Shang vs the lizard?

[BT-joe]

I personally find this match up difficult for shang it could be a 4-5 to 5-5 in favor of rep or maybe a 6 to 4 match up in favor of rep. Tell me what you guys think about it.

 

[Mr. Mileena]

I think Reptile beats Shang, try asking detroit.

 

[CitizenSnips]

6-4 Reptile.

 

[trustinme]

man i love fighting reptile with shang but its in reptiles favour,not by much though.

 

[freakwency]

Reptile and Shang are my 2 mains and i feel this is shangs worst matchup along with smoke. Both characters revolve around massive pressure set ups once they get going, however reptile has easy escapes. I rely on soul steal a lot in this match up. A boosted Reptile is no joke. Reptile will blow up anyone that doesnt have a teleport with his forceballs. skulls and forceballs might be equal but rep has even more options. with shang you will have to make perfect reads w ground skulls because rep can get in really fast with the whiffed dash and can counter any shang move besides soul capture w the dash.

 

[greeneless]

I suppose I will be the minority here . I am not a Shang main, but I play him. I've played a little bit of all of the cast. I've never had a problem with reptile players as Shang, or at least I've never felt like it was an uneven match. I was wanting to post this thread myself.

On paper, shang has skulls which occupy space and spot every forward special of reptiles aside from EX slide. You throw out a straight skull, then you get a mix up between upskull over their head or upskull in front of them. Reptiles projectiles are slow if you can avoid the spit, so unlike most characters Reptile should not give shang tsung a hard time from full screen.

Up close it is just who starts the pressure first, it seems 5-5 to me. F4 GS is 10 frames on start up and +2 on block. Reptiles fastest poke is 8 frames. If reptile is player 2, that is a just-frame block infinite. If he is player 1 it is still going to be hella hard to poke out. His only way out of pressure is to dash, so that is a guessing game. If you block it, he is technically at -15. If you're blocking right there, you read the dash. You should be ready to punish with F434.

It's 5-5 imo, but I would not be shocked if it was in shang's favor. Of course, I am a noob. I would love to hear Detroit's opinion on this match up.

AT THE VERY LEAST this match up requires reptile to approach it differently than most of his matchups