haha not one of the best, but he is good, imo of course >_> …
I only said one of the better. I mean, there’s great, good, average and bad. If he’s good, than he’s one of the better. Nothing too sinister behind what I was saying.
So I played against a very defensively throw happy player the other day… and it reminded me bad Thor’s frame data is. Once everyone actually figures that out… oh boy we are in trouble.
I play against a guy like that pretty regularly, so trust me, I know. The dude plays Taskmaster/Frank/Spencer, and because I play Thor against him so much, he knows the set ups and resets and gimmicks. The best advice for going against those solidly defensive and patient players is first of all, knowing and acknowledging Thor’s weaknesses. He has bad normals, he can’t punish things as readily as other characters can either due to lack of range or lack of speed. So when they’re laying on the pressure hard and heavy, you just have to sit there and take it. Block as best as you can, chicken block when appropriate, and just don’t press a button until the pressure ends, and when it does, that’s when you work on getting your space and reversing the tide. Poke with your Strikes, zone with your Sparks, fly to get some space, and always expect the grab up close. In those type of fights, it’s about knowing your character and the match up. The more defensive player wins.
See, its not defending with Thor and getting thrown that is the issue… more so that in actual fact, if you trisdash in with j.L, pretty much the moment you land/start attempting a ‘block string’ you are getting thrown.
Thor should be played as some sort of ranged defensive tank I’m beginning to I think. You go up close with him only when you think the opponent won’t expect it. I play a style that can probably be quite frustrating to fight against, and the moment they get tagged with anything they are more often than not forward teching to come straight back in my face… and usually I will catch people with something in their over eagerness to get to Thor, and convert for big damage.
So if I’m reading that right, what you’re saying is you jump in with jL and before you land for your crL, you get thrown? Or maybe you’re doing jL, crL, but you get thrown before you get anything after that? If so, that stems from not having your strings tight enough. Thor not having a rapid fire crL for a tri dash character makes that difficult as well. You gotta be completely on point with your attack strings. Throws are 1 frame, and if you don’t have those links down tight, and I agree, Thor has a very hard time doing that, you’re definitely getting thrown.
Some things I personally commit to memory is when you super jump tri-dash with Thor, you have a higher chance of getting a left/right cross up than a normal jump tri-dash. Also, when you super jump tri-dash, you can get two jL’s before landing and continuing the string as opposed to the one jL with a normal jump.
Really, your take on the defensive tank is a great way to get things going. Thor running a high mix up game is an option, but I feel it’s only worth doing if you have Sentinel Drones or Cold Star. Any other assist, you’re probably better off eating away at them from a safe distance and letting them come to you.
Thor does play great as a defensive tank. Most health in the game obviously, with Mighty Strike covering good anti-air angles of attack and beating them out due to armor, Spark is solid for zoning and as a makeshift AA as well, and his mobility is solid enough to be very slippery. Thor’s tough enough to kill without making it hard to get a clean hit on him. And of course, one mistake on the opponent’s part can lead to death and Thor starting his own offense. Honestly, if you don’t have Thor on the momentum when he’s in, this is the way you’re gonna have to play short of dealing with complete Zoning teams.
A good way of thinking as well if you want to completely build around this concept is what defensive assists can Thor convert off of if they land?
Yes, that is what seems to be happening… to be honest I always thought my strings were tight up until this point. Perhaps I was off since I’m back from a fairly long break…
But lets say they are tight up until that example you give… I still have a pretty big problem, how do I end it and stay safe? I know c.L -> c.H isn’t a block strick, therefore I’m stuck with cr.M. I don’t think thats safe either. So I gotta cancel into a special. L.mighty spark is my only option right? But what if they pushblock cr.M, and then duck the beam?
My dark hole serves this purpose really nicely. It’s active for quite a long time, puts a fairly decent sized hitbox ‘barrier’ in front of me and holds the opponent in place right if it hits. If I’m throwing out sparks to zone and call it, often the opponent will get tagged by Thor’s beam, fall into Dark Hole, and I can confirm off that into a M mighty smash or M spark and then combo from there. I can also call it and super jump up, and charge a strike. If the opponent does get tagged by the assist off screen, its possible to catch them and continue to combo.
mm, if you are getting thrown after of a j.L with tridash at regular jump height you are doing something wrong, that normal is + on block after you land. you can even go for guard breaks: j.L, land, advancing guard ground dash forward, mighty hurricane.
You can get thrown out of it if you do it assistless with superjump > f.H, but who use that normal assistless…
my main pressure blockstring on a grounded character is something like: regular neutral jump, airdash backward or up-backward, mighty strike M + call coldstar, then j.L, into cr.L, or j.M/j.H into cr.L when coldstar start the lockdown. Mighty spark L at close range is unsafe on grounded characters, doesnt matter what assist you are using.
Since you got Dark Hole, you should end it with that. jL, crL, crM (or crH) + Dark Hole, L Spark is safe enough on block since the Hole is big enough to keep the opponent from moving, and on hit, you follow up with L, S, into your air combo. Thor by himself has nothing safe enough for a string, so Mighty Strikes are literally your only option, which means lock down assists are your only option for attack strings. M Smash is unsafe on block, H Smash is extremely vulnerable to punishment on start up, The Sparks can be ducked and punished, and the Strikes aren’t good enough for block strings. So it’s either poking from a safe range, or lock down assists for safety.
Do I have enough time for the hit confirm though? As in… ideally I would be going j:l:, cr:l:, cr:m: into launch and combo… but if I have to throw dark hole in there (and I’ll need to call it early to protect me at the right time) then it may throw off my subsequent combo…
Hmm on second though… maybe I could just see it hit and do M spark and launch from there… either L spark if the block, M if it hits. I should have the reactions for that. I’ll try it out. Of course I can’t use dark hole for combo extension later on, but better than getting hit in the first place… maybe this is where the spark relaunches will come in handy.
EDITL I’m being an idiot, of course I should be able to see dark hole hit and just time my launch properly… haha
It can be really hard to keep Thor safe in his point blank pressure, I usually try react to my opponent.
If I notice the pushguard my strings, I call Jam Session during cr.M, so I can tri-dash in if they do nothing, or convert if Jam Session blows up their button (j.L, j.M, j.S, S and end with a reset attempt usually, because Jam Session scales the shit out of this convert)
If they don’t pushguard and try to press buttons after the cr.L, cr.M string I Mighty Hurricane (option select Mighty Punish) after cr.M, but this ofcourse doesn’t really help against people who mash H (1 frame throw BS), to be honest I’ve never met anyone who did that…
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Also been thinking about incorporating more ‘technical’ aspects to my Thor play.
For example, I’m trying to condition myself to tech any incoming ground throws with a L Mighty Hurricane buffered in afterwards. I tried doing this with air throws, but can’t scoop them up sadly… 
Any other things people are trying?
mm, L hurricane after of a throw lose to another throw, 1 frame startup > 5 frames
technical stuff?
cancel sparks into mighty speech to earn some time and look flashy
TK mighty strike L in the neutral is “hard execution” but very good
superjump (not regular jump) into tridashes and j.L pressure
follow up Missiles hitconfirms from anywhere with charged mighty strikes
cancel trijumps into j.H for fast landing
chain Mighty Tornados in combos
guard breaks
Grab Cap America out of the shield hyper with Mighty Punish
Thor is just too fun <3
Hmm I thought the pushback from the throw tech was too far to initiate another throw though? I’ll have to test more throughly…
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Usually it is, but perhaps L.MH extends your throwable box, the throw system is wonky IMO, perhaps this can serve a purpose when a corner reset into H.MH results into you techin’ the opponents throw (happens every now and then, guess it’s a timing issue).
More tech: OS a Mighty Punish in grounded Hurricane, scoops people up if your timing’s off, and if it doesn’t, it opens up a safe DHC if available.
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Hate to double post, but I’ve just done some investigation.
It looks like the entire way down from teching a air-throw is invulnerable for throws, this means buffering a l.MH is useless in this situation, if it weren’t for the fact the in vulnerability only lasts as long as they don’t press a button (similar to the state you’re in upon entrance), what this means, is that unless the opponents tech’s are SPOT ON (1 h input, no mashing), the l.MH is guaranteed if they break your airthrow XD (in the corner btb)
Only problem with this is that if they don’t break your throw, you’re stuck with a hard knockdown witch itself is hard to convert of without select assists or DHC’s.
I really think this is only usefull if you mess up a h.MH, and OS’d a throw escape.
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The way the grab tech/command grab set up works depends on spacing and how big the other guy is.
If it’s a big character with a wide hurt box, you can do H Hurricane and it’ll catch up from throw tech range, and you’ll beat out the other guy’s re-grab attempt, or at worse tech out again if you messed up your execution, but still got the forward part in it.
If it’s a normal sized character, use the M Hurricane after the throw tech. It’ll catch and beat out everything because they’re too far away for another grab, and at 3 frames, you’ll beat out most anything they try to do. The only thing I can think of they can do to escape it is possibly jump, but even then jumps have start up frames too. I say this is the best option for the majority of the cast.
Except for small characters. Joe, Rocky, Ammy, Arthur, and the like are too small, so you’ll have to use the L Hurricane for them. 5 frames is a bit of start up, but I can’t think of anything they can throw out that’s fast enough to beat it, but I think they will be able to jump out of it if they know it’s coming.
All that said, if you’re in the corner, the push back from throw teching is hardly anything, so you’d best be going for the H Hurricane at all times in that situation.
Wish Thor’s command grabs had more active frames. His resets would be pretty much airtight if they did.
Does this also work if they just hold back?