Tom Brady
Champion
Side Stepping -
90% of the moves in MKDA are linear and very easy to side step by walking up or down. the only moves that track by themselves are moves like sonya's tkd 3 roundhouse or moves that have the command of up in. for example, frost up 3 launcher will track.
Universal Tracking -
alright, now that you know most moves are linear you might ask how is MKDA not a side step fest? a tactic known as universal tracking. universal tracking can enable most moves in the game to track by holding up while you do the move. a good example of this is scorpions pi gua 3. by holding up while doing this move it will track 100% of the time, if the opponent tries to side step it they'll be smacked in the face. a few exceptions to this rule are move like jabs. for example, brc... his drunkin fist 2 and u2 are 2 different moves. if you try to make his 2 track by holding up then you get u2 instead so you would have to do up then neutral 2 which doesnt have it fully track 100% of the time. another exception would be moves that have back or forward commands like reptile crab b2 and b3. its easier to give these moves some tracking then moves that have up in them but it still doesnt give you 100% guaranteed tracking. again you must use up then go to neutral to make these moves track. if you do not use universal tracking then you might as well not even play because you wont hit anything but the air.
Back Dash Cancel(bdc) -
in MKDA there are certain moves and strings that, while unsafe, allow you to cancel your negative frames with a back dash making the move safe or harder to punish.
Weapon Damage -
if you are hit while in your weapon stance the attack(s) that land will do extra damage. if you find yourself getting hit/combo'd quickly switch out of your weapon stance to avoid taking extra damage.
Quick Block -
by releasing the block button as soon as you block at attack you recover very fast, this technique allows you to punish moves that would otherwise be safe.
Interrupt -
as most should know Mk games in general especially 3D ones have lots of canned strings that cycle through their stances, these are called branch combos or just branch for short. In MKDA you will see players poke with a branch and if its blocked use a back dash cancel at a certain point in the branch to make it safe. does this really work? NO!! you can interrupt after blocking the 2nd hit of almost every canned string. there are a few strings like Quan Chi's tsd 111, Sonya's tkd b4, Scorpion's hapkido 23, etc.. that cannot be interrupted but for the most part the interrupt works for almost all of the strings. so what this means is if the opponent tries to continue the branch you can interrupt them with your FULL branch. if the opponent tries to poke with 2 hits of the branch even 2 jabs like jax 22 and guard you can still hit them for free with a FULL branch. basically if you poke with a branch and do 2 hits and its blocked you die no matter what you do so you better be sure its gonna hit when you throw it out.
Wall Teching -
when being pressured with your back in a corner or invisible wall you need to wall tech when you get knocked into it or you cannot guard the next move. when you see yourself hit the barrier hold up or down to roll off.
Techroll -
to techroll means to roll and recover when you hit the ground. remember, some attacks will not allow you to techroll. you can control which way you tech by tapping back, up, or down as you hit the ground.
Transitional Hits -
ok, the topic of much controversy in MKDA... moves hitting in transition during branches making some canned strings unblockable. this is the BIGGEST false rumor i have ever heard. you can guard ALL highs mids and lows in canned strings and branches just fine. the only thing that hits are highs while you are in the process to guard a low but this doesnt apply to branches. an example would be you think brc will d4 sweep in drunken fist and he branches with 22. the 22 which are two high jabs will hit you in transition to guard the sweep but this only happens if the high happens at the same time that you crouch. if you are already low blocking highs wiff all day.
Stand And Block -
this is a style mainly used by sonya and fast jabbers. its a tactic of standing in front of the opponents face and mixing in pokes, lows, side stepping and blocking, interrupt baiting, etc... its one of the more effective tactics in the game especially since throws are blockable and only hit crouching opponents.
Jump Cancel -
jump cancel is when you quickly jump with an attack and cancel it with another attack before the jumping attack actually comes out. this allows moves to be done off the ground thus covering more ground and even making some impossible combos possible. it also cuts the animation on power ups, life ups, and taunts by 75%. an example would be kenshi's power up. you can use any jumping attack but i usually use 3 4 as my jumping attacks. the command would be uf3~ sp. by hitting sp before the uf3 comes out kenshi's power is lightning fast.
Attack Cancel -
by jumping forward or backward after attacks you can actually recover faster, this also makes come combos possible that would normally be impossible. this tactic works best when used off of moves that you can bdc off of.
Life Ups -
in certain styles certain characters have life ups. this allows characters to gain a small amount of life. HOWEVER, each time you life up you gain less life until eventually you gain less then 1/2% per life up.
Power Ups -
in certain styles certain characters possess a power up. a power up adds DRASTIC damage to all your strikes, throws, and specials for a short period of time. however, the more time that elapses during the power up window the less the added damage does until moves return to their normal damage.
Reversals -
certain characters in certain styles have a reversal. a reversal will counter any move thats not a projectile, weapon strike, or throw. a reversal catches moves on all 3 hit levels at the same time. when reversals hit they guarantee certain strikes and branches for some characters as well. be warned though, wiffing a reversal is punished by the opponents most damaging combos.
Impales -
in weapon style some characters can impale you with their weapon either by stabbing or throwing them at you. when impaled you will continue to lose life for the remainder of that round. impales are unsafe unless you use a glitch impale by using the block glitch which only applies to stabbing impales.
Guard All -
this is a good technique vs mid/low mixups ESPECIALLY with a slower mid. hold block and tap down then instantly go back to neutral and you will be able to block all mids and lows at the same time. this is almost impossible to do vs fast mids and lows but great vs the slower mixups.
Block Glitch -
this glitch only applies to impales and to make jax's jumping ground pound inescapeable. in MKDA, each time you block moves or a succession of moves you can notice that the character will move their hands to different blocking animations. if the opponent is blocking when you are doing a stabbing impale at max range the opponent will go through a weird extra blocking motion making it impossible for them to punish the impale attempt. with jax's jumping ground pound... if you do it in close and the opponent is blocking, their character will do that extra block hand animation making it impossible to move or jump out and the ground pound will be guaranteed.
Instant Change Stance(ics) -
this is when you instantly go from one stance into another with an attack. this is done by hitting cs+the attack button or by tapping cs~attack button. this allows you to use 2 stance from 1 stance and keep the opponent guessing with a bigger move list. take brc, if you are fighting in his weapon stance you can ics to any drunken fist attack with no delay. for example, lets you want to ics into 32. by doing cs+3,2 you will instantly switch with that attack.
90% of the moves in MKDA are linear and very easy to side step by walking up or down. the only moves that track by themselves are moves like sonya's tkd 3 roundhouse or moves that have the command of up in. for example, frost up 3 launcher will track.
Universal Tracking -
alright, now that you know most moves are linear you might ask how is MKDA not a side step fest? a tactic known as universal tracking. universal tracking can enable most moves in the game to track by holding up while you do the move. a good example of this is scorpions pi gua 3. by holding up while doing this move it will track 100% of the time, if the opponent tries to side step it they'll be smacked in the face. a few exceptions to this rule are move like jabs. for example, brc... his drunkin fist 2 and u2 are 2 different moves. if you try to make his 2 track by holding up then you get u2 instead so you would have to do up then neutral 2 which doesnt have it fully track 100% of the time. another exception would be moves that have back or forward commands like reptile crab b2 and b3. its easier to give these moves some tracking then moves that have up in them but it still doesnt give you 100% guaranteed tracking. again you must use up then go to neutral to make these moves track. if you do not use universal tracking then you might as well not even play because you wont hit anything but the air.
Back Dash Cancel(bdc) -
in MKDA there are certain moves and strings that, while unsafe, allow you to cancel your negative frames with a back dash making the move safe or harder to punish.
Weapon Damage -
if you are hit while in your weapon stance the attack(s) that land will do extra damage. if you find yourself getting hit/combo'd quickly switch out of your weapon stance to avoid taking extra damage.
Quick Block -
by releasing the block button as soon as you block at attack you recover very fast, this technique allows you to punish moves that would otherwise be safe.
Interrupt -
as most should know Mk games in general especially 3D ones have lots of canned strings that cycle through their stances, these are called branch combos or just branch for short. In MKDA you will see players poke with a branch and if its blocked use a back dash cancel at a certain point in the branch to make it safe. does this really work? NO!! you can interrupt after blocking the 2nd hit of almost every canned string. there are a few strings like Quan Chi's tsd 111, Sonya's tkd b4, Scorpion's hapkido 23, etc.. that cannot be interrupted but for the most part the interrupt works for almost all of the strings. so what this means is if the opponent tries to continue the branch you can interrupt them with your FULL branch. if the opponent tries to poke with 2 hits of the branch even 2 jabs like jax 22 and guard you can still hit them for free with a FULL branch. basically if you poke with a branch and do 2 hits and its blocked you die no matter what you do so you better be sure its gonna hit when you throw it out.
Wall Teching -
when being pressured with your back in a corner or invisible wall you need to wall tech when you get knocked into it or you cannot guard the next move. when you see yourself hit the barrier hold up or down to roll off.
Techroll -
to techroll means to roll and recover when you hit the ground. remember, some attacks will not allow you to techroll. you can control which way you tech by tapping back, up, or down as you hit the ground.
Transitional Hits -
ok, the topic of much controversy in MKDA... moves hitting in transition during branches making some canned strings unblockable. this is the BIGGEST false rumor i have ever heard. you can guard ALL highs mids and lows in canned strings and branches just fine. the only thing that hits are highs while you are in the process to guard a low but this doesnt apply to branches. an example would be you think brc will d4 sweep in drunken fist and he branches with 22. the 22 which are two high jabs will hit you in transition to guard the sweep but this only happens if the high happens at the same time that you crouch. if you are already low blocking highs wiff all day.
Stand And Block -
this is a style mainly used by sonya and fast jabbers. its a tactic of standing in front of the opponents face and mixing in pokes, lows, side stepping and blocking, interrupt baiting, etc... its one of the more effective tactics in the game especially since throws are blockable and only hit crouching opponents.
Jump Cancel -
jump cancel is when you quickly jump with an attack and cancel it with another attack before the jumping attack actually comes out. this allows moves to be done off the ground thus covering more ground and even making some impossible combos possible. it also cuts the animation on power ups, life ups, and taunts by 75%. an example would be kenshi's power up. you can use any jumping attack but i usually use 3 4 as my jumping attacks. the command would be uf3~ sp. by hitting sp before the uf3 comes out kenshi's power is lightning fast.
Attack Cancel -
by jumping forward or backward after attacks you can actually recover faster, this also makes come combos possible that would normally be impossible. this tactic works best when used off of moves that you can bdc off of.
Life Ups -
in certain styles certain characters have life ups. this allows characters to gain a small amount of life. HOWEVER, each time you life up you gain less life until eventually you gain less then 1/2% per life up.
Power Ups -
in certain styles certain characters possess a power up. a power up adds DRASTIC damage to all your strikes, throws, and specials for a short period of time. however, the more time that elapses during the power up window the less the added damage does until moves return to their normal damage.
Reversals -
certain characters in certain styles have a reversal. a reversal will counter any move thats not a projectile, weapon strike, or throw. a reversal catches moves on all 3 hit levels at the same time. when reversals hit they guarantee certain strikes and branches for some characters as well. be warned though, wiffing a reversal is punished by the opponents most damaging combos.
Impales -
in weapon style some characters can impale you with their weapon either by stabbing or throwing them at you. when impaled you will continue to lose life for the remainder of that round. impales are unsafe unless you use a glitch impale by using the block glitch which only applies to stabbing impales.
Guard All -
this is a good technique vs mid/low mixups ESPECIALLY with a slower mid. hold block and tap down then instantly go back to neutral and you will be able to block all mids and lows at the same time. this is almost impossible to do vs fast mids and lows but great vs the slower mixups.
Block Glitch -
this glitch only applies to impales and to make jax's jumping ground pound inescapeable. in MKDA, each time you block moves or a succession of moves you can notice that the character will move their hands to different blocking animations. if the opponent is blocking when you are doing a stabbing impale at max range the opponent will go through a weird extra blocking motion making it impossible for them to punish the impale attempt. with jax's jumping ground pound... if you do it in close and the opponent is blocking, their character will do that extra block hand animation making it impossible to move or jump out and the ground pound will be guaranteed.
Instant Change Stance(ics) -
this is when you instantly go from one stance into another with an attack. this is done by hitting cs+the attack button or by tapping cs~attack button. this allows you to use 2 stance from 1 stance and keep the opponent guessing with a bigger move list. take brc, if you are fighting in his weapon stance you can ics to any drunken fist attack with no delay. for example, lets you want to ics into 32. by doing cs+3,2 you will instantly switch with that attack.