Finally! A jax variation that can't be stopped!

[Trevor]

Or perhaps it can indeed be stopped, but it's full as hell to use!

I know that Jax hardly gets any tournament play due to how much his 3 original variations sucked at high levels. The reason why they sucked is that they all had ways of being fuzzied and punished, so it was very hard for Jax to get in successfully without too much effort.
This variation (quad grab, enhanced outranked, ripped) makes it impossible for people to have a defensive answer to everything. Obviously, this does not make Jax the best character in the game by any means because all top tier characters have, and always had the mixup quality strength that Jax used to lack.

After reaching god rank in the last KL, I realized that aside from specific matchup knowledge, I was doing way better thanks to the fact that demigod, god and elder god players no longer felt like they had perfect defense against Jax. As long as you can keep your mixup game strong, people will get caught and they will get opened up.

The main strengths of this variation:

-His B3 allows him to become a Johnny Cage of sorts that can fish for huge damage with a good shimmy. B3 has insane reach, so much that you can actually do it at the start of a match and it reaches the opponent. I catch people with this move in 99.9% of my ranked fights.

-His enhanced outranked mixed with quad grab allows him to tick from the third and fifth hits. The mixups here are just phenomenal and you can always mess with their heads by ending the string after the 4th hit and backing up a bit.

-When it comes to the ticks, people could just prefer to eat the overhead if they fear the quad grab, but you can always go for a non-amplified stiff arm if you read that they will neutral duck.

-Ripped allows for 300+ damage with one bar in most situations.

-People fear the B3 because it leads to a guaranteed launch if Jax has one bar, but they also fear the charged B2 for the KB launcher and they have a hard time recognizing what you will do when you back up and do either B3 or B2. This has been a HUGE part of my game plan and it works all the time.

-People who love to duck when Jax has his FB can get caught by surprise if you do a ripped at maximum range. You can always do a non-amplified ripped to avoid the neutral duck punish. If the non-amplified ripped is blocked, you are safe.
So, in a nutshell, your opponent is forced to make a read in many situations, instead of option selecting their way out of a situation, which is what made Jax suck before customs came out.

-His quad grab krushing blow is very much doable online even with the strict timing as long as there are at least 4 bars to the connection with the opponent. I have a 90% success rate when I try it out.

With that said, here are some ranked matches with grand masters, demi gods, and gods that showcase all of the things I mentioned earlier.

 

[GLoRToR]

Jade's d4 says hi

 

[DoDaMuSiC]

Ngl, most people in that video has absolutely no clue on how to fight jax, none of them were interrupting gaps, punishing unsafe stuff and not getting their turn back when they should.
That variation is pretty good on paper, but when playing against people who knows what is going on then jax becomes really easy to beat.
Also kl isn’t the best place to find good opponents nowadays.

 

[deathstroke187]

that dude staggers with -17, im out.

 

[Trevor]

Lol guys, I completely get that it's always a trigger for you pro or very advanced players to see someone not punish anything beyond -8. I also know that this happened many times in the set, but these are all players that reach high levels in KL, which is a reminder of how this game allows crappy players to be carried by gimmicks and setplay strategies that work very well in MK11.

Me being what I would call a "casual enthusiast" player, I guess I just find Jax and Rambo to be so cool and to be two of the only few fun characters to play in this game, I would hope that they would have a good chance at being worth leanring at top levels. I did play several elder gods that punished me clean for many mistakes, but I do think the main strenghts I mentioned above are all valid.

Either way this is just fun for me, I play video games to unwind, not to become the next sonicfox. With that said, I tend to forget that the top players will look into all the missed punishes, which is what truly separates the top from the rest.

It sucks that no one plays jax in tournaments. I will stick to Jax and Rambo even if they suck at top levels because the fun factor is what it's all about for me. I'm sure people who are hoping to get paid for playing MK11 would never bother learning Jax or Rambo and I can see the validity of that point no doubt.

BTW I have finally found a Jax player to watch. His name is Uncrowned Jax and that guy is insane with Grinnin Barret, probably the only truly skilled jax I have seen since Gunshow.

 

[DoDaMuSiC]

Lol guys, I completely get that it's always a trigger for you pro or very advanced players to see someone not punish anything beyond -8. I also know that this happened many times in the set, but these are all players that reach high levels in KL, which is a reminder of how this game allows crappy players to be carried by gimmicks and setplay strategies that work very well in MK11.

Me being what I would call a "casual enthusiast" player, I guess I just find Jax and Rambo to be so cool and to be two of the only few fun characters to play in this game, I would hope that they would have a good chance at being worth leanring at top levels. I did play several elder gods that punished me clean for many mistakes, but I do think the main strenghts I mentioned above are all valid.

Either way this is just fun for me, I play video games to unwind, not to become the next sonicfox. With that said, I tend to forget that the top players will look into all the missed punishes, which is what truly separates the top from the rest.

It sucks that no one plays jax in tournaments. I will stick to Jax and Rambo even if they suck at top levels because the fun factor is what it's all about for me. I'm sure people who are hoping to get paid for playing MK11 would never bother learning Jax or Rambo and I can see the validity of that point no doubt.

BTW I have finally found a Jax player to watch. His name is Uncrowned Jax and that guy is insane with Grinnin Barret, probably the only truly skilled jax I have seen since Gunshow.

Im totally not shitting at you btw, its just that when someone makes a thread claiming to have a variation that “cant be stopped” people come in with expectations and then looking at your video they be disappointed (at least i did)
Im far from being a top player myself, but like i mentioned before, KL isn’t the best place to measure skill even if they are elder god or apprentice. You can have someone like sonicfox who is on the lowest ranking because they played only one set in the whole season, and then have little timmy who is on elder god because he played over 500 games a season.
And there’s nothing wrong in playing who you like and having fun with them (hell my main is bottom 10 in everyone’s tier list and she’s the only character in the game i have fun with and keeps me playing the game)

 

[Trevor]

Im totally not ****ting at you btw, its just that when someone makes a thread claiming to have a variation that “cant be stopped” people come in with expectations and then looking at your video they be disappointed (at least i did)
Im far from being a top player myself, but like i mentioned before, KL isn’t the best place to measure skill even if they are elder god or apprentice. You can have someone like sonicfox who is on the lowest ranking because they played only one set in the whole season, and then have little timmy who is on elder god because he played over 500 games a season.
And there’s nothing wrong in playing who you like and having fun with them (hell my main is bottom 10 in everyone’s tier list and she’s the only character in the game i have fun with and keeps me playing the game)

Out of the things I mentioned in the list, which do you think are not valid? I want to fine tune my jax to enjoy the game even more. Thanks for the feedback BTW.

 

[supahotbean]

Jade's d4 says hi

Stiff arm or the over head launcher stops that

 

[DoDaMuSiC]

Out of the things I mentioned in the list, which do you think are not valid? I want to fine tune my jax to enjoy the game even more. Thanks for the feedback BTW.

Well i dont play Jax so im not the best person to give advices, but regarding your list

-His B3 allows him to become a Johnny Cage of sorts that can fish for huge damage with a good shimmy. B3 has insane reach, so much that you can actually do it at the start of a match and it reaches the opponent. I catch people with this move in 99.9% of my ranked fights.

B3 into ripped has a gap of around 17-18f, so pretty much anything in the game can interrupt that, b3 alone is unsafe, b3 string is unsafe, and anything else you cancels it are unsafe outside of heat missile.

-His enhanced outranked mixed with quad grab allows him to tick from the third and fifth hits. The mixups here are just phenomenal and you can always mess with their heads by ending the string after the 4th hit and backing up a bit.

This right here is similar to nightwolfs tick grab on his f212 string, people would just rather get hit by the full string and be knocked down than getting hit by the grab kb, and the string only connects with the launcher on the 4th hit, which means you have almost no time to hit confirm it, which means that if you want a combo you have to commit to it preemptively which if i block all the hits i can just react to it and interrupt that gap. The risk/reward on that is always on the opponent’s favor, especially when the grab kb was already spent, the opponent is guessing against 2 options that will do little damage to him if he chooses wrong, and will give him a full combo punish if he guesses right.

When it comes to the ticks, people could just prefer to eat the overhead if they fear the quad grab, but you can always go for a non-amplified stiff arm if you read that they will neutral duck.

All of that are unsafe options, last hit of the string are either a high which can be neutral ducked, overhead is -11 unsafe, and stiff arm is unsafe as well. Just like above, the risk/reward isn’t on Jax’ favor.

People fear the B3 because it leads to a guaranteed launch if Jax has one bar, but they also fear the charged B2 for the KB launcher and they have a hard time recognizing what you will do when you back up and do either B3 or B2. This has been a HUGE part of my game plan and it works all the time.

Idk what you mean by that, but b2 and b3 animations’ are completely different, if you do a fully charged b2, the opponent have plenty of time to react to it and just block overhead.

People who love to duck when Jax has his FB can get caught by surprise if you do a ripped at maximum range. You can always do a non-amplified ripped to avoid the neutral duck punish. If the non-amplified ripped is blocked, you are safe.

Ripped is 29f of startup, if you are ducking afraid of the fb, you have plenty of time to react to the animation and just block it.


Like i mentioned before, when you list all those little things, in the paper they look strong af, but when you breakdown all of them in the lab, most of them are just gimmicks that works against people who dont know the mu

 

[Trevor]

Thanks for taking the time man. I will consider those things from now on.

 

[Jynks]

Lol guys, I completely get that it's always a trigger for you pro or very advanced players to see someone not punish anything beyond -8.

don't worry... most of the people that comment are not "pros" in any sense of the word and talk a big game but are fucking scrubs and they know it. Just as something says "x" on paper they think they can make calls and sound like they are top shit.. but they demonstrate nothing and have no proof.. not even video of them of any kind. I wouldn't take some random wana be's BS seriously. Challenge them to a fight.. if they turn you down.. then they are not worth listening to.

 

[DoDaMuSiC]

don't worry... most of the people that comment are not "pros" in any sense of the word and talk a big game but are *ing scrubs and they know it. Just as something says "x" on paper they think they can make calls and sound like they are top *.. but they demonstrate nothing and have no proof.. not even video of them of any kind. I wouldn't take some random wana be's BS seriously. Challenge them to a fight.. if they turn you down.. then they are not worth listening to.

If you have something to say to me or wanna call me something, next time just @ me.
Idk what the point of your comment is, i said myself that im not a pro or anything like that but i do understand how the game works. He posted stuff and i disagreed and listed options to beat out his points, he thanked me for having a different view on his gameplay and we both moved on.
You coming out of nowhere trying to stir shlt up in something that doesnt concern you at all makes no fucking sense.
Next time be a grown up and tag me, or better yet, "challenge" me and see if im a "fucking scrub"

 

[Marlow]

I think there's a healthy balance to be found. On the one hand, it's good to study frame data and be aware of how negative moves are, gaps, and everything else. On the other hand, sometimes it pays to just try stuff out online and see how it works in a real match. Ultimately it's your opponent that decides how punishable something is, not the frame data.

If your current strategy with Jax is working, that's great. Just be ready to change things up if/when you start finding opponents that know how to exploit the weaknesses in the game plan that @DoDaMuSiC helpfully pointed out.

 

[Trevor]

If your current strategy with Jax is working, that's great. Just be ready to change things up if/when you start finding opponents that know how to exploit the weaknesses in the game plan that @DoDaMuSiC helpfully pointed out.

That is 100% correct Marlow. I'm quite casual compared to many players at god and elder god ranks. I play an average of 1 or 2 hours every other day, but as long as my skills allow me to win more than I lose, I'm investing that leisure time in entertaining myself and that is what I do it for. Same goes for my Youtube channel. As you said, once I go a bit higher on the skill ladder in terms of opponents, I will need to avoid certain issues and mistakes.

 

[Trevor]

As far as the challenging to a fight thing. Come on fellas lol, this is a video game. Real life is hard enough to be stressing over BS like this. I can say I am a way better SSF2T player than I am an mk11 player, but one thing I learned is that top level play in any game is all about who puts more hours into it and there will always be someone else who puts more hours into it than you do, specially if you are a family man (guile pun intended)

The whole "I am better than you" thing in video games is too hard to judge, because it takes 2 people of equal knowledge to determine who makes better use of that knowledge. It's all a big pissing contest if you play expecting to be the best against everyone. Never gona happen.

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

As far as the challenging to a fight thing. Come on fellas lol, this is a video game. Real life is hard enough to be stressing over BS like this. I can say I am a way better SSF2T player than I am an mk11 player, but one thing I learned is that top level play in any game is all about who puts more hours into it and there will always be someone else who puts more hours into it than you do, specially if you are a family man (guile pun intended)

The whole "I am better than you" thing in video games is too hard to judge, because it takes 2 people of equal knowledge to determine who makes better use of that knowledge. It's all a big pissing contest if you play expecting to be the best against everyone. Never gona happen.

Hey man, I decided to join the conversation because I saw you mention SSF2T, which makes both of us from the same era.

I have to disagree with you on the "the more hours, the better player" reference. Its a simple logic here; its not about how much you play, but how, and with who. That was the principle during the Arcade days, and the same principle applies here, and this is not theory FGC I heard.

Now your last statement, is very smart, and rarely people are aware of it. In order to get a clear picture, on who is better as a player, it requires that both players know the MU inside out, then it is truly player vs player.

Now for the last part of your last statement, to be "best against everyone" its also false assumption. Its possible, but within certain frame of time, and game. One thing must be said here, in my perception a best/strongest is a tittle given to individual, whos capable of winning every tournament, every challenge that is thrown at him. Its almost like in some sports, you can have champion, unbeatable in certain time frame, with all possible tittles during X time - more less like that.

 

[eexcaliburr]

So, does Jax still alive and which abilities are optimal?

 

[Nessup12345]

Maaan, you are so good at mashing on block hit minus plus wiff… I wish I had such courage and skill to press them buttons so fast( Just to clarify, I am not sarcastic or something.