Melty Blood/MBAACC/Shiki Tohno/Crescent Moon/Okizeme

Setups and Mixup

Tohno has a few select mixups and setups to use at his disposal. Most of them either require meter or severe damage loss though, so they are not used very much. Consequentially, these are not very important to his overall game, so don't worry too much about them. You can watch a video demonstrating these here.

22B~D Which-Way

• 214A (combo ends); 22B~D
• (any combo into 236C hard knockdown) 66 22B~D
• (near corner) 2AA > 5B > 6B > 5C > 2C > 214C > 22D > 2C > 214C > 214A > 2C (combo ends); 214A 22B~D
• (near corner) 2AA > 5B > 6B > 5C > 2C > 214C > 214A > 2C (combo ends); 214A 22B~D

Any variations into the same basic ender set this up.

This mixup is based around the teleporting in 22B. By pressing D at different times, Tohno can cancel the teleport to change which side he appears on. This creates a sort of acceptable left/right mixup, as it also obscures the vision of the opponent with the dust flying up from the teleport.

Unfortunately, this mixup is actually somewhat risky to use, due to the nerf to Shiki's 214A in Current Code. The additional frames of recovery mean that Tohno cannot always 2A the opponent before they can reversal 2A him. If you do not actually teleport through the opponent you can still get the 2A out before anybody else, but by traveling through them, the only character who will not be able to interrupt you is Nero, because of his slow wakeup speed.

The mixup also has a weakness to reversal shield. If Tohno wanted to use 5B or 2B to catch out incorrect shields, the opponent can just mash out.

Overall the meter setups are not very useful anymore, and the first one that actually does OK damage cost 200%. This relegates it to being a MAX mode only combo typically.
On the plus side, if you get a 214A hit in, via pokes or whatever, the mixup will work just fine on anybody. Midscreen, this is probably one of the better things you can followup a non counterhit 214A with.

236C Which-Way/Safe Heat

• 2AA > 5B > 6B > 5C > 2C > 236A > 236C (combo ends); 66 slight delay, j8~[4].C while falling.
• 2AA > 2B > 5C > 2C > 5BB > j.[C], land (66 5A >) 236C

Note that this combo does less than the above one, but is useful for hitconfirming into from aerial counterhits or 2C pokes at a distance when you want a safe heat and want to keep momentum going.

The 66 5A is for chars that the 236C whiffs on.

• (midscreen blockstring) 236A(hit) 236C (combo ends); 66 slight delay, j8~[4].C while falling.
• (midscreen otg knockdown) 214A/long-ranged 2C > 66 5A > 5B > 2C > 236C (combo ends); 66 slight delay, j8~[4].C while falling.

Goal of this mixup is to use the directional influence on neutral jump to create a confusing ground crossup when you land on top of the opponent. Tohno has enough time to use 2a, 2b or 5b after this mixup, making it much better vs shields and mashing. The alternative is to cancel into air backdash as late as possible to do an overhead j.C instead.

The 22B~D mixup can be used here too since there is enough time, but this mixup is stronger if you can do it well.

The 236C also allows you to safely Heat and still get a meaty afterwards, though you cannot do the mixup. Problems include the justification of 100% meter for quite mediocre damage, and the fact that 236C is not a very common move to use anyway.

Midscreen 5BB > j.[C] Which-Way

• 2AA > 2B > 5C > 2C > 5BB > j.[C] (combo ends); sj9, j.66 j.C while falling.

Goal of this mixup is to use specific airdash timing to land on top of the opponent to create an ambiguous ground crossup. By changing the timing of your airdash and j.C you can control where you land. Tohno has enough time to use 2A, 2B or 5B again, keeping them guessing with potential shields. You can also use a similar technique to the previous mixup, where you dash, neutral jump and influence your fall before j.C, or airdash backwards, but this is not really mixup more than a way to play it safe.
Ths mixup unfortunately really really gimps your damage for a midscreen combo, and is difficult to execute correctly.

IAD j.A > j.22A > Throw

• (anywhere) point-blank IAD j.A j.22A(w) > land, Throw

Not legitimately a setup but this is an incredibly dirty way to tick throw the opponent. Works because j.A has extremely low pushback and the j.22A moves you forward a lot, but won't actually come out as an attack. You will also land with no recovery due to being in the startup of an attack, allowing you to throw immediatly. Works the same way as the IAD j.[C] throw mixup but this is much safer overall (you can get mashed out of that one easily).

Offensive Option Selects

Tohno's upper-body clash frame on his 5B is a useful tool for helping him beat a lot of reversals, as well as his solid DP. The most common situations you can use these in are from a throw (anywhere), or a 623BB hard knockdown in the corner. To see the original thread for option selects in Actress Again PS2, check here.
Note that Crescent Bunkers can not counter hit anymore, meaning that Tohno can no longer get tech punishes after a bunker OS.
This video showcases the Universal OS.

• Universal OS - meaty 5B > 2B~214D.

Beats wakeup shield counter and bunker. This also beats most wakeup DPs, though for any that have a super flash you need to input bunker again after the super flash. Unless otherwise stated in a specific OS, while it says 5B meaty there needs to be a slight delay on the 5B hitting. If the 5B hits as early as it can it will still be meaty but it won't clash with certain DPs.

• Anti Heat OS - meaty 5A/2A > 5B.

When done right, you will clash the opponents heat if your 5A/2A whiffs, and you can cancel into whatever off the clash for a combo. Works off corner airthrow into 66 5A/2B 5B against most characters as well.

OTG Techpunishes

Check the OTG section in combos to get up to date on the basic setups first.

• (near corner, opponent knocked down) 66 5A > 5B > 2C > 2AAA
• (near corner, opponent knocked down) 66 5A > 2B(2) > 5B > 2AAA

Essentially, after these strings, Tohno can reaction 2C to cover all possible techs into a 2C > 5C combo for back and neutral techs, and into larger combos for when they tech next to him. Although it's possible to add in an extra 2C in the second combo too, the reason we avoid using it, or why it's prefferable to avoid using the higher damage techpunish is because the extra pushback in the string causes you to end up positioning yourself so that forward techs (techs that will come out of the corner) are going to end up being difficult to punish because Tohno won't turn around till later. This means your attempted punishes would whiff. You can remedy this by walking backwards a little but then you cannot properly punish or combo neutral or back techs, meaning this is not really a solution.

It is important to make sure you only throw out the 2C on reaction if you are trying to bait the tech because whiffing his 2C like that will make you very vulnerable.
Note that if they forward tech you can also just techpunish with any other move to start a much more damaging combo (like a 2A or a 5B)

• (following one of the two above OTG combos) 66 > 5A > 2C > 2AAA (> 5C)
• (following one of the two above OTG combos) 66 > 5AA > 2B(2) > 5B

66 5A 2C option select covers all techs (except sometimes first frame neutral techs, which are basically impossible anyway. However, in training mode, the AI always does these, so dont worry if this setup doesnt always work on the dummy), but can be a little tricky to hitconfirm. It can also be hard to actually catch the forward tech into the 5C into air combo with this too. However, it's definitely worth learning to do the OS tech punish just for the fact it will scare opponents into basically never teching your OTGs. If you end with 5C, then you recover in time to 2A all techs again (except first frame neutral techs again).

Here is a video that demonstrates how the double OTG os tech punish works for Crescent and Half Tohno.

If you attempt the second double OTG and they neutral or back teched your 5A will catch it for at least a block, but forward techs will get out.

• (near corner, opponent knocked down) 66 5AAA > 5B > 2B(2) > 2C > 5C > 2A/jumpcancel

For this OTG, using 2A allows you to potentially cover all techs via reaction 2C, but forward techs are hard to catch without some adjustment (outlined above). If you jumpcancel you cannot cover neutral techs. Back techs can be covered by IAD j.C/B and forward techs by IABD j.C/B.