Teach me, Teach me How to Viper [MvC3 C.Viper Technical]

It's time to face the cold, hard truth about my MvC3 team: It's not working.

I have leveled down from 5th Lord to 5th Ranger, simply because I am diving into Ranked matches at every opportunity. I was doing relatively well, beating a lot of high level teams, but falling flat against a number of opponents who were within my skill range. I'm not plummeting by any means, and my technical skills feel stronger than ever.

Taskmaster and Tron do ninety percent of the work in a given match. I can't envision winning any matches without that duo. Aim of Hawkeye and Gustaff Fire assist allow me to deal huge damage on characters trying to get in. Once in close range, Tron's assist confirms into big Tasky combos. It's solid, and I feel confident playing Tasky/Tron against virtually any team that comes up. I've been tacking on Hulk or Dormammu as anchors to make those dramatic Level 3 X-Factor comebacks, but ideally I would be in fewer dire situations if my team didn't rely on the anchor so heavily.

The tragic flaw of my Tasky/Tron/(Hulk or Dormammu) team is that once Tasky falls, I can only do so much with Tron. Normally I just fish for hits and go for damage while trying to earn and save meter for the anchor. Tron dies, anchor comes in, hopefully avoids the initial mixup, and then uses level 3 X-Factor and the stored meter to wreck shop. Great, when it works. But when a team kills off Tasky and then lames out Tron, well, not so great. I end up with a team that has no potential to open up the opposition, and runs out of time or dies trying to get in.

Also, with the UMvC3 changes being a looming reality, I have to consider that: (1) the DHC glitch is non-existent, so the big damage Tron/Hulk combos I've displayed in this space before are worthless, and (2) aerial X-factor makes my Dormammu chip setup less viable. I first pondered a new anchor, but then began to look for a different team concept, one favoring a scenario that involves me winning.

After watching Evo 2011, I'm taking a page from the book of PR Balrog, and opting to go for two strong, synergistic point characters (Logan and Dante, in Rog's case) with a powerful defensive assist (Tron) in the anchor slot. Once the first character is defeated, the strategy changes very little, still using the remaining point character to engage, backed up by the Tron assist.

I am starting to learn C.Viper, and hope to have a competitive Viper/Tasky/Tron team at some point. Becoming proficient with Viper is a daunting task. I've started at page one in the SRK forum Viper thread and I feel like I'm beginning to grasp the mechanics behind her combos. Theoretically, this team has all the tools to win, and with more lab time my Tasky and Tron will definitely be where they need to be, but the variable is whether I can get my Viper up to snuff.

So there's the big announcement: my official declaration of my intent to learn Viper. What follows are some notes I've gleaned from the aforementioned thread, that I will keep handy on my blog for future reference.

First off, learn to rapid fire Seismos. It's simply Seismo, super jump cancelling into another Seismo. Duh.

f, d, df + Atk, [f, d, df, f, uf + Atk] x n

Next, learn the box dash loop. Similar in principle in that we're using a super jump motion to cancel out of the Seismo, but in this case allowing the super jump to come out, and immediately airdashing forward into H, S, land and link M, H, Seismo, repeat. How easy is this?

L Seismo, IADF j.H j.S, (land) M, H, L Seismo, IAFD j.M, j.S, ...

Third, learn this throw/air throw combo with Tasky assist from Chrisis. Gotta be able to get damage off a throw. Will have to learn to H Thunder Knuckle~Feint on Hit as an alternative to S launching. Okay.

Throw/air throw, L Seismo, IADF H, S, (land) M + Assist, H, M Knuckle (Task hits), H Knuckle~Feint, jc, j.M, j.M, j.S, dj, j.M, j.H, j.S, EX Burning Kick, (land) S, j.M, j.H, dj, j.M, j.H, j.S, (land) L Seismo xx Burst Time (DHC)

Finally, step up to Viper guru Gottnoskill's execution exhibition. Two H Thunder Knuckle~Feint loops and two box dash loops, with a relaunch. Nothing to it.

Tri-dash j.S, M, H, S (1st hit), H Knuckle~Feint, M, H, H Knuckle~Feint, M, H, L Seismo, IADF j.M j.S, (land) M, H, L Seismo, IAFD j.H, j.S, (land) M, H, S, j.M, j.M, j.H, dj, j.M, j.M, j.H, EX Burning Kick, (land) S, j.H, dj, j.H, j.S, (land) L Seismo xx Burst Time (DHC)

I'll be in the lab for awhile. Don't bother calling.

Oh yeah. Don't forget to learn the infinite.

And here is some gratuitous girl-on-girl (MarlinPie vs KBeast FT5 at Evo2k11).

Don't You Know Any Other Moves? [Taskmaster UMVC3 Charge Sting New Move]

Looks like Tasky may have forgotten the events of Vanilla Marvel Vs Capcom 3, 'cause he just learned a new move!

Not sure if you can combo into Charge Sting, but reportedly and logically you can cancel Shield Skills into Charge Sting, allowing you to combo on hit, and catch opponents trying to punish Shield Skills on block. (You could do this with the arrow or counter special before, but hopefully CS will be safer.)

Also, allows a free Hyper arrows afterwards as well.

Here's hoping Taskmaster is buffed all around. He's by far best character in MvC3, and I'd love for my experience to give me a leg up if he happens to fall in God-tier in UMVC3.

SSF4 AE NCR HIGHLIGHTS

Surge of the Intent to Put Lego on Blast Awakened in Killa [SSF4 AE Hype Evil Ryu]

Not so long ago, not unlike the Treaty of Tordesillas, Legoman decided we needed to preemptively pick teams, as it were, amongst the four new roster additions of the incoming Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition downloadable content. With the same breath, Legoman called dibs on Oni. (beat)

While I naturally had a desire to investigate Oni's EX crossup, and was absolutely scintillated by the possibilities of the air Demon, I was resolved to abide. In doing so, I have begun to wrap my mind around Evil Ryu, or as our friends overseas would call him 'Satsui no Hadou ni Mezameta Ryu'. A more literal translation would be, the 'Surge of the Intent to Kill Awakened in Ryu'.

We'll stick with Evil Ryu for brevity.

First thing to note is that Evil Ryu has the same health and stamina as Akuma, so pretty goddamn bad, but not the worst. He does not have Akuma's air fireball or demon flip, but he does have the teleport and a command dive kick, but with a lower activation point than Akuma's. He also has both his normal Hadou and the Shakunetsu hadou (aka red fireball). He has a faster walk speed and a much better forward dash than regular Ryu, allowing for Focus Crumple, delayed cr.Short into dash under reset on most of the cast, allegedly. It is also widely reported that he can juggle short Tatsu to Sweep on only five members of the cast.

His crouching forward is more akin to Ryu's in 3s; it advances him, making [cr.Forward xx Hadou] combo from any distance, and making it an excellent block string. The most notable new inclusion is the standing axe kick aka Dragon Stomp (DS). You can combo into the forward version and then plink into low strong to continue the combo. The EX version hits overhead and gives an untechable knockdown. Roundhouse version gives the untechable, but can be blocked low.

Meterless staple combo should be something along the lines of [Dive Kick, cr.Jab, cl.Fierce xx forward DS, cr.Strong xx short Tatsu, Shoryu]. Three meters should allow [cr.Forward xx forward DS, cr.Strong xx EX Hadou FADC U2] for some flashy, high damage action.

More generally, I am also looking forward to God Tier Yun, Cody's three frame cr.Short, Akuma's [Fierce xx Teleport xx U2], and also the general buffs to formerly trash tier Makoto and Hakan.

Watch your back, Lego.

Dim Mak [Tron / Hulk / Akuma - Touch of Death DHC Trick MVC3]

[j.H xx H Drill (mash) - M xx f+M - j.M - j.M - j.H - H - S - j.M - j.M - j.H - j.S - d+H + Tatsu Assist - H Beacon Bomb - j.H - j.S - L Beacon Bomb - King Servbot DHC* Gamma Quake - S - j.M - j.M - j.H - j.S - L Gamma Wave xx Gamma Crush]


Touch of Death on any character in the game. (1.3million+ damage)
Works midscreen (carries opponent to corner).
Requires 1 meter at start of combo. (Can kill off of a First Attack.)
Builds 2+ more meters, expends 3 total.

{Learning an extended combo like this is like learning to play a piece of music. Visualization, muscle memory, and audio cues all play a part.}

I am still trying to get the most out of the King Servbot-Gamma Quake DHC trick. I extended the initial Tron series to get as much damage as possible before the Delayed Hyper Combo resets the damage scaling and hitstun decay. This version can kill any character from the start of the round as it only requires one meter to start, yet builds enough to use three hypers. The Gamma Crush finisher is only necessary for the top tier of health characters; without it, the combo uses 2 meters to do 1.1 million damage. A large portion of the cast cannot survive the DHC trick, anyways. Obviously characters that can easily avoid Tron's j.H (i.e. Amaterasu) will need a different approach.

I still haven't gotten the hang of using Dormammu's Dark Hole to combo after Tron's OTG d+H, so I subbed in Akuma. Almost any lockdown assist should work here (Skrull Tenderizer, Chun Legs, Sent Drones, etc.) to setup the Beacon Bomb, but I have found the hitstun on Akuma's Tatsu to be the easiest with which to work. Some assists leave the opponent too low for H Beacon Bomb; L Beacon in it's place does not allow for the extra j.H before the final j.S, but again the damage difference is negligible. The groundbounce into the second Beacon Bomb is actually necessary, allowing time after Akuma's assist so that Hulk is available for the DHC.

I have a more practical version that is more reliable for online play, and I confirmed it works on both Zero and Shuma Gorath, notable for their small and wacky hitboxes, respectively. I consolidate the Tron segment from

[...Drill - M - f+M - j.M - j.M - j.H - H - S - j.M - j.M - j.H - j. S ...]

to

[...Drill - M - f+M - j.M - j.M - j.H - S - j.H - j.S ...]

but I only gained meter build, not substantive damage.


(Kinda proud of this one. Definitely puts the other combos I posted to shame.)

Ant-man is good people

Trickery [Tron / Hulk / Skrull DHC Trick Touch of Death Combo]

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[H Mixer, OTG cr.H + Skrull Tenderizer Assist xx Bandit Boulder, H Beacon Bomb, j.S, L Beacon Bomb, King Servbot DHC Gamma Quake, S, j.M, j.M, j.H, j.S, OTG L Gamma Wave XX Gamma Crush DHC Lunch Rush DHC He Loves You]

152 Hits
1.4+million damage
Burns 5 Meters (972k with only 2 Meters, 1.28mil with only 4)
No X-Factor

DHC from King Servbot to Gamma Quake before King Servbot hits, or else the opponent will flip out due to hitstun during Hulk's air combo, if you can even hit the launcher.

Stopping at Hulk's OTG Gamma Tsunami nets 972k damage for only 2 Meters. I think Lunch Rush kills Thor with four meters, so the fifth for He Loves You is just for kicks.

Adding the Beacon>King Servbot>Gamma Quake setup increases the damage potential of my Tron and Hulk immensely if Tasky is down.