Morrigan - Capcom

"There's no crime in doing something that feels good; is there?"

TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM BIO:

Morrigan is a mysterious succubus and the ruler of Aensland. Born to one of the noble families in the Makai world, Morrigan detests boredom and ventures down to the human world in pursuit of stimulating events. She has large wings comprised of bats that also act as her fighting assistants. In battle, her wings can morph into a wide range of weapons to suit her needs, including a drill, blades, a jet booster, and many other forms. 

 CHARACTER ORGIN

Morrigan Aensland originated in the Darkstalker series (known as the Vampire series in Japan).  She's a sexy succubus who is very vein and lives for the thrill of battle.  Despite her appearance, she is not inherently evil and instead is something closer to an anti-hero.

GAMEPLAY DETAILS

The slinky seductress of Darkstalkers fame may seem like a simple character at first - with a Ryu-esque fireball and shoryuken special - but in fact she requires some technical skill to be played most effectively. Due to her odd dash, she is able to go from standing to airborn in a split second, letting her pressure with blisteringly fast lows and overheads one after the other. It also means she has very awkward mobility. Her Hyper Moves are also very situational and can not be relied on for easy results. Morrigan requires quick thinking and good execution skills in order to make the most of her unique skills.

CHARACTER STATS

Difficulty: Intermediate

Style: heavy rushdown

Defensive power: She can stay away and shoot projectiles if she wants, but she can't go toe to toe with real keepaway players like Megaman or Saki. She has enough tools to be defensively sound, average HP and a quick command grab to get her out of blockstrings. Because she is almost always airborn, it's often hard to land proper ground combos on her.

Offensive power: Her damage output is fairly low compared to many other characters. Her combos are fairly short and she doesn't have any ways to extend them without help. She also can't combo into her level 1 hypers naturally, which hurts her damage a bit. She does, however, have very nasty rushdown ability and some of the fastest high-low mixups in the game.

Approach strength: Her ability to pressure the opponent is very strong. Morrigan can mix between low and high, ground an aerial with uncanny speed. Characters who have strong anti-air techniques will have less trouble dealing with her, but most of the cast does not want her to be too close.

Combo ability: Her combo ability is somewhat poor. She relies on her partners and baroque to help extend her short combos. Her combo strings are quite basic and don't really progress further than simple ground combos to launcher strings.

Meter Usage: Morrigan generally prefers to save meter for Darkness Illusion, which is one of her primary means of finishing off an opponent. Her level 1 Hypers are very rarely used, but instead she may want to spend meter on Crossover Air Raids, which are a good way to add to her poor damage at a relatively low cost.

Key Techniques: Repeated ground dash into up-cancelled air normals is Morrigan's primary method of pressure. By pressing the attack button and then quickly tapping up, she can attack almost immediately after leaving the ground and then have her attack immediately cancel on landing.

Partner Options: Morrigan benefits from anyone with strong air combos to whom she can crossover air raid with. Tekkaman, Batsu, Viewtiful Joe, Tekkaman Blade, Frank West, Chun Li and others are all useful for this purpose.

Special Moves

SOUL FIST

   
QUARTER CIRCLE FORWARD + ATTACK

Morrigan's projectile is a rather huge, slow-moving bullet of energy with a short startup time. Having a wide hitbox and lingering for quite some time before it goes offscreen, it can serve as a mobile shield of sorts to stop opponents from rushing in on her. The light version fires the slowest, themid version fires faster and the strong version crosses the screen more quickly. The real strength of this move is that it can be fired in the air, which will cause it to float down at an angle. Morrigan's aerial movement is halted and she is thrown slightly backwards when firing, so after a super jump Morrigan can quickly fill the screen with projectiles at relative safety.

SHADOW BLADE

   
FORWARD DOWN DOWN-FORWARD + ATTACK

A dragon punch style special. It has all the properties of a shoryuken attack, but may be performed in the air and does a string of small hits over the course of the attack rather than damaging with one solid strike. The light version barely goes anywhere and deals only one hit but is the most safe, themid version is a standard shoryuken in distance, damage and recovery, and the strong version goes rather far and deals many hits, but is the most unsafe. Morrigan is vulnerable until she touches the ground after executing the attack. This move has startup invulnerability

VECTOR DRAIN

    
HALF CIRCLE BACK + ATTACK

A command grab. Morrigan grabs the opponent and flies into the air with them before hitting them with a spinning piledriver that leaves them knocked down. Has all the properties of a regular grab, but it cannot be broken out of unless the opponent uses amegacrash . Just like a regular grab, Morrigan needs to be very close to the opponent for it to work, and it will not hit opponents who are jumping, in blockstun or airborn but it can be comboed into. A great tool for adding to Morrigan's already amazing mixups. Just be wary that missing this move will cause Morrigan to flounder around for a moment, completely vulnerable to attack.

SHELL KICK

IN AIR   
QUARTER CIRCLE BACK + ATTACK

An aerial-only special. Morrigan turns away from the opponent and forms her wings into a drill around her legs that stays with her until she lands. Hr momentum is preserved and the drill hits the opponent rapidly while they're in the air. It can be used to string certain combos together or to advance safely due to the fact that there is no lag upon landing. Because it preserves her mobility, if used during a double air dash it will propel her across the stage quickly, making it a useful tool for advancing on an opponent who is trying to run away.

Hyper Moves

FINISHING SHOWER - HYPER COMBO LEVEL 1 - Air OK

    
QUARTER CIRCLE FORWARD + ANY TWO ATTACKS

Morrigan transforms her wings into jets and floats while firing a stream of missiles at the opponent. The missiles spread out in a wide fan and their trajectory can be slightly controlled by holding up or down. Can be performed in the air.

This attack has some startup before the missiles begin firing, and the damage is shaky because of how random the stream of missiles is. One advantage of this super is that it's extremely safe and Morrigan can move before all of the missiles have hit the opponent. If anything it can be used for pressure purposes, giving Morrigan a break in the combat to pin the opponent down so she can move in and begin her mixups.

VALKYRIE TURN - HYPER COMBO LEVEL 1 - Air OK

      ~  

HALF CIRCLE BACK + ANY TWO ATTACKS , ATTACK


Morrigan quickly flies past the opponent, then returns towards them while slowly descending. Pressing any attack button while advancing will cause her to do a shell kick, drilling into the opponent for many hits until she lands. It can be directed slightly by holding up or down before Morrigan re-appears, which will cause her to float higher or lower.

This super is one of those moves which has amazing rewards if it hits, but will rarely ever hit an opponent who's paying attention. The startup is just too slow to make it useful, and it's only really good if the opponent is grounded while it hits, which makes comboing into it via supers or assists a very difficult task. If it doeshit though, it's very damaging and morrigan is able to continue into a ground combo as soon as it ends, which is really quite a big deal. One more reliable use for this super is that it can be used to punish whiffed beam supers such as Ryu's shinkuuHadouken or Tekkaman Voltekka. Just be wary that Morrigan is not invulnerable during the initial flight.

DARKNESS ILLUSION - HYPER COMBO LEVEL 3 - Air OK

    
BACK, DOWN, DOWN-BACK  + ANY TWO ATTACKS

Morrigan dashes towards her opponent and teams up with Lilith to deliver a synchronised beatdown. Can be performed in the air. The ending of the attack is different depending if the opponent was in the air or on the ground.

Morrigan's regular combos tend to lack ferocity since she doesn't have many effective links or resets, and she doesn't need to use her level 1 supers much at all. It's fair that Morrigan often should conserve meter for this super to help her deal damage where she often would struggle. Thankfully it's an excellent super with almost instant startup speed and plenty of options to combo into it. Due to it's range it can be used as a punish or counter.

Assists

Partner Assist

Morrigan jumps in and uses a single soul fist. Generally accepted as one of the most useful assists in the game. It aids out teammates who require projectile support to advance, and also stuns while keeping the opponent grounded, making it perfect for extending combos. The firing time is slightly less than Ryu's hadouken so it does need to be used a little earlier.


Variable Counter

Morrigan performs her light shadow blade. This is one of the best V.counters in the game due to the fact that she is completely invincible during the startup.

Variable Combination

Finishing Shower

Combos

BEGINNER COMBOS

Medium, Hard (2 hits), Down Hard, Forward Hard -> Light, Light, Medium, Medium -> Medium, Medium, Hard Shadow Blade