Post all your questions, answers, and knowledge for this matchup here!
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Question:
1- How to deal with blanka hop on close range.
2- Punish electricity at close range
3- Punish blanka rolls
My tip: you can GF air focus the blanka vertical roll, then full punish.
1- No idea, this owns me everytime, especially online.
2- Kongo. I assume you mean like right next to him when you say close range, the range where if you push a button it just makes your hitbox bigger and you get electrocuted.
3-HP ball you can st.mk or walk forward HK. MP ball I think you can dash forward and do st.lk. Everything else is lulz if you are on the ground. for LP ball I might suggest doing a Gouken flip, you can throw, kick, parry if he does up ball, or sweep if he backdashes. This is just a suggestion to try to switch pressure to your side. I’ve never done it. Not sure how straight ball will interact against your flip.
This is my first post on SRK, but since this is one of my least favorite match-ups I’m interested in contributing and hearing how other people are handling it.
1 - This is going to sound bad, but I will spam 3 or 4 jabs intermittently throughout the match when they are in hop-range or if I think they’ll ex-ball my hado. I’ve had increasing success with stuffing both of these as long as I start jabbing before they begin rolling (it’s not working for me on reaction, but my reaction time is shoddy at best). I’ll be the first to admit it’s a far from perfect strategy since a well space/timed hop will put them on the opposite side of the jab and give them the throw, but after a few stuffs many players start doing slides and vertical balls, which is where I’m getting my damage vs Blanka players.
2 - I’d love to hear anything on this, I block and eat the chip and I hate it.
3 - As noted in step 1, I’m usually trying to stuff this with jab spam.
Random thoughts and questions:
- In SSF4 (haven’t seen it AS much in AE) Blanka’s almost always opened with a LP ball -> Throw. If you start the round with st. HK you will stuff the LP Ball.
- If you manage to stuff a Blanka ball with jabs, I’ve had a lot of success with immediate sweep as the follow-up (I don’t think Blanka’s are getting stuffed with this all that often so their typically not ready to go defensive when they are jabbed out of the ball).
- I have had marginal success with cr. HP (a huge staple of mine) as an anti-air vs Blanka, are people finding better success with cr. mk?
- I used to Kongo Blanka’s Ultra 1, but swear that I had it armor break me on start-up in a game recently, does anyone else have any experience with this?
If ultra got you it was probably a reversal which grants armor break abilities.
You can also forward throw on reaction to punish lp ball at the start of the round. More damage and safe jump opportunity. You also won’t open yourself to a whiff punish.
- jab , or nj to mk or hk air tatsue to keep the distance
- jump over him with a diag jump lk tatsu land then throw his ass (way easier to throw from behind)or backthrow into ultra if youve got it
- has anyone tried dash>jmp>tatsu?
*great idea on the random jabs to close off the chances for ball pressure, i do it all the time
S.HP will take down or trade for 120 dmg on any rolls if timed well.
I think Ex roll cannot be punish with gouken at least.
Denshin works on HP roll.
ex roll you can punish it with ex tatsu (in super) haven’t try it in ae
I’m assuming that when you guys say “punish” you are talking about stopping it before you block it, yes? My idea of punish is after you block. Just want to make sure that whoever reads this is clear on that. I don’t want anyone to do an EX tatsu after blocking a ball or try to walk forward HK to stop an incoming ball lol.
haha yea, their is a difference between punishing and reading or being proactive
For me punish is after blocking 
To stop the roll before it gets to hit you, HP is ok, EX Tatsu somehow miss vs Ex roll.
well yeah, my bad, what i meant, you can hit the ex roll when it’s coming with the EX tatsu, someone told me that you can punish with dash and sweep… havent try it out yet
Ok, so heres my general idea for the Blanka matchup
We are now in the same group that can’t punish blanka balls. Also Gouken pretty much gets raped if he presses a button because Blanka’s normals are pretty fucking good. So we are basically down to make Blanka make mistakes. (like every other goddamn matchup).
Good blankas will try to space out their normals so that it is hard or impossible to punish (at least for Gouken). But here is some of the frame data
standing HK (backwards cartwheel flip kick…thing) -8 on block -5 on hit.
Sweep is -7 on block
cr hp (reaching punch) is -10 on block, -4 on hit. Hard to punish when spaced correctly.
Cr lk, and mk are +1 on block +4 on hit. Don’t press buttons, Blankas go for these all the time.
Blanka’s slide sweep, -14. Less active frames make it harder to punish on block when spaced correctly. This thing has deadly range. Punishes FBs on reaction.
Blankas love to jump all over the fucking place, the jump has little horizontal range, pretty fast, sharp arc jump, its like a fucking natural safe jump. Blankas use a combination of the their regular jump and their hop to mixup, usually between a grab or a combo to ball or elec. Fairly easy to defend against, I like to use the regular lp lk crouch tech so that spacing issues with electricity don’t blow up my cr mk.
annnd blanka balls, the most hated move in this game. Can’t punish it, so there’s not much we can do about it. Armor break, and since its charge, it can done on reaction VERY FAST. Focus attack not recommended. The hitbox for all balls are extremely weak, so mashing jabs will knock em right out of it. Refer to this page for reference.
Good Blankas players won’t use the balls that can be easily punished. And you can easily tell when its one where you can fuck em up on block.
Both other balls are focusable, but reversal ball can armor break. Both balls have fairly quick recovery once they touch the ground, I personally find it hard for full punish consistently. The backstep rolling ball can mixup, either kongo (high?) or block and punish the shit out of it.
Up ball for anti air, done on reaction very easily (general rule of thumb is to never jump at a charge char with charge) 4 frames. Safe jump techs should be available.
Electricity is 5 frames fastest. Throw em the fuck out of it if they are stupid enough to do it on wakeup, or meaty.
Elec punishable with mid kongo, cr mp cr lk, st hk st hp. Too close and youll still get shocked. Check the link above for reference.
Quick notes: Blanka is a charge char, if he is walking forward, no balls for him, that means focus is good to go. Also fireballs are easily punished with slide and ex ball. Use sparingly.
Ultra I needs special attention when blocking, startup hits low, when the ball jumps, it hits overhead, back on the ground, any block goes. High hit can crossup, watch out for that.
Ultra II pretty shit, punishable with EX divekick on reaction.
Both ultras do huge damage. Do not neglect them.
To emphasize your point, if he’s walking that means no charge, but if he is hopping that’s a different story. As a note, you will see Blanka’s hop forward or floor slide and then go straight into a ball. This can be pretty trick as my reaction is to start trying to tech a throw when they hop forward and I usually try and punish a full screen slide both of which are going to crushed by a ball.
Punishing Blanka balls
LP Ball
Dash sweep (can be crouching and still punish, blanka needs to be point blank to be able to punish. If he’s at a distance it won’t be punishable)
MP Ball
Dash sweep (you can be crouching and still punish)
Dash hk (you can be crouching and still punish)
HP Ball
Ex-Tatsu
HK tatsu fadc ultra
Sweep
HK
Ultra II (able to juggle afterwards for big damage)
Ex Ball
Dash sweep (need to be standing)
Ex upball (point blank or after safejump)
Dash c.mp
Dash c.lk
Dash lk
I’ve realised cornering Blankas and doing fast normals really helped followed by cr.MP xx LP Gohadouken
I am positive in a few fights I had the other night, I was punishing one of the Blanka balls with mp. palm. Watch the arc when he bounces off if you blocked high. If it’s a high arc that does not travel most of the screen away, I believe it is punishable. He lands maybe three characters away. Maybe the med ball?
What is the deal with his wakeup? Why am I whiffing meaty attacks(mp, jab, or sweep) that block stun or counter hit other characters? I don’t do it all the time but when I want to do a meaty, I am hesitant because he seems to have no hitbox when he wakes up. What gives?
It’s really hard to corner a competent Blanka. EX Rainbow roll lets him out and the hop is hard to react to, never mind his annoying jump arc.