Fighter's History Dynamite/Marstorius

FHD main page | The Characters

Introduction

Remember Zangief in the old SF2's? Remember how his Spinning Piledriver did crazy damage and could be done from a mile away, but was sometimes tough to pull off because of the 360° motion? Okay, now imagine a grappler that has a move that does similar damage to the SPD with similar reach, and can be performed by a mere half circle motion. Even better, a character that can actually legitimately COMBO this grab during hitstun, without the need to tick into it?? That's Marstorius!

Sounds too good to be true? Well, there is a slight catch... to balance out the brokenness involved with his grab, Marstorius was given a jump that's extremely low to the ground. So low, that he has severe problems jumping over fireballs, making it even easier for Ryu-type characters to keep him from getting in. Ouch. But, he has some other sneaky tools that help in getting around the projectile problem.......

Marstorius isn't a character for everyone. It will take some practice to get used to his moves and his strange jump. But if you're a Zangief player in the SF2 series (or you play grappler-type characters in any other fighting game), then this is definitely the character for you.

Weak Spot

Frame count	-	2	2	-

Marstorius has the odd distinction of being the only character with his weak point on his feet. This is a double-edged sword. Since it's so low on his body, most special moves will not hit his weak point at all when he's on the ground so he doesn't take as much damage from some combos as certain other characters do. But, he can still be dizzied very easily since all most characters have to do are a crouching LK x2 into crouching HK chain to instantly dizzy him. Marstorius also tends to get hit in the feet when he tries to jump over fireballs, which is another huge problem with his low jump.

Color Options

Punch	Kick

Moves List

Quick Reference

Special move name	Input	Nickname	Note
Dash Lariat	Charge , +	lariat	requires longer charge time
Kneel Kick	Charge , +		anti-air, requires longer charge time
Moonsault Press	Charge , +	moonsault
Flying Knee Drop	Charge , +	knee drop	anti-air, reversal, jump through projectiles
Double German	/ +		command throw
Drill Power Slam	/ +	drill slam	rushing command throw

Normal Moves

Light Punch

• Standing (Close):

Damage	5	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	+6
On block	+7
Frame count		2	3	3

Close-range elbow. Not chainable.

• Standing (Far):

Damage	5	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	yes
Special cancel	yes
On hit	+6
On block	+7
Frame count		2	3	3

Open-palm strike that hits high, will whiff crouching opponents.

• Crouching:

Damage	5	Startup			Recovery
Chain cancel	yes
Special cancel	yes
On hit	+3
On block	+4
Frame count		2	2	3	4

Weird short-range knife-hand attack, but has lots of priority. Awesome anti-air.

• Jumping (Diagonal/Neutral):

Damage	9	Startup
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	∞

Elbow drop. Doesn't hit very deep, horrible move for jump-ins.

Strong Punch

• Standing (Close/Far):

Damage	20	Startup				Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	-5
On block	-10
Frame count		4	2	2	2	20

Standing chop! Looks fairly similar to Honda's chop from SF2HF. Not bad anti-air, hits crouching opponents. Always cancel it with a Double German attempt to cut off the recovery frames with another attack.

• Crouching:

Damage	20	Startup			Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	-3
On block	-8
Frame count		4	2	2	20

Crouching chop! Better anti-air than standing one. Use this if you don't have the Rising Knee charged, it has amazing priority.

• Jumping (Diagonal):

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	6	∞

Cross chop with safe weak spot. Nothing to say here because you probably will use D+HP aerial all the times.

• Jumping (Neutral):

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	4	∞

Jumping chop! Not all that useful.

Light Kick

• Standing (Close):

Damage	5	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	+5
On block	+6
Frame count		2	3	4

Foot stomp, not chainable. Hitbox is thick and hits pretty low, so can be used to hit weak spots.

• Standing (Far):

Damage	5	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	+2
On block	+3
Frame count		2	4	6

Not chainable knee kick. Doesn't comboes into itself.

• Crouching:

Damage	5	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	+5
On block	+6
Frame count		2	3	4

One of Mars' best normal moves, since you can buffer it into Double German for a combo against anyone not blocking low. This attack is not chainable into other normal attacks, but he's at frame advantage after hit and you can potentially link a crouching LP or HK afterwards.

• Jumping (Diagonal):

Damage	9	Startup
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	∞

Short-range knee attack. Would be a worthless jumping attack but you can crossup with it.

• Jumping (Neutral):

Damage	9	Startup
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	∞

This hitbox is so good for crossups it's painful that it's a neutral jump.

Strong Kick

• Standing (Close):

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	-3
On block	-8
Frame count		4	6	18

Headbutt. Wait, kick button is a headbutt? Whatever. Use it to combo into Double German, of course.

• Standing (Far):

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	-3
On block	-8
Frame count		4	6	18

Long-range kick without (thankfully) weak spot on it. Great move as far anti-air.

• Crouching:

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	yes
On hit	kd
On block	-10
Frame count		2	8	18

Probably the best sweep in the game, comes out on frame 3 and has colossal range. Usually to adjust priority of the move hurtboxes extends forward, but in this case it's bare minimum (at startup and active frames, not recovery). Whenever you do a sweep, always do a Double German motion to cancel the recovery time, whether it hits or is blocked.

• Jumping (Diagonal):

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	5	∞

Risky attack with weak spot, better use diagonal j.HP.

• Jumping (Neutral):

Damage	20	Startup
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	∞

Leg drop! Looks funny but not all that great.

Special Normals

• Enzuigiri: +

Damage	16	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
On hit	kd
On block	-3
Frame count		17	14	10

Marstorius does a small hop and falls to the ground with a kick. Knocks down on hit and must be blocked high. Kind of an odd move, but it has its uses - it's great for hopping over sweeps and ocasionaly as an overhead. To perform it consistently input UF~HK. It pushes back quite a way on block so it's fairly safe, but pushing the opponent away isn't what you want to do...

• Body Splash: (in air) // +

Damage	20	Startup
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	∞

Best move by far for crossing up opponents when you're close, so abuse the hell out of it.

• Drop Kick: (in air) // +

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery
Chain cancel	no
Special cancel	no
Frame count		4	10	∞

One of the two of his jumping attacks that actually knocks down on hit. If you want to knock them down instead of use the hitstun to combo into Double German, then do this. Has very nice range too.

Throws

Damage	22
	21
Range (From pushbox)	31

• German Suplex: / +
• Front Suplex: / +

Special Moves

• Dash Lariat: Charge , +

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery
On hit	Light/Hard kd
On block	Light/Hard -10
Frame count	Light	8	6	20
	Hard	18	6	20

TIGER!! Marstorius charges at the opponent and delivers a clothesline that knocks down on hit. The LP version doesn't travel very far, HP goes farther but means a much longer delay before the attack comes out (enough of a delay to get you killed if the opponent is alert). The good news is that it's safe on block, as you're pushed back quite a ways. The bad news is that... well, you're pushed back quite a ways, and being far away isn't where you want to be with Marstorius. The other problem with this move is that it's one of the few moves in the game that has a longer charge time than average. That means if you want to use this, you need to remain immobile for a while (or at least get as much of the charge done as possible in a jump). Marstorius isn't a character you want to stay still with either! So this isn't a move you want to overuse normally. Throw it in there every now and then when your opponent completely forgets that Marstorius can quickly charge across the screen in an instant. (There is one very important instance in which you should be performing this move, and that's after a Double German. More on that later.)

• Kneel Kick: Charge , +

Damage	20	Startup			Recovery, weak spot reappears
On hit	Light kd Hard kd
On block	Light -13 Hard -14
Frame count	Light	4	4	4	21
	Hard	4	4	4	22

Uhh... well, this move is decent anti-air, and it knocks down on hit on the ground. HK version travels a bit further than the LK one. Unfortunately it's pretty laggy on block, it doesn't have ANY invulnerability and like the Dash Lariat it requires a longer charge time. The other horrible thing about this move is that you may be prone to getting this accidentally sometimes due to move overlap when you wanted a Rising Knee instead. If this happens, it's because you're completing your Rising Knee input as Up-Forward instead of Up... try Up-Back instead to ensure this awful move doesn't come out.

• Moonsault Press: Charge , +

Damage	20	Startup		Recovery, landing
On hit	Depends on character height
On block
Frame count	Light	24	15	7
	Hard	24	20	7

MOOOOOONSAULT! Marstorius flips into the air and comes down with a body splash that must be blocked high. It does not knockdown on hit, allowing you to combo a Double German if it hits (but special move damage scaling will completely rape the damage). On the first 3 frames 1/3 of lower hurtbox is already absent (and 2/3 at the next 3 frames), thus making it safer against most of the sweeps. There's a bit of lag on this when you land, making this move a lot worse than it should be for the purpose of getting over fireballs, but Mars has Knee Drop for this. This isn't really worth using much outside of occasional mixups after a Double German.

• Flying Knee Drop: Charge , +

Damage	16/16						Recovery, landing
On hit	Light kd/kd Hard -12/kd
On block	Light -6/+2 Hard -17/0
Frame count	Light	3	3	6	16	4	10
	Hard	3	3	6	27	6	10

One of Mars' most useful moves by far. He does one knee attack on the way up, and another on the way down. On the LK version, the first hit will knock down. The first hit of the HK version does not knock down, but if done close enough to the opponent Marstorius will usually cross them up, which catchs a lot of people not expecting to have to block the other way! There is a gap between these two hits though so it's not guaranteed (Second hit of either version always knocks down, BTW). There is a small period of invincibility on the first hit when Marstorius is going up, which gives him a perfect anti-air move (assuming you're charged), and it's very nice as a wakeup (although you can always just use Double German instead). The best thing about this move's invincibility is that it becomes a very viable way to pass through fireballs unharmed. Since his regular jump is completely unreliable at getting over fireballs, use this instead to advance on an opponent trying to keep you out with a nonstop barrage of fireballs. Be careful though, since the HK version goes farther you will often end up landing in range of their sweep, and they will usually recover before you land, allowing them to go back to pushing you out.

• Double German: / +

Damage	37	...
Range (From hurtbox)	?

Marstorius' signature move. Landing this means a loss of at least 25% life for your opponent. The range on his grab is insane (you can grab them from over one character width away!), and of course you can combo into it during hitstun in this game's engine. Even better, Marstorius has a sick array of mixups he can do after landing a Double German, and potentially catch the enemy with another one (see the Strategy section for some examples of what you can do). Needless to say that when you play Marstorius, landing this grab as often as you can is your goal.

• Drill Power Slam: / +

Damage	Hitbox 1 Throw 34	Startup		Recovery: (20) - if whiffs/blocked (52) - if hits
On hit	+41
On block	-6*
Frame count		6	28	20	52

*Frame advantage is measured as 20f of recovery + 2f of additional lag from active frames

That's a pretty bizarre motion, huh? If you can actually pull this off, then Marstorius lets out a frightening yell and quickly glides a full screen towards his opponent. You need to connect the hitbox first to trigger a throw. If this move isn't blocked, then he spinning tackles them to the ground and does damage comparable to the Double German. If it IS blocked... well, he stops in front of the opponent and gives them an opportunity to land a free sweep or combo. If you can actually do this move consistently without leaving the ground, then maaaaaaaybe it's worth doing every now and then to completely frighten your opponent. Light and Hard versions are identical.

Combos

• jump-in Body Splash (D+HP), cr.LP, s.HK, Lariat
• Moonsault (charge D,U+P), cr.LP, s.HK, Lariat
• j.HP, Double German
• deep jump-in LP/LK, s.HK, Drill Slam (corners opponent from half-stage)

The Basics

As if it hasn't been made abundantly clear yet, your entire gameplan with Marstorius is to land the Double German as often as you can. The frightening range will scare your opponent into playing defensively, so you have to learn how to chase them down so you can get in range to land the Double German. Most of the cast have fireballs, and they'll be shooting them like there's no tomorrow to keep you out. This of course is a problem for Marstorius since he has no way to completely counter them, and his low jump means that jumping isn't always an option.

The most reliable way to get through fireballs is the Knee Drop. It's recommended you stick with the LK version though. Yes, the LK version doesn't go as far as the HK one, but that's kind of the point - the HK one won't reach the opponent if you do it from too far away, but you will land in front of your opponent... at which point they'll most likely have recovered from their fireball, and they can sweep you and push you back out. You lose life and distance from the opponent, which isn't good. What you want to do is advance slowly until you're within sweep range, as this is when the opponent will start sweating.

The LP Dash Lariat is an excellent weapon once you're in sweep range. It comes out quickly and knocks down on hit, and can often end up trading with fireballs if you do it fast enough. The downside to it is of course the charge time, but this is where charge buffering comes in handy. If you do a special move like the Knee Drop, always return to Down-Back as soon as you can.

Here's a fun fact about Marstorius' Double German; As mentioned above, you can combo into his grab with a normal on hit by buffering the throw off it. But what happens when you do, for example, crouching light kick into a light DG and the opponent blocks the LK? Well, the grab attempt will transform into a standing light punch! The same will happen with heavy DG, it'll change into a standing heavy punch. This also works if they block or get hit by a normal outside the grab's range. My guess on why this happens is that the grab doesn't have a whiff animation, so the game just throws out the corresponding normal move of the grab attempt. As you can imagine, this creates a very simple yet powerful automatic option select coupled with the fact that Marstorius can grab from such a long distance. You can just poke with his normals and buffer the grab into all of them, if the normal gets blocked, a s.LP or s.HP will come out, if it hits, they'll get thrown and put into a wakeup situation where you can try and repeat this until they die. Using light DG is advisable since the standing LP recovers fast, thus you can continue your poke string or try to move in and then grab them. You can also use this trick to make some of his otherwise unsafe normals safe on block, like crouching HK. But this doesn't mean you can cancel any of his normals into a command grab combo, the normal must keep them grounded, so you can't just c.HK and grab them, if the sweep hits at any distance, a s.LP or s.HP will come out like they would have blocked the sweep. All in all it's a very simple and powerful trick, maybe even a glitch. Using this trick to it's fullest potential is _essential_ for high level Marstorius play. Practice it if you're intended on picking up FHD's grappler.

Advanced Strategy

So you managed to get in and land a Double German. What do you do next?

As it turns out, Marstorius has a myriad of things he can do after landing one.

• The most common thing to do after a Double German is to do an LP Dash Lariat to bring yourself right up next to the opponent. Basically you can charge for the duration of the Double German, but you have to charge in the direction that you were facing your opponent before the move started. Basically, if you do a Double German when you're on the left side facing the opponent who's on your right, the Double German will put the opponent on the left side. This means that you need to charge to the right, and then press left+LP when the throw animation ends.
• After the Dash Lariat, you can do an immediate jumping D+HP or jumping LK to crossup your opponent. Once you land, do a crouching B into Double German, whether it hits or not. You can of course be hit by wakeup moves with invincibility when you do the crossup, but if they screw up their wakeup attempt and fail to block, you get another Double German!
• If you've conditioned them to block crossups, take a step back after the Dash Lariat and then do a jumping D+HP If they were holding towards you expecting the crossup, they get hit!
• Instead of jumping, do a regular crouching LK into Double German right next to them. Probably won't hit, but if you do enough crossups to them after a Double German they might forget that they can block low on wakeup instead...
• ...and once they start expecting that, try his UF+HK hop kick on them when they get up. They have to block this high, or else they get knocked back down!
• Once you've landed these above setups enough times on your oppontent and basically forced him to guess everytime during wakeup between a crossup or low, you can try a very, very simple yet powerful trick: Jump, but don't do nothing, just land, and then Double German. Fun.
• Charge a HK Knee Drop and do this on them when they get up. To charge the Knee Drop, you have to do the Dash Lariat and end the motion in DF+LP, not F+LP. Using this method you can start the down charge immediately. Using a Knee Drop on them has two uses - it can sometimes to manage outprioritize certain other wakeup moves with invincibility (Lee's Senkyutai comes to mind), but if they block the first hit, they may not expect to get hit by the second part, which crosses them up! This may only work a couple times before they learn to start blocking the other way (or hit you out of the air between the two hits), but take advantage of this if you can! The second hit knocks down, which is the perfect time to go for a crossup which they might not be ready to block since they weren't expecting to get knocked down!
• And of course, you have to know when to back off. Don't do anything, let them do a wakeup move of their own, which you can block and punish. If they don't do a wakeup move, and just stand there doing nothing... free Double German!

Be creative! It's very important to mixup what you do after a Double German to keep the opponent guessing. If the opponent continually guesses wrong, you can ride that momentum and pretty much seal the round right there!

Match-ups

	Ray	Lee	Zaz	Kar	Jea	Miz	Sam	Yun	Mat	Clo	Fei	Mar	Ryo
Marstorius	1	-	-	-	-	4	2	-	-	-	-	-	-

Vs. Clown:

He is a Child Molester so you are the Face in this matchup even if you had a 2-8, Pick a Card is a bad projectile that you can jump with a Knee or Moonsault and you can counter the Roll with a standing LP,if he wants to Handstand a Dashing Lariat can whiff it and then,DOUBLE GERMAN

Vs. Jean:

An acrobatic pretty face is someone wants to break it, Rose is a regular projectile but Moonsault and Knee can punish it at far distance

Vs. Mizoguchi:

• 4 - 6

This matchup is not as bad. Mainly because Mizo's Tiger Bazooka is arguably the worst fireball in the game and you'll don't be pressured as much. But still LP Tiger Wave is safe on block and you'll be spaced out. Also opponent can avoid your potential command throws with his Renzokus (flying kicks). But if you can predict it, punish him with Moonsault.

Vs. Ray:

• 1 - 9

Worst Matchup in the entire game. Ray will space you with his pretty quick fireballs. Your Knee Drops and awful jump are your only options. If you're getting too close with those, you'll get a Wheel Kick.

Try to charging and poke or wait if Ray its spamming Tornadoes for trade hits, your main objective will be try to corner Ray and use Suplex traps. You can start the match with a Elbow to see what tactic Ray will use against you.

Vs. Samchay:

• 2 - 8

Bad matchup, Samchay will keep you out with fireballs and may catch your Knee Drops with Ti-Kau Kouns. Samchay's fireball animation is laggy and blocked Ti-Kau Koun lefts him vulnerable. These facts lightens the situation.

Try to bait your opponent to do Ti-Kau Koun by spacing your LK Knee Drops. If Samchay does LK version and whiff, try to sweep him. After this use Lariat to close the distance (if you got the charge of course. Use your Knee Drop with charge DB, UB+K to advance forward and store the charge at the same time). If Samchay doing HK version instead and you block it, wait until he lands and then do close HP into Double German. Otherwise, without right spacing this maneuver is pretty risky. But also you can try a mixup and do HK Knee Drop while Samchay is in lag. Surprise factor may help.

And another tip: don't stay close for too long or he 100% will use this opportunity to hit your weak spot with crouching LK/HK. If you'll fall for it a couple of times, you're getting a dizzy and Samchay does his usual stuff (like cl.HK into Hard Pap So Kau), that might be a round lose for you. If you're got close enough, better try to command throw immediately.