Qwark28
Joker waiting room
I have been noticing many people not punishing Black Adam correctly and complaining that he's too safe. This thread is meant to teach people how to punish him and overcome his tools. Black Adam is a counterzoning character with effective frametraps and the best mobility in the game, but cannot open people up, having to resort to baiting out mistakes in order to get damage.
Lightning cage is a wakeup that catches those who carelessly rush Black Adam down on wakeup and punishes them for about 10% and a side switch which was designed to help him after the opponent has chased him across the screen and managed to knock him down. Lightning cage is his best wakeup but there are ways around it. One can carefully time a jump during which the Anti airing hitbox of the cage will not him them and they will effectively full combo punish him. While the cage does have a hitbox for AA, it was designed specifically to catch badly-timed jumps and will not be effective against a properly timed one which must varies depending on the knockdown but is very easy to time still. Option B is to whiff punish the cage which can be done by several characters for full combo but it's less advised to do so.
Lightning hands is a worse wakeup that is used against characters who have no meaty moves to stuff lightning hands after its invincibility frames are over. It provides pushback and a -3 virtual disadvantage. This wakeup also catches badly timed jumps and is also punishable by jumping at the right time. Many characters can whiff punish it with projectiles or fast advancing moves such as Doomsday's venom. The lightning hands only hit at sweep distance.
Black Adam's trait are the Orbs of Set that do 4% damage on hit and 1,5% chip damage on block each. They have a very fast startup and do not provide any hit or blockstun. Their main use is to allow Black Adam to cancel his normals into the Orbs of Set, effectively giving him a lot of frame advantage, so much that depending on the followup and move cancelled from, you can't backdash to avoid his next attack. They are also used to chip an opponent out or discouraging their entry lest their moves get blocked and they receive 12% from the orbs hitting them.
What is not common knowledge is that the Orbs of Set count as hits blocked, meaning you can Pushblock Black Adam's followup, even if it's a throw, and negate his trait. That means Black Adam cannot effectively use his trait in order to pressure you whenever you have a bar as you can push him away if you don't wish to get chipped or deal with his pressure. You can also clash it. While there is little mixup potential to be feared when Black Adam has his trait, his strength comes from the ability to take advantage of people trying to poke or press a normal after his +f on block moves to link his faster normal into Orbs of Set which allow him to do up to 47% from a D1 Trait cancel. Black Adam players should not be falsely lulled into a sense of security whenever they have Orbs active outside of a trait cancel, if you have a healthy amount of life left you should take advantage of any unsafe advancements or moves from Black Adam and punish them for being unsafe, even if the orbs deal 12% they do not stop you from doing a punish which may outweigh the damage received from them.
This fraudulent game was streame- fuck, wrong divekick.
Black Adam's divekick is his best strength and his number 1 antizoning tool. It is relatively fast, travels a great distance and has many setups in which it is used for a combo punish, it grants Black Adam the ability to move around the screen better than anyone. The regular version has varying - depending on where it hits and almost no hitstun after it touches you the opponent and the MB version is +9 and has deceiving hitstun.A common mistake among players is that they complain about divekick but do nothing in training mode to learn how to punish it. There are many ways to effectively punish the divekick, with the biggest characters having the easiest time doing so.
The divekick has almost no priority and a small downwards hitbox, meaning that most air normals in the game can be used on reaction to the divekick in order to hit Black Adam out of it and even punish him for it afterwards. The best normal in anticipation of the divekick is a J3 for regular characters and the D3 for the big characters like Doomsday and Bane, it will beat divekick 99% of the time. When reacting to the divekick you should quickly do a J1 and the worst case scenario is a trade if you mistimed it.
The divekick on block is punishable depending on where Black Adam hits, all characters can punish a max height divekick. All characters can punish a divekick that hits the chest. Most characters can punish a divekick to the stomach. Few characters can punish a divekick to the knees. Only Superman can punish an instant divekick below the knee. What is troubling most people is not the divekick itself, it's the amount of time they falsely hold B while Black Adam has hit them and is already descending, when a proper time to let go of B is when Black Adam is rebounding off of his opponent and is just starting to fall. Some characters like Batman and Salmon Grundy cannot punish Black Adam's divekick unless its done very sloppily and hits above the chest ( Unless Batman has trait ).
The most reliable way to punish the divekick on block is D1 to a special or a fast advancing move. Some characters like Doomsday have a very long D1 that can be linked to Venom/Up Venom which can be used to easily punish the divekick. Some characters though, have no answer to a low enough divekick, even if it is not done instantly. Those character typically tend to be able to get a frametrap or a blockstring out for free which might not be a direct punish but is something that has to be respected. One common problem for non-punishable divekicks is when Black Adam backdashes while being very little -. Do not let Black Adam backdash for free, punish him. If you notice that Adam keeps backdashing after divekick then perhaps you can set up a scenario where you don't punish the backdash and wait until a moment when you can exploit that behaviour pattern to win the game/round.
The EX divekick on block is +9 and can be followed up by
- Dash in standing 1
- B23
- EX divekick
Dashing in standing 1 is a personal trap of mine because we don't have dash frame data. Adam after the divekick gets a free dash and is left at maybe -3 max. At that point I throw out a 6f standing 1 and people usually try to attack when they see I'm dashing in and get comboed by the swift jab. Just a lil' gimmick of mine.
B23 after an EX divekick is now a 6f combo starting overhead and has to be respected if you do not want to backdash.
EX divekick will catch backdashes after the first EX divekick on block.
When you are in blockstun of a move, you can spend one meter and press Meter Burn in order to push the opponent off of you and back to a neutral position which can be punishable by some characters and can be set up for damage by characters like joker. You can do that against EX divekick and you've both spent one bar while Adam ( Who must want to get in since he's doing EX divekick ) has been kept out and might not have or want to spend more meter on another EX divekick. Taking, for example, the setups Cat found with Joker. A possible scenario would be Joker laying far teeth, then having Adam do an EX divekick, Joker would then pushblock and push Adam right onto the teeth which because of the pushblock are now unblockable. This is just one of many scenarios of what could happen.
WAKEUPS
Black Adam's best wakeups are Lightning Hands ( DF1, -3 on block ) and Lightning Cage ( DB3 -3 on block ) Both wakeups have their ups and downs and are used depending on the matchup.Lightning cage is a wakeup that catches those who carelessly rush Black Adam down on wakeup and punishes them for about 10% and a side switch which was designed to help him after the opponent has chased him across the screen and managed to knock him down. Lightning cage is his best wakeup but there are ways around it. One can carefully time a jump during which the Anti airing hitbox of the cage will not him them and they will effectively full combo punish him. While the cage does have a hitbox for AA, it was designed specifically to catch badly-timed jumps and will not be effective against a properly timed one which must varies depending on the knockdown but is very easy to time still. Option B is to whiff punish the cage which can be done by several characters for full combo but it's less advised to do so.
Lightning hands is a worse wakeup that is used against characters who have no meaty moves to stuff lightning hands after its invincibility frames are over. It provides pushback and a -3 virtual disadvantage. This wakeup also catches badly timed jumps and is also punishable by jumping at the right time. Many characters can whiff punish it with projectiles or fast advancing moves such as Doomsday's venom. The lightning hands only hit at sweep distance.
Trait
Black Adam's trait are the Orbs of Set that do 4% damage on hit and 1,5% chip damage on block each. They have a very fast startup and do not provide any hit or blockstun. Their main use is to allow Black Adam to cancel his normals into the Orbs of Set, effectively giving him a lot of frame advantage, so much that depending on the followup and move cancelled from, you can't backdash to avoid his next attack. They are also used to chip an opponent out or discouraging their entry lest their moves get blocked and they receive 12% from the orbs hitting them.
What is not common knowledge is that the Orbs of Set count as hits blocked, meaning you can Pushblock Black Adam's followup, even if it's a throw, and negate his trait. That means Black Adam cannot effectively use his trait in order to pressure you whenever you have a bar as you can push him away if you don't wish to get chipped or deal with his pressure. You can also clash it. While there is little mixup potential to be feared when Black Adam has his trait, his strength comes from the ability to take advantage of people trying to poke or press a normal after his +f on block moves to link his faster normal into Orbs of Set which allow him to do up to 47% from a D1 Trait cancel. Black Adam players should not be falsely lulled into a sense of security whenever they have Orbs active outside of a trait cancel, if you have a healthy amount of life left you should take advantage of any unsafe advancements or moves from Black Adam and punish them for being unsafe, even if the orbs deal 12% they do not stop you from doing a punish which may outweigh the damage received from them.
DIVEKICK
This fraudulent game was streame- fuck, wrong divekick.
Black Adam's divekick is his best strength and his number 1 antizoning tool. It is relatively fast, travels a great distance and has many setups in which it is used for a combo punish, it grants Black Adam the ability to move around the screen better than anyone. The regular version has varying - depending on where it hits and almost no hitstun after it touches you the opponent and the MB version is +9 and has deceiving hitstun.A common mistake among players is that they complain about divekick but do nothing in training mode to learn how to punish it. There are many ways to effectively punish the divekick, with the biggest characters having the easiest time doing so.
The divekick has almost no priority and a small downwards hitbox, meaning that most air normals in the game can be used on reaction to the divekick in order to hit Black Adam out of it and even punish him for it afterwards. The best normal in anticipation of the divekick is a J3 for regular characters and the D3 for the big characters like Doomsday and Bane, it will beat divekick 99% of the time. When reacting to the divekick you should quickly do a J1 and the worst case scenario is a trade if you mistimed it.
The divekick on block is punishable depending on where Black Adam hits, all characters can punish a max height divekick. All characters can punish a divekick that hits the chest. Most characters can punish a divekick to the stomach. Few characters can punish a divekick to the knees. Only Superman can punish an instant divekick below the knee. What is troubling most people is not the divekick itself, it's the amount of time they falsely hold B while Black Adam has hit them and is already descending, when a proper time to let go of B is when Black Adam is rebounding off of his opponent and is just starting to fall. Some characters like Batman and Salmon Grundy cannot punish Black Adam's divekick unless its done very sloppily and hits above the chest ( Unless Batman has trait ).
The most reliable way to punish the divekick on block is D1 to a special or a fast advancing move. Some characters like Doomsday have a very long D1 that can be linked to Venom/Up Venom which can be used to easily punish the divekick. Some characters though, have no answer to a low enough divekick, even if it is not done instantly. Those character typically tend to be able to get a frametrap or a blockstring out for free which might not be a direct punish but is something that has to be respected. One common problem for non-punishable divekicks is when Black Adam backdashes while being very little -. Do not let Black Adam backdash for free, punish him. If you notice that Adam keeps backdashing after divekick then perhaps you can set up a scenario where you don't punish the backdash and wait until a moment when you can exploit that behaviour pattern to win the game/round.
The EX divekick on block is +9 and can be followed up by
- Dash in standing 1
- B23
- EX divekick
Dashing in standing 1 is a personal trap of mine because we don't have dash frame data. Adam after the divekick gets a free dash and is left at maybe -3 max. At that point I throw out a 6f standing 1 and people usually try to attack when they see I'm dashing in and get comboed by the swift jab. Just a lil' gimmick of mine.
B23 after an EX divekick is now a 6f combo starting overhead and has to be respected if you do not want to backdash.
EX divekick will catch backdashes after the first EX divekick on block.
When you are in blockstun of a move, you can spend one meter and press Meter Burn in order to push the opponent off of you and back to a neutral position which can be punishable by some characters and can be set up for damage by characters like joker. You can do that against EX divekick and you've both spent one bar while Adam ( Who must want to get in since he's doing EX divekick ) has been kept out and might not have or want to spend more meter on another EX divekick. Taking, for example, the setups Cat found with Joker. A possible scenario would be Joker laying far teeth, then having Adam do an EX divekick, Joker would then pushblock and push Adam right onto the teeth which because of the pushblock are now unblockable. This is just one of many scenarios of what could happen.
B23
This 15f advancing overhead string is Black Adam's best string overall. It is +3 on block and a combo starter on hit, it's primary use is to condition your opponent to respect your options and the whole idea behind a string such as this is to give Adam some space, due to either D1 ~ lightning hands or the opponent backdashing. I rarely, if ever, see people backdashing the followup of this string. On block you're condemned to stay blocking because Adam can do D1 ~ Trait cancel to frametrap you further on block or get a 47% combo on hit. However, you can avoid this entirely by backdashing. The only tool Black Adam has that can punish your backdashes is MB Divekick. Lightning hands and Black magic are also punishers but they're far too slow or - on block respectively. Making Adam respect the fact that you can backdash any B23 followups is crucial, B23 is not a guaranteed frametrap in this game. After you have established your options you can make Adam second guess his followups and instead of him having full control, there's now a mixup between options you can abuse, since instant divekick is over 20 frames.
To be updated if people are having problems with anything else, enjoy.
I hope that after these things become common knowledge, Black Adam players will be pushed to find new answers and tech 
