[UNIEL] Merkava

[Tigre]

Introduction

Welcome to the Merkava thread! Please discuss character strategy, combos, match-ups, and other relevant topics here. Please also feel free to post up any questions you may have about the character as well.

Pre-Match Character Description:

He is melancholic. Grieves over the curse that made his body fallen into the beast.
Lost memory. Transformed body. Eternal hunger is never satisfied.
Crimson world. Running through the blood stained land, wiping the bloody arm.
The beast is called Immortal. This body had lost the peace and hope forever.

Merkava Wiki Page

Notable Players

Crow@r.S
Tatsu-E
Heiho
Zakku
alice
RD

[ShardZ]

Wikia page - http://in-birth.wikia.com/wiki/Merkava_%28Gameplay%29

 

Merkava's 22x, the oki tool where after a bit a snakething comes out and attacks, seems like it's used waaaaaay less in UNIEL compared to UNIB.  Anyone have any idea what changed with that move?

[SoWL]

This character right here is everything I love about fighting games. Long-ranged pokes that beat projectiles, brutal-looking throws that thrash the opponent all over the field, cool design, and of course, UNREAL BLACK THINGS! I don't have much experience with flying characters, but Merkava is totally worth it.

[LatiosG]

Merkava HYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYPE

[Jocelot]

Death Chicken hopeful here. Unfortunately I took too long preordering so I don't think I'll get my copy as soon as I hoped. But seeing you guys playing the one true character will be enough to tide me over.

[MK Peanuts]

Wikia page - http://in-birth.wikia.com/wiki/Merkava_%28Gameplay%29

 

Merkava's 22x, the oki tool where after a bit a snakething comes out and attacks, seems like it's used waaaaaay less in UNIEL compared to UNIB.  Anyone have any idea what changed with that move?

No idea, but I agree, I never see anyone use 22A or 22B. 22C I sometimes see used to end combos.

[ShardZ]

No idea, but I agree, I never see anyone use 22A or 22B. 22C I sometimes see used to end combos.

I think every time I've seen 22x recently the opp DP'd on wakeup and successfully escaped oki. lol

[SaikoXeon]

Wikia page - http://in-birth.wikia.com/wiki/Merkava_%28Gameplay%29

 

Merkava's 22x, the oki tool where after a bit a snakething comes out and attacks, seems like it's used waaaaaay less in UNIEL compared to UNIB.  Anyone have any idea what changed with that move?

I think it's mainly due to the move being really bad as it is. Even 22C can be jumped away form if you use it as oki. I think it's something you'l be throwing out at random times when nothing is going on in neutral given how the move works. So basically never.

[Sojoro]

I only see the EX version being used as a combo ender, mainly in the corner, but even then that's not used as much.

[MK Peanuts]

I think every time I've seen 22x recently the opp DP'd on wakeup and successfully escaped oki. lol

Yeah, since the worms go away when Merkava gets hit and they don't start attacking for a long time once summoned, it seems pretty tough to come up with a tight setup using them. I haven't really seen any.

[SoWL]

I'm more concerned about Merkava's overall poor performance in most videos, mostly because it's the same red one that doesn't really do anything interesting or effective.

[LatiosG]

The Merkava's I've seen have usually been successful in their matches. He seems to have a big issue dealing with close-range pressure since his main reversal is the EX hands. I dont see much utilization of his fly mode outside of divekick combos/mixups and maybe a fireball then and there.

[stickystaines]

I see fly used for setting up safe jumps after combos (i think it's a safe jump anyway).

 

And at least EX arms is safe. The amount of times ive seen blocked arms -> EX ARMS frame trap work is redonkulous.

[Koopa_Klawz]

The Merkava's I've seen have usually been successful in their matches. He seems to have a big issue dealing with close-range pressure since his main reversal is the EX hands. I dont see much utilization of his fly mode outside of divekick combos/mixups and maybe a fireball then and there.

 

 He can use his glide attack out of his flight which is really fast and good for escaping the corner.

 

Also who's the red Merkava who's either ranked 1 or 2? I keep forgetting his name.

[HDKirin]

Pre-Match Character Description:

 

He is melancholic. Grieves over the curse that made his body fallen into the beast.

Lost memory. Transformed body. Eternal hunger is never satisfied.

Crimson world. Running through the blood stained land, wiping the bloody arm.

The beast is called Immortal. This body had lost the peace and hope forever.

 

[SoWL]

中二病乙.

[zerosoulreaver]

Well his fly seems to be used for a lot of air normals that are really good at air to air and air to ground.  He also has a crawl which seems like a pretty good and quick escape tool.

[Magaki]

Wikia page - http://in-birth.wikia.com/wiki/Merkava_%28Gameplay%29

 

Merkava's 22x, the oki tool where after a bit a snakething comes out and attacks, seems like it's used waaaaaay less in UNIEL compared to UNIB.  Anyone have any idea what changed with that move?

Move is REALLY slow, the blockstun isn't that great and most of all, it disappears if Merkava is hit whether it's the normal or EX version. So yeah, it does seem only useful at the end of long combos in order to get a knockdown in the corner rather than going for B+C or 214B.

Saw TatsuE (Best Merkava IMO) use it a long time ago in the corner. After that he walked backwards and waited to see what the opponent would do. Opponent blocked so he rushed to keep pressuring but I think we can either 4B anti-air if the opponent jumps out of it or block if it's a reversal. So yeah, just a basic okizeme tool really.

Saw that in neutral they seem to move really slowly so it might be useful in some matchups for space control I guess ?

[ShardZ]

Yeah, I'm curious to see if 22x can recover fast enough to be useful in neutral vs some chars. Gonna mess with it a bit but it looks like it should be lower on my list of tools to get used to using initially.

[blckknight119]

I can't wait to start kidnapping people.

[Anne]

I see fly used for setting up safe jumps after combos (i think it's a safe jump anyway).

I just want to point out how this works because it's really important. You'll see Merkavas go for flight after ending a combo in 66C or 3C. You can go for a safejump high from the flight, or land and go low. If people respect you can land and then grab or go for a delayed overhead or whatever trickery. If you do go for a higher j.A, you can also gatling into j.B for a double overhead etc. Best thing to do with flight oki is just pretend you're Plat with swallow moon and go crazy. TatsuE likes to get clever and he'll whiff the j.A, then land and go for grab/3C mix up.

EDIT: I should mention you will have to whiff a button(you can actually whiff it in a way where you can't see it) to get rid of the flight's landing recovery before you go for the low.

[greatfernman]

yo, how do i get the anti air version of 236EX, the wiki says hold the button but the wiki is also wrong on the input of fireball so is antiair EX not available anymore

Also I'm pretty sure i've seen throw do more hits than I'm getting, and i'm mashing pretty fast

[Anne]

Ugh Merkava combos are pretty finicky. You're going to be doing a lot of 6[C] > j.6D > j.A > j.B(2) > 66C. If you can't hit that, you're going to have a bad time. It's pretty doable and I'm getting it down offline, but online I have issues timing the j.6D thanks to 6[C]'s hitstop.

[SoWL]

Don't have the game yet, but for the throw, you're supposed to both mash the buttons AND spin the stick to increase the amount of hits.

[Magaki]

You mean 623 EX ?

And yeah. The way his throw works is quite odd. Mashing buttons doesn't do anything. Mashing inputs add a few hits but not as much as we saw in vids. Guess there is a certain timing we have to find to get the maximm amount of damage.

Edit: Guess I wasn't mashing that hard. Yeah, it has to be buttons and inputs being mashed as fast as possible. What's the maximum damage output btw ?