Tech: 'Pope Select' - Plink Dash Jump Throw Option Select Guide

Classic Fighting Games Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3
1

I haven’t heard of anyone using this option select before, so I thought I would share it with you guys. It gives more options than the standard plink dash option select. If you are in ground throw range, you get a throw attempt. Otherwise you jump offensively or defensively and get more options. I’ve been using this for a few months now and it’s really exploitable. Hope everyone finds it useful! :slight_smile:

Defensively:
Plink H + Up-Back into L + M. Or Plink H + Back into Up-Back + L + M: Ground throw or jump backwards defensively.
This basically lets you throw or chicken block anything safely. It’s a godsend for Doom, since it’s a safer option than his Forward + C. You won’t get hidden missiles.

Offensively:
Plink H + Up-Forward into L + M, or plink H + Forward into Up-Forward + L + M: Ground throw or jump forwards offensively.
As soon as you jump forwards you can try for an air throw or a mixup without hesitation. It’s perfect for if you miss a tick throw timing or aren’t sure if someone is going to mash or hold up-back to escape you. The potential is limitless. :smiley:

I don’t know how practical it is to hit a frame perfect diagonal with the H or dash on pad or stick, but I’m sure it’s practical with some training. It’s definitely worth working into your game. I do it very easily on my Hit Box using my right thumb for the Jump button for guaranteed just frames.
I also use a designated L+M button to make my plink dashing much easier.

Here’s a video we made that explains the option select in detail:

Nuances:

[details=Spoiler]I found hitting H + UF/UB doesn’t work on all characters, and you will have to use the alternate input of H + F/B plink UF/UB+L+M. It’s kind of random, but I’ve counted about 1/3 of the cast who needs the alternate input. Test out your character by seeing if H+Diagonal comes out as a throw or not. I put a list below of my testing.

Does Not Work at All:
Arthur - No dash so he strikes out
Morrigan - She gets her wonky ground dash, so it’s the same as her plink dash.

Forward Pope Select - Use H + F plink UF + L + M only on:
Akuma
Chris
Chun-li
Dante
Haggar
Hawkeye
Nemesis
Jill
Rocket Raccoon
Ryu
She-hulk
Spencer
Strange
Vergil
Wesker
Zero

Alternate Back Pope Select - Use H + B plink UB + L + M only on:
Chris
Felecia
Ghost Rider
Jill

With this list it might make more sense to make this alternate method your main method, I just found the H+Diagonal way first and find it more comfortable to use.[/details]

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ban hitbox

3

Awesome, thanks for the ignorance.

4

i’m surprised that upback + H gives you a throw when downback+H doesn’t

also surprised that you can plinkdash with doom’s hidden missiles with the up back + H throw because as far as i knew dash canceling missiles wasn’t possible, so that’s cool

i didn’t see it in the video, so does upback+H on the same frame get missiles? without the dash cancel?
similarly, i was unaware that chris’s flamethrower can be canceled so that’s cool too

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OP tut nurf Hitbox lol. Awesome cant wait to try this out :slight_smile:

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Something about the just frame dash jump and up-forward/back + H doesn’t follow the normal rules. I think the throw is registered simultaneous or before pre-jump frames when pressed together, so normally things that can’t be cancelled never happened in the first place.

Chris I’ll have to double check since I just quickly skimmed the whole cast in one lab session. I think you have to do backthrow plink dash jump and it cancels the flame.

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You can’t normally cancel standing normals into a dash on wiff, but plink dashing still works. Doom’s missiles not being dash cancellable isn’t really a factor, for the same reasons.

8

Well, no. It is/was a factor. Before I saw this I thought that projectile command normals were incapable of being canceled into dash [on their startup frames, not like dash canceling on block/hit with doom]. Things like Wesker gun, hidden missiles, chris flamethrower, frank fH, etc.

The ‘just frame’ upback/upforward is new to me. And it’s probably new to most people.

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Missiles, Wesker 6H, and Frank 6H are all plink-dash-cancellable in their early startup frames. I was about to say “I don’t know how people would get the idea that they’re not, considering you can plink dash with things like Standing S”, but then I tried Chris, and for some reason 4H Flamethrower seems to not be plink-dash-cancellable. Not sure why that is, but interesting all the same.

edit: Correction, flamethrower is plink dash cancellable. It just seems to be much more strict than most sH plink dash cancels. I toyed around with Chris a good deal with this, and these things are true:

  • 7+H~Dash is functionally easier than 6H~7+Dash. Largely because 7H’s sH normal is much easier to plinkcancel than Flamethrower.

  • 9+H doesn’t work as a throw.

Because of that you can either learn to do it separately(7+H~Dash for back options, 6H~9+Dash for forward options), or just use 6H/4H~UpDirection+Dash for all options and suffer through the back one being a pain in the ass.

Also worth noting is that Just Frame sH/GroundThrow doesn’t work if the up motion triggers a superjump. Down -> Up+H gives you a superjump, not a throw.

Also worth noting the second, is that this is an even easier way of triggering Modok’s Grounded Air Dashes(Modok can do an airdash from a ground position in any upward direction, and then another airdash if he wants, while maintaint assist-call-able normal jump state, etc). Grounded ADs with Modok are already fairly easy with buttonboxes, but in the event you get used to this “pope select” motion, the same motion allows for slightly more leniency at the cost a frame or two of ground H startup, etc.

Leniency is always a plus.

It also doesn’t give you a ground throw if you do it while doing a ground dash, but that’s to be expected, for the same reasons plink dashing on the ground is only a throw option select on the first dash.

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can’t throw during forward dash. back dash you can for whatever reason.

I stand corrected, so those things are just super strict. thanks for the heads up.

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No offense but this is like day 1 vanilla tech. I remember someone actually posting about f+H~M, u/f+H~M as a round beginning OS and I’ve been using it for that and many other uses since then.

The one I just posted is a step ahead of your “new tech” which grabs them if they’re on the ground, but also grabs them if they jump. If they tech, you won’t jump and whiff H.

So many techniques like this are crucial to high level magneto play where I sometimes end up throwing people when I was just doing my regular movement inputs.

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No offense taken of course. Looking back on how I wrote this thread, I didn’t really clarify the difference between the two and was more distracted by the fact that it didn’t work for 100% of the cast, as well as the video focuses just on the basic concepts. I’ll try to differentiate the two in this post as best I can. :slight_smile:

At 99 seconds the OS’s are pretty much equals because it’s a controlled environment. Ready… FIGHT! Outside of 99, Marvel is much more sloppy and hard to follow the pace of rush down. The plink dash jump OS is a much cleaner option than the classic plink dash then jump OS. Throw + Dash Jump gives you better mobility when the ground throw doesn’t grab. Besides the basics like Wolverine’s instant dash jump shenanigans and Zero’s instant dash jump backwards almost full screen, the pope select clears up holes in defense.

The main advantage is H + U/B or U/F gives you a throw attempt immediately at the beginning of pre-jump frames, rather than a ground plink dash and jumping a few frames later. That means with pope select you’re immediately chicken blocking if you don’t get your grab. It sounds like splitting hairs, but it makes all the difference in a real match. You can safely try for throws and never accidentally get hit from a backdash.

For example let’s say I block a doom beam on the ground and Magneto is coming in for a tri-jump mixup at the end of block stun. I’m forced to guard high for a potential overhead, but he can easily fake it out and go for a throw/low/second overhead, etc. It’s really difficult to react to the mixup if you’re fighting a competent Magneto, so you can use option selects to help.

Let’s say Mag does the typical overhead light, then hits low a few frames later: I block the overhead and do a plink dash OS or pope select. I’m in guard stun from the overhead, so he gets pushblocked and the low whiffs with both option selects.

This time Mag does an empty tri jump into throw: Both plink dash OS and pope select tech the throw.

Finally let’s say Mag does an empty tri jump into low: If he’s point blank, both plink dash OS and pope select will throw the low and I win.
If he tri jumps into low outside of throw range, plink dash OS will get stuffed since you’re starting a backdash (Especially if you’re playing Doom). Pope select will be off the ground jumping safely. If it’s a move with a bigger hitbox then you will chicken block it and possibly be able to punish.

Also since this is Marvel and you can’t cleanly control every defensive maneuver, if you mistime your option select and throw too early/out of range/etc., it’s much safer to be immediately chicken blocking than backdashing. U/B + H ~ L+M cleans up your defense and mitigates a lot of murky situations.
This is only one example of a situation where it can save your life, but really it can apply to almost any situation out of your control. The immediate chicken blocking is huge.

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Sorry, this is a bit of a necro, but I’m trying to figure out this technique on an XBOX 360 pad, does anyone have any pointers? I’ve found that moving my launcher to a trigger and setting “A” to L+M makes it easier, but that’s incredibly awkward. Also, I can’t get the timing on doom’s airdash, but I’m having no trouble with nova - is it just super-tight with doom?

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When I plink dash on pad (I play on stick but I started on pad, sometimes I do things on pad), I usually just plink dash with B (heavy) into Right Trigger (LMH) and the way you press the buttons it’ll do the H plinked into L+M if you hold H down, making it still pretty lenient.

I’m not sure what you’re saying about Doom’s airdash. Note that you can’t plink airdash with H plinked into L+M for Doom if that H press would give you butter gun. If it would give you forward H footdive, it’ll work, but it’ll eat up your forward footdive for the jump, so you can’t repeatedly do it that way.