Sophitia's Sword and Board / General Discussion

Got smashed tonight in a long casual set with a Mina; it felt incredibly hard to get in. Anything that I should be looking for, and looking to use myself? My practical move set is still on the small side.
 
Mina has a significant range advantage and it seems better lows over all. She is safer than she used to be, but most of her ranged pokes still seem to give you plenty of frames, and her options once you are in close are ok, but much more underwhelming. To advance you need to either tailor the approach based on what they are doing, or push them in some direction of decision making.

Do they poke every opportunity they get, or do they wait around looking for a whiff punish? If they are consistently doing the former, step forward in increments and guard, then use the frames you get from blocking their poke to threaten their next action. If they stand/step around and look for a whiff often, just run right at them.

If they are good at mixing up their pattern and reacting to what you are doing, then you need to interact with them more, which is the hard part. Step around some to see if you can get them to whiff 1B, 66B, or 22B and whiff punish/close the distance. See if you can catch a 6A or similar high anti step move with something that ducks. If you have them poking a lot and they don't mix in break attacks, try Reversal Edge. At some ranges you can poke as well with TAS B, sometimes with a delay before the B to get more range. When you are in Soul Charge, TAS B travels much further, is still very fast, hits much harder and is pretty safe on block. Use it's threat to get in or take the damage if they don't respect it.

Once you get close try to use moves that advance you and give reasonable frame disadvantage so you can continue to be threatening. A non exhaustive list could include 1K, 4B, WR K, throws, 66B. To be able to completely cover the opponent's options you might need to use things that only advance, or that don't advance much. Some usable but not ideal options could include 66A / TAS AA for step, 6BB / 4A+B for fast highs BB, 6K, 2A and KK as interrupts. If they just freeze on guard, put them into whatever your standard mixup is.
 
Hmm, I tried mixing all of those options and it just wasn't enough. The other guy may have Just Plain Been Better at choosing their moves and timings. I did notice that they consistently either poked or step-guarded when I tried to run in, which meant my horizontals fared very poorly (I don't think that I landed a 66B all night) and my go-to step killer (66A) was usually (though not 100%) blocked. I couldn't figure out an answer. The moment Mina blocked anything, especially 66A, they'd start throwing out moves with either backstep properties or a bunch of pushback to reset the range. Lots of lows, too, and a single hit means the frames for another range reset. I couldn't land enough pokes closing in to make up for the big combo damage I'd take from getting whacked on approach. Tough stuff.

The only thing I didn't try was Soul Charge, but the opportunities seemed very limited given the range at which Mina can whiff punish and my general desire to not reset range when I finally get in. I guess it'd be great if I managed to push them to a wall. Will have to look out for that in the future, since I felt pretty desperate for +frame situations even at close range. Soul Charge would fit the bill and open up the approach a bit if they manage another reset.
 
I really like this character but a lack of solid lows or throws can make getting things done a hassle. I wish we were less susceptible to turtling, and maybe that our RE options were better too.
 
I honestly miss Pyrrha O's 4B and regular Pyrrha's 88K.

Overall I think Sophitia is fine and feels pretty similar to her SC4 incarnation imo. Do y'all know any frame traps with her? I've just been spamming 4B into AA
 
I honestly miss Pyrrha O's 4B and regular Pyrrha's 88K.

Overall I think Sophitia is fine and feels pretty similar to her SC4 incarnation imo. Do y'all know any frame traps with her? I've just been spamming 4B into AA

Also missing Pyrrha's 3B, 4B, 22K and Omega's 6B BE. Was really hoping for a Sophie that more of a combination of the two but oh well.

6K, TAS K, 44kK are pretty good to spam AA/2A/KK after as well.
 
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