Or as I like to call it, the "I'm Not Touching You Trap"
This is a technique I sorta picked up from a great Jedah player in Japan named Shimatsuya. His blog post was about how a perfectly placed dio sega could leave your opponent trapped with limited options.
Because I main both Mariah and Jedah I saw the connection and realized Mariah can make use of the same concept for her plug attack.
I planned to do this alot later, but I have a friend that plans to use Mariah in the upcoming Vortex Gallery bracket (for whatever reason), and I thought I'd put out this bit of advanced tech to help them out.
So what makes this move "Perfect" anyway?
That's a bit of a misleading title. The Perfect part mostly refers to the spacing and distance. Here's a checklist of what makes this technique perfect.
- the spacing is just close enough to keep them right the hell where they are
- you'll have some breathing room to run your trap game
- prevents your opponent from doing anything at all
- guarantee a free win if you master this technique.
That's why i prefer to localize this technique as "I'm not touching you Plug/Dio Sega" because it better describes what's happening with these strategies.
So What Is Perfect Plug and How Does it Work?
So the perfect plug makes use of two basic mechanics in jojo
So let's talk a little bit about proximity guard and how it contributes to our "perfect" attacks. In most 2D fighters, you have to hold back to block. Since back is conveniently how you also move backwards, block only activates when an attack is coming your way. This is a system that works pretty well. Attacks that are close enough to hit are blocked, and you can continue moving after it ends. Fireball coming your way? it'll eventually reach you, be blocked, and you can move on with your day.
Unless you have a projectile that just sorta stands there
So we have a situation where you opponent won't be able to back away by just holding back. 9 times /10 they can just jump back, but prejump doesn't allow you to block, so if the positioning is PERFECT they'll be unable to walk back or jumpout.
HFTF has alot of KOF style movement, so it's still possible to roll through it, or even backdash (if you're Mariah, Young Joseph, or Hol Horse).
Let's do an example. If you look at the first picture, even if Hol is prevented from backdashing or jumping, he can still slide and start his unblockable game. Your enemies can still fight back, but their options become limited enough for you to have a good response for w/e they try to do which can include, but isn't limited to....
- Pokes
- Sweeps
- Tandems
- Raw Supers
again, the "perfect" plug isn't perfect, but it's useful for leading your opponent into doing something predictable.
"WOW TRASHBOAT THIS IS AMAZING TECH!! Can you give me any specific setups?"
Shimatsuya is a very intelligent player that provides alot of good examples on how to setup the perfect dio sega with multiple pictures and detailed explanations, Unfortunately, I don't possess such intellect when it comes to fighting games. I play by vibes alot, so I rarely do things that are optimal, but rather things that just feel right and work for me. One bit of advice I can give is that 2A > 2A > 5C > 6S seems to be an pretty easy close plug setup that works on most characters.
Thanks for reading, and hope this helps any up and coming Mariah players