How can i get better at mind games?
PSN: BumbleBeeHumble.
Yeah so what is your question aside from the title?
You make a big ass post that’s more of a blog than a question.
How you get better at mindgames?
Be better at the technical aspects of the game, so you have more time to think about your opponent.
The better you can autopilot in a match, the more room you have for your brain to identify and counter what your opponent is doing.
If you’re still at the point where you have to go through all the motions in your head while doing a combo, or a special move or whatever, you’re obviously still overwhelmed by basic gameplay and got no capacities to worry about what your opponents gameplan is and how to throw a wrench into that.
great response! thanks for the insight!
there. that should be better.
If you understand and accept this, you’re already half way there.
yeah. it was hard as hell to accept at first.
Yomi isn’t something you practice. It is something high level players develop from playing the same opponent over and over and learning the play style.
But if you want to seen like you have Yomi, then learning set ups is what you want to do. Get your whiff punishment down, understanding that you aren’t punishing on reaction, but you are predicting when he will do something and punish him for it. Such as walking up till you are in range for a poke, then step back assuming he is going to try poke you, and punish that whiff.
You can use your projectiles to get them to jump in and punish the jump in. Character specifics will come into play here. EG: Balrog can avoid projectiles while coming in on you. If you know what distance he needs to be to be able to come in through a projectile and be close enough to you to capitalize on it, you can hang around that distance, let out a few fireballs then when he gets to distance you throw one fire ball and get your whiff punish ready. He can do it from different distances with his light, medium, heavy buttons, but you are going to have been paying attention to what he uses most often and assume he will use it again.
When you knock somebody down, if they have meter you can assume they will do a meter burned wake up. They obviously wont always do this. And a great player will know when to and when not to. But if they don’t, and you know their characters options, you can plan what would beat most of their options and you can meaty them with it. You will need to test the waters and go in on them when they have meter. If they do nothing with the meter you get the advantage. If they use the meter you can assume they will be savage and do it again next time. If they do it again next time you can be sure with a higher percentage they will do it the third time. Great players will stagger the use. But most players online will get into a pattern.
That pattern is what you can “predict”. Of course you aren’t actually predicting anything and you have just got a better understanding of their behavior. But they won’t know, because they will feel you know everything they are going to do. That gets them flustered and they start messing up.
Getting an understanding of that is great for your game play as well because the better you get at it, the better you get at picking up your own patterns and finding ways to not seem so linear to your opponent who is trying to get into your head too.
You can also throw out raw combos when you think they will block. So you are not worried about taking damage. This is a great way to get them to worry about random incoming junk. That will never actually happen, because you are smart enough to know not to actually do it with the plan of getting the combo to land. So while they are trying to pull off their stuff, and defend against your stuff, they will have it at the back of their mind that there is other possible stuff and be using some brain power to plan for it and keep an eye out for it to punish it. I do this a hell of a lot. And the feed back I get from my training partners is that even though they know I’m doing it, they still worry about it, because if they don’t keep it in their minds they are worried they get clipped by it anyway.
You can do things like always delay your wake ups, they will eventually notice it and try get you for you it. You will then of course know they are coming for your delayed wake up and you can wake up early with a crazy combo that just destroys them in the game and mentally. Now they are scared to go in on your delayed wake ups. Or any wake up game options you may have.
And of course learn to shimmy. If you keep popping out of their range when you expect a wake up from them they will stop wasting meter on their wake ups and you can plan to get in on them safely.
Yomi is about conditioning them to do something you want them to, or to stop doing things you don’t want them to do. It’s about them assuming you will do one thing and then you do another. And it’s about you assuming they will do something that you can then punish them on. There is no reactions you need, nothing in Yomi is going to be about pure reactions.
On a side note, to win, you have to be victorious.
@TKR dude i appreciate you taking the time out to write that. ive never seen anybody explain it like that. that actually helped me better understand what i need to do, and where MY faults are.
@TKR and i guess an example of this…
I use Wrestler Jax A LOT. and one of the strings i do, i 124 x CMD grab. ive seen people armor out of this, wasting their meter tbh. I end up actually connecting the said action. they catch on, and they jump out of it. I then change it up to either a 124 x dash punch or 124 x flying knee. either way they are getting punished for thinking im going to grab them.
That’s where it starts. A good understanding of what the opponent can do in any situation helps you know what to expect. If there is few options like them loosing meter or a jump, chances are they will jump. But keep in mind that you need to keep an eye on their meter, and their health. If they have a few bars of meter and they are down on life. Chances are they will use the meter to try clutch out the match with the remaining health they have, instead of taking a chance with a jump and possibly eating a combo and dying.
You are welcome dude. I like to help if I can. Obviously what I have put out here is technically not considered Yomi by a lot of players, though it is exactly what Yomi is. But it is the building blocks. The better you get at keeping track of everything going on meter wise and option wise, the more your opponent will start to feel you are in their heads.
As an Erron Black player I know all about people jumping or armoring out of strings. 21122 is death to me if I use it wrong. And everybody knows its gaps. But because I know people know where its gaps are since it has been well publicized how he got nerfed, that is where my game plan comes into play. And often I don’t even finish the string or finish the string with an ender. Something you may be able to try with Jax. I don’t play him so I don’t know his data on 124. But perhaps don’t tack the finisher on. He might be able to stop after the 124 and do a neutral jump. If he is allowed that it will lead to a full jump in combo, possibly increasing the damage you can deal in those situations. That may then have the desired effect of having your opponent stop jumping as well since they will be getting clipped out of the air. Which sets them up to hold block or be to risky. Which opens up your command grab options again. Of course all of that is dependent on if you are plus after 124 on block. And they don’t back dash.