Best anti-air

Classic Fighting Games Skullgirls
1

Simple question from a beginner Cerebella player: What would you say is Cerebella’s best anti-air, and in what situations, if any, would you use her others anti-air options? These are the three moves I’m using at the moment.

Her 623MP, aka, Devil Horns, is a special move seems like her most shoryuken-like move, with invulnerability on start up and pretty good vertical range, but it doesn’t seem to have much horizontal range and I’m not sure how good the priority of its hitboxes (tried watching them in training but everything moves so hard its hard to gauge) are in regards to getting stuffing by some of the jumping attacks with better hit boxes. It does bounce the character pretty high in the air, though, so there’s probably combo potential there the other options don’t have. Hits for 1450. Currently I’m using this as my “get the heck off me” move do to the invulnerability, other wise only if their attacking right above me.

Her 623LP+LK, aka, Excellebella, is a throw, and anti-air throws are notoriously bad anti-airs compared to non-throw variants (atleast in my experience), but it seems to have a better horiztonal range then Devil Horns as she swings her arm forward and up instead of thrusting it straight up. There is, however, no invulnerability on start up. Hits for 150 x5 + 1100. Currently this is my go to anti-air when their jumping toward me do to the horizontal range and damage.

Her s.HP, aka, Tent Stake Hammer, is a normal that seems to have pretty good horizontal anti-air range. It knocks down vs air, but also has no invulnerabilty and does the least damage of the three moves at 1125. Currently use this if my opponent is on the ground and in my face but I’m predicting a quick jumping attack since Excellebella and Devil Horns often whiff in these situations and leave me wide open while Tent Stake Hammer seems to connect more often and can even some times stuff other ground based moves if I guess wrong and they don’t jump.

A fourth option wold seem to be to go for a Grab Bag (jump into 236LP+LK) air throw, but the moves range is a bit suspect and doesn’t seem to have any invulnerability so far too often the move seems to get stuffed, thus I rarely go for it unless I just happened to have jumped and they jumped toward me at the same time.

Again, I’m a beginner player, so I’m probably way off in my assessment of these moves and missing a move or two that’s even better as an anti-air, so really hoping to hear some thoughts from some of the more experienced or higher level players!

2

I use st. mp against painwheel, and that might work against other characters. In some situations, however, you have to just respect the other characters’ great jumping normal and just block it (parasoul’s j.HP, anything from painwheel). Another option is to jump forward normal air throw.

Otherwise, I don’t use any of what you mentioned because devil horns has a terrible defensive hitbox, excellebella has no invincibility, and grab bag is WAY too slow. I have not used s. HP, but it is slow on startup too. Also try an early cerecopter - it might work.

3

I like s.HP out of those, usually charging back for a run to cancel it to. I’m much more comfortable if I can establish air dominance though.

The Kanchou run follow up seems to do something weird to Cerebella’s hitbox, and I’ve found myself slide under a few attacks unexpectedly, could be used as an anti-air, but risky if they block it.

4

Do not forget that Excellebella is blockable when opponent’s going down. It’s weak against empty jump-ins because of this.

5

C.Hp is also a pretty good AA. And you can get a combo off of it as well (j.lp mash etc) Doesn’t have invulnerability but its has a pretty nice range.

6

Against Painwheel’s that like ‘ground string -> fly/unfly’ stuff, s.LK might be a viable AA option – it’s hard to say without training mode, but it was working for me just now. You press s.LK when you read the ‘fly/unfly’, just be careful you aren’t walking into a frametrap.

7

s.HP is somewhat slow but it has a nasty hitbox. If you do it early enough, it’ll beat pretty much everything.

8

Against moves like Parasouls j.HP, I actually like to use s.LK.

9

They’re situational, man.

I personally think her best anti air is her crouching fierce, even if I wiff it, I cancel it into merry go rilla or diamond drop, if I have level 3 I’ll just cancel into that because it blows people’s minds. (It won’t work on everyone, but If they’re going in pressing buttons, have a ball).

You can also cancel her DP grab into Ultimate Showstopper.

A surprising anti air is Pummel horse.

10

Does this really work? I’m gonna try it because I’ve lose some many easy matches chasing jumping HP Parasouls :expressionless: such a stupid matchup

11

During casuals in my Skullgirls booth at SummerSalt, I punished so many jump ins with Lock 'n Load that it wasn’t even funny anymore. Sure it requires a bit of timing and it doesn’t lead to any easy combos (that I know off), but it works when my gameplan is to push my opponent into the corner and rape them there.

12

Her Devil Horns has great vertical range, but from my experience is horrible horizontally even though there’s some invulnerability.

St. :h: punch takes timing and isn’t really reliable in that department.

To me, her best AA is her Excellebella (a.k.a. Layin’ the Smack Down!) It’s not a GTFO me move, but it has great startup and is deceptively quick. Multiple times I’ve snatched Valentine & Filia out of their air-dashes and sent them on their way with sore cheeks. St. :l: kick is good to, if they’re too close for you to risk the throw.

13

Why don’t we get rid of this thread and replace it with something like “Situational moves” to deal with everything, not just AA’s, and how/when they should be used? A thread solely for AA’s seems silly to me, let’s get expansive up in here.

14

you know what tool i just found out is really good for beating parasoul assist recently.

cerecopter. if you can anticipate when the opp is going to throw it out, which isnt hard most of the time since people like to spam the shit out of it. just throw out a cerecopter, preferably kara it from cr.MP for some extra range, laugh as they land right in the middle of your active for 80 frame gigantic hitbox special. the fact it hits so fast and is active for so long means it easily catches the assist within its 2 frame vulnerability as it hits the ground. im gonna be using it a lot more often against para assist just to see how much i can abuse it.

i think i managed to land it about 3 times in a 1 v 3 match and damn near killed her outright. he actually stopped calling it after that as well which was great.

15

You guys are entirely forgetting her s.LK. Try it out in training mode, its her fastest option and controls a big chunk of space without putting her hitboxes forward. However, it won’t do so well against very close jumpins as it hits more up-forward than up.

her s.MP is also another good option as it hits in a great place to snuff jumpins and doesn’t shift her hitboxes until the recovery. For the active duration its just basically a solid square of hurtboxes that covers her head well

If you use either of these options don’t forget to always chain into launcher for an extended combo. Theres no reason not to unless they super jump.

For the most part though I actually like to anti-air with her QCF+PP super. It starts very fast and has invulnerability. There is the possibility that some characters can counter air super, but they really need to be on point with those reactions.

The only good use for devil horns Ive foudn so far is to deal with pesky painwheels. Its a popular tactic to fly around right above you and call assists. Devil horns is basically just a big vertical column of pain that can reliably smack them out of the air and let you followup with a combo.

If you know they like to jump with a single hitting move, her armored run will blow staright through alot. This is a pretty dependable option thats very easy to perform under pressure so long as youve got charge.

As for excellabella I can guarantee you this move will fail you if you’re under any significant pressure. Pretty much any character who can IAD will blow this up for free. The move itself takes time to input, the startup isnt very good, it can be blocked, the oppenent needs to be cornered for you to followup, and its pretty punishable.

With all that said, bella is the second slowest character in the game. Alot of the time you will simply need to block. Specifically you should learn to pushblock effectively and dont be afraid to go for a cmd grab when they land (dont mash grab super like an idiot, regular cmd grabs are alot less punishable). Most of your time as bella should be spent on the ground so learn to block, learn to anti-air when you can, be patient, and explode on your opponent with real soviet damage and reset them to oblivion.

Also, grabbag is not an anti-air. It will never be an anti-air. It is a reset.

16

how do people deal with double jumping HP?

that move annoys the shit outta me.

17

Honestly? You block, use diamond dynamo as an AA super, or get an invicible assist that can blow through it. Bella can use s.lk if they try to use it basically right on top of you but otherwise I dunno if she can relaibaly challenge it.

I can’t recall if it works or not, but her armored run into HK followup may be an option. (1 armor during the run and 2 during the charge) The double’s j.HP hits 3 times so between the armor and speed you might have a shot. Try it out with a friend.

18

im running solobella atm so dont have access to an assist. i dont wanna make a habit of using her super for an AA either since if they block you are fucked and its not like you have infinite meter either.

armoured run never really works for me since you would need to cancel into the butt right after the first hit gets you in order to have enough armour to get through. i may have to play about with it a bit more though. main problem i have is when the double is continually holding up forwards and spamming on it, you block it, and then still have enough hitstun to be in the air again and almost at the peak of the jump making it really tough to actually time her cr.HP/DP+throw fast enough without taking the hit.

normally i wouldnt ask these kinds of questions cos it would be something i just hit up in training mode right away if i was having probs with something.

19

Just pushblock it and return the match to neutral. It’s not worth running the risk.