Fighter's History Dynamite/Marstorius

Introduction

Remember Zangief in the old SF2's? Remember how his Spinning Pile Driver 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.

Moves List

Normal Moves

Light Punch

Standing (Far) - Open-palm strike that hits high, will whiff crouching opponents. Not chainable.

Standing (Close) - Close-range elbow. Not chainable.

Crouching - Weird short-range chop, but has lots of priority. Chainable into another light/hard attack.

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

Jumping (Neutral) - Same overview as above.

Strong Punch

Standing (Far) - The chop! Has more range than it looks. Always cancel it with a Double German attempt to cut off the recovery frames with another attack.

Standing (Close) - Same as above.

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

Jumping - Another jumping elbow drop. Not really that great a move, stick with d+HP in the air.

Jumping (Neutral) - Jumping chop! Not all that useful.

Light Kick

Standing (Far) - Knee kick. Okay range I guess.

Standing (Close) - Knee stomp. Not chainable, so better to stick with other moves when close.

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

Jumping (Neutral) - Different jumping knee, not worth using.

Strong Kick

Standing (Far) - Long-range kick, great move since it's excellent Double German combo fodder.

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

Crouching - Probably the best sweep in the game, comes out in 3 frames and has colossal range. Whenever you do a sweep, always do a Double German motion to cancel the recovery time, whether it hits or is blocked.

Jumping - Has the most range of any of his jumping attacks, so use this if you're far away.

Jumping (Neutral) - Butt splash! Looks funny but not all that great.

Other Normals

Up-Forward + High Kick - 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 other ground-based moves. 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...

(Jump) Down+Hard Punch - Body splash. Best move by far for crossing up opponents when you're close, so abuse the hell out of it.

(Jump) Down+Hard Kick - Double drop kick. The only one 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.

Special Moves

Dash Lariat

• Charge Back, Forward + Punch
  • 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 Back, Forward + Kick
  • Uhh... well, this move is semi-decent anti-air, and it knocks down on hit on the ground. Unfortunately it's pretty laggy on block, and like the Dash Lariat it requires a long 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 Down, Up + Punch
  • MOOOOOONSAULT! Marstorius flips into the air and comes down with a body splash. 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). 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. This isn't really worth using much outside of occasional mixups after a Double German.

Rising Knee (note: this isn't the real name of the move, as it isn't listed in any FAQ's?!)

• Charge Down, Up + Kick
  • 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

• Half Circle Back + Punch (also works as Half Circle Forward + Punch)
  • 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

• Forward, Up-Forward, Up, Up-Back, Back + Punch (also works as Back, Up-Back, Up, Up-Forward, Forward + Punch)
  • That's a pretty bizarre motion, huh? If you can actually pull this off, then Marstorius lets out a frightening yell and quickly glides towards his opponent. 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 (I sure can't), then maaaaaaaybe it's worth doing every now and then to completely frighten your opponent.

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 Rising Knee. 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 Rising Knee, always return to Down-Back as soon as you can.

Remember that if your opponent blocks a normal move and you buffer into a Double German, you will end up cancelling into another normal attack. It's for this reason that you want to stick to using LP for doing Double Germans - the damage is the same whether you push LP or HP. Using the LP version when blocked will give you an immediate standing or crouching LP, which will recover faster than any HP/HK attack on its own. It's especially important that you get into this habit when doing crouching HK sweeps - while obviously a Double German will never combo off a sweep, you can interrupt the recovery, which is incredibly useful if it hits as it lets you walk closer to the opponent! This is why Marstorius is so deadly when he's within throw range!

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.

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!
• Charge a HK Rising Knee and do this on them when they get up. To charge the Rising Knee, 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 Rising Knee 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