I agree with everything lau, but I just gotta roll with what im comfy with lol.
Meh yeah its not toooo difficult to land the ultra when you plink it, just have to make sure you dont start the motion before you gain charge if you do it off a cross up hop or a crumple
plinking ultra is more difficult than it really is in a real match… at the end of the day… i don’t think anyone is out there to deny that c.MK -> ultra is a difficult combo regardless of plinking or not…
and to be honest… i think c.LK -> U1 is easier to connect… because the timing is more natural vs… c.MK -> U1 there’s a ‘awkward’ pause to it… not to mention c.LK is hit/charge confirmable when you do multiple of them… but also means multiple 1 frame links…
I can kinda understand focus -> c.MK -> U1 is definitely trainable… but outside of getting your opponent dizzy… how often are you 100% sure that your jump in is gonna connect and will end up at the side that you’re completely sure of so you can hold charge properly… and seriously most players you play nowadays shouldn’t be getting hit by obvious jump ins…
-LAU
Sagat is hard, but is nowhere near the massacre it was in Vanilla. TBH I think Honda is harder.
What’s the difference between now and vanilla exactly? Less damage, something about the knee changed, far st.lk not cancellable into ex tiger. Anything else?
1f more recovery on low TS
Less health
Harder f.HK juggle
Nerfed hitboxes
today i was playing the same Sagat again… unfortunately only two games… i manage to do U2 a bit closer than mid screen when he was doing fast TS… he freaking manage to block it in time… wtf.
-LAU
cr.jab beats all of Blanka’s buttons and you can’t jump at him or safely chip him.
yes… his c.LP can be annoying but it’s still possible to connect s.HP as a counter poke on him… so he can’t exactly just go and do it mindlessly either…
anyways… i just simply don’t think Honda’s matchup is worse than Sagat… just my personal opinion.
-LAU
You can’t whiff punish cr.LP with s.HP (Well technically I guess there’s a probably a very tiny 1-3 frame reaction window? if s.HP would hit them around frame 12/13. Before then it would probably lose.) so if you’re hitting it you’re almost certainly guessing. And if you whiff, it’s very easy for him to punish you with cr.LP xx Hands.
You’re better off trying to max range sweep it on reaction or something dumb. (Thinking about it I don’t know if you can even do that.)
thanks for the insight I’ll look into it…
-LAU
when I input the motion too early I negative edge an MK rainbow roll >_<. Makes it look like I went for the worst gimmick cross up ever haha. That said it usually hits if I accidentally do it in a match \o/
BEWILDER THE OPPONENT
Blanka’s far st.HP leads into nothing while Honda’s cr.lp leads into more damage and meter gain. The risk/reward is in Honda’s favour. A Honda that is very patient and knows how to perform auto-correct EX-HB is extremely hard to beat. I believe Taku said Honda was his hardest matchup.
I wonder how much Honda would change if they gave EX HB projectile invincibility but made it unsafe on block. I suppose he’d get raped by dive kick chars.
anyways… lets take honda discssion back to honda thread… at the end of the day I just need to play even better honda players… and right now Sagat is the one I’m having problems with
-LAU
Finally manage to get a win off the particular local Sagat player that I haven’t beat for months now… (doesn’t help I rarely see him…)
Hopefully will get to play him more…
but the only thing i’ve changed in my game is really to use more s.MP to maintain the pressure… also starting to think after maintaining a decent amount of ground pressure I should also consider jumping in at some point… because mid range ground pressure is simply not enough… eventually you’ll push yourself out… and you really don’t have much of a mixup other than… when you’re pressing buttons when you’re not and trying to make sure he doesn’t press buttons… which isn’t really enough…
hopefully will get to play more soon to test this out.
-LAU
Just wanna throw a few tips against Sakura…
personally I feel this match is in SLIGHT advantage to Blanka, the reason is because Blanka defensive options against Sakura is pretty good in general… the only thing you really gotta watch out for is when Sakura knocks you down but if you play right she should have a hard time getting in.
Your general strategy is to play lame with a little bit of footsie… and go nuts when you do knock her down…
you should pay attention to how much meters Sakura got and beware of safe jumps and don’t always abuse crouch tech…
Footsie:
your should be able to beat her in footsies… however she does have some decent options…
her c.MK buffer into her DP is probably her main footsie tool… she would also be using s.HK for further reach… c.MP for beating out ball or slide… sakura might also throw in sweep into her footsie mix but she’ll be increasing her risk as well by doing that… so she might not be bother with it.
try to pay attention what is her footsie move of choice… if she likes c.MK a lot… treat it like ryu’s c.MK… and you can easily beat her with s.HP… if she uses s.HK a lot… s.MP or s.HP wouldn’t be a bad choice here… also it’ll mean you can pretty much jump in at her if you can predict it… you might not score a combo but you’ll definitely be able to push her back a bit… and you do NOT want to be cornered by sakura.
if she starts turtling up… max range slide isn’t a bad choice… she can’t punish you because it’s max range and you get frame advantage if done right… afterwards… you can consider continuing your options of offense afterwards… which i’ll leave that to you.
In general you might not wanna use your low kick moves like c.HK, c.MK for footsie here… just incase she does hurricane kicks…
Anti-Air:
Anti Airing against Sakura can be a little tricky mainly because she’s got a few pretty good jump in option… Sakura usually will look into these options when you’re beating her footsie.
If she’s doing her regular jump ins… your best option is to c.MP… it pretty much beats out every regular jump in moves.
if she’s doing air hurricane kicks… (air qcb+K)… your c.MP will whiff but s.HK will beat it clean…
Going air to air against sakura is usually not a good idea… her air hurricane kicks got really good priority…
try to predict what type of jump in she’ll use… if you got no idea… i’ll probably recommend s.HK a bit more… but there’s a chance you will mistime it or it doesn’t have enough range for regular jump ins… keep in mind you can always back dash… although you generally don’t wanna put yourself closer to the corner and there’s a good chance after the back dash you’ll be facing a lot of pressure afterwards…
Offense and Okimeze:
LP Ball…
Aside from footsies mentioned above… Sakura pretty much can’t punish LP ball… and if you do safe ball it’s impossible…so if she tries she’ll probably gonna end up getting hurt more than rewarded… that being said she can pretty much punish your MP/HP ball on block. This is quite important to know because I will recommend using LP/EX ball in this match… and throw in MP ball once in a blue moon like once or twice in a match to remind them you have that option… however if you don’t exactly know when to throw out MP ball… then don’t throw it out… if you do… you should expect it to hit most of the time. Aside from your regular gimicks… of ending the ball short into a throw or electricity… it’s not a bad idea to use it during footsie… if you happen to get her to do c.MK buffer into DP… the c.MK will hit you… but the rest will miss because you’re in the air and you can pretty much punish her for the whiff DP.
Building meter with electricity at far range isn’t a bad idea if you’re far enough… you can definitely build meter faster than she can … and having ex meter will make it even easier to build meters because then she can’t even throw fireball at far range.
If you see her throw fireball it’s easy to react to and slide under… even if she’s doing the big one and it trades… although you take more damage… however she just got a hard knockdown… and you can easily make it back up even if you just chip her …
If you do manage to knock her down…
besides from your regular ambigous jump in/corner gimicks/regular throw/shimmy mix up…
I’ll recommend you to add in meaty LP ball in here as well…
she pretty much have no options if she doesn’t have meters… and if she does… her ex DP worse case scenario will hit you once… or… she’ll go right through you and completely miss you for you to do a full punish or at least a slide.
You should pay attention to how much meter she’s got… if she’s got three or more… it’s pretty much always a bad idea to try to meaty her with c.MK/c.LK/s.MP if she does her EX DP you pretty much lose 50% or face a pretty lame wake up option.
Defense:
if you get knockdown…
you should try to stay away from crouch tech…
everything else got their uses…
so stick with
backdash
EX rainbow
EX upball
block
As far as EX rainbow goes… she can easily counter you if you try to hit her… … she can either c.HP you or s.HP you… both got their strong and weak points… but in general unless you know exactly what they are gonna do to anti-ex rainbow… you generally wanna rainbow away… she’s got nothing to chase you down… … obviously keep in mind there are OS that can beat EX rainbow… but the same OS loses to EX upball…
obviously if you get your EX upball blocked your’e in trouble.
if you get caught in her frame trap… in general walking backwards is a pretty good idea… it’s not easy for her to be in range for a low hit and keep you in a frame trap… but obviously make your own judgement… back dash isn’t a bad idea but keep in mind once you’re cornered your advantage against sakura immediately becomes disadvantage…
Others:
Your ultra of choice is U2 imo… she can pretty much chip her to death if she doesn’t have EX… and if she does have EX… it’s possible to do U2 air and beat her… however i have seen her ex hammer hand beat U2 air as well… but it’s unlikely… other than that… although she’s not gonna throw fireball much… it just gives you another option incase she does…
-LAU
Here’s some more insights on the Sagat match up…
manage to get another win off… but lost 3 other times… but it’s definitely getting much closer and i think i’m getting the gist of it.
s.MP is probably the most important move in this match up… simply because it stuffs pretty much everything Sagat do… it can even beat out low tiger shot and knees which imo gives Blanka a pretty hard time… it also beats out pretty much all of Sagat’s pokes… the only thing it loses to is a pre-emptive FA… which if he does do it… you’re looking into getting hit pretty hard…
s.LP i think i need to use it more to really beat out FA… spamming it is NEARLY as good as spamming s.MP but when it trades unlike s.MP it’s not worth it.
the point of the game is really to push Sagat to the corner get a life lead not let him out and let him self-explode…
besides from s.MP… jumping is necessary in this match… but it’s really used when you anticipate either low tiger shot or some sort of counter poke like Sagat’s s.MK… obviously it’s extremely risky… however not jumping in at all… you’re gonna get predictable and eventually you’ll push yourself out or you’re becoming too predictable for him to counter you.
although i’m still losing at least i don’t feel hopeless right now…
-LAU
i have problems with hawk no joke
no way this mu is 8-2 his moves beat everything from blanka or trade in his favor
if i am in corner iam complete fucked i can t get out his normals beat mine ,hop =spd,jump=srk or ultra2
and his pressure i cant deal with i need 2combos for 1spd
i played a few good hawks in the last weeks all the same never 8-2mu maybe 6-4 when not 5-5
i watched replays from top players most the time very even matches i need help
also seth very hard mu divekick is unbeatable for me i play against delvalle85 eu best seth some say he is better than poongko he rape me for free i cant aa dive and if i block it i loose charge and i am free for mixups
I don’t know what to say if you think the match is 5-5 vs. hawk, you’re playing it really wrong then and would have to see a vid.
Vs. seth you need to air to air a lot or use things like far st.mp.
What?
Don’t go in ever. Do staggered/delayed random mp hori ball, upball when he jumps and he can’t do anything at all. Do a small amount of chip then build meter and run away. He has no options.
hell upball even if he doesn’t jump, he can’t crouch it for crap and it’s safe on block.