Ctrlaltwtf

There is no height restriction on it, but you have to let yourself actually get off the ground and Tager's jump startup is pretty big. He doesn't stop movement immediately after so it's possible to do a really weird "I landed before it went active" thing on your way down, just like whiffing aerial Potemkin Buster like that. Okay I was curious so I did some testing and I think there's a tiny amount of minimum height, but you really have no need to ever use it that low. Basically the way you input it is a 360 that starts on 7 8 or 9. Don't try to spin the stick, end on a jump, then push the button; that won't work most the time. Be very careful and make sure to give yourself enough time to get off the ground, otherwise you'll do random shit. If you're trying to do the Gadget Flinger thing, I usually have to do that with a super jump.

The knockdown is amazing. When you hit them with it they -instantly- emergency roll like 95% of the time and you get a super fast oki setup. Just gotta learn to time it right, it's like bursting at the right time. Landing a CA on everyone else usually just resets neutral but for Tager it actually puts him in control.

1) Agree 2) I absolutely love his CA. Perfect tool for me imo lol. They did change it in CP, it forces knockdown now so you instantly get oki when you hit someone with it, it's pretty amazing for Tager.

Potential casuals at Shar's on the 4th of July (I have actual holidays now!)

5A Meter Combos (Require Magnetism) DM: 3257/3308 5A>5B/2B>3C>AC whiff>6A>2C>MTW>GF 2B is optimal, going straight to 3C is better than 5B. It makes hardly any difference though. With Spark Bolt DM: 3723 5A>3C>AC>623D>6C>MTW>GF 100 Meter DM: 4288 5A>5B/2B>3C>AC whiff>6A>2C>MTW>TB 100 Meter With Spark Bolt DM: 4703 5A>3C>AC>623D>6C>MTW>TB 5A Corner DM: 2109 5A>2B>5B>3C>ASledge>Hammer>GF Don't use 2B if not close. 5B/5C Corner (Magnetism, or Close) DM: 4156 5B>5C>6A>2C>ASledge>5C>6B>j2C>5B>jC>delay jD>6C>jB>jC>GP DM: 5217 5C>6A>2C>ASledge>5C>6B>j2C>5B>jC>delay jD>6C>delay sjC>jB>jC>GP Overdrive 5A Combos 50 Meter (GF can miss without magnetism) DM: 3861 5A>3C>ODC>5C>OD MTW>GF 100 Meter (doesn't require magnetism) DM: 5121 5A>3C>ODC>5C>OD MTW>OD TB>GF *Can use 5B for easier confirm, but less optimal 100 Meter + Spark Bolt DM: 5218 5A>3C>AC whiff>5C>6A>2C>AC>623D>OD>OD MTW>OD TB>GF 100 Meter + Spark Bolt + <60% Health DM: 5428 5A>3C>ODC>5C>AC>623D>6C>OD MTW>OD TB>GF

The nerfs to the top tiers make him stronger relatively, I am having an easier time winning in 1.1 as opposed to 1.0. Simple as that. I especially noticed a big change to my success rate vs Hazama. His damage and meter gain nerfs force him to work harder to win. You can't judge a character's strength based solely on the character itself. A character's strength is relative to the other characters it has to fight. There were a whole lot of damage nerfs across the board but Tager's damage is unchanged outside of 5A/2A confirms, and even those still do the same damage with meter. This makes Tager's damage really stand out now. Sure, Tager got nerfs. They didn't hurt him as much as the other characters though, so he gained some ground. If you played Hazama in 1.0 and then in 1.1 you will know what I'm talking about.

After grinding 1.1 a lot more I have to say Tager is at his strongest yet, honestly. He's still has absurdly good gimmicks; he has insane setups other grapplers don't. The ability to always do command throws in the air is just incredible to and allows you to do setups that disable opponent's ground reversals. A lot of characters are just fucked against this, because even if they have good reversals on the ground they don't have em in the air. SMP is a godlike tool for a grappler and it benefits Tager way more than anyone else. 5A nerf isn't that bad once you get used to it. You still get ~2k and you can still do high damage meter combos on it. 5A is a tool grapplers use to set things up anyway, rather than rely on for combos. With GF whiff oki you can do meaty 5B's anyway and still get good combos. His combo damage outside of 5A/2A is huge, too. Backdash nerf makes absolutely no sense but it's not hurting me much either. Tager can just 360A everyone out of almost anything he can backstep anyway. The nerfs to everyone elses backdashes, however, is helping me. Especially vs Azrael The nerfs to top-tiers as had a very noticeable impact on my matchups. I simply get more chances to win now because I don't die as quickly. Tager is so comeback-capable that is really making a difference for me. The lack of a true anti-air is definitely annoying, but 2C is still dangerous. Tager's also probably the only grappler I know that can use his command throw as an anti-air with good timing as well (no I'm not talking about AC)

Really amusing fact about this matchup: You can do an obvious 6A to bait Zanshin. He'll likely hold A for Enma cuz he wants good damage. Thing is, 6A>360A gatling will actually win against Zanshin>Enma. You can apply this to oki situations too. Also really good if he's used to countering 6A during your blockstrings.

It's critical to not do 360A as soon as possible, your +3 actually fucks you up here, do it late and the first 5A will whiff. So it's me holding it a bit late, then seeing him whiff a 5A and letting go. This is honestly why I don't like GF oki too much it makes you too + for specific situations. He honestly almost never 5As; if he didn't backdash he jumped instead and he's about to punch me in the face, or he Growlered and I'm flying across the screen. It's a hard read no matter what you do. Yes there's times where I've messed up; he actually backdashed and I didn't get him. But I've never been hit out of a 360A by a 5A. It's less of a reaction and more of a setup I should say. The timing for "hold 360A, he whiffs 5A, let go of the A button" and "hold 360A and let go of the A button when he backdashes" are actually not that far apart. With the changes to backsteps though I've been looking for a potential option select now, though. Not looking likely though. 5A whiff > 720 is the only OS I see for a backdash or a 5A. (honestly not bad at all though) I'm not entirely sure if it's a guaranteed 720 because it's really hard to test with 1 person, but it looks like it is.

I just let go of the button when I see that he's pushing 5A.

The reason I prefer 360A is cuz it beats him mashing 5A as well. Not saying a super hard read isn't necessary (it's what you do on Tager, honestly) but that's why I like 360A most of the time if I'm going to try.

360A is the only one with invuln you rarely if ever have the opportunity the reverse things with 360B; it's there for punishes, hard reads, or setups. 360A is fully invuln from F3 so you only need 3-frame gaps in order to reverse things. 360B has a 6F startup and no invuln so you'd need a 6F gap that isn't a jumping move (hella unlikely against legit players)

GF can work, you can just have to make some different reads. 5A won't work against any of his options except if he mashes 5A himself or jumps (which are both kind of a weird choices for him). Both his back and forward dashes will avoid it and growler will obviously reverse it as well as anything else you do. It's honestly pretty similar to dealing with Arakune on GF oki, only faster, with a very short-range DP in the mix. When I do GF I either hard read a backdash with a held 360A or block and wait in the hopes of seeing a Growler or just blocking his 5A. It really isn't too bad if he does push 5A and put you into blocking because Azrael definitely has holes in his strings that we can exploit due to this link-based nature. 5BB is always 360'able if you IB the first hit, and just about anything he does (that doesn't jump off the ground) after 5BB is 360'able on a IB, sometimes on NB. His 6D and 3D are always 360able so you really shouldn't worry about the mix-up and instead just focus on recognizing them and 360'ing them both. 5D is almost always 360able unless you get unlucky and let go of the button for the brief period he's off the ground. Don't backdash. Tager can't backdash anything anymore but regardless, he was never able to backdash much in this MU anyway because Azrael doesn't gatling. Even if you backdash and make him whiff it doesn't mess him up at all he'll just keep doing things and hit you out of it. So just block things, IB the correct hits, then reverse with a 360. He may anticipate this and try to get out of it but he's always vulnerable when trying to do that. Both his supers suck as reversals in this MU due to how they dive into Tager and aren't very fast. So if he has a lot of heat and you anticipate a mashed reversal on oki just let him do it then 360 him out of it. Scud Punishment has a bit weirder timing for this but it's still doable.

That's because the only real difference is you won't see Tager doing 5A combos anymore.

Just as a heads up in case it hasn't has already been mentioned, 3C>ASledge>5A>jA now works properly on Kokonoe post-1.1

Casuals start at noon btw. I'll probably be there around 5pm though maybe earlier, depends on work volumes.

I'm confirmed for Saturday. Looks like the plan is Shar's place then.

Throw Combos with Meter: Midscreen: DM: 4067 B+C>Jakou>RC sj6D~D>66 6A>5C>2C>4D~delay~D>jCx2>jCx5>Hiren DM: 4618 4B+C>J.Gashou>66 5C>2C>4D~A>j8D~A>Jakou>Mizuchi Midscreen 100 Meter DM: 5230 4/5B+C>Houtenjin>J.Zaneiga>6A>66 5C>2C>4D>Jakou>Mizuchi Corner DM: 4834 B+C>J.Gashou>66 5C>6C>66 5C>2C>4D>Jakou>Mizuchi DM: 4427 4B+C>Zaneiga>66 5C>6C>66 5C>2C>4D>Jakou>Mizuchi 100 Meter + Corner DM: 5327 B+C>J.Gashou>66 5C>6C>3C>Houtenjin>J.Zaneiga (backwards)>Jakou>Mizuchi DM: 5277 4B+C>Houtenjin>J.Zaneiga (backwards)>66 6C>66 5C>2C>4D>Jakou>Mizuchi

Sounds like a plan. I'll request an early shift for that day.

5B>5C>6A>2C>ASledge>3C>AC whiff>5C>6B>jA>jB>delay jC> ( 2C>AC>GF or 5C>6A>2C>AC>GF The 2C version is way easier and more compatible. I've never tried that combo you listed (does it work?) though so I dunno if it does less or not.

It got less hitstun/blockstun/recovery. So rapid cancels would be negatively affected like this. Links became easier though on air hits due to untech time.

I was far away, and Spark Bolt wasn't ready after the AC, this was an ultra-situational thing where Spark Bolt was ready just in time. It won the round for me though and it's worth noting in case you land a random ass 2D or something. --- After some testing, I see that you need to be at least slightly closer than strictly "midscreen" in order to do it. You definitely don't need to be in the corner or anything though. Obviously, this is not optimal, but it's saved my ass for ending the round when Spark Bolt was just barely not ready after AC. Worth keeping in mind.

Unfortunately there's like absolutely no way I can do that with my new schedule starting on the 14th.

Just a heads up, did this on the spur of the moment on a brainwave, but Spark Bolt links after 2D now thanks to the shortened recovery. Use it for those moments you just need a tiny bit more damage.

I use 6C while keeping a bit of distance. Surprisingly effective. I almost never try to meaty Noel with anything too dedicated. It used to be godlike in CSE because her 2D didn't go high enough and she'd get pinned to the ground, so it literally OS'ed every one of her Drive moves. Now I believe her 2D can cross-over you if you're not spaced properly.