First of all, I have broken my New years resolution on updating a weekly blog (last updated... like 2 months ago?). I have no intention on making it weekly again unless I get some serious motivation to do so.
Anyway this post is for those who keep asking why I had dropped my old vanilla Marvel team of Zero/Spencer/Dante. It was very strong and indeed does have so much to kill a player. Resets, mixups, silly pressure... definitely a rushdown orientated team. Spencer for resets, Dante for combo extension and mixing up and pressure. Both compliment Zero very well and still do however, it lacked a few things and the changes into Ultimate does make it not as viable as it used to be. Between the === is just the fine details for whoever wants to read but to summarise, just read beyond.
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First of all, lets talk about the buffs and nerfs:
+ Zero can Buster cancel everything except hypers
+ Different angle of H Setsuizan making it easier for ambiguious crossups and mid screen combos
+ Raikousen crosses up in corner
+ Spencer got Bionic Bomber (OTG move)
+ Faster zip wires
+ Can cancel Gapple>Punch into Hypers
+ Dante has easier execution on just frame cancels.
+ More Devil trigger options
- Zero and Dante can no longer benefit from the reset hitstun and hit decay from the DHC Glitch
- Zero has more hitstun decay on his combos
- Fully charged buster is soft knockdown now
- Spencer practically got no nerfs other than DHC glitch capabilities
- Dante more hitstun decay so much harder BNB
- More pushback on a lot of his moves so even simple things like MMHS>j.MMHqcfL>S>j.MMHqcfH drops midscreen which affects a lot of his combos
Overall it seems that it the general strategy is the same, just harder combos (and no more full screen buster into Oki) and no more DHC glitch. Better pressure but harder to do combos once I do have them. Tbh, I'm fine with the changes. It comes down to the flaws with the strategy that I have.
Thing is that even in Vanilla, I had to rely on either DHC glitch or a reset in order to get a kill on a character because Zero's damage output was and still is pretty poor tbh without lightning loop (which I couldn't do consistently which I really should've). Now that the DHC glitch is gone, I can't maximise the damage anymore so it makes relying on very gimmicky resets and mixups or X factor to kill them which is quite a risk because once they know them, it won't work as well anymore and obviously using X factor early is always risky as then I won't have it anymore if I really need it like getting out of blockstun or if I lose 2 characters, etc
I also struggled against good keepaway especially characters like Deadpool as it was a pain to get in and I prefer to be in their face. Since I have no beam assist (that goes horizontally at least), it does make it very difficult to get in and like I said before, without X factor or DHC glitch I would have to rely on a gimmicky reset to kill them (unless I build a ridiculous amount of meter to DHC/Level 3) so if it messed up, they could get back out and I'd have to try and get in all over again.
The other reason why I had decided to stop using this team is that I had found Zero very boring to use after a while (well, after playing for a long time). I felt very braindead and I didn't think I was improving myself very much but I usually am a player that is dedicated to characters and teams as I understand them best.
Now during the PSN blackout, I had taken the opportunity to just mess about with a variety of the cast. Captain America is one of the ones I had really liked but felt was missing a couple of things and was extremely situational because of the lack of corner options so I decided not to pick him up for the rest of Vanilla. Then the announcement came for Ultimate and I had picked up Cap but I still liked using Spencer so I used him as well. I was determined on trying to make them work which was very hard at first. I started by obviously learning the combos that were there for Cap and slowly developed them specifically for Cap and Spence and managed to find some resets and new tech for Cap as he is a very underplayed character including a solid corner combo which utilises all of his new buffs.
During this time, I had messed about with a variety of assists and settled on Doom simply because he could extend combos very well for both Cap and Spence to the point where I can do touch of death form anywhere. It also was due to some inspiration from one of the first Ultimate week 1 or 2 combos that I saw for Cap where Doom missiles will hit after Hyper Charging star as well as the fact that my favourite Marvel player, GX who I had been watching for quite a while since Vanilla because of his amazing Spencer had also used Doom (and Hulk). He could touch of death so easily because he can get another 2 Up Verticle Grapples (UVG) which does unscaled 80k damage. However, the flaw with the strategy using Cap is that it is fueled by meter so I had to work on a new way of getting rid of a character if I didn't have enough meter.
Over time, I developed a very dirty reset. At first it was an extremely subtle high/low reset then it became an extremely dirty high/low/crossup/throw reset which people just do not see. I had also found that there was another Cap/Spencer player on SRK who had also shared a variety of Cap and Spencer tech including an extremely strong mid screen BNB that looks pretty sick. I say thank you to Kei of SRK.
Doom however was my biggest liability because his movement is very different to every other character I have used in that everything is tri-dashing. It has taken a long time but only recently I have got used to using Doom as a character, not just as an assist as I now utilise TAC combos and wall to wall combos as well as being able to now rush and even keep away if needed. To that, I say thanks Cheech for helping me with the little bits on actually using Doom as well as some of the inspiration and ideas on using him.
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When it came to strategies, the two teams were very different. The Zero team focused on pressure, gimmicks and rushdown. The Cap team focuses on getting that first hit through frame traps and Hidden Missiles as well as a high risk game using Charging star and Hyper Stars and stripes to bait out attacks relying on missiles to make things safe.
The Zero team is better against teams that may be more willing to block or can be conditioned to block however struggles heavily against good keepaway, while the Cap team is almost the jack of all trades as it can deal with zoning and keepaway thanks to charging star, is an anti teleport because of Hidden Missiles and can kill Thor 3 times through from cr.L and a couple bars of meters.
Cap is a very underused character and has so much potential. So much has yet to be found which is why I prefer using Cap. Nothing wrong with Zero, I just find Cap more fun than Zero. And Dante is annoying to use now because of dropped combos and converting off a random hit.
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