You can’t even block Blanka balls on reaction online sometimes, nevermind tornadoing them… but that’s good to know for offline.
I’d like to see your notes on the Rufus / Blanka matchup when you have time please.
Is that ANY tornado? (LP, MP, HP) And like what cozeny said, the ball is pretty tough to react to with a tornado. I’m eve having problems timing tornado’s for sonic booms :-/ Good info though.
I know it works for HP and that one closes the most distance and that’s the one I always use so I can’t comment on other versions. And you guys are right I’m being a little blase about reacting to balls. But in most matches you can anticipate a roll spammers’ rolls so the HP tornado def stuffs it for a respectable few frames.
Is it possible to update the first post, with videos to annotate points?
I.e. With a description of Rufus/Sagat, analyze a Kindevu video, and post the link for easy discussion, of what he’s doing. Just a thought.
^^^from way back on the first page; this is good to know
I gotcha covered.
First thing is that from about 1 and a half character screens away, Blanka’s j. fierce beats every anti air but ex Snake. You can counter this by walking a bit forward and doing cr. mp, but be careful cause he could just choose to do j. mk instead into dumb ass mixups.
Also, although it’s hard as fuck, I find that making the Blanka think he can’t ball for free helps big in this match. Do cr. lp to stuff it, tornados to stuff it, walk two steps cr. fp to punish if you block it. Granted it’s difficult to do these things at times, but it really helps a lot.
Doing more low to the ground dives helps to bait up random up balls and ultras. When he’s crouching you should NOT be jumping a lot. Also, as previously stated, low dives beat out electricity for a potential big life combo on him. Otherwise either do a spaced cr. lk/cr. mk xx ex tornado, or just tornado him out of it.
The universal tactic of focusing Rufus’ cr. fp pays off big in this matchup. Do not throw this out blindly at all against Blanka cause you could be in for some hurting or a knock down into his mix up game.
Also be on the look out for crossups big time. Watch out for the command hop to throw/cr. lk/crossup j. mk/electricity dumbness. Rufus gets crossed up really easy so you need to be wary of this a lot of the time. That being said, you want to be wary of how you use Rufus’ roll (df + mk). You could be playing right into his hands at times if you roll at the wrong time.
Here’s some random stuff about what pokes beat what or whatever. You can far st. mp a whiffed cr. mk from Blanka. You can also far st. mp a Blanka cr. fp, but if you have meter it’s better to cr. lp xx ex tornado his cr. fp instead. You can st. mk his cr. hk when his leg starts rearing back. You could also cr. lk xx ex tonado his cr. hk, but that shit is way too hard. For his st. hp, you can cr. mk xx ex tornado that as well if you’re really looking for it, but it’s safer to just use your sweep at max range to hit him as his hands are coming down. Max range sweep also takes care of st. hk as long as you hit him after he is done with the flip.
As stated earlier in one of the threads, for ultra, block it low, wait until he starts descending then ex messiah if you have meter. If you don’t have meter, then block it low, then high, and punish afterwards.
I can’t remember anything else right now about the matchup, but you really have to be patient in this match. You wont have many opportunities to set up dive kick pressure so you will have to make them count when you do.
Hope this helps.
nice post, thanks man. just out of interest, what’s your strategy when you have him knocked down?
edit: anyone got guile pointers? this is what I have:
- his j.HK (MK?) owns you for free in the air, j.HP trades and it snuffs your j.HK unless you do it psychically
- don’t get predictable w/dive kicks else he’ll j.HK you and snuff your pressure
- low vertical dive kick over sonic booms, if you jump horiz over them he’ll meet you in the air with a throw or a j.HK, if you tornado them you’re liable to eat a flash kick; however if he’s following it in, tornado him
- cross-up meaty dive kick trades with super and snuffs flash kicks
- remember the flash kick!
- they like to throw a lot so option-selecting is your friend
- guile is pretty pathetic and it feels bad getting beaten by him
Keep in mind that what you do when you knock them down is highly dependent on what he does on wake up, since all that Blanka can do on wake up is pretty counterable really imo.
Common things that the Blankas here in my area do are up ball, electricity, command hop back, and of course, Ultra.
Usually if the don’t tech, I whiff a low trajectory dive on wake up and either block/close st. lk into a string or throw setup, alter the timing so that the dive hits meaty then do the aforementioned, or I’ll just do nothing but bob up and down to make them think that I am going to do something then walk backwards while randomly crouching (just wiggle your stick from back to down-back, it helps to bait a lot of things, and keeps you safe from lows whatever).
Now if they tech, what I do is highly dependent on where they end up. Most of the time if the end up near you, they will try and mash electricity so you can try a low dive to tag him and then go into a big life combo. Alternatively, you could just walk back and do cr. mk xx ex tornado. Also, for a mid range tech, you can use a dive to gain ground on him, but be wary of up ball and ex elec.
Also I find that it helps that you do a lot of option select crouch block techs in this match when he has revenge gauge. Keeps you safe, and you could potentially put pressure on, or hit a combo if they decided to mash elec since cr. lk beats elec as well.
These are just some ideas and stuff I’ve tried though, and it’s been pretty successful as of late, again, I stress that you watch what he does on wake up then adjust what you do accordingly.
Also, some other thoughts that I may try out a little today:
After blocked dive, I started to do close st. mp, link far st. lp, link far st. mp as a block string. This sets up a distance where it gives Blanka the illusion that he can jump on you, which from the distance this sets up, you can easily spot and react to it. Also, this sets up walking st. mp’s, as well as put you at a distance where your sweep beats almost everything he beats out afterwards.
Alternatively, after a blocked dive, close st. lk, link close st. mp, link cr. lp put you at a distance where you can punish things with cr. mk xx ex tornado, so keep that in mind as well.
Mixing those strings when you’re in may help you get some good life on him.
Also, the other day I threw Blanka out of the start up of one of his ex’s, but I don’t remember which.
I hope this helps, and I’ll will test those strings out today to see if they hold weight.
you can wait until he starts descending and then jump.HK (2 hits) EX snake, does quite a lot, you can link ultra if youre near the corner.
O RLY?
I had no clue about this. Thanks for that.
you can j.HK blanka out of the active part of his ultra? sounds scary to try
Seth is a pain.
Dhalsim runaway x2
I find seth a massive pain too, mostly because he has an SRK (not to mention a sonic boom) (and an spd)
I do have to agree about Seth. You hit him with one combo he gets Ultra free, then he gets to keep you out forever ugh.
You could just eat the ultra if it occurs early in the round. It does like a fireballs worth of damage, not that much to get concerned about.
I have noticed this as well, if i can convince then in the first round they can’t ball, i have a much easier time, although usually by round 3 the gig is up. 
If Rufus had a SRK then Seth would be so easy. But alas, I just try to knock him down and just attempt to kill him with one combo.
Tried this in training mode, doesn’t work if you are close enough to block the low hit, otherwise you’ll jump right into it with your face, would only seem to work if you are at half screen or so. That way you can jump at him after he peaks and hit him on the way down.
EX Messiah obviously works if you are right under him, although you have to do it late staring 60% health loss in the face to get full hits, otherwise you can do it early to just get 1 hit and knock him out of the ultra.
hey guys what’s your mindset against gen? Can’t seem to develop anything against him. seems to be one of his harder match ups