Blade•Eric Brooks

Blade is the most conventional character in the Samurai Outriders and one of the easier top-tier picks in MARVEL Tōkon to get value from. His combo game is direct — Vampire Cleave is a lunging slash that pierces through the opponent on hit, Vampire Slayer cuts upward on Light and runs a string on Medium and Heavy — and he does not need a state or a setup to function.

The depth is in two resources. Heart Stopper spends a stock, and Up the Stakes refills that stock to full but only on the ground — so your projectile pressure has a rhythm to it, and an opponent who catches you refilling in the air-less window gets a free punish. Marked for Death is the buff layer, applied both by Daywalker Deflect and by Muramasa Moon, which marks his next two Skills.

Blade's round has a simple shape: stakes to make them move, lunges to punish the movement, Deflect to punish the answer. Then refill and repeat.

Neutral. Bullet Barrage is the free-ish machine-gun projectile — angled down in the air — and it links into Heart Stopper, which is the pattern you want: shoot, then follow with a stake while they are dealing with the bullets. Glaive Strike throws the glaive out and back and it is live the whole way, so it covers space on both legs of the trip — just remember it cannot be reused until it returns.

Approach. Vampire Cleave is the lunging slash that pierces through the opponent on hit, which means a successful approach often leaves you on the other side — a free side switch that resets their guard direction. The aerial version slashes down at an angle. Vampire Slayer is the rising option: Light cuts upward, Medium and Heavy run a string, and it beats air attacks partway.

Managing stakes. Heart Stopper spends one stock and either aims itself or can be steered by direction — steering is what makes it useful against the flight characters, since you can guide it to where they actually are. Up the Stakes refills the stock to full but is grounded only, so refill during a knockdown or behind an assist, never while under pressure.

Marked for Death. Both Daywalker Deflect and Muramasa Moon apply it, and Muramasa Moon applies it to his next two Skills. That is a defined damage window rather than a permanent state — so after the Ultimate, immediately spend those two Skills on your best available conversion rather than throwing them out in neutral.

Ten command list entries, and three of them are the resource layer that separates Blade from a generic rushdown character.

Put Blade last on a MARVEL Tōkon team if you are struggling with incoming mix-ups. Daywalker Deflect does not require the read that a normal reversal does — it counters a blocked leader attack automatically — which is exactly the safety net a last character wants.