I’ve been using C-rugal for years, cammy can still hk rugal after his invincibility ends and before the lp repu reaches her, and mp/hp repus don’t let me move in (which is what I wanted to do…)
though, in my opinion, P and N are rugal’s best grooves. that low jump hk is too good, I personally use C cuz 1. I suck at parrying and 2. stupid 6 frame N groove jumps costed me quite a few matches
I guess K rugal is pretty helpless vs rushdown, I only used K for a few months, but C and N actually are ok against rushdown, just gotta speed up his game accordingly to keep up and know when to use counterattacks
I don’t like cancelling lks into his level 2, it’s definitely more economical in the long run, but really, the combo is down to the frame, you don’t cancel that final lk right away and it doesn’t combo, it only happened to me about 10 times ever, not bad considering I’ve been using him since summer 2003, but that’s a chance I’m not willing to take, if for nothing else, cuz losing that way REALLY REALLY sucks =(, worse than losing my potential 16th place finish at ECC10 cuz the stick decided to skip df for me when cancelling into super ;_;
vs cammy dive kicks, I’d try to rc something or just trade in my favor with a standing hp usually
since cammy makes me fear ever throwing repu out (run up CH hk and eat weak CH repu a few times is enough for me…), I wouldn’t say he stops cammy, again, it really depends on what type of cammy, my rugal does perfectly fine on conservative cammys, it’s when they just start random wiggling run up hking repeatedly that I become helpless, her jump is AA-able so that’s not really the problem
psychic RC repu for chip punishment that’s not even guaranteed (if not the first time, they’ll JD it the second time) really isn’t a good answer for her pokes…she stops genocide cutter clean, and, I’m not RCing anything they leaves me wide open for a super =P
I’ve used his c lk st lk dp combo like 3 times my entire life, only when I don’t have a super to cancel into, and I must say, it is the suckiest combo I’ve EVER seen in my life, you have to be literally point blank to get both hits for about 1800 damage, otherwise, the whole combo does like 1000 damage (%@$#@%!!!), I’d rather do 2 lks and random hard and that’d be more damage (1500 fast high priority sweep anyone?), and lowering their guard bar is good for pressuring them into making mistakes anyways
lastly, rugal’s ground game, however weak it seems, is indeed his strongest game (cmon, dive punches and low jump hk isn’t THAT good, they’re just hard to deal with, not really safe), but I think it’s only weak because you’re comparing it to top tier, he has a good variety of pokes for different situations to control the other guy’s space, a godly dash, decent run, great run up pokes, it’s all about threatening them enough times so that they stop rushing you (he really needs a storable level 3 for this), cuz when you can turn any random c lk ™ into 8000+ damage, trust me, they WILL stop pressing buttons =P
K-blanka has answers to K-cammy, I’m sure an absolute max range slide is safe from anything she can do, and that’ll discourage her hk attempts, then you can start low jumping the crap out of her for free, your pokes are comparable to hers even without the discouragement, since st hk isn’t that meaty, I think a well timed KK hop (on reaction) can be used like a pseudo dodge (I’m really not sure about this, don’t say you haven’t been warned when you get st hk’ed again on recovery =P), but all in all, blanka shouldn’t have a hard time keeping it in the middle with his decent pokes, great attack options, and uber low jump and cross up
c mk/hk -> repu isn’t safe, they have at least a full second to think of something between the poke and the lp repu, and mp/hp repus don’t give you the neccessary frames to move back in for more harrassment and are still unsafe, c hp leaves them much tighter frames and will discourage them from trying to jump out so I can keep them cornered, I’m not much of a risk taker =P
and, if their name happens to be cammy, neither is safe
…I don’t like cammy, damn nick (chack not T) and his run up hk abuse scarred me for life with eternal loathing of cammy
hmm, fridays huh? that would explain it, I don’t have class on fridays anymore so I spend it doing other things =P