What Is Considered Safe On Block?
-7 is considered the magic number when looking at Advantage on Block. Attacks with this amount of block advantage and above are considered safe while attacks at -8 and lower are punishable if the opponent is close enough. The vast majority of characters do not have a move fast enough to punish anything at -7 with only a few exceptions:
- Liu Kang and Kung Lao have high attacks with a 6 frame startup which can cancel into a full combo punish against moves that are -7 when you consider the additional frame needed to leave the blocking state.
Johnny Cage's D1 is also 6 frames but since you can't convert D1s into combos, he only gets pressure off this punish.As of the March 6 patch, Johnny's D1 is now 7f startup.- Li Mei's DB3 (Shi Zi Lion) starts up in 7 frames, meaning as a reversal, it can punish -7 moves.
A move is considered truly safe against these characters at -6. With this in mind, spacing "unsafe" moves properly can still keep you safe from punishment so don't be quick to discard these moves from your arsenal.
