Under Night In-Birth/UNI2/Merkava/Starter
Notable Moves
5C
Near fullscreen horizontal poke.
- Can use 5A rebeat on whiff to make it -5.
- Smart steer 5AB lets you confirm this at any range without a counterhit, while also giving you amazing okizeme and grd.
5B
Long hitconfirmable poke that excels at midrange.
- Threatening offense with this button can allow you to run more greedy tactics such as low flight j.B, 2C or 66C instead.
- Getting a counterhit with this button rewards you with good damage and corner carry if you're able to hitconfirm into 5[C].
j.B
Extremely versatile long poke.
- If done from low flight this becomes a plus on block, half screen overhead.
- Easily can be converted into a full combo on hit.
- Can bait people into shield standing, making empty lows much more threatening.
- Doing this while rising covers a huge amount of air space quickly, essentially beating other people out of the sky.
- Can recover in the air while done rising allowing you to use any of your Air options such as backdash, flight, fireballs or normals (even j.B again).
66C
Advancing overhead that often dodges a lot of things due to its hurtbox rapidly shifting upwards.
- Gets a combo on hit and can be made plus on block with fireballs.
- Uncharged fireball can make this a gapless safe blockstring against people that reversal the charged fireball gap.
- Opponent needs to be able to shield this reliably to counterattack.
j.2C
Merkava's divekick, compliments his already great air presence with a fast downwards spike.
- Sometimes a good neutral option against rushdown, can throw opponents off guard due to its angle. Opponents without high hitting normals need to be careful against this move.
- Can beat throws and assaults, making it a great option select.
- Can beat low hitting moves.
2B
One of your most reliable close range buttons, 7 frame two hitting low.
- Easy to hitconfirm and convert into a full combo.
- both hits are low, can be canceled on block into a 1f gap frametrap low 2C, or a gapless safe string with 5A or 5B.
2[BC]
Flight mixups? for a block of GRD?
- Can instantly run flight offense, be it overheads, empty lows or anti air baits.
- GRD heavy, if you pair it with flight GRD drain you might not win vorpal if your offense gets blocked.
5BC
If there's enough time in the clock you can decide to end your combo with this instead, you can steal up to 3 whole blocks of grd that might win you vorpal.
- it's also a high damage starter if you're already in vorpal, canceling this into 214B with 200 meter into CVO will easily get you 5K damage.
236C
Merkava's reversal, no longer safe on block but it has a risk reward massively tipped on your favor.
- Needs 100 meter.
- Can convert into a full combo on hit, with a grounded hit giving you excellent corner carry from with any kind of okizeme you might want to end with.
- Throw counter punish on block is guaranteed however this can be a pretty low reward for characters without a combo or setplay from it.
- Requires a high execution check to properly punish with a 7f button by Blue shielding the last hit of the move, if done badly this can end with Green shield instead which makes it so minus on block that Merkava can do a dash throw GRD break.
Combos
Midscreen
2A/2B>2CC>J.CAB>66C>66B>66C>2C>4B
5BB>5C>6C>214B
2B>2CC>6[C]>9D>j.A>J.B>66C>66B>66C>2C>5C>4B
Corner
2A/2B>2CC>j.CAB>66C>j.214[A]>66C>j.214[A]>66C
You can change the ender for 2C 236B into whatever super you like if you wish to spend meter.
Visit the combo pages for more detailed info.
Round Start
5B
- The tip of this moves hits at roundstard unless they walkback or backdash.
236A
- Hits anyone that tries to press something shorter and slower than 9f or that dashes into it.
- Can be whiff punished or beat by projectiles.
Dashblock
- Very often you will need to be the one rushing down the opponent as their range and speed can outmatch you, in which case Merkava has a great dashblock that immediately closes the gap while also blocking whatever they throw at you.
Flight
- Either by doing 773 or 82AB you can start running overhead pressure right away!
Neutral
Neutral depends on whether if the opponent can contest Merkava's range or spacings he likes to be at.
- Against Short range characters you can control neutral with your long pokes, forcing them to come to you.
- Against characters with long range tools or faster midscreen options you will have to close the gap until you can start blockstrings to setup frametraps or tick throws.
Pressure
2A>2B>2C>5C>5A
- Most basic form of pressure into a -5 rebeat, you're safe at this range but your turn might be over.
2A>2B>2C>623A
- Going into 623A makes you +1 on block, giving you a chance to reset pressure.
Anything into 236A
- Got no rebeats left? Don't know if certain normals can gatling into others? 236A will always leave you safe on block at all ranges.
What to do When Knocked Down
Block
- Merkava's defense without meter is not the best, his fastest normal is 6 frames with a lot of recovery. Against oppressive characters you might need to sit down and block until you can win vorpal to fight back.
236C
- As said above, this reversal is a bit unfair. Unless the opponent has specific tools to beat its startup (very reactable with EX flash) you might only get a light punish compared to the reward you get on hit.
3C
Unorthodox move, can throw opponent off guard.
- If you hold this move you can cancel into Flight and then fly away to the other side of the screen. A gimmick but you never know.
How to Use Meter
236C
Having 100 meter in your pocket to shift the tides with this reversal is always a good idea.
22C
A combo ender that gives you setplay afterwards.
236BC/j.214C/IW
You can also use your precious meter purely to increase the damage of your combo. Merkava has incredible meter generation, getting 100 or a bit more meter from a combo isn't unusual and you might decide to spend it on damage instead.
- 236BC is a good damage ender that gives you some corner carry, and okizeme.
- It can never reach the corner, unless the opponent back techs.
- With good timing you have enough time to go into flight and safejump, even if you do a small dash to get closer.
- j.214C allows you to drift forward, exceptional in the corner as you can get oki after using it.
- Needs to be in the air to perform, can be used after moves such as 623B and 214A/B.
- IW adds about 1.5k damage to any combo in exchange for all your meter.