36

I need some pointers for the Smoke match up. Any advice?

It almost seems impossible to zone Smoke, so you need to stay in his face and work some mixups to at least land a good life lead against him.

37

If he’s a bad player: Smoke can’t teleport punch your missiles on reaction. He has to predict it. Throw them out at weird times and block immediately after to bait it out.

If he tries approaching you, flamethrower stuffs most of his options. If he lands next to you after a flamethrower then back+3 4 xx teleport punch jk xx en:teleport punch 4 flamethrower will get you some great damage.

Try not to meet him head-on in the air, as he outdamages you by a mile from there (gets 40% off of airthrow to smoke bomb, vs your 7%).

It’s definitely one of the harder matchups, especially since shake and smoke bomb can mess up your long range game pretty badly. The only space where Sektor is ahead of Smoke is in the latter half of Sektor’s flamethrower range. If you can get him to make some bad approach mistakes which net you a close flamethrower into a mixup, you might be able to pull out ahead. Keep with those flamethrower combos to keep him in the range that you beat him at.

38

He’s not a bad player, that’s the thing.

Shake and smoke bomb are the problems since smoke bomb is completely safe on block.

I figured I’d try to do Up Missiles are various ranges to force out a Shake that he likes to do and punish Shake with a teleport combo. But that doesn’t work seeing as you can do Shake just as fast as Nightwolf’s reflect and get the same result. Shake is what ruins the zoning game and gets me killed.

Also, Teleport on reaction to smoke bomb only yields getting hit by smoke bomb.

The only good time to go air to air vs Smoke is if you know he’s going to jump at you, in which you can get a j.K > teleport combo.

Flamethrower spam is about the best I can think of myself. Doing things like 2 1 flamethrower or just doing any string and ending with close straight missile or flamethrower.

39

That’s rough. It’s a nasty matchup.

Smoke bomb is a pain, but remember he can’t hit you with it if you’re moving. Also remember that it doesn’t deal chip.

I’m wondering if you can punish a badly timed shake with teleport uppercut? I doubt it, but worth looking into. Shake really messes up a lot of zoning.

Wouldn’t the missile set off the shake? When shake is activated theres no way to avoid the punishment. Unless you’re talking about whiffing, which doesn’t seem like it would get you an advantage. The whole idea is bomb bait anyway I would think.

Yeah, don’t do that.

Yeah, can if he lands one clean on you it’s a ton of damage. Not worth the risk imo.

Flamethrower is especially important because it leaves the enemy standing while giving you big frame advantage (think Makoto). If you’re gonna dominate him at all, it’s gonna be from that range. It’ll be tough to get him there though, considering all of his mobility and ability to act from any range while shutting down your options from most of them. Rough deal.

I haven’t seen any tournament players use this to their advantage yet (not that I’ve seen many tournament players use Sektor at all), so it’s prolly gonna be pretty hard to get it to work such an advanced technique that really only has a prayer of leveling the competition. I hate to say it, but have you considered just counterpicking?

40

For the Shake bait, I was thinking of doing an Up missile, but the one that lands in front. On reaction, he’d Shake once he saw the missile go up, but I never got to really get inside his head much on these set ups because of Smoke Bombs.

It’s a bit upsetting that Shake is as good as it is. I’m not saying it’s overpowered because there’s no combo off of it, but I kind of wish it wasn’t a homing attack that lands automatically. No biggie.

Also, if I’m just walking forward, a Smoke bomb will whiff? Are you certain of that? I know I was able to dash on reaction to several of the smoke bombs, but it’s still a risky thing to attempt.

The absolute best option I have found against him were Leg Lift set ups. For example: Say I landed 1 2 b.1 > f.4 4 > teleport, typically bnb. But I’d stop the combo at that teleport. Once I landed, I’d Up Missile and do a Leg Lift. From his previous block patterns, he liked to block low against Sektor a lot, so I went with the medium hit. So after the Up Missile, I did u.3 4 > Teleport combo. These kind of things work, at least to an extent.

The only way to make that 50/50 guess with Leg Lift safe, is to do an E.Teleport.

In some cases, I have found players to block for longer periods of time, so you can do 1 2 > Leg Lift > mix up of choice. Of course, it’s a risk, but if you get them thinking you’ll do 1 2 > flame, I’m sure they’ll get into the habit of blocking longer.

EDIT: Was just in training mode and I found that after the bnb I mentioned before, after the teleport and up missile, that you can jump over with a j.1 or 2 and combo there after. Yields around a 45% combo if all hits connect. Therefore, you can do this jump over mixup after an Up missile, or a leg lift set up. Either way will yield some serious damage if they screw up.

EDIT EDIT: Also note, that you can even feint leg lifts. You’re fully able to Leg Lift > Throw if they blocked the Up Missile. Just added mixup value.

41

Right, and shake recovers somewhat fast. I don’t think it’ll get you an advantage and it could backfire.

Yeah, it’s not usually a problem, but for Sektor it’s a bit rough.

Yep, positive about that. You have to be in the faster walking animation (after you hold forward, you start walking faster).

Sounds interesting. Seb was looking into resets with the up missile, and I think you’re putting those to work.

Going close up against Smoke probably isn’t in your favor, but it’s not a hugely unfavorable position either. If you feel that you can out-play your opponent there, it’s not a horrible option.

42

quick question, does Sektor have an overhead attack? I don’t know what to do if someone is blocking low except to throw

43

u.3 is leg lift (its not an attack) its the setup for his overhead
u.3, 4 is his overhead/mid and you can cancel into TU bnb combo
u.3, 3 is his low and you can do u.3, 3, 4 xx TU bnb combo

ive been taking Kriaser’s advice and after I hit a TU combo I usually don’t complete the bnb but instead I either do back.2 xx up missile or up missile in back if they keep rolling (im pretty sure you can’t cancel the other two versions of up missiles from a normal) . This way on the opponents wake up they either pop a wake up attack that you can defend/avoid properly or you can do a leg lift mixup with the up missile coming down on them.

44

I dont understand Why arent you rushing Down with sektor. He has nice mixups and can damn near combo off of every other move. Rush that shit down Hes not noob saibot.

45

Is there a difference between his normal b3, 4 and the version done from the leg lift? If not, I don’t really understand the point of the leg lift… I really would rather his overhead just be a command normal instead of having to come out from u3–it is too slow to be practical, from my experience so far.

My biggest problems with him so far is that the opponent can crouch block almost entirely and about the only thing you can do is throw. His only mid hit seems to be the end of 1,2,2, which hits very high for the first couple hits, and you can be hit out of by a crouching opponent. I didn’t realize that you could combo after his overhead, though, so maybe that’ll help things out a bit.

One thing I would’ve liked to see with him is his enhanced straight missle be 2 back-to-back and not on top of each other. I miss being able to send out 2 and 3 missle barrages like in the old days. :slight_smile:

46

The reason why the leg lift has the option to go low as well is in case your opponent picks up on the use of the overhead kick. You can fake out the leg lift stance and go low anyways to deal damage.

the 1, 2, 2 string does hit mid and allow you to cancel into a move, but unfortunately…any special that you choose will not count in the combo. The opponent can block if they choose to do so.

I find it best to use his mixup kicks(starting out with b3; u3, 4; u3, 3, 4) just as the opponent is getting off the ground. This is the main place where I use it the most unless the opponent is ALWAYS ducking.

47

Some of my midscreen BnBs… (all can be preceded with Up Missle/Homing Missle hit confirm)

j.1, 1,2,b+1, j.4 xx d,f+4, b+3,4 xx d,f+4 (9-hit, 36%)
j.1, 1,2,b+1, f+4,4 xx d,f+4, 2,1 xx b,f+2 (10-hit, 40% 1 bar)
j.1, 1,2,b+1, j.4 xx d,f+4, b+2,1 (8-hit, 36%)
j.1, 1,2,b+1, f+4,4 xx EX d,f+4, 1,2 xx b,f+2 (11-hit, 42% 1 bar)
j.1, 1,2,b+1, j.4 xx d,f+4, b+3,4 xx EX d,f+4, 2,1 xx b,f+2 (13-hit, 44% 1 bar)

48

Jumping ‘bnbs’ always irk me, does anyone actually land them against a good player with any success? I sure don’t. And even if I do, it’s a tight cross up from point blank range, and my reactions aren’t fast enough to combo after. Other than the jump part, good shit.
Sektor hasn’t received any changes in the patch, has he? Sure hope not.

49

Subzero is like the Ryu of Mortal Kombat, easy for beginners and terrible at higher level play when versing other high level players. Could pretty much see Sektor being my main now, oddly enough same character I used the most in MK3 arcade.

50

No

51

lolwut? Sub is the best character in the game, hands down. After him it’s a toss between Raiden and Cyber Sub.

52

He may not be the best, but he is definitely not horrible in higher level play.

53

Edit: haha never mind I’m an idiot

54

Just a quick video I made a few months back.
Sektor is my number 1 main in MK9, I team him up with Raka for a devastating team.
The speed of his dash, his instant air teleport and ridiculous damage potential make him a beast in my eyes <3

55

Made a newer, worse quality video
52% with no meter