MK9 | You're under arrest! - The Stryker Match-up thread

Current Fighting Games Mortal Kombat
1

vs Kung Lao

[details=Spoiler]
Match-up is freaking hard. Anywhere on the screen, Kung is dangerous. His ground hat beats almost every single one of Strykers options. Dive kick and teleport take care of the rest…:frowning:

Up close is slightly better in the sense you’ll be able to get most of your damage here, provided you can get past Kung’s insane pressure game.

Only thing I can seem to punish his spin with is baton trip (everything else is either too slow or hardly has any effect) - which does gives you a knockdown and some damage, but grand scheme of things… yeah, nothing special. You won’t be able to out-poke him either because spin is too good and it can be done on reaction - leading to 30%+ damage.

This match-up will test your patience and reactions so you need to be on-point all the time - that means maxing out your punishments on everything. Since your specials are kinda useless, I recommend saving your meter for x-rays (Stryker’s got an easy 49% set-up, available on [media=youtube]wMS66ryY1yM&feature=related[/media] —> learn it).

Summary: Like sub-zero, you gotta get up-close to win this, mainly because of Kung’s teleport. Unlike sub-zero, you can’t rely on your pokes nor corner traps, mainly because of teleport. It is do-able but it’s in Kung’s favor. [/details]

vs Scorpion

Spoiler

vs Sonya

[details=Spoiler]
Zone, zone, zone. Full-screen and throw bombs at her all day. Up close, she will eff your shit up. Her moves come out very quickly (so poking with 1s isn’t recommended) and she can connect her X-ray pretty easily from her main Bnbs, leading to some serious damage.

@ Full-screen: her ring blast is nothing special and you can roll under it (and at the same time toss her onto the opposite side); gun shot will deal with her cartwheel. That leaves her with handspring/dive kick or jumping - toss 'nades and keep your distance.

Summary: Pin her with grenade spam and get the life lead; play dry as hell because she can turn the match around really quickly, especially when she’s got x-ray.[/details]

vs Sub-Zero

[details=Spoiler]
At half screen I don’t recommend zoning (gun and 'nades go over his slide, ice ball goes through gun [but roll goes under] and slide beats ground roll and baton trip; full-screen however it is possible to pin him down with 'nades for a while, but he can get through so don’t rely solely on it).

I found getting in his face (use a mixture of dash block and ground roll), particularly if you’ve cornered him as he can’t get out, to be far more effective since you’ve negated most of his specials - including his ice clone, which has a proximity limit (ice clone won’t come out if you’re too close to him and he still has to recover after performing it - free damage).

Granted he does have his 2,2 string at that range, but he’s got nothing to set it up with and if he whiffs it, you get a free punish.

Sub also has an overhead and follow up (towards+4, 1+2) - it does a chunk of damage and pushes you quite far (about 1/2 screen; within range of slide shenanigans). It has slow start-up and recovery but any Sub worth his er ice? will throw that out if you get too close, especially since the overhead itself can be used as an anti-air. Funky hit-boxes!

His main options on wake up is slide; which does do a fair amount of damage and has a decent knock back on it, but it’s negative on block and the chip damage is relatively low - you can combo him for free (back+3,2 is guaranteed, and if all else fails D+2) and now you’ve got a knockdown.

Generally speaking, take advantage of Sub’s slowness; his attacks have a fair amount of start up and you can usually interrupt them with standing or ducking 1s. Not a whole lot you can do after but it keeps the pressure on and you’re relatively safe.

Summary: don’t stay at half screen, and don’t rely on gun zoning. Do pin him into the corner and keep him there. Position is everything; sub wants you at mid screen, he does not want you up in his face and certainly not with his back against the wall.[/details]

P.s: damage, frames and any other numerical statistics are correct at time of writing.

2

Kung Lao

I don’t feel you need to get up close to Kung Lao (at all times) because if you do you need to go in, get the damage and then get away from wake up. His super teleport has armor so it comes up through the screen once then again from either your front or back depending on which way he chose (he can choose to go behind you by toggling) watch his meter if it goes down during teleport skip hitting him for the first part of the port and the armor is gone for part 2 then upper cut him.

Tele options: Throw, Juggle Punch, Standard Kick, Knockdown kick
Assuming your blocking you can upper cut all of these from what I can tell.

Wake up he can tele/spin. You can roll toss at the end and start of teleport (need to take this to lab to confirm)

Respect the spin, do not jump on Kung Lao ever infact the only time you want to jump in this MU is over low hats if you have no meter.

Learn your poke options for this mu. 2,3,2 will send him accross the screen and 1,1,4 will send him cross screen. With both of these pokes if he spins you will fly so timing helps unfortunately you can’t hit confirm but learn the range on standing 1 & 2 so if your in range for either of those you can land the full string as the first one hits low and use the 2nd one if hes crouching.

With very strict timing I can punish EX-spin with an EX-roll toss for 16% I read here you say baton trip I had never had any success with this but I will try it for his normal spins.

You can sneak in your gun at mid to max range to bait out teleports. In theory you could cancel the 2nd gun with an uppercut if you know hes going to teleport. You can also catch him at the end of a teleport with ex-gun after normal gun.

Respect his wakeup, learn his teleport options and learn to punish spin I think this matchup is very psycholigical in that you can’t really read what Kung is doing and Stryker also can’t be read that easily either.

For low hats if you have meter you can ex-roll toss through them if you do it early enough as you will have a frame of armor.

Punishing teleports and spins will make Kung Lao want to zone you then you can make a lot of mixup risks as far as combos go. When wall comboing Kung mash block on the last hit because he will be trying to spin you on wakeup.\

Watch the meter, know before it happens if a teleport is ex or not. This helps for all the MUs.

Scorpion:
Roll toss under hooks, no gun moves when he has max meter is a good rule of thumb, but when hes not at full meter and you just did a roll toss don’t feel afraid to pull (and hold) your gun move you can very likely pin him. If he goes for a teleport you can tag him then do it again. Respect the meter.

Don’t jump in this matchup isn’t a constant rule but with meter he can go for a super armor get over here which is a sure way for him to nab you from the air.

When blocking his combos you need to guess if hes going for an overhead or a takedown because both of those options will end his combo. Some players are really predictable (even more so because of how many people play Scorpion good Scorps are rare for me to encounter so when I do play them its sort of frightening).

Baraka/Sheeva:
These MU’s seem very much in Strykers favor. Obviously learn to punish Sheeva teleport and learn Baraka’s charge range then your golden both of these characters have garbage projectiles.

Quan:

I feel this is Stryker favored, zoning him is incredibly easy albeit I need to play a good one IRL offline to really tell.

Teleport can be tagged and Strykers mixup options seem to be stronger then Quans mid-close range but I don’t recommend leaning on them instead just zone. I suspect if I ever played Tom Brads Quan I would take everything I have to say back but when I taste it I’ll let you know.

3

Good stuff man.

Regarding baton trip - it will punish a blocked normal spin. Haven’t tried it versus ex yet.

I know it’s really early to do a match-up thread, and I assume we’ll all figure out a lot more later down the line. But for now I thought it would be nice to at least have the thread and a rough idea about as many match-ups as possible. :slight_smile:

4

One mistake I made: About low hats, the frame of armor you can get off an ex-roll is on your wakeup. So if your knocked down and he low hats you before wakeup and you do a wakeup roll, you will pass through the hat and chuck him.

I’m waiting for PDP to start at the moment (xbox 360 red ringed)

Raiden:

Harder matchup but a fun one (my friend plays Raiden so theres a lot of goofiness that goes on when we play)
I learned you can punish his lightning bolt pretty conistently with roll toss, if you roll toss towards a bolt and he did an ex-bolt you will knock down Raiden but the 2nd bolt from his bolt will knock you down causing a double knock down (this makes us laugh)

Duck under ex-bolts and do not block, blocking makes you eat chip damage but after it goes over you get back on block because of the speed of super man you have to respect it.

This is one of those “don’t jump” matchups Raiden has too many anti-air options, thunder hands and in the air super man are super gross.

Because the bolt is kind of junk you can tag out Raiden pretty easily with gun, if he has meter forget it EX-super man will eat your bullets or grenades go through them and chuck you cross screen.

Watch the meter, EX-teleport will fake you out.

Getting Raiden to the wall can sometimes not so much be “putting him there” as much as letting him teleport behind you and then keeping him there.

Mileena: Kind of hate this matchup to be honest even though its one of the ones I am learning very very fast.

Wakeups: Teleport (which staggers and punishes gun/grenade consistently) and ball roll (high attack, launches you).

Neckbite/Lunch looks like a throw but it isn’t so you need to learn the way her throw/bite looks so you react properly. (ie. blocking when you need to be teching vice versa)

Shoot her once but then wait, don’t show patterns or else she will rush you down very hard.

I feel you should meet her rush down with safe pokes and once you learn where her ex-teleport (called tricky teleport) just know if she used bar when it went down or not.

Her XRay isn’t hard to chuck into a combo so respect the meter. I have no solid comments on the MU other then learn her moves.

Cyber Sub Zero: Shoot him in the face

Kabal: I really haven’t made a lot of progress with this MU I need help with it I need to play a good Kabal and just grind out games.

Okay I’m going to see if check in has started if not I’ll expand.

5

Need help on Kano and Ermac match-up.

Kano’s knife throw is faster than Stryker’s gun, has greater hit stun and higher damage output…this is bullshit. To make matters worse, I read Kano’s balls are getting faster recovery in the patch…:frowning:

This being said, I can deal with most of Kano’s shenangians (standard block and punish works fine), but knife toss completely out-classes Stryker. Yes you can roll under it, but if he’s full screen, roll will whiff and he gets a free punish.

As for Ermac. Eff this guy - imo he’s worse match-up than Kung. 30+% guaranteed, knock-down and full screen knock-back off any whiffed/blocked attacks. 40+% if you dare to stay at half-screen - all because of TKS (it’s possible to get closer by dash-blocking, but his TKS halts you a lot).

Speaking of TKS; it has invul frames on start up, active immediately and he can do it on wake up. This makes it very difficult to get any damage on him up close as it eats through all of Stryker’s moves. Oh and TKS recovers almost instantly so even if you block it, there’s nothing Stryker can do after.

So er any help/info would be much appreciated.

6

Clarify on TKS so I can understand.

Kano help:

Kano’s knife can appear to be a burden but you can in fact zone out Kano consistently. Let him throw a knife (block it, eat it, duck it). When he does it again EX-roll, or at mid screen just roll. On wakeup pull out your gun and you have frame advantage so he has to come to you. Gun/knife as necessary. With good practice timing you can actully trip Kano during his XRay.

Ermac: You can zone this guy if you have him on wakeup and you have advantage. Otherwise you’ll want to get in close for a roll toss or baton trip.

Didn’t get in any games @ PDP vs Ermacs I should have asked Flow when I had the chance. I feel this MU is something that needs work for sure. I think you kind of need to rush him down if hes at all on point with gravity squeeze.

Pokes are good against Ermacs when he makes a mistake get in that ass.

7

^ looking back on those experiences, I think it was 'cus of lag more than anything. I played a few more Ermacs and TKS* wasn’t too much of a burden. Mixture of inexperience, lag and a pinch of salt :stuck_out_tongue:

Even if you zone him tho, he’s still a hard fight; but I admit after some more practice (and a decent connection hur, hur), he’s not as nightmarish as I initially experienced. Hard, but not impossible.

  • By TKS I meant ermac’s down, back 2; force lift I think it’s called.

Ty for the Kano knowledge. I think in my experience it was just a case of lag - so it seemed like he was out-zoning me 10 to 1 (that’s what it felt like lol). That was the main thing bugging me regarding kano match-up; but if it was down to lag, then it’s no problem.

8

Next global patch TB says we get a 5% Ermac nerf so after that if your still having trouble I’ll see what I can give you as far as strategem.

Overall I sort of feel Stryker vs Kano matchup might be a bit skewed in the next patch as that Kano ball is getting buffed so it will be safe on block. Which is kind of scary because its a damn good attack. I’ll see if I struggle.

So tired going to bed. Once I have a console again I will show you some cool shit.

9

This thread could get some blood pumping again…

I looked and you guys didn’t cover this matchup. Sindel.

I feel this matchup is fucked for Stryker. Low fireballs really skew this in her favor. Goes under gunshots, stuffs the roll, and can jump fireball low grenades at full screen. I don’t feel there is a reliable way to zone her, and up close you’re in dangerous proximity to plenty of her mixups that can toss you back at square one at the other side of the screen. I think what’s really getting me is her mixups. Her block strings are all relatively safe and keep you guessing. I’m not even sure of what attacks start up fast enough to beat hers out.

Also, maybe I’ve just had bad luck with timing, but did they nerf Stryker’s EX Roll? I remember it had armor and could eat a hit, but it doesn’t seem like that’s the case anymore.

I’d really appreciate some pointers against her, because I just end up picking my secondary, Jax, to get through her pressure.

10

Haven’t fought many sindels at all and have barely played MK for some time lol (online community is shit; you body their main and [if they continue] they go straight to kung-i’m-invincible-online-lao).

General rule of thumb w/ Stryker is ex roll through low zoning. Build meter with full screen gun shot and nade mix-ups.

From what little I have played of this match-up: Up close, Sindel pretty much bodies Stryker, but some of her mix-ups (3,4 - or w.e. that double kick combo to launcher is) are very much punishable on block (back 2, forward 2 works wonders). It’s just tricky to block some of them because of high low shenanigans (and strange blocking mechanics giving you plus and minus frames depending on when you released the block button…). Can’t provide much more info cus I’ve only fought like 3 sindels since launch.

Ex Roll had no changes…unfortunately. It still has very few frames of armor but it’s not (and never was) on the start-up of roll. It’s actually a few frames after - which explains why you can get hit out of it sometimes. Yeah it’s a bitch but NR won’t patch it because noone apart from stryker players actually cares :confused:

Some other match-up knowledge that I can provide:

vs Kitana

Spoiler

Lol. Zone all day. At full screen, mix up with high (beats her square fly/butt attack thing) and low nade to stop her getting close. Roll under ground fan toss -> free damage. If she gets in, get her off because she will outpoke and out damage you at that range. It’s similar to Sonya MU; play keep away because they have no answer to your grenades and they eff your shit up close range.

vs Kabal

[details=Spoiler] I love this match-up. Not because it’s easy (it isn’t) but it’s very fun. And not piss hard like Kung/Ermac. Anyways: you can’t rely on zoning because of Kabal’s ground buzz-saw or w/e it’s called (it trades in his favor) - you can ex roll through or jump right over it if he decides to throw it out at random. At the same time, you can’t rely on crouch blocking or jumping because of his nomad dash cancel (he gets so many options off this, one being an overhead leading to 25%). You need to read his nomad dash carefully; if he cancels (and you’re crouch blocking) stand block the overhead. I’m fortunate because I’ve got a guy on my friends list who loves nomad dash cancel shenanigans so I get a lot of mental and actual experience dealing with it (I suggest you guys do the same, because that’s the best way to learn imo). Generally speaking, I’d stay stand blocking but duck/roll under his fireball or jump his ground-saw as and when .

Go for knock-downs and stay close as he has no real wake-up pressure. Mix up with crouching lows (down+3 works well) and throws; mind games and solid play. It’s not an easy fight because Kabal has so many options. But if you play patiently, get in on him and pick your moments (which you will get), you’ll win. It is tough, but not Kung-level tough ;).[/details]

Imo you can break Stryker’s MUs into 3 categories:

  • Vs Teleporters (Scorpion; Kl; Ermac; Raiden; Smoke; Sektor; Quan): you can’t rely solely on zoning. You have to maximize your combo damage, read situations well and play solid. These tend to be his hardest MUs because teleporters can get around Stryker’s zoning and often have better offense. Worst case scenario is, imo, 7/3 (Kung and Ermac), but most imo are 6/4s in their favour.

  • Vs Low zoning (i.e Kabal; Noob^; Mileena^; Sindel; Nightwolf^; Reptile; Sub/Cz; Liu; Cyrax^): you need meter at all times so you can ex roll through. Zoning often trades in their favour. Difficult but not piss-hard MUs. Mostly 5.5s/4.5s, some 6/4s and the odd 7/3 (again imo)

  • Vs anyone else (i.e Kitana; Sonya; Cage etc). you can rely primarily on zoning. Ex moves and combos etc help but not essential in most cases as Stryker’s zoning alone kills almost half of the cast (they just don’t have an answer for it). Most of these MU’s are 6/4s in Strykers favour because of how well he shuts them down with zoning (apart from say Kano), but they can swing the opposite way if opponent gets in.

^ = I count these lot as low zoning for simplicity sake.
n.b: I count 7/3 as a horrible MU where opponent has a clear advantage over you (top tiers basically). 6/4 as an advantage but not horrible. 5.5/4.5 - slight advantage (but pretty close to even).

11

I would say that of the teleporters you posted, Scorpion would be one in Stryker’s favor in terms of zoning. The only thing you ever really have to watch out for is his X-Ray and the odd ex move. 9 times out of 10 the pistol will beat all his options clean.

What about Shang Tsung, though?

12

You have to read Scorpion properly though because of hell fire - it tracks for ages and it’s unblockable, so you have to jump to avoid it. But then you’re at risk of getting hit by a spear, which is 30+% guaranteed damage for him. Apart from that bastard of a move, I agree with you in full. Stryker’s zoning shuts him down quite well.

EDIT: I got a few matches with a Shang player today
VS Shang Tsung

[details=Spoiler]
Don’t get knocked-down. If you do, delay get up because ground skulls (all 3 variations) will make your v. life hard. Even if you’re standing, they can give you grief (he can get insane and unbreakable damage off one ground skull) because you can’t identify which range he used until it hits you in the balls. You can make educated guesses of course, but just be careful. I ex rolled to avoid what I thought was a far skull, turns out it was a close skull hitting me inches away from Shang…not fun

Speaking of which, Ex roll helps a lot in this MU (16% for a good read), so make sure you have meter. I found no particular need to hit him with any other ex move (I don’t think any of his moves have armour and regular specials seem to be fast enough) and since his real combo threat comes from unbreakable skull set-ups anyway, you should theoretically always be sitting on meter.

Up close, he’s got sky/ground skull mix-ups off blocked combo strings. Not sure if it was lag but I couldn’t punish after blocking his combo and ended getting blasted by his skull mix-up (which he can use to set up another combo…) He tends to have meter for a breaker too, which = knockdown, which = skull shenanigans. As a result, it’s difficult to justify being that close to Shang, but if the opportunity arises, then of course go for the combo because 32% damage hurts him hard!

His x-ray is effective at mid-screen, so watch your step. If he’s got 3 bars, back off to full screen because he will use it. Soul steal can be annoying, but its effectiveness really depends on how good a Stryker player he is and how well you know Stryker. Keep in mind, your opponent loses all of Shang’s moves and advantages at that point, so it could work in your favour. Double-edged sword indeed.

That aside, your real big advantage is that you can pin Shang down with regular gun shots at full screen (they’ll beat his skulls on start-up). This forces him to start crouching, so throw grenades (if he starts moving towards you, switch back to gun as usual); you can get close to 20% damage (including chip) and roughly 1 bar of meter for doing so. Since he’s got no teleport and no specials from crouching position, you can lame your way to victory! For a while at least.

Summary: Apart from his skull shenanigans, this MU’s not actually that bad. Shang has an advantage no question, but you always seem to have meter to fall back on, so good reads will see you through. With more MU experience (need to find out how punishable he is up close) I’d say it’s relatively close fight[/details]

13

Bump.

  1. Put what little Shang MU knowledge I have up in my last post.
  2. Also, If you guys haven’t already, check out both dookie’s and vulcan’s stryker guides on youtube. They are essential, particularly for new comers trying to get to grips w/ stryker.

Dookie’s stuff
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL2C5A8470E40FB624

Vulcan’s stuff
http://www.youtube.com/user/EvilLuisito

  1. Over on tym, there’s a Stryker MU thread headed by Vulcan Hades. I’ll keep this one open, but will probably migrate over to TYM for simplicity’s sake. Link: http://testyourmight.com/forum/showthread.php?7456-Profiling-the-streets-Stryker-Matchup-thread&p=88773#post88773
14

Recently started playing against a friend who picked up Sektor. This guy is a pain in the ass to fight against. The ex version of that teleport uppercut he has is completely safe on block it seems. Though it may be online, not even a cr. 1 which comes out in 6 frames can punish it.

His flamethrower beats Batton Roll clean, even the ex version. All his projectiles can safely outzone you if you don’t have the zone advantage as well(which is hard to get in the first place due to his teleport punch keeping you on your toes).

This is one of those matchups where the lack of decent mixup is glaringly obvious for Stryker. I feel you can’t properly zone him, and you’ll have trouble rushing him down.

Wouldn’t mind a better player giving this matchup a quick rundown of do’s and don’ts.

EDIT: Have also been playing a decent Jade lately on PSN. I feel the Jade match up could go either way. This seems like a match you’d lose on paper(with her numerous armored specials and projectile invincibility move), but I feel this can go either way depending on who gets steam. Her normals are devious, but slow and with plenty of recovery, so getting rushed by her isn’t as bad as other characters.

I feel against Jade it’s all about training your opponent. Get them to do the projectile invincibility move, and punish with a batton roll. After they start doing it less sparingly you can start going back to zoning her a bit more reliably.

I like this match a lot. Feels a lot more free flowing than most. It isn’t a test of patience as vs. Kano, and it isn’t frustrating as with Sektor, Sindel, and Kung who can shut down a lot of your options.

15

Damn I completely forgot you had a MU thread here on SRK! Thank for the link.

And you’re right we do have different approaches and opinions in certain matchups. I think that’s interesting. I’ll keep reading this thread and pickup information that aren’t in the other thread.

16

Lol Stryker is so shitty in this game. I hadn’t played in awhile and decided to play a little bit and now that people are actually good and picking Kung Lao, Reptile, Cyrax, Ermac etc. life is so rough. I use to think he was “ok” but now im realizing people just didn’t know how to play the game. Im still gonna use him but sheesh it is a shitload of work.

He needs a damage buff

17

Nah he can already deal good damage meterless. And every juggle he lands can lead to a reset into mixups or roll toss which sends opponent full screen with zoning advantage.

The only thing Stryker really needs is full armor on EN roll toss. Other changes I’d rather have instead of a damage buff: Less startup on grenades, less recovery on grenades and baton sweep, better hitbox on standing 4. And maybe, just maybe, the 2nd hit of B1, 2, 2 to hit overhead. Then he would be good to go.