Noobie here, I’ve recently been messing around with a new team lineup, and I wanted to get some opinions & suggestions on it. I have been a Viper point player for around a year now, and I always included Frank with various shells (Dante, Akuma, Nova, etc). After experimenting with numerous lineups, I’ve recently picked up Super Skrull. However, I found that I didn’t like having Skrull anchor even though his Tenderizer assist benefits both Viper and Frank greatly.
After playing a few hundred matches over the last few weeks, I surprisingly found that putting Frank on point with Skrull Tenderizer and Viper BK anchor got me the most wins and best performance overall. I think it’s because Viper BK assist has really been helping me level Frank early on in the game, since it’s an overhead and soft knock down, resulting in a high low that’s also safe on block. I also realized it frees up Tenderizer on incoming setups, as I can choose between crossing up or faking with BK assist and Frank’s slide also catches people trying to chicken guard on incoming. Overall, this has really helped me open opponents up with low-level Frank and capitalize with Tenderizer to get to level 3/4. After that, I’m able to throw a zombie and hard tag Viper in, allowing Frank to sit in the back and recover red health. In the event that Frank gets caught and lives, I can still tag in Viper and waste 2 bars to level Frank up. In other words, my whole style of play has shifted from Viper ToD to leveing Frank up and then bringing Viper back to point. Even if Frank does die, Viper with Tenderizer has unblockables and helps greatly in getting in, or Viper with lvl 3 Xfactor or meter holds her own as anchor.
That said, I wanted to get the community’s opinion on my game plan. I feel like it’s working well at my current level, but I’m not sure how it will fare against more experienced players and specific matchups. Can someone break down the pro’s and con’s of this lineup and hopefully give me a fresh perspective on what I should or shouldn’t be doing? Also, is there any tech with Frank/Viper or Viper/Frank that I should know? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
I dont really like Viper/Frank because the only real way to level Frank is TAC. Viper doesnt give him any hard tag or DHC combos so nothings guaranteed. Also shopping cart assist doesnt help relaunch so if you dont learn staircase your combos will lack damage, but honestly if you do that the shell works fine overall. Learning Viper on point will make your team much better, even though youre winning easier with Frank, if you just grind games with point Viper itll help much more in the long run.
Edit: Also i know from playing Spencer/Frank that the hardest part about playing a team like that is deciding when to kill and when to level Frank. Its easier with low damage characters because you basically always level Frank but a high damage character like Viper you need to know which characters have to die and which can get a second chance so you can get to level 4.
I agree with you, but I do want to point out that Frank Shopping Cart does relaunch for Viper (j.S, call Frank, Seis L xx BK H [non-TG]). She can kill without it, but Shopping Cart really helps lock opponents down in the corner as well and gives more chances to open them up. Unfortunately, she just doesn’t seem to contribute to Frank’s game play, other than the BK assist being an overhead soft-knockdown, very easy to convert for full combos without adding HSD, but I know it pales in comparison to assists like Jam Session. I guess I’m really hoping there’s some Frank/Viper tech yet to be labbed out.
I read somewhere in the Frank forums that Viper Burst Time can be timed for a DHC whiff, but I personally haven’t been able to do it nor have I seen any vids of it, the timing must be really tight or maybe it’s character-specific?
Just wanted to come back and let you know, Viper Burst Time can be DHC-whiffed by Frank. A knee drop can be used, but timing can be very tight depending on what character. The option I prefer is c.H, s.S, j.S, Knee Drop, Snapshot. The problem is this can only lead to a single snapshot due to the knee drop timing, and HSD is usually too high to use j.H, j.S. I’m still labbing this to find any way to hit level 4 with this, with or without assist.
that’s kind of weird because of the meter you lose and because viper can just kill the character off of any hit on the ground. I’d get it if you built the two bars in the combo but this concept doesn’t build meter in principle. Seems to me the only way this works is off of a dhc frank somehow levels up or you just TAC. Otherwise on of them need to go… just play doom
