Hence the problem with running Nova/Strider. The 2nd character needs to be something that provides Nova with a strong horizontal assist. Something like Doom, Ironman, RR, etc.
You’re going to have to ditch one of the characters you’re using to upgrade your team.
Damn that sucks. I have Vergil second so I don’t know if I want to get rid of him or Strider. Guess I’ll change it out depending on the situation.
Thanks for the quick response Marvelo I was rooting for you at Evo
Thanks dude. Just gotta work on my mental fortitude! I still tend to choke sometimes hehe. and NP. Good luck with your team.
Recently, I’ve gotten so comfortable with the Wolverine matchup that I actually think it’s even.
You were right. http://i.imgur.com/rkZq7.gif
Though, I think my change to Plasma Beam has made it much easier for me.
However, your movement needs to be on point and you need to play the matchup perfectly. If not, he’s going to shit on you.
Upon getting much more experience with matchups, Spencer, Taskmaster, Zero, and Vergil tend to be the more difficult matchups among the cast at high level if the matchups are played perfectly.
Zero wins. But only if he knows what he’s doing. So far, I’ve only had trouble vs Flocker’s Zero. Mostly because he eliminates all options so well with his zoning. If Zero rushes you down, it’s probably even. If he commits to zoning, it’s in Zero’s favor. This is ONLY if he knows the matchup. If he doesn’t he’s going to get blown up by j.H when he throws a H Hadangeki.
Taskmaster is very difficult as well because he’s ability to outzone you and your inability to Speed Tackle him because of counter. If he knows the matchup well, it’s very problematic for Nova. However, Taskmaster needs a horizontal assist to cover his weakspots. Daggers, Greyhound, Disruptor come to mind. Very difficult to deal with if he’s very good.
Vergil is bad. 6/4 probably. If he plays the matchup right, he’s going to make your life a living hell. You can’t zone him because his normals eat your pulses and he can react to anything you do with helm breaker. You need to be on point with whiff punishing and bait his normals to whiff. That’s the key really. Luckily, there aren’t many people who play him on point anymore. It’s not fun. You will likely get mixed up several times before you get a chance to attack him safely.
Spencer is his worst matchup. Zip+assist acts like a pseudo dive kick and stuffs all of Nova’s options. The threat of Bionic Arm is very bad especially when he has two meters. Forcing an X-factor works in his favor especially if you have dark anchor and he doesn’t. He can bionic arm to whiff punish your block strings, centurion rush on reaction, grav pulse, and more. However, I’ve found the best avenue of attack is to bait a bionic arm with Speed Tackle and punish accordingly. No meter for bionic arm, and he’s vulnerable to Pulse zoning.
Dante is 5/5 as well. I honestly don’t think it’s THAT bad if you have a strong horizontal assist and concentrate on rushing him down. Be patient and don’t run into his zoning. It’s only bad if he has missiles.
Now, Nova can fight all of these matchups fine with proper matchup experience. That’s what makes Nova so godlike. This is just my opinion after playing these matchups so much.
Just came back from some casuals
I’m having trouble with the Wolverine matchup
I use the shield whenever but my opponent tends to eat the shield whilst he calls an assist. And can I challenge the j.L in the beginning of the match?
I have problems with the Wolverine match up sometimes too…Especially when they’re retarded but I think it’s just something you gotta keep playing. My best advice at the moment is to pay attention to their assist calls/the assist icon. Wait for them to use the assist THEN put out the shield. I think backwards plink/wave dashing is 1 of the keys to this match up.
Yeah well most opposing viewpoints tend to meet in the middle. While I never disagreed that Spencer was a bad matchup, I agree with you more and more of just how shitty it is. regulating his gameplan with defense often comes at a cost all the way up to X factor, and if that style isn’t an option, he pretty much shits on your parade just doing his regular gameplan. It’s…brainless really.
I’d still say Vergil edges him out. One of the people I play the most does indeed play point Vergil, and all he does is wait. The thing is Vergil has to be smarter and more patient about it compared to spencer rolling his head on the stick. I think overall Vergil has the superior lockdown if he plays it properly. they both suck though. Dante I’d personally give a 4.5/5.5 or something to that effect; he doesn’t dominate the matchup, but he has a better toolbox.
Best part is the people I play the most play these three characters on point. Why can’t I play more magnetos? 
This is where the next phase of the matchup comes into play. first off, remember that every blocked pulse that doesn’t then subsequently gets you in a bad position is a gain of 60k or so in chip, which if you can sustain the defense is free damage. A lot of how you play it depends on the assists. Depending on his assist, you can defend your pulse by Grav Pulse Ling from behind it to push him out of being able to block the H, and then have the H pulse protect you from the assist call (you can also do it with an assist too to maintain frame advantage). This isn’t recommend for things like beams however because if you’re standing close to a pulse you’ll get hit because the beam/pulse won’t properly trade. If you have a fast projectile assist that pierces (like disruptor for example) you can counter-call once he approaches the pulse to have him take more chip, bop the assist call, and give you blockstun to put up another pulse. You can also use the time to evade whatever assist he called (say, neutral jumping and then airdashing backwards), then call a close range assist if you have one to defend your retreat and give you more time to setup. You can also do a Gravimetric blaster once you hear the assist call to push wolverine back full screen, have him take chip and the assist get both 30% damage + a hard knockdown, and be put back into an ideal defensive situation (especially since your assists are available and his isn’t)
His assist is either Tatsu or Vajra.
Also, just want to add to the Thor matchup
Energy Javelin is not bad when he tries to super jump Mighty Strike you
Those are pretty easy scenarios. Tatsu if you have the space to do so you can actually TK the pulse so that it’ll bop akuma on the head if he tries to have him nullify it. If he wants to block it and get through it back-dash out of Akuma’s range, counter-call to put wolverine in blockstun again (feel free to stick out a jab in case he tries to berserker slash the assist startup, and start the game plan again.
Vajra’s even easier; counter-call assist to put wolv back in blockstun and raw launcher strider.
I’ll explain the Wolverine matchup.
Start the round by holding forward and plink dashing backwards. This will tech the throw, backdash out of harms way, and allow you to start your neutral while not being backed into the corner.
Once you’ve backdashed out of harms way, you can call your assist, normal jump, and airdash j.H over them. This will create even greater space and allow you to put up a pulse on the opposite side of the screen. Once you have a pulse out you can control the neutral far easier.
Once you have a pulse out, you can start going for advanced pulse tactics. Things like cr.M/overhead with the pulse in front of you, throwing javelins, putting more pulses, etc. Get your pulse game up and you can trick him.
Mobility is your key here. Do not let him get close to you. You beat him at midrange, he will fuck you up if he’s close. Learn to plinkdash away. Avoid his assists, keep in mind when he calls Doom, Drones, or Tatsu and learn to navigate around these.
Once he’s on the ground and you’ve avoided his assist, you can call yours+cent rush. Cent Rushing will beat all of his ground options and allow you to get a mixup in. Once you’ve attempted to mix him up but he blocked, you need to run away and go back to number 3. Pulses.
Remember to be very careful while putting pulses up. They have very lengthy startup and he can berserker slash them if its read. Try to call your assist and then put the pulse up. That way you’re protected. Same with Javelins. It’s a matchup that if not known on how to properly deal with Wolverine, he will completely shit on you. But if you have movement and know how to deal with him. It’s much easier. Especially if you have a solid neutral assist.
Most of the time I’ve done plink backdash (after holding forward at the start) I’ve been st. L and/or Divekick (Wolvy air throw OS) on the start up of the dash. Is this actually safe and my timing is just off or have other Wolverines not been st. L at the beginning of the round? Just asking because I have huge trouble at the start but like you said, the moment I can establish space and a pulse it feels alot better.
Not plinking fast enough. The plink backdash should dodge the st.L and the divekick.
Alright thanks.
Recently played Jeopardy from NorCal… I hate Zero soooo much. It’s so unfair how much space control he has in front of him when he has buster charged. The only thing I could think of doing was baiting out busters and going in afterwards to hopefully score a hit before he charged it again.
Zoning didn’t seem like an option because Zero’s zoning is also really damn good for some reason. I was trying to put out grav shields and slowly force him into the corner to hopefully apply better pressure, but it was kind of difficult to do that. Any ideas on Zero matchup people?
Zero wins the Nova matchup at the highest level pretty easily. However, if you’re patient you can capitalize on his mistakes. You play Vajra so learn how to speed tackle Strider for days or consider playing Vergil on point if you don’t want to switch your team up. Nova needs a good assist to deal with him.
Yeah I feel like Zero is nigh unbeatable for Nova w/o Vajra. I played two sets vs. professor (Zero/Sent/Haggar):
Ammy team- 1-3, the 1 win was an Ammy comeback Nova got bodied every time
Replaced Ammy with Strider- 3-0, I can’t even do Strider’s basic BNB but it didn’t matter cause he never came out.
I don’t like the team as much as the Ammy variation but it’s a crucial change for fighting Zero. The only counterpick I plan on making from now on.
Log trap VS zero is nice too because it doesn’t get nullified by buster and it occupies the space that Zero normally gets to move in for free. Even decent zeros will get thwapped by it a few times before adjusting (and even then it promotes changes in behavior that you can capitalize on) and the bad ones will get bodied by it free. Problem of course being that you need a Raccoon to summon logs.
Strider barely helps at the higher levels. He just gets punished. You can’t really mix him up with just Vajra.
That being said, most Zero’s don’t know how to deal with Nova properly and throw too many hadangeki’s. Which get easily punished by j.H/SpeedTackle.
Only Zero I know that makes the matchup almost unwinnable is Flocker’s. Everyone else hasn’t demonstrated knowledge of the matchup.
Not getting randomed out by bad Zeros is a huge plus to me, and I stand by the counterpick. Never played anyone on Flocker’s level so I can’t say for sure otherwise.
Casuals a few days before UFGT8:
Me: So Flocker, real talk, does anybody do well against Zero?
Flocker: No. …Well, maybe Trish.
Nova has tools to combat Zero or punish him for doing bad things, but overall it’s more about trying to make the zero player make a mistake than anything. If the zero player doesn’t commit and knows what he’s doing Nova does not have an advantage in neutral. Pulse can help force behavior (like busters) but you’ll usually have to still make a solid read or even a semi guess to capitalize on it at higher levels.
