I'm going double post here. What do you guys think about the Smoke matchup? I think the advantage is slight... 4.5-5.5 maybe. He protects his life lead very well, and can pace the match very easily. However, Sub can walk him to the corner to create better situations for himself. I also think Smoke punishes better than Sub for mistakes, especially with the reset lottery.
I think Sub can walk him down and make him guess, and keeping smoke in the corner AREA is a must. You know he wants to get out, and will try by either exSmoking away, or jump teleporting. You can get the jump teleport with a well timed slide, and cross over. Smoke away is basically a get out of jail free, but he does burn a valuable meter.
What do you guys feel about it? What do you do to make the matchup a better one?
[MENTION=7994]Faded Dreams V[/MENTION] [MENTION=4641]BeerGuyEd[/MENTION] I know you guys play smoke and I'd love your opinion from Smoke's PoV.
Personally, I think it's slightly in Smoke's favor. But not by much. First of all, he's the only character that can severely punish a slide without having to block it. Secondly, he can smoke bomb ice clones on reaction. I'm sure you noticed me doing a lot of point blank smoke bombs yesterday. It was risky, but I was trying to bait you into using an ice clone. lol. Third, Smoke can escape the corner using EX Smoke Towards or an aerial teleport. Finally, he can counter iceballs with a teleport (my preferred option) or shake.
Essentially, Smoke has an answer for EVERYTHING Sub-Zero does. Not one thing gets left unpunished, and he doesn't fall for Sub-Zero corner bs. That said, if the Sub-Zero knows he's playing a high-level Smoke (which is pretty rare and hard to tell online), he can change his playstyle. For one, a Sub-Zero that knows about Smoke will quickly realize that Smoke will try to bait out ice clones. Knowing this, the Sub-Zero can trick the Smoke into thinking an ice clone is coming, fool him into throwing a close Smoke bomb, and then punish the hell out of him. One way to do this is by using 2 1 4 while he's blocking, and NOT ending it with anything. If a Smoke tries to escape the corner with Ex Smoke Towards, Sub-Zero should expect this, jump backwards, and continue pressure or punish him (same goes for a Raiden who teleports in the corner). An aerial teleport is even easier for Sub-Zero to punish. And as BeerGuy mentioned, Smoke bombs can be punished by a slide, but this has to be done at mid-range distance, I believe. A Sub-Zero who knows the Smoke matchup will also NEVER throw random ice balls; he has to time it perfectly.
Case in point, Smoke may have an answer for everything, but if Sub-Zero knows what he's doing, that matchup isn't completely in Smoke's favor. I'd say it's like 5.2-4.8 for Smoke, with his biggest advantage being that he can run away the entire fight until time runs out, making it difficult for Sub-Zero to win if Smoke has the life lead.
