So would it be better if Injustice had no effective pokes or does that suck from a technical perspective?
Don't worry at all. There are still pokes, just not the ones your use to.
They are using the Tekken system for pokes now. This is actually what I had hoped they did when MK9 wasn't released yet and I'm SUPER excited that they're doing it in this game instead. Everyone in the game from their movelist had a very similar standing and crouching jab and I knew immediately the direction they were taking for up close pressure in Injustice.
Okay let me explain. In Tekken the two main pokes are standing and crouching jabs. They are both usually (most characters) are tied for your fastest moves but they have some key differences and uses.
Standing jabs usually by themselves have advantage on block but also every character could go into a string from the jab that they could use for pressure, punishing attacks that are barely not safe, frame traps, setting up mixups, and spacing.
Crouching jabs end up being the best for stopping pressure though because they duck you. From what I've seen from Injustice it seems like there are alot of high blockable normal attacks for characters (like the strings that start with standing jab that everyone has). So plain and simple, if you predict your opponent is going to go for a high, you could preemptively crouching jab (or something else that crushes high attacks).
Okay so TL;DR I wouldn't be afraid that there will be less depth. It'll just be different. And heads up to all Tekken junkys like me that'll pick up pressure a little quicker.
