anecdote: I dropped a round to a T.Hawk player in tournament once because he had really good reactions and managed to jab a lot of balls and ultra one. Then I got kind of panicky and barely won the 3rd round of g1. Then I sat and thought about it for a second and realized that even with the jabs I was still getting more out of it than his jabs were doing to counter it because I would occasionally trade or counterhit him. So all I did to adjust was play closer when he had ultra, and I won very convincingly.
Just gotta play how you normally play and you’ll be fine.
Just ask yourself. what would mizoteru do? he would downback!!! I need to do this more, the only time i’m losing in tournaments now a days is when i’m rushing people down.
Yeah I’ve watched Mizoteru play Fei extensively before the switched back to Blanka, and it’s pretty much the same thing, he’s oppressive.
I honestly don’t think his reactions are any better than mine, but his ability to read and condition players is absurdly good where it looks like he’s reacting to stuff, and with his top level spacing it just rolls together where he looks psychic.
Yes it’s like he gives people the spacing on purpose because he knows they will do X move, but he’s already prepared to counter it. Just his undestanding of space control is just otherworldy.
I can’t stress how hard it is to say you can beat mago’s sagat in a big tournament with vanilla blanka.
I find that i’m using mizoteru’s old string of jumpin then LP electricity then s.LP xx blanka ball more. Pretty sure just the xx LP blanka ball cancel portion is unsafe for a few frames. I’m guessing of course, i should probably test it out for sure.
builds good meter and the s.LP after the LP electricity is safe. Well should be…
isn’t fs.LP xx LP ball unsafe at a certain distance even if it’s a cancel? While i’m not disagreeing that the blockstring i’m referring to is safe or not I’m just curious.
The more I play the more I realize you have to play super patient with Blanka too win at all against good players. Many of Blanka’s best ‘get in there’ options aren’t very good against someone with good reactions or a strong reversal. You just really need to get a life lead early on and sit on it the rest of the match. I’m using U2 against Ryu now because there are guaranteed chip kill options with it, and Blanka bomb is worthless against him because of EX DP, as is any overhead setup. Besides off a f.throw you just can’t fuck with a 3f DP.
character specific, but if you did a did a jumpin the whole thing should be a blockstring. the psuedo kara properties of st.lp even on hit/block push you forward a lot.
now if you mix in cr.lp you can leave a huge gap which can be useful vs. mashy people who don’t have a dp, or against someone who never hits buttons cause you can actually whiff the ball and throw them.
If you do crossup u1 correctly against ryu it’s a guaranteed chip kill and dp/ex dp both go the wrong way.
I like u1 vs. ryu because I’m looking to combo into it. U2 I just feel like I can’t use outside of chipping because if I try to sit on a fireball Ryu is just going to bully me.
If you’re in the right range its easier to jump the fireball and get a j.HK combo so perhaps you’re right.
Speaking of which, would you be up for critiquing some of my gameplay against Ryu? I’d need to convert the video upload it to YouTube first. When the footage is up I’ll probably make a post in the matchup thread or video thread. I feel like in that matchup its really hard to slide fireballs when you’re right in front of Ryu so waiting for him to throw one and jumping in at him during fireball recovery is a better option a lot of the time.
okay was gonna do a topic on os’s but my stick broke, so I haven’t really been playing much and I wanted to have pretty complete options and testing stuff on pad or on my broken stick takes too long.
next topic will be defense, I’m compiling data right now.
Basically going to be how to deal with other character’s options as Blanka
A few questions, well a lot of questions rather, but I’ll group them into topics:
My up close game is really bad in Street Fighter. I can jab electricity consistently but never get anything meaningful off it. What do you guys like to do after a blocked jab xx FP electricity? What are some good counterhit combos? I know off CH c.MK to c.HK and c.MK to CH Ultra 1. I need to make a better effort to understand the up close game and understand why blowing up crouch tech attempts with normals is good. Also does doing a normal throw vs a kara throw change the tech timing for the opponent?
After a successful jab electricity combo is it generally better to kara hop toward the opponent or stand your ground? Is it matchup dependent?
Oki. My oki game is weak. When I get a knockdown I tend to always do the same thing. The whiff LP Ball, ambigious j.MK/j.HP is really difficult for me to do, or find footage of besides the example Ves posted. I practice it a lot but I still can’t land it consistently in matches. As far as I know this is your only oki option for 3f DP characters. I know hop meat c.LK xx FP electricity works if you make it ambiguous enough.
What option selects besides OS sweep and focus/throw tech backdash are vital for Blanka play?
For characters that don’t have 3 frame reversals, what are you doing off forward throws? I know against someone like Guile, you want to backthrow them because your b.throw can lead to an unblockable. Is oki stuff with Blanka mainly matchup dependent? I see whiff LP ball setups a lot to try and bait a DP, I think I should start doing more of those.
Sorry if these questions sound super basic. I’ve found myself at a point where I realize that although I don’t think I’m “bad”, I can only really win against people with really bad habits, or in situations where I can just easily outplay the other person (baiting DPs, crossup setups they don’t know how to block, anti airing well). These are all vital skills to play Blanka well but I really feel like I’m missing the key fundamentals listed above, and its frustrating. I would like to have another breakthrough in my SF game and I am willing to put in the work, I just need a bit of guidance about the stuff above. Thanks to anyone that takes the time to respond to all these questions.