The Best To EVER Do It - Competitive History Of KABAL

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Competitive History of Cabal

Vanilla MK3 (Mortal Kombat 3)

• Cabal is a dominant force in tournament level play and considered the best character outright or in the top five discussion.

• Cabal's first official appearance was in vanilla MK3 where he had a gas blast projectile, low buzz saw attack, and Nomad Dash.

• In vanilla MK3, cabal's five-hit dialer combo into a launcher jump kick gas blast did 40 damage which would be lowered to 30 in Ultimate.

• Buzz saw after a nomad Dash worked in vanilla MK3 and could be used to hit a dialer combo after buzz saw for scary combo damage.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

• Although cabal was technically nerfed in this game from vanilla cabal can still do everything pretty much perfectly and can capitalize on the new mechanics much better than most so yeah in some ways cabal was weaker than vanilla but with the new stuff the Ultima MK3 allows cabal shines in many more ways than other characters regardless Ultimate MK3 introduced a relaunch.

Cabal in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

This section discusses the character Cabal in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, focusing on his moveset and how it makes him a strong character.

Cabal's Moveset

• Cabal's low buzzsaw attack is no longer useful for combos or setups due to its slow startup and movement speed.

• Cabal has a perfect toolkit with strong jabs, a good throw, and the ability to convert into full combos with his kick-starting dialer combo.

• Nomad Dash is one of the best specials in the game due to its speed and versatility as a punisher, combo starter, reversal, or wake-up attack.

• Instant air gas blasts are effective for zoning out opponents and creating space. They hit low to the ground and can be used repeatedly without clean options for opponents to get in.

Cabal's Dominance

• Cabal is considered a perfect character because he has strong tools for every situation with no obvious weaknesses. He dominates many matchups due to his zoning abilities.

• There is debate over whether Cabal or Human Smoke is the better character, but Cabal's superior zoning makes him hard to beat. He is considered the number one character in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Conclusion

• Although absent from some games in the series, such as MK4 and Deadly Alliance, Cabal remains a dominant force when present.

Cabal's Stances and Special Moves

This section covers Cabal's stances and special moves in the game Mortal Kombat Deception.

Sunbin Stance

• Sunbin is a hand-to-hand stance with standout buttons.

• Standing four grants a free throw due to its plus frames.

• Up three is the main launcher in this stance, safe and fast.

• One-three or one-back-three strings can take advantage of plus frames to enforce a mix-up.

Goju Ryu Stance

• Goju Ryu doesn't have as much by itself but is great to use mid-combo for specific branches.

• Hook swords are the standout stance here because they are an avenue to immense damage, pretty okay range, and go hand-in-hand with Nomad Dash.

• Up two for a low, back one for high damage knockdown, back two for pop-up.

• Forward movement speed is incredibly high and has really good movement with hook swords as well.

Special Moves

• Gas blast is grounded only here and it's kind of your generic 3D MK projectile.

• Nomad Dash is super fast once again but still not as fast as the classic games. It stuns for a combo and can be used in a combo if the first hit is a single launcher.

• Bounce move can be used for long-range combo ender so it's good for something even if it looks kind of stupid.

Cabal's Combo Game

This section covers Cabal's combo game in Mortal Kombat Deception.

• Cabal's combo damage is really good, and he has high combo damage utility thanks to weapon movement and Nomad Dash.

• Deception has OTGs that leave opponents vulnerable to get hit by something.

• Cabals won three in Sunbin as your go-to OTG option.

• The OTG Nomad Dash gives you two combos at least for the price of one.

• Cabal gets the kind of damage that nightmares are made of.

Cabal in Mortal Kombat Armageddon

This section covers the changes made to Cabal's moveset in Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

Changes to Cabal's Moveset

• Cabal retains his sunbin hand to hand and his hook swords, but there are a few changes that make him different enough to mention as a separate game.

• Backdash canceling is gone, making many attacks more unsafe.

• The properties of his Hook sword standing four have been drastically changed, causing a knockdown on the second hit regardless of the situation. This hurts Cabal significantly both grounded and in combos.

• Standing four can still be used as a mid option, but it's not as immediately threatening as it was in Deception. You now have to resort to some other attacks and hook swords like the back one or the back three to keep your offense more varied.

Changes to Cabal's Moveset Continued

This section continues covering the changes made to Cabal's moveset in Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

Changes to Cabal's Moveset Continued

• It is much harder to time combos with standing four because only the first hit of the full input can keep the opponent juggled and not knocked down.

• If he had his own hook swords which would have kept 114 comboable and the standing properties of standing four on hit, cabal would have been much better.

• In this game, cabal is kind of a diluted version of his deception self.

Cabal in Mortal Kombat 9

This section covers the changes made to Cabal's moveset in Mortal Kombat 9.

Changes to Cabal's Moveset

• Special move wise, cabal has been given everything back. Gas blast and air gas blast work like they do in MK3.

• Low buzzsaw returns and is a low option pretty much anywhere you want. Plus, the buzz saw starts up at basically zero frames.

• Cabal gains an overhead strike special which is often used in pressure or at the end of strings.

• Nomad Dash returns and is extremely fast as always stunning the opponent and opening up for a full combo.

• The Nomad startup can be canceled resulting in that overwhelming Nomad Dash cancel pressure that you've likely seen on the Internet by now. Secondly, the enhanced Dash is armored on Startup now this is commonly used to power through projectiles and stuff on reaction but as I'll cover shortly this had other more devastating applications as well.

Strings and Buttons

• Besides having decent pokes like down one, down three, down four etc., it's the access to strong mids hit confirmable strings and varied combo potential that completes cabals overall package.