I’m a pretty bad player trying to learn Oni. Trying to get up to a decent level but having trouble figuring out just how Oni should be played.
I’ll go over my thoughts. Tell me if I’m missing anything or wrong about anything…
About mixups… I keep hearing that Oni is based on mix ups. So when I’m thinking about what kinds of things I should be going for, I’ve been thinking about what kinds of mix ups Oni can do, and the more I think about it, the less I think he’s a mix up character. Let’s go over some situations…
Opponent’s wake up - Oni has some good meaties and at least one good frame trap as far as I know. So this can condition the opponent to want to do reversals right? Here’s where I hit a conundrum though. Anything you finish a blockstring with ends without any frame advantage, so to get any chip damage you have to give up frame advantage. Then after being at -2 or whatever Oni’s options are weird. None of them are truly safe, so I feel like I’m putting myself in a mixup almost. It’s not like I can decide to not take a risk after a string. If I do nothing I can get thrown, if I throw I can get hit, if I attack I can get thrown or hit potentially, if I stomp I can get focused or blocked and punished, if I dp I can get blocked and punished, his backdash isn’t great, etc…
Now backing up to that oki situation, another option would be cross over slash… kinda slow and massively unsafe on block. I know that a lot of people can’t block it, but I’ve played against pretty good people who can block it so I’m not too enthusiastic about this move.
Another option is that overhead EX Stomp. Also a bit slow and punishable.
So I don’t think Oni’s mixup is actually that good. I think he’s all about damage. You have to take risks but you get big damage combos and big damage pokes. Part of the reason I think this is because of watching combofiend. He frequently mashes jab out of opponents’ strings… why? I can only guess because the payoff is big.
With all that said, I don’t know any setups. How does the situation change with setups?
Edit: Of course feel free to tell me if I’m totally thinking about the wrong things or whatever; I’m here to learn.
Oni is the jack of all trades but master of none. His mixups out weight his fireball / Footsie game ever so slightly. At the end of the day he can be played however you like but don’t expect easy wins by repeating the same tactics over and over again. I would say his strongest mixup is after lk.slash on block. Throw / demon smash is a strong mixup because they both lead to untechable knockdowns. Of the forward throw you zone if you like or move in apply pressure. Off of back throw you can go for meaty normals or cross ups. Off of ground pound you can instant lp. airdash xx hk.tatsu which makes autocorrecting DPs really tough and the tatsu puts them into a juggle state. If you have the presence of mind to option select the hk tatsu with another hk.tatsu then you can catch backdashers as well.
whaaa? mixups? i always thot of oni as a counter hit character, im not very knowledgeable when it comes to ssf4 but thats what omh seems to be doing and hes one of if not thee best oni out there. I do mixups of course but thats like 25 pecent my game and only because i cant practice safe jumps playing at a busy arcade all the time and not wanting to. lol
i love hitting that lp lp (pause) hp ex electric fire ball (counter hit only) ultra
also fun to do stuff like st.lk lk slash and if it doesnt hit mabye a fadc lp lp standing f.lp f.mp lk slash, all sorts of stuff like that. I gots to say hes all about them counter hits and punishing like a truck when the counter hit pressure gets to be to much.