I am an Adon player (fairly noob actually, but hey :P) and as a change of pace I would like to try and learn a bit of Sagat.
I am starting to read the threads in this section, but I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the info - and I cannot find a “video tutorial” like the one available for Adon.
Sorry to be a bother, but can anyone of you direct me to a “basics” thread or video or post, just to avoid reading randomly and maybe get wrong or outdated ideas? I guess the FAQ thread is a good place to start, can you confirm?
I would say that, regarding footsies: Adon has an average backwards walk speed, and his medium normals are relatively slow to come out; the effective range of canceling into LK Rising Jaguar is also short… so, whiff punishing effectively does not work very well with him. (At best all you get are little lovetaps, or buffers into MK Jaguar Kick which is not guaranteed… cr. HP xx Super is a damaging whiff punish, but it is slow at 9 frames and burns all your meter.)
You would be better suited pushing forward, catching your opponent’s timing and interrupting him, being the aggressor. You can stay aggressive through the whole match, or pick a moment when you have the life lead, and LK Jaguar Tooth away.
Some characters can easily keep you from using Jaguar Kick/IAJK with their normals, and in that case you have to stay on the ground and harass them until they forget, or until they start using lows to stop your horizontal movement. If they are jumping often, it may remove your opportunities to IAJK as well (but HK JK works wonders here).
Check out the consolidated FAQ post, really not much has changed (lower damage, needed tiger knees, and needed stand lk), there’s plenty of “how to sagat” posts littered thru here that can help.
My one advice is be prepared, sagat has no instant win button like the derpy sf4 top tiers. You can’t play dumb ever, your your going to eat a jump in over a lazy tiger shot and lose. Spacing and patience are your keys to victory, and more so than other characters a life lead can be your best tool (ticking timer makes opponents desperate enough to jump in to TU, if it trades gg). Midrange is pretty much purgatory, so don’t do anything. And every time your not at full screen and think you should throw a shot don’t, because other dude will read you like a book. Good luck and don’t give up!
