Tis no problem. I just play Viper/Strider a lot and know its functionings. If Viper had no unblockable at all Viper/Strider would still be pretty busted. The neutral game she has with his help is the best hands down.
So, I decided to mess with my old standby Viper/IronMan/Strider.
All I really have to say is that Unibeam is so amazingly, stupidly good with Viper, that its really hard to go back Vergil and his comparably shitty Rapid Slash. Why does IronMan have to suck so much… 
Poor FlyingVe! D: I tried him some more in honor of your agony of playing him. If his everything else was attached to a real air dash it would make such a huge difference.
How about if you switched the order to Viper/Strider/iron Man. X-factor lvl 3 should b able to help Iron Man become more competitive
That’s one of the things I’m debating, but I have get used to my meter build rates, I would really like to bring strider in with 2 or 3 bars, and I have to be sure I can achieve that with Viper, which means laying off the EX Seismo a bit. With Iron Man in second, he can also take advantage of Vajra, and Viper gets high damage DHC’s. Also, for all of IM’s issues, he is a good battery.
Yea I miss using Iron man. He was really fun in Vanilla. I dont really understand why they changed him. I don’t feel like they intentionally nerfed him but I think they tried to do something different and it just did not work out well.
I kinda wish the Viper/Strider DHC was better I dont like leaving my second character with just strider assist…
btw can anyone hit the 1 mil dhc with Viper to Hawkeye. I cant get past 970k
Does anyone run viper and nova together on a team? If so, who do you run on point first?
Nova is a character that can be placed on any position. There’s one guy Killey who ran Viper/Nova. Its a pretty good combo as you get unblockables with centurion rush. Try Viper(Burn Kick)/Nova(Centurian Rush)
Okay, I’m mentioning this just because I’ve got some good ideas, but this is gonna be my experimental teams for the next few weeks:
Viper(Seismo)/Strider(Vaj)/IronMan(Uni)
and
Morrigan(Harmonizer/SoulFist)/Viper(Seismo)/Strider(Vaj)
Thanks. Yea, I’ve been running nova(cent rush)/viper(burn kick)/sent(drones)…just thought I’d get some opinions of others who use viper and nova.
How come your using morrigan on point. wouldn’t it be better for her to be second or anchor so you can use her assist to get a ton of meter to use her super
Because with her on point, her BnB builds a ton of meter and steals from the opponent. Plus, I get 700~1mil damage.
Cool. Thats an interesting team build. Itll be awesome to here how the develops
Chrisis, I would like a response from you on this or any others that use this team combination:
With the team makeup of Viper/X/Strider, how do things normally go for you once viper dies? This is one of the issues I have with using Strider & Viper together… the team works out great with Viper alive, but as soon as she goes down you are left with your middle character and an assist that doesn’t have THAT much utility. In my latest sessions, my opponents get hit by Strider a LOT, which I think is due to the fact that they haven’t had much playtime against him. For that reason, the team is working out rather well for me. However, how do you deal with situations where Strider is going to be countered?
For example…
- if you are being zoned by a mag/drones player, if you ever call strider he can magnetic shockwave for free - a DHC or xfactor is a dead ninja
- if you are against a zero/vergil and his hitboxes beat out strider clean
- if someone actually knows how to avoid strider and reacts to the assist call (backdashes at right time, punish, etc)
Have you experienced similar situations? If so, how did you deal with them and what was your mindset.
I tend to not have much of an issue with this, but it’s probably because my x=dante, and I have the horrible habit of spamming teleport > j.s > hammer. The opponent, as a result, has to constantly be ready for it. While this is not something I recommend you ever use against someone who really knows what they’re doing, it does illustrate a point: If you keep your opponent on their toes and worried about what your middle character is doing, it can be harder for them to do something about Vajra.
It would also help to know matchups, eg never throwing out a vanilla vajra against magneto. Know how your opponent can punish Vajra, and find a way to punish that. You may even be able to use it to bait them and get a hit into full combo.
Just some ideas.
The thing is you should not always be mashing on strider assist. I try to limit how often I use it and only use it if I believe my opponent is approaching through the air. It is also important to keep strider safe. And this is done by applying seismo pressure to force a jump and then strider kicks them down. Also before you start abusing strider, its important to establish good ground control because Strider assist does not help much against characters who stay grounded. For when your left with X/Strider. X needs to be a character that already controls the ground well and benefits from Strider. Hawkeye, Doom, Firebrand, Dante are some characters that have a good chance of succeeding with just strider assist. So you should pick a middle character that can abuse strider. People I play here have some way of dealing with the assist but it is important that you call it out only if you are sure you can keep strider safe
Just gonna point out that he was talking about when Viper’s down and out of the picture.
o i assumed it was both. i ahve some stuff about what to do if viper dies =)
Thanks for the question, I hope that my answer deals with what you want.
I design my team to have 2 characters that can be abusive with only Strider assist so they don’t need to worry about it being a problem if either one dies. It’s similar to 2 points with Akuma assist, you make sure both can get everything they want done with just Akuma to be safe, and the additional assists are icing on the cake. Firebrand with or even without Strider can get a lot of work done so I have just as many wins with all 3 of my characters as I run into situations where it’s applicable. So an important part of designing a Viper/X/Strider team is making sure X/Strider is scary and Viper/X’s DHC is scary for neutral. As for Strider dying, Viper is among the best characters at protecting Strider, lets take all of the examples you’ve stated and go through them to see how Viper can defend Strider.
Against Mag+ drones you should be abusing laser, it destroys drones for free and will hit Magneto out of shockwave’s start up if he’s trying to go for it, it’s riskier for him than it is for you.
Zero you can seismo or burn kick, Vergil dash and advance guard will blow up his normals until he’s in devil trigger, and then he can’t gain gauge so you can lame him out for awhile.
The last thing is actually something I expect and hope for, if the person is dodging Strider, that means they aren’t doing the things Strider is there to keep them from doing which lets Viper do what she wants. If Trish does air back dash C on reaction to Strider calls she’s not putting down any traps, she’s not shooting any voltages etc, and she pressed a button I can punish with super jump burn kicks.
Chrisis, ThreeSided, and destroyer, I appreciate you all taking the time to help out the community and myself with your quick reply. I wish more players posted their thoughts as you do.
Chrisis, you made a lot of good points in your post, especially when you said that people are altering their gameplan to account for strider (punish attempts, not going to the air as often). I notice this a lot while I play and it is a great reason to have Strider there - keeping your opponent on the ground where Viper likes to play.
For reference, I am using Viper/Doom/Strider as my testing team for Strider assist. I could go into detail about why I chose Doom, but thats another post another time…
Mag + Drones: I’m not so sure laser counters this matchup as well as you say. The startup of EM Disrupter is far greater than Viper beam and does not require a charge. Punishing a Magneto player who is trying to disrupter spam with drones is going to require at least one laser to get started. Once Viper initiates that first laser, she can charge another one while doing a Seismo -> Laser again. As soon as you have the momemtum, that plans works out fine - but there is a LOT of stuff flying at you, even though laser takes out most of it, its still going to be difficult. I think the startup is a problem here. A competent Magneto will take advantage of that.
Zero/Vergil: I agree here, if Zero is throwing out normals in an attempt to punish Strider, you can go in for a punish on reaction and most likely kill the character. However, when your second character can’t cover as well and/or fast as seismo can, this worries me. With Doom, I can cover with a lot of moves - I just haven’t playtested too much yet. I know ThreeSided mentioned applying pressure with Dante teleports, but that tactic is unsafe against the players I play against. I think it is important to keep people thinking about your main character AND strider though.
What is your general gameplan with Firebrand? Do you play a more neutral/spacing game while picking your spots and calling Strider, or do you attempt to RTSD with Strider cover? Playing Doom/Strider as my 2/3, I am afraid of really strong rush players… because Strider isn’t going to be doing anything for me when someone is in my face the entire time (and I’m not sure if he would benefit vs really strong zone either, say… Hawkeye / Doom missile - missile will eat Strider for free then the team is in a tough spot). Think of characters like X23, Magneto, Zero, Wolverine, etc. I can always learn to block better, but I’m getting put into a tough spot if I lose Viper, then Strider isn’t going to be doing much for the team at that point. I know Firebrand has faster normals than Doom, but you have had to of been put in similar situations before. Have you identified any of this as a weakness - or is it just me as an early Strider player, thoughts?