Thinking Outside the Box With Emerald Defender

[Espio]

Honestly I'm not here to argue about Jade's standing in the tier list or anything like that, but I am attempting to retool and rethink how people play Jade from a mindset perspective.

I feel like a critical analysis of ED Jade shows us a very crucial point: All of Jade's best specials, normals and strings function best at mid range and closer and yes that includes her zoning tools chiefly air glaive. This might seem obvious to some people, but generally speaking Jade players in my experience focus on maintaining a total full screen distance, but I favor especially against really competent players an aggressive/offensive zoning Jade where I stay at mid range where my best tools are effective.

For the sake of clarity, best tools being: Down 4 + Back 3,4,3 + Back 2 + Sweep + Air Glaive + Jump kick, Forward 3,4,3 and down 2.

Her full screen zoning is kind of overrated in the sense that her upward anti-air glaive is very unreliable full screen and many times whiffs on jumps and spark which is okay but is very straight forward to deal with full screen due to the lack of potency of anti-air glaive/reactionary nature of it.


The style of play of a more offensive minded zoning Jade is built around how plus air glaive can be. As most are aware, jump kicks can be plus enough to jail Jade's back 3,4,3 string for good chip and block string pressure and with air glaive being a good check to anti-air attempts while doing good on hit damage allows for more guessing scenarios post blocked jump kick. Additionally air glaive being double digit plus frames in the corner allows for sustained offense more so than Jaded's +3 frames ex special. The other reason her jump kick plus air glaive game is so good to use offensively is it does 48.5% chip which is roughly 5% chip for a bar and incredibly strong in its own right even mid screen. In short, every time Jade jumps it's a 50/50 and she can take 3.5% chip even without the jump kick while remaining plus.


Down 4 allows Jade to stay in optimal range to down 2, back 2 check movement in and continue to harass the opponent with air glaives. Sweep is also excellent for the purpose of maintaining space on block and is almost never used despite it being safe like Baraka's sweep and only a few frames slower with similar pushback. Down 2 is strong as an anti-air, anti-cross up and due to the immense pushback on block also puts Jade in an optimal space to harass opponents particularly a well spaced down 2 on block leaves the opponent two dash distances away.

Forward 3,4,3- Is her low starting string and often touted as not good, but I think people are missing the point as this is her best stagger string and once you've conditioned with back 3,4,3 it is definitely very usable and the chip is solid as well.


Supplemental info: I think Jade players should learn from Liu Kang players and not overly rely on the plus frames they get from their good mid. Reasoning being is how reliably it can be blown up. The true mind game comes from getting the opponent comfortable with back 3,4,3 that they always take their turn a this will allow Jade to begin using parry to punish aggression and completing the string will actually lead to tangible damage and space created when people are not focused on flawless blocking. Back 3,4,3 is gapless and cannot be flawless blocked or interrupted with super armor. Some tools are better as a back pocket strategy instead of building a game around dealing with flawless block. The risk/reward of playing that way is NEVER in Jade's favor as staff spin is full combo punishable and a flawless block meterlessly leaves Jade -10 and full combo punishable by a large plethora of the roster.

Throws are strong for everyone, but they definitely bring the whole show together with her mids, staggers, jump kicks and air glaives.

Glow- Speaks for itself, solid anti-zoning and allows movement while glow is active.


Stuff I didn't touch on that is worth using, but not anything that I don't feel is not being used: straight glaive, ex glave restand, 1,2,4, and 2,1,2.

You'll notice how I made no mention of her overhead. I feel that there's so much counter play to it and the risk/reward is kind of daunting at times. I wouldn't say I'm discouraging using it, but given Jade's general risk/reward I feel like a simplified safer Jade that relies primarily on plus frames, chip, staggers and throws is probably most optimal.

Straight glaive and ex straight glaive- straight glaive can allow for anti-air combo converts and on block even at closer ranges is generally +8 or +9 so if you can condition your opponent to block from time to time or condition them to neutral crouch that is extremely beneficial.




TL;DR: Jade should be played more at mid screen with a focus on high chip and air mind games and stop trying to worry about doing overhead/low mix ups. It's not her strength, her strength in this variation lies in a safe chip and abusing her mid range tools in concert with it and if she can condition with air glaive for jump ins she can abuse the jump kicks for excellent offensive pressure.


My goal is just to provide a different perspective on Jade and how I will be playing her going forward. I don't think she's top or even super strong, but I do wanna try to maximize the character as much as possible.

 

[GLoRToR]

Honestly I'm not here to argue about Jade's standing in the tier list or anything like that, but I am attempting to retool and rethink how people play Jade from a mindset perspective.

I feel like a critical analysis of ED Jade shows us a very crucial point: All of Jade's best specials, normals and strings function best at mid range and closer and yes that includes her zoning tools chiefly air glaive. This might seem obvious to some people, but generally speaking Jade players in my experience focus on maintaining a total full screen distance, but I favor especially against really competent players an aggressive/offensive zoning Jade where I stay at mid range where my best tools are effective.

For the sake of clarity, best tools being: Down 4 + Back 3,4,3 + Back 2 + Sweep + Air Glaive + Jump kick, Forward 3,4,3 and down 2.

Her full screen zoning is kind of overrated in the sense that her upward anti-air glaive is very unreliable full screen and many times whiffs on jumps and spark which is okay but is very straight forward to deal with full screen due to the lack of potency of anti-air glaive/reactionary nature of it.


The style of play of a more offensive minded zoning Jade is built around how plus air glaive can be. As most are aware, jump kicks can be plus enough to jail Jade's back 3,4,3 string for good chip and block string pressure and with air glaive being a good check to anti-air attempts while doing good on hit damage allows for more guessing scenarios post blocked jump kick. Additionally air glaive being double digit plus frames in the corner allows for sustained offense more so than Jaded's +3 frames ex special. The other reason her jump kick plus air glaive game is so good to use offensively is it does 48.5% chip which is roughly 5% chip for a bar and incredibly strong in its own right even mid screen. In short, every time Jade jumps it's a 50/50 and she can take 3.5% chip even without the jump kick while remaining plus.


Down 4 allows Jade to stay in optimal range to down 2, back 2 check movement in and continue to harass the opponent with air glaives. Sweep is also excellent for the purpose of maintaining space on block and is almost never used despite it being safe like Baraka's sweep and only a few frames slower with similar pushback. Down 2 is strong as an anti-air, anti-cross up and due to the immense pushback on block also puts Jade in an optimal space to harass opponents particularly a well spaced down 2 on block leaves the opponent two dash distances away.

Forward 3,4,3- Is her low starting string and often touted as not good, but I think people are missing the point as this is her best stagger string and once you've conditioned with back 3,4,3 it is definitely very usable and the chip is solid as well.


Supplemental info: I think Jade players should learn from Liu Kang players and not overly rely on the plus frames they get from their good mid. Reasoning being is how reliably it can be blown up. The true mind game comes from getting the opponent comfortable with back 3,4,3 that they always take their turn a this will allow Jade to begin using parry to punish aggression and completing the string will actually lead to tangible damage and space created when people are not focused on flawless blocking. Back 3,4,3 is gapless and cannot be flawless blocked or interrupted with super armor. Some tools are better as a back pocket strategy instead of building a game around dealing with flawless block. The risk/reward of playing that way is NEVER in Jade's favor as staff spin is full combo punishable and a flawless block meterlessly leaves Jade -10 and full combo punishable by a large plethora of the roster.

Throws are strong for everyone, but they definitely bring the whole show together with her mids, staggers, jump kicks and air glaives.

Glow- Speaks for itself, solid anti-zoning and allows movement while glow is active.


Stuff I didn't touch on that is worth using, but not anything that I don't feel is not being used: straight glaive, ex glave restand, 1,2,4, and 2,1,2.

You'll notice how I made no mention of her overhead. I feel that there's so much counter play to it and the risk/reward is kind of daunting at times. I wouldn't say I'm discouraging using it, but given Jade's general risk/reward I feel like a simplified safer Jade that relies primarily on plus frames, chip, staggers and throws is probably most optimal.

Straight glaive and ex straight glaive- straight glaive can allow for anti-air combo converts and on block even at closer ranges is generally +8 or +9 so if you can condition your opponent to block from time to time or condition them to neutral crouch that is extremely beneficial.




TL;DR: Jade should be played more at mid screen with a focus on high chip and air mind games and stop trying to worry about doing overhead/low mix ups. It's not her strength, her strength in this variation lies in a safe chip and abusing her mid range tools in concert with it and if she can condition with air glaive for jump ins she can abuse the jump kicks for excellent offensive pressure.


My goal is just to provide a different perspective on Jade and how I will be playing her going forward. I don't think she's top or even super strong, but I do wanna try to maximize the character as much as possible.

And then everyone on the roster had single button advancing mids that catch jump and launch you for 3x the damage you deal while chipping them out.
Yeah, this is how I play her, it's probably the best way now that you also say it's how you use her. Wonder what @THTB thinks of this, too.
But she's still bad.

 

[THTB]

I think this is the optimal way to play ED for the most part. But as risky as it is, taking the chance on nitro kick is also important, since it checks opponents trying to be completely disrespect the plus frames, which happens often and can get her in trouble if she doesn't stop it.

 

[GLoRToR]

I think this is the optimal way to play ED for the most part. But as risky as it is, taking the chance on nitro kick is also important, since it checks opponents trying to be completely disrespect the plus frames, which happens often and can get her in trouble if she doesn't stop it.

Of the archetypes of players, the walk back and then press buttons trying to catch you offguard type is one of the most frustrating with Jade, so I tend to abuse the hell out of shadowkick against those. Especially because f2 is literal fucking trash and easily gets you blown up so kick is what's left.
Also having success in the neutral with b2124 but people will wise up to that soon enough.

 

[Espio]

I think this is the optimal way to play ED for the most part. But as risky as it is, taking the chance on nitro kick is also important, since it checks opponents trying to be completely disrespect the plus frames, which happens often and can get her in trouble if she doesn't stop it.

It's an omission of mine in the original post, but I agree. I also like setting up the crushing blow not even because I'm going to use it right away I just want people to start neutral ducking and blocking so I can harass in different ways and that level of conditioning allows so many additional mind games. Like I remember one time landing a shadow kick and then walking forward like I was coming in then walking back and smacking them with her overhead for full combo because they tried down neutral crouching into down 2 crushing blow.

And then everyone on the roster had single button advancing mids that catch jump and launch you for 3x the damage you deal while chipping them out.
Yeah, this is how I play her, it's probably the best way now that you also say it's how you use her. Wonder what @THTB thinks of this, too.
But she's still bad.

Not saying she isn't bad or is, but at this point I just want to play optimally with her because this is one of my favorite characters and I don't know if she's ever gonna be changed on a structural level in the near future or ever. I also have a history of playing characters that rely on chip but generally don't do much damage unless in the corner or sometimes even not then like Doomsday or Hawkgirl, I'm pretty used to it honestly.

 

[GLoRToR]

Not saying she isn't bad or is, but at this point I just want to play optimally with her because this is one of my favorite characters and I don't know if she's ever gonna be changed on a structural level in the near future or ever. I also have a history of playing characters that rely on chip but generally don't do much damage unless in the corner or sometimes even not then like Doomsday or Hawkgirl, I'm pretty used to it honestly.

We're getting buffs in batches tbh. Vora, Kollector and Kotal were first, then Kitana and Kano, maybe it's Jade and Raiden next.

 

[Espio]

We're getting buffs in batches tbh. Vora, Kollector and Kotal were first, then Kitana and Kano, maybe it's Jade and Raiden next.

I hope so, but I'm not sold until I see it because there have been enough neglected characters each game that didn't get the adequate help. We still are in the denial phase where people can't stop playing reckless and think Jade is unfair and we're still complaining about down 2 when it can be blown up the same way as any other down 2 making complaining about it both irrational and weird.

 

[GLoRToR]

I hope so, but I'm not sold until I see it because there have been enough neglected characters each game that didn't get the adequate help. We still are in the denial phase where people can't stop playing reckless and think Jade is unfair and we're still complaining about down 2 when it can be blown up the same way as any other down 2 making complaining about it both irrational and weird.

Like I always said, this website is full of scrubs that never labbed a minute in their lives and they attack loyalists instead of listening to us about our characters. I call them my fans because when I hit "ignored content" I always see the same names make basically the same "funny" comments. These people dread the idea of Jade being actually good because she has the potential to be a well respected character if only her actual nonsensical problems got fixed and her damage matched the meta. Jade doesn't need a whole lot and I already sent NRS an elaborate letter with what I think it is.
I got a favourable response so I have hope yet.

I really want Jade to be good for once.

 

[Parasurama]

Honestly I'm not here to argue about Jade's standing in the tier list or anything like that, but I am attempting to retool and rethink how people play Jade from a mindset perspective.

I feel like a critical analysis of ED Jade shows us a very crucial point: All of Jade's best specials, normals and strings function best at mid range and closer and yes that includes her zoning tools chiefly air glaive. This might seem obvious to some people, but generally speaking Jade players in my experience focus on maintaining a total full screen distance, but I favor especially against really competent players an aggressive/offensive zoning Jade where I stay at mid range where my best tools are effective.

For the sake of clarity, best tools being: Down 4 + Back 3,4,3 + Back 2 + Sweep + Air Glaive + Jump kick, Forward 3,4,3 and down 2.

Her full screen zoning is kind of overrated in the sense that her upward anti-air glaive is very unreliable full screen and many times whiffs on jumps and spark which is okay but is very straight forward to deal with full screen due to the lack of potency of anti-air glaive/reactionary nature of it.


The style of play of a more offensive minded zoning Jade is built around how plus air glaive can be. As most are aware, jump kicks can be plus enough to jail Jade's back 3,4,3 string for good chip and block string pressure and with air glaive being a good check to anti-air attempts while doing good on hit damage allows for more guessing scenarios post blocked jump kick. Additionally air glaive being double digit plus frames in the corner allows for sustained offense more so than Jaded's +3 frames ex special. The other reason her jump kick plus air glaive game is so good to use offensively is it does 48.5% chip which is roughly 5% chip for a bar and incredibly strong in its own right even mid screen. In short, every time Jade jumps it's a 50/50 and she can take 3.5% chip even without the jump kick while remaining plus.


Down 4 allows Jade to stay in optimal range to down 2, back 2 check movement in and continue to harass the opponent with air glaives. Sweep is also excellent for the purpose of maintaining space on block and is almost never used despite it being safe like Baraka's sweep and only a few frames slower with similar pushback. Down 2 is strong as an anti-air, anti-cross up and due to the immense pushback on block also puts Jade in an optimal space to harass opponents particularly a well spaced down 2 on block leaves the opponent two dash distances away.

Forward 3,4,3- Is her low starting string and often touted as not good, but I think people are missing the point as this is her best stagger string and once you've conditioned with back 3,4,3 it is definitely very usable and the chip is solid as well.


Supplemental info: I think Jade players should learn from Liu Kang players and not overly rely on the plus frames they get from their good mid. Reasoning being is how reliably it can be blown up. The true mind game comes from getting the opponent comfortable with back 3,4,3 that they always take their turn a this will allow Jade to begin using parry to punish aggression and completing the string will actually lead to tangible damage and space created when people are not focused on flawless blocking. Back 3,4,3 is gapless and cannot be flawless blocked or interrupted with super armor. Some tools are better as a back pocket strategy instead of building a game around dealing with flawless block. The risk/reward of playing that way is NEVER in Jade's favor as staff spin is full combo punishable and a flawless block meterlessly leaves Jade -10 and full combo punishable by a large plethora of the roster.

Throws are strong for everyone, but they definitely bring the whole show together with her mids, staggers, jump kicks and air glaives.

Glow- Speaks for itself, solid anti-zoning and allows movement while glow is active.


Stuff I didn't touch on that is worth using, but not anything that I don't feel is not being used: straight glaive, ex glave restand, 1,2,4, and 2,1,2.

You'll notice how I made no mention of her overhead. I feel that there's so much counter play to it and the risk/reward is kind of daunting at times. I wouldn't say I'm discouraging using it, but given Jade's general risk/reward I feel like a simplified safer Jade that relies primarily on plus frames, chip, staggers and throws is probably most optimal.

Straight glaive and ex straight glaive- straight glaive can allow for anti-air combo converts and on block even at closer ranges is generally +8 or +9 so if you can condition your opponent to block from time to time or condition them to neutral crouch that is extremely beneficial.




TL;DR: Jade should be played more at mid screen with a focus on high chip and air mind games and stop trying to worry about doing overhead/low mix ups. It's not her strength, her strength in this variation lies in a safe chip and abusing her mid range tools in concert with it and if she can condition with air glaive for jump ins she can abuse the jump kicks for excellent offensive pressure.


My goal is just to provide a different perspective on Jade and how I will be playing her going forward. I don't think she's top or even super strong, but I do wanna try to maximize the character as much as possible.

This is how I play her too. My question is... does Jaded play it better? With a focus on rush down rather than mid range- although she can do this too. In ED you can keep away better and jump in or jump in glaive.I am generally looking for B343 pressure. They both have good tools...I feel ED has more options but Jaded pressure sequences are stronger.

 

[Espio]

This is how I play her too. My question is... does Jaded play it better? With a focus on rush down rather than mid range- although she can do this too. In ED you can keep away better and jump in or jump in glaive.I am generally looking for B343 pressure. They both have good tools...I feel ED has more options but Jaded pressure sequences are stronger.

I feel like generally speaking it's a matter of pros and cons both possess. Emerald Defender abuses the air and due to air glaives being hard to deal with/anti-air the opponent has to do preemptive things to check her and that opens them up for down 2's, back 2's and so on. The way jump kicks work with plus frame meterless and plus frames on glaive plus jump kicks into back 3,4,3 and empty jumps...you have a pretty strong game of air offense and throws and she takes no risk on block using any of the options and on hit she gets 20 to 27% sometimes more depending on position on the screen.

Full screen Emerald Defender has low spark and anti-air glaive to harass the opponent plus straight glaive that's universal. Well spaced glaives do fantastic chip and leave Jade in a position where she cannot be checked on block, which is strong in its own right and if done right with her ground game you can play pretty risk free on block if you want.

Straight glaives having a weird start up and arc before going forward can open the opponent up to anti-air possibilities that lead to combos meterlessly.

Jaded is more about staggers and sustained offense on the ground. She gives up a 50/50 every time she jumps for gapless ground plus frames a safe advancing special that can be canceled for a bar. The mind games out of run can be pretty crazy and are currently being underused.

Jaded also has the added benefit of reliably air converts if you anti-air with back 2 by utilizing pole vault ender. Consistent meterless 18% damage off of multiple string and whiff punishment options.

It's not that one is decisively better, it's that the up close offense and full screen games are different and both allow sustained harassment and mind games just in different ways. Her best tools/buttons allow both to shine. Glow really completes both too.

 

[GLoRToR]

This is how I play her too. My question is... does Jaded play it better? With a focus on rush down rather than mid range- although she can do this too. In ED you can keep away better and jump in or jump in glaive.I am generally looking for B343 pressure. They both have good tools...I feel ED has more options but Jaded pressure sequences are stronger.

There are matchups where Jade needs to get in such as Shang or Cetrion or even Frost to some degree. In those matchups, while I can do well as Emerald, I tend to still be more comfortable playing Jaded even if I hate the run mechanic. My paws are not ninja enough.

Here's the thing tho: B2124 is really nice.
Going out on a limb and will tell you that despite everything, Untamable is her best variation and it's slept on. The only doubt in there is that there is a huge gap after B2 that you have to go full conditioning mode to stop people from pressing buttons.
That aside, with VW you are safe and teach the opponent to always block low.
B2-VW teaches the opponent that the neutral is reset.
B2-glaive teaches the opponent to duck or jump
B2-bf2 teaches the opponent to block
B2-parry teaches the mashers to stop mashing
If spaced right, only another Jade can d2 your b2. If b2's gap got fixed and it was a mid, Untamable would be top tier easily.

 

[Parasurama]

There are matchups where Jade needs to get in such as Shang or Cetrion or even Frost to some degree. In those matchups, while I can do well as Emerald, I tend to still be more comfortable playing Jaded even if I hate the run mechanic. My paws are not ninja enough.

Here's the thing tho: B2124 is really nice.
Going out on a limb and will tell you that despite everything, Untamable is her best variation and it's slept on. The only doubt in there is that there is a huge gap after B2 that you have to go full conditioning mode to stop people from pressing buttons.
That aside, with VW you are safe and teach the opponent to always block low.
B2-VW teaches the opponent that the neutral is reset.
B2-glaive teaches the opponent to duck or jump
B2-bf2 teaches the opponent to block
B2-parry teaches the mashers to stop mashing
If spaced right, only another Jade can d2 your b2. If b2's gap got fixed and it was a mid, Untamable would be top tier easily.

i haven’t really looked at that variation. Why do you think that string is so good? I think if B2 was mid then Jade universally would be really good.

 

[GLoRToR]

i haven’t really looked at that variation. Why do you think that string is so good? I think if B2 was mid then Jade universally would be really good.

b2 being a mid is one of those changes that alone would be game changing for her.
either this, or bf2 safe on block and mb bf2 added which is unsafe and launches.
b2 being a mid would give her an IdiotButton like Liu's F4 or Jax's F3 or Erron's B2, while the BF2 change would switch out her poor risk reward for good solid reward on all risks.

As for your question, if all they did was make b2,1 jail at the comma over there, they'd have to respect that string and its cancels.
But even now, where they can press buttons, you can run mindgames with cancels as I said above and potentially gain a bit of reward for the big risk that's b2 right now.

This variation is a footsie monster that catches you from almost full screen. It's safe as fuck with Vanishing Winds. b2,VW is so spammable and so annoying because VW is a disjointed "spark" like entity that catches backstep/backdash and they just have to block it. On block it's a bit of chip, too.

As opposed to Emerald whose game plane is "chip them out before they hit you twice for half your life" and Jaded's skewed risk-reward where you constantly have to commit to unsafe stagger pressure with the risk of a 1bar high knockback that leads to nothing (the vaultkick) hitting them, this variation has true safety and a full b2124 deals a bit of damage, too.

Against people who don't know about the gap, I win entire matches just repeating that string and they just die trying.
Against people who know about the gap, I keep doing b2-f1 which comes out as a b2-glaive until they learn to block. This must be done at tip range so that the glaive makes the surround circle, else it will be negative on block. At tip range, glaive is +10 on block and allows you to check them with b2,1,cancel or even the whole string. Once they understand that vw resets neutral and there is a risk of the glaive hitting them, you are full stop mad pressuring them with high risk low reward.

B2-F1 (glaive) on hit is plus one million especially if you MB it and you get a free strike or throw mixup. This is where you can start using F2,VW or F2,1, and do some combo damage.
B2-F1 on block is +10 at tip range, as I said. Make sure the glaive makes the full trip else it will be negative and you'll have to MB it on block, which is a wasted bar.

Against people who like to press buttons, you can do
B2, VW MB which teleports behind them, is safe on block and is only at risk of kangaroos who respect nothing, which is when you can start to just D2 all game and watch them hang themselves against your range.
B2,parry which catches mids and does a bit of damage if meterburned.

Hope this explains it well enough, sorry if it's a bit convoluted, my head is killing me today.

 

[BritTexanWhoDat]

B2-VW teaches the opponent that the neutral is reset.
B2-glaive teaches the opponent to duck or jump
B2-bf2 teaches the opponent to block
B2-parry teaches the mashers to stop mashing

I love the way you’ve laid out your game theory; the above is particularly golden, thank you.

I set Untamable to my Jade default - drawn in particular to DA (I think b2124 is beautiful) - but, aside from occasionally wanting the meter burning mobility of VW against Cetrion et al, I keep going back to ED for Dodging Shadows and an occasional EdSpark.

The good Air Rang work against Noob in this video:

plus your breakdown is sending me to the lab to start using all her tools.

I main Kano and use him like a Honey Badger on blow, so a cerebral approach with Jade is a nice antidote.

cheers!

 

[GLoRToR]

I love the way you’ve laid out your game theory; the above is particularly golden, thank you.

I set Untamable to my Jade default - drawn in particular to DA (I think b2124 is beautiful) - but, aside from occasionally wanting the meter burning mobility of VW against Cetrion et al, I keep going back to ED for Dodging Shadows and an occasional EdSpark.

The good Air Rang work against Noob in this video:

plus your breakdown is sending me to the lab to start using all her tools.

I main Kano and use him like a Honey Badger on blow, so a cerebral approach with Jade is a nice antidote.

cheers!

Nice custom Jade there. I'm drawn to custom more and more. Having b2124 and air glaive at the same time is so good.

 

[Parasurama]

Honestly I'm not here to argue about Jade's standing in the tier list or anything like that, but I am attempting to retool and rethink how people play Jade from a mindset perspective.

I feel like a critical analysis of ED Jade shows us a very crucial point: All of Jade's best specials, normals and strings function best at mid range and closer and yes that includes her zoning tools chiefly air glaive. This might seem obvious to some people, but generally speaking Jade players in my experience focus on maintaining a total full screen distance, but I favor especially against really competent players an aggressive/offensive zoning Jade where I stay at mid range where my best tools are effective.

For the sake of clarity, best tools being: Down 4 + Back 3,4,3 + Back 2 + Sweep + Air Glaive + Jump kick, Forward 3,4,3 and down 2.

Her full screen zoning is kind of overrated in the sense that her upward anti-air glaive is very unreliable full screen and many times whiffs on jumps and spark which is okay but is very straight forward to deal with full screen due to the lack of potency of anti-air glaive/reactionary nature of it.


The style of play of a more offensive minded zoning Jade is built around how plus air glaive can be. As most are aware, jump kicks can be plus enough to jail Jade's back 3,4,3 string for good chip and block string pressure and with air glaive being a good check to anti-air attempts while doing good on hit damage allows for more guessing scenarios post blocked jump kick. Additionally air glaive being double digit plus frames in the corner allows for sustained offense more so than Jaded's +3 frames ex special. The other reason her jump kick plus air glaive game is so good to use offensively is it does 48.5% chip which is roughly 5% chip for a bar and incredibly strong in its own right even mid screen. In short, every time Jade jumps it's a 50/50 and she can take 3.5% chip even without the jump kick while remaining plus.


Down 4 allows Jade to stay in optimal range to down 2, back 2 check movement in and continue to harass the opponent with air glaives. Sweep is also excellent for the purpose of maintaining space on block and is almost never used despite it being safe like Baraka's sweep and only a few frames slower with similar pushback. Down 2 is strong as an anti-air, anti-cross up and due to the immense pushback on block also puts Jade in an optimal space to harass opponents particularly a well spaced down 2 on block leaves the opponent two dash distances away.

Forward 3,4,3- Is her low starting string and often touted as not good, but I think people are missing the point as this is her best stagger string and once you've conditioned with back 3,4,3 it is definitely very usable and the chip is solid as well.


Supplemental info: I think Jade players should learn from Liu Kang players and not overly rely on the plus frames they get from their good mid. Reasoning being is how reliably it can be blown up. The true mind game comes from getting the opponent comfortable with back 3,4,3 that they always take their turn a this will allow Jade to begin using parry to punish aggression and completing the string will actually lead to tangible damage and space created when people are not focused on flawless blocking. Back 3,4,3 is gapless and cannot be flawless blocked or interrupted with super armor. Some tools are better as a back pocket strategy instead of building a game around dealing with flawless block. The risk/reward of playing that way is NEVER in Jade's favor as staff spin is full combo punishable and a flawless block meterlessly leaves Jade -10 and full combo punishable by a large plethora of the roster.

Throws are strong for everyone, but they definitely bring the whole show together with her mids, staggers, jump kicks and air glaives.

Glow- Speaks for itself, solid anti-zoning and allows movement while glow is active.


Stuff I didn't touch on that is worth using, but not anything that I don't feel is not being used: straight glaive, ex glave restand, 1,2,4, and 2,1,2.

You'll notice how I made no mention of her overhead. I feel that there's so much counter play to it and the risk/reward is kind of daunting at times. I wouldn't say I'm discouraging using it, but given Jade's general risk/reward I feel like a simplified safer Jade that relies primarily on plus frames, chip, staggers and throws is probably most optimal.

Straight glaive and ex straight glaive- straight glaive can allow for anti-air combo converts and on block even at closer ranges is generally +8 or +9 so if you can condition your opponent to block from time to time or condition them to neutral crouch that is extremely beneficial.




TL;DR: Jade should be played more at mid screen with a focus on high chip and air mind games and stop trying to worry about doing overhead/low mix ups. It's not her strength, her strength in this variation lies in a safe chip and abusing her mid range tools in concert with it and if she can condition with air glaive for jump ins she can abuse the jump kicks for excellent offensive pressure.


My goal is just to provide a different perspective on Jade and how I will be playing her going forward. I don't think she's top or even super strong, but I do wanna try to maximize the character as much as possible.

When would you use Sweep instead of D4 and why?

 

[Espio]

When would you use Sweep instead of D4 and why?

Grants a knockdown and can be neutral on block or -1 so you have more leeway for walking or back dashing into a punish and staying out of pressure. Different strengths.

 

[GLoRToR]

When would you use Sweep instead of D4 and why?

D4 is an offensive tool. You want to follow up D4 with normal glaive regularly, to force them to block it and gain enough frame advantage (+10 on block) to start your offense. If they neutral duck it, you can start to abuse your other options.
B4 is a defensive tool, it generates an oki situation which, sadly, due to the nature of wakeups in this game, is the weaker option.

Untamable's B4 is a bit different. Other than an excellent way to teach them to jump, it's also a safe spacing and defensive tool which forces the opponent to approach carefully and fast enough to catch all forms of movement. It shuts down a lot of options. You can stop people from shimmying, it reaches far enough to catch a backdash if you reach one, and it generates the threat of a knockdown well outside of normal sweep range which means Jade is harder to approach or disengage from than in her other variations.