Introduction
An up-and-coming jewelry designer from Italy who claims ancestry to ancient Greek warriors. As a child, she was inspired by a vision of the Colosseum in its prime. Today, she seeks glory with a smile—and an eye for beauty.
Marisa is a high-damage juggernaut with a variety of far-reaching normals. She is able to charge all of her heavy attacks and some of her specials by holding the button down. One of her shining normals in this regard is 5HP, a long range punch that leads to good damage especially when used as a punish counter. Some of her other good normals are 5MP, 2MP, and 5HK, as these are all pokes that are either fast or have great range. If blocked, Marisa's charged moves deal significant chip to the opponent's drive bar and are plus on block, allowing Marisa to continue pressure. In this way, Marisa excels once she gets her opponent into the corner where there's nowhere to go to escape the onslaught of plus frames. She also has several moves with armor and can bully through an opponent's attacks, as well has having slightly more health than most characters, allowing her to make a few extra mistakes in a match.
Her special moves are almost all used for getting in and staying in. Gladius is a chargeable straight punch with great damage and upper body armor, which allows her to punch (pun definitely intended) right through her opponent's attacks. Phalanx is an armored superman punch that's great for going over fireballs or sneaking in after blockstrings to reset pressure, as all versions are plus on block. Quadriga is an extremely long range horizontal step kick with surprising safety, especially when spaced. The EX versions of Phalanx and Quadriga break right through armor, making it a bit difficult to drive impact these moves. She also has Dimachaerus, an uppercut and slam move which grants her a good knockdown to continue her pressure - and a combo extender with the HP version. Obviously, just striking isn't going to open a turtling opponent, which is why she has Scutum, an armored stance with access to an overhead, a low, and - most importantly - a command grab.
Although she has some of the most damaging combos in the game, Marisa's offense can be volatile. For instance, charging a heavy attack can leave a large gap where an opponent can press a button or jump out. Some of her moves have armor, but the armor does not protect against low-hitting attacks. Many of her attacks cannot be special canceled and so can lose to drive impact. Marisa also lacks some tools that other characters use to keep defenders in check; for example, Marisa has no low attack that can be special canceled or drive rushed. Her anti-airs are also a bit lacking, as 2HP is somewhat slow and thin, and her LP and EX Dimachaerus, while having anti-air invincibility, move her forward slightly which makes them hard to anti-air with. In addition, her reversal options are extremely weak to throws; even though they are armored, none of them besides Level 2 and Level 3 have throw invulnerability. Her drive rush combos from lights are incredibly lackluster, that is to say she doesn't have anything other than repeated lights. Because of this, Marisa has a hard time abusing the system mechanics to aid in her offense.
In short, much of Marisa's offense gives the opponent multiple ways to defend, escape, or punish you. However, what she lacks in offensive consistency she makes up for in damage, as she has some of the highest damage combos in the game and a variety of other attacks that can quickly drain an opponent's health bar.
Playing Marisa at a high level requires a tolerance for risky and volatile situations, strong hit confirms, and a knowledge of high-damage combo routes in different situations. If you like a big strong lady with big strong normals, or you just like hitting things really hard, put on your Spartan helmet and charge into battle with Marisa.
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Players to Watch
- Big Bird - (https://twitter.com/Bigbird_fgc)
