Vampire Savior/Demitri/Strategy
Strategy
Neutral Game
- Reactive Anti-Air attack - Demon-Cradle, far 5MK, or 5LP
- Zero-DP - Dashing instant Demon Cradle. It is generally safe on block, hard to punish on whiff & net a knockdown on hit. Overall it's a great poke.
- Kara-DP - Do this at 3/4 or full screen as a way to build meter & remind your opponent you have a DP they must play around. Kara cancel with HK is huge meter gain.
- Kara Chaos Flare - Good meter gain & it cuts off the lower portion of the screen as to control movement of most animals. Sasquatch, for example, cannot easily manage LP-chaos flares, so keep them on the screen & be ready to anti-air him.
- Kara J.Chaos Flare - Altering heights with unique air strings, some examples include ascending j.HK, recover, falling j.MK kara cancel into chaos flare.
- Cr.hk - Due to it's long range it can be a low-risk poke when done just outside of the opponents jump-range. It's a knockdown on ground & air hit.
- Dashing - to obscure positioning w/ low risk
- Pacing Around - to obscure positioning w/ low risk
- Chicken Block x j.LP - Some of the best Jump-in options do not cover the up+back scenario. Think gallon & Felicia for example, you can concentrate on meeting them with an air-block then quickly hitting them out of the air with a light attack.
- Bat-Spin - This is predominately for altering your positioning. Aim to miss the opponent.
- Tiger-Knee Bat-Spin - Similarly as above, except you have a few new variables to play with. Aim to miss the opponent.
Bat-Spin Application
Don't think of this move as a move you want to hit them with. Think of this move as a purely mobility move. If you knock them down, you can use it as a form of oki if you guess their roll correctly. You can go into whatever from this, bite, magic series, throw, as long as you whiff it and don't hit them. If they are at a point where a hit or blocked 214K will kill them, you can try to do it, just be aware that you're gonna get hit if it doesn't kill them, or if you don't do it at the right distance.
This move has a weird property when done at the right distance(max distance) Instead of bouncing off of your opponent(which it will do if it is closer to your opponent, This move will actually land right after execution if all of the hits are done close to the ground. On hit, You can combo into a chain after this.
- Note: The ES Version of this move automatically has this property no matter what range the move is being hit from.
Okizeme
The VSAV meta of Meaty, Low, Throw or Delay still applies to Demitri's tools, so always prioritize these options. Demitri can walk-through the opponents wake-ups to enable most of these on the back-side. The below scenarios are pretty unqiue to Demitri and often mask the intended meta options.
Pursuit Whiff
A whiffed pursuit has no recovery frames so it will put you right next to where they fell down. But it won't put you to where they roll. 214K is generally more desirable, but you can do it to confuse them a little.
Midnight Pleasure Setups
This is a high damaging command grab super, and with only 2 frame start-up, very useful and abusable. It uses up 2 bar, but Demitri is one of the fastest meter builders in the game so don't worry about it too much.
Be wary though, unless if the opponent is coming down from a blocked air chain, they will ALWAYS be able to jump out of the bite. So resets, hitting them with ex-fireball, canceling from a blocked normal, doing it on wakeup, none of these are 100% guaranteed to work. So if you are being too predictable with your bites, they won't land and you will just end up wasting meter.
- j.MK, j.HP (land) Midnight Pleasure
- j.MK (land) Midnight Pleasure
- 2LP x2, Midnight Pleasure: 2LP can be replaced with 2LK if you can do the input fast enough. The idea is just that it works somewhat like a tick throw, put them in blockstun and go for the bite.
- 2MK xx Midnight Pleasure (You may want to pause slightly if your going to use this after the c.mk on block): A little more range than 2LP or 2LK so the opponent has more time to see it coming, but it's something good to throw in there to mix it up.
- Dash xx Midnight Pleasure: Pretty straight forward, dash and then bite. Catches a lot of people who expect something like a dash DP.
- Whiffed poke xx Midnight Pleasure: That's one of the best things about midnight pleasure is that you can whiff pokes and cancel into the move. Use this often!
- Blocked air chain, Land, Midnight Pleasure: This one only really works in the corner. If your opponent blocks your full air chain, you will land before then and you can do the bite and as soon as they land, they will get hit. They cannot jump out of this setup, but if they are high enough after your air chain they can hit you when you're on the ground, so keep that in mind if you go for it.
- Low air fireball dash Midnight Pleasure: This one is a little tricky. Basically you throw a low air fireball, dash forward and then bite. If they try to jump, they will either get hit by the fireball, and get knocked down, or block it but be pushed instantly to the ground into a bite where they cannot escape.
That should be more than enough to get you started.
Dashing Offense
After a ranged anti-air, Demitri has some effective tools for mounting an offense. This scenario may also occur at neutral when you are certain a dashing approach will be safe. A common scenario for this is to do an air chaos flare then land and dash in.
- Dash 360 command throw - beats blocks & Tech-Hits
- Dash Dragon Punch - safe meaty that beats jumps
- Long-Dash, 2LK on the back side - weak left/right option
- Dash Midnight Pleasure - Beats blocks & Tech-Hits
Dash Demon Cradle / Instant Dash Demon Cradle / Zero-Demon
There are some major differences between the dashing demon cradle and the normal demon cradle.
Demon Cradle
- Goes straight up(great for reversals)
- Limited range
- Not very safe on block
- Not very good as a poking tool
Dash Demon Cradle, IDDC, Zero-Demon
- Goes forward at an angle
- Great range
- Far safer than the normal demon cradle
- Great for poking and getting in
While This is a very usual move to know and use. This is not an abusable move. Many characters can punish Dash demon cradle if not used properly with 2HK. These characters include
- Zabel (normal or dash c.hk)
- Sas
- Anakaris
- Aulbath (dash hk)
- Felicia
(more will be added to this list in the future)
The dash demon cradle you want to use as much as you can though is the instant dash Demon cradle. This move is VERY good but is also very hard to learn how to do. The easiest way to learn this is to practice the following motions:
- 623656+P: Fastest possible input from neutral (7 frame input). The P cannot be on the same frame as the dash, it must be delayed by at least 1 frame. You can buffer the 62365.
- 62356+P: This is a valid input, but it's not actually faster than 623656 in most circumstances.
This input can potentially save a frame on the IDDC input, if the "23" part of the input is performed without entering crouch state (buffer it during a standing move). This is not very useful, because the "saved frame" is during the bufferable part of the input, so it does not enable any new combos. In general the 623656 input will be faster and more consistent. Demitri must uncrouch after 623 before linking the dash. Walking forces you to uncrouch immediately, but returning to neutral does not.
- 6623+P: If the first is too hard this is also a way you can do it. Tap forward and then do the DP motion. This one isn't as ideal because you will spend a little time dashing, whereas with the first method you only need a single frame of dash.
Notes for combo theory:
- You can combo into IDDC from a jump button such as jHK, which is fairly lenient.
- The IDDC hitbox travels forward, and its initial active hitbox is small. Even if you have the frames for it, you may not have the spacing.
- IDDC hits on frame 5 (notated i5), but you can't actually link into it when +5. It takes 1-2 extra frames to dash (depending on frame skip), so you should treat it as i6 (if lucky and good) or i7 (if good).
- If you want to link into IDDC from a crouching state, you have to lose at least 1 frame to uncrouch before you can dash.
- It's possible (on 2/3 cycles) to combo 5LP (+6) into IDDC. (tested vs MO)
- It's not possible to combo 2LP (+6) into IDDC, because 2LP leaves you in crouch state, losing you a frame.
- Renda combos are difficult due to pushback and may not be possible, or may be possible only against certain characters. (no success vs MO)
Instant Dashing Demon Cradle External details
- https://twitter.com/shu180sx/status/383146456409837569
- http://seesaawiki.jp/vswiki/d/%a1%da%a5%c7%a5%df%a5%c8%a5%ea%a1%db%bc%d0%a4%e1%a5%c7%a5%e2%a5%f3%a5%af%a5%ec%a5%a4%a5%c9%a5%eb
- https://twitter.com/VMP_MBD/status/1115031246718025733
- https://twitter.com/VMP_MBD/status/1114398299241447424
- https://twitter.com/VMP_MBD/status/1114713711497891845
- https://twitter.com/VMP_MBD/status/1114714070526177280
- https://twitter.com/VMP_MBD/status/1114714398436802560
- https://twitter.com/VMP_MBD/status/1114716596218601472
