**Firebrand **
[details=Spoiler]**Firebrand Assist: **
•Hell Spitfire: Excellent assist and arguably the best assist for X-23. Depending on combo length, this assist leads to an OTG relaunch, allow for WXP after an Ankle slice, or set-up the enemy for a reset. When Firebrand is in Luminous Body, this assist can OTG on its own without the need for Ankle Slice.
•Demon Missile (M): Poor-man’s one-hit beam assist, except Firebrand is not invincible nor has any durability points.
•Demon Missile (H): Trajectory is similar to Pendulum (Log Trap), except this doesn’t wall-bounce nor is it unbloackable. Might be good for zoning if you need to cover some vertical space for jump-happy enemies.
X23 to Firebrand DHCs
Rage Trigger -> Dark Fire (-)
Rage Trigger -> Luminous Body (u)
Rage Trigger -> Chaos Tide (u)
WXP -> Dark Fire (+)
WXP -> Luminous Body (u) [on hit only]
WXP -> Chaos Tide (u) [on hit only]
Firebrand to X23 DHCs
Dark Fire -> Rage Trigger (-)
Dark Fire -> WXP -> (-)
**General Tips and Tricks: **
tl;dr version
- Get opponent to the corner using Firebrand
- Use Firebrand assist for the reset or combo extender
- Save that meter for Silent Kill
Looking at the DHC options above, your options are very limited when Firebrand is on point and you want to DHC into X-23. Dark Fire, which does good damage on its own, pushes the enemy up and away from Rage Trigger or WXP’s range if not DHC’d early enough. Even when X-23 is on point, the only time you’d get a decent DHC combo is if you end X-23’s BnB with a WXP.
What Firebrand excels at is taking the enemy to the corner, which he can do from almost any hit-confirmed normal from mid-screen. From there, I usually TAC to get X-23 in, which can you have at least 3 opportunities from any FB BnB. From the corner, his Hell Spitfire assist really shines. His spitfire assist actually has pretty heavy hit-stun decay but that actually benefits X-23 because the assist serves three functions for her in different scenarios.
After a decently-long combo, hitting Ankle Slice and the FB assist will cause the assist to hit twice, and the opponent teching almost exactly after the second assist hit. This gives X-23 three options:
a) jump and air-throw after the reset (will catch them teching forward, back, or neutral),
b) jump and start a new combo (j.M, j.H, qcf+L, ground BnB) , or
c) finish the combo with a WXP (must be done as soon as Ankle Slice hits).
The go-to choice is the air-throw since it’s at the perfect height for X-23 to Ankle Slice with another assist for a relaunch combo. This leads to the exact same situation for X-23 where she can call the Firebrand assist again!
Unless Luminous Body is active, you can only OTG relaunch on shorter combos with the help of Ankle Slice(no MF loops). With Luminous Body on, you can use Head Slice instead as the assist will come out fast enough before the opponent can recover. You’d want to mix-up with short and long combos to keep the opponent guessing whether he can tech after the FB assist.
Ideally, you’d kill the opponent in the corner with X-23 and have at least 3 bars. With Firebrand, this scenario happens often enough. This allows you to activate Silent Kill which almost guarantees a dead character coming in. If the enemy has only one character left, and it’s NOT Sentinel, you’ve pretty much won that round if you don’t mess up the Silent Kill setup.
Flip-note: Firebrand doesn’t get much from X-23 aside from the TAC exchange. However, there is the off-chance that you hit an assist and take them along for Firebrand’s BnB. In that case, X-23’s ankle slice assist can allow FB to relaunch both characters if done after the air MMHS. Otherwise, Firebrand can control space better with a beam-assist character.[/details]
:h:, MFC, 