TemperaryUserName Wrote:CassiesPatentedNutBuster Wrote:
Plenty of sound arguments against it.
Granted, I only read the first three pages, but none of the users seem to have a sophisticated understanding of what the block button actually contributes to MK.
I've posted about this millions of times, so I'll try to make this as simple as I can.
The block button allows for a sophisticated cross-up metagame. If the opponent is unable to counter it, then the opponent gets free chip, meter, and (most importantly) pressure. Pressure in MK9 is far more dangerous than it is in SF, so it's far most costly to get caught in a block string.
If the opponent IS able to counter the cross-up with a down poke, they get a full anti-air combo. If you anticipate this, you can cross-up with jump-kick instead of punch and score a knockdown leading to oki setups (and even SF types will tell you that the knockdown is more valuable than the cross-up). This works because air kicks have a bigger hitbox. On top of all of this, if you read the cross-up, you can neutral jump-punch for a full blown combo.
See how layered this? Now let's compare this to SF's cross-ups. In street fighter, a cross-up leads to an ambiguous air hit, and therefore, a 50/50 mix-up. That's it. You're giving up a layered meta-game so you can add ONE mix-up to MK. MK9 has no shortage of mix-ups. We don't need to dilute our cross-up system
The reason SF wouldn't benefit from MK9's cross-up system is because pressure isn't nearly as valuable. There's no chip, there's no dashing out of block strings into more chains, and there's no overheads leading into combos.
This is just the surface. I could write far more, but I've written about it too many time already, and I'm tired of preaching to the choir.
EDIT: and FYI, SF4 was my first tournament competitive game. I have no personal bias here. Anyone who plays SF knows that the cross-up isn't even a universally favoring mechanic. Vanilla Sakura didn't even have a fucking cross-up move back when SF4 came out! People against the block button aren't seeing the bigger picture.
This^^ thank you for this. It saves me some time from typing a similar write up on my phone.
