Marstorius (FHD)

Marstorius

Overview

Marstorius is a prototypical big grappler in an early 90s fighting game. That means that he is a monster up-close with incredible mixup potential thanks to his command grab, but he also has big problems when being zoned out by characters with fireballs. Due to this imbalance, most people have trouble placing him on a tier list. Marstorius has some very lopsided match ups, and he is certainly hard to use properly, but if you like big grappler types, he's well worth the effort of mastering, as he has the potential to be extremely deadly in the right hands!

Pros

• Extremely deadly mixups up-close. Can drain an entire lifebar in just a few right guesses.
• Gigantic normals with decent priority, including a sweep that can be made safe.
• Can combo into his command grab, which means he can also get huge damage from one mixup.
• Can take more hits than any other character in the game (most damaging attacks miss his weak spot).

Cons

• Worst jump in the game, and also the slowest walk speed.
• Can be dizzied easily: Jumping exposes his weak point to fireballs, and it only takes 3 low attacks to dizzy him.
• Has big problems navigating around fireball spam.
• All of his non-command grab moves require charge.

Moves

Normal Moves

Note: I'm only going to list normals that I find useful for at least 1 purpose, even if it is niche.

• Light Punch

Standing (Far) - One of the best moves for mashing in neutral whenever you want to stop moves like Karnov's 100 Kicks, Lee's Zetsu or Samchay's Ti-kau-koun. Great range and priority.

Crouching - Decent anti air for jump in attacks from far away.

Jumping - Has more range than jLK. Might be useful in a few scenarios.

• Strong Punch

stHP/cHP - I'm lumping them together because they're both good anti airs for their respective hitting areas.

Jumping - Not very useful aside from one quirk about it: it moves your weak point behind your body, which can be useful for avoiding getting hit there when jumping.

Down + HP - Body splash. This is one of the jump in attacks you'll be using the most, and is your main crossup. Use it and abuse it.

• Light Kick

Standing (Far) An important move as it has great priority and its very useful in Double German tick setups.

Crouching - The fact that this combos into Double German means no one wants to get hit by this. You can also link 2 cLKs to confirm Double German. Use it a LOT.

Jumping - Decent priority. Can cross up.

• Strong Kick

Standing (Far) - Good poke. Hits crouching opponents, which is great for your Double German combos.

Crouching - Best sweep in the game. Has massive range, but also lots of recovery. Its recovery can be canceled both on hit and block by doing a LP Double German as soon as it connects.

Down + HK - It has the farthest horizontal range of any of your jumping attacks, and it knocks down, giving you immediate pressure.

Special Moves

• Double German (Half Circle Back/Forward + Punch): DOUBLE GERMAN! Marstorius' signature move is perhaps one of the scariest command grabs in arcade fighting games. It has colossal range, it can be comboed into from normal attacks, it leads to oki, and it does about 30% damage raw.

• Tiger Lariat (Charge Back, Forward + Punch): Charge time is 40 frames, or 2/3s of a second. Marstorius charges forward and delivers a clothesline that knocks down on hit

• Rising Knee (Charge Down, Up + Punch): Charge time is 40 frames, or 2/3s of a second. This is your only move with invincibility, which can be useful for several purposes. First, both versions are your easiest way of hopping over fireballs. Second, LK Rising Knee can be used as a reversal, and if both hits connect it is safe on block (except against command grabs). Third, both can be used to cross up the opponent. Fourth, the LK version is your best anti air against all attacks. You might be reading all of these things and be thinking that this move is a god send, but the reality is that there's a big drawback to it: you have to charge in order to use it, which limits Marstorius' ability to move forward, so you really have to know how and when to use it, or else risk being zoned for the entire match. All that said, this move is very important, and you should be charging it often, even while you're jumping.

• Kneel Kick (Charge Back, Forward + Kick): Charge time is 80 frames, or 1 and 1/3s of a second. Awful move in every respect. As an anti air, LK Rising Knee is better because it has actual invincibility and half the charge time; As a knockdown tool, Tiger Lariat does that job too and covers more range; to top it all off, unlike both of those moves, Kneel Kick is insanely bad on block. Another annoying thing is that doing Up-forward + Kick will prioritize this move over Rising Knee, which means you have to always input Up-back + Kick to ensure this move doesn't come out.

• Drill Power Slam ().

Combos

• cLK xx Double German (catches people trying to walk back).
• Body splash, walk in, cLK xx Double German (whether body splash crosses up or not, this is the combo you wanna do after your body splash mixup).
• Body splash, walk in, stHK xx Double German (your dizzy combo, it does +50% on half the cast, and even more on some characters!).

Matchups

• Vs. Marstorius (Mirror): Expect to see lots of sweeps lol. The key to this match up is playing a solid neutral game, making sure your sweeps never miss your opponent and punishing the others whenever they miss. LP Tiger Lariat can also be used to punish bad sweeps, giving you a knockdown that can give you the momentum you need. Jump with caution in this match, as the other can backdash and potentially punish you and hit your weak spot. It only takes 3 sweeps for Marstorius to get dizzied, and then the dizzy combo will leave him nearly dead, plus having to endure the mixup afterwards.

• Vs. Clown: A lot of people say this is Marstorius' worst MU, going as far as to call this a 9-1 or even a 10-0. To me it's more like an 8-2, very difficult but doable. On the ground, if Clown chooses to spam Spin Attack, mash stLP as soon as you see him doing it, it will beat it clean. Most of the time though, you'll spend most of this MU trying to get in. You can jump over Pick-a-card, but Clown can do other things afterwards to make your life difficult. If he chooses to do a Spin Attack, body splash will beat it clean. If he does nothing and instead chooses to, say, walk up then sweep, don't do a jumping attack as you'll lose your trip guard; because Clown chose to walk forward, he now has to charge his next Pick-a-card, which gives you an opportunity to Drill Power Slam his ass into the ground (though be careful if he knows you're going to do that, since he can punish you pretty badly if you guess wrong). You can also just LK Rising Knee over his Pick-a-card, but if he knows you're going to do this he can walk in and sweep you if you're not full screen. Rising Knee can also trade with his Spin Attack, which is useful to know. If he mistimes one of his Pick-a-cards, this can be your opportunity to use either Drill Power Slam or Tiger Lariat to knock him down. Knowing when Clown is charging and making him mistime his fireballs and make mistakes is the key to this match up. It's hard, but possible!

• Vs. Feilin:

• Vs. Jean:

• Vs. Karnov:

• Vs. Lee: This match up is in Marstorius' favor, but it's not free at all. A good Lee will always give you a hard time. Badly spaced Zetsus are easily punished with Double German, so Lee has to space them correctly in order to hit you. You need to position yourself at the specific ranges where the tip of his Zetsus won't hit you, and once you're at those ranges, start mashing stLP. This will halt Lee's offense completely, and allow you to slowly move forward and corner him. If you see him jump, you can backdash and sweep him if he's not too close. One good strategy in this match up is staying just outside the range of his bigger buttons like cHP and stHP, then whiff punishing them with your sweep.

• Vs. Matlok:

• Vs. Mizoguchi:

• Vs. Ray: One of Marstorius' borderline unwinnable match ups. A Ray who plays perfectly and without mistakes will never allow you to get close in this fight, so you have to take lots of risks and cause Ray to make mistakes.

• Vs. Ryoko: Easy match up. Your normals body Ryoko's in the neutral game. You can win this match by simply keeping her away the whole time. Only thing you have to be careful of is to not sweep carelessly, as her jump is quick and low to the ground, which means she gets an easy punish. Other than that, you can simply downback, use LK Rising Knee and stHP/cHP to anti air, stHK in the neutral (Ryoko has a hard time coping with this normal) and a few unexpected Tiger Lariats will give you an easy knockdown.

• Vs. Samchay:

• Vs. Yungmie:

• Vs. Zazie: