Yes i know, but after a blocked close MK, people generally doing nothing and no expecting for a throw at this range.
I have an answer for the close LK, you use it for tick throw or something ? It leaves at -2, it’s different than 0 ?
I just use cl.lk if I’m going to cancel straight to electricity, I never tickthrow with it unless I have a huge read.
When I play good players they understand that cl.mk is not + frames so they generally hit buttons. Don’t like to put myself in that situation when cl.mp/cr.mk into kara throw works.
St.lp, cl.st.mk, st.lk etc are not going to leave you in a position to link into a sweep. So you have no potential damage through follow up options of safe jumping or overhead. So you’re risking eating an srk fadc ultra etc for what 50 damage? What am I missing here? Why would you ever use them? Your frame adv off a jump attack means the faster startup of those moves over cl.st.mp is irrelevant, the hit box advantage of cl.st.mk is also not a factor either for the same reason.
Except for very specific situations, I find close mk to be absolutely worthless. The link to jab is too hard and unreliable, and not enough plus frames for any real setups that cant be mashed out of/srk’d. I heard close mk beats out special counters (gouken’s) and it also beats viper ex groundpound, but even so, the dmg is never worth it and there are other, safer, and better things to do, even insituations where close mk is useful.
Not to jump on the Why close mk sucks pile, but, yea, I think its pretty ass.
I don’t really have too much to say on this comment. Mullah covered all the major setups. I like to do crossup mk into close strong, very effective frame trap. But after elec, there are just a million god damn options. You can whiggle whiggle and block, whiggle and low mk(ch) into low rh/low strong, walk forward and stand jab~elec. You can hop after the elec if you think they will backdash. You can just low fierce after elec, that in itself is also a frametrap with the slightest of pauses. Same deal with low rh.
I think the big deal, though, is to not be predictable with your frametraps after elec. Smart opponents in the end will just block, and its pretty easy to break blanka’s throw attempts, but you need to do them anyway to keep opponent honest.
and against people with srk’s, especially with meter, just zone, and fuk all this frame trap stuff…just not worth it, unless you can read your opponent and know he is ass.
Josh, i agree with you except on not using cl.mk against characters with armor moves. The amount of damage you can get off of it is ridiculously high. Everytime I hit gouken with cl.mk, cr.mk, u1 I get a little giddy. But most importantly it opens up other options for you once you’ve established that he will get messed up for trying to counter.
Gotcha.
Its not something I ever really tried to be honest, but when i play our gouken ill keep that in mind.
Umm, how are you linking cl.mk into cr.mk? It’s +3? or bc you do it against counter moves, the second knee hit is CH, making you have +5 frames?
it’s +6 actually because of the counterhit. You can do some fun stuff.
I can’t really add much that hasn’t been said already, but here’s some minor stuff.
I like to do a lot of crouch short into close jab into electricity, a lot of times the jab xx electricity catches people hitting buttons even after blocking the short. I suppose it should trade with 3 frame jabs but I don’t think I’ve had that happen too often.
As for throws, I often play against a friend who is really good at late teching, as well as just reading me and making good guesses (he’s a fuerte main lol), and so it’s really really hard to ever throw him or even frame trap him…but I find myself able to throw him a lot when I do this: Jump in (blocked), slight walk back, slight walk forward throw. That walk back really just throws off people’s timing…then once I get that I can start finally hitting cl.strong there as well.
I think the best players just late tech, no one has the reflexes to react to a blocked cr.lk followed by a cr.mk and block the cr.mk whilst also being able to react to a kara throw instead of that cr.mk and teaching it. If they’re not going to reversal then it is a guess they have to make. Tech and get counter hit, block or be thrown. Delayed tech beats sloppy counter hit setups so people can undervalue the strength of this mixup.
I know that feeling bro, see my first paragraph in my original post! I think you play blanka like I did when I played, very well, but if you don’t see the real and potential damage values from not respecting that reversal you really can’t win vs the best srk characters, as blanka is an up Close rush down character now his balls suck at being used as pokes. IMO of course, I barely play any more!
You play better players than me… people I know instead just become inclined to wake up throw rolleyes
So infuriating to be hit by when it loses to anything but empty jump/ meaty throw
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.
Here’s me doing jab xx ball vs gouken like a sucker.
wait what? how do you get counterhit cl.mk on the second hit?
Breaking an armored move/focus.
Anyways I’ll chime in later tonight on some things. I have some good stuff
Still waiting for Ves’s chime in…for no good reason since sf4 is about as dead as dead can be for a game thats still at evo. 
Sorry, I’ve been really disenchanted with this game for the past few weeks.I’ll try to put something together.
U cant be disenchanted, U ARE BLANKA!
I hear ya ves, I just played the game last night, actually landed crossup mk, 3 low shorts into ultra, and it felt like nothing because A: SFxT is around the corner, so this shit dont matter, B: SFxT, and C: wasnt in a tournament so still doesnt matter.
But to put a real world spin on it all, SF4 always sucked because the game itself is so limited, and its structure always seems to favor gimicks and bullcrap over solid play. Lack of a guardbar makes the game Zzzzz, add in ambiguous cross ups, unblockables, and other retarded crap, and I just wanna play something new.
Josh I feel the same.
Literally all I have to test with Blanka is ambiguous jumping setups. It’s boring and uninteresting.
I’m excited for sfxt and I’m going to keep my blanka sharp with some upcoming tournaments, so we’ll see how that goes.
Agreed. Only thing that i am not really consistant with is the perfect timing for the crossup fierce. And frankly, the payoff on that, versus typicall seth bullshit, is so noncomparable that, again, its like, why bother?
When decent players can lose to 1 month seth copying poonko, there is something wrong with this version of the game.
I’m picking whoever ves picks in sfxt nomsayin’ guysssss!!!