UMVC3/Strider Hiryu/Strategy

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Movement and Neutral Options

Video Guide - Marvelo's Strider Tutorial Part 2: Neutral Game

Fighting at Long Range

Strider's long-range game is surprisingly strong, and he matches up well against many zoning-focused characters by taking advantage of these tools:

  • 214L Tiger is very quick, low-commitment, and spammable as a grounded projectile. It has very low durability, which can be compensated by layering it with his other Formation specials. Strider can dash up behind a tiger to start his offense.
  • 214H Bird bomb is similarly very fast. The bomb itself is a "wall" of durability that will completely shut down many beams or other projectiles that try to pass through it. It also has a "hidden missiles" effect, where the delayed explosion can protect Strider even if he gets hit while calling out the bird, and it can also turn a random trade into a full combo for Strider.
  • 214S Formation B is generically strong as a projectile and can be thrown out in-between his other long-range tools for extra pressure.
  • 623H (and 623M) are long-range physical hits that cause a Wall Bounce on hit. In particular, Tiger Knee H Gram (6239H) is very threatening, as it has almost zero recovery, allowing Strider to convert a random fullscreen hit into a full combo. Although TK Gram has superior recovery, it will whiff on many crouching characters, a weakness that does not apply to regular, grounded Gram. If Strider has Formation B (214S) already stocked, he can cancel grounded Gram into the shot, making it just as good as the TK version.

Lastly, Strider's strength at long range is supported by the fact that he can punish many full-screen zoning attempts with his Vajra teleport. Simply performing 421M, falling j.H when you expect a beam or projectile is a fairly universal punish.If the opponent tries to cancel their projectile with X-Factor or a hyper to punish Strider, he can simply choose to not attack while falling, or double-jump to safety. 421H Vajra can also be used against opponents trying to zone at superjump height, punishing them with a Hard Knockdown.

Approaching

When Strider does want to approach an opponent, he has several means of doing so:

  • 3H Slide is a long-range Low attack that can close distance quickly while low-profiling many projectiles and other attacks. It is unsafe on block and can not be special-canceled, so it should be paired with assist calls to protect Strider's recovery.
  • Dash-up 5H is another surprisingly long-range tool and leads to easy pressure if it connects, especially when supported by a lockdown assist.
  • Dash-up 5L and 2L is very low-commitment pressure. Notably, if an opponent pushblocks either of these normals, the Advancing Guard Delay means that Strider is at huge plus frames, enough that he can dash up and link another L normal.

Strider can also approach by dashing into an Instant Air Doublejump, detailed below.

Instant Air Doublejump

Instant Air Doublejump
Moderate


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Strider's double-jump is uniquely short among characters who have one. This can be utilized to perform a lower jump than what would otherwise be possible. Unlike an airdash, there is no minimum height requirement for a double-jump - it can be performed instantly upon leaving the ground. This is true for any character who has a double-jump, but is especially important for Strider. Strider's regular jump is floatier than average, and his double-jump is much shorter than average. As a result, if Strider inputs a double-jump immediately upon leaving the ground, the double-jump momentum will override his regular jump momentum, and he will stay very close to the ground. This is called an Instant Air Double-Jump, or just Instant Double Jump (IADJ/IDJ).

An optimal Instant Double Jump is done by inputting any jump, waiting 3 frames for the pre-jump animation, and then inputting a second jump on the fourth frame. However, even much sloppier inputs can still result in a shorter jump arc than normal. A 10-frame gap between jump inputs will result in a height that is effectively the same as a normal jump, and shortening the gap will result in progressively shorter jumps.

Video Guide - IADJ on button-based controllers
Handcam - IADJ with stick on P1 side on P2 side

A perfectly-timed IADJ allows Strider to perform an Instant Overhead j.L on almost the entire cast, which is an extremely fast overhead that can be easily confirmed with a j.L j.H j.S sequence. However, most players will opt to use j.H (specifically j.6H) as their normal of choice off an Instant Doublejump. Although 4 frames slower than j.L, j.H is still a very fast overhead. It has the advantage of still connecting against most opponents even if the IADJ input is not perfect, it also option-selects an airthrow in case opponents try to Chicken Block Strider's pressure. Additionally, j.H can sometimes hit as a cross-up, adding an extra layer to Strider's offense.

Impotantly, Strider can buffer the IADJ input during other actions. If, for example, Strider is performing a falling j.H, or just set up a 214S Formation, he can buffer the IADJ input while recovering from those actions, and immediately get a perfect double-jump right afterwards. This allows Strider to layer his pressure by following up many of his great offense tools into another Instant Overhead.

Formation B

214S is a critical move for Strider's neutral and pressure due to its use as a general cancel tool. The 214S input refers to both Formation B (Deploy), where Strider sets up the satellite, and Formation B (Shot), where he fires the satellite as a projectile. Strider can cancel any normal attack into either Deploy or Shot. In particular, canceling 5H, 2H or 6H into Deploy allows Strider to turn a move that is slightly negative on block into one that is neutral or even plus, while simultaneously setting up a Formation for later use. This cancel can also be done on whiff.

Formation B (Shot) is notable because Strider can also cancel his grounded specials into Shot. Ame-no-Murakamo (236X) and Gram (623X) are normally both quite minus on block, but having a Formation B stocked allows Strider to cancel these moves and maintain a large amount of frame advantage, leading to more pressure. A common sequence for Strider is 5H > 214S, 5H 6H > 623L > 214S using both the Deploy and Shot aspects of Formation B to repeatedly cancel Strider's moves and maintain momentum. In general, Strider wants to constantly be weaving into and out of Formation B to take advantage of these powerful cancels.


Strider's dashes cause him to "slide" across the stage, and if he cancels his dash into a normal attack, he retains a good amount of this sliding momentum through the attack's animation. This is very useful with 5H.

  • A forward dash canceled into 5H will combine the forward momentum of Strider's dash, the forward step of the 5H animation, and the attack's naturally long range to connect from surprisingly far away, which can catch opponents off-guard.
  • A backdash canceled into 5H will cause Strider to "shuffle" in place, because the backdash's momentum and the forward step of the attack's animation cancel each other out. This can be very annoying to deal with in a grounded neutral game.

In either case, remember that you can cancel 5H into 214S for even better recovery. Then, remember that you can buffer an Instant Air Doublejump during the 214S animation for even more mobility and pressure!

Mixup Theory

Video Guide - Marvelo's Strider Tutorial Part 4: Resets, Raw Tags, and Random Tech

If Strider has assists available, he can very easily set up Left/Right mixups using his Wallcling (214S) and Vajra (421M) specials.

Wallcling setups:
5H + Call Assist > 236S, L > 236L (switch to cross-up side and then stay there for multiple attacks)
5H + Call Assist > 236S, 6, rejump IADJ, j.H j.S (cross-up with assist, then hop back to original side and tranisition into IADJ offense)
5H + Call Assist > 236S, 6, land, 2L (fakeout to Low)
5H + Call Assist > 236S, 6, land, Throw (fakeout to throw)

The basic Teleport setup is:
5H + Call Assist > 421M, falling j.H
Depending on the timing of the assist call and Teleport cancel, this can be made to hit either cross-up or same-side. Even if the mixup is successfully blocked, as Strider falls with j.H, he is at frame advantage and can land and go into his standard High/Low/Throw mixup with IADJ as needed.


Oncoming Mixups

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Counterplay

If a Strider player is relying on the 5H + Call Assist > 421M cross-up setup, know that a delayed pushblock on the canceled normal will always shove Strider back to the original side, negating most of the Left/Right mixup.