Melty Blood/MBTL/Miyako Arima/Strategy
Overview
Miyako is a short-range rushdown character who relies on her various specials for mix-ups, backed up by her very strong rebeat pressure to discourage mashing. All her optimal combos lead into her preferred hard knockdowns, either from her air throw, or a wall-bounce with 214C, letting her run her safejumps, wake-up pressure, or moon charge. She also has good tools for chasing air and ground techs, which is most notable after going for an OTG combo. Generally, Miyako struggles to get in against most of the cast, as the vast majority of characters outrange her or have really strong tools for controlling space.
Generally speaking, Miyako is a character for aggressive players who enjoy taking calculated risks and limiting their opponent's defensive options.
Neutral
Pressure
Miyako is a character who is built to take advantage of the universal pressure options in the game: throws, staggers, and rebeats. Other strike/throw characters like Saber have their strike/throw reward very heavily weighted toward their strikes. The opponent can just "take the throw" to suffer less damage, give their opponent less meter, and have a chance to tech if they think the throw is coming. Of course, you can't just take the throw every time, or you'll die, but generally speaking, strikes are scarier than throws for most of the characters in the game. Miyako doesn't quite flip this on its head, as her the combo she gets off her throw is heavily scaled, but she does get a change to do respectable damage, build meter, and get her left-right mix from her air throw safejump. Her fast grounded movement speed and forward-advancing normals give her strong stagger pressure.
A general rule to follow with Miyako's pressure is to use rebeats more than her specials, as blocking one of Miyako's gives the opponent an opportunity to escape or retaliate. Specials fill the role of letting Miyako punish an opponent for trying to escape her rebeat pressure, or trying to shield out of it.
Normals in Pressure
5A and 2A are your prototypical rebeat normals, being frame 5 and maintaining her proximity to her opponent on block. The whiff-cancels from frame 10 also let her be more advantageous (up to -1) from her 5C and 2C, creating an RPS situation for Miyako. 2A being a low can matter in some situations, when opponents are expecting an overhead, or are trying to create space while blocking. For the most part, these normals are used interchangeably in both her combo routes and pressure. 2A does lead to slightly better damage in combos, so using her 5A for rebeats is definitely preferred, as long as 2A will still reach for combo starting.
5B is a very important normal for Miyako's pressure. Being a B-normal means it might mostly be used as blockstring and combo filler, but it steps forward on use, letting her stay close to the opponent. 6B, in comparison is usually terrible for her pressure. It's the same speed as her light stomp (22A), which is pretty slow, and it's high and low shieldable, limiting its use in places where opponents want to low shield. It's also easy use it by accident when you cross-under someone during scramble situations. Since it's so slow, most of the times when you use it like this or in combos your opponent will tech out before it lands or they'll hit the floor before the normal comes out. It has its place in her pressure since you can use it to keep your pressure going, and it steps forward very far, but it's one of the very worst and most redundant normals in the game.
2B is mostly just blockstring and combo filler. It has dreadful horizontal reach, and hardly moves Miyako forwards at all. It does have a good hitbox for catching jumps, but Miyako's suite of fast lows and specials that catch jump-outs are generally going to be what prevents your opponents from jumping in the first place. However, due to its large number of active frames it's good for stagger pressure, and using it in this way lets you save your 5/6B for combo routing.
5C is one of Miyako's most important buttons in pressure. With deceptively good range and a lot of active frames, this move is one of your main tools which you use to make opponents scared to press. It's what you will set up your rebeats with most of the time, as well as what sets up most of your special cancels. 236B, 214A/B, 22A/B, and 623B, are all most effective when used from 5C since the move spaces you perfectly to catch buttons with your specials.
2C, 2C~2C, and 2C~2[C] all have different uses in pressure and round out her normals very well. 2C by itself is a relatively fast low with good range for catching up-backing. From 2C, you can either go for a safer option like 2C~2C, or rebeat into 5A to reset your pressure. 2C~2C will frame-trap opponents pressing because they expect a rebeat. Once your opponent has been conditioned to block that's where Miyako can use 2C~2[C]. 2C~2[C] pops the opponent low into the air on block (similarly to Kouma's 236[B]). The opponent can recover in the air, but it causes Miyako to be +2. Miyako is -2 if the opponent doesn't try and tech out of blockstun in the air, so either way Miyako gets some strong RPS. Common options are 214[A] to catch mashing/air tech, 623B to catch patient opponents who don't tech out in the air with an overhead as they land, and 22A, which can set up an unblockable 22C, but is slow, and easy to 2D on reaction. In general 2C~2[C] should only be used on the most patient and passive of opponents though because it's very, very easy to mash out of, and 2D on reaction. However, having it in the back pocket can help you close out rounds, and representing it even once is more likely to make opponents take more risks on defense.
Specials in Pressure
Pressure Resets
Gimmicky/Fake Pressure, Knowledge Checks, and Unblockables
