Ok i guess it’s time to start discussing one of the top tier characters. Doesn’t get any topper tierer than Blanka. His wiki page has a lot of nicely organized dry info such as frame data and combos, but it’s missing a lot of strategy:
http://www.shoryuken.com/wiki/index.php/Blanka_(CvS2)
Go take a look and then talk about whatever you feel it’s missing.
wow, this is going to be a beast thread. Blanka (especially A blanka)'s game is really complex and deep…I wouldn’t know where to begin with strats.
He’s got a wicked mixup game, good anti-airs (not the best, but still quite effective), RC electricity is near broken if used correctly.
I guess the some tips for blanka would be:
-don’t whiff RC electricity and cr.FP in close range…they can be punished easily.
-use his mix ups alot. if you can do whiff cr.lk -> RC electricity, there are stupid amounts of mixups on wakeup starting with cr.lk. It can either whiff or be meaty, then either can be followed up with RC electricity, or throw, or hit confirm combo.
-alot of these are “general” strats that you would want to follow anyways, but gets better for blanka i suppose. it’s very easy to push an opponent to the corner with blanka, and once you get him there, throw ALOT. Many people will be afraid of eating RC electricity in the corner for obvious reasons, so go in for tick throws for some damage, then rc electicity when they think you’re not going to do it.
-command hop back can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Many blank players have developed a natural habit of mashing hop back whenever they feel they’re in trouble. In a large number of situations, this is pretty safe, but against smart/top tier characters, it can get dangerous, as the hop is punishable.
One of the first things I learned with Blanka that helped my game a lot, was whiff BBall -> Elecltric. Gave me a way to chip at the opponent without RC. People can HEAR it coming if they are smart, as you will start mashing during the ball. Guess you can play mind games after and mash during a fierce ball, but that sounds dangerous to me.
hop, jump straight up…ALL YOU NEED
gotta be careful about moving forward with blanka balls (jab version in particular), as people look for that and can walk up and block it to punish. another old trick with blanka ball is that the mp version stops RIGHT in front of non-fat characters for a quick throw.
so true haha.
an old trick in the book, command hop back can also be used as a tech bait. say you get a knockdown that puts you right next to the corpse, command hop back just before they get up and punish whatever they whiff (usually a fierce/rh because they are trying to tech). mix that with throws and you got yourself a gay ass blanka.
Blanka is good because he punches you in the nuts ftw.
And he has to reach to anally fist you from the front as well.
what are you talking about? If im raged i can super you for free everytime. you can do it with vega too, it’s so easy. jesus. you scrub.
raged in a-groove? 
Nominated for post of the year.
s.roundhouse xxx flash kick super. Learn that combo and you’ve learned blanka
Noobleman its called a k groove bar.
i was kidding.
I liked the Gief thread better, because it never degraded into a to and fro ping-pong game of smart-alec remarks. Oh well, long live the internets.
So yeah, a lot of things make blanka good. But I especially like the fact that you can play him in such different styles, not many characters are that well rounded. You can switch between runaway meterbuilding, stand-off slugfest and maddog rushing depending on the matchup/situation/groove. He’s got mobility in cmd hop and quick jump and I suppose using blanka balls for moving around counts as well, supreme normals and RC Elec which deserves a category of it’s own IMO.
I don’t know if I can add much to the discussion, but I’ll say this: Blanka moreso than any character including Vega can set up a wall of limbs and adds electricity whose penetration is a titanic undertaking. This wall of limbs, or perhaps should I say Electrified Fence lol (I crack me up), even when you do get through because of some random thing like a roll or a well timed jump, can move itself backwards almost instantly because of the command hop back. It’s like trench warfare only that Blanka doesn’t really care about giving up ground as long as he can bloody your face while you try to get close enough to hit him. And god forbid you get hit with electricity. He’s got mixups and his throw leads to another guessing situation.
The only thing I find him lacking in is AA department, I know ppl will tell me the pimp slap and rc elec take care of that. But I still feel it’s his biggest defensive opening. I’d wager to say that they’re more likely to successfully enter their attacking range through the air than by any other means.
Well I just learned this today but when you do blankas elec you lose your charge which sucks but good in other ways for the opponent I guess. Hop forward and d-u.k ball as they jump is dirty since they think you gave up your charge to hop forward. The timing is pretty strict and probably could use it for a cross up super on the opponent wakeups.
When blanka is being jumped at with an attack his hop forward, slide (reverse) to catch the trip guard is pretty dirty.
AA a jumping A-Blanka with bar is such a lose/lose situation its not even funny.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Oh…god…
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
Blanka’s best move by far is his b+KK backhop. It’s totally invincible and airborne on the first frame. Although it has punishable landing recovery, your opponent really has to be totally guessing that you’re going to use the backhop, and even then a lot of character’s don’t have an easy move to punish it with.
All the ball moves are also instantly airborne. If the opponent tries to mix you up on your wakeup, you can spam out a ball move to instant get yourself out of the mixup situation. You’ll get hit, but you’ll bounce away safely.
RC Electricity can be dealt with. If Blanka wants to use RC Elec to chip you on your wakeup, just give it to him and let him do it (block afterwards, since Blanka gets +10).
The b+KK move is really what’s most difficult about fighting Blanka though. It lets him get around moves and punish with d.MK/d.MP xx Super in situations where he otherwise wouldn’t.
Whoever’s starting out playing high level CvS2, to avoid frustation, the most important things to practice first in my opinion are…
You can punish with a slide move on reaction for example. If you’re non-run groove Akuma, Geese, Ken, or anybody else who’s not A-top tier team, I think you’re out of luck though. A and K-Blanka are the strongest characters in the game IMO. No other specific character counters them.
Be wary of doing straight up jumping fierce as anti air when in SNK grooves. More jumping frames means slower start up on the jump.
A good way to gain momentum mid screen is to do his hop back when they’re in your face, then start low jumping in with RH.
Blanka’s cross up combo is cross up forward, c. short, s. jab xx rh Up ball. I heard some characters can punish you for it. I’m guessing the same ones that can punish Hibiki B&B on hit.
Blanka’s c. RH is a good footsie move. Has good priority and long range. Out ranges all of Hibiki’s normals, can beat Guile’s c. forward, etc.
Blanka can just RC hop forward through fireballs, which is actually really good versus Guile, Iori, etc.
A pretty good wakeup if you don’t screw it up is reversal hop back. Also good on their wakeup if they attempt RC’s, supers, activate, dragon punches, etc.
In SNK grooves, run up low shorts are pretty good pressure. Mix it up with low jump RH’s.
I thought he can still be caught by dash supers, and a bunch of other supers that move forward when he does that on their wake up? I remember seeing it happen where Kim caught Blanka with his dash super and same for Hibiki, and I believe OTKs Rock vs Blanka I don’t remember who he was playing but he caught Blanka with the shine knuckle during a hop back.