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The Real MK9 Top 10 Characters

Everyone's free to make their own opinions, but I do believe he loses to all 5 of the top 5 chars in varying degrees. (The top 5 being Kabal, Kenshi, Cyrax, Sonya, and Freddy).

I know I have said a few times I'd try to get around to it, but I think I may make a final JC MU chart with detailed MU explanations to go with the numbers. It may open up some peoples eyes to why he's so bad/good in certain MUs.

That aside, to contribute to the actual purpose of the thread, I think spots 6-10 are really determined by the MU numbers which I do not know for most of the other chars. I would really bet on Cage being top 10 though, depending on how the MU numbers play out he would likely end up around 8-10, and I can't imagine him being lower than 12.
Cage beats Sonya 6-4
 

Perfect Legend

Kombatant
Absolutely.

Kung Lao has the EVO titles.
Kenshi has the exploits of @Pig Of The Hut, Blackula, Under_The_Mayo, and others, but in spite of his power, no great and shimmering trophies to speak of otherwise (although goddammit, would it have been satisfying to see him pull off the upset at EVO 2012.)

Sonya, for all her armor and all her pressuring absurdity, can still be out-zoned and readily defended against by a heavy amount of the cast. Including Kitana and Freddy. Sub-Zero can contend. Ermac can contend. Rain can counter-armor. Skarlet can counter-armor. Not easily, but definitely doably.
On the right stage, you can distance yourself from D4~everything else and the Cartwheel, but if you're fighting a Mr. Mileena or the like who can iAFan to near-perfection, or a general m2dave who can Claw you to death without touching you, you're playing their game whether you like it or not.

Again I will say: There is no such thing an an ironclad Top 5 or 10 in Mortal Kombat.
There are too many variables, and too many strengths and weaknesses in each fighter to say anything certainly.
The only certainty is Kabal, and as has been proven, even he can lose on a good day.

Correction: I have the EVO titles not Kung Lao.
 

Perfect Legend

Kombatant
I laugh at every list that has KL in top 5 but KL loses to Kitana, Cage, Cyrax, Kabal, Sonya lol

Char with 5 bad match ups some how is top 5.

Kabal imo loses to Kitana I really don't care what you think. Kabal has to work really hard to win this match up.

Cage I think has only one bad match up and that is Kenshi. Noob is kind of annoying too though cause of his up shadow.

Kitana I think loses to Cage, Sonya, Kenshi.

Kenshi loses to Kabal, Smoke, Shang, Cyrax, Freddy.

Kung Lao just does well vs Kenshi, Kabal (but loses to kabal) he can go 5-5 with Cyrax I think but its rough. Sonya with proper ex cartwheel use can mop him up. Kitana out footsies him and punishes him harder than he can punish her. Cage out footsies him as well.
 

cR WoundCowboy

WoundCowbae <3
I laugh at every list that has KL in top 5 but KL loses to Kitana, Cage, Cyrax, Kabal, Sonya lol

Char with 5 bad match ups some how is top 5.

Kabal imo loses to Kitana I really don't care what you think. Kabal has to work really hard to win this match up.

Cage I think has only one bad match up and that is Kenshi. Noob is kind of annoying too though cause of his up shadow.

Kitana I think loses to Cage, Sonya, Kenshi.

Kenshi loses to Kabal, Smoke, Shang, Cyrax, Freddy.

Kung Lao just does well vs Kenshi, Kabal (but loses to kabal) he can go 5-5 with Cyrax I think but its rough. Sonya with proper ex cartwheel use can mop him up. Kitana out footsies him and punishes him harder than he can punish her. Cage out footsies him as well.
Kenshi does not lose to Shang. It might be even, but if anything, Kenshi has an advantage. Shang can't pressure him unless Kenshi has no meter (which is never), and Shang has no way out of the corner against him.
 

HGTV Soapboxfan

"Always a Pleasure"
My bad I don't know how to play MK9.
Wow.... really. Don't be like that. Yes you are an amazing mk9 player, but you have also been known to downplay and to hate cage as a player personally.... You don't see how your number could be off? But okay let's talk about it. What tools does cage have to fight this match as a 4-6? i will say that on really small stages it could be considered 4-6. I have no problem with saying that. Btw seperate discussion, but i saw that you said noob could be tough for cage. Imo that is in cages favor. Up shadow is not that hard to deal with because he does not really have anything to follow up with.
 

Perfect Legend

Kombatant
Wow.... really. Don't be like that. Yes you are an amazing mk9 player, but you have also been known to downplay and to hate cage as a player personally.... You don't see how your number could be off? But okay let's talk about it. What tools does cage have to fight this match as a 4-6? i will say that on really small stages it could be considered 4-6. I have no problem with saying that. Btw seperate discussion, but i saw that you said noob could be tough for cage. Imo that is in cages favor. Up shadow is not that hard to deal with because he does not really have anything to follow up with.

Cage has probably the best forward dash in the game and he basically can kara f3 to make it extend even further.

Cage's pressure upclose is good enough to force Kabal into mixups with NDC because he can't successfully poke out.

Unless it is Rooftop day it is only 6-4. Also at start of match he can stop Kabal from zoning and knock him into the corner if he tries to do anything with ex red kick on reaction. Its not hard to do. If this game survives I will play cage and demonstrate.
 

HGTV Soapboxfan

"Always a Pleasure"
Cage has probably the best forward dash in the game and he basically can kara f3 to make it extend even further.

Cage's pressure upclose is good enough to force Kabal into mixups with NDC because he can't successfully poke out.

Unless it is Rooftop day it is only 6-4. Also at start of match he can stop Kabal from zoning and knock him into the corner if he tries to do anything with ex red kick on reaction. Its not hard to do. If this game survives I will play cage and demonstrate.
i do know about the red kick there, huge tool I agree. Why is kabals d3 not good enough to poke out? Everyone else in the game does it. Plus he has fwd4 which you can cancel into a mixup or ndc to stay safe if cage tries fwd33, and you always have ex nomad dash and flash parry. Kabal has some of the best escape tools in the game tbh. Maybe instead of just trying to just zone, kabal should play footsies with ndc and iagb and saw, and keep cage at bay that way some, that seems to be more effective. If you just iagb all day, 6-4, if you control space with all your tools, 7-3, thats my opinion. But I would love to see you prove me wrong in all honesty, and if I am I will fully admit it.
 

Perfect Legend

Kombatant
i do know about the red kick there, huge tool I agree. Why is kabals d3 not good enough to poke out? Everyone else in the game does it. Plus he has fwd4 which you can cancel into a mixup or ndc to stay safe if cage tries fwd33, and you always have ex nomad dash and flash parry. Kabal has some of the best escape tools in the game tbh. Maybe instead of just trying to just zone, kabal should play footsies with ndc and iagb and saw, and keep cage at bay that way some, that seems to be more effective. If you just iagb all day, 6-4, if you control space with all your tools, 7-3, thats my opinion. But I would love to see you prove me wrong in all honesty, and if I am I will fully admit it.

Yea lets play footsies vs cage lets see how that works.

Dizzy bodied Curbo and Dizzy barely lost to Reo's Kabal.
 

187x

Warrior
Cage has probably the best forward dash in the game and he basically can kara f3 to make it extend even further.

Cage's pressure upclose is good enough to force Kabal into mixups with NDC because he can't successfully poke out.

Unless it is Rooftop day it is only 6-4. Also at start of match he can stop Kabal from zoning and knock him into the corner if he tries to do anything with ex red kick on reaction. Its not hard to do. If this game survives I will play cage and demonstrate.
so your saying cage kabal is 5-5 unless is rooftop is 6-4 kabal???
 

K7L33THA

Grapple > Footsies
Cage has probably the best forward dash in the game and he basically can kara f3 to make it extend even further.

Cage's pressure upclose is good enough to force Kabal into mixups with NDC because he can't successfully poke out.

Unless it is Rooftop day it is only 6-4. Also at start of match he can stop Kabal from zoning and knock him into the corner if he tries to do anything with ex red kick on reaction. Its not hard to do. If this game survives I will play cage and demonstrate.
Do you still think Kabal should be banned?
 

HGTV Soapboxfan

"Always a Pleasure"
Yea lets play footsies vs cage lets see how that works.

Dizzy bodied Curbo and Dizzy barely lost to Reo's Kabal.
Havent we gone over how sets like that have no effect on matchup numbers? I beat the kabal that eliminated GGA Han (just trying to show that he is not a total scrub, not blowing anybody up) consistently as cage in this matchup, does that mean it is in cages favor? But anyway, yes play the spacing game. Cage is scary, but kabal has iagb, saw, ndc, fwd32, fwd4, etc. He has the tools to be effective. If you play it outside of cage's effective range (basically jump distance) he has to basically shadow kick to try and get you to block, or move forward to try and corner you. If you get him dashing (or even walking really) into you, you can do a string into a mixup, pressure him some with ndc (probably not worth it, but I guess it depends on your opponents tendencies....) find a way to reverse positions and start zoning again, etc. Basically the goal is to control cages movement so that if he moves forward kabal get some sort of offense or reward, but if he moves back, he can't do anything because he is johnny cage.
 

HGTV Soapboxfan

"Always a Pleasure"
Btw has dizzy given an opinion on the cage kabal matchup anywhere? What does he think? If he agrees with Legend here, I will back down and say for sure that I don't know what i am talking about.