MK9 | Keeper of the Magic Stick: The Jade Thread

Current Fighting Games Mortal Kombat
1

She holds a magic stick that expands and retracts at will. Throws razorangs at peoples faces, has Johnny Cage’s Shadow Kick and a move that makes her completely invulnerable to projectile attacks for a few seconds.

She’s also an assassin Shao Kahn and Kitana’s best friend/bodyguard too. But whatever. This is all about Jade. Matchups, kombos, her role in the story, her tits or her Alt1 Princess-Leia-like-outfit. If it’s about Jade, it should be in here!

Mostly created from a cheat sheet I wrote up for myself 12 hours ago, thus so, uses “Tekken”-style notation. (It’s also easier to read IMO instead of everyone using BP, LP).

Finishers listing and button notation from:
“MK9: Fatalities and Krypt Guide” thread by latin_linx on Boxden.
“Confirmed list of unlocked 2nd Fatality inputs” thread from TRMK, compiled by ShaunyKass.

Everything else is taken from the in-game’s “Move List” option.

Notation
1 = LP / X / SQUARE
2 = HP / Y / TRIANGLE
3 = LK / A / “X”
4 = HK / B / CIRCLE
Block = Block
TAG = Tag

Unique Normals
Staff Strikes: b+3
Rising Pole: b+2
Upward Thrust: f+2
Gut Kick: b+3
Pole Vault: u+3

Kombo Attacks
Pole Check: 1, 2, 2
Jade Charge: b+1, f+1
Bad Girl: 2, 3, f+2
Edeian Rush: f+2, 1, 2
Betrayal: 3, 4, 2
Assassin Strikes: f+3, 2
Polecat: 4, f+3

Fast Tags
Untameable: b+2, TAG
Pole Pain: u+3, TAG

Tag Kombos
After You: 2, 1, TAG
Likewise: 2, 3, TAG
Edeian Tag: f+2, 1, TAG
Distrust: 3, 4, TAG

Special Attacks
Boomerang: d,f+1
Boomerang Up: d,b+1
Boomerang Down: d,f+3
*Shadow Kick: d,f+4
Shadow Flash: b,f+3
Staff Overhead: d,b+2
Staff Grab: d,f+2

*Shadow Kick can be done twice in succession.

Enhanced Special Attacks
*Reboomerang: d,f+1+Block
*Reboomerang Up: d,b+1+Block
*Reboomerang Down: d,f+3+Block
**Eclipes Kick: d,f+4+Block
Shadow Glow: b,f+3+Block
Staff Smash: d,b+2+Block
Staff Slam: d,f+2+Block

*All Reboomerang ES make her razorang return to her.
**Eclipes Kick can be done twice in succession at the cost of 2 meter.

X-Ray
Staff Buster: 2+3+Block

Finishers
Head-A-Rang (Full Screen) - U, U, D, F, 1
Half Mast (Sweep) - B, D, B, D, 4
Stage Fatality (Varies) - B, F, D, Block
Babality (Jump) - D, D, F, D, 4

Kombos
(I’m pretty ass at this game. I’m always looking for simple things that put me in positional advantage and/or ease over damage)

Forward Slash (/) denotes it can be either attack.

3,4,2, Eclipes Kick
Staff Overhead, 1,2, Shadow Kick x2/Eclipes Kick
b+2, 1,2, Boomerrang
b+2, d+4/4/3, Staff Grab - d+4 can be replaced by a standing 4 or 3 depending on distance.

neekoXneeko combo (Transcribed by Shoryu Ken Masters): jump punch, b+1, qcb+2 xx dash, b+2 xx dash, 1, 2, b+3, 2, qcf+4 x2

Near Corner/Corner

Staff Overhead, 1,2 1,2, Shadow/Eclipes Kick x2
3,4,2, 4, Shadow/Eclipes Kick x2
3,4,2, Shadow Kick, d+4, Eclipes Kick
b+2, 3, 4, Shadow/Eclipes Kick x2
b+2, 1(whiff),2 u+3, 4, Shadow Kick - I got this to work only once, came up as 5 hits and 30~ish%, needs more confirmation.

2

Reserved just in case.

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Combo transcribed from YouTube - MK9 (Jade) Staff lift 41% (I didn’t come up with it)

jump punch, b+1, qcb+2 xx dash, b+2 xx dash, 1, 2, b+3, 2, qcf+4 x2

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Thank you very much for making this thread, much needed. lets keep the info flowing ~

5

Have any of you guys found any good Tag combos with Jade? I’m currently trying to run Jade/Ermac but cant get any combo worth the meter, especially from Ermac to jade as he does 45% on his own with no meter =/

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Appreciate the thread, but I think the button notation is going to get confusing. As someone who doesn’t play Tekken, I can’t relate to the use of 1,2,3,4. Can’t we just stick to MK button notation? Maybe designate lowercase letters for movement, and uppercase for buttons? For example, “back + back punch” would be “b + BP.”

And not to nit-pick, but how about correcting some spelling errors?

Eclipes = Eclipse
Edeian = Edenian
Boomerrang = Boomerang

Good guides are easy to read and understand, as well as informative. Let’s strive for those characteristics in this guide so that we can improve our play and show the rest of the community what Jade is capable of. Keep it up, fellas.

7

Hello.

All midscreen combos with the exception of the one corner combo. Also boomerang tricks.

Enjoy.

8

I decided to try her out last night. Waking up this morning and seeing this is just…so great.

9

Thank you so much for this, very helpful stuff here to get started with. I’ve been messing around with Jade tonight, and she is the hotness; she has a lot going for her, I’m thinking.

10

So has anybody found a point to doing her 2nd shadow kick at the end of a combo? It adds like 1 or 2% damage, but stopping after the first one leaves you with such better positional advantage that the extra damage after the 2nd kick never seems worth it.

Also, anybody know exactly what ex shadow flash does?

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Since it barely does any damage, I would use the 2nd flash kick as a positioning tool to get yourself further away from the corner/push your opponent into theirs.

Projectiles pass you when Shadow Flash is activated. Enhanced Shadow Flash gives a kind-of hyper armor in addition. Normal attacks will still damage you when you have ESF, but Jade won’t flinch so you can attack at the same time.

12

Been messing with Jade all night, and yes, those resets and combos are very legit and cool as heck. 2 questions come to mind though.

  1. Once most people see the Boomerang reset for the first time, will you ever be able to actually trick them with it again?

  2. It doesn’t seem like Jade has a high/low mixup game with her strings. Will she suffer in the long run because of this?

Curious to see what you guys think.

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If you lay off it for a while, they usually forget about it (in my experience). Even if they start to block it every time, you’re at a huge advantage. The only thing you really have to worry about is if they do a delayed wakeup (which so far nobody I’ve played has done that to a returning boomerang). Remember, there’s three different boomerangs, you just have to time them differently upon canceling.

Unfortunately, Jade’s mixup game is pretty weak. Her only overhead is staff overhead (with the exception of the obligatory jump attacks). You need to get the opponent scared of staff overhead and then do a less than decent mixup of staff overhead, 3 - 4 - 2 (this Kombo hits low on the SECOND hit, which is very rare, the first hit can be a pain to land though), and sweep. You can also cancel strings into low boomerang (regular or enhanced).

14

Jade seems like most of her more dangerous shit is going to come from punishing and block strings. Reptile has no good lows either, but he’s still one of the best characters in the game.

In fact, I think Jade needs block strings more than good lows. Jade uses meter like it’s fucking cocaine, what with how good EX Boomerang and EX Shadow Flash are. The more her opponents block, the scarier Jade becomes.

15

I lol’d so hard at that comment.

I forgot to add in my post “How godlike EX Shadow Flash is will make you forget about her lack of overheads.”

Seriously, shadow flash EVEN NEGATES THROWS.

Use it on wakeup in the corner. It’s soooo good.

People are sleeping on Jade. I’m pretty sure she can make top 5. I’m lolling at this “KUNG LAO AND RAIDEN ARE BROKEN” phase.

16

Jade needs her fix, man. Roll it and smoke it, grind it and snort it, it don’t matter as long as Jade gets her meter.

17

I think that it will work sometimes, but not all the time. It will be more effective these days when the game is new than later in the lifespan, but it isn’t some magic thing you are going to be able to base offense on reliably. It’s a tricky tactic that will work from time to time, no more, no less.

For your second questions, I think time will tell.

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Actually, Reptile is my main, and he has some awesome lows. His 1, 2, b+1(low hit) string is safe on block, and in the corner can be done almost indefinitely. Plus, you can mix up with 1, 2, 2, 1(hits OH) with 1, 2, slide during your normal pressure.

Anyways, back on to Jade…
Yea, I didn’t think about EX Flash, that will definitely help with mind games. I don’t think you can cancel into Flash from normals, otherwise she’d have infinites (kind of like El Fuerte RSF), but that would be pretty sweet lol.

So yea, she still is lacking in the high/low mixup department, but with her EX Booms (like Dragoomba pointed out) the opponents will have to guess right twice in a row during any string if you have meter. That’s pretty boss. I just wish she had another quicker OH option other than staff slam, but I guess she can’t have everything…she’s not Kung Lao after all…

One more thing…
Because it’s Easter I’ll be out with the wife visiting family all day, and NOT in training mode :(. But, I have a setup in my head you guys might wanna try. End a string of normals with EX Low Boomerang, and then try to get out a staff slam on its way back in. Theoretically this should be an unblockable setup, but it all depends on how quick that staff slam can come out. Try it out and report back, Jade army! Y’all have a happy Easter.

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I got to play against ts sabin last night on xbl for about an hour and 45 minutes. I was playing jade sabin was playing reptile. We had some pretty solid games. I think the end score was like i had 5 wins he had like 33 or something haha but i wasnt super free at least =P. I think maybe in the hands of a better player jade would have a solid match against reptile. She can really cut down on his projectile game with her shadow flash to get through the spit and forceballs … you can also activate flash and walk through a charging ex forceball to punish … also pretty much any block string you end with her staff overhead is fairly safe on block from what I’ve seen.

Also, wake up staff overhead is good at getting you out of mixups on wake up and helps with getting you out of the corner.

20

This idea got me really excited, so I tried it out immediately.

I’ve tried many different set ups, but none of them worked. The boomerang comes back way too quickly. It’s hard enough even putting in the input before it comes back. When blocked, they get canceled out so they do not have that returning effect. I had tried it from both ground strings and juggles. It’s just too fast. NRS seemed to have done a good job looking at all the little details, maybe this is why they gave her only one obvious overhead. Jade’s already an extremely safe character, just imagine if you could cancel blocked strings into Jade Flash. Toooo good.

Yeah, it’s alright, but wake up EX Shadow Flash is AMAZING at this. Again, IT EVEN NEGATES THROWS. All mix-ups are immediately shot down when you activate it.

Also, Sabin plays MK9? Nice.

EDIT: Hey guys, we have character forums now! Hopefully a mod moves these threads to the respective forums.