lame as him a lot of characters have superior tools... he's still a good character but hard to play and has some rough matchups
 
Kung Lao is better than freddy in my opinion. A majority of kung laos match ups are in his favor, and has maybe 2 or 3 bad mu's (i think, not sure though. Lao also beats Kenshi 6-4 and can put up a good match against Kabal but still loses 4-6.
freddy only really has a couple bad matchups, smoke kabal and kung lao (mileena imo is even, just hard to learn)... he destroys a lot of the cast in a similar fashion to kenshi

that being said having an 8-2 makes him HIGHLY debatable
 

JTB123

>>R2 - BF4 = Unblockable.
Seeing as most people agree on Kabal, Kenshi and Cyrax being way above the rest of the top ten, how about just place them above it (bare with me), for different reasons I think they are the best 3 characters in the game, much better than the other 7 characters that would make up the top ten, so let them have their own place above it and it frees up some of the very contended spaces for the actual top ten.

With those three characters out, my top ten is below, they are not strictly in descending order, I feel a lot of places past 4 could be swapped. Just my 2 cents.

1. Sonya
2. Freddy
3. Smoke
4. Kung Lao
5. Kitana
6. Reptile
7. Rayden
8. Cage
9. Jax
10. Shang Tsung
 

NKZero

Noob
Shang can't be top 10. He has too many hard MUs, gets exploited for using the SS, and has a really hard time against anyone that has a fast projectile. I actually think he beats Reptile and does as well as you can against Kabal, but he does lose to Lao and Cyrax.
Interesting I thought Reptile would dictate the pace of the match. Anyways I definitely value your opinion over mine when it comes to Shang :). I said if anything was holding him back it was MU's and as you and Assasin pointed out, SS also has weaknesses which can be exploited.

Tool wise I think he's right up there though. Also forgot he does pretty well against Kabal.
 

Obs_SmSwag

"I have good taste because I like what I like"
Again, no. Just stop because you don't know what you're saying.
Yo Pm me and we can talk about these, I don't want to derail the thread.

I'm pretty adamant about Mileena and Liu, idk much about rep besides what I hear.
 
Overall, it seems like everyone has an idea of the top 5: Kabal, Kenshi, Cyrax, Sonya, Lao/Freddy. I'd probably have to agree with some of the posts here though - Freddy does have a terrible matchup against Smoke and bad matchups against Lao and Kabal, which jeopardizes his top 5 status. Lao on the other hand only really has a tough time against Cage, Sonya, Kitana, and Kabal, all of which are much more winnable than Freddy-Smoke. I'd have to change my list and put Lao in the #5 spot because of this. Outside of the top 6 it seems everyone has either Cage, Kitana, Smoke in the next couple of spots, with a bunch of other characters such as Jax, Reptile, Skarlet, Kang, Shang, etc. This last spot is really tough to decide, but I'd honestly have to put Kang, Shang, and Jax outside of the top 10, leaving Reptile and Skarlet. I'm a Skarlet believer but Reptile is a pretty solid choice to round out the top 10. It's tough to say really, but I think Denzell's list is pretty solid.