MvC2 Strategy - when to change characters by a scrub

Classic Fighting Games Marvel VS Capcom 2
1

Ok I suck ass in MvC2… so I am writing this shitty “strategy” hoping someone give me his input and help me improve a little bit more. I am not 100% sure about everything… (i.e. I made up some word like “snapback” or maybe not… I dunno. correct me if I am wrong). If you can’t stand what I am writting, just go to the conclusion.

You can change characters in 3 different ways:

  • press LP&LK or HP/HK: it actually switch characters
  • Double super: It rotates characters
  • Snapback: this is when your opponent forces you to change characters. It is the same as HP&HK

ASSUMPTIONS:

  • I usually think about changing characters when I have about 25% life left.
  • Usually there is no snapback… so I am not going to cover that. If not that would add more pages of strategy.
  • I am going to assume that my assist get about 25% of damage each time I change character.

Usually I picked a team like 123.
Character 1 is for getting super (i.e spiral)
Character 2 is for using the super (i.e cable)
Character 3 is the main assist just there to protect (i.e capcom)

So my team starts with formation 123 and each of characters has full life (100%/100%/100%).

FIRST COMBINATION:
123 100%/100%/100%
23 100%/75%
3 50%

If I let my character 1 die, I usually end up with 100% life with my character 2 and 75% for the assist. Then I end up with 50% for the assist. If the game drags a little bit too long, this is actually bad because nobody but my assist heals.

SECOND COMBINATION
123 100%/100%/100%
double super - 231 100%/75%/25%
31 50%/50%
1 30-40%

Most people I seen fight like a nutscaze, do a double super and rotate characters. However if I were to lose my character 2 after, I end up with the assist (combination 31)… which is usually weaker than a combination 13. Usually people cannot do another double super after character 2 dies, because:

  • character 2 used all the supers
  • character 3 is not a character that can do good damage or is good at powerup
    However if I were able to switch character 2 and 1, I would end up with:

THIRD COMBINATION
123 100%/100%/100%
double super - 231 100%/75%/25%
switch - 132 50%/50%/25% ONLY IF I CAN SWITCH SAFE
32 25%/25%
2 50%

FOURTH COMBINATION
123 100%/100%/100%
double super - 231 100%/75%/25%
switch - 32 50%/25% ONLY IF I WAS NOT ABLE TO SWITCH SAFE
2 50%

FIFTH COMBINATION
123 100%/100%/100%
switch - 213 100%/25%/75%
double super - 132 50%/50%/25%

This is not that good because your team ends up very weak and exposes itself to a lot of combos.

SIXTH COMBINATION
123 100%/100%/100%
switch - 321 75%/100%/25%
double super - 213 100%/100%/25%

However usually the assist died quickly and I end up playing your two main characters without assist = will usually lose.

CONCLUSION:
In short, I guess the best way to switch is to do a double super, and then switch by pressing HP/HK later. That’s the only way to make the game as long as possible. That’s my scrub theory.

PS: I know this is unreadable, but I couldn’t figure out a way to make it clearer… If you know a better way to improve the reading part, let me know.

2

Regarding the snapback… I think it is best to do it on the second character and not the first one.

If I am using 123 and you do snapback on my first character, I end up with 321. However all I need to do is a double super and I get back 213 which is still a pretty damn good combination.

However if you do it on the second guy after a double super, you get:
123
231 (due to my double super)
132 (due to your snapback)

Now the first guy, which is pretty much dead, is playing. Right after you have the assist… which usually cannot handle anything by himself. The only way your opponent can get out of this is to do a triple super to get back a decent formation.

Now there is an exception to my scrub rule about snapback. I guess it is usefull to snapback if your opponent second character is someone who relies a lot on supers (i.e. cable). If yes, then do it as early as possible. In short you are getting:

123 (we assume that the second guy is cable)
321 (due to your snapback)
213 (due to my double super)

However the second guy has one super bar less than you or maybe none… so that’s good.

3

There are so many inaccuracy in there that it isn’t even funny.

First of all, you do realize that the opponent can snap either your 2nd or 3rd character in, right? It seems as though you think they can only snap your 3rd character in. Also, getting snapped in is not the same as a tag, as you say at the top. With a tag in, the character jumps in with a flying attack at roughly a 45 degree angle and then taunts, leaving them vulnerable. When snapped in, the character just hops on from the edge and is in normal jump states. This means that they could be guard broken or such, but it isn’t as vulnerable as a tag in.

The thing you called a “double super” is a DHC, or Delayed Hyper Combo. You should only do this if the first super connects and the second will connect or if the second one doesn’t have punishable lag. In Cable’s case (the person you said was theoretically your second), DHCing him in against a blocking opponent will just leave him open.

Also, there are several reasons to consider switching characters. Yes, it might be a good idea to swap characters when their health starts to get low. Sometimes, however, you might want to DHC to get extra damage during a combo, irregardless of how much health your characters currently have. And sometimes you want to change the roster to better utilize your meter, like if you’re playing Sent/Strider/Doom and the meter has a full five bars, it’s time to switch to Strider.

Don’t get stupid about switching, either. A random tag in will just leave your character vulnerable and he’ll get his hit. It is safe to tag when your opponent has done something to leave themselves open and for some reason you can’t hit them back. It’s safe to tag if you just KOed one of your opponents. Tagging shouldn’t occur very often in MvC2, though. The best way to switch is with a DHC. As said before, however, you want the next super to be unpunishable. DHCing Storm in with Hailstorm is okay. DHCing Sent in with HSF is okay. DHCing Sent in with Plasma Storm is not good. And never DHC Cable in with HVB. Amongst the top tier, the safe DHCs are:
Mags: Magnetic Tempest from a distance or Magnetic Shockwave from up close.
Storm: Hailstorm (possibly Lightning Storm, I’m not sure)
Sent: Hyper Sentinel Force
Strider: Legion
Spiral: Wall of Swords
BH: Heart of Darkness or Judgement Day
Doom: Photon Array
Iron Man and Cable do not have safe DHCs in!

4

umm shockwave is not a save dhc and tempest is not a safe dhc either…

wall of sword is definitely not a safe dhc…

5

Remy Saotome:

I didn’t know your could pick which character you snap. That’s really cool. Thanks for the info.

6

Shockwave is semi safe. If they’re on the ground, then shockwave will make sure they’re blocking and can’t punish you.

Tempest doesn’t really work though. If they’re on the ground, they superjump and the metal foam will just vanish. Then they fall while Magneto is still recovering and kick his ass.

7

Cable’s Timeflip is safe to get him in, isn’t it?

And w/ Spiral/Cable, you can get a guaranteed safe tag in w/ the swords covering for the tag I believe.

8

I’ve seen Cable’s timeflip punished hard, but on startup, not lag. Most people will wait for the startup to end, because they weren’t expecting the timeflip. OTOH, vs. another Cable, Timeflip is a melee super w/ travel time… meaning it can be horribly easy to punish.

In my experience, anyway.

Tron Jon

9

You forget there’s also the counter, which is better off than the DHC with some chars (ie. cable, counter XX AHVB is much safer than DHC into timeflip or HVB)

10

Only when dhc’ed after certain supers is it safe.

11

There are some mother fucking GLARING assumptions made in this post.

mother fucking GLARING assumption #1:
when you tag in you are safe.
This is utterly and horribly wrong. You should ALWAYS assume that if you tag in, and your opponent BLOCKS or DOES NOT GET HIT BY IT, that she or he will be able to punish you for AT LEAST 20% of your life. And this is a conservative estimate assuming the dude has NO METER -thus making their only viable option a cookie cutter air combo into super/special move.

Think about it. Once you tag, your character is in taunt animation for those precious few seconds. What you are basically saying is: Hi, I can’t block or move. Please combo me for free. You’re giving a free reign for your opponent to smash your face in. Of course they’re going to take it.

Now, if the guys got meter you are fucked. You will lose at least 40% (this lower end is for low tier characters and assuming you only have ONE bar) -100% of your life - before you can even lift a finger.

What’s worse, if you were tagging in to save another character, they can simply SNAP that guy back in. This is IMO a very good strategy, that I don’t see that often. The only good character is a dead character, how many times has cable come back to win a game with just a few pixels of life? Too often. So say, you tag out cable so he can heal because he only has a sliver of life left. BAM, your opponent snaps him back in, and all that damage is now irrecoverable. Cable is guard broken/ chipped / crossed up and dies.

The only ways to tag in safely are:

If the opponent superjumps. This is tricky. If you are low on life, your opponent will notice (if they are good). They know you want out, so they’re going to wait for you to tag in. They’re not going to chip you, because that would give you a free counter opportunity (unless you’ve got no super). So, you have to play as normal and somehow force/wait for them to super jump. the minute they do, tag.

If your opponent is getting predictable with his attacks from a good screen length away. If your opponent is doing some obvious chip pattern (sentinel crouch fierce, shoot drones), you can time your tag in so that it hits him in the middle of their attack. You have to anticipate here, because otherwise they will recover from their attack in time to be able to punish you. This only works on predictable players, so use with caution.

If your opponent called out an assist like sentinel drones that you can be hit by. Yeah its risky, but tag in, get HIT by the assist, and you should be in block animation by the time they realize what happened. The best assists to do this on are slow moving assists. Still very risky and possible to be punished.

In the middle of a horizontal air dash. You can’t block during this. If your opponent is predictable with rush down, hit him in the middle of this. Often best when they are full screen away (if they were up close they’d be triangle jumping your ass)

12

Mother fucking assumption number two:

ppl aren’t going to guard break you.

You’re assuming that when your point character dies, the second one is going to come in at full health. WRONG. Guard breaks are a harsh fact of life. Most characters have one. What does this mean? When your first character dies, your second character will often lose craploads of life before they can even do shit.

Even if they DONT guard break you, they can always do a simple crossup.

Or an unblockable.

Pick your death.

Bottom line is: DONT LET YOUR CHARACTERS DIE. Not only will you lose momentum, you’ll lose shitloads of life on your next character as well.

How can you let your characters live? You have to pick a good team that allows the two most reliable ways of switching in characters:

Counters
DHCs

Now DHCs are the best way because if chosen right they are very safe. Storm is a great DHC character because her hailstorm covers the entire screen. You can easily DHC into her. A common trick is to wait for the opponent to do something, have your point character do a fast start up super, and DHC into hailstorm for easy damage.

Sentinel’s got a good one as well.

Magneto’s tempest and shockwave are relatively safe, not 100% but pretty good proection.

Cable is hard to safely DHC into… But magneto tempest/ storm hailstorm / sent HSF DHC cable time flip is usu safe, as far as I’ve seen. But it depends on the circumstances.

But that’s okay because cables got a better way of tagging in and that’s the

Counter (backwards dragon punch + assist of the character you want to counter in).

Counter into AHVB owns all (pick cable anti air). Just remember that. The mere THREAT of it is owange enough. With this threat, your opponent can no longer mindlessly chip you, because if they do, you can counter into AHVB for the easy kill. Plus you get a free and safe tag in.

13

QUESTION1:
That idea of a snapback is a great idea!! Thanks a lot… I think I know how the hell I am going to beat that guy who play Guile/Cable/Capcom… hmm… with my “lame” team Sentinel/Cable/Capcom or Storm/Cable/Capcom (I don’t like playing Cable/sentinel, but sometimes I got no choice if I want to have a chance to win)

When his Guile is dying, he usually switches to Cable… so I snapback Guile… kill that mofo, eh… wait… Cable usually comes back in with 3-4 super bars… and then he usually kills my first character in no time, and almost kills the next one using guard break. Shit… I could save a super for Cable.

is that really a good idea to snapback Guile?

QUESTION2:
Someone a long time ago told me it was a very bad idea to waste your super right at the begining of a game on the opponent assist. True or false?

14

if you can kill cable then do it. since one of your teams is team scrub, that shouldn’t be too hard.

if not, in my experience its always better to kill a character, so go ahead and snap back guile (assuming he’s so low on life that you can kill him with chipping right away or a guard break), because that way that eliminates him as an assist, and eliminates the threat that he will make a comeback. however in this case, the character in question is guile, which is much less of a threat than cable, so you should probably pummel cable for as much damage as possible.

no dont waste a super on an assist UNLESS you can kill that assist. otherwise the damage just gets healed and is pointless. you should not waste supers. basically, try not to burn any supers unless you are sure your combo is fatal. this is especially important on cable who is one of the biggest threats in the game.

a common strategy is to start storm and have sentinel second, build 2 bars of meter. assuming cable’s taken a bit of damage, do her air combo, lightning attack -> lightning storm DHC into sentinel HSF, dash foward launch air combo

is usually fatal. this is what most storm players go for.

15

Today, I saw a worse scrub than me playing against some average scrub (=kind like me) using team tourney. Mother of God… this poor fellow tried so hard with his Megaman/Ryu/random guy. I couldn’t even find words to help him out. He was pressing all the buttons non stop like crazy, and keep on changing characters even if his opponent was standing in front of him, not blocking. Once a while he gets a lucky triple super out, but that was the only way for him to make damage.

Maybe I should have told him to use only anti-air for assist.

16

Don’t do that! MegaMan’s Projectile assist is far better than his Anti-Air. It punches through super armor and is easy to combo off of.

What you should do is try to show him how to use Sentinel. Sent is a very versatile character, he’ll fit on almost any team, and every character in the game can make good use of his Ground assist.

17

Counter is technically B,DB,D, not backwards dragon punch. :slight_smile:

18

Mag can’t be DHCed in safely if he doesn’t have backup against Cable, because he can vipe his tempest and the lag after his shocwave too. Unless he’s full screen away when he DHC’s into the shockwave.

Strider and Spiral can tag in someone safely. Strider throws orbs then switches and same goes with Spiral and her swords. Sentinel can do it too if he K.O.'s one character and calls out the rh drones immidietly then the character comes out and blocks the drones allowing you to switch. Some characters can even combo into a switch.

19

Well anyhow, it is kind of hard to explain the guy what I would do in his place when the scrub level is way too high… I mean… that guy was pressing RANDOM buttons and hitting everything non stop. The only thing he knew was how to move the joystick.

20

If he plays like that then there is no hope for him. Let him be.