It’s can’t be that bad a matchup. Even in a 1 on 1 matchup Zero can grind it out with super jump buster spam. With assists it’s easier to get closer but there’s nothing that I can see that makes it a bad matchup, unless the Taskmaster in question was particularly good at using his counters.
taskmaster is such a bad character though. he can’t mix anyone up, and horrible pressure= free.
I play with two of the best Task players in the US (HonzoGonzo and DacidBro) and they agree it’s a pretty terrible matchup for Zero.
A couple reasons:
Task 5M is one of the only anti-airs that can beat Zero j.H clean.
Task charged arrows is one of the only projectiles that trade (nullify) with lvl.3 buster
In a zoning war, arrows charge faster than buster, do more chip
Task ground pokes (2L, 2M, 5M, 5H) can beat Zero’s ground pokes clean
Shield “skills” blows through Zero’s pokes
Counter on reaction
Task gets 800k+ easily off basic confirms
1 mil+ health, you have to perform a comparatively difficult combo spending multiple gauges to OHK
Basically, to win this matchup have to do gymnastics with your movement, because even if you’re blocking arrows you’re losing massive life on chip, even when you approach from the air you have to worry about counters and great anti-airs, Task (along with Dante) is one of the only chars that has a ground normal that can swat Zero away cleanly. On the ground you always have to worry about that stupid wavedash/kara poke, people who say Task lacks mobility are tripping, his ground dash is one of the best in the game. Even when you block this, you have to worry about a throw that instantly takes almost half your life if they have 1 bar. Lvl 3 buster is useful but good Tasks know to sit back and block when they see red charge, then rape you with arrows while you’re recharging. This matchup is at least 6-4, maybe 7-3 in Task’s favor.
Task can frame trap with his high priority normals, tick throw in an OTG super that does stupid unscaled damage and setup fuzzy guard instant overheads and unblockables with an assist. And he can pressure from full screen, arrows are a legit poke. I’ve seen Honzo kill entire teams without getting close to them just with arrows+missiles assist.
I’d say outside of the obvious answer of Phoenix, Trish and Taskmaster are Zero’s toughest matchups. They’re both matchups you really have to pick your shots in because if you try to rush balls out from across the screen, you’re going to eat random damage here and there. And with Zero, it does tend to pile up.
What! marn and other top players say task master is overated, I don’t remember exactly what they said, combo fiend only has him for the damaging super. who else at evo had a taskmaster top 32???
Off the top of my head:
Combofiend
Tinh
DacidBro
Myself
Crispy Tacos
- Not too bad considering two of them made top 8.
And I have regular practice against 2 of those players (Dacid and Tacos), been practicing with them nearly every weekend since Marvel came out, and some practice against one of them (Tinh). At worst Task is slightly below the god tier, and he has enough tools to fight all of them. Literally playing Zero against DacidBro made me almost quit the character, or at least put a different character on point. You have to significantly outplay the opponent to win that matchup if they are utilizing the tools they should. In fact I played Dacid today and Dante has a much, much easier time against Task.
Trish, Taskmaster and Magneto are defo bad matchups. Trish to a lesser extent since she doesn’t need to fire at you like Mags or Taskmaster (which in turn piles on the chip and damage quite a lot). I dunno about Taskmaster’s offence being a problem for Zero but patient and smart play with his keepaway is just devastating.
Zero being small/short is actually a problem against Task, it makes it easier to crossup during a mighty swing blockstring.
I generally sit back and zone Hulk, but if he gets in, I do not push block Hulk ever. I will purposely block the standing fierce and if they decide to do an S (which all Hulks inevitably do), the recovery on that move is so terrible. I generally just wait for that and then just punish the hell out of Hulk. I’ll take a throw or a command grab once, but if it appears that they aren’t going to just mash on fierce, then that’s when I decide to zone. There’s no point in fighting him straight up. His normals beat Zero’s multi-hit normals, unless you press the button before he mashes on fierce. I hope this helps.
I wanted to ask some questions against the Hulk matchup cause it’s pretty much the only match I feel it is really difficult cause u really can’t play your game…
I mostly agree with you bryri, if Zero can zone Hulk, it’s pretty much Zero game… but the problem is that hulk is the only character in the game (that I played against at least) who can reach and touch zero before the match starts, in that situation u simply don’t have a safe way to get away…
well I have a couple of vids
First I want to show a normal match of mine, maybe that time the team matchup was greatly in favor of zero, but normally thats the kind of match I am able to play
[media=youtube]TKuJPtUIa4A[/media]
and then in the finals, the match agains hulk was something like that…
[media=youtube]PFouXHGr3jA[/media]
agian, was the only match that I was confused on how to play against… any ideas?
I’m Shin’s friend, and to add some information, this particular Hulk has changed his gameplan to focus on killing Zero fast. He started the match trying to land a grab and kill with x-factor.
You can get away, just hold back from the beginning of the match then super jump back, he can’t get you. The only one that can, as far as I know- is Magneto cos he’s got a ridiculous walk speed.
… u know that u can jump before the match starts right? Jumping is the fastest way to move before the match starts, and one jump from hulk is almost 1,5 jump from zero so yeah… he WILL touch you… and if u jump back he will air grab u and one hit kill as well… just watch the matches =/
Zero
You can beat that just by mashing back H at the start. You’ll break the grab and if he goes for another H your H will just beat the super armor. It also anti airs his air H. It ALSO hits assists he tried jump H at the beginning. So the only option it doesn’t cover is walk forward H call assist openers (which you can call your own assist if you really want to). Against sent drones you can do H->launch->j.2H->j.H to avoid the drones entirely. Also, dash with 2 attack buttons instead of double tapping forward. You got tk raikousen instead of tk setsuizan because the game kept your forward input from the dash. For this matchup (grounded character with defensive assist) I’d actually suggest using Weasel shot over jam session. You can use it to counter call hagger and also to tear though Hulks H armor. You get left right mixups from a greater distance and even get a better zoning game if you want to play that way (zoning hulk is an EXCELLENT strategy. Just save buster for his assist calls and zone with hadangeki, spaced s.Hs, and assist calls of your own)
Dante
You should definitely not be using Jetstream outside of combos. If you need an armor breaker, stick to reverb shock (an input error I guess?). H-ing though it). While in devil trigger you should’ve been using vortex and thunderbolt A LOT more. Vortex is invincible for a long time and will beat all of sentinals options in the air, while thunderbolt does great chip and hitconfirms into itself, while having an angle that no character can really deal with (also shuts down assists).
against sentinel ok, but he had haggar u know… It’s nto a good idea to guess that “option select” vs someone who has haggar cause even if u get teck hit, u will lose u know…
and the moment I did tk Raikousen insted of setsuizan I supose it was in an air situation that I did back airdash before, and to do back airdash u have to input back u nkow, most of my airdashes and grounddashes are from button inputs u know…
I actnaully don’t have much trouble against hulk matchup, the main problem is getting away at the start, and there is no safe option, the best option was to take a ground throw and dont even try to tech cause if he guesses and do j.H its full life combo as well…
yeah… I though it was pretty obvius, but all the jetstreams outside from combos were input errors…
My Dante sux, I know, I don’t use him a lot and started to play him just like… a month or so, cause he completes nicelly the team, but what I waned to know more is a good way to get away from hulk at the start, but many of those methods don’t cover the haggar possibility right? =/
Actually if you break a grab you can’t be hit. I guess the problem would be if he does air H. Have you tried back dashing at the start of the match (using L or M+H)? It should tech the ground throw while back dashing to avoid jump H. The hulk player I fight doesn’t have hagger, so he really has no answer for back+H at the start of the match. Eventually he stopped trying to do it and started playing taskmaster on point instead.
Another option for your situation is to start Dante on point and just double jump right before the match starts. You’ll go over both his standing heavy and his jump heavy, but you will have to work your way back down.
The M raikousen happened at 6:12 after a forward air grab, which is why I mentioned it.
can’t see right now, but I mostly do airdashes with buttons, it’s an habit I got from marvel 2.
I didn’t try backdashing cause I figured that maybe s.H would hit me if I actually managed to backdash, After u make a break of a grab u can’t be hit, but only if u r not mashing the H right? If that’s the case u have to actually make a read, when I do this kind of stuff, those are the situation that I can actually tell how the match will be from the first 10 seconds or so, when I am playing with some ppl I usually play a lot. Making a read like that against a Hulk with haggar as assist is kinda dangerous, isn’t it? =/
EDIT: Btw, u sugested weasel shot insted of Jam session right? My main pressure assist is ammy, but Jam session I find more usefull in many situations, even on rpessure cause it holds really good and then pushes back after, and it gives me more options vs ppl in the air, and midscreen mixups vs ppl entering.
While that’s true about Jam session assist, weasel shot is also a much safer assist to get in with. You really only were able to call ammy once you had already managed to start pressure on your own, while Weasel shot would allow you a way to get in while being covered BY the assist, rather than you covering the assist AFTER you’ve gotten in.
Honestly, how often was Hulk higher than normal jump height? Jam session just didn’t seem to do anything special for you in those matches (I agree that it’s over all a better assist though), where having a longer ranged assist would’ve opened up new options. You could’ve gone for a more zoning heavy style and not have to deal with Haggar at all, or could’ve at least counter called Dante whenever he called haggar. He comes out far enough behind you to not get hit by haggar and keeps Hulk locked down so he can’t pick you up if haggar tags you. He even hits haggar near the end of it if you called him late enough. Basically, it’s like having another cold star, only this one is faster, has more horizontal range, and is generally safer to call. And by alternating assist calls you can make sure hulk never has time to breathe. You didn’t really get the chance to mix up his hulk, but you don’t have to mix him up to beat him. Just play footsies with Hulk/Haggar until you get a hit and convert that into a combo/hard knockdown. Then you can go for mixups, but only those that are safe from haggar (which is admittedly only like low poke+assist to beat H mashing, and then waiting haggar out to go for a real mixup).
I’m sure you could work with Jam session just fine. But I also think that changing your entire gameplan to deal with Hulk is very, very easy.
5:08 in that video is actually very interesting. You landing a standing H on his sentinal when he called haggar and haggar miss you entirely (and you hit him during his vulnerability too). It also happens to be at the same spacing that a grab escape would put you (meaning grab escape->standing H should be safe at the start of the match). But like I said earlier, if Hulk jumps at the beginning you’d still get tagged by haggar so it’s probably not worth it in this case. Still, try more spaced standing H the next time you fight someone with haggar assist and see how it goes.