I am well aware of anti-airs, and I feel I can use them competently enough, except when opponents jump in at closer ranges than I am expecting or prepared for. I play Nash The most right now, and don’t really have a good DP to protect me. (by close range I mean cross up range) do you guys have any tips for me?!
When in doubt, just block.
I personally use standing jab as an anti-air a lot.
One example I could think off is Cammy’s crossup. She has to use LK, which means she has to do it really late in order to combo off of it.
You could time your jab well enough to catch Cammy’s crossup attempt. Jab in general is a really easy way to anti-air.
Give it a shot.
(This is Cammy specific, but her back MP hits very high above her, so that can be used as a close anti-air aswell.)
Another example would be Chun-Li’s down-forward HK crossup kick. You can simply jab her out of it on wake-up, assuming it’s not max range. (I wouldn’t recommend mashing jab though, it’s a bit risky)
Using an anti-air in a crossup situation is tricky though. Especially after a knockdown and with a character that has a good crossup move, it’s almost impossible to anti-air without an auto-correct uppercut or a move with invinsibility.
Also there are so called “safe jumps” that you simply can’t anti-air at all. That’s why they are called safe jumps.
As I said before, when in doubt, just block.
Getting caught by a ground mixup is still usually less damage than a jump-in combo.
This is something beginners have been struggling since forever.
Here’s what typically happens.
The opponent gets in somehow (jump, dash, oki, whatever) and then he will hit 2 buttons. for example, cr.lp x2. Jump, j.MK to cross you up. Then hit cr.lp x2, jump. j.MK to cross you up and so on.
Here’s what you can usually do:
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[] Dash forward to neutral under them. This resets the situation. You could also use stuff like Lauras Avante or Karins command dash.
[] Jump with them and press a button earlier than they do. What button you want to press depends on your character.
[] Jump back and press a button earlier than they do.
[] Use an antiair that beats this situation if you have one. For example, (auto) corrected DP could work. Juri’s cr.HP worked if you timed it right. Karins st.LP could work.
[] Take a step or two forward and then punish their landing recovery. This should cause their crossup button to whiff.
[] Take a step or two forward, and then antiair them. This will also work if your character has a tool useful for this. Karins st.LP for example could work.
[] Character specific options: Jump and air throw them (Nash) earlier than they press their button. Jump air SPD, pre-emptive HP Bolt charge from Laura on a read and many more.
[] Maybe more options.
[/list]
There’s a caveat to some of these. If the opponent tries to adjust, and starts to press a button really early in the jump, you can just do nothing . Their button will most likely whiff in the air and you can then do whatever you want on their landing.
If you’re getting crossup jumped on wakeup as a meaty, then just block. Make sure you’re backrolling or quickteching appropriately to reduce the number of chances your opponent can get this meaty crossup oki, depending on the character.
@felirx thank you! Very informative! Since I’ve got you here (and I don’t wanna be that guy that makes a new discussion for every question he has lol) do you have any advice for how to get in with characters that have short ranged buttons, or don’t have great tools to get them in range?
I would say you should try using Moonsault Slash (heavy Moonsault Slash is really good at going across the screen quickly, and light/medium Moonsault Slash are safe on block) with Nash to get in.
Also in response to your original post, I find that heavy Sonic Scythe is an extremely good anti-air tool that covers pretty much all angles that an opponent can jump in with (the seems to cover 270 degrees)
I’m having trouble picking up on jump ins during in a match. If I go into training with Cammy I seem to have so much time to use st. HK to AA if I set the dummy to jump in yet in the heat of the battle I get counter hit a lot. What can I do to pick up on jump ins earlier?
With Nash, a mixture of (slow) sonic booms, dashing to follow them, proper footsies with whiff punishing and counterpoking is typically what they do. There is no one universal way to get in against an opponent who has even a small clue what they are doing. You want to research what players like Infiltration do in the neutral game.
Using raw Moonsault to get in is more of a surprise gimmick. If it works, you just got away with murder, but hey, you’re in and at plus! Following a slow sonic boom with a Moonsault is another gimmick that could work against opponents without DP, but it’s really thigh to get a timing where there is small enough gap so you don’t get antiaired.
If the opponent is not very good, you could just jump in and see what he does. If he doesn’t adjust and antiair, you can just use the least effort possible to win and keep doing shenanigans. They might even just die to Sonic boom and basic antiairing shoto gameplan.
For example, again with Laura.
Let’s say you’re playing against Bison and having real isssues with st.mk. What we know about Bison is that he is really slow, so we can take our better mobility and use that.
Basic footsie plan could be to walk in to the range of Bisons st.mk and then take a step back. See how the Bison player reacts to this situation. If he likes to press st.mk, because you moved back it will actually whiff, letting you try to whiff punish it with stuff like st.MP xx mp bolt charge.
This concept can be applied to most buttons for most of the characters and is what creates the core gameplay in Street fighter.
That is only the very basic footsie gameplay with whiff punishes in mind and is only a tip of the iceberg. What if the Bison doesn’t s.mk in that situation and instead just does c.hk. You probably got swept and so on.
Two useful resources you could check out are:
Sonic Hurricane footsies handbook
Juicebox explanation of footsies. The first ~15-20 minutes gives a good overall view of what the basic footsie game is in street fighter.
The section with Dudley is a great example of a character with fairly stubby normals, but with great buttons for counterpoking and whiff punishing and is the way the character actually becomes viable to win with. Kens b.MP is a very Dudley like button for example.
A bit late sorry. Don’t record just a jump in in training mode, record 5 situations including one or two jump ins. For example if you do Cammy vs Cammy :
- jump in.
- V-skill
- Spiral arrow
- The thingy where she jumps as a ball and do canon strike after.
- Another jump in.
The CPU will randomly do them all. Block/Punish/Counter them all for a while every day. You want to train to brain to react to multiple things like in a real game.
Thanks very much, I definitely need to do this! I’ve picked up that I’m bad at reacting to what opponents do, either I’m too late or I get easily baited by things like neutral jumps.