salvificblood
Worst Sub-Zero Ever
Over the course of the last few days, I've been trying to come up with new ways of playing Sub-Zero against low hitbox characters. While I think I've come up with some good stuff in the lab, I am not going to claim all of this is absolutely new, because some of you may have already implemented some of this stuff into your game. I don't know, but I haven't seen anyone using it yet.
After talking with Glue, I've come to the conclusion that Sub-Zero cannot allow the usual suspects to get away from him. One of the problems I've had as a Sub player is cloning out and going back to the neutral game far too often. The clone makes Sub-Zero's pressure relatively safe (not completely) but also leaves him where he doesn't want to be against a significant protion of the cast. So, how does he get in and stay in is the question for every Sub-Zero player.
Against low hitbox characters such as, Reptile, Sektor, Mileena, Kitana, etc, and just about anybody you can think of who usually gets away from you on wakeup, I am going to say something I never thought I would, Sub has to use b121 where he can to end combos in order to create the opportunity for the sort of mixups I am going to explain below:
After b121, I think Sub's best option is to dash in and use standing 3. Standing 3 hits low hitbox characters in neutral crouch and while they're crouch blocking and it creates the obvious mixup of 3f4 (f4 is an overhead) and 3, slide. I want to point out that I know this is a very risky mixup for seemingly low reward. However, I think the reward you get is less obvious than the 11 or 13% you get for a correct read. Here's why:
The standing 3 not only leads to the low/overhead mixup, it also commits your opponent (even low hitbox characters) to stay blocking after the b121 which legitimises your option for a throw. Not only that. because standing 3 leads to f4 and the slide, you can use 3 and then step in while your opponent is trying to guard against the low and overhead option and continue pressure (which is what the setup is ultimately created to award you with: pressure against low hitbox characters).
The options off this become obvious almost immediately but here is a less obvious ones I figured out. Standing 3, on block will give you a max range d4 which can be cancelled with iceball. Give that the d4 is at max range, the iceball is as safe as it is possible to make it after a d4. It is not completely safe and can be punished by not just advancing specials but also by the normals of some characters, I believe. Kitana springs to mind immediately, but a character like Reptile can only punsih you with the dash and so the option becomes more viable. It's just a question of knowing your matchups and the person you're playing against. It creates its own guessing game as you can make them respect the d4, iceball afterwards and simply step in to pressure after d4 or clone for safety.
Let me know what you think. If there are any obvious problems, bring them up because this is just my best effort at making Sub's pressure more legitimate against low hitboxes. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, lol.
After talking with Glue, I've come to the conclusion that Sub-Zero cannot allow the usual suspects to get away from him. One of the problems I've had as a Sub player is cloning out and going back to the neutral game far too often. The clone makes Sub-Zero's pressure relatively safe (not completely) but also leaves him where he doesn't want to be against a significant protion of the cast. So, how does he get in and stay in is the question for every Sub-Zero player.
Against low hitbox characters such as, Reptile, Sektor, Mileena, Kitana, etc, and just about anybody you can think of who usually gets away from you on wakeup, I am going to say something I never thought I would, Sub has to use b121 where he can to end combos in order to create the opportunity for the sort of mixups I am going to explain below:
After b121, I think Sub's best option is to dash in and use standing 3. Standing 3 hits low hitbox characters in neutral crouch and while they're crouch blocking and it creates the obvious mixup of 3f4 (f4 is an overhead) and 3, slide. I want to point out that I know this is a very risky mixup for seemingly low reward. However, I think the reward you get is less obvious than the 11 or 13% you get for a correct read. Here's why:
The standing 3 not only leads to the low/overhead mixup, it also commits your opponent (even low hitbox characters) to stay blocking after the b121 which legitimises your option for a throw. Not only that. because standing 3 leads to f4 and the slide, you can use 3 and then step in while your opponent is trying to guard against the low and overhead option and continue pressure (which is what the setup is ultimately created to award you with: pressure against low hitbox characters).
The options off this become obvious almost immediately but here is a less obvious ones I figured out. Standing 3, on block will give you a max range d4 which can be cancelled with iceball. Give that the d4 is at max range, the iceball is as safe as it is possible to make it after a d4. It is not completely safe and can be punished by not just advancing specials but also by the normals of some characters, I believe. Kitana springs to mind immediately, but a character like Reptile can only punsih you with the dash and so the option becomes more viable. It's just a question of knowing your matchups and the person you're playing against. It creates its own guessing game as you can make them respect the d4, iceball afterwards and simply step in to pressure after d4 or clone for safety.
Let me know what you think. If there are any obvious problems, bring them up because this is just my best effort at making Sub's pressure more legitimate against low hitboxes. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, lol.
