Under Night In-Birth/UNIST/Merkava/Strategy
Neutral
Playing Merkava in neutral is fairly straightforward for the most part. He's got some pretty huge limbs that he can get confirms off of or reverse gatling to make himself more safe. 2B, 5B, 5C, 2C are going to be your primary pokes to keep people in check. Fast flight (doing a back jump into immediate flight then holding down) into j.B or just jumping and throwing an air fireball are also good ways to control space. You can use the threat of his massive buttons to stop your opponent from trying to take their turn, then use their hesitation to run up and get pressure started. Merkava thrives on the idea of forcing people to be scared of his buttons so that he can freely move forward without being challenged. Combine flight options with his strong grounded normals to create a very suffocating situation for the other player.
When playing more defensively, Merkava will still be looking to safely poke people out. 4B is a great anti-air that can shut down aerial approaches. Fireballs remain a pretty good option to cover space unless you're already in the corner. 214A/B can be used to punish players that want to throw their own projectiles or hang out on the other side of the screen. If you are trapped in the corner, using glide as an escape option is not the worst idea ever, however it should be reserved to a situation where you have some sort of threat to your opponent. Be it meter for reversal or a good chance to poke them out of their minus frames. Other than that, the normal neutral gameplan should work fine. A warning however, is that Merkava's general size and the slower speeds of his moves make playing defensively a bit harder against certain characters that can challenge his reach. You don't want to let up on the pressure for too long in neutral if you can help it. Even just dashblocking can work as pressure as it can easily put the opponent at an awkward range or frame advantage allowing you to contest them.
5C
- 5C will be your main tool to keep your opponent at bay.
- 5C into whiff 5A is -5 on block, -4 on hit and -1 on counterhit which means your opponent always has frame advantage after you've used this move.
- To keep your opponent from taking their turn you're goign to have to use 5C 214A which is a frame trap at medium to long range. It is however much more minus and even punishable by some characters.
- Common answers to 5C pressure is to dashblock to gain space and have a better chance to challenge after, jumping to get around pressure reset after 5C w5A, or spacing outside of 5C range to counter poke and whiff punish.
Flight
- Merkava's grounded movement is very slow and getting into flight takes some time before you can take any action.
- Keeping your opponent from pressing buttons is very important to be able to have time to get into flight.
- During flight you have great movement and very oppressive moves.
- The one downside is that you can be anti-aired and don't have a lot of good counters to that.
j.214x
- Good tool to keep your opponent from pressing buttons when you jump or anti-airing you during flight.
- Frame advantage varies a lot but you will usually be at least safe.
66B
- One of Merkava's best options to close the gap with at -2 on block and +6 on hit means you can combo with 2A even after the move has recovered.
- Great possibilities for throwing after as well as one of your best frame trap tools into 623A.
2C/5B
- Pretty slow pokes that are mostly used challenge your opponent's minus frames.
- For example if they whiffed a move or just backdashed.
- 5B is usually followed up with 5C which leads back to 5C mind games.
- 2C has 5A and 623A as your main options.
Pressure
5A and 2A are great frametrap tools and the go to pressure starters when you get in close. Since 2A hits twice but can be cancelled into itself on the first hit, you can make it an odd number of times to throw off your opponent's defensive timing. 5C and 2C are the primary frame trap tools you'll be using. There's enough start up to it to create gaps from your tick throw moves. If 2C is blocked, you can easily gatling into 2A, 2B or 5A (whichever you haven't used yet) to help end your pressure safely. 5A is the best starter for throw mixups but is also the only one that will easily confirm into full combos if 2C happens to land a hit, so deciding whether to start or end with 5A is something you need to take into account. You can also special cancel into 623A since it's +1 on block. 3C and 66C can be used to go over some lows, but they remain slow and easy to block overheads in normal conditions.
If you do get pushed out from your pressure string, Having 5A still available makes it possible to reverse gatling from 5C in order to be safe. 236A is another alternative but it tends to give away GRD and makes it easier to realise when the string is ending. Most of your stuff is pretty minus on block. Being slightly minus at range isn't the end of the world though, especially if the opponents back is to the corner. Just use your movement options and normals to keep control over some of that space and work your way back in.
It's also worth noting that once Merkava has landed a couple hits on block, he does not have many strong options in strings to beat shielding. Most of his moves are minus and can't lead to tick throw set ups outside of his A buttons, the overheads he can gatling into like 3C and 4C are both slow and not great at hitting shields. That means if you go into strings just slamming through all your buttons, you will lose GRD (and thus Vorpal) and end up pushed out to where you have no effective offensive options. Remember to try to use spacing and the threat of huge normals to control your opponent. If you have the skill to do it, spacing flight normals just out of range can hit someone trying to take their turn in neutral. It can also be a good way to make someone whiff shields and green shield incorrectly and thus gain some GRD back. Threatening with flight moves like this can also allow you to get in closer and hit their guard with a jump move to be plus.
Example blockstrings:
- 2AxN 2C 5AxN 4B
- -2C acts as a frametrap.
- -Hold up to keep doing 5A on block without getting autocombo.
- -4B can be done with 5A~5A if you've already used 4B in the string.
- 2B (2 hits) 5C 2C etc
- -5C acts as a high damage frame trap and combos from the second hit of 2B.
- 2A (1) 2A
- -Cancel on the first hit to get 3 hits instead of 4, then throw or reset pressure.
- 5B 5C whiff 5A > pressure reset
- -There's a pretty massive gap here, but if you have some space most most characters don't have safe options to challenge you.
- 5A 2B 2C delayed 623A
- -5A 2B is tight but can be delayed to frametrap. Delaying 623A makes it a frametrap and more reliable to combo from if 2C hits.
Defense
Merkava's defense in general is pretty standard but i accentuated by very strong anti-air options, far-reaching and fast low pokes and a very deep throw hurtbox while crouching.
236C
- This is your primary reversal option. It's pretty safe and leads to a combo on hit, but it loses invincibility on the first active frame so it can lose to a few things post superflash. This is true for all of Merkava's non-universal reversals, however they beat different things due to differences in startup and hurtboxes.
41236D
- Infinite Worth has more invincibility but is generally not recommended unless you have a guarranteed punish on reaction to something. For example from CS or EX flash.
Shield
- Shielding while your back is in the corner will push the opponent quite far which can make it difficult to reset pressure while still threatening to throw Merkava.
Divekick
- Using his divekick as a fuzzy jump option is strong against throws and meaties.
Guard Thrust
- Using Guard Thrust is a good way to get out of tricky situations when you don't have, or don't want to spend meter. Doing this during vorpal also gives you a good chance of winning vorpal again after.
Knockdown
Midscreen
Generally you don't actually get a whole lot but you'll at least be able to meaty and force stage position.
- After 4B you can cancel into 22A and after 66C you can cancel into 22B while still being able to safely meaty with you faster moves.
- The worms midscreen aren't the most useful things ever, especially if the opponent back techs and they need to catch up.
- Other combo enders like 214A or 214B will give you 66 5C meaty at worst.
Corner
There will be three primary ways to capitalise from knockdown in the corner. Simple meaty oki, worms and flight oki.
Worms
- Setup is the same as midscreen.
- Since your opponent's movement is so limited, worms are extremely good at forcing situations in the corner.
- If you grab while worms are coming out they'll do some extra damage during the throw.
- 22C can create some really wild situations since the three worms hit three times each and can push your opponent out of the corner for some unique cross ups.
Flight Oki
- After a 66C, you have enough frame advantage to enter into low flight and then hit a button as your opponent wakes up.
- If you time a descending j.A correctly, it will safe jump most reversals since it'll be 1f active and 2f of recovery from landing when done perfectly.
- You can also whiff the j.A completely to shorten flight's landing recovery and then go low. This can be fuzzy guarded, but there are some extra options you can sneak in here to keep them guessing.
- A video guide on how to this from UNiEL exists on Youtube: click here to watch. This video is from UNiEL, but all the same concepts and ideas work just as well in ST.
