Mortal Kombat (2011) Matchup Chart

[Heroic_Legacy]

Cause Sindel's not a ninja and NRS loves ninjas. Even reptilian ones.

 

[D. R.]

In playing more into the debate of who's truly number one between Raiden and KL, after some more play testing and due to the nature of MK, I'd give it to KL. The matchup chart needs to be slightly altered to show this and I'm looking at that Kl vs. Mileena match up as the sacrificial lamb (should be 5-5, not 4-6!?), along with the KL vs. Jax match up (how is it just 4-6 when Raiden's is 3-7? That doesn't look right.) Raiden is pure defense while KL is pure offense. I played an extensive set with Kodee (got 9th at EVO with KL) using my Raiden against his KL, in person, not this online shit, along with other characters and I've come to realize just how slightly better KL is then Raiden.


KL keeping armor after his EN Tele is fucking stupid the more and more I see it. Why is this not exploited more? SMFH

 

[M2Dave]

D.R., Kung Lao players like to save their meter for the X-Ray. So, if you press any buttons while he's pressuring you, you lose half your life. X-Ray -> low hat is also a solid 36% (if I recall correctly) unbreakable combo. Very powerful at the end of rounds.

By the way, I disagree with some of Noob's match ups. Noob vs. Cyber Sub Zero is even. Noob loses 3:7 to Cyrax. You can play perfectly 90% of the round, get caught in a random net, and lose. It's a crime, literally. He loses 2.5:7.5 to Kabal. Aerial Gast blasts are impossible to punish on reaction and teleport does not grab buzzsaws. Kabal can do an aerial gas blast and still block any tackle. All tackles are also punishable full screen away on reaction by EX dashes. Really, Noob has no chance. He is obviously also outmatched up close. f+3,2 can hit shadow upknee.

Man, this game has some horrendous mismatches that I have not seen since playing ST. Some match ups are fucked up. You may as well press start, get disqualified, and pick another character.

 

[HurlingDervish]

I agree. EX red dash is very good, but neither slash is safe on block, so you've got make sure they hit. Slide is safe, but there are some match ups out there you don't want to waste a bar for 8% of damage.

Skarlet builds 80% of super meter by tossing daggers. The more she can toss the better. She can't build meter up close very well because her normal attacks are generally slow. She has damaging combos, but most of them only make for fancy combo videos. She can't really set up big damage unless she blocks a teleport. I honestly don't think she's this overpowered character some players have portrayed her to be.

EN Red-upslash being unsafe on block is irrelevant, the whole point of it is to blast through peoples fireballs and combos straight into a 35% combo. Its a very reliable way to set up big damage, and has innumerable ways to bait an opening for. Once they respect your EN red-upslash it frees up more daggers and more meter...

Nerfing her daggers wont change much, to the point I'm doubtful they will even bother.

Even with the rumored nerf I'd say she's still going to be top 10 in the right hands.

 

[Vulcan Hades]

You can play perfectly 90% of the round, get caught in a random net, and lose. It's a crime, literally.

But isn't that true for all characters fighting Cyrax?

 

[Konqrr]

KL keeping armor after his EN Tele is fucking stupid the more and more I see it. Why is this not exploited more? SMFH

Wait...I thought they fixed this. It hasn't happened to me since they patched it... /confused

 

[Fresh T]

Wait...I thought they fixed this. It hasn't happened to me since they patched it... /confused

Nope still happens when i fight kl as well. He will keep armor, its bullshit.

 

[RWDY Nori]

Man, this game has some horrendous mismatches that I have not seen since playing ST. Some match ups are fucked up. You may as well press start, get disqualified, and pick another character.

Very good point. Me and my friends often refer to this game as ST also. Overall the game is balanced, but some matchups just make you cry

 

[D. R.]

Wait...I thought they fixed this. It hasn't happened to me since they patched it... /confused

Huge negative. I play Kodee's KL a lot with my Noob and it's one of the stupidest, thoughtless things. He'll do EN tele and I'll step away to punish him on the second part of the tele, throw out a shadow tackle and he'll land without doing a move, walk forward through my tackle with armor STILL active, then get a full combo. We tested it immediately post patch only to find out it was still in the game and I've dealt with it since.

We've tested other scenarios, i.e. jumping, low hat and yes, it is definitly still in Ver. 1.04 of MK9. :facepalm:

 

[M2Dave]

EN Red-upslash being unsafe on block is irrelevant, the whole point of it is to blast through peoples fireballs and combos straight into a 35% combo. Its a very reliable way to set up big damage, and has innumerable ways to bait an opening for. Once they respect your EN red-upslash it frees up more daggers and more meter...

Nerfing her daggers wont change much, to the point I'm doubtful they will even bother.

Even with the rumored nerf I'd say she's still going to be top 10 in the right hands.

Of course, the lack of safety on block is relevant. EX dash + up slash is not impenetrable defense as long as there are such concepts as baiting and punishing. Up slash is about as unsafe as Reptile's elbow dash but is far easier to punish on block because EX dash + up slash is fairly slow on start up. If your competition is any good, all the top tier characters punish you hard. It also does not help that up slash whiffs on low pokes such as some generic d+3s and d+4s.

We can speculate further, but we shall see how she turns out after the patch.

But isn't that true for all characters fighting Cyrax?

At least beasts like Kung Lao, Reptile, and Kabal build a lot of meter no matter where there on the screen which translates to more combo breakers. Even Skarlet and Freddy should do well against Cyrax. Stryker and Noob? Not so much. Now you are fucked.

 

[DanCock]

Wait...I thought they fixed this. It hasn't happened to me since they patched it... /confused

So Kung Laos :en teleport isn't suppose to have super armor?? Im confused right now. Like kungs teleport I can do multiple hits on it and the armor is still there.


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[THTB]

I'm guessing he still has armor frames if he does nothing after EX teleport.

 

[D. R.]

I'm guessing he still has armor frames if he does nothing after EX teleport.

Exactly. I'm very surprised no one's known of this at top level. Hell, I'm in shock actually. Kodee and I have seen some serious stupidity occur in this game. KL's EN tele bs, Noob's X-Ray not coming out AT ALL sometimes when he's crossed up, a Sub-Zero clone/X-Ray glitch, and a couple more I can't think of. Smh. I know NRS is trying and I commend them on it, but God damn, get some better testers!

Anyway, back to KL. The problem is EN Tele has super armor, i.e. it can take infinite hits. If NRS made it so EN tele only took two or three hits total from activation, then it wouldn't be an issue. Or get rid of Super Armor period. That's a fucking stupid concept for a character that does not need it! Imho that is.

 

[shoshinsha]

So how about some thoughts on some of the DLC? I'm especially interested in Kenshi. I'm miles below the best players on this board, but I don't find that he has too many bad matchups at all. The few I think he might struggle with:

Raiden: Maybe 4-6 in Raiden's favor, mostly due to teleport. Kenshi's natural defensiveness means he doesn't get caught by random fly/tp-grab as much as many, but the Kenshi player really has to read for teleports and counter with jumps or armored ex moves. His fast d1 and d3 help, too.

Kabal: Not sure about this one. I feel like if he DOES lose it (might be even), it's not much more than 4.5-5.5. The main issue is Kabal's zoning, which causes some of Kenshi's better options to miss. However, Kabal does struggle to get past the Kenshi "gauntlet" if he wants to get in.

It might just be my personal experience, but I haven't found that Kenshi has too much trouble with some of the other dangerous characters (KL, Rep, Cyrax, Kitana, etc.).

 

[HurlingDervish]

Anyway, back to KL. The problem is EN Tele has super armor, i.e. it can take infinite hits. If NRS made it so EN tele only took two or three hits total from activation, then it wouldn't be an issue. Or get rid of Super Armor period. That's a fucking stupid concept for a character that does not need it!

...

NRS...
giving get out of jail free cards to people who already have no trouble getting out of jail for free..?

 

[Robotic]

Kenshi loses to Sektor.

 

[shoshinsha]

Kenshi loses to Sektor.

I haven't fought many Sektors (big surprise), but I haven't had much trouble in the few fights I have had. I'm not arguing with you, but care to give some evidence to back that statement?

 

[Robotic]

I haven't fought many Sektors (big surprise), but I haven't had much trouble in the few fights I have had. I'm not arguing with you, but care to give some evidence to back that statement?

Taken from xxteefxx in the Kenshi worst matchups thread, "Sector vs kenshi is either 5- 5 or slightly Sektor favor due to a lot of reasons! sektor controls zone like Kenshi, and can punish kenshi's Zone game easily due to teleport and fast projectiles as well as many other reasons . Due to his mix ups and combo ability, it makes Sektor great at pressure. Kenshi will have hard time in surviving untill sektor do mistakes , kenshi catch sektor in a bait, or sektor goes off from kenshi."

This is not mentioning what I've pointed out a few times around here already: Teleflurry is useless against Sektor. Upmissile animation causes this move to completely whiff and take the upmissile hit, not to mention it cannot be reflected back.

Take both into account and it's uphill for Kenshi. If he wants to close distance because he has little choice not to, Sektor footsies and crossover jip will cause another headache for Kenshi.

 

[shoshinsha]

Interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I knew about up missile dodging tk flurry, but Kenshi can instead use TKS to hit him and still have time to block the up missile if it comes out. Kenshi has to watch out for Sektor's TU and ex TU, but if he reads it (and sometimes even on reaction) he can counter with an ex RK into combo. All in all, I'd call it about a 5-5, but Teef would probably know better than I.

 

[Robotic]

Kenshi becomes a one trick pony at a distance because he has nothing else he can do. Sektor is building meter like crazy, and Kenshi bring predictable in this matchup, can be punished a little easier for it. Every Kenshi ive played has trouble in this matchup - they are forced to close distance and if they hsien get the upper hand upclose, sekor already has the life lead and breaker is affordable. Breaker giving advantage, crossover jip can commence more guessing games. The possibility of this scenario playing out is 6 out of 10 in my estimation, though I may not have played a bad ass kenshi yet.

 

[Pagan]

Man, this game has some horrendous mismatches that I have not seen since playing ST. Some match ups are fucked up. You may as well press start, get disqualified, and pick another character.

This game is not nearly as bad as 3rd Strike. That game wasn't balanced though.

The main issue with the match ups in this game are things that make me wonder what NRS was thinking. There's characters like Reptile and Kung Lao who have move lists that seem unstoppable. Then you have characters who have no safe specials and only a hand full of worth mentioning normals. It's like entirely independent teams were designing each character.

 

[Raiman]

I've thought about that many times. its like they all drew from hats and all the reptile and kung lao fans got to design there characters so they made them awesome, and people who downright hated stryker sheeva and quan chi had to design them. so they made them terrible

 

[CY MasterHavik]

Well, the match ups get dumb if you're playing Quan Chi. Who here is game to see Quan Chi vs. CSZ?

 

[shoshinsha]

Kenshi becomes a one trick pony at a distance because he has nothing else he can do. Sektor is building meter like crazy, and Kenshi bring predictable in this matchup, can be punished a little easier for it. Every Kenshi ive played has trouble in this matchup - they are forced to close distance and if they hsien get the upper hand upclose, sekor already has the life lead and breaker is affordable. Breaker giving advantage, crossover jip can commence more guessing games. The possibility of this scenario playing out is 6 out of 10 in my estimation, though I may not have played a bad ass kenshi yet.

Interesting. I would never have called Kenshi a "one-trick pony" at range, considering that's one of his preferred positions to fight from. Even from FULL screen, he's got TKF, TKS, and reflect, each of which serves a unique purpose. TKF is dangerous because of whiffing on upmissile, but it DOES make non-armored TU's risky to try. TKS can be used against upmissile-happy opponents. And reflect basically shuts down front missiles and can be used to negate or gain back health from up missiles. But that's beside the point. My experience is that Kenshi's ideal spot is between 2/3 and 3/4 screen distance. From here, he can still reflect/evade projectiles and use TKS/TKF for zoning, but if the opponent tries to advance quickly they fall right in range for RK/SC, plus he's only a short dash away from landing his sword normals.

 

[Robotic]

Interesting. I would never have called Kenshi a "one-trick pony" at range, considering that's one of his preferred positions to fight from. Even from FULL screen, he's got TKF, TKS, and reflect, each of which serves a unique purpose. TKF is dangerous because of whiffing on upmissile, but it DOES make non-armored TU's risky to try. TKS can be used against upmissile-happy opponents. And reflect basically shuts down front missiles and can be used to negate or gain back health from up missiles. But that's beside the point. My experience is that Kenshi's ideal spot is between 2/3 and 3/4 screen distance. From here, he can still reflect/evade projectiles and use TKS/TKF for zoning, but if the opponent tries to advance quickly they fall right in range for RK/SC, plus he's only a short dash away from landing his sword normals.

Just fought a bad ass kenshi tonight, I forgot his name, but it was the same result. In order for this to be even, the kenshi player need professional athlete reflexes while the sektor player does not. Flame thrower negates his favorable half screen distance.

Also what I mean by one trick pony is that the only real way for kenshi to do damage and build meter from a distance is TKS since ill be launching upmissiles and front upmissiles that can't be reflected. Meter building is completely in Sektors favor. I firmly believe this matchup to be 6-4.