Keeper of the Magic Stick: The Jade Thread

Twiggy.K

She holds a magic stick that expands and retracts at will. Throws razorangs at peoples faces, has Johnny Cage's Shadow Kick and a move that makes her completely invulnerable to projectile attacks for a few seconds.

She's also an assassin Shao Kahn and Kitana's best friend/bodyguard too. But whatever. This is all about Jade. Matchups, kombos, her role in the story, her tits or her Alt1 Princess-Leia-like-outfit. If it's about Jade, it should be in here!

Mostly created from a cheat sheet I wrote up for myself 12 hours ago, thus so, uses "Tekken"-style notation. (It's also easier to read IMO instead of everyone using BP, LP).

Finishers listing and button notation from:
"MK9: Fatalities and Krypt Guide" thread by latin_linx on Boxden.
"Confirmed list of unlocked 2nd Fatality inputs" thread from TRMK, compiled by ShaunyKass.

Everything else is taken from the in-game's "Move List" option.

Notation
1 = LP / X / SQUARE
2 = HP / Y / TRIANGLE
3 = LK / A / "X"
4 = HK / B / CIRCLE
Block = Block
TAG = Tag

Unique Normals
Staff Strikes: b+3
Rising Pole: b+2
Upward Thrust: f+2
Gut Kick: b+3
Pole Vault: u+3

Kombo Attacks
Pole Check: 1, 2, 2
Jade Charge: b+1, f+1
Bad Girl: 2, 3, f+2
Edeian Rush: f+2, 1, 2
Betrayal: 3, 4, 2
Assassin Strikes: f+3, 2
Polecat: 4, f+3

Fast Tags
Untameable: b+2, TAG
Pole Pain: u+3, TAG

Tag Kombos
After You: 2, 1, TAG
Likewise: 2, 3, TAG
Edeian Tag: f+2, 1, TAG
Distrust: 3, 4, TAG

Special Attacks
Boomerang: d,f+1
Boomerang Up: d,b+1
Boomerang Down: d,f+3
*Shadow Kick: d,f+4
Shadow Flash: b,f+3
Staff Overhead: d,b+2
Staff Grab: d,f+2

*Shadow Kick can be done twice in succession.

Enhanced Special Attacks
*Reboomerang: d,f+1+Block
*Reboomerang Up: d,b+1+Block
*Reboomerang Down: d,f+3+Block
**Eclipes Kick: d,f+4+Block
Shadow Glow: b,f+3+Block
Staff Smash: d,b+2+Block
Staff Slam: d,f+2+Block

*All Reboomerang ES make her razorang return to her.
**Eclipes Kick can be done twice in succession at the cost of 2 meter.

X-Ray
Staff Buster: 2+3+Block

Finishers
Head-A-Rang (Full Screen) - U, U, D, F, 1
Half Mast (Sweep) - B, D, B, D, 4
Stage Fatality (Varies) - B, F, D, Block
Babality (Jump) - D, D, F, D, 4

Kombos
(I'm pretty ass at this game. I'm always looking for simple things that put me in positional advantage and/or ease over damage)

Forward Slash (/) denotes it can be either attack.

3,4,2, Eclipes Kick
Staff Overhead, 1,2, Shadow Kick x2/Eclipes Kick
b+2, 1,2, Boomerrang
b+2, d+4/4/3, Staff Grab - d+4 can be replaced by a standing 4 or 3 depending on distance.

neekoXneeko combo (Transcribed by Shoryu Ken Masters): jump punch, b+1, qcb+2 xx dash, b+2 xx dash, 1, 2, b+3, 2, qcf+4 x2

Near Corner/Corner

Staff Overhead, 1,2 1,2, Shadow/Eclipes Kick x2
3,4,2, 4, Shadow/Eclipes Kick x2
3,4,2, Shadow Kick, d+4, Eclipes Kick
b+2, 3, 4, Shadow/Eclipes Kick x2
b+2, 1(whiff),2 u+3, 4, Shadow Kick - I got this to work only once, came up as 5 hits and 30~ish%, needs more confirmation.

Twiggy.K

Reserved just in case.

Shoryu Ken Masters

Combo transcribed from YouTube - MK9 (Jade) Staff lift 41% (I didn't come up with it)

jump punch, b+1, qcb+2 xx dash, b+2 xx dash, 1, 2, b+3, 2, qcf+4 x2

Ketchy Kech

Thank you very much for making this thread, much needed. lets keep the info flowing ~

Eternal Blaze

Have any of you guys found any good Tag combos with Jade? I'm currently trying to run Jade/Ermac but cant get any combo worth the meter, especially from Ermac to jade as he does 45% on his own with no meter =/

DJ Magic Marco

Appreciate the thread, but I think the button notation is going to get confusing. As someone who doesn't play Tekken, I can't relate to the use of 1,2,3,4. Can't we just stick to MK button notation? Maybe designate lowercase letters for movement, and uppercase for buttons? For example, "back + back punch" would be "b + BP."

And not to nit-pick, but how about correcting some spelling errors?

Eclipes = Eclipse
Edeian = Edenian
Boomerrang = Boomerang

Good guides are easy to read and understand, as well as informative. Let's strive for those characteristics in this guide so that we can improve our play and show the rest of the community what Jade is capable of. Keep it up, fellas.

Dragoomba

Hello.

All midscreen combos with the exception of the one corner combo. Also boomerang tricks.

Enjoy.

Yuna

Dragoomba, post: 5128032 wrote:

Hello.

All midscreen combos with the exception of the one corner combo. Also boomerang tricks.

Enjoy.

I decided to try her out last night. Waking up this morning and seeing this is just...so great.

AmishOpiate

Dragoomba, post: 5128032 wrote:

Hello.

All midscreen combos with the exception of the one corner combo. Also boomerang tricks.

Enjoy.

Thank you so much for this, very helpful stuff here to get started with. I've been messing around with Jade tonight, and she is the hotness; she has a lot going for her, I'm thinking.

Lost Fragment

So has anybody found a point to doing her 2nd shadow kick at the end of a combo? It adds like 1 or 2% damage, but stopping after the first one leaves you with such better positional advantage that the extra damage after the 2nd kick never seems worth it.

Also, anybody know exactly what ex shadow flash does?

DJ Magic Marco

Lost Fragment, post: 5128035 wrote:

So has anybody found a point to doing her 2nd shadow kick at the end of a combo?

Since it barely does any damage, I would use the 2nd flash kick as a positioning tool to get yourself further away from the corner/push your opponent into theirs.

Lost Fragment, post: 5128035 wrote:

Also, anybody know exactly what ex shadow flash does?

Projectiles pass you when Shadow Flash is activated. Enhanced Shadow Flash gives a kind-of hyper armor in addition. Normal attacks will still damage you when you have ESF, but Jade won't flinch so you can attack at the same time.

U-Volt

Been messing with Jade all night, and yes, those resets and combos are very legit and cool as heck. 2 questions come to mind though.

1. Once most people see the Boomerang reset for the first time, will you ever be able to actually trick them with it again?

2. It doesn't seem like Jade has a high/low mixup game with her strings. Will she suffer in the long run because of this?

Curious to see what you guys think.

Dragoomba

U-Volt, post: 5128037 wrote:

Been messing with Jade all night, and yes, those resets and combos are very legit and cool as heck. 2 questions come to mind though.

1. Once most people see the Boomerang reset for the first time, will you ever be able to actually trick them with it again?

2. It doesn't seem like Jade has a high/low mixup game with her strings. Will she suffer in the long run because of this?

Curious to see what you guys think.

If you lay off it for a while, they usually forget about it (in my experience). Even if they start to block it every time, you're at a huge advantage. The only thing you really have to worry about is if they do a delayed wakeup (which so far nobody I've played has done that to a returning boomerang). Remember, there's three different boomerangs, you just have to time them differently upon canceling.

Unfortunately, Jade's mixup game is pretty weak. Her only overhead is staff overhead (with the exception of the obligatory jump attacks). You need to get the opponent scared of staff overhead and then do a less than decent mixup of staff overhead, 3 - 4 - 2 (this Kombo hits low on the SECOND hit, which is very rare, the first hit can be a pain to land though), and sweep. You can also cancel strings into low boomerang (regular or enhanced).

Yuna

Jade seems like most of her more dangerous shit is going to come from punishing and block strings. Reptile has no good lows either, but he's still one of the best characters in the game.

In fact, I think Jade needs block strings more than good lows. Jade uses meter like it's fucking cocaine, what with how good EX Boomerang and EX Shadow Flash are. The more her opponents block, the scarier Jade becomes.

Dragoomba

Yuna, post: 5128039 wrote:

Jade uses meter like it's fucking cocaine

I lol'd so hard at that comment.

I forgot to add in my post "How godlike EX Shadow Flash is will make you forget about her lack of overheads."

Seriously, shadow flash EVEN NEGATES THROWS.

Use it on wakeup in the corner. It's soooo good.

People are sleeping on Jade. I'm pretty sure she can make top 5. I'm lolling at this "KUNG LAO AND RAIDEN ARE BROKEN" phase.

Yuna

Jade needs her fix, man. Roll it and smoke it, grind it and snort it, it don't matter as long as Jade gets her meter.

AmishOpiate

U-Volt, post: 5128037 wrote:

1. Once most people see the Boomerang reset for the first time, will you ever be able to actually trick them with it again?

I think that it will work sometimes, but not all the time. It will be more effective these days when the game is new than later in the lifespan, but it isn't some magic thing you are going to be able to base offense on reliably. It's a tricky tactic that will work from time to time, no more, no less.

For your second questions, I think time will tell.

U-Volt

Yuna, post: 5128039 wrote:

Reptile has no good lows either, but he's still one of the best characters in the game.

Actually, Reptile is my main, and he has some awesome lows. His 1, 2, b+1(low hit) string is safe on block, and in the corner can be done almost indefinitely. Plus, you can mix up with 1, 2, 2, 1(hits OH) with 1, 2, slide during your normal pressure.

Anyways, back on to Jade...
Yea, I didn't think about EX Flash, that will definitely help with mind games. I don't think you can cancel into Flash from normals, otherwise she'd have infinites (kind of like El Fuerte RSF), but that would be pretty sweet lol.

So yea, she still is lacking in the high/low mixup department, but with her EX Booms (like Dragoomba pointed out) the opponents will have to guess right twice in a row during any string if you have meter. That's pretty boss. I just wish she had another quicker OH option other than staff slam, but I guess she can't have everything....she's not Kung Lao after all....

One more thing...
Because it's Easter I'll be out with the wife visiting family all day, and NOT in training mode :(. But, I have a setup in my head you guys might wanna try. End a string of normals with EX Low Boomerang, and then try to get out a staff slam on its way back in. Theoretically this should be an unblockable setup, but it all depends on how quick that staff slam can come out. Try it out and report back, Jade army! Y'all have a happy Easter.

deadstarr7

I got to play against ts sabin last night on xbl for about an hour and 45 minutes. I was playing jade sabin was playing reptile. We had some pretty solid games. I think the end score was like i had 5 wins he had like 33 or something haha but i wasnt super free at least =P. I think maybe in the hands of a better player jade would have a solid match against reptile. She can really cut down on his projectile game with her shadow flash to get through the spit and forceballs ... you can also activate flash and walk through a charging ex forceball to punish .... also pretty much any block string you end with her staff overhead is fairly safe on block from what I've seen.

Also, wake up staff overhead is good at getting you out of mixups on wake up and helps with getting you out of the corner.

Dragoomba

U-Volt, post: 5128043 wrote:

I have a setup in my head you guys might wanna try. End a string of normals with EX Low Boomerang, and then try to get out a staff slam on its way back in. Theoretically this should be an unblockable setup, but it all depends on how quick that staff slam can come out. Try it out and report back, Jade army! Y'all have a happy Easter.

This idea got me really excited, so I tried it out immediately.

I've tried many different set ups, but none of them worked. The boomerang comes back way too quickly. It's hard enough even putting in the input before it comes back. When blocked, they get canceled out so they do not have that returning effect. I had tried it from both ground strings and juggles. It's just too fast. NRS seemed to have done a good job looking at all the little details, maybe this is why they gave her only one obvious overhead. Jade's already an extremely safe character, just imagine if you could cancel blocked strings into Jade Flash. Toooo good.

deadstarr7, post: 5128044 wrote:

Also, wake up staff overhead is good at getting you out of mixups on wake up and helps with getting you out of the corner.

Yeah, it's alright, but wake up EX Shadow Flash is AMAZING at this. Again, IT EVEN NEGATES THROWS. All mix-ups are immediately shot down when you activate it.

Also, Sabin plays MK9? Nice.

EDIT: Hey guys, we have character forums now! Hopefully a mod moves these threads to the respective forums.

Lost Fragment

Dragoomba, post: 5128038 wrote:

You need to get the opponent scared of staff overhead and then do a less than decent mixup of staff overhead, 3 - 4 - 2 (this Kombo hits low on the SECOND hit, which is very rare, the first hit can be a pain to land though), and sweep. You can also cancel strings into low boomerang (regular or enhanced).

You can also cancel the low in that string into ex overhead and if the low hits the ex overhead will combo.

Dragoomba

Lost Fragment, post: 5128046 wrote:

You can also cancel the low in that string into ex overhead and if the low hits the ex overhead will combo.

YES. I have no idea how I forgot to put that in my post. Thank you very much.

This is actually the best mix-up you can do in my opinion. I should probably do it more but I tend to use my meter for booms and shadow glows.

kenmastersX

One thing to note about the Smoke matchup, apparently the smoke bomb itself can be passed through like a regular projectile, but the explosion counts as a hit. So you'll still get hit anyway. :( EX shadow flash will absorb the hit, but that part of the matchup is still going to be a giant pain with the smoke bomb explosion will still deal damage.

At about jump distance if I see the opponent being hesitant I like to keep people in check with shadow kicks. They're safe on block and you reallly can't block it on reaction, the only thing is that you can crouch under it, even the EX version.

Her attack string f+FP,BP,FP is safe on block and is jump cancellable after the sholder hit, so you can keep going. What sucks is that if the string whiffs and you keep going the third part doesn't come out and you're stuck recovering a lot.

U-Volt

Dragoomba, post: 5128045 wrote:

This idea got me really excited, so I tried it out immediately.

I've tried many different set ups, but none of them worked. The boomerang comes back way too quickly. It's hard enough even putting in the input before it comes back. When blocked, they get canceled out so they do not have that returning effect. I had tried it from both ground strings and juggles. It's just too fast. NRS seemed to have done a good job looking at all the little details, maybe this is why they gave her only one obvious overhead. Jade's already an extremely safe character, just imagine if you could cancel blocked strings into Jade Flash. Toooo good.

AH, oh well. I knew it was too good to be true. I'll be in the lab more tomorrow, I have a few other things in mind. I'll keep y'all updated :).

Worm III

Jade can corpse hop after her sweep and still block wakeup attacks, wow what a fast forward dash.

Lost Fragment

Dragoomba, post: 5128047 wrote:

YES. I have no idea how I forgot to put that in my post. Thank you very much.

This is actually the best mix-up you can do in my opinion. I should probably do it more but I tend to use my meter for booms and shadow glows.

Yeah it's good, but probably not something you want to do too often unless you see them high blocking all the time.

I dunno. I'm guessing her high/low game isn't all that great because her mid-range poking game seems to be where it's at, with the range on her normals and all. Especially with that f+2 1 2 string, which seems to leave her with a good bit of advantage on block.

Sketchspace

I've been playing Jade for the past day aggressively with the green flash going through projectiles. Once I'm in, I find dashing Low 1 is good for pressure. From there:

-Low 1 for more pressure/stuff high attacks.
-Staff overhead if they try to low you.
-Dash + Throw

Foxhawk

Messing with her a little.

A basic combo is

(midscreen, no meter) Back 1 ->overhead staff, dash, back 2, dash, back 3 -> 2 -> 2x qcf 4 for 36%
(you can do qcf2 instead of kicks but if you do the first party very quickly qcf2 could whiff)

you can change it up per your preference. after the back 2 launch, you can do:

dash, back 3 -> 4 -> super for 54%
dash, uppercut for 31% (easy)
dash, 1 -> 2, dash 1 -> 2, kicks or staff grab for 34%
up A for 30% (flashy)


There also seem to be some neat tricks in the corner. The best non-super combo I've found is:

(1 bar required, corner only) back 1, overhead staff, jumping 1, back 2, 1, 2, ex upward boomerang, 3, staff grab for 43%

this guy: gets much more damage by skipping the launcher, so i'll have to try that out.

xeikai

Jade imo is definitely a contender. having great bnb combos not to mention ex shadow flash giving you the freedom to poke without fear of getting caught is amazing. Not to mention those boomerang resets are pretty boss, but her weakness in the overhead department is meh. She's still pretty damn good though and i think she has the potential to be a contender all the way for top tourney slots.

Right now I'm maining Jade with a Kitana alt. But I'm actually training for tag team mode mostly. BFF's on the same team!:)

Dragoomba

Foxhawk, post: 5128053 wrote:

dash, back 3 -> 4 -> super for 54%

What character are you doing this on? When I do this exact combo I usually get 56%.

Foxhawk

was probably smoke, but I could've just written it wrongly. I'm not jumping in, though.

FreddyL0c0

i love jade, ex flash is so damn good

Foxhawk

I've played a ton of matches with a friend who uses Smoke. The discovery that has completely turned around my results is up + 1. I can do that as a safe response to Smoke's blockstrings and reset the zoning situation to something comfortable to Jade.

kenmastersX

I fought a sub zero the other day, shadow flash goes through ice clone as well as his ice ball. Makes the ice clone zoning a lot less scary. :)

Lost Fragment

Fun thing I figured out today: shadow flash stays active when you do ex shadow kick. Pretty darn useful against fullscreen fireballs.

6pt7

Options for a blocked b+1? I suppose shadow kick might be the safest.

Looooove Jade so far. I feel like a champ activating shadow flash and getting in there with some strings.

Smilax

Does anyone feel like compiling a list of everything jades shadow flash goes through?

FreddyL0c0

if only her pokes could get canceled to shadow flash. but i guess itd be too op and create infinites...

Wii Wh1ppet

Did not know Jade had a thread... I've decided to use her cos she can use legitimate hit confirms from b+1, has good range on her normals and doesn't have to deal with frame trap BS in the corner (as long as she has an EH stocked)... Hopefully you guys will help me get an idea of what I should and shouldn't do with Jade as I've not put a lot of time into her...

I'd suggest someone adds a vid thread? Might be worth it, I would post my findings and BnB's, Rang resets etc... but I get the feeling I have nothing new to offer so far :) So for now I'll just lurk a little

ioKain

This is an online tag match with me, subz and my brother who plays Jade. Rang setups are real nice and can lead into a guaranteed ground freeze with sub if they are forced to block the second hit of ex boomerang. Anyways he has some real nice work with Jades green flash in this vid too. I been on his ass to use it more, shit is too good. :)

Chargi

I wanna improve my gameplay with Jade, so I've got some points for you :)

1) How can I get out of Target Kombo Pressure Spam by Cage and others?
ad 1) We tested it yesterday. After a blocked String just walk backwards and punish with b+1. You can be punished by a Dash Target Kombo though. Alternatively punish him with a well timed 1,2,1 Target Kombo to get some space.
2) How can I punish backrolls after Knockdown?
3) Which is the STRONGEST Midscreen/Corner Kombo? No matter what Target Kombo to begin with - its about Reversal EX Flash Punish :)
4) Is her Uppercut not as good as others or do I simply suck with it?

a) Up+3 is a good Poke in my opinion. It Kombos itself in the corner.
b) After Random Flash Kicks or Flash Kicks in Kombos (i usually do b+1, db+2, dash, b+2, dash, 4, df+4 and can follow with EX Boomerang, dash in and start Mixups or another Block String)

VenomGothica

I havent seen this anywhere but one way to hit low with jade is to do forward 2 -> ex low boomerang. The forward 2 hits from a good distance away and combos into the ex low boomerang for a back 1 into bnb. If they block the forward 2 then they have to block low or eat a full combo. It doesnt solve the low problem because it requires a bar but it cant hurt.

CammyUser

That 1st fatality is way too hard, how am I supposed to do that?

AmishOpiate

CammyUser, post: 5128068 wrote:

That 1st fatality is way too hard, how am I supposed to do that?

I would suggest going into the Fatality Trainer and just learning how to tap out the rhythm, it actually isn't that hard with a little practice; plus, you can do it from full screen, so distance really isn't an issue as long as you are out of sweep.

Dragoomba

CammyUser, post: 5128068 wrote:

That 1st fatality is way too hard, how am I supposed to do that?

You have to hold block for the ups.

I really want to see a a good Jade use the boomerang resets in a tournament against good players. It's pretty much 99% successful online, but I would like to see the actual usefulness in a realistic scenario.

Vandy

Beginner Question

How do you skip the block animation with EX b,f+3 ?

Whenever I input b,f+3+block she puts her hands up to block as she is turning purple, and I lose valuable invulnerable time.

Bronzefist

Dragoomba, post: 5128070 wrote:

I really want to see a a good Jade use the boomerang resets in a tournament against good players. It's pretty much 99% successful online, but I would like to see the actual usefulness in a realistic scenario.

IMHO the boomerang resets aren't even that good on opponent's wakeup since they can remain on the ground by holding down, cause the return boomerang to miss. :/

PhinnyCupcakes

Vandy, post: 5128071 wrote:

Beginner Question

How do you skip the block animation with EX b,f+3 ?

Whenever I input b,f+3+block she puts her hands up to block as she is turning purple, and I lose valuable invulnerable time.

It only does the block animation the longer you hold it. Simply do a very quick tap and release and you won't see a thing. I'm using a stick though, so if you're using a pad, I'm not sure how it would be different.

---

I'm losing a lot of faith in this character. Her normals are shit, and I can't seem to punish anything. Sure she can do a few tricks when shes lucky enough to get a mid hit off an attack with really slow startup frames, but other than that, its a rough world out there.

Really wish there was an option in practice that lets you record what the com does, kinda like in SF4. That would REALLY help.

Dragoomba

Yes, I hate to admit it, but she lacks necessary tools which almost every other character has.

But hey, she still has EX shadow flash which is like the best move in the game.

I dunno. Was thinking of picking up Cyrax...

Momotaro

Dragoomba, post: 5430907 wrote:

Yes, I hate to admit it, but she lacks necessary tools which almost every other character has.

But hey, she still has EX shadow flash which is like the best move in the game.

I dunno. Was thinking of picking up Cyrax...

I dunno. Don't give up on her yet. She's gonna get better. Already received armor on some ex moves. Plus I wouldn't want to be a Cyrax player post-patch.

PhinnyCupcakes

what did 1.02 even do to jade?