As you all know, Tusk is been out there for awhile, therefore a lot of players are quite familiar with the MU and try to exploit Tusk’s weaknesses. leaving zoning behind (which is character specific), I’ve found two main “strategies” that several players use to beat Tusk:
Some players use a lot of cross ups to catch Tusk off guard, since his sword normals are quite slow and not very effective at close range. Tusk’s DP is not great either to avoid close range jumpy characters. However, I think I found a way to deal with those guys, if they start using too many cross ups I just use an empty inmortal spirit to get away from them while they are jumping, taking advantage of the upper body invulnerability of the move, therefore allowing me to get some breathing room and get to optimal distance again.
Other players just wait for you to make a mistake, blocking pretty much everything you’ve got, specially while they are crouching. Tusk has only one overhead move, destroyer, but I think it’s quite unreliable against those players; if you use if from far away they can jump it or block it safely, they can see it coming, and if you try to use if from closer range, they can punish it due to its massive amount of starting frames.
As a result, the only choice I can think about is using cross ups, but if they have good anti air options they can punish you again. Or maybe you can try to grab them if they block too much, which sometimes works, but sometimes doesn’t. Of course, you can always use instinct to cancel your specials into skull splitter and try to deflect whatever they did to hit you, but waiting to get instinct doesn’t sound a reliable way for winning, and it also requires very precise timing.
An opponent who blocks well against Tusk usually falls for the step > grab or step > f.mp or step > naked jump.
Once you knock them down you can punish all their get-ups with d.hp because alot of players forget they can quick rise. When they start quick rising the less experience are gonna wanna press buttons and here comes baiting which leaves them open for all that Sword Action lol.
I’ve caught many oppoments with a meaty sweep > d.hp followed by grab > d.hp ended with a wake-up j.hp > d.hp. thats like 50% right there. Lol
Many folks wonder why you should break d.hp even though the damage is guranteed. Well ya’ll should know Tusk’s Oki is serious AF and if you dont break d.hp he has all kinds of advantage on your wake-up. If you break you guys become even.
indeed but combo breakers do add to said defences if they manage to break through
As for OP: They seem pretty interesting. Usually when I deal with tusk I try to stay just out of his reach enough to come in and get him on recovery. Tusk is a guy you don’t want hitting you.
Thanks for your input guys. I’ve been trying to adjust my game plan based on your feedback. However, I’ve been struggling a little bit when it comes to take advantage of hard knockdowns; when I try to keep the pressure on I usually end up eating a reversal (commonly a DP), getting shadow countered, or simply having all my attacks blocked and going back to neutral, probably because I’m already a killer and most other killers know how to quick rise and are aware or Tusk’s deflection frames, therefore they’re not very inclined to press buttons. Good players have also been able to punish my inmortal spirits on reaction.
I try to be unpredictable and play with their reactions, as mentioned, but it’s not that easy. More recently I’ve been using close backstab quite a bit, most players seem to forget about it and therefore they don’t expect it, but even then, they can grab you or DP you during the starting frames if their timing is right.
s.HK spaced well allows you to check the opponent while simultaneously placing yourself within mixup range. I think it’s a criminally underused button among the Tusk players I’ve witnessed.
Really? s. HK is probably one of the buttons I use the most, its so good to get in range, and a lot of players still don’t see it coming.
I still have some issues with some players who love turtling against Tusk, but what’s been working for me recently is to condition them to tech my grabs; if they love to block I just grab them a couple of times and try to follow with a couple of set ups that I have. if they keep blocking I just start doing empty inmortal spirits into empty jumps, so if they try to grab, they will whiff it, giving me the opening that I need for a full combo.
Eventually they will start trying to anti air me or hit me, that’s when I start using my deflecting windows, there are some attacks that I can deflect on reaction, including some DPs. If I get some combos, they are likely to feel scared or frustrated, and they might start making further mistakes as a result.
It’s not perfect, there are some players that make really good reads, predicting pretty much everything I try, but it’s a start jaja.
