Maxima: Metal Man Match-up Thread

[Reiki.Kito]

Hey everyone, Reiki here.

Since we're growing our numbers of people that are playing Maxima, I wanted to go over some match ups and experiences you've had with people. Don't be shy to be combative, it's all so we can weed out the best strategies for our favorite cyborg. I'll start it off with some really bad ones and we'll work from there.

Maxima vs. Andy
Grade + Short Sum: Poor to Fair
- Poor ways of dealing with fireball, EX fireball tactic
- Poor timed jump-ins will eat DP
-Easy Andy cross-ups harder to deal with
Detailed Analysis:
Andy is primarily a zoning character. Depending on the level of Andy play, this match can be Poor or Fair. It can be Fair if you can punish him and encourage him to use specials/fireballs at unsafe distances. It can be Poor if the opponent depends primarily on normals and fireball pressure to zone you. Although Maxima is very tanky, he can't stand up very well against fireball pressure. Coupled with a very bad hop, it's difficult to get in on someone with our favorite juggarnaught without eating DPs for jumping fireballs, or punishment for getting too close in a roll.

The best way to approach this match is patience, especially if you do not have the life lead. You want them to exhaust their options and block. You can encourage them to throw out EX fireballs by guardpointing some of them. Don't try to guardpoint all the fireballs, just some. Be wary of their meter as well as yours. Once you're in, almost all his block strings or specials are punishable. Most of Andy's specials can be punished with either a regular weak vapor cannon, an EX vapor cannon, Maxima press (Command grab), or EX Double Vapor Cannon (3 frame start-up and invul on start-up).

Once you score a knockdown, it's pretty cut and dry what you can do. Without using meter, you can go for a roll set-up. You roll on top of them as they're waking up. Make him confused which side you're on and go for a full combo if they block wrong. If you don't have much confidence in your hit confirming or think they will not commit to doing a special, you can roll over them and command grab or st.C into command grab. At that range, even if he blocks right, you cancel into command grab which has pretty forgiving recovery on whiff.

With meter, you can keep the pressure on without much risk. Hop in on a knock down and use EX vapor cannon as they get up. If they try to DP, your 360 degree guard point will eat it. If they super, same thing, you'll eat it. If they do nothing, it's very safe on block and allows you to land into a st.C or st.D if you'd like. It may seem like a waste of meter, but staying in Andy's face and making him block puts you at advantage. You don't want to give him back the momentum.

EXPERIMENTAL:

If you're having a hard time dealing with cross-ups from Andy, there's something you can try. Guardpoint his jump-in. If you guardpoint him at the very top of your head, you can do qcf+C. This will make Maxima throw strong Vapor Cannon the other way. I've tried doing A version, and you end up with Maxima throwing vapor cannon facing the wrong direction (He doesn't cross up, but Maxima throws vapor cannon with his back facing Andy. :S Bad days!). You can also do st.CD as the guard point move. This works with A vapor cannon as well. This has not been tested with EX moves, but will give it a shot.
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Maxima vs. Clark
Grade + Short Sum:: Poor to Good
-B Command grab gives throw invulnerability/ D grab on his wake-up is slow enough to beat it though
-Hop CD great air-to-air and requires some timing to anti-air.
-Clark has great long range pokes, but Maxima can GP them into some nice damage.
-Most of Clark's other specials are not safe on block, giving Maxima for free punishment.
Detailed Analysis:

You have to respect and keep in mind his wake-up space. You should not be in his range trying to poke him unless you're intending to jump. He has strong control over close quarters and his B command grab has throw invulnerability for a brief amount of time. It's important to note that if he wakes up and does it, you can throw out D grab as your best option. Otherwise, neutral hop with D or A for good air-to-ground pressure. With Maxima, you really have to respect Clark's face can't do that because most of your moves wind up not respecting his space for lack of zoning tools. Keep aware of his options and meter at every range. At far off range, he can't do anything and neither can you. He might try to reversal with EX Gattling Attack or any version, but remember that none of them are safe. After you get hit, smack him with d.A (One of your faster normals) for a full combo.

His roll setups can be very confusing as you don't know which side he's on as you wake-up. What I'd suggest, if you have meter, is to neutral hop. If you feel like you're going to get grabbed, neutral hopping stops him for free. You can even do j.D and smack him for a full combo. He really LEANED into that crap. I know how you feel; I have to deal with it a lot against CharREX. If he stops doing the B grab and goes for a normal combo, you can also wake up and do a command grab. He did not seem sloppy with his rolls, but you can feel it out if he's going to be behind you.

So finally: How to deal with early jump CD

The active frames on the move are long and they're horizontal. You're likely not going to beat it air to air. If he's going to try to keep you in, with any character, I'd throw out a move that's in invincible on start-up or something I know will trade. For one, Maxima's st.A is five frames and will likely trade with Clark if you throw it out. It's a great deterrent for hops. If he's jumping really high, but you're certain he's not going to cross-up, I'd throw out a df+C. It costs you nothing, you'll get counter hit, and probably break even. If you think he's going to do it. If you have meter, you can use DP+BD. You could do the regular Double Vapor Cannon. If you're feeling you can time it just right, you can neutral jump and do EX Air Vapor Cannon. High in the air, you'll land way before he does and be able to time an EX Maxima Press for a pretty nice corner combo.

DF+C
Let me touch on more about the df+C. If he's really jumping high, I wouldn't do it. You'll likely miss. However, if you think he's going to hop and do it, like time it real deep? I'd do it and follow it up with DP+B. Put your dummy in practice mode, as Clark, and hop at Maxima for a meaty CD. As Maxima, do df+C and the dp+B. You'll notice you'll counter hit him. You can follow it up with dp+B. Now he's knocked down. Staying outside his grab range, go for a meaty sweep. You can try to set the dummy to do his B grab or D grab, but what will likely happen is you'll hit him as he wakes up. If he blocks, you scored 233 damage. If he didn't, he's knocked down again and you did 300 damage to 333 damage to him. This is very serious punishment. You want to make him scared of YOUR hop space now.

Air-to-air option
Now lets try air-to-air options. Earlier, I mentioned you're probably not going to have an easy time with jump CD if you're anti-airing it. After talking with Laban, I have a new facet of how to approach Clark's CD. If you hop CD, it'll cover a lot of space and your move will come out faster. You will likely hit your opponent. Although Maxima's CD is slow, its got a wide amount of range like Clark's so you can have some jump CD fights with your opponent. By neutral hopping CD, you're stopping him before he can get in and requires him to do something else. He might jump higher (super jump) or time the move meaty so as to beat out your neutral jump defense. This is where you can use st.A or st.B to poke and still cover the airspace after you land from the hop.

You can also jump over him, higher than him, and do a jump CD. If you time it properly, he'll come down from his CD and be below Maxima. The hitbox has very little vertical area above him which allows you to counter CD him without trading or being hit. Make the Clark player second guess their approach on you with hop CD and they'll use other methods of poking. Making them try new things and adjust is a win on your part. Mind you, this is all if you predict it and react in enough time. In midscreen, you can give up some ground to hop backwards and CD. This allows the Maxima player enough space to tip his CD to hit Clark before, or after the animation comes out while being at a safe distance.

As mentioned earlier, you can use EX Air Vapor Cannon as a decent air-to-air, giving you more superiority and allowing for some follow ups if you have more meter.

Pressured in the corner
In the corner, that's a little different. If you try to do something like even punch him, your st.A or st.C might whiff and he'll hit you on the way down. If he times it meaty, doing st.D is great. Why? Even if the move his slow, you have guard point. You can CANCEL guard point at any time and nail him with a regular vapor cannon or a D grab if he's too slow to react on the way down.

If you think he's gonna jump over you and if you press a button he'll cross you up, you can do C vapor cannon the other way (qcf+C). What this does is puts him in the corner and guard points his jump in.  Giving you the opportunity to hit him when he lands.


EDIT: If you feel like you can't do any of the things I stated against Clark and his command grabs, but feel the person is not putting much effort or thought into Clark, you can abuse Alternate guarding. Alternate guarding is the bane of all grapplers where you can extend your blockstun by rapidly going from back to down-back with your joystick. You will make command grabs whiff. It's kind of cheap to abuse it, but it throws your opponent off. Use sparingly, will make you vulnerable to lows.

Laban has put out a nice video for people to see about the topic as well as going in as the grappler.

KOF: Alternate Guard

[Reiki.Kito]

Something I should note about all fireball characters and fireball wars.

Ground-type fireballs can be guardpointed with st.D much easier than st.C or d.C.

When you guardpoint fireballs, you can cancel the guardpoint. The move with the best recovery and meter gain is hcb+B. From half screen, GP a fireball and guardcancel into the grab. You'll gain meter, they won't. If they are lobbing constant fireballs, block one, gp grab the second or vapor cannon for more meter gain. You'll gain way more meter than them and they have to start advancing on you.

Keep in mind if they start throwing slow fireballs and advance after you. GP the slow fireball and cancel into vapor cannon if they dash at you. Characters like Mai are probably not the best to try this because of her jump and movement speed, but for most characters, this will help. You can also use d.C into df+C/dp+K if you feel they're gonna super jump.