I feel that that once Blanka blocks a step kick from he has about a 50% chance of losing the round at that point. He has to make a guess, and with nerfed hop, you have less ways to guess.
I feel that st.strong is good vs abel because Abel can’t just focus dash through it and do something that puts you in a bad spot, however Abel is abel to dance out of range and counterpoke with stepkick if he knows his spacing well.
What do you think blanka can do other than throw a bunch of jabs that lead to no damage(hop canceling the ones that hit focuses) to prevent getting focus dashed/stepkicked on?
I keep being told his match is 5-5, but I don’t see it at all. HP Electricity has whiffing problems vs. Abel, my reversals are ultra punishable, Blanka has problems with characters with fast dashes, blanka has no 3 frame close normal, etc. I don’t really see Blanka as denying any of Abel’s options well.
You first have to figure out what type of Abel you’re playing against. If they are the standard “I don’t give a FUCK!!” Abel’s, then just rush them down, since they most likely suck at blocking or aa’ing. They are gonna have NO respect for your game, so you shouldn’t respect theirs either. Just go in and fuck them up.
If you are playing a “smart” Abel (who can actually play footsies and punish your shit), you can’t get away with just going in there and doing shit. You have to earn your knockdown. St.strong, cr.hp, st.hp, and jabs are good. Don’t just do balls, since they can all be punished for half your health. DON’T let him corner you, since you will probably die since all of your escape options can be severely punished. Just stand your ground and try to knock him down. Don’t play too cautiously either, since that’s just opening up for him to dash in and fuck you up. Pay attention at how they are getting in, if they roll a lot or jump, punish that shit (you can punish a roll on reaction with your slide). If they are walking, you better brush up your footsies 101, cause it’s gonna be tough.
Alright, let’s say you are standing your ground and you score a knockdown… Rush that shit down. Go for your ambiguous setups and don’t let him breathe, this is your only shot at scoring big damage in a short amount of time. Once he guesses right and is out of your shit, just chill again, because if you keep trying to get in that ass, you will die very shortly (again, I’m talking about playing against a competent Abel…).
Pay attention to step kick range… Try to avoid that move, and if you see that they do nothing but step-kick in that range, just jump/sweep his ass, since step-kick doesn’t have a good recovery on whiff. Backdash after a blocked step-kick once in a while and see if they know how to punish (most Abel’s don’t… so it’s pretty free).
On knockdown, guess. Seriously, Blanka doesn’t have a “GTFO for free” move… You can ex.ball once in a while, but if it’s ever blocked, you will lose a large chunk of health and will be back in the mixup. Saying that though, don’t be scared of showing the Abel that you will take risks from time to time… It keeps them in in check.
Besides that, just don’t give away free damage… AA and punish rolls properly, punish stupid shit they do, don’t let them get away with the same shit over and over, and just make them work for the knockdown in general.
I don’t play Blanka, but this is how I would play the match if I was in their shoes.
The Abel I’m worried about(Futile) is very smart. He has good footsies, and he whiff punishes with stepkick into full combo.
My biggest problem with cr.hp/st.hp is guess focus into crumple or TT. That is just a horrible horrible situation for Blanka to be in. So you think use sparingly and mix in enough jabs focus confirmed to f.hop to keep him honest?
Problem is that once I land a knockdown vs. Abel midscreen with electricity, I lose my ability to do anything ambiguous, which sucks really. I can kara hop forward post knockdown and do a safe meaty or attempt a walk forward kara throw, but the meaty doesn’t lead to anything unless abel hits buttons, and the throw is not that hard to tech. Maybe burn meter for fadc to keep pressure up, hmm…
Yeah I get os’d for backdashing too much. I’ve been trying focus backdash more because it eats braindead os attempts and people not reacting.
Thanks for responding, I’ll think about things a bit. I think just trying to rtsd and say screw the matchup is probably the best plan. I’ve arrived at this conclusion for the makoto matchup too. Blanka sucks.
Different folks different reasons I guess? The Yun matchup being hella stupid is a strong contender I guess LOL. Some people might also feel tired of playing the same character for years, and wanted to play “new” characters (I’m talking about arcades here though, so there’s no vanilla console or super)…
Although Ive known more people who stay with Abel than those switching mains. So i never see it as “so many” people switching away from Abel.
Hey 801, looking forward to the Viper write up you mentioned wanting to have completed this week.
One question – I’m wondering which Abel players you watch matches of most frequently, and of those players, are there certain differentiating aspects between those players that stick out to you? For example, those of us who played 3s in the mid 2000’s had a number of different players to model our game after, many having different styles depending on the character. Deshiken, Spellmaster J, Daigo, and Kuroda each played Ken somewhat differently, and knowing where each player excelled helped my 3s game greatly. Where specifically do you think some of the more well known Abel players excel?
hey 801, i gots a question about resets with abel. When do you go for resets??? do you specifically only do resets when you are already in a situation where you need to take a lot of risks; do you do it only when you have got guy cornered; or do you just not use resets cuz they r so risky compared to his already good mixups. i’ve avoided resets except when im feeling myself(lol) or i got a COMPLETE read on the guy because it feels like the risk/reward just is not up to par in comparison to the safer and “harder to get out of” resets other characters have like yang or seth.
Since you play against the best cody in the country andhave a ton of xp against him, AND since there will b a flood of cody’s in 2012… what are your general thoughts on how to approach the match up for abel and for cody?
Game Safari is really, really small. But it was 50 yen for best of 3 rounds there.
Club Sega Shinjuku is a pretty sweet hotspot, though. Nekojita was there blowing up Yuns when I visited earlier this year. It was 100 yen for best of 5 rounds iirc. The earthquake screwed up my chance to hang out with HFX.
what are good set-ups to use after an untechable knockdown? I honestly don’t know what to do after a Falling Sky/TT other than do an unsafe cross up/roll shenanigans.
I’m talking about like safe jumps or reliable set-ups that won’t get wake-up dp’d on.
Why so godlike, Jamie? When is Canada gonna have its own SBO quals? You would qualify for free IMO.
The fact that he doesn’t just lose, he gets BODIED by the top characters, and he loses even harder against arguably the most popular character in high-level play (Fei Long, which is a 7-3 match, FYI). Plus he still loses to the same characters he did in Super… I don’t give a shit about his nerfs in AE, it’s the fact that he can’t win against the best characters in the game. That will change in 2012, which is why I think he’s going to be top tier again.
I used to watch a lot of Shiro/AC when I was learning how to play Abel… I would learn how to incorporate their strengths and their different styles into my game, like, for example, I implemented Shiro’s defensive, footsie-heavy style and play like that most of the time, but go into AC Revenger mode when I get a knockdown, the crazy “I don’t give a FUCK” rushdown. It’s worked well so far, and I think that’s the best way to try and learn from videos, to get the best out of each player and try to use that in your game. I stopped watching others when I learned how to come up with my own shit and how to implement it in my game. The only Abel I watch now is Nekojita, dude is hands down the best Abel.
I go for resets when either a) I have them completely downloaded b) Damage scaling is too high c) To make a big comeback
Resets aren’t necessary to win at high-levels… They are what the name implies, a risk. Although, Abel’s resets offer a HUGE reward for a minimal risk, especially vs characters with a weak reversal. Use them if you are feeling yourself or feel comfortable in the match… Don’t abuse them though, as a wrong read usually means they get out for free while you have to work to score that knockdown again.
Cody is a good character… probably the most underrated in this game. He’s going to be high-mid or might even squeeze by to high tier in the next version. Abel still bodies him though. I think the match is a solid 6-4, and I don’t think it’s going to get better in the next version, since they didn’t address the reason why Abel bodied him in the first place.
Both characters have the same goal in this match, which is RTSD, but they both have to respect each others ground game. Problem is that Abel’s reward of a hit-confirmed poke is much greater than Cody’s. Cody has to score a knockdown and work on his offense to stand a chance. Cody’s best tool to do this is cr.mp -> mk.ruffian. It will stuff Abel’s st.lk if timed right + you get a knockdown.
If Abel gets a knockdown though, it’s pretty much a wrap
I don’t really want to go into detail in this match-up since I feel there is a lot of information to go through, and I really don’t want to type that much right now :wonder: I’ll do one if it’s requested enough though.
Look at the Google doc HFX wrote up, it has most of the setups listed there.
