Mortal Kombat (2011) Matchup Chart

[Tom Brady]

THTB, google acct name is xtombrady267x, add me and ill put the chart together.

 

[THTB]

I added you to the list of editors.

 

[D. R.]

People need to stop saying there isn't matchups in tekken there is ... if your not playing to the matchup your probably not maximizing your effectiveness. The fact that you have to counter different tools with different moves alone should change in some way how you play the matchup. It isn't the same a SF but it exists.

And who are you when it comes to Tekken? Do you play the game competitively? Do you enter tournaments for Tekken? Have you placed top 16 in any major tournament? No, oh ok.

Know someone who has? I do! This guy. Matchups do not exist in Tekken for the last time. Your logic is merely boiling down to tiers. Yes, some characters are better than others thanks to their respective move lists and frames, but they do not shut out anybody. As for Steve's b+1 and CH pressure, duck and punish. Alot of his shit is high and he doesn't have good lows at all. High crush too if your character has a high crush and Steve's just b+1 bs strings all day. Hell, every character in the game has an awesome generic high crush in d+1. On hit, +6 advantage. Tekken relies heavily on frame data. Thats the main reason I want MK frame data so bad, so that when I play a competent player and get hit or block something, I can go "whats the frames on that?" They tell me, I think what my character has to deal with it and boom, knowledge gained. I'm that much more solid now.

Like Chase said, the Kitana vs Noob match isn't 6-4 because your combo doesn't work on her... it's because 3/4 screen or closer she jumps over your shadow tackle and gets a free 45% combo.

A 7-3 matchup is one character shutting down the tools of another rendering them near useless like Kitana vs Jax is. Please explain why Nightwolf, Cage, and Liu have virtually no options. I can see how it is hard for them to get in unless they have meter, but once they do get it, it is very hard to get them out! I'd say for sure that the cage/liu match vs noob is 6-4 noob, but not nightwolf. I don't main Noob so I can't say for sure, but I would just like to hear your reasoning behind it.

I really don't fear Kitana's strings that much and once she jumps over my shadow, I'm walking backward. The match becomes a turtle fest because I'm staying full screen at all cost if the Kitana player is just baiting a fan trade. I win the trades full screen. I'm also hoping the Kitana player gets impatient and tries flying to the other side. I'm pretty good on punishing this, but thats theory fighting. The thing is, if I make a good read and score a jump in, I can't combo into my blackhole setup because as I said, my combo gets blocked. Thanks to the Ver. 1.02 patch, Noobs blackholes are now viable tools for offense. His biggest damage combos, outside the corner, come from his blackholes. Kitana doesn't have to worry about it at all. If I score a jump in, I have to combo into a string and end it in teleslam to keep pressure, or tackle to reset the zoning. Case in point, we're both baiting mistakes, but Kitana wins in the amount of damage output for the punishment.

Alright, now the rushdown characters. I never said they don't have any options, so please don't put words in my mouth. They are just very limited in dealing with shadow tackle. Noob wins the trade easily. They have to take the risk to get in. One mistake, ther'ye back to being zoned again, unless they have meter to blow through it. Again, they guess wrong, I punish with a full combo and reset the zoning. But nothing is foolproof. They can get in and do damage. If I play my game right, they won't get in that easily though.

 

[Konqrr]

I really don't fear Kitana's strings that much and once she jumps over my shadow, I'm walking backward. The match becomes a turtle fest because I'm staying full screen at all cost if the Kitana player is just baiting a fan trade. I win the trades full screen. I'm also hoping the Kitana player gets impatient and tries flying to the other side. I'm pretty good on punishing this, but thats theory fighting. The thing is, if I make a good read and score a jump in, I can't combo into my blackhole setup because as I said, my combo gets blocked. Thanks to the Ver. 1.02 patch, Noobs blackholes are now viable tools for offense. His biggest damage combos, outside the corner, come from his blackholes. Kitana doesn't have to worry about it at all. If I score a jump in, I have to combo into a string and end it in teleslam to keep pressure, or tackle to reset the zoning. Case in point, we're both baiting mistakes, but Kitana wins in the amount of damage output for the punishment.

Alright, now the rushdown characters. I never said they don't have any options, so please don't put words in my mouth. They are just very limited in dealing with shadow tackle. Noob wins the trade easily. They have to take the risk to get in. One mistake, ther'ye back to being zoned again, unless they have meter to blow through it. Again, they guess wrong, I punish with a full combo and reset the zoning. But nothing is foolproof. They can get in and do damage. If I play my game right, they won't get in that easily though.

I guess you didn't understand what I said about Kitana getting a GUARANTEED 45% combo from you doing a shadow tackle from 3/4 screen or closer. You can't walk backwards, you are still in recovery.

You are talking about shadow tackle as if it is an impenetrable wall and completely safe. This is untrue.

THTB, I normally use my folder on UMK.com to share files but I am not at my computer that has the login credentials to do so...sorry!

 

[Tom Brady]

to settle the tekken thing so we avoid an argument ill give my .02....

tekken does have match ups but not like 2D games do because tekken gives you more options as far as it being more practical in crouching highs and it also gives a side step. these features allow characters more options as a means to get around things. 2D games dont give you this so you find more actual match up specific things as far as good/bad options.

so, while tekken still can have bad match ups, its not going to be like a 2d game. overall tekken has more of a "hard match ups" for a character rather then bad ones.

 

[lobo]

my opinions on kitana:

vs kano: 3-7 kano. he beats her in pretty much every way. his projectile is far faster than even her iAF and has amazing recovery. if you do jump it and get in he can just ball you right out. square boost to get in? lol. you basically have to use a bar of meter just to get close to him with any degree of safety and once you get there, his normals are pretty much all faster and better on block than hers, and one hit from pretty much anything gets him right back into the meter draining zoning game. when by default he is constantly building meter while you are constantly burning it for positioning and not damage...you are not in a good place imo. add to that the fact that kitana isn't exactly easy to score launchers with because she has no standalone overhead and no launching lows. by the time you can get close to kano he is pretty much always gonna have a breaker built up from his zoning gimmicks. if you can get in (which is very hard), and he doesn't have a breaker (which will never happen), and you do score a launcher despite how safe he is up close (which also will rarely happen), well then you get 45% but it resets right back into his zoning game. i feel like he is easily her worst matchup. people talk about his xray, but it is kind of a non-issue to me. f31 seems to either hit him out of or tech jump it almost every time, but still...that doesn't make up for her lack of options in every other facet of the matchup.

smoke: 5-5 this is an aggrivating matchup for sure. he can counter her projectiles on reaction easily, and recovers fast enough that iAF doesn't even beat his smoke bomb. the reason i put this at 5-5 is because it feels like kitana and smoke are both trying to do the same thing; sit back and play roachy until you get a chance to dash in or pull them to you. he clearly wins in the zoning game, and can play a very good keepaway with his zoning tools and smoke cloud, but once kitana gets in...which is normally his comfort zone, he gets raped. this makes smoke players reformulate his basic strategy while kitana doesn't really have to. since he seems to have slightly better tools, but can't play in his comfort zone, i'd say they are even.

ermac: 6-4 kitana. 2 months ago i'd have said i was crazy for this. i really think she beats him though, for a couple reasons; first of all he can't get big damage without taking a risk, and she can f21 or ff 12 punish him hard. in the zoning game i don't think his tools are good enough if you are spacing his tk push correctly. this is one of the few matchups where she is, by default, in control of the match and he has to try and get in on her. the problem is that once he does get in, he wants to be right in your face, but all his tools on block push him out into that sweep distance where kitana is so deadly. feels like he loses both the zoning game and the pressure game to my beloved princess.

can't really say i have enough offline experience to comment on many more matchups...but what i do i'll post after lunch.

 

[ChaseRLewis]

Edit: do not give in to temptation to prove point >.>Just saying i agree with tom and matchups decide tiers never do tiers decide matchups.

Also agree with lobo, ermac 100% is disadvantaged against kitana. Most people just really haven't played a good kitana.

Cage vs kitana is probably 5-5 if another kitana says 6-4 cage I wouldn't contest that though. The match seems really random for kitana as one mistake can just shit on her though in truth the same is true for cage. However, I feel cage can on reaction her fans more often than she can make them random and even going to the midrange can be deadly for her because if she gets close to him at disadvantage he can start running a train on her. Really the only reason this matchup is manageable is that cage is forced to play a bit more tame than in other matches because if you remain stubborn in crouch block selectively blocking his overheads on reaction (especially his incredibly slow kick) and d1 occasionally to keep him honest he has to be wary of throwing random panic move after a string he is disadvantaged in because if she doesn't press a button he dies. Sometimes though he just gets on you and runs a train that makes me want to throw my stick because I just can't get a good read, but othertimes he tries to get in with ex kick twice and fails and just dies. Really gay matchup in general.

Should have a better idea on this match after i get a few rounds with foxstep ceo (matt) this weekend.

 

[DanCock]

I know I suck at Mk and stuff but from my playing time with sindel characters that force her out of her zoning game like kitana, reptile, Kung lao, raiden, smoke, ermac bunch of others as well are all better then her. so I hope you guys put real thought into these lists.

I mean yea f+3 special cancel buff was so fucking great -_- what a great fucking buff thanks nrs. /sarcasm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lobo]

@ THTB; how do you feel about putting a sticky ______ matchup thread in each character's individual forum? that way all the players of that character can discuss and make a matchup list that they agree on and we can simply combine and update the information here?

 

[Robotic]

@ THTB; how do you feel about putting a sticky ______ matchup thread in each character's individual forum? that way all the players of that character can discuss and make a matchup list that they agree on and we can simply combine and update the information here?

That's the stupidest idea because I'm a hater.....I kinda wish I though of that. Not bad, Lobo.

 

[Konqrr]

@lobo and Chase, good stuff.

Only thing I don't agree on, lobo, is your analysis of kit vs smoke. She rapes him hard from 1/2 screen. There is literally nothing he can do that she can't, on reaction, punish besides a smoke teleport away and even that could potentially be hit with an ex fan from Coruscant lol

Smoke is at a serious disadvantage vs Kitana, but it's not so bad to make it a 7-3. It's a 6-4 in her favor for sure.

Chase, I remember foxstep ceo from the old Tekken days and from the MKDA TiT5 videos. So he plays Cage and Sub eh?

 

[lobo]

my feeling with smoke is that if he abandons his plan and just heavy turtles and spams smoke bomb until he gets a lucky one, takes his damage and keeps playing runaway, he sways the matchup into his favor, which is why i went 5-5. most of my experience with him is admittedly online though.

 

[ChaseRLewis]

@lobo and Chase, good stuff.

Chase, I remember foxstep ceo from the old Tekken days and from the MKDA TiT5 videos. So he plays Cage and Sub eh?

Everyone remembers his purple sparkly gay Hwoarang. Ya, lol. Think he mainly plays cage and scorp, last time he was up here he was raving about how he found a 40 something percent anti-air combo with scorp with double jump kicks and low jab into spear or something. He's claiming he's pretty damn good with cage though so gonna see how he holds up, than again it doesn't have gay purple sparkles so : P.

One thing about his hwoarang he makes you afraid because he pulls out that sparkly move 100% and sets it up so you can't step it, it's sooooo annoying.

@lobo i think the main thing online that would change is smoke bombs would be hard to consistently react too plus you may not get the 48% combo on him as a punisher every time. Those are two things that kitana really needs in her pocket imo for her to have the advantage.

 

[MKK hanzo]

Cage's Xray counters EVERYTHING if you are close to him. Even if you threw noob's black hole from half screen, then jumped close to Cage not pressing a button. Once the black hole touched the ground (as long as cage's xray is still active), he would hit you. This happened to me LOL

Updated Matchup Chart with formulas in the bottom part of the grid that update automatically as you put numbers in the top half of the grid. Also added a rank row to automatically assign rank once the grid gets populated.

http://www.easy-share.com/1916376769/MK9_matchup_ext.xlsx

I still need to lock cells that have formulas in them. I will do that when I have more time.



You mean Kabal's iAFB or Kitana's iAF?

uh Sorry! Kabal IAFB!

 

[Konqrr]

uh Sorry! Kabal IAFB!

If you can reliably do it so I have to block it, then it make life hard on every character in the game. Kitana can advance on Kabal by doing ff~d1 (whiff) so she moves forward and lowers her hitbox so she doesn't get hit in transition from dash to duck. His saw is easy to see coming and jumped over. I think if Kitana jumps this from 3/4 screen or closer, she gets a free full combo. Not sure though.

The Kabal matchup is pretty even now that the block infinite is gone. Both characters control the air, but it all depends on who has projectile advantage. It's a game of wills. If Kitana hits Kabal out of the air with a fan, she gets an unbreakable combo and projectile advantage. If Kabal hits Kitana out of the air, he gets a free spin into f4 which guarantees him a mixup, but it's breakable. If you read that Kabal is going to do a wakeup saw (invincible), then you can jump over it and punish him with 40%+. If he opts to do the spin and you jump, you are in a mixup, but it's unsafe. Neither character can be predictable. I'm pretty sure that a whiffed SB gives Kabal a free spin or xray. If Kitana gets in the corner, her only safe way out after being knocked down is to do an EX SB as it will absorb the iAFB and hit Kabal. If she does the normal SB on wakeup, she will get hit by the iAFB and be caught in the spin to mixup. She can do an EX Cutter which is safe, but she has to burn meter to get him off of her.

Kitana wins the damage war and punishes him hard for messing up. Kabal has to keep the pressure on with f32~dash cancel/mixup or iAFB, but he also has to deal with those damn fans which give unbreakable damage from full screen.

5-5 or 5.5-4.5 Kabal IMO

my feeling with smoke is that if he abandons his plan and just heavy turtles and spams smoke bomb until he gets a lucky one, takes his damage and keeps playing runaway, he sways the matchup into his favor, which is why i went 5-5. most of my experience with him is admittedly online though.

Kitana, on reaction, can hit Smoke with an iAF when he does a Smoke Bomb. If she is close enough, she can do an EX iAF into her 45% BnB. If she is within jump range, she gets a free JPS~f21 BnB. Even if he runs away all day throwing Smoke Bombs from full screen, she can just jump over one of them and be within range to punish him for another one. It's not 5-5 no matter what lol

Everyone remembers his purple sparkly gay Hwoarang. Ya, lol. Think he mainly plays cage and scorp, last time he was up here he was raving about how he found a 40 something percent anti-air combo with scorp with double jump kicks and low jab into spear or something.

That's pretty good for Scorp as an anti air jk combo. It must be this:

jk~tp, jk~tp, ff, d1~spear, ...

I like to use this:

aa3~tp (whiff), 21, ff~2~spear, ...

I like his better, but my reaction time isn't good enough to use jk as anti air.

 

[SwiftTomHanks]

It's interesting how early people want to talk tier and match ups. Regardless, I guess there is no harm in discussing. People just need to be understanding that everything is subject to change.

On that token, the only three characters I feel qualified to discuss are Kung Lao, Ermac, and Sektor. Since a lot of people play Kung Lao and Ermac I'll throw out some Sektor match up info.

Reptile: 5/5 - While Reptile has no great way in against Sektor he can compete with any range game Sektor can dish out since his start up and recovery on both missles are not that fast. It's also way more threatening to get hit by a force ball than a horizontal missile. What Sektor has going for him against all non teleport characters is flamethrower. On reaction you can stuff any jump in as well as Reptile's slide and dash. In terms of up close, it seems to be a wash. Both have good mix ups concerning highs/lows; both also have around the same damage with no bar combos. What Sektor has going against him unlike any opponent is how flamethrower doesn't knock down. Normally, this is a great thing so you do not have to deal with wake ups - but Reptile's dash is so fast that it might as well be a wake up. After every hit with flamethrower, he can dash you - so you must block.

Cage: 4/6 (in Cage's favor) A lot of Cage's moves end safe on block or +1 frame advantage which is a great thing about this character. What makes this worse is that Sektor's normals are SLOW. So even moves that end 0/0 for Cage will give him frame advantage. Sektor needs to simply not let Cage block string him, which isn't hard to do - Cage's range game and ways in are rather lackluster. Cage can also end his combos with Sektor standing, leaving him no option for a wake up EX teleport. This isn't a bad matchup, Sektor players just need to be extremely cautious when to make their moves.

Milenna: 5/5 These two characters on paper are VERY similar. Both have to spend a bar to use a safe wake up. Both have high/low mix ups that start a combo. Both can start a combo from across the screen. Both play a good zone game if need be. Both have very punishable special moves if not EXed. What differs are two things: damage and normals. Sektor's damage is noticeably higher than Milennas, so when given opportunities, he can either take the lead or catch up rather fast. Milenna has beast normals and pokes which can stuff a lot of what Sektor has going on starting his combos. When Sektor lifts his leg for a high or low - Milenna doesn't have to guess, she can just D4 or D3 and win the coin flip every time.

Hope this helps some Sektor players out there.

 

[ChaseRLewis]

Personally i think the thread is more to compile information so after evo or early fall nrs can give us one last patch to fix some of the stupid 7-3 matchups in the game. A game with only 5-5's and 6-4's is a dream. Really all i want for kitana is more blockstun on her d1 so on block it doesn't get punished by superman/ex spin : /

With that kind of info they can assess whether a nerf or a buff is the best way to handle the situation rather than pull another kano incident.

 

[lobo]

A game with only 5-5's and 6-4's is a dream.

i disagree. that much homogenization in a game makes it rather boring. i like low tier heroes and upsets and underdogs. i would prefer if NRS never buffed or nerfed another damn thing for at least 6 months until we can get it straight what is actually broken.

 

[AK L0rdoftheFLY]

So I pretty much play only nightwolf and want to input some matchups I know pretty well. Are we only doing kitana right now or can we do multiple characters at once?

 

[ChaseRLewis]

So I pretty much play only nightwolf and want to input some matchups I know pretty well. Are we only doing kitana right now or can we do multiple characters at once?

any matches are welcome, we kitana players are just the most vocal currently

 

[Robotic]

Hope this helps some Sektor players out there.

It does, Sektor is overlooked. Nice sig.

 

[MKK hanzo]

awesomeness

Wow, awesome breakdown. thx for the quick and informative answeer Konqrr.

 

[xTHUGx]

Here's an Excel Version

Matchup Chart

Already sums the matchups for each character for you and easier than paint if you have excel : P

What exactly is this for? does it suppose to be filled with matchup strategys for every character?

 

[MKF30]

When you press square on the character select screen, there is an option there called hidden select. You select that and your cursor is unvisible. Your opponent doesn't know who you selected

Pretty much they can still counterpick in a way by picking second but since you go to the invisible cursor option they have no idea who you are so they're guessing who you picked more or less....

At any rate, would be interesting to see how this chart turns out over time...as an Ermac player, I know who matches up pretty well and bad against him. But learning who matches up well/bad for my secondary characters atm.

 

[D. R.]

I guess you didn't understand what I said about Kitana getting a GUARANTEED 45% combo from you doing a shadow tackle from 3/4 screen or closer. You can't walk backwards, you are still in recovery.

You are talking about shadow tackle as if it is an impenetrable wall and completely safe. This is untrue.

God damn man, I swear you can't read. Never did I say tackle is so God like. Two times already you've put words in my mouth. You alter my words again and I'mma have to call you stupid for not reading probably, so read carefully. Now, please elaborate on this unstoppable 45% combo that you WILL hit me with, because that's all I do as a Noob player, stand back and spam tackle at any range cause I'm begging to get punished for being so predictable. *sarcasm* Lol I have no other options against the bitch, oh Lord. *teleport* Nor, can I go ahead and decide to be on the offensive. *Hello Noob's untapped potential*