Tom Brady
Champion
No matter what any Superman player will attempt to tell you, his primary tool and primary threat was F23.
What I mean by this is the very threat of F23 forced you to play in a way that opened up other areas for Superman. That my good sirs has changed.
Start of The Round:
Pre-Patch, if you were PERFECT on F+23, it had to be blocked or poked out of. This was a HUGE adv for Superman. From round start ppl had to take the F23 meta game or throw a poke out an pray it didn't get baited and whiff.
Post Patch.. You can simply walk back, and F2 misses. You can walk back and react!!! F2 misses, whiff punish for full combo. Superman attempts moves in and then F2, you can still react and hit him. Most low/lower hitbox characters can actually crouch block and cause F2 to pass over there head, they do not even need to move from the start of the match to get F2 to miss. You can also just jump back and the F2 will miss. Even if you opponent starts off with a forward dash and then does F2, you can land with an attack for a jump in combo starter.
Once F23~Breath, F23 has Started in Open Space:
Pre-Patch... Some characters(very few) could backdash the next F23, forcing Superman to forward dash and F23, which was guaranteed when they backdash. Most characters were forced to poke out of the next F23, which could be baited and whiff punished. Superman could also follow up F23~Breath with his F3. This will cause your counter poke to whiff and launch you. If you blocked the F3, he is now +infinity and just continues his pressure.. what a win/win lol. Now some idiot will say "Tom you fool, just backdash the F3".. True.. but as i said, most characters cannot backdash the next F23, so you are stuck in a stupid situation where you have to do something preemptively and put your entire life bar on the line. You could also try to use a MB launcher to escape the pressure, but that can also be baited to whiff, or made useless if Superman has his trait activated.
Post Patch... You can walk back, and the next F2 will miss which allows you to whiff punish. Again, you can react to Superman attempting to move forward and hit him. There is no more mix up with F23~breath and the baiting game because you are no longer FORCED to preemptively throw out an attack to get him off of you, you can now do it on reaction. Obviously the player can use the fact that you are looking for the next F2 and instant air dash, backdash, etc... they just cannot bulldoze through you like they used to be able to.
The Range of F2 in general:
Pre-Patch.. Approach Superman at your own risk. The range of this move was so big that you were ALWAYS in his range before you were in his.
Post Patch ..This is no longer the case, you can actually approach him now on equal or near equal ranges (character dependent). You can play a footsie game and bait a reaction out of him. The problem used to be that the Superman player knew that for you to be in range to hit him, you first had to be in range for him to hit you. The hitbox on F2 was so big, he didnt even need to worry about you jumping, F2 would hit you before you were in range to hit him and would even catch you if you jumped. Now you can approach him, and if he tries to use F2 before you are in range of your attacks, it whiffs and he eats a full combo.
What This Means:
Yes.. if he gets you in the corner, the same ol' Superman (minus 70%+ combos) returns. BUT.. he cannot bully you into the corner like he used to. The range of the F2 now allows you to back him up or keep the match neutral. The new range of F2 actually allows a lot of characters to crouch block and get F2 to whiff from its max range. This means that Superman players will soon be getting hit by a lot of D1 counter pokes and being put on the defensive as they attempt F23 pressure in close.
Heat Vision:
I really can't see any change besides that fact that now Aquaman can ALWAYS FTD any height of air laser. Pre-Patch, if the air laser was done at its lowest point, Aquaman couldn't punish it. Now, Superman must MB the air laser in order to keep it safe, which in turn messes with the way Superman players were used to managing their meter.
EDIT:
When Superman does F23~Breath from closed stance, a low hitbox character like Ares can crouch under the next F2, even when he is cornered.
So for example... You have Ares cornered and he blocks F23~Breath. He notices that your cape is facing the screen during the Breath, he now knows that the next F2 will whiff if you follow up. This REALLY hurts Superman in MU's where this is possible. I have only tested this on Ares, Batman, KF, and Flash and only Ares can crouch it.
If a lot more than one character can do this, this opens up serious MU problems for Superman.
DOUBLE EDIT:
It seems that Ares can ALWAYS duck the F2 follow up after F23~Breath, no matter what stance Superman is in. SOMETIMES, from open stance, the F2 follow up is blocked if it connects as Ares is breathing. the F2 follow up will always miss from closed stance.
What I mean by this is the very threat of F23 forced you to play in a way that opened up other areas for Superman. That my good sirs has changed.
Start of The Round:
Pre-Patch, if you were PERFECT on F+23, it had to be blocked or poked out of. This was a HUGE adv for Superman. From round start ppl had to take the F23 meta game or throw a poke out an pray it didn't get baited and whiff.
Post Patch.. You can simply walk back, and F2 misses. You can walk back and react!!! F2 misses, whiff punish for full combo. Superman attempts moves in and then F2, you can still react and hit him. Most low/lower hitbox characters can actually crouch block and cause F2 to pass over there head, they do not even need to move from the start of the match to get F2 to miss. You can also just jump back and the F2 will miss. Even if you opponent starts off with a forward dash and then does F2, you can land with an attack for a jump in combo starter.
Once F23~Breath, F23 has Started in Open Space:
Pre-Patch... Some characters(very few) could backdash the next F23, forcing Superman to forward dash and F23, which was guaranteed when they backdash. Most characters were forced to poke out of the next F23, which could be baited and whiff punished. Superman could also follow up F23~Breath with his F3. This will cause your counter poke to whiff and launch you. If you blocked the F3, he is now +infinity and just continues his pressure.. what a win/win lol. Now some idiot will say "Tom you fool, just backdash the F3".. True.. but as i said, most characters cannot backdash the next F23, so you are stuck in a stupid situation where you have to do something preemptively and put your entire life bar on the line. You could also try to use a MB launcher to escape the pressure, but that can also be baited to whiff, or made useless if Superman has his trait activated.
Post Patch... You can walk back, and the next F2 will miss which allows you to whiff punish. Again, you can react to Superman attempting to move forward and hit him. There is no more mix up with F23~breath and the baiting game because you are no longer FORCED to preemptively throw out an attack to get him off of you, you can now do it on reaction. Obviously the player can use the fact that you are looking for the next F2 and instant air dash, backdash, etc... they just cannot bulldoze through you like they used to be able to.
The Range of F2 in general:
Pre-Patch.. Approach Superman at your own risk. The range of this move was so big that you were ALWAYS in his range before you were in his.
Post Patch ..This is no longer the case, you can actually approach him now on equal or near equal ranges (character dependent). You can play a footsie game and bait a reaction out of him. The problem used to be that the Superman player knew that for you to be in range to hit him, you first had to be in range for him to hit you. The hitbox on F2 was so big, he didnt even need to worry about you jumping, F2 would hit you before you were in range to hit him and would even catch you if you jumped. Now you can approach him, and if he tries to use F2 before you are in range of your attacks, it whiffs and he eats a full combo.
What This Means:
Yes.. if he gets you in the corner, the same ol' Superman (minus 70%+ combos) returns. BUT.. he cannot bully you into the corner like he used to. The range of the F2 now allows you to back him up or keep the match neutral. The new range of F2 actually allows a lot of characters to crouch block and get F2 to whiff from its max range. This means that Superman players will soon be getting hit by a lot of D1 counter pokes and being put on the defensive as they attempt F23 pressure in close.
Heat Vision:
I really can't see any change besides that fact that now Aquaman can ALWAYS FTD any height of air laser. Pre-Patch, if the air laser was done at its lowest point, Aquaman couldn't punish it. Now, Superman must MB the air laser in order to keep it safe, which in turn messes with the way Superman players were used to managing their meter.
EDIT:
When Superman does F23~Breath from closed stance, a low hitbox character like Ares can crouch under the next F2, even when he is cornered.
So for example... You have Ares cornered and he blocks F23~Breath. He notices that your cape is facing the screen during the Breath, he now knows that the next F2 will whiff if you follow up. This REALLY hurts Superman in MU's where this is possible. I have only tested this on Ares, Batman, KF, and Flash and only Ares can crouch it.
If a lot more than one character can do this, this opens up serious MU problems for Superman.
DOUBLE EDIT:
It seems that Ares can ALWAYS duck the F2 follow up after F23~Breath, no matter what stance Superman is in. SOMETIMES, from open stance, the F2 follow up is blocked if it connects as Ares is breathing. the F2 follow up will always miss from closed stance.
