Basically you lose… In general get really good at blocking and stick to the normal gameplan, and look for openings. There isnt’ really any strategy that really works agaisnt them, thats different then other characters. Thor kinda just gets beat up by the characters use listed. Someitmes agaisnt zero you can use an anti-air Command grab against predicted teleport. Or if you trade dash light with magneto try and jump after he flips and grab him. Also agaisnt mags be sure to airdash with H as one of your airdash buttons to OS airthrows.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with Ross. Typically, my biggest advantage against goin’ against the top tier characters comes from the other guy not really knowing how to fight against Thor. Just play normally, put in as much damage as you can, and try your best to capitalize off of every hit confirm you get, because on the real, the other guy can afford to drop combos a couple times. Thor can’t. Against guys like Wolverine/Akuma, do your best to predict the slash mix ups. Blocking is the key. If you don’t have a get off me assist like Hulk’s Anti Air Gamma Charge, Haggar’s Lariat, or Tron’s Gustav Fire use a well placed XFC Mighty Hurricane to kill the character. X-Factor Thor is like him getting Odin Force, so any bnb combo of his will lead to death, and from there, you work on building up your momentum and turning the tide on them. Another thing I find that works fairly well against block strings is using Thor’s crossover counter into Mighty Smash to get out of block strings. It leads to a free combo on hit.
All that said, fighting any top tier character, especially a good rushdown one is incredibly difficult, but it is possible if you keep defense as your primary objective, and capitalize on every mistake that the other guy makes while making little to none of your own. You’ll definitely lose more fights than you win against 'em, but make sure you dominate the fights that you do win.
Sounds like I shouldn’t bother with resets really and just go for more raw damage then eh? I think I’m going to have to start using :h: MH on rtsd sentinels, :l: and 
versions come out too slow.
As for xfc, I find of mighty hurricane is the best, since with xf, Thor gets a speed buff as of level 2. Making MH 1 or 2 frames.
Dang, why didn’t I know that? It’s so obvious, but I never thought of it. Ha ha, learn something new.
Yea I’ve posted that somewhere else in the Thor forums. Everyone disregarded it, it’s almost 100% reliable when you time it right. I would say more so than xfc into MP, regardless of the level of xfc.
I agree on the “Get off me bro” anti-air assists which is what I use Hulk for. As for Dante, it will be hard but if you’re close enough bait out his teleport S, hit him out of it, or Mighty Hurricane him. Zero is tough for me because of all the cross over teleporting in the corner. As for Wolverine if you block a ground Berserker Barrage hyper you can Mighty Punish it because I’ve done that which means it hasn’t been given invincibility as was thought to be in one of RoyalFlush’s UMvC3 videos. Magneto’s probably the hardest because of his speed and not being able to catch him and that you will always lose in a projectile fight.
EVERYONE loses to disruptah disruptah disruptah disruptah disruptah… So don’t feel bad about that.
I know how to read teleport, it’s HOW he does it. He only does it when he commits me to block THEN he teleports. Normally I just air MH dante when I see him at least half screen away and not doing anything.
Man, I just got through fighting against a Dante, so I can definitely feel your pain on it. Yeah, good Dante’s know how to make their teleports safe, but it’s all in the defense. Try not to get anxious. You’ll be on the receiving end of a ton of block strings, and he’ll be trying to cross you up with those teleports, too. Stay patient, and eventually he’ll slip up. They all do. That’s when you strike. The key to playing Thor is recognizing when they slip up, and you only get good at that by getting a feel for the player’s play style. Pick out their habits, see how they do it, and do all this while you’re staying solid in your blocking. Look at the type of mix ups he’s using. Everyone has their bad habits, and the sooner you can see 'em, the sooner you get to see your opening. Against Dante in particular, you really can’t start your offense against him because of the range on his sword. It’ll catch you before you catch him, so you gotta let him do his thing, and then break up his flow.
Speaking of that Dante I went up against, we played about 6 games, and it took me 3 of them to exactly see how he was opening me up. He had an Akuma assist, so what he’d do is get me in a block string, then call Akuma’s Tatsu and teleport at the same time. I was so focused on Dante that match, that I kept getting hit by Akuma, and that’s when he got me in his combos and killed me. Then I finally saw what was happening and just kept up the blocking, saw the cross ups and instead of reacting, kept blocking, and then he started dropping a few combos (to his defense though, we were playing online). Don’t get me wrong, he was on his game the whole set, but no one’s perfect. Got me a few lucky breaks, and Dante was gone. Not gonna lie though, I still lost all those games except the last one, but hey, it happens.
I’ll start keeping that in mind, maybe I’ll run a few casuals with my friend again. It’s funny because what you described is pretty much how my Steve Rogers handled his Dante and Magneto, block right, wait, punish, kill (or almost kill). Just that btw his Dante comes out cap doesn’t have the health to take him out. So it’s usually up to Thor, who normally just gets dhc glitched into death. I guess it’s harder to punish with Thor because his normals are ass and someone who is jumping all over the screen with shit flying everywhere is hard toe command grab.
So I’ll give that a try.
On a side note, I think the only true way to handle Wesker to get him to block as soon as he comes in. Thoughts?
Wesker’s tricky, because if you get too comfortable with blocking him, he’ll run up and grab/command grab you. If its a grab, it’s like, “okay, I’ll just tech out,” but those command grabs, you gotta see and avoid by jumping out of range, but I think he also has a grab that snatches you out of the air, too, so it’s good to watch out for that.
I totally hear you on the faster normals. I can’t tell you how many opportunities there are to punish certain things but can’t because his normals have way too much start up, and since they take so long to recover from, you’re practically begging to get beat up for trying something. If they just sped up that a little bit, nothin’ rush down worthy, but just enough to get somethin’ goin’ at the end of the opponent’s block string, I’d be happy. The only thing you can do is look for the command grab in that case, but like you said, that’s a heckuvalot easier said than done.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been punished for trying to punish stuff. Thor getting a faster Mighty Strike would help a lot too, like as fast as charging star. Mighty Strike goes through projectiles, but usually gets blown up in its startup by projectiles. Oh the irony. And no wesker doesn’t have a command grab in the air. Just a 1 frame one on the ground.
So more on match ups. Let’s talk keep away. With Ultimate aiming to make that stronger, we gotta figure out what that means for Thor and how we can combat it.
I feel that normally I do fairly decent against a keep away character with Thor. Yes, being zoned out is among one of his biggest weaknesses, but calling in a beam assist and jump/super jumping to get around usually works well for me. Went to my first local tournament yesterday though, and when I went up against a pretty lame team, I sorta choked out and forgot about all that and lost, but still over all, after thinking about it and what I could do to do better, it all boils down to Thor’s mobility again.
Super jumping is more essential in these type of match ups more than anywhere else. It gives you time to see where your opponent is and what they’re going to throw out. While in the air, I find that :l: Mighty Strikes are your best bet for moving forward. A good zoner will try his best to stay in the corner on the other side of the screen, so Thor’s goal will ultimately boil down to trying to close the gap an’ get that hit confirm into combo. Remember though, right now Mighty Strike’s start up is slow enough to get punished, so be smart about when you use it. I pray to God they make the start up fast enough to use as a reaction to projectiles come Ultimate, but in the mean time, we make do with what we got, so use them Strikes when there’s little to no chance of you getting hit (so probably when there’s nothing on the screen. If they try and throw some projectiles out while you’re in the middle of a Strike, then it’s too late for them, because Strike plows through it like nobody’s business.
Now since it’s so hard to actually get in, you want to make sure that once you do get in, you make it count. You need to have somethin’ in mind for every Strike that you hit confirm with. I personally recommend going into training mode and just practicing that. What type of follow ups can you do at this range if blocked? What about at a closer range? Further range? What if you hit them in the air? Hit the lab an’ find out. If someone could post some good follow up combos for various Mighty Strike hit confirms here, that’d be great because I’m sure some people (i.e. me) would greatly appreciate them.
While goin’ up against rushdown characters, the best thing to do is be patient and look for openings while blocking, the best thing to do against zoners is be patient and look for openings while moving. You don’t wanna be on the other side of the screen locked down with chip. Mighty Strike’s good for trying to get in, but don’t become predictable with it. Thor also has air dashes and flight, and be sure to cover things up with an assist whenever you can.
Like with all Thor matches, the best thing to do, aside from being mobile is getting a good read from your opponent. The quicker you pick out their habits the better. Remember that you can have a general knowing about how they’ll be trying to play just based on their team. Someone like Taskmaster is a beast at rushing down, and if they have an assist that’ll help out with that (i. e. Akuma), you should know what you’re in for. But if they have someone like Sentinel as an assist, you’re gonna know that stuff’s gonna be fillin’ up the screen.
That’s about all I can think of off hand about the subject. Please, feel free to add in or talk about what works for you.
Any advice for against the smaller cast members. They body Thor, ESPECIALLY with xf. This guy has so much problems… I only have a chance of a comeback with Thor fighting normal sized mid-tier characters in this game…
When you hit with a launch wait a split second before you jump up, kind of like if you were in xfactor lv 3. Also your tridashes can cross up overhead. Tridash j.l c.l c.h should work on shorties/wolverine. You can’t really hit confirm it though.
I don’t know about you guys but when fighting against Zero, I have the time of my life. It’s like the ultimate battle for controlling air space, fighting valiantly for the right to push the other into the corner. So much fun.
If anyone wants to weigh their thoughts in on how this matchup is, be my guest. All I really do is Mighty Strike, Mighty Strike, Mighty Strike until I either hit him, or get hit myself. It really is a good thing to do considering that the Strike shuts down any and all buster shots. That’s always nice, and since Zero has such low health, any hit confirm into combo will heavily, heavily damage him. I’ve typically shied away from killing him out right because I don’t wanna burn X-Factor or another level, and that’s always come back to bite me in the butt later on in the match, so I guess I’ll say when you hit him, go for the kill with a reset, or (depending on whether or not they have another major threat on their team) with an X-factored combo. Careful not to get too excited when you start doin’ your combo, because the guy is pretty short, and as such, you might be droppin’ some things if you aren’t payin’ attention.
Oh, another thing I do when I’m Strikin’ through like nobodies business is call in a couple assists here an’ there. Usually, we’re both high enough in the air, that he doesn’t see the assist call, so by the time his feet touch the ground, he’s eatin’ a Plasma Beam from Doom. If he does see it, it forces him to block, which leads to an empty tri-jump Hurricane grab. (Or normal grab. I tend to get that more often, and it works out just as well for me too.) My Dorm’s purification does well in this match, too. Anyway, to the point, assists do well in helping out with this match, but use them wisely and sparingly. That sword of Zero’s got insane priority, and one bad assist call is a free birthday present to him.
And another thing. Try your best not to get locked own in a block string of his, but if you do, be careful not to press a button at all until he messes up a combo (and even be careful about doing that, because there’s no such thing as a dropped combo with Zero is his Buster’s charged up all the way.) Be sure to be lookin’ out for his command dash mix ups, too.
Now I’m done. It’ll be real interesting to see how this fight plays out in Ultimate.
I Fight Zero a bit differently I run Thor on point with Dorm as Anchor the middle character usually varies but Lately it has been Hulk with AA Assist. Most Zero Players just rush in blindly while calling an assist to lock you down and go for that ridiculous hitbox spinning crap which can cross you up. I generally tend to wait on it and block so they go into a combo string. (Zero Players cannot resist long sword combo strings) The Second I see that damn Charging move he does I pop x factor and take his ass for a ride. :h: mighty hurricane after his charging sword move is guaranteed to grab before he can even recover if you x factor cancel your guard stun and the mighty hurricane alone is going to drop him to about 50% or less from full. I designed my team so I can use X factor with each character in any position depending on the situation. Thor on point can Kill ANY character with one XFC grab into combo. If my opponents point character is someone I despise or have bad match ups with (Zero,Wolverine,Dante,Magneto) I use this tactic. Dorm Anchor with LV3X factor is Godlike and Corner Pressure Hulk with X factor is scary as fuck.
As for your comment on ultimate. I am really dissapointed in Jago and Fanatiq for bashing Thor but I do get it. I hope that I am correct and his buffs put him where I think they will. I think out of all the old characters on the marvel side who got buffed I think these five will benefit from it most, and in order …
Dormammu
Dr.Doom
Thor
Captain America
Hulk
I hate fighting Zero or Ammy as Thor because against Zero I get pushed into the corner and they :h: teleport to cross me up while using an assist to lock me down and I can’t do anything about it. Against Ammy, I have a really hard time because I try to punish all the H’s with a normal and get hit out of them. The only way I can stop her is to not push block and use MP or MH into a BnB.
I was using a Cap/Thor/Hulk team yesterday and was doing all right so now I’m looking a little more forward to the UMvC3 changes to Cap and think that he will have more synergy with Thor.
Yea Ammy is one of the main characters that gives me fits. I drop a lot of combos against that damn dog and it seems like some shit just does not work on her at all.
Hmm, I don’t have that much trouble with Ammy. The only thing I hate about her is the fact that for some strange reason, Mighty Hurricane doesn’t reset the ground bounce against her, and due to her being small, I may occasionally drop a combo, but outside of that, I no real trouble at all. She does her barkin’ thing and I get caught, I block an’ wait for the slip up. Oh, her air throw range messes me up a bunch too.
Yea thats what I meant by shit not working on her I hate that I cant do my most damaging shit to the dog.