Marvel vs Capcom/War Machine

War Machine
Difficulty	Average Gameplay, Hard Execution
Tier Placement	God Tier (SS)
Has an Airdash?	Yes
Standing Hitbox	Tall
Crouching Hitbox	Average

Introduction

War Machine is the title adopted by James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes after he acquired the War Machine armor. He is a military veteran and pilot who began working for Tony Stark, eventually discovering that he was Iron Man and then taking Stark's place when he was incapacitated. Stark subsequently gave Rhodes the War Machine armor. The character is among the earliest African American superheroes in mainstream comics. His race, his military experience, and his sense of morality are often used to contrast him with Tony Stark and to analyze the themes of Iron Man stories through a different perspective. War Machine is the primary romantic interest of Carol Danvers, while many of his other supporting characters and villains overlap with those of Iron Man.

If you enjoy playing a character who resembles Iron Man from MvC2 or a character who has a fuckton of infinites then this is the character for you. War Machine paired with flight mode is a force to be reckoned with, with his hp airdash cancels and his lp airdash uncombos, it gives him access to 100% combos or even 200% TODs, making him the perfect character to play if you wanna do alotta links, and if that isn't enough, he also has a divekick in which u can cancel to flightmode, making him have access to not only disgusting crossups, but also access to Refly without even doing the complicated version of it. War Machine also has access to a plethora of zoning tools like Smart Bomb, j.hp and Uni-Beam, that paired with flight mode or even just super jumps make him an annoying character to deal with. War Machine also has access to War Destroyer, making him have one of the best, if not the best duo synergies. Unfortunately that comes with a cost, outside of his hurtbox which is kinda chunky, he is also sluggish without flight mode just like Iron Man in MvC2. War Machine also needs execution if you're looking to optimize him and not just play lame by playing him like a broke version of GWM, but once u do put the effort and optimize him to his fullest, War Machine becomes a force to be reckoned with.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Huge Damage Potential thanks to Uncombos Has Easy Access to Guard Break Combos Good Zoning Tools Has one of the best duo synergies thanks to War Destroyer Keepaway is pretty good aswell with buttons like st.hp or j.hp Builds meter easily with his combos AND YOU CAN BUILD METER IN AN INSTANT BY CANCELLING J.HK IN FLIGHTMODE OVER AND OVER J.lk and J.hp combined with Flight-Mode make catching people in the air to a big combo easy peasy Flight Mode

War Machine's launchers have stubby range, making him reliant on Cross-ups and catching people in the Air Sluggish without Flight-Mode Supers are extremely unsafe without an assist or Duo Doesn't have good pressure, mainly relies on assists hitting, getting the hit on the air, a stray divekick or getting a crossup. War Machine needs Execution - Sure u can just lame and build meter then do duos but unless you have a secondary that you're really good with, that will get you nowhere once u fight a good player. If you really wanna excel with War Machine then you need to devote your time into mastering his guard breaks, uncombos, even his TOD routes because he plays very similar to Iron Man. So as much as possible, if you wanna learn this character then I would say its a must to do combos with him.

Move List

Normals

Ground Normals

s.LP

s.LP (x2)

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

s.MP

s.MP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

s.HP

s.HP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

s.LK

s.LK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

s.MK

s.MK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

s.HK

s.HK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground, Launcher

c.LP

c.LP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

c.MP

c.MP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

c.HP

c.HP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

c.LK

c.LK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

c.MK

c.MK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

c.HK

c.HK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Air Normals

j.LP

j.LP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

j.MP

j.MP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

j.HP

j.HP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

j.LK

j.LK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

j.MK

j.MK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

j.HK

j.HK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

j.HK

j.uHP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

j.HK

j.uHK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Command Normals

Air Dash
Any direction +

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Air

Knee Dive

Knee Dive
j.2MK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Air

Upward Kick

Upward Kick
j.8HK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Air

Laser Blast

Laser Blast
j.(2 or 8) + HP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Air

Throws

Normal Throw

Normal Throw
4/6 + MP/HP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground

Special Moves

Shoulder Cannon
QCF + P/K

Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
QCF + LP/LK Light Version	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground (P/K), air (P)
Unlike Iron Man's Unibeam laser in MSH which can target both ground and crouching, War Machine can shoot his lasers as P targets standing and can be used in the air and K targets crouching only.
Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
QCF + MP/MK Medium Version	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground (P/K), air (P)
Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
QCF + HP/HK Heavy Version	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground (P/K), air (P)

Smart Bomb
(4 or 6) + MP + LK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground/air
War Machine unleashes two bombs from his shoulders. Holding a direction enables on how far the bombs will be shot.

Repulsor Blast
HCB + P

Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
HCB + LP LP Version	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground (P/K), air (P)
War Machine unleashes a projectile his palms as it aims upwards and when it hits, the opponent is drawn closer to War Machine.
Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
HCB + MP MP Version	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground (P/K), air (P)
Version	Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
HCB + HP HP Version	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground (P/K), air (P)

Flight
QCB + K

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground (P/K), air (P)
This command allows War Machine to use his jetpacks and has the ability to fly around the screen. This is also pivotal to using his midscreen infinite.

Hyper Combos

Proton Cannon
QCF + PP

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
War Machine summons in a giant cannon which shoots out a laser which nearly takes out near full-screen.

War Destroyer
QCF + KK

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	Total	Hit Adv	Block Adv	Meter Gain	Property
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Ground
War Machine summons in a jetpack-like weapon which aims a barrage of missiles up then targets down to the opponent. It combos after the launcher, too, and if you're using both War Machines, you'll be spamming this super a lot in Duo Team, since it leads to ridiculously high damage off of chip damage alone, especially when the opponent is trapped between both War Machines.

Strategy

Basic Tips

Basic Strategy

War Machine's Gameplan

War Machine is a good character in being in the air. His flightmode combined with his normals and zoning tools make him a character that controls the skies. He can abuse his airdash cancels by catching an opponent in the air by doing something like a stray j.uhp/j.lk/j.lp to airdash for a free combo, then depending on your execution u can turn that to a combo that will do like 30-40% or 100%. He also has access to amazing zoning tools like smartbomb and uni-beam, stuff like those can definitely keep your opponent in check by keeping him on the ground with smartbomb and catching him with unibeam once he superjumps to catch you. War Machine can also do keepaway with buttons like st.hp and j.hp, giving the opponent a difficult time getting in, you can also cancel st.hp to Colossus assist for a good punish once u think st.hp won't do the job on its own. Once the assist hits, you can dash to hk for a combo, cancel to flightmode and start the combo once Colossus finishes its hits or you can play safe and cancel to Proton Cannon, beware if Proton Cannon misses cuz depending on where the opponent is, you have a chance of eating a nasty punish. On the offense side of things, he doesn't do well in terms of pressure but that doesn't mean he struggles getting in, his airdash makes him do crossups with j.lk to j.mk or j.lk to j.mp then u can decide if you wanna do st.lk st.hk, st.lk cr.mp st.hk, cr.lk st.hk, or even cr.lk cr.mp st.hk. I suggest microdashing after hitting the crossup though to prevent the launcher not hitting due to it having stubby hitboxes. You also have divekick, you can cancel those to any heavy normal of your choice once it hits, even when u hit it in the air making it another way to confirm into your combos.

Confirming from Stray Hits in the Air

This is essential to War Machine, outside of Zoning, this is one of the things that makes him a pain in the ass, also another thing that makes him an S tier. Depending on your execution, you can get more bang of your buck by doing TODs from it but even though u couldn't do a TOD yet, it still matters confirming from a stray hit in the air due to the fact that u can easily get 30-40% from it, that's if you got basic execution which is still a big deal ngl.

j.lk - Best for people who are below you in the Air

• j.lk j.uhp to airdash
• j.lk j.mp j.uhp to airdash
• j.lk airdash j.lk- (A bit more difficult to do, mainly for style tbh)

j.uhp - Best for people who are above you in the Air

• j.uhp airdash- (u can follow up with almost anything tbh)

j.lp - not really the best but it works in scenarios like the opponent being really close to you like when you're fighting mirrors and then the opponent is really close to you

• j.lp j.uhp airdash (i prefer this for less scaling)
• j.lp j.mp j.hp airdash (you can use this for better positioning, in return you will get more scaling unless u do an uncombo)
• j.lp airdash j.lp- (pretty tough to do but works if you wanna start doing the uncombo but i prefer starting the uncombo with j.lp to j.uhp instead)

Advanced

Uncombo

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Uncombos are basically as the video said, a glitch where the combo counter resets once u do a hit during the final frame of hitstun or a frame after the final frame of hitstun, essentially making a UB reset as the cool kids like to say with their anime fighters. If you notice a good War Machine player, he doesn't do 99+ Combos, he does Uncombos, sure there are instances where they would do like a long combo to refly then more airdash strings but most likely they will do the uncombo.

Why you may ask? Well, with the uncombo, you get perks like

• Scaling being reset, hence the combo being uncomboed
• Practical TOD Routes

The most common Uncombo route u will see War Machine doing will be the "Glove Infinite". More info on that can be seen in the Combo Section so feel free to check that out, pretty essential to learn once u wanna take War Machine to the next level.

Fast Meter Build

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1:41-1:46

As u noticed with War Machine, you could cancel all of his Air Normals to Airdash right? Well, you can do this with j.hk over and over and depending on how fast ur hands are, u can easily get like 1-2 bars of meter filled. Great to pull out in the air from time to time as a way to build your meter quick for Duos.

Team Setups

Double War Machine

Pros	Cons
You get to play both War Machines They cover each other's weaknesses especially well Disgustingly high damage and health Duo Team setups deal extreme amounts of chip damage	Not as effective without Duo Team No one will like you You're not Iron Man

As the name implies, you get to play not War Machine, not Gold War Machine, but both War Machines at the same time! Two top tiers in the same team, what could possibly go wrong? Essentially, you get two characters with very high damage, health, armor, great tools across the board, there's very little the team doesn't have. Them being on the slower side won't matter much, though, because the minute this team is given enough meter to initiate a Team Duo Attack, the player can setup some truly nasty scenarios. These setups, which tend to give almost zero room to escape, can lead to the opponent losing up to 50% of their health off of CHIP DAMAGE. This puts them at a huge life lead, or otherwise make a swift recovery. They still need to attempt to win the rest of the match if it doesn't kill, however.

War Machine Strider

Pros	Cons
War Destroyer and Legion Pair well for Duo War Machine can build alot of meter for Strider to burn out with Ouroboros Does a good amount of chip with Duo Both Characters do well on their own	Strider will have a hard time building meter outside of spamming j.hp once War Machine dies Strider will have a hard time clutching and War Machine will require pristine execution to clutch Both characters struggle once they run out of assist

One of the more common picks outside of WM/Wolv or Double WM, when you hear the idea, it makes sense. You could build meter with War Machine, do duo or tag to Strider for him to burn it all out with Ouroboros. This team also has good Duo Synergy with the way War Destroyer and Legion operate, so you can just stack those supers for big damage once u get the hit. A problem with this team though is that if one character dies, you have to go uphill to make things work. I mean it's easier for War Machine to clutch things due to the fact that he does godlike damage with his combos but thats if the person playing War Machine has pristine execution to begin with. Strider on the other hand will have a hard time trying to clutch due to the fact that he has a hard time building meter outside of spamming j.hp and the fact that he's sorta reliant on assist to start his Ouroboros pressure makes things a bit tough.

War Machine Wolverine

Pros	Cons
Both Characters deal a ton of damage Pretty self explanatory team Both build meter fast Probably the best team to play if you wanna play aggressive or be combo heavy	Duo synergy isn't bad but is inferior compared to the other teams mentioned U won't get to maximize the team if you don't have the execution

Probably the most common War Machine team outside of Double War Machine, this has also been a favorite for Brazilian Players lately. TO DO LATER

Building Block Theory

I found this ideology in the HFTF wiki and I think this perfectly applies to War Machine. War Machine has some of the best combo flexibility in the game, thanks to the existence of his Airdash working on all of his air normals, and thanks to Uncombo existing, you could reliably 100% your adversary after a bit of practice.

His combo potential is so high that listing every single possible string of combinations would not only take very long, but would also be a giant eyesore to look through.

Because of that, you're not going to lab a single, long combo, but rather different building blocks and transitioning between them, and that's what this page is for. The embedded videos will show the blocks in action. You can mimic the combos in them or just use them as guidelines.

Almost any combo can also be started from an air normal. The only time that's not the case is when you don't have the proper positioning to execute the said links of choice.

Ground Links

Here's a few links that could be worth knowing before u get into doing launchers. Although it would be better if you started learning and utilizing his launchers first, I don't think its too bad to learn some of these as these could be used as strings to set up okizeme, cancel to assist or even just to push the opponent away depending on the purpose of the string.

st.lp st.lk st.mp cr.mk/ st.lk st.mp cr.mk - 3 or 4 hit string depending if you start with st.lp or st.lk. Works for setting up okizeme due to cr.mk doing a hard knockdown.

cr.lp cr.lk st.mp cr.mk/ cr.lk st.mp cr.mk - Same string from above but started with a low instead of a standing normal.

st.lp st.lk st.mk cr.hk/ st.lk st.mk cr.hk - Works for pushing the enemy away but there are better options also cuz cr.hk whiffs on small characters.

cr.lp cr.lk st.mk cr.hk/ cr.lk st.mk cr.hk - Low version of the combo above but like why even bother when there are better options.

st.lp st.lk cr.mp st.hp qcf.lp/mp / st.lk cr.mp st.hp qcf.lp/mp - Pretty neat string for setting up keepaway, definitely better than the string mentioned above.

cr.lp cr.lk cr.mp st.hp qcf.lp/mp / cr.lk cr.mp st.hp qcf.lp/mp - Low version of the string mentioned above, still a pretty decent way to keep distance while doing a good quarter of damage.

Ground Launchers

Here's where all of War Machine's amazing juggles start, from uncombo TODs, to just the basic juggle to Uni-Beam, to even something as simple as the magic series. This is where you will be starting em out outside of hitting from the air from a stray hit.

st.lk/st.lp st.hk - Basic 2 hit launch, does the job and usually works when u dont feel like doing the other form of launch with the cr.mp in between.

st.lk/st.lp cr.mp st.hk - His go-to launcher for all of his air combo routes. Depending on how far the opponent is, there may be a chance st.hk would whiff if u are pretty far from the opponent due to his launchers being stubby. If ever it whiffs though u can cancel to an assist, preferably Collosus.

cr.lp/cr.lk st.hk - Low version of the 2 hit launcher, works if u wanna start with a low. cr.lp/cr.lk cr.mp st.hk - Low version of his go-to launcher, works if u wanna start with a low.

Magic Series Strings

If you played any other MvC games or even any Darkstalkers games then you must know about the magic series already, if not then I'll talk about it. It's just the ability to link all of the character's attack buttons together. We have a strength rule, and you'll need to know it:

LP - LK - MP - MK - HP - HK, where:

• LP can link into the LK, and the Medium/Heavy attacks
• LK can link into any Medium/Heavy attack;
• MP can link into the MK, and the Heavy Attacks
• MK can link into any Heavy Attack
• HP can link into the HK only
• HK is the only move that cannot link with any other normal

Now that aside, here are the best strings for each scenario.

TO DO LATER