Introduction/Summary
If you're a fan of low-tier and uphill battles, Silver Samurai is your man. While he's certainly handicapped, his battles are not unwinnable.
Silver Samurai had more options in older versions (2.x's, Japan/Asia versions) simply from his Shuriken hitting slower, allowing for better/easier combos.
Ground Chain: Weak Start
Normal Jump Chain: Weak Start Cross (must be Punch to Kick OR Kick to Punch)
Super Jump Chain: Weak Start
Tech hit type: Escape/Safe Fall
Weight Class: Heavy
Pros:
- All Normal attacks chip (save air LK)
- RaiMeiKen (lightning super) does good damage and chip, can be comboed into
- Easy trap vs inexperienced players
- Decent pokes, though their range is deceptivly bad and some may miss if too close vs some characters
- Has good stamina, some damage potential
- If you're hit out of Shadow Clones startup, you still keep the powerup, unlike element swords
- Evasion X-special
Cons:
- Slow, even his SJ and jump have some kind of short delay.
- Weak comboability compared to the rest of the cast, especially off of throws (few exceptions, more detail below)
- ALL of his attacks can be blocked high, including the 2nd hit of s.HP and his c.HK
- Size and weight make him a combo dummy, the dumbest things work on him
- Start up time for element swords is too long, though ice sword combos and resets (if they're bad at mashing) can be worth trying for
- Doesn't gain meter during element swords or shadows
- RaiMeiKen has a bit of startup, and begins using X-Power/meter before the attack comes out. If you're hit out of this, you'll lose about 1/4 of meter
Moves List
Normal Moves
Special Moves
Shuriken: D,DF,F+P (ground/air)
LP - slow, MP - medium, HP - "fast". Guidable after throwing, air version has less recovery than ground.
These can be cancelled out by other projectiles, or even hit out of the air with a normal.
Multi-Slashes: F,D,DF+P, then P rapidly OR P rapidly.
Double Tap forward to do a slight dash with it, it will end after the dash.
X-Specials
Evasion: D,DF,F+K (ground/air)
You become invincible until you reappear. It seems this has some recovery frames (eg you can't block) in the air but not on the ground.
Multi-hit Shadows: D,DB,B+3K (ground only)
You gain shadows that hit multiple times, and vanish after a certain number of hits (or period of time if hits isn't used up). The more hard hits used, the quicker they vanish. It seems a few hits can initially chip, but after those few they no longer hit on block.
Elemental Swords: D,DB,B+P (ground only)
LP - Electric. Seems to randomly add multiple hits to a sword hit. More research needed
MP - Ice. Easily the best one. A sword hit will freeze the opponent, next hit will unfreeze them, and they can be frozen again. Most combo opportunities lie here.
HP - Fire. More damage.
Once you've chosen the element, you can't change to another until it's duration ends. You can combine Element with Shadows (not exactly useful in a real match).
Super Attacks
Reimaiken: D,DF,F+3P (ground only)
Covers all but the furthest point on the ground in lightning at fullscreen distance. It has some startup but is still comboable. If you're hit out of the startup, you lose 1/4 of your meter. Mash for more hits. There's some recovery(not a ton) so use with caution for chip.
Triple Shuriken: D,DB,B+3P (ground only)
The group is controllable, and they don't break when hit.
The Basics
Sam plays a slow and meticulous game of poking and chip.
Jab poke/rush can stop an opponents advance, keep them pinned, and chips while you build meter. Jab high then low if they like to duck under your second standing one.