RollTide8569
Apprentice
Johnny Cage
Cage fights with Kai for the title of the worst MK4 character. The only thing that gaves Cage his little advantage are his ability to Juggle with his wpn, the speed of the Shadow Kick and his easy Inf. The damage in his combos is normal and he cannot do much to maximize them. After blocking an special and going in punishment mode, there is too little he can do too. Still he has some neat strats and wakeups here and there.
Cage have those weird HP starters that like Fujin, Quan, Sonya and Kai, helps him to make easy ground infs. Otherwise, his normal attacks arsenal is the same as everybody. Normal Sweep and weak RH. Nice uppercutt.
The Shadow Kick is Cage best move and actually the only useful move in his arsenal. Its excellent to finish long combos and is the most damaging special at the end of them. Its good to punish whiffed or missed attacks but it cannot be used to punished blocked moves. Even weapon attacks. For some reason players tend to crouch too much when they are close to Cage to catch a whiff Shadow kick but when they are far they tend to run and they can be catched by one. it has no hit or time limit and to avoid it you must simply crouch or block. A good wake up with the Shadow Kick could be after LK throw, because its one of those situations where the opponent cant just duck but should hold Block. Dont do it more than twice in the whole match because you become predictable. I've seen people talk about double Shadow Kick can be done in juggles but i was never be able to do it, so i guess they just talk about blockable shits lol.
Both fireballs are slow and are a bit useless because of this. Sure you can catch some jumping foes from afar with the high ones but most high level players will stay close to you most of the time. They have little startup and sometimes they can poke certain attacks but this is not a good strat. They do very little damage when used in a combo and often you can get hit through the fireballs even if they catch the opponent. Dont spam them unless you are from full screen distance and your opponent does not use character with long distance special move (fujin's lift, scorpion teleport punch, jarek ground pound and etc).
Shadow upercutt is useless. Is slow and has shitty range. Does good damage but is hard to connect after long combos and its not worth. As an aa isnt that good because of its start up. It looks like it hits twice, but the only air attacks you could counter with it are the Jump HK and Jump HP.You cant use it against crossovers.
His Nut Punch is very fast in combos or out of them. It can be used as a surprise move up close but if blocked can be punished. Its useless in long Juggles. Best option is to do it at the end of his inf and even so there are better options. it really doesnt have other uses. Sometimes even when its blocked the opponent will start to Knee combo you but somehow the Knee will whiff and you would be able to get another fast free Nut Punch, this situation is completely random and there is no way to predict it so dont count on it.
His weapon is good but hard to use. it has fast swipes like standing Hp wich has very long range. B + HP is a juggling attack wich can be repeated for more damage. Its similar to Jareks hp but with lesser reach. B + Lp is an spinning attack wich can be used in Juggles and followed by another B + Lp if in the corner, there is also an infinite using this weapon which is completely useless and we will not go into details about it, otherwise it should be done in close corners and you must do few hits in corner when the last one gets them out of corner, then run under the opp and do aaSUJK followed by another spinning attack into the other corner and repeat it, again there is no sense to try it in a vs match. HP is a variation of the spinning slash but very slow and useless in a combo. What can you try is B+HP, B+LP, Shadow Kick for a good 30% damage, it works versus jumpers.
As already said Cage has a HP, HP, SUJK, Repeat infinite which is his only plus. With Maximum Damage off that would be his main game, he just dont have any other good damage abilities except his B+LP weapon attack in corner which will be almost impossible to get in a vs match.
Basic Juggles:
Cage fights with Kai for the title of the worst MK4 character. The only thing that gaves Cage his little advantage are his ability to Juggle with his wpn, the speed of the Shadow Kick and his easy Inf. The damage in his combos is normal and he cannot do much to maximize them. After blocking an special and going in punishment mode, there is too little he can do too. Still he has some neat strats and wakeups here and there.
Cage have those weird HP starters that like Fujin, Quan, Sonya and Kai, helps him to make easy ground infs. Otherwise, his normal attacks arsenal is the same as everybody. Normal Sweep and weak RH. Nice uppercutt.
The Shadow Kick is Cage best move and actually the only useful move in his arsenal. Its excellent to finish long combos and is the most damaging special at the end of them. Its good to punish whiffed or missed attacks but it cannot be used to punished blocked moves. Even weapon attacks. For some reason players tend to crouch too much when they are close to Cage to catch a whiff Shadow kick but when they are far they tend to run and they can be catched by one. it has no hit or time limit and to avoid it you must simply crouch or block. A good wake up with the Shadow Kick could be after LK throw, because its one of those situations where the opponent cant just duck but should hold Block. Dont do it more than twice in the whole match because you become predictable. I've seen people talk about double Shadow Kick can be done in juggles but i was never be able to do it, so i guess they just talk about blockable shits lol.
Both fireballs are slow and are a bit useless because of this. Sure you can catch some jumping foes from afar with the high ones but most high level players will stay close to you most of the time. They have little startup and sometimes they can poke certain attacks but this is not a good strat. They do very little damage when used in a combo and often you can get hit through the fireballs even if they catch the opponent. Dont spam them unless you are from full screen distance and your opponent does not use character with long distance special move (fujin's lift, scorpion teleport punch, jarek ground pound and etc).
Shadow upercutt is useless. Is slow and has shitty range. Does good damage but is hard to connect after long combos and its not worth. As an aa isnt that good because of its start up. It looks like it hits twice, but the only air attacks you could counter with it are the Jump HK and Jump HP.You cant use it against crossovers.
His Nut Punch is very fast in combos or out of them. It can be used as a surprise move up close but if blocked can be punished. Its useless in long Juggles. Best option is to do it at the end of his inf and even so there are better options. it really doesnt have other uses. Sometimes even when its blocked the opponent will start to Knee combo you but somehow the Knee will whiff and you would be able to get another fast free Nut Punch, this situation is completely random and there is no way to predict it so dont count on it.
His weapon is good but hard to use. it has fast swipes like standing Hp wich has very long range. B + HP is a juggling attack wich can be repeated for more damage. Its similar to Jareks hp but with lesser reach. B + Lp is an spinning attack wich can be used in Juggles and followed by another B + Lp if in the corner, there is also an infinite using this weapon which is completely useless and we will not go into details about it, otherwise it should be done in close corners and you must do few hits in corner when the last one gets them out of corner, then run under the opp and do aaSUJK followed by another spinning attack into the other corner and repeat it, again there is no sense to try it in a vs match. HP is a variation of the spinning slash but very slow and useless in a combo. What can you try is B+HP, B+LP, Shadow Kick for a good 30% damage, it works versus jumpers.
As already said Cage has a HP, HP, SUJK, Repeat infinite which is his only plus. With Maximum Damage off that would be his main game, he just dont have any other good damage abilities except his B+LP weapon attack in corner which will be almost impossible to get in a vs match.
Basic Juggles:
- HP, HP, HK, HK, Shadow Kick/Nut Punch (5 Hits, 29%/30%)
- HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aaHPx2, Jump HK, Shadow Kick (8 Hits, 34%)
- (With Weapon) HK, B+HP, Jump HK, Shadow Kick (4 Hits, 33%)
- HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aaSUJK, aaHK, Shadow Kick (7 Hits, 34%)
- HP, HP, SUJK, HP, HP, HK, D+HP, aaHPx2, Jump HK, Shadow Kick (9 Hits, 45%) Video!
- HP, HP, SUJK, HP, HP, HK, HK, Nut Punch (8 Hits, 42%)
- HP, HP, SUJK, HP HP, SUJK, HK, HK, Nut Punch (9 Hits, 49%)
- aaHPx2, Jump HK, Shadow Kick (4 Hits, 22%)
- SUJK, HK, Shadow Kick (3 Hits, 34%)
- (With Weapon) SUJK, B+LP, B+LP/Shadow Kick (3 Hits, 41%) Video!
- (With Weapon) B+HP, B+HP, B+LP, Shadow Kick (4 Hits, 38%) *If Near corner B+LPx2