I never saw that LOL. Thanks guys that helps a lot!
Why do you ask people to follow you on twitter but you rarely tweet anything much?
lol
Ok for a more relevant question, since you’ve been maining Makoto and all, can you do a write up on the matchup from both POVs? What do you think are stuff that makoto can abuse against abel and vice versa? Things to watch out for as abel/makoto. effective range …etc
Just now I fought an alright makoto and I kinda reacted to her dashes with cr.mk buffer CoD, managed to caught a good number of her dash ins.
It’s not just pick a direction, and EX COD… it’s pick a direction, and EX CoD using negative edge. If you just do EX CoD, if you get crossed up, and you don’t use proper auto-correct timing (which, btw, I find it kinda essential, to NOT use proper auto-correct timing for this tactic), you’ll get a really late St. Fierce, which will get stuffed free most of the time.
If you hold 2P, then do QCF/QCB (whichever), then release the 2P, you’ll either block (QCB+Release 2P isn’t a command for anything… and it ends in Back, so you block) or you’ll EX CoD (QCF+Release 2P).
You have to be absolutely sure to start the motion from Down, though, otherwise you risk getting EX TT, which will lose 90% of the time (every now and then, you can get a luckbox EX TT that will actually land).
Whatever though. Good shit Strider, on the thread.
I haven’t tweeted in a while… been too busy during the holiday weekend, and I’m still new to the whole tweeter thing, so I’m still figuring out what messages I feel are important or at least interesting… I dunno, I’ll update that shit more often and I’ll be updating it while in Japan as well.
As for Makoto, I used to think she ran a train through Abel… I don’t think it’s that bad now. She has a slight advantage over him, but it’s nothing too big to consider it 6-4.
Makoto is tough mainly because of one thing, her axe kick. Abel has no clear way of beating it that doesn’t require a crazy-ass risk… Makoto can literally spam it on his ass, and if she happens to land one, you are going to eat a 30% combo that either leaves you in the corner or a untechable knockdown. Think of that move like Cammy’s dive kick in Super… It’s brain-dead in this match-up, so your best bet is to just not let her start that pressure in the first place. EDIT: Actually, there is something you can do about axe-kick pressure, and that is to either neutral jump or focus…but these are pretty big risks in themselves, just use them to show the Mak that they can’t do that shit for free. DON’T backdash them, they will hit you mid-air which leads to a free ex.hayate to leave you in the corner.
Just walk and react to her shit, do a couple os’d pokes here and there when you are in her dash-range, and don’t let her jump-in, ever. Respect her st/cr.mp, they are really good pokes. When she starts her block-strings, just block for a bit and try to download them, you don’t have any good options here, you can’t really backdash because she can just axe kick on reaction… you can EX.TT here and there, but again, axe kick beats this clean. Like I said, block for a bit and see what type of player they are, as everything she does is a frame-trap. Your only goal is a simple one: get a knockdown. There is absolutely nothing she can do about your mixup that isn’t risky, and she definitely doesn’t have an answer to your side-switch game. She can’t auto-correct shit and is extremely susceptible to that mixup. Just abuse it and stay on her ass for as long as possible.
Both characters can win off one knockdown, but she has a easier time getting it than you. Just don’t let them abuse stupid shit and don’t let them get in for free, they should at least work for it. You’ll beat scrubby Mak’s easily because you’ll get your offense started as soon as they start theirs, because they don’t give a shit and just go in, so knocking them down is a piece of cake. Smarter Mak’s are pretty tough, but they still wont give a shit and just go in, but this time based on reads, not just pure “FUCK IT”.
Step-kick is a really good poke here, it whiff punishes everything she does and you get a huge reward off it. Remember, Mak can get hit with st.hp while crouching, so it makes this poke even better. Abuse it.
Everything else about this match-up is just footsies/yomi, so if you don’t already have that or understand it, then there is little I can do for you.
What is your general strategy to approaching twins right now? And what do you think you’ll change for AE2012?
Let me ask you this (And I don’t know if you have much experience), but how do you feel about the Dee Jay matchup? I play this one with Juicebox quite a bit, and I’ve definitely been having issues. Some tell me it’s 5-5, and that you can jump all over Abel, but I am just not seeing that. As an Abel player, what are you most cautious/least cautious of in the matchup?
juicebox anti-airs EXTREMELY well, so when people say you can jump all over abel, they mean when its abel, not juicebox 
Abel having weak anti-air is a HUGE misconception furthered by playing against shitty Abel players. I think Abel has close to perfect AA capabilities. There is very little he can’t handle.
its mostly the lack of a dedicated anti-air button (ala cody’s b.mp), but really, a lot of other characters lack such a button, yet abel for some reason gets called out on it more than others though.
edit: also, abel can’t lariat or dragon punch, but again, lots of other characters can’t either, and its hardly a requirement to be able to anti-air effectively.
maybe the big difference is that most of abels anti-airs do less than 100 damage, while other characters can land 100+ damage off an anti-air? this hardly matters though, because abel does plenty of damage overall.
My strategy against Twins right now is simple, pick Makoto 
. That will change in 2012 though, as they won’t be as brain-dead as they are right now. I’ll actually try to learn the match-up in that version.
I think Abel beats Dee Jay 6-4 actually… I have no clue as to why people would say it’s 5-5. (actually, they probably play shitty Abel’s, as the “jump all over Abel” comment implies). Dee Jay can’t do shit about Abel just walking and rolling in on his ass… Abel can just ignore his whole zoning game for the most part. Dee Jay also doesn’t have a good answer after a blocked step-kick, he gets fucked as soon as he’s in that range. Dee Jay also can’t do shit about st.lk.
You just have to keep him away from step kick range and punish whiffed attempts. Try to bait out rolls as well and punish with cr.mk. Don’t just jump in on him, he can punish each one of your jump-ins… even your short one. If you’re in step kick range, try using lvl.1 focus attacks, as that will catch mashed st.lk’s and if you catch a step kick, you barely have enough time to charge it to lvl 2 for the crumple. This isn’t a flawless answer, but it’s better than just getting fucked in that range.
I also agree with HAV, people that say Abel has a weak AA either suck or play against shitty Abel’s. He can AA most jump-ins and he also gets a ambiguous mixup after it… something most characters don’t.
I’m gonna hold on the Viper write-up for now… I want to make this write-up deep and have it cover most of your options, since I see Viper still being a top character in 2012… Meaning it’s going to be after I comeback from Japan. I want to see what Japanese Abel players do as well, and see how they are doing when it comes to technology in this match. I’m actually looking forward to talking to Nekojita about a couple match-ups. I’ll bring back any new tech I discover over there (although I’m pretty sure we’ve caught up to them when it comes to tech…except Nekojita, dude needs to be doing something other than just being solid to be ranked 13th in a sea of Yun’s, Yang’s and Fei’s)
I really don’t see how Abel will fare any better against Yun, Yang, and Fei (especially Fei) in 2012. Whatever you put the Fei matchup right now (7-3?), it’ll be that way in 2012 too, and I don’t see Fei leaving the top 5 any time soon with minimal damage nerfs and a slightly more punishable 2nd rekka (not a big deal).
Yun and Yang retain everything that makes the Abel matchup hard… Yun’s dive kick is still ridiculous, and Yang’s still has the same height restriction and block stun (mostly). Yang still has safe on block rekka and stand jab which locks Abel down, as well as all his options on wakeup which make Abel’s reward less when he does get in. Yun can still combo more strongs on Abel than the average character, link meterless into U1 off LK upkicks, put him in block hell and then command grab (though Abel can now guess with TT out of this)…
The only possible saving grace is if fewer people pick Yun/Yang/Fei in 2012, and right now I just don’t see it… I still think they will be top 10 (or better) characters, plus Abel still has to worry about Akuma and Gief (and Cammy? and Makoto?) in the top 10ish.
I do agree that Abel will fare better in 2012 against most people, though… but I think he’ll have lots of problematic matchups against the top tier.
gustavo one of these days there will be a canadian SBO qualifier (or i’ll just come to american ones) and when that day comes i will join you on the eastern front
As for anti-airs, hell yeah abel has good ones. Stand fierce and EX Skyfall are sick
Biggest change for Fei is pushback got reduced on Rekka, so it will be a free TT punish on second blocked no matter what, I still see the match being hard, just not retarded anymore. Damage reduction doesn’t hurt either.
As for Yun, the new height restriction is great, you can finally AA reliably with st.mp or ex.fs without worrying they did it to low to the ground to properly stuff. The rest of his nerfs make him more manageable in the ground, and he still dies off two wrong guesses. His upkick nerf is awesome, you can finally punish whiffed ones without the need of an ultra.
Yang is mostly has his same tools, but weaker overall. His dk was never that big of a deal, since you can react to them a lot better than vs Yun. Your only worry was his ground game, and that has been nerfed considerably. He also dies in one hit.
Don’t get me wrong, I still think the top 3 are going to be good, but they aren’t going to be an impossible match-up anymore
Hey I got another question
In what situation would you go for a close hard-kick instead of a TT? it has a slower start-up (but is much safer if you whiff it) do you typically do this to condition your opponent to high block so you ***can ***TT?
I’m questioning this because I simply don’t use roundhouse in almost any situation other than OS sweep and I want to have every tool in the box available, so any insight onto effectively utilizing roundhouse in any of its forms (n.jump, fwd/back jump, close, crouching, far) would be greatly appreciated.
What’s been nerfed about Yang’s ground game? Roll struggles to go through fireballs now (irrelevant for the Abel match), and he might have lost a bit of damage on a few of his amazing pokes, but I don’t really see his ground game all that worse? Stand jab, low forward, stand short (though now 5 frames), low short (3f), rekkas, counterhit stuff like st.MP… he’s lost none of this. Abel’s big hit box is also a boon for Yang combos and Yang corner lock-down (get in the corner against Yang and I really don’t know what Abel is going to do besides lose a ton of health). Can you name a specific aspect of Yang’s ground game that killed Abel that is no longer a factor?
I agree with the twins dying quickly, but you don’t find Yang especially hard to pin down? Between backdash, block, jump, EX teleport, and DP FADC, you have to guess against him way more than Abel normally does when he gets in.
Yun DP being easier to punish is nice, that’s true. However I only really found it a problem if you were trying to cross Yun up on wakeup, and DP sails right under you. If you baited it by blocking it, you could always easily punish any version with step kick. It remains to be seen if you can now cross Yun up and still go catch a HK upkicks with dash x 2, step kick or something. That would be pretty nice.
Re: Fei, blocked rekkas having worse push back is something I didn’t consider, though I really think good Fei players will eventually just learn to do EX rekka, or just hit-confirm 1st rekka. Like… I don’t really see punishing 2nd blocked rekka all that much in the long term. Damage reduction is nice but it’s only like 30 (out of 350+) damage on his DP FADC CW combo, so it still hurts, lol. Otherwise Fei can still bully Abel as well as he always could, imo. If you call the AE match 7-3, I think 2012 will be 7-3 against amazing Feis, and 6.5-3.5 against Feis who use 2nd blocked rekka, lol.
A typical Abel followup after step kick is low short, so you’re conditioning people to block low (and maybe OS tech) a lot. Not low-blocking leads to cr.LK, st.HP xx combo, so people need to do it. Overhead is just another way to convince people that “hey, even if you try to block against Abel, you need to be scared”. I’m pretty sure it also catches people trying to jump out, so it beats things that TT loses to.
This is the Ask Strider thread though, lol. Maybe he’ll have some more insight here.
Good stuff in here, some of this I expected to hear (like the possibility of HK stopping jumpers) but I’m at work so I can’t test it myself right now, and maybe playing devils advocate and asking questions will help other people find stuff they wouldn’t think of.
Anyway, I’m excited to hear Strider’s response to the Roundhouse question
Here’s something random. I’ve been able to catch Fei’s DP on accident with falling sky many times. I score a knockdown with TT, then do the medium roll to cross-up, whiff the jab and then do falling sky in anticipation for chicken wing but when they DP I catch them with falling sky mid way into the air. It looks beautiful, well except when they back-dash out and you eat a big fat Rekka combo, then I just say bull…!!
Gus,
How do you handle Akumas?
Also, I rather hear what Strider has to say, not from randoms who don’t place at tourneys or can’t make it out of pools. Hence, why I’m on this thread and not the horrible General Abel thread where every random person posts.
Thanks.
P.S. HFX, you want use to bring you anything from the States (that’s legal. . .no drugs, weapons, or children)