In no specific order. So how do you guys generally deal with these annoying set-backs
ZERO
Upper Screen Whores (ex. the Doctor Doom/Magneto/Trish who flies around at the top of the fucking screen all day long)
Vajra Spam
Taskmaster
The Twins.
Spencer
Morribitch
Missile Spam
Hawkeye
Wolverine
Nova
List any tactics or teams you use to counter these.
1.Jump up, then shoot fireballs. Firebrand actually has lateral movement at the top of the screen, so yeah.
2. Lots and lots of movement. Strider < extreme mobility. Also note that Dives have fast blocking and Bon Voyage is moving faster than Vajra.
4/6: Same thing? I dunno what the difference is.
My experience is primarily with Firebrand/Dormammu/Morrigan, so I’ll answer within that context.
Follow Zero into the air and j.H. Go for air throws. If j.H hits, dive kick into a full combo. Don’t let him survive. You may need to burn XF1 to kill him, but in general, on a Firebrand team it’s worth burning XF1 since his incoming pressure is so strong. Otherwise, stay high in the air and don’t get hit by the buster shot. Swoop to the ground away from Zero (qcb.H) always. If I get enough meter, I’ll DHC Dark Fire to Stalking Flare and begin shipping Zero out with Stalking Flare and 1D2C spam.
Grounded qcf.M is very good, but you might trade hits. I like to superjump and mix up qcf.M and qcf.L while calling Dark Harmonizer. Eventually my opponent will realize that while neither of us are taking a lot of damage, I just built 2-3 bars of meter, and it’s just not a good trade for him. Burn Firebrand’s level 3 and get 400K chip in or DHC to Stalking Flare spam.
Rush like crazy, even if the matchup is bad. Getting caught by Vajra is too easy while you are zoning. When you jump, pay very close attention to the Strider call and qcb.M right after you see Strider appear. You’ll need to delay your aerial movement a lot to make sure you aren’t diving into the teleport kick. If you can’t open your opponent up and enough time has passed, wait for the assist call and DHC Luminous Body -> Chaotic Flame, XFC, Dark Hole Chaotic Flame. It’s worth the meter and the X-Factor to kill Strider, just like it is with Phoenix.
You have to zone him and wait for an assist to get you an opening. His priority is massive, and Taskmaster’s b.H will kill a lot of your projectile assist support, so you can’t piggyback in that way.
Call assists while superjumping into qcb.M, j.H and keep the pressure up. The twins are weak up close, you just need to get there safely.
I’ve never fought a good Spencer, so I don’t know. I usually wait for a random zipline going across the screen and get an air throw.
Turtle while throwing fireballs and calling Dark Harmonizer. Dark Fire -> Chaotic Flame, XFC Chaotic Flame to burn Doom ASAP.
See 6.
See 6.
No clue. Wolverine ironically seems stronger than Firebrand in the air, haha.
Maybe also helpful against Wolverine, but in this matchup I feel it’s necessary to pop Luminous Body ASAP, and never let up. Firebrand just can’t afford to give his opponents breathing room here.
ZERO: If you stay on top of him and move smart, punish/throw the lightning and force him to block your shit with his mediocre escape options, this matchup is 5-5 with the right assist. If you’re having that much trouble, start with your second.
Actually, I disagree with these folks, and I don’t think FB can fight in the top screen. I think that he’s really a mid-height character that works best when the other character is below him, like Zero. When someone goes up to the top floor, I breathe easy, take shots with M groundball and, if they’re raining down the plasma, just move around it, spit on it (fireballs have great durability) or take it. Eventually, they’ll come down-- make sure they come down into L wallball, L groundball and a really fast gecko teabag-sliding across the screen at great speeds behind an assist. Lock them down as long as possible when you can.
Just move. Learn to hear the “Strider!” and see him come out, then plinkdash or TK H dive away. You can hurt him when he comes down.
What is the problem here? All the balls are even dura with charged arrows-- actually, I think they even trade. This is 6-4 brand-- just get him to block and go ham.
I zone Dante. L airball beats Air Play any day of the weak-- outangles it. M groundball will even blow through the uncharged version, and L groundball/wallball completely destroy the missiles. Farscreen, actually, Brand just owns Dante’s shit. Respect the boxdash if far by either blocking it or plinkdashing back once (i like to spit right after that) and if he does it close, chickenblock it and slap the bitch. If he teleports, hit him. Hard. Practice and learn the punish in training mode. Never let a Dante just fucking teleport whenever. Finally, don’t fear the reaper with Jumping S-- just see it, block it, maybe pushblock, move on. It’s not worth it to try and punish just to get xx Hammer’d and blown up.
Snap Vergil in (he’ll probably be in the back) and catch him with your unblockable-- he doesn’t have the air movement to get out if you space Amaterasu (or whoever) away from the Helm Breaker and j.S. If he manages to get out, try to avoid blocking anything he presses on the floor, because it’ll lead to pressure strings. If you have to, remember to respect everything he does, and remember that he really can’t do any major mixup to pop you open with swords on, since he doesn’t have an overhead. Same rules apply to Vergil as Dante-- zone him out, punish teleports, respect that big falling swing and move on.
Remember that one touch anywhere for these characters is usually a dead gecko.
Wallball L is great in this matchup, largely for the fact that most Spencers will only approach in the box dash zone or the floor. Not a scary matchup. If he chains into his high/low (overhead or cr.H) often, look at the overhead as the bigger threat, because he’s not confirming off that sweep and still staying safe. It’s even better to pushblock at the M, so he whiffs entirely and you come at advantage. If he’s smarter and uses the overhead after lockdown assists or when you’re expecting to block a cr.L, just wait it out. Remember that Marvel defense isn’t a punish game or a stick-things-out game, it’s a get-out-ASAP game, and commiting to the overhead ends Spencer’s pressure in most cases. Also, chickenblock often to avoid Party Time!!! It’s hard to scoop someone just as they get off the floor.
Get her before she turns on Sister Sister. Before she gets a chance to get the twins out, Firebrand is 6-4 on Morrigan because he has the same capability of putting a fireball in the boxdash and floor zones as her, at roughly the same speed-- while the wallball and groundball trade with air and ground Soul Fist, Firebrand can pursue. Remember that turning on the twins leaves her in recovery for a while-- not enough to easily punish, but plenty enough to lock her down-- so she’s forced to look for an opening, like a soft knockdown or a blocked volley of Missiles, to do it safely and at advantage. For most cases after a touch, don’t bother snapping in Doom-- Morrigan doesn’t have a lot of air movement because of the way her dash works, and forward tech into shell kick can be punished if you’re smart, so go to the lab with that and just stick her with the unblockable. If you get caught in the balls, FB is probably not long for this world anyway, so just be patient, block low, pushblock as much as you can and DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT HARD TAG.
Also, respect j.S. No you can’t antiair tridash shell kick. No you can’t chickenblock and punish it. Just let it happen and pushblock her ass. It’s not Magnus, her cr.A is mid, she’s not a big deal.
If you have a beam assist or DHC that can snipe Doom, great! If not, make sure you’re open to move away when the missiles fall-- keep a timer in your head, and when it’s time, use your H dive to retreat and time a backdash to avoid the blockstun. Sitting and soaking up the missiles is bad for your colon. If it’s a big problem, snap Doom.
Again, what’s the trouble? Balls beat every arrow but electric and piercing. Try to use the box dash zone as much as possible to avoid st.H xx M roll xx piercing arrow, but be wary of air triple arrow and try to block that. You should have a horizontal assist to make Hawkeye sit his ass down. Once you’re anywhere near him (within st.H range) you win. Chickenblock or hardtag through random Gimlet and don’t get hit in the air by net arrow.
I love this matchup so much. Everything is decided by incoming-- almost every Wolverine will jump at you and do the divekick/airthrow OS + an assist-- the issue is that your airthrow OS with Bon Voyage is ten billion times better and beats his. That’s one free touch for you, yes sir, thank you very much. Jump back when you’re feeling a divekick come on, block some mixups, etc. Your best advantage over Wolverine is that you can play the far game AND the close game. Use your wallball to make him think twice about superjumping, divekicking and jumping in general. Max distance slide xx L groundball shuts down basically all of his neutral options. He can’t get out of the unblockable for shit except for tech forward S. Don’t get hit, don’t be forced to block, and this is free.
I haven’t played against good Nova, but block high and watch for cr.M-- it’s his fastest low, and it’s pretty slow. Use your throw tech OS, because you know he’s looking for that LATER (da scoop,) and wallball to block his boxdashing approach. Don’t chickenblock, because he’s GOING to scoop you.
I’ll probably post big things on matchup thread, too.
I nominate Haggar as a MUCH MUCH more problematic character from Firebrand than Spencer, Wolverine, or Nova.
Lariat assists stops a lot of resets/unblockables. Haggar has a shit load of health and will kill Firebrand from a trade with a SJ pipe or lariat into punches, etc. Lariat really forces Firebrand to be conservative with his moves because they all lose to Lariat. You can try and kill him but it’ll take forever. You can zone him but it’ll take forever. You can snap him but then Firebrand just has to deal with Lariat assist.
<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“Kresent”>I nominate Haggar as a MUCH MUCH more problematic character from Firebrand than Spencer, Wolverine, or Nova.
Lariat assists stops a lot of resets/unblockables. Haggar has a shit load of health and will kill Firebrand from a trade with a SJ pipe or lariat into punches, etc. Lariat really forces Firebrand to be conservative with his moves because they all lose to Lariat. You can try and kill him but it’ll take forever. You can zone him but it’ll take forever. You can snap him but then Firebrand just has to deal with Lariat assist.</blockquote>
Yeah but you can screw with Haggar by just not mashing so hard lol.
According to your sig, you have Doom. Use hidden missiles. Staying back and zoning haggar is really easy then. I mess with doom sometimes, and firebrands zoning increases a lot wit hidden missiles. Try to stay in the air and fireball as much as you can. If your on the ground and haggar jumps, fireball M immediately. If timed correctly it beats anyair attack he does. You just have to be really careful and not do the fireball too slowly. It’s really important to fireball as soon as his feet leaves the ground, otherwise you may trade or take a raw pipe. Call missiles non stop. If Haggar gets near you, air bon voyage to the other side of the screen. Always push block(so important). To zone with firebrand takes precise timing, and patience, but it’s well worth it in the end. I know there’s some stuff I’m forgetting. but half the battle is figuring it out on your own. And seriously, call missiles nonstop. They will get you out of most of haggars bs.
If you get cornered, don’t panic , and seriously never take your hand off block(unless you are push blocking). You seriously want to be super jumping while holding up back non stop. Don’t forget to push blocking non stop. When you push block, and finally get some space, immediately super jump and air bon voyage to get the hell out of there. Hope this helps. If done right, Haggar will eventually get frustrated and will be subbed out.
I picked up Doom a week ago. Haven’t gotten to use him in matches much yet.
I hate Hagger assist and Sent’s counter hard drive thing