Skullgirls/Squigly/Strategy
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Strategy
Goals
- Squigly has a surprisingly straightforward gameplan.
- Get punch charge.
- Prioritizing punch charge is extremely important since it gives you access to the charged version of her reversal and, even more importantly, charged Sing. However, you also need at least 1 bar to use your charged Sing in neutral effectively. Therefore, having 1 bar and her punch charge is the foundation of Squigly's gameplan. You don't even need to hold the charge, just having access to this move will forcefully slow down the pace of the game and force your opponent to respect you. While you should focus on getting punch charge, kick charge serves some purpose too so get it when you have the chance to.
- Having a charge makes your stance cancels faster which allows for high damaging combos, faster mix-ups, and more advantage on stance cancelled normals. You also get access to more conversions.
- Squigly is a character that can easily and effectively capitalize on her opponents mistakes. If they make a mistake in neutral, you can instantly punish them with charged Sing + SBO/Daisy Pusher. She doesn't have the most oppressive offense, but she has amazing pokes that allow her to check the opponent while staying mostly safe. Playing Squigly requires a bit of patience. Sometimes it's better to hold back and react to whatever your opponent is doing. If you get a hit in, blow your opponent up with a few resets and high damaging combos.
- Having not only a plan for how to get a charge, but also how to get it back as quick as possible after you used it is vital. Meter is precious for Squigly. She needs it for charged Sing, various conversions, and setups. Don't just throw SBO's out in neutral or burn meter in a combo that is not going to kill.
Offense
- Grounded Offense
- s.LP > f.HP or c.LK (mid, high/low)
- c.MK > f.HP (low, high)
- f.HP xx stance cancel xx c.lk (high, low)
- c.LK > c.MK (low, low)
- c.MK > c.HP (low, low)
- c.MK xx stance cancel xx throw
- These are a few basic mix-ups. Squigly can go from low to high and from high to low however she pleases. Blocked s.LP gives you good frame advantage and allows you to go for either an overhead or a low after it. Poke your opponents and go for a mix-up. Thanks to Squigly's ability to stance cancel her normals, she can make her standing overhead (f.HP) safe. Note that it is preferable to cancel f.HP on the 4th hit since it will give you the most frame advantage, and canceling it too early might even leave you minus. You can also stance cancel any normal and just go for a throw reset. Having a charge makes your mix-ups even faster. high, low, low, high, high, low, throw - it doesn't matter; charged Squigly can go ham.
- Sadly, party time is over the moment your opponent pushblocks. Pushblocking will put your opponent out of the range of your standing overhead. Furthermore, these mix-ups are very vulnerable to reversals. Unless you have an assist to keep your opponent in blockstun, keep your blockstrings short. Beware the dangers of playing with purple fire.
- Most people will be trying to pushblock Squigly as soon as possible for this exact reason. You can use frame traps to punish pushblock attempts. A simple and effective one is c.MK > c.HP or c.LK > c.LK. This works both as a low mix-up, and a tool to catch people people trying to pushblock. Amazing. Fantastic. Beautiful.
- Aerial Offense
- j.LK is her best air button, and is used a lot. It isn't just an amazing air to air, but also a fantastic jump in, as falling with it is a great way to close the distance. The move itself is fast, hits overhead, and can even be linked into itself. It also provides great advantage on block against standing opponents, which allows you to go for a ground mix-up. Air to air buffer it into j.MK for an easy conversion. Against grounded opponents, use s.LP or c.LK to convert off a hit.
- Dash-jump j.MK can cross up standing opponents and sometimes even in air-to-air situations. When you land it air-to-air, convert off it with either j.HK or H Divekick. If you hit a grounded opponent, you can convert off it with either M or H Divekick.
- Dash-jump j.HK is useful for keeping pressure against a pushblocking opponent and can catch them pressing buttons. It can also be used to keep pressure on incoming.
- Rising j.LP is a very fast and universal overhead. It will naturally work on Band, Bella, Beo, and Eliza, but will whiff against all other crouching characters. To make it work against the rest of the cast, you'll either need to execute a perfect instant double jump overhead - which isn't recommended, since it requires basically frame-perfect timing - or use a fuzzy guard setup.
- Divekicks are a great tool to maintain pressure. Use j.HK xx M Divekick to keep a pushblocking opponent in check. Divekick makes Squigly land faster which allows you to follow up with a grounded mix-up. You can also end an airstring before the restand with M Divekick and perform a ground mix-up after. Keep a opponent in check with M Divekick and pay attention to which direction they block it. If they blocked it high you can most likely catch them with c.LK, and if they blocked it low you can throw them. Keep in mind that an experienced player will adapt to this, so vary up your offense frequently and stay unpredictable. If your opponent starts to punish M Divekick you can fake them out with j.MP xx M Divekick. H Divekick hits overhead but is punishable on block. You can cancel a falling air button into it (j.LK xx H Divekick, for example) to hit opponents who are conditioned to block low after j.LK as a risky surprise-overhead.
- Squigly's Air throw is especially good for catching people trying to chicken block, as it can be converted anywhere on stage for free
Neutral
- Movement
- Squigly's dash is fairly slow. If you want to cover distance quickly, super-jumping and dash-jumping are better options. Her j.LK and double jump make it more favorable for Squigly to move in the air. Don't be predictable with your jumps though, and remember that dashing is still an option. M DiveKick can act as a fantastic mobility tool while also applying pressure and, if spaced correctly, can allow you to slip behind the opponent and hit them with a pseudo c.LK cross up. Holding charge gives you good movement speed and can be used to cover a short distance while charging.
- Normal Pokes
- j.LK is arguably Squigly's best normal. It's an amazing air to air that hardly any character can challenge. A good way to use it in neutral is after a dash-jump, giving it tremendous forward momentum and allowing you to close distance with ease. You can use it rising or falling depending on the situation. Buffer it into j.MK in air-to-air situations since it will give you a conversion on hit and keep you safe on block.
- c.LK is Squigly's fastest low, and her main ground poke. It makes Squigly's hurtbox extremely small and can be used to low profile a variety of things (including other characters standing jabs). It also hits on both sides, which can be situationally useful for things such as tagging assists. It can even work as an option against jump-ins and IADs since it makes some moves whiff and can catch your opponent on landing, though it is match up dependent.
- s.LP is Squigly's fastest normal. A standard jab that leads into mixup. It's a decent poke, but you are better off poking with c.LK in most situations.
- j.HP is an amazing long range poke and a great way to interrupt whatever your opponent is doing. Use it falling to hit both airborne and grounded opponents. You can use it as an air-to-air with the right spacing to discourage airdashers. You should generally only use this one at larger distances and use j.LK for close combat. The whole thing has a hurtbox, meaning it can be punished even from longer distances. However, your opponent has to anticipate it, so just don't be too predictable when throwing it out. You can convert off it with SBO or charged Silver Chord. You can even covert with c.MK if you land close enough. If you hit an airborne opponent, you can convert with j.LK if close enough. Otherwise just position yourself and/or get a charge.
- c.MK hits low and has great reach. If you space it well enough, it can cover a lot of grounded options. Its range might catch your opponent off-guard or catch them trying to jump. Covert off it with s.HP or c.HP. Although converting with c.HP can be more reliable given it's range, s.HP is typically more optimal. Converting off max range c.MK can be tricky since it pushes the opponent slightly back and can cause the first hit of s.HP to whiff. Converting off max range c.MK with c.HP can be just as awkward, since c.HP causes even more pushback and might push them out of the range of the last 2 hits, or it can also just whiff completely.
- Getting Charge
- Getting your punch charge in neutral has high priority. Ideally you'll have a lockdown assist (or at least an assist that can act as a meat shield) to help give you time to charge safely. Don't worry, solo Squigly also has ways of getting charge in neutral:
- Create enough distance to get a charge. Some characters can't chase you down quickly or don't have a fast enough projectile to interrupt your charge. Abuse that.
- The soft knockdown that throw or c.HK creates gives you enough time to get a charge. Uncharged Mortis or charged Arpeggio will create a sliding knockdown and give you time to get both charges or one charge and a mix-up.
- Poking your opponent with j.HP can discourage their chase and even launches them a bit in air to air situations. This can give you enough time to get a charge.
- Landing j.MP > j.HP against an airborne opponent will set you to fullscreen. While you can get a charge from that against most characters, it's not recommended against Peacock or Robo since it gives them huge advantage.
- You can deal with most moves your opponent throw out to interrupt your charge by cancelling it on reaction. There are also ways to get a charge vs "projectile spam", but more on that in the MU section.
- Using Charge
- Now that you have your punch charge, you have access to your most powerful neutral tool, the move that skips neutral: charged Sing. However, you need at least 1 bar to make it threatening. If you are out of meter you can try building it quickly by whiffing s.HP xx Stance Cancel at a safe distance. Charged Sing causes hitstop and can be super cancelled.
- Due to these properties, Squigly can use charged Sing xx Daisy Pusher without the opponent being able to jump post-flash, making it essentially a 360. Make use of this if your opponent is on the ground in front of you or tries to press a button in Daisy range. Note that while charged Sing pushes your opponent towards you, this distance alone is not enough to get them into the range of Daisy Pusher. Only use charged Sing xx Daisy Pusher if they are close enough. On a side note, opponents who are already in jump startup will be able to escape Sing xx Daisy, so pay attention to that.
- The second use of charged Sing in neutral is charged Sing xx SBO. As seen here, raw SBO can be countered. However, charged Sing's hitstop properties will prevent that from happening. More importantly, this is where the screen focus of charged Sing comes into play. Let's say your opponent presses a button at fullscreen distance. You perform charged Sing xx SBO to instantly punish them. The 5 hits of SBO will give you enough time to run in and start a full combo. This is what forces your opponent to respect charged Squigly: You are able to punish any mistakes they make from anywhere on the screen (with exceptions explained here), giving you unparalleled control over the pace of the match.
- Having a kick charge gives you access to charged Chord and charged Tremolo. Both of them are okay (albeit more gimmicky) neutral tools.
- Charged Chord has incredible range and is faster than uncharged Chord. It's not possible to punish charged Chord unless in point blank range since it's -8 on block, but it's very punishable on whiff, so watch out. Charged Chord is a hitgrab, and therefore can be used to break armored moves. It can even catch airborne opponents if they are close enough to the ground. Use it to check grounded opponents in neutral and catch people dashing. Charged Chord will also ignore assists, where as uncharged chord will get snagged on any assists it touches.
- Charged Tremolo will track your opponents position and hit low for 5 hits. If you time it correctly, you can even catch an opponent who jumps a lot with it. Otherwise, it can be used to break some armored moves and catch your opponent pressing buttons fullscreen. Convert off it with charged Sing xx SBO (uses OTG).
- On a side note, if you happen to find yourself sitting on a life lead you can just play defensively and wait for your opponent to make a mistake. Approaching charged Squigly is scary for all characters. Don't get too greedy and waste your charge right away. Playing more patiently pays off.
Defense
- Rather than a couple of strong moves, Squigly has a large variety of situational defensive options. Resourceless Squigly is underwhelming defensively, but she gains powerful tools with punch charge and meter.
- Reversals
- Charged Draugen Punch is Squigly's most reliable invulnerable option. You can enter charge stance through the light and medium version, which allow you to punish your opponent for attempting to hit you out of stance. The heavy version can't be held, but has fully invulnerable startup with charge and should act as your primary reversal. Charged Draugen Punch has a good chance of beating crossups, as stance specials have an autocorrect point after the stance portion of startup. With SBO, you can make it safe on whiff or block, as well as convert on hit. Converting with SBO allows you to get your charge back before continuing the combo. If you miss the super cancel window you can still try to convert with Sing xx LK+MK SBO, but it can be unreliable. If you have kick charge, you can convert with charged Silver Chord.
- Squigly's supers do not function as typical reversals as the opponent can easily react, but they do have some defensive uses. SBO can punish many options when the opponent does not have meter, or otherwise does not have access to an invincible option. Daisy Pusher beats various options such as throws, jump-ins, and most grounded supers, but there is character specific counterplay.
- Inferno of Leviathan, Squigly's level 3, is an expensive reversal and anti air option. It works wonders against jump-ins but can whiff on short characters and most crouching characters. While the orb can come back to give you advantage on whiff, your opponent can also punish you into snapback to remove the orb entirely. Due to a bug, on rare occasions the orb won't disappear when Squigly is snapped.
- SBO->DHC can be a very strong defensive option depending on the following super, as SBO stays on screen for a short while after the DHC.
- Anti Air Options
- Squigly's anti airs are underwhelming unless you have time to get a jump off. j.LK is her best all around anti air, covering the space above and in front of her. Air throw will beat jump ins that are too high for j.LK, but the conversion is less damaging. j.MP is an excellent tool for beating IADs, but can be difficult or impossible to convert without the right assists or meter.
- s.LP and c.MP are decent anti IAD normals, but lose to higher air options. c.MP has to be spaced carefully and needs Silver Chord to convert at range.
- Liver Mortis can work due to it's strike invulnerable frames, but stance must be started preemptively because the startup is vulnerable. Uncharged comes out slower but has more invulnerable frames, while the charged version comes out quicker but has less invulnerable frames.
- SBO can be a strong anti air against characters who can't counter-super it in the air or do not have the meter to do so.
Matchups
- Matchup Strategy
Beowulf
- Beowulf's hopdash high profiles your c.LK. It's better to poke with s.LP against him.
- It's possible to wall off ground Blitzer with f.HP. You can also punish Blitzer with SBO.
- Squigly's C.LK can low profile Arm (allowing you to cancel into Daisy, or potentially dodge the attack all together if timed correctly) and recovers faster than H Chair Toss startup. The timing is tight but it leads to resets that covers 2 of Beowulf's reversal options. (video)
- You can punish Airwulf on reaction with LK+HK SBO.
Big Band (video)
- Band can shut down charge attempts with Brass or H Giant step.
- As shown in the video, it is possible to get a charge by partially charging and jumping if Big Band spams Giant Step from fullscreen. It's pretty difficult and requires some practice though.
Cerebella
- Bella has nothing to prevent Squigly from running away and charging.
- You can punish Tumbling Run with Seria Sing xx Daisy Pusher, however Battle Butt is airborne during active and Pummel Horse is throw invincible. If you see Battle Butt active frames or any Pummel Horse frames after Seria Sing, you need to block and punish instead of canceling into Daisy.
- Bella can easily punish raw SBO with her Deflector.
Double
- Pretty standard matchup. Double can't do much about Charged Sing.
- Hard to combo. Aviod using long airstrings on her if you are not practiced enough.
- Watch out for H Luger since it will beat your amazing air buttons. If Double starts looking for anti airs with H luger, change up your approach.
- Canceling into Daisy Pusher will beat Car.
- Easy to instant overhead with j.LP. Additionaly L Bomber will whiff on rising j.LP.
Eliza
- Crouching in front of Eliza makes Horus whiff. You can use this to your advantage and mess with her grounded blockstrings.
Filia
- A character that is easy to anti air with c.MP.
- Filia is able to punish Seria Sing xx SBO with Gregor if the SBO doesn't connect immediately. Use with caution.
Fukua
- Beats Squigly j.LK with her j.LP in most air to air situations.
- Can easily fire projectiles safely in a Seria Sing xx SBO blindspot.
Ms.Fortune
- Her air normals can easily whiff on Squigly.
Robo-Fortune
- SBO doesn't block her Beams.
- Robo can prevent you from getting a charge with L Beam. You need to trick her into doing an air Beam to be able to charge.
- Robo can reach the blindspot of Seria Sing xx SBO with her j.HK and fire L Beam from there. Very annoying.
Painwheel
- Use rising j.HP against a flying Painwheel to shut her air buttons down.
Parasoul
- You can punish her blockstrings by pushblocking and doing SBO afterwards. Don't do this if Parasoul has 3 bars since she can punish you for doing that with her LVL3.
- c.LK low profiles L/H Napalm Shot and her jab. Great button to poke Parasoul.
- It is possible to get a charge, even when Parasoul spams Napalm Shot from fullscreen. You need to low profile her tears with c.LK and partly charge between the shots. This isn't easy and requires some practice.
Peacock
- A difficult matchup to play, but one thats pretty even. You need to change up your general gameplan for this since Peacock has the tools to prevent you from charging/using sing and forces you to go in. Make use of Squigly's double jump and to avoid most projectiles. Superjumping forward gives Squigly a lot of forward momentum in the air, and in combination with her small hurtbox, you can evade LV1 and LV2 Item Drop.
- j.HP is great to catch Peacock off guard at midrange. However it extends your hurtbox a lot so you can be easily hit out of it by air projectiles. A way around that is to superjump forward over the plane bomb and do falling j.HP. This should give you enough forward momentum to dodge LV1 and LV2(?) Item Drop. Otherwise, close in and try to hit Peacock with j.LK.
- Utilize your aerial pressure to avoid M Bang. Additionally c.LK low profiles M Bang and leaves Peacock open for a punish.
- If Peacock holds an Item or has H George on the screen, Seria Sing xx SBO will trade and put you back to neutral. You can use c.LK to dodge H George after the super flash, but it isn't reliable.
- If you use Sing and see an Item above your head use LK+HK SBO to protect yourself, otherwise you'll get hit.
- You can punish Peacock for doing a special if she is in LK+MK SBO range. Don't try to punish a normal because she can cancel it into M Bang to punish you instead.
- It is possible to partly charge during her bomb tosses. Hold forward while charging to avoid H George and cancel before the ground bomb connects. Keep in mind that Peacock can always punish you for charging with Argus.
- Squigly's fullscreen Argus Punish (video)
Squigly
- Cursed MU
- Be the first to get charge and punish your opponent for being too slow.
Valentine
- She can hit you out of your charge stance with Bypass easily. A possible counterplay is to bait her by charging Draugen Punch and release it when Valentine does Bypass. Or simply block.
- Valentine can reach the deadzone of Seria Sing xx SBO and throw Crosses from there. Similarly annoying to Robo.
- Even though Val has amazing air normals she doesn't have anything that is faster than Squigly j.LK.
Counterplay
- Empty sing is not real, it's horribly minus. People have a habit of not punishing this move even when she has 0 bars. If you get sung and you notice she has no meter, feel free to press buttons.
