Marisa, for Smiler

Format

a means Assist

P just means a button. Like I don't wanna just just B as a rando, button we're used to seeing stuff like 236PP for ex moves and stuff. Any button can be used for some followups, even sometiomes S.

S is special

So aL > aL > a5S would be two hits of the Light auto combo into OD gladius.

Other typical terms apply. DRC is canceling a move into Drive Rush, DR is doing the one bar version from a parry stance.

Table of Contents

Normals

5L: Probably don't worry about this? Filled a weird niche and relies on counter hits to even combo the 5L>5L target combo. Don't bother for now.

2L: 4Frame poke. You're 'get off me' button. Use a lot! KEY MOVE

a2L: Your only comboable low.

5M: One of your two primary pokes in neutral. The kick is not cancelable and the point isn't to get combos off of it, but you should still use it. If you hit close enough you can combo 2L off of a hit.

2M: Great neutral poke and your cancelable neutral poke. Don't try and confirm this. Either have a DRC or Gladius (L and M are gapless off of 2m and safe) cancel in mind and do it, hot or block. Or do nothing, that's fine too, but don't bother trying to confirm this. KEY MOVE

6M: Good forward moving whiff punish move. is +4 on counterhit which lets you link 2L into Light Dimachaerus. Sadly you can't just use the autocombo afterward. Has two target combos, 6M > 6M and 6M > 6H. These are useful but honestly don't bother with them cause you gotta be able to hit confirm well to use them without getting yourself killed. 6M > 6H Level 1 Super is a perfectly reasonable way to spend meter.

a5M: Your key in close brawly normal besides 2L. One of your staple starters. You can technically hit confirm the first hit of the target combo to avoid the second on block... but you're not. So if you swing with it, get ready to do random gladiuses and charge gladiuses to keep it hard to punish you.

5H: 5H > 5H has a mashable gap so don't bother with it on block unless they're letting you get away with murder. The second 5H is +3 but I wouldn't reply in it. Still, a good, forward moving, useful for whiff punishing. Has more advanced uses but basically treat it like a bigger 6M. It's forward movement is good for whiff punishing but means you're going to be smacked in the face if you whiff it too much.

6H: Again, don't bother with the target combos. Big and cancelable. Basically just throw this out and cancel into gladius, hit or block. Can do some fun things on counter hit or punish counter but there are better moves to use when fishing for counter hits. Treat it more like a 5M that gives you a bonus gladius on hit or block. Chargable, but I'm not sure when you would use that feature. KEY MOVE

4H: Cool, chargable normal perfect for shimmying. Basically used to bait throws and detonate people. Key to shimmying. Charged version is +8. You can literally Charged 4H into 4H as pressure. We'll talk about that later. KEY MOVE

3H: A pretty okay sweep but probably not something you really need to ever press.

2H: One of your AAs. Charged version is some fancy combo stuff that you don't need to worry about. DR after hitting this as AA to do some mixups!

I got nothing to say about her jumping normals.

Specials

Gladius

Turn stealer. Negative, but safe. Use randomly when negative to catch people. When people start punishing you for whiffing this, start charging it to fuck up their timing. Does good Drive Gauge damage so stringing into this is good just to put pressure on the opponent.

Superman Punch

I swear to fucking god it goes over fireballs if you time it right you LITERALLY DO IT. But ALSO it's plus so you can use it when an opponent is scared to get in. You're not going to be super on top of them though on block so your options aren't super clear cut. Hit like 2M or try and see if they press or something. Their button will probably whiff or get beaten by your 2M if it's someone liek Dhalsim.

Scutem

Another turnstealy move that you probably know how to use better than me. The striking followups have some utility but honestly that's not something you need to worry about.

Enfold

THIS IS GOOD! if you input this right, it's only 12 frames and half of those frames have super armor. Down Forward does Enfold so you can just hold forward, hit else, then move your finger down a little and do it again. Just a little wiggle and two quick taps. When done right this should be unreactable, though it is still just vulnerable to well timed mashing.

When done meatie the only way to escape this is to jump which is a lot of commitment. Good use of this move will make people fear god.

SA 1

Iffy reversal, mostly damage. Would take some confirming skills to hit in easy combos but you don't have to use it.

SA 2

Decent Anti Air! There is some fancy juggles you can do with it manually but I'm not about to figure that out right now. Just use the not so great auto combo for now.

SA 3

You're playing on modern, whiff punish some shit with this! 13f startup is fast!

Dimachaerus

Anti Air but also one of your most stable good knockdowns. We'll get into why that's good later but when you don't know what to do, combo into light or medium diamachaerus and just take the oki. H lets you do a combo for free, but that takes counterhit setups that we'll talk about later.

Combos

I'm going to write these combos out for now, but we'll try and break them down after in a way that hopefully will be easier to understand.

L Auto Combo

This is GREAT. Auto hit confirm low mash. This is basically as much as Marisa can get out of her lights (ignoring some 5L+5L CH nonsense). This is OPTIMAL. The POINT isn't damage, it is the Dimachaerus (4S) knockdown which gives great Okizeme options.

L starter Manual Combos

2L > 2L > 214L~6P > Mid Screen Dimachaerus Oki Sometimes you'd rather do two 2LPs because they come out a frame faster, before doing the Dimachaerus manually. You have to do it manually since the special version is medium punch, which won't combo.

Honestly? I wouldn't worry about this for awhile.

M Auto Combo

Only way to get the medium two hitter target combo which is good. Past that, this combo is a waste. Never let it do the OD Gladius unless you have level 2! That's the only reason to do this full auto combo!

M starter Manual Combos

aM > aM > 4S~6P Get a combo without spending bar.

aM > aM > 214PP~6P > 5S 3K damage for 2 bars of drive. You can end with 4S~6S > 5S for ease of execution at the expense of 300 damage.

aM > aM > 214PP~6P > DR 4H > 612H Added 300 damage for 1 more bar and sets up a safe jump. You don't really need this as it's comparatively hard and you fight Dhalsim, who doesn't have a lot of reversal options, and JP, who can't be safe jumped. Easy Input version also sacrifices about 300 damage. Mostly something to play around with if you're feeling spicy.

aM > aM > 214PP~6P > Any Super

If you're doing level 3 you'd want to do 5S -> Level 3 for a little bit more damage but you get the idea.

H Auto Combo

The combo is pretty good and makes for a good damaging punish combo or post DI combo. Still it's not auto hitconfirming like the L autocombo so be careful! It gives you 20 frames to confirm it which isn't bad! This is basically close to the route most people use already.

H starter Manual Combos

Those three 214PP combos above in medium? You can do those off the auto combo. H and OD Dimachaerus allow the same routes, H just requires bigger hits to combo into.

Okay actual combo theory

Some of that stuff above is good reference but it doesn't go into the hows and whys of combos or how to think about them.

Now a lot of situations are going to be simple poke -> gladius but for more extended combos, the question is "How do I get into Dimachaerus" and "What's the best version of Dimachaerus can I hit"

Combos that use L moves almost always require an L Dimachaerus. 5M linked to 5L? Gotta go into L Dimachaerus. CH 6M? Link into 5L. L Dimachaerus.

Are you routing though the aM > aM target combo? Either M/S Dimachaerus into oki OR OD Dimachaerus if you want to extend the combo.

Hit with 6H or 4H and confirm fast enough? H Dimachaerus into an extended combo.

Ender theory.

Generally your non super enders will either be Dimachaerus, Superman Punch, or Gladius. Gladius is the easiest and has the most corner carry and is a fine option.

Dimachaerus gives you the least frame advantage but the closest oki.

Gladius gives more frame advantage, but SIGNIFICANT knockback. Great in the corner, but can't be comboed into from lights.

Superman Most advantage, but requires a DR combo juggle.

You could survive just routing into Dimachaerus knockdowns for a LONG time. Of the supers only level 1 in the corner can leave you with a good oki/pressure setup (you're basically right on top of them, 16. You can do any meatie or like enfold or something).

Drive Rush Cancel Combo

Generally the only too moves you should be canceling for the attempt at a combo are 2M and 6H. 6H you can do big combos with without the DRC cancel, but confirming is a hard skill to build. DRCing both allows for a strong combo AND a mixup on block.

2MP/6H DRC -> 5M -> 4H -> H Dimachaerus -> Ender

This is a good, damaging combo but more importantly, if they block the initial hit, the 5M (the kick), leaves you at +2 and at a great range for STRIKE THROW MIXUP

How to actually hit a motherfucker with the Big Fun Buttons

So in this situation, after the block, if you do 2L > 2L > L Dima (the autocombo whiffs sometimes after the first hit??) and they press a button or attempt to throw, they will get hit and comboed. Once they start blocking, you start throwing them.

Now fuckers like me and I think Patito will do something called Delay Tech. We'll OS a throw tech after a delay so if you make us block, the attempt won't come out. You can tell if someone is doing this because the throw will pause for a moment, but in this situation this will beat normal throws too. You hold back after the 5M and after a moment, you press 4H. Don't try and react, just walk back for like a quarter of a second and hit the button. This is a Shimmy

CH 4H -> aM -> aM -> M or OD Dima into whatever (though I won't do the OD one you just spent 3 bars DRCing to get this situation)

If you're sure they're delay teching you walk back a bit more and HOLD 4H

CH CHARGED 4H -> 6H-> H Dima into whatever

You can make your whole life easier early on by simply using the M Autocombo. This will use way too much drive meter BUT it will save you a lot of headaches confirming. You can also use the H auto combo after charged 4H or the M Auto combo after normal CH 4H. The CONCEPT of the Shimmy is more important than the optimal combo, that can come later. Even hitting them with the L Auto combo for fucking up is a win.

Also you have all this but then all the sudden instead of DRCing into 5M you just enfold them into the fucking grounds GGs. But this is the sorta basic idea for strike throw mixups and how a character like Marisa kills people.

Okizeme

https://wiki.supercombo.gg/w/Street_Fighter_6/Marisa/Strategy has a GREAT chart of all your options off of everything but I'm going to try and give you

Post L Dima

Midscreen...

5H can be used to cover both rolls. If timed perfectly you're 0 and at worst you're -2. If you do this I'd just do 5H -> Gladius. You'll be even more negative, but spaced out of danger and you'll have done drive gauge damage. If you catch them mashing, even better.

Obviously with practice you can hit confirm this to get more reward, going into H Dima if they got tagged, but honestly stick to a simple gameplan at first.

You can do a buffered 2L 6H to get a perfectly times +0 meatie. This might be worth learning, but I'd wait and see how 5H works for you in general.

Full Charge M or L Gladius Leaves you a good deal plus and good reward if they do anything but block. When done with tight timing the M Gladius is the best option, but you might find L easier to hit meatie with.

DR 5M This basically creates the Strike/Throw/Shimmy situation I described above, with the benefit of being even more plus if you hit it meatie. This isn't a HUGE deal but it makes the mixup more forgiving to execute. Really easy to hit it too early though so delay a lot.

DR Enfold If done meatie requires a jump to get out of. DR 5M will catch jumpouts, so these two options have synergy.

If you represent meatie enfold, then if they see you DR on Oki you get a 50/50 off the 5M/Enfold mixup, AND THEN a strike throw mixup!!

Corner

Very optional for now.

In the corner you have the same options as above. You should probably mostly stick to those options until you're not thinking about them anymore and they're just automatic. You can threaten throw right away and go for a wakeup shimmy situation. There are a lot of 'auto timed' whiff setups but to make those work you need to make sure all your inputs are cleanly buffered so everything happens as fast as possible. Most of the options on the wiki are pretty good. Here's my little edited version

Post Throw

Marisa doesn't get much midscreen off her forward throw. Off a backthrow you can DR in but not close enough to get a strike-throw mixup. If thrown into the corner with either though you CAN DR meatie or even, if its a back throw, simply dash in and meatie.

Most of the time off a throw I'd just dash forward once to close the distance and let things reset to neutral.

Post M Dima

You can do all you L options but the timing will be a little off due to the longer knockdown.

You can threaten throw mixups just by holding forward. This will catch even backrolls. This also means you can free shimmy. This is probably what you should do most of the time.

In the corner?

Post Gladius

Mid screen? You get nothing. You can midscreen chase to keep up some pressure. If you're in the corner? All your M Dima options.

Off charged Gladius knockdown you can DR 5K for the usual shimmy mixup or if it's in the corner you can just hold upforward and do a safe jump vs slower reversals like Dhalsim's supers. Will lose to stuff like OD DPs though.

Enfold

Sets up a DR 5M mixup in the corner.

Phalanx

Corner safe jumps (this time that baits those annoying 6f OD reversals)! After safe jumps you can represent the usual strike/throw/shimmy options. OD Amnesia will still smoke you though. jH is +11 after a safe jump so you can do a LOT of stuff.

Lets try and make a gameplan out of this so it's not an overly confusing mess of jargon and combos.

Primary buttons in neutral should be primarily be 2M and 5M, with maybe the occasional 6H. Don't be afraid to use gladius and superman punch!! Represent those options!

Off of 2M and 6H decide if you're fishing for DR stuff or just pressuring into gladius. Don't bother trying to do 1 hit confirms. Vary your gladius's and their timing to and if you charge them to make them harder to punish.

Use L Dima and 2H as anti air. On successful hit (which will be tough), Drive Rush and do a meatie 5M.

When in close, use 2L or the L Auto Combo. aM is also a good option.

Route into Dimacheurus and DO OKI. If you remember nothing else, off of many knockdowns you can do DR 5M and set up a shimmy mixup.

Strike Throw Mixup Throw: beats their mashes, blocks, and parries. Neutral on throwbreaks, delay break, and backdashes. (Also loses to reversals, but that's a whole other mixup layer but w/e let them waste their drive bar) Strike: (Usually 2L, so just focus on that for now) beats their throw breaks and mashes, neutral on block and delay techs, loses the Perfect Parry. (Also loses to reversals) Shimmy: Just hold back and then hit a button! Beats both throw break timings (potentially, early tech might get to block depending). Neutral with them mashing on wakeup (you're holding back so you're blocking). Also can bait reversals for the same reason. Can lose to a properly delayed mash.

The RPS all all of these are range from "almost completely safe to attempt" (throw) to "2/3 in my favor" (shimmy). The situation is in your favor.

Throw will end your offense unless you're in the corner but is the lowest risk. If you have them spooked enfold, but again, you lose momentum outside the corner.

Strike should lead to 2L > 2L > 214L > 6L. This manual combo is worth learning to ensure the combo links right. Brings you back into the same mixup. On block you can use gladius or phalanx to try and steal a turn or catch a button, or use DRC to reset the offense again.

Shimmy blows them up. use 4H or 2M to Punish Counter the whiffed throw and then combo into aM > aM. You can just do the auto combo if you want or manually cancel into a different special. Preferrably M Dima (which is strength on the special button so you can just do that!)

If you're feeling spicy you can shimmy with charged 4H and on hit, go into the H Auto Combo. If Charged 4H is blocked, you can do aM for a frametrap (though note to me, you can do 4H too. It will trade with 4F buttons, but you can then link ANOTHER 4H and this is the type of sicko shit I love and might get you to try eventually but shhh this is for me so I don't forget).

The combos I think you should earn are...

2L > 2L > 214L~6P Mostly for shimmy situations where the autocombos string sometimes whiffs.

aM > aM > 4S~6P Gives good oki and a lot of other starts lead into this route. DR cancel in 5M -> this combo, or CH 4H which you get off of shimmies.

aM > aM > 214PP~6P > 5S (replace 5S with supers if needed) Same deal but alternative ender. OD Dima is the best way to dump meter.

Focus on these first. After this, learning to combo into H Dima has a lot of value in saving drive meter.

CH 4H(charged) > 6H > H Dima > 5S

or hitconfirming raw 6H into H Dima. Also a better version of you 2M DR combo woud

2M DRC > 5M > 4H > H Dima > 5S

Additionally if you want to try whiff punishing stuff...

CH 6M or CH 5H > 2L > 214L~6P If you used 4H, which is a bit harder to whiff punish with, the L Auto combo will work. This is a good skill to learn so try it out!

For Jump in combos... When using jL, do the Light auto combo, and when doing jH try and hit confirm into 4H > H Dima