By Derek Daniels, J.R. Guiterrez, and John Choi

August 11, 2000 - Tired of eating Magneto's ridiculously long air combos? Been mumbling to yourself wishing there was some way to get out? Well there is! In many situations, "Mashing", hitting all the buttons as quickly as you can, reduces your window of vulnerability, allowing you to escape or break a combo.

There isn't an exact art form to mashing, which is one of the reasons why it's called mashing. However, there are some obvious techniques that will help. All inputs except start contribute to a mash, so you can leave that button alone. I prefer to shake the joystick rapidly left and right while using my palm to rub across all the buttons as fast as possible, using small back and forth motions. Do whatever works best for you.

We will first tackle Magneto, as he is a rather special case. The easiest way to do Magneto's air combo is to launch the opponent, Super Jump towards him and do SJ.Jab -> SJ.Short -> SJ.Strong -> SJ.Forward XX Hyper Grav XX Magnetic Tempest , SJ.Jab -> SJ.Strong -> SJ.Forward, Airdash, SJ.Jab -> SJ.Short -> SJ.Strong -> SJ.Forward -> Hyper Grav XX Magnetic Tempest. This combo is long, extremely painful, and completely escapable, but only if you mash.

First, let's examine why this combo works. I'm sure most of you have realized that if you do the air combo and just cancel the SJ.Forward into Hyper Grav that it will not combo. At the same time, if you try to cancel the SJ.Forward into Magnetic Tempest, that will not combo either. So you MUST Hyper Grav and super cancel into Magnetic Tempest for the combo to work.

But why is this the case? When you execute the Magnetic Tempest, there is a 6 frame startup pause that affects the opponent, but does not effect you. This pause has been in almost all Capcom fighting games since Street Fighter Alpha 1. Normally you can't take advantage of this little feature. However, since you are super canceling off of a projectile, the projectile continues to keep traveling during this 6 frame pause and will now combo where as it normally wouldn't. Since the Hyper Grav has now comboed against the opponent, the Magnetic Tempest is free to combo as well. This is why the super cancel is necessary. The Hyper Grav by itself travels towards the opponent too slowly to combo outside of the super cancel pause animation, and the Magnetic Tempest starts up too slowly to combo unless the opponent is being held by the Hyper Grav.

However, the Hyper Grav falls under the category of "special moves that capture the enemy", and all these can be mashed out of! Obviously you can't just mash on some buttons during this combo, as you will more than likely get hit by the Magnetic Tempest. You need to know when to mash out of the combo for this to be effective. The best way to do this is to pull back to block during the air combo then when Magneto says, "Magnetic Tempest!" mash during the pause between, "Magnetic" and "Tempest." So pull back during the whole air combo and wait until Magneto says, "Magnetic." Then mash with all your might, and block after he says, 'Tempest'. If done properly you will break out of the Hyper Grav and block the Magnetic Tempest, and thereby will no longer be in danger of losing your whole life-bar from what used to be one of the most impressive combos in the game.

All capture moves can be mashed out of, including Spiderman's Web Ball, Thanos' Bubble (no more stupid Bubble Infinite!), Blackheart's Demons (which stops his pseudo ground Infinite and his Demons into Inferno Super combo), Cable's Grenade, and Ruby's fierce chain (HCB F).

There are certain supers, special moves, command throws and even normal throws that cause "Pseudo Flying Screen". As all of you know from reading James Chen's wonderful Marvel series FAQS, once Flying Screen is initiated, the attacker can no longer do special moves (including supers) or super-jump, and the victim cannot roll to avoid any OTG (off the ground) combos. Moves that setup Pseudo Flying Screen only meet half of these requirements - you can continue to do special moves including supers, and can super jump towards an opponent after launching them. Captain Commando's Captain Storm is a perfect example of this, you can OTG the opponent with Low Short and Launch them after it connects, then tack on a Captain Sword super for good measure.

So if you can't roll to avoid these things, does that mean you are helpless to escape the OTG? Of course not! In MVC2 you can mash out of Pseudo Flying Screen OTG's! After being hit by the Captain Storm, mash with all your might to avoid his OTG Low Short attempt. If done correctly, your character will stand up more quickly than normal and be temporarily invincible for a brief moment (since the initial getting up animation is invincible no matter what).

However, if Captain Commando either hears the opponent mashing out or knows the opponent will attempt this, he can perform a counter of his own. Yes, there is a counter to counter-mashing! After the kick super finishes, run up to the opponent and throw them with Roundhouse - which is also a mashable throw and can do upwards of 50%! Of course, if the masher sees or predicts Captain Commando's counter-mashing counter, he can counter the counter to his counter-mash by teching the throw or even counter-throwing...and this is why we all love Street Fighter.

Similarly, you can also mash out of Shuma Gorath's post-Chaos Dimension OTG attempts, which severely weakens Shuma. Not only does it require 3 levels to activate Chaos Dimension but any follow-ups are completely avoidable! If you find yourself getting hit by Chaos Dimension, mash with all your might and you will stand up, being temporarily invincible to the OTG attempt that he tries. Again - Shuma Gorath can opt not to go for the OTG if he knows the opponent will mash out of it and as soon as he lands, grab them with the Roundhouse throw. The throw is a hold, which can not only be mashed for massive damage - but also gives him life back!

Anakaris also has a super that can be mashed out of - the Pharaoh Magic super (Roundhouse, Jab, Down, Short Fierce). Normally Anakaris can follow this up with a low short OTG. You can mash out once the super is over and avoid the OTG attempt. If you are playing as Anakaris, the only thing that really works as a counter to this is try to do his overhead.

Last (but not least!) you can also mash out of Hulk's Gamma Crush super. The first hit sets up Pseudo Flying Screen, which prevents you from rolling out of the subsequent hits of the super. However, you can mash after being hit by the first hit and avoid the rest of the super. Once again, your character will stand up and be temporarily invincible while Hulk tries to crush you with a giant rock and misses. The only real counter for this if you are playing as Hulk is to manually control the dive and try to cross them up.

The original purpose behind mashing is more powerful than ever in MVC2. You can now mash holds for ridiculous amounts of damage. Duc Do, the B4 MVC2 champion, took nearly 50% from one opponent during the tournament with a single throw from Spiral! So make sure if you are caught in a hold - you (counter)mash like crazy! And at the same time, if you catch an opponent with a hold - mash for extra damage!

Holds that can be mashed for more damage
Spiral's fierce grab
Captain Commando's roundhouse grab
Ken's roundhouse grab
Shuma Gorath's roundhouse grab
Wolvie, both fierce & roundhouse grabs
Felicia's fierce grab
Bonerine, both fierce & roundhouse grabs
Jin's roundhouse grab
Evil Sakura's fierce grab
Omega Red's coil

Video Link Mash! Escaping combos

Video Link No mash. Combos hit.