Reasons why Mira is a top 5?

Characters Mira
1

Self explanatory Title.

Recently i decided to start learning Mira, and when chasing information about her i realized that lots of players have her in their personal top 5 ranking.
I really want to understand why so many people consider her a top tier character, and i really would like to discuss about it (because honestly, since im still im a learning process of the char, it’s quite possible that i cannot see the bigger picture, so apologies in advance if i say something wrong (or absurd lol).
Also, my other chars are Rash and Gargos, and as far as i know both of them wins that mu (my opinion, open to debate), so it’s quite possible that i missing something since i never truly struggled against the char.

So, why you guys consider her a top?

Here’s some of my impressions about the char:

1 -I see a lot the argument of her absurd damage.
However i never considered “damage” as a reason for being a top tier. Also Mira can only hit hard in lockout situations, instinct or using reaping linkers (who are not exactly hard to break)

2- Her offense it’s also very vulnerable for shadow counters. All strenghs of Reaping, mp, back hp, close hp and strong trephine are all easy to shadow counter. Plus the trick of cancelling any negative attack into shadow blood seekers has a gap who let most chars use their shadow attacks to punish Mira and Stop the pressure.

3-She lacks some anti air ability. Aside a very good air mp who can wins most air to air situations, a down hp who it’s not invencible and the medium command grab (which don’t cause any damage) Mira really struggles agains aerial pressure. I can be wrong, but i see Sadira, Rash, Gargos and Cinder as bad matchup’s for her. Especially because all of them have tools to pressure her in a angle that she lacks some tools.

4-Finally, just like i write above, Mira has a couple of bad matchups (in this point i can be very wrong). And i personally consider the fact of having no (or few) bad matchups an important point for judging who deserves or not be called top tier in this game.

I still consider the character very strong (perhaps top 10), but not a top 5…

3 Likes
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Off the top of my head:

  • Unreactable high-low reaping mix-ups
  • Lots of ways to keep herself plus on block
  • Very good normals for footsies like standing MP and standing HK
  • Great projectile that beats most others covers her approaches
  • Good meter build off her light bats
  • Shadow bats which locks her opponent in place for mix-ups and set-ups
  • Great mobility, especially in the air
  • Invincible, meterless escape option
  • Again, huge rewards off lockouts and counter breakers with her extremely high damage

All of these things are extremely powerful when applied smartly. If it weren’t for her blood health system and a few match-up weaknesses she’d be the best character in the game no questions.

3 Likes
3

I think any character that can kill you in one opening, forcing the opponent to take huge damage (reaping linkers) and be dared to break them or die, is pretty strong. On top of that she is pretty hard to stop on offense without meter, she builds a lot of meter and has a great way to use it (shadow bats, shadow grab), and she is slippery both in the air and on wakeup, the two aspects that make her do strongly against a lot of characters. I also think her command grab is pretty cheap (30% health swing and more or less unpunishable).

Yeah she’s a bit weak on anti-air (thank goodness) and opponent can react to some stuff with shadow counter, but she also has two-hitting normals like stand MP which can blow up guess shadow counters so it’s not all lost for her. Light drill into shadow bats is one of the best “here I come” moves in the game.

She probably has some tough matchups but I think that’s true of pretty much everyone in the game. I don’t think that precludes her from being a top 5 character.

6 Likes
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Mira is supposed to be a glass cannon. But her reward heavily outweighs her risk. The character gets 80+% cashouts with no meter. She can play a zoning game well. She has great buttons and arguably the best cross ups in the game save for omen maybe. She builds resources easily has a powerful instinct (vampire mist allows her to go nuts and makes her damage even more devastating) and her health isn’t hard to get back. She has a few bad mus for sure. Rash omen and Maya beat her cleanly and aganos has a slight advantage against her. (far as gargos goes I use to play that mu with xadrian and it didn’t seem to favor either. ) but even aria has a couple bad matchups. No one outside omen or fulgore has no losing mus really.

2 Likes
5

I’m definitely surprised to hear you say Aganos has advantage against Mira, heh. She has a great footsies heavy to deal with chunks and I imagine chunkless Aganos sucks big time against crazy Mira pressure. Plus, I don’t think Mira ever really has to go in if she doesn’t want to, she fights just fine from mid and long range.

Also, while Mira’s reward is very strong, I think the risk is pretty important. She does effectively play with a lower health pool than the rest of the cast, often meaning she gets only one instinct, and it often means she telegraphs command grabs when she’s in a tight spot. A lot of her best moves (except air dash) cost her a lot of life to use. Command grab is very strong and hard to punish but not impossible, so if you read that Mira needs to get her life back, you can kill her with only 70% damage dealt to her life bar. I think that’s pretty decent risk in a game like KI.

I’ve talked to you about this in the past as well, but might as well say it here; while I agree both Omen and Fulgore are strong, I’m not convinced they have no losing matchups. Fulgore especially seems like he has holes some characters can exploit good enough to gain an advantage, and characters with lots of meter (for shadow counters) and good anti-air can do well enough against Omen in the mid range. Give them enough damage so that they don’t have to win as many exchanges and I think Omen loses some fights.

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Would love for you to express your opinion on these characters match ups. I’m inclined to think omen and fulgore don’t lose any match up in this game.

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Mira tries to fight aganos long range she loses. The minute she shoots projectiles aganos can fire a medium payload then get a full combo on her. Or just use the clubs which travel fast enough to even beat shadow bats. She does have the means to remove armor but she never gives aganos a reason to block low either since she has no standing overhead and aganos can sc her multi hitting air normals. Her offense gives him plenty of meter so he has plenty of chances for shadow counters and shadow natural disaster to stop her air offense. Plus all that meter will lead to huge damage from aganos and she’ll have lost plenty of blood trying to open him up. Mira is also one of the characters who can’t shadow counter forward hk if aganos has even one hit of armor since the rest of it will get low crushed. Mira does well midscreen. But in the corner aganos destroys her and he wins at long range as well. Plus her lack of aa options also really hurt her in this fight. And I have a specific set up to flatout kill most characters let alone Mira in one shot of she tries to aa with heavy grab. I specifically use it to punish dps or things like it.

2 Likes
8

Far as omen goes he has some mus that can be annoying. Cinder and glacius being the most notable examples. But where as cinder has the things you mentioned, he also loses hard to omen when forced into a footsie battle which omen is still very capable of doing. He has safe jumps on cinders dp and can buffer j.hk or use heavy orda shield to stop trailblazer approaches.

Glacius has similar edges as well as the damage out put. But oddly enough omens spastic zoning kinda allows him to outlame Glacius and force him to come in. Which he has to do smartly as while he has good methods of anti airing omen when jumping in on him he doesnt have good methods to stop omen when he’s right on top of him as omen can just skate around his anti airs.

Even some of the fights omen wins such as tusk kilgore or Sadira don’t really allow him to fly around as much. But he has other methods of dispatching of them and no character can really put him in a situation he can’t deal with well.

3 Likes
9

Mira seemed to me like a Sadira or Maya, you absolutely must find your setups, follow-ups, cross-ups, etc before attempting to fight skilled players for she can be either a nuisance or a threat depending on who’s playing her.

Overall great design I kinda want her style to remain for the next game and get a revamp imagine if she looked a bit more like Charlize in the wicked sorceress movie

1 Like
10

What does this mean exactly? Buffer jumping HK? Ive had some tough times the last 2 weeks against a few great cinder players.

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Just as soon as you jump start pressing j.hk. the cinder mu makes a lot of omen players uncomfortable but I’ve been playing it with bass and illusion since s2 so I’m use to it a little more

1 Like
12

Can you show me some Omen tech one day? I feel like I stuck in a rut to were I dont have anything in my arsenal that is just entrapping or hard to escape. Yet when I play these cinders, Miras, Arbiters, and Gargos I get hit with thee set ups I cant get out of. So Im thinking, why dont I have some thing like that? I need to learn something new when it comes to Omens over head option in the air.

13

Not really any tech. I just use simple air to airs with j.hp or j.hk and utilize the other versions of orda shield to deal with those characters. Also vs gargos it’s better to shoot one or two fireballs at a time especially when he’s airborne to leave yourself less open to punishes. Same goes for cinder.

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I get both those scenarios , thats part of my plan, but Im missing something else. Not sure what it is. But when I get over their head, they jsut seem to block it out. Im doing something wrong.

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Go for empty jump lows some times. I catch alot of players with it. Also do heavy orda shield into shadow form isn’t a bad bet either. I did use omen in Yami’s tournament recently so you can probably catch it as I’m sure the replay will be up soon.

2 Likes
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I watched the video and I learned a few things and took them to the lab. Worked out well! Thanks!
I didnt know you could get a flip out after Orda ender> mk>light rash> flip out. THat now gives me a new option to mix it up instead of just going straight to the flip out after Orda ender. I def need to go into the lab and just practice free styling until I come up with stuff and then repeat it until its muscle memory.