When it comes to Sub, I like to think about him like this:
What are Sub's main goals?
Answer: To get you into the corner, control space, and to trap you in his ice.
Now, let's take a look at the rest of the roster. Who has similar goals to Sub Zero?
Cyrax - trap you in his nets/bombs. Control's space as well with bomb placements, teleport, etc.
Noob - trap you into black holes. Once in the corner, Noob has more damaging options. Control's space with teleport, clones, black holes, etc.
Cyber Sub - trap you in his ice. Cyber Sub also has a slide with significant pushback. Once in the corner, Cyber Sub's pressure is good. Control's space with bombs, ice, teleport, dive kicks etc.
Now, let's look at how these characters compare with Sub.
Cyrax - off of a traded projectile anywhere on the screen, he get's at least 50% damage with a meter via UNESCAPABLE resets. In the corner, Cyrax has 11 pressure, bombs, throws, command grab, and 33 pressure to keep the opponent on lockdown. Cyrax is much more mobile than Sub thanks to his teleport and is better with controlling space thanks to bombs and nets. Also, because of all the teleporting, bomb and net throwing, Cyrax gets a lot of meter to spend.
Noob - although Noob isn't as good in the damage department, doesn't have as good corner pressure, and doesn't have much mobility, he has the best zoning in the game to compensate. He controls space much better than other characters, and he's got resets that can lead to giant damage. Even if the resets don't work, Noob is still left fullscreen away from his opponent - which is where he wants to be. He can use EX black hole to catch an off guard opponent for some damage and another reset opportunity. Noob's projectile trades don't hurt him much either since he can frame trap most of the cast by throwing a meaty clone. In the corner, Noob's got decent up clone pressure with a very high damage corner combo that, with a bar of meter, leaves the opponent confused and defenseless. Noob also builds meter very very quickly.
Cyber Sub - Cyber Sub is very mobile thanks to his divekick and teleport. Cyber Sub builds meter rather quickly as well. Up close, Cyber Sub has a decent 50/50 mixup game that leads to a slide with significant pushback. Cyber Sub has an ice parry that can be used as an anti-air. Cyber Sub controls space with bombs, ice balls, divekicks, and teleports. When Cyber Sub traps the opponent in ice anywhere on the screen, he can get 30% + damage. In the corner, Cyber Sub has very good offensive options. Cyber Sub also builds meter quite easily and has a divekick that is unpunishable by most of the cast.
Now let's look at Sub Zero.
Sub - first of all, Sub's corner game is the best in the game - no doubt. However, Sub lacks in many other areas. For one, mobility. Sub's mobility is greatly limited by his lackluster dash speed and lack of a teleport of some kind. Second is Sub's ability to capitalize. If Sub gets a freeze fullscreen, he can get a slide for 10% damage. Even if Sub gets a freeze from up close, he does 25% damage from an air freeze and 29% off of a grounded freeze. Sub had to work hard to trap his opponent to get that kind of damage while a character like Cyrax does half as much work for more than double the result? Why is that? Third is that all of Sub's special moves are punishable by most of the cast and his ground freeze is useless. Fourth is that Sub builds meter rather slowly. Fifth is that Sub NEEDS meter; he needs that meter to be able to finish his opponent off with (jip) 214
. Finally, his upclose mixup isn't too good. He's got his 22 string which can go to 224 clone and he can mix it up with slide. However, that's easy for an opponent to block. Block low by default and fuzzy guard his overhead F4 and 222 string which are both easy to react to. If he goes for the clone option, he is pushed away and has to make his way in again.
So it looks like in comparison with characters that have similar goals to him, he falls short everywhere except in the corner - which is a situational scenario.
This is why, I feel, that the best way to make Sub a little more even with other characters is to up his damage by 4-5%. Either that or to make his EX Freeze useful by making it able to refreeze without the combo falling short and to remove the damage scaling on the EX Freeze.
So this combo should work with the suggested changed:
*block unsafe move* 22 Freeze jip 212 EX Freeze Dash *whiff* B1 2 21 Slide.
Hell, this could open up the door to more combo opportunities for Sub.
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