Alex vs top 3 in depth

Classic Fighting Games Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
1

ok first off his matchups vs the top 3 obviously suck. but it’s important to know what you can and cannot do. when disadvantaged in a matchup, i feel that it’s important that you know all the little things you can do so you can at least play the matchup properly. for example, it’s better to know where you can hit chun li with alex, rather than diving head first into attacks and trying to find a way. i won’t state the obvious like “you can’t elbow dash vs ken with meter.”

** vs Chun-Li ** : i used to hate this matchup so much but i found some points on where to hit her. when the match starts you have a lot more freedom because she doesn’t have meter. it’s important to know that even though you don’t have much to be afraid of, you don’t want her to be hitting you too much even though you can take them. not because of the damage but because it builds a lot more meter than you realize then the next thing you know she has a bar and a half.

sadly, standing short seems to be the only pretty decent poke against her. it doesn’t really do much of anything except make her wanna parry or poke. but it is fairly safe against her low forward, back fierce, and far fierce. i tend to sweep her often when she doesn’t have meter, it can work, so might as well.

now, if they start to want to parry your s.lk’s, you’re gonna want to start ume jumping. i’ve noticed people getting hit by jump fierce from trying to parry a ground poke then trying to parry the air attack too early. so if you spot that they moved forward or tapped down, try for a fierce land s.mp ex flash chop. do the same thing against pokes, if you jumped while they poked they cannot anti air you with crouching roundhouse or back fierce. what they will try to do is parry your jump in. so you don’t wanna necessarily hit their whiff poke, but use that for some mixup advantage. when you land you can powerbomb, kara throw, stomp, f+strong (try and catch them jumping away, watch out for low forward though) or try and SGGK their c.lp. if you’re out of regular throw range then just parry into s.mk. i think standing fierce can catch them jumping away and knock them back down but i haven’t tested.

if they don’t happen to poke or parry, you’re at a normal jump guessing game which really isn’t in your favor. surprisingly, a lot of players like to do crouching roundhouse every single time. it’s not a bad option considering alex can’t really combo his ground B&B from the air that close to the ground. so i think the best punish if you air parry is to probably land and powerbomb, or try and jab then B&B but i doubt that combos. if your mixup is good you shouldn’t have trouble vs chuns who like to parry jump ins.

one thing i like to do is try and force them to use meter so that i can make the 3rd round similar to the 1st round. for example, if during the 2nd round they have meter, and i’m at about 30% and he’s at about 50%. i won’t be afraid to EX elbow dash her pokes even if i miss, i burned her meter. this is completely a preference and a lot of players would disagree about sacrificing a round.

if you do happen to land a jump in on block, say a late jab or a fierce, you wanna mix up with high and powerbomb like you always do, but i like to add up the cr.short cr.forward chain move. i like to put that and the regular st.forward xx flash chop into their heads, along with some powerbombs. once they get afraid of the powerbombs i like to do close jab after my jump in attack (if they block) it sets up pretty well and it makes all the difference because the opponent thinks alex would have used one of the mixups earlier but you paused it for a bit.

and of course if they try to wall jump out of the corner jump back and forward or fierce that shit.

everything else you should be comfortable with doing. like i said, the matchup sucks and it’ll take you about 5-8 more guesses than the chun player will need. but at least you know where to hit and how to gain your hits.

vs Yun and Ken later…

2

Well at least won’t have to worry about Chun throwing you around on the first match…she has no bar to be a real threat and you can powerbomb the bitch back and forth and make her turtle to recover from your onslaught.

I mean have you really seen Chun Li be real effective without her SAII? After she uses that, then she’ll become more aggressive and you’ll be defensive cus she just kicked you in the gut/face over 17 times and it takes alot of damage o.O

But that’s the key…knowing when she’s going to use her SAII or not.

Using Air parry then powerbomb when she lands…a very good technique. Well said.

Stuffing is a constant problem.

You gotta know when to do it or not. St.HP is a good solution after a powerbomb…then follow back up with a regular throw or whatever you feel like doing. Just keep the mix up going. What gets me everytime is what Justin Wong does…just randomly uses her SAII and catches me off guard sometimes. It’s scary how a wake up super like that can work.

I think Alex has a good chance of beating Chun Li…the only real time when i’m defensive is when Chun gains a SAII and she’s constantly playing mind games so I can get caught up.

Powerbomb saves lives. It’s one of the key manuvers to having a great experience with Alex.

But then again you practically said all there needs to be said. Good post bro.

3

Chun-Li is still retardedly effective even without SA2. Her pokes are the best in the game and she can out-prioritize Alex with most of her normals.

Justin Wong, I don’t think, would wake-up super with Chun against anyone worth playing. If Alex sticks out anything when Chun does wake-up super, the poke, 99% of the time, wins.

Basically, deal damage before she gets close to a stock, then you gotta watch out for whatever garbage poke she’ll throw.

Ken, same thing, watch the meter. If he gets one, watch out for him getting into max cr.forward range. There goes your dash-in game.

F.strong can stop/trade with cross-ups.

Yun, when he’s got Genei-Jin activated, cr.jab works sometimes to get out of pressure strings.

If I remembered any more against the big three, I’d post, but lunch is calling.

4

glad to see inputs finally.

vs Yun is much more easier. he can take geneijin hits like a champ.

the matchup is still bad, but not as bad as chun and ken. i’ll update my first post when i’m not lazy but for now i’ll just post some tips.

f+mp is insanely good in this matchup. use it however you want. i don’t remember f+fierce much at all, it can be baited easily.

one thing i like to do is if i have a downback charge and he tries to divekick near me, you can react by doing a short stomp and it’ll almost always hit :).

all of alex’s jumping normals are pretty good in this match. jumping jab, strong, fierce, and forward are my favorites. let me know if you want to know how to use them, but they should be pretty self-explanatory if you already know how they work.

somehow whenever i input EX knee on wakeup against a corner roundhouse dive kick crossup, it turns around and hits them. if it doesn’t work try to input forward, down, downback and it should hit that way.

unless the yun is careful, wake up SA2 vs geneijin away

the annoying thing is when the yun player abuses wake up high parry or jump on wakeup. i would say this is one of the matchups where you have to do his target chain (cr.short cr.forward) and sweep a bit more often than usual (not too often though.)

or you can do cr.forward, f+mp. from there you can react, if they stay on the ground i like standing short xx strong flash chop, if they got reset i like to standing fierce or powerbomb. just take it from there. the original cr.forward then powerbomb can work too if you’re close. (which you should be.)

my advice is just don’t get frustrated if you get hit on wakeup or wake up parried. just know when you have to make up ground and time, and play the match like you’re supposed to. i’m not gonna say play carefully cuz sometimes you just gotta go in there and beat his ass, but you don’t wanna ALWAYS do that. good luck :smile:

edit: oh and you can really make good use of short elbow dash in this matchup.

edit #2: i like taking the risk of headbutting them on their wakeup. even though he can crouch it clean and you can get hit after, it opens you up to some options if you land it once or twice. it beats wake up parry and wake up jump so it’s definitely a risk worth taking. especially if you’re on the offense after you hit them with a cl.forward ex flash chop

5

there are chat rooms for this kind of thing you guys.

someone should cast a spell next turn.

6

Things that are guaranteed requier less talk.

7

wow, i just realized how chun completely rapes alex, on top of what her normal bullshit.

her crouching jab from a distance is EXTREMELY cheap. i couldn’t powerbomb her, if i parried my only option was standing short into super (if i had the meter), and i was out of range for a close standing forward. to make things worse, she jabbed me before i could sweep her even if i did parry. what a bitch.

i’ll try and find an answer to that tactic, but it doesn’t look very promising. standing short into super isn’t too hard to confirm after a parry if trained to do so, but i’d rather try and dig up something else since i’m lazy.

any ideas fellow alex players? lol.

8

None of what’s written is guaranteed, buttercup. It’s just a strat sheet.

9

Your right, I give you that. Keep hunting.:rolleyes:

10

I’m not hunting, it’s just that it was a reply to one of my posts. TOO Eaaassssssyyyy.

My El fuerte sucks.

11
  1. Far standing forward with Alex low crushes Chun-Li’s low forward.

2)Crouching strong punch shuts dash in throw down cold.

  1. Alex’s Jump in short beats Chun’s crouching roundhouse.

  2. Ex-Slash elbow not punishble without super.

And now you know the flow chart of Alex as I told you. Nice to meet you.

12

Glaaaaaarrrraragaghhaghaghgagaraghargh.:looney::looney::looney::confused:

13

I’m a crappy player and have moved on to other characters, but since I’m trying to improve in general…

Yun, Chun and Makoto are Alex’s worst match-ups, imo, but not sure of the order.

I find Yun hard to touch, PERIOD. You just HAVE to chase him and this is hard for Alex. I’ve studied the JP matches and I’m tempted to say he’s the worst cos I don’t see much hope for Alex against him. In some cases, Genei-Jin can take 50% health from ANYone. Alex also just gets out-poked a lot in many match-ups :frowning: Has anyone successfully stomped Yun during his attempt for the command grab during activation? I’m guessing that once again, he’s too slow.

Chun just out-pokes the hell outta him. I mostly use far st.mk to poke, and punish whiffs. Cr.hk seems good in this match-up and I don’t think she can SA-reversal it. I try to bait her wake-up ex Spinning Birds but I guess I’m just not good at this. I thought I stuffed it/traded w/ st.hp overhead in the past, though. For some reason, I hit a lot of ppl w/ ex Elbow Slash after they block far st.mk (are they zoning or repositioning?). I go for j.mk over her whiffed b+hp. I like the idea of charging stomps while jumping in, but it’s too bad the jump-in can’t be a hp.

Makoto can command-grab Alex out of wake-up ex Knee Grab thingie if properly timed, I believe! I’m gonna try more headbutts when I anticipate her dashes.

Cr.hp seems like a crappy move if not otg yet cos Chun can grab him out of it early, and Mak can command-grab him, but then again, these days I mostly use it for baiting stuff.

I wonder why ppl get hit by cl.st.mk x ex flash chop so much on wake-up? Did they guess-parry wrong/mistime? I want to train myself to punish far-parried pokes w/ headbutts. I use stomps mostly to punish delayed, whiffed pokes/grabs.

I hope some of what I said makes sense/was useful. When in doubt, experiment.

14

makoto dashes under the head butt.

15

This is what is confusing me. You give just enough info to help, but not enough real top secret information to help other Alex players dominate. I have watched vids of you playing and you do the same punishes that I do and you hit the characters main weakness in certain match-up’s the way I do as well.

I do vary in super art selection which is not always well received but there is a reason for that as well.

The one main thing that catches my eye is that you are one of the most respected Alex players on the west cost but nobody eles is. It just does not add up. It would seem that somebody would have learned what you know and would have the insparation to think that Alex is a worth while charater that has many hidden advantages that once discovered makes Alex as a character come alive in high level play.

We know what already works, but we do not know everything that works. That is what keeps Alex at the bottom.

Add something to the conversation or do not post.

16

I do agree, when in doubt experiment.

17

Patience is a key factor of Alex’s offense. Learn WHEN to stuff, learn when to powerbomb or DDT, and learn to block…he’s got tons of defense and can survive a tough Genei Jin unlike Akuma or Sean. He’s got plenty of counter attacks, but you must learn when to be offensive. Think of it as a faster Q but with better grabs and range.

18

________ is a key factor of _____'s offense. Learn WHEN to stuff, learn when to _________ or _____, and learn to BLOCK…he’s got tons of _______ and can survive a tough Genei Jin unlike Akuma or Sean. He’s got plenty of counter attacks, but you must learn when to be offensive. Think of it as a faster Q but with better * and *.

19

Chun li is by far your worst match up.

As mentioned before her normals can stuff almost everything you throw at her.
ex kicks stop most tick attempts.
Hell cr.roundhouse stops most jump in ticks.On top of all that she has a funny knockdown animation which throws off timing if your not used to it.

You need to score knockdowns and stay on top of her.(easier said than done)
Are they parry happy? B+fp, power bombs ,ddts and empty jumps are your tools.If they dont ex kick your tick attempts then its your game after a knockdown.its up to you to control the fight and not give it back.

Don’t let her fierce her way to meter in the corner.

Vs makoto

B+fp stops dash punches and dash grabs.
SHB stops tick command grabs/reset traps(yea I said it Stun-gun head butt)

20

Roundhouse.