Big Band help

[Sliced_Toast]

Hey there everyone from the good old Skull Heart community, neighborhood vigilante and all around helpful man sliced toast here, I was wondering if you community could help me out. I am starting the full training for evo this year, and I was wondering if anyone had any good tips for me on big band. I have been doing good learning combos, trying to stay on the ground a predict enemies movements and actions. I was hoping people could give me advice on my Big Band skills, since I will be going into evo with just a solo Band. Before anyone says anything I know its better to have a two person team to extend combos, I just have never been any good with tag in's, so I like using the solo game. So this is what I have compiled so far about big band and I am checking things off the list. Feel free to message me to train with me and teach me something new.

1.Combos (I know three mid-screen, and two corner)
2. Burst Baits (I know two)
3. I am so-so with parries
4. I have two snap back combo lead in's
5.My mix up game is pretty good
6. Finally stopped mashing to get out of a combo (happy about that one)

Please let me know any good strategies or combos I learn the best while learning from other people. Thanks again community. :)

 

[Ninja]

Take a look at my stuff if you haven't already Toast. https://www.youtube.com/user/SpiralMaster27

unfortunately run with band and bella so it might not be as much help. shrug.

 

[skull person]

Take a look at Flotillas set vs MikeZ from this weeks WhoYallLike once @alexpi uploads it, he's a solo band player.
Actually just try and find any footage of MikeZ playing he's a pretty cool Big Band when he's actually playing to win :^)
Also in one of @Zephyrel recent vods (Maybe you can steal a link from him) he did a solo band mirror match lobby against Flotilla and maybe someone else as well as play a bunch of solo band on stream. (I don't know if you're better than him though)

Might be a good place to start though, it's always nice to steal others tech.

 

[Zephyrel]

@Skarmand Uh, yeah, that stream's recorded, as per usual of my streams. I'll have to see about having it youtubed, but uh, I would suppose I can toss some pointers and stuff, and also toss in this video I found that's pretty damn useful I think for anyone looking at Big Band. Always important to know your move properties.

Let me outright say this. Never mash super. Please don't do this. This isn't hustling rocks, this isn't stupidass dynamo, and it's not going to work against a lot of things. Your best bet under pressure is just sit back and guard appropriately, and watch to the best of your ability for resets. Throws, whiffs, Fukua's armored command grab that you have to jump out of on reaction in resets, Bella's command grab resets, low poke to overheads (lowverheads), and other assorted nasty mixups, crossups, and crossunders.

Parrying is important, but generally it's all about the reversal. For overheads you can use j.LK, j.MK, any of the Cymbal Clashes, and any of the Giant Steps. If your opponent likes to stay grounded, put the fear in them with Giant Step H. Parrying is extremely useful in approaching your opponent from the air as well when they have a better initiative and a better position or speed to hit you. Squig's j.HP and other, easy quick hit confirms, and Peacock's BangBangBang and George's. This isn't to say though that parrying is always better of course. More often than not you're better off gaurding and doing PBGC reversal. If you're feeling really fancy and gutsy, you can PBGC a blockstring to start parrying that blockstring. It's a bit iffy though.

Also, fun fact, if you have A-Train or Brass Knuckle assist and you Alpha Counter, you can cancel those when you come in, which is great for not getting screwed and being in a better position to reversal or to guard. I don't employ burst baits really with BB cause I don't feel they're quite needed and I'm typically up close in one's business, or someone's up close in mine.

Also, in general having a second is important. It allows you to heal damage, extend combos, and you have a potentially valuable assist that can do any number of things, from punish, to zone, to bait, and generally to pressure in some way/form. For example I play point Bella with Brass Knuckles H as my assist and Bella has Excellabella assist for my BB. This is twofold. With Brass Knuckles I have an excellent armored high-damage move that I can chain and slip into chains with, and use as bait or a spacing tool to give me some breathing room. My excellabella is a weakish assist, but it's valuable in combo extensions and in punishing iffy, slow aerial approaches that don't go into the assault fast enough.

Raw Tags are something that are different for every character, so you need to learn when and if you should Raw Tag. Sometimes you can't just DHC one super into another super, and sometimes you don't have the meter or aren't in a good position to blow a meter and Alpha Counter. Big Band has a pretty unsafe and easily punishable tag in, but this can be mediated by just raw tagging unexpectedly, such as on your approach or on their approach (if it's weak enough), or raw tagging immediately after a launcher or combo, where you have as much time as possible to do that.

Overall, if you're taking Solo Band into Evo, just, put the fear in your opponent. Punish them and punish them hard. Realize that your resets may not work because high level people will have seen them, so vary them and try not to do the same thing more than once. Not only wreck their face in, but respect and be wary of your opponent. There's alot of good and great players out there who won't hesitate to get in your grill and try to stomp you with everything they have, resets, assists, mixups and all.

Also, Mcpeanuts BnB's are alright. I use them myself cause I'm shameless and can't write half of my own combos myself without thinking these could be better. The ones I do write or rewrite are pretty hand for me though. I do need however, better execution.

Spoiler

...And a better controller with a better, more accurate, and well-tuned thumbstick, and all digital buttons, including triggers, for the love of everything that's good.

Best of luck at Evo dude. Have fun.

Oh, and one more thing, if you really want to see a really good Big Band, play against @guitalex2007 . If you want to see a silly Big Band that uses plenty of Cymbal Clash, play @Flotilla, and if you want to see a other Bella Band that isn't me, go play @Icky.

Fight everybody you can, learn from everyone, cause I can't stress enough how important both knowledge and adaptability is. And defense, too.

 

[Sliced_Toast]

Thank you everyone for your help I am going to digest this information and start training some more. So far I am doing better but thank you for all of these tips and tricks I will hopefully become a great solo band player if not the best. That is what my goal is.