Hey fellow El Fuertes! I just started picking up El Fuerte for 2012 and I was looking around for aid in approaching with El Fuerte. I know he doesnt have the greatest of buttons so I was wondering what kind of solid tactics do you use when attempting to approach the opponent? Ive got some mixups here and there but I feel that i dont have a solid basis when playing this character. I would love to hear every1s opinion on the matter as seasoned El Fuertes. Thanks again for reading this!
Elf has the best footsies in SF4. Learn them.
@Pilgrim_Pud that doesnt aid me at all. But I hope you felt better about yourself. Would you care to elaborate as to why you believe so?
To answer your question you don’t ever need to approach the opponent. Elf has the best neutral game in sf4. Your goal at the beginning of the round should not
Be to get in, but to build meter and bait to get info on how your opponent reacts.
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@IIPeru: Thank you so much for the info. I see some videos of some El Fuertes getting in and pressuring with a series of run stop pressure strings. Is that a solid strat at high level play? Or does playing baiting until you build enough information to do what you want to do the more viable strat? Im just trying to understand the basics a solid El Fuerte player should have down in neutral. Thanks again for the info.
El Fuerte has low health. he has normals that you can use like Far HK and Far MP but it’s like Peru says, you CAN get in them cheeks, but you don’t have to. You can rush in with RSP but you run the risk of getting counter-hit something like a Sagat CH Tiger Uppercut fucking hurts.
You want to build meter since all of his meter based specials have a purpose for him;
EX Run to run through poorly placed FIreballs or Scissors for a RSF punish, EX Run to escape
EX Qbomb for counterhit wall bounce
EX Guac is the best anti air in the game barring maybe Zangief Ultra 2
Armor Cancel ultras.
Maybe if you’re a robot you can pressure all day, but alot of times you see the pressure and eventually the player drops it and eats it.
You want the other guy to do something stupid. Things like jumping in on you when you are ready should never be an issue (run back tortilla, Run back tostada, crHP, EX Guac, Air Throw, both ultras) Once you get the opponent to STOP doing things then your approach and pressure game become that much more substantial.
You’re asking the impossible.
No two Fuertes play alike. We have some similarities here and there but we all have different gameplans and favor a style more.
It isn’t has simple as a rushdown Chun vs a footsies Chun. Fuerte has so many options that you can’t simplify him down to “use this, this and this and you’ll be good”.
Peru plays one of the safest Fuertes I’ve seen. If you ask him he’ll tell you to do what he said; react and don’t put yourself in unneeded harm’s way. If you ask Densou he’ll tell you to run away for 99 seconds then take 'em to Splash Mountain. If you ask BearBear he’ll say run around like crazy and make your opponent think you’re insane. I’ll tell you to footsies, and buffer runs behind everything. Sab will tell you to get that RS Rape down.
I can’t tell you how often I watch other Elf’s play and think, “HE GOT AWAY WITH THAT?!!” but it works for that player; not me.
The point is you have to find what suits you and only you can figure that out.
@Pilgrim_Pud : I get that. I understand that for a character like El Fuerte theres no ultimate full fledged gameplan per say. I am simply asking for what base options you look at when approaching with El Fuerte. I know theres different answers; I want to hear them. I want to hear what other El Fuertes look at and see what may aid my own style or perhaps inspire me to create something “new” all together.
You are making the inference that I myself believe there is an absolute style. I inquired about which style because I want to hear HIS opinion on the matter. Same goes for you. Which is why I asked if you could elaborate on the footsie game you speak of. I am in love with this character in terms of his versatility. I wish to hear what the creative minds here have come up with. Sorry if my wording was sub par, but this is really what I am looking for.
Basically I concur with everything you said lol. Now care to elaborate on your own style? I would love to hear about it.
Well base options… I think the base options that everyone would agree with would be:
- Get that knockdown -> allow mixups
- Convince the opponent to NEVER jump on El Fuerte. -> so you can own the ground game and get them blocking.
2a) If they DO jump it’s because you MADE them jump so you can punish the shit out of them. -> watch TKD or Tetsu etc, lots of the old JP Fuertes made people jump into Ultra for free. - Control the momentum. This will let YOU play your game, something I think El Fuerte can really dominate and force mistakes/recklessly mashed DPs, if Fuerte’s playing catch up / getting knocked down and kept down he’s in trouble, since even though he has normal stun, his low health gets me panicky
- Tortilla. Abuse that shit. It has a shitload of applications both in cooking and in the fighting game. Tortilla is THE BEST GRAB IN THE GAME. Shit has some invincibility, can be made safe, can setup ultras, and for crying out loud you can control the distance.
- Use Q-bomb sparingly. I say this because it IS unsafe BUT people forget about it ALL THE TIME. Just don’t use it on wake up when they have Ultra (Except Sakura’s Fireball super… you trade, but then she dies.)
Also thanks for actually being competent and not getting pissy.
@densuo tortilla ultra set up? Ive been outta sf a while and am picking elf back up…what set up is that.
@bam abuse tortilla. making ppl upset makes them make mistakes. My good friends who are in the process of winning yell at me for playing fuertr. Mind u they are winning but annoying ppl makes them make mistakes. When they make mistakes ur better off
If fireballs (Or scissors/other specials) are poorly spaced, you shouldn’t always need/use meter.
You should learn the timing for tostada/tortilla invincibility frames. (Tortilla Iframes more for AA, etc.)
Know your spacing, and oftentimes your best gameplan is knowing when to change it.
I think you needa define what you mean by approaching, because it may mean getting in, pressuring on wake up, or attacking from a defensive position.
I personally think that there’s no one single way of approaching, but I think Fuerte’s game in a nutshell, all styles considered - is a process of gathering information and punishing assumptions. You may say that’s pretty much the same for every char, but I think it is particularly so with this one.
Here’s a write up I wrote during the Vanilla days that I’ve been told has helped people level up so I hope it helps you too.
some of the old threads are really good btw.
look up tkd or tetsu. they would tortilla and make the opponent react to it wrong (like jumping back) and then hit them with ultra