Rambo with Snare + FUBAR slotted becomes a well rounded character with great counter-zoning, whiff punishing and strong strike/throw mixup potential. This is the first variation I recommend for people unfamiliar with playing Rambo before they get their feet wet with anything else that may result in lower overall damage or put themselves in more unnecessary risk of being punished.
Movement:
- The first thing I want to mention is that Rambo has some of the best forward walk and dash movement in the game, making switching between these game plans fairly easy for him. Players interested in wave dashing should find Rambo to be very rewarding.
- If at, round start, you back jump and decide you wanna try zoning, for now just focus on two important projectiles: Hunting Bow and Whip Trap. DownBack2 Hunting Bow is capable of combo’ing the arrows into themselves on hit for great damage at no meter cost. You can also stagger the arrows into DownBack4 Whip Trap to check forward movement or just delay them to limit what your opponent can do in neutral.
- Whip Trap is a teleporting projectile that comes out fast and can hit the opponent anywhere on the screen. If you ever suspect the opponent does anything OTHER than block just throw it out. It not only knocks the opponent down on hit but also has Rambo crouching the entire time in case you want to counter-zone with one of the best counter-zoning tools in the game.
- Now that you knocked the opponent down maybe you wanna close in but you wanna try and whiff punish the opponent. The only strings you should worry about for now is Back33 and Back121. If you want to punish, whiff-punish or do a mid/throw check on your opponent use Back33. It has a surprisingly long reach and if you land a hit then special cancel into an amplified DownBack3 Snare for big damage, otherwise just Back33 on block leaves you safe from getting punished.
- If your opponent is a little more slippery and you gotta chase them down, use Back121. If you get a hit with Back12 then special cancel into amplified Snare or finish the string with Back121 to prevent yourself from getting punished.
- Alright now that you got a hit and you confirmed it with an amplified Snare. What’s your combo going to look like? Once your opponent is hanging, position yourself correctly for a Forward3 then do Back221 into FUBAR (DownBackForward1) for excellent midscreen damage. If you are in the corner and want to keep that corner use Whip Trap. It will be worth your time practicing the timing for these combos.
- If you have no offensive meter to spend for Snare you should punish with Forward122 meterless launcher and then do Back221 into FUBAR for the side switch and extra damage or Whip Trap to keep the same side. Only do this if you know it’ll hit because this string can be punishable on block.
- If you have the read that your opponent is going to getup roll when they’re knocked down, you’ll want to catch them with FUBAR instead of your normal grab, it has a krushing blow that also bleeds for a total damage of 420 for the side switch and 400 to keep the same side. A true game changer for sure.
- Alright you successfully whiff-punished your opponent and you wanna be a little closer now to get some offense going. The only pokes you should worry about for now are Down1, Down3 and Forward4.
- If you have FUBAR slotted, you can tic throw on Down1 and Down3 if your opponent blocks and FUBAR should also catch them if they tried jumping out. Rambo can also tic his command grab with his Jump3 as well when you input this jump kick early into his jump.
- This is good to have if your opponent likes blocking or maybe you feel a reversal throw in this situation might be more risky. Doing this should make them block less and open them up to more Back33’s.
- Down3 is a great low profiling, fast poke. Always great to have and can be a good anti-air option since Rambo crouches so low to the ground. Forward4 is a great overhead that can be difficult to punish at farther distances and has a krushing blow if you hit them twice in a row or if they break away. Another good reason why you should be slotting Snare.
- If you want to anti-air you can use Jump2 and confirm into a combo. Down2 is okay and reaches pretty far away if your opponent tries jumping in. If your opponent tries to cross you up Down3 can make a lot of what they do whiff.
- Doing normal throws is great for Rambo too, he has a krushing blow off his forward throw that causes bleed (175 damage total) and stuns the opponent for a combo extension. All you have to do is not jump or get knocked down for 10 seconds. A great way to load this KB is by zoning the opponent out and suddenly dashing in and throwing them, keep in mind his forward throw also takes 5 seconds long if you want to run the clock that way while loading your KB.
- Having this forward throw KB now loaded also has a great mind game added, which way is your opponent going to tech that throw? Will you forward throw to spend the KB or back throw to keep it? This is what makes Rambo’s throw game scary.
Last edited: