Mostly with punishing wall dives. if their throw timing on it is perfect, you can’t throw, jump or antiair. if you dont have TAP charge, what are your other options? he grabbed me out of a TAP as well.
Yes, please, for god sake someone please help with claw!!! My friend is driving me nuts! Wall dives, in particular the throwing wall dive and throw ultra drive me nuts… I feel I am doing ok during the rest of the battle, but when the throw dives come out i’m fairly free it seems… I hate Vega with a passion right now… LOL 
lol, been there, it looks like magic. But if they’re on point with the throws, you can push him closer to the wall so you can try to hit him in transit with j.mp. There are a lot of different strategies for avoiding them. I remember that balrogs FA moved him a bit out of range. The point the izuna drop has to hit is right behind the characters neck so to speak, at least when i go for the looping izuna drops, that’s the point i shoot for. So you do things to make them miss that window, or just get the hit so they don’t have enough time to charge and setup for another izuna.
Here are some posts i collected a while back on vega, testing ways to beat izuna drop is going to be a bitch, well here’s something i wrote a while back, if you search through the other MU thread there’s a lot of posts about avoiding Izuna drop. The best advice is to not give him the opportunity to land the first one, and that’s footsies. Flying Barcelona is a dangerous move because when it whiffs it can be punished hard, throw is the only way to make it safe. 
I’m not positive if it grabs crouching (I think it does, but i haven’t tested). Crouching (and backdashing) at the last moment may be an option too since it makes him have to readjust the grabbing window and the closer he is to the ground the less adjusting he can do.
I should be done with Fuerte, Dudley and Gen by Sunday/Monday and i’ll jump on claw. Aside from the wall dive shenanigans any other issues?
**edit
If you didn’t already know, vega can lose his mask and claw, claw reduces damage and range on some attacks, losing the mask makes him take more damage, but deal more as well.
There are many ways to avoid Vega’s wall dive shenanigans which were already explained so I won’t reiterate it. I will say though that a late s.MP is a very consistent and underutilized counter to wall dives. The real problem with this match-up is the mid range game. He has better pokes and a faster walk speed than you, so playing footsies with him is rather hard. Unlike most match-ups it’s actually a good idea to jump in, as long as he doesn’t have a charge. So what I typically due while caught in mid range against Vega is to dance around a bit forcing him to move and lose his charge then immediately jump in. Without access to flip kick or an ex wall dive Vega essentially has no chance of countering a well spaced j.HP. Once you get in abuse walk up jab pressure. Most of your damage will come from 50/50 mix-ups between frame traps and tick throws.
vega can grab s.mp AA’s iirc. a well timed wall dive can grab any grounded normal move if timed correctly.
I think we’ve established that izuna drop is pretty gdlk, BUT, I stand by a post naked david made a while back:
It’s more important that your spacing makes flying barcelona unsafe. You could push him to a corner, so he can’t get to the wall easy since you can hit him in transit. You can also attempt back yourself to a corner so you can air to air a bit easier. It’s also important to know when it’s safe to jump to a2a him because if you jump to early he can just fly behind you and grab you. This is also when it’d be nice to have a TAP charged up so if you jump in the air to hit him, and he decides to just land instead of risking being hit, you can land and TAP during his god awful recovery…all while maintaining back-charge.
Also, this is how the hitboxfor izuna drop looks.
Rufus is a 5:5 match, but there is only one thing that really annoys me: EX messiah kick. I can handle dive kick (mostly), crossup, etc, but that EX messiah kick can be option selected and I can’t seem to touch him at any point, period.
What’s the best punish when Rufus uses that and we block? When can we attack? Can we attack even if Rufus delays the additional kick button press?
If he goes for a follow up, EX heabutt
new MU’s added - Dudley, Gen, El Fuerte (dud’s got some notes on that double post a page back).
El Fuerte Notes
Spoiler
[LIST]
[]Only lk.guac can grab you out of a backdash, and this works midscreen and in the corner.
[]Tostada press can be done out of the backwards and forward habanero dash (and wall jump). Blocked press out of backdash has significantly less negative frame advantage on block (but it still punishable by ultra). the numbers are (-16/-17 vs. -12). This may make a difference if attempting to punish with a reversal dash upper.
[]backdash is airborne, but very fast.
[]Sometimes j.hk, cl.hk will whiff.
[*]OH can only combo into cr.hk when he’s crouching, anything will combo when standing/CH.
[/LIST]
Thanks for the Elf info. I can beat them, but I don’t learn shit from it.
As far as vega’s izuna drop, i’m thinking that the most SUREFIRE way to avoid it is to do a TAP when he’s right on top of you. Needs some testing, but i’m pretty sure that TAP has full body invulnerability from frames 1-18 so if you do it when he’s right on top of you he can’t throw you since he only has 11 active frames. Number-wise. He may still be able to attack you afterwards but he might not be in range.
Still needs some testing though.
**edit
TAP isn’ throw invincible >_< go figure. will try out the cl.fp below
after playing with my friends vega, i’ve actually discovered an almost fail safe method of countering walldive. ive tried tap, s.mp, delayed headbutt but my friend found ways to counter all those with a well timed wall-dive. I found that a cs.fp beats walldive clean. The hitbox on cs. fp is suprisingly huge as i’ve hit him out of walldive in situations where it would cross me up and even when hes completely behind me. The key to it is to time it right before he grabs you.
Not saying these are concrete but here’s a few things I take note of vs Messiah.
*Lgt.DS or EX.DS will go under the overhead followup and allow you a free combo from behind him - You have to be quick though or he’ll recover so a typical BnB is often preferred (Jabs, basically - He’ll be too far away for Jab Jab Jab Short so use Double Jab Short). If they go for the sweep it’ll stuff it - If nothing at all you’ll either hit him or be blocked leaving you relatively safe.
*Lgt.Headbutt will stuff either followup though if memory serves me correctly this may lead to Rufus being launched at an improper angle (Though that MAY be EX HB), probably landing behind you. If that is true, no Ultra, but its been a long time since I’ve played Rufus. Either way, it’s an option.
*You can Ultra after the first part of Messiah. If they sweep it’s a full grounded Ultra Punish, if they overhead you’ll need to adopt KPKKK or KKKKK to clip him out of the air and net some damage. It’s awkward as he’ll often be very high (If you do it too late or use PPKKK, he’ll safely go over you and you wont get any damage at all + big punish if they’re quick).
*Above should also apply to SUPER but I often save that for FS.Forward SUPER OS against rolling kicks or C.Fierce punches.
*TAP is an option but not very optimal or safe. I’ve seen some Rufus’s really delay the followup to catch this out. If they followup instantly you’ll either hit him out of the sweep or go under his overhead to safety.
*I’m pretty sure you can neutral jump after the first part and either AA him out of Overhead with NJ.FP or NJ.FP into a small combo if they sweep.
next MU’s i’m doing are Guy, Vega/Claw, and Rufus. Any particular problems you guys have with them that need to be brought into light, dive kicks aside?
Hey, 1964, if you want any help getting compiling advice from matchup experience, let me know, I’d be glad to lend a hand.
Could use all the help I could get. I’m working on Rufus Guy and Vega, so any experience you have against those three would be useful. Especially Guy, i don’t have a lot of matchup experience with guy to have a solid strategy atm…punishes out the ass (thanks Bojador_pt), but strategy not so much lol.
Thank you for doing this enig.
can anyone help with fighting akuma? he has sooo many mixups when i get knocked down i dont really know how to react and block them… any tips on noticing what move akuma will do after the hyakkishu… and the buffering ultra 1 after i jump hp, ex punches is really annoying lol
No problem Lenocio.
That’s kinda what makes it so good. I don’t think there is a good enough distinction you can use to tell what move he’s going to do after the demon flip. But take it upon yourself to do the demon flip in training mode and look at when he gains meter, or what he says when he does the move and maybe you’ll find something. (and FYI backdashing a demon flip, especially the palm is usu a really bad guess and doesn’t offer much tactical advantage IMO, especially with the threat of a buffered raging demon).
Extended notes on Rufus
[details=Spoiler]To practice punishing Ultra 2, record rufus doing the following: ex.gt FADC forward dash U2 . You can punish with ex.hb, super, and ultra 1. (Ultra 2 WILL not work). To punish you have to wait a bit and then do the ultra during his startup, since he has a significant amount of invincibility frames. The vacuum effect won’t start until the ultra goes active.
I also noticed that dive kicks that hit below the waist will whiff on non-blocking standing balrog.
Messiah Kick * Follow-up *
Messiah Kick * Delay * Follow-up *
Messiah Kick * Block
*attack points
Most common setups (in order of use/utility):
[LIST=1]
[]ex.mk, lk.fu FADC backdash
[]ex.mk, hk.fu
[]ex.mk DELAY lk.fu
[]ex.mk, mk.fu
[/LIST]
Frame Advantage on Block:
Messiah Kick [-9/-12/-6/-14]
Follow ups [LK:-18/MK:-0/HK:-1]
Naked (without followup):
[LIST]
[]All naked mk’s can be jab reversalled.
[]hk.mk has a high arc, easy to AA
[]ex.mk can be punished with Ultra on block.
[/LIST]
LK Follow-up
[LIST]
[]Hits mid, invincible, breaks armor, if not delayed it’s a block string.
[]Cannot be hit if he delays.
[]Defensive options - Block or backdash if delayed, can be caught in backdash if you do it too soon.
[]Offensive options - If delayed, always loses to ex.hb, other moves will trade/lose completely.
[]Offensive options - If blocked w/o FADC backdash you can punish with ANYTHING.
[]Can be FADC backdated, loses to Ultra/super, it can also be hit with dash punches but the timing is awkward.
[]Pushback in corner (contrast with midscreen) after FADC backdash is weird, can tag rufus with normals.
[/LIST]
HK Follow-up
[LIST]
[]Hits OH, safe on block, can be whiff punished, untechable knockdown.
[]If he delay’s he can be hit for a CH.
[]Defensive options - block high or backdash, can be caught in backdash if you do it too soon.
[]Offensive options - TAP, lp.hb, others will whiff, but are not punishable.
[]Whiff punish - reversal lp.ds allows for a high damage/stun combo using close normals, easiest are jabs, hardest is cl.hk.
[/LIST]
MK Follow-up
[LIST]
[]Hits low, doesn’t go under dash punches (can hit with ex.ru/ex.ds), untechable knockdown.
[]If he delay’s he can be hit for a CH. :> see more down below
[]Defensive options - Block low, backdash always wins
[*]Offensive options - any ex.wins, greatest CH punish: cl.hk, Ultra 1
[/LIST][/details]
Guy and Vega Matchup added. Seemed as if hp.hb away from the corner and mid-screen is the best defensive/offensive way to avoid izuna drop.