Additional Topic: Landing the “Fab 50” And Other Multi-Hit Marvels (Exploring Further Uses of Dee Jay’s EX Hyperfist in General Footsie Play)
Most people think Dee Jay’s EX Hyperfist sucks outside of combos. Much like his crouching Fierce, though, his EX Upper actually has some hidden properties which make it semi-useful in footsie situations once you better understand them. Specifically, here are the properties to keep in mind about the EX Hyperfist when trying to find additional uses for it in footsies:
a) The EX Upper animates and hits quickly after it is
initiated.
b) The early part of the Upper is throw invincible. However,
the later part of the mashed fist actually seems to have some invulnerability
to normal attacks (or, at the very least, high priority). It’s a brief period
where this happens, but it IS there (roughly when Dee Jay fist achieves true
uppercut appearance where his Upper animation looks a lot like his counter-hit
Fierce normal in appearance).
c) Mashing the fist not only does more damage; it also gives
the move slightly more horizontal range (as well as more time to store another
charge).
d) When hitting with only the later part of the Upper, Dee
Jay will get slightly better pushback on block . . . which alleviates some of
the risk of using this move (since the mashed fist has a much more prolonged
recovery). Conversely, unless the opponent is going for an obvious throw, you never
want to be doing this move when the opponent is very close to you, given that the
pushback from this range will not save you from heavy retaliation should it be
blocked.
e) Also, keep in mind that the last hit of the EX Upper is
the only one that launches. Even if all hits of the Hyperfist miss except for
that one, you can still get a follow-up juggle from that one hit, assuming you
have your charge and follow-up attack ready.
f) If you can learn to do a fully mashed EX Upper into a dash Ultra 2, you will be able to regularly get what I call the “Fab 5-0” or the “50 Cent”– a stylish 50-hit combo that does 400 damage or more when Ultra meter is full in “W mode.” Note that you usually have to do the mashed version of the EX Hyperfist in this scenario in order to get the full charge for the follow-up Ultra 2. The other benefit of going straight into a mashed Upper before the Climax Beat Ultra is that it tends to do better overall damage in the later parts of a round (as the Ultra 2 scales a lot when the opponent’s life meter is low, so you are usually better off putting your heaviest damage upfront during the initial EX Hyperfist). I sometimes even leave out the initial normal cancel into Hyperfist on a whiffing opponent just to cut down on the early damage scaling during the later parts of a round. Plus, the dash into U2 is even more difficult to do from the fully mashed Upper, so you will look like a BOSS anytime you successfully do it.
Note that it is the huge damage potential from using this move in footsies that IMO makes it worth trying now and again, even though there is always some risk of punishment involved from the mashed Upper’s long recovery. Here are some further useful tips to help reduce the overall risk when using this tactic:
i) With proper spacing and push out, most characters will either be unable to punish you or will only be able to do lower damage with a normal or special because of the pushback from a properly spaced and blocked EX Hyperfist. Note, however, that some characters may have Supers, Ultras, or extended combos that do a fair amount of punishing damage even with the Upper’s pushback, so be aware of this greater risk and whether or not to try for the Upper under these circumstances.
ii) The best time to throw out this move is when you suspect an opponent will try for a throw or wishes to walk in and throw/attack at closer range with a mid or higher level attack. The walk-in part is important because the short number of priority frames occur later in the move while Dee Jay is mostly standing, so the opponent's crouching moves will almost always hit the Upper cleanly before it connects (obviously not what you want to have happen). The idea is to think of the Upper in footsies as an intercept rather than a punish to an opponent’s walk-in attempts. Specifically, an “Intercept” is a move that strikes an opponent before their attack can reach you. The later priority frames of the EX Hyperfist is what makes this intercept approach necessary (and also why the EX Upper does not work well as a reversal move after being knocked down). Simply put, you want to avoid using the EX Upper for footsies when the opponent is consistently trying for crouching attacks but to occasionally attempt it when the opponent tries a mid or high attack or walks in for a throw. Note: you can help set this up by pressuring the opponent with your light sobat kick (which will blow through most of their low attacks and then force them to switch to their mid attacks that are more susceptible to the EX Upper footsie counter).
iii) You want to space the EX Upper so that just the later hits of the Upper are the ones that reach the opponent (roughly around the point where he does a full uppercut similar looking to his far Fierce). This distance provides the best chance of striking an opponent’s mid-level attack and also maximizing the pushback on the EX should it be blocked.
iv) Once the Upper hits, you can follow up with a number of juggling attacks, such as an EX Sobat, a juggling Upkick, or best of all, the Climax Beat Ultra. Note, however, that from the farthest distance where the mashed EX Upper hits, the follow-up Ultra 2 will sometimes miss. This is not because they are not high enough to hit but rather because they are actually out of range horizontally (in other words, they are too far in front of you, not too close to the ground). In this case, it’s best to follow up with either an EX Dread Kick or three hits from Dee Jay’s Ultra 1 (for admittedly far less damage).
A crowd-pleaser if you can actually land it.
