I’ll give you an awesome tip about ex upball, and in general wake up actions by Blanka.
If timed right on wakeup - st.:mk: over their body and it will stop electricity and ball attempts (this is called a meaty).
But also if they hit you with a ball and you were charging from the st.:mk:, you can immediately go into a scissor kick to punish them for a little bit of damage (yep, even when they hit you).
The only time you want to stop doing this action is when Blanka has an ultra, of course.
I know that meaty attacks are generally not so common against moves like up ball, but it’s preferred at least for Bison because you can hit him out of the start up if you can get your :mk: over his hit box (I believe the back of up ball can be hit on start up frame).
C.Viper has the same option with her :mp: overhead on Blanka’s wake up.
I don’t think that focus baiting in this match up is particularly good, as many of Blankas attacks can break it or really hurt you in the process, it also makes it hard for you to attack with anything great once you’ve got a focus. The risk doesn’t really equal the payoff in this match.
In regards to rainbow ball, it’s total garbage - don’t be scared of it.
If you see it coming from a mile away then that’s the perfect time to focus (probably only time vs Blanka) as you can escape it either by dashing away after the focus or hitting them with a level 3 if they attacked you in the front.
On your wake up, teleport isn’t that safe due to Blankas slide, but you can easily ex PC through him if you really want to get out of your situation (if you’re in the corner for example).
I don’t think there’s much he can do after you’ve PC’d through him due to a lost charge.
I’ve had a lot of practice against Blankas and in general find them pretty easy or even for Bison.
There’s a lot of actions that are totally unsafe for Blanka to do in this matchup.
From watching those vids I noticed you were doing a few full screen jump ins - my advice is to apply your pressure with ground game only, do scissor kicks to push him into a corner then :mk: him constantly on wake up.
You had some good moments where you were keeping him on the ground with scissor kicks, but then I think you got impatient and jumped at him to eat an up ball.
The whole “jump in” combo string that Blankas do is completely predictable and gives you a free ultra attempt, simply jump straight at them in the air right after they’ve completed a combo string and they’ll learn to leave you alone.
Also if you don’t have ultra, a jump up + forward :hp: will stuff any attack they have coming forward at you in the air.
It’s also perfect range for an ex head stomp.
The best way to deal with Blanka when he has Ultra is to constantly get into his face, then teleport away.
If he activates you’ll be able to block the end of the Ultra then hit him back with your own Ultra.
Unfortunately there’s not a lot of good ways for Bison to escape a Blanka Ultra due to his bad teleport corrections and ex devil’s reverse being able to be hit after startup from above, so you’ll need to take some chip damage.
What you should really worry about is the “delayed” Ultra after a hard knock down, this forces you to guess whether or not it’s a cross up and often results in free damage for the Blanka. You can’t escape it with teleport as it will auto correct and still hit you, ex devils reverse doesn’t work to escape it either as it’s taken up your entire hit box.
The best Blankas will be forced to play defensive against Bison and will rarely ever ball unless they know it’s completely un-punishable ie. you don’t have charge.
I have to say that this is a match up that gets harder when the Blankas start doing less rather than more.
I’ll try to have a match with one of the best Blankas we have here and post it up.
It’s only really rare that you get to hit someone with it!
