Maxi definitely requires some time and patience on the part of new comers trying to understand what is going on with him. While Nightmare, Voldo, and Raphael are examples of characters that take advantage of their multiple stances, Maxi appears to be the real deal when it comes to this style of play. Almost every move is a set up for another stance, which in turn can be a set up for another stance. This opens up a lot of variety for keeping your opponent on his or her toes.
Also, because of this continuous variety of offense, Maxi is great at applying pressure on the border of medium to medium short. He just has to keep the guessing game as to where and when he is going to swing his nunchucks next.
This same offense, however, can cause some problems for Maxi against certain characters. Most characters that can shove the short game off or enjoy sustaining the medium range will not have to stand around waiting for Maxi to do whatever he thinks he is doing. The pressure Maxi dishes out is good as long as you can keep the mind games going.
Starting off, and in some cases keeping Maxi simple is the key to getting comfortable controlling this character. It is easy to get into one of his multiple stances with some easily executed normal attacks such as Nunchaku Slap into Behind Lower, Nunchaku Slap into Right Outer (4, A, 2, K), Snake Bite into Right Outer (B), and Dragon Splitter into Left Outer (6, 6, B). Take your time practicing this character's simple moves first and we guarantee grasping his different stance changes will become very intuitive very quickly (mashing on buttons is a sure fire way to get yourself lost).
Biting Upper is a fairly good pop up move for Maxi, which should eventually be a juggling menace with a lot of his attack strings. It comes out moderately fast, but it definitely puts the opponent at just the right height to do some nice damage. Also check out Dragon Pounce (K cancel B, K) if you have your cancels down and you like to bounce bodies.
Not the best of low attacks for Maxi, but it is a start. Very nice for giving close-grounded opponents a quick two hit pop. Also try testing out Snake Scythe (1, A), Wave Slice (4, 4, A), or Guillotine Dance (3, A+K) for something out of the typical high/mid height range.
Click here to see all of Maxi's moves
