Evil Ryu vs. Balrog

As Evil Ryu, Balrog gets the better of me in almost every match I play. Can someone offer some advice on how to approach this match up? Any guidance, from the basics of fighting Balrog, to the intricacies of punishing specific moves would be greatly appreciated.

Well, I’m terrible at this game but in my local fgc, there’s a Rog main who says Ryu can outfootsie Rog with cr.MK. Maybe it’s the same for E. Ryu. Hm.
You can combo LK Tatsu into sweep against him, I think. Against easier Rogs, just stay out of jab range. If you’re in sweep range and he likes to mash sweep, just focus attack through it. If you’re outside of that, throw fireballs.

A few other things really basic things:

  • Headbutt can go through fireballs
  • Ultra 1 can go through fireballs
  • Turn around punch goes through fireballs (seems to be hard for less experienced Rog players to time, though) and it breaks armor
  • Watch out for overheads -_-

neutral jump more.

Audric,

Thanks for the pointers, I’ll look to focus through sweeps.

In this specific matchup, there are a few thing to remember

  1. Do not spam fireballs, you can throw it anytime at fullscreen because u can dp or Ultra 2 all his anti fireball option. But in mid range is where u should throw fireballs wisely.

  2. Dont rely on the cr mk into fireball string, cuz good rogs will headbutt thru if you space it far.

  3. Once you knock him down, try to throw him cuz it beats most of his armor reversals

  4. Once he is aware of the throw, do meaty cr.jab or light, if he headbutts, you will be able to block it if timed correctly. If it hits, hit confirm it into a combo. If he blocks, go for frame trap / tick throw

  5. You can do st fierece -> mk axe->cr mp- fireball fadc cr fierce - mk axe - cr mp - light tatsu - cr mp reset. This combo can take him to the corner and dish out big damage and stun. Plus its quite consistent with plinking.

  6. Dont mash dp or teleport

  7. Always block and punish his overhead with dp or cr mp combos

  8. Pick ultra 2, in case if rog tries to go through fireball with turning punch, then u get to u2 him before he hits u.

  9. Up close, make him fear ur crmp frametraps.

In my experience, I’d say always block high. The difference between the reward he gets from an overhead vs the reward he gets from a Hard knockdown is like night and day. He has no tricky mixups, just meaty throws or meaty normals leading to frame traps. If you can, try to block everything. But if you must, just take the low check. You can still defend yourself from the ground lol.

ayojolian

Thanks for the strategy. I’ve been trying to put it to good use. On knockdown I’ve been having trouble with the throw on Rog’s wake-up. c.lp seems to pull me out of the throw, and into combos. Any advice on fixing my timing?

Thanks again!

Yeah, his crouching jab is a pain lol. If he’s relying on cr.LP on wakeup that much, maybe you can do the stanard E. Ryu oki.

If you don’t know it, it’s forward throw, whiff cr.MP or st.MP, forward jump dive kick into full combo.

I’m glad you liked my opinion, but if the Rog just kept doing cr.jab on wakeup, just do a meaty st. fierce into your bnb for some huge damage.

I personally use Ken in this match but this match is annoying. We have an unblockable against him but literally he could do anything to get out of it so it isn’t preferred so let’s talk about neutral and various punishes nobody really talked about.

  • Dash straight -3 and punishable by DP at close ranges.
  • Dash low is punishable by low forward and your sweep. If you have 2 bars, make sure to KILL HIM IMMEDIATELY with your highest damage punish.
  • Jab overhead is safe now so be able to recognize the other versions and always punish EX with DP because I believe they changed it to -5
  • EX Dash straight and low are safe, do not attempt to punish.
  • The easy unblockable against him from 2012 still works being -forward throw slight walk back and jump roundhouse- but if he regular backdashes, forward dashes dash straight etc etc he gets out. Not always prefered but catches those who don’t know.
  • If Balrog uses TAP punish AS HARD AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN! U2, low forward FADC, or just straight up DP. DO NOT LET HIM BULLY YOU WITH THIS FRAUDULENT MOVE!
  • Never wiff low forward. He punishes with most of is buttons free. st.roundhouse st.fierce cr.fierce dash punch etc.
  • Offensively, a lot of players don’t realize that “stringing them up” with shorts and jabs and jumping to cross up charge characters is the most annoying thing in the world for them. They want to do something to stop it being jump back fierce in this match or random head butt or ex dash. That’s when you can start mixing up grab, frame trap, low forward to stop the jump back.

IMO still a bad match. I literally use Ken for this lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as0aBLsu2QM

okay I lied, here’s how I go about the matchup. I’m kind of just going NUTS in I understand, But I’m watching his charge and rushing down accordingly as an example.

http://youtu.be/HQta5JQb0cI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmtnC74WCQ&list=UU75xsS4fUN2zX4oRJjI58OQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TilsQ1DkZbk&list=UU75xsS4fUN2zX4oRJjI58OQ

This unblockable can be done in another way and its safer and not escapable because of the U1 OS, but it have to be timed manually. You can change it into a dive kick on reaction if you see the DWU.

After a c.mk xx LP Hadoken from max range you can buffer a c.MK xx HK tatsu and it will beat any EX or regular dash punch. However, the ideal is do do a c.MP xx something on reaction so you dont get exposed against whiff punishment