I think I need help. I’m starting to lose hope in myself with my currently main character, Blanka.
First, I like him for some of his strengths. No complete strategies, just some little tid-bits. This isn’t completely resolute, and far from the best Blanka, and that great of a player.
Guile - Guile’s so good in this game, it’s nice that Blanka holds his own (maybe still has it in his favor). With patience, Blanka can easily win vs. a good Family Man from what I can tell. Blanka’s slide can be punished, so it cannot be abused (nothing new here), but his range on c.Fierce, and sliding under sonic-booms on reaction at close range make for some massive damage. You can also dodge most sonic booms from across the screen with a slide (although at that range a jumping light-kick is safe, and will snuff out guile’s RH-sault). Don’t be afraid to run down the clock. A desparate Guile is much easier to deal with. Many a Guile will go for his cross-up combos/tick-throw (depending if you block or not). I found you can wake up with fierce electricity to stop this, and d,u+lk. Although sometimes it’s better to simply block, and out-throw him.
Zangief - this match-up was disheartening to me at first. But I found a lot of nice things. You are not going to be able to jump right in and bite him, not without setting the pace first. Jump-in+anything (lk being the safest, but other attacks are usually good, because a Gief generally wants to block and then SPD you), followed by immediate hop-back when you land, will simply not allow Gief to throw you, but it’s also safer than hoping forward. At some point, you will find it safe to tick-throw, or jump-in, hop-forward, counter-bite. Anyway, if you’re having trouble with Gief, just try those jump-in+hop-backs, and see what it does for you. Zoning him on the ground is just not going to happen for any great length of time, against a good Gief. Be wary of using your super for chip damage as well; a good gief will either jab you out of it, or SPD you. Zangief will jump in on you of course. If you have time to, jump-up fierce will snuff out his stuff, and standing MP is quite reliable, as mentioned before. If he’s jumping in on you as you wake up, I found it best to hop back a couple times (rather than trade hits with something with a chance of getting snuffed out); get out of that trap at all costs.
Honda - Some additional notes in general. Jumping in on Honda is scary, but you’re going to have to do that sometimes. Jump-in for a tick throw, and hop through his reveral throw attemps (it’s quick enough to go though his throw-attempt-turned-fierce punch. If you’re in close enough, it’s also quick enough to through the strong punch) and bite him. Standing Lk beats out a lot of his stuff, but if that’s all you’re doing, Honda’s in control of the match and will usually kill you.
Without much more analysis, Blanka seems quite formidable against DeeJay.
Having problems with Chun-Li and Dhalsim, because it’s so hard to get in on them. Chun-Li plays a mean fireball game, and will j.kick you out of any closing-in attempts. Dhalsim has many options to stop you from jumping in as well.
Still having trouble with a good Cammy for the same old reasons.
Vega is the same. Unless I’m mistaken (which is always likely), his c.mp is his greatest anti-Blanka tool, snuffing out everything. Blanka can’t jump in when Vega has a db-charge ready (db,f+k move). Blanka CAN stop most of the wall-jumping safely. Mixing up the timing and version of your d,u+k will keep him at bay, no matter what version of the wall-dive he does, you can also smack him with d,u+RH before gets to the wall, often times; ALSO, b,f+/fp will often keep him from even getting to the wall behind him, or at least mess up his positioning. As good as that sounds, Vega simply doesn’t need a wall-dive to beat Blanka.
Fei Long isn’t actually that bad. I’d say this is a good match-up for Blanka. Fei doesn’t have distance on his dp, so many flavors of j.lk attacks are safe, and open the door for a lot of things. Slide goes under rekkas, but is beat by a scary cr.fierce.
T.Hawk - I found this to be a nice match-up too. Your j.lp beats his j.lp. Your electricity beats his full-screen diving. Your electricity gets him out of his zoning/throw set-ups. Electricity, jumping lp to meet him in the air, and j.lk. You CAN bite the grapplers, but that should be icing on the cake, and not something you try to do all the time, that should be obvious – your One-Frame Bite Vs. Zero-Frame Command Throw.
Sagat - Walk under high-tiger shots, and j.RH on reaction to most tiger shots for a hit. This match-up is so good. J.LK to snuff out dp attempts.
For people having trouble against Blanka… just be patient. Also, if he’s biting you, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be mashing all your buttons, and especially mashing uf,db (or ub,df) like crazy to get out of it quicker and avoid half the damage. Don’t do immediate reversals. Be patient. If he hops and you’re not doing anything, he can be easily punished. Too many times, I see people spamming their jabs. Stop doing that. A smart Blanka is not going to do the horizontal ball all the time, or at random. Just like in ST, it’s a positioning move, and just happens to be safer on block/hit. The Blanka ball you should be worried about is NOT the one that hits you, but the one that positions him on either side of you on wake up, or positions him in-front of you for a bite. Some common spacing to keep in mind:
If Blanka’s elec hits you deep (your character’s leg is touching blanka), he can do his mp-ball at the last second to be on the other-side of you and electricity for chip-damage on wake-up. If he does the ball early, he can use electricity and recover quickly enough to counter your low attack with another ball.
After the bite, be prepared for some more mix-ups. He can go for an immediate slide, which will hit very quickly, and is generally safe for him to do (he recovers before you after the bite of course). If you’re in the corner, he can usually hop-back and do a lp-ball whiff into bite. If you’re not in the corner, he walks back slightly and whiffs the lp-ball as well.
Anyway, I’m trying to really figure out Blanka, and see if there’s a way through his match-ups. I found fireball games to be quite a headache. It may seem like he’s good against Ryu and Ken, but he’s not; it’s just that 99% of Shotos online don’t use them that well. Overall, I feel he problem chars are the same as before, and the ones he was good against are just a bit harder.
I think these are his worst Match-ups (in order):
Chun-Li
Dhalsim
Cammy
Vega
Ryu
Ken
Akuma
Everyone else is either even, in favor of Blanka, or not bad enough to be too concerned; I do feel his match-up with E.Honda has improved considerably.
I’m also not really the best player to talk about Blanka thoroughly, but I hope I learn him inside and out. I don’t feel like I’m good enough or know him well enough to decide what tier he might be, or whether or not I should continue using him.