micro, I'm going to pick on you today.
Nightmare also rapes people with tech traps, and has 44BB to pressure people into teching-- that's a mixup.
That's only the case when 3B connects. You mix up between 1A trap or 44BB.
With ch ws (B) > NSS A+B, the 66B or 44BB trap is entirely negated by just holding G and not teching. At that point, you can do regular combo ender 2A+B or 33B for miniscule, guaranteed damage. You can't throw right afterward, because the opponent won't be fully standing by the time the grab's impact frame is active. You can wait, but the opponent can/will notice the delay and 2A.
NM has a lot of highs, but they're solid (his throws are long ranged, agA is fast and is neutral on block, 66A is long ranged and is very good on block as well) and they give people an incentive to duck-- which opens them up to mids; that's a plus. 2A and other tech crouches only shut down the lame stance 'block trap' setups like 33B6 and 66K6. In other situations, NM still has ways to deal with tech crouch attacks.
You won't believe how much stuff gets TC'd, even
after the TC move in question is finished animating.
•66A is slow. If you're lucky and it connects on that rare occasion, you get 11B free. Yay.
•a:G+A I only use to kill step. And that's after I visually confirm that they are indeed stepping. None of that anticipation BS. I used to use it as step killer and whiff punisher
ala deathfist, then I realized that it whiffs way too much because of TC. Nothing better than whiffing a whiff punish.
•Same problem with 6A.
•Same problem with 6K.
etc, etc.
Only mid pokes he has are 3K and 11K, and 3K got screwed for no logical reason.
66K6 is good 'cause it's a fast tech crouching mid. Yeah, it doesn't combo into anything on NH or CH (if there isn't a wall), but you still have GS A and GS KK to frame trap and you have GS B to apply Soul Gauge pressure once they start blocking. This is the reason why WR AA6 isn't a complete joke either. WR AA6 to GS B applies more Soul Gauge pressure if people insist on blocking, expecting to punish GS A or the second hit of WR AA. People will be hesitant to interrupt or GI GS B because you have GS A or finishing out the natural string.
2A still beats out post-66K6 on block. Only option from 66K6 that is a frame trap, iirc, is GS KK. And no one is crazy enough to use that. ws AA6 has no frame traps afterward, so 2A beats all GS followups out.
To get the best results from GS, just do the 236 motion from neutral stance. It's too fast for people to 2A, so stuff will actually connect on occasion. Only move with GS stance change that should be used more than once is probably 1[A], if the opponent likes to block it instead of GI/jump it.
Nightmare has mixups, they're just not conventional for the most part. GS is a mixup because you can apply block pressure or interrupt/counter GI/catch step, or you can go into FC to mixup with lows or WR mids.
2A doesn't allow you do apply FC mixups. The delay you have to make for GS to become FC is noticable enough to 2A before any flapjacks/ws B_Ks/lows come out.
My opinion on NM is that he is by no means a pushover, the person playing him just has to think harder and outside of the box. I'm actually of the opinion that there are things about him that are 'undiscovered' and that his play style has room to grow. I have my fair share of complaints with him, but a lot of people have nerfed movesets in this game (compared to SC2), so I look on the brightside and work to make NM better.
As of now, high risk, mid to low reward, imo. Most, if not all, of his high damage stuff comes from ch ws (B) and 3B. I'll use ch ws (B) as an example because that's where his most damaging stuff comes from.
this is the most damaging thing nm has (without walls), so far:
ch ws (B) > NSS A+B > 44B(B) tech trap > NSS (A) tech trap > NSS B.
You have to apply 50/50
twice and have the opponent guess wrong
both times to get any decent damage. You have to find some way to force that ch ws B to connect in the first place, before any of this can happen. Asta gets a retarded-to-break hcb B+G > 22_88B for more damage than the damage you get if your opponent guesses wrong on the 44B(B)/66B 50/50. Your opponent could bypass that 50/50 altogether by just holding G after NSS A+B.
And that 22_88B after Asta's throw is guaranteed. The break window is enough to get people scared enough to twitch duck, at least. NM has nothing makes people want to duck. Flapjacks can be broken from standing, and you don't even have to guess. Break B if nm's back is to the edge of the ring. Break A every other time. If the nm mixes things up, take the damage. All nm gets is a miniscule BT 2K after flapjack B. Stay down after flapjack A and take the miniscule damage from ground hit 33B. Break standing throws. Break B throw if NM's back is to the edge, break A every other time. If nm mixes it up, he gets nothing after B throw. After A throw, just side roll. You have enough time to crouch block if you see anti-side roll 1[A] coming.
1A can't even be used in standard mixups because you can block it on reaction. Post a:G+A or 4A, if someone likes to mix up 3B/33B with 1A, just block high. You have enough time to see the 1A coming and press 2 to guard low.
Everything is 50/50 after 50/50 after 50/50. You can't survive on 50/50s only. Especially if some of those 50/50s can be negated altogether. Granted, nm isn't 100% 50/50s, but he's close enough, as of this point.
Fuck, I said I wasn't going to bitch anymore. Eh. Q.Q
A jfs (fast and slow, especially slow). Imo the most important thing is to learn to play at NM's max range, this is what makes NM safer.
