UMVC3/Arthur/Strategy

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< UMVC3‎ | Arthur


Movement and Neutral Options

j.S Cancels

j.S is Arthur's only mobility tool, and is a key part of both his movement and zoning capabilities. j.S replaces Arthur's vertical momentum with a very quick fall, while not affecting his horizontal momentum. Consequently, Arthur's fastest practical forward movement to is superjump up-forward, and then quickly j.S back down towards the ground, and his fastest practical backwards movement is to superjump up-back and j.S.

Additionally, Arthur can cancel j.S on whiff into any of his air-OK specials, allowing him to quickly access these specials while falling. The basic sequence is Superjump, short delay, j.S > Any special. Timed properly, Arthur can land-cancel nearly all of his projectile options as soon as they are fired, recovering almost instantly and allowing Arthur to follow up with additional zoning. A small delay is required, as otherwise Arthur will land during the startup of his projectile and not fire it at all. Below are some common specials to use off j.S in order to provide large amounts of projectile pressure:

236H Crossbow - The standard choice for zoning patterns. Fires two projectiles at a down-forward angle that reliably cover both the ground and normal jump height. Usually provides enough projectile density to force opponents to superjump around it.

236M Lance - Slightly faster startup than Crossbow. Mainly notable in Anchor situations with either Gold Armor, X-Factor, or both. Gold Armor gives Lances Medium priority, which means that opponents will almost never have a way to contest the projectile without spending a hyper. Lances also have very high base damage and, when utilizing the stacked buffs of Gold Armor and X-Factor, can keep an opponent locked down in blockstun while dealing immense chip damage.

236L Daggers - In the context of a canceled j.S, you will almost never be airborne long enough to throw more than one dagger, making it almost always inferior to Arthur's other 236X options. At superjump height, Arthur can fall long enough to throw out two daggers, which might be useful for the additional vertical coverage.

Managing Gold Armor

Arthur's Gold Armor install enhances both his potential as an assist and on point, and so Arthur teams will usually prefer to get him into Gold Armor quickly and safely.

The simplest way to get Arthur into Gold Armor is to simply activate it raw. King's Armor is invincible during the pre-flash startup. You can use the super flash to judge whether the opponent will be capable of punishing the remaining two frames post-flash, and DHC as necessary.

Additionally, Arthur has a fairly unique reversal option in 623M, which is invincible all the way through its active frames. Although Heavenly Slash's long recovery normally makes it very unsafe and limits its combo potential, 623M > 214XX is roughly neutral on block.

Besides managing being able to safely enter Gold Armor, Arthur uniquely also needs to be able to handle safely exiting Gold Armor when its duration expires, because the end of the hyper's duration places him into a vulnerable Hard Knockdown state. The most reliable way to protect Arthur when his install runs out is to use Goddess' Bracelet (236XX). Arthur can retreat to fullscreen if performing this hyper just before his armor will wear off, and the lingering projectiles can keep an opponent stuck in blockstun long enough that they cannot traverse the stage and OTG Arthur in time.

Mixup Theory

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Counterplay

Anchor Arthur can quickly kill most characters even wiithout opening them up offensively by using very high base damage of fast and durable projectiles like his 236M Lance to quickly deal lots of chip damage while keeping the opponent trapped in blockstun. However, Advancing Guard has a short window during its duration where the pushblocking character is fully immune to chip damage. By intentionally delaying the pushblock input on any blocked lance, it is possible to enter this immunity window just as the next lance connects, negating Arthur's ability to deal any chip damage at all. This creates an impasse where your character can not escape the blockstun of the lances, but Arthur can not actually put any pressure on you, and his X-Factor and Gold Armor timers will be expiring during this. You can see a video example of the correct pushblock timing here.