I have trouble with the gief matchup but I think I’m figuring it out. I’m trying to figure out what I need to work on next. I don’t have light confirms yet so maybe just work on that?
Appreciate any suggestions,
TIL spiral arrow isn’t airborne on startup
Your general gameplan is fine. (at silver it’s actually godlike since you’re whiff punishing stuff and AAing) IMO the things you need to focus on the most are consistency and damage optimization, but you only really learn those by playing
some other stuff:
[list]
[] learn the anti-air ranges for DPs
[] some people will condone you for doing raw Arrows at all, I personally say do that only with LK Arrow if you’re trying to catch someone approaching
[] once Gief gets super then you REALLY need to stay away as you don’t want to be put in a situation where 45% and upwards of your health is at risk. if you do have to go in (i.e. you don’t have the life lead) then you need to neutral jump occasionally to bait it or at least send the message that you know they have it
[] if they start abusing his armor v-skill, then you probably aren’t throwing them enough
[/list]
Thank you!
My personal tactics against gief is keeping at st.mk range to poke and harass with st.mk. It is also a good range to do if they decide to jump. I will mix it uo with Cr.mk xx SA. On knock down I usually pressure. Just don’t get cornered. Fight for the middle.
You can use st hk to anti air then get CC and cannon spike after for more damage. You’re CS anti airs are on point so I don’t think adding that will be too hard for you. It works for any character with floaty jumps like Chun, Birdie, Gief.
I saw you get caught after Gief’s knee hammer a lot. Pretty much all giefs go for a SPD after as it catches people sleeping, but they are actually -3 on block. You can do cr lp to TC combo or cr lp x2 SA to punish it. This also applies to his v-trigger which is at least -3 if he stops while you are blocking. If you are having trouble with the timing practice in training. The next best alternative is neutral jumping as you can punish the SPD, but it does lose to st lp and air spd so you can’t just keep doing it but it’s not a bad idea to let them know you will so they have to make guesses too.
You should start working on your counter hit confirms. I can see you pressing the buttons and then getting the counter hit but you aren’t looking for the hit to confirm from. Look at 6:14. You go for a cr mp, cr mp, then cr mk. Normally you would go for a cr mp, cr mp SA, but you noticed he blocked the first cr mp, so to extend the string you added cr mk which works if its a counter hit. Once you hit with that second cr mp you should have been confirming into SA after the cr mk. On each button press you want to be looking for the hit confirm and have a follow up. Most people cannot do a one button hit confirm into a special with Cammy, but two buttons most people can. So start looking for those setups. To practice this go into training and set the dummy to randomly block and counter hit to on. Then pick a few counter hit combo strings to practice and confirm them into SA or CS regardless if it’s a CH or not. My favorite is cr lp (CH), st mp, cr mk xx SA. What I like to do is add a st lk in front of that string and then go for grabs. So I’ll get them used to st lk - grab. They start to tech the grab so instead I do the cr lp (CH) combo. That CH combo also works really well on your wake up. Most people will do a jab jab or something stupid, but if you are going to wake up with a button jab into st mp is you best option at catching them misting their meaty. Another one to practice is the one you tried st mp/cr mp, cr mp (CH), cr mk, SA. If you get the st mp, do cr mp xx SA or st hp xx SA after. If it blocks the st mp, do the cr mp, if it hits go to cr mk xx SA if it blocks the second cr mp reset or go for a grab.
I’ve noticed with Gief most of them love to do that 4 frame jab to try and keep you off of them. You need to punish those with frame traps and meaties and keep mixing it up so they don’t know when to do it. You went for a lot of cr mp x2 and st mp x2 with a flurry of st mk’s which becomes predictable. To start I say go for the usual meaty cr mp/st mp strings to let them know they can’t hit a button on wake up, then on other wake ups start to throw in a st lk, cr lp, st lp, cr mp string to catch any of those jabs they try and throw out to let them know they can’t press shit until you let them. Then when they stop hitting jab all together throw in the st lk tick grab to make them start thinking about needing to tech or go back to jab. Some of them will even resort to EX SPD to beat the grabs, so I’ve even done st lk neutral jump from time to time. Works to bait their CA as well.
Overall I think you played it well with staying out and punishing his jump ins and pokes. You also punished his wake up jabs near the end there a lot and used his fear of the corner to dominate. Do be careful with using st mk a lot in whiffing ranges in anticipation as whiffing st mk leaves you open to jump ins like at 4:55. You want to make sure you are in range of st mk to stick them to the ground. I also tend to wait after a blocked one to see if they jump or hit jab. His jab range is almost as long as your st mk range and you are negative on block so if you spam st mk his jab will beat it the second time. Whereas if you wait a bit to see if he jumps or walks forward you can anti air or switch to a cr mk xx SA using the walk forward as the hit confirm. Looks like Silver players have definitely leveled up.
Thank you!
I have noticed myself missing the opportunity to get the SA cancel when the 2nd cr. MP counter hits but I wasn’t sure how to work on it in training mode. Great advice.