Zoners and Tusk

Characters Tusk
1

Ok so I feel like the hardest matchups for Tusk are the zoning matchups.

Kan Ra, Shago, Glacius, Omen, Cinder and Fulgore are all quite tough for me.

With Kan Ra, I found the solution is to stay on top of them and not let it up. Once they have no sand, you can meaty them all day without consequence.

With Shago, you really just have to wait for them to make a mistake. On a blocked slide you can cr.LP/LK into Immortal spirit>shoulder for a hit confirm into a full punish. Otherwise, well timed AA’s are key.

Glacius, I really don’t know. I feel like the best tool for this matchup is Tusks deflect. Since Glacius can puddlepunch on reaction to an immortal spirit, I think the only real reliable solution is to put him in the corner. As an ex-Glacius main (since day 1 of season 1) his wake options suck if he doesn’t have meter. But his zoning game is perfectly able to keep Tusk out just due to the trajectory of the hail’s movement.

Omen… I don’t even know where to start. I really have no clue. He doesn’t have any real wakeup options… but due to his shadow teleport being viable from just about any situation, he’s got the perfect option to get around your whiffs. And his Air Dash options are super funky and can really do a great job of getting around an AA’s you might attempt. I coudl really use help with this one.

Cinder’s seem to want to keep you out and convert combos out of bomb explosions. Only option I found is to keep crowding him. But be weary of his DP since it can convert to some really nice damage if he’s built the potential damage up. Another matchup I could use some help with.

Fulgore is super weird. With meter he’s a dangerous enemy to Tusk. He’s movement is so fast that Tusk really has to chase a lot. Jumping seems to be super good since his up laser was removed and he doesn’t really have an answer to j.MP.

All in all, the solution almost always seems to be to stay in your opponents face. There’s also some really interesting options after an instinct cancel from the backslash (>+MP) that I’ll need to share. This just opens up some damage where it could be quite useful.

Do you guys agree? Are those going to be his toughest matchups?

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What? You don’t consider Aganos a zoning matchup for Tusk? He starts the match with 2 chunks, puts a wall behing him, gets a peacemaker, and violá! From there, he simply recycles it as needed and makes Tusk hate him because not only does he outreach him, but he’s still got 1 good piece of chunk armor. :wink:

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Very good point dude. I totally forgot about Aganos. Haven’t played many tbh… But yeah that’s also a tough matchup…

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…and all that is assuming Aganos doesn’t take the time to get more chunks or put up walls after knocking him back for more damaging setups later… :wink:

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Nah. Aganos is hella easy to Deflect not only that but you can st.HP his NDs, his Ruins, and his Jumps. Aganos is a super duper Even MU for Tusk.

Omen and Shago are the devil tho I agree.

Glacius is just a test at your defense. Otherwise its still very even.

Fulgore’s teleport fireball mix isnt as good in this MU. The Fulgore player must mix it up better since Tusk can step out of range of all that trash. Tusk can also almost full screen punish Fulgore’s hp.Laser.

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Wait how can you punish the laser full screen?

Yeah I’ve only played Aganos once I’m not familiar enough to say for sure. But I got bodied the time I played him.

You may be right on Glacius. The only time I’ve won against a glacius they simply didn’t zone well enough and spammed cold shoulder which is punishable on block now.

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After a hk.Spirit you dont have to use its follow ups. You can use any button Tusk has almost Seemlessly from the spirit step. When Fulgore is thowin’ dem lazers I spirit step into st.HK which is basically a Full punish consider what you vam follow up with it.

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Hisako is a terrible MU for Tusk. She can parry most of his normals and specials… on reaction.

Hisako can parry on reaction st.mp, st.fp, st.fk, c.mp, skull splitter, backstab…

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I literally have to spam his quick footsies against her. Get hard knockdowns then Lava Blast her into full combos. Otherwise you can counter Tusk witj Hisako while asleep.

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I dunno. I have a much harder time vs Shago and Oman than I do Hisako. She’s hard but I just bait out the counter and grab.

That said I’m really just referring to his match ups vs zoners here. I don’t get a hell of a lot of time to play so I’m actually trying to see if anyone can point anything out that I’m not thinking of.

That’s a good point about the immortal spirit and just using that to close the gap during the laser. I guess I’ve just not been using that enough in that mu

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Shago is Hot Garbage. I literally have issues with him with any character with no natural protection. Like Armor or a DP or a counter.

In Tusk case you wanna deflect so bad but im starting to think lk.Spirit in moosejaw is the solution.

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I agree.

I need to play more matchup stuff.

After a decent set with Riptor, I think the matchup is even.

I think Tusk might beat Kim Wu.

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Ditto on this.

Hisako’s who get full of themselves reading the anti tusk tech love to counter empty jumps, empty i.spirits, and what not.

I actually have more trouble with Hisako’s who do double teleport cross up type shenanigans and actually know how to condition.

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“Aganos is hella easy to deflect in neutralif the Aganos player is an idiot” is what you should’ve said. Any smart Aganos player will wait patiently for you to attack 1st, watch it whiff or block it, and then counter-attack with a full combo-punish after the wall is put up.

Heck, I find it way too easy to set up walls against Tusk. Many of them try so hard to jump or dash in that I can just jump backwards, set up a wall, throw the occasional chunk or peacemaker to keep them back, rinse and repeat until satisfied, then destroy them. The smart ones will use his forward-moving specal (forget what it’s called), but even then, all I have to do is block low, then high if I see the overhead coming, and do a follow-up grab.

Personally, I’d say this matchup is 7-3 in Aganos’ favor. The fact of the matter is that even though Tusk can hit with his grounded heavy attacks, that’s about all he can do, and when the entire cast can also do that AND MORE, it means that he’s been kind of short-changed in this deal. :wink:

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I’ve found out that there is something interesting fighting some Cinder. I used 236+MK on his wake up, and each time I did this, his wake up DP has whiffed because my slide was under his hitbox. Then after that I was in his back and I hadn’t to worry about the fired up DP.

Also, as some of you were talking about Hisako, I would highly recommand to mix between grab and LOW attacks, as it’s now harder to counter low attacks than in season 2

But I still don’t know how to play against Omen…

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Actually i think Orchid is a bad matchup for Tusk. Her walkspeed basically eliminates a lot of your sword option. Her slide is a easy whiff punish tool and in Instinct you just have to eat it and try to yolo dp since Shadow Counter is not projectile invul.

Glacius is so tough to deal with. And im talking about good ones. Spirit Dash, Sword Normals get so easy outplayed. Liquidize his heavy sword normals, use Puddle Punch into Shadow Hail, use Shatter to cover the Space in front of Tusk and use multihail whenever you can. In instinct abuse Hail + cross/non cross teleport cause grab whiffs as a punish if you dont walk forward to Glacius and only his far heavy normals come out so no punish possible - why is the pushback on his cross/non cross Teleport so high? All in all i hate this Matchup - if played right you just have to try your way yolo in with a Spiritdash Overhead or st.hp to trade a stagger vs Hail. Imo if played right the mu is tough for Tusk - though its a bit early to say whats bad.

Omen + Shago are just ridiculous hard to deal with. Even the bad ones can get tough cause you cant always block right vs Shago…

Good Arbiters are a Problem too. The Air Shots force you to play his game. Cause if you get hit by one you eat 50%+ one chance to breaks.

Cinder is no Problem imo and the same for Fulgore.

Kan Ra is pretty easy imo and deflect does help a lot here. You see the Scarab animation the use your sword pokes. Tusks Damage does help a lot in that MU.

Kim Wu is not that helpless. I play on nearly daily basis with a pretty good one and i can tell you. Once Kim Wu has a Dragon - her Dragon dash into command grab denies all of the defelect shenanigans into full combo. It is so quick you have too anticipate it as Tusk.

@GalacticGeek
I would love to play a longer Set vs your Aganos cause i really have no matchup experience vs him. Im from Germany though but maybe we can try a set to see how the conncetion is.

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I haven’t played against an orchid that gives me problems. But you may be right.

I agree Glacius negates a lot of Tusks neutral. I’m sill struggling with this one.

I’ve played against some competent Kim wus without any trouble. I simply don’t rely on the deflect Windows to save me in my match ups. I use them, don’t get me wrong. But his st.MK and st.HK are great poking tools. Especially out of Immortal Spirit. Maybe I need to play more Kim’s but I just haven’t struggled yet.

I dunno the fulgore and cinder have pretty easy punishes for whiffed attacks and both have great wake up options.

Like I said before though, I don’t get much time to play so you all probably have a better handle than I do.

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I dont say im struggling just that she isnt helpless. Maybe its a bad mu for Kim Wu but i come out even vs a friend of mine that is familiar with my Tusk playstyle. What i meant to say is that his deflect does not play a big role in this mu - if played right. Tbh i use cr.mk, st.mk and st.hk more than his sword normals in general.

And im getting beat up pretty hard on a daily basis by many characters though i know that missing matchup knowledge is often the problem.

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Yeah same here. I certainly need more matchup experience that Ranked just doesn’t offer.

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7-3 MU if the Tusk player keeps jumping and dashing like a psycho lol

Has any Tusk you fought actually patiently walked in used actual footsies? Have they used Grab and Spine-Splitter mix-ups from light I.Spirit? Personally I’ve deflected 100% of the raw ruins into a full punish, if you wanna land ruin on me your gonna have to punish correctly or combo into it. Not only that but you don’t have to be an “idiot” to get caught pressing an unsafe button with Ags. Club is super scary except with Tusk and Hisako. Tusk can bring down Walls very easily too since skewer counts as a quake effect. I’m telling you the MU is pretty even, you can throw his chunk at Tusk all you want but walking in while you chunk up then st.HK will crush that. Jumping HP cross up is super effective on Aganos and it hurts alot.

I guess the guys you fought just crumble under pressure on site of Walls. I play Aganos fervently so I know his weakness and where one should punish. Just gotta fight more experienced players before saying something out of this world like 7-3 MU in AGANOS’s favor. lol