Wait, Spencer? I thought we both agreed that match was in Nova’s favor… I still do. And what about Taskmaestro and Trish?
Wolverine is a pain in the ass, but you really just need to build space and get a shield out safely. Fly away if you have to. Then do your best to zone him out. Also, if you feel like counterpicking, get Haggar in the back and lariat all day, it’s a really good anti-Wolvie assist.
If the Spencer knows the matchup its in his favor. Spencer’s zipline+grapple+bionicarm shit on Nova pretty bad. If the Spencer doesn’t know how to fight him, I think Nova wins. Nova does get a good punish off a block overhead though since he can throw him. Upon playing a lot of these matchups a lot more over the last few months. I’ve gotten better at certain matchups and come to understand different ones a little better. Taskmaster is problematic, but not so much so that he has a clear advantage over him. Trish is problematic if you don’t know how to fight her since all her normals beat yours easily and she has peekaboo, but if you manage to set-up a pulse, you can zone her pretty well. Don’t rush Trish in recklessly, run away, and you should win the matchup.
Nova only loses to Wolverine if he has Tatsu or Plasma Beam. That way you can’t really zone him since those assists eat up pulses. If he knows you’re going to put up a pulse he can easily berserker slash you from full screen during it’s startup. It’s very dangerous to even put one out since he can close the distance so quickly. You need to put pulses out, but if he keeps calling beam while eating your pulse and he’s good at maintaining pressure, Nova’s slow startup mobility really suffers. By the time you’re able to get one mixup on him, he’s mixed you up a few times already. That being said, cr.M is your best tool here. Once he’s landed on the ground, you can throw it out and it’ll beat his ground options. If he blocks it though, he can push block it and punish you pretty free. Even if you cancel it into flight you’ll be at a disadvantage. Nova CAN beat anyone, but those characters are the ones that are really problematic for him. A good Wolverine that knows the matchup should have the advantage.
The biggest problem with the Spencer matchup is that Nova has no reversal to counter bionic arm and his moves are so lengthy/telegraphed that it isn’t difficult to fish for. With 900k health and the potential to follow up on arm, it’s not hard for one read to mean a dead Nova.
For Wolverine’s opening round gambit, I also suggest being willing to use snapbacks. Wolverine is likely to press his opening advantage to the fullest (aka pressing buttons), and killing that momentum and changing team order is a big deal. Yes your first bar is a large initial investment, but if it’s the difference between getting your own momentum and getting your face mauled off it was worth it. It’s +1 as well so even if they block it you’ll be at a slight advantage. Bear in mind this isn’t a tool to be spammed, but rather an option to get in your opponent’s head to (hopefully) make them a bit more gunshy. Sometimes that’s more valuable than the move itself.
For all of these matchups except Sparda bros, I think Grav Pulse H is a great tool to help mitigate the matchup. However, it’s important to know what -to do- with the pulse; for some you want to zone behind it (trish) others you want to use it to bait (Cap) and others you want to use it to change behavior (Wolverine, Spencer). Take wolverine + plasma beam as an example. Zoning behind the pulse isn’t a great idea since one bad javelin will mean doom absorbed the beam and wolverine ate your face. Rather, you wait and see what your opponent does in reaction to the pulse. Usually they’ll call the assist to nullify the pulse, then come in. That’s fine; counter call with your own assist and mount an offense against wolverine with your advantage of having an assist while his is nullifying your pulse. the smarter wolverines will block the pulse and have the assist cover them afterwards. Cool, either get out of the situation, counter call depending on your options, or give their assist a grav blaster for their troubles (though wolverine can probably duck under a non red health one). Either way, the point is that when you have a pulse up, you have an advantage; you just need to know how to press it.
Same thing with Spencer. If you have a pulse up, his goal is probably to nullify it. But pretty much every spencer has the same approach; jump, call the assist to nullify, and zip in. Fine; stay behind the pulse, wait for the assist call, then dash up and jab them out of their offense. You’ve now turned your defensive pulse into a chance to mount your offense (and potentially a happy birthday). It’s all about presence of mind.
Except Vergil; that’s about playing footsies with inferior tools. That sucks.
is it possible to consistently beat out tatsu? also would it be possible to use a grav pulse l or m to make cr.m safe?
Any tips on following up after an air throw by hard tagging Dante? Like tips/notation, I’ve seen it done just can’t do it. Also is it possible in the corner?
midscreen - you can just airdash down, raw tag Dante, and dash up volcano for a full combo.
corner- just hold raw tag, and do volcano for a full combo.
The combo you do depends on your assists.
Thanks… me trying to over complicate things I guess. Regarding the midscreen version, would you say the timing is tight? I’m having trouble hitting it consistently, I’m at about a 1/20. Assuming there’s no special tip I guess I should just practice it more.
Kinda a Dante question but its related, as for the corner version, would you mind giving me an example combo starter? Considering on most of the cast you can just Volcano jump H xx AirPlay xx H because that doesn’t connect, and I usually don’t go for the Volcano xx jump MH xx KillerBee because that uses my ground bounce pretty early in the combo which is no bueno.
Midscreen is tighter timing, but it’s definitely doable and kinda easy once you get it right. Also, it works on EVERY character in the game unlike Doom who whiffs on certain hitboxes. You need to airdash down with Nova with a normal like j.M while holding raw tag. Once Dante’s in dash forward and get the volcano. You’ll have to use volcano, j.M, j.H, Killerbee, backdash, S, claypigeon, Stinger, Bold Cancel, Teleport (if midscreen), Hammer, call Nova+Volcano, Beehive, Stinger, Volcano, Beehive, MillionDollars unless you have proper assists. Builds at least a bar and you get enough to DHC.
My combo using Strider assist with Nova is Volcano, j.H, airplay, killerbee, cr.H + call Strider, S, SJC + Million Carrats, backdash, S, clay pigeon, Stinger, Bold Cancel, Hammer, Call Nova, Volcano, Beehive, Stinger, Volcano, Beehive, Million Dollars. Does around 840K. Builds a bar and a half I think.
I dont play this character but i noticed something…did they stealth nerf nova’s Airgrab?
what you mean?
I play a friend who mains nova and whenever he grabs me he usually dances around before otging me now theres less time to confirm
Idk about that but if that’s the case then they need to stop dancing around lol
When would they have nerfed it?
I’ve played around with the timing of air throws, there’s hella lot of time to confirm OTG
I had about 1 second of teabaggin before the :f:+:h:
whats the easiest way to get the raw tag to spencer off the javilen
please elaborate more…
I saw the new midscreen infinite using the nullification glitch and that seems pretty strong. Has anyone come up with an optimal starter for his corner infinite using the glitch? Is the corner infinite sequence still {M, H, L.rocket punch, M, H}?
Check the combo thread, I posted the notations for Insayne’s infinite variation that uses the glitch. It works from all directions in the corner.
new to nova. just wondering what combos you guys go for after a throw?
who do you run? Sometimes, you can opt for a hard tag combo
Generally its :dp:+:l: when they are full screen or :f:+:h: when they are half screen or close