Charging is vital for May's confirms, in neutral and in combos. To charge, hold a backwards direction (4,1 or 7) for horizontal dolphin, or a downwards direction (2, 1 or 3) for a vertical one. Holding down back counts for both!
In Strive, May's dolphins require 30 frames (or half a second) of charging time. Charge is built no matter what state May is in, as long as the appropriate direction is held. You can attack, backjump, and with the dash macro, backdash and continue to build and maintain charge. You can even charge during the Round Start Intro!
Given this, good practice for May players is to follow your ABC's: Always Be Charging. During Combos or Blockstrings, you can input 5X moves as 4X, and 2X moves as 1X. For example, 4H will preform 5H, while 1S will preform 2S. This way, you can use these moves while charging.
2S
GuardAllStartup10Recovery18Advantage-7: Big poke low to the ground. May's shortest poke, but impressively fast for its range. Will hit opponents using most low profile moves.
5K
GuardAllStartup8Recovery11Advantage-5: Excellent ground poke with great range. Can beat some lows. Good on block and on Counterhit thanks to its 6H gatling.
5P
GuardAllStartup4Recovery8Advantage-1: May's fastest normal. Good for mashing out of pressure. Self gatling + 3K gatling gives you a soft knockdown confirm to turn the tides in your favor.
c.S
GuardAllStartup7Recovery8Advantage+3: Monsterously good pressure starter. +3 on block with an incredible array of gatling and stagger options. The core of May's strike/throw game.
5H
GuardAllStartup13Recovery15Advantage-4: Great frametrapping tool in pressure. Only -4 on block and usually safe thanks to its pushback. Decent reward on counterhit. Very disjointed, so its also useful as a counterpoke.
j.H
GuardHighStartup12Recovery15Advantage+9 (IAD): May has a great jump that can be hard to anti air. j.H is a massive wall that leads to great combos on grounded or air to air hit, while also allowing May to start pressure if it is blocked. Combining this move with a Forwards Jump out of a Dash, or an Instant Air Dash can be a good, but very risky way to get close to your opponent and start pressure.
[4]6S (Horizontal Mr. Dolphin S)GuardAllStartup7Recovery20 (24 OH)Advantage-3 Swiss army knife special. Merely -3 on block, allowing May to try and keep her turn even after the move is blocked, or end her pressure safely. Great whiff punish with its blisteringly fast startup and speed. Excellent reward on ch thanks to the stagger property, allowing you a near guaranteed regular throw even on the fastest cancel. You can press P during dolphin to dismount early, or press K to jump off dolphin and go into the air.
623K (Overhead Kiss)
GuardGround ThrowStartup6Recovery40AdvantageN/A Command grab, that leads into good okizeme midscreen and a full meterless combo in the corner. The throw part of May's strike/throw game.
6P
GuardAllStartup12Recovery18Advantage-7: Universal anti air option. Low reward, but very safe. Works best against most air approaches.
c.SGuardAllStartup7Recovery8Advantage+3: Risky but highly rewarding Anti-Air for opponents close to you.
2H
GuardAllStartup11Recovery26Advantage-20: Somewhat Slow but incredibly big and rewarding Anti-Air option, especially on Counter Hit.
[2]8S (Vertical Mr. Dolphin S)
GuardAll→HighStartup6Recovery7 (21 OH)Advantage0 (Airborne): Incredibly fast anti air option out of a charge. Gives a hard knock down on air hit, allowing May to start pressure after landing it.
May has several strong options at round start. Get your hit in and get your opponent closer to the corner!
2S: Beats a large amount of the casts mid and low pokes roundstart, along with most 6P's. Cancel into [4]6S on hit, or even on block!
[4]6S: Beats some slower buttons and backdashes. On Counterhit, try for a throw or a 3K. if it hits an opponents backdash, they will be a lot closer to the corner, so keep the pressure on!
Walk back: Walking back can make buttons you cannot beat otherwise whiff, allowing you to punish them! your exact punish option will depend on the specific button the opponent whiffs, so experiment! 5H, 5K and 2K are all very useful here.
Jump: May's very fast and high jump can make certain moves whiff, allowing you to safely j.H them to start pressure, or avoid and punish their advancing moves.
These are not your only options, just ones that generally speaking work best. Experiment!
May's best pressure starter is c.S. If you get your opponent to block this, you have a great amount of options available. Here are some of the common options to get you started!
c.S > delay HS button : frametrap option. Counterhitting your opponent with a HS move can lead to high damage and lots of corner carry! 5H is -4 on block, making it very safe! Given the pushback on 5H, you do not need to cancel into [4]6S to keep it safe, which gives you lots of options after it is blocked. On normal hit go for 5H > [4]6S, and on ch try for CH 5H > [4]6H > 5K > 3K. Other frametrap options are 2H and 6H.
c.S > delay dash c.S : Reset option. This will reset the situation for your opponent while they build more RISC gauge and get pushed closer to their corner, and you build more meter. Great option for opponents who do not like to press buttons! You will want to delay your dash a little to avoid getting a Dash Cancel, which locks you into a dash for a lot longer without the option to cancel it.
c.S > delay dash Throw/623K : Throw option. This will open people up who refuse to press buttons. The reward on Throw and 623K are very similar midscreen, but in the corner 623K allows you to convert into a full combo! Tip for run up 623K, you can input this as 6236k and it will work!
All of these options play into eachother. If your opponent gets hit by your frametrap, they will usually become less likely to press buttons,which is when you can try to reset or throw them, and vice versa! Be sure to check out the links in the Further Learning section to expand on these options more when you feel comfortable with them!
May has generally low damage and weak confirms midscreen, unless she has the meter to use a Red Roman Cancel! With the meter to do this, options like dolphin suddenly become a lot scarier for your opponent!
In a similar vein, Red Roman Cancel also turns 3K from a relatively slow slide into a powerful combo starter on hit, or a pressure starter on block! Red Roman Cancel also allows you to convert off of your standing overheads such as 6K and 5D.
Other good uses of meter include Overdrives. Great Yamada Attack (236236S) is one of the highest damaging supers in the game, making it excellent for getting an Overdrive Wall Break, which allows you to start pressure on your opponent after the wall breaks!
May's other Overdrive, The Wonderful And Dynamic Goshogowara (632146H), Is invulnerable during its startup and most of its active frames, making it an excellent way to escape pressure. It is not without risk, since it is very punishable on block, but it can get you out of a tight spot when you need it most!
May's combos can be split into a few different types depending on screen position. This section will list basic combos from each to get you started!
Midscreen combos are usually fairly short and relatively low damage compared to her corner routes. focus on getting hard knockdowns and corner carry wherever possible.
Some combo ideas to start with:
c.S > 2H > [2]8H
2K > 2D > [2]8H
S poke > [4]6S
With meter you can extend combos for more carry or even a wallbreak! Moves good to Red Roman Cancel include [4]6S and 3K.
2S > [4]6S > RRC > dash c.S > jc9 > j.S > j.D > air dash > j.H
(if close enough to the wall you can continue from here with
c.S > 5H > [4]6H > W! > 6[H] )
In the corner May can get incredible amounts of damage off of fairly simple combos. Your route building blocks go like this:
Starter > Launcher > Wallbounce > [Filler > Wallbounce untill splat] > Wallbreak
(note: W! designates when the combo should wallsplat if there was no prior wall damage. if you're not sure if you can charge 6[H] in time, you can do 6H to make it a bit easier at the cost of a little damage)
Sample combos:
c.S > 2H > [4]6H > 5H > [4]6H > 5H > W! > 6[H]
623K > 5H > [4]6H > 5H > [4]6H > W! > 6[H]
2S > [4]6S > RRC > 5H > [4]6H > 5H > 46[H] > 5H > W! 6[H]
You can also choose to break the wall with an Overdrive instead. These combos allow you to wallbreak with (236236S), but you may find (632146H) easier.
The Strategy page has lots of information that goes a bit more in depth on the items discussed above and more! I also recommend checking out the Resources section for off-site resources like videos and text guides.
Once you're comfortable with the above, use those resources to further your play with things such as:
- Neutral and Footsies
- Improved Combos
- Safejumps and other Okizeme
- Improved Pressure and Tick Throws
- Alternative ways to use meter
