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Match-up Discussion Sektor's MU Analysis (In-Depth)

NKZero

Noob
Ok guys so this is fairly self-explanatory. I really want people to feel comfortable in using Sektor in as many MU's as possible, including those that are fairly disadvantaged. Even though I am not a true Sektor main, I have used him extensively in all but one MU, that one being Skarlet.

With that being said I am happy to take requests on full write-ups for any MU people are inquisitive about.

As soon as I get a request I will refresh my memory, start hammering out the MU if I'm a little rusty so I can provide you guys with as much accurate info as possible. That's why for now I will leave the names of the characters blank until I get a request.

This is effectively replacing the bad MU thread I did a few months back since info was lost on that thread and also rather than just worrying about the disadvantage MU's, I thought I'd dive deep (BALLZ DEEP) into all other MU's as well.

If anyone is comfortable doing a detailed write up on Sektor vs Skarlet please let me know.

Note: MU's will be analysed more from Sektor's perspective and what he can do to overcome certain issues and whatnot although strategies of the two characters in question will be evaluated.

Note II: This is the MU breakdown...
  • Up close game
  • Footsies
  • Zoning/Turtling
  • Corner game
  • Wake-up game
  • Meter management
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SEKTOR vs BARAKA
SEKTOR vs CYBER SUB ZERO
SEKTOR vs CYRAX/HUMAN CYRAX
SEKTOR vs ERMAC

Up close game: advantage Sektor

This is the one area that Sektor can really exploit in this MU, and the area that gives Sektor the best (and perhaps only) chance to win.

Freddy has one of the large hit-boxes in the game, which translates to great danger if Sektor manages to get in. Sektor has all pressure tools available to him such as 122, 12B1, 214, B34, B21 etc. Freddy’s only real escape options (other than generic D1 and D3 pokes) are to burn meter in the form of EX sweet dreams or EX teleport. His high hit-box in addition to his slow normals is what makes it difficult for him to find a reliable escape route when locked down.

Sektor may get away with linking block strings into up missiles on the odd occasion to maintain pressure and gain the upper hand on chip damage for as long as possible because the further the distance between both characters, the more favourable a position Freddy is in.

On the other side of the coin, Freddy is not really known for his ability to rush down. Though he has 10 frame normals in 1 and 2, they both whiff against a crouching Sektor (who has one of the game’s lowest hit-boxes). His next best option is the mid-hitting F4, which comes out in 12 frames. Freddy can stagger the strings to some extent between F4/F42/F421 but if Sektor makes the right read he can interrupt with 12B1 for big damage.

Freddy’s best bet is to cancel F421 into teleport away. His hell spike is -13 on block so at touching distance (when linked off a string) is full combo punishable by Sektor.

Sektor clearly has the advantage here by having all pressure options open to him while Freddy has slower normals and limited at that.

Zoning/Turtling: advantage Freddy

If rushdown was convincingly in Sektor’s favour, the reverse applies here. Freddy is widely regarded as one of, if not, the best zoners in the game.

From Sektor’s perspective, he can ill afford getting comfortable in throwing out missiles. His straight missile is slower travelling and has greater recovery than Freddy’s glove toss, so he’ll lose that battle easily. His up missile is far too slow and Freddy can either knock him out of it with a faster projectile, or make use of his 3-ranged hell spikes to knock Sektor out of the animation.

If Sektor’s straight missile does manage to hit or trade successfully then he can use the advantage of the knockdown to advance (which is beneficial considering his quick dash speed).

Flame burner is pretty much useless considering Freddy will never want to be anywhere else in this MU other than full screen, and if flame burner whiffs it is easily punished by Freddy. Freddy even has his nightmare stance (NMS) to avoid the straight missile and counter-launch himself.

As for Freddy, well he can pursue his regular zoning patterns with a relative amount of ease and comfort. His projectiles are known to be faster so he’ll win trades and get more projectiles out on screen. Not only is his hell spike good for evading/punishing missiles, but they can also knock Sektor out of his teleport uppercut (TU) if he tries to anti-zone.

So not only does Sektor lose in zoning but also he cannot anti-zone thanks to the hell spikes. Even without the ground spikes, Sektor cannot iaTU on reaction to Freddy’s projectiles. He must make a read, and one wrong read equals big damage for Freddy to capitalize on. Even if Sektor tries to slow down Freddy’s zoning with homing missile, if Freddy makes a read on Sektor throwing one out, he can punish with EX hell spike and since it has massive frame advantage on hit, Sektor won’t recover in time to capitalize on the homing missile launch.

It is clear that in the zoning/turtling area of this MU, Freddy is very dominant, both in winning the pure zoning war and effectively preventing Sektor from using iaTU as an anti-zoning measure.

Footsies: even

This part of the MU is very delicately balanced in the sense that both characters have many tools to counter one another, which makes for an interesting medium between one end of the stage and another.

Sektor has a variety of good footsie tools, both offensive and defensive. While his B1 is notoriously known for being safe on block and giving good push back, hitting Freddy with B1 only sends him back further, playing right into Freddy’s hands. His best chance of approaching in this MU is using F2. Once he gets in with being neutral on block, all pressure options are available and he can abuse Freddy’s high hit-box.

Freddy however does have a counter to Sektor’s advancing normals and that is his NMS. NMS lowers Freddy’s hit-box allowing him to evade F2 and B1 and then potentially whiff punish for full combo with NMS-1. NMS is also useful in that once Freddy can get the Sektor player to respect NMS follow-ups, he can cancel NMS into teleport away to create distance and start the zoning game.

Sektor’s counters to NMS are B3 and B21. B21 is better because it has better range and can be used to punish Freddy players who are too predictable with NMS. However B21 also pushes Freddy far back, which is a concept Freddy greatly embraces, so there’s always the option to link B2-TU for a full combo, but that is not hit-confirmable.

Freddy and Sektor both have roughly equal range and start-up frames on their down pokes so there’s not much to analyse there.

From Freddy’s perspective he has some nice range on tools such B3/B2 but they are a few frames slower than Sektor’s distanced footsie options so they aren’t abusable by any stretch.

Sektor has the better footsie tools, farther-reaching and quicker but Freddy’s NMS serves as a great counter, not to mention that anything that gives pushback will suit Freddy. Freddy needs to play the role of the counter-attacker in this part of the MU rather than trying to throw something slower out and risk getting punished big time.

Corner game: even

Both characters have excellent corner games because they do big damage in the corner and can still sustain pressure or go for safe 50/50 mix-ups.

Sektor’s rushdown of Freddy suddenly becomes increasingly more dangerous in the corner. Freddy has no space to move backwards so his option is either to burn meter on EX sweet dreams or EX teleport or run the risk of getting punished for using a standard teleport if Sektor reads it.

With the aid of up missiles/homing missile, Sektor can keep Freddy locked down, and providing he uses the right set-ups (such as 21-up missile) to end combos, he is safe against any Freddy wake-up. This then gives him options to go for the U3 stance 50/50 or just continue general rushdown.
From Freddy’s side of things, he has a devastating corner game, made stronger by Sektor’s weak ability to escape tricky corner set-ups. If Freddy were to end combos in 221+2 or F421 in the corner he can link in sweet dreams and still be safe against Sektor’s wake-ups.

When Freddy gains frame advantage off sweet dreams, he can go for his B2/B3 50/50, which could potentially land him in another combo. He basically has a safe vortex so even if he guesses wrong he won’t bear any consequences.

Sektor must try and find the space and timing to launch an up missile/homing missile in order to plan his escape but it can be tough especially if Freddy makes a successful read on Sektor’s intentions.

Wake-up game: advantage Freddy

Much of what was said in the corner game applies to the wake-up game, since most of both characters’ set-ups stem from knockdown situations.

Sektor has a notoriously weak wake-up game, and against a character like Freddy that is dangerous. Freddy can safely incorporate sweet dream set-ups into his game (especially in the corner) and still be safe to block EX TU, TU or flame burner. In fact, sweet dreams will stuff flame burner and Freddy can potentially get a full combo punish. It can also stuff TU sometimes but that is situational.

When Sektor is afraid to wake-up using wake-up attacks, Freddy can go for his 50/50 options and really press home some up close advantage for once.

Freddy’s wake-up attacks include hell spikes (and EX), sweet dreams (and EX) and teleport (and EX). With all the safe options at his disposal it can be tricky for Sektor to not only bait certain wake-ups but also to maintain pressure with up missile set-ups. While F4/12/21-up missile is safe against any wake-up of Freddy’s, Freddy can avoid these set-ups altogether by teleporting away.

Generally though, if Freddy uses EX sweet dreams from anywhere but touching distance, Sektor can just avoid it by F2 and still get into Freddy’s grill to press the advantage up close. Hell spikes can be crossed-up on read and teleport can be punished on read. Freddy’s only surefire way to be safe and far away is to use EX teleport.


Sektor may be better off forgoing the up missile set-ups on wake-up and just settling for ending combos in B2-flame burner. This keeps Freddy standing and in footsie range rather than allowing Freddy to escape on wake-up using teleport/EX teleport.

While Sektor may give Freddy problems on wake-up, Freddy has many options and many of his downfalls will only occur if Sektor makes the right read. On the other hand, Freddy can easily continue pressing Sektor and abusing his weak wake-ups so Freddy has the advantage here.

Meter management: advantage Freddy

Sektor like in almost every MU, will only need to burn meter for EX TU or EX up missile (homing missile). But it’s the speed at which he builds meter in this MU that is worrying. He cannot zone that much and it is hard to get in on Freddy, so once he’s in he needs to build as much meter as possible via. chip damage from up close pressure. His meter is best spent on breakers since Freddy’s combos can send him full screen and they do considerable damage.

For Freddy, he can use meter more liberally and he builds it a lot quicker as well, but still is advise to save for breaker in order to stop Sektor from getting large chunks of damage in combos, or if he is struggling with Sektor’s rushdown abilities.

The impact of Human Sektor in this MU

It is said that human Sektor actually makes this MU even, as opposed to Sektor losing 4-6 in his robot form. The one difference in this MU is the fact that Freddy is unable to hell spike human Sektor’s straight missile meaning that Sektor may be able to zone more freely. Whether it impacts the MU number I’m not sure but it helps somewhat.

How can Sektor win?

For Sektor to win this MU, it’s simple. He needs to remain as close as possible at all times since he wins the MU up close.

He needs to be patient against Freddy’s powerful zoning, and use meter wisely in the form of breakers or the occasional homing missile to keep Freddy locked down at optimal distance.
 

NKZero

Noob
loogie
1) Up close game: even
From Sektor’s perspective, he is very limited against what he can do up close against Nightwolf, largely due to Nightwolf’s low hit-box. Sektor’s standing 1 and 2 (with all its follow-ups) whiff, leaving him with only B34 or B21 on a crouch-blocking Nightwolf.

If B34 isn’t spaced out correctly, Nightwolf can easily interrupt between the B3 and the 4 with his 7 frame uppercut. Thus B21 is his only real reliable tool up close, and it has 13 start-up frames.

Nightwolf doesn’t have much luck either when it comes to rushing Sektor down. B2 and standing 1 (with all its follow-ups) whiff against Sektor’s crouching hit-box (one of the lowest in the game). However he does have B111 and F3 series at his disposal.

F3 hits mid and can be staggered effectively between F3/F31/F312 or even F31-axe swing. All options are safe but if Sektor makes the right read on a stagger then he can interrupt with 12B1 into a full combo.

Nobody really has the advantage here. Their tools are fairly limited because of both characters’ hit-boxes being too low for either character to unleash their full arsenal of attacks.

2) Zoning/Turtling: even

Once again, Sektor really struggles to establish his zoning here for a variety of reasons. Firstly, from maybe half screen and further, Nightwolf can react to any straight missile with his 1 frame reflect. Up missiles can be reflected as well but they won’t reflect back to Sektor.

Nightwolf can also punish up missiles on reaction with shoulder charge, provided he is in the right range. EX shoulder charge travels from full screen and has armour so it can be used to punish straight or up missiles from anywhere on the screen in an instant. Nightwolf’s shoulder charge is a 10 frame attack, which also comes in handy for punishing flame burner (another of Sektor’s zoning/spacing tools).

Sektor can attempt to bait out a reflect with an up missile and then try and iaTU but if the TU is blocked, Sektor is full combo punished. Once Sektor has Nightwolf respecting this set-up he can zone a little more freely, and even use EX up missile (homing missile) more liberally in an attempt to close space and find an opening.

As for Nightwolf, he is also crippled by what Sektor can do. Nightwolf is more of a turtle than a zoning character. His one projectile, the arrow, can be punished by Sektor’s instant air teleport uppercut (iaTU) on reaction.

His lightning is a very risky unblockable and it’s very much hit and miss. If it misses Sektor can punish anywhere on the screen with iaTU for big damage, which is more than what most people can do against Nightwolf). His EX lightning is just as risky.

Yet again, nobody has an advantage here. Both characters are heavily handicapped in this department; Sektor because of Nightwolf’s reflect and shoulder, Nightwolf because of Sektor’s iaTU.

3) Footsies: advantage Sektor

This is very much where the game is won and lost for both characters. Nobody is going to establish an advantage up close or from far away, so that mid-range area is where most of the battle will take place.

Sektor has many tools at his disposal. His B1 is 16 frames and gives good push back. His F2 is an advancing normal (15 frames) and is neutral on block. If F2 is blocked by Nightwolf in a crouch-blocking state, if Sektor attempts to follow-up with his B3 (12 frames), he may lose out to Nightwolf if he happens to go with his 11 frame F3.

Sektor needs to get Nightwolf to respect his options so that when F2 is blocked, he can cross over, or D3, throw etc. If Sektor does a max-range F2, then Nightwolf has no normals/pokes to counter with and if he throws something out then Sektor can whiff punish with B21 or even B2-TU for a full combo. Nightwolf can use a shoulder charge but that is risky as it can be neutral ducked and full combo punished by 12B1. Also if Sektor anticipates Nightwolf might try to throw out anything other than a D1/D3, then he can go straight into 12B1 to beat out any other attack.

Sektor’s key spacing tool in flame burner is rendered ineffective by Nightwolf’s ability to punish with shoulder charge, so he’ll have to rely heavily on B1 and F2, as well as only using flame burner to whiff punish Nightwolf’s advancing normals or to counter shoulder charge on whiff (when it cannot be full combo punished).

Nightwolf has F3, B1 and B2, which are all advancing normals in the footsie game, each of them useful for whiff punishing and potentially granting Nightwolf a full combo. He also has the invincibility frames of axe swing, which comes in handy.

When Nightwolf can link a poke into axe swing, it must be respected because if Sektor (or anyone) tries to counter-poke the invincibility frames of the axe swing will go through the poke and launch you for a combo. Nightwolf can then take advantage of that and go off any down poke (blocked or not) into his F3 series.

Nightwolf’s problems in this MU lie in the speed and range of his footsie tools. Where Nightwolf can only get shoulder charge damage off Sektor’s whiffed footsie tools (other than B21 which can be whiff punished by B111 or B22 into full combo), Sektor can use B34 or B21 to punish for full combos off a whiffed B22 or F3 and even use iaTU to counter a whiffed B111.

Sektor’s footsie tools are faster, longer reaching and less punishable than Nightwolf’s normals that have as many as 19-22 start-up frames. If Sektor spaces everything correctly he can get Nightwolf to respect his follow-ups and really press the advantage from there.

4) Corner game: even

When Sektor has Nightwolf in the corner, with the assistance of up missiles/homing missile, Sektor doesn’t have to worry about Nightwolf’s reflect since the missiles will lock Nightwolf down while Sektor is applying pressure.

Nightwolf’s avenues for escape include D1-axe swing for push back or using the armour on EX choke if he really needs to burn a bar of meter.

Nightwolf doesn’t have a truly dangerous corner game but because Sektor lacks armour or a good wake-up attack if knocked down in the corner then Nightwolf really has an opportunity to make things count.

Sektor can try and find the right time to EX TU out of the corner, but being at -7, it allows Nightwolf (depending on the right read) to throw Sektor right back into the corner). Sektor can also try and find some space before launching a homing missile to buy some time to escape. Otherwise for both characters, they can always rely on universal options like D1/D3 to poke out.

Sektor has a more potent corner game but because he is very bad at getting out of the corner then nobody has an advantage here either. Sektor cannot end corner combos in 122-up missile since a wake-up shoulder charge will go right through it. 21-up missile is safe and the best way to contain Nightwolf in the corner. If Nightwolf were to get a throw against Sektor in the corner he can keep him there and use the F3 series. If Sektor tries to EX TU out he can potentially throw him back in.

5) Wake-up game: advantage Nightwolf

If Sektor is to give Nightwolf problems on wake-up he needs to make the right read. When Nightwolf is knocked down he can mash something like D4, which would knock Nightwolf out of shoulder charge, or Sektor can even neutral duck and full combo punish if he anticipates it.

However if he just sits there or mashes D4 and Nightwolf goes for axe swing then Sektor is eating a full combo. If Sektor crosses Nightwolf up in anticipation of a wake-up axe swing then he can punish Nightwolf, but a wake-up shoulder will safely space Nightwolf away from the jump-in punch.

Sektor’s 21-up missile set-up is safe against all wake-ups so it counts for Nightwolf just the same. If Sektor uses in front up missile that can be used to counter shoulder charge. The above up missile can counter wake-up axe swing or if Nightwolf just stood up normally. Behind up missile will deal with tech rolls. Nightwolf can use shoulder charge to punish F4-up missile if he uses normal wake-up or 12-up missile if he does a tech roll wake-up.

From Nightwolf’s perspective this is where the MU evens out. Nightwolf has a dangerous anti wake-up game, and against a character like Sektor (with weak wake-ups), it spells out trouble.

Nightwolf’s F3 has great priority as a poke and is known to stuff certain wake-ups, including those of Sektor. Since a throw puts Nightwolf in perfect F3 range (which OTG’s), if timed correctly Nightwolf can stuff Sektor out of his wake-up and potentially get a full combo.

Nightwolf also has his potent, yet risky lightning/EX lighting set-ups. If Sektor commits to an EX TU wake-up then he can punish Nightwolf hard but if Sektor gets up normally/tech rolls and Nightwolf correctly times his lightning/EX lightning he can secure some solid damage.

Once Nightwolf has Sektor respecting his lightning and forces him to commit to wake-up attacks he can take advantage.

6) Meter management: even

Both characters will struggle to build much meter when this MU is very footsie heavy. Neither character can throw out projectiles nor press the advantage up close, so it is all about capitalizing on your opportunities.

Sektor will be using meter for EX TU in combos, EX up missile (homing missile) notably for anti wake-up, in the corner or anytime he finds the right set-up for it. Other than that it’s advisable he uses meter for breaker since Nightwolf can get 35-45% damage off his combos meter-less and using a bar.

Nightwolf also has to be conservative with meter since he can be hit by big damage from Sektor. Otherwise, he’ll be using EX shoulder for anti-zoning, EX choke for armour to escape pressure and EX lightning to capitalize on any damage opportunities made available.

How can Sektor win?
For Sektor to win this MU, he needs to be very space orientated at all times. He should take advantage of his farther reaching, faster and more abusable footsie tools to out space and out poke Nightwolf.

He needs to make a variety of good reads, whether it is whiff punishing shoulder charge or using wake-ups at the right time or using missiles to bait something out of Nightwolf.



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