I went to Bluehouse today for the first time in two weeks. I haven’t been going there like I used to because it hasn’t been updated to version 2012 yet. When I spoke to Edi a few weeks ago at CCH he told me the owner was probably not gonna spend the cash to update it, and I was really, really saddened by the news.

Because I realise that I’m not a talented player. I need to play nearly every day to maintain my level. And I probably need to up my daily playing time from 30-40 minutes a day to maybe something like four to six hours if I really want to see noticeable improvements in my game. When I stopping playing at Bluehouse, my Ryu execution went to shit immediately.

So I was thinking of finally playing online more to make up for the loss of arcade lunchtime.

But today when I went to Bluehouse, it was updated to AE 2012!! I was so happy. I was playing Aiden and I lost two rounds really quickly because I kept spamming fierce shoryu. I wanted to hit him with it to confirm that it was one hit only, like I couldn’t believe my eyes!

Yesss. Now I don’t to have to (horror!) actually play online. As I told Heavy, I finally get to press that medium kick every day with tears of joy flowing down my cheeks.

In the meantime I’ve been practicing a lot of Marvel.

Getting my Doom combos down, practicing hit confirming into full combos from all manner of heights and situations so I can get touch of death combos from any hit ala Clockwork. Actually learning advanced Spencer combos. Still have a long way to go…

I always find this part of Marvel really fun. The team building process, when you do a lot of theory fighter and start thinking of which assist would go with who, and what team order is best, optimal DHCs, things like that. Learning the characters and working on team synergy. When I’m starting out like that, it feels so fun, like there’s so much potential in my characters, so much stuff I can do! I have a blast in training mode just trying things out.

Then I play some matches against actual people and eat Wesker teleport + beam shenanigans repeatedly and get so salty and disgusted at the game all over again.

But in all honesty, I’m enjoying the game a lot more than I did Vanilla. I’m really enjoying playing Doom on point.

Maybe because I used to play She-Hulk, I always felt like Marvel was a lot of work. I have to block and bulldoze my way in whilst assholes like Magneto are pelting me with seven frame start up disrupters and air-dashing around, tap dancing on my head into full, thirty second long and obnoxious combos.

Like Mike Ross would say about Honda, I always felt like I had no tools. I was like the caveman hacking away with something with a stone, while other people already were making wheels. I was the lowly earthworm on the ground while Magneto was the eagle in the sky. That sort of feeling.

But playing Doom has the opposite kind of feeling. I can air dash up and down, tri jump around like a rabid bunny, spam beams and finger lasers and wall to wall carry from any touch.

I’m one of those assholes now!

But it’s kinda of funny. Almost everyone that asks me about my new team in UMVC3, when I tell them I’m playing Doom on point, they kind of screw their faces up and furrow a brow. Like hmmm…why would you play Doom on point? You’re wasting his awesome assists.

And they have a point. At least when I DHC out Doom, I still get to use his assist. But I’m having so much fun with Doom on point I don’t care what they say 😛

So the rest of my team was Taskmaster, Spencer, from my X-copy Combofiend team from Vanilla.

It’s interesting to see my team development through Marvel.

Day 1 Team: Wolverine, Amaterasu, Sentinel

Finally can do She-Hulk BnB team so I can be the only person in the planet dumb enough to drop Wolverine: She-Hulk, Amaterasu, Sentinel

Yes, finally good enough to drop the Robot team: She-Hulk, Amaterasu, Tron

This was my main team for a while.

Realised that Ammy sucks coming in second after She-Hulk because of inefficient DHC and assist not being the best for She-Hulk and realizing Taskmaster has way better synergy with her team: She-Hulk, Taskmaster, Tron

Sick of not being able to come back with solo Tron and wasting X-factor level 3 team: She-Hulk, Taskmaster, Spencer.

This was my final main team for Vanilla.

So interesting enough, if you assume I’m an X-copy whore, I went from X-copying Justin Wong, to Team Nerdjosh, to Team Combofiend. But in reality, I came into my team quite organically.

Now in Ultimate, I’ve always wanted to play Doom in Vanilla and was already practicing him, and with She-Hulk getting the hell nerfed out of her, that kind of forced my hand. So I picked up Doom.

So my first Ultimate team was Doom, Taskmaster, Spencer.

But I wasn’t feeling Taskmaster assist with Doom so…

Finally this week I made the decision I didn’t want to make: I picked the dog up again.

I finally realised that the two best assists for Doom on point is Ammy and Sentinel.

Sentinel I only played early on because he was a placeholder on my team until I got good enough to play someone else that I liked.

Ammy I dropped, even though I really liked her, firstly because I never got any good with her and secondly she wasn’t that good for my team.

So I didn’t really want to put them on my team again. Picking up characters again that you dropped before for some strange reason seems really hard to me.

They’re like the girlfriends that you dumped before and then you suddenly get back together with them. It’s like admitting you made a mistake before, and now as you cuddle with them and every time you do that old ABC launch combo with them that you used to do, they’re sneering sinuously in your ear; Look what you left behind, buddy.

But I actually have rational reasons for not wanting to pick up the dog again.

The main reason is I was so reluctant was that I feel she got a lot of nerfs in UMVC3, plain and simple.

You can’t do multiple Supers off dfH anymore. No more instant overhead unless you burn X-factor or slow super. Not being able to block while airdashing really, really hurts her. All her main normals got slightly nerfed like stand M, fH.

And I think her damage is still not the best and she still dies in one combo to anybody.

I put her on second to experiment, and her DHC still sucks ass, especially in this age of mashed supers. When I do Doom wall to wall carry double footdive x3 combo DHC into Spencer, I get 900-950k. Which to me, really hits the mark because that means I can TOD that annoying motherfucker Wolverine. But with Ammie DHC that drops down to 800 plus, which feels really shit in comparison. That means I just miss TODing Vergil and a lot of other tournament relevant characters.

But if I put her last…sure she now gets X-factor speed boosts, and she is a lot better as an anchor in Ultimate…but am I that confident with Ammy last?

I’ll be honest. I love having Spencer last. I know that on the Spencer forums, and in general discussion, that people are coming to the conclusion that Spencer is best on point and on second, not as an anchor.

But I don’t care. Spencer was the first character that I could actually make an X-factor level 3 comeback with. It got to the point that in matches I would watch my She-Hulk and Taskmaster get happy birthday-ed and actually get excited. Because I knew Spencer was coming in and I could go crazy with Bionic Arms and TOD anything with one touch with X-factor. This mindset probably was not the best, and I got bodied at BAM because of it, but boy was it fun to have Spencer at the back. Do I really want to lose all that?

But I gave it a try. I put Ammy at anchor.

The moment I hit that assist button, all my doubts faded away. That assist makes Doom so, so much better. I have so much time to bounce around the screen and do whatever mix-ups I want with that assist. And with Spencer second, I can ignore Ammy’s shitty DHC because I can get a double super after DHCing from Doom with OTG grapple or when Spencer is on point.

That was when I kind of had that feeling for the first time; wow I’m playing Doom on point and it actually feels pretty effective!

Of course this team is still new. And I am so deliriously happy with the assist I spam it way too much and get happy birthday-ed constantly. And I am now shit with Ammy and can’t seem to get a hit the way I used to do with comeback Spencer.

But it’s okay. I’ll learn to protect the assist better, and practice up my Ammy again.

I played my team at SNLxOHR yesterday, and even though I went 0-2, I had a lot of fun in casuals. It feels a lot more like a good team, much less awkward than Doom, Task, Spencer.

And then Gab starts telling me over dinner that I should drop Ammy for Sentinel…