Birdarang is just mvp in the match-up. Cheetah is just up against a wall of no hurtbox normals behind birdarang.
I struggle in the Robin match-up but I'm probably playing it wrong. I feel like with his range/footsies and that remote birdarang that I can't get much going at all. Match-ups like his are why I've mostly moved on from Cheetah. I haven't played her in much of a serious capacity in a while. She's either the most fun I've ever had playing a character or she's the most frustrating; I can never decide which.
Updated to 4-6 also concerned about Swamp Thing.
Could you please elaborate a bit on why Cheetah loses to Firestorm? I didn't really play that matchup a lot and just assumed it was 5-5. Was it the buffs Firestorm received that made it into a losing matchup or did he win it before the patch?
Firestorm's footsies and walk back speed feed into his advantages, molten trap gives him a full combo launching check on her lunge in gameplan making it a very real threat to her lunge in game and meter build which are huge. Cheetah hasn't gotten any real boosts in the match up while Firestorm gets trait significantly more often giving him health regen and strong comeback potential.
He has solid options for checking her in the air with torpedo, his newly buffed jump normal and even starfish can get it done. Firestorm is one of those could have been 5-5, but has simply gotten progressively worse due to him getting stronger while she remains the same.
I'm sure nearly every Cheetah player will agree with me.
Cheetah struggles against characters that profit from a heavy mash playstyle.
Characters that get full combos into set-ups from a highly mashable d1 or barely negative specials into 6 frame d1s make Cheetahs risk/reward game even riskier.
Also her jump ins can be challenged hard by low profiling or fast d1s, and if we lose that challenge these d1 mash characters usually get full combos into set-ups which is just annoying considering they already probably win neutral.
Very annoying and against players and characters that are mash intensive, I feel like I have to play more of that day one Cheetah ugly play style which I hate and at that point I'm just ready to switch to someone else lol.
The best thing I do to blow up mashing is deep jump normals into Back 1 or forward 2 strings, it takes some practice and awareness but that's working for me.
You posted a video a while back outlining your issues with playing Cheetah and I pretty much agree with all of your points. I believe Espio also said something about her conditioning game a while ago (something along the lines of it being ok if you're playing a set to 30 games but in a FT3/5 it's simply not effective).
I've been playing a lot of Sub-Zero and while you could argue that he's a worse character, the fact that I have defensive options (if you use Cheetah and defense in the same sentence then you're a comedian) and the realization of how much that caters to my playstyle, Cheetah is definitely a "just for fun" or side character for me.
I recall, my thing is like Scarecrow has a mid command grab so once he conditions you to block, which is actually hella easy because he has a plus on block combo starter lol. He can do his mid command grab stuff, he doesn't have to guess if you're ducking or standing up because either way the command grab is hitting you. I would take that over the combo damage honestly because people are consistently worried about it and it's pretty safe in comparison.
People that know the match up understand that you're guessing as much as they are and behave accordingly and since it's so unsafe on whiff yolo guesses just aren't something to get comfortable with doing.
I don't even know if Sub is a worse character or not, Cheetah is a decent character but has really notable flaws that go ignored because she can get high damage for two bars and trait lol. Since people think she's godlike, she is also extremely unlikely to get any help or changes. Not that I want a bunch or anything like that, just people promoting dishonest narratives are gonna keep her stagnant.
I've used Cheetah in tournaments and would again provided I had a match up preference for her, but my main Beetle has comparable mobility while also having superb safety, zoning and real footsies. Beetle beats more characters and the match ups like Deadshot she was good for over him are now not losing for Beetle.
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