I noticed that I have the most trouble against smart Sentinel players who zone and use Sentinels attacks to their maximum range potential. Considering Ironman isnt the fastest guy out there, I can barely ever close the range without eating an assist or a boot in the air. So yeah, any tips on this matchup?
have a good AAA and play defense if u have the win, if ur loosing still play defense until u see an opening and exploit it.
when sent gets stomp happy, normal jump U+HP and then infinite his ass.
if he’s high in the air and u land a hit go straight into the unfly infinite and if u are a master bring him down to the ground and ground infinite him into the corner and proton cannon him. ironman has this special infinite on sent that is like a 20 fierce combo (Damage scaling kicks in so u just go into the regular infinite) learn that.
if ur in the air and he is chipping or HSFing ur assist, use smart bombs to cover ur assist so that doesnt happen.
try using capcom/cyck/psylocke anti air assist
umm, if a sentinel is stomp happy you’re going to eat cleats every time you normal jump U+HP. IM has to do the U+HP on his way down. my sent alone can stomp a good three times in a second.
oh its also important to let us know what your team is and or specific teams you’re looking for strats against. IM’s game play change’s a lot considering who he has on his team.
the trick is to know sentinels game. don’t play his game, make him play yours.
If sentinel is high flying, and you’re under him. try and time a sj.U+HP. his whip isn’t part of his hitbox so take that to advantage. try and land the hp as far away as possible.
if you’re above him then throw out lk’s to try and initiate the combo. he’s most likely gonna have Capcom so lk’s are better for you to recover fast enough to block the AAA.
if sent is flying low, try tiger knee unibeams. you could also tri square jumping (make sure you dash right when you’re at a height high enough to avoid frying pans) and get a lp, U+HP.
if he’s playing the keep away or mouthbeam game then sj.smart bombs. he can either sit and block/eat the smart bombs or he can SJ and block, or SJ and attack you. you recover fast enough from the smart bombs to hit him with a HP or somethin. you could also fly and call out an assist, particularly capcom works well in that situation.
don’t always smart bomb if he’s HSF’ing your assist because you might eat a storm DHC right after. i’d rather fall in with a HP if possible.
try applying pressure to the sent by doing nothing and when you get close maul him with light kicks. for spit happy sentinels just bunny hop in and if they try to unfly on the way down from the normal jump hit j.lp,upfierce and inf, if they dont fly land with two light kicks and do any infinite set up that doesnt invlove down or forward fierce.
master the air to ground, its the best thing you can possibly do on sentinel when you get the hit, fuck air infinite going up, if you get a hit with IM on anyone do that air to ground and kill their ass with that proton (if they have less than half health normal air infinite helps lol)
keep him grounded as much as possible and bait assist and punish or keep them out and maul his ass. more to come
I see… cool thanks, these seem like good tips. Also, for the person who was asking what team i use with IM, its usually IM/Cable/Doom or IM/Cable/something else like capcom/tron/psylocke/ken =P
Oh and as far as teams I play against that give me trouble… well, im not that great, but Magneto/Sentinel/whatever else gives me the most i believe, i guess santhrax as well?
sentinel is real good with a magneto assist. so try and take out magneto at the beginning of the match. try starting the match with a j.lk+doom, j.lp.
if he jumps in the air, then just continue with the infinite. if he blocks or is crouching, then he has to keep on blocking because of dooms rock. immediately tri-jump straight down with two LK’s. its weird, sometimes it will do a glitchy effect and the opponent will switch sides on you a couple times.
IM’s air dash is really unique, even though its really slow it can cross up in the weirdest ways. your game plan is to try and trap the character between you and the rocks. during the rocks you can get a good two tri jumps, this is where you need to take advantage.
don’t get predictable with cable AAA’s because IMs lack in speed can lead to your assist getting punished in some nasty ways.
now against sentinel, your assists with that team arent all that great. when you have openings, try and pin him between you and doom like i said. otherwise, follow the tips we gave in the original posts… where im/cable/doom really shine with IM on point is in the corner. play it safe, sentinel is very good at dodgin those assists.
try and bait sentinel in the corner. his height makes him eat a shitload of rocks and chip. if sentinel is AAA’less and he’s stuck in the corner then kneedive xx FLY + DOOM, knee dive xx fly the shit out of him! seriously! he’ll eat at least two or three doom calls (a shit load of chip) before he does some risky shit to get out of it. if doom hits, you can either unfly, or land from the knee dive to infinite. or you could try fly, kneedive + doom, smart bombs, land, close hp xx fly+doom, kneedive etc to mix it up.
even if sent has an AAA in the corner, if its not invincible then most likely both characters will eat rocks. you really just gotta play really safe against sent because of his air mobility and flying characteristics. run away and wait for him to get close and try and get those lk’s off.
santhrax is the same too, you gotta play a little more safe. one key is to get the lead early, because the last thing you want is a runaway storm. sentinel isnt as bad because you have cable. a runaway sent will obviously eat hyperbeams all day. if he plays the “stay right above cable” shit, then call doom to counter commando and try and catch sent with a j/sj.lp, hp xx AHVB.
thanks 
I have a problem with this because these situations never happen (they used to) anymore. sent stays at the perfect distance for him, using AAAs to make it even worse for IM. The only thing I can do is N.Fierce to attempt hit him safely (can’t combo into anything because of range)
every so often SBombs may help. every so often I may get on top of sent, but it never really leads to anything. If I can manage to throw out LKs safely so what? blocked, AAA is called, eventually get back into sent flying away and using them kicks.
I may be able to tick a sent for a bit with doom, but it ultimately does not help in the game.
I understand it’s all the team I play…but I’m just pretty much saying that IM should lose if you don’t have the right assists.
i feel you man. it seems like ironman has really been taken to the next level the last couple years so people have been more cautious when playing against him. At the same time, sentinels have also been getting a shitload better since people have been playing him consistently for so long and slowly learning every loophole against other characters.
this game aint like SF4 where theres a direct answer for every situation (Jump ins = DP)
the game implements so much shit with different speeds, travel, and unique ass attacks.
although different now a days, its still somewhat kind of the same. He’s very useful as a 2nd character. You really want to DHC him in to kill off an opponent so you can get a guardbreak and not have to worry about chasing a sentinel.
if you can’t do that, you just have to take advantage of what YOU know. you have to make ironman travel across the screen in weird angles with whiffed airdash-lp’s/lks and mix it up with HP’s and dashing in different directions. also, if you KNOW he’s gonna try and avoid you, then try and bait him to the corner.
if anything, I need to make sure Magnus does the job.
also, these sents, though they avoid stuff as I mentioned, the pressure is always put on me when I just have mag/doom assists and I get forced into the corner lol.
I suppose there is no answer for IM by himself, just different assists.
Or just hope for that lucky hit.
To be honest i feel like you should have an easier time against sent with IM/doom then IM/drones. Its not hard at all with IM to make assists cross up due to his insanely slow air dashing speed which messes up tracking on assists. Just yesterday i was trying stuff out against sentinel with WM/IM/doom and i noticed how important flying is vs sent. Try flying and calling out doom assist to give your self time to react to what sentinel is about to do. One thing i dont see any IM do is fly to the top of the screen with sent, you have advantage across screen against sent with far smart bombs and unibeams. Hes going to have to find another angle of attack since IM can now compete at higher levels. What situations exactly are you having trouble with?
I feel Doom is worse because any foot knocks him in the head (can’t stomp out drones) and unless I’m close, any AAA knocks him out (or at the least doesn’t get stopped) drones are definitely a greater defense for my head.
I’ll try flying and doing what you say, maybe use some neutral fierces. but I feel sent’s airHP, airLK, and AAAs (like commando) will be an issue and hit me still (even is sent takes the smart bomb hit). and the games would still devolve to trading hits, IM losing more life than sent and never really getting an infinite.
the chances where I get safe crossups with doom on sent are minimal, and they usually never lead to a hit anyway.
there are times where I’m getting stomped on well enough, I have no assist to help me. If I manage to get out the sent flies a bit away, where his longer range moves (coupled with the speed of his attack and his flying) won’t be beat. avoids smart bombs, properly counter calls AAA.
if I get out, what do I do? I have tried a lot of things…and have just been successful with n.fierces for some damage. there usually is no chance, or even reason to fall in on sent.
I can rush down/counter hit cable/mag/storms well enough. but if the sent doesn’t rely on rushing down, but instead switches up to a game of zoning and counterhitting. what’s Ironman to do?
I suppose vids would be better to show my issues. And I do tend to have less issues with an AAA or drones…my team is pretty weak though, so that’s probably it’s biggest weakness.
I’d appreciate any input/help, but I sort of just think Sent really does own IM, especially depending on assists.
I also have some stuff to talk about the people I play against making guardbreaks not 100% guaranteed, but that’s another time/thread.
I’ll try to record some good examples
I know what you mean about doom and i agree he does get hit in the head. However you shouldnt settle for IM getting owned by Sent, because in reality its a much harder fight for sent then it is Iron man. Although i will admit that sent/cyke gives IM great deal of issues, with proper assist calling you can still snake your way in.
I really dont know how to explain it, i get the hit all the time but then again i dont really plan out much of what i do, i play on reaction and muscle memory, which i believe is the perfect playing style for IM, big risk, big reward.
Once you have momentum going with IM you should find a way to keep it going without getting smacked by AAA or sents limbs. Maybe you just have to change your approach and go random a little more. Do something stupid like call rocks and do repulsar blast to see how it randomly catches people, and since players arent used to getting hit by Repulsar on point, 8/10 times they dont roll.
Fake people out by air dash canceling attacks in super jump or use the random diving knee to get in closer. IM is a character to be played on reaction and his priority grants him the freedom to attack safely.
A lot of these tips have helped. Each person has a different style of Sent. so 1 way will not prevail for all. I agree with J360 about trying some risky things to throw off the opponent and getting in for the kill. :tup:
yeah j360 said most of the useful stuff. Yeah random infinite on low flying sent works ALOT actually. In the sj. screen u+hp,adu+hp, uni beam works as a pretty good lazy combo for now until you get the hang of unlf combos.
If you wanna get ballsy repulsor blastXXproton canon when he’s about to stomp. Sometimes repulsor trade hits and you can otg him still anyways.
In any case, smart bomb against sent and let him come to you. If he wants to sj or come from under you ironman has great priority with his lk or hp. Doom assist is great for controlling space against sent. why not do sentinel and doom both?
I wish random infinite or random other shit worked against who I play (actually I don’t, because I don’t want to depend on random “gimmicks”)
I appreciate the reply josh, but I do have a response I’m trying to put together for it (and for stridermike/myleftshoe for all the little things they mention that I don’t agree with)
I’m just looking for more than a few random gimmicky things that don’t work (or if they did, definitely don’t work constantly). If IM really needs to try to do random and especially risky things to try and get the hit on sent (of course I get the hit on the sents that play IM’s game) then I guess I feel my original statements about him are somewhat true?
I did like what I saw about activating fly agaisnt sent high in the sky, but it still didn’t seem substantial. for every little damage I may get (since any chance for an important hit to infinite is usually stopped with capcomAAA) is nothing compared to the 2-3 hits to combos sent needs to kill me.
reaction and muscle memory aren’t really an issue for me I believe as I can A2G in my sleep. and the somewhat random but reaction with priority I can do against magnus, just not against sent (since my priority appears to be unimportant). of course I don’t want to do random knees if I have unfly (which I usually have against sent, and since it’s usually my only chance to inf him). The 1 time I tried a repulsor blast out of the blue, my opponent rolled, and has avoided every random repulsor blast since (he’s very patient/safe…playing any other way would be giving IM too much of a chance)…though I don’t really like throwing out random crap where I can get comboed and put into a worse situation for IM (corner, getting stomped, no AAA…)
again, I greatly appreciate your response J’, but I should have a vid soon where I could at least get some tips/recommendations on my play from you and others (tips that are hopefully more than “try something random” 
) because I want some solid stuff I should be doing more (though I still believe sent owns IM : /).
I feel it might be my ground game lacking, but it seems ground game doesn’t work much against a defensive flying sent with AAA. doom gets laser, stomped, or not close enough to stop capcom (and so capcom’s aaa hits him).
EDIT: also, to contribute, one thing that I’ve been able to do against sents is when you are both in the air and you’re blocking his attacks (most likely fl.lk, mk) I’ve had success pushblocking the first hit and then sj.lp (between or after hits) adf sj.lp > A2G. sometimes that’s the only chance I have to get him (capcom AAA hitting [or the threat] me makes hitting sent in situations not very likely)
All true. Just the other day, I played some guys who were using sent. I got in on a few by using some of the tactics listed here, (use fly-mode, smart bomb into uni-beam), which some of these worked, but the next time around I had to look for a new trick. By the time I got in, my IM was beaten up pretty badly. My A2G is cake, and my ground game is icing, but it’s all about being able to get in. I try to get in as much as I can in the beginning, and I chip (Doom) the hell out of them before they take to the skys and lap the corners. Vids will help out a lot, but only if it’s consistent advice on getting in. Beats* is right… Sent. Pwns IM :sad:
yes, consistent ways to get in and get the hit against sent is what I’m really looking for, if it truly exists lol.
I know what you mean, i myself play people who force me to play differently by adjusting to what i do from round to round. I even share all my new gimmicks with people when i learn them, and then show them how to escape it. This forces me to switch up my playing style against my opponents all the time, IM’s tricks dont work until you have enough of them to switch up in scenarios.
I suggest watching illan play against sentinel since hes a pro Im/doom player. He knows that fight real well. “gimmicks” don’t look good on paper compared to sentinels basic strategy which is so damn powerful, but you still have a crazy amount of options to get damage, even if your not hitting him. When you release a situational vid then ill try to evaluate it as best as possible