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Reindog is a Support character who excels at doing damage from afar. He has a lot of projectiles in his kit, can apply projectile pressure fast, and can save teammates who find themselves in bad situations. However, a lot of his moves have some wind-up time, making matches against fast attacking characters somewhat challenging to face against.
Reindog Match-Up Chart
Reindog has a hard time dealing with characters that have projectiles that are faster then his such as…
Reindog’s projectiles are very strong and do good damage, but can be cancelled by faster projectiles like the ones listed. His projectiles are strong, but have slow start up, so it can be hard to keep up the pressure if the enemy doesn’t let you set-up. Batman and Tom & Jerry are hard to fight against as their projectiles outspeed yours, leaving you to get hit. Reindog also has a hard time getting out of combos, as most of his moves have some start up. Garnet and Wonder Woman can be hard to go against as well, as armored moves are difficult to deal with. Things like Garnet’s Crystal Combo (Grounded Forward Attack) or Wonder Woman with her armor up make things harder for you to fight against.
However, he is really good against grounded attackers. Finn and Taz struggle to get around all the set-up you can do. Superman can be hit out of a lot of his armored strikes with Reindog’s Grounded Side Attack, and you can hit him in the air with your projectiles as you can angle them. These characters have long, multi hit combos that can be countered by your crystal (Grounded Up Special) if it’s on the field. Superman wants to play horizontally, which is how your projectiles travel most of the time, making it easier for you to hit your opponent with them. One of Finn’s main kill moves, his backpack spin (Up Special) can be dodged easily with the use of Reindog’s Aerial Up Special as well, helping you get around his aerial kill option. Finn also wants to be grounded and charge his moves, making him a great target for your projectiles, even with his projectile shield up (Grounded Down Special). Just be careful as he is quite fast, so try to memorize habits and punish them with your projectiles.
Best Perks for Reindog
For Attack Perks, Make It Rain, Dog! is somewhat of a must have, faster projectiles help you a lot with all parts of the character. That’s Flammable, Doc! helps do more damage when you hit the enemy after hitting them with a projectile, which is great after hitting them with your fireball (Down Special) or your main projectile (Neutral Attack). Ice to Beat You! will give the enemy an 15% speed decrease, which lets you hit things like your Aerial Forward Attack or Aerial Side Special. If you hit them with your projectile, then combo'ing into it will do even more damage if paired with That’s Flammable Doc!, making this combo very strong.
For Defense Perks, Toon Elasticity helps a lot against Tom and Jerry and Bugs, as they want to combo after hitting you into the stage. Boundless Energy gives your dodge meter back faster, which is very helpful to Reindog as this means you can Dodge Jump more. This technique can be performed by dodging, then quickly input a jump to get more momentum and go farther in the air. This helps engage combos, especially with something like Aerial Forward Attack. Slippery Customer helps you to get out of juggle combos, as Reindog can struggle to get out of combo strings due to the start-up on multiple attacks he has.
For Utility Perks, Coffeezilla is really good in Teams. Your tether (Neutral Special) is extremely strong in Teams, being able to save your teammate from any situation is really good, and having it back faster can help greatly. Fancy Footwork can help you get out of combo strings as well, which is nice to have for Reindog. Finally, Tasmanian Trigonometry is always helpful, and paired with Toon Elasticity can give some more survivability to your matches, as Reindog is lighter then most of the other characters.
Crystal Pal is very good, your crystal (Grounded Up Special) can save you from combos, and having it go towards your position helps make it more viable during the match. It also can give you a Static Buff, which inflicts Shocked on your enemy, which is just more damage. Fire Fluff is okay, but usually the fire on the ground is less of a threat than the crystal. It forces the opponent to try to hit it, which you can punish them for it. Overall, it helps extend combos, escape enemy combos, and can be a good bait tool for the enemy to try to destroy. It does have a bit of end lag when casting, so be careful when you choose to use it.
Placement in the Tier List
Reindog is at the top of B+ tier, he does a lot of damage and can combo well using his projectiles. However, his projectiles have some start-up, and is outclassed by mages in that aspect. Nevertheless, he is a very strong support, being able to save his ally from danger with his tether (Neutral Special) and rack up damage from a far, while also having good up-close combo capabilities. If Reindog can set up his crystal and fireballs, then he can deal even more damage from afar or during combos. In teams, he can be the matter of winning or losing, so I would put him in A tier if this was purely a teams tier list.
