"BEST BIPSON!" - Dictator Match-Ups

[SUPARNOVAX]

If you guys could start posting stuff you find and experience here, I’ll update it pretty frequently.

Other threads of interest:[list]
[]Ex.Psycho Safe Reversal Guide. - Stuff people can do blocking EX-Psycho.
[]Psycho Science! Fundamentals of Dictator and more! - General M.Bison tips and information
[]Dictator Combo Thread - Combos, of course!
[]SSF4 M.Bison Hit Box Data - Understanding how and why his moves interact and work the way they do.
[/list]

I will try to organize match up information through a few perspectives as people gather more data on them. Air game, ground game, and Ultra combo selection nuances.

General Match Up Tid Bits
[list][]Full screen EX-Psycho Crusher on block yields +4f advantage [<-------->], not [<-------_>], not [<----__>] distance, but full. Any less, you’re in risk of getting counter hit, swept, and punished very very severely. Don’t spam EX-Psycho from every distance! Throw in a reverse Punch teleport here and there to bait and hold your charge while you do it. Follow up with an LK Knee Press to chip. If they follow you after the teleport, throw out an immediate c.LK to stop their tracks a bit.
[]EX-Knee Press FADC is +3~4f advantage on block. Use it if you have the momentum, don’t dunk out 3 EX bars for nothing.
[]Vertical jumps are great for getting a reaction out of people. Bison has very floaty jumps.
[]Tick throw pressures, late crouch tech it. Don’t spam c.LP+c.LK, keep a VERY close look at where the spacing is such as their feet and your blocking animation distance. Majority of characters do not have kara grabs, we’re looking at reaction timing and distance here.
[]Do everything you can to beat them. This is a game of rock, paper, and scissors grin, if you can’t beat them, time them out. When they are near the 10-15% health zone there are many ways of chipping people down to the last bit and finishing them off. Normal cancels into HP Psycho Crusher is almost unpunishable, you may want to use this instead of EX-Psycho Crusher because they are kept in block stun and can’t really do anything about it. c.LK/c.LP into HP Psycho Crusher leaves a gap at the start, majority of the cast will get counter-hit if they attempt to mash out something with no reversals. Command grab spams, however will beat this since the starting frames are throwable.
[]Quick recovery or not to quick recovery it is up to you. Don’t get predictable with wake up EX-Psycho Crusher or EX-Devil’s Reverse. These are Option Select dummy moves. A lot of good players will see through that bullshit on the get go.
[]Ultra 1 chips good. HK Knee Press xx HK Knee Press Nightmare (Super) chips well and is safe if you don’t end up in the corner short, usable up to a little further than mid range; wherever HK Knee Press is cancelable. HP Psycho Crusher xx HK Knee Press Nightmare (Super) chips a little more. c.HK/Slide xx HK Knee Press Nightmare chips a little less out of these two but has the longest potential distance to chip because it is late cancelable and the beginning is invincible up to 11 frames. Majority of mashers who try to punish the slide especially if it’s a very late cancel will get hit by it.
[]Time, time time. Look at the clock. Sit a little more. Chip them with different strengths of Knee Press depending on their distance. Typically keep them standing somewhere hovering above their super combo bar and you standing hovering above yours for good MK Knee Press pressure. We’re all good holding down-back from faraway. Come at me, bro.
[/list]

Match Up Listed In Alphabetical Order

Abel
M.Bison vs Abel

Spoiler

General Information

Ground Game–
Far Range Not a lot of activity going on here. Abel’s either whiffing command grabs and light wheel kicks to build meter or waiting for your attacks. You’re stuck in a kind of similar limbo, build meter or stare down the clock. You can blast off any MK/HK wheel kicks with EX-Psycho Crusher on reaction if you are quick enough.
Mid Range The game gets interesting here at this range. This is probably Bison’s strongest neutral (oxymoron?) position against Abel in footsie range. Jiggle back and forth with s.MK and s.HK. Throw a little bit of frame trap with c.MP into s.MK, they love to jab and short until thye can catch you off guard and front step f+MK dash in for mix ups. You don’t want to be put in this position. Bison needs to stay in a footsie range or catch Abel on a wake up or busy situation. Keep in mind of his roll distance recoveries. You can attack him on the recovery or if you know it’s coming from a mid-range, you can throw it preemptively. Back throw, small step back into immediate forward jumping semi-meaty Roundhouse can safe jump EX-Sky grab, if you option select throw behind it, you’ll throw Abel if he does wake up Marsailles roll. After an MK Knee Press knockdown, jump immediately forward with fierce onto him; if he quick recovers he has to block it or get setup for a meaty j.HP.
Some Abel will get jumpy at some point, these are great opportunities to Hell Attack into Ultra.

Close Range This position is either good or bad for Bison. If you’re the aggressor frame traps with s.LK c.LP c.LK c.MP work good in some combinations together. You have to be weary of his meter. EX-Tornado throws will come out randomly and you sometimes may not want to toss all your eggs into the basket and risk getting put into mix ups.

If Abel knocks you down, there is an Option Select they can use to limit what Bison can do. They basically OS a marsailles roll behind the j.MK

If Bison:
[list][]Blocks- Abel creates contact, can continue pressure
[]EX Psycho Crusher- Abel rolls through harmlessly, Bison escapes. METER WASTED
[]EX Scissor Kick- Abel rolls through harmlessly, Bison escapes. METER WASTED
[]EX Headstomp- Abel rolls through harmlessly, can punish on landing METER WASTED
[]EX Devil’s Reverse- Abel rolls through harmlessly, Bison escapes METER WASTED
[]Teleport Back- Abel rolls into Bison, can punish
[]Super- Abel can block, punish
[]Ultra 1- Abel can block, punish
[]Ultra 2- Abel can just jump out, punish
[]Backdash- Bison can punish the roll, but Bison pretty much has to know it’s coming. If he reads the OS, and starts doing this, Abel has to switch up.[/list]

On Abel’s Wake up: Since he doesn’t have the best wake up options when you set them up, he’s kind of limited to Rolling out and blocking for the most part and mashing EX-Tornado Throws. If you detect rolls coming up, Option select a slide behind j.MK and pick a direction to charge. If you’re in the good spot, wake up ambiguous Psycho Crusher to knock him down again.

Counters: Mistime these and you’ll eat a c.HP into Ultra 1.

Ultra Preference: Nightmare Booster
Against Ultra 1 Poorly done EX-Psycho Crushers on block will get punished on reaction/auto correct. Crouching fierce will launch into it, especially EX-Turn of Direction FADC (3 meters). Don’t jump or do aerial moves too often in a predictable manner, this is punishable by Abel.
Against Ultra 2 Don’t jump too much or get predictable. This still absorbs a hit before grabbing. Surprise Psycho Crushers are gimmicky and work sometimes. Don’t jump or do aerial moves too often in a predictable manner, this is punishable by Abel.

Mind Games and Option Select: Frame traps will limit limb using and more Tornado Throws. Jumping backward out of supposed TT opportunities you might’ve exposed them should confuse and frustrate them a bit and even maybe waste their meters. Option selecting a throw behind late jump ins are good way to defeat Marsailles roll escapes.

Arcade Edition Disparities

Adon
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
He has good normals for a lot of situations and he walks back and forth pretty fast like Bison. If the Adon you’re facing isn’t moving around much, they are not going to last too long. Pace yourself and don’t let Adon space himself for any advantage. He’s got some usable anti-air normals and Rising Jaguar ain’t too bad. Don’t get sloppy with jump ins. His RJ doesn’t have any invincibility like the other DPs in the game except EX version (I think) so you can safe jump him all day. There’s a good chance he’ll space for safe Jaguar Kicks to chip you out and wait for you to make some mistakes to deal damage. It’s kind of like Bison in that respect to low damage and pokes. Play it a little bit like a Bison mirror when you’re up close, he has some good pokes and normals to interrupt and combo off as well.

Adon has safe somewhat Jaguar Tooths against Bison so block those and try to bait out Rising Jaguars and punish.

vs. HK Jaguar Tooth:
c. HP, s. HP and s. HK can win cleanly, but takes some serious timing and more balls than I’ve got. Trading is the most likely outcome with both moves, but the trade seems fairly even. Something to keep in mind, I guess, if you absolutely need to finish it out. Head Press or EX-Head Press will win cleanly if you execute the move before Adon reaches the wall. Otherwise he’ll fly right under it. Seems too inconsistent to be worth trying except against scrub Adons so far. Perhaps it will find more use when you corner Adon and he tries to escape with EX-Jaguar Tooth.

vs. LK Jaguar Tooth:
HK Knee Press looks to be a clean reactive punish. EX reaches too, but you only get 1 hit out of it where HK gets both. Very clean and easy timing, just wait until after he leaves the wall.

Look for crouch tech opportunities after blocking Jaguar Tooth since he is spaced well and is pretty safe on block.

Rising Jaguar doesn’t have much invincibility unless it’s EX so he’s throwable.

LK Knee Press into cross up Psycho Crusher (quick recovery only) doesn’t particularly work on Adon because he wakes up a few frames faster than everybody else so it’s possible for Adon to punish.

Air Game:
Adon’s crossup j.MK is really good and it’s sometimes hard to detect. It’s definitely up there with Bison’s j.MK. Defend against it and crouch tech throws.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I
Ultra II can combo off Rising Jaguar FADC

Akuma
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Good range to stay near Akuma is out of his poke c.MK range. Bison s.MK can hit him perfectly fine there. The best position to keep Akuma is in the corner for LK Knee Press pressure. Since Akuma has low stamina, any bit of damage against him is good. When you keep him in the corner, stay a bit out of his c.MK range and wait to see what Akuma does, if he stays back, go for LK Knee Press. If he teleports you can punish him with c.MP s.HK link for some good damage.
A lot of Akuma will be tempted to throw out s.HK up close randomly to interrupt. It’s also a safe move on block, so don’t try anything stupid that will get you punished hard. Block and wait for something or move back a little to space yourself afterward.

Demon flip mix ups are kind of hell for Bison. If you can react fast enough after he does a normal cancel into demon flip mixup, dash under and behind him and follow up with s.HK to turn it around.

If an Akuma is standing hard kick happy, stick out meaty, standing hard kicks to catch him.

Air Game:
Akuma has a good keep away game, but Bison has many ways to get in. Akuma has good corner traps with Air fireballs to keep you in blockstun or normals to do so and cancel into Demon flip throw, Demon flip dive kick tick throws and such. Being cornered by Akuma isn’t a good place to be.If Akuma doesn’t cancel into Demon flips you are able to dash under and punish and turn the tables on him.

Air fireballs can be tagged by Psycho Crusher at whatever distance. You can slide and sweep Akuma under Air fireballs if you’re in the mid to close range.

Ultra Combos:
Ultra I can retaliate against a lot of moves:
Blocked close c.HK
Blocked far c.HK (Super Demon)
Backdashing Head Press (Kara the demon)
Blocked Psycho Crusher (not push-through)
Blocked MK or HK scissors
Blocked Ultra I / Nightmare Booster.

Ultra II has to be done off combos and teleport cancels. Not much else is known about it now.

Balrog/Boxer
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Balrog’s c.LP is fast and will punish the tiniest bit of disadvantage blocked moves willl leave Bison at. The flow of this match still depends solely on who gets the defensive advantage. It’s mainly because Balrog has a lot of good hit confirm punishes that he can do off c.LP and it’s really quick. Going too aggressive on him without a plan will get you beat swiftly. You should take precaution in jumping at him because Balrog’s c.HP is really good to knock you back. Many will follow up with a dashing punch special and watch out for EX versions and overheads especially. Be careful of c.HK footsies. You can keep him at some leash with s.MK and s.HK. When Balrog has meter, his EX-Rush punches have hyper armor and will absorb a hit so it is prone to beating pokes. Good spaced LK Knee Press can force Balrog to do something offensively, whiffing some c.LP’s, c.LK’s or just trying to sweep, you can usually hit them clean with s.MK if you move back just a little bit. Right after a blocked LK Knee Press if they like to try and get in with j.HK, you can actually backdash immediately after the blocked LK Knee Press and throw out a s.HK to AA them cleanly because Balrog’s jump is kind of on the shorter end.

Focus Attacks are good against Balrog’s Dash Straight and Dash Uppers but not against his two other ones that hit break armor obviously. Those two put him on enough frame disadvantage for Bison to punish with c.LK xx Scissors. If you’re quick enough to anticipate them, you can throw him out of the start up as he’s dashing forward for the move.

Focus Dash feint forward throw works also. You can FA his s.HK and get a free throw from the dash in. s.MK and s.HK are really great tools against Balrog and c.MP can beat rush punches start up if you space out of his sweep range. Don’t get too predictable with s.MK and s.HK pokes or he’ll EX-dash punch you and absorb it. Save some meter for EX-Psycho Crusher for escaping if you’re pushed to the corner.

His wakeup game isn’t that good so you can just cross up into block strings, tick throws and stuff. The Balrog player will EVENTUALLY get desperate and shoot a headbutt and you get free whatever punish. If he wants to ex his way in(which is stupid, but whatever), just have an EX psycho crusher at the ready. Try not to Head Press too often as they can easily back dash out of it if they have the spacing and just go straight into c.LP hit confirms.

Time good cross up j.MK into c.LP cs.LP tick throws to set him up for techs and punish with crouch tech punish options. cs.LP is +4 on block so you can throw him without getting jabbed by Balrog. He’ll have to tech the throw or just take it.

Balrog can Turn-Around-Punch against Devil’s Reverse follow ups because it goes far. If they decide to FA your Head Press, EX-Skulldiver and break their focus and combo off it.

Air Game:
Balrog’s j.HK has a good low hit box that can interrupt a lot of stuff. His j.HP also has a good hit box against some attacks.

Ultra Combo:
If he chooses Ultra I, head butts become a little riskier to go against as they’ll also have a few more hit confirm options to combo into it for some decent damage.
If he chooses Ultra II, it has really short range and you should play it safe and not get too close when he has meter.

Blanka
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Blanka does have a few tricks on the ground. At the beginning of the round you will want to back up a little bit because Blanka’s LP rolling ball has a short range and many players like to use it at the beginning of a match (it will miss) and go for a throw.

For the most part if he’s not rushing and using gimmicks on you, you will likely just be sitting there waiting for someone to make a move, electricity for meter and just be totally lame. Ground pressure is probably the best offense against Blanka because more than often your jump ins will get electricuted or balled out. Electricity can beat out a lot of your moves except low hitting moves. The best pressure move to eliminate electricity spam is c.LK or c.MK xx LK Knee Press. You can punish just about every blocked Rolling ball with a Knee Press of your own, remember you need keep the charge for this or you will not be able to punish it in time. For this reason, a lot of Blanka players elect to rush Bison down and use his hop to break Bison’s back charging. Even if you don’t have a charge, a slide is still an acceptable punish against blocked Blanka balls. The cross up hops don’t recovery perfectly immediately, you can mash out some c.LP or c.LK to break their rhythm. This is where you need to up defense and punish.

When Blanka has no meter, you can pressure him all day with low normals and LK Knee Press pressure. When he does have a meter, his best options to knock you down are EX-electricity and EX-rainbow ball cross ups. It will take some good reactions to block the cross up EX-rainbow balls but if you find yourself being knocked down and you’re in an unfavorable position your best wake up options are EX-DR and Teleport. They are not 100% fool proof, as they are still punishable depending if Blanka has the charge to do his moves and if he is close enough.

If the Blanka player doesn’t use a lot of electricity you can be safe that you can slip in some jump ins and some big combo follow ups and knock downs to push him into the corner which is the worst position for Blanka possible. Blanka doesn’t have a lot of options to get out of corner except roll his way out in any direction. EX-Rolling ball will, on hit or block, put him back in the corner. EX-Vertical ball will shoot straight up but he floats down, if you are quick enough you CAN dash up and back-throw him straight towards the corner once more. EX-Rainbow ball cross up to knock you down and escape is a viable option as well, again if you can block these, there’s no sweat because you can just toss him back into the corner once more.

Air Game:
If Blanka is sitting there, it’s not really recommended to Head Press or Devil’s Reverse near them as electricity and vertical balls can punish and knock you down for Blanka wake up games. Blanka can punish air moves with his new Ultra II if you are not careful. Again, best way to beat Blanka is on the ground.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I hits low, high, and then low again if you are next to him. Blanka has tricky cross up setups so you’d need to learn which spots exactly you can block from.
Ultra II varies as there’s a ground attack and an anti-air attack. You can Psycho Punisher/Headstomp right on top of Blanka if he chooses the Ground Ultra II but you’ll get hit full on if it’s the Anti-Air Ultra II. Blanka can Ultra II against a retreating Devil’s Reverse if timed correctly and he can certainly Ultra II if you Devil’s Reverse or try to Head Press him out of nowhere if he’s just sitting there.

C.Viper
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Viper’s seismo attacks hit low and must be blocked in that direction. Her footsies are still not that great compared to what Bison has in SSF4, so what worked in SF4 will work here. Bison can really win this battle on the ground because his pokes are a lot better than Viper’s. s.HK pretty much nulls flame kick a good amount of the time you stick it out. Her HP Knuckle is good on wakeup, but you can safe jump it with j.HP

Air Game:
You can block low on her Burning Kicks and punish. Of course, she has to score a knockdown in order to get those flame kick crossups going, but that all starts WITH a flame kick knockdown for the most part. Bison can stuff her out of all of her specials since she has pretty bad startup frames and she can’t deal with jump ins that well even with improved Thunder Knuckles for SSF4. She has no real AA for that outside of HP Knuckle. Even then, you trade. And of course, if you can predict her ground pound, you can get a free EX stomp out of that.

Air to air, Bison wins majority of the time against C.Viper. j.MP into reset cs.HP xx LP Psycho Crusher cross up is useful against her.

Try to assess how much Seismo feint and actual Seismo slams she does and go for some Head Press and Devil’s Reverse -> Throw mix ups. She has slow Knuckle reversals but you should be able to c.LP s.LP tick throw her a lot and keep her grounded.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I has good start up and can activate off some good hit stun like her j.HK and other similar meaty moves. Bait them and punish.
Ultra II hits as an air attack so you should block high if she throws it out.

Cammy
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Many of her moves are punishable after block. Spiral Arrows and Cannon Spikes namely which are some of her best moves. Spinning Knuckle is faster in SSF4 but you can still punish it before it hits or gets blocked with Psycho Punisher and other special moves and s.MK/s.HK. c.MK, c.MP, s.MK are great pokes to keep her at bay. If she uses hooligan against you from mid to long range, you can throw a normal against it and it will hit it out as long as she isn’t close enough for grab range. You can also c.LP and jab her out.

You can Focus Attack all of her specials except Backfist and Hooligan throws but it’s a great way to make your advances on Cammy if she likes to Cannon Spike jump ins a lot. On wakeup they like to completely confuse you w/ ambiguous cross up j.LK or TKCS mixups between CS, throw, c.LK xx SA.

Cammy can use her fast walk speed to mix up between walk up throw, walk up c.LK xx Spiral Arrow (punishable on block), s.HP xx Cannon Spike (punishable on block), Tiger Knee Cannon Strike into additional guessing game.

Up close you have to watch out for deciding whether the Cammy is going for throws or baiting them with the TKCS (off ground, instant Cannon Strike dive kicks) because when they catch you with it, they will follow up with nasty combos. Block accordingly and don’t spam too much because TKCS gives her +frame advantage for frame trapping and throw setups which you will need to assess and crouch tech properly. Remember you can block it while crouching, the only grip here is that it can cross up if she decides to do a near-instant TKCS which can go behind you. Blocking is very important against Cammy up close and knowing when to throw out attacks to interrupt her momentum will net you the victories in the long run.

Air Game:
Air to air, Bison and Cammy go 50/50 if you hit j.HK/j.HP early. Cammy has really good AA with Cannon Spikes as they have really good active and invincible frames on start up. Build meter with Devil’s Reverse and LP follow up at your corner of the screen so she cannot Cannon Spike them. If she’s close, there’s a good chance she can catch your spams with HK Cannon Spike.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can be punished by Ultras and whatever can reach. EX-Psycho, slide and setup.
Ultra II can counter everything except Psycho Crusher and Psycho Punisher, both of which have armor breaking properties. Also loses to Focus Attack level 3.

[SUPARNOVAX]

Chun-Li
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Chun-Li’s LP fireball goes a lot further in SSF4 before dissipating so you must block it or just neutral jump over it. Her ground offense is good but her air offense is top notch. If she uses a lot of fireballs to zone you out, you have a good chance of knocking her down with EX-Psycho Crusher from mid range. Her lightning legs can be extremely annoying if she throws them out in front of you during a close exchange, it swings things her way if you respond incorrectly and get hit. Your main concern up close is not letting her get frame advantage from her c.LK c.LP s.LP, If she gets aggressive and jumps at you without the obvious cross up, remember that her target combo hits twice, so you have to block both hits standing. Remember that c.LK xx EX-legs is very well going to be her aim if you do block both hits. Teleport!

EX-Psycho from between long range will yield a positive advantage on frames as long as you don’t pass her and a lot of Chuns will go for throws or c.LK xx EX-Lighting legs, use this chance to mix up a throw or c.LK xx MK Knee Press to score a knock down and get some wake up games on her. If she has no meter, she doesn’t have a lot of options, you can cross her up with j.MK into link combos and she’ll have to block it all. You can also tick throw her well in the corner because she won’t have other places to back dash if you keep her there. Punish her amazing back dashes (if you’re out in the open) with the j.MK~c.HK slide option select. If you cross her up, you perform j.MK~df+HK to keep your charge ready for the cross over, if not use j.MK~db+HK to keep it on your side.

Some Chun’s like to space with her projectile then walk backward and sweep with c.HK, rinse/repeat. Walk her into the corner and remember j.MK cross ups and jump ins are effective when she has no meter. Your main concern is getting in and keeping momentum on your side.

On your wake up, Chun has some decent block strings, normal cancels into Axe kick/Hazanshu and tick throws that can put Bison out of momentum. EX-Devil’s Reverse and EX-Psycho Crusher to escape. When they use df+HK to cross over or fake a crossover your best options to block without meter or EX-Devil’s Reverse to reset the situation.

Her footsies and pokes are even with Bison, her s.MP rivals Bison s.MK but it’s +2f on block, with slightly more reach than Bison s.MK. Bison can out pressure her toe to toe with good block strings. Be sure to cancel into Knee Press if you can corner her because she can sweep out of the starting frames of Knee Press. She can also punish whiffed Devil Reverse with dash Ultra I, same as against Vega. Bison’s AA options aren’t that great.

Air Game:
Chun’s target combo is way better than a lot of Bison’s options and Air Throws take priority over them. Make sure if you’re blocking her jump in with target combo, you block BOTH hits before crouching if she does it. If you only block one and she does two, the second one will hit and she’ll follow it into another combo. Her neutral jump roundhouse is good for her frame advantage into tick throws. Her air throws can make using Devil’s Reverse and Head Press a liability, I don’t use them much in this fight save for if I have a life lead and I’ve been pushed out some how. Be careful if she has Ultra, because using Devil Reverse’s follow up means she can potentially Ultra you as you land if you’re careless.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can be combo into towards the corner.
Ultra II can combo off EX-legs and is decent anti-air. And especially off c.LK xx EX-Legs which is a good hit confirm. So wherever you can get hit by c.LK and she has meter, there’s that potential. Be careful of jumping over her fireball, she can also juggle you with DF+LK into Ultra II.

Cody
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Cody has a some pretty nice frame traps off his rush down. Recognize that his f+MP, f+HK leave him at a +1f advantage and it sets up for some of his really good counter hit combos. The overhead is a typical speed overhead so it’s not hard to block on reaction.

He’s a very effective close to mid range character. Basically, up close it’s frame traps and block strings and in the mid range it’s anti-something. Anti-airing with b+MP, s.HK or just countering with another jumping attack. From faraway he doesn’t have a good projectile to use against you. EX-Rocks may perform fast enough to hit you on reaction from a DR but besides that you can evade them quite easily and just build meter without problems until they want to try and close the distance with slides and just dashing up.

Your best escape options from him are EX-Devil’s Reverse, Teleport (which should be beatable by option select LK/MK Ruffian Kicks) and as a last resort, EX-Psycho which upon Cody’s knock down tech, a Bad Spray would be possible to retaliate the tail of Psycho Crusher’s last few frames of recovery. Against Cody though, Devil’s Reverse and Head Press can be evaded by his c.MK slide or, at certain angles, his b+MP anti-air normal. On round start, beware of HK and EX Ruffian Kick, which can screw with people who like to DR at the start of a round.

Cody’s wake up options are good but they are also terrible on block. Zonk Knuckle (Bingo!) can be safe jumped and baited.

Air Game:
Cody’s neutral j.HP is untechable if you air to air it. It’s a nice setup for cross up pressure and such. You should be able to beat him clean on most occasions with j.HK against his j.HP and j.HK. They may try to use it on your wake up to bait knockdowns or counter hit combo setups, block accordingly and just space yourself back out away from their frame traps.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can combo off HK Ruffian FADC, EX-Zonk FADC. It has a pretty slow start up (13f) so there’s not a whole lot a human player could punish on block with this.
Ultra II is fast start up and can punish blocked Psycho Crusher, blocked MK/HK Knee Press, and combo off a close EX-Bad Stone. Ultra II can also punish a badly used EX-Psycho Crusher due to a fast start up. If it’s used on you and you get knocked down, you can counter with a punish.

Dan
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Dan has decent ground pressure with safe LK Knees that leave him at 0f on block. Fireballs are super slow on recovery and you can probably Psycho Punisher it on reaction.
His Koryuken has low invincible frames so it’s not a bad wake up reversal move for him. Besidse Koryuken, Dan’s wake up options are fairly limited so toss him into the corner and just pressure and bait his moves out.
He can’t punish you much with his fireball. Don’t use Head Press to punish his fireballs too much however because it is unlikely a Dan is using fireballs to zone from full screen. It’s more to build meter. He will be looking for a punish via Focus Attacks or a well aimed Koryuken.

Air Game:
Air Knee kicks are really good because of it’s long active frames. It’s likely that good Dan players can react to it well and just knock you out for some wake up games.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can cancel off his Super taunt. Ultra I can also be absorbed by your focus attack.
Ultra II can combo off Uppercut FADC and cancel from Super taunt.

Dee Jay
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
At first glance many people see Dee Jay as an improved Guile but that is far from reality. Dee Jay will zone you out with Air slashers similar to Guile would using Sonic Booms, but Dee Jays will move forward using his c.HK slide to lure you into the untechable knock down to start his untechable cross up mix up attacks. Dee Jay has a short jump in addition to his regular jump. The main purpose of this is to confuse you into blocking the wrong way so he can link combo into c.MK sweep and rework the entire combo on you, forcing you to guess if he short jumps or not with j.MK cross ups. Defend well and find an execution gap to move out/teleport back if you’re not cornered. There may be a quick option select to punish backdashing if the c.MK whiffs.

Deejay doesn’t seem to have exceptional offense against Bison mainly because you can AA him out in the no-jump-zone with s.HK. This is a very even match. Letting Dee Jay cross you up is not advised as mentioned above it can be ambiguous.
After a blocked LK Knee Press, you can s.MK to interrupt an incoming slide. Dee Jay’s c.MK can trade at a certain pixel of distance after LK Knee Press but if you just move back a split second and throw out s.MK it hits him pretty clean.

One thing to watch out for is his Jackknife Maximum/Flash Kick move which has really good hit box when you try to safe jump or cross him up. Autocorrect works so well for Dee Jay and this move that sometimes crossing him up is just difficult without some good momentum. It does lose to j.HP safe jump whiffs sometimes and to cross up j.HP whiffs.

Air Game:
His Jackknife is a good AA and formidable to Guile’s Flash Kick against Bison’s jump ins. j.HK works like Gouken’s j.HK and kind of just hooks down and can beat some stuff but it’s not as consistent as other jump attacks that can beat Bison’s air to air game.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I
Ultra II can combo off a juggle from c.HK slide at certain angles. It’s also a decent anti air for jump ins.

Dhalsim
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
You have to play this match patiently and not rush in, wait for the right opportunity to strike and then go for it. Don’t blindly jump over fireballs because a lot of Dhalsims want you to do that and then they hit you out of the air with their normals. Just block or focus it, or if you’re feeling saucy EX-Knee Press through it if you think they’re going to throw something else out. EX-Psycho Crusher now goes through projectiles indefinitely after leaving the ground. Close the distance in between you and Dhalsim through Focus Attacks and EX-Psycho Crusher. EX-Psycho Crusher is +4f~+5f on block if the last hit chips them. Mix into throw or c.LP s.LK c.MK xx Knee Press for big damage. A Dhalsim doing a lot of jump back HP’s is particularly annoying since you can’t dash in fast enough and it’s hard to anti-air it with s. HK. You can punish with EX Psycho Crusher, but it’s probably wiser to just let the jump go.

s.MK is a really good poke vs. Dhalsim. It beats some of his limbs clean, including s.HP if timed right. You don’t want to overuse it because if you do it too much Dhalsim will look for you to do it and THEN poke you, but it’s good to throw out there when you’re half-screen or farther and not sure what Dhalsim’s going to do next.

A lot of people like using Bison’s s.HK whenever Dhalsim does midair teleport behind you. Which is fine and all, but like you said it trades sometimes and pushes Dhalsim out. Personally I recommend using s.MP whenever Dhalsim teleports behind you, it is surprisingly good in this situation. It comes out hella fast, and has a weird hitbox that extends pretty high up even though it looks Bison is doing a gut punch. Meaning that if Dhalsim does the teleport from head-level or so, you’ll still hit him clean. It recovers quickly too so you can walk forward and keep the pressure on with c. LP or c. LK’s, or go for a throw. I try to just hit MP on reaction whenever I see him teleport, even if he tries to fake you out with a teleport away from you, he won’t be able to hit your far s.MP.

Bison has a ton of options for escaping Dhalsim’s Ultra setups. EX-Devil’s Reverse is usually the best bet if it’s right on top of you, but be careful with the followup since Dhalsim can slide under it. You want to get away but you don’t want to steer yourself right back into the Ultra! Teleports work too depending on where you’re at on the screen, but the recovery time can make it punishable by something else if that’s what Dhalsim’s expecting.

You can’t hit Dhalsim with s.HP after a crumple, he falls too fast, hit him with s.HK instead.

His teleports are tricky and the most typical setups are Yoga fire, teleport behind or teleport in front of you while the Yoga fire is landing on you for hit stun or block stun. If you block high, he can hit low and cancel into Super. If you block low, he can hit high and cancel into super when he lands. The yoga fires are the key for those set ups. If they blindly teleport you can interrupt with s.LK before they throw out j.HP right behind you.

Air Game:
Most of Dhalsim’s normals will beat Bison out of the air with ease. The best situations to get the jump ins are on his knock downs as Dhalsim’s wake up options are not good in the corner. However everywhere else where there’s an opening, there’s a Dhalsim ready to teleport and occupy that space away from you. You should be able to option select his wake up teleports with j.HP~Psycho Punisher and just steer the Ultra onto wherever he lands. If he teleports behind you, you hold back and it will tag him. If he teleports away you will tag him at the end of the screen (or as far as the camera is panning while it’s following the players).

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I is used offensively and defensively. Offensively, you must block the right directions. Take note that if Dhalsim is grounded, a low will probably be coming but be prepared to block high once he takes off the ground. Defensively, if you’re faraway it’s possible he’ll try to teleport behind you for a combo. If he uses it on your wake up at point blank range, you can throw him on wake up because the length of the hit box from Yoga Catastrophe misses Bison when he goes for throws.
Ultra II is a grab that can be jumped on reaction. There isn’t a whole lot of known setups for it but they all have to deal with the typical Dhalsim yoga fire->Teleport combo setups.

Dudley
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Dudley is a strong character. He has big damage combos with super cancels, special FADC’s into Ultra II. A good way to beat Dudley is to deny him of his close game mix ups. He is really weak from mid-to-long range. Up close it’s all about the high low mix up target combos. Dudley will try to compensate the mid range game by trying to get in with Focus Attack and f+HP (which, by the way COUNTER HITS FOR A LOT if you get caught. It has a 13f start up so you are likely to be able to counter it with s.MK, s.HK, LK Knee Press right after blocked LK Knee Press if they are spamming it a lot to get closer to you. The main possibilities here after blocked LK Knee Press is a good c.MK to sweep the LK Knee Press start up or trade with s.MK, giving them a free knockdown. Again, keeping Dudley mid range is the best and he will have to mix up his normals and surprise you with specials and jump ins to get in.

You can keep him out with crouching normals to stop Machine Gun punches and Ducking straights/upper start ups if he’s close. Dudley’s other way to get in is pretty much jump ins if he can’t get in with a special. If you trade with a lot of his j.MP, j.HP and j.HK, just stay a little further back and space out or dash under him. A stay away Dudley is a losing one. The ones that walk up fearlessly are the ones to watch out for. AA Dudley’s jump ins with s.HK, jump back j.HP/j.HK and you can keep him out fine. His other options are basically try to get in with cross counter baits (to your pokes) and random normals to inch in. Make sure you stay out of the corner because when he knocks you down, it’s the high-low mix up nightmare. Blocked EX-Psycho Crushers out of the corner can be punished by EX-MGB since it will dart across the screen and follow you at the first chance it gets.

Dudley will also fish for counter hits or move in with s.HP and s.HK normals. Let him whiff those and just back away a little bit unless you can setup counter hits on him from up close using c.MP (+3f on block) into s.MK or s.HK. If he blocks them, he’s at the right distance to get hit or trade j.HK with your s.HK to keep him out again.

His target combos leave him at a tight -1f and -2f overall so it’s hard to punish but you can randomly fish for counter hits with c.LK against his c.LK target combo starter. Throw out some random c.LK’s to get a reaction out of him. If you notice they pause, go for a tick throw or move a little to bait moves out of him to punish.

Air Game:
Dudley has a few good anti air moves to deal with Bison jump ins s.MK, c.HP, s.HP, s.HK at a distance, Jet Upper, Cross Counter and Ultra II at some distances (shouldn’t be full damage).
Don’t Devil’s Reverse too much, at least not predictably, when he has EX gauge. Dudley is capable of using EX-Machine Gun Blow to catch up to you on the land very quickly to set up a knockdown into wake up games.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I
Ultra II can combo off several moves and most of them take away the huge damage on it.

E.Honda
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
This match is still a turtle fest, basically whoever gets hits first loses, similar to turtle Blanka and Balrog match ups.

Headbutt Shenanigans
[list][]LP headbutt and EX headbutt cannot be punished on block.
[]MP headbutt is punishable by LK Knee Press (reversal) and MK Knee Press Nightmare (reversal). LK Knee Press Nightmare works too but only hits three times for less damage than the MK Knee Press Nightmare.
[]HP headbutt is punishable by LK Knee Press (1 hit), MK Knee Press (2 hits) HK scissors (2 hits, reversal) and MK/HK super. The HK scissors does more damage but it must be a reversal so if mistimed, or you will get punished
[]Honda super is punishable by c.MK xx Special
[*]Honda Ultra is punishable by Ultra I and Ultra II and crouch MK into combo[/list]

If the Honda you’re facing likes to turtle out a bit more he won’t throw out too many headbutts. This will allow you to sit on a life lead or start offense easier because they’re fishing for retaliation opportunities. You can focus his Buttslams and dash off to punish if you can see them coming. Just because Honda doesn’t have great anti-air without meter doesn’t exactly mean you can jump in for free. Jumping in blindly can get countered with his up+HP attack and it counter hits for a good amount. You can safely cross him up with j.MK and bait out some EX-Headbutts and burn his meter. EX meter is a little hard to come by for Honda in this match up unless they do like to go aggressive against Bison. He’s kind of left with whiffing Ochios across the screen to build up meter.

Honda has some good mixup off his blocked jumpins between LP HHS and Ochio. Be aware of his tick Ochio setups.

After a throw or in any “safe” crossup situation you can OS your crossup with sweep and beat LP Headbutt, go under Buttslam, and chase EX Headbutt. After chasing the EX Headbutt you can c.LK, if Honda pushes a button he’ll get hit.

Watch out for HHS links, Honda can go c.LP xx HHS and link into another set of c.LP xx HHS. The spacing after one set of c.LP xx HHS allows for another. So after the second one, back out a little and you should be safe.

When you’re playing the chip damage tug of war with Honda, beware if you misspace and missuse your Knee Presses, you can easily eat a c.LP xx HHS. If you block, make sure they’re safe (LK Knee Press 2 hits on block, MK/HK Knee Press, 1 hit on block).

Crossing Honda up when he has a charge is a big risk, you can mess his charge up with a blocked Head Press and wiggle a bit over head, crossing him up quickly and back, and then Skulldiverfor some chip damage and frame advantage.

Air Game:
Honda is still relatively weak to cross ups and jump ins unless they have meter ready for EX-Butt slams and EX-Head Butts (auto correct or not). So be a little bit more careful when Honda has meter and seems to have his charge ready on knock downs. His neutral j.HP is a good anti air for Bison’s air specials so if you think you want to advance towards him, move forward and block. You’ll take some chip damage but it’s better than eating full on damage. If Honda is jumping on you a lot with j.HK and j.HP, s.HK will trade often with it so it’s best to block these out and try to space out. If you’re cornered, find a good opportunity to EX-Psycho Crusher out. A well predicted EX-Psycho Crusher can land into an Ochio so it’s not always the best decision. Learning to block is crucial as they may try to mix you up with LK and MK butt slams to cross up and break some charges.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can be blocked and punished with Nightmare Booster and Psycho Punisher.
Ultra II is a good measure against wake up jump ins and other things that Honda is usually weak to.

[SUPARNOVAX]

El Fuerte
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Fuerte is a really tricky matchup because of the simple fact that Bison has to jump in with something sticking out or jump back with something sticking out. Usually I’ll jump back with j.MP or j.HK. Sometimes you don’t want to take the fight to the air because Fuerte can just throw out his air grab special or just regular air throw. The only thing you really want to fear is his EX run back because he’ll usually go into his ground grab or start splashing. Slides are pretty good to get away from those run splash/grab special attempts. EX Psycho Crusher also helps to go after him if you manage to bait that out.

If you can read his run slide, it’s free focus attack for a fat combo. His j.HP also crosses up, so you have to watch out for that and his pokes are really good on the ground, so don’t be shocked when you get stuffed out of throwing out a c.LK or s.HK. However, if you can bait his AA grab special, you can just swat him out with s.HK, If he tries for crossup splash and lands in front of you(some Fuertes won’t always go for the crossup splash just to fuck with your block patterns), you can get a free Knee Press punish. If Fuerte wants to wall jump into j.HP, you can pre-emtively stick out a s.MP and he’ll land right in it.

It’s a really weird matchup to fight because Fuerte is all over the screen and you have to play a mean footsie game to even win. Always remember to teleport on wakeup as well because Fuerte feeds off the knockdown.

If Fuerte misses a body splash, the usual Bison reaction to seeing a whiffed move is to hit s.HK but this will whiff Fuerte because he’s on the ground. Instead use something like s.MK or c.MP. If your reflexes are really on then you can maybe nail him with a slide depending on his proximity to you.

I’ll try to expand a bit on the wake up games because Bison’s wake up options aren’t that great for this match up. If anything, all those Bison 6-4 over Fuerte calls are pretty bullshit in general.

Fuerte Wake Up 50/50 Games!
Habanero Dash Forward[list]
[]Tostada Press; block the right direction and punish. This decision is beaten by Fajita Buster instead.
[]Fajita Buster; back dashing the moment it’s about to grab because the invincible frames early on can evade it. This decision is beaten by Tostada Press instead because the range can be changed.
[]Slide; block and crouch tech option select because it’s pretty safe on block. A note about this is that El Fuerte can Habanero Dash Backward and flip into another Tostada Press or Propeller Tortilla throw you pretty quickly as well, be prepared to teleport or back dash away if you have no meter. If you have meter, Psycho and Devil’s away.
[/list]
Habanero Dash Backward[list]
[]Tostada Press; block the right direction and punish. This decision is beaten by Propeller Tortilla instead.
[*]Propeller Tortilla; back dashing the moment it’s about to grab because the invincible frames early on can evade it. This decision is beaten by Tostada Press again because of the range.
[/list]

Looks bad doesn’t it? Let’s look at Bison’s options again.
[list][]EX-Psycho Crusher; safe most of the time, again if you don’t do a point blank type of EX-Psycho, you’re at risk of getting hit by slide or a quick Habanero Dash into Tostada Press. But I think the new Psycho Crusher tail can negate that.
[]EX-Devil’s Reverse; only loses if you retreat towards El Fuerte after escaping him again because EX-Guacamole’s gonna nail you on the way down, just back away. El Fuerte’s only on knock down, he still needs to get in.
[]Back Dash; the invincible frames is pretty much the best thing about it. Otherwise, you are prone to getting Pressed and Thrown in the rest of the frames. It’s another 50/50 option but if you have no meter, there’s always teleport.
[]Forward Dash; I would only do this against the back dashes, because there’s a blind spot they can’t really hit sometimes. Bison only needs three dashes to get across the screen for the most part, you can s.MK or s.HK him on the way down. Again, []El Fuerte only goes on direction on his moves, if you get behind him quick enough it can throw him off.
[]Teleport; Back or forward works, backwards can get punished by slides, so can forward as well but if you do it early you will be pretty safe and you evade his mix up game.[/list]

Still looks bad right? Just look at where El Fuerte’s vulnerabilities lie; before these moves come out during the dash and after they come out for punishes. The only real thing you should think about is EX-Habanero Dash which has THREE hit hyper armor absorb. You’ll beat this only with Psycho Crusher for the most part or you throw him. El Fuerte will use this to close in on you for the Tostada Press and Fajita Busters.

Footsies are strong against him when he has no meter. Sit and wait and see if he uses EX-Habanero Dashes and punish with Psycho Crusher. Footsie into throws and put him in the corner. He has no room to dash into these moves at point blank range. His only escape options are wall jumping away and EX-Guacamole out. You can swat him down with s.HK for some damage but a good El Fuerte will probably dash off to reset the situation and look for a knock down opportunity.

Air Game:
El Fuerte has some decent anti airs. He has a good air throw but it’s not as good as Chun or Guile’s, I believe it’s shorter on range, but it’s usable on reaction nonetheless. EX-Guacamole is also very good at catching wake up Bison’s using EX-DR because you leap forward and he EX-Guacamole’s straight into it. On wake up, teleport and EX-PC are good options. I might even suggest using forward PPP teleport as an option since El Fuerte is always advancing one direction on your wake up.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I is easy to jump away against if you’re in a neutral state. Best options are to just back dash away, teleport, or jump back.
Ultra II is easily one of the best new ultras in the game. It’s a 3f grab punish. So basically, if you know your Bison frame data, that means this can easily punish blocked EX-Knee Press, MK/HK Knee Press, blocked Psycho Crushers (maybe EX-Psycho Crusher if it passes through). Once again, it’s a GRAB.

Fei Long
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Feilong doesn’t have reliable ways to combo into his ultra, so your choice of going defensive or offensive in this matchup is purely preference. Use meaty s.HK if you feel a Feilong might try his rekkas. He has some pretty good low pokes with c.LK, c.MP and c.HP. They are low enough to trade/stuff Knee Press attempts but you can out footsie Feilong with s.MK and c.MP too. Space him out with c.MP, once it’s far enough after block and whiffs, you can s.MK him and beat his c.MP or c.HP attempts right after if he uses it. If not, just harass him with s.MK and c.MP from the distance. If he’s right out of c.MP range you can go for fake cross ups by jumping from that spot or moving up slightly before the jump. A meaty EX-Head Press can beat Feilong’s flame kick on his wakeup. Mixing this up with throw and c.LK xx LK Knee Press will give plenty of pressure against him especially in the corner since his best wake up options are EX-Chicken Wing out, EX-Flame kick to retaliate and Ultra I and Ultra II. Meter isn’t incredibly important in this matchup, so you can a few more tricks like fake EX-Devil’s Reverse and throw or crossup EX-Psycho crusher

Fei Long can be kept out with standing roundhouse as he doesn’t have reliable ways to get in onto Bison unless he’s randomly beating you with normals, chicken wing, rekka knock downs or jump ins. Chicken wing is slow enough to hit with s.HK on reaction for average players. Try your best to stay out of the corner, locked Rekkas will push people through the stages very quickly.

In the corner, Feilong doesn’t have great options to escape other than just trying to bust you out or toss you back in. You can keep him locked down with Knee Press and s.HK from 3/5 of the screen when he’s cornered. They’ll be right out of Flame kick range but tempting enough to use Chicken Wing. This is one of the best positions for Bison to be in, just LK Knee Press to chip or knock him down and s.HK him out of his shenanigans on reaction.

Air Game:
Feilong has decent air moves to knock Bison out of the air but they are few and far between. He’s not hard to jump against but you can safe jump his Flame kicks and just punish. A deep j.HK will allow him to use Ultra I.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I is a good reactionary move against your mistakes. He can meaty j.HK into Ultra I if you’re not careful with blocking.
Ultra II can counter every move on reaction except Psycho Crusher and Psycho Punisher. Basically anything that doesn’t armor break will beat it. Fei Long’s Ultra II can also counter Nightmare Booster.

Gen
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Gen has decent offense but his defense is not on par with it when he has no meter. His best Mantis escape options is the Rising Kick which is STRIKE immune, but you can throw him out of the start up. His best Crane escape options are the wall dives to get out of the corner. Beware that these do break armor so it’s not wise to focus them because they will setup for some cross up wake up games on you from Gen. Block them and punish with c.LK xx LK Knee Press if he dives and drops down right on top of you.

Gen’s mid range game has been nerfed severely with the s.MK xx Hands being unable to loop until he’s out of meter. Gen’s primary usage of his meter is pretty focused on using his Super. Know that DR spams when he has Super meter can get you in trouble as the Crane Super can catch you and pretty much nail you on the way down. The Mantis super is a little rougher to catch but he has both those options so it’s best that you stay grounded and poke and space him out. You dictate the pace of this match.

When Gen comes aggressive with cross ups and tick throws, you’ll have to get ready to block the ambiguous cross ups because his j.MK’s look really hard to detect.

Air Game: His DP kick is not a bad anti-air and most of his air normals are decent. You can beat him out pretty well with j.MP.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I remains largely as useful as it was in SF4.
Ultra II isn’t much of a preference against Bison.

Gouken
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Bear in mind, that you have to tech his back throw about a frame or two late. You can’t tech it immediately on the startup, so there’s kind of a slight delay in teching that throw.

Gouken has high low parries that send you flying back across the room. The flaw with these moves is that they’re so good and tempting to use all the time to counter everything. Bison has good pokes that can be countered by not humanly possible on every shot. Utilize this to your advantage and go for feint throws and such. Get them comfortable with throws and stay out of his throw range for pokes and combos.

There are certain angles you can Psycho Crusher under his demon flip to AA him in SSFIV.

Air Game:

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can combo off j.MP and a back throw.
Ultra II can combo off a back throw.

Guile
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Your main intention on the ground is to out poke and get close to Guile to force him out of sonic boom mode. This is pretty much one of the hardest tasks out of all the match ups with major projectile zoning against Bison. One of the first things you need to remember is that he has the advantage from the mid-to-long range. You’re basically not really much damage and you need to get close to deal it. You’re either going to end up blocking a lot or jumping over a lot. He’ll be zoning you out with Sonic booms and then punching you out with c.HP when you jump over them in the mid range. In the long range, it’s basically a timer distraction. Get in to mid-to-close range of Guile through focus attacks are neutral jumps (we don’t want to subject ourselves to a backfist of c.HP from Guile too much) and just inch closer. When you get to his face, Guile will likely start playing the footsie game and throwing out s.HP c.MP’s for counter hits and pokes to supplement his other normals.

Empty Devil’s Reverse may or may not work when they are cornered because they are possibly anticipating it. It is definitely not recommended to use it fullscreen because you’ll eat a face full of b+HP from Guile or worse, a nice Sonic Boom/Hurricane. Move forward bit by bit and walk Guile towards the edge of the screen; okay that’s half your battle, now you have to start to actually try and deal some damage. Hope he flinches and does a random Flash Kick, and then punish that shit. If they are smart, they’ll likely not do it and try to just safe blockstring their way out.

Again, he’s weak to cross ups, so work into some tick throws and baits when you get in. Mix him up a bit. Cross up j.MK c.LP s.LP throw, c.LK c.MK counter hit frame trap, c.MP c.MK counter hit frame trap. Lots of things to do on his wake up. Once you knock him down, you’re in and you have to stay on top at all times, leave gaps in block strings look to bait the flash kick. Good Guiles are weary of throwing out flash kicks which is where you get your throw attempts. Make it look like your going in for a throw and immediately do cr.LK x3 xx Knee Press this will beat their throw escape.

If he goes for a sweep, you can c.LK xx LK Knee Press between the two attacks from the sweep and start up some cross ups. Guile’s wake up options aren’t great, they are limited to a lucky EX-Flash kick (auto correct) and Ultra I & II. You can also EX-Knee Press, EX-Psycho Crusher and Nightmare Booster between the hits as well.

After landing a throw (always throw into corners as it limits his spacing and lets you stay on top) dash once and decide wether you are going to go for a crossup j.MK be weary if he has meter and i wouldn’t advise it if he has Ultra stocked because of auto-correct EX-Flash kick and Ultra I, however if he does and you throw him into a corner (whilst already in the corner) you can safe jump him with j.HP so that it whiffs on purpose and you land and block baiting the Ultra, if no ultra then go for a throw attempt or c.LK combo or c.LK tick throw him back into the corner.

Don’t forget they aren’t gonna play perfect and as long as you know what NOT to do you can always look out for mistakes, just stay on them.

Air Game:
Air throws will beat Bison pretty clean if done right. You’re free to do some Devil’s Reverse and Head Press when he’s busy throwing sonic booms in mid-to-close range though. Keep in mind if you do Head Press and it gets blocked, don’t steer Bison back onto Guile because that’s a free air throw in his vicinity (jumping forward, backward and upward), just retreat back to mid range and work your way back in on block. Use Devil’s Reverse to walk him towards the corner if he likes to backpeddle. But don’t go too close into his air throw range. If he does go for air throw, make sure you use LP followup to quickly tag him him on the way down for the knock down and go for the wake up games.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I isn’t useful outside of random wake up ultras and linking after the Super (which, if you’re already hit, there’s nothing to do about it except watch).
Ultra II is a free Psycho Punisher punish if Guile doesn’t Flash kick FADC into it. It’s not punishable on block so you are left at square one if you’re forced to block it because it will push you away from him.

Guy
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
In the mid to close range, try not to spam too many predictable s.MK and s.HK as they are kind of easy to get counter hit or punished by Guy’s c.MP and Slide. His slide has a very low attackable hit box so it will whiff under s.HK pretty cleanly, as for s.MK it will trade or they hit you on the recovery because it’s just THAT quick and sneaky.

Wait a little after blocked LK Knee Press to see if he tries to slide under your random s.HK and knock him back away with c.LK xx MK Knee Press. Be wary of using cross up Psycho Crushers after the knockdowns when he has meter, EX-Tatsu beats it. It should be safe jumpable but it might not be due to the big EX-tatsu hit boxes.

His hozanto’s are pretty safe on block, they’re not punishable but it will leave him on a -1~2f so you are able to counter hit them if they try anything afterward. You can Nightmare Booster his command flip move, and especially the elbow drop if your reaction is good.

If you fight a very jumpy Guy that likes to j.d+MP a lot, back out a bit so you don’t fall into his Bunshin mixups. Or better yet, treat him a Nightmare Booster to keep him honest if you have the meter. A well timed LP Psycho Crusher should catch him on the way down.

Getting cornered by Guy isn’t a very favorable position for Bison and they may be expecting to punish an EX-Psycho Crusher with EX-Tatsu, block and find the right time to Psycho out.

Devil’s Reverse to build up some meter long range or mid range to bait out his Tatsu’s. They’ll be looking for a way to punish it on reaction.

Like most of the new characters in SSF4, defense is not that great and is only limited to blocks and punishes without any meter. You can rush them a bit with tick throw setups and counter hit frame traps for some good damage.

Guy’s wake up game is decent. EX-Hurricane kick can beat out a lot of stuff.

Air Game:
His command air grab is really good against Bison’s Devil’s Reverse and Head Press start up.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I is easy to combo into the corner when he’s doing target combo mixups. The corner isn’t a very good place to be against Guy.
Ultra II is a grab you can jump it. It’s also pretty good to use against heavy frame disadvantage moves.

Hakan
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
NO OIL UP: You can keep Hakan on a leash when he has no oil with s.MK. He may get ready to slide and trip you for an opportunity to oil up. Prepare some random c.LK or c.MK in range and just stuff his slides. Hakan has no known reliable way (as of this post update) to get out of the corner. If he has Ultra II which slips you off the air, resist jumping at him and just continue harassing him with normals. Scissor kick can be grabbed

OIL UPPED HAKAN:
You’re in slight trouble here. Hakan’s 360P throw range with Oil is ridiculously far. It can grab limbs and he can move a lot more freely. His Focus Attack can shift him back and forward so watch out when you see his focus attacks because he can cancel it into normals for big hefty damage. And especially the 360P command throw.

His 360K command throw is known to grab targets in air. As of this post not that much is known about how useful this move is.

Hakan can cancel his moves into Super, which is another throw that can be charged and held in delay before grabbing you.

Air Game:
Hakan does have an air grab but he has to get you when you’re closer because his jump is the shortest height out of the entire roster. It’s effective in the corner when they guess a jumpaway move is coming.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I If Hakan has no oil, use chained normals to jab him out of grab range and them retaliate with a normal or special when he tries to mash 360p’s through your block strings. If Hakan has oil, it’s best if you don’t get too close to him, stay in the mid range. Once he has no more oil left, it’s best to stick a little closer to poke him out of trying to oil up for the extra grab ranges.
Ultra II can slip everything off the ground, even Psycho Punisher. Your best bet is to try to bait this out by using pokes and block strings. Be wary if you’re trapped in the corner, Ultra II can grab Psycho Crushers.

[SUPARNOVAX]

Ibuki
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Try not to stand a whole lot, quick Neckbreakers can be a quick surprise and you’ll find yourself a victim of ambiguous cross up mix ups into repeat mode, but don’t ever stand in the same spot either. Basically just chill around an area far away if you can’t get in. If Ibuki is tossing Kunais, block or focus them and get in closer. Once she stops using it a whole lot you can inch your way in to mid to close range and poke her with s.MK and s.HK. Make sure you keep your mind open about random Neckbreakers because again, they can setup for a terrible Ibuki experience which plays into most of her offense. If she’s not getting knockdowns, you don’t have a whole lot to worry about. Ibuki’s kunai can be punched and kicked out of but you take some risk of letting it counter hit. Basically any move in the game with priority will nullify it. Block and punish all her Neckbreakers with c.MK xx HP Psycho Crusher. All versions are about -13f on block when it’s being used from about middle-ish range. Fullscreen EX-Neckbreakers are kind of safe and will stop right in front of you so it’s best to block it and back out a little bit.

You can safe jump her Kazegiri and punish well. Her EX-Kazegiri can follow up with an air kunai but it should be pretty safe to punish her after blocking the kunai followup. Her Super is pretty safe because it pins you down during blkock and she lands safely.

Similarly to the other new characters, there’s slight trouble on getting in offensively. If you’re spaced out well in mid range, you can s.HK her a lot even if she kunais and it trades, which are usually in your favor. You’ll have to be cautious if the Ibuki player likes to cancel moves a lot into others; jumps, shadow dash (breaking your charge), and some high low mix ups. She can shadow dash and nullify charges. She has a small vortex mix up that can be performed.

BLOCKING is a critical skill in this match up when you’re on the defensive.

When you’re on the offense and you corner Ibuki, she doesn’t have good options to get out.
[list][]LK Knee Press loops, she eats good chip damage
[]s.MK to poke her back in and space yourself for blocking Neckbreakers and jumping AA her back into the corner.
[]s.HK to stuff her jump attempts
[]Punish blocked Neckbreaker and toss her back into the corner
[*]Punish blocked Kazagiri and toss her back into the corner
[/list]

Ibuki Vortex Options:
[list][*]To be updated soon…
[/list]

Air Game:
Ibuki has a decent air grab and her j.LK is a good tick throw on block.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I is a command grab, you are able to jump or teleport away from it. If you must teleport, teleport behind her and not away. If you’re at the edge of the screen you will be hit obviously. Apparently this ultra in particular can reversal grab -1 and -2 on block. It would be wise to be cautious of throwing out moves that are unfavorable to Bison unless you have enough health to trade with her meter and finish her off. If it’s used on you randomly and you can jump up, do it and punish on the way down.
Ultra II can be combo into but most players are using it on wake up and randomly. They are easy to spot as long as you’re not busy doing something to get caught.

Juri
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Juri’s Pin wheels are unsafe on block POINT BLANK, but if you don’t block all the hits, she’s likely far enough to be safe most of the time unless you can tag her with s.MK.
Her fireball can be annoying to harass your DR and HS’s with but they are really slow and you can probably stomp on her or get an empty DR into throw if you are anticipating them from across the screen. Take note of the fireball patterns, and since Juri can hold all three at a time and release one by one, bait them out or go in with some fake DR/cross ups if you’re close enough and work on her.

She has nice footsies with s.LK s.MK c.LK c.MK. Make sure you’re ready to block the overhead when she’s right about out of footsie range.

Corner her and pressure with LK Knee Press strings, her best options are EX-Pin wheels, Ultra and the cross counter-teleport move (forgot the name), she doesn’t zip anywhere far. If she goes on top, block high and wait for a dive kick or neutral j.HK and just let her fall back down to reset the corner pressure. If she zips behind you out of the corner, tick throw her back in.

Air Game:
Juri isn’t a huge threat in air with no meter, her Dive kicks go at certain angles and they are kind of easy to bait out if you go air to air with her. When she has meter, EX-Pin wheel is pretty good against jump ins and fake DR attempts but you should be prepared to bait them out too.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I allows her to cancel a lot of her normals and blocking correct is crucial as the overhead could lead into an array of chain combos while queer eye is active. Runaway and let her combo timer run out. She isn’t going to sit back and let the timer run out, if they do, they’re bad. Assess your meter gauge and don’t get caught in the corner or there will be some quick and swift high & low mix ups from her footsies and overhead.
Ultra II combos off EX-dive wall bounce. Watch out for her jumps when she has meter.

Ken
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Ken’s fireball has improved a lot in SSF4 but it’s still not on par with Ryu or Sagat for that matter. It’s still decent in zoning against Bison because his Shoryuken is good and juggles into a second one if you’re tagged by the LP Shoryuken first. Ken’s kara throw mixups are powerful against most characters, but if you ever feel too pressured, simply teleport, EX-Psycho or EX-Devil’s reverse to get out of it. Don’t get too predictable or they will greet you with an uppercut or option select hurricane kick.

If you get hit by Ken’s EX-tatsu, it’s usually best to use EX-Psycho or EX-Devil’s Reverse to get out of his mixup (he can kara-throw, throw, shoryuken, or use a normal move to continue pressure). EX-Psycho Crusher beats two of those options, but once he starts wising up and using shoryuken, simply block and punish. Crouch tech to beat the kara throws.

Most of the Ryu strategies apply to Ken. Get him into the corner and use superior footsies.

Except Ken has a strong mix up game. I’ll try to list as many typical situations as I can.

1. Ken uses light attack ticks into:[list]
   []Kara-throw;
   []Uppercut;
   [*]LK Tatsu fake out into throws/uppercuts; [/list]

2. Ken combos into EX-Tatsu: [list]
   []Hits, throws or uppercuts;
   []Blocks, throws or uppercuts;
   []Uppercuts
   []Uppercuts, FADC (watch his meter)
   [*]Uppercuts, FADC, uppercuts (watch his meter)
   [/list]

These are few examples of typical Ken tactics against Bison, there’s probably some more but there’s always answers to everything. They’re just not all foolproof just like all the other matches. Because Bison doesn’t have good reversals until he has EX meter, some of your best options are to block and punish, crouch tech option select, backdash, teleport or if you’re feeling pretty wealthy just escape with EX-moves to reset the situation.

Blocking is the best option out of all of these, as back dashes and teleports can be beaten regularly in the recovery by pokes or option select into Tatsu, which puts you back in scenario #2; more guessing games!

Feel the Ken out in the first round and see how many mix up games they employ. If close to none, play him like Ryu.

Air Game:
Air EX-Tatsu is excellent to knock Bison out of the air. These are usually very annoying when you’re doing predictable Head Press and Devil’s Revers patterns. Keep the Devil’s Reverse feints close to your third of the screen because it’s less likely you will get tagged by air tatsu’s. Ken’s j.HK has about the same hit box as Ryu’s, you’ll trade a lot of anti airs from a lot of distances unless you can tag them before/after the active hit frames. But blocking these will put you in some 50/50 mix up situations.

Ultra Combo
Ultra I can combo off some FADC specials but doesn’t hit fully. It can also combo off cross up EX-tatsu.
Ultra II can combo off cross up EX-Tatsu, and Hadoken FADC.

M.Bison/Dictator
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Punish mistakes you find. This match really relies on who gets their damage in and who makes more mistakes generally. Whoever catches the other off guard wins. Turtle it out if you want, Bison has great escape tools.
LK Knee Press is safe on block but you can stuff it’s start up frames with s.MK, s.HK c.MK c.MP
MK and HK Knee Press is unsafe on block and you can punish those swiftly with c.LK / c.MK xx Knee Press.

Back dash empty Devil’s Reverse and Head Press attempts and punish with throws and combos.

When Bison has no meter in the corner his best options are pokes to cancel into other special moves and just block. Surprise him from out of c.LK and c.MK range with s.MK and s.HK to interrupt Knee Press attempts. Tick throw him back into the corner. When he does have meter, he will likely use EX-Psycho to get out. Punish with Ultra II or slide.

If Bison likes to back teleport a lot while you jump in on them, use slide option selects to punish them.

Corner him and pressure with LK Knee Press strings and mix up with s.MK, s.HK, c.MP, c.MK interrupts. If he has meter, bait out EX-Psycho Crushers and slide them right off block.

Air Game:
Head Press works well for a lot of moves. You can neutral j.LK, j.MK, j.HP to knock the Head Press attempts and Devil’s Reverse that gets too close.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can be used in retaliation to air attacks and surprises.
Ultra II crosses up. The hit box is big. But you know that already right?

Makoto
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Makoto seems to have a problem, much like the other new SSF4 characters, getting in on Bison at a distance. Weak long range game obviously with no projectiles. Her mid range game is somewhat threatening. Not a lot is known so far but a fair way to deal with her is to stop her rush punches from afar by sticking out c.LK and c.MK to beat the start ups. Her air axe kick isn’t as good as 3rd strike so they don’t spam it a lot.

You can AA her out a lot with s.HK too.

Makoto has some good frame traps up close with her s.MP. Her best pokes against bison is s.MP, c.MP, f+LK. They’ll use it a lot to try and fish for counter hits, you can block and back out a little and poke her out. She doesn’t rule footsies too greatly but they are good enough to hit confirm into hayate’s.

Let’s be a little clear about her command grabs here; Karakusa, they’re weak in range. It’s hard to tell the difference between then but they’re all about 7-9f start up on average. The grab range isn’t great, they’re below regular throw ranges so if you are in a space where you cannot be thrown be regular throws, you’re safe from karakusa.

Be aware of Makoto’s dashing speed. She can dash full screen with about two inputs as oppose to Bison’s two inputs. Dangerous Makoto’s will try to go for resets and and dash behind you to catch you holding back from the pre-reset situation to karakusa into high stun combos.

Makoto’s wake up games are not that dangerous. She has a f+HK cross up on wake up (step kick looking move) to break your back charge and, again, confuse your directions so be prepared to back dash, teleport if you have no meter. Her overhead chop is not too difficult to spot but most people should be able to hear and see it and block on reaction.

Corner her and pressure with LK Knee Press strings and force some mistakes out. She doesn’t have a lot of escape options.

Air Game:
Makoto j.HP has a really good hit box and sometimes it trades with s.HK, c.HP. It’s not a huge deal but it’s more in Bison’s favor since Makoto has low stamina. She has a nice j.MK cross up.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can be used off command grab and super cancels. Beware the karakusa!
Ultra II can nail a badly used Head Press.

Rose
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Against Rose, space correctly and jump accordingly to punish her fireballs.

Once Rose has meter, be very careful about jumping in on her. Her soul throw is much improved in SSF4.

Rose lacks reliable wake up options until she gets Ultra II. Her pokes and frame traps are decent as well. When you find her going for c.MK xx Spirals wait a bit, space yourself out of c.MP poke range and s.MK her. She may try to close the distance in with c.MK slide but you can poke her out of that as well.

Her close s.MK is throw immune, it’s the move where she levitates on the shamwow scarf and kicks you while aligned horizontally.

The slide is pretty safe and it sets up some nice counter hits for her against Bison, block and crouch tech OS it and back out to reset the situation.

Corner her and pressure with LK Knee Press strings and force out some mistakes until she has Ultra meters.

Air Game:
She has some good AA against Bison, soul throw has been vastly improved and you shouldn’t get too close with Devil’s Reverse or Head Press when you’re both in a neutral state of battle.

Ultra Combo
Ultra I is a threat to jump ins. Be cautious about throwing out too many predictable and reckless normal and special moves.
Ultra II is also a threat to jump ins. Luckily if she uses it offensively, you can block them off. You just have to deal with the block/hit stun while Rose closes in for throw attempts and frame trapping. When she activates Ultra II, jumping will set her up for a soul throw.

Rufus
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Rufus’s best way to get in is with dive kicks and tornadoes to vacuum in the opponents. You can keep him out of dive kicks with s.MK and s.HK shuts him down at a distance. He’s more of a threat in closer mid-to-point blank range, but less so in the further mid-to-long range. Mid range, you have pokes and footsies to keep him out, long range you have the timer on your side if you have a life lead. But leaving Rufus on the other side of the screen isn’t always the best option since he can just start building up some meter for his offense with random EX-messiah. Once he has EX meter he’s pretty dangerous as you don’t want to be put into too many guessing games. Zone him out with s.HK and s.MK, if he tries to suck you in with Tornado, try to get out and reset the situation by any means.

If you have Rufus cornered, c.LK xx Knee Press loops are good because it spaces you out of his c.LP c.LK poke ranges. It becomes risky when he has meter for EX-Messiah Kick which still has a lot invincibility frame. You must watch his meter and try to bait them out by taking guesses.

If Bison has a knockdown on rufus in the corner, Bison sitting on Ultra I, starts out a cr.LK xx LK Knee Press meaty string:

A) cr.LK is safe from Messiah kick
B) cr.LK catches jump attempts
C) Ultra I reversal OS will catch EVERY attempt other than LK from messiah
D) You auto-block LK followup so that unless rufus has meter to FADC, you have essentially OS’d for cr. lk x3 xx lk sk at the end of that as well to start the situation over.

For up to 3 Knee Press strings in a row, you can either risk the third Knee Press to get back in or risk a jump to apply more corner pressure.

Quite literally for three Knee Press strings Rufus can do absolutely nothing or he WILL eat Ultra I, or if he wants a reset on the situation.

You can out footsie Rufus up close when he has no meter so you can use c.LK more often. Rufus’ fastest attack comes out in 4 frames (c.LP) but ,Bison’s c.LK comes out in 3. On top of that, you have a lot of frame traps that will beat him out up close.

If you time it well, Rufus has no answers against your c.LK xx LK Scissors Loop aside from[list]
[]Neutral jump (which can be avoided if you only follow up with scissors after the c.LK hit confirm)
[]EX Messiah Kick[/list]

Rufus has major pressure and forced guessing for Bison to take, it’s one of the worst things about fighting Rufus.

There are some ways to handle it, but as always, they’re never 100% fool proof.

Also remember that you can block his dive kick low, so you only have to worry about blocking which side, and not which side + up/low. He has an overhead kick, but just like all the other overheads, they’re slow enough to react to if you’re expecting it.

Dive Kick Shenanigans[list]
[]Focus Attack to catch those dive kicks.
[]use s.HK to PREVENT his dive kicks, not beat it (in other words, do it psychically and make Rufus fear it)
[]neutral jump now and then. If he dive kicks under you, do neutral j.HK, bnb to punish.
[]Head Press is not too useful in this matchup since Rufus will be looking for ways to land his EX Snake Strike. You can catch some dive kicks with EX-Head Press quickly, but for the most part use it if Rufus is cornered and you catch him trying to get out.
[*]s.LK can reset dive kicks if you see them coming, especially the off-ground dive kicks.
[/list]

There’s plenty of ways to get out of his pressure as well, they’re the typical escape options but you must know where to use it because half of the time you can get punished and the other half they’re safe.

Reversal EX-DR to escape in this matchup is better than reversal teleport if you have space behind you since Rufus has no ways of chasing you to punish. If Rufus has Ultra II loaded up, EX-DR away from him otherwise there’s a chance he can catch you with Big Bang Typhoon if you get too close. You will be vacuumed into it.

Reversal EX-Psycho Crusher is safe if you get it off point blank. If you don’t pass further than half screen behind him, he can c.HK or c.HP and retaliate after the blocked hits.

If you’re pressured by dive kicks, EX-Knee Press can be a better escape option if you are pretty sure that he will follow up with another dive kick. Invincibility frames on EX-Knee Press are earlier than EX-Psycho Crusher (i.e. easier for Rufus to grab you out of EX PC than EX Scissors) The trade off though is that EX Scissors isn’t safe compared to EX PC, but that’s if you manage to get it out.

Air Game:
Rufus c.MP beats out Head Press and Devil’s Reverse at many angles on reaction. EX-Snake Strike still does amazing damage and can catch Bison out most of the time. You should be grounded for most of this match as Bison can’t really harass Rufus in the air unless he’s staying on the ground and you can safe jump and bait some EX-Messiahs or catch him with a good jump in combo.
j.HK can also beat out Head Press and Devil’s Reversal start ups if they do it quick enough or predict it from the correct distance. I would recommend using Devil’s Reverse further away at around mid-to-long range to bait j.HK’s and Snake Strikes to retaliate with the follow up.

Blocked EX-Messiah kick will allow you to Ultra I him on reaction but be wary of whiffing if he uses the overhead followup.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can combo off many things; s.LK s.HK target combo, you must keep your footsies in check. EX-Messiah, LK follow up FADC, j.HK juggle, and some more I can’t think of at the moment.
Ultra II can suck you in if you get too close with all your special moves. It has to be done on reaction though, so part of your plan againts a Ultra II Rufus user is to try to force it out and punish afterwards.

[SUPARNOVAX]

Ryu
M.Bison vs Ryu

Spoiler

General Information:

Ground Game–
Far Range This is Bison and Ryu’s most comfortable spot. Bison will freely be able to hop over Hadoken’s and Ryu is free to zone Bison out with Hadoken’s and will more meter. Bison will have to pick the right intervals, if Ryu is throwing Hadoken’s, to Devil’s Reverse for meter or Head Press Ryu for some direct or block damage. You can put a little bit of threat and seeing what Ryu will do by moving forward, focusing some Hadoken’s and moving into a comfortable range near the middle and read his Hadoken patterns and possibly jump in with j.HP -> c.MP xx HK Knee Press and push him into the corner.

Mid Range This is also a very good position for Bison to be in for pokes. Your strongest normals are s.MK and c.MP. After a LK Knee Press, Bison is spaced just perfectly right for a s.MK poke against Ryu’s c.MK xx Hadoken. But be aware that there’s a possibility they will throw out c.MP to counter hit your s.MK which comes out slightly faster and has a very good hit box. s.HK is good to shut down immediate jumps after a blocked LK Knee Press. Many players will love to jump at Bison because of the fear of losing charge for their moves. Know that at the mid range, charge isn’t as important sometimes because you’re going in for the footsie battle and controlling space and momentum. If they jump at you, block, crouch tech, gauge the distance between Bison and Ryu and make your decision there. If they’re not close enough for throws, keep blocking, teleport backward with PPP to reset some of the spacing or back dash and you can move right back into this range for pokes and other meta games.
Should you detect a jumper, go right up with j.MP (Hell Attack); you have several options here:
[list][]j.MP again into Ultra 1, Ultra 2
[]s.HP xx LP Psycho Crusher cross up
[]c.HK (slide) into untechable knockdown
[]s.HP or s.HK reset them into a footsie/poke range (especially if they are in the corner) and be alert for any impending Shoryuken’s or pauses. Go for a throw if they pause or walk and tag them with some normals/links.[/list]

Close Range This position is either good or bad for Bison. First off, if they throw out a lot of Shoryuken’s you may way to pause a little between normals to see what they’ll do and if you can punish whiff Shoryuken’s, do it and let them know you’re seeing right through them and they’ll possibly stop throwing them out. Once you think they’re going to stop throwing them out sporadically, your opportunity has opened to some pressure. Against frame trap pressure from Ryu, know that you can’t really counter c.MP on block or counter hit him most of the time if they’re doing something right. So watch closely if they frame trap you and walk up throw. A lot of these are risky for Bison as they may walk up Shoryuken, walk up EX-Hurricane kick (corners, especially, will grant them the opportunity to Ultra 1). Stay spaced out if you don’t have the momentum. Apply pressure when you have the momentum. c.LP s.LK is a gapless block string and it is good to use against people to bait out Shoryuken. c.LK has a 2f gap if performed properly. c.MP s.MK/s.HK is a 3f gap. Apply wisely, back out when needed. There is plenty of room for Bison to cover around the stage and maneuver around. Make your decisions wisely.
Bison is more prone to jump ins at this range, it’s imperative that you make the decision to block properly and not get exposed to mashing crouch tech. Use late crouch tech OS and find the space to back out. Close s.HP works well on reaction for cross ups.

On Ryu’s Wake up: j.HP and j.HK have great anti-Shoryuken hit boxes. j.MK is great for ambiguous cross ups, but there is a vulnerable tip of the hit box where uppercuts tend to tag and cause loses.
After a backward throw, hold back, make one small step and then jump forward immediately for a meaty j.HK. This will safe uppercuts but the hardest to perform this on is Ryu since his has a 3f start up.
Counters: Mistime these and you’ll eat Shoryuken, Shoryuken FADC Ultra 1, Shoryuken trade into Ultra 1.

Ultra Preference: Majority of consensus points to Psycho Punisher, being the best to reach Ryu from reactable distance.
Against Ultra 1 Most of his options will come off Shoryuken trading (no meter required), Shoryuken FADCing (2+ meters required), EX-Hurricane (1 meter required) in the corner (anti-crouch tech OS), c.MK xx EX-Hadoken FADC (3+ meters required), and j.MP juggle (no meter required) which you need to be cautious of when Ryu gets desperate with no meter. It is basically his last option of netting 300 damage. You will have to realize what he is left with and make no mistakes. You can easily s.HK him when you see him whiffing j.MP in air and jump less or no jumps at all. Space him out and chip him to death or time out.
Against Ultra 2 few of his options from Ultra 1 work here, but other than that it’s harder to land because unless it’s a full Ultra, it does crap damage.

Mind Games and Option Select: Against Ryu’s j.HP ~shoryuken OS, which works well against EX-Psycho Crushers on wake up, you can opt for a forward teleport (you end up behind them) and it will recovery right by the time Ryu lands. You’ll have a 3f gap to hit him with c.LK.

Arcade Edition Disparities
LP Shoryuken will trade into Ultra 1, once again.

Sagat
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Much like the Ryu match up, Sagat has high and low Tiger Shots to zone out Bison and typically anti-jump you with a Tiger Uppercut. Unfortunately there’s still a lot of jogging to do from long distance.

You may crouch under high Tiger Shots. You may slide and knock down Sagat under high Tiger Shots from mid-to-close range or counter with EX-Knee Press in mid-to-close range.

You’ll have to pretty much jump or block all the low Tiger Shots or counter with EX-Knee Press in mid-to-close range.

EX-Tiger Shots are kind of quick and it can hit Bison on the way down from Devil’s Reverse. Assess the distance and you can carefully steer landing onto the ground without getting hit; that means stop holding backward on your joystick all the time for Devil’s Reverse followups.

In mid range Sagat’s do tend to play a little bit closer to Ryu with c.MK xx Tiger Shot or try to hit a safe Tiger Knee Crush. Fortunately they nerfed some of the properties of his s.LK xx LK Tiger Knee cancel strings so there’s no longer a nullified meta game in the mid-to-close range.

Blocked Tiger Knees are vastly unsafe even if a single knee is blocked, they are at least throwable. The start up isn’t quick on them so you can lock down Sagat with some s.HK and s.MK when you’re in the mid-to-close range.

In close range Sagat still has enough normals to keep Bison busy, c.LK, c.LK xx Tiger Uppercuts, c.LK c.LP block string. He also has a quick overhead with f+HP but it is still slow enough to react to compared to others in the game. Keep in mind there’s always the possibility of random

Tiger Uppercuts coming out quickly to break the mundane nature of it all so be on your toes and don’t always retaliate with a normal or LK Knee Press every time you block a Sagat normal or special. Wait slightly and plot out your next attack.

Air Game:
Sagat’s j.HP has a pretty good hit box and it can anti-Head Press and anti-Devil’s Reverse quick reactionary. Devil’s Reverse is still a good way to control your space and avoid Tiger Shots and close in on Sagat. His j.MP aka the People’s Elbow, no longer beats out and trades with

everything Bison has to offer in SSF4. The active frames took a nerf bat so hard Chun-Li’s uterus felt it. Even if you do trade with sagat j.MP, it’s a pretty even trade as his stamina is nerfed so majority of the time you won’t see this happening much anymore. It’s slightly harder to cross

him up with j.HP since Tiger Uppercut goes quite sharp in the vertical direction when it’s active but it’s not impossible.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can combo off Tiger Uppercut FADC
Ultra II can combo off Tiger Uppercut FADC, can hit Bison in Devil’s Reverse followup (actually the hit box is so big, it can almost be used on reaction right when you flip in the air (retreating) and hit Bison. So be a bit more careful with this Ultra.

Sakura
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
Sakura doesn’t have a strong zoning game even though she has a slightly better fireball now. Her meta game is more based off safe strings to build meter and putting mix ups on Bison and anti airing with her c.HP, which is very fast by the way! In the long range, you shouldn’t even be hit

by much fireballs. Focus and build some meter.

In mid to close range, footsie and poke her out. Do not back dash if you can anticipate Shouken on wake up, it travels horizontally, so it will catch you. Instead neutral jump roundhouse as a bait instead. A lot of Ryu’s ground game ideas work against Sakura as well so you can refer to that.

Sakura has some nice mix up games on a defending Bison. Tick throws into neutral j.HK ticks throws again or into high low normal cancels into EX-Shunpuyaku resets.
Your main defense here is the immediately block the neutral j.HK and then crouch tech so she can’t throw you majority of the time and it will block the high low mix up normals.

Air Game:
She doesn’t have any notable aerial moves that would beat out Bison while moving forward. Some neutral jumping normals can tag Bison out but her c.HP is a much better solution. She may be slightly hard to cross up with the quick c.HP but when you catch her off guard, it’s easy and

hard hitting since her stamina is low.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I can combo off EX-Shunpuyaku in the corner.
Ultra II can combo off EX-Shunpuyaku’s which is why you have to be careful getting into her mix ups. This not only works in the corner but everywhere else also. It’s also a decent anti-air move against Bison but it’s relatively weak in damage because it’s very accessible off one meter / EX-Shunpuyaku.

Seth
matchup

[details=Spoiler]obviously, what is important in this match up is getting your damage once you get in, so you do not have to deal with the j.HP spam all over again. Be patient as you would be against Dhalsim. It may take some time to get in, but remember how quickly you can damage him and how quickly he gets stunned. Dictator can stun him in two combos effortlessly.

• if you are in his face and he tries to wall jump, j.MP will catch him.

• do not jump on Seth when he is in the corner and you are 4-5 characters away. The Seth player will be on the other side of the screen by the time you land

• doing the Skull Diver after the Headstomp gives Seth a free Ultra/Super Combo regardless where you land on the screen except behind him. If you do land behind him, that is a free SPD for Seth most of the time.

• blocking his st.HP/Ultra Combo up close gives Dictator free HK Scissor Kicks. If you ever block Seth’s Super Combo, you can do whatever you like. Jump in with HK/HP and do a combo.

• I think (but I am not sure) if he uses the teleport to escape your cross ups, slide is free. You do not have to worry where he lands since the slide will catch him to either side (since it is has a “d” input).

• if he ever teleports randomly next to you, you can just mash cr.LP/cr.LK. It will beat no matter what he does.

ULTRA SELECTION:

PROS:

CONS:

[/details]

T.Hawk
matchup

[details=Spoiler]This is somewhat another one of those lame matches you’ll have like against Zangief and E.Honda.

T.Hawk can be safe-jumped using the j.HP. It makes all versions of T.Hawk’s DP’s whiff, it beats all reverse DP’s, and it beats all 360’s (even EX!).

Blocked condor dives can be punished with Scissor kicks, Ultra II. His grab range is really far so if he decides to go toe to toe with you, just remember he does have some decent pokes and a c.HK that advances him forward a little bit. T.hawk is a brute strength character. His combos are few to none and majority of his damage is from throws and typhoon slams.

ULTRA SELECTION:

PROS:

CONS:

[/details]

Vega/Claw
matchup

[details=Spoiler]short scissors kick is bread and butter here, spam jump in + 3x.lp + scissor kick combo shenanigans, push him into a corner and just rape him.

Vega has no reliable anti air and if you spam jump in your long legs will stuff pretty much anything he can possibly do - if he flips out just walk forward and throw him.
Slide beats Vegas back flips. You dont even need to time it properly. As soon as he back flips, do a slide and you will hit\

M.Bison is a monster on the ground. His short scissor kick is like, un-fuck-wit-able. Not only will it stuff all your normals, but you can’t punish the recovery. So, basically, there are two ways of getting in on Bison:

• Jump ins. Bison doesn’t really have a practical response to jump ins (and by practical, I mean moves outside of his ultra and telepathic EX stomps.
• Learn to break his charge. If Bison isn’t charging, he isn’t scissor kicking you. Your normals will usually out prioritize Bison’s, but only if they aren’t getting punished by his scissor kick.

Wall diving is iffy for me right now. I’ve had success with it before, but only because I don’t think most Bison players realize that he can teleport to avoid attacks, and he may even be able to punish after the teleport.

This is actually a horrible matchup; second only to Blanka.

Update

According to Arlieth, you might be able to punish the lk. scissor kick on it’s recovery with a well timed kara throw. The depth in which the scissor kick can be before it isn’t punishable has yet to be determined. Stay tuned for more updates.

ULTRA SELECTION:

PROS:

CONS:

[/details]

[SUPARNOVAX]

Yun
matchup

Spoiler

Ultra Combo
Ultra 1 can anti-air very safely.

Yang
matchup

[details=Spoiler]
LP Slash seems like it’s safe chip like LP Rekka from Feilong.[/details]

Zangief
matchup

Spoiler

Ground Game:
This is one of those match ups where you should lame out the other player and get on their nerves. Don’t try to rush Zangief too much even though they did nerf his lariat hit boxes for SSFIV. Ultra II can hit him if he uses lariat but only under certain circumstances. I haven’t tested it thoroughly but something is preventing Bison from landing it at certain landing distances. You can sweep his lariat on reaction easily if he spams it.

What you really want to do in this matchup against Gief is stay out of lariat range. You want to be at max range s.HK distance so you can get the first punish on the lariat’s rotation. You’re able to punish after the first spin immediately. You can sneak in a Knee Press FADC throw, but you’ll probably land that once and still risky because you’re losing meter for this and you want your meter just in case you have to EX devil reverse out of meaty situations or EX psycho crusher out of the corner.

If he knocks you down, his best bet against Bison is to cross him up since he’s weak to crossups. Now, this is where it gets tricky: if it’s a full on crossup(Gief hits the other side) then you can teleport away from it. The teleport(backwards DP + kicks) will auto-correct and go the opposite direction and put you back at good distance. Don’t tech all your knockdowns and just pace yourself to escape.

Devil’s Reverse is still very useful for building up meter and just baiting Zangief to move around or move him towards the corner since they should be trying to back peddle and punish Head Press or empty Devil’s Reverse. Once you see a lariat come out, pull back and fist him from the air. Beats it clean especially if it’s hte PPP Lariat.

Devil’s Reverse is your friend in this matchup depending on how reckless the Gief player is with lariats. If he wants to spam them, you can start throwing those out and killing his lariat game free. EX-Head Press is only really good version tick 360/720 setups. I wouldn’t advise wasting it against his lariat. Just not worth it unless it’s meaty lariat or crossup splash c.short(or s.strong) lariat or tick into SPD. That’s the only time you can go for EX headstomp.

His j.HP (not splash) is still kind of hard to AA with s.HK. But most Zangief will use it as a late/close-to-meaty kind of method so you best bet is to either focus it or s.HK early and counter hit or beat it clean.

Blocked EX-Greenhand/Banishing Flat will open up to many punishes Bison can throw out. c.MK xx HP Psycho Crusher is one of the more high damaging punishes you can do to him now since it’s range and you torpedo away to the other side. If they FADC out, more power to you so they won’t have the extra EX-Greenhands at his disposal.

Unless your links are amazingly 120% executed, I would suggest using chain attacks after you successfully cross him up or land a good easy BnB combo to take his health out. Combo end with a knock down? Follow up with a Head Press immediately, even if it doesn’t hit, it will chip off 30 damage and you float away freely and safely against him. This annoyance is more effective when Zangief is in the corner because if he’s not, there’s other slight ways that he can possibly get out with such as back dashing or early jumping headbutt. If you see signs of this awareness, just hold it off and surprise him with it here and there. Every bit of damage helps.

If he focuses the Head Press, follow up with a well spaced EX-Skulldiver.

Remember, Zangief has 1100 health in SSF4, take your sweet ass 99 seconds each round. He ain’t going nowhere. M.Bison dictates the pace of this match from start to finish.

Lariat is very easily punished now, in close range, punish with c.MK xx HP Psycho Crusher / HK Knee Press.
In mid to long range, punish with a s.HK or slide.

Ultra Combo:
Ultra I basically the match up would play out 90% the same as vanilla. Just try your best not to be next to him.
Ultra II is hard to land, but if he has the Ultra meter, you’ll just stay grounded a bit more.

Evil Ryu

match up

Spoiler

Has a better looking evil eye

Oni

match up

Spoiler

Dies after three standing roundhouses.

[Commander]

I’m glad to see a new thread, but I have two emphatic suggestions:

1. Make the list alphabetical. It just helps to have standardization in any sort of formatting of information. The current ordering is not helpful, really.
2. Provide links, when possible, to obscure matchups. Having a single devoted thread for a character is better than a scattering of information over 1000 pages, and 10000 posts. Plus, it provides for more in-depth analysis, and prevents the repeated asking of certain questions.

Looking forward to a more helpful thread. Also, I’m glad to see you’re creating it since you are active on these boards and can actively maintain the thread.

[MAAATE]

[media=youtube]BSppT14AiBU[/media]
S-Rank Bison? yes please

[Optimus124]

[media=youtube]BSppT14AiBU[/media]
S-Rank Bison? yes please

That was a good ass match. Hit footsies were on point. Plus that pressure game was ridiculous

[Inverse]

I’m glad to see a new thread, but I have two emphatic suggestions:

1. Make the list alphabetical. It just helps to have standardization in any sort of formatting of information. The current ordering is not helpful, really.

I actually really like him separating it by their games Category. Everyone knows where to find Cammy in that list, or Rufus or Gen. You would have to not like Street Fighter all that much not to. For everything else, there is CTRL+F.

[Daemos]

[media=youtube]BSppT14AiBU[/media]
S-Rank Bison? yes please

You could practically smell the FEAR from Ryu during the last round, Dictator’s PP had Ryu’s fireball game crippled, super and ultra and all. Delicioussss!

[Commander]

I actually really like him separating it by their games Category. Everyone knows where to find Cammy in that list, or Rufus or Gen. You would have to not like Street Fighter all that much not to. For everything else, there is CTRL+F.

Veterans will know. But not everyone. I think it’s just more intuitive to use a standard organization system rather than something steeped in culture. The character discussion forum itself here on SRK is alphabetical.

[SUPARNOVAX]

Hmm… I decided to put them like that because if you wanted to look at their replays you could easily access them randomly in the replay channel too. And the fact that if you’re an avid Street Fighter fan you would know at least majority of which series these characters were conceived.

[Soular89]

Veterans will know. But not everyone. I think it’s just more intuitive to use a standard organization system rather than something steeped in culture. The character discussion forum itself here on SRK is alphabetical.

.

I rather have it alphabetical, more user friendly for everyone.

[SUPARNOVAX]

I’ll edit it into alphabetical order in a bit then. Thanks for the feedback.

[SoVi3t]

You could practically smell the FEAR from Ryu during the last round, Dictator’s PP had Ryu’s fireball game crippled, super and ultra and all. Delicioussss!

man, any person who doubts the power of PP should watch that video. Didn’t even HAVE to use it, just gotta make em think you will. Footsies were incredible in that match.

i know it ain’t much, but u should change the Dan strategy to mention only his U1 can be focused lol. Also, his taunts can now hit you, so watch out for SRK FADC taunt resets, and for some odd reason crouching taunt can stuff a few moves that I’ve come across. Still testing shit out in the Saikyo-iest thread there is.
Also it should be stated to beware his danku ‘games’ (lk danku can combo into U2).

[SUPARNOVAX]

I know, a lot of that stuff is copied from the old thread. I’ll have a lot of this edited to reflect updated discoveries since wapo’s last edits.

[SoVi3t]

oh i kinda figured that lol

still looking forward to seeing one hell of a sick thread going here

still wish it was called How To Keep Your Dic Safe or something to that effect

[ruff0123]

Some addition to the Rufus match up that I think you forgot to mention is that U1 can punished blocked EX messiah kick but you need to be fast because the overhead follow up can hop over U1 if done too slow. And what does SA mean in this part “- random SA to catch those dive kicks”

Abel match up addition: Abel’s c.mk is his best anti air, he can stop everything you try to throw at him. so it’s best to not jump in on him. You can blow thru a blocked CoD (1st hit) with EX Psycho Crusher or teleport, usually is a good idea to do it because that’s when Abel players would FADC and you can avoid the follow up mix ups.

[SUPARNOVAX]

Some addition to the Rufus match up that I think you forgot to mention is that U1 can punished blocked EX messiah kick but you need to be fast because the overhead follow up can hop over U1 if done too slow. And what does SA mean in this part “- random SA to catch those dive kicks”

Abel match up addition: Abel’s c.mk is his best anti air, he can stop everything you try to throw at him. so it’s best to not jump in on him. You can blow thru a blocked CoD (1st hit) with EX Psycho Crusher or teleport, usually is a good idea to do it because that’s when Abel players would FADC and you can avoid the follow up mix ups.

SA = Saving Atack = Focus Attacks in Japanese lingo. I’ll edit that for clarification.