Best and Worst Matchups: Shang Tsung

[RoboCop]

I'm attempting to gather good information for my "How to Defeat Any Character" thread. You're going to see this exact post in each of the character threads. If you would like to share your information, ideas, and comments please stick to the format outlined below. This will help speed up the process of rooting out the pertinent information and putting it to good use. Thanks for your support!

*The information in the example post was written off the top of my head and not meant at all to convey actual match information. It serves only as a guide to influence future posts.

Post Format (based on Kano):

Best Matchup: Kano's best matchup is probably against Quan Chi. Quan Chi's 1 wakeup attack, the Sky Drop, just isn't able to break up Kano's awesome offensive game. Kano can keep him at range with zoning tactics that have enough recovery to block and punish the Sky Drop. Quan Chi should be unable to control almost any aspect of a match with Kano.

Worst Matchup: Kano's worst matchup is definitely against Sub-Zero. Ice Clone completely nullifies Kano's Air Ball, and with no teleport Kano can have a very difficult time getting in to inflict decent damage. His only real option is to hang back and zone with Knives hoping to bait and punish Sub-Zero's slide. However, since his Knives can be crouched completely, if Sub-Zero has the damage advantage he can just run down the clock to force Kano to come to him.

 

[Belial]

From what you posted on Kano - its a terrible nonsense.

As for good and bad matchups. Im not sure, but Johnny Cage looks pretty grim for Shang Tsung. Why?
- Ex soul steal has no armor on startup, is not advancing special, meaning it gets owned by crossover jumps. its more difficult to buffer/link than many other specials.
- Whereas for other chars you can at least try to get a KD and get some breathing room with a threat of wakeup atack, Shangs wakeup game is very poor, limited to EX-steal (did anyone actually got GS to work as a wakeupatack?). So even if Ex-balls or d+1 hit you jumping you cant get away from pressure.
- Your only real way to break pressure is breaker, and Shang being bar-dependant character.

 

[Gamin_Guru]

Worst machup: hands down Cyber Subzero. nuff said

 

[Marcus]

Worst machup: hands down Cyber Subzero. nuff said

Care to explain?

 

[Shady]

Care to explain?

He has no answer for the Dive Kick, plain and simple, that one move tramps almost all of Shang's strategies.

 

[Marcus]

He has no answer for the Dive Kick, plain and simple, that one move tramps almost all of Shang's strategies.

I might be sounding stupid here but,if blocked you can punish that with ground skulls right? Never really played a lot against cyber sub

 

[Lyuben]

I tend to eat up any Shangsters as Cyber Sub. I think that the kick causes too much blockstun to properly punish.

I would put that matchup at 7-3 for cyber

 

[Belial]

A lot of Shang's AA revolve around preemtive skulls, soul steals and/or d+3 poking. So its not like divekick terrible hurt that.
Soul Steals also get them out of divekicks. "Hard to punish" - is not such a big factor at high level, which, I think, matchup charts represent.

Worst matchup is Raiden probably, shuts down all kind of zoning and escapes frame traps easily.

 

[Danno]

A lot of Shang's AA revolve around preemtive skulls, soul steals and/or d+3 poking. So its not like divekick terrible hurt that.
Soul Steals also get them out of divekicks. "Hard to punish" - is not such a big factor at high level, which, I think, matchup charts represent.

Worst matchup is Raiden probably, shuts down all kind of zoning and escapes frame traps easily.

Most definitely one of his toughest matchups is Raiden.

But honestly I think raiden is a tough matchup for almost any character in the game. I try to do jump kicks to combat the teleport but after that you just have to out play your opponent.

 

[WhooFlungPoo]

Most definitely one of his toughest matchups is Raiden.

But honestly I think raiden is a tough matchup for almost any character in the game. I try to do jump kicks to combat the teleport but after that you just have to out play your opponent.

I agree and add mileena to the list.

 

[Gamin_Guru]

Mileena is pretty tough for me, but Raiden just cheeses the win with constant teleports throwing you off and stupidly safe strings.

 

[PANDEMlC]

I tend to eat up any Shangsters as Cyber Sub. I think that the kick causes too much blockstun to properly punish.

I would put that matchup at 7-3 for cyber

The window for punishing is pretty low, wouldn't surprise me if Shang can't do it. Need someone like Kung lao to get a full punish off it.

 

[Sigmar]

Worst for me playing shang for a long time, mileena, kl, raiden, nw.

 

[King]

Worst for me playing shang for a long time, mileena, kl, raiden, nw.

I remember playing against you with my Sub Zero; was a shock to see a good Shang player.

Anyway, I think his worst matchup is probably Raiden. He can teleport around all day and Shang has little he can do tro punish him. Also, meaty skulls don't work on Raiden.

 

[Name v.5.0]

I dont know why you guys think Raiden. You can D+1 his stupid teleport and shut that down pretty quick. A lot of times I D+1, D+4, then try to sneak in a F+4,3,4 into close GS. Fuck Raiden. It's Kung Lao and CSZ. they are too fast. I just stop using my skulls against them unless it's in a combo. I dont think I've ever beat even a mediocre KL. So unfair.

 

[PoliceBrutality]

I think stryker might be a bad matchup for Shang. roll toss goes under his straight projectiles and gunshot is fast enough to cancel his up/grown skulls. the only reason why this matchup might seems 50/50 in my opinion is because Stryker doesnt really have a go to "get the hell off me" move to get out of pressure.

EDIT: I dont play shang but I dont always have a hard time against him

 

[Sigmar]

I remember playing against you with my Sub Zero; was a shock to see a good Shang player.

Anyway, I think his worst matchup is probably Raiden. He can teleport around all day and Shang has little he can do tro punish him. Also, meaty skulls don't work on Raiden.

ehhh, i really don't think so.... raiden is so easy to play you can cross him over after tele and combo into ss.. raiden is easy to play which leads to a advantage over him 30%+ damage with easy combos.

 

[Belial]

Not exactly true. If you use your crossup on anticipation, even if you punish the teleport with back jump punch you cannot combo after. At all. This is probably a bug. Tested over and over. you can still do the b2/f+3 mixup though.
Same goes for them atacking after teleport. It seems a small amount of glitchy frames right after the teleport that make this happen. (note: done on PS3)