Question For my own sake, i need a defense against Cyrax

[Eddy Wang]

That's right, the Cyrax Crisis has reached Angola, and BM is delivering by defeating top tiers 3-0 with "a net and a dream" when he has meter, and command grab when he is meterless.

Can't fall into net while he has meter or die.
Can't let him build meter or i die.
Fall in command grab and its endless safe jumps, and i can tell you, he likes that.

I need some explanations on how do defend myself against the command grab, that shit is annoying.

Also he found a way to lock characters on the screen while he cover space, basically, he throws a bomb in front of him, jumps at it, and throws it again, and he keep doing this until he closes you in the corner, if you try to punish him at the moment he enters the blast radius, your character is taking a huge risk of being launched for a combo.

He swaps that with air grab into 21 blockstrings, with is annonying with that +26 on hit D4 cyrax has.

You can even read that and try to anticipate the bomb toss, he punish with a net and the game is over.


I need some helps here to deal up with Cyrax

 

[smokey]

You can mash 1 while blocking to tech command grabs, and block, the teching window is bigger for command grab than it is for regular grabs.

PND_Mustard confirmed this for me like 3 nights ago in person when i asked something like "why are american players free to command grab that shits easy to tech"

 

[Vagrant]

This is an interesting MU.

 

[NariTuba]

I need some explanations on how do defend myself against the command grab, that shit is annoying.

Best bet is to try to make a read and tech, look for his pattern. If he's mixing all his 0 on block stuff with command grab properly its very difficult to escape, tho most people only use a couple of variations.

Also he found a way to lock characters on the screen while he cover space, basically, he throws a bomb in front of him, jumps at it, and throws it again, and he keep doing this until he closes you in the corner, if you try to punish him at the moment he enters the blast radius, your character is taking a huge risk of being launched for a combo.

He swaps that with air grab into 21 blockstrings, with is annonying with that +26 on hit D4 cyrax has.

You can even read that and try to anticipate the bomb toss, he punish with a net and the game is over.

Use your armor to crush ALL bombs and nets from half screen and further. If he keeps jumping at the bomb time your armor to eat the explosion and upslash. When you have meter he cant zone at all, check him with daggers, he has to come to you.

Put him in a blockstring as he lands from anti air throw, if you start reacting fast enought and/or make a read on it you can even combo punish AND you can hit him standing with a high string (prolly 114)

NEVER jump back, that goes for the whole cast vs cyrax, it gets you caught in a net. You walk/dash around the bombs, or neutral jump.

Stay away from his d4 range and punish d4s with slides on whiff.

 

[Eddy Wang]

Best bet is to try to make a read and tech, look for his pattern. If he's mixing all his 0 on block stuff with command grab properly its very difficult to escape, tho most people only use a couple of variations.



Use your armor to crush ALL bombs and nets from half screen and further. If he keeps jumping at the bomb time your armor to eat the explosion and upslash. When you have meter he cant zone at all, check him with daggers, he has to come to you.

Put him in a blockstring as he lands from anti air throw, if you start reacting fast enought and/or make a read on it you can even combo punish AND you can hit him standing with a high string (prolly 114)

NEVER jump back, that goes for the whole cast vs cyrax, it gets you caught in a net. You walk/dash around the bombs, or neutral jump.

Stay away from his d4 range and punish d4s with slides on whiff.

I will give it a try, thanks for the input.

 

[Rokinlobster]

I really have not played many Skarlets, but the one thing I remember really being tough for Cyrax is armored dash through nets. F212 1+2 pressure is a huge asset. Not only are you bulding meter for your self but you are taking Cyraxs life down with out building him much meter.

The biggest mistake I see people make fighting Cyrax is using breakers in bad spots. The vast majority of the time he will only get his huge damage off of a grounded net. If Cyrax has no meter DO NOT break anything unless the match depends on it. When Cyrax does have meter, wait until he spends it on enhanced bomb to break. Learn what his breaker traps look like (big hint is a naked ex bomb while you are netted)

Daggers can work well, but the trade with net is not worth it.

Tl;dr, keep him in block pressure. Use armor liberally. Play the match based on meter, not on health.

 

[ShadowBeatz]

Abuse the fact that Cyrax doesn't have any armor as well

(Well, okay, he's got armor on EX-Anti Air.... but I kinda feel like if they're gonna spend a bar on that, it works in your favor anyway)

 

[MashPotatoTower]

Cyrax is free

 

[Laos_boy]

Instant air dagger for better recovery before the net.

 

[SatsuiYesHadou]

Kabal is the only defense!!!!

 

[LEGEND]

Kabal is the only defense!!!!

lbsh, you dont even like kabal

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

Ha, i've been up to this MU since i started play Skarlet ;-) and in fact at this moment my only offline sparing partner is Cyrax masochist that wont let any opportunity pass by. To win a match there is room only for one maybe two mistakes in a round. I am bad at IAD but this seems like decent tool to keep him away as it is really important while Skarlet is out of meter. I go for Instant teleport as well when Skarlet is close to one bar.
To bo honest even when Cyrax has no meter he can perform after a net Anti-Breaker combo and land 45%+. Good Cyrax is a nightmare!

I will bring soon some recored matches in for this purpose.
My strategy is:
Gain first hit
zone/play footsie from 3/4/full screen
Seek opportunity to dash in for upslash or knock down with slide and bait/punish wakeup - start pressure
Throwing Air daggers and confirming it into a combo forces Cyrax to stay grounded or teleport - and that is what You want.
Blood Balls are not worth it - the benefit vs risk is to high (Good only for jump reeds).

Another things I recently started to do (am still testing it) is throwing a ex sais from jump in distance or closer and dash in - it opens a pressure opportunity though it is risky as well but if You reed a bomb coming or 12 tempt this works well.

 

[Obs_SmSwag]

Abuse the fact that Cyrax doesn't have any armor as well

(Well, okay, he's got armor on EX-Anti Air.... but I kinda feel like if they're gonna spend a bar on that, it works in your favor anyway)

D1 ex-ragdoll isn't armored (I don't think), but it sure as hell does work like it.

Can't Skarlett zone him with IAD's? Also, Cyrax has a juicy ass hitbox, abuse that. Wait for down 4s and counterpoke, save your meter! Try that d1 mashing while blocking thing smokey was talking about for command grabs. Don't take any unnecessary risks.

 

[Saltea Moonspell]

D1-ex Ragdoll isnt armored. Its not really wise to poke out. Unless you can read mashing wont do the thing as far as I know.
The 21, 12 mix-up tagged along with command grab is hell. The safest way is to armor out in between those strings as Cyrax can easily hit confirm those strings into a net and finish her off. Skarlet can zone with IAD but the hit box on daggers is still small and wont work as good as kabals Gas Blast in this case - it wont keep him away for long.

 

[Deyrax]

Counter-pick with Sheeva

 

[SatsuiYesHadou]

lbsh, you dont even like kabal

I don't but he completes me

 

[PND_Mustard]

i dont know the Skarlet MU too well, but a critical cyrax weakness is his lack of mid hitting normals, you can poke out of pretty much all of his most useful up close normals, and he's -2 after ragdoll, so you're guaranteed your d1 before his every time if you time it right.

command grab has a higher window to tech than normal throws, and your low pokes beat most of his normals and will also beat his command grab. also keep in mind you can tech the grab even if you're in a Net, you dont have to break it to escape it, so when you're in net there is absolutely no reason whatsoever you shouldn't be constantly tapping 1 incase a command grab comes. (unless right as you break free he's obviously going for a reset predicting your throw tech, but they likely won't do this until you break the grab enough times for them to realise you know it's not guaranteed.)

 

[SquirtMcGirt]

Cyrax can easily hit confirm those strings into a net and finish her off.

This sounds sexual, and violent... Keep talking to me...

 

[Eddy Wang]

Thanks for the Input guys, the match feels more equilibrated to my side now that i'm more rounded to Cyrax, thanks.
From my own exp:

Spamming protective bombs are a bad idea, i was able to time a ex dash up slash trough it an drag cyrax and skarlet away from the explosion with a full combo.
Didn't commit myself to full rushdown, instead i played more defensive and started to see why i was being blown up on first place, he was jumping out of my pressure gaps and punish it with jips, the AA worked fine even when i didn't expected a jump in.
The command grab helped, with the time i was able to recognize some of his patterns and teched some of them

He was trying to poke right after my slide ends afterwards, i have an history with this, and could handle it.
then he switched to use f0xys strategy, string because she is negative, i could armor sometimes, and other i would just trade with a d3, which is faster and skarlet is crouched when she uses.

There where times i was simply tele before he recovers from the bomb or nets to prevent him to use it too much.

more on his bomb defensive traps:
close bomb, jump inside the explosion: stay back to close the screen and Close the bomb blast radius, so when he jumped he would stay out of the blast radius, now i can use 1~upslash or F4~upslash without taking the damage
Close bomb, String inside the explosion (possibly to prevent me to get in): Blood Ball
Close bomb, Net: Armor
Mid bomb (possibly to make me move in and jump), Jump in, or AA Grab or Net: I Consider the maximum of possibilities of a setup, it helps to punish expected stuff on reaction, anyway i was able to punish accordingly, F4~rd~us if he jumps, blockstring if he AA grab, or armor trough if he nets.

Edit: iaD were great, to stop the momentum of bomb+ net spamming, +25 on hit to prevent cyrax to fill up the screen with bombs all the time, opportunity to get in. I'm not a iaD god, but i can do when i need them, even if i don't spamm it, i think this is one of the things that is helping me trough the MUs

It minimized the risks by a ton, but still, every time i got caught on net... well, lets say sometimes it was worth saving for the next round, and others breaking was a good choice, but he depended much of jump ins to play against me, since he was expecting a more committed offensive Skarlet, so i change the standards up a bit and AA every possible jump he pulled off.

 

[FCP/EMP SCAR]

I don't but he completes me

yes the darkside consumes thee!!