Relius Clover/Move List

CP= Relius' Overdrive is Maximum Dance, which speeds up Ignis' recharge rate. CS/CSII/CSEX= Relius, like Carl, works in tandem with his puppet in order to deal massive amounts of damage. Unlike Carl, who uses Nirvana specifically for trapping the opponent in between the two of them and going for pseudo-unblockable setups, Relius uses Ignis as a pressure, mixup and frame trap tool, forcing the opponent to switch between standing and crouching block (or more so tempting them to react with a pressure-escape tool) until they make an unfortunate mistake and thus, making himself a master of frame traps. In the hands of an expert player, Relius' mixup and frame traps become almost impossible to counter or predict without the use of meter.

Relius' moves are a bit odd at first glance, but one thing is clear: he is meant to be as close as possible to the opponent. Many of his normals have very small hitboxes that belie their sprites. His 5B, for example, can be chained into 5C, but to get the full two hits on the 5C you must be standing right next to the opponent. Instead of Carl's dodging roll (Vivace), Relius has a stationary dodging maneuver similar to that of the "Extra" style in the King of Fighters series. Led Ley is a very versatile move, capable of dodging many attacks as well as faking out the opponent, so be sure to use this move a lot to add to your mixup game.

Relius' Drive, Detonator, allows him to summon and recall Ignis. Ignis is also automatically summoned through many of Relius' special attacks and Distortions. The main purpose of Ignis is to add damage to normally-weak combos and to force 50/50 mixups on the opponent if they block.

The use of Ignis is the defining, yet most difficult point of Relius because there are so many combo and mixup/frame trap possibilities at your disposal that it can get very confusing at times. If you let yourself get confused, you will most likely drop a combo or get predictable, which is very bad news for Relius, because his main weaknesses are his lack of defensive options and average stamina. His only true and reliable reversal is his Req Vinum Distortion, which, like all wakeup Distortions, can be easily predicted and punished.

More so however, Relius also has limited mobility options, so his chances at escaping pressure without system mechanics tends to be lacking. He also despite his decent footsies, can't control space that much without Ignis, for his normals despite their bulk and hitbox size, do not reach far beyond "decent" and have his own hurtbox overlap with them, much like his son's normals. His air-to-air tools also tend to be weak, as he's more suited for air-to-ground with them.