Cybervillain Blaze joins the fight in Legacy Wars
Blaze Cybervillain is an Epic Balanced leader with lots of strikes and a terrifying presence. His special strike, Necessary Evil, is one of the fastest and most threatening strikes in the game. The combos and corner traps that result from it make him a monster at controlling space. His breaker has a unique gimmick that locks out the opponent’s assist usage, changing that matchup considerably for a few seconds. After blocking, his punishment game is strong as 3 of his 4 attacks are guaranteed to set up for a combo.
Skills
Primary 1: Violent Cuts
Type: Strike
Cost: 3
A 50/50 strike combo that knocks back on the final hit. It has average speed for a move of its utility, but lacks range. Use it against breakers or any time the opponent isn’t running away.
Primary 2: Corrupted Strikes
Type: Strike
Cost: 3
A launching backflip kick that goes into a slash that knocks back. It only goes into the 2nd hit if the 1st hit connects. The 2nd hit restores 1 EP on hit, effectively making it a 2 EP cost move in the long run. It’s just barely fast enough to be unreactable but it has poor range, so it’s best to use against a cornered opponent.
A word of warning: you might want to dash away to safety if you miss with the backflip kick, but don’t be antsy with the input! If you hit with it, you might cancel out the 2nd hit.
Special 1: Necessary Evil
Type: Strike
Cost: 5
A blisteringly fast strike that hits from a little over a dash’s distance away. If it connects, it does a combo with many hits that ends in a launch. It is so fast, it frequently interrupts other strikes. Smart timing of this skill can really lock down a cornered opponent and make things feel hopeless for them.
Special 2: Avatar Curse
Type: Breaker
Cost: 4
A breaker of average speed that nearly hits from a dash’s distance away. If it connects, Blaze shoots a followup projectile that prevents the opponent from using their assist card slot for 8 seconds. If used at the end of a combo, this assist lockout period can completely dismantle some gameplans.
Assist: Superiority Complex
Type: Counter
Cost: 3
A low cost counter that stuns the opponent if successful. It shoots a projectile, making it effective from any distance. It recovers quickly, making it easy to follow up with any move you can think of.
Sample Combos
Corrupted Strikes → Violent Cuts → Corrupted Strikes → Violent Cuts
If you’ve got a block card somewhere other than your primary slot, you can do an easy combo that doesn’t require any precise dash timings.
If you choose to, you can dash after the first Violent Cuts to optimize your energy regeneration.
Corrupted Strikes → Avatar Curse → Dash → Necessary Evil → Dash → Violent Cuts
Using dashes or taunts to recover energy sooner, you can do this lengthy and damaging combo.
To optimize energy regeneration, you can backdash before Avatar Curse to increase projectile travel time and have the opponent stunned slightly later than otherwise.
VS Cybervillain Blaze
- Blaze has a strike-heavy kit, and two of them are unreactable. More than most other leaders, it’s a good idea to simply dash up and block pre-emptively against him if he has full energy. If he instead uses Avatar Curse, at least the assist lockout effect will end around the same time as the combo.
- Necessary Evil is such an appealing combat option that if he is in your face and not doing it, then he probably doesn’t have it available. From this point, you can attempt to avoid his other strikes with dashes.
- If your block is on your assist slot, you might want to use it as soon as possible to try getting it on a different slot. Your assist getting locked out by Avatar Curse also prevents you from using a block card if that’s where it shows up.
Advanced Tips
Round start Necessary Evil
Necessary Evil is fast enough to beat many strikes and hits the opponent from round start position even if they try to dash away. If the opponent does anything other than a counter, they’re probably getting hit. Establish your dominance and be a real evil jerk before a single second has passed!
Trapping a cornered opponent
Once the opponent is in the corner, keeping them there is easy for Blaze. Both Corrupted Strikes and Necessary Evil have very strong energy regeneration efficiency, so it may be a good idea to leave some leftover energy instead of finishing a combo. After cornering the opponent, stand one dash away from them. They’re still in range for Necessary Evil, and if they dash forward to chase down your possible backdashes you can use Corrupted Strikes. They have to commit to an attack, which is risky for them because you’re far away enough to backdash yourself and avoid just about anything.
