Speaking of Dante zoning, do you ever start Dante in matchups you think suck for Nova? Especially ones against like Cap or Wolverine where it’s in your best interest to play lame.
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<div class=“QuoteAuthor”><a href="/profile/46940/discovigilante">discovigilante</a> said:</div>
<div class=“QuoteText”>Speaking of Dante zoning, do you ever start Dante in matchups you think suck for Nova? Especially ones against like Cap or Wolverine where it’s in your best interest to play lame.</div>
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Not really. I think Nova handles everyone as long as you play the matchup right. I usually switch out Dante for Doom if I need a stronger neutral assist for long range games. Wolverine also rapes Dante. So starting him is pretty pointless for that. <div><br></div><div>He does do better vs Spencer though, whereas Nova doesn’t do as well. So maybe I should start him for that.</div>
My Nova matchup chart. I almost put Captain America in his bad matchup chart, but I don’t have enough experience on the matchup to make a decision on that.
http://i.imgur.com/jY0TQYl.png
Felicia, huh? I think our different scenes definitely influence how we will make these charts, but there are some that are obvious like Vergil, Spencer, Wolverine, Dante. I have no Deadpool experience so I can’t comment on that, but I also don’t have any Ammy experience from Nova’s perspective. Cap is debatable.
Also, it’s worth noting that Vajra just makes everything harder and stupider for Nova.
Fun fact I find out recently, Morrigan’s Soul Fist actually cancels out the Energy Javelins even though the javelin hit above her. The hit box of the soul fist is wonky enough to block the projectiles above her making your life even more miserable. The only hope of using it to hit her is if her is just standing there since she dashes too fast for it to track.
Why is Felicia there Marv? (not questioning it I’m a new player and wondered why!)
A good Felicia is really hard to deal with. It’s pretty much exactly like fighting Wolverine. She’s not as bad IMO, but she’s so fast that you’re also very vulnerable to scoops.
Since I’ve been playing Plasma Beam, my opinion has slightly changed. Really the only 4 that are in their favor are Wolverine, Dante, Vergil, and Spencer. Zero, Felicia, Deadpool, etc are matchups that CAN be bad, but Nova can definitely deal.
Trish is another matchup that’s kinda weird. I feel that if the Trish is bad, then it’s heavily in Nova’s favor, but if the Trish is good and effective at her spacing and keeping Nova out then it’s in her favor if you don’t play the matchup right. If you do then it’s even. IMO.
I still have a lot of trouble with Zero. I understand Javelin and Pulse helps a lot here, but you can only use either when he doesn’t have buster charge, otherwise he can just buster you on reaction. So you have to survive the periods in the neutral where he has a charged buster ready, how do i do that?
I gotta be honest, not to shit on Marv at all, but I think the reason he finds it to be 5/5 is because he has Strider. Vajra is the bane of every Zero everywhere, I’ve never met one who hasn’t complained about the assist to some degree. It keeps him from doing unsafe things in the air which includes throwing out busters to try and start an offense. So I’ve been counterpicking with that a little bit and I still get wins despite having put barely any time into Strider.
Beam, Shopping Cart, and Cold Star aren’t going to do a hell of a lot for you since they don’t patrol the air at all. I can’t remember if you use HM but I’d counterpick with it in that match (especially if they don’t have a good horizontal assist of their own). This is another thing Zeros complain about since it also keeps him from doing too many unsafe options in the air. The problem is that it’s very punishable compared to Strider, of course.
Otherwise I try to run away and bait impatience, but you have to be careful not to run into Raikousen H (up-forward lightning), which is some underrated bullshit that will turn into a confirm if the Zero’s any good. So you don’t want to get too comfortable being above Zero, but it’s still better than being below him which is a much easier place to get mixed up. The sweet spot in my opinion is between super and regular jump height about full-screen distance from him where you can throw out a relatively safe Nova Strike M. Other than that, go for the universal strats like jabbing him out of Buster/Lightning and punishing dumb Jam Session calls with Gravimetric Blaster. BTW I don’t even bother putting up a shield since it doesn’t really stop his approach that well (I think Buster just blows through it), nor do I throw Javelins since the recovery is too punishable. I should try using HM more since it might cover Javelins better and make life harder for Zero.
TBH though, Vajra does help, but if the Zero knows how to defend against it. It’s benefits kinda dwindle down. Zero can punish Strider much easier than most characters and can evade him. VS Flocker or Tayson, Strider is pretty useless as an assist. Plasma Beam is much better in the neutral. Good Zero’s stay on the ground more than in the air. Zero has probably the strongest ground game in Marvel. Just most Zero’s are ass. The matchup goes something like this, Zero stays back and just throws fireballs and buster. You can’t outzone him so you end up trying to airdash j.H in, but he does pizza cutter and you get antiair’d for free.
Depending on the assists that the Zero has. You CAN outzone him surprisingly. If he plays Jam Session for example, you need to keep putting pulses while calling Plasma Beam and baiting Buster. If you have any red health remember that you can put an extra. Keep putting pulses and he won’t be able to buster through them. Especially with Plasma Beam being called. The matchup is very annoying and in general Zero is broken. But if you know how to punish buster lightning and how to block Zero in general. Nova can deal. He has to respect j.H. Once you establish control in the neutral game with constant pulses and plasma beam, you can bait out a hadangeki. If he has meter, he can always cancel this into Sougenmu which makes everything he has/does safe. But just watch out for his meter. Once he pops Sougenmu, try and avoid him. You can’t pushblock clones so you need to be evasive. Super jump in the air and rocket punch H away. Once he’s out of meter, he has to respect you. You can go back to popping pulses in the neutral game and trying to bait a fireball from him. Once he’s throws an H fireball, you can speed tackle on reaction to punish him. That or j.H will fuck his day up. Also, if he whiffs a j.H in the air, you can airgrab him for free. Force your way in with Cent Rushes.
He can only outzone you with Sougenmu…remember that. Try to punish assists with Speed Tackle…not Grav Blaster. It does slightly more damage unless you have red life and it’s safer.
Also, you can lvl 2 Grav Pulse L+call Doom and eat his buster + hit him with Plasma Beam so you can confirm.
The matchup isn’t easy and its probably very very slightly in Zero’s favor. But I’d rather fight a Zero than a Wolverine.
Nice thread guys, I’ve learned a lot by just reading through it.
Couple questions though: Jam Session as an assist has been giving me a ton of problems. The guy I play against at UCLA uses Dante/Strider with a couple of different point characters (Trish, Viper, Vergil) and Jam Session always seems to shut down my offense pretty quickly. It’s even worse because all three of those point characters seem to be able to convert off of random Jam Session hits pretty easily.
What do you guys do to get around Jam Session besides just Speed Tackle or beam?
Jam Session is punishable after it’s no longer active, and Nova is a great character to punish it. You just need to unpredictable in your approach, empty dash forward, jump forward dash back etc, so it comes out on whiff, then you can box jump H, or cr.M the recovery into most likely death. Since you have Vergil 2nd you can easily commit to the combo into Nova Force and safe DHC to swords/trigger.
The Trish matchup is 6-4 in Nova’s favor. You’re bad and you should feel bad Marvelo.
LOL.
Bitch, didn’t you tell me if Nova didn’t have Vajra then it would be in Trish’s favor?
No, I only hold forward with her, I could care less if someone had vajra lol. Winrich can tell you himself after that ass whooping I gave him. FRAYYYYYY.
A bit curious to hear why Viper is listed as “going even” with Nova on the match up chart. I’ve been learning various characters to deal with Nova and if anything, Viper is probably the best in my eyes. Assuming a Viper player understands her neutral game (which is actually incredibly difficult and thus a big if) she has an answer for everything he does. She can basically neutralize Nova’s greatest strength (his priority) with focus attack and EX Seismo. She can zone him with no fear of repercussions because of emergency combination, focus attack dash cancel, EX Seismo, and if she really feels like blowing it her level 3. Plus, she can shut down his air H/option select throw spam just by staying on the ground since she has no need to go to the air and she can stop air h spam via the tools I mentioned. He sure as hell can’t zone her unless he wants to get EX thunder knuckled or supered. Finally, with Nova’s 900K health she can easily TOD him. I’m still learning her but when I thought about the match up and looked at Marlinpie’s fights against Nova players it was pretty clear there too.
Lol. Play the matchup a bit and see how you feel about it after a few weeks. I don’t have trouble fighting Viper at all, but I’ve also never played Marlinpie. To me I’ve only ever found her mixup and frame trap game to be very linear and based around either having meter or going for a throw. Her overheads are seeable and her zoning can be either maneuvered around or plowed through with the help of a beam assist. In the air she’s free to Nova’s standing jab. She can be escaped easily if she doesn’t have Vajra.
If you’re really worried about fighting Nova for some strange reason you could make better counterpicks.
Her mixup and frame trap game IS pretty linear–BUT as far as I know Nova doesn’t have amazing reversals. Even if she doesn’t have meter her combos corner carry very well and once she gets him in the corner the unblockable focus attack should be a real problem for him.
Lol I should have been more specific in regards to counter picks–counter picks that I’m willing to play and I actually enjoy. Vergil is not going down. Logan is under consideration though…
Read this whole thread, it’s awesome, thanks guys!
One thing I was hoping would be addressed but really wasn’t is matchups vs specific assists. For exaple, if 8 said, “hey, how do I fight wesker?” I have an idea what that answer might look like, but then if I’m fighting a wesker with Disruptah, some of it might no longer apply, or at least the same way.
I’m not sure if there’s a specific assist I’m looking to ask about, but I’m thinking any that affect our typical neutral game plans, and/or don’t require the opponent to be up in our grill to be, pardon the pun, disruptive. Beams in partic, missiles, drones… any advice on fighting the ‘beam matchup,’ for example?
Alright so I see here that most people think the Wolvie matchup is even or slightly in Wolvie’s favor. Moons bodied Justin at FR and if I recall correctly Combofiend’s Nova bodied him in Evo too. Is it just Justin struggling against Nova or is the matchup perhaps not as bad as it seems? I always thought it was in Nova’s favor but I’m starting to question that based on this thread