Scorpion Guide/Game Plan MK11 Ultimate

Guide includes: Explaining what Scorpion is good at, game plan, opening up your opponent and more. Learn to not play Scorpion like a noob!

Scorpion Guide: Introduction

What this guide will teach you

Scorpion in the community as you may know is typically associated with low/noob level play. This guide will teach you legitimate techniques that don't rely on random teleports and spears. This guide will teach you his general battle plan, whiffing, spacing, stagger, teleport pressure, plus frames, restands, respect, mixup, jumping, hit confirming and fatal blows and variations.

Note: It is recommended to use the teleport cancel ability as this is almost needed for Scorpion to be good at high level play.

Game plan

When playing as Scorpion you must be comfortable with being able to whiff punish opponents. He has great buttons to do this such as b1, b2 and f3. As you get better at this you will start to whiff punish gaps in opponent strings. After this your other main techniques are staggering and respect. Scorpion is also a heavy meter burner so when you are empty it is a good idea to fall back near fullscreen and demand respect while your meter fills back up. All of this will be explained in the relevant sections.

Spacing and Whiffing

To start off with playing Scorpion you need to know where to stand when engaging your opponent. Since Scorpion has got some good range buttons it is ideal to stand the distance you start the game with. This allows is b1 to be able to hit the opponent at max range while keeping you safe and easily allow you to take a step back to hit the opponent with a b2 or bait them into an attack that will miss you.


With this spacing you are free to decide if you want to move in so you can pressure your opponent with 112 and pokes or if you are low on meter you may fall back to let yourself recharge. Scorpion can't do too much damage without meter.

So the buttons you will be using to establish your spacing are: b1 (or b14 and teleport cancel backwards), d4, b4 and b2. Note: b2 is unsafe if you finish the string so teleporting backwards after the first hit is what you must always do.

With this in mind your goal is to bait an attack in order for you to punish after they whiff and also being able to freely choose when and how you would like to engage.

Stagger

Scorpion's f3 kick is a great stagger button since the opponent does not know if you will finish the string with the second kick (4). This allows you to pressure the opponent and create mind games.

After a f3 (which you should be doing at the appropriate spacing) you have multiple options. You can:

• Go for a 112 string. This is good for conditioning them into holding block. Do this method a lot in early game.
  
• Go for a 2, a 21 or a 212. This is great for giving you plus frames meaning the turn is still yours and you're free to continue the pressure. Note 2 is a slower button so do not spam otherwise you will be poked or ducked out of it.
  
• Go for a grab. Do not spam this method otherwise you will be punished with a duck from them. This method should be used after you've conditioned them for a long time.
  
• Complete the string with 4. Worst case scenario you lose your turn. Best case scenario they think you will stagger and press a button leading to you getting a crushing blow combo.

Plus Frames/Restand

Since 212 are plus frames on block for any button in the string it is a great way to making your opponent scared to press a button especially in the corner.
After you have hit your plus punch you are free to attempt to open up your opponent. To start off, make sure you have conditioned your opponent to be scared to press anything. You can do this by throwing in a poke like a d1 to check them. Do this a few times when you get them in the corner. After that you can try to get some damage in next time you use your plus buttons. Go for an overhead b3, a grab, step back to Scorpion's ideal spacing and do a b1 string or special cancel into a forward teleport cancel and grab them.

Note: Do not spam 212 as it is flawless blockable.

Restanding is simple with Scorpion. Just finish your combo with standing 4. You can jail your 2 punch after this or go for a grab or poke check. Note: When going for a grab you will need to dash forward first. Good players will see this as a sign of a grab and punish you. To prevent this you can dash forward but poke them with a d1 to establish you won't give any hint on when a grab may happen.

Demand Respect With Teleport

You must be able to make your opponent respect you. This in order to keep your ideal spacing and stopping them from pulling any funny business with projectiles.

The teleport is built for demanding respect from your opponent wherever you are on the screen. Any button or projectile they attempt to throw out can be met with a teleport punish from you. In order to maximise your pressure you must have the teleport cancel equipped. This will allow you to also easily hit confirm your strings. Instead of finishing your b1 string in front of their face, teleport away on block to reset the neutral.

Since you can teleport at any time you must make the opponent respect the ability. One good method is to teleport cancel behind them and throw out a poke. This will make it so they are scared to press a button when you're behind them. You can also grab them if they are conditioned enough or have the tendency to hold block until you do something.

If your opponent is good they will poke you out of the teleport if they react fast enough. If this happens then start to throw in some fullscreen teleport cancels in order to reset the neutral and discourage them from poking as soon as they see you start to teleport.

Make sure to take a step back after you teleport behind them. This is in order to bait out their poke if you know it's coming and land a b1 or b2.

While you are jumping you must make your opponent be afraid to anti air because you can teleport out of the air. Again, use the teleport cancels. When jumping either teleport cancel away or finish the jump normally. Then when they are conditioned to not challenge the jump you can either teleport cancel behind them and apply pressure or finish the jump and grab as soon as you land.
Finally, you must demand respect in your ideal spacing area. The opponent needs to understand at any point you have the ability to hit confirm them into a combo with your long range buttons. Do your long range buttons like b1 and teleport cancel away if they block it. If you are very good you can hit confirm your b2 and f3 but this takes a lot of time to practice. Watch the pro player Avirk on YouTube on how he does this and demands respect.

Mixup

Scorpion has an overhead and a low button. This therefore adds a bit of mixup up potential. It's very simple. When your opponent is on the floor you can either overhead, do the low string and hit confirm into a combo or even b4 sweep to start the whole process again if you land it. This method is strong when trying to end the game.

Fatal Blow

Scorpion hasn't got a good fatal blow. It is among the highest scaling fatal blows in the game. If you hit confirm it into a basic string you can sometimes end up doing less damage than the raw fatal blow. It's only use is to whiff punish some attacks since it has decent range. Another use is to punish any form of wake up. When the opponent is on the floor take a step back (delay it a bit so the opponent doesn't decide to not wake up) and fatal blow as soon as they do anything.

Variation Abilities

Scorpion doesn't have many options for abilities. Teleport cancel is almost a requirement to do good with him. If you are facing a zoner it may be worthwhile to equip his fireball since it's a fullscreen mid. This helps me a lot against Jade. Demon Breath can be used for finishing combos on high hit advantage but standing 4 does the same job. His Spear buff is very useful since more damage is always nice to have.

[anaconda_BH]

very nice

[✦˚𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝˚✦]

Thank you man

[sentii]

thank you! i am a beginner scorpion player wishing to get better.

[SplavSlav]

Все равно Нуб-сайботы лучше

[3nf1@m10n]

Sin blade does meterless damage kombos(or increases damage of normal kombos if you have great timing).

And Misery blade cancel is plus if done from b14.

Tsuka poke makes normally unsafe moves safe like b2 Tsuka poke is safe if Tsuka poke connects b

[albanshqiptar]

It's just that Misery Blade takes up two slots so you sacrifice the teleport. Also I think that kind of play style isn't the best for Scorpion. Sure you can make some big mind games and really stagger the opponent but at that point why not pick Sub Zero who can do that by default?

[Trucker_Dave]

Nobody is talking about Misery Blade's and Sin Blade's added mixup potential and deadly potential in the corner with the tsuka poke, cancelling back 1,4 leaves you plus 1, from there you can continue pressure, grab, 1-2 for plus frames etc.
tsuka poke makes his forward 4,2 safe on block at -5 with pushback, overhead and low are unsafe of course but you can do more damage with the overhead finisher on amy string on hit when you have no meter
also you can mix any string and cancel into the moves
back 2 can be cancelled into a low
forward 4 on waking up opponent cancelled into a low always catches people off gurad


Sin Blade is very useful at back dashing and neutral jumping pop up the opponent or making a read on wakeup up 3 punish, or you can fake it out and take a risk instead go for a teleport

granted it may not be AS good as teleport cancel and a bit riskier the further you are from the opponent as you lack options at long range (at least safe ones)

[3nf1@m10n]

Great guide,
also Scorpions tsuka poke can be used as pressure and a restand if used after an attack after spear amp.
and Scorpions S1 is 7 frames so its good for punishing -8 moves and kountering other attacks since barely any attack is faster than 7 frames