Ok I have been testing a bunch of things in training mode and against live opponents and have found some things that might help:
First off forget about your charge. Holding down/back just lets your boss close distance with no effort at all. You want this to be a battle of your normals at Claw’s maximum effective distance. Stay out of LK scissors range so that if he has to come to you, it’s by breaking charge or doing something unsafe which gives you a free HK (whiffed LK scissors, headstomp) or MK/HK/EX scissors which can be punished on block by reversal HK flipkick. You need to take the life lead then play defensively, stay away from your opponent while staying out of the corners. It’s about as easy as it sounds :sad:
Walk back standing roundhouse will hit normal versions of the Headstomp. You can also let it land and punish, I don’t think you can grab or hit the EX version in the air, but walking back then punishing it after it whiffs will work. HK is probably your safest bet to punish here.
Any aerial moves (jump, stomp, Devil’s Reverse) will lose to a well-timed air throw. My opponent knew this so the only time he would jump in was when i was on the deck or he was punishing one of my experiments.
A blocked Psycho Crusher gives you a free throw. Jump back HP/HK will beat it clean. Most Dictator players will only use this as part of a combo, they have too many other ways of getting damage in.
Walldives are right out. If he guesses right and blocks you will be heavily punished. If you whiff them for meter he can headstomp you. I was getting beaten in the air with MP x2 or HP. On reflection I might have won a few more of the exchanges if I’d stuck the claw out earlier but it doesn’t seem a very stable strategy against a top opponent.
Air to air is a gamble and not in Claw’s favour. If you win, you get an air throw or a MP/HP/HK and a reset, if you lose you eat MP x2 into EX scissors or Ultra. Not worth it.
If he wants to LK scissors you, you pretty much have to sit there and wait it out. After you block one, he’ll want to keep up the pressure on you, especially if your back is near the corner. c.MP buys you some time, if your opponent has a pulse df.HK will be stuffed as will LP roll. Your best strategy is to hope he gets tired of guaranteed chip damage and attempts something else. EX Wall Dive will get you out if you see an opening, sometimes a wall jump (NOT a Wall Dive) will get you out of the corner.
The only reliable way I can think of doing damage is to mix up after the blocked jump-in with jump back HP, cMK into roll or tick throw. Max range MK is a very useful zoning tool also. Meaty LP roll seems safe enough if you’re not at risk of being Supered or Ultraed.
This is not the definitive guide by any means so please add anything else you might have found. I still lose this match up A LOT, so if there is any more information that will make it any more bearable, please help me out. I personally think this is Claw’s worst matchup, I’m hoping that’s because there’s something I don’t know about it.
In addition to what chunder is saying, your only chance against Bison is to stay on the offensive, because his defense isn’t that great.
and
Seems to contradict.
I got destroyed by a bison who got me down and just spamed jump kicks over and over - his legs were too far out and : scarlet terror, air throw, jumping back + fierce = all stuffed.
This part made me laugh - ’ your boss’ lol.
(because bison is vega’s employer get it? get it?)
Btw - does anyone know what the Ryu matchup is? It feels like 7-3 - I crush so many Ryu scrubs all over the place and then they start spamming jump kick and nothing I do beats it (air throw - stuffed, scarlet terror - stuffed, backflip - punished) - it frustrates the hell out of me
It does seem a bit ambiguous, sorry about that. I think air throws are best if your opponent is spamming Devil’s Reverse or Headstomp, you CAN beat other air-to-air attacks with it but if your timing’s off or he predicts your jump with MP x2, you’re getting Ultraed. If you’re confident in your air throw abilities, go for it; if not, you have been warned.
I really need some help against Ryu. I would love to hear what any good Vega’s out there do against Ryu, or maybe some videos, but I’m open to anything that 3000+ BP Vega’s out there are doing against Ryu players and winning.
I rely too much on wall dives to get damage in - I’ve worked in df.hk --> throw, but I’m still a bit scrubby at it because if it actually connects it surprises me and I never remember to get the ex. dive out - sometimes I even forget to stuff him with a c.mp.
I get tick thrown a lot because they mix up jump-in + c.hk, c.lp, etc. and I’m always guessing - anytime I try to tech the incoming throw I get stuffed with a jab or whatever (which btw beats our jabs because they come out faster, not sure if it beats short).
If I get in the corner it’s pretty much over - I can easily go from huge life lead to KO.
Well, i’m at 3600 BP with Vega atm this is what i usually do against ryu:
Wall Dive when they’re knocked down. This usually works against most of ryus online, but you’ve to be carefull becasue if they block the wall dive they can ultra you without any problem.
Air throw. I use this a lot to anticipate jumps-in. If they start to j.hurricane kick, your j.mp will beat it clean.
Poke poke poke. c.mp is good as always but don’t spam it if they block, cause they can punish it very hard. Try to bait their DP and punish it with d.hk combo. If i got a lead i usually just turtle and start fake wall diving and punish an eventual fireball with an EX-Sky claw.
Jumps-in are hard to deal with yes. You’ve just to mix things up. You can air throw, neutral j.Hk, slide under their jump with d.HK. standing HK if they’re far away, flipkick. Mix these things alot because if you become predictable you’ll get punished very hard, sometimes i just spam flipkick and this is not good at all.
In the end, in my experience, it’s all about mindgames and gaining momentum, but this is how Vega fights in general. Against the same player, i can win 2-0 like i can lose pretty badly if i can’t read the fight well from the start.
to be honest i wouldnt really walldive againts a ryu too often, they no it comes out very slow so they either jump back hk or jump forward and do their little mp witch gets comboed into ultra :(.
had that happen to me a couple of times. from what ive seen lately on vids is i walldived waaaaaaaaaaaay too much and ppl got to see that. so now im only using it very rarely or when i need to for combos or something. and im playing very much better.
Just cus they have 3000+ BP doesn’t make them a good player…
Ryu.
1.Mix up with Wall dive fakes(fakes still give you a bit of super)and crossups.It would be good idea to watch how the player reacts to the wall dive fakes so you can time you move when you attack.
2.See Fireball,Ex Sky claw/Ultra at longrange.At midrange Jumpin, Netural jump,focus.
3.Learn to bait SRKs This mean wall dive fakes,Stoping your Links early,Netural Jumps,The classic Running towards them on knockdown Then Backfliping away.
4.If they jumpin you can airtrow, Filpkick, also DF.HK/D.HK to move pass there jumpin if you don’t want to risk geting hit.
5.For ryu a Jab SRK means Free ultra/super Keep that in mind.
6.EX Sky Claw goes pass Ryu’s ultra.
if you played SF for anytime you should this macthup…
Also you can Inzua Drop rog out of his headbut and Sagat out of his tiger uppercut!! forgot to add that.
I only said that because people often give pure theory advice with stuff like “catch him off guard”
I’m in the 3k bp range so I specified that so it would be applicable to people that I’m playing against.
I see people mentioning air throw but that only works (for me)against a non-meaty jump in, or deep jump in - against those I try to air throw but get stuffed, backflip get punished, j.rh or j.fierce or flip kick - stuffed.
Then before I know it I’m in the corner and either KO’d or take a ton of damage before I get out.
Ok I have been encountering more Rogs lately and a friend of mine knows his stuff with him, so I have been getting more practice with him, I gotta say I really like this matchup, its all about zoning, patience, and being smart. I don’t think I can add something different than what has already been said before for the matchup, other than it is my humble opinion that Balrog’s matchup is not 7-3 like it used to be, but that is only me.
God i really need some tips against Abel. I keep losing to abel players of all level of skill, just now some guy (i even had him on my fl…bitch!) farmed something like 400BP while whooping my ass with little to no effort.
Is it change of direction punishable after the FIRST hit? I keep blocking and blocking all the hits, but it’s a too much of a guessing game 'cause he can go high or low. Dealing with jumps in is so hard vs him cause he can cover space in like no time, and if i’m cornered it’s basically gameover.
Only thing i can do is trying to be aggressive as Abel lacks a real AA, but Vega’s offense is not that good. I can’t just do my hit&run game against him, don’t know why but i can’t.
Oh, fuck zangief and his ultra, lost a match only with ultra+lariat on wake up. Oh yeah.
Against Gief i did turtle, and i did it well. s.RH stuff pretty much all Zangief moves, i was winning easily the match against this guy, then with with only 10 sec left on the timer Banishing Flat EX->Ultra= BA-BOOOM, you lose! I guess i’d pay more attention next time. :clown:
I’ll try to turtle vs Able too then, try to get the lead and then just run away all the time. D:
EDIT: Well, i found out that super turtle style vs blanka can work wonder sometime. Stuffing orizontal ball with j.Fierce is super easy if you’re close to the wall, so usually i just stay there and wait for him to come to me. If he jumps, i can punish with well timed d.HK and airthrow, and rainbow drop it’s super easy to punish if you zone it right. Just get the lead and then turtle i guess, at least that’s how i deal with blankas in general.
Dictator is a nightmare. I just go super aggressive against him and hope the player sucks at dealing with jumps in…
There’s no point trying to reversal a blocked Change of Direction. You’ll end up getting hit. If you block one, mash on PPP to get out of there and start again. I’ve had success playing Abel the same way I play Zangief, keep-away. Walldives usually give you some early damage as his anti-air throw gets nowhere near them, then just keep going to the wall and let the clock do the work for you. Never fought any really top Abels though, so no idea how well these tactics hold up against them.
Jump-ins and df.hk are staples of mine against Abel.
Also, getting the proper distance and using a safe, meaty slide is a staple of my game. They’ll usually try to counter but you’ll recover in time to block and stuff them in the face with a c.mp.
Ok so yesterday I finally found a worthy Rufus, the guy was good and my knowledge of the matchup and the character (he is new) didnt help either. But hey we are playing the game to learn and have fun, and I noticed a few things when fighting Rufus:
Rufus is dangerous when he is in your face
Corners suck, specially because Rufus gains more Ultra setups
ULTRAS, Rufus has a tons of setups for his Ultra, which makes it easier for him to hit you with it
Divekick is his setup opener, Divekick loop is nasty and the crossup will throw you off.
Rufus may not have a relieable AA (?) but if he catches you with j.HK when you are in the air, prepare to receive MASSIVE damage after he uses his weird looking EX move, the one where he punches really fast.
EX Messiah Kick…to tha FACE! Probably he best EX Move of the game, it will not allow you to keep the pressure on Rufus for a long time, this thing comes out fast and has tons of invisibility.
All in all Rufus is rush character, and in my personal opinion Vega has a bit of trouble against those. If anyone has any tips, I welcome you to share your knowledge on the Rufus matchup.
