So now you have to know what ranges are safe, and what are not. If you hesitate at all you don’t get a punish, and you might eat a punish for trying to palm.
I play XBL, same as my name here. West coast. Also I don’t play a gimmick Blanka. It’ll probably be harder for you to time manual safejumps, but my gouken mixup is just unblockables/fake unblockables and forcing you to guess counter/guess ex tatsu repeatedly.
Not my concept actually, Viscant came up with the idea before we’d seen sf4 hitboxes, he calls them safeballs. I’ve just expanded on the idea somewhat after looking the hitboxes, and doing some testing.
I just used that post instead of his thread because it mechanically explains things with pictures.
Basically blanka can ball from the same spot by eyballing, or he can use strings that put him in the same position every time.
I really hate this match-up. What normal is the safest to punish balls on reaction. Meaning not after block. Is it even possible for Gouken to punish balls on block? It certainly doesn’t seem like it. Or maybe I’m too slow with my Palm. I meant horizontal balls btw.
Apparently, you can low kongo his ultra 1 on its start up if you are really close. That’s the only helpful thing I have to say about this match-up. I get dominated by nearly every blanka player out there :S I try to play defensive because zoning doesn’t really work with fireballs and it seems like gouken doesn’t have a normal to beat electricity up close.
Huh? Kongo will punish what? Nevermind, I got it. You meant MP Senkugoshoha aka Palm.
Hard Punch ball is punishable with st.mk or walk forward st.hk or dash sweep. MP and EX ball are dash sweep. There is some match where a Gouken dash sweeps every EX ball that comes his way. I used to think it was unpunishable but that vid showed me different.
The most frustrating part of this matchup is how hard it is to punish jump ins for Gouken. Remember that as soon as Blanka walks forward he has no charge and can’t break your armor unless he is proximity range. Use focus to try to absorb a dash but don’t hold it too long or be predictable.
cr.lp will stop a ball no problem but it does negligible damage. Alternately, you can use st.mp (5 frames) or st.hp if you are feeling snappy.
I BEAT MY FIRST BLANKA DECISIVELY. He was 12k pts junior but I dont care. Im so freeeeee to Blankaaaas usually! I c.HPed every ball on reaction or tried to. Got 70% of them. And hit blanka out of hop with c.HP as well. I don’t know why but I always had this feeling that Blanka becomes immune to everything during his hop (like abel’s roll which can be thrown and like felicia’s screen dash from mvc3). I pretty much just sat and punished/teched whatever I could.
@Reipin, if its not too much trouble, can you find the link to that video?
His ultra is usually free damage for you if you weren’t hitting buttons or in the air when he activated it. Lp kongo very close, hp kongo on its way down, or if you are even further back, ex tatsu or shin shoryuken own it. If he was good and forced you to block the whole thing, shin sho as soon as he bounces away.
Thank you reipin. That helps A LOT. Now all I need to do is find me some good blanka sparring partners for PC. I think I need help the most with this match-up and with Balrog.
Restored palm (old lp, new mp) punishes at least two of the blanka balls, ex being one of them. The match up is a little better now. I still don’t understand how to attack his wake up properly other than safely triggering a wake up ultra 1, and I just don’t get why he should be able to grab you from a character away. His whole game revolves around his damned grab and you trying to avoid it.
when Blanka doesn’t have EX, you can freely attack him (especially low - or is it only low that’s guaranteed?). When he has meter, you can attack low against his wake-up Electricity, or you can attack low against wake-up like EX Upball, but only in the corner, as you will take the hit but also get to hit back, only harder
I forgot to mention, that you can replace attacks (meaty attacks) with back-throw also. It will grab Blanka out of Electricity, including EX, if I’m not mistaken
Different animal now, it’s punishable on block. In AE Blanka could do it anytime he wanted with no fear cause you had no way to punish on block or hit. Only time you could punish on hit or block is if he was in the corner, but outside of the corner he had 0 reason not to do it as a reversal.