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Breakthrough - Ethereal Pushing Ethereal Further Still - EX Fade Tech

New ideas for applications of EX Fade/Vanish. If you've followed my posts and those of others you'll see this strategy has been discussed briefly. But I haven't seen a video demonstrating it, so I decided to make one. Following in @TakeAChance's footsteps to try and bring out the potential of this variation. Yes, we know regular Fade could use a startup buff, but EX Fade is an S-Tier Tool.

3 important things to note about this move:
- EX Fade is invincible on startup.
This means Mileena takes no damage at all from attacks as opposed to armor which still absorbs full damage.

- EX Fade cannot be "armor broken" by multi-hit attacks.
This makes it better than armor in almost every way.

- EX Fade recovers almost immediately when Mileena reappears.
This basically allows you to turn BLOCK punishes into potential WHIFF punishes

So with that said, check it out.

@theGabStandard @Mr. Mileena @TakeAChance
@Yoaks @1man3letters @YOMI RM SaltFace
@Jeffrey Wolf @JDE @Blonde_Huntress
@JerzeyReign @Nu-Skoool @EMPEROR_SunFire
@Ninjaguy446 @MajinBerserker
 
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Takeda has gaps all over his offense. I've never played it either lol. Just theorizing.
Oh, lol. I should probably check all the strings with gaps.

For this vid I mainly stuck to the ones I see people use. Some of them rely on imperfect timing. Like the Quan Chi pseudo-unblockable. If timed 100% perfectly, you can't hit a button. But if there's even a little mistiming, she can fade out and punish him.
 

Nu-Skoool

Feel the nerf of despair
Great video. After watching Saltface use Ethereal during a set with MIT and this I'm convinced about this variations potential. The pressure strings on this variation is great but the reversal utility of ex fade is awesome.
 

SaltFace NS

Ultimate Mileena Exterminator
I told everyone on my stream the other night that you shouldn't sleep on Ethereal. It has way too many good options vs the Higher Tier Characters that she normally struggles with.

Right now I've only played Ethereal for about a week. I still have a lot of tech & tactics to discover.
 
I gotta say I do love the video that you produced describing the true power of Ethereal. I'm currently working on a guide on any & all strings that can be cut into or interrupted by EX Fade for a punish. It will take time but I'll continue to work at it.
Yeah as I told StealthyMuffin, I was mainly checking for the strings I see used a lot. But pretty much anywhere there's a place to armor out, you can do this instead. Even if the string has no gap, they might try to continue pressure, and you can blow them up with this. Only exception is if the move has a ton of range where EX Roll might give better results.

And Ice Clone fucks it up too

You also gotta be super committed to a read to make punishing low pokes work, since Roll is unsafe if you're wrong. But yeah this is good shit.
 
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ExpiredCodes

The Yankees blew a 3-0 lead in the 2004 ALCS.
After checking this out and seeing what SaltFace showed on Trepound's stream, Ethereal is definitely number 2. Any character with gaps in their strings now has to think twice against her and always keep an eye on her meter. EX Fade is just amazing.
 
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After checking this out and seeing what Saltface showed on Trepound's stream, Ethereal is definitely number 2. Any character with gaps in their strings now has to think twice against her and always keep an eye on her meter. EX Fade is just amazing.
Well if regular Fade gets fixed up, it could move to number 1. What she's missing is a reliable way to build all the meter she needs.
And like I said to SaltFace, it's more about having the right variation for the MU. Ethereal is a great counterpick option vs characters that force pressure.
 

Nu-Skoool

Feel the nerf of despair
Yeah as I told StealthyMuffin, I was mainly checking for the strings I see used a lot. But pretty much anywhere there's a place to armor out, you can do this instead. Even if the string has no gap, they might try to continue pressure, and you can blow them up with this. Only exception is if the move has a ton of range where EX Roll might give better results.

And Ice Clone fucks it up too

You also gotta be super committed to a read to make punishing low pokes work, since Roll is unsafe if you're wrong. But yeah this is good shit.
Now I'm curious about this because before I played Mileena I mained Sub and one string in particular that Mileena had to respect was b33xx clone, which is his low, low string. The only time Mileena could punish is on a point blank b33 with nothing canceling it. Can Mileena use ex fade towards to bypass the clone and punish the clone recovery here?

Typical Sub post knockdown pressure game in the corner can end in njp, njk, or f12/b33d3. With the latter setup placing the clone a little further away. There's a few other setups that lend themselves to shatter combos but that's for another day. Going back to the initial setups, can Mileena ex towards to get pass the clone here if Sub tries to do run in throw, b33 or spaced b2 or does she just appear in the clone? Or can she just ex fade towards while yelling YOLO even if Sub has a clone out and standing there (look at that knee!).

Furthermore as we know Subs love to sit behind clone and toss projectiles, while we already have an on reaction move in teleport to beat ice ball, can Mileena stay at a relatively spaced distance and ex fade towards to punish things such as iceball, clone toss, shatter and stage interactions, or at the very least establish pressure?
 
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