I think that all videos so far have been self-explanatory enough, but I think some points need to be made clear:
- grabbing isnât the only way for grappler-type characters to win; look for tools to punish grab escape attempts and also movement speed and movement options and their normals/specials (besides grabbing)
- having few tools in a game might make a grappler-type character more âhigh tier materialâ than more tools in another game, it doesnât just depend on the amount or quality of said tools; for example, someone mentioned XvsSFâs gief; he has one notable tool, that leads to an infinite.
for my choices (which were more towards what characters I like, because trying to find a âbest grapplerâ would likely end in a broken-tier choice), Tamaki has a melee-invincible grab, a throw-invincible grab, an instant-activation (donât know or remember if there are pre-super flash frames) throw super, normals which allow her to tick-throw or set up her 360 (the throw-invincible grab or throw super), she can antiair and meaty throw escape attempts, her antiair is good on neutral as well, has great mobility, has a god press-like super for punishes, and other less used tools like dioâs unblockable eye laser (that you have to crouch to dodge) which allows her to either get closer or to use said god press super, and a splash art (her lvl 3 which requires her to be at 50% HP or below) that slows the opponent to 25% of his/her speed. Her combos do nice damage as well and lead to knockdowns. If youâre playing against a Tamaki and is under threat of being thrown by her, you donât want to be at low emotion (which increases damage received, lowers damage dealt and allows guard crush) and/or you donât want her to be in high emotion (which increases danage dealt, lowers damage received except for Oboro and Morgan, and improves supers).
Kira has a 360*, a running grab, a jumping grab*, an antiair that either restands, wallslams or groundslams the opponent, a grab that has clash frames on their startup, a 720 (lvl 1)*, a 1080 (lvl 3) (items marked with * have air versions), has normals which she can clash (either on startup or active frames) her opponent with and then grab (said normals allow her to even break through certain multi-hit projectiles such as Light/Haloâs 236E) or set up throws with (1), has good mobility options and movement speed for a grappler at least, thanks to the homing (which puts her on a homing status, where she flies towards her opponent, said trajectory can be slightly altered in the 8 directions and the 9 directions â the default, neutral one, included â can be given a slight, repeatable movement boost), homing action (which drastically propels the character towards a direction while using an attack) and extend force mechanics (which for the majority of arcanas, increase movement speed by around 15%, one increases by 25% and one increases by 100%), so whether sheâs on far or close range, even if her speed is below average within the game, she can escape pressure (with high jump guards or arcana blast), initiate counter attacks (with forward guard cancels and clashes or special/super cancellable backward guard cancels, or normals with clash frames), has tools for punishing escape attempts (E attacks are air unblockable for all characters plus she has the antiairs) into combos into knockdowns, has resets into throws, and forward ground homing allows her to buffer 720 or 1080s (since you canât jump during it).
(1): Kira uses jC (air kick with one leg) and it doesnât activate before she touches the ground, she then throws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17xqHNvNTw0
