The Emperor (Dissidia 012)/Strategy

The Emperor

General	Starter Guide	Combos	Strategy	Frame Data
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Overview

Mateus has many possible ways to use his moves, and many possible setups that can change the flow of his gameplan and add layers for the opponent to consider. Keeping track of all of them is hard, and this whole page is dedicated to all of them as a reference point and give ideas to maximize his potential.

Learning them all isn't truly necessary, but knowing how moves interact is important to predict and adapt on the fly.

Strategy

Offense

Starting offense has two possible directions: Preparing Starfall, or looking for punishes

Since his rushdown is lacking, forcing the opponent to take risks to prevent Starfall checkmates is crucial to find punish opportunities. Different traps cover and prevent different things and need countermeasures from the opponent, which Mateus predicts and reacts to and possibly converts into stronger chains and assists.

Thunder Crest

Often referred to as "TC" for short.

The trap that alot of your gameplan will center around as it's incredibly powerful on hit and as a presence in neutral. Thunder Crest stops entire moves in their tracks no matter what with Unblockable priority. It can be used in a variety of ways to both threaten the opponent, punish ground dodges, or to just have out as a big stop sign.

One of its key strength is that when it's out, it will travel forward, making it incredibly valuable to punish committal, ranged and forward advancing moves even if Mateus gets punished. Thunder Crest deals with any directed grounded approach, and although they can jump over it, it requires the opponent to commit less which is exactly what he wants.

Mines

Easy to throw out into neutral just to have something denying space. Mines require the opponent to block or dash through them, and getting tagged by them can deal huge damage depending on build. Placing them as both something to have out, building meter and as a poke is great to get started.

Flare

Blue Flare and Red Flare fulfill different purposes and are used seperately

Blue Flare is an offensive tool, constantly chasing the opponent and requiring to be played around by Mateus and his opponent. Mateus can use innate lock on from High Priority/Command Block moves to disrupt reflect attempts, moving around until Blue Flare starts homing in from behind or the side.

Throwing it out into neutral also stops the opponent from just recklessly dashing in aslong as it's inbetween, giving more time to place traps or anticipate movement.

Red Flare is both a defensive tool and an offensive tool. Just like Blue it stops dashing in, but remains stationary, making it a great sort-of shield to prevent approaches in general and to be used for Starfall.

It still requires the opponent to either poke through it or deal with it with High Priority/Command Block moves, making the approach through it often predictable. Mateus can either charge Starfall, use it as a shield to place more traps and anticipate approaches, or give himself some space should the opponent back up.

Additionally, its a very good default HP punish if available to reactable moves. Moves like Cecil's Searchlight take long to come out, which gives Mateus the option to dash up and Flare punish it if he is in range and has the reaction for it.

Dreary Cell

Often referred to as "DC" for short

Dreary Cell is for coverage and preventing your opponent from reckless attacking and punishing trap sets. It's the most likely trap to shut out assists, stray HPs and pokes, and your shortest lasting one. With only 3 Dreary Cells you are still able to set them up for every situation.

Often its recommended to not stand just inside them, but actively maneuver around them, causing moves that advance forward and out to instead either activate it earlier or into them. Dreary Cells need to be set differently for each matchup, as a lot of moves can actively scoop Mateus out or safely poke through without activating it.

The sigil that shows on spawning it is fairly accurate to its activation hitbox. If the opponent touches the circle, it will activate and the vacuum immediately starts. This is important for cases where characters will dive down but not touch it, requiring Mateus to be positioned below instead of directly inside.

Often its also not important to stand right inside to activate it, but to force the opponent to remember their followup. Moves like Squall's Beat Fang pull him out of it, but if its placed above him it will activate on the followup swing and punish him. Since the visual can be difficult to see, and cluttered over with even more visual effects from other traps, it can be easy to either forget or not notice a Dreary Cell in that position.

Using it to deny your opponent any significant reward is far more important than outright landing hits with it. Placing them behind or above can also make it significantly harder to disarm them safely and approach Mateus. And the harder it is to approach him, the more he can get away with and throw out. Often times just 2 Dreary Cells are needed to cover the most important things, and the 3rd can be used for trade hits, chasing dodges or punishing reckless counterpoking.