Mortal Kombat (2011) Matchup Chart

[Vulcan Hades]

Mileena is awesome. The very first time I tried her I knew she would end up being the best female fighter.

She has by far the best footsies in the game (next to Baraka maybe). D4, B3, F3 are godlike. She has a solid wake up. She can use step kick or roll to get away from jump pressure. Or use D4 to lower her hittable box. B3 and F3 can be canceled into a teleport kick which leads to a safe jump or free blocktring/mixup on hit. U4 is a low crush overhead. Her 2, 3, 4 string is safe on block. She can get 35% combos of a simple anti-air or air to air attack. Or 25% on reaction to a projectile. She has annoying otg sais to zone, which can also lead to juggles if you hit someone in mid air. She can use her ball roll and teleport kick as traveling tools for wake up shenanigans. Basically, when you're fighting a good Mileena player, anything you do can be punished hard on reaction. So she forces people into playing a lot more carefully. And even if her specials are punishable on block, you can't punish them with full combos. You can just get a small juggle most of the time.

I can't wait to see Tom Brady rep her in the future. Maybe after EVO he'll be using Mileena more often.

 

[RWDY Nori]

I have to agree with slips in his opinion of nw. Overrated char but still strong. Mileena is also underrated

 

[TheChad_87]

STUFF.

Very good post ^_^

I would like to say I am also on board the Mileena train. She’s just beast. Her mix-up is scary with High, Medium, and Low combo starters. You have to work for it, but breaking upper 30% isn’t as hard as some people would have you believe, and Telekick is great to use on reaction to projectiles.

I have to ask about the Kitana//Mileena match-up, though? Why do you feel it’s 5:5? Anything other than the fact that Blocked Ball//Tele gets punished, because I don’t think most good players are gonna blindly teleport//roll and give up the easy punish. I’m not disagreeing with you. Just curious, I seem to always have trouble with Mileena when using Kitana.

I can agree that Shang vs Kitana is 6:4 … Her only saving grace is what you just mentioned. From full screen, she evades f.Ground Skulls with iAF. It’s hard for her to get in (f.Up Skull is SO much better than people think at stopping rushdown – and can be followed up with jP, BnB, during the stagger it causes), but once she does, it’s over.

I play Sheeva as well, and this is definitely in Kitana’s favor heavily. I tend to have the most trouble with Kitana, Mileena, and Sindel. I’ll try to come up with some numbers on Sheeva match-ups this week. The more I use her, the more I’m seeing EN Grab N Punch make huge differences in match-ups because of the armor. Also, worth noting is that with Sheeva's BnB, 2, 1, 2, F+1, Grab N Punch, the Grab N Punch will whiff against Kitana and Mileena, forcing her to resort to 1, 2, B+1, dash, 2, Grab N Punch for about 4% less damage

 

[JagoMIH]

thanks konqrr i didnt know she had slow recovery from that distance

 

[AGUSTIN]

Any advice on Baraka vs Shao Kahn?

 

[Konqrr]

I have to ask about the Kitana//Mileena match-up, though? Why do you feel it’s 5:5? Anything other than the fact that Blocked Ball//Tele gets punished, because I don’t think most good players are gonna blindly teleport//roll and give up the easy punish. I’m not disagreeing with you. Just curious, I seem to always have trouble with Mileena when using Kitana.

Because Mileena has a hard time getting in to do her mixup/pressure against Kitana. This matchup is all about reads and baiting. I used to have the hardest time fighting Mileena players until I just slowed down and started playing more patient.

 

[TheChad_87]

Because Mileena has a hard time getting in to do her mixup/pressure against Kitana. This matchup is all about reads and baiting. I used to have the hardest time fighting Mileena players until I just slowed down and started playing more patient.

One of the guys in my play group is using Mileena, and I've taken your advice. Slowed it down. I'm playing a more counter-based style. Out of 50 matches I have won 27, so 5:5 does sound right.
Thanks!

Edit: Obviously one day isn't enough to determine the match-up. just wanted to let you know that it is looking that way.

 

[Robotic]

I'm gonna jump in at my own peril and post a tiny bit of Sektor versus. More to come.

Sektor vs. Nightwolf = 6-4

This matchup looks great for Dances with Axes on paper, but with my experience, Sektor holds the cards here. Because of Reflect, Sektor must be stingy with the missiles. That is not to say they are useless in this matchup. Timing must be correct on the Nightwolf player for reflect to play a part, and if Sektor keeps these random and not full screen, they will have their uses. Basically if the Sektor player is not stupid and spams missiles from far away, he can still use them sparingly from mid range. Also, if you know NW is going to reflect from full screen, TU. Advantage no one in this scenario due to NW taking away Sektors' fast meter building to an extent, but also Sektor keeping him honest with TU threat.

Upmissile is an issue. I have no use for these against NW, unless my yomi is on point from sweep range. Ridiculous shoulder charge makes upmisslile impossible. Homing missile isn't even a grreat idea here due to the startup - NW can see the animation from far away, punish with lightning on reaction, and have enough time to block homing missile. Because NW takes away a special from Sektor, advantage NW.

Another issue for Sektor is random close encounters to begin his high low mixup. NW's axe and shoulder on wakeup effectively nullify this option, making combos all the more difficult to come by. B3,4 for Sektor may not see the light of day in this fight. Advantage NW.

Due to NW's scary game on paper, Sektor MUST live in the air, and far away, total pussy status. Almost annoyingly so, I'm afraid. Basically jump away sprinkled in with some back dashes to see arrow coming when you don't have the reaction time to teleuppercut. You can block and get back to jumping and dashing. Sektor's isn't launching missiles, so NW will almost always initiate contact. If he doesn't, straight missile. Sektor will have more than enough time to gauge what NW will do with a missile from full screen. NW has little tools to combat the "pussy" strategy, except for EX arrow, which is pretty good here. Aside from that, Lightning won't hit. Arrow can be seen coming. Shoulder won't cover the entire screen. Back-to-back shoulder charges to close distance will just make Sektor jump in and over, jumping away again, or if he lands on shoulder's recovery, combo. Add to the VERY IMPORTANT FACT that instant air teleuppercut punishes lightning and arrow (arrow much tougher, but still doable) on reaction for a full combo, and you have NW using breaker this whole fight. You could actually stand and watch NW from full screen, wait for arrow animation or lightning animation and punish with IATU into full, damaging ass combo. In fact, lightning's recovery combined with how fast an air teleuppercut comes out makes this move useless for NW in this matchup. Living in the air just makes punishes so much easier for Sektor here. EX shoulder charge isn't as big a deal to Sektor as to others because NW won't have the meter to use it as often. After combos, Sektor can get the hell outta Dodge and reset the strategy, or time a jump in cross up for combo if a wakeup is used - shoulder will send NW farther away (no problem, resets the strategy) and axe will whiff if the jump in is at the correct distance, starting another combo.

NW players, please share your thoughts as you know your character much better than I do.

 

[RWDY Nori]

I main NW/SZ so I'll chime in:


Pretty much from what you said, it sounds like a lot of work. That doesn't sound like an adv matchup to me, it sounds like don't make a single mistake and you'll win. That's pretty much everybody. NW has a fast overhead into combo, great uppercut and if he baits out a TU, you are eating a lot of damage. If you jump around the air, the shoulder is a great anti air. Hatchet is by far one of the best anti airs in the game and it's safe. F3, 1, hatchet is a good mixup. NW wants to get close in this fight and create 50/50s. He can dash block his way in to make reflect closer to Sektor. For sure, NW doesn't want to fight Sektor full screen, that's just asking to die. If NW wants to get in (and for sure he'll always have meter) he can use EN Shoulder (now with armor, thanks patch) to get in safely on pretty much anybody.

To be quite honest, if any Sektor is playing a NW and he's throwing raise the roof (lightning)/arrow out from full screen, please destroy this NW player cause he's an idiot

 

[TheChad_87]

Pretty much from what you said, it sounds like a lot of work. That doesn't sound like an adv matchup to me, it sounds like don't make a single mistake and you'll win. That's pretty much everybody.
...
To be quite honest, if any Sektor is playing a NW and he's throwing raise the roof (lightning)/arrow out from full screen, please destroy this NW player cause he's an idiot

This. When I first read Robotic's post, I was thinking "Sektor 6:4 v Nightwolf... I can maybe buy that", but after reading the full post it makes it sounds more like a 4:6. Of course testing is in order to find out for sure. I've been looking to replace Cyrax since Bomb Trap got shut down. I was messing around with Cyber Sub, but maybe I could pick up Nightwolf instead. He looks underrated and underrepresented. =-D

 

[Konqrr]

This. When I first read Robotic's post, I was thinking "Sektor 6:4 v Nightwolf... I can maybe buy that", but after reading the full post it makes it sounds more like a 4:6. Of course testing is in order to find out for sure. I've been looking to replace Cyrax since Bomb Trap got shut down. I was messing around with Cyber Sub, but maybe I could pick up Nightwolf instead. He looks underrated and underrepresented. =-D

Dude, Cyrax is so damn good still. Don't give up because he lost his broken stuff lol

 

[TheChad_87]

LOL - Well, I do still use him now. I'm in love with that "Reset Bomb Trap" using the 3, 3, Buzzsaw to reset onto a m.Bomb. Not sure if everyone is familiar with it, but it ends up being ~60% in the end. His normals suck ass though -_-
And you make a good point. I should stick to my shit! lol. I dunno, Nightwolf and Raiden are looking awfully tempting with no bad match-ups, though. I use Cyrax, Sheeva, and Kitana right now, with Cyrax and Kit being my forerunners.

(I was all excited by the "Grappler" tag people gave Cyrax and Sheeva - I <3 Zangief in SSFIV and Cyrax had that same kinda feel of "If you let me touch you, you're dead", but they don't really live up to the hype with Sheeva's Grab N Punch being blockable and Cyrax' Bomb Trap gone v_v)

 

[RWDY Nori]

Reptile is a bad matchup for NW. Reptile beats him in quite a few ways, was just talking w/THTB about this on AIM. 6:4 for Reptile

 

[TheChad_87]

Well, I refuse to use Raiden LOL. Scrubs online have forever ruined him for me! Haha! I know! I shouldn't even be playing online if I wanna be competitive, but I'm finishing med school so no tourneys till later in the summer.

Interesting that Rep is a disadvantaged match-up ... May I ask what type of points were brought up in this discussion? I'm thinking about picking up Nightwolf and am more than slightly curious since everyone and their brother uses Reptile since the Chris G incident.

(Maybe Nightwolf in place of Sheeva since Konqrr is gonna shove a fan up my ass if I drop Cyrax - I don't think I can juggle more than 3 characters).

 

[RWDY Nori]

Ultimately, you have to use whoever you are comfortable w/. Cyrax is still very good. Possibly top 10 material.

As for NW vs Reptile, it's nearly impossible to zone him. His elbow dash beats shoulder clean so there is NEVER a fear of that. Reptiles pokes are better and his strings have better range. He can throw a forceball and dash in behind it safely, regardless if NW reflects the ball or not.

 

[ChaseRLewis]

Really my only issue with the engine in this game is that the person that hits first has a gigantic advantage to the point it's a bit disheartening. The reason being characters that don't have great reversals that beat crossup j.P or j.K can have to deal with pressure after getting breakered meaning the character who just breakered will get a lot of meter back that he lost to the point he might even get another breaker if he had 3 bars when he broke the combo.

This leads to a lot of scenarios where once you get behind it's hard to make any sort of comeback because your opponent has meter advantage. Giving the person who gets the first hit that bar really makes this quite a bit worse. Again like the game overall but feel that meter makes certain matchups worse by default especially matchups where the zoner has a much higher chance hitting first than the character that has to work their way in.

 

[Vulcan Hades]

stryker holding gun shot doesnt matter because NW can just ex shoulder.

Nightwolf having EN shoulder doesn't matter because Stryker can just crouch tech cancel or jump cancel into a full combo. See how that works?

 

[THTB]

Ultimately, you have to use whoever you are comfortable w/. Cyrax is still very good. Possibly top 10 material.

As for NW vs Reptile, it's nearly impossible to zone him. His elbow dash beats shoulder clean so there is NEVER a fear of that. Reptiles pokes are better and his strings have better range. He can throw a forceball and dash in behind it safely, regardless if NW reflects the ball or not.

Reptile can get in NW's face to build meter with strings while nullifying shoulder, and one of his best normals pretty much makes shoulder a lot less useful...Nightwolf pretty much has to use EX shoulder to deal with Reptile's stuff, but he's not really gonna build the meter to do so. Meanwhile Reptile is gonna be able to build meter for EX slow ball stuff like crazy.

 

[lobo]

Any advice on Baraka vs Shao Kahn?

same advice as anybody vs shaokahn;

jump over, uppercut, dash in, repeat. works every time regardless of difficulty. kahn is broken, yo. 0-10 matchups vs everybody.

 

[Robotic]

I main NW/SZ so I'll chime in:


Pretty much from what you said, it sounds like a lot of work. That doesn't sound like an adv matchup to me, it sounds like don't make a single mistake and you'll win. That's pretty much everybody. NW has a fast overhead into combo, great uppercut and if he baits out a TU, you are eating a lot of damage. If you jump around the air, the shoulder is a great anti air. Hatchet is by far one of the best anti airs in the game and it's safe. F3, 1, hatchet is a good mixup. NW wants to get close in this fight and create 50/50s. He can dash block his way in to make reflect closer to Sektor. For sure, NW doesn't want to fight Sektor full screen, that's just asking to die. If NW wants to get in (and for sure he'll always have meter) he can use EN Shoulder (now with armor, thanks patch) to get in safely on pretty much anybody.

To be quite honest, if any Sektor is playing a NW and he's throwing raise the roof (lightning)/arrow out from full screen, please destroy this NW player cause he's an idiot

Raise the roof! Everytime I see that move begin I'm just gonna blurt out "CAN I GET A" LMAO!

I hear ya about the work that needs to be put in for this matchup to be in Sektor's favor. The issue for NW is once fullscreen is attained, almost all of his moves are now subject to destruction by Sektor. Whereas Sektor COULD make a mistake here and there and be ok (not punishing lightning, not being fast enough on IATU to punish arrow), NW makes one mistake and it's Gimme-Yo-Damn-Meter-Time. I've had very good success with the jump strategy against NW's because Sektor's dash is so fast; forward dash is hard to see coming when back dash and jump back has been used so often. Forward dash throw, B1,2 rinse repeat B1,2,1, flame thrower, etc.

If you've played SSF4, consider it like a Dhalsim V. Zangief matchup. Zangief is an absolute nightmare to deal with; his ability to close distance so fast with green hand, his command throws, his damage output, his FADC, etc. Dhalsim only has one shot in this matchup and that is to stay the hell away and pick your spots. Even so, because the fullscreen distance can be attained and it is so difficult for Zangief to close in and STAY in, this is STILL a 6-4 matchup in favor of Dhalsim.

I don't have an enormous amount of experience with NW, though. I'm sure you don't have a hell of a lot of experience against a Sektor either. Maybe we can get some games in?

 

[Tom Brady]

Nightwolf having EN shoulder doesn't matter because Stryker can just crouch tech cancel or jump cancel into a full combo. See how that works?

then he can :en lightning and you get juggled, its a guess.

 

[Vulcan Hades]

Yeah I know. But you were kinda assuming the Stryker player is dumb enough to try a gun shot when Nightwolf is sitting on a meter and obviously trying to close distance.

But thing is it's a guess for both players. I just don't see why that makes Nightwolf have a clear advantage in the matchup. He needs to burn meter on EN moves, I don't and I can probably build more meter than him. So I still think it's 5-5 at worst. But anyway...

 

[PLAYING TO WIN]

Dude, the Up Ball has been fixed recently. It has 6 more frames of recovery. Raiden can punish the Up Ball in his sleep now.

good to hear. i haven't bothered playing mk9 for sometime bc im so disgusted with online play. once console combat starts back up i will play more. its on sundays now man... in parma. hope you can make it. see www.consolecombat.net for details dude

 

[RWDY Nori]

If you've played SSF4, consider it like a Dhalsim V. Zangief matchup. Zangief is an absolute nightmare to deal with; his ability to close distance so fast with green hand, his command throws, his damage output, his FADC, etc. Dhalsim only has one shot in this matchup and that is to stay the hell away and pick your spots. Even so, because the fullscreen distance can be attained and it is so difficult for Zangief to close in and STAY in, this is STILL a 6-4 matchup in favor of Dhalsim

If Zangief has a little meter and can burn it to go across the screen (and he has armor keep in mind), I'll take Gief every time brother. Sim can teleport away, but Sektor can only teleport forward and it's VERY unsafe to do so. Sim has pokes to keep out Gief but Sektor will not and cannot keep NW away with a simple threat of IATU.

You have to understand while you are jumping around, NW can simply block dash. Just because he has raise ther roof/arrow doesn't mean he's going to use them like a moron. I play Sektor myself (not nearly as much as others, but just to learn him) and is IATU is pretty legit. So in this matchup, assuming both chars know how to fight each other, Sektor will always have to be guessing, that's what I'm trying to say. If you are jumping in the air all day, eventually I will hit you down with a shoulder. There is only so much space on the screen for Sektor to keep jumping back. I promise you I can simply wait until you land and lightning you, you won't IATU on reaction, if it's setup correctly it's just not happening.

Plus, Sektor is the one who can't make the mistake, not NW. NW has lots of ways to combo you and take off at least 35% if the player knows what he's doing. Hatchet is a GREAT anti air. So once I close in w/simple block dashing, what is Sektor going to do that's so terrifying? Again, you posted strategies on how to beat NW, and that's cool. What I'm saying is, if both sektor/NW are high level, NW is going to have the adv, it's certainly a very winnable matchup for Sektor but he's gonna have to earn it

 

[Robotic]

If Zangief has a little meter and can burn it to go across the screen (and he has armor keep in mind), I'll take Gief every time brother. Sim can teleport away, but Sektor can only teleport forward and it's VERY unsafe to do so. Sim has pokes to keep out Gief but Sektor will not and cannot keep NW away with a simple threat of IATU.

You have to understand while you are jumping around, NW can simply block dash. Just because he has raise ther roof/arrow doesn't mean he's going to use them like a moron. I play Sektor myself (not nearly as much as others, but just to learn him) and is IATU is pretty legit. So in this matchup, assuming both chars know how to fight each other, Sektor will always have to be guessing, that's what I'm trying to say. If you are jumping in the air all day, eventually I will hit you down with a shoulder. There is only so much space on the screen for Sektor to keep jumping back. I promise you I can simply wait until you land and lightning you, you won't IATU on reaction, if it's setup correctly it's just not happening.

Plus, Sektor is the one who can't make the mistake, not NW. NW has lots of ways to combo you and take off at least 35% if the player knows what he's doing. Hatchet is a GREAT anti air. So once I close in w/simple block dashing, what is Sektor going to do that's so terrifying? Again, you posted strategies on how to beat NW, and that's cool. What I'm saying is, if both sektor/NW are high level, NW is going to have the adv, it's certainly a very winnable matchup for Sektor but he's gonna have to earn it

Good stuff Nori, my interest is piqued. Let's get some good hearted games in! I'm out in the west coast, so if that's an issue, do you know any NWs out here on PS3? Oops, I'm derailing...

Try not to think of it as holding upback the whole time. Think of it as footsies without footsies. Sektor can jump back, dash back, jump back, dash forward, jump forward, SEEMINGLY at random. At any time Sektor can IATU for punish (not stand alone, that's stupid), flame thrower once at mid range with the quickness, jump forward out of nowhere surprising NW and him not having time to react with axe. If Sektor knows what he is doing, NW must gamble to punish. From my experience, this gamble is NOT 50/50.

As for Dhalsim v Zangief, I will say this about that: True, he has pokes, but if you think those pokes are enough to keep Zangief out or cause enough damage to count on completely (Zangief can take more damage than almost every character in the game), that's asking for trouble. Dhalsim needs to play afraid for his life in this matchup. Only then can he come out on top. Even with that type of play, he is STILL favored.