Felax's Thoughts on X-23 in Ultimate

Classic Fighting Games Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3
1

Hey guys,

I probably should of put this post in one of the threads but I never started a topic here so I decided to try it out, don’t kill me.

So some of you may know of me and some (most of you probably) might not. I am Felax from Team AlwaysGodlike (check us out sometime!). At least I use to be good! Well, I have not been doing too hot in Tournaments lately. Actually I haven’t been that active at all. Real life hits hard. Anyway so I have been frequent to this forum, and only this forum, to get my fix of X-23 tech and a lot of you have taught me a lot. Since vanilla I have used Laura. Many people suggested I drop her but I kept with her because I really liked how she played. Contrary to my peers and expert opinions of top players who I have met and played, I still went on to win several Break Weeklies and place in Top 64 at Evo2k11. I have beaten many of the top players on the East Coast and as well as the West Coast in tournament in money matches. I would like to believe that I am one of the top X-23 players in the country, if not the world.

When I heard what was happening to X-23 in Ultimate I knew she was not going to be nearly as good as she was in Vanilla. The main reasons being:

  • DHC Glitch removal
  • Increased Hit Deterioration
    My team in Vanilla did pretty well for several reasons that I will not go into. X-23/Dante/Dorm did not survive the Ultimate jump as some teams did like CJ’s or RayRay’s. I actually dropped Laura several times out of frustration in the changes. X-23 was hurt softly because of universal changes to MvC3 and not actually nerfs to the character herself. The buffs do help her but if you look at the changes in the wider scale and relatively to the other characters in the game, they do not help her much. Her main weakness of “difficulty of getting in” still stands. This is where the long discussion of team building for Laura comes in.

The first thing I did when I dropped my vanilla team was going here and I tried some ideas found on here and I eventually came to three major teams that I believe are her strongest:
X-23/Dante(JS)/Wesker
X-23/Doom(Plasma)/Wesker
X-23/Doom(Plasma)/Ammy(CS)

I had the privilege of playing many of the top EC players and it seems like these teams have the chemistry that Laura is dire need of. Well, I am not here to discuss team building but rather just to rant on about the character we all know and love.

In Ultimate, X-23 is lacking and probably will never win a major (trust me I hope I eat my words). Relatively to the top tier characters currently in the game she will not be able to grow/evolve to the point that some think she can get to. Some teams out there are just too good naturally and easy to play with which leads to less mistakes in high level play. X-23 lack of air-dash, high damage output, inability to do a CONSISTENT ToD combo really hurts her. Characters like Wesker, Spencer, Taskmaster, Nova, Dorm, and many more have so much more potential to ToD someone. So relatively speaking, X-23 is lacking too much to keep up. Now I know some of you have stated that she hasn’t reached the point of being figured out yet or her true potentially hasn’t been brought out yet. I agree but remember my point is relatively speaking to the teams and their players out currently. As X-23 tech expands so does current top tier characters’ tech.

With all that being said, I have positive input for X-23 players. I won’t go into details on each point but we can discuss them more if anyone would like to.

  • You’re main advantage is the scarcity of X-23 players.
  • Mobility, having a good beam or lock down assist is only the first part. Knowing how to use your given free space and timing is very important.
  • Know your frame data, not just for X-23 but for all the other fast characters and heavy hitters. (i.e. Magneto, Wesker, Nova, Vergil, Wolverine).
  • Chemistry will always be important for her. Make sure you have high damage DHCs as well as safe ones to get everyone out safely no matter what order
  • Air Throws! Don’t get thrown and throw as much as you can. Period.
  • Know when to rush down and when to fish for a Talon Attack.
  • Because of her frame advantages and lack of knowledge of FA for X-23, most opponents will press buttons.
  • Dirt Nap. She does not have access to it as much as she did vanilla thanks to the decrease in ability to combo with X-Factor level one but its still there just not as consistent.

These are just some points that I have gained through experience. You guys probably outlined already throughout this forum but I just wanted to state some of them. I apologize if all of this has been discussed already but I just felt like ranting and maybe open some people’s eyes on the Laura situation.

My final peace on X-23 is that she is tons of fun to play but I do not think her potential is as high as people think it is. Think relatively to the meta. I did say though that I agreed that she was not fully tapped and I believe there are still some sick tech out there undiscovered.

Thanks,
AG Felax

2

TLDR = She’s just not strong enough to be consistent on a team even when built around her in a 2/3 match format. It’s too easy for her to get randomed out 2/3 so I gotta go for cheaper characters in a 2/3 match game that has NO ROUNDS. Basically forced to go cheap.

I don’t think being able to TOD is that important in this game. Most of the people winning tournaments know how to put people in bad situations over and over again consistently (tight mix up/reset situations) and generally control their space more effectively.

I feel X-23’s biggest issues come down to two things. Neither of them revolve around her damage out put. It’s more about tools.

  1. She has no way to constantly heave hit boxes at the opponent that leave her body (projectiles) and generally just does not have really big hit boxes on most of her attacks that will scare the higher tiers. The closest she gets to scary size hit boxes is L talon attack, charged neck slice, and what I still feel is the scariest is her s.H MFC.

  2. No way to convert damage against an opponent at super jump height. These characters that can stay up in the air and quickly come back to the ground from near the top of the screen like Trish, Morrigan and Spider Man are just gonna be too much of a pain for her eventually. Beam assist and tatsu I feel is enough for her to get past any lame out on the ground (you just have to be creative with your movement).** The problem is these higher tier characters emerging that avoid pretty much all of the assists you can use to get in with any way…**

The reason I feel X-23 doesn’t need to TOD is because I know she has ABSURD hard knockdown mix ups with assists that people still aren’t taking advantage of. Mix ups that against bigger health characters esepcially can build meter for dirt nap.

If you want easy mode dirt nap access (the strongest thing about her any way) just put her second and have someone that’s strong with battery first. Hit somebody turn on XF2 easily builds meter for dirt nap and get people out the match. Have the last character provide a solid assist for her and be a decent anchor and you’re good to go from there basically.

I’ve decided to drop X-23 from my tournament team though and relegate her to a side team mainly because of lack of success in tournaments. Mainly stemming from the biggest issue she has of just not being able to put enough hit boxes on the screen on her own or with most assists and not having any ways to convert damage from high heights into combos. Wolverine has the same problem of generally not being able to put many hit boxes on the screen which hurts him also but it’s mitigated by at least thankfully getting a move that can regularly convert from aerial heights.

** X-23 can’t really put a lot of cheap hit boxes on the screen regularly or convert damage from super jump height. ** Which is a double no no for being consistent in tournaments as a character. Your character has to be able to do at least one or the other or you start to really struggle in the space control game.

I’ll still definitely play her on the side as well but I guess I’ll also use this thread to retire her from main tournament position character. She’s too fun to use and fits my play style the most but Viper fits my play style well enough while being much more of a threat from a long range. If X-23 could at least regularly convert damage from high heights against characters like Trish, Morrigan and Spider Man it wouldn’t be so bad but characters that stay up at that height are becoming increasingly powerful and Laura just doesn’t have much for those characters from a range or up close IMO.

For those looking to maximize X-23 though for tournament play I would suggest making sure that…

  1. Make sure you have the dirtiest mix ups possible with an assist after hard knockdowns. It’s probably the most slept on aspect of the character.

  2. Get down MFC’s so you have a real anti air game with s.H that can convert into combos and don’t have to fish for air throws all day.

  3. Look into placing her second if you want to maximize her ability to ruin a team via XF2. Her CS assist gives her a safe way to enter the match that spends less meter than a DHC also. If possible find some way with the point character or an assist that allows you to combo into Weapon X Prime also.

Other than that…good luck to those still playing her and I know she definitely has the potential to be better than people are doing with her surely. I feel whoever is the most creative with their hard knockdown mix ups and whoever best builds their team around the dirt nap (despite the meter nerfs) will share the most success with her.

3

Wow…when did this become the Iron Man forums? It’s not THAT bad, DJ. Lol. :smiley: Hope you stick around on the forums at least and good luck with your shit in the future.
Nice to see you back on the boards, Felax. I was wondering where you disappeared to after ultimate came out. Glad you’re still rocking the X-23, tho. I always liked watching your matches in vanilla and look forward to your ultimate stuff tho. :smiley:

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LOL. This thread is way more upbeat and supportive of it’s character compared to Iron Man so there’s nothing to worry about anymore with me leaving it off to other people. ** If I know there’s anybody I can leave this thread off to that will do it justice it’s definitely you Merkyl.** You’ve got the thread going in the right direction and where X-23 should be headed in the future competitively. I’m not worried about the Iron Man itis here.

It’s just I’ve seen the way the game is going and it’s just basically whoever has the biggest hit boxes and most areas they can convert off those big ass hit boxes. Just don’t feel I can play X-23 in a way that’s fun and can profit off of those key situations so I ultimately feel I gotta get rid of her when Viper can do enough of what I like in a character while still being able to affect much more area of the screen.

I’m still playing all the characters though including Iron Man so definitely not giving up on learning new things with all of them. It’s just 2/3 in a game with no matches, you kinda have to just protect yourself with dumb shit. I think mid tier characters are fine in a 3/5 set but in 2/3 you gotta just have the cheap fast stuff.

5

It’s been said before, but if you wanna off people with a 1.mil combo or over with X-23, you must have an OTG/relauncher assist. Otherwise, you’re probably not gonna reach 1.mil, ever, unless some genius finds a way to outside of the corner haha. That’d be awesome.

Even with a relauncher assist, without CS loops(annoying as fuck to do but I’m working on it, landed it offline…once lol), unless you have 2 relaunchers, you won’t quite reach 1.mil. So there’s the execution aspect as well.

IMO, the game’s changes force X-23 to have an OTG/relauncher for real damage and she also needs something to help her get in, otherwise, she’ll struggle. But then you might not have a lockdown assist for Silent Kill. Whatever team set-up you might have for X-23, you’ll have issues.
Also, the top tiers of this game can just put shit out there, convert into a combo and kill you, as well as having great screen control, mobility, very good normals and have the ability to keep you out too(at super jump height, a hard place for X-23 to convert hits into damage) and everyone’s gonna be running them too. X-23 can’t do this, she primarily does her work on the ground, so she’s at a disadvantage versus them.

There has to be an optimal team for X-23, a team that can take care of the issues she has, and take care of the bad match-ups she has too. I think some teams that could cover most of what X-23 needs and have good synergy from front to back are X-23/Ironman(Repulsor Blast)/Sent/(Drones) and X-23/Taskmaster(either H or Vertical arrows)/Wesker, but I’m not very certain about that. I’m still looking at other chars, like Ammy and others that are more unorthodox.

Oh, yeah, she can still deal over 1.mil with level XF for one bar meterless(but you’ll need an OTG/relauncher.)

6

imo, the worst thing about X23 is her lack of air options. James Chen pointed out in the early vanilla days that characters are more safer in the air than on the ground, unlike in MvC2 where you were put into guard breaks or hit by a wide range of Anti-Air assist. But for X23, she just has nothing particulary useful for keeping Trish and Morrigan out of the air by herself. What hurts even more is that Trish was not only buffed, but Morrigan and her technology has increased into more ways than one. Combine this with Zero, who just dances around all over the fucking place filling the screen with busters and hitboxes–it’s just hard to favor X23 in those types of matchups.

About X23/Doom/Wesker, if Doom doesn’t run Hidden Missiles, you pretty much have nothing to keep shit from landing atop of you. But, if Doom doesn’t run Plasma Beam then Mags+Drones get in free. That’s why people are forever trying to find the right combinations for X23 to the point where things are less situational than what they would appear. She has the tools to get her dmg from resets, OTGs, and some derpy combinations, but the player will almost always have to get everything to work in her favor upon entering a match. As far as putting her in the second slot, you will only have one assist to work with but can easily trade that for XF2. If X23 gets touched anytime by a high-profile player I would not like her chances of survival.

Will X23 win a major is something I believe most of the X23 players on this board can hope for, but in the back of our minds the game is not shaping well for her at all right now. More testing is needed, but right now I’d say X23 technology is starting to hit centerfold as to what the character is generally capable of.

7

I still believe Jam session is one of the better assists for X-23, granted you cant use it in the end of combos with the OTG anymore but it still has many uses like blocking shit, giving you breathing space, getting more nifty mixups off of it on hit/block but most importantly **AIR CONTROL. **
IMHO I think what x-23 needs more than an assist to help her get in or a relaunch assist is something to make people stop being in the air all the fuckin time. without an air control assist (Jam session, hidden missiles, Vajra, Hawkeyes ghetto hidden missiles etc) x-23 is not much of a threat to someone that’ll stay in the air most of the match, its even worse if THEY have an air control assist while liking to stay air-borne all the damn time.

I was really loving my X-23/Ghost/Vergil team (i still do, it has its fair amount of cheap shit and can manage for the most part), but I’ve already started working on Ultimate Dante so I can put him back in instead of Ghost, if not Dante i’ll have Strider anchor.
Once you play against good players that love the air you’ll see how important this is**, **i was doing ok in tourneys till this shit started to happen and i started getting demolished by air-happy Dorms and Dooms. Hell in a recent tourney I was put on blast on the stream when this Dorm/wesker/Trish dude smashed me 2-0 without me even killing a single character.
his strategy? jump around with Dorm then teleport+gunshot for derp unblockable with occasional trish traps here and there so I cant go in the air and chase him. Shit was the dumbest thing I’ve faced in all of MvC3’s lifespan.

**TL;DR Have a fuckin’ assist that controls the air before anything else. **

8

(time for me to bitch too lol)

I couldn’t agree more with the above posts and everyone else’s posts too and looking back at Meep’s and other’s posts when UMVC3 hit, I can see exactly what they meant now when they said X-23’d be more difficult to win with.

Before, you could have the ideal set-up of AA-assist, lockdown assist and get-in assist. Braindead DHC glitch was about, so killing people was easy-mode.
In UMVC3, team composition is much harder due to assist-scaling and obviously, no DHC glitch(for good reason.) Characters in general seem to be more difficult to fight against, since they fucking gave characters like Zero all the air control and beyond as well as beating X-23 on the ground too. And they’re allowed to TOD off random stray hits that they can just shove out there? Seriously, Zero makes me sick, and I can’t wait 'til other characters like Vergil and Viper start getting on their BS too. And yeah, it gets worse when they have assists.

X-23’s a good character IMO. But she’s a low-health ground-based attacker in a game where characters literally control the screen, have a ton amount of powerful tools for offence, defence, zoning and so on, stupid hitboxes, and can easily convert. Conversion(and conversion into a high damage/death combo) in this game in general’s very easy(unless you’re playing some unfortunate character who actually has to work at conversion.)

X-23 can win a major IMO, but they must have the right team for her, or multiple teams built around X-23 to try and counter the high/top-tiers.

I agree, X-23 absolutely needs an assist to bring people right down, but simultaneously, she also ideally needs something to help her get in. IMO, Taskmaster’s Vertical Shot and Hawkeye’s Ragtime(I think it’s called that, the one that rains arrows everywhere) should work. I’ve no idea about Sentinel’s Bombs, might try that out too.

Then, if you want the damage, you need a relauncher. If you’re a pro with resets and landing hits, you might not need the damage and you can run a more ideal team of AA-assist+get-in assist, but there are some characters that you want dead and fast. The hard part is, you need a good DHC for the damage as well. And the team must fully be supported from back to front.

Characters off the top of my head that have suitable get-in assists, relaunchers and DHCs and might be suitable for an overall “complete” team, to an extent.

Taskmaster: Get-in assist, good DHC.
Skrull: relauncher, good DHC.
Sentinel: get-in assist, good DHC.
Hawkeye: get-in assist, possible aerial control assist.
Thor: get-in assist(sort of), relauncher, good DHC but needs to be timed.
Wesker: no need to explain but lacking a good DHC so must be put at the back. If you want Wesker to have an assist, you can get him on the screen. Gives a character a low hitting assist for potential unblockables.
Ironman: relauncher, good DHC, pinning assist, get-in assist.
Strider(explain later)

So, let’s make some teams out of these.

X-23/Ironman/Sent

Pros: Drones helps X-23 get-in, same for Ironman and also helps extend his combos, Repulsor’s a relauncher, damaging DHC, pinning for Silent Kill.

Weaknesses: Anchor Sent, Drones gets washed out by beams and good projectiles. Don’t think Repulsor’s good at taking down characters from SJ height, probably not the best AA either in general either. They snap in Sent and kill him, you have no get-in assist.

X-23/Taskmaster/Wesker

Pros: Arrows help X-23 get in, Vertical Arrows can be used for setting up Silent Kill/mix-ups on entry and aerial control. Taskmster has a good DHC. X-23 gets a relauncher from Samurai Edge+Jaguar Kick, Taskmaster gets a low assist and a possible combo extender(dunno about this though, Wesker’s a braindead anchor and a solid char in general.

Weaknesses: Wesker can be lamed out without assists, but you have the option to get him in 2nd via a DHC/tag/cross-over counter/whatever. Dunno how well this team’d support Taskmaster.

X-23/Skrull/Sentinel

Pros: Drones gets you in and they’re really good for Skrull too. Skrull relaunches and provides a good DHC.

X-23/Thor/Hawkeye(I’ll explain this later, time for class lol)

Cons: Drones gets washed away by good projectiles, Anchor Sent, no AA assist, no pinning assist(unless you use Tenderiser, but then you miss out on a relauncher for longer combos due to hitstun scaling if you use it instead of Stone Smite.)

If any of your assists gets snapped in and killed during using these teams, that’ll off your synergy, which is another problem.

So yeah, if an optimal team is found, and more people continue to develop and master X-23, then that’ll help quite a bit.

I actually think Jacob’s team of X-23/Spencer/insert assist here could be another team. It places less emphasis on damage, but bolsters X-23’s resets and makes them a legitimate threat, to the point of cheapness. Wire also creates mix-ups on entry too. I think this is another team that needs a look at. Could be one of the best teams around for her.

9

you can’t discount Akuma assist. works as a GTFO assist, helps you get in, clears away beams and sometimes drones (but never arrows), is an outstanding assist to help with your rushdown since it hit confirms into combos and also locks down letting her set up her fuzzy guards and command grabs. DHC is a non-issue obv with the beam. it might be possible to beam, link shoryu xx beam (gotta test) giving you a nice DHC loop like so many top tier teams have now. but then leaves you again with the problem of controlling the air. luckily Akuma plays well with the chars that have assists that do control superjump height, but then that leaves you with no relaunching assist except Hidden Missiles. if your reset game is point and backed up by Akuma though… you don’t really need the resets.

Spencer assist is a good one. 45 deg grapple makes her resets absolutely disgusting, and its great that it belongs to such a good character. You can do the Bionic Manuevers combo after X-23’s stuff to increase her damage output, giving her more ToD potential as well. it also demands respect at normal jump height and can make coming down from superjumps very difficult since you can use X-23’s mobility to set up hard to block crossups. Spencer also plays very well with Akuma so that right there could be a team, but still not as good a team as somebody else/Spencer/Akuma.

another possibility is Vergil. rapid slash is somewhat vulnerable but still hits more than you’d think, spinning knockdown for combo extension. spiral swords super loops for great DHCs. also can help trap people for lvl3. he also plays well with Akuma and doesn’t need an assist to control superjump height because his d+H lets him always convert off any hit, then OTG w/X-23 -> vergil kills somebody. crossup M feint w/rapid slash assist sucks them into which is a perfect opportunity to do a nigh-invisible mirage feint xx talon attack crossup/not crossup mixup

10

Do you know how to the maximum damage from Akuma’s Beam and Bionic Maneuvers after Rage Trigger to deal 1.mil? Always ending up having to cut Rage Trigger Short for less damage, otherwise, I’d slap Akuma/plus relauncher in and call it a day lol.

Obviously I’m obsessing with damage, I’m wondering if I should just give up on damage and go for setting up X-23 optimally, in which case, X-23/Spencer/insert good assist here’s looking really viable.

Tempted to give Vergil a go too, due to TODs off Spiral Swords.

11

you always have to do them before the 3 hit DP looking thing on the end of Rage Trigger unfortunately, so there is no way to get those last hits as far as I know unless you are DHCing into Maximum Wesker or Plasma Sphere type supers.

honestly her reset game is so incredibly braindead after a grounded reset (ALWAYS do grounded resets) I think focusing on ToDs with her is a bit of a waste. if you spend the time making it so they can’t just upback on wakeup, tech rolling doesn’t help them escape, and then leverage the unique properties of L and M feints with the new Talon Attack cancel you can stack the odds so heavily in your favor I just don’t see people being able to stand up again. in conjunction with the right assist - both Vergil and Akuma give you all kinds of crazy mixups with fuzzy guard, left/right, can’t-see command grab type stuff - it might almost be a waste to try and ToD someone with her. except Zero. Zero must always die every time you touch him, always.

that said, if you really need to ToD someone you should burn XF2 to do it and use one of the infinites to do a no meter kill, because then you are guaranteed to kill their next character or at the very least put them in a disturbing mixup.

this thread has been interesting for me… not because I agree with a lot of what’s been said, but because all the sudden have a bunch of ideas hahah

12

Thanks Temps!

I think it’s a toss-up between Spencer/Vergil/insert good assist here for me right now. Or go braindead and use Taskmaster/Wesker.

And I agree about her ground resets, being able to track down any roll automatically’s nasty stuff. You could probably run unblockables with Viper’s BK on wake-up.

13

That set I posted from Wandles and Me might be worth looking skimming over. I’ve started running grounded mixups a lot harder in my game with pretty good results overall and Wandles is retardedly good at murdering 2 characters with xf2 guard cancels and the only X-23 tech that didn’t get a lot of play during the set is her anchor game.

My thoughts on running Iron man:
Repulsor Blast is actually really good against character that like to drop down from superjump height since it covers such a large space it’s very hard to come down swinging without falling into a combo. As long as you have 2 characters that can really abuse the lockdown it offers (a la Viper Focus attack, maybe Firebrand’s unblockables or really tough Hi/low/fuzzy abusing characters), I would say he’s a great pick. Even though he’s a bit of a liability as an anchor; with that setup you have to screw up in a big way a few times for him to be on the field in the first place. You have to be careful about calling him at closer ranges since it possible to mash him out of his start-up, though.

Current thoughts on the “Jacob’s Wire” Spencer resets:
My only beef with the Spencer reset game is the placement of the reset options. Since X-23 ground combos got nerfed pretty hard in Ult. you’re forced to run the reset so early on in a combo that ,on beefier characters, you might have to run 2 resets and burn a DHC to get the kill (unless you’re running with a relaunch too, but that leaves X-23 on her own for her neutral game.) Plus you’re forced to run all of those mix-ups without an assist backing you so I’m sure you can get mashed out of a fair amount of them not to mention assist calls and invincible supers.

You’re almost better off just running a relaunch character for the extended combos and going for grounded resets (paired with your AA or Hori Assist) since it limits their options more than with the Spencer resets while giving X-23 combos off of her air throws and access to air tech reset options late-combo if that’s your jam. Plus if you like one of the OTG characters that also hit low I’m sure you can work out a few good hi+low oki resets.

If Spencer could connect/relaunch off of Ankle Slicer then there would be absolutely no reason not to run him but as it is he comes up as a very specific utility character. Aside from that one really dirty set of mixups and some decently annoying incoming mixups the assist doesn’t offer much else for X-23’s game.

14

Well, if you’re willing to limit your reset options to a 50/50 using crossup talon or fake crossup talon, you can rack up about 1 mil damage off of one reset. Even if you do have to run the reset twice on high health characters, youre most likely gonna build up 5 bars of meter. This means the other guy better hope he has a really low health character coming in next because with a dirt nap and xfactor you can kill off the 2nd char for free while building one more bar in the process which ends up with their anchor getting dirtnapped too. Honestly i think the only issue with the reset is low health characters because its harder to build bars before you kill them.
Also you don’t have to worry about getting mashed out of for these because with the right timing you can hit on the first frame of their recovery.

I haven’t had much chance to play lately but last time i did i found out that with the right spacing you can get the grapple to connect off of an otg ankle slice. I have no idea whats possible after it but it just shows that theres more to figure out with x-spencer.

Edit: Another interesting thing I found. During a match I ran a grapple reset and i left what seemed like a long enough gap for the the hitstun to finish but when i landed my attack the combo counter kept going. Hitstun deterioration completely reset and i still got a full combo. I saw a vid a while back with a chun-li doing something similar. I think it had to do with the direction the person getting combo’d was holding but i’m not sure. If someone could explain it that would be great but i just thought it was a funny little glitch.

15

I just think that Spencer doesn’t have much use outside the one really good setup and dash under nonsense on incoming and I didn’t have any luck at all trying to connect off of ankle slicer. That and I just can’t get into his playstyle. He’s an awesome character and if you genuinely like the guy, run with it. Otherwise, see if there’s an OTG character you like better and go that route since it’s all pretty much the same in the end.

I like the cart mixup options I run since it put more garbage on the screen to help hide what you’re doing. With the Spencer options you have to be more consistently tricky to catch people with fast reactions and if you miss it there’s a good chance you’ve lost momentum entirely since you’ll be running some of the mix-ups closer to midscreen at times. With an OTG assist, I’m pretty sure every basic CS ender corner carries. Corner mixups at least have the added bonus of letting you run her corner pressure game (more often than not) if something goes wrong.

Edit: Also, any chance you want to do the Spencer(partner) write-up for the Pen. X-23 thread, Jacob?

16

I messed around again with the otg to grapple and it seems alright. After the launch do a cs(im pretty sure all strengths work) into a talon. Just call spencer right as you start the ankle charge. The neato part about that is that you definitely can relaunch with it or use it as a chance to sneak in a quick crossup talon with an m mirage. What makes it super tricky is that depending on the character, the grapple pulls them either in front of or behind x-23 after the ankle slice. Some characters it did both so i kinda have no idea what determines it. Even if you dont use it for an otg relaunch, you can grapple them into a fully charged neck slicer for nice damage and get the corner carry anyway.
If they do manage to block the reset you dont lose any momentum at all. X-23 is ridiculous at staying in when she gets in and the grapple puts them right in front of you. She can dash through advancing guards, set up nasty frame traps, and if they dont pushblock they’ll still have to deal with her berserker slash talons. Pair that with jam session for lock down and space control and youre pretty much set.

I’ve been pretty busy lately but i could try to write up a quick something for the thread

17

Honestly I am also having a very hard time finding a good team for her that I like. She is still one of my favorite characters though, the team Jill(somersault)/X-23(ankle slice)/Doom(Beam) is my favorite team to play but its probably a pretty weak team.

Now it seems every time I start finding a team that I think would be good for x-23 I end up also thinking that felicia or wesker(in the case I use her otg and he has better + safer dhcs) would work better on it. Felicia also can just delta kick to convert into combos off of air hits or you can just throw it out to get that initial hit.

I’m just starting to think that x-23 might just be completely weaker than other rush down based characters and will eventually only have dirt nap as the reason for using her over other characters. Hope somebody proves me wrong though.

18

Evo is approaching fast, and it will be interesting to see what new X23 techs people have been saving up. Personally, I do believe it’s still going to be the same stuff we have been seeing before for X23. Her most lethal spot is behind a good point that can build enough meter for dirt naps, but on point she can gain the benefit of having two assist options for opening people up. Her dmg is not very good without supports from XF or assist, which means top tier characters like Zero/Spencer/Magneto will always have an advantage in psych. Her pokes and normals leave something to be desired–most of them leave her exposed and throwning them out randomly can get you killed. Her command grab, though good for surprising people, is too risky on whiff and you can get blown up if you gamble incorrectly. MFC is not very practical tech, but it should be learned anyway because it is useful for cancelling some things that will get punished.

Some have already identified X23’s strongest characters to par with:

Dr. Doom - IMO, Doom is the best. Others might not agree, but really he has all the tools to get X23 going. All 3 of assist are usable for her, and cover most of her weaknesses. He’s a very good character for her DHCs, TACs, he does it all really. I won’t be suprised if I see a lot of Doom pairings with her at Evo.

Wesker - Wesker is a good choice. The gun assist is basically the best assist you can go with for relaunching, but he has weak DHC options and everybody is prone to fighting Wesker now. Wesker also needs some help from an assist to keep his combos going, unless he pops XF for some Dark Wesker derp.

**Ammy **- Ammy is really solid for X23. X23 loves Cold Star as it will allow her to put the opponent in whatever mixup she wants from the pressure. It can also be used for relaunches. X23 is NOT the best character at protecting assist though, in fact I’d say she’s at the lower bottom.

Sentinel - Everybody loves drones. But it’s no secret that they can be blown up very easily and Sentinel himself has matchup nightmares across the board. We all know Sentinel can help anyone, but who really helps Sentinel?

Dante - Dante is probably still a top 5 pairing that X23 can appreciate having. He not only build great meter for team support, but he is also good to TAC and he can provide amazing air coverage to give flyers something to think about while trying they to fall on X23’s head. Sadly, the removal of DHC trick and changes to hitstun decay have really hurt Dante/X23 synergy.

**Taskmaster **- Laura loves Taskmaster’s options. He has good DHCs, assist, pretty much everything to make X23 comfortable.

Dormammu - Well we know his Dark Hole can be used for relaunching and pretty good DHC/TAC synergy. Not a bad choice at all, but there are other options to maximize X23 gameplay IMO.

**Nova **- Well he gives X23 a weird relaunching option, and does ok by himself. In the same sense, Wesker is easier to play-but Nova has better DHCs.

Honorable Mentions

Frank West - His cart is so damn fast, but it’s been questionable on whether or not if he’s just a wasted space if he doesn’t LVup. X23 is not particulary a good character in solving that problem.

**Iron Man **- His beam is arguably better than Doom’s. Decent DHC and setups free dirt naps. So what’s the problem? Well, Iron Man is the problem. He’s just not that good–and takes much dedication to fully master.

**Storm **- Amazing DHCs, usable whirlwind assist, but is still somewhat lacking in comparison to other X23 pairings.

**Super Skrull **- Sets up a free dirtnap, good DHC and anchor support. Not much else beyond that.

19

If Wesker is on there, Felicia needs to be on that list, too. She’s quite amazing at handling XF and handling the OTG/relaunch/throw reset position. She’s not a LowTG, but I honestly feel like high/lows are really somewhat of a waste with X-23, anyways. The only reason she fell off my team was because I wanted to keep cart on my team and needed someone that could play a strong point with level up options.

I think Strange deserves at least an honorable mention too. He has some brutal TACs with his FOF/Palm loops, Strong DHCs (both offensive and defensive.), EoA extends ground and air combos and gives brutal corner pressure, Bolts is a strong beam option that is more mixup friendly since it’s a broken hitstring (being able to be crouch blocked by mids gives you free chances at overheads if your opponent wants to give you that instead), can build 2 meters in a single combo on point and covers all of X-23 bad zoning matchups.

20

x-23/Vergil is one of the better duos imo, they both can benefit from each other’s assist, they DHC well into each other and there’s so much gross stuff you can do with x-23 when she has Rapid Slash behind her. Plus having an OTG with Vergil is always a plus to make dudes bleed for real.
Just add a good point character and have x-23 second+ Anchor Vergil and you have a buff team.