How can you properly pressure your opponent if you use D. Strange as an anchor?
I think the whole point of this thread kind of flows towards using Strange either on point or second. He is really unsafe and has very few block strings - also, his lack of mobility options require assistance as well. Maybe just don’t use him as an anchor? He has so many more options at his disposal once he has coverage from one or two assists.
this. IMO you will be getting more mileage out of Strange’s gameplan with two assists backing you up, preferably one for defensive/lockdown duty (Lariat, Vajra, Jam Session, etc). Strange doesn’t have a universal blockstring (one that works on all characters) nor does he have the ability to mash crouching L and get away with it, which all the more leads me to believe that if you’re gonna play Strange on point or second, no bullshit. you have to be patient, smart, know your options for every situation or range, and don’t be reckless. 850k health for a character like Strange who’s the epitome of an unsafe character (hell Hulk can cancel standing fierce into Gamma Charge to make it safe) means you can’t really afford to make any critical mistakes in a match.
anyways, what are you guys doing to get those Graces up? I don’t have much local competition so all my match experience comes from freaking arcade mode so far lol. all I’m doing is Vajra assist, super jump back, two free Y graces. also, in a match, I find myself using Mystic Sword L more as a poking tool/AA than anything. really helps to practice hit confirming/block confirming in training mode too-- set CPU to random guard, do your usual string and followup into a combo if it hits, or cancel into L/M Sword on block.
don’t neglect your throw game as well guys. don’t be afraid to fish for those throws, especially if you have meter; one OS throw can lead to an instant dead character, VERY useful if you want to take out your opponent’s “problem” character.
I think I found a more universal string to use.
This works on cornered opponents too. Still testing.
Edit: Updated blockstring info.
I think in Anchor slot, Your going to be fishing for spell of vishanti’s instead of pressuring. I think strange is a good 1 v1 character because he can run away from you, throw stuff around on the screen, place out EoA and just keep fishing for SoV. I dont like him in the anchor slot that much because if you used or xfactor earlier in the match then his effectiveness in that slot is hurt considerably.
I think you saw my video with spencer to get up the graces but in less specific situations, calling an assist and using the graces is a good idea. I also like to use graces after sending out EoA especially if they block it. That gives me 1 grace and I can still use my mixup. I also try to throw out a grace when nothing is really going on.(Which is rare in marvel but still). After an air combo, you can sacrifice the SOV to place out 2 graces and still have time for a mixup. You have alot of chances to set up GOH just requires some planning.
Another reason why anchor Strange isn’t boss.
Currently rocking Strange,strider, spencer. It almost makes it to where strange doesn’t have to do his own damage, just palm/tag/combo. His air-throws are mediocre at best, getting around the block string issue is likely the biggest challenge we’ll face with him.His anti-air normals are excellent, not just the Standing weak but his cr.M is insanely good for countering the overhead game of pixie characters.
A couple tricks I’ve been using is tossing l.Rings into illusion, and then either combo or illusion again depending on what the opponent is doing. This works best for divekick’s like doom/trish/wolvie/virgil. For creating another look to give your opponent, try using EoA/m.Rings, H. Teleport into L.Tele/M.Tele. You’ll find the H. Teleport’s frames are much faster and can be canceled into another teleport without issue. I’ve had some success in throwing out illusion after the 2nd teleport as well, making things even sillier. We’ve got some time until regionals, and I’m thinking a lot of us are hanging on to tech until then.
hmm, ok I just have one last question. Last week Dieminion was asked what were his thoughts on Dr. Strange and he said that he should be an anchor and not on point. Does anyone know why he would say that? I’m probably going to drop Strange til something gets discovered that will make him a viable anchor.
probably because dieminion works his strategy around just dealing a critical amount of damage. he doesn’t care about opening people up, he just wants to do as much damage as he can via chip or opponent mistakes.
his goal is to deal that max damage, then pop lvl 3 xfactor (hoping his opponent doesn’t have it) and just abuse spell of vishanti. with 2 bars and x factor, dr strange will kill a character off of any spell of vishanti hit confirm. that said, he isn’t great as anchor but if u dont care about opening your opponent up and you just want to deal some damage and lame it out, he might be a good choice (when u have the life lead)
I think the way dieminion plays dr strange is probably going to be the way he should be played. Not so much a mixup character as he is a chip away and anny character. I’ve been thinking of trying that style of play for him since its what I usually play like in figting gamesmyself
I respectfully disagree. His tools are way too good for him to simply be a runaway chara.
Dieminion plays him that way b/c it suits his style/team. (And tbh, his Strange needs A LOT of work. He himself admits it.)
agreed he plays it because that is the way his team is structured. but strange’s tools are better suited for teleport mixups i would wager
I don’t see why he can’t be played as both. As a matter of fact the way I play Strange is to jump from one extreme to another. I generally play heavy keepaway at the beginning of matches by using his own zoning tools in combination with Hidden Missiles and Disruptor assists. Then when I feel like they’re sleeping on me I immediately switch to rush down. Its working really well so far and I almost always catch people off guard.
Of course he can be played both ways, in fact you should learn to play both styles and switch accordingly.
Strictly sticking to runaway OR teleport spam is not the way to go.
How do you run from Magnus/strider/zero/dante/the other dante?
Heavy runaway may work now but I don’t see it working later in the games life span.
Yea I feel you on that, I just misunderstood some posts as saying Strange can’t be played as a keepaway character.
Two words my friend. Hidden Missiles :tup: Those missiles ruin EVERYTHING
Strange is one of the worst anchors in the game IMHO. He’s like a version of Sentinel as anchor that doesn’t allow you to press buttons at all during the mid screen but if your opponent has 3 characters and just runs into the corner…I don’t really see what he’s gonna do. Even if I’m wrong and he’s one of the better anchors of the game (not likely) he’ll still be far from the best anchors.
Dieminion is only saying that because he hasn’t studied the character well enough. He has great assists but there’s too many ways to lame out Strange’s anchor game for him to really be a threat as anchor. The only way he can force you to get hit is through gimmicky super XF super stuff that works until it doesn’t work anymore. He has nothing normal move or special move wise like Wesker/Akuma/Doom/Felicia etc. as anchor that’s a big problem. What makes him a big problem as anchor is pretty much completely meter based and that’s not good. At best it makes him a bit better of a Haggar as anchor but that’s all I really see it amounting to.
Even Ryan Hunter has been showing that basic call fast assist to teleport stuff (like he did with Hawkeye’s straight arrow assist) will net you kills faster and more solidly than the hurp durp anchor stuff.** Putting Strange as anchor is the typical Haggar/Tron stuff where you’re relying on Dr.Strange’s assists to make him a great anchor.** Once he gets out there he pretty much has to pray you already burned your XF or he’s not really a threat.
** The best case scenario he can really hope for as anchor is a less solid version of the Dark Phoenix trap left/right stuff** with the yellow graces or M disks after killing your first character and hoping he can just chop down all 3 people with Phoenix left/right stuff. That’s not bad, but not really reminiscent of a true anchor seeing that Dr.Strange being able to hit the first character to begin with is more of maybe/maybe not thing unlike it is with other anchors that have real mix up in the mid screen and corner.
Dr.Strange will do his thing as anchor for a bit just like Sentinel did in February. Once people figure out how it works though…he’s pretty done in that spot outside of being the assist man the way I see it. Dr.Strange needs assists so you don’t run away from his left/right stuff all day cuz we all know Strange doesn’t really have Magneto/Storm style wave dash tick and high/low pressure.
I have been using some Strange technology that i dont know if some other people are already exploiting. Strange best position in all the battlefield is above the superjump range, and the best place for his Grace of Hoggoth L is in there too. If 3 GOH L are positioned above the superjump range and Strange send a Flame of faltine from the ground, he can control the fight for like 4 seconds, the delay make the Flame lv3 a very unpredictable and fearful weapon.
So, how can Strange get above the superjump range and place 3 GOH? easy… use a character that can finish an air combo with a hyper (Thor, Nova, S.Skrull, Ryu, Wesker, and the list goes) and DHC that hyper into Spell of Vishanti. The spell will send the opponent above the superjump range, then teleport H > Grace of Hoggoth L > Grace of Hoggoth L > flying… from here Strange has 99 frames for inputting two specials, and he can even call assists and teleport M for instant crossup, all of this while staying above the sj. range. He will be untouchable by a good portion of the cast… (of course, teleporters, trackers and fullscreen hypers can bring him down).
The characters i’m using are Thor / Dr.Strange / Amaterasu. So sometimes i finish Thor aircombo with Mighty Tornado, then DHC into Vishanti, teleport H, etc etc. Hope this can help all the Strange users out there to play him better, i want Strange to be the best. This is a very smart Strange set up.
that’s pretty cool!
That stategy doesn’t seem to work for me. Strange can’t move immediately after Spell of Vishanti is finished. you have to wait until they flip out it seems, so by the time I teleport, I’m not very high in the air. Anyone else been able to get something like this to work? Maybe you could do it with an x factor cancel after the super, but without i dunno…