Initial findings on Blake vs Merkava training mode

***Merkava's Flight

Instead of a double jump, Merkava gets a flight. He can block while he flies. He can also control which way he goes by holding left or right

As Merkava flies, he'll slowly descend until he reaches a minimum height. Seems like they can delay it by holding up. This might be a good point to go on the offensive if you're within 5B reach?

Eventually, Merkava will be forced to land from his flight. Seems like it can last about 2.5 seconds from what I stopwatched. This seems like another good point to target. Snipe the landing to pin him down and go on the offensive?

Merkava gets several options from his flight
1. inputting 66 or 44 will make Merkava glide in that direction. The glide has a hitbox
2. He can cancel into normals.
- j.A is definitely one of those token normals that gives Under Night the reputation of having "Half screen" normals. Doesn't have a lot of downward reach so don't have to worry about jump ins but I wouldn't want to challenge him air to air.
- j.B is a normal that hits all around him in a good range. Seems good against people trying to run below him recklessly
- j.C is a divekick
3. Can do 214X fireball special. A version goes downward closer towards him. B version goes fullscreen. C version throws out 3 fireballs. They recover from the fireball(s) in the air and once they recover, they can glide or use normals
4. Can cancel into DP. Not sure why you would do it from raw flight but it's a thing
5. Can cancel into j.214B+C super, which is a dive kick grab. It's a strike grab. You can block it normally.

Once Merkava starts gliding, his only options to stop the glide are the following:
- j.214X Fireballs
- j.214B+C Super
- Air Reversal Action
- For Gliding Backwards only, Merkava can cancel into normals (j.A, j.B and j.C)

Merkava does Glide
- Reaction AA 214C works
- 5B works but hard to do on reaction for me
- Super jump back j.B+P on the table

Merkava does Glide > Fireball
- Reaction AA 214C gets beaten if they use it to stop short of hitting you with the glide. Iffy threat level on its own but maybe with the right assist this could be costly for us?
- 5B works but hard to do on reaction for me
- Super jump forward j.B works

Merkava does Glide > DP
- 214C gets beaten
- 5B works if you hit them while they're still gliding towards you but hard to do on reaction for me
- Loses to doing nothing since unsafe

214C Fireball > Glide
- AA 214C the glide works fullscreen. Less than full screen, timing gets tighter but can still do AA DP though. The timing gets tighter the closer you get


***Merkava Ground options

Alternative options:  Might be best to fight Merkava on the ground and try to keep him from flying. Blake's 5B outreaches all his ground normals. The main issue is his 214A fullscreen grab. Blake 5B CAN beat it but it's iffy. Not a lot of breathing room to comfortably beat it. I wouldn't want to play a game of quick draw against it with my life on the line from my first impressions of trying to challenge it in training mode. Rather try and beat it with super jump forward j.B+P.



Some side nodes:
Merkava 236A - Can punish on point blank block with 5A but can't seem to get anything else to connect afterwards because of the pushback.
Merkava 236B - Can punish on block with 5A combo so long as it isn't well spaced. If it's well spaced, it's the same as 236A where you can connect 5A but can't connect anything else because reach. You can visually tell it apart from 236A because Merkava moves forward.
Merkava 236C - Can punish on block with microdash 5A combo when less than well spaced.
Merkava 214B/AA Stretchy Arm Grab - Can seem to punish on reaction with dash 5B if my reactions are on point. Not sure how well it'll go in a real match yet.