Mihawk

## Introduction

Mihawk is the greatest swordsman alive. He's a little strong.

In OPGA, Mihawk is a character who will rely on his range and quick attacks to keep the opponent on their toes. His assist, Greatest Impact, has some crazy strong set ups and applications. His damage may be low but he has a lot of interesting tools to keep the damage consistent.

### **Pros & Cons**

+ Incredibly good neutral
+ The range and speed of his jabs is amazing
+ One of the most powerful assists if it's given good positioning
+ Uses a stack system that buffs his damage potential by giving his sword extra damage on hit relative to how many stacks he has, consuming them in the process. At max stacks, his next attack with his sword becomes unblockable and does massive damage. Three stacks max
+ R+A is an unblockable ranged attack that confirms into his j.A and is great for unblockable mixups and oki
+ R+X is a fast and huge slash of his sword that serves as a very fast and long ranged anti air
+ j.A is an extremely fast aerial that swings three times and doesn't bring his jumps to a halt, making it very strong in neutral or in punishes
+ Unblockable has some great range for how fast it is
+ His R+B is one of the only two counters in the game that can counter ranged attacks

- Poor damage if he doesn't get any combos or set ups
- His assist can get stuck down in lower parts of the stage and will be MIA most of the match in larger stages
- His counter doesn't do any damage and only gives him a stack for his sword. This counter also appears to only have the hitbox and counter trigger on his sword, meaning he can get poked through it if they hit him just right. It can also clash with attacks resulting in no counter at all
- Getting grabbed causes Mihawk to lose all of his stacks, especially harmful in matchups against grab combo characters

## Supports

### **Greatest Impact**

Dash support. Not a traditional dash support though, as it doesn't take damage or even spin when it gets hit. It acts more like a ride support with no rider. Has a good amount of HP but it drains fast like an area or ranged support. Greatest Impact can be one of the strongest supports and one of the weakest at the exact same time. In the right situation, Greatest Impact can give nearly infinite pressure and followups to Mihawk just for simply existing. In the wrong situation, it becomes a massive waste of meter if it either gets stuck on a wall or is used on a terrible stage for it. Greatest Impact on large stages, because of it acting like a ride support, will need to hit a wall for it to redirect to the opponent. With its pretty slow speed and only targeting being the moment it hits the wall means it will almost never be helpful after the initial summon. You'll almost forget it exists because it's doing so little. Even though it can be so unreliable, it's his only assist, so your only option is to practice and make the most of it.

## Combos

* A>A (LC), A>A (LC), B
* R+A, j.A, A>A>X
* A>X (Stun), X>X, A+X>A (LC), A>A>A/X
* A>X (Stun), X>X, L+(A>B)

## Strategy

### **Vanilla**

On stages like Eden Rock, Mihawk can get some incredibly effective pressure because of Greatest Impact. With the plentiful meter in vanilla, this thing is up pretty much 24/7 giving you a ton of free pressure and damage. He can struggle a little bit on the larger stages, but Greatest Impact on standby at all times in the match is unbelievably strong in the right hands.

### **Modded**

Because Mihawk doesn't have access to Greatest Impact most of the time, he'll have to rely on his range and speed to safely build up to it. You'll want to play it safe and only take actions you know won't get you punished. Because of Mihawk's wide and fast jabs, it can be hard for them to approach you from the ground. However, they'll also have problems getting in on you because your j.A has some crazy speed on it and can go right into some mix ups and pressure if they get caught by it. If they're too far away, R+X will be a fine enough anti air. R+A is decent for oki but it's also great as a defensive tool since it's one of the few horizontal attacks that cannot be dived through. It's also great when done in blocked lag cancels as a strong unblockable mix-up. Make sure to make it your mission to avoid being grabbed so you can keep any stacks you get and maximize your damage output. It can be hard to keep up in damage as Mihawk without them. If you're in a good spot, you can use R+B to knock them into the air for some j.A or R+X followups.

## Match-ups

### **General Information**

Mihawk has a hard time against characters who counter his game plan of abusing his long range and pressure. Characters with counters or some other form of beating his range completely shut down his safe pokes. A lot of ranged attacks come out quite a bit faster than his R+A and can even stop his attack on reaction. With little reason for these types of characters to jump in the Mihawk match-up, he'll never get a chance to use his powerful aerial and anti air either. An opponent skilled in bingo guards will also make Mihawk sweat since he works best when abusing his strong lag cancel pressure which can easily be taken advantage of by a competent opponent looking to grab some quick meter. Without smart mix-ups and approaches against these kinds of opponents, Mihawk will struggle to find his footing.