Blanka Discussion #2: Frame Trap/Throw Mixups

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
1

It’s almost friday and I’m busy tomorrow so this is a little early, but whatever.

Quick overview:

Blanka has the special/normal move with the most blockstun in the game with HP Electricity(+10), however his normals do not cause especially good blockstun which really hurts his frametrap game in a lot of respects, however you can use a combo of meaties and elec in conjunction with his fast walk and good hitboxes to land counterhits into sweep or whiff punish throw techs.

Blanka has a good kara throw(lp~lk) and a fast walk speed, this coupled with his crouching/far normal hitboxes can make a lot of people worried to hit buttons, thus allowing you a chance to land a throw.

Remember this thread is for discussing solid setups NOT GIMMICKS. blocked electricity -> hop -> throw is not what we are talking about here. This is about using your frame advantage and your kara throw to your advantage, and landing counterhits.

I’ll chime in with more information once the discussion gets rolling.

Next weeks topic: Okizeme

2

Back in the day I used to really struggle with beating good players who had strong defence and a srk,I used to be resigned to the fact that up close blanka was awful because after blocking anything your opponent could srk you and fadc into huge damage, whereas my payoff was the damage of whatever normal I was going to hit next. it wasn’t until I stopped playing blanka and picked up gouken casually that I learnt about tech traps and the value of potential damage scored off a knockdown.

First thing to do is to establish a precedent and test your opponents throw tech game. Say you land a jump attack you go for the throw. If it lands then run your canned throw mixups (next weeks discussion), if it’s tech’d then next time you land a jump in you can try to run a counter hit trap.

Ok, here are some tech traps I would use if I were to pick up the game today, remember your choice should always be that which represents the greatest risk to reward ratio. If you have ultra, then run a tech trap that gives you time to get charge.

Jump attack opening:

Jump attack, cr.lkx2, cr.mk > U1
Jump attack, walk forward a step, cl.st.mp > cr.hk.
Jump attack, cr.lk x1, cr.mk > cr.hk.

After the cr.hk, run a safe jump setup (another weeks discussion?) into another tech trap or throw mixup, or an overhead.

Edit: So with the above setups, if your counter hit into sweep nets you say 170 damage, you might be thinking " that’s not very much damage who cares?", but you must consider the chain of events that follow…

After the knockdown, a safe jump followed by a full punish of a blocked anti air reversal could net you say 200 to 400. Running another trap if they block your safejump can net you another either nothing if they fully block, 170 if they fall for the same trap or 400 if you now have ultra to use after the counterhit. That’s a LOT of potential damage, certainly worth being fearless of eating srk fadc ultra for. Dont forget our new overhead is great after sweep, and also leads to ultra or a cr.mk x ball.

I’m throw heavy at the start of a round when I have no meter so it conditions them to tech by the time I have meter. I would say go for a counter hit trap 70% (bait 30%) of the time when you have ultra. Unless you can unblockable i wouldnt even try for a throw when i have ultra. When I have no meter and the opponent is sitting on meter to fadc a reversal I will probably drop trapping to 30%( throwing 20%, blocking 50%). if they have no meter I’d run a trap with a frequency of 40/40 vs throwing, with blocking 20%.

I don’t know any elec traps that are not srk bait. So I’d be interested to learn about that.

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Safejumps will be covered in the Okizeme discussion.

It’s going to be a huge topic, and I’m going to write a humongous primer. It will also be a two week topic. I might split it up into two discussions though to make them more focused.

Also i still need to compile some info from week 1. I’ve been busy guys, sorry.

Oh and Mullah, good stuff getting us started.

4

Before I add anything to this topic (if I really even have anything), let me just point out that depending on your opponent, the counterhit with cl.strong might have to be done rather quickly rather than walking forward a bit…not everyone late techs, a lot of people (bad players) crouch tech like immediately and so if you wait you’re just gonna eat a crouch short. So it’s all about knowing your opponent.

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I watched T SRAI using a good trap with the big blockstun of the jump roundhouse, after a blocked jump forward roundhouse, he do a close strong and he has a lot of counter hit with it, very useful, the only Blanka i see use this trap.

Jump attack - close strong - crouch short (character specific, on some characters, the crouch short whiff)

Jump attack - close strong - crouch forward (good on characters witch don’t have light 3 frames)

close strong - far jab

close strong - far round house (be careful, you’re -10 on block and -5 on hit)

far strong - sweep

far strong - far jab

crouch forward x2

crouch forward - crouch short - stand jab

crouch forward - stand jab x2 (it depends of the spacing)

crouch short x2 (it depends of the spacing) - stand jab

crouch short x2 (it depends of the spacing)- crouch jab

crouch short x2 (it depends of the spacing)- crouch forward

crouch short x2 (it depends of the spacing)- stand roundhouse

far strong - crouch fierce

far strong - stand fierce

crouch strong - crouch fierce

far stand fierce - crouch fierce

crouch forward - crouch jab - stand jab

close stand forward - stand jab

close stand forward - stand round house

I have a lot of counter hits and good priorities with the far standing strong… don’t understand why… this poke don’t have a great start up and a big hurtbox, but i can use it with success lol.

For the kara throw, i like to use it after blocked elec, just walk a bit and kara throw, it’s good when you mixups with pokes, and also after a blocked overhead, you can walk too a bit and kara throw, it can be a decent setup, you can poke too, for example with crouch forward.

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I like slapping people with st.lp, with tiny walks in between, not really a frame trap… but on characters without a 3 frame srk/piledriver, it can be a good annoyance into eventually getting a confirm into xx hp.elec. … and it feels as good as taunting*

  • and you get lots of ‘turbo’ accusation messages on xbox live.
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I do that sometimes too vs certain characters like sim if ive pushed myself out of range and im not sure what to do. but it’s actually zero frames on block adv, so if the opponent has a 3 framers they can potentially trade, although hit boxes for most 3 frame normals don’t allow for that to happen vs blankas st.lp because of its range and height perhaps?

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Good answer.

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/640872hitboxesblanka011.jpghttp://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/813756hitboxesken011.jpg

I think you have a lot of trade most of the time against 3 frames lights.

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If you look at the ‘horizon’ line in the training stage pics above you can see the height difference. This is the full ken hitbox image:

Looks like Blankas st.lp beats a lot of kicks. Anyway, not really a frame trap bit of info but I thought it would be interesting to see. Sorry, back to frame traps.

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i’ve found myself doing a lot of safe jumps with j.mk into either throw or delayed st.mp. The hitstun is good enough so that the combo to st.mp is nigh impossible to drop if you hit them, the delay between the two is nice and long meaning it’s harder to accidentally not-block slower reversals after your safe jump (problem case: cody >_> )

the hitstun after a counter hit st.mp is pretty generous and from that close up that you can basically do whatever you want with plenty of time to react to the hit. Sweep, combo to super, or just combo for the damage to take the round.

if you’re baiting a reversal and don’t want to eat some dumb lazy fadc mixup/makemesafe (fuck you seth.) you can hop/backdash immediately after the j.mk. (hop is especially well-wicked-sick on honda as it makes everything whiff. Screw that ex headbutt chip damage :confused:

A problem I guess is that it’s very easy to detect where the frame trap is, but often due to blanka’s frame data that’s pretty easy anyway.

I’m not a great player and I don’t have great execution, so this simple set up is a very easy way for me and probably other new blanka’s to create that throw vs frametrap mixup without much effort. Rather than think too hard I just center my offense around the critical point of ‘what do i do after j.mk’ Because I’m also not confident with my post sweep safe-jumps I tend to go for throw a lot, or even counterhit mp into tick throw haha, which is a waste of a guaranteed sweep but it favours my current level of execution.

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To practice safe jumps just record fei doing d/b, d/f, kick, mash it hard and fast. When u set the dummy to playback sweep him and he should reversal flame kick everytime. Now sweep him, pause for a few frames and jump at him with a jump attack. Get the timing down, test you’re not inputting too early by turning off playback and running your sweep and jump attack and make sure it’s not whiffing. Learn it, don’t be afraid to go for it everytime when you play.

Just remember frame traps can come out of other situations. If you hop at someone and land a cr.lk, you can then run the 3rdframe trap in my post, or if you cr.tech and get a cr.lk to stuff your opponents attempt you can try that frame trap also.

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One thing you can do if you don’t feel super confident is to empty jump a bit more which lets you block a couple of frames more. Once you have established that you can block reversals in someway people are more inclined to wakeup block.

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And about traps, you use focus ? Against 3 frames lights or not ? How you baits some footsies with it ? I know it gives +1 and -4… not very good but great hitbox and range… like his normals.

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St.Mp or Cl.Mk, tell me why? I think both are equally viable. The range of variable stun off a jump in negates their use. Six and five frame startup respectively, +(2)5 and +(0)3. Frame traps wise. I know I’m more likely to get srk’d out of a cl.mp. Nice as cl.mp is and all. Oh yeah… hold on…

but is (2)3(2) active frames not better than (2 straight) during lag. Sorry.

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cl.mp leaves you at + frames, does more damage on counterhit, and also lets you link easier both normally on counterhit.

cl.mk I really only use to break armored moves.

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But as usual with cl.mp it always starts up 1- 2fr too late, cl/sf.lp is better choice. /mp is experimental, if I know I’m winning. Different jump-in spacing etc. I know O/H setups, and can time cr.lk meaty and dash/hop elec sound. Safejumps are intermediary .

17

If a player srks me out of a cl.mp, I’ll start using cr.mk, or I’ll simply block the next go round or empty jump.

Off of a highish crossup I use cl./cr.lk anyways.

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I like the stringy-ness of Blankas normals lately. They seem well spaced, or I’m just getting used to them. I would like to say when / where the strings are best but it’s more of a flowing thing. But I know know his ranges are mostly covered.

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I like to use more close MK since i know the setup to kara throw, very effective.

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The biggest problem with doing cl.mk to kara throw is that you aren’t at + frames(normally), so if your opponent is willing to commit to a 3f normal they can beat all of your followups or trade.