Hi everyone, I just recently decided to give AE another honest try, and after floundering about with other characters I seem to have hit a relative stride with Cody. One thing I’m curious over though is Ultra choice…is either one considered vastly superior to the other? Does it fluctuate depending on the matchup at hand?
I like the look and feel of U1 more than U2, but it seems like U2 is a bit more useful. Help?
In about 85% of matches U2 is the optimal choice. It is cheaper to combo into as there are more ways to combo into it without an FADC. It does noticably more damage (around 50more IIRC.) can be used for chip damage much more effectively. And starts up significantly faster (almost twice as fast. U1 is one of the slowest ultras in the game at 13F startup.)
U1 is good if you expect the opponent to jump a lot because you can do HK Ruffian - FADC - U1. so matches like Gief, Hawk, Rufus, Cammy it can be a better choice.
Awesome, thanks. I’ll keep working with U2 then.
To add, U1 is useful vs Cammy and Rufus, because it can punish some cannon spike setups and any blocked messiah (plus both characters tend to spend a lot of time in the air).
These two and Hawk are the only matchups i pick it. U2 is imo superior due to being comboable after counter hits.
I’m curious why you think Hawk, and particularly Gief, are better suited for U1?
U2 can punish lariat on block, whiff, and even if spaced right, to catch a gief building meter using lariat. If you neutral jump or back dash out of an SPD you have a j. HP > U2 or back dash > U2 punish. On top of that, Cody can punished EX Green Hand with U2 on Block.
For the most part, a lot of things can be said with Hawk. Anticipating a command grab, a blocked condor dive (non-EX), blocking his st. and cr. HK, baited U2, condor spire (non-EX). Sure you can just punish those if your reactions are fast enough with U1, or you can land Crack Kick > U1 mid-screen, but still.
Maybe it’s just my preference. I, for example, prefer U1 in the Honda match. You can use it to OS EX HB, you can punish all headbutts on reaction instead of just a blocked MP or HP headbutt with U2. You can catch his jump ins with it pretty easily. You can punish buttslams with it on the way down as well.
I do agree about Rufus and, in most cases Cammy. I think U1 can be great in the Seth match as well. (EDIT: Also Adon)
In my opinion the only matches where you should be using U1 is vs cammy, rufus, yun, yang with no questions asked. Fei long and adon i think can go both ways.
Reasons…
Fei long you can punish rekkas and overheads on block with cr lk if they arnt spaced so you can cr lk xx ruffian fadc ultra. Then again it is spacing dependent and you give up your counter hit/linking ability. [I use ultra 2 in this match-up]
Vs adon you can ex through his jag kicks and fadc ultra but then again you have to sacrifice 2 buttons to hold it so i still think it can go either way.
vs cammy: she has reason to jump, you have a means to ultra that jump
vs rufus, you can punish all ex messiah followups with U1 and he has reason to jump [but he is hard to aa with a ruffian if the rufus player is smart]
vs yun and yang they have reason to jump = U1
Other match-ups i feel like you can argue either way but when you get used to counter hit -> U2 or spaced f+mp -> ultra 2 (non counter hit) you will never want to use U1.
Honestly though i use U2 in every match-up as i only play online and it is very very hard to ruffian kick fadc ultra people that are playing smart online for me personally so i say fuck it i would rather be able to CH to ultra or space a f+mp to ultra on non counter hit.
A Lot of it depends on your match-up familiarity + reaction speed. If i had both i would use U1 in the 4 matches i stated + adon. Iv been trying to put the fei long theory to practice but i haven’t been playing AE (or games in general) lately so i need to re-level up my play first.
Ramma and otori are also spot on. You dont need to use u2 vs the chars i listed.
Really vs Rufus and cammy are the 2 matchups where i try to force myself to use it.
Thawk everything he does is airborne outside of footsies and his condor dive comes at the perfect angle for HK Ruffian. Gief both ultras are completely viable. sometimes I perfer u2 sometimes I prefer u1 but it’s one of the only matchups u1 IS useful at all. Also for lariat I find doing cr.HP - HP Criminal upper is a damn good punish at 260damage meterless.
I think that’s a bit strong! Ultra 1 can be useful in any matchup, even if it wouldn’t traditionally be as effective as Ultra 2. There was a already a bit of a debate about this here: Cody Match up Ultra Choice
So I’ve been thinking about making a tech thread. I realize we have a (very outdated) match-up thread, but I kind of think we could use a tech thread for those sort of advanced aspects of the match. From small things like the usefulness of crouch teching with cr. MK vs Viper or what the best poke/buffered poke is vs Fei Long, to optimal option selects and set-ups.
I have a bunch of stuff I can contribute, but I doubt I’d be able to make a super complete list on my own. Would anyone be interested if I got that thread going, organized data, etc.?
Hell, we just learned that we can OS zonk through Rufus’s reversals instead of EX zonk. I mean the stuff like that.
Good idea. We can add to the tech every unblockable and fake cross up that Cody has as well as listing all the well known setups that other characters have against Cody.
No we should keep them a secret so people have to hunt for them if they wnnt to find anti-cody tech!
Kappa.
Seriously though I’d been thinking off and on about doing a Cody handbook but I don’t want to invest the hours and hours it would take to make it with the potential for a lot of it to become invalidated depending on AE2013 changes. Once I know WHEN AE2013 is estimated to be released I may consider doing basic stuff.
Also I am always amazed when the tech I post is stuff that wasn’t found already. 80% of the time I post something I’m expecting ADN to go ‘yeah, we know about that already. eye roll’ but I figure I post it JUST IN CASE.
Lol we won’t be posting any anti-Cody tech 
I’ll start building a format up for it. The thread should be up in the next day or two.
You misunderstood. If they see tech Cody has then they can develop tech to counter that or simply avoid the situations that the tech is available. Sort of like how you keep some stuff secret. AKA “Save it for majors”
Personally I’d rather share it all and encourage people to develop tech to beat the tech to beat the tech, ect ect. Rather than trying to keep it secret. Sort of make it like an arms race. WE CAN’T HAVE A TECH GAP WITH THE RUSSIANS!
Do I really come up as the haughty type? Haha!
Anyway, I agree with Eternal. But we can still have a tech and anti-tech thread, we just have to keep some setups to ourselves I guess.
Well know this: anything I find I post here. I got no secrets. Secrets are for chumps who don’t think their skills and reads are enough. ;3
You don’t come off as haughty but if there was anyone I think of potentially being somewhat exasperated with hearing of this “new tech” that people learned about 2 years ago already it’d be you or maybe otori.
Hahaha!
Yeah, I do agree with you. The reason why I started sharing all those unblockables was not only for fellow Cody players but also so that people know that getting grabbed may cause them to get hit by a guaranteed setup afterwards and vice versa. So even if they know that a setup can be crouched, I can simply alter it so that it will hit them. If they don’t want be grabbed in the corner, I frame trap or zonk them etc.
I believe there’s only one setup I haven’t shared yet, but it will be sooner or later.
If we do set up a new tech thread, I suggest we format it similar to the Bison Labwork thread.
Everything is clear, organized and there’s video to back it up.
Just started picking up Cody. Was a Duds main coming from 3rd, but I’m not feeling him so much in IV. Anyways, quick question: f+MP, cl.MP, cr.HP xx HP CU would be his best meterless combo, no? Excluding counter-hits and speaking in terms of damage. Also, MK RK for getting them into the corner and LK RK for untechable knockdown, instead of Criminal, as an ender?
Bingo! That is correcto.
Hey guys, I need alot of help with my Cody. I don’t understand how to make people bait out moves and when it seems like I’m trying to mix them up; they DP me or do some sort of reversal. It always seems like my opponents are always putting me in block stun and if I try to jump, press a button or simply block; they grab me. I’m getting frustrated and I’d appreciate any feedback.