Hi Errongang, there’s not a ton of activity in this general discussion so instead of starting a new thread I just wanted to list out a few underrated, underappreciated, or just things that I find notable about Erron. I don’t pretend to be some great player but I have a lot of experience with the cowboy and mostly just think he deserves some extra conversation – after over a year I still can’t quite quit him, even as I’ve picked up others. Here are a few things I encourage any Erron player to at least fool around with, even if they seem obvious, counterintuitive, or even (god forbid) unsafe.
This is mostly relating to the Erron variation that fits my playstyle the best, 52 Kard pickup aka basic biotch Erron. This is primarily because:
V1 Erron can be played ridiculously lame, and imo should be, most of the time. I will go so far as to say that if you are going in with Erron and have anything close to a lifelead, you are making a pretty big mistake. This is of course situational and doesn’t apply to every MU. The reasons are pretty simple; it’s tough to advance against scud shot. It can snipe jumpers and any advancing move, and freezes anyone with a brain cell in place. By its very nature, you are slowing the game down which gives meter time to recharge, which gives you more scud.
I’ll talk about the acid more shortly but this synergizes very well here as a keep-out tool. They obviously can’t projectile you so it comes down to this; scud shot gives you a great chance of doing damage without them being able to damage you, and that’s invaluable, especially for a character that doesn’t do mindblowing damage (at face value – he actually melts lifebars as everyone knows).
The other component here are his actual zoning tools, which I have found many v1 errons underrate or don’t use properly. It’s true they take a lot of time to come out – but scud shot buys you that time. Being full screen definitely buys you that time. And each of his ‘ghetto zoning’ strings have specific purposes. Real quick run-down:
B122 – the double hitting high. This does decent chip but most importantly is pretty active (for jumpers) and honestly for a game that’s this far into it’s lifecycle, too many people forget it’s a double hit and let go of block.
F2121 – jump on me about terminology all you want but I consider this a legitimate projectile stagger. F21 will get you a full-screen check, valuable, and catch a ton of people in start-up or trying to move if you finish the screen.
Both of these strings are unfortunately built into advancing mids so they’re not great for anything but long-distance but the reality is people get frustrated trying to get in on erron and they connect. A scudshot here, a gunstring there, mix in a little acid or rifle and by the time the monsters of the Kombat League get in on you they are missing a big chunk of their life.
The king of all these strings is 32. I don’t know how this doesn’t get more love – I guess the damage really sucks. But it’s damage in concert with all his other tools, and space control, because this gunshot hits mid which lets you buy time while your meter is empty and provides a very hard knockdown. s3 is something you can throw out without much risk either so you can play head games without committing to the shot.
I personally feel pretty naked without the gunstrings – they whittle lifebars down and most people just don’t seem to expect them. Let’s move on.
B1 and F2 are pretty forgotten buttons, even by a lot of Erron mains. They’re not hit-confirmable (F2 debatable but I can’t do it consistently) but they work great in a lot of scenarios – F2 is a great punishing tool when b2 or even f3 can’t reach, and can obviously go into LnL combos on a read.
b1 is sneakily a mediocre antiair but more importantly, if you’ve established b122 in any way, I don’t think there’s a player in the world who is looking out for b1>throw. F2 is similar but I think the word might be out a little more. Although F21 gives you a strong strike/throw mindgame to throw out there as well, it will get you big time punished if blocked, whereas b122 is safe with its pushback. Since b1 is an advancing mid with pretty good range for 13 frames, you can get a throw in pretty much whenever you want, which is pretty handy considering erron has a great throw game including a KB.
Brief interlude on throws: no one in the game has better pokes than Erron for my money, so the opportunity to throw is there a lot. If you’re playing lame, you are going to sneak in d4s and d3s on advancing opponents quite a bit, and thus get your throws. Erron’s pokes of course jail into the b222 string for anyone who decides to duck or press on hit like a complete animal.
The classic Erron stagger, 21, is still alive, I don’t care that it supposedly got nerfed. Playing by the book, the stagger is now just s2 and that is very effective as well, just not as safe as good old 21. You will still find people holding block and getting thrown either out of muscle memory or because it is just too big a risk to eat the full combo/21212 KB into okie.
Oh yeah and if you didn’t know for some reason, erron has incredible throw range, no one is safe. Forward throw puts them at full screen where they can eat scud/acid/rifle/strings and back throw leads to huge frame advantage.
Unfortunately frame advantage on knockdown is horrible in this game. If I had a gun to my head, I would say I have probably eaten more damage off trying to get wakeup pressure than anything else, just because erron has dial-in strings as his main tools. In keeping with the ‘lame’ mentality, I recommend okie pressuring with d3, d1, sweep (only -1) or for the sake of your gameplan, backdash backdash backdash.
More random things that aren’t appreciated enough:
Erron’s AAs are not stellar, but s1 will get you there on a read. This is important if you’re backing up all day, because they will jump in on you.
Errons j1 is an excellent air-to-air and will connect with the f32slide, again great on a read. Making reads against jumps is probably the toughest part of playing Erron and these are very helpful. Otherwise, there’s no real harm in trying to flawless block u2 or just holding your block and waiting for an opportunity to get a poke in.
Stagger game layers:
S2>throw will work quite often, but if they start to pick up on it, s2 into b2 is pretty funny. When b2 trades, you will almost always have more hit advantage so go ahead and throw another one out to beat their follow-up poke or jump. I’m talking about single b2 here which, yes, is an unsafe button. However, MK11 players have been conditioned to expect so many follow-ups from b2, including slide shenanigans, that b2 on its lonesome has become a stagger in my book. You can throw after it, 21, poke, or even another b2 and people will struggle to get a button out. If they do, that’s fine too – it just increases the chances they will press after the first hit of b222.
I’m not going to get into slide mix stuff because everyone knows it, it’s there if you really need it, I don’t recommend it. It is funny against sub zeros and sindels because screw em. I don’t even think it’s that cheap given what other characters can do off unsafe mixes, we just get a little reward, but it’s of course the frame advantage afterwards and your ability to do whatever you want that is the real prize.
Errons d2 is underrated but not as an AA – you get some good spacing out of it on block. A blocked d2 and a backdash puts you at a range where you have a lot of options.
Playing lame also puts you in the position of not needing f4 very much, and almost never raw slide. This is great because your opponent seeing an erron at ¾ or more screen is almost definitely looking for one of those, so they will eat more chip, acid, and bullets willingly. This of course is a great set-up for when you do pull the trigger on f4.
The f4 kb can be held forever by the way if you want to disguise your movement/blocking to not be obvious that you’re hanging onto it. This will work sometimes but generally is not a great idea.
Finally let’s talk about your best friend and mine, acid. Unless I’m playing someone throwing out crazy shit like wakeup flying kick, acid after every throw or hard knockdown is usually a good move. It gets people moving when they don’t want to be. It does decent damage. It keeps people away. It’s the game’s best finishing move and really reinforces the lame gameplan. Seeing someone ducking while in the acid as you fire off rifle shots above them is a hilarious way to end a round. It of course synergizes with the backthrow to a ridiculous degree. It’s Erron’s best move.
Thanks for reading – this is obviously not a guide and more just a random collection of thoughts and notes because I personally think Erron is the game’s most fun character – yet people seem to disrespect him and his players for playing cheap, relying on mixups, or not having a strategy. I posted this here because I like the idea of anyone else appreciating him too, in a world of lius and scorpions and a shockingly high number of kotal’s recently. Anyway, have fun out there everyone.
