Hellbringer
1 2 3 drink
Lol 1-9
Bloodgod and sungod are the worst vs GM sub; at high level it's just tear your hair out bad. A decent GM sub will inch you into the corner bit by bit with clone, and once you're there you're for sure not coming out easy, totem is too unsafe to use, you can't reversal and basically have to read when he's going to attack you and which mixup he's going to use, a wrong read means you'll eat a 50+% combo. Wargod isn't amazing in the matchup but never underestimate the power of the paddle. The threat of an EX overhead keeps the matchup somewhat honest, without it, a decent GM sub can just run circles round kotal.
How many times has any GM hit that clone crush combo in an actual match? It is memetier. Pretty much Blood God 90% combo tier. And totem too unsafe? What the fuck world are you living in?
It's not hitting them that's difficult. It's having the clone perfectly ready and actually getting that corner hit and confirming the hit for the shatter combo. Because if you fuck up any part of that you get nothing, and even less of nothing if BG has Obsidian down. It's pretty much equivalent to a Blood God damage totem + parry corner combo. Since you can frame trap after 114~totem and then parry it's not out of the realm of possibility. It's still not something to bank your hopes and dreams on. Especially when GM's "50/50" has a fairly reactable overhead in its equation.
I often like to let players sit in a corner and react to what they might do, typically they'll jump and I'll respond with b2. The totem would likely come out fast enough vs. me personally.
I'm not saying do a totem while in the corner. Especially when Sub's mixup is reactable outside of run in throws. GM's can slide you (at least) on reaction for pretty much anything you do while you're in their zone. Just have patience and weather the storm while in the corner. This isn't even BG specific, it's all character specific.
A high/low that is reactable and if you block either option and then get hit by the next one might fuck up the proper timing of the clone shatter combo. It's not unviable but I rarely ever see it actually happen in a high level GM match against quality opponents.
I definitely want to check out that stream. Are you Aok Ryan on twitch? I wish Tom Brady would weigh in and help out the Kotals
Yea I know, he's been AFK for awhile. I watched his stream a few times though and he was beating up on Kotal actually lol and breaking down Kotals jip1 vs clone. He is actually very knowledgeable and I learned a lot even though he was being anti-Kotal that day.
I'm talking about actual known tournament level GM players offline. Not shitty online players in 2 second lag. I've played Brady's GM offline in a long set. Against Brady I had as much success with BG as WG. Even after Brady snidely remarked that Kotal is fucked in any variation against GM. It might have been a while ago, but it's still more applicable than online matches against randoms. And do you know how many times I was hit with a shatter combo in that FTwhatever? 0.
Well for starters, you can't react to Sub's overhead online. And that's half the battle. NJK combo enders still ends in clone and an opportunity for clone shatter combos. Feel free to show me where that combo is being regularly hit offline in tournaments and I will back down.
A real concrete 50/50 has both options that are unreactable. Like Ermac f4/b3. Against a Sub who is about to mix you up you duck block and then visually see b2 and block it standing. And if no clone is there to stop you that means Blood God is about to run a train on him to the tune of at least 46%.
It depends on how well he spaced the b2. If he's far forward in the clone then f1 will still work. If he isn't then you have to use b1 combos to be safe. Which is 46% vs. 34% with one bar each (just the combos I feel 100% comfortable to always hit).
It's the fact that it's i17 and has a HUGE sweeping arm motion. i17 is really difficult to react to without a big tip-off, but I think b2 has big enough of a tip off. Still, it's i17 so it's still going to hit from time to time especially in random stray hits in neutral since i17 isn't THAT slow. But when you're expecting the 50/50 it's definitely one of the easier 50/50s to see. EDIT: If I remember right it hits on i18 so that gives you a bit more time to react.
I think if King polished up his BG it'd be pretty good. Picking him against Lao is not terrible, especially since BG gets like a full bar of meter for being thrown when Obsidian is down lol. I still don't think that's the optimal variation against him even with that weird pseudo-glitch.
