Focus dash is so important to hugos game its not even funny. That’d your most important tool vs fireball characters. Cr.mk even on trade it’s really good. Sometimes you have to just go with just do it ex lariats and meat squashers too
3s Hugo was defnitely not that good and was probably worse than sf4. Sfxt was pretty good though.
good luck trying to input meatsquasher…
I wouldn’t say hugo sucks at all. He has the tools to get in and the damage to make it count. He just has to be more patient than most characters. Channel your inner potato.
Also if I know the person plays juri, dee jay, poison, or guile, I will pick a different character. Those matchups are atrocious and that’s coming from a former dee jay player.
Ill give you guys credit for being optimistic but theres just so many things on hugo that make me want to quit him. i also feel like Clap doesnt have enough active frames therefore it isnt as useful for meatys like say…yuns palms
Spoiler
Empty jump is pretty safe vs Poison at longer ranges, but once you get into the range where you can actually REACH with jump-ins, even empty jump doesn’t protect you that well from her fireballs simply because Hugo’s SO huge and Poison’s whip normals can all reach you pretty easily to anti-air even an empty jump. At closer range. I think it’s slightly safer to loaded jump instead of empty jump simply because it guarantees that your legs are projectile invulnerable (even if it makes other parts of your hurtbox a bit bigger). But outside of, like, j. MP range, empty jump is probably safer. (Just do it EARLY. Don’t drag your ass, because Hugo’s ass is way too big to drag.)
Even vertical empty jumping her LP fireball is hilariously difficult – many times I’ve gotten the life lead, decided “no more for now, it’s time to dodge bullets and defend my life lead”, and lost most/all of it simply by pratfalling onto LP fireballs I swore I was going to clear with empty vertical jump.
Her backdash IS pretty good. It’s one of the big reasons I picked U2 initially for the matchup, but I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be OSing that many backdashes with it simply because the fight for a range to attempt a hard knockdown would be so hard to win, and Poison hardly needed to jump to control or escape Hugo. Ultra Throws were also rare to land unless I already had her cornered, or had knocked her down with an EX Lariat or something.
You’re right about her DP, it has to be minimally respected but it’s not a HUGE problem for Hugo compared with other things about the matchup. Easily baited with safe jumps, and you can blow it up hard with an Ultra Throw combo or clap combo punish. What was a bigger problem for me was her backflip, I hadn’t studied that move very closely, and so the Poison player kept flipping away from my oki (I was kinda rattled by this point and just did like safe jump crossup splash every time at midscreen). She didn’t flip TOO far away, but I didn’t want to chase too badly, because I didn’t know exactly what could happen. I need to study that move some more, and find not just OS for it, but also explore Poison’s options after a successful flip away.
Only thing I kinda disagree with you on is her pressure. I think her pressure can be a big problem for Hugo because her close-range fireballs are plus on block, Love Me Tender is plus on block, and since Hugo’s normals are all slow, she can pile on a lot of pressure on Hugo without putting herself in a range/situation where she can be hit by an SPD or EX SPD to reverse the frame advantage. When she knocks you down, she can also create a minor but hard-to-block 50/50 by putting a meaty HP fireball on top of you and making you guess between f+MP overhead and her lows. The lows are more damaging on the whole because they’re an easier confirm into rekkas, but holding db leaves you open to her overhead. (With a character who’s shorter when they crouches, reacting to her overhead would be far less of a problem. But Hugo is huge when he crouches. You have to react FAST to block her overhead on wakeup, although thankfully it’s minus on block and I’m pretty sure she won’t hit nearly late enough to easily link jab > combo afterwards.) Admittedly I lost some opportunities to punish because I didn’t try to punish the overhead on block, I’ll work on that some more.
So if she beelines straight to f+MP or low normal xx LP rekka, you can punish her and get her out of your face. But if the Poison player is good about staggering their pressure with lots of jabs and cancels to Love Me Tender/MP and HP fireballs to stay safe on block, this can be difficult to do on reaction. (In fact, the gap between even an H normal special-cancelled to any non-EX Love Me Tender is so big you can vertical jump out of it and not get hit. But this is VERY hard to do on reaction when Poison is fishing like mad for a counter hit with other moves, which means you will be married to db when a good Poison is in your face.)
So this matchup is still maddeningly hard, but I think it’s still worth studying. If you can take even one game (not necessarily 1 round) off a decent Poison player, you probably learned something about patience (or smart YOLO) in the process. And any Hugo matchup not involving fireballs will seem like a breeze in comparison.
I was going to ask a similar question. I feel like having both options is great .
Also, I’m liking st HP into a delayed ultra 1 whether hit or block. Pretty awesome setup
I’ve come to realize just how important counterpoking lp/lk xx super is with him. It really puts the match in his favor if you get a life lead with it. Just showing the opponent “I can counterpoke you like this all day” puts you at a big advantage.
I don’t disagree but the character I used to main didn’t have to deal with this that harshly (Dee Jay - an improperly spaced fireball at the wrong time was EX Dreadkicks automatically). So it’s actually a struggle that online is VERY HAPPY to help me overcome by tossing me against so many Poisons and Guiles.
EX Lariat’s a straight up read that’s unsafe but good if you anticipate the fireball or bait it out and do it early (the longer the distance, the earlier the read has to be made - bonus that it stuffs everything they might do beyond block and armor breakers). st.FP if they’re improperly spaced or else they can punish it. EX Meatsquasher might be what I’d use at mid-range depending on corner placement since that can also be punished heavily since it has only 1 hit of armor. Neutral jump is also an option depending on the fireball used, just don’t do d+HP or HK coming down (I’m partial to MP or HP). dd.MK goes through fireballs if timed correctly (it’s strict on certain ones like LP Booms). If all else fails trade with st.MP since it’s in your favor except against EXes or Ultras.
We have tools. Hugo’s just one of those characters where you learn by doing as well as grinding training mode. It’s not just “I’ll just practice this in training mode and then I’m good.” You need SF experience to play this guy I think.
Found a really nice safe jump against everything except 3 frame reversals. Meat squasher, neutral jump, forward jump hp.
Edit: For sagats weird wakeup timing you have to use bodysplash instead of hp but it still works fine.
If you guys are crying that much about Poison, I don’t wanna be around here when you fight a good Rose.
Wow, Poison’s f+MP is -1 on hit? Definitely another big reason to pick U1 in this matchup. Even if you don’t block it, she needs a legit meaty setup in order to not get U1 punished just for hitting it. Plenty of time to buffer U1 during the hitstop. And unless it’s a long set and the Poison player is smart enough to adapt, I would reccommend trying U1 even if you don’t know it’s a punish. If it’s a legit meaty and Poison’s safe/gonna get a combo anyway, nothing much changes. If she’s safe but not advantageous enough to link jab, your 1+0f U1 is gonna grab her startup. And if she really did mess up her setup and hit on the 1st frame, up she goes!
I have a theory on why c. LP xx special is sometimes loopy compared to c. LK xx special. I think it’s because if you mash jab a bit too hard, you end up kara-cancelling a chained jab into special, which obviously doesn’t work because you can’t special-cancel chained jabs. Am I completely wrong for assuming this, or do I actually understand what’s going on?
EDIT: NM I’m wrong. More consistent because of negative edge more than anything else.
I say this because if you’re like me and sometimes drop the end of your clap combo because you mashed c. LP xx LK Lariat a bit too hard, you can do c. LK xx LK Lariat as your combo ender instead for much better consistency (and no difference in damage/stun). Still important to do c. LP xx special cleanly at neutral for clap pressure, though, but inside an almost-finished combo, safety first. Be lazy, be safe, because Hugo’s hard enough without dropped combos.
Couple more Hugo vs Poison notes:
When you have her in the corner and you’re just trying to pile up damage and stun, I reccommend using c. MP over s. MP for an emergency counter-hit LP clap confirm that leaves them standing if you want to bait a mash or throw them. 10 less damage, but unlike s. MP, c. MP is plus on hit, so if you think the opponent will unwisely mash something that one of your normals can beat from +2, or that they’ll just block for fear of getting counter hit, you can hit another button immediately. Feel free to use s. MP in the corner if you know it’ll hit Poison (say backing up a bit and interrupting an HP fireball startup), but know that you have to chill a few frames afterwards if you don’t want to get beat by mashing.
You can also combo c. LP after a counter-hit c. MP, of course, but you have to be kinda close to do so, and Hugo is rarely at this range vs Poison when he DOES counter hit with c. MP, even in the corner. So don’t go TOO insane trying to confirm off it. Just focus on keeping your frame and life advantage.
Oh man I forgot she had her little flip. I imagine you can punish it though with a sweep. (hopefully) I try to look for trying to get in range for sweep and St.hp really outside of trying to get her to block. I might try to use W ultra against her to have a punish and a combo ultra. What’s her life at btw 900? I think poison is hard to fight because her more varied and larger projectile. Rose pokes are also more susceptible to HP.
Also I want to state that Ex Lariat Fadc IS unsafe, however Ex Lariat Focus Attack is a 3~4 frame gap I believe and if you mix that between Fadc Back Dash you can keep the opponent from getting the right read on it.
Hugo’s cr.lk has a good amount hitstop for some reason and I’ve noticed I can wait quite a bit to Lariat. Not great of a way to confirm but it’s better than nothing I guess.
I’m not looking forward to this matchup to be fair. It’ll be worse than Poison for sure but the only way we’re gonna learn tech about it is if we actually fight it.
I think Poison’s life is 900. Definitely not 1000. One of the key redeeming factors for this matchup as Hugo is that if you trade with her with anything bigger than a light you will almost always win the trade (even in a strong v strong fight since Hugo’s strongs are whoa). So if you have the life advantage, as long as you don’t LOSE the exchange outright (most likely when either jumping at her or attempting a counterpoke v fireball when you’re out of range), it is definitely acceptable to just trade like a madman.
Only way she really outdamages Hugo is by him landing on/walking into all those fireballs. She has decent damage output if she rushes you down and gets a combo, but that shouldn’t really be a huge problem for Hugo as long as you block, punish, and spend meter on EX SPD (and sometimes EX Lariat, if Poison is careless) to get her out of your face.
EDIT: And yeah, you can punish Poison wakeup backflip with sweep (at least) if you don’t cross her up. That was the big mistake I made in my set, I was always trying to cross her up after a knockdown. If you safe jump her in front with j. MP or something instead, you can easily punish her backflip with a sweep (into hopefully the same safe jump, even if she DWU’s, at least you’re in her face).
On the topic of wake-ups I’ve been getting so much mileage from doing Meaty HP Clap or Mp Clap whiff into cmd grab/Block/Punish backdashes
it keeps a lot of people on their toes and the fact that you can set it up from pretty much everything is so good. Sucks playing online and mistiming it after an SPD because it’s strict
I entered my first tournament with hugo, and i left with a smile. First round i played against a gief player(that won the tournament) but it ended in 2-1 to him, it was really close, and i misinputted a few times.
So from losers i fought against a pretty good Makoto player, i won. Hugo has really good mixups games imo. His cr MP and st MP were the MVP today.
Then i fought a good cody/makoto player that’s never fought hugo before. Cr lk into Clap confirm was really good damage, i won there aswell, caught his crack kick with u2 haha.
Aaaaand i had to fight a friend of mine, he does not have the best execution, but he knows his buttons, and he played chun. It ended in 2-1 for him i think, he just had to press normals to keep me out.
Quite the counterpick haha.
It was a small tournament, but a really fun one. I also fought against the gief player that won the tournament in casuals, he played gouken. It went back and forth, i managed to get a game, then lost one etc.
Hugo in the corner, no meter, against gouken… God that was annoying, i had to cr MK him, dash through his fireballs, it was so much work.
I did pretty good in casuals aswell. Hugo is the main reason im playing this game now.
Sure it sucks there are some problems with him, you got to have so clean inputs to play him.
Getting EX backbreaker instead of ex Lariat sucked haha.
I like him, he has some tricks, alot of faults, but i like him :).
Oh and u2 is awesome.
Did you guys know that s.MP can knock out Rolento’s throwing knives from the right distance? 
Yeah, i guess they work like ibukis, it’s cool when you just jab them/st lk with ryu away and punish her or something haha.