Many beginners fall victim to the same “cheap” move over and over again without having a good idea how to combat it. I’m having troubles against a few moves in USF4 if anyone can help me out.
Hakan’s Super on wake-up. This move dominated an endless lobby for about 10 matches (even against someone with good PP). I was able to jump away from it half the time, but it hit me sometimes too. I tried ducking, but I think it depends on distance. I finally realized I can DP it, but what if I’m playing as a character without an invincible reversal?
Oni’s EX Demon Slash. I know how to block it, but usually it’s too fast for me to react. Does this take practice or should I neutral jump it every time?
Any time Guy or El Fuerte runs at me. See above.
Vega’s wall dive. Should I be focus attacking it all of the time? Sometimes the cross-up is too ambiguous for me and sometimes I whiff a DP.
I have similar issues, I blame it partly to playing online and a larger portion of the blame to the player.
Oni’s EX slash is just a “Get used to the yellow flash and started reacting” I would tell you to hit up an Oni player and ask them to do random EX slashes, or set-up something in training mode to work with.
Guy and Fuerte have a little sub-game of making you feel scared to press anything, especially Fuerte. Just learning the correct counters to them helps, just look over the character sub-forums and see what people are saying helps/doesn’t help. All part of learning the match-up!
If you focus Vega’s wall-dive it makes it much easier for him to grab you, but it can work as well. Any form of anti-air works well, the move makes him more vulnerable than you.
1.Hakan his super only hits high so you can crouch it, there are some setups where it catches on certain wakeup frame where you stand, to avoid this do a simple cr.lk on wakeup.
If you see Oni flash yellow, just block the other side, by looking at oni his bar you can discern when he has this ability or not, so be aware of it. Other factors are ofcourse if he is standing next to you or far away, is he doing a blockstring, is he doing a combo, are you almost stunned, does he need a big comeback etc. This move is easy to react to once you keep it in the back of your mind, so blocking it shouln’t be an issue, it is just simple practice. Another way to not take the mixup is simply jumping away.
You can definately react to Guy his overhead, though it is a bit faster now in USFIV than AE2012. Unlike before Guy cannot combo after run overhead anymore because it now hits twice instead of once(though with spacing you can make it hit once). If you are unsure if you can react to the overhead, it is preferred to stay in crouching position, less risk than getting hit by the slide. Another way to deal with it is to stand at the last moment, the slide is faster and will hit earlier, so you make a sort of “option select” that covers both options, it is harder to do now than in AE2012. Personally i just think reacting to the run overhead is the best option. If you block it be sure you got your punish ready!
A common tactic against El Fuerte is to jump back with a good aerial normal once you see him running, the grab and splash will whiff or get hit by your jump backaerial normal. The thing is this tactic is not foolproof, El Fuerte can stop his run and punish you with the air grab special, ultra or even quasidilla bomb. You might want to take a chance once in a while to focus a splash. This matchup is hectic and honestly i can’t say i really have a grasp on it.
I only play Yun and Cody so i’ll but down the thing i do against it
Cody: I sometimes use cl.hk, though it doesn’t always work, Zonk is best option as it makes high attacks whiff, making the slash or throw whiff. The zonk eiither whiffs or beats it clean. cr.mk(slide) can beat it clean but if vega changes the angle slightly it beats the slide.
Yun: i do light upkick at last moment to beat it clean, it’ll auto correct :D, sometimes hp lunge to get out of mixup
Universal answer is doing a focus attack, unfortunately you can get grabbed out of the focus attacks. Try a normal anti-air that goes straiht up.
I think with Ken (or Ryu or anyone?) you can OS cr. LP > cr. LP + cr. HK. If she blocks the first cr. LP, she’ll block the 2nd cr. LP. If she tries to backdash, the cr. HK will come out instead of the cr. LP and the sweep will catch her. That’s how I understand it, but I don’t really know what I’m talking about.