Skullgirls/Big Band/Strategy
Strategy
Big Band's goals:
- Patiently observe his opponent's habits and wait for his time to punish.
- Condition his opponent so that they play into his hands.
- Use his high risk, high reward tools to control space in neutral, punish his opponent, or convert off stray hits.
Big Band is a defensive playstyle character that excels at punishing his opponents habits, although not without risks in doing so. Boasting the biggest hurtbox in the game, slow mobility, and relatively slow moves emphasize his need of patient, defensive play.
His mobility isn't as great as other characters but using Emergency Break during Brass Knuckles or Take the 'A' Train, j.HK to use a ground recovery after landing, and the second part of j.MK (which uses his double jump), allows him to get around the screen at the cost of being vulnerable.
Big Band's neutral is a patient game of watching his opponent, using his specials to cover areas around him, and capitalizing on hard reads or an opponent's mistakes.
- Beat Extend covers the immediate space in front of Big Band, with the M and H variants covering behind him as well.
- Brass Knuckles covers the space in front of Big Band that the move suggests.
- Whereas Take the A-Train covers the upwards angle above Big Band except the L variant which covers the space in front of Big Band.
- Cymbal Clash covers the downward angle below of Big Band and changes his air momentum.
- Giant Step covers a medium space in front of Big Band, with the H variant causing an unblockable earthquake.
He can also use his normals to space and cover areas around Big Band with less commitment than his specials.
- s.LP is a fast jab that hits in front of Big Band that is useful against low air dashers and for confirming hits.
- c.MK is a good button because it vacuums his opponent, shrinks Big Band's hurtbox, AND puts a hitbox entirely around him.
- j.LP/MP/HP cover the area in front of Big Band, with each button strength affecting the height, LP being the lowest and HP being the highest.
- j.LK covers an downward angle below Big Band and has three hits.
- j.MK covers an angle directly below Big Band, has two parts to it, and can stop opponents from trying to run under him.
Keep these in mind as basic guidelines of Big Band's gameplay and his goals.
Counterplay
