Nightmare is perhaps one of the best characters in Soul Calibur II when it comes to taking advantage of multiple stances. As a Nightmare player, you would have to limit your moves down to a bare minimum just to avoid swapping stances. This is a great element to take advantage of right off the bat, as it adds a lot of variety and unpredictability to his offense.
Nightmare also has great range and has strong tools that take advantage of the long, medium and short game. His side step game, both offensive and defensive, is lacking a bit when compared to other characters, but he is hardly crippled.
Perhaps his biggest disadvantage is attack speed. While his moves are not the slowest attacks in the game, they do tend to telegraph a little bit more than the average characters. This issue can be easily rectified, however, by taking advantage of his variety.
Slash Cross into Night Lower Stance is just one out of a ton of easily accessible moves that will help you switch up Nightmare's stance game. It is simple, it comes out about as fast as anything else Nightmare puts out, and it keeps the pressure on from a comfortable distance. Slash into Night Side Stance (hold A) doesn't get much easier as far as getting into stances is concerned as well as Sky Splitter into Night Lower Stance (3, hold B).
If you want to start molesting your opponent's shins, Double Grounder is a good start. Like most of Nightmare's moves, if you want to enter a stance afterwards you just need to add one or two more button presses, such as with Double Grounder into Night Behind Stance (A, 2, A, A, 4).
This is a quirky little move that works for punishing grounded opponents, but it couldn't hurt to toss in while standing just for something different. Keep in mind that the charged version of Stomping (QCF, hold K) is unblockable. Also experiment with Shoulder Rush - 6, 6, K - for something quick and close.
Click here to see all of Nightmare's moves
