This may be surprising, but as a Joker main, I will say yes.
My reasoning according to the rules in the OP:
- The character has strengths that fit within the confines of the game.
-His normals suck without trait, but are godlike with it. Sounds like a decent trade off, even if the trait timer is a bit short.
-Teleports are really good, but punishable in a variety of ways. That said, it's hard to pull off in a real match against a high level player. That said, hard and impossible are not the same thing. It might be a bit strong, but there is still a decent risk/reward, especially for my character, considering I get 40% and put him in a really bad position if I punish it.
-Zoning is very strong, but it does not stop you from moving. There are holes; small ones but they are there.
-Orbs are the only thing I might consider a problem.
White orbs are punishable off of most strings and while good, they hit mid, preventing MMH from getting stupid unblockable setups that Joker and Lex can get. They are + a billion, like teeth, and can start combos.
MB orbs are a tool unlike any other in the game though. They are essentially proximity mines that come out ridiculously fast, put you in as much blockstun as teeth (Enough to do a 50/50 or set things up) and last long enough to give great screen control. Red orbs are the single best trap move in the game, which is weird since MMH isn't specifically a trap character.
That said red orbs cost a bar, so there's that.
Also unlike Lex and Joker, his moveset doesn't really seem like it was designed to complement the orbs. They don't hurt, but they don't seem to work with his normals nearly as well as Joker's moveset compliments teeth. In fact it kind of feels like phase assault was the only move that was made for orb setups.
-His wakeups are decent. He has invincible wakeups, which more than characters like Raven and Zod can say, but he can still be bullied on knockdown.
-*Most* of his moves are single hits, meaning armor can hurt him quite a bit. That said, having a multi-hitting B3 is dumb.
- The character has weakness that can be exploited by YOUR character.
-Joker's gun is fast enough to hit in between zoning, and can be dash canceled to punish a teleport (But you better guess right on this. I used to think it was dashable on reaction, but that's only if the MMH is being predictable).
-More importantly than that, Joker can bully MMH on knockdown. He can punish orb cancels (Unless it's red orb) while moving himself out of the explosion range. When trait is down Joker out-footsies him. When trait is up though, that's a different story.
-I can punish the (Admittedly few) gaps in his strings.
- The character doesn't invalidate the strengths of the YOUR character.
-He has to respect teeth and all of my frametraps like anyone else.
-Corner = death.
-My mids and overheads don't whiff on him, meaning all of my pressure and traps can be used against him.
-While I have to be a bit more careful about it, I can still molest him on knockdown.
-I can combo into interactibles just as well as he can (Stage dependent).
- When played at the highest possible level, YOUR character can defeat MMH 40-60% of the time. (5-5, 4-6, or 6-4 MU)
I am constantly told that unless I play Jupiter, I can't talk*. Since I haven't, I guess I just don't know.
That said I do play against several MMH players offline, ranging from decent to good, and as such I have a good idea of his tools and what he can do, even if they are not Jupiter calibur players. I do know what my options against him are, and I know what he can do to me from different places on the screen.
If I were allowed to base an opinion based on playing multiple MMH players regularly offline, watching tournament footage and hitting the lab, I would think the MU is 6-4 for Martian at worst.
*Which BTW, it speaks volumes if you HAVE to play Jupiter to understand why MMH is broken. I didn't NEED to play M2K to know why Metaknight was broken in Smash... Nobody needed to play Flocker to know why Dark Pheonix was broken in Marvel, or play any of the top Marvel players to know why Vergil was stupid. These characters were so dumb that even if a player didn't have the best reads, the best reactions, the best spacing, etc., they could still make the character look broken as long as they weren't complete trash at the game.
I have seen we have trouble admitting when we're being outplayed in this community, but maybe Jupiter really is that good?
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I also want to throw out that I played other fighting games before this one. MMH is nowhere near Dark Pheonix levels of stupid, who herself was nowhere near as dumb as Vergil. Neither of these characters were even in the same realm of stupid as Metaknight (And I was fighting that character with Mario and Kirby!). Thankfully I never had to personally deal with Viola's stupid shit in SCV, but she seemed considerably worse than MMH too.
Every game will have a top character. This game's is MMH. All things considered, for a #1 character in a fighting game, he's not that bad.
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Now to see how long it takes for people to blow me up for this...
