Hello fellow Sheevlings. It's a brutal MK world out there but if we stick together and learn from each other we might be able to pull out some MK tournament wins! So here some of the things I learned over the year and a half as a Sheeva main to help start the discussion.
Match ups are alphabetical and current as of 12/11/2012. The first number is Sheeva, second number is opponent.
Baraka 4-6. This one is not too bad. Can keep up with his zoning and our armor helps up close. Be wary of telestomp against him because his spin beats it clean.
Cyber Sub 4-6. Cyber controls the pace of this match with his dive kicks which Sheeva has an extremely hard time punishing. Plus he wins on projectile trades and looks cooler... but we have the better looking stomach.
Cyrax 3-7. Projectile trades our out due to the net. Armor is out because you want your meter for breaker. Jump ins our out to due his amazing anti-air hop. Toe to toe battles are out because his normals are better than yours. The key here is telestomp for 11%. All you have to do is guess right 10 times and you win! Just don't guess wrong twice or you lose...
Ermac 5-5. Yes! If you are an mk tournament traveling Sheeva main THIS is the fight you want. 5-5 means a winning MU because if you outplay your opponent you win. Simple as that. Big D's turn into Big Frees if you are Sheeva. We win on projectile trades, our normals can keep up with Ermac, we have armor, and we can get in with Telestomp.
Freddy 2-8. This MU is a nightmare... stance. This is toward the hard end of a two eight. Freddy option selects your way in with telestomp by doing nightmare stance. So you have to get in the old fashioned way. Unfortunately he outzones you and once you are in he can get away with ease. This is bad.
Jade 5-5. Just guessing a 5-5 here. Have no clue.
Jax 3-7. Just a typical 3-7. He just beats you in every way and once you are in the corner its over. If you think you are EX telestomping behind him to get out think again. He can just anti air grab you and throw you right back in. This MU makes me dream of a world of equality. Think back long ago. Go way back. Remember that happy time around September of 2011? Back when this new and exciting MK patch was coming out? Sheeva was going to get ground pound cancels! We were going to be viable! We were going to keep the opponent on their toes! We were going to fake ground pound and then anti-air grab their jump, or throw a fireball, or telestomp. We were going to have options! But they gave it to Jax instead. The world is unfair my friends.
Johnny Cage 2-8. Yes the day has come. This MU is now a 2-8. Your armor is the only thing going for you in this Match but his d4's beat your high armor and if the Johnny reads you are going to do armor he can f3 into ex nutpunch. You lose your meter and you are back in the frame trap. Good thing you can keep Johnny out with a very slow fireball or this MU would be worse!
Kabal 3-7. This one is just a soft 3-7 and that means it is practically a 4-6! Yes Sheevites this is one of the fights that could be in our advantage. Let me explain. Kabal 3-7's a lot of the MK cast so we are right there with them! So since we are even with a lot of the cast our gimmicks and the Kabal's lack of MU knowledge are in our favor.
Kano 4-6. Slight advantage Kano. He outzones us and up ball options into a knife if we telestomp. Got to beat him with armor and normals.
Kenshi 3-7. Sadly this will eventually be a 3-7. For all you guys that thought I was crazy having this at a 5-5 you were right. The good news for us though is that not one person in the community plays this MU right. Meaning since Kenshi's play this MU wrong it is closer to a 5-5. A Sheeva with a pool filled with Ermacs and Kenshi's is a very happy Sheeva indeed!
Kitana 2-8. Brutal. Faster normals that reach way farther than you and do over twice as much damage. Your armor whiffs half the time on her small body, she option selects your telestomp for either 30% damage or 8% damage, your choice, and you have to get in past her zoning just to be at a disadvantage up close! Plus she can brutalize your non-armor wakeup moves for 47% damage. Not to mention our shabby 30% bread and butter combo gets knocked down to an even worse 25% against her small body. Meaning we have to guess right 4 times to her guessing right twice. The good news is if you are right twice as much as your opponent you can bring this MU up to a 4-6!
Kung Lao 2-8 or a 3-7. This one could be on its way up to a winnable 3-7 MU. Sure he outzones us, absolutely destroys us up close and does more damage than us. Oh he also has an option select against telestomp that few know about but we won't tell them about that. But we do have anti-air grab to beat his teleport... so that's at least something I guess.
Liu Kang 4-6. Haven't played this MU in awhile but it's just the typical he is better than us kind of thing. No big deal.
Mileena 3-7. This one is upgraded my friends. This used to be a hard 3-7, now it's just a soft 3-7. Sure she beats us in every possible way at every part of the screen but its not that bad... Really. We can punish roll hard so it feels good to see good damage every once in awhile.
Nightwolf 5-5. Dunno too much about this MU. Much like soonk it could go either way. I just don't know which way yet.
Noob 3-7 or 4-6. Noob absolutely destroys us tools wise. Forget projectiles, forget telestomp, forget groundpound and forget armored grab 'n punch. Noob was designed to destroy Sheeva but we have slightly more damage so that's something.
Quan Chi 5-5. Again guessing on this one. Don't know.
Raiden 4-6. I actually think this one is just a regular 4-6. You have to outplay the Raiden and you will probably win. Ground pound beats his teleport clean but you will only get about 2 in because after that Raiden will jump in and full combo you. Makes me wish Sheeva had ground pound cancel, if that were so we would actually have a match where we were in control... kind of.
Rain 4-6. Telestomp is out unless you are landing in front of him, but his ex armor beats landing in front. Our armor does 22% his armor does 40%+. But not so bad.
Reptile 3-7. Another typical 3-7. He wins everywhere on the screen and it's hard to punish his dash with a 12 frame short reach move. Winnable though.
Scorpion 4-6. His vortex is a pain what can we say.
Sektor 3-7. This is a hard 3-7. Sektor not only beats us, but he beats us however he wants. The good news is that after you lose to Sektor you can think about things you could have done differently and realize you still would have lost. So take comfort in that.
Shang T. 4-6. Beware of super Sheeva. This is what Sheeva should be normally. But there are naysayers out there, mainly the Kitana community. They will say a 40% bread and butter combo is too much damage. But why would they complain? That 40% would actually be 33% against them.
Sheeva 5-5. Besides Ermac this is who you want to fight! Your opponent is insanely slow. Has gimmick armor that can be beaten by any ducking attack. She has a 12 frame high attack with short reach and even when it does hit (very rare) it only does 30% which is probably bottom 5 in damage on a bnb combo. She has horrible wakeup options that can all be full combo'd and her fireball is 25 frames startup that is easy to jump over and full combo. You will win this fight.
Sindel 4-6. Typical 4-6 when played to the highest level. However her option select for telestomp is hard to time and once we are in we actually have the advantage.
Skarlet 4-6. Guessing here no clue.
Smoke 3-7. Not too bad of a 3-7. You can use telestomp. If he starts teleporting, then land behind him and either a sweep or a d4 will come out instead. Full combo punish strings that end in smoke bomb for 30% by walking backwards. After that just outplay him and make better reads and you've got this.
Sonya 2-8. This is bad. Anything you want to do... don't.
Stryker 5-5. Guessing here.
Sub-Zero. 4-6. Be very careful here. It says 4-6 but the Sub-Zero community is the absolute best at NJP'ing the telestomp. Tom Brady, Cyrusstrike, Semi-Evil Ryu etc... When they are on point it is a 3-7. Pro tip: Telestomp out of the corner by landing behind the opponent. But don't do it when you are in the corner, do it earlier so they aren't ready for it, or else they just EX slide you back into the corner.
i have quite a bit to say. here goes:
baraka is 5/5 if you want it to be. her armored specials outmatch his in every way; she can favorably trade EN fireball or untamed fury. bf3 will interrupt his slicer, d4 thwarts spinning blades. armored grab will stuff any wake up he has, armored or not. so will EN fireball. once he has been taught to fear waking up, he is doomed. his only victory is his counter for jump stomp.
CSZ i feel is also 5/5. he cannot use his projectiles as they are all slow enough to be countered with jump stomp. , his teleport is full combo punishable, and his ice parry is absolutely useless. simply f3, bf3 or b2, 1+2, fireball/AA grab it for a perfect, foolproof counter every time. only his dive kick is worth worrying about. don't be afraid.
freddy is indeed bad. but sheeva's underused EN jump crush can make the difference. a favorite freddy tactic is to stop your wake up with EN ground claw, then fire his green goo projectile, or vice versa. either way, EN jump crush will carry you to safety and squash him. as for nightmare stance, thee is a simple counter that is usually applicable, but rarely used: ground pound it! so long as you are out of sweep range, it will nail him every time.
jade i feel is a match favorable to sheeva. jump stomp is safe to use against jade's projectiles (unless they are EN), and staff overhead is free to AA grab, as is jade's b2 and u3. jade is just as meter-dependent as sheeva, but sheeva has better range with her normals and stronger specials.
jax is a pain in the ass, so don't be afraid to fight dirty. keep your distance throw fireballs liberally at him, immediately mixing in ground stomps. make him either eat a fireball while jumping, or a ground stomp while blocking. this will make him have to leap toward you, and then you have a shot to either AA grab him or dash back, fireball to hit him clean and send him flying back to square one. use jump stomp as a neat counter to his projectiles. look out mainly for his armored dash punch (which can be ducked and punished, by the way) and for getting too close, where his fast low-hitting starter will cause great trouble. and stay out of the corner at all costs.
johnny cage= cheap-ass prick. fight him the same way you would jax.
kano: i don't agree he has any advantage and i say it's 5/5. from full screen, his knives are countered by jump stomp, and from closer up, by EN untamed fury, EN fireball, or EN jump stomp. all has is his upball.
kung lao: the biggest POS in the game, but not for the reason you think. the actual reason is that this MU is so much more winnable than we have been led to believe. it's still a bad match, but in addition to teleport being free to AA grab, dive kick is full combo punishable when blocked, and EN untamed fury destroys his fey little spin, even if it's EN, and even on wake up. blocking either version of the spin allows for a guaranteed punish of 11% with sheeva's f4. also, believe it or not, jump stomp DOES have a home in this match. use it to bait KL into using spin. steer to land behind him, then immediately use f4 to punish. if he used an EN spin, it will carry him too far away to hit with f4, but it will give you enough time to pressure with a fireball, ground stomp, or a quick forward dash into f4 or even untamed fury. plus, jump stomp can be used offensively to punish ground hat, teleport, and even regular hat toss if there is enough distance. his best tool is EN teleport. that is the only weapon i cannot readily answer, except to say that even if he uses it, he will at least have to take 12% uppercut damage as the price of getting in close.
liu kang: a mere blowhard. if not for his cheap, spammable, low-hitting 3 hit starter, he would have nothing. trade projectiles with him; it's to his disadvantage. even his air fireballs are are a good trade for sheeva if she uses EN fireball. his parry is free to sheeva's f3, untamed fury combo, or b2, 1+2, AA grab or fireball. his wake-ups are worthless; bike kick and dragon kick are blockable and punishable, even if EN. her armor beats his too. use an EN untamed fury against his special kicks. use ground pound or jump stomp to stop his dragon stance.
whoreleena: as was stated, her roll is deliciously punishable, as is her teleport kick. you can AA grab her right out of it, or block first and then punish with 4, b,f3. if she tries to be clever an follow it with ia sai, it can still be punished with either AA grab or f4. another unfair match, but not impossible.
nightwolf: i feel it is indeed a 5/5, MAYBE even 6/4. he has no low-hitting starters, his lightning and arrow shot are both countered by jump stomp, and his charge is easily ducked and punished, even if enhanced. and his wake up game stinks against her. his only real options are charge/EN charge, which is easy to handle, or EN axe, which is free to EN untamed fury. or he can try duck-blocking...
noob: i say 5/5, and i have the wins to against a certain german noob meister to prove it. jump stomp is a great counter to ghost ball, portals, and clones (although you usually need to armor it to beat the clones). EN grab plows through all clones, even the up clone, and even on wake-up. noob's teleport is also not a problem. as with most of the cast, however, noob has much faster normals, and it's easy for sheeva to mismanage her meter against him. his greatest strength is corner offense, so as long as you can avoid it, noob will have his hands full.
rain: here is the bad news, sheevites. rain is even tougher than we thought. having battled the great tourney player Reno Racks offline, i can say this is one of her worst matches. armored, cancelable special moves, superior damage output, and foolproof defenses against jump stomp add up to enormous trouble for sheeva, and not a lot of hope...
skarlet: i agree, 4/6. skarlet boasts good armor and high damage, as well as superior speed. however, sheeva's armor is even better, and skarlet's teleport is very punishable when blocked. tough, but winnable.
sonya: the female KL. feared far more than she should be. arc kick is countered EVERY time by AA grab or by backward dash, fireball. blocked dive kicks are ALWAYS punishable with f4, or sometimes even 4, bf3. whiffed/blocked leg grabs are begging for high damage punishment. ring blasts are meant to be countered with jump stomp. and EN cartwheel will lose to EN bf3. as with jax and cage, keep your distance, use fireballs and ground pounds to force them up close and keep them from mounting sustained offense. as for military stance, again keep a safe distance and armored grab the wench at the right time. and use backward dash, fireball frequently.
sheeva is riding the short bus with jade, stryker, kano, baraka, etc. but they are not totally disabled. the main thing is not being intimidated by silly MU charts and trolls who say you can't. hope some of these tips help, and hope my fellow sheevites have more tips to share.
