Spinal's Throw

[Johnny2d]

I think Spinal's throw game might be the best thing he has going for him. From a backthrow then groundskull then teleport, the guessing situation is so highly in Spinal's favor. You can time it so the skull is centered right below them as they wakeup, while you are teleporting. They have to guess did he do the fireball earlier or later so at what time will it connect, then did he teleport early or late so will I have to block away or towards to block the skull, then they have to guess will he do behind teleport or in front teleport? If they are trying to do a wakeup attack your teleport reverses their inputs. Or... you don't need to teleport, you can do a b+hp overhead to make them block the skull low, then the high overhead.

His forward throw gets you a similar situation with overhead skull although I like the backthrow version low skull better as of right now. Forward throw may be the better go to to get them in the corner so probably worth it.

Some of the trouble people have with Spinal is that he needs skulls to set stuff up. Well, throw gives you a skull so no matter what, if you get a throw, you get a super messed up setup, and if your setup worked, you'll end your combo with multiple skulls at your disposal to get yourself more shenanigans.

Spinal gets mad stuff from his throw, with no negatives. Sorry if this has been covered anywhere else, I just love the character and thought I would share my thoughts on his throw, which in my opinion is his best tool.

 

[Hellbringer]

I can confirm that this is salt inducing

 

[Johnny San]

Yeah I hate Spinal.

I don't play as much as I'd like so my Orchid usually gets owned by a decent Spinal. I find his blade spin move the most annoying though. Some bullshit.

 

[hellotherekyle]

I'm a million times better with spinal after learning this. Thanks!

 

[Vagrant]

Best throw oki in the game imo.

 

[JHCRANE 14]

Ya, Spinal is my back up (Glacius is my main) and his throw is wicked sick. However, my favorite thing to do with Spinal is ending the round with shadow skulls to drain there instinct meter...man, that never gets old.

 

[Vagrant]

Ya, Spinal is my back up (Glacius is my main) and his throw is wicked sick. However, my favorite thing to do with Spinal is ending the round with shadow skulls to drain there instinct meter...man, that never gets old.

This always happens to me right as I'm about to SRK instinct cancel to get up safely with fulgore. I forget my instinct is drained and I end up whiffing an SRK and dying. lol

 

[Johnny2d]

Ok, the other thing that enhances the usefulness of his throw is the ghostly manuals. Whenever you are comboing, you should be doing a manual or 2 early in the combo to try to get lockouts and to confuse them, but late in the combo you should end with a 3rd hit ghostly manual because it sets up an incredible mind game.

1. You get extra damage from the ghostly manual, and they don't add kv. My bnb combos set me up to always be able to push for 1 more hit without kv because of the ghost manual.

2. The ghostly manual is begging to be broken, especially heavy, if they break your third hits you get awesome counterbreaker opportunities.

3. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!!! Once you train them to look for 3rd hits, you can drop your combo and get a throw almost for free. No one is looking for throw mid combo right now, and Spinal has the illusion that he will be going for a 3rd hit, but instead you throw. As we already know, he gets a devastating setup off from the back throw so keep going for it. The throw does great damage, and sets up the vortex, and if you get the hit after the vortex you can do a fake ghostly again, then throw for another vortex. Keep guessing right and you can keep resetting for tons of life. Once you get them to see that you are going for this, switch back to hitting them with the 3rd hit manual since they are going to be trying to tech a throw.

***Side note, if you go for this vortex after a throw then skull, then teleport, and they do block it right, you still get incredible pressure. You can use standing mp, standing light punch, standing lk, all of which are plus frames, then another poke, or teleport away (which is pretty useful since they might try to throw you and if they whiff a throw and you teleported away you can whiff punish with standing hp), or you can even throw them again and start the whole game again. So good.

 

[Johnny2d]

I've got another shenanigan I can share... I might just write a guide on how I approach this character since I've got some tech I'm sitting on.

Ok, so here it is. Spinal gets the sabrewulf dash mixup into ex move. Its basically the same mixup wise and damage wise. Here's how it goes. After a knockdown, sweep is especially good for this, wait a moment so they will start their wakeup, then jump over them right as they are getting up. Time it so you are earlier than their wakeup attack though. Get above them so that you are exactly right in the middle above them then do ex teleport. If positioned perfectly, I don't even know what side I'm going to come up on, and I swear sometimes I think I;m coming up right, and he comes up left. Its fucked up. You don't have to reverse your input if you actually do cross them as pressing the teleport input doesn't actually change until you hit the ground, so you could, intentionally delay this so you can see if they press a button or not. If you time this right you can reverse their inputs on their wakeup, force them to recognize that they have to block the other way, and force them to guess what side you will come up on, but all you have to do is jump over and do the input. It puts a major burden on them to guess right but you don't really need to think that hard, like I said I don't even know what side I'm coming up on sometimes.

After it hits you get mp, sword, for 15% total, or more if you want to spend another bar, or more if this is in the corner. Not great damage but it comes off of a great mindgame. If people know that you are going to setup this fucked up teleport situation when you jump in, people might not be willing to anti air you anymore, now you get jump heavy kicks all day long. If they manage to guess right and block right, and they don't press a button, it is unsafe, so use this setup when you have instinct ready, just like sabrewulf. If its blocked, pop instinct and you get more pressure. Once I get instinct all of a sudden the Spinal game changes with every knockdown since I'm coming after you with this setup, which will be made safe if they do manage to block it.

Some might say that 15% isn't worth a bar, but pressure then with long distance pokes and sword swings and you get your meter back very fast, hvy punches and distance sword swings are a great battery. The moves don't even need to hit, just stay long, make them block your stuff, get your bar back, then look for knockdowns. As long as you have instinct ready to make the tele safe, no reason not to just keep doing this. I'll even keep instinct ready just to keep my ex tele safe, even if I have it for a little while. Now, If I get a combo in the corner, I'll use my instinct, or if I get a breaker or something else where I'd get a huge benefit instinct I absolutely won't just hang onto it for this, but it is a great addition to his game once you get instinct ready.

Your match could look like this:
Opening>Get Skulls>Use Skulls to Suck Meter>Use All Meter to Suck Instinct>Once Instinct is Ready, Party Time With Ex Tele

 

[Johnny2d]

I'm a million times better with spinal after learning this. Thanks!

Its messed up right?

 

[Vagrant]

Yeah I guess the ex tele might be worth it if your covering your ass with instinct. It's an interesting find and a way I never thought of ex tele being used.

 

[EnergyKD]

Backthrow into low skull into crossup teleport sounds crazy good. Its just one bad guessing game for your opponent.

Nice find

 

[hellotherekyle]

Dude you're a friggin spinal scientist.

 

[Glass Sword]

@AK L0rdoftheFLY

 

[AK L0rdoftheFLY]

@AK L0rdoftheFLY

Been here...seen it.

Does it and loves it

 

[Vagrant]

It'd be cool if the KI community could stop acting like Spinal is a shitty character now with only gimmicks to work with.

 

[Fromundaman]

Thank you for sharing this. I don't actually own the game sadly, but I play when I see it available, and this should help me out a lot.

 

[Johnny2d]

@AK L0rdoftheFLY

Remember when Skarlet first came out and you could get 2 slides, then overhead almost everytime? Everyone just got hit by the lows then tried to block low and you could do the overhead. That day one tech lol.

Spinal's throw low skull trap works like that right now, do back throw low skull tele behind twice, then do it again but tele in front. Its that same 1,2,3 gimmick that works like a charm. people will catch on soon though but until they do im going to force them to respect it, and once they know the pattern, then the real games open up... very skarlet like in that spinal's matchups get more fun to play if the opponent actually knows your options.

 

[Johnny2d]

It'd be cool if the KI community could stop acting like Spinal is a shitty character now with only gimmicks to work with.

He can get shut down on wakeup, but that doesnt mean hes bad. Hes just not built to get knocked down.

I should mention that with your meter management and instinct, its good to save a bar for wakeup situations. Getting up is really hard for spinal so using a bar is sometimes necessary, and having your instinct ready to cover you if you got baited is pretty critical. Think especially hard about this vs thunder, and sabrewulf as they both really eat spinal alive after knockdown.

 

[loogie]

He can get shut down on wakeup, but that doesnt mean hes bad. Hes just not built to get knocked down.

I should mention that with your meter management and instinct, its good to save a bar for wakeup situations. Getting up is really hard for spinal so using a bar is sometimes necessary, and having your instinct ready to cover you if you got baited is pretty critical. Think especially hard about this vs thunder, and sabrewulf as they both really eat spinal alive after knockdown.

Spinal becomes a toothpick for Thunder ...

 

[loogie]

who else feels his throw was buffed?
the grab range is way better than it was at launch of the character ...

 

[Banemobius]

Not that I've noticed, it whiffed plenty of times today when I'm sure other characters would have landed.

This tech has really upped my game, thanks Johnny2d.

 

[loogie]

Not that I've noticed, it whiffed plenty of times today when I'm sure other characters would have landed.

This tech has really upped my game, thanks Johnny2d.

having lots of trouble against Spinal lately and need to learn the matchup better ... we have to play a few sets, mate

 

[G4S KT]

Spinal back throw set up is dumb. 100% safe, unreactable or fuzzy-able "time to guess, bitch" mix up marvel / injustice style

Low crush moves can pass over the skull and punish spinal if he teleports behind but OOPS since the skull moves so slow and low crushes advance forward you still get hit by it after it connects and the low invincibility runs out. Same with shadow moves.

I could try uppercuts but I'm 90% sure they'll just whiff

Only Sabrewulf has a solid option to reversal out. DOWN UP DERP so annoying. I wish they would change the input of that move to a regular DP motion

Any thoughts for dealing with it?

Spoiler

"don't get thrown" LOL YOU'RE SO CLEVER shut up

 

[Banemobius]

having lots of trouble against Spinal lately and need to learn the matchup better ... we have to play a few sets, mate

Sounds good man, I need practise too.

@G4S KT you play Jago right? I'm pretty sure an uppercut could do it actually. Also, when a Spinal did the setup on me I did qcb+HK, which of course gave me my projectile invulnerable move as he crossed me up. Due to him being right next to me the forward motion wasn't very far and I outlasted the skull. Perhaps a light or medium wind kick would do the same?

Also, if you push Spinal into a corner with your Shadow Wind Kick you can stop while the skull carries on. This happened to me earlier today.