Nova's Matchups

Classic Fighting Games Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3
161

Yeah… It was my first time playing a legitimate Zero and it was awful. The only reason I kept winning was because the Zero would drop lighting loops or make some kind of execution mistake. And Marv is right, Strider did not help at all since he would just punish him. Maybe starting Vergil on point is the answer.

And yeah I think I saw Marv do some Speed Tackle + Vajra thing on some random match that was pretty awesome. I need to learn how to do that haha, most of the time when I use Speed Tackle, it’s to hope for a random crossup or DHC out to Vergil swords if it’s blocked but if the opponent is jumping/super jumping obviously I can’t confirm off of it quite as well.

I’m having issues with the Dante matchup also… But I think a lot of this boils down to my team composition. Fuuuu I like Nova/Vergil DHC and Nova/Strider neutral too much to give up either hahahaha. And I hate playing Doom lol I was so sad when you switched Dante for Doom Marv. But looking at the way you play now you have so many easier matchups (lol Winrich was free at NEC 14 for you). Just wondering but are you going to be at SCR this year? I go to school at UCLA so I don’t really have time to go out to majors or anything… I’d really love to be able to play some casuals against you sometime since you and Moons are the two main Nova players I usually watch and learn from.

162

Possibly. Depends on many different factors, but it’s looking more towards a no. :confused: I appreciate it though.

Dante is one of my favorite characters, but Doom just serves so much better for the variety of matchups. ;_;

163

I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to it when I first saw it, but Deadpool is a problem for Nova. Like way more of a problem than I first realized. Horizontal guns will go through no red health shield, he can easily outzone you, and air bolo will stop most air dash H approaches.

I’m starting to think this matchup is almost as bad as the Spencer matchup. Especially when the Deadpool has Vajra. It’s just ridiculously difficult to get close and I haven’t been dominated this badly in the neutral game in a long time. I had to resort to playing my half assed Hawkeye to try and win since Hawkeye wins against Deadpool pretty easily in neutral.

164

I felt this way about the matchup for a long time too, but it’s just a matter of speed tackling at the right time, usually at neutral jump height which allows you to safely react to either standing horizontal guns or jump back horizontal guns. Sadly you don’t have a TAC infinite available so without a lot of meter that speed tackle won’t turn into a kill, but there’s probably a bigger threat in back so just build a bar and snap 'em in, or reset. Deadpool/Vajra is definitely annoying, as is Deadpool/Jam. Either way, w/o bar you kind of have to see how they move; if they stay on the ground, it’s tough but you just have to jump and block a lot to get over the guns. Maybe you’ll get lucky and bait a teleport or an unsafe launcher. If they jump a lot you generally have enough time to go under and/or call a beam assist.

From what I’ve seen, fast assists that nullify projectiles or just don’t give a fuck like Tatsu and Shopping Cart give Deapdool the most trouble and force him to not play like an idiot.

Side note: I feel like this is one of the matchups where Nemo’s team really shines. Being able to guarantee death off of a speed tackle is really something else.

165

Alright, so I’m gonna start working on a write-up for the Wolverine matchup pretty soon since I’m pretty sure I know this matchup inside-and-out, taking almost every good assist (PB, Cart, Tatsu, Disruptor, Jam, Mystic Ray) and a variety of players into consideration. I see a lot of Nova players handling the match improperly and I want to change that. Here’s a preview OS I just came up with.

This is used to beat Wolverines who like to Berserker Slash often without cover. As you know Wolverine can be hit and thrown out of Berserker Slash but both reacting and placing yourself properly to punish is kind of a toss-up. This OS should in theory make punishing slash more consistent, though I still need to put it into practice.

As you try to read a slash, input:
4H plink ML, 1L
or back H plink ML dash, down back L.

If he doesn’t Berserker Slash, you’ll dash back to safety, either whiffing a 2L or not, allowing you to punish with 2M. Depending on the strength of slash and how far away you are only two other things should happen. You’ll either throw him or hit him with 2L. After practicing this for a bit it seems like the worst case scenario is a trade.

This isn’t airtight yet but if you guys can lab around with stuff like this it’d be immensely helpful.

166

Just wondering, Wolvie’s cr.L xx Beserker Slash is minus on block during the cancel right?

167

c.L itself is -2 on block, however I noticed it’s +1 during berserker charge. Either way there is definitely a gap where you’re not in blockstun.
Realized I need to test this OS again against charged Wolvie, it might not work as well then, but that’s when it’s best for Nova to get the hell out of dodge anyway lol

168

And what if Wolvy decides to stagger cr. L’s? Wouldn’t your backdash get hit then?

169

Yeah, in general you don’t want to attempt this when he’s that close, but at the tip of c.L range or just outside of it you are safe.

A counter OS(ish) to this would be Wolverine 5H buffer Berserker Slash. 5H will probably hit you out of your backdash.

In general I don’t recommend abandoning the Grav Pulse H gameplan for a reactionary one. But it’s nice to have options like this in scramble situations.

170

what can nova with bolts do against modok,
i cant seem to get in because of modok’s shield. and it makes things harder if modok has a beam assist too

171

You can react to his barrier with speed tackle. Barrier isn’t special or hyper cancelable so if he puts it up, he either has to take the hit from speed tackle or burn X-factor. I believe you can punish Psionic Blaster M or H this way too, as well as any Balloon Bomb. His other projectiles all recover really quickly.

In my opinion MODOK is a lot scarier when he’s up in your face. When he’s trying to play the distance game speed tackle just kind of shits on him.

172

Speed Tackle wrecks MODOK. Without Speed Tackle, MODOK probably wins slightly, but Speed Tackle really really hurts him. He can’t throw anything out without getting punished from it.

173

Nova/Bolts can do a lot. Javelin will keep him from staying in the air and he has to come down. When he comes down call bolts and force him to block it. Oh and Speed Tackle demolishes MODOK. Slide goes under his beams too.

174

If you use Human Rocket vs Modok, keep a couple things in mind:

  1. If he isn’t using a special, he can fly and block it, from fullscreen

  2. If he isn’t using Barrier, he can use the invincibility from KI to either screw up your timing or DHC into something that wins (like Bionic Arm)

But yeah, Nova does well vs Modok.

This is not particularly good advice. Javelin doesn’t threaten Modok, he can block while flying, use command flight after low flight, and his flight lasts for hours. And c.M or s.M > Blaster beats slide.

What you CAN do, tho, is slide under a fullscreen Blaster and cancel into Human Rocket as soon as the active frames are over in order to punish any Blaster easily

175

Umm, how is he going to CONTINUE flying after blocking? When he blocks, that’s it, that ends his normal flight. I’m honestly not threatened if he wants to command fly, I’ll chuck more Javelins. He can’t dodge all of them and eventually will have to come down into Nova/Bolts. His only option is to fly above Javelin’s peak tracking point. And from that position, you should be able to fill the screen with shield(s) and Javelins for him as he comes down. KI is not a problem on timing, you just input forward once after super freeze and then down to convert on him. The DHC part is a matchup specific detail. Slide going under his beams was a tidbit for him to experiment with. Nova can slide under beams and either Human Rocket or throw a Javelin to gain screen control or force MODOK to stop throwing Blasters. I gave broad advice but he needs to run with the ideas and implement it to see that it is indeed a matchup in his favor.

176

If he’s in low flight, and he hears “Energ-” you’re going to eat an assist.

If he’s in low flight and blocks an Energy Javelin, and you try to do it again, you’re either going to eat an assist or one of his very strong air to ground normals.

If he’s in any flight and you try to do Javelin > Call Bolts as he lands so he has to eat it, he’s still got Cubes and Bombs to stall in the air, making you waste an assist call, and then land normally, probably on your head with happy feet.

If he’s in any flight and hears “Energ-” he can also just ADD whiff normal, dodge the Javelin, and make you block a Blaster + assist and put up a Barrier.

These are all things you have to keep in mind, and it’s why overusing Javelin is not a good idea. Modok’s gameplan doesn’t revolve around the air anyway. Notice how the things people are having trouble with are essentially Barrier, his fast projectiles, assists, and rushdown.

I have seen KI mess with Human Rocket timing on people who are unfamiliar with it, Moons occasionally does it himself.

Slide > Javelin loses to another Blaster. It’s too fast.

Slide > Human Rocket, from outside the range of s.M or c.M, is the only really useful application of slide in neutral, because otherwise it gets stuffed by those.

I dunno why you’re arguing with me. I corrected your advice with some added stuff. Nova/Modok is still in Nova’s favor, but Javelin and slide are not the reasons why. Javelin is good, and you should use it, but acting like it’s the solution to Modok’s air game is kind of silly.

177

I never said Javelin and Slide are the reason’s why it’s Nova’s favor. Those are the answers for some of the things that makes Modok effective.

But wait if you know an assist is coming why would you throw a Javelin without the cover of a shield? Why would you do ANYTHING without the cover a shield? Whatever assist he has most likely won’t blow through a shield easily. Javelin’s are to stop him from doing whatever he wants in the air. When it’s grounded, it’s more in Nova’s control. You must have forgotten that the Pulse Shield is to protect you and your assist from his assist and his air-to-ground normals. Him trying to dodge during “Energ-” is way too fast, the tracking hasn’t even started. The idea here isn’t to spam Javelins, it’s to throw one (or however many it takes) to keep him honest. Once he starts doing the specific counters that you mentioned (all should be covered by Pulse), then it’s time to vary your Javelin calls if you even needed it. The happy feet doesn’t actually make much sense because if he’s going to stall, you should’ve already grabbed him then. He only has 3 air actions, including his flight, so once he’s out of that his options of stalling aren’t that much. If things don’t seem to be going well plink dash backwards and put a Pulse and reset to neutral. Honestly eating an assist or a Blaster is not the end of the world.

The unfamiliarity of the KI invincibility shouldn’t be taken into account as a matchup detail because matchups are based on all variables known and then calculating which tools combat with what. The part where I said to go forward one more time works 100% of the time and was confirmed to me by Moons in person. Slide > Javelin does lose to another Blaster, but it’s not something that you should leave out, because if he doesn’t do another one then you have a Javelin on the screen. If he does another blaster, another slide or sj. box dash H would beat it.

Not really trying to argue with you here. I play against a MODOK specialist (Brainpipe) in my area alot so I understand how the matchup goes. I’m also sitting in training room testing out some basic things to make double sure. Like I said before I’m just sharing the tools that deal with MODOK at the most basic matchup scenario which is basically what Lina Inverse seems to be dealing with. Pulse shield protects you from most assist that he will call and from his air-to-ground normals from some angles. It’s cool that you’ve detailed some specific answers to Javelin which is something I’m sure we will all benefit from. I never said Javelin was the end-all, be-all solution to Modok’s air game. Just more tools to play with.

178

against zero i feel like its alot of movement, since bolts doesnt really help unless zero jump, and sucks when zero has jam session since u cant air dash. but human rocket lmh help manuver around his lame game, and plinking back while zero is in the air help against lighting, instead of caling sheild in the ground, i find it better using it in normal jump height, then using flight and maunvering around still having bolts.

im having trouble getting confirms on zero sometimes, since he goes to far in the air, and the s in the air whiffs somtimes,

179

i dunno if you want to call this a legit zero vs nova matchup since jeopardy runs an unorthodox zero team, but in NWM6, Nemo just went ham against zero. There wasn’t a lot of air maneuvering with zero though

180

Nemo is a special case lmao…I wouldn’t look at him for the Nova vs Zero matchup