I’ve been using Cody for about 6 months now. Seen hundreds of videos. Been playing online and having a somewhat consistent amount of success with him. However, I am having a hard time… hm, how should I word this… finding a way to completely dominate my opponent.
My main since vanilla has been Rufus. When I use him I feel like I have complete control and can always seem to bully my way in. From abusing divekicks against crouch techers to mixing it up against more advanced players. Basically, I can open up defensive play and punish extremely offensive play very well.
With Cody, I am unsure as to how to “dominate” my opponent. I know this is strange wording. I guess, I haven’t figured out exactly how to really, really play Cody efficiently. I come into a match thinking:
Always anti-air. No free jump ins.
Always punish neutral jumps in corner.
A random jump-in is okay in certain match-ups. The risk/reward is usually worth it considering his damage output.
On knock-down, mix the fuck out the opponent with safe jumps, OS f+hk against backdashing, empty jumps against reversals, empty jump cr.short, empty jump EX Bingo shenanigans, and meaty j.RH into either a grab or delayed st.fierce for CH set-up.
I’m not sure what I’m asking because it sounds like I’m rambling. But basically I’m having a hard time figuring out how to completely dominate my opponents like I do with Rufus. Any input would be nice.
The reason you’re having difficulty “dominating” the opponent is because you’re probably playing Cody with a Rufus mindset. Rufus has an instant dive kick and a very scary throw game that makes opponents want to keep him away at all costs. So before you’ve even began any kind of mindgames the opponent is already in a mind state.
With Cody it’s very different. Instead of relentless rushdown or complete keepaway he’s a mixture of everything. To dominate the opponent with Cody would be to keep them out, mix them up with throws/frame traps, out poke them, put them in disadvantageous positions (the corner most likely), anti-air them etc. It’s a mix of everything that lets Cody dominate the opponent and make them feel “helpless” in a sense (since I think that’s what you mean by dominate). So to dominate with Cody, imo, would be to basically control all aspects of the match.
Stun doesn’t necessarily mean you’re dominating the opponent but any 50/50 setups that Cody has usually ends in a stunned opponent. It’s also a good skill to know when the opponent wants to get away, mash reversals, mash throw etc, so when you guess right everytime you’re in their head (and it’s where you REALLY control the match). This goes for most characters, not just Cody.
Hey packz could u tell me how do you approach to counterhit setup…
let’s say that you want to do cr.hp xx ex rocks into U2 or something else.
how to condition your opponent to fall in a counterhit trap?
I’ve already asked cos I find it difficult to obtain it on reaction… someone politely told me that with a little of experience isn’t hard at all to spot the “counterhit” alert while playing but 4 me it’s still hard to “manage” if i don’t hitconfirm it in some way. meanwhile I’ve seen some top players vids and I’ve noticed that sometimes they drop the usual hitconfirm combo for a cr.hp (i suppose it’s an attempt to obtain a counterhit)
in the last few days I train with “random counterhit and random block” dummy this combo: jumping h.k,cr.fp xx ex rocks, double quarter circle back… and then I try to spot the first hit of the ex rock to press 3 punches and obtain an U2… and if it doesn’t come out I step back or i block low
I’m training the same with a non jumpin approach like f.mp, cr.lp, cr.lp, fmp, cr.hp xx ex rocks, U2 motion buffered and wait for the hit…
am I doing right?
do you have any hints for this purpose?
I’m sorry for my persistence but this forum is the only way i can use to talk about sf4
Your persistence only shows your enthusiasm which is a good thing.
The trick to hit confirming off a counterhit, and it is more of a trick then anything else, is simply to anticipate it. If you pre-emptively look for something, no matter what it is, you have a better chance of reacting to it. There’re exceptions to this with players who have ridiculously quick reactions but the majority of this “reacting to the counterhit alert” is simply anticipating the counterhit to begin with. Here’s Sako showing his “amazing reactions” which was actually just an anticipation of a common strategy used by Fei Long players to punish backdashes. Go to 4:20 to see it.
[media=youtube]bRhYrU7qoA4[/media]
The anticipation tactic doesn’t just apply to counterhits but almost anything else. A new type of anticipation I’m trying to embed into my game is hit confirming off a f.HK. Momochi has this down almost perfectly (might miss it once or twice but majority of the time he’ll hit confirm into a MK Ruffian or EX Ruffian etc.). If you anticipate something you can make “psychic” reads and react to amazing things and this is what players like Alex Valle and Daigo do when it looks like they’re being “random”.
To condition your opponent into pressing buttons you have to give them a reason to press buttons. Ask yourself this every time you’re putting the pressure on your opponent, “Have I given my opponent a reason to press buttons? Are they scared to press buttons?” etc. And if you can’t answer yes to either of those questions then you have to give them a reason to press buttons (note: be aware of reversals as well when frame trapping/throwing because players won’t just crouch tech, they will also reversal so make sure you delay your frame traps or throws sometimes). To make your opponent press buttons, throw them. And keep throwing them until they expect the throw the next time and then next time replace the throw with a frame trap. That’s the basic process in simple forms, it’s obviously more in depth than that but that would take too much time lol.
you should do plain c.hp xx ex rocks and train to input the u2 on reaction after seeing that it counter hit. the problem with j.hk beforehand is if your dummy gets counterhit, the c.hp will combo normally, but is not a counterhit so won’t combo into ex rocks. you can’t “hit confirm” ex rocks, you input them now matter what, since you need to cancel c.hp. the gap between c.hp xx ex rocks is long enough to realize you counter hit and input the motion (no need to buffer).
Ok tnx u m8s for the first time I realized fully the meaning of “condition your opponent” you r right packz the reaction was amazing to those who were watching but if you can think in terms of sako you realized that it was planned the round b4.
unfortunately during online games you rarely encounter (At least on psn and on my low scrubby level of play) the same player more than a couple of times in a row so the proces that bring you from “notice a behaviour” to “learn to expect it and react accordingly” becomes a little bit harder
This may be what zUkUu means, but to clarify what I do; I find it impossible to react fast enough in many situations, but its much faster/easier to press a button on reaction than do the entire motion on reaction. What I mean is, you know your going for cr.hp (counterhit fish) xx ex rocks because your doing the move! so I buffer the ultra every time.
so the motion is, cr.hp xx ex rocks, qcb, qcb
If you see the counterhit you just hit PPP, if not, continue your pressure.
Same for crack kick into mk Ruffian (although I find this one to be much harder)
do f+HK qcf, MK on reaction to a landed crack kick.
I usually miss the above and thus usually go for the f+mp reset after crack kick, its hella easier to do on reaction.
What’s the best “get the hell off of me” move for Cody? I’ve been having issues lately with certain chars (Dee Jay, Chun, etc) who are able to get in on me and apply tons of pressure and I can’t seem to get away for a bit of breathing room.
the “best” (and only) would be ex zonk, which is very slow and heavily unsafe. tho, it has huge window of invincibility frames, beating almost every move (and ultra) in existence - it just is not viable against fast jabs and lows. further, you “block” two buttons, which cody need for different situations. so in the end, your best choice remains to block and endure it till you see an opening to reset momentum. to zonk “right” you need experience, player reading and matchup knowledge.
Is there any way Cody can make someone pay for cross ups on wake up? Or is blocking, dashing, cr MK and focus absorbing really the only options. I assume this is a weak point of Cody’s wake up game.
What is his best option other than blocking to get out of it?
I main Ryu and Cody is one of the characters that I am considering alting. Lately, my tough matchups have been Dhalsim, Fei Long, Balrog, and Ibuki. How does Cody fare against those characters?
Fei and Balrog are matchups I am confident in. Although I don’t know who has the advantage. Sim can be tricky to get in, but once you do you can os U2 on teleport and it’s in your favor. Ibuki I think is one of cody’s hardest matchup because of the vortex.
I also have a question. I find that after I do CU FADC and then go for the s.hp to get the counter hit, I just getting thrown before the s.hp comes out. Does this beat it or is it character specific for beating throws or am I just slow?
It only works against players who do late crouch techs, specially if it’s not a 3 frame short.
Bad players will just mash throws and the best players will switch it up (throw, late tech, normal tech, reversal, backdash).
I’m playing Cody to complement Bison, so how do you guys think Cody fares against Gief,Guile,Guy,Seth and maybe Honda, I’ll want to counter pick against these characters with Cody
Not counter picking to get an advantage, just so I can get a 5-5 match
Anybody got any practical uses for the knife? Like, is it matchup specific when to use it or is it good against all characters? I can do most of the knife combos, its just that I usually just ignore it during a match. I figured the added range and addition chip damage would warrant me using it more, but I’m not too sure.
