Nohoho, glad to hear from an expert Blanka player of your caliber. I greatly appreciate the feedback. I’m still, more or less, building out this FAQ. I’m definitely all for helping people step up their game…as you’ll see once the FAQ actually comes out. My struggle is trying to get this information out (due to personal time constraints) and then also not trying to put too much information into the FAQ.
But, while I was typing, I just had an idea. How about I put a mark by bread-and-butter combos? Since I went and defined most other types of combos, BnB combos are certainly worth explaining. “BnB”…there’s the symbol I’m looking for.
As the FAQ develops, I’ll be sure to put more notes by the combos that need explanation.
Since it’s pretty much agreed upon that Blanka is in the bottom-half tier in this game with the bite, he’d be horrible without it. What else are you going to do against people that block or stuff your Ball attempts? Blanka needs his bite…that’s why he was given the Beast Dash (:l: or :r:+3:p:) to get in and out quickly.
Trust me…Blanka is far from being overpowered. Play to win.
I haven’t read up on the entire tier thread, but it seemed many on the first few pages had Blanka ranked quite high on the totem poll. I never found that to be true, but I’ve seen players effective with the bite and when that’s the case he can be overpowering.
What’s your opinion of the Blanka VS Honda match-up Fresh? This is one of my favorite matches when using the fat man. It can be the most intense / addreline pumping match-ups you can throw together. I’d like to play your brother’s Blanka sometime.
I don’t main Blanka but I’m not too shabby with him. However I went against a good Honda and got trashed. I was quite aggressive (or at least I tried to be) at the start and went for the cross-up a lot. I’m guessing if I can’t get in then I should play it more patiently? Just my usual tactic of getting in and then wreaking havoc seemed to fail badly.
i like to sit half a screen away and jump up and down lk a lot. press s.lk a lot. force honda do move. as soon as he moves you can jump.
other players i’ve seen like to walk forward and force honda to play footsies, then set up a crossup like that or make honda do headbutt and jump first so that it whiffs. I find this just leads to stalemate cause honda will fierce headbutt and blanka will be back to square one on the other side of the screen.
the other trick is electricity, it beats everything but honda’s normals.
It trades with his super (or his super wins), and from the right distances various hundred hand slaps will beat it as well. And the sumo slam trades. Also Honda can beat it with an early jump in while Blanka is waking up.
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I really wouldn’t go for the cross up unless you get a knockdown. I’d hang back and get him to do something you can punish. Refrain from jumping at him if he has a back or down charge. That LK is great, but if the Honda player has his reversal timing down you need to mix it up. Get a knockdown, dash to the other side, then cross back up. Honda will be left with no down charge because he has to block high, and no back charge because you crossed him up twice in less than two seconds. If you keep that up, mixing it up with bite or combo, you will win against 99.9% of the Honda players out there.
If the Honda player can Ochio, go for the tick bite really early. It’s super hard to store the Ochio without getting hit by Blanka’s crossup LK. So chances are after you cross him up he’s not going to have the Ochio stored and you will have the drop on the throw.
The above video has examples of the techniques that I’ve described here too.
You might want to check out some of my match videos vs PAPICHAO& Emperion. (Dont have any recorded with Decoy) Maybe you’ll pick up something as those guys are pretty good with the monster.
One more tasty bit. Don’t regularly jump. As you’ll see from the videos it’s possible (not easy, not hard) to time the FP headbutt to hit a regularly jumping Blanka when he hits the ground, or before he leaves the ground to jump back in the air.
Something I’d recommend trying in that situation is landing into electricity. Try to bait out the above scenario and punish it. The only trick there is you need to land and be out of the electricity start up frames before he can hit with headbutt.
I can’t believe I’m telling you guys everything that works on me, it’s already a frustrating match! :shake:
I’m doing a lot better against Honda. Rather than jumping in straight away, I just poke around and do some electricities. Once I get a knock-down though, I’m all over most Hondas.
Anyway I’ve been playing Blanka a bit more and to be honest I don’t find he has that many problem match ups (at least at my level of play). Then again perhaps that’s because I main 'Gief and am used to uphill battles. Speaking of which I just had a good game on my 'Gief versus Real Decoy on his Blanka. It was quite close and went to the final round. To be honest I was expecting him to destroy me considering how I know Blanka is supposed to own Zangief.
Hey, it’s cool that you’re learning Blanka. Some matchup problems you should encounter will most likely be vs very good Boxers and DeeJays. It takes lots of patience and a bit of luck to win those fights vs top players. You being a Gief player should help with that.
BTW, ggs today. The games were indeed close and I’ll be the first to tell you that I hate players that make excuses but I did have 2 buttons that were shot on my stick. So yeah, I’m hating myself right now lol. I’m sure the fights still would have been close. You play a mean Gief.
Hey decoy i saw a lot of your vids and i totally agree with your opinion on the rr. not used to frequently it is a great tool to set up a lot of things. one of my most used rr is after a bite short rr --> another bite mixed up with bite–> roudh. rr (witch is a cross up). since people expect the short rr, they try to sweap, hadoken, walk forward and get hit by the roudhouse rr.
also starting a round with forward rr can lead to a bite if the oppend starts moving backwards
If I remember correctly, I didn’t do too many jumps, just occassionally to catch him off guard. He was quite aggressive at times (as opposed to those that do jumping short/roundhouse all match) which let me get a knock down time to time into SPDs.
From the Blanka side, to be honest I sometimes find it hard to time s.strong properly against Gief’s jump ins although I don’t play this match-up too often.
My jab and strong buttons were very loose. My stick is enclosed with screws so I couldn’t just open it up and fix it on the fly.
I do my hops with jab + short. S. strong is not that reliable with slight lag online although I try it if I think the connection is good enough. I’d rather use s. RH for a clean hit or trade. OR do a j. FP if I know they will jump.
I’m a creature of habit, if things aren’t where there supposed to be or if my buttons don’t feel right then that spells bad news for me. I’m getting old.
I already posted something in the Honda thread but want to thank you again megaman, I just re-read your advice and realised that I’ve been doing pretty much everything you suggested and it’s working quite well at the moment. It can still be a problem at times but better than my 'Gief vs Honda anyway! I guess the real good Hondas can get out of the j.lk cross-ups.
I definitely still need to improve though. I rely a little too much on jump ins so I struggle with certain chars like Guile and Shotos. I actually heard Blanka is supposed to have a slight edge against Guile but I haven’t got a clue how to deal with a cornered Guile who is turtling. I mean I can slide under sonic booms but it doesn’t do much and once I jump in, I of course get flash kicked. Am I missing something obvious here?
Against Guile I tend to slide under his fireballs and mix up jump ins and using hop to get the bite off. I’m not great with Blanka, but I think I’m decent, and I usually win against Guile. Just don’t be predictable.
How about I put a mark by bread-and-butter combos? Since I went and defined most other types of combos, BnB combos are certainly worth explaining. “BnB”…there’s the symbol I’m looking for. 
So yeah, I’m hating myself right now lol. I’m sure the fights still would have been close. You play a mean Gief.