Hi. My two cents in this Joe theory talk, although I am a very very bad Joe (just lab him for fun, I only have a few bnbs and that boxdash voomerang thingy slower than I know is possible, and I’ve played with Joe’s Dieminion style bolt-‘n’-voom, but I’ve always been playing other characters and haven’t gone and learned Joe all the way through).
Just for the record, my vote’s Joe/Strange/Dante, and I have a big textwall explaining why I think that’s Joe’s strongest team.
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I think, just from what I’ve seen, the best (or close to it) Joe team is Joe/Strange(bolts)/Dante(jam session), in Strange and Dante you have two characters who can use XF3 and XF2 pretty well, and can easily punish a birthday with total deathly death.
Joe gets a vertical assist, a horizontal assist, jam lockdown for instant overheads/crossups, scary things, and bolts and jam seem scary combined with triple jump sillyness. And I don’t know if this is true, but can someone confirm for me that Joe/Dante THC is high/low city? Because it really seems that way.
For Strange, he gets very strong lockdown, easy peasy setups for grace fields, crossup confirms into lewps if you have that Maziodyne execution, and really overwhelming zoning sequences with jam session (free eye every time, basically just have shit in their face all the time forever and crossup within that whenever you feel like it), and Dante, if he ever comes in (vishanti to devil trigger DHC = :3) gets bolts for good zoning, crossups, whatever you need. Also the THC is pretty hot. Gives Missiles a run for it’s money as far as Strange’s best assist is concerned.
At 3:00 there’s an example of said crossups into FoF loops, gains a freaky amount of meter, and maybe he can get an unscaled Joe bomb in afterwards for even more damage off a jam session. 3:30 there’s a similar combo starting from a hit from jam session at SJ height.
If Strange doesn’t want the bomb assist, which he may not want, he’s got a lot of damage already, perhaps an invincible alpha counter into uppercut, would help Strange’s defense close-up, which is one of his major but few downsides.
And Rings super, DHC’ed to Devil Trigger, if done right, is a fun tool against Vergil swords. Vishanti to Devil Trigger, Vishanti blocked to Sex Cannon, safe in, or even Dodge-Mach Speed through something like Akuma beam or Chaotic Flame, and DHC straight to Rings Super, the DHC synergy is off the hook. I wonder if you could even Rings through a bionic arm, and then DHC to Devil Trigger when Spencer’s invincibility when Spencer’s in recovery, full combo punish.
And the jam durability can help battle missiles and/or morrigan, at least it seems to work in theory.
For damage, Strange second allows for a TAC into FoF loops, or a DHC to bomb-fueled Counter Super, and as Cranky’s tech videos show, hitting with the top of that DHC allows FoF loop followups. Cranky sets them up mostly with missiles, but you can do so without, then use jam session to extend at the end of the FoF loop. Lemme see if I can find the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGiXOuKjkB8 (at 1:30 he uses a combo that doesn’t set up the counter, and just does an empty rings DHC into lewps. Replace Missiles extension with Jam Session there and that would be a very practical, damaging combo).
It can outzone a lot of popular shells, it covers the ground, sj height and low jump height with overwhelming dominance, and bolts and jam counters missiles and drones better than most other tools (thought any drones team will not be a problem with this dream team). It can rush when Joe’s alive, and the other two have teleport crossups and assists that make it safe. It’s hard to block or move if this team is played just right. Honestly, in zoning, high/low game, space control, damage, matchups, all that jazz, this team is probably up there for one of the top Joe teams, in my theory brain, and, I think, if given to a top player, who uses/knows all the available tech with this squad, one of the top 5 teams in general.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, for anyone who managed to get past this daunting textwall, kudos, and please tell me if I missed anything/am horribly off base. I normally love thinking random theory teams through, but I usually keep the ranting to either myself or a few online buddies who are equally ranty. I don’t play a good Joe or Dante, and my Strange is just starting to come into his own as a pretty okay anchor, but I swear if I played two out of the 3 in this team, it would be all I would learn and lab, forever. [/details]