Chongo
Dead Kings Rise
With all of the Scarecrow misinformation and downplaying going on I figured it'd be a good time to post what my honest thoughts are on the character and what his actual problems are. Before I get into it, here's a few disclaimers:
1. The game is still very young and matchups and tools haven't been fully fleshed out yet. I understand that and that is why I'm hesitant to say if a MU is good or bad because chances are both people aren't doing some things right.
2. I'm not the best at the game. I (probably falsely) believe I have a decent understanding of the character and what his playstyle is supposed to be like, but again, the game is still super young and people are still figuring things out.
3. There are some issues with scarecrow. I'm not saying he is unviable trash, or that he is a tournament viable lethal killing machine. He's a very good character that struggles with a few things.
Now lets get into it
Scarecrow is a footsie based character that works best at the range where your normals outrange everyone elses and they are forced to play your game. He also has very good pressure based around his MB DB2 that requires a lot of conditioning to be successful (more on that later). He also has a lot of very good normals, which I will go over a few right now:
F2- Holy shit I love this move. This is the farthest reaching mid in the game, can be confirmed into a full combo with f2xxMBDB2 or F21xxMBDB2, although the 1 will launch them off the ground and you'll have to adjust your ender. Can also be made safe by doing f21xxdb3, which is safe (-7 with pushback) or just by finishing the string f213, which ends in an overhead and is -1 on block.
D2- Another excellent move. This is an insanely good AA with a great hitbox that stuffs almost any air attack. It can also tick by doing D2xxDBF3, which can only be beaten by jumps or backdashes. Protip: if you do this at the very beginning of the match it will hit them if they try to do something or just stand still, the only move that has beaten this out is Cheetah D3 but it is still a very good strat to use in order to condition your opponent.
F3- This move is your best friend against zoners. It is one of the farthest reaching moves in the game, can be armored, and leads to a full combo on hit. From Max range it's hard to get anything really good off of it, but thanks to Scarecrows great normals you are mostly able to capitalize with full damage. It is very unsafe (-28) on block which means that on a bad read you are going to get punished. Does that make it a bad tool? No, it just means you need to make a better read next time.
D3- I feel like a broken record but it is the longest reaching sweep in the game and +1 on block. Very good checking tool to have in your arsenal.
F1- This move, and consequent string, will be a scarecrow players best friend when they are playing high level opponents. It moves scarecrow across the entire galaxy and the hitbox on the last two chain moves are ridiculous. The 3 in F13(3) has hit people behind me. f13xxdb1/db2 are excellent whiff punishers, and while finishing the string won't get you punished for the most part (-10 with pushback) you don't get to hit any more buttons. Protip: If your opponent doesn't have a fireball and has 5% or less health, pop trait up and f133 to your hearts content. They will die an aggravating death.
Now after talking about his strengths, lets look at his weaknesses.
Backdash- This is my least favorite thing about him. It's so slow and every single character in the game can catch it on recovery. There have been certain situations where I've tried to backdash on wakeup and if I was playing literally any other character it would have worked but not for Crow. I'm really not sure why people aren't complaining about this more.
Zoning- It's only fair for a character that does so well up close to struggle with zoning, but man the struggle is real sometimes. Teleport works once in a blue moon, except for me because I'm a buffoon who struggles to do DU on a consistent basis and just ends up jumping backwards into a fireball, sending me back fullscreen. Some people will say that zoner's 9-1 scarecrow, do not listen to them. It's a struggle, its not unwinnable.
Wakeup- this is the thing that everyone complains about, but truthfully I don't see what is so bad about it. Scarecrow is so good in most areas that it's fair to have him be weak on knockdown. People who want his wakeups buffed fail to see that depending on what special move they picked, it would either be really bad (db1, bf2) or really good (bf3, db2) In fact, if you ever see someone asking for DB2 to get more invincibility frames that should be the sign to not take them seriously. MBDB2 full combos on hit, leads to pressure on block, and has a stupid hitbox that will hit anyone even remotely near it even in the air, don't make it invincible lol. Your best option, and one that everyone else seems to forget, is to just block.
Holes in his strings- Most of his good strings B1()2, 22()F3, F21()3 have gaps that people will eventually start backdashing. This will require crow players to level up their game in turn.
I feel that the reason Scarecrow players think he's bad is that he requires good reads and conditioning to be successful and win games. In a game this early no one is that good at it yet, and people will equate that into the character just being bad. Here's a few situations that I run into pretty fairly where conditioning makes the utmost difference.
*You're playing someone for the 3rd game in a row. In the first 2 you managed to catch him with a d2 because he tried hitting buttons and landed a full combo both times. Now, he's a good player and he probably has figured out that you're going to do it again and to not hit buttons. Do you:
A. Read that he's going to backdash instead of blocking and try to punish with f133
B. Read that he's going to block in order to punish your d2, which leaves him vulnerable to tick throws
C. Go for a Jumpin because there's no way he's gonna hit buttons after you blew him up for doing that 2 times in a row and get something going (After a blocked J3 I always go for a raw DBF3 or d1xxgrab. Shit's money)
*You do a f21xxMBDB2 blockstring on someone, leaving you +6. Do you:
A. Go for the poke, which will beat him trying to hit buttons but will lose to backdashes
B. Go for F1, which will catch backdashes but will get beat out by them hitting buttons
C. Go for a tick with either d1 or d2. This beats blocking but again loses to backdashing or jumping.
D. Make them think you're going to do a d1 tick by either d1ing and then punishing their backdash, or just by doing raw grab. Loses to same options as above.
E. Go for the regular throw. This is the last thing anyone would expect and is pretty successful.
He's a very hard character to play and people will mistake that as him being not good. You will take your lumps playing him and that's fine. This game is still super young and wins and losses don't mean anything right now. Just learn and get better and you will have more fun with Crow.
I won't claim to know any matchups for sure, but out of all the ones I've played so far Blue Beetle and Green Arrow are the worst. I don't wanna give a definitive # because I am unqualified to do so, but Beetle really feels like a 7-3, but with enough labbing and practice it could be a 6-4. I feel like he does well against Cheetah, I have it as 5-5 but honestly in the future as people get better blocking Cheetah I wouldn't be surprised to call it 6-4 in Scarecrow favor. I can explain in greater detail later if it calls for it.
Lastly, here are the list of changes that I really want Crow to have:
1. Better backdash. Honestly this is the only thing he needs. It's awful. I don't want a broken backdash like prepatch Adam in injustice1, I don't even want a good backdash. I just want one where I don't get punished for using it. If they do this it will help with his bad wakeups because if people think that I'm gonna backdash on wakeup, they might get caught with a wakeup grab more frequently.
These 2 are just QOL changes that he'll do fine without but would be nice to have.
1. When traumatize is active, I wish the bar would go down slower or if he still had a slightly more powerful DOT effect like he does when he's charging it. Sometimes it's a waste because you're either getting zoned out and need enough time to get in and use it, or you're getting pressured and don't have an ample time to use it, so it'd be nice if the opponent had to at least deal with the minuscule damage in exchange for not being hit with the trait.
2. The hitbox in f2(1) whiffs consistently at max range and will make your punish stop dead in your tracks. Just make it a little better so I can whiff punish. I don't think its too unreasonable to want my buttons to hit when they should.
1. The game is still very young and matchups and tools haven't been fully fleshed out yet. I understand that and that is why I'm hesitant to say if a MU is good or bad because chances are both people aren't doing some things right.
2. I'm not the best at the game. I (probably falsely) believe I have a decent understanding of the character and what his playstyle is supposed to be like, but again, the game is still super young and people are still figuring things out.
3. There are some issues with scarecrow. I'm not saying he is unviable trash, or that he is a tournament viable lethal killing machine. He's a very good character that struggles with a few things.
Now lets get into it
Scarecrow is a footsie based character that works best at the range where your normals outrange everyone elses and they are forced to play your game. He also has very good pressure based around his MB DB2 that requires a lot of conditioning to be successful (more on that later). He also has a lot of very good normals, which I will go over a few right now:
F2- Holy shit I love this move. This is the farthest reaching mid in the game, can be confirmed into a full combo with f2xxMBDB2 or F21xxMBDB2, although the 1 will launch them off the ground and you'll have to adjust your ender. Can also be made safe by doing f21xxdb3, which is safe (-7 with pushback) or just by finishing the string f213, which ends in an overhead and is -1 on block.
D2- Another excellent move. This is an insanely good AA with a great hitbox that stuffs almost any air attack. It can also tick by doing D2xxDBF3, which can only be beaten by jumps or backdashes. Protip: if you do this at the very beginning of the match it will hit them if they try to do something or just stand still, the only move that has beaten this out is Cheetah D3 but it is still a very good strat to use in order to condition your opponent.
F3- This move is your best friend against zoners. It is one of the farthest reaching moves in the game, can be armored, and leads to a full combo on hit. From Max range it's hard to get anything really good off of it, but thanks to Scarecrows great normals you are mostly able to capitalize with full damage. It is very unsafe (-28) on block which means that on a bad read you are going to get punished. Does that make it a bad tool? No, it just means you need to make a better read next time.
D3- I feel like a broken record but it is the longest reaching sweep in the game and +1 on block. Very good checking tool to have in your arsenal.
F1- This move, and consequent string, will be a scarecrow players best friend when they are playing high level opponents. It moves scarecrow across the entire galaxy and the hitbox on the last two chain moves are ridiculous. The 3 in F13(3) has hit people behind me. f13xxdb1/db2 are excellent whiff punishers, and while finishing the string won't get you punished for the most part (-10 with pushback) you don't get to hit any more buttons. Protip: If your opponent doesn't have a fireball and has 5% or less health, pop trait up and f133 to your hearts content. They will die an aggravating death.
Now after talking about his strengths, lets look at his weaknesses.
Backdash- This is my least favorite thing about him. It's so slow and every single character in the game can catch it on recovery. There have been certain situations where I've tried to backdash on wakeup and if I was playing literally any other character it would have worked but not for Crow. I'm really not sure why people aren't complaining about this more.
Zoning- It's only fair for a character that does so well up close to struggle with zoning, but man the struggle is real sometimes. Teleport works once in a blue moon, except for me because I'm a buffoon who struggles to do DU on a consistent basis and just ends up jumping backwards into a fireball, sending me back fullscreen. Some people will say that zoner's 9-1 scarecrow, do not listen to them. It's a struggle, its not unwinnable.
Wakeup- this is the thing that everyone complains about, but truthfully I don't see what is so bad about it. Scarecrow is so good in most areas that it's fair to have him be weak on knockdown. People who want his wakeups buffed fail to see that depending on what special move they picked, it would either be really bad (db1, bf2) or really good (bf3, db2) In fact, if you ever see someone asking for DB2 to get more invincibility frames that should be the sign to not take them seriously. MBDB2 full combos on hit, leads to pressure on block, and has a stupid hitbox that will hit anyone even remotely near it even in the air, don't make it invincible lol. Your best option, and one that everyone else seems to forget, is to just block.
Holes in his strings- Most of his good strings B1()2, 22()F3, F21()3 have gaps that people will eventually start backdashing. This will require crow players to level up their game in turn.
I feel that the reason Scarecrow players think he's bad is that he requires good reads and conditioning to be successful and win games. In a game this early no one is that good at it yet, and people will equate that into the character just being bad. Here's a few situations that I run into pretty fairly where conditioning makes the utmost difference.
*You're playing someone for the 3rd game in a row. In the first 2 you managed to catch him with a d2 because he tried hitting buttons and landed a full combo both times. Now, he's a good player and he probably has figured out that you're going to do it again and to not hit buttons. Do you:
A. Read that he's going to backdash instead of blocking and try to punish with f133
B. Read that he's going to block in order to punish your d2, which leaves him vulnerable to tick throws
C. Go for a Jumpin because there's no way he's gonna hit buttons after you blew him up for doing that 2 times in a row and get something going (After a blocked J3 I always go for a raw DBF3 or d1xxgrab. Shit's money)
*You do a f21xxMBDB2 blockstring on someone, leaving you +6. Do you:
A. Go for the poke, which will beat him trying to hit buttons but will lose to backdashes
B. Go for F1, which will catch backdashes but will get beat out by them hitting buttons
C. Go for a tick with either d1 or d2. This beats blocking but again loses to backdashing or jumping.
D. Make them think you're going to do a d1 tick by either d1ing and then punishing their backdash, or just by doing raw grab. Loses to same options as above.
E. Go for the regular throw. This is the last thing anyone would expect and is pretty successful.
He's a very hard character to play and people will mistake that as him being not good. You will take your lumps playing him and that's fine. This game is still super young and wins and losses don't mean anything right now. Just learn and get better and you will have more fun with Crow.
I won't claim to know any matchups for sure, but out of all the ones I've played so far Blue Beetle and Green Arrow are the worst. I don't wanna give a definitive # because I am unqualified to do so, but Beetle really feels like a 7-3, but with enough labbing and practice it could be a 6-4. I feel like he does well against Cheetah, I have it as 5-5 but honestly in the future as people get better blocking Cheetah I wouldn't be surprised to call it 6-4 in Scarecrow favor. I can explain in greater detail later if it calls for it.
Lastly, here are the list of changes that I really want Crow to have:
1. Better backdash. Honestly this is the only thing he needs. It's awful. I don't want a broken backdash like prepatch Adam in injustice1, I don't even want a good backdash. I just want one where I don't get punished for using it. If they do this it will help with his bad wakeups because if people think that I'm gonna backdash on wakeup, they might get caught with a wakeup grab more frequently.
These 2 are just QOL changes that he'll do fine without but would be nice to have.
1. When traumatize is active, I wish the bar would go down slower or if he still had a slightly more powerful DOT effect like he does when he's charging it. Sometimes it's a waste because you're either getting zoned out and need enough time to get in and use it, or you're getting pressured and don't have an ample time to use it, so it'd be nice if the opponent had to at least deal with the minuscule damage in exchange for not being hit with the trait.
2. The hitbox in f2(1) whiffs consistently at max range and will make your punish stop dead in your tracks. Just make it a little better so I can whiff punish. I don't think its too unreasonable to want my buttons to hit when they should.
