AE Matchup Discussion: Abel, Adon, Akuma, Balrog, Blanka

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
1

Master Thread

Abel
Current Tier List Match Rating: 4/6

The general consensus is that Abel has a slight advantage due to Blanka not having good options vs. his mixup game, but Blanka is able to answer Abel’s ways to get in.

Can Punish Horizontal Ball with: U1, U2, dash forward f+mk

Recommended Ultra to use: U1

General Strategy:

This match is in Abel?s favor. He can punish your Horizontal Balls without revenge or EX meter with his step kick which leads into combos. With revenge, he can punish your Horizontal Balls with Ultra 1 or Ultra 2. You have no way of keeping him out and you will straight up have to guess to get him off of you. In this match, you want to rush Abel down when neither player has meter and turtle and play keep away when you do.

Your footsies beat his for the most part, but you will still have to watch out for his step kick. It will hurt and he will get in on you. Test the waters a bit here. Horizontal ball once or twice while Abel does not have meter just to check to see if the player has the skill to dash up and punish with step kick or not. That might be useful information for later on in the match. Be ready to anti air Abel with crouching strong or with some sort of air to air answer. Also be ready to throw him out of his roll. Even if he breaks, that?s ok. But if you do nothing, he?s in. Poke with st.lp, st.mp, cr.lp, cr.mp, your slower normals will beat his normals for the most part but they make you susceptible to focus and roll.

Up close Abel has a huge advantage on Blanka. Normals that are frame advantage on block mixed with a 4 frame fierce, and a 5 frame command grab means you are forced to guess. If you need to start your own offense you have to be careful of Abel’s various anti-airs, luckily j.mp and j.hp can for the most part stuff them. If Abel has U2 stocked, do not jump, you’ll be eating the ultra. If you are ahead in life you want to do everything in your power to create space. Ex rainbow and backdash our your friends here. Try to keep a meter stocked for ex rainbow at all times. Abel can option select it, but by doing so he has to limit his other options and thats important.

Useful OS’s:

Notes:
? Can punish horizontal ball/vertical ball on hit with ultra, if you end a combo into ball and he has ultra, FADC it. Or better yet do an electricity combo
? EX TT can blow through safejumps because of its unique properties of being fully strike invincible and a grab. You can attempt to bait it with empty jumps, but be careful.
? Max range meaty st.mp is useful. It is safe to Abel’s wakeup barring U2 or super, and has good frame advantage on both block and hit. More importantly it pushes him out to a comfortable distance.
Videos:

Player notes about the match:

"This is a really tough fight as Abel dominates Blanka up close. Learn to back dash EVERYTHING or you’ll be spun. Ball is unsafe once he gets meter and your options becomes limited fast. You can dominate footsies but make sure you have your cr.mp aa ready as one jump in is all it takes to wreck shop and Abel has the best cross up you’ll encounter as Blanka.

Abel loves to jump back and hit you with j.hp, its really good anti air so st.lp pressure is good to catch Abels that preemptively jump. it is sometimes worth doing early j.mk in anticipation of a jump back fierce and land with a throw. Abel’s jabs are slow so you wont often be jabbed out of landing unless your opponent is expecting it.

Electricity pressure is difficult vs Abel not only because of ex tornado throw, but because it whiffs vs him quite a lot, so its best to sweep after the electricity. This may condition them to crouch block allowing you more of a chance to walk forward and jump cross up.

Once ahead try to stay just outside of st.mk range and grab any rolls, cr.mp any jumps and try to st.lp any wheel kicks done out of position after you block it." -Mullah

Adon

Current Tier List Match Rating:

Can Punish Horizontal Ball with:

Recommended Ultra to use: U1

General Strategy:

Useful OS’s:

Notes:

Player Notes about the match:

Videos:

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Akuma

Current Tier List Match Rating:

Can Punish Horizontal Ball with:

Recommended Ultra to use:

General Strategy:

Useful OS’s:

Notes:

Player Notes about the match:

Videos:

Balrog

Current Tier List Match Rating: 4/6

Commonly viewed as Blanka’s worst matchup and Balrogs best.

Can Punish Horizontal Ball with: U1(on hit), Super(on hit), dash straight, dash low straight, dash upper

Recommended Ultra to use: U1

General Strategy: Balrog is traditionally seen as Blanka’s worst matchup for good reason. The combination of Balrog’s ability to punish balls, great normals, and his weird hitbox give Blanka fits. The key to this matchup is patience, because no character is harder to get in on for Blanka than Balrog.

Useful OS’s: meaty cr.lk xx hp elec ~ df.hp | j.mk(os slide), cr.hk | j.mk(os st.mp), st.mp

Notes:

Player Notes about the match:

Videos:
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3

Blanka

Current Tier List Match Rating: N/A

Can Punish Horizontal Ball with: ex horizontal ball, step forward df.hp(whiffs vs. safeball), U2 anti ground

Recommended Ultra to use:
Note: I personally use U1 against most Blankas, but I think if the match is being played well that both ultras have a lot of merit.

U1 - Used as a strong punishing option for dropped combos in super/ultra and as a way to dissuade Blanka from continuously pressing your wakeup. Auto-correct U1 can also be used as a punish to hop mixups if you input it quickly

U2 - U2 can be used as a meaty chip option where U1 is generally vulnerable to ex upball. AA version is very useful off a crumple because of the high damage output and positioning it gives. U2’s biggest asset is the ability to punish lp safeballs which a Blanka player would normally use to bait slides and to get some chip in

General Strategy:
Knock him down and abuse meaty low short xx hp elec. If Blanka does reversal EX upball it does no damage and does not reset positioning. Backdash can be option selected against with cr.hp or slide. You can take away ex rainbow as an option by f.hopping over Blanka during the knockdown to kill his charge, or you can option select against it, or do raw meaty electricity. Meaty low short recovers quick enough to be safe from U2 anti ground, and U2 anti air will whiff. U1 will hit you however, but you can corpse hop to kill backcharge. If Blanka blocks low you are at +10 and can work your frame trap game to score another knockdown and repeat the process. Once you’ve conditioned him to block low you can mix him up with a combination of overheads and throws in conjunction with the lows.

Midscreen you want to control space using your st.mp(be careful it’s crouchable), cr.mp, st.lp, and cr.lp. St.mp whiffs vs. crouching Blanka though and he can punish with a low, be careful. These pokes are all hard for Blanka to get past, and will stuff out the predictable hop/dash in tactics. Buffering balls off of cr.lp right outside of the max range is a great idea, if the jab whiffs all you lose is charge for a bit. If your opponent hits a button or walks forward you get a nice chunk of life off of them. If you sit at this range with the life lead it is very hard for an opposing Blanka to get in. Your slower pokes have value here, but you have to be careful of focus dash forward, or a random jump. Blanka’s jump is quite quick and he will get a free combo if he jumps a slower poke.

Don’t get flustered by hop mixups, during most of them you are at significant frame advantage and merely hitting a button will result in a punish. Punish whiffed balls with cr.hk, and blocked balls with walk forward df.hp, and start your meaty pressure.

U1 helps against opposing Blanka knockdown pressure, and is also a reliable way to land big damage in a matchup that is not particularly combo heavy.

U2 can help vs. blocked balls, or as a meaty chip option.

Useful OS’s: meaty cr.lk xx hp elec ~ df.hp | (in corner)meaty cr.lk xx hp elec ~ cr.hk | buffer cr.lp to ball

Notes:
• j.hp, and j.mp can be tricky to anti air because of their great hitboxes. nj.hp can be used to save meter
• super is great in this matchup so try to limit your use of ex upball anti air
• st.hk, electricity, and normal upball can stop gimmicky crossup pressure easily, don’t fall for it
• Don’t focus too much, st.lp xx f.hop beats focus easily at close range, and obviously horizontal ball at farther ranges breaks armor.

Videos:

4

I just went 2-5 against a good Adon player, what the hell do I do? I adjusted by using a lot of coward’s crouch. using st.hk as anti jaguar kick isn’t the greatest online.

I know you’re +2 after a blocked jaguar kick so I was throwing out st.jabs, but I lost a few rounds due to uppercut FADC U2 after a blocked jaguar kick.

you can’t really footsie Adon because he can jump pretty much whenever he feels like it, and he’s hard to AA because of air JK. Any tips?

5

Can you explain this? How are these Option Selects?

6

if you read the main paragraph I talked about pressuring blanka’s wakeup.

Basically what you do is input cr.lk xx hp elec quickly on his wakeup, then input a slide/sweep(corner only). If he backdashes the cr.lk you will slide/sweep his backdash. You whiff vs. ex rainbow, but it resets the situation to neutral and he blows meter. If he blocks you get a cr.lk xx hp elec and are +10, and if doesn’t block/hits other buttons that aren’t invincible you get cr.lk xx hp elec and another knockdown to continue your pressure(I like hop, cr.mk post elec). If you cross him up before the meaty, his only options become backdash, ex upball, or block. you get a big advantage if he does any of those.

You have to do the cr.lk xx hp elec extremely quickly, but I honestly think this is the essential option select, and possibly component of the match overall.

The cr.lp buffered to ball is an option select because you are choosing between two options, though it isn’t traditionally what we would see. Right outside of cr.lp range, whiffing one has pretty much 0 risk, but if your opponent does happen to hit a button/walk forward the cr.lp xx ball is absolutely amazing. The ball will not come out unless you make contact.

Blanka’s non jumpin based option selects are really ghetto because he doesn’t have a chainable normal, so you have to rely on elec.

7

Note that Blanka can punish ball combos that don’t do a lot of pushback on hit with reversal U2, notably j.hk, cr.mk, st.lp xx ball and j.hk, st.mp, st.lp xx ball. These two ball combos are safe on hit after a j.hk:
cr.mk, cr.lk xx ball
cr.lk (x 3) xx ball

Also, even though Blanka has many setups to make balls safe against slide/reversal HP ball on block, reversal EX ball can still be used as a punish.

If Blanka tries to chip you with U2 from a full screen away, jump over the first part of the Ultra then slide him.

8

Not a Blanka player, and I know this sounds really basic, but one move I’ve seen players do against Gamerbee to varying levels of success is FA the air JK. The Air JK trades its armor-breaking ability and for now being an overhead, and I’ve seen Gamberbee lose many a game from being too predictable with air JK, the opponent FA punishes the move, and gets big damage off the crumble.

9

blanka can punish blocked hori ball with hard hori ball… timing needs to be perfect.

10

That ball unsafeness stuff is good to know. I generally don’t do ball combos vs. other blankas, and I always use u1 myself. I’ll add a section on benefits to u2 and add that info.

yeah, why the safeball tag only applies to hp ball. I’ve never not had ex work.

I’ll add that to the ultra section. There are merits to u2 in the matchup and drawbacks, and I should probably discuss that.

Thanks for the info as always.

Yeah, air jag is sort of hard to react to, you have to preemptively focus, which can bite you in the ass if the adon does a simple jump in, then punishes your focus backdash. letting go of focus leaves you vulnerable to rising jaguar. If he’s throwing the air JKs out left and right then it’s good though, I’m a low risk/low reward sort of player though.

As ilitirit mentioned it can be safeballed, I’ll add it to the punishes though with the safeball tag. The general issue is that df.hp is the better punish 100% of the time unless the additional damage would outright kill and is even harder to safeball.

11

Akuma

Current Tier List Match Rating: 6/4

Can Punish Horizontal Ball With: Super, Ultra 1

Recommended Ultra to Use: Ultra 2

General Strategy

Akumas that try to zone Blanka are the easier ones. Patient ones are the ones to worry about. Blanka can shut down Akuma zoning game with slide or ex roll(don’t do far away, when Akuma has super/ultra) vertical roll can knock him out of his diving game, or just lp roll into elec so when he lands he gets zapped. The thing to watch out for is Akuma os poke game. His sweep is good. If they do a standing HK Blanka can duck and punish with lk or mk into elec/roll/super/ultra. Lp rainbow roll is also a viable tool against a aggressive or zoning Akuma, but don’t use on a turtler. If they get scared of throwing fireballs, then make them block rolls and take the chip damage, then when they get ultra, do a short roll and make them do ultra and then punish. HP or Ex up ball is good against Akumas, because they tend to jump back a lot. I prefer U2 to counter Akuma’s slow fireballs, slow double kick, and his tendacy to jump a lot. Also can get a chip kill with it as Akuma already has low health.

12

quick ae notes:
Abel: This matchup is officially lol with the f.hop/ex rainbow nerfs. damage nerfs help somewhat, but this matchup is just atrocious.
Adon: Feels easier because Adon is easy to safejump now. Still feels like adon has the edge though.
Akuma: haven’t played Perfect Legend yet in AE and he’s the only Akuma I play that I feel has an idea of the matchup.
Balrog: Not sure exactly.
Mirror: Ex rainbow isn’t a viable escape ever now really, so the matchup is actually stupider.

13

LK rainbow after blocked stepkick vs. Abel is really really interesting. Think I like it.

Also doing mp elec instead of hp seems to solve the whiffing problem vs. him.

14

lol? i still find the abel matchup even. He really has no answers for you on wakeup. He also can’t outpoke you. I need to play thse abels you’re talking about. Beause this matchup is fine.fine imo.

15

I’m actually not playing any good Abels right now. I just think from a fundamental perspective the matchup is badly designed and mad unfun. I don’t think anything about it changed in AE other than it being harder for Blanka to get out of bs and Abel doing less damage. Blanka controls the pace of the match very well but Abel can always guess on wakeup with meter. Not like Abel players care, he’s a coinflip character, they like to gamble.

Mediocre Abel = free win
Good Abel that knows his option selects = this match is stupid I wanna go home

16

The elec whiff so much on Abel, it’s very dumb because Abel have a huge hitbox no ? How is the wake up game vs Abel ?

17

I’ve played pretty much all the good abels in the usa. I guess i haven’t played strider or ryder. But most everyone else and i don’t really have a problem with it. Blanka’s fs.LP c.HK c.MP c.HP fs.HP j.MK cs.MK fs.MP are just the short list of normals that abel gets destroyed by. The only thing abel has is if he gets in he can do a lot of damage, but he has to make good guesses/reads. Most of the time you can escape them if you understand his options. Then you’re back on neutral ground where he has to outpoke you and you can mix him up just as well on his wakeup.

I think it’s badly designed for him if anything, blankas lose this because they need to understand abels more. Which is understandable since finding a really good abel is not easy.

18

vs Abel (and probably some other big chars who can’t be “unblockabled”), b.throw, dash, j.hp crosses up if you press the button early, hits in front if you do it late. j.mk and hk hit in the front or back depending on how you time the jump.

19

yo ves, Il, can akuma do a safe meaty demon slip palm on blankas wakeup or does his ex upball hit it?

20

Im not sure on the palm, I would reckon yes, but its worthless anyway. Any akuma worth their salt should on blanka’s wakeup do a correctly timed dive kick after the demon flip, ex upball wiffs and can be punished with ultra, or another faster demon flip to punish