Melty Blood/MBTL/Mash Kyrielight/Matchups

Overview

Combos

Matchups

Strategy

Resources

Data

Match Database

#MBTL_MAS

Notation Help
Disclaimer: Combos are written by various writers, so notation may differ slightly from this notation. For more information, see Glossary and Controls
X > Y	X input is cancelled into Y.
X, Y	X input is linked into Y, meaning Y is done after X's recovery period.
X+Y	Buttons "X" and "Y" must be input simultaneously.
X/Y	Input "X" or "Y" can be used.
dl	There should be delay before inputting "X".
w.X or Xw	Attack "X" should whiff and not hit the opponent.
j.X	Button "X" is input while jumping or in the air.
dj.X	Button "X" is input after a double jump.
jc	Jump cancel the previous action. Will occasionally be omitted due to being obvious. Will occasionally be notated with 7/9 to indicate backwards/forwards.
sj	Perform a superjump, which is performed by inputting 2~8.
sjc	Superjump cancel the previous action.
IAD	Instant Air Dash.
AT	Air throw, often used as a combo ender that leads to knockdown.
md.X	Perform a micro-dash before performing "X". Unused in favor of writing "microdash."
tk.X	Indicates the motion "X" is input immediately after leaving the ground. Stands for tiger knee.
(X)	Input "X" is optional. Typically the combo will be easier if omitted.
[X]	Input "X" is held down. Also can be known as "Increase" or "IC" for short. Depending on the character, this can indicate that this button is held down and not released until indicated by the release notation.
]X[	Input "X" is released. Will only appear if a button is previously held down.
{X}	Button "X" should only be held down briefly to partially charge the attack, instead of the full increased version.
X(#)	Attack "X" should only hit # of times.
X~Y	This notation has two meanings. Use attack "X" with "Y" follow-up input. Input "X" then within a few frames, input "Y". Usually used for option selects.
(...) OR (...)	Use only one between the two alternative routes.
RB1/2	The first or second hit of Rapid Beat auto combo.
CH	The first attack must be Counter Hit.
FC	The first attack must be Fatal Counter.
MD	Perform a Moon Drive, which is inputted by pressing 5B+C.
Heat	Perform Heat, which is performed by inputting A+B+C.
AD	Perform an Arc Drive, which is performed by inputting 236B+C. Characters with more than one Arc Drive will have theirs notated by input.
LA	Perform a Last Arc, which is performed by inputting A+B+C+D or successfully Shielding in Blood Heat.

Specific Matchups

Shiki Tohno (Hard) [character page][match videos]

Tohno occupies a lot of the same space that Mash wants to play in and he plays those spaces a lot better given that his moves are faster. His 2C will completely out-speed and out-space almost all of your normals. His 236X specials are simply just better versions of Mash's 236X. Not to mention that Tohno has excellent air normals and can easily convert any air-to-air into damage. Though not impossible to deal with his options, you are required to make good reads on what he intends to do as picking the same option as him will likely lead to him beating you. Example would be if he wants to 236X, challenging with your own is a bad idea due to the speed difference, so instead try to make it whiff by jumping away and coming down with a jump normal. Get accustomed to being able to shield/jump out of 5[C] on reaction and blocking 5{C} 2C.

Arcueid Brunestud (Hard) [character page][match videos]

Arc is another character with excellent air normals and a scary ground approach. Her ground normals are at least contestable with good spacing. 2B is her best overall poke but you can space yourself far enough where you can beat her out with 5C/2C. However you should avoid directly challenging her j.B in the air. It's best to just reposition yourself or run under and anti-air. Her rekka pressure is pretty strong, but if your opponent attempts to hit you with the third hit high/low you can buffer 623C and quickly hold downback to cover most of her options. Immediate 623C will punish second rekka with no cancel and will beat the third rekka if your opponent leaves a gap.

Akiha Tohno (Fair) [character page][match videos]

Overall neutral in this matchup is dependent on how patient you can play around her wheels. Mash's buttons are certainly good enough to keep Akiha from just rushing her head-on. So you will need to make sure you avoid situations where you have to block a wheel which is her most sure-fire way of winning neutral. Avoid blindly rushing at her and focus on calling out when she wants to set a wheel with super jump buttons. Being anywhere directly beneath her while she's in the air is also a good way to get hit by falling j.B. Avoid those spots. Shielding her wheels is an overall good way to deal with some of her oki options. Though keep in mind she can call this option out by altering her wheel placement and throwing you.

Ciel (Very Hard) [character page][match videos]

Mash loves her senpais but this is one you want to avoid fighting. Ciel's neutral game is incredibly difficult for Mash to contend with. She can safely throw keys from angles that Mash cannot hit her out of (up back j.214B for example). Your overall focus will be to shield black keys and approach carefully, Ciel can easily convert any of her stray projectile hits into knockdowns. At least Ciel's offense isn't too impressive. So blocking her isn't too scary and is definitely recommended. If she tries to do delay 214B~B~B strings you can punish her with reversal 623C since it will punish any gaps while also being able to punish each individual key rekka on block if she doesn't cancel. Recommended to have MD when you do this so if she tries to EX cancel back with 236C you have a second chance to save yourself.

Hisui (Fair) [character page][match videos]

Fair matchup to play. Hisui's normals aren't too threatening but she does have the same silly gimmick in 5[C] as you do with your 236[B]. If both players try to do these moves too close both characters actually whiff through each other. Otherwise neutral consists of Hisui throwing out random projectiles at you or super jump j.[C] to try to score a hit to set up bento oki. Moon Drive 6BC is particularly annoying given how fast it is but just poking normally and reacting to the clash with DP is sufficient for dealing with it. Her bento oki is strong but if you make the right guess you can DP out of it. She usually has to make a hard bait from most knockdowns if you present DP enough times. If she attempts to do a close blockstring into EX dust, you can guard cancel heat to avoid the follow up mixup. Not recommended if you have a big meter/life lead already though. She can sometimes space herself so that your heat will whiff so pay attention to that. Being beneath Hisui is very dangerous since her j.C covers a huge range in front of her and below her. Stay focused on if she uses her double jump or not and then respond with anti-air DP/3C if you think she might press falling j.C. Item toss isn't too threatening on its own but makes for a very effective defensive tool if you try to rush in to quickly. Moon drive version throws a lot of items at once so try to keep a safe distance until it looks like she wants to toss them and shield the projectiles for safe moon gauges. You can sometimes try to call out an item toss with 22A or 2BC but the risk/reward is usually favored in Hisui's favor since she can combo off the item toss meterlessy at the right spots.

Kohaku (Fair) [character page][match videos]

Your biggest threat in this matchup is battous of course. They're fairly fast and also have good reach. 2C is another normal to watch out for because of its range. If you can make good reads you can get around these or try to blow through them with 236[B]. She has no real grounded reversals to speak of so it's pretty effective for winning neutral. Be mindful that she has a horizontal air dash so she can do quite a few overheads in the air low to the ground before she lands. j.[C] has a big vertical hitbox below her. Retreating j.[C] is a good option for her to bait out your shield charges. Try to get above her or meet her horizontally with your j.C but always avoid being below this move.

Hisui & Kohaku (Fair) [character page][match videos]
Refer to the solo maids. It's not really that different.

Kouma Kishima (Fair) [character page][match videos]

Primary goal is to play a strong footsie game to keep Kouma from rushing at you and also to avoid rushing at Kouma needlessly. His defensive options are strong with an amazing anti-air 2B, DP, and a multitude of armored moves. You will want to watch out for his approaches with j.[C] which is a big armored jump in or dash rekkas. Learning to deal with his armor moves is also important, refer to his front page entry for ways to deal with armored moves. Defensively, you will usually want to fuzzy jump most of his strings to avoid his command grabs. Though his damage off his normals are much higher so sometimes its better to just hold downback and take the throw to avoid a potentially big call out. His j.236C is his big plus on block kick that you guard cancel heat through without fear of being punished if you don't want to take the mixup after.

Miyako Arima (Hard) [character page][match videos]

Miyako is extremely threatening up close as it is difficult to challenge all of her options due to the wide variety of mixups she has. Your normals are bigger than hers so that's about the only leverage you will get in neutral to fight Miyako. Try to stuff her approach and start your offense before she does. Defensively... you shouldn't expect to be able to beat all of her options by simply DPing. Do your best to react to her high/low/cross-up by blocking. If you have a good read you can even try to shield but getting called out by throw can lead to some significant damage or a reset opportunity for Miyako.

Noel (Hard) [character page][match videos]

Noel's buttons are incredibly long and are more than a match for Mash's shield normals. Your primary focus should be on baiting out her 2B in neutral. It's an insanely long reaching two hit normal that can anti-air on the first hit and poke low on the second. It's fairly difficult to challenge on the ground since her 2B is 8f which is faster than your 2B. What you can instead do is slightly delay an airdash to go over 2B since the second hit has very poor vertical reach. TK 214X/j.4BC can also achieve the same result. If you think she will whiff it front of you, the fastest whiff punish you can usually do is 6BC for whiff punishing the extended hurtbox. New to recent patch is that you MUST low shield 2B as stand shield will force fail shield state. So guessing between her using 5C and 2B in neutral with shield can be really annoying. Noel's keys are good but she has limited uses of it of course. Shield them when you see them for the moon gauge. Noel has both an overhead and DP on her 22X. So it's important to safejump her to avoid any silly wake up games. 214X will restand you so keep a lookout if your opponent likes to do restand resets. You can typically mash out of these if you're ready.

Michael Roa Valdamjong (Very Hard) [character page][match videos]

Roa not only boasts powerful zoning tools, but also really strong pressure to boot. He won't run away from you thankfully but his grounded 214X is more than enough to keep Mash out. 6BC is the fastest tool you have to challenge horizontal lightning strikes while on the ground. The regular shield bashes you have are too slow to contest with horizontal lightning. When in doubt you can also just shield the lightning or just dash block into it until you get in. His grounded normals are all faster than you but you have a slight reach advantage over him. Mashing out of his pressure will be difficult but you can at least play some level of footsies with him at midrange. Defensively it's best to avoid air teching unnecessarily. If you tech into 214C you can easily get air unblockable'd. As stated before, his buttons are much faster than yours, so mashing on his rebeats can be very difficult as he is still effectively neutral or plus from his rebeats. Try to focus on jumping out of his pressure instead. TK j.4BC or dive kick can sometimes be a surprise option for Roa if he's too focused on doing grounded rebeats.

Vlov Arkhangel (Very Hard) [character page][match videos]

You can probably guess this matchup is awful for Mash. It is! Vlov has every tool on the planet to keep Mash from getting in and many of which require less risk and offer more reward to use than Mash's approach options. Your one singular option that you can use to deal with Vlov zoning is TK j.4BC. The air shield slam has a really good angle for getting over Vlov 22X and even some of his 236X projectiles if your timing/spacing is good. Otherwise it's very hard to find time to charge up 236[B] to get in and you're typically stuck using the same universal approach options that most characters have (dash blocking, IAD, superjump, shield BC). Your only chance of winning this matchup is to stick as close to possible to Vlov at round start and snowball him to death with your pressure. At the very least your up-close pressure is good so that's where you want to be for the entire match. On defense it's best to just block until you see a good opportunity to jump out. If he starts calling out your jumps with 214X then that's when you can start mashing on some of his pressure. His safejump oki is also incredibly safe since he's able to do it from so far away where majority of your options will whiff. You also don't really have any good moves to low profile under his j.B. So again, just block and hope you can find a gap somewhere else!

Red Arcueid (Very Hard) [character page][match videos]

Warc is another mobile zoner character that can operate outside of Mash's optimal ranges. You will have to use universal options to deal with upback onion ring projectiles as Mash has literally nothing in her kit that can stop her from simply running away and throwing rings at safe positions. Call them out with super jump j.C or dash under her and anti-air her from behind when you can. Grounded rings are a bit easier to deal with since you can use j.214X to get over them at the right ranges. j.4BC is probably her most controlling ring toss given she can do it from the ground and put herself in a difficult to reach position. If you're close enough and shield the first ring as she's throwing it out you will be able to punish her with shield BC, but otherwise she can usually jump cancel before you have time to react to it. When pressuring her up close, a well-placed 214X or 4BC can catch Warc attempting to escape with an instant j.4BC. Her ring oki is a bit tricky; she can choose to have the ring meaty or whiff on purpose to bait out shield. Generally the best option is to always block them but gambling on shield delay BC against a meaty ring can sometimes catch Warc by surprise. Keep in mind that she can simply respond with her own shield BC to beat you or just block and wait. Her midscreen throws are less threatening due to her lacking any real consistent oki option midscreen. So taking throws midscreen isn't too bad (though going back to neutral vs her also is a disadvantage in a sense). Conversely, being in the corner and being thrown by her is not great given that she gets solid damage and gets to loop her okizeme.

Saber (Fair) [character page][match videos]

An FGO player's favorite matchup. These two servants go pretty evenly with each other. Your primary focus is to just play a solid neutral game. Her j.[C] is something to look out for as it's big and has more reliable clash frames than Mash's. Avoid being in situations where she is above you and you don't have a good angle to anti-air with 5B or DP. Otherwise just use 236[B] when she's on the ground or about to land to force your way in. When blocking rekkas always block low until the third rekka where you have to then start blocking overhead. She does not have a low rekka 3. Watch when she has three bars because Avalon will beat any safejump you try to do.

Aoko Aozaki (Hard) [character page][match videos]

Another annoying matchup given that Aoko's beams are pretty good at keeping Mash out. She can also set orbs in neutral to cut off some of your approach options. You're mainly just going to look for deadzones in her zoning to get in. Once you're in mid range it gets a lot easier as you can threaten 236X better and there's a good spot outside of her 236A range where you can charge up 236[B] and beat her out if she's just mashing finger beams. Stick close to her round start and don't let her freely set up orbs around the screen or else neutral will become complicated for you. Outside of her 4C, most of her overheads are slow and reactable so just hold downback until you see an obvious looking overhead. Her 4C is only really a threat when she has an orb on top of you which she can use to combo from it. She has a good horizontal air dash that's good for baiting throw techs. If you're going to throw tech vs Aoko it's a good idea to use 3C~AD. Most of her beams are pretty reactable from fullscreen, so once you see her charging one up or whiffing the initial hits of 236X you should get ready to shield for some free moon gauges. The only exception is 6BC which is very fast but super disadvantageous on block. Expect her to use 2BC in many defensive situations. Have MD or shield ready to bait out this option.

Dead Apostle Noel (Fair) [character page][match videos]

DAN is a mobile zoner/setplay character. Luckily her projectiles are pretty slow and easy to react to with shield compared to Vlov or Ciel. But she makes up for it with her strong setplay. The main goal is to get in her face and suffocate her. If she tries to set her 214X pillars in neutral it's a good time to approach with 236X since they will typically dodge the falling pillars and hit her. If the pillars are down in neutral it's important to carefully play around them as they can be detonated at any time with 22X. A bad move and she can easily convert from fullscreen and get a knockdown into setplay. Her DP has a massive hitbox but is very slow so it's easy to meaty her off of any knockdown with anti-heat OSes (2A > 25BD). Keep in mind that only her 4BC is an overhead for the falling pillars. When she knocks you down with pillars on top of you, she has the ability to perform "cross-up" setups to break your left/right guard. If you're not sure where to block, you can sometimes do a delayed shield to have the game correct for you if there's enough space between you and the pillar explosions. Be careful with this as she has more than enough ways to bait this option out.

Mario Gallo Bestino (Fair) [character page][match videos]

Your best friend here is really 236[B] which will blow through a lot of nun moves and knock them down. Sometimes you don't always want to knock a nun down since it can effectively shorten his recovery on his nun specials. Letting his 214X nuns whiff is usually better than hitting them. However 236X (the walking nun) goes into a much longer recovery state if you hit her. Mario has no frame 1 reversal options aside from arc drive so you needn't worry about that. His anti-air options with 623X/3BC are actually quite good since they're a fast near full diagonal coverage of the screen. So it's not recommended to be blindly diving at him with j.214X or j.236X. If you get put into his okizeme, you really do have to hold it. It's extremely easy for him to bait out DPs and heats by letting projectile nun cover him before he continues pressure. Try to avoid wasting resources getting out of his oki and instead look for gaps in his pressure.

Powered Ciel (Very Hard) [character page][match videos]

Your mortal enemy is j.[C] (and just about every other button she presses). Her options for covering Mash's approaches by simply doing a retreating j.[C] are insanely strong. It's difficult to get above her or below her as she's doing this move given the massive space coverage. Some characters can low-profile under it but Mash lacks such options. Shielding can be risky as whiffing the shield gives her an easy punish with 2C into big damage. You want to try to make her whiff it by halting your approach outside of its range. This gives you a little more frame advantage to work with to get in than blocking it. Beyond dealing with j.C, most of her normals are big but have long recovery. So just being patient and looking for something to whiff punish with 6BC is the most stable way of winning against P-Ciel. When blocking, make sure you learn to visually tell the difference between 236[B] and 2[C] which are two similar looking moves that need to be shielded differently. Otherwise it's free damage for P-Ciel if you can't distinguish between these moves.

Neco-Arc (Advantageous) [character page][match videos]

Neco-Arc has short buttons and her neutral is RNG based. Just focus on beating her out with having real normals and don't give her space to summon. 236X is good for rushing at her. If she tries to retreat in the air with her long air dash, simply just wait for her to land without committing to an anti-air option. j.2B can catch you if you overcommit to anti-airing her. She has a slow overhead in 4C. It's easy to react to on its own, but she can obscure it behind her summons so watch out for it.

Mash Kyrielight (Fair) [character page][match videos]
It's the mirror match. Focus on baiting out the other Mash player's 236X and punish them for whiffing. Defensively, you can call out her gaps with 623X like any other character.

Ushiwakamaru (?) [character page][match videos]
Overview Neutral Offense Defense

Monte Cristo (?) [character page][match videos]
Overview Neutral Offense Defense