Yeah I think another thing is that people are assuming the MU is Reborn Scorpion. Searing Rage is used a lot and the MU’s are definitely different compared to Reborn. It’s not like characters like Jacqui where one variation is used 99% of the time.
In MK11 people usually forget about the variation system as most of the characters have 1 competitive variations.
Can you tell me match ups where Searing Rage is better than Reborn?
I can hardly find any where there is an obvious favor for Searing Rage over Reborn.
Especially against the difficult match ups where it could matter.
I still like Searing Rage more than Reborn with the current properties (or any "vanilla Scorpion" over Reborn) but I am waiting for a balance patch where I can use a balanced tele cancel as well.
SR tools might not add too much to the character in certain situations. Even 1-2 cancel / match can add more than SR tools.
But I do not underestimate the fear factor of F32, extra damage and pressure possibility with 21 2+4 and burning spear when I could just watch the opponent from full screen. And DS can be really helpful too to close the rounds. Small things can add up.
Reborn on the other hand can manage the neutral situations better even without tele cancel mixup.
Where SR needs to take risks Reborn does not really (e.g. B2/F3 xx tele cancels) which is huge. Not mentioning positioning (away cancel, normal cancel on whiff punish read but safer than regular tele - now not just safe but mixup lol).
That's a good variation - he does not even need that crazy recovery to be superior.
He is much closer to my playstyle than SR but I just can not resist pulling "free wins" with few offensive cancels in intense moments (same as MKX but in MKX it was more fair) which ruins my satisfaction lol. And I play for fun.