imo MSS is better than Row because:
1. No easy way to get Cable in.
Sure, you could wait for the right time and counter xx AHVB with Cable. Yeah, you could get the opponent in blockstun somehow, shockwave xx timeflip. And fine, I suppose you could even Tempest xx Timeflip to get him in. But all of these options aren’t as clean/easy as Tempest xx Hailstorm. Having meter with Mag/Storm means at least one guaranteed hailstorm against the opponents point character or assist.
2. Storm/Sent > Cable without drones/AAA
I haven’t seen a lot of people outside of Seattle get consistent results with Cable/Rocket Punch assist. It’s probably because I can’t counter-call correctly, but imo Storm/Sent is better than Cable/Rocket Punch midgame. Both teams can land a super and kill a point character, but it seems safer and more likely to land that super with Storm. Look at Cable/Rocket Punch versus other midgame duos:
Cable/RP vs Storm/Psy [from MSP] 5/5, maybe 4/6. I think this fight comes down to how effectively you can cover/call your assists. If both point characters are playing carefully, I give the advantage to Storm.
Vs Storm/Commando [from Santhrax] 4/6, at least. Youre most likely going to be playing against Storm/Commando/Sent, since Sent/Commando beats Magneto pretty clean. Either way, Cables probably going to lose.
Vs Sent/Cyke [from Matrix] 4/6. Cable with only Rocket Punch assist versus Sent/AAA is just like Cable no assist versus Sent/AAA. The only reason I gave Cable/RP even a 4 is because he can still semi-effectively fight Sent.
Hmm, this is taking a little longer than expected. This isnt a Row vs MSS debate, so Im going to stop here. If you want to play Row, then by all means, go ahead. I still think its a bomb team, and it has proven itself in tournaments before. MSS really hasnt, yet. =]
Now onto MSS!
The ever-lasting debate: Drones or Rocket Punch? I think it comes down to a matter of preference. Both assists dramatically change the way this team plays- MSS-drones and MSS-a are basically two different teams. Im more of a short, short Magneto player, so Im mostly going to focus on MSS-a. If Im talking about MSS-drones, Ill be sure to let you know.
Team overview: Strong starting character, strong midgame character, strong endgame character. If you get double-snapped and lose Sentinel, youre fucked, but thats the case with lots of teams. If you want to be successful with this team, try to always have 2 meters available to you. You always want to have meter to snapback with, and you want to be able to DHC out when necessary. Ideally, this is how your matchups will go: Magneto/Sent [RP or drones] will kill the opponents starting [or assist, depending on if you snapback or not] character. Storm/Sent DHC will kill your opponents second character, and Sent/Mag will clean up. GGPO, shake hands.
Pros and Cons of MSS-a
Pros:
Magneto/Sent-a hurts. A lot. You can kill most characters with 1 reset. Having Sent as an assist means that you also dont have to be as careful with assist management, because Sent wont get raped as hard as Psylocke does. This doesnt mean that you can go around mashing on your assist, mind you. Mag/Sent-a also sets up for the double snap very nicely, if you happen to catch 2 characters with c. lk + Sent-a, c. lk.
You can get your second character in easily. If Magneto finds himself between a rock and a hard place, simply Tempest xx Hailstorm and youre good to go. Tempest has a 1 [I think] frame startup, and Hailstorm is unpunishable.
If you lose Magneto, your team isnt screwed. Lets face it: sometimes Magneto gets raped. Hard. With teams like MSP and MST, youre left with a huge uphill battle ahead of you if you lose Magneto early in the match. But with MSS, even if you lose Magneto in the first 5 seconds of the match, youre left with the 2 best characters with enough synergy to get you through the rest of the game, victorious.
You dont need meter to do lots of damage. Magneto and Storm both can flying screen, reset, etc. Combined with Sent-a, neither of these characters needs meter to kill a point character. Sent/Mag-a is nice with the fast fly, too.
Cons:
No antiair. This hurts Magneto and Sent most, imo. Magneto without AAA means hes going to get rushed down by Mag/Psy, Storm/Drones, etc. This requires you to be a lot more careful when you rush, especially since Mag/Sent-a is so vulnerable to a double snap from Mag/Psy. This also means Sent is going to have a hard time fighting against Sent/AAA. This also means that the team as a whole will have a hard time fighting against runaway.
Mag/Storm and Storm/Mag just arent very good together. If you happen to lose Sent, the team loses a lot of its power. But this isnt any different from a lot of other things, so I suppose this isnt too big of a con.
Storm/Sent-a requires you to play fairly safe with Storm. This team puts a lot of pressure on Storms ability to fight without an assist. Neither Mag-a nor Sent-a give her much protection, and neither put the opponent in blockstun for very long, so you cant high/low, mixup, etc.
Pros and Cons of MSS-drones
Pros:
Mag/Drones is safe. Having drones means having protection against rushdown and cover for Magneto himself when he wants to rush. Go ahead and mash on this assist. Call drones and go crazy. =] Oh yeah, unmashable Tempest with Drones.
Storm/Drones is awesome for the same reasons Mag/Drones is awesome. Superjump, mash on hp, land, call drones, repeat. Free meter, chip, whatever. Storm is stupid.
Cons:
Drones can be protection against rushdown, but it still wont help you fight runaway.
Magneto plays way differently with drones. You cant c. lk + assist, c. lk anymore. You lose a lot of resets, so unless you want to be creative, go for guaranteed damage by infniting to 40 hits.
Not as fun as MSS-a. =)
Tactics:
With Mag-a, triple fierce and go for the reset. Sure, the infinite is guaranteed damage, but it requires better executionand its, well, boring. If youre fast enough, going for the flying screen reset is a better idea. Triple fierce hits hard and fast, meaning you’re more likely to land a successful reset afterwards. Resets are more likely to connect after resets, and all that. Plus, you only need one clean reset to kill a character [except for Sent, Defense up Rogue, etc.]
If you get a clean hit on Sentinel, snap in the AAA. This may be common knowledge to most of you, but for those of you who dont know how to play Magneto, fighting against an AAA is much easier than fighting against Sent/AAA. =] If you cant get in on Sentinel, run and build meter, and counter call your opponents AAA with rocket punch. If you damage the assist enough, call rocket punch one last time and tempest xx hailstorm to kill the assist, or damage him enough that your opponent wont be able to spam on A2. Counter calling assists could mean victory. Just because you cant get in on an opponents point character doesnt mean you cant do some damage.
Try to get Magneto out without losing too much stamina. If hes super low on life, you may not be able to count on him when your Sent is on point. He builds meter easily and you can get him out with the quickness, so be sure to get him out when he needs to get out.
Play smart with Storm. You dont have Magnetos great c. lk, and you dont have an AAA. Build some meter, and watch for an opportunity to launch. Once you land a Lightning Storm, gg.
By the time Sent gets in, you shouldnt have much of a fight ahead of you. Sent/Mag-a can play keepaway, with Sent/Storm you can chip/lockdown bigger characters with HSF. I dont know what to say about Sent that hasnt been said a million times before.
With drones:
Cover your rush by calling drones and abuse Mags great priority on sj hp, hk. Drones cant be used to counter call as effectively, so against Sent, try to get close, call drones, and boxjump.
Basically, with Magneto and Storm I mash on drones and sj hp over and over. =] Sorry, I dont play with drones often.
Matchups with MSS-a:
Vs Row: Both Mag/Sent-as cancel eachother out, Storm runs until she lands a lunch, ggpo team Row.
Vs another MSS: If youre confident against Sent/no AAA, snap Sent in and go for the kill. After that the fight shouldnt be very hard at all.
Vs Scrub: Snap Commando in. He cant DHC out easily because Cable is next.
Vs Storm/Sent/AAA: If you cant snap in the AAA, be careful. Just dont get hit =( If you do get hit and lose Magneto [you know its going to happen] , turtle to the MAX with Storm. In theory, she should be able to keep away from Sent and keep chipping him until she can land a launcher, infinite, whatever. Storm/Sent is scary. Run away =(
Vs MSP: Pray that your blocking > your opponents attacking. You might want to think about starting Sent. Sent/Mag-a is pretty nice, and MSP doesnt have much cover for Magneto to get in.
So yeah, thats about it. If you cant tell, I got lazy towards the end. =] My apologies go out to any MSS-drones users. I dont know how to play that team, haha. For that matter, I dont know how to play MSS-a well either. Well, hopefully somebody learned something from this.