You gotta mix it up, quick st. jabs and cr. LK can be good, as well as the occasional st. or cr. RH. Focusing at the right range can be good too, if you dash forward after a blocked FA try to neutral jump RH, a lot of the time Sim will try to throw you out of the dash forward so this can work if you space it right. If you are close enough you can go for jumping crossup MK and he won’t be able to anti-air. I’ve also found sometime st. jab cancelled into forward hop can catch them off guard. Follow up to that would be throw or st. jab/cr. LK xx HP elec, or another neutral jump or crossup.
Hi, I’m new here and I would call myself average at best at SF4, but I’d like to offer just my own experience when it comes to Blanka’s match-up with Viper.
To me, a skilled Blanka has to have very good reactions, and on reaction, up-ball stuffs basically everything Viper does in the air if done early enough. And Viper LIVES in the air.
Also, IIRC, slide beats all ground-pounds, considering you don’t do it too late I guess.
Horizontal ball and up-ball up close is really easy to punish blocked thunder knuckles, as they have a pretty hefty cool-down. I don’t think Viper can punish off of being hit, but I know she can punished blocked balls. So basically, be careful and play very reactionary, and to me, Blanka has a very favorable match-up against Viper.
Ever since I’ve gotten to an “acceptable” level with Blanka, I don’t think I’ve ever lost to a Viper, including some really good ones (nothing like Marn or Flash or anything though). Maybe they just didn’t know the match-up, but I just think that a careful Blanka who waits for his chances and reacts fast can stuff any Viper.
Correct me if I’m blatantly wrong on any of this.
Against a great Claw player. Turtle and try to build meter when available. Ball is unsafe as it will eat slide. Only ball (horizontal) when you know it is safe (after a move or counter) and don’t spend all day trying to out poke the guy. He can’t play an air game against Blanka, so if you have a lead, a turtling blanka is going to be a better option than a turtling claw.
My worst match ups:
Ryu, Balrog, Sagat, Bison, Chun
Alright thnx. So basically as soon as you get close to him you gotta do your basic Blanka mixups as to not let him know what the hell’s going heh.
The thing that strikes me though (don’t think this is really for the Dhalsim matchup, but it is for almost everyone else) is that it’s pretty useless for Blanka to get upclose via his Focus Attack. I mean, his fastest normal move, cr.LK, has a startup time of 4 frames. Most Chars cr.LP have a 3 frame startup wich beat blanka’s. LP Elec has a startup of 5 frames and he can be trown/poked out of it.
So basically, whenever i try to FA, or even st.jab > Hop people can just mash cr.jab/cr.lk and my offense is broken… I end up blocking and not being able to do anything to continue my offense. What to do?
Mind you, i am able to just do this against 9 out of 10 opponents, but whenever i face someone who knows this i’m just mindfucked… like, what’s the use trying this…
Well don’t go for dash forward after focus that often. Also note that as I said, neutral jump is often a good thing to do right after dash forward after blocked FA, as one of Sim’s best options is to go for throw. Sim only has a few normals that startup fast, and short of slide LK into super, there’s not much he can do off of a hit light normal.
Keep in mind that Sim players can play differently, this is just my experience with the best Sim in my region.
Mullah how did you find your games against Zak then? Got any new tips on how to play that match up?
What are all of Blanka’s options after blocking first hit of Abel’s rekka?
My worst match-ups
1.Balrog
2.Blanka
3.Sagat
4.Honda
5.Bison
6.Dhalsim
i won 5-3 but its **online **so he’s still better and i’ll probably get whupped next time. i will try to record some matches with him soon, and hopefully i’ll get a lagtastic set in with tkk so there should be some vids.
basically i’d say stand firm, no balls, minimal focus attacks and footsies. press the advantage on knockdown by altering which side you land, tighten up all FA’s and elec bursts not fullscreen when he has super/ultra.watch for cr.tech traps on your wakeup and employ them yourself when crossing up and above all get your punishment game strong for when you get a chance to reversal ultra or st.lp make it count (not in the corner obviously).
I don’t think you are ready for him yet dude, your execution and ground game must level up a touch before you can go toe to toe with that monster, his skill exp and matchup advantage over blanka is too much. We all need luck to win 
.
Haha, i know i’m not ready for him yet but give me a couple of months or so and i should be doing much better against him (still be getting battered though :lovin:)
Thanks for the info though
So like…dunno if you guys know this. But horizontal balls get punished by Sagat’s Kara TU. Timing is somewhat tricky, But I can do it fairly consistently only after one hour of practice. He has to use lk kara and it works vs blocked balls even EX.
What a silly match.
I’ve been aware of this, but in my testing with a good Sagat player friend of mine it doesn’t seem to be a 100% punish as blocked blanka balls tend to have a sort of random factor in how far they get pushed back (see Rufus/Gouken punishes). If Sagat ends up whiffing he is in for serious pain if Blanka has ultra loaded.
Even on hit?
And thnx, BOJ.
No, Sagat can’t punish horizontal blanka balls on hit. Upball might be a different story but I’d have to double-check that.
You can punish the ball every time with lk kara if you block standing, but yeah you are right the bounce back is somewhat random.
You kinda have to delay the TU till Sagat is almost right next to Blanka then bust it out.
I didn’t know about this, its good to know. I first stated the matchup was 8-2 and sabin even mentioned it on the evo commentary because it sounded so outlandish but in reality this is the worst match in the whole game and if you didn’t think it was 8-2 before,well you probably do now.
This is what i know after 2 minutes in training mode:
Ex upball, blocked either standing or crouching is punishable 100% of the time with hk kara into fierce tiger uppercut. The hk kara has less range but moves sagat fastest.
A horizontal fierce blanka ball is punishable on standing block 100% of the time with a lk kara into fierce tiger uppercut. The trick to it is 2fold: 1st don’t reversal the lk, but to take a 1 frame step forward before pressing lk. Adds enough range to allow you to hit. 2nd You can stretch out/delay when during the animation you cancel the lk into a TU, there’s about one micro tile’s distance on the training room floor that you can play around with so aim to cancel it late obviously. but i’ve found this to be less important than step one, possibly because blankas hitbox widens as he reaches the ground and if you reversal the lk he’s still too high up. play around with it, its pretty easy once you do it for a couple of minutes.
Do you still use “TheMullah” as your main XBL account?
You seem to have been offline forever…
I also heard you got married? If that’s true, congratulations mate 
TheMullah:
Exactly. You can’t do the Kara TU as a reversal to punish the horizontal balls. You need to walk forward a split second and then time it so it hits Blanka as he touches the ground because his hitbox extends for a few frames when he does allowing Sagat to hit him. And Yes, you are totally correct about being able to delay the TU on the f+lk. I think the kara input window is around 3 or 4 frames. That’s just a gut feeling though.
This match is pure trash BTW. Completely skill less for Sagat to win it. For him to lose he must be drunk or whiff TU’s all fucking day.
Whats a good anti air against vega? Apart from the obvious EX upball.
I use cr.mp or neutral jp.fp for jump ins. i use ex up ball or jumback fierce or electricity for his wall dives.
Coulda sworn c.MP got beat out by Vega’s j.HP.