Dark Phoenix Strategy: You Can't Control It

[Rog-Sothoth]

Apex made me sad, because it showed to be true what every Phoenix player already knows: she’s goddamn easy to counter now. Between Spiral Swords, Ouroboros, Soul Drain, and TAC glitches, I laugh when I see people consistently let Dark Phoenix onto the field. As a Morrigan player, I’ve played Phoenix users in hundreds of matches, and maybe 20% of the time she gets to come out because I have so many Soul Drain set ups to make sure she dies once and never comes back.

So I suggest a new hyper for Phoenix:

Overload
0 Bars
Frames: 10 startup, 0 recovery, +15 on block, +40 on hit.
Input: rdp.AA
Deals 375,000 damage to Phoenix and creates an explosive sphere 25% larger than the one created by Dark Phoenix rises. Deals 200,000 damage to opponents caught in the blast and places them in a spinning knockdown.

In my mind, if you earned the 5 bars for Phoenix, your opponent should have to contend with that. It’s one thing to have characters that have an easier time against Dark Phoenix, like Vergil and Strider, and it’s another to have so many ways to prevent her from coming out at all that are built into the game engine. Ideally, TACs will be fixed in the future, but I still think this is a good idea that has a place in Phoenix’s moveset.

Full disclosure: I am a Phoenix user.

You don’t explicitly say it so I’m going to ask: would Phoenix have to have five bars (and burn them all) to even use this? If not it would be a very interesting super for her, if so it would probably be broken.

Side note, point Phoenix is going very well, primarily due to no one knowing wtf to do against it. 50% of players don’t take me seriously until I hit them, and the other 50% do random scrub stuff that’s easy as hell to predict.

[Karsticles]

You don’t explicitly say it so I’m going to ask: would Phoenix have to have five bars (and burn them all) to even use this? If not it would be a very interesting super for her, if so it would probably be broken.

Side note, point Phoenix is going very well, primarily due to no one knowing wtf to do against it. 50% of players don’t take me seriously until I hit them, and the other 50% do random scrub stuff that’s easy as hell to predict.

Hypothetically, no. So it could be a “suicide bomb” if you use her on point. Taking Deathwish to a whole new level!

[DeadPhoenix]

I found out something interesting about Phoenix’s life when she has 5 bars when H&H cards are used with her. When a life regain card is applied to her then her life reaches zero during an animated hyper, her life starts regenerating even when it reaches zero.

So if that’s the case, then literally five bars keep her from dying until the game can force her to change. Which would explain why she doesn’t change when the finishing blow from a soul drain kills her. But it still doesn’t explain why a meter drain TAC hit doesn’t do the same. It changes her instead.
EDIT
Ha I wasn’t imagining it.
Divine instruments and Viewtiful god hand are the only moves that keep her from dying. But why?
Does it have something to do with animation? If she is in XF, you hear Phoenix say “no problem” as if she does a recovery flip to a normal stance then the animation for DPR starts after Divine Instruments. She changes after god hand. But if DHC out from the first hit of god hand has DPR start.