I feel that Strider is Viper’s best assist but that his DHC synergy with her is absolutely ass, they need a buffer zone in between each other.
Having access to Vajra assist dramatically improves Viper’s zoning game, covers her blind spot, can be used for unblockables, is an excellent combo extension, and over all somehow makes her even more of a threat than she already is. However something important to note is along with being able to utilize Strider well Viper’s beam negation properties on emergency combination also make her able to protect him better than the rest of the cast.
Because of this I wanted Viper/???/Strider then went about figuring out who I wanted in that middle slot and why. I came up with some general criteria for who should go in the second position and the more criteria I added the more I narrowed it down toward Firebrand, at first I was toying between Dante, Vergil, Doom, Zero and Dormammu for the slot then found this alternate fit I enjoy more.
First things first, the reason that Viper and Strider couldn’t be adjacent to one another so I wanted good DHC synergy preferably both to/from Viper and to/from Strider. Firebrand has my two favorite kinds of DHCs for Viper, a relatively high damage combo ender in his default 236 A+B super, and the equally important state change super for the best way to convert getting Viper out into having free pressure.
Because I had a lot of people who fit the above category I did some more searching for what would optimize the team and thought that someone who could make good use of both Viper and Strider’s assist/pressence was important. Firebrand having Viper on his team switches his damage from 550 or 600 K to 970K since he has situations where if he gets a hit he can dry tag into her for the rest of the combo, this is good for both meter and damage, getting rid of one of his primary issues. Also in luminous body he’s able to set up Viper unblockables all day every day.
The character needed to have good ways of both using and gaining gauge, luckily Firebrand is pretty good at both. If I DHC out of Viper I still get to build a lot of meter with him regardless of whether he’s in a state change or not so if I used the luminous body DHC then hit with my first mix up unlike with Dante, Vergil, etc, I’d still be gaining precious meter which is a big deal!
I wanted a character who had match ups against her blind spot characters, Firebrand is one of the few characters who has fuzzy guard jump loops on Zero because of how amazing his rush tools are. Along with this he can shoot from the air, being a major pest for Zero/Trish by controling air horizontal and diagonal, only guard breaking himself if he does the flame carpet version.
I already had my primary assist that covered the vertical so I wanted a fast start up horizontal assist I can use while pressuring at medium close range for both Viper and Strider. Demon missile M has very low start up, passes through enemies to be safe on block, is a single hit for scaling purposes, does 100K, and has a ridiculously long amount of hit stun against air opponents.
These are the primary reasons I have this team, I feel it’s very strong and can get work done regardless of what character dies. Giving any of the characters access to meter and X-factor is a serious threat because they go from hard to block to near impossible, and that they all contribute things to each other.
I really adore Strider/Firebrand pressure strings with demon missile, last night I managed to chip Wesker from full life with that pressure a few games and that was pretty substantial, the fact that by the time Strider died I had 5 bars didn’t hurt either (Was running the team as Strider/Firebrand/Viper in order to practice my new characters.) Firebrand, like Viper has great ways to use Strider, including setting up his unblockable against a lot of air opponents (someone flies and prepares to plink dash, summon Strider then start to charge 623C) I really don’t like the health of either of those 2, but I feel match up wise they actually do really well against a lot of problems. At this point I feel that Strider beats Magneto, Dormammu, Doom and Wesker while losing to Viper. Firebrand beats all tall crouchers, Trish, Zero, and likely others also while losing to Viper. The main time I likely shouldn’t run this team is against a Zero point, Viper anchor or some similar thing that lets people capitalize on match ups against all of these characters, however I don’t know how lopsided they will get/stay.
) but I’m a little worried of the “glass-cannon” factor of this team with all 3 characters having low health. Her X-Factor lvl 3 damage output isn’t that great either.