A F0xy Grampa
Problem X Promotions
I've noticed that so many people seem to put Cage in S tier. Yet most of these people dont even main/play him. I cant understand how people can seperate Cage and Sonya in the tiers. What I've written here is all based on high level play with Cage in comparison to Sonya look at the pros & cons:
Pros:
Arguably best frame traps in the game (Rivaled only by Sonya)
Nutpunch reset/to escape other characters frametraps
Fast normals (F3 being the best)
Safe Flipkick (ONLY ON BLOCK!)
Good pokes
Arguably fastest meter building (Rivaled by Sonya/Kabal/KL)
Beats Kung Lao relatively easily
Generally safe gameplay (Once hes close)
Sunglasses
Cons:
Once hes outside sweep distance he has NOTHING. The Ex Shadow kick is only ever a good idea to get the winning hit in OR get the life lead vs a SZ player. This is the biggest reason why he cant be S tier. Take a look at Cyrax/KL/Raiden/Kabal/Reptile, all of them still have offensive options once outside of sweep distance, Cage has nothing other than his green balls which are punishable from rediculous distances and are probably one of the easiest to make a trade with. Compare cages projectile to nearly every other character and you'll realise that a trade is usually a bad idea.
This is why for every second you arent close with Cage you're losing the fight in most matchups. If you're not close you're not killing them//building meter etc etc.
He has no way in other than jumping/dashing/ducking.
To keep his frame traps going consistently you need to stay way more focused on the opponents blocking/movement pattern. And alot of it is making a good predicition about how to start your next one, otherwise they'll just jump/poke out all day.
Characters that he already has bad matchups with such as Reptile and Ermac, already get a natural advantage because of their hitboxes, meaning you cant use EX FB frametraps on them. This means you have to be even more careful what moves you throw out, and basically makes the F33 string completely useless in these matchups.
He gets murdered by the top tier characters, which you're most likely to see in tournaments anyway.
Once Sub and Noob get buffed and have armour to get him off the matchups will go back to their previous lobsided ways.
Since the majority of damage will come from chip it means that the damage is never always going to be 100% guaranteed.
Which would then also mean that his learning curve is actually quite steep, if you want to know how to maintain the offense.
Now compare these to Sonya, who is currently considered Mid-tier:
Pros:
Arguably best frame traps in the game (Rivaled only by Cage)
112 MS reset - Leads to 50/50s / throw setups / more blockstrings back into MS cancels again.
Fast normals which always lead to a mixup for free once canceled into MS (114 being the best blockstring)
Safe Cartwheel with armour on EX which can be comboed off of, better than Ex Shadow kick
Beats all of the top tier bar KL relatively easily
Good pokes
Military stance
Divekick
High meterless damage with resets too, 48% meterless midscreen with a reset into MS
Arc kick to dodge projectiles and get in quickly Ex has armour
Her projectile wins in trades if she shoots first they arent gonna be shooting back again, unless theyre kano
Fast meter building
Sunglasses (Costume 2)
Cons:
Can be killed by negative edge
The lack of a proper mid hit level move could be considered but what does it matter when you have a military stance
Slightly more punishable but if her moves are used in the right context it doesnt really matter.
Steeper learning curve
So can somebody tell me why hes considered S Tier along with characters like Kabal and Raiden? Especially since a character lower in the tiers than him has equal offensive and better evasive moves. Either theyre both S tier of theyre Both A tier really.
Pros:
Arguably best frame traps in the game (Rivaled only by Sonya)
Nutpunch reset/to escape other characters frametraps
Fast normals (F3 being the best)
Safe Flipkick (ONLY ON BLOCK!)
Good pokes
Arguably fastest meter building (Rivaled by Sonya/Kabal/KL)
Beats Kung Lao relatively easily
Generally safe gameplay (Once hes close)
Sunglasses
Cons:
Once hes outside sweep distance he has NOTHING. The Ex Shadow kick is only ever a good idea to get the winning hit in OR get the life lead vs a SZ player. This is the biggest reason why he cant be S tier. Take a look at Cyrax/KL/Raiden/Kabal/Reptile, all of them still have offensive options once outside of sweep distance, Cage has nothing other than his green balls which are punishable from rediculous distances and are probably one of the easiest to make a trade with. Compare cages projectile to nearly every other character and you'll realise that a trade is usually a bad idea.
This is why for every second you arent close with Cage you're losing the fight in most matchups. If you're not close you're not killing them//building meter etc etc.
He has no way in other than jumping/dashing/ducking.
To keep his frame traps going consistently you need to stay way more focused on the opponents blocking/movement pattern. And alot of it is making a good predicition about how to start your next one, otherwise they'll just jump/poke out all day.
Characters that he already has bad matchups with such as Reptile and Ermac, already get a natural advantage because of their hitboxes, meaning you cant use EX FB frametraps on them. This means you have to be even more careful what moves you throw out, and basically makes the F33 string completely useless in these matchups.
He gets murdered by the top tier characters, which you're most likely to see in tournaments anyway.
Once Sub and Noob get buffed and have armour to get him off the matchups will go back to their previous lobsided ways.
Since the majority of damage will come from chip it means that the damage is never always going to be 100% guaranteed.
Which would then also mean that his learning curve is actually quite steep, if you want to know how to maintain the offense.
Now compare these to Sonya, who is currently considered Mid-tier:
Pros:
Arguably best frame traps in the game (Rivaled only by Cage)
112 MS reset - Leads to 50/50s / throw setups / more blockstrings back into MS cancels again.
Fast normals which always lead to a mixup for free once canceled into MS (114 being the best blockstring)
Safe Cartwheel with armour on EX which can be comboed off of, better than Ex Shadow kick
Beats all of the top tier bar KL relatively easily
Good pokes
Military stance
Divekick
High meterless damage with resets too, 48% meterless midscreen with a reset into MS
Arc kick to dodge projectiles and get in quickly Ex has armour
Her projectile wins in trades if she shoots first they arent gonna be shooting back again, unless theyre kano
Fast meter building
Sunglasses (Costume 2)
Cons:
Can be killed by negative edge
The lack of a proper mid hit level move could be considered but what does it matter when you have a military stance
Slightly more punishable but if her moves are used in the right context it doesnt really matter.
Steeper learning curve
So can somebody tell me why hes considered S Tier along with characters like Kabal and Raiden? Especially since a character lower in the tiers than him has equal offensive and better evasive moves. Either theyre both S tier of theyre Both A tier really.
