This thread is for specific details of the Dhalsim vs Birdie matchup.
Birdie is SFV’s resident punish character. A bit like a ranged grappler, he excels at making opponents terrified to move and capitalizes on their mistakes with frame traps, beefy normals, and ranged grabs.
A lot of Birdies feel like this matchup is in Sim’s favor. But to an inexperienced sim, it can still be scary. Thankfully, we have the right tools to make Birdie think twice before throwing out a swan dive. So let’s discuss those options.
st.LP will stuff Birdie’s jump-ins, including the notorious seal dive. You can mash on jab and it will work. This alone can put the fear in Birdie.
Be very careful about throwing out limbs in this match, especially at round start. You’re liable to get hit by an EX Chain.
EX Dive is the really scary part of Birdie’s mindgames. Sim’s godly st.LP will beat it at any range except for max range, which a smart Birdie will try to put you in anyway. At that range, you have three options: teleport, b.HP, and jump. Teleport is by far your safest option, for obvious reasons. It’s also your fastest. b.HP can crush counter him as he’s diving in, but you absolutely must make a read beforehand or you will get slammed (it’s too slow to do it on reaction). Jump can be followed up with an instant j.LP, but when you land, you’ll be left at a greater disadvantage than the other two options. EX Flame might work too? I forgot to try that last night in training. It’s not the best use of meter if so, but I’m sure you can do it. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong!
Or you can just slide under the dive.
Birdie’s huge hurtboxes thankfully let us hit many of our moves on him at most ranges. Fireballs will keep him honest about jumping, as usual.
I need to play this matchup more since there aren’t many online. Ultimately, it will likely come down to who can outsmart whom in neutral, then building off that momentum. Because things can still go very south for Sim if he gets caught in the Birdie vortex.
There’s an excellent PDF on the Birdie forums that details every possible followup, frametrap, and punish, with character-specific notes. I’ll take a look at it later and see if I can glean anything useful from it for Sim players.
Quick punish notes:
- Meaty TK Gale doesn’t seem to work on wakeup Bullhorn of any kind. He just blows right through it.
- LP, MP, and EX Bullhead can all be punished by cr.LK and cr.MK on block. LP Bullhead can even be punished by b.MK > flame (forgot if MP Bullhead can, forgot to write it down :x). HP Bullhead is the odd outlier here. It’s the scariest version by far. Blocking it will only get you a jab punish at best, and you won’t even be able to combo off of it. He’ll be able to block everything else. Might just want to teleport out in that case. All versions of Bullhead can be stuffed with st.MP and st.MK on reaction, even at relatively close range (not jab range though). HP Bullhead is the hardest to punish on reaction, but it’s possible.
More to come.
One important tip for fighting competent Birdies: Birdie can punish your teleport with a pre-emptive cr.MP (where he stoops down and hits you with his hair). Every character seems to have an option for predictable teleports, but Birdie is scary in particular because he gets a terrifying 50/50 off of a cr.MP. When you land, he can either command grab you, or he can meaty st.HK your jab attempt for a crush counter (which I believe can combo into a super for a mighty ~60-70%!). Good birdies will try to train your teleports to land this grimy setup. You won’t have time to teleport out because of the meaty.
The best way to get a Birdie to respect you is to just frametrap his face, as far as I can tell. He wants you slightly in front of him or near mid-range; being right up next to him doing meaty Gales and such just makes him a big fat throw target.
You can also punish HP Bullhead with St.lk
If Birdie does LK or MK Chain you can punish with st.mp at further ranges and st.hp/hk or cr.hk at closer ranges. Max range it appears you can’t get a punish.
Does anyone else feel this matchup is harder than people say? The general concensus seems to be that this matchup is solidly in Sims favour but I’ve played a couple good Birdies and its not easy imo.
Birdie can play lame at full screen and V Skill to build meter for V trigger. From 3/4 screen he can fish with chains to catch limbs or fireballs without much worry of a damaging punish. From mid screen he can use his armoured command normal to blow through pokes and also use his downforward heavy punch to counter limbs. At close range he has tons of options from overhead, jabs, st.mk and huge damage command grab options. His EX bullhorn can’t be punished on block and is almost impossible to punish with a pre emptive IAT also. In V Trigger he becomes a monster.
He can kill Sim in like two combos and a command grab and has the perfect tools to condition you. The start of the round neutral is fine for both characters but when Birdies V Trigger or EX meter comes into play I do think this matchup is tricky. The gale pressure is the stuff that screws birdie over I reckon but it can be hard to get that stuff going vs him. I wanna see this matchup at high level in tournament or long sets, because most of what I’ve seen of this matchup so far is mediocre Birdie play just getting blown up by top tier Sim players.
I just have trouble vs. his jumping command grab. I guess st. lp beats it, but he ends up right next to me and I’m not sure what to do after that. I’m still a beginner at this matchup.
You can jab, you can slide. You also can jump or V-skill and punish with a full combo.
I feel the exact same way for every reason you listed. Even week 1 when i was beating birdies and they were saying “oh this is so bad” i kept telling them no way, i recognize the tools you have and i know they would beat me you’re just not using them.
This is the one thing that IS as sims favor… kind of. After an AA jab you get a meaty down fierce (+3 on block or more when meaty) so you can play whatever game you want whether it’s frame trap with gale, fierce, ex fireball, or just teleport out. The problem for me is as soon as I meaty him he v reversals my and is back at advantage which means I have to go for throws just to avoid that and just going for a throw doesnt lead to really anything.
This matchup seems terrible for sim but a lot of birdie players arent playing it right making it appear the other way.
Need help!
This matchup is really easier for me since i aim to stay fullscreen. If he dont come just spam fireballs, and if he try to attack, poke him, teleport behind his attacks… Just stay away from him and wait for openings.