Johnny Cage Demo Guide

[REO]

"I make this look easy" - Johnny Cage Demo Guide

Useful moves:

= Quick special mid jab that gives advantage on block.

+ = Sudden crouch jab with great reach.

+ = Fast low poke with below average reach.

+ = Very solid uppercut that beats lots of close jumps.

+ = Sweep with decent recovery.

+ = Special mid pop-up, great anti-air on far jump ins, very unsafe on whiff and unsafe on block - punished by fast specials in open space and jab combos in corners.

+ = Quick knee that is a special mid.

+ = Overhead pop-up that has slow start up but grants advantage on block.

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Useful strings:

= Two quick special mid jabs that cover great distance and leave you with advantage on block.

+ = Last hit is an overhead pop-up that is safe on block.

++ = Four hitting string with the first three hits being special mids and the last hit being an overhead. The last hit gives a safe jump on hit and can be linked into .

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Special Attacks:

Low Forceball = Projectile with decent recovery and has a small arch to it.

:en - Throws two low forceballs, the first one with the same arch followed by another one that travels straight and less recovery.

High Forceball = Projectile with decent recovery and has a big arch to it.

:en - Throws one high forceball followed by another forceball that travels straight.

Flipkick = Can be used as anti-air, thrown out to escape pressure, or as a wake-up move. Punishable by uppercut on block. Can be timed to go over some projectiles.

:en - More damage, good for ending combos, very unsafe on block.

Shadow Kick = Your main punishing tool, hits high, very unsafe on whiff and block.

:en - More damage, becomes a special mid, travels full screen length. Use this to punish things you normally couldn't with the standard version.

Nut Punch = Special mid that crushes highs, unsafe on block, grants a safe jump on hit. Can be used to duck under some projectiles while building meter simultaneously.

:en - Invincibility frames on start up, more damage.


Ball Buster = Counters any physical move or special thrown at you. You cannot combo into it but you can combo out of it. Cage's will also activate off of ice clone if Sub-Zero is in close distance regardless of him attacking or not.

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Combos (Courtesy of AfterDarkGaming for videos)

Mid-Screen

+, DF~~ = 30%

+, DF~+, DF~~ = 36%

+, DF~+, DF~~ = 32%

, DF~+,+, DF~,~ = 63%

Mid-Screen to Wall

+, DF~+, DF~,~ = 37%

+, DF~+, DF~,~ = 33%

Wall

+, ,,,,,, ~ = 41%

+, ,,,,,, ~ = 37%

+, DF~,,,,,, ~ = 45%

, DF~+,+, DF~,,,, ~ = 70%

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Throw Set-ups

, + - on or hit

, SJ, + - on hit

+, + - on

+, + - on or hit

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General Overview: Cage has a real good offense and is capable of rushing down with ease once he gets in. His frame traps and mix-ups are also really nasty. string is going to be your main pressure string. Throw in an occasional ending + to check people who try to duck afterwards. + is great for stopping people from crouching and can set up some light pressure or transition into ++ which can be hit confirmed into nut punch. Cage also has a monster wall game where he can land easy damage and end in nutpunch which eliminates wake up and grants you a safe jump into more pressure and mix-ups. Cage is also a great turtler and decent zoner, shadow kicks punish just about everything on whiff, his projectiles have decent recovery with archs that complement him well full-screen. Flip kick can be used to escape some pressure situations and to let others know they can't just freely rush you down. :en nut punch is also another way of letting others respect your defensive options since it has invincibility frames in the beginning but is risky so make sure you have a good read.

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Match-Ups (Coming Soon)

 

[THTB]

Good stuff, REO!

 

[DrDogg]

So... pretty much every launcher Cage has is safe or grants adv on block? Seems kinda broken...

 

[Tom Brady]

is unsafe. characters can punish it w/fast special in open space and jab combos in corners.

 

[REO]

So... pretty much every launcher Cage has is safe or grants adv on block? Seems kinda broken...

Every launcher besides B+. I would lean more on them being really good moves than broken. F+ is mostly good for frame traps, since on it's own it's very easy to block on reaction, and the last hit of :F+ is great for having people guess after . None of them are abusable on their own, just great in certain situations.

is unsafe. characters can punish it w/fast special in open space and jab combos in corners.

Nice catch, thanks.

 

[Dammit_RAB!]

Thread needs an embedded Friday video.

Other than that, good stuff.

 

[R.E.L.]

I'll try and work on getting some vids up for these combos.

 

[REO]

Thread needs an embedded Friday video.

Other than that, good stuff.

Lol, thanks.

I'll try and work on getting some vids up for these combos. Also, I disagree with the flash kick being "very" unsafe on block. You can hold block after you land and still have time to block attacks.

That would be great if you could. Only the :en flipkick is very unsafe on block, the standard version is universally punished by on block.


Also, I'm going to be updating this guide when MK:9 launches with move property changes, match-ups, and other miscellaneous info.

 

[STORMS]

REO, I front paged this btw.

Good shit, bro

 

[Dark_Rob]

<---------Proud to have been Reo's guinea pig Good shit Reo

 

[AC1984]

Very good stuff man. Cage is not my guy but still, tons of helpful stuff on how to fight against him.

 

[R.E.L.]

That would be great if you could. Only the :en flipkick is very unsafe on block, the standard version is universally punished by on block.

My bad, I misread what you had said. I agree with you that the EX version is unsafe. I retracted my statement =p

Also, I'm going to be updating this guide when MK:9 launches with move property changes, match-ups, and other miscellaneous info.

Wonder_Chef and I will be doing a LOT of MK vids. You can count on that :kratos:

 

[Mickael]

So... pretty much every launcher Cage has is safe or grants adv on block? Seems kinda broken...

Yeah. I was thinking about the same thing. ...every single one..

 

[R.E.L.]

Courtesy of After Dark Gaming:

Here are the first 3 bnb combos mid-screen (more than likely these will be kept in the real game and not patched)

#1-

#2-

#3-

 

[Zebster]

Alright, match-up question for you guys, specifically against Sub-Zero. Over at my college a lot of people play the demo, and 1 guy in particular is pretty good with Sub-Zero. I used to have no trouble facing him but recently I was teaching him some stuff with Sub-Zero and recently he got used to using the ice clones. He usually hides behind them for a bit, waiting for me to do something, at which point he'll do the slide. I stopped falling for that pretty quickly but now the real problem is the slide, I'm having a lot of trouble reacting to it. Is there any advice you guys could give me in terms of that, and is there anything in Johnny's moveset that could essentially nullify the threat of the slide? As for the ice clone, if he does resort to hiding behind it for longer, how should I go about getting around that? I used to try using the forceballs, but sub-zero would recover fast enough to be able to slide under the forceball every time.

 

[REO]

Alright, match-up question for you guys, specifically against Sub-Zero. Over at my college a lot of people play the demo, and 1 guy in particular is pretty good with Sub-Zero. I used to have no trouble facing him but recently I was teaching him some stuff with Sub-Zero and recently he got used to using the ice clones. He usually hides behind them for a bit, waiting for me to do something, at which point he'll do the slide. I stopped falling for that pretty quickly but now the real problem is the slide, I'm having a lot of trouble reacting to it. Is there any advice you guys could give me in terms of that, and is there anything in Johnny's moveset that could essentially nullify the threat of the slide? As for the ice clone, if he does resort to hiding behind it for longer, how should I go about getting around that? I used to try using the forceballs, but sub-zero would recover fast enough to be able to slide under the forceball every time.

Sub-Zero's slide is very unsafe on block, you can punish it with + and then go into Cage's BnB. Try baiting him into throwing out the slide by whiffing a few jabs and walking back and forward. You can't get too projectile happy either because Sub-Zero can read and punish with slide.

The clone is a deeper issue because there's lots of ways to deal with it but at the same time Sub-Zero has a ton of options of preventing you from doing so, it all comes down to who can read the other player better basically. But your options against clone are;

DF~ - dash forward then immediately block the ice clone. If you're thinking about doing this make sure you go for it as soon as he puts a clone out because then you'll have more time to pressure him before he can throw another clone out. If he catches on to you doing this a lot, he will come behind the ice clone and defend it with pokes and mix-ups so you might want to back off because that's a bad situation to throw yourself into.

If he's careless with clone and just throws it out whenever he can, you can sit back and wait for him to do a clone and then throw a low forceball. Most cases this will be gurantee chip if you react well. Once you get a life lead on Sub, just turtle and force him to come to you, no reason for you to approach Sub since he can't chip you from far. With Cage make sure you never get caught in a projectile trade, a good length away you can duck freeze then immediately throw a low forceball and he won't be able to trade with you here. You can also duck ice blasts with nutpunch on reaction full screen for building meter.

wall trap on clone - Once you have , Sub's wall defense with clone gets reduced dramatically. If the Sub player decides to throw out a clone while he is against the wall for protection, you can DF~ and he will be unable to avoid it. Same applies if you are against the wall and Sub throws out a clone in front of you and tries to pressure.

Hope this helps.

 

[SZSR]

I have a question, with Df44, I always make his f4 come out, how do you do the df to get around that?