I agree melubas, i’m at a complete loss when i play honda. Balrog is just the same to me though, they end up spamming specials and i feel like there’s nothing i can do. FBA is almost useless because headbutt-> ultra punishes. In both cases, if they get a life lead, its really hard to stage a comeback. Jumping in on honda is “somewhat” safe while jumping in on balrog is suicide. Honda just chills back and throws out random headbutts and throws in some hhs to keep me honest. Very hard match ups imo.
Blocked Honda head butts aren’t safe against Vega. You should at least be able to poke him, if not hit him with far standing Fierce, which should quickly shut down the head butt abuse.
But isn’t far standing fierce a really bad risk/reward? If you time wrong and eat a headbutt that sets you back pretty far.
Against EX head butts, maybe, but anything else should be easy enough. If timing is a problem then just use crouching strong. You could probably do crouching jab -> EX FBA, but not sure if head butts leave him close enough for it.
Edit
Change crouching strong to far forward, don’t know why I gave that up as information. And the jab wouldn’t hit, although straight EX FBA might.
Edit
Reversal EX FBA whiffs on jab head butt, hits the others (just barely hits EX head butt). Crouching strong works, but you have to walk forward for a bit and then do it.
There is no risk if you learn the timing.
Blocked EX headbutt is safe against Vega. No good Honda does random normal headbutts.
Once you know the match up, it isn’t as hard, although its still a little difficult. The izuna problem is really a problem, against him because of his focus attack. You really have to get him to open up, and punish what you can. You need to be good with your throws as well. Jump over the head butt and dodge the sumo slam and punish. The balrog matchup is far worse mainly because of balrog’s dash low and that stupid unfocusable overhead punch into ultra. Why does balrog have two armor break moves in the first place?
In certain cases blocked EX head butt isn’t safe against Vega, but those are bad spots to be in (in the corner it would be punishable but you shouldn’t be there against Honda anyway). If we’re talking about good Hondas, then you shouldn’t see random head butts at all, whether EX or normal.
Lately in the Ryu matchup I find myself not knowing where I’m supposed to be. Getting in is pretty tough, but once I am, I’m not really sure where to stay. Lately people have been jumping over my pokes and punishing me on my recovery. That sucks 
There is a spot where st.rh stops the opponent from jumping, but to hit that, I have to be closer… It really sucks that, just because of placing a poke wrong, I have an opponent on my neck and I know it’s just gonna cost me another third of my life bar to fend him off.
Ah, yeah. Don’t get me wrong, he doesn’t always jump. So I can’t really predict it…
yea this matchup is tough, mainly because of Vega’s slow dashes, I would say. I have found lk to be quite effective. Try to combo into FBA alot and tear him apart with it when you can. Focus attacks are your friend in this match so you got to get good with it. If his dash speed was a little faster though, then you would be able to handle the match much easier, with the evading and getting in which are the two main problems for Vega in this match. I am working on putting together some strategies for Vega, so yea Ill post something about this match sooner or later.
It’s soo frustrating man. Personally it’s a 8:2 for me. I feel like the only damage I’m doing is throws, punished shoryus and wakeup game. Maybe lp -> mp, but that’s all. Once he has me in the corner I’m just so free. And he doesn’t get hit by ANYTHING. Nada de carne.
I HATE THIS MATCHUP. Makes me not wanna play this game anymore.
if you work with your anti air and shut down ryu in the air it will really give you an advantage. Try the cr HP for crossups. It can really change the match alot for you. If you are really good with focus attacks then it can be quite useful for this match. And everytime he jumps just dash into cr HP. Although his focus attack/dash speed is pretty slow and not as useful because of it (since opponent can recover significantly faster before you do in a lvl 1 focus dash, and focus dash sometimes isn’t fast enough for the cr HP), it can still be very useful against ryu.
Wait what? Are you saying dash under ryu’s jumpins and crouching fierce? I honestly hardly ever use crouching fierce, if I do its on accident.
Also it seems to me like a well timed air tatsu beats out or trades with all of vega’s aa options.
You can crouching fierce ground tatsu on reaction. Air throw should beat air tatsu every time, so not sure about it trading there.
I can see how dash under -> crouching fierce could change the game plan for your opponent, but the dash would need to be near the start of their jump, right? Also, would it hit or trade with cross up tatsu?
Air Throw does NOT beat Air Tatsu every time. You can grab them out of startup, and I’ve had some success with a neutral jump air throw, but when I jump towards them air tatsu seems to win out more often than not.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again:
It is obvious that the developer’s wanted Ryu to be a beast. They wanted him to have easy mode options in every situation and never have an exploitable moment. Maybe they’re gay for him.
If ryu jumps in to attack you and IF the attack will cross you then on reaction you should be able to walk forward like a step and cr FierceP and it will beat it. If you are charging a focus attack and they jump to attempt to cross you then you may be able to dash and cross them and go for the cr FP. If he is not going to cross you but is jumping in then you may have to walk back a bit and then crouch FP and it should beat it. Right now I am testing this on online Ryu. The problem is that after I hit them like a few times in a row, they stop jumping at all so it is hard to test it. Some characters it doesn’t work on as well, or the timing may just be different. I have cr Fierce P alot of Sagat’s aerial attacks as well and some other characters. Realize that I am early in my testing though so I need more time to come up with better results.
Sometimes you can go under them by accident like the jump right when you do cosmic heel or cr fierce K, in which case you can do this move.
I just usually avoid air tatsu and ryu’s I play rarely use it so I don’t know.
you guys should use jump straight up jab to go over firebals
makes you about as big as you are when you are crouching. REALLY helps in the guile matchup… it’s got the furthest reach out of vega’s jump su normals too.
Anybody else having success against Rufus’s dive kick with far strong punch?
It’s been working for me so far.
Well I don’t know. I don’t play many rufus, but from what I gather they only do dive kick from close to you, not really from far away. What i do if I know that they are going to pressure me with dive kicks is that right when they are attacking me, and they go for the dive kick I counter with cl st lk. For other dive like moves (like cammy) I have found focus attack to be very useful so it should work well against rufus.
Use the jab early or late in the jump?