Movement and Neutral Options
6H Stinger can uniquely be kara-canceled into a dash, meaning that Vergil can Plink Dash forward without having to actually plink inputs. Simply mashing 6MH will cause Vergil to rapidly dash forward. Keep in mind that Vergil still has to properly plink dash or wavedash when moving backwards.
Vergil's primary goal in neutral is to make the opponent block either Round Trip or Spiral Swords (623XX). Once Vergil has established that it is his turn, he can maintain that pressure for a very long time with minimal windows for the opponent to escape, piling on mixup options and chip damage. In order to maximize the extent to which Vergil can keep an opponent locked down, he can take advantage of the Round Trip Glitch
Under normal circumstances, Vergil's Round Trip attack requires 90 consecutive frames of charge in order to activate. Vergil can switch which button is held mid-charge, so long as at least one button remains held at all time. If Vergil releases all held buttons, he will lose his charge and must start over from the beginning. Obviously, this also includes releasing all held buttons in order to actually activate Round Trip. Furthermore, if Vergil activates Round Trip, he can not start charging a second Round Trip until the sword returns to him. This serves as a limiter on how often he can utilize this powerful move.
A glitch allows Vergil to retain his Round Trip charge even after activating the move. Although he can not have multiple Round Trips active at once, he can still use this to fire Round Trips much faster than normal. To perform the glitch, release the held button during the hitstop caused by landing any normal attack (Note: this is Hitstop, not Hitstun). Instantly re-hold the button after releasing it, before the hitstop concludes. If done correctly, Vergil will perform Round Trip, but maintain the blue glow on his arm indicating the move is fully charged. As soon as Round Trip has completed, Vergil will be able to perform another Round Trip with minimal delay.
The recipe above shows Vergil using a held L input for Round Trip, and activating the glitch during the hitstop of 6H Stinger. This is one of the most common ways that the Round Trip Glitch is utilized in normal matches, due to the high amount of hitstop caused by 6H. However, Vergil can perform the glitch off any special-cancelable normal, including air normals, so long as they hit or are blocked.
Mixup Theory
The Pope Select is a 3-way option select that takes advantage of Stinger's unique interaction with Vergil's forward dash. It essentially works this way:
- If the opponent is on the ground and throwable, 6MH will ground throw them.
- If the opponent is not throwable on the ground, then 6MH will cause Vergil to dash, which he will immediately jump-cancel, then
- If the opponent is in the air and throwable, {{{2}}} will airthrow them.
- Finally, if the opponent isn't throwable in the air either, {{{2}}} will option-select Helm Breaker, which is fast, has a great hitbox, and is very difficult to punish.
As a result, the Pope Select covers a large variety of potential defensive options from the opponent and allows Vergil to set up a dangerous, nearly risk-free mixup nearly any time that he is close to the opponent and has frame advantage. Vergil can go for a Pope Select off several common situations he can set up in neutral. After an opponent blocks Round Trip, after they block Spiral Swords, after they block an assist, after nearly any normal canceled into Devil Trigger (214XX), and so on. To close the distance and set up a Pope Select offense, Plink Dash in with mashed 6MH, then wavedash once when close (36MH) to make the next dash option-select a throw and transition into the Pope Select.
Oncoming Mixups
ShadyK Anchor Vergil Oncoming Setups
These setups usually want Vergil to have both X-Factor and Devil Trigger active. The speed boost from X-Factor allows Vergil to more quickly perform cross-ups, and Devil Trigger increases the size of the Round Trip projectile, making the setups more practical to land and confirm.
Jump back j.]L[, land, 214L/214M, dash up 5L Video Timestamp
Basic setup of a midscreen kill. Long-range Round Trip makes this resistant to almost any kind of mashed button or airdash by the incoming character. The mixup comes from the Left/Right of whether Vergil's dash will cross under the opponent or not, which is very difficult to see. Alternatively, cross under with 623H Rapid Slash.
Dash back ]L[, dash back 214H, land, 5S Video Timestamp
Very ambiguous cross-up in terms of when Round Trip hits. To time properly, try to throw Round Trip quickly, so that it is already returning to Vergil before the next opponent appears on screen. Once Round Trip is flying back towards Vergil, input 214H to teleport above the now-appearing opponent, and Round Trip will hit them cross-up. This is a knowledge check - it will consistently hit cross-up even though it looks like it should not. If your opponent is familiar with this setup and holding forward against grounded Round Trip, then Vergil can fakeout by replacing 214H, land, 5S with 214M, 5M which will instead hit same-side.
Dash back, Superjump, j.]L[, land, 214L/214M, 5S Video Timestamp
Standard Left/Right mixup with Round Trip depending on the choice of Teleport used. The clever part of this setup is that the screen scroll of Vergil's superjump makes it more difficult to see where Vergil is teleporting. By the time the camera has returned to ground level and properly shows Vergil's location, it is too late.
CorkyJay Oncoming Setups
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Mixup Options off the "Miniboss" Sideswitch Snap
Vergil's snap back has a very long recovery, which limits his options to mix up the incoming character. However if your combo into snap carries the opponent to the corner, you can do Stinger and then throw Round Trip before the snap and teleport twice, causing screen tear due to his first teleport tracking the character you snapped out, while Round Trip hits the incoming character. This makes it very difficult for the opponent to see what is going on, allowing for some nasty mixups especially combined with assists. There is a short window between the character coming in and Round Trip hitting(unless your second teleport is the H version), during which they can attempt to double jump/airdash out, however this can easily be filled in with assists.
Counterplay
Video Guide - FChamp explains how to fight Vergil
Key highlights from the video:
- Helm Breaker is safe if stand-blocked or crouch-blocked, but many characters can Chicken Block it (hold up-back), then quickly land and punish with a fast normal, like 2L or 5L. or punish with a ground throw.
- Most of Vergil's cancel options after blocked Helm Breaker will also lose to a fast 2L, however, Vergil can chain j.2H into 5S upon landing, which will blow up mashed light attacks and requires a different punish.
- If you notice Vergil is regularly chaining blocked Helm Breaker into his 5SHSH string, then pushblocking Helm Breaker will make 5S whiff, making it very punishable.
- A common low-level Vergil strategy is to activate Spiral Swords at fullscreen and then approach with either 214L or 214M for a "cross-up". This is fake; when Vergil teleports in this way, the initial swords will always hit same-side, so holding down-back is completely safe. You can then react to the teleport afterwards and switch block direction as needed.
- This only applies to "raw" Swords -> Teleport in a neutral situation. Vergil can make swords hit cross-up by teleporting in certain reset situations.
- Another common Vergil trick is to put you into blockstun, then call an assist and teleport, which makes the assist an ambiguous cross-up. This can be beaten consistently by performing a delayed pushblock on reaction to the assist call. The pushblock will keep your character in extended blockstun, removing the small blockstring gap where the assist is able to cross up.
- Some characters have tools to punish raw Spiral Swords activation, depending on spacing.
- Some characters (not all of them!) can buffer Snapback on response to Spiral Swords' super flash, and trade with the swords, which deletes them. This trades one bar for both players, and gives you a slight frame advantage as Vergil takes longer to tech roll out of the Snapback trade than you do.
