I am a stans of Vergil. I know just about everything about him but don't know that much about IM especially the 80s IM which had an awful design.
Trying to take playing this game on a competitive level a lot more serious now and I realized a huge glaring flaw in my play. I don't know Marvel fundamentals. I understand how to build to and that movement is defense but I really have a hard time with approaching some one or landing that hit rather. Like I really don't know how to punish teleports, air dashes and dash up low and these are the fundamentals of this game, I feel. Sometimes I'm really passive and try to sit and block expecting to punish them because they did something unsafe but that isn't gonna cut it. What is the rock paper trinity in marve if there is one? Any advice?
You can't be too passive in Marvel, if you are blocking then somewhere in the game you messed up and are now in a bad situation. You either need to be filling up the screen with hit boxes (projectiles/assists/high priority normal moves), rushing them down/mixing them up or staying on your toes in spaces where they have a hard time reaching you. Don't wait for them to do something unsafe and punish, there aren't that many unsafe moves in the game and even low level players are aware of most of them by now. Most of the time if you block something then you need to advance guard immediately, you should never let someone pressure you. You can't AG assists which puts a further emphasis on keeping on your toes because the last thing you want is to be pinned down by an assist or be put into a cross up situation.
As far as rock paper scissors go I think the best fundamentals to learn in Marvel are chicken guarding, advance guarding (when to AG and when not to) and air throw/teching. You should be on the ground as minimum as possible and you should always block attacks while in mid air which makes you immune to high/low mix ups. You can still be left/right mixed up but being at a particular height will at least eliminate beam/projectile assist cross ups. In the air most players will then try to air throw you or just try to dash in/use normals which is where you need to be throwing. ALWAYS look for opportunities to air throw no matter the character you are playing. The best players in Marvel are godly air throwers. Option select air throw with a move like Wolverine Dive Kick (d/f+H) for even better results and you can use this to mix up people as well. This will help your tech game too. You will learn that throwing is in a lot of cases a better punish than just using normals because it's 1 frame.
Advance guarding all you need to know is that you want to advance guard when you anticipate a pressure string or even a mix up attempt (some mix ups are negated or lessened with advance guard while others are amplified) and you want to NOT AG when you anticipate an unsafe move/string. Advance guarding essentially takes you out of the game for a few frames which can also negate some chip or get you out of a tight situation but be wary as a lot of players have anti-AG tech now and can negate it or bait it out. Always advance guard to reduce chip damage from hypers/specials.
Chicken blocking (blocking at normal jump height usually low to the ground) allows you to punish moves that would otherwise be unpunishable like a Wolverine dive kick. It also allows you to defend reasonably well against a character who is just going ham with high/lows. Be warned that characters with fast lows can catch you on your pre-jump frames meaning chicken blocking can be countered that way if you are not careful (this is how people get hit by lows in Marvel most of the time, they are trying to chicken block but they got clipped while trying to jump). Also chicken blocking can be countered by air throws.
