Blanka Is What Made Dylan Go Electric - a Guide
Overview
What is Blanka good at? In order of importance
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- Punishing opponents’ mistakes.
- Needling, disruptive neutral game
- Excellent and versatile mobility - difficult to zone out.
- Strong, lame keepaway game
- Excellent wake-up options with meter.
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What is Blanka not good at? In order of importance
- Dealing damage in big chunks
- Fighting without a partner to tag out to
- Sustained frame pressure
- “Legit” mixups
- Making comebacks
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Who is a good partner for Blanka? In order of importance
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- High-damage anchors who have trouble getting in (Paul, Kuma, Hugo)
- Characters with strong oki setups (Zangief, Julia, Marduk)
- Strong zoning characters who can preserve a life lead (Sagat, Dhalsim, Alisa)
**Who is not a good partner for Blanka? In order of importance
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- Low-damage/High-mobility characters (Rolento, Poison, Ibuki)
- Characters with very low tag-in damage from Launchers (Rolento, Cody, Yoshimitsu)
- “Jack of all trades” characters whose strength is the neutral game (Ryu, Hwoarang, Lars)
**Execution level: **Relatively low, with a spike at higher levels of play. Blanka has several 1f links which optimise his BnB damage potential, and allow for safer hit-confirms. Pianoing into HP Thunder from an isolated jab is also extremely execution-intensive in SFxT due to cross rush mechanics, and though it is not necessary for his game-plan, it is a powerful tool. His optimised tag-in combo also requires excellent timing.
General Information
**Health: 1000
**Standard health, at competitive levels this is a real advantage since much of the upper tiers have low health. This is also useful since playing Blanka often involves taking calculated risks.
**Walkspeed: 50 forwards, 45 backwards
**Blessed with of the fastest walkspeeds in the game, this really helps Blanka’s footsies and throw game. It also helps out when evading jump-ins and escaping pressure.
**Jump-arc: 33f diagonal jump, 35f neutral jump
**A fantastically fast diagonal jump (only Marduk’s super jump is better) means that Blanka’s jumping offence and defence are top-notch. His jump-arc is very narrow, meaning that you can cross-up from point-blank range with ease, but it also means that long-range jumps to punish or attack over projectiles are much more difficult.
Notable normals
**St.LP: 30 damage, 3f startup, +3 on hit/-1 on block
**With a startup of 3f, massive range and special cancelable, this is a move you’ll be using a lot. Its main function is as a disruptive tool in footsies, and as an incredible punishing tool when defending. It’s -1 on block, so walk-jab pressure is unviable if the opponent has a 4f normal, although it combos into itself on hit. This is the key to much of Blanka’s damage.
**St.MP: 60 damage, 7f startup, +5 on hit/+1 on block
**This normal has a tiny bit more range than st.lp, but has 7f startup, making it a much riskier proposition in footsies. You are rewarded if it connects though, at +5 on hit and +1 on block. It’s a good choice against characters without a strong normal at this range, such as Marduk or Bryan. Otherwise it’s mostly unremarkable.
**Rock Crusher: 90 damage, 6f+ startup, +5 on hit/+1 on block
**This is one of Blanka’s most important normals. Used normally, it’s essentially a 7f fierce, which links into either st.LP or cr.MK for combo continuation, hits twice, lasting long enough for you to regain charge if you’ve crossed up, and is frame-advantageous on block. It’s a fantastic option off a jump-in.
When held, you can delay the startup of Rock Crusher, and if you delay it long enough it goes into a 25f startup overhead, which is very slow, but rewarding. Besides the aforementioned links, you can also tag in a partner on the first hit to go for a bigger combo.
One caveat though: the fact that you can hold this normal to delay it makes it different from almost every other move in the game. This means that if you want to get the 7f startup, you need to press the button extremely briefly. Failing to do so could mean Rock Crusher ends up coming out in 7,8 or 9 frames, allowing it to be beaten out quite easily, even after jump-ins.
**Amazon River Run: 100 damage, 10f startup, hard knockdown on hit/-15 on block
**Amazon River Run needs to be used with care. It starts up in 10f and deals good damage, and the fact that it hits low and reaches half-screen makes it excellent for breaking open the long-range footsies game, allowing you to score a hard knockdown and get in. This is one of Blanka’s key tools against characters with excellent fireball and zoning games like Ryu, Akuma and Alisa.
However, it’s only safe at absolute maximum range, so use it carefully and sparingly. Watch out for neutral jumps, the preferred counter to this. You can blow this counter-strategy up with forward hop into upball. Represent both successfully and you can do a good job paralysing your opponent at mid-range. It’s also a good anti-air for long range jump-ins, a good check to opponents who want to throw fireballs at mid-range, and a good punish in situations where your st.LP won’t reach.
**Cl.HP: 90 damage, 8f startup, +0 on hit/-6 on block
**This normal was buffed in 2013 - now it’s special cancelable. This leads to some interesting possibilities, such as fake cross-throughs with Hops and the ability to EX cancel unsafe cross rushes. It also makes it extremely easy to go into electricity, a major pressure tool for Blanka.
**Cl.MP: 60 damage, 6f startup, +6 on hit/+2 on block
**This is Blanka’s most frame-advantageous normal, leaving you at +6 on hit and +2 on block. It’s very easy to confirm this and combo into cr.mk off a jump-in, leading to a good damage cross rush. Use this a lot in laggy conditions if your Rock Crusher or cr.MK links aren’t coming out.
It also sets up Blanka’s best frame trap, as noted below in the “Combos” section.
**Cr.MK: 60 damage, 5f startup, +4 on hit/+0 on block
**This is a very decent cr.MK, as it starts up in 5f, has decent range and can link into st.lp (2f link). This is your go-to move for empty-lows, and is a good option for close-range footsies, as it’s a medium-range move you can link into st.LP (you can also link into st.LP from st.MP, but at 7f startup that move is riskier to throw out, and doesn’t hit low.)
**St.HK: 90 damage, 4f startup, float on hit/-12 on block
**This move is deceptively useless. Don’t be fooled by it’s 4f startup, or the fact that it floats the opponent. The float property on this move is only really useful in the corner, where you can juggle into cr.mk x2 then upball. It also has a use midscreen as a max damage jump-in without tagging out (j.HK, cl.HK, cr.MK xx HP Upball).
**St.MK: 60 damage, 5f startup, -3 on hit/-7 on block
**This is Blanka’s best anti air normal, and it’s mediocre. You need to hit it very late to get it to work, and it’s a big risk for relatively little reward. You’re usually better off attempting to air-to-air with j.hp.
**J.HK: 100 damage, 7f startup, +20 on hit/+8 on block
**With a fantastic hit box and coming off of one of the best jumps in the game, this will be a frustrating normal for many opponents. No special tactics here, use it when jumping in same-side. It can sometimes cross-up.
**J.MK: 70 damage, 5f startup, +16 on hit/+5 on block
**Blanka’s cross up. It crosses up wide and can hit quite deep. Very abusable.
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J.HP: 100 damage, 6f startup, +20 on hit/+8 on block
**Blanka’s best air-to-air, this ground bounces on counter hit, leading to cr.mk x2 xx upball. You may not always be able to land two cr.mks. Charging a counter hit with Blanka is a good strategy because of this move - unlike many other moves with special properties on counter hit, j.HP is fairly easy to land, as you can react to any forward jump with a j.HP and be almost sure to hit them.
Also remember that you can use this while jumping backwards, and if you get the ground bounce, you can follow up with Blanka Ball or Super for a good chunk of damage.
