Taskmaster/Sentinel/Phoenix
There is absolutely no way you can get in on Taskmaster zoning you out with Sentinel’s drones coming in. Plus every single shot Taskmaster pulls off only adds meter for Phoenix to eat up. This team is so efficient it isn’t even funny…
The Slang term is what we’re using. I would say “keepaway” if I wanted to be techinically correct, but most people recognize Zoning as a more popular term for the same thing.
My mom, who was a writer, used to tell me, “it’s often more important to be understood than to be correct,” so I guess I have to concede this one. But at least you recognize that, as far as syntax goes, the Wolverine answer is probably the best one. 
To keep on topic, though, The Taskmaster Doom missile duo is freakin great for keepaway style zoning. Also don’t forget Storm for runaway style zoning. (I consider the two styles slightly different)
I don’t think we should use it as a slang term. There are a lot of examples in fighting games where zoning characters actually what you at a medium distance.
Exactly.
Yes, but most people use the term as slang, so I used it at slang.
If we were to actually use it correctly, then Wolverine Akuma and Wesker beam assist would be great for zoning. Both have incredible corner options, and therefore are good at zoning I.E. keeping them in the corner, which is advantageous because those characters have sick mixups.
Though were talking about “zoning out”, so yeah.
In terms of keepaway, Arthur (Whatever assist)/Doom (Hidden Missiles)/Hsien Ko (idk which one)
This guy I played started every match with Hsien Ko, did the armor hyper then tagged in Arthur but smartly enough so I couldn’t punish. Arthur runs throwing shit at you and if you get tooclose he uses Hsien Ko. Try to sj and he’ll use Doom. His Doom just keeps spamming Hidden Missiles and using Hsien Ko if you somehow get him to come out. Hsien Ko keeps doing her jump in the air swing thing repeatedly (I swear I don’t remember her touching the ground once) making you block until she finally gets a succesful hit then does a combo. Cheapest “zoning” team I’ve ever seen.
yay i knew i built my team(Task/Sent/Phoenix) correctly! I feel Deadpool can prolly sub Task master, but Task has 1mil, so more meter when he dies for Jean. Not only does his health help out, but the meter you get from a charged AoH shot+2 or 3 drones= 1/3 a meter. My Secondray team is Task/Sent/Haggar. Not much sucess with this team so far, but its worked VS Phoenix enough for me to keep it. I also play team Wentinel, which is pretty annyoing, but i play it a bit more Rush then Running away. Another good team is Storm/Morrigan/Jean. Its basiclly MVC2 Storm “HoHOHOHOhOhO” all day. Float, call morrigan, throw a whirlwind, land, repeat till Phoenix tiem.
In Umvc3,im thinking of playing GR/Hawk/Sent and having a secondary team of Hawk/Wright(hopefully hes good enough)or RR/Doom Missiles. I also heard cap is getting some major buffs in Ultimate, and Magneto sounds annyoing so far.
“ATTRACTION!!!1!1!!!111” canceled into Shockwave is GG. And God Ryu with his Invisible Hadokens that give you a wallbounce sounds awsome!
As someone who’s dabbled in both duos of task sent and task doom(missiles), I find myself wondering if anyone has found any good specific sequences that. Can closest resemble an infinite lockdown. Not in a literal sense, but basically like timing specific arrows and drone calls so as to flow from one drone call to the next, using the timing of the drones and arrows to do so with as little “hole” as possible. I imagine such a sequence would involve single and/or double arrow shots to change the ammount of time the move takes since obv just doing one or two triple arrow shots between drones doesn’t quite work this way.
Has. Anyone figured out some good lock sequences in this manner? With missiles you can’t keep going and going with no holes, but you can set up some pretty nice locks by timing arrows to hit before and after missiles do. The spiral sent player in me would really love for patterns like these, or something close to them, to exist!
Dante/Sent/Doom or Dante/Dorm/Doom
I’m sure these teams can create a nice lockdown with a pattern of Drones/Dark hole and Hidden Missles with Dante: [st.:h: xxweasel shot+ call Sentinel, stinger xxbold cancel, hammer, call Doom+stinger xxbold cancel xxreverb shock] repeat in brackets
Not sure if this is adjustable to advance guard though.
I can’t remember clearly, but I saw someone do something similar on the Evo stream.
Check out a player named big D. He uses dante dorm doom and. Its artwork watching him vomit missiles with dante and doom together
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Chris. Disregarding his lack of anti-air, it’s grenades, grenades, grenades all day long. Then again… He gets put in the corner pretty easily.
Eat it. Suck it. Suck on this. Take this you’re finished.
IMO, Deadpool/Doom/Haggar.
Deadpool and Doom can both OTG off of Double Lariat into a full combo, and Deadpool can use Plasma Beam to combo aerial qcf.M into qcf.M into hyper. If you want to mix things up, you can also use Plasma Beam for a cross-up teleport. Put Deadpool on Quick Work for unblockables for Dr. Doom.
Dormmy(assist don’t matter)/Haggar(what is he good for, lariat)/Trish(peekaboo).
Just sit back there set flame carpet and peekaboo and when they get hit by peekaboo or Haggar or flame carpet, into the corner they go and then dark hole/purification, reset with suffer, chaotic flame. Charge spells as other characters incoming. IF you are facing a team like Wolverine/Shulk and such.
If they have zoners as well, throw in Task instead of Trish with horizontal arrows.
Dont hate on my team 
Here’s the deal with zoning teams as a strategy - they usually lose to Phoenix badly. The reason is because if you’re just sitting back chipping down a Phoenix team, they’re guaranteed 5 bars. “Zoning” teams probably aren’t rushing down aggressively snapping her in and mixing her up, either.
So either A) your zoning team needs to be capable of rushing down or B) you need to be playing Phoenix yourself.
Here are a few characters that are capable of zoning AND snapping in a Phoenix into a mix-up or kill. There may be others.
[LIST]
[]Dante - great keepaway normals and specials.
[]Magneto - amazing projectiles in Disrupter and his air :u::uf::f: fireball, and his Shockwave hyper is amazing
[]Amaterasu - midrange keepaway. Glaive stance + paper is awful for rushdown characters to approach.
[]Trish - very annoying mix of mobility, long range priority normals and specials
[]Zero - buster buster buster
[]Dormammu - his keepaway game has a few holes in it, but he also has a good flamecarpet/teleport mix-up game to go with it
[*]Storm - she needs good assists to make the most of it, but she can play both roles well
[/LIST]
And a strong assist definitely helps. You’re trying to control and win the neutral game, and if their assist outmatches yours, then you’ve got a big problem. I’d recommend assists like Tron, Haggar, Sentinel, Doom, Akuma, etc.
That or run Phoenix in the back and then you don’t have to worry about rushing down as much, just surviving.
This is why I was actually going to say that the best keepaway team is probably Storm/Morrigan/Phoenix in the current meta. The team both floods the screen with projectiles, has access to the DHC glitch (both Morrigan and Phoenix can finish it), and float run away with Dark Harmonizer serves as a meter denial mechanic to your opponent as well. And it’s still a Phoenix team. Trish is the single best keepaway character by herself though.
Ive thought a lot about the Storm/Trish + Morri/Ammy + Phoenix strategy. My main concern is fighting other Phoenix teams. Is there really any benefit to getting to 5 first if both of you end up reaching 5 anyway? Even if you play from the “tag in Phoenix, let her go dark, tag her back out” school, have you really gained anything by hitting 5 first? Some extra meter for DP maybe, but then you still have to come in on a welcome setup at some point.
Another question, not exclusively for Phoenix strategies, or even meter build assists, is if you’re playing the runaway Trish/Storm game, where you have the options of calling assists while high up in the air, which are the best assists for abusing that privledge? There’s got to be a balance of “assist you can hit with while flying around” with “assist you can capitalize off of when it does hit while you’re flying around.” I love the Storm/Trish runaway stuff in theory, but haven’t been able to think of a dirty/broken/nasty enough assist setup to make the strategy jump from annoying to seemingly broken.
In a Phoenix team mirror, the denial mechanic works well because it simply means your have meter to burn snaps and welcome chip like Hail Storm, and they generally don’t. Since the camera focuses on Storm while she’s in flight, any quick assist is useful, and you can get some free pokes on people with low assist, or beams if you cross them up often, or simply to harass them while you pelt them with Lightning Sphere’s Double Typhoons. Hitting a Typhoon at any height will allow you to do at least one Lightning Attack to lightning Storm as a follow up, usually two. I’m not aware of any way for Trish to actually call assist at super jump height barring a double jump into flight mode though, so it’s not something you’re going to see out of her as often as Storm. Essentially the goal with the team I listed is simply to run away with Storm and meter build, Marvel 2 style, and then move in when you’re at 4-5 meters, then run again when you spend them. Against a lot of teams you’re fully capable of unloading 6 consecutive Hail Storms for chip as well, although that really shouldn’t be the primary goal. I don’t recommend this against a Dorm team though, Purification can really mess it up, and potentially infinite an assist depending on location.
It’s really about being able to play Marvel 2 Storm bullshit with Phoenix in the back though.
my anti-phoenix strat is simple enough: Kill her team, let her turn first, wear out her xfactor, resume being a Jackass with task master/Sent/ phoenix untill Jean is ready, then i turn, and chip what ever is left:P This has been working for me since Task lockdown with Sent drones pretty much kills entire teams for me. PLUS this team has good DHC abilty.
OTG Arrow hyper xx Plasma Storm xx Phoenix Rage.
Phoenix Rage xx Upward Arrow Hyper, wait, TK OTG arrow hyper
Rocket PunchxxHSFxxHard DrivexxPlasma Storm xx Up forward Arrow Hyper