MK9 | Sub-Zero Kombo thread

Current Fighting Games Mortal Kombat
1

I’m thinking about maining Sub-Zero because he’s a hell of a lot of fun, so post up some of the kombos you’ve found or are working on in here.

So far the best one I’ve got is j. FP, :b: FP, BP, :d::f: FK, j. BP, dash, :b: FP, BP, BP, FP, BP, Slide/EX Slide or X-ray.

X-ray does up around 52% while the EX slide does ~40%. Works mid-screen and also obviously works without the jump in. I’m not sure but I believe you can add another J. BP (or 2 notation) right after the first one to get a second bounce.

Is his J. BP the only launcher Sub has? Even though it’s pretty easy to land off a ice ball.

EDIT:

I don’t know which notation people like more, so it’s also j. 1, :b: 1,2, :d::f: 3, j. 2, dash, :b: 1,2, (2,1,2), Slide/EX slide/X-ray

2

The BnB I use for now is this:

BP, FP, BP xx Ice Freeze. BP, FP xx Slide.
This combo deals 26% damage (pretty meh), but can be done midscreen and has two specials in one combo which helps build more meter. If you do it midscreen, you have to jump in after the freeze to make up the ground needed to continue the rest of the combo. You can also change the ender and use Towards + BK, FP + BP (aka the pre-canned Tundra Slice combo). This does 27% damage, but only has one special so does not build as much meter.

In the corner, you can replace the ender with either of the following:
BP, FP, BP xx Slide
BP, BP, BK xx Slide

Both get you into 30%+ damage territory. You can use Enhanced Slide for more damage, but IMO it’s not worth it as it’s better to keep the opponent in the corner.

I’m sure there are much better combos that can be used, but these are easy to land consistently and don’t rely on a pop-up. The only thing you need to note is that if you Ice Freeze an opponent in order to start a combo, you can’t use the Ice Freeze in your next combo as they will fall out of it. This actually seems like a real hindrance to Sub, it really seems to effect his damage potential, and with no teleport, I think it makes using Sub hard work!

3

if you get a freeze I think you can do 2 dashes and still have time for a nj.FP, so…

Nj.FP, 4FP, BP, BP, FP, BP, slide or xray for decent damage of of freeze.

4

Apologies if I get the notation wrong, I’m new to this.

212 xx Ice Ball, dash forward, back 1(whiff)2, 22 xx slide
Off any grounded freeze: nj. punch, dash forward, back 12, 224 xx slide. The timing is tough for the 224 though, they drop fast. I think you might be able to do 212 instead for very similar damage.

In the corner you can tack on two or three jabs before doing back 12. One note, if you do grounded freeze into neutral jump launcher in the corner, you have to take a small step back (not a dash) before doing back 12 or otherwise the normals will carry you under the body and corner you and you’ll whiff.

Every sub zero combo seems basically the same, you do chain combo into freeze, then you follow it up with back 12 because its free, maybe insert some jab juggles in if you’re pro, and finally do a chain combo into slide depending on what will hit.

5

Unfortunately, with the combo I presented, you freeze the opponent in mid-air. This means that when you NJ.FP/BP, it does not pop-up, it just gives a hard knock down.

Agreed, that pretty much seems to be the way his combos work. However, I would genuinely be interested in what his best combo that does not require an Ice Freeze is, and if you can exceed the 25% that a combo into slide deals. If you Ice Freeze an opponent to start with, you can no longer use it in a combo, hence why I wonder what his best options are in this situation.

6

I was replying to your comment on lack of damage when starting a combo with freeze. Not the combo you posted.

7

His combos definitely leave much to be desired, although they are solid if you can manage to get the freeze off. It does kind of suck to only get one ice ball per combo, but at the same time I think that’s to stop chains from going on too long.

I’m going to keep exploring the roster and giving Sub-zero some more attention, but I feel like he has some potential.

I’m currently looking into way Ice Clone can stuff wakeup moves. Sometimes if you ice clone on a knockdown and they do a wakeup move they go right into the ice clone itself, even if they hit you, which gives a free combo, definitely some potential there.

Has anyone found a use for his charge up :b: BP? Other than it being unblockable at full charge.

8

Here are some of the combos I use with Sub, he’s a bit lacking in the damage department due to not having any damaging special besides Slide and EX Slide (not counting double freezes, the damage just isn’t worth it on them anyway), but he carries you across the screen like nobody else’s business and gets some nice wakeup setups after most of his stuff.

Mid screen:
B+1,2 QCF+3 j.2 B+1,2 2,1,2 BF+4/X-Ray (35% regular, 37% EX, 47% X-Ray)
2,1,2 QCF+3 dash forward B+1(whiff),2 2,1 BF+4/2,2 BF+4/2,2,2/X-Ray (Both BF+4 enders do 30%/31% each, Ice Sword ender does 28% and scores a techable far knockdown, X-Ray does 41%)
2,1,4 QCF+3+B BF+4 (26%/29%)
2,2,4 QCF+3+B BF+4 (23%/26%)

Corner-only:
B+1,2 QCF+3 j.2 j.2 B+1,2 2,1,4 BF+4/X-Ray (42% regular, 44% EX, 57% X-Ray)
2,2,4 QCF+3 dash backwards B+1(whiff),2 2,1,4 BF+4/X-Ray (39%, 41% EX, 52% X-Ray)
2,1,2 QCF+3 walk backwards B+1(whiff),2 2,1 BF+4/2,2 BF+4/2,2,2/X-Ray (same as corner above, not really optimal considering the other two options)

Anti-Air:
2,2 QCF+3 B+1(whiff),2 2,1,2 BF+4/X-Ray (28%/EX 29%/X-Ray 33%) Note: Depending on height, there are times when the B+1,2 chain will connect fully but it does not add any meaningful damage)
B+1,2 2,1,2 QCF+3+B dash forward B+1(whiff),2 2,2 BF+4 (33%/34%)
Corner Only variation: B+1,2, 2,1,2 dash back B+1(whiff),2 2,2 X-Ray (43%)

Can’t come up with anything else for now. You can always change the starter for one of his non-freeze normals like F+4, but I went with the highest damage possible for the initial hit.

If anyone has suggestions, I don’t mind hitting up the lab some more. I’m convinced that even tho his damage his subpar, he’s still very useable due to 2 unblockables with B+(2) and Ice Slick (technically 3, you can’t really “block” ice clone since you have to actually walk into it) and a great zoning game. I’m probably going to work on combos off the unblockables next, right now I’m just doing variations of the above but I’d really love to see if it’s possible to squeeze some extra damage out of them. I’ll keep you guys updated on what I find.

9

Good stuff TasteTheRainbow.

In terms of comboing the unblockable, check out Tom Brady’s video concerning the use of Double-Freezing in one combo:
YouTube - oTOMBRADYo’s Channel

I’m not sure if this technique is applicable in a real match, but it’s an interesting find nonetheless.

10

It’s interesting until you figure out that the opponent has to actively block for it to work at all. He could just figure “eh whatever, I’ll eat the 11% unblockable” and then you’ve only done 18% total damage. It’s good to abuse against people who don’t know how the glitch works, but it’s otherwise useless in my opinion. It does however work off both Ice Ball and Ice Slick, so maybe you can fuck around someone’s head with it or something. It’s not something I’d actually put in my gameplan tho and it’s more of a “eh, neat” thing.

So far the highest I can get off both Claw Hands and Tiger Slick mid screen are 35%/28% respectively (without EX, just add 2-3% for EX) and 42%/36% in the corner using variations of the BnBs I posted. X-Ray brings those to the 50-56% mark. I’m waiting until a stroke of genius hits me, someone else posts a better combo or that we all just give up before posting them, tho you can probably just figure it out on your own with the stuff I posted.

11

j.P-b.FP-BP, Ice Shot, dash, nj.P, dash, FP, dashing b+FP-BP, link BP-FP-BP, Slide (41%)
j.P-b+FP-BP, Ice Shot, dash, neutral jumping P, dashing b+FP-BP, BP-FP-BK, X-Ray (54%)

Corner j.P.b+FP-BP, Ice Shot, jump up j.P, jump up j.P, b+FP-BP, BP-FP-BK, then:
Slide (45%)
X-Ray (59%)

those are ideal.

12

Nice thing to know about the dash in 1, didn’t think about it after I figured it worked in the corner but didn’t add damage to matter. Rest of those combos were up in my post tho, but good shit anyway. Going to edit accordingly and test some more.

Lin-Kuei edit: Oh hey look at that, I missed your second combo entirely! Definitely better than my midscreen X-Ray BnB there.

13

As he points out though, you can just cancel the back 2 with a dash and do a combo on your opponent if he isn’t blocking. The effectiveness would depend on if its slow enough to react to, if you can cancel a dash into a normal at any time, I’d say it isn’t, which would make it a true mix-up.

I think the most legit criticism is you just don’t get much damage off it. You get ~10% if you guess correctly, and lose ~10% if your opponent guesses right, so it’s kind of a mix up for the sake of doing a mix up. It seems to me if your opponent understands the mix up, it’s only worth doing if a wrong guess would kill him.

14

[media=youtube]NpOjWDWDmw8[/media]

15

I heard they patched his resets. I suppose that’s okay for balancing but Sub-Zero had some strong resets. I suppose it’s all void now.

16

thanks alot