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, Up One*
Normal Jump Chain: Weak Start Cross (must be Punch to Kick OR Kick to Punch)
Super Jump Chain: Weak Start, Up One
Tech hit type: Escape/Safe Fall
Weight Class: Heavy
- Up one meaning he can only do one more attack in a chain.
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
- 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
- Since you'll likely be leading with lights, that means your damage will be scaled harsher. Damage on single hard pokes isn't really all that good either.
Moves List
Normal Moves
LP: Staple poke, quick and good range. Has a second animation in a self-chain. When poking with this and keeping them in blockstun, do not push too quickly or you'll get the multi-slashes special.
MP: A slow two hitting move, the second hit launches. You generally need to dash to have the second hit combo, but against heavier characters, it still won't combo there.
HP: Can be crouch cancelled, but only at a certain point. Ok as an anti-air but not great. Lots of stun on the ground, especially off of a dash. If hit as a juggle, it will launch higher.
LK: Quick, but can't self chain, also has less range than s.LP and more recovery, so it should be cancelled to something. Off of a dash only, it has more hitstun than dashing s.LP and can combo into s.HK on many characters.
MK: Long range poke with meh recovery.
HK: You hop into the air and move forward with a stab. Once your feet leave the ground, you can't SJ but you can still do specials that you can do in the air. Will knock them away a bit then cause them to bounce.
c.LP: Much less range than s.LP, but also quick. Has an extra animation thrown in on a self-chain, making it slower than just linking. Derp.
c.MP: Your longest range move. Great poke but recovery is so-so, try not to be on top of them with it.
c.HP: Launcher, good for dash-back anti-air if you have the room. Hitbox on it is not quite as good as it looks. This can miss some characters at point blank range, especially if they lean forward in their dizzies.
c.LK: A very long range poke. Too bad it can be blocked low. Quick but not as quick as c.LP, especially on recover.
c.MK: Launcher and good AA if you can space it.
c.HK: A sweep that can be blocked standing. Slow recovering one at that.
j.LP: Quick starting poke that will juggle downwards slightly. Slow recovery on it, so no self chaining or linking.
j.MP: Fairly quick move that as a juggle, keeps them relatively "with" you. Doesn't recover fast enough to combo with other normals though, but on certain characters you can combo into a Star. Also decent for attacking upward with since on the swing around there's a small hitbox above him.
j.HP: Good air to ground/jump-in, but once you do this, you can't do any other attacks in the air without cancelling into a special.
j.LK: Quick and a crazy awesome hitbox that can crossup! The lower part extends under his boot, while the long part goes back to his opposite knee. Not too much stun though and knocks down as a juggle. Slow recovery means no self-chain/link fun.
j.MK: GREAT for chasing superjumpers. Fairly bad recovery though, so you really need to poke them with the tip at far ranges. Knocks upward as a juggle, but since the hitbox is far and high, it can be difficult and will generally only hit them as you are falling under.
j.HK: Stabdown. Knocks downward in a juggle, and like j.HP you can't do any more moves without a special cancel. If you manage to hit them standing on the floor with this, it will immediately bounce them off the ground. The hitbox is extremely narrow and your pushbox well above, so it has some crossup potential coming down. The problem is when they bounce, they're going to recover before you, making this a dangerous move for you.
Special Moves
Shuriken: D,DF,F+P (ground/air)
LP - slow, MP - medium, HP - "fast". Guideable after throwing, air version has less recovery than ground.
These can be canceled out by other projectiles, or even hit out of the air with a normal.
If you nick them barely on the first hit, then guide the star just slightly up/down then back towards the opponent, you can get a single hit, then delay the rest of the hits, giving you more time to combo. Very positioning dependent and tough to do in a real match.
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. Pretty poor startup and recovery, but decent hitboxes. Has some situational uses, but not much since you're probably going to get tagged on the recovery.
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. If you SJ and Evasion, you'll restart your upward momentum once it's finished, unlike with a Star which stops your momentum.
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. If you are hit out of the startup, you'll still keep the powerup.
Elemental Swords: D,DB,B+P (ground only)
LONG startup and if you are hit out of it, you won't get the powerup. Once your meter drains, the powerup is actually active.
LP - Electric. Seems to randomly add multiple hits to a sword attack, and some height on some launchers. 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).
∗ When Ice Sword is active, air throws do not keep the opponent in stun until they land. They recover in the air.
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. Reimaiken can be very good for when people jump up and try to control airspace or build meter, and you zap them from underneath, particularly if they are crossing over you high up and mid-screen.
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. While there is some combo potential in the corner, there is not much you can do combo-wise when mid-screen or off of throws.
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. Don't push too fast or you'll get am unsafe, long recovering multi-slash special. It should be noted that self-chaining the crouching jab (c.LP) onto itself adds an extra animation, and makes it SLOWER. Linking, or going s.LP, c.LP, is best to prevent this.
It's tempting to cancel all of your slow-recovering moves with a Star, but this is easily jumped over. Superjumping, then throwing a Star is a little better, but the opponent will eventually work their way around if you get too predictable, especially since so many can punch right through it and hit you.
The delay in Silver Samurai's super-jump makes him particularly vulnerable to people who are trying to throw you through your strings. You might be trying to cancel the recovery of a hard attack to a superjump, but then find yourself getting thrown because your superjump startup is so slow. Positioning is very important with Sam, you don't want the enemy to be too close to you, unless you are going for the throw.
Noob Trap - s.LP x2, s.HK xx Star. This can be jumped and attacked out of, so it's not something to go for if the opponent knows how to get out.
Ice Sword Combos and Notes:
If the combometer resets, that means the opponent had a chance to mash out. If opponent sucks at mashing, redizzying is possible.
On stages with breakable floors, the bounce of a frozen opponent will count as a hit towards breaking the floor.
Random Notes:
Spiral Stage - If Sam does an HP throw on a already-cracked floor, the next breakable floor below will crack after the second character touches it.
Shadows + Fire sword does massive damage, but good luck getting both of those.
Advanced Strategy
Matchups
- vs Psylocke
c.HP won't hit a standing/walking forward or dizzy Psylocke at point blank range.
s.LK won't hit Psylocke in her leaning forward dizzy frames at point blank range.
- vs Iceman
c.MK won't hit a standing/walking forward Iceman at point blank range. c.HP won't hit him walking forward
- vs Cyclops
Launch, j.MK xx Star (stronger ones) is very likely to combo on Cyclops, and give you a chance to combo out of. (corner)
Be careful of him invincible DP'ing through your pokes. The crazy hitboxes on his normals can easily break through your Stars and hit you at the same time.