Claw only good use to me it the whiff punish buttons into vtrigger… and isn’t worth it if you don’t have CA to get the damage.
I stumbled into this footage of a Vega player winning a tournament earlier this month…it isn’t a big tournament and there don’t seem to be any famous player but the level of game play is quite okey…really long set in the grand finals against a Nash player…you can find easily more sets of the same Vega in the same tournament easy
https://youtube.com/watch?v=anON6kEI_Ho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG4HSEikxkk
Poor vega, fighting against ryu at top level seems like bashing your head on a wall. A top player that will constantly deny any jump ins hampers claw off seriously.
Surprising to see nemo not trying to play the mu with claw on at all, perhaps it would have been better for him.
Maybe not using claw-on in this matchup was his mistake. Ryu doesnt really have a way to punish vega claw normals on reaction like cammy/laura/ken and losing that extra range for vskill and m normals was bad and it showed.
Playing claw off means that you have to go in to win and breaking daigo ryu defense of all ryus is not easy.
Playing claw ON doesn’t help the match-up a lot. Vega’s st.MP is annoying for Ryu but it’s not gonna get you a KO since you can’t cancel into anything. Not really worth losing all your other tools for st.MP alone.
Ryu’s punishes and damage in general is top-tier in this game. On top of that he has guaranteed meaties. Combine that with Vega having 0 options on wake-up, and it’s pretty difficult to win.
Vega has the walk speed but the fireballs make sure he’s never comfortable on the ground either. I’m surprised Nemo was using the V-skill cos it’s pretty much crappy against slow fireballs. Only really works against fast fireballs that go through you quickly.
This matchup will be hard regardless, as Ryu has a counter for anything Vega has in his arsenal, but i believe you have a better shot at winning with claw on.
Claw on makes it easier to cancel into V-trigger>Super and you definitely need that to beat him IMO because you will be “forced” into a mid range game.The whole strat would be poking while trying to build some meter and V gauge through CCs to land that.Needless to say, this would require perfect play from your side, but that’s still better than trying to jump in with claw off and hoping your opponent messes up the dp(at least at the higher levels).
I’d rather try and be unpredictable with my jumps and dashes clawless - than take countless fireballs trying to play clean with claw on. Ryu builds meter very quickly and guess what - he doesn’t even need to use it for any of his combos either. He’ll get excellent combo enders meterless, with some of the best damage in the game. He’ll most likely build full bar every round too, especially if you’re letting him throw fireballs.
By the time Vega builds enough meter for a V-trigger>CA combination (which is very strong), he’ll probably be already dead. It’s really hard to get proper damage with claw on.
Hey guys im looking for help in the Nash MU. Mostly I dont know how to deal with mk scythe and longer range normals, and his anti airs are really strong
Heres a video. Any feed back is appreciated!
i’m not an expert, but i’m training a lot with a great nash at my local arcade shop
here are some notes:
You did a lot of neutral jumps and got hit. I don’t think NJ is good against nash. He has long normals with great hitboxes, sonic boom and MK/HK/EX scythe
work your confirms. You did some HK jump ins but went to cr lp, cr lp xx lk roll. You have better options like st HP xx SC, st lp, st lp, cr. mp xx EX fba
About jump ins: Try to use them when he throws sonic booms and whiff punishing his normals. Nash has great anti airs, so avoid trying to get in with jumps
After sweep CC you have at least 3 options: “guaranteed” Izuna drop, safe jump, dash/backdash, lk roll (corpse hop or not) into mix up
work your combos after you hit EX fba (clawless) and the opponent is grounded. You can go to BIG damage with st hk, st lp, cr mp xx roll/EX fba or even cr mk, st mp~st hk (target) xx EX fba
don’t stop your confirms ( jump in lk cross up, cr lp) to grab/command grab. Use them to mix up when he is blocking (cross up lk, cr. lp, EX command grab is really good and fast)
in general, don’t let nash breathe during his wake up. Pressure him everytime with meaties. He doesn’t have a 3f and his only true reversal is his v-trigger. Frame trap him all day, and if he is blocking a lot, go for tick throws and tick EX command grab.
Ill give you the same advice @“Evil Canadian” gave me. Lose the claw.
Well, dont lose it. I take it off and only use it sparingly now. Or Ill leave it on the first 15 seconds of the fight and then lose it. I noticed things opened up without it as far as damage potential. Claw seems great for zoning, and clawless seems great for damage potential from my experience. I feel if you did a target combo and V-skill, or if you built enough meter up for a second EXFBA, the first round of the last match could have been yours. You were getting hits with c.mk, and if you were clawless, thats a target combo/v-skill or target combo/Exfba.
Did some testing with claw on and claw off, along with mask on and mask off. I dont see me using claw at all anymore.
You’re learning!
I say that, then I switch to it on for a turtle gief. LOL. I forget that the >FP is super unsafe.
I stood my own against 2 super platinum players today in battle lounge. I feel like I am making strides. WOOT.
A new concept I’ve been working on because Claw Vega needs some serious love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY4-MDuT20Y
If you don’t want to blow your full load you can do c.LP into EX ASE or FBA instead
I would probably play claw if st.LP hit crouching. As it is, you gotta quickly decide whether the opponent was standing or crouching whilst being hit and then use st.LP or cr.LP accordingly. So I’d rather stick to clawless st.MP/cr.MP which guarantees higher damage output regardless of whether they’re crouching or not.
Edit: Ken’s wake up jab is 4 frames so a lot of the cast would be getting a counterhit combo on Vega.
Claw mode’s main tool and most useful imo is clp>mp ASE…as you all know it combos on counterhit…just like counterhit clp >st MP is a very nice tool on clawless your frametrap of choice on claw mode is cl>mp ase after any + normal…if you only dash once after mp ASE you can time a st mp meaty or cr HP…i think you can even dash once walk a bit and time other meaty normals (gotta take it to the lab)…if the opp press a button after clp mp ASE trades in Vega’s favor with any 4 frame normal (unless someone on the roster has a 4 frame normal that deals over 100 dmg)…and only loses to 3 frame normals at point blank (unless someone has a really long 3 frames normal that i’m unaware of)…finally mp ase is safe (other than against Chun) deals decent chip damage so is a nice tool to end blockstrings with
I also think that clawed jHP is Vega’s best air to ground normal in terms of hit box after j lk…it beats or trades with most anti air jabs if you press it early (Alex, Ryu, Sim…Chun’s st lk can hit you out of the air too early)
clp>lp ASE is nice for meatys…deals decent damage and beats people waking up with armored specials (although takes time to time it)
and this is kinda controversial but i like FBA with the claw…FBA with claw on is strong against air to air normals as long as you press early…FBA’s hitbox is stronger at the sides and the slash is 3 frames start up…so when people try to meet you on the air you have a chance to win…if people have strong air to air normals that hit upwards (like ryu’s j mp) you can hold back down to “dive” early and hit the fba slash to sort “low profile” their air to air normals and win…you get a knockdown and advantage
there are other things that i like about claw mode…i’m not saying claw is better than bare handed just that is not as useless as people are saying…i think vega is strongest when he seemedly transitions from one stance to the other and forces the opponent to adapt on the fly (Bare handed st HP>switch stance is pretty strong)
And oh yeah…with some practice i’m landing HP ASE more often now it is still situational but not imposible to hit as many of us had thought some time ago…it just takes practice and is very nice since is the one tool that covers Vega’s bad angle (over his head)
I would like to point out that R. Mika can also punish ASE with EX peach.
I was watching ROM’s tourney run from Vanguard #3 at LevelUp Live last night and noticed that he tends to stay in claw mode way more than Flash or Nemo who almost always immediately switch to bare hand at the beginning of every match up. The only time when ROM ran barehand for most of the set was when he was up against Chun, prob due to the fact that Vega’s best answer to air legs is barehand cr.hp and that playing the lame poking game against Chun is tough.
When he’s in claw mode, it seems like he’s constantly fishing to hit with s.Hp. He sets this up by going for the cr.Mk, s.Hp frame trap which combos on counterhit and confirms into big damage. Every so often he’ll mix it up with the s.Hp xx SC, command grab. His primary use of ASE was for blockstrings—as expected—as well as whiffing m.ASE’s and l.ASE’s for scare tactics. In claw mode he also got a lot of mileage out of v-skill slash xx v-trigger > super in order to blow up bad fireball tosses.
Check out the last 3 sets, ROM played very well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sULT8W5R37k&list=WL&index=104
…i took it to the lab…Mika’s ex-peach can punish lp ASE but it can not punish mp ASE even with perfect reversal timing…mp ASE recovers one frame faster than lp ASE…actually i test it with chun’s ex leg and she cna not punish mp ase either…only lp ase…so yeah…lp ase is pretty safe…i’m sure a couple of supers could probably punish it but not much else…
And OvegaRed i saw that and was pretty salty about the way thing went i think that is the second time Rom makes it to grand finals only to fall short…Chun is such a bad match up…damn it