Strategy Two ways to play Skarlet

[ryublaze]

After playing as, against, and watching other Skarlets, I realized that there are two differing ways to play her. Neither is bad, but there seems to be tons of information floating around and if you're going to learn Skarlet you should probably decide on how you want to play her. Not to say that you should just stick to one style, so if you want to use all of her tools then go ahead and use both. There also might be other ways to play her that I haven't touched on in this post so feel free to post your unique way of playing Skarlet.

1.
I'll start off with my playstyle. I refer to this as the "basic" Skarlet. This playstyle focuses on building as much meter as possible and using that meter for EX Red Dash, EX Down Slash, EX Dagger Toss, or breaker. Meter build comes from using Red Dash whenever possible, using 1, 1, 4 after a 1, 1, 2 standing reset, and rapid firing daggers from fullscreen.

Combos such as Red Dash, Down Slash, 2, Red Dash, Down Slash, 2, Red Dash, Down Slash, 1, 1, 2 are used to build meter and to push the opponent closer to the corner. With the frame advantage it has, 1, 1, 4 is guaranteed afterwards. Red Dash can be used to build meter after breakers or knockdowns as well. Red Dash is also always used after a connected D4 to start pressure and build meter.

2.
The second playstyle is based on countering the opponent. Eddy Wang presented us with "counter reads" which utilizes EX Red Dash to counter opponent's armor when trying to escape Skarlet's pressure. An example would be using D4 not linked into Red Dash, but instead F4, Red Dash is used afterwards if the D4 hits a standnig opponent. The opponent can armor out, but on a correct read, F4, EX Red Dash can be used to beat the opponent's armor.

The other tactic used for countering is using EX Dagger Toss on a crouch blocking opponent the EX Dagger Toss will fly right over the opponent's head. By giving the opponent a way out, Skarlet can back dash cancel out of the EX Dagger and use F4 to beat out the opponent's low pokes. While meter may be spent more for this playstyle, the reward for making the right read is great because LBSH, Skarlet punishes hard, she gets 40%+ combos leading into pressure and she builds back the meter she just spent to use again on the above tactics.

So after reading this, what are your guys' thoughts about Skarlet's playstyles and how do YOU play Skarlet?

 

[SaJa]

I guess to improve mine I gotta practice few things :

IAd (diagonal one aswell).
Use more f43 (I always F4, slide instead) and f3, strings.
Some matchups offline.
d1 AA.

 

[Eddy Wang]

I generally alternate between 1 or 2, depending of how the opponent is focused on my game.

But my primary style is definitely counter

 

[AK L0rdoftheFLY]

I think certain MU require one or both styles. Really it depends on a few factors:

1) does the character have armor
2) how large is their hitbox
3) do they zone or rushdown

against cyrax you want to maximize meter in combos with red dash combos instead of daggers, abuse his hitbox by ending in resets, and keep him full screen when you have the lifelead by ending your reset pressure with f43 to create space.

against Cage and sonya, you want to end in f43 because their hitbox makes pressure difficult, they cant zone skarlet at all, and the only threat they have is up close.

Against Freddy and kenshi you want to end in resets and abuse eh dagger wiff frame traps and counter armor reads to keep them locked down. when your in its easy to pressure because of hitbox and they excell at zoning. And with armor at their disposal, you need to turn their armor into combos by using eh red dash to counter. when every time they use armor, you get 40%...you win.

 

[ryublaze]

I think certain MU require one or both styles. Really it depends on a few factors:

1) does the character have armor
2) how large is their hitbox
3) do they zone or rushdown

against cyrax you want to maximize meter in combos with red dash combos instead of daggers, abuse his hitbox by ending in resets, and keep him full screen when you have the lifelead by ending your reset pressure with f43 to create space.

against Cage and sonya, you want to end in f43 because their hitbox makes pressure difficult, they cant zone skarlet at all, and the only threat they have is up close.

Against Freddy and kenshi you want to end in resets and abuse eh dagger wiff frame traps and counter armor reads to keep them locked down. when your in its easy to pressure because of hitbox and they excell at zoning. And with armor at their disposal, you need to turn their armor into combos by using eh red dash to counter. when every time they use armor, you get 40%...you win.

I agree that the way to play Skarlet differs in each matchup. I've been keeping cage and sonya out with f4,3 and fullscreen daggers and they have a hard time getting in from my experiences. I haven't tried counter armoring yet cuz I'm too afraid that I might waste meter on a wrong read but I know that it pays off big time in the end.

 

[AK L0rdoftheFLY]

I agree that the way to play Skarlet differs in each matchup. I've been keeping cage and sonya out with f4,3 and fullscreen daggers and they have a hard time getting in from my experiences. I haven't tried counter armoring yet cuz I'm too afraid that I might waste meter on a wrong read but I know that it pays off big time in the end.

against pig counter armor reads are the shit. getting 40% at the expense of one bar of his meter is fucking bad ass.

 

[AssassiN]

I dunno, I guess I would say both?
But more of the first style, I play a very defensive Skarlet.
Which works in some MU, need to adapt to more styles tbh.

 

[Eddy Wang]

With the time, when the opponents starts to get used to any of them, you'll see yourselves on a position that requires you to use everything, either pressure skarlet or counter skarlet.
When they're so focused on pressure is when you have to switch to counter, and when they're into your counter, you switch back to pressure, its actually frustrating to them, because this screw ups with ppls reads a lot.

Some players lately are guessing NJP reads in hope of i red dash slide to poke them from far, this give free combos to start with, or simply dash in, bait NJP and whiff Punish with F4. Sometimes they're so worried with counters that won't even bother to get caught on blockstrings chip, or D4 overheads.

What i mean is, in any case, there is always a room where they reads can't cover, there will always be a soft spot on their defense, no matter what they are expecting, you just have to be fast to identify which it is and explore it until they realize what they did wrong,

 

[Eddy Wang]

RedRaptor10

Apparently, some setups favors the "basic " playstyle better, but the other setups favor the "counter" playstyle better.

i.e. getting the low frame advantage on 112 reset favors the counter, because if the opponent is convinced that is the room to armor out, is where exactly he will find the counter read.

I would still recommend anyone who plays it, to learn both, there is some moments we'll need it to swap between each in order to win, i actually swap from counter to offense like water these days