Rahsaan’s Honda was really crazy in those matches. It was kind ironic when vVv Scrub (aka Puerto Rican Balrog) was commentating on Rahsaan’s matches since vVv Scrub was the only guy to use Honda in EVO2009 Top 8. On top of that, he was just as solid as Rahsaan (if not more) with the cr.lp xx HHS.
neutral jump RH works against that it trains him to start up balling too
My new av!
^^^^ too good!!!
Somehow a head-banging beat automatically starts playing in my head.
Here, an amazing Honda that takes advantage of the juggle system. Watch for the surprise Ultra set-up:
[media=youtube]rsZuGWErOis"[/media]
had absolutely no idea juggle HHS -> ex hb worked
super cool
same here. that was sexy 
and i dont know why but balrog players seem to jump back a lot after a blocked hhs in the corner…
Wow nice find. Going to have to buffer ultras now after hhs in the corner
Also, what’s the notation for canceling d/f HK to Headbutt?
Kaneshiro does it at the beginning of the match for shits and meter building
haha i didn’t know it thats possible! but here’s how you do it
charge back df+hk~(forward)lp
just plink the hk and LP(or whatever headbutt you want). it’s a true plink you can be quite lazy about it actually
in training mode it looks like this:
db
d
df
df+hk
f
f+lp
oh wow, I knew you could juggle ultra from HHS, but I thought it was just a training mode gimmick. I’m so surprised he pulled the juggle HHS twice. Damn, gonna have to learn how to do that.
i’m surprised you guys didn’t know this.
anything that you can juggle into ultra, you can juggle into ex head butt. they share the same juggle properties. for example, if you catch someone in the air while you’re on the way down with mk butt slam, you can juggle with ex headbutt.
same property applies for super. depending on spacing and timing, you can also juggle 1 hit of ex butt slam too.
and as for df rh xx hb. there was some other japanese player who did this a lot about half a year ago.
it’s actually one of the only logical ways to use df rh as a mix up outside of the corner.
df rh xx ex hb while they are getting up. stuffs a lot of their reversals and it punishes their back dash too.
A couple of videos to give you nightmares. Alioune (Sagat) vs Lord DVD (Honda). Bear in mind that Lord DVD is considered one of the top Hondas in Europe vs the best zoning and spacing Sagat in Europe.
[media=youtube]LuOaIqYx-2Q[/media]
[media=youtube]qZGlPLE9As0[/media]
Jump in and you will loose! Walk forward carefully and you will loose! Neutral jump and you will loose!
Peoples comments and possible strategies are welcome.
I don’t care what anyone says, but the matchup is messed up when you break it down like this - Capcom have to give Honda something else against Sagat in SSF4…surely.
Is there anything they really can do? The only immediate workable solution (ex headbutts going through fireballs) would break his more even matchups vs other zoners.
It’ll probably have to be balanced Sagat-side. Something like reduced fireball pushback or less range on kara TU/TKs would bring his zoning game back down to earth without totally screwing him.
He needs to be more patient. He took way to many unnecessary risks in that match personally. He also needs to walk up block and can’t be afraid to Oicho for the knock down.
-Walk up block
-Use Cr.:lp: xx HHS to stuff tiger shots
-That guy was Tiger Knee happy, after the HHS he could have Ultra’d to hit him.
-Start gaining distance when he is being zoned.
-Don’t blow meter on something when he isn’t getting chip pressure in for meter rebuild.
1.5 Don’t fish for counter hits from the other side of the screen.
-Work on his reaction time, when someone jumps in the corner you need to Ultra them also if someone throws an up close and personal fireball you <b>NEED</b> to punish them for that. In short Sagat should be somewhat scared to zone Honda from that close he didn’t even use Tiger Knee traps all that much in the set either.
-Neutral jump over fireballs to bait out the :hk: for the punish.
Over all he played a little too risky in those matches, I know for I am guilty of the same thing. 
Don’t get me wrong I lose to Sagat all of the time and I’m far from perfect at the game but I’ve fought a few better Sagats and I feel that Alioue wasn’t playing the match to his advantage and DVD could have exploited a few things.
Lemme get one other person in here for his input on the match.
I will give this my best shot. This is all my opinion of course. Basing on the players playstyle (which used to be mine at one point)
Biggest thing I think he could have done was not use ex and save straight for super every time. Let me break this down.
Honda’s Ex headbutt isn’t for damage its for speed and priority mainly an anti air, Sagat will never jump in on Honda. If Sagat needs to get closer he will use tiger knee. In the off chance he jumps you can just use jab headbutt, if he jumps in deep with the J.MP you can use a close S.FP as a substitute. Now if you succeed in hitting Sagat with a Ex Headbutt all it does is put both players a screen apart all over again. The chances of you getting close to land that hit again gets more and more in Sagat’s favor, as he is building bar for ex tiger shots and also his comeback percentage with desperation uppercut fadc. Plus the fact that you wasted 1 of your ex bars. I would prefer the S.FP trade anti with sagats jump ins to keep the distance close and getting Sagat into the corner which is key.
Honda’s ex buttslam is a good desperation move, and is safe but Honda’s MK buttslam is very similar. He used EX to close the distance or to snag Sagat when he was jumping backwards. MK buttslam can still do both tasks so I can’t justify losing an ex bar for it.
Now obviously that Sagat is very good at zoning, proper back dashing, kara canceling the tiger shots, proper tiger knee and baiting the jumps. The main problem is that Sagat controls all the horizontal space, theres no way in from the front. Super bar changes this. Honda can super Sagat full screen away on reaction if he throws a tiger shot. Remember to MP heatbutt after the super hits to close the distance after the knockdown.
Honda has to guess when to jump where as Sagat doesn’t need to put himself in a situation where he has to guess until Honda reaches him. Now when you have super Sagat is now vulnerable to the horizontal space. Now Sagat has to second guess his tiger shots, allowing more options for you to get in.
Now whenever you get close to Sagat there are 3 very common things a Sagat player will do. Tiger knee is most likely the highest and in the video that was on the top of the list. You can beat Tiger knee with Jab headbutt on reaction, this is extremely important. If you land the jab heatbutt and you have super and cancel it with super the round is almost over. If sagat is doing his bnb block string you can Jab heatbutt the tiger knee during the string, just like a shoto can C.MK under it. There is a space, once again if you have super that’s a huge punish and almost a free win. Now once again that puts sagat at a guessing game. He can do his block string and instead do a low tiger shot, but now you can do a buttslam to counter that. Putting sagat into a guessing game slowly tilts the odds towards the center of the table, making the match more about the players and less about the characters which is what you want to do.
Now something I would like to add on sagats tiger knee, the sagat player has to space his tiger knee correctly otherwise honda can punish with ochio on block. Go into training mode and find the exact minimum dead zone for Sagat to do his knee unsafe on block. This is very useful when you don’t have a charge, and you walk close to him. If Sagat has to learn to do SK or MK tiger knee it may give you an advantage. Baiting tiger knee is very important, understand MK tiger knee range. If Sagat is close to the corner his chances of doing it is very high, you can back dash and bait the knee to whiff, giving you a free ochio or C.Mk xx HHS.
In the video sagat did a MK Tiger knee whenever honda got close to that sweet spot. Sometimes the Honda punished it with J.FP, though I say that’s unsafe due to the fact that Sagat could do F.RH or delay the knee. The honda player could have back dashed to bait it making it whiff in front of him or he could have beat it out with jab headbutt on reaction. If he had super even better.
Second thing most sagat’s do is S.RH, the honda player was using S.RH too much, personally I think Honda’s S.FP is the answer for this. Sagat’s Standing Rh gets beat on reaction with Honda’s S.FP AND you can cancel it into super, that is a huge punish.
third thing a Sagat will do is a close low tiger shot. Now I would suggest if the sagat player is gutsy enough to do this you can focus the low tiger then dash through and JP Ochio him. If sagat sticks out a normal this may still work. If he anticipates this Sagat could do a S.RH which your S.FP can beat, or Sagat will do Tiger Knee to beat your focus, which you can bait with back dash then Ochio throw him anyways.
If Sagat jumps backwards I would suggest buttslam ( not ex ) not heatbutt, because it puts you both full screen again. If you don’t have a charge then just walk forward since you are putting Sagat closer to the corner, when sagat is stuck in the corner the chances of him jumping at you or tiger knee’ing are extremley high anticipate it and bait it.
The honda player in the video was getting punished for doing blocked FP Headbutt, Sagat kara DP punished. Sagat cannot do this if you use MP heatbutt, he should have baited this. MP and FP Heatbutt look fairly similar, one blocked DP on honda is a massive mistake. Do not punish with ochio or C.MK Headbutt. You must learn C.MK xx HHS, extremely important and it keeps sagat at a good range too. You can also do C.Mk xx HHS xx Super for a near game winning punish. Super is key.
The honda player also missed a couple S.RH link after the HHS connected. One thing I noticed is that the sagat player just blocked it. If you notice someone blocking then always attempt to do dash into ochio if the HHS connects. The reset is so good and puts sagat at a good guessing game too, if he jumps back after then you can buttslam him in mid-air.
Another thing I noticed is that the honda player would jump backwards and start focusing to build ultra. Yet he never stuck with it then eventually starting chasing Sagat. Building ultra is a good strategy only if you can ultra his tiger shots on reaction. If Sagat is full screen then to punish with ultra either Dash forward cancel into it, or focus one tiger shot then ultra since sagat will most likely throw another since hes full screen. Memorize when you will get ultra from a tiger shot so that you can time a focus and dash forward ultra. You can catch Sagat off guard because he thought he was safe because he was looking at your bar beforehand.
If the ultra connects I don’t recommend doing a cross over, mash dp is too godly and sagat always has ex stock to make it safe. Instead keep him in the corner and bait his tiger knee.
learning to ultra sagats tiger shots on reaction is very important and adds another tool to help you against his horizontal zoning (ultra and super).
so to summarize
Super > Ex. Super adds an extra punish (S.FP,Jab headbutt,reaction on tiger shot)
beating tiger knee with jab headbutt and learning its zone, punishing it with ochio and back dashing to make it whiff.
punishing sagat with combos that don’t put you a screen apart.
2 more small tidbits that people should already know, if you are jumping at Sagat ( I never jump in ) don’t hit a button unless you see him whiff a tiger shot, this way you don’t get the DP trade into Sagat imba.
if you get the knockdown on sagat, stand just inside jab ochio throw range. This way you can do a small mixup, if you guess that he jumps you can C.RH on his wakeup. You can still jab ochio if he chooses to block. He is outside throwing range. If he chooses to DP you could bait with a backdash at that range. Most sagats don’t mind guessing a wakeup dp because they could use ex bar to make it safe, however since you were slightly away from him if you backdashed its a free punish.
Idunno, but that didn’t look like the best way for honda to play against sagat. There’s no reason for honda to intentionally go straight to the far side of the screen at the beginning of the match and wait for sagat to build meter and take some damage before approaching. The small amount of ultra meter gained was not worth it.
yeah if you cant walk up and block tiger shots on reaction…
don’t walk up then!
too much health lost doing that 
As Mr.SNK said Patience is key. for me personally if the match ends < 30 seconds, win or lose, I’m happy.
Honda needs to stalk 'Gat at range 3/3.5 to be effective IMO.
Some good tips guys. I have played this guy lots and agree with most of what you say, but putting it into action is not so straight forward. Trust me when I say this, but you have no choice but to walk this style down and need the reactions of a cat to not have lost a 1/4 of your health from chip damage before you even start thinking about offence and getting into the right range outside tiger knee. Jump and you are screwed too! On the FADC close fireballs he usually uses eX fireball at close range if he has it so that goes out the window. If connections were better across the Altantic I would say play him and get a taster. Saving meter is an option with one downside - it takes ages to build as you cannot whiff Oicho in this match and getting close enough for hands takes time and lots of chip damage. Focusing is an option, but only if you are prepared to wait for your energy to recharge while running the risk of eating 1 hit to loose it. In this 3 round match you are doing well to get enough meter for 2 supers and not likely in the first round. Last but not least MP headbutt is not safe on someone who can Kara cancel to TU as I have tried it on Alioune a few times - you only got lp and EX on block so the MP headbutt baits are no good.
Edit: One thing on the Super and Ultra Strategy is it is not so good if he has a lead and is ready to wait…and he does. Reason being is he just has to stand on the other side whiffing lp and lk or doing nothing - you have to loose charge to go and get him as he can just stand there and there is nothing you can do - no need to risk the fireballs and get Ultra’d or Supered. Sure you can close the space, but you walk and the fireballs start.
Don’t get me wrong as the match is winnable (from personal experience), but definately the hardest match I have faced.