Mortal Kombat 1/Quan Chi/Strategy

Overview

Strategy

Combos

Synergy

Matchups

Frame Data

Resources

Chi

#MK1_Quan Chi

The Basics of Zoning

This is a stream from James Chen (jchensor) discussing the basics of zoning. The fundamental idea is that a zoner must make predictions on the enemy's next action, and that the enemy's frustration makes the zoner's job easier because you become easy to predict. He highlights two examples: Orochi Shermie from KOF15 and her distance-target projectile, and Axl from Guilty Gear and his long ranged, but committal chain attacks. Simplifying this into a unified theory of zoning, we have the following: a zoner must play around the fundamental gap between "what they want you to do next" and "what they think you'll do next", and they win when through conditioning, frustration, and setups, the gap is eliminated. Still, much work must be done to reach that point.

Back To 1991: Fireballs / Jump / Antiair RPS

The most basic expression of the zoner's gambit is classic fireballs vs. antiair gameplan - create projectiles to entice the enemy to jump, and then antiair them when they do. Quan can easily apply this, between the Bone Cage that the enemy can jump to escape, and the slow EX Head Rush that's highly plus on block and gives the enemy ample time to notice and jump over it. F21 and S4 are also avoided by jumping, but they are too committal to be used as bait by themselves, and must be applied as part of a greater conditioning goal. For the antiair itself, whether through a read or a setup, both S3 and 13 will give superb reward; S3 is better at avoiding jump-in attacks with its wide disjoint, but the 16 frame startup isn't great on reaction. Once the combo is found, Quan can change his routing to continue to force the jump vs. antiair gameplan, or switch to a different plan.

Return to 2023: The Modern Sorceror's Zoning

Fireball / jump / antiair RPS is a robust strategy, and Quan has solid tools for its application; however, as a classical gambit, experienced enemies are prepared to deal with it by patient, grounded approach. As such, it must be bolstered by another layer of zoning tools.

The main goal here in this second layer is to buy grounded space by restricting the enemy's approach, and then use that space to set up buffs. Psycho Skull (db1) is the first step to this additional layer. By coming from above and bouncing airborne enemies for an S4 pickup, it occupies the perfect niche to augment the above gameplan: it discourages jumping, while still working as a fullscreen projectile against grounded enemies. It can be upblocked, but an enemy trying to aggressively approach through dashblocking cannot upblock it - they must remain stationary due to upblock having startup. Upblock also does not negate chip. If the enemy starts to get close, use your disjoint space-covering normals (F21, S3) to hinder their approach, though even if you misjudge it and do a Psycho Skull up close, it's safe on regular block. EX Psycho Skull is not entirely necessary to accomplish this but it makes it far more easy and threatening, as it aims automatically and gives the bounce on grounded hit as well. Once the difficult approach is established, Quan can use the space to set things up - Zone of Fear to keep them off his back, Zone of Power to greatly boost this zoning layer, Zone of Waste to disrupt the enemy and create the opportunity for a rushdown sequence, or even EX Head Rush or EX Field of Bones on the ground to entice them to jump again.

Once a Zone of Power is set up, the situation takes a huge step towards eliminating the predictive gap. Head Rush can no longer be ducked, and Psycho Skull, while no longer overhead, covers nearly the entire fightline and leaves Quan plus on block. If enemies have no answer for the withering fire from Zone of Power, Power Psycho Skull can be used to loop the situation - use the plus frames to jail into S4 and cancel into a Zone of Power. Zone of Fear is a less loopable, but more blunt and immediate countermeasure in the zoning plan - most enemies will have no option whatsoever to battle up close, and if they try they can easily be caught by S3 and S4. Enemies who show patience will give Quan plenty of space to set up further options.

Air Head Rush also fits into this second layer - it hits mid to catch ducking, and angles downward to discourage jumping. Psycho Skull will generally give better reward, but Air Head Rush comes out faster and allows for slight backwards movement. If the enemy is very consistent at upblocking Psycho Skull, switch to Air Head Rush.

The Devil's Leg: On the Usage of S4

S4 is weird. Too slow to be used as a direct anti-jump bait, and easily avoided by forward movement, its purpose instead is for opportunistic punishes and disrupting the enemy's fullscreen counterzoning options. Many moves employed as anti-projectile options, such as Mileena Ball Roll and supers, are unsafe but leave Quan too far away to punish with a jabstring. In these cases, S4 is there to guarantee the catch - which is why a kameo that gives a full combo from S4 is so valued, as without that he must spend two bars for EX From the Fog. When fullscreen, S4 can stop the enemy during the startup of their projectile or their countermeasure, and it can start a zoning gameplan on both hit and block.

Exchange of Fire

Quan is extraordinarily difficult to defeat in the zoning wars. Slow EX Head Rush destroys enemy projectiles and stays on the screen for a while, providing him with cover for far longer than any other EX destroying projectile (i.e. Liu Kang EX Cosmic Flame, Sub EX Iceball, Tanya EX Heavenly Hand). Psycho Skull goes around the enemy's EX destroying projectiles, and the lengthy bounce of EX Psycho Skull grants far longer hit advantage than most other EX projectiles, giving him a leg up in the trade. S4 can stop the enemy's fireballs before they even come out, and it lets him put down a Zone of Waste to simply overwhelm the enemy's options by volume of fire. With how Power Psycho Skull works, even if Quan gets hit by the enemy's fireball and the enemy can block Quan's, the significant block advantage will deny their options of capitalization. If all else fails he can Sky Drop to catch their zoning, but this is generally much riskier than staying fullscreen.

Overview

Strategy

Combos

Synergy

Matchups

Frame Data

Resources

Chi

#MK1_Quan Chi