88

Guile is not hard as long as you play old man SF and just walk him down. He’s the one taking risks in that matchup, not Rashid. If he’s Flash Kicking pokes, either you’re very predictable or he’s crazy. Bait and punish. If anything, this MU is advantage Rashid.

89

I still think the MU is even…maybe a slight advantage for Rashid. Both have to take risk and remain patient. But the reward is bigger for Rashid once he able to get in on Guile.

90

Its not in Rashid’s favor until you get Guile in the corner. Rashid has to take way more risk getting in than you think. Guile’s buttons are longer overall, so Rashid can’t just walk in without thinking about blocking a b+hp or a boom. I have yet to find a definitive answer for v-skill besides predict it and jump over it, or don’t let him do it. You can’t really roll under booms without risking getting punished (even if you didn’t do the follow up he can hit you before you recover). This match up isn’t fun.

Best thing Rashid can do in the midscreen is stay around cr. Hp range to bait Guile to throw a “good fireball”. You know that perfectly spaced fireball that your opponent can’t really react to. Thing about sonic booms is that the hurtbox comes out before the actual fireball does. So essentially, Guile is a big counter hit target for 10 frames or however long the start up time is everytime he does a boom. If you understand the pattern he’s throwing them in and you understand the range of you cr. Hp, you can score alot of second hit crush counters. Once a Guile player realizes what you are doing they are gonna do one of 3 things:

  1. They are gonna jump at that range. If you didn’t commit to cr. Hp, you can anti air with whatever you want, but my personal favorite, especially against Guile, is H spinning mixer.

  2. They are gonna change the timing of their booms. If they do it faster, you might be able to sneak in a jump in. If they slow it down, you can walk and dash up more.

  3. They’ll press more buttons within their range, which means you can probably jump if they don’t see it coming, or just do Rashid shit lol.

A good Guile stands his ground at all times. Guile owns real estate. Rashid has to get Guile in the corner. To me the matchup is 5.5-4.5 in Guile’s favor now rather than 6-4.

Source: EVO pool play against Moons’ Guile.

91

Fresh after EVO matchup chart:

Vs. Alex: 5-5
Vs. Balrog 5.5-4.5 (might get worse for Rashid as time moves on)
Vs. Birdie: 6-4
Vs. Cammy: 4-6 (worst MU on paper)
Vs. Chun Li: 4-6
Vs. Dhalsim: 5.5-4.5
Vs. F.A.N.G: 5.5-4.5
Vs. Guile: 4.5-5.5
Vs. Ibuki: Unknown but feels like 6-4 Rashid’s favor
Vs. Karin: 4-6 (personal worst matchup)
Vs. Ken: 5-5
Vs. Laura: 6-4
Vs. M. Bison: 6-4
Vs. Nash: 4-6
Vs. Necalli: 5.5-4.5
Vs. R. Mika: 5-5
Vs. Ryu: 4.5-5.5
Vs. Vega: 5.5-4.5
Vs. Zangief: 5-5

Initial notes:

Balrog can actually punish Rashid in most cases very well, plus longer buttons and ridiculous damage. Its also impossible to do anything about max range L dash punch on block. You have to risk neutral jumping.The thing right now that makes this matchup in Rashid’s favor is that Balrog has to burn v meter or press buttons thru strings to get Rashid off of him. The Rashid offense is very good against no reversal characters.

Necalli’s DP makes the Rashid matchup a tad harder for Rashid than I said. However you can still relaitvely play the same throughout the matchup and get the W. Rashid doesn’t have to force anything.

Gief’s v-skill actually does very well against Rashid’s ground buttons, and his v-reversal is super fast like Chun’s and Ken’s so it can blow up blocked lights. Rashid should grab alot and get a shimmy game established. If he does a premature v-skill, L mixer that shit. All i got on him so far.

92

I don’t see how Gief is an even matchup. What is his answer to run-away Rashid? I haven’t seen anybody answer with anything other than huge risky gambles that are in Rashid’s favor.

93

His answer is waiting. Gief has answers for everything Rashid does. Rashid can fireball all day, but Gief can destroy those with headbutt, and jump over those with j. MK into cr. Jab, st. Short xxx Lariat. He can walk Rashid down. Rashid honestly has to take more risks getting in because Gief’s cr. Jab can shut down Rashid’s advances. Rashid’s answer to his buttons is footsies, which Gief can do better. Any wall jump is reactable by st. Jab and air SPD. Gief can v-reversal Rashid’s lights, so Gief can easily get some room to breathe.

Gief has trouble against shimmy and his armor gets blown up by L spinning mixer. Every knockdown leads to a fucked up oki game for Gief. But getting that knockdown can be tough. Also Rashid does have a legit anti air against Gief. Everytime Gief jumps and you didn’t commit to anything, H spinning mixer. Since Gief’s jump is very floaty, its really easy to anti air him. Overall faster buttons as well. When Rashid gets close, Gief has to take risks to get him off.

Gief’s damage and wall-like defense can be trouble for Rashid in the neutral, however Rashid’s frame traps and shimmy game makes it hard for Gief to keep Rashid off.

94

I don’t see how that MU is strongly in Rashid’s favor. Defensive Birdies and Claw players are a personal struggle for me. The MU feels more so 5.5-4.5. Rashid’s pressure is very strong against Birdie but it’s tough to get that knockdown. I have an easier time against Gief.

95

Howcdo you beat Chun and her annoying ass kikoken?

96

Are you dealing with a defensive Chun or an aggressive one?

I usually try to space properly and use LK.WWS, or I’ll walk up and block it (Be aware of f.Mp or sweep attempts). When she uses ex version I’ll purposely walk back, wait a little for Chun to dash up and then V-skill flip to the other side lol. But you only get one of those tricks though.

Got a replay you don’t mind showing?

97

help against alex. A good one. I am still not understanding alex’s armor moves…

98

Knock him down= win. Alex is free on wakeup and has no invincible reversals. No way to excape pressure either without blowing v reversal.

Alex only has armor on ex elbow(one hit). It doesnt start till like frame 4 or 5 and the move is -10 on block.

He has good pokes, but they are all pretty slow. One wiff punish and the match is in your favor.

99

I think Alex vs. Rashid is 5-5 even. Alex doesn’t have a wake up but Alex’s range makes it difficult for Rashid to get in. Also Alex’s damage and stun potential makes Rashid players not want to take so many risks against him. In 2 sequences, pretty much any character can get stunned. On the flip side, Rashid has higher stun for a 950 health character (I wanna say 1000 stun) so it will take a little more work to stun him than let’s say Chun. Also Rashid has a wake up so its not like Alex can maul him for free if he got meter. Also Rashid’s oki is tough for Alex to beat. EX Elbow Slash is good sometimes to relieve pressure but you can blow that shit up with cr. HP for a crush counter. Also EX Elbow Slash is -10 so you can punish him for full damage. st. HP xxx H/EX Eagle Spike/V Skill Nail Assault.

100

Thanks @KingCoble and @afrotronic

101

I’m not really understanding what you’re saying about the Necalli vs Rashid matchup King. Necalli is one of the better rush down characters in the game and I think Rashid really struggles in that space. You say in a previous post that Rashid beats him at every range but I would argue that isn’t true. Necalli charge goes right through Rashid’s whirlwinds without issue at long range, so your options are pretty unsafe there. Up close Necalli’s frame traps and damage just outmatch Rashids. He can pull off similar pressure but ultimately when Rashid does hit Necalli, he doesn’t do anywhere near as much damage so fighting in this space carries much more risk for the Rashid player. Not to mention Necalli can put a stop to your pressure with a meterless DP at any time, a luxury you don’t have yourself.

The only space in which Rashid really wins out is in mid-close footsie range. cr. hp is an amazing poking tool and conveys less risk than many others as it causes cross ups to whiff, that allows you to place more pressure on the ground than you would otherwise be able to, without having to worry about the risk of Necalli jumping in and destroying you for pressing a button. Fishing for CC with St.HP is also good, as is being aggressive with CR.MK xx Mixer. St.MP is okay but I think you get a lot more out of cr.MK with similar functionality (range, frame advantage etc). Obviously anti-airing him is essential and whoever said it’s good to get familiar with all of your AA options was right, though it’s sometimes hard to react to Necalli’s divekick. Sometimes jump back cr.lk seems like a better option to get out of that situation than risking the AA, because if that whiffs and they cross up you’re suddenly in a hell of a lot of trouble.

Still, I struggle with the matchup because once Necalli gets in it’s very tricky for Rashid to do anything under the pressure. If you end up playing passively for even a moment you can find yourself stuck in a command grab and the Necalli player can use this to carry you over to stun if they recently opened you up. Again, Rashid doesn’t doesn’t have a similar momentum shifting tool, Necalli is much more of a thread up close than Rashid. Despite that, if you can keep Necalli out you can get some pretty clean rounds.

A friend of mine that I play locally with is a Necalli with 8-10,000 LP on the board, he’s decent enough to practice the matchup against and for the most part he gives me a hard time. Recently I’ve been having much more success when playing defensively, punishing his mistakes, pushing him to the corner and trying to hold him there with the tools described above. It still doesn’t feel as though the matchup is in any way in Rashid’s favour, and I’m inclined to say it’s 6:4 for Necalli, but I managed to frustrate him on quite a few occasions as I completely locked him into the corner for some pretty clean wins. Necalli’s weakness is his normals and absence of a decent footsie game, so if you play that against him then you’ve got a good chance.

That’s just my take. I appreciate the insight you’ve provided us on that matchup and others. It’s always good to have more opinions.

102

I appreciate your input ChronoJoe. I’ve been real back and forth with this matchup. First i thought it was 6-4 Rashid. Then i thought it was 5.5-4.5 Rashid, then 6-4 Necalli, then 8-2 Rashid, and now I’m back to 6-4 Rashid. This is simply how I approach the matchup in regards to how I play, not an end all be all for Rashid vs. Necalli.

Rule #1 in the matchup: No seismos! Don’t let that man seismo. V trigger Necalli can fight Rashid way better than non v trigger Necalli. Thing is that its gonna happen regardless if he seismos or not, but at least if he gets vtrigger by getting his ass beat, well he got like 30-40% health left. One crush counter combo or 2 solid combos can end the match at this point. Rashid has so many normals and special moves that can combat seismos. L mixer of course, eagle spike, st. Roundhouse, cr. Fierce, shit, jump lol. You can avoid seismos with back dash and if you are limber enough, you can like run at him in anticipation of a midscreen or far seismo and get a full ground combo. Necalli players are looking to seismo. Once you neutralize that option for them, they have to start thinking about approaching and/or playing the midranged game.

Rule #2: Don’t let Necalli get you into the corner. Cause you’re right, its not fun to be in the corner against Necalli with Rashid. The best thing about Rashid tho is that his v-reversal is EXCELLENT against Necalli’s moveset. Anytime Necalli stomps and you need some breathing room or if Necalli does anything bigger than a st. Jab, v-reversal. Get outta there! Let Necalli chase you and then blow him up.

Rule #3: Grab. Force Necalli to make a bad defensive move by mixing up your frame traps and your grabs. You want him to DP.

Rule #4 (probably the least important but again more to think about): mix up your combos. Putting Necalli in different situations tests your opponents knowledge. Something like knocking down with L mixer the first 2 combos, then keeping them standing for a throw reset, is good enough to make Necalli wanna do something dumb afterwards the next time, like trying to tech a grab or jabbing or DPing. Depending on how you wanna play this matchup, end your combos accordingly. If you wanna keep him at a distance, end with eagle spike. You want him closer, end with L mixer. Personally, i only wanna end with mixer in the corner and a few situations in the beginning of the match. Every other time, i end with spike for the distance.

Rule #5: anti air with H mixer. Please please pretty please. Its so good especially against Necalli. You can meaty off it or throw a meaty fireball and be lame. Deals with all of Necalli’s air options.

Rule #6: Don’t over extend yourself in the corner. When you feel like you need to chill and let him kill himself, you’re probably right. In scramble situations, get the fuck away. Though Rashid is good at scrambles, Necalli does it better cause of that meterless DP and his damage.

Rule #7 and final rule: Don’t jump at him. No need to approach him by jumping. You can simply approach him by doing L Mixer, running at him, etc. Necalli honestly has to jump at Rashid more than Rashid has to jump at him.

I got some Necalli vids on my ps4 and on twitch that i wanna show because trust me you’re not the only one that thinks Necalli beats Rashid. I was a 13k Ultra Platinum Rashid until i picked up Ryu again and went down all the way to 9k till i worked back up to 11k. The best Necalli player in my scene (Michigan) is like an ultra gold online, but he does extremely well at our locals and even did great at a Midwest regional (i think got 4th or 3rd?). I’ve also played Squall and Yipes in the matchup and it didn’t seem to bad although they have a winning record against me.

Pretty much, i feel like a patient Rashid who uses cr. Fierce annoyingly, has good footsies and not scared to run up and grab give Necalli tons of trouble.

103

Month 1 Season 2 Matchups:

Vs. Akuma: 5-5
Vs. Alex: 5.5-4.5
Vs. Balrog: 4-6
Vs. Birdie: 6-4
Vs. Cammy: 4-6
Vs. Chun Li: 4.5-5.5 (closer to 4-6)
Vs. Dhalsim: 5.5-4.5 not 100% sure
Vs. F.A.N.G: 6-4
Vs. Guile: 4-6
Vs. Ibuki: 4.5-5.5
Vs. Juri: 5-5
Vs. Karin: 4-6
Vs. Ken: 6-4
Vs. Laura: 4.5-5.5
Vs. M. Bison: 5-5
Vs. Nash: 6-4 but feels like 9-1 (best matchup)
Vs. Necalli: 6-4
Vs. R. Mika: 5-5
Vs. Ryu: 6-4
Vs. Urien: 4-6
Vs. Vega: 6-4
Vs. Zangief: 5-5 (but it feels like Gief edges Rashid)

Rashid’s buffs doesn’t affect the matchup chart that much. Other characters getting buffed and nerfed affected it.

If i can place Rashid on a list, he would probably be 8th, but not because he’s godlike, but because his good matchups (except Bison) got better for him.

104

Against experienced Laura players, dont use VT within ex elbow range(so about 3-4 character spaces away)
Laura’s can ex elbow once they see the VT flash and it’ll hit you before you can even let the VT out
It’s a hard counter to his VT
Of course not many Laura players know this, but now that she’s popular people will learn the matchups

105

My S2 MU Chart:

Vs. Akuma: 6-4 or 5.5-4.5 (Besides VT stuff, he’s not much of a threat)
Vs. Alex: 5-5 or 5.5-4.5 (Not sure really. Alex’s Cr.mp nerf helped Rashid out)
Vs. Balrog: 5-5
Vs. Birdie: 6-4
Vs. Cammy: 4-6 or 4.5-5.5 (annoying, but winnable)
Vs. Chun Li: 4-6 or 4.5-5.5 (It feels a little better than S1. But not sure entirely)
Vs. Dhalsim: 7-3 (I think Rashid still owns Sim badly)
Vs. F.A.N.G: 6-4 or 5.5-4.5 (not really sure. I don’t see much of him anymore)
Vs. Guile: 5-5 (Pretty comfortable dealing with him)
Vs. Ibuki: 5-5 (feels like a mirror match. a lot of pressure/mix-ups are not real.)
Vs. Juri: 5-5 or 5.5-4.5 (Not sure. She doesn’t seem to handle rush down to good)
Vs. Karin: 4-6 (Still annoying, but winnable)
Vs. Ken: 5-5
Vs. Laura: 5-5 (recognizing when to interrupt her pressure and guessing the C.grab is important)
Vs. M. Bison: 5-5
Vs. Nash: 6-4 (easier now)
Vs. Necalli: 5-5
Vs. R. Mika: 5-5
Vs. Ryu: 6-4 (easier now)
Vs. Urien: 5-5 (Pretty comfortable dealing with him)
Vs. Vega: 6-4 or 5.5-4.5
Vs. Zangief: 4.5-5.5 (a little hard to tell against a good Gief)

I think he’s high tier in S2 (7th or 8th, within the top 10). Very solid and hope he isn’t changed for the worst come March.

106

Why do you think Balrog and Guile are even SleepyFox? Alongside Urien, I think these are his hardest matchups.

107

Sorry for this long ass post but I think it could lead to a good discussion.

Ok so…besides my own experience, I’ll also watch how the Rashid trinity (John, gachikun, and Moke) handle these MUs before coming to a conclusion. For the most part, I think Rog, Urien, and Guile are straightforward matches

Guile: I just find it to be pretty straightforward. Be very patient and look for openings. sometimes I’m able to get him near the corner due to walk/block, j.fwd cancel lk.ES over booms or bait flashkicks. Boom shield is annoying but you can time a good V-skill nail assault or just block it. Guile up-close isn’t as scary as Balrog…just need to watch for throws or upside kick. And I’m always mindful of knee bazooka (turn is over if blocked), sobat kick, back knuckle, and of course ex.boom.

Once Rashid is able to start pressuring him I think it can be troublesome since he has a really good shimmy/tick throws game, and stand mixer combos. I try not to be predictable with ex.wws on pressure since he can ex.FK. When I watch one of the best JPN Guile duke it out with Moke and gachikun, both did very well beating Estua. The only slight difficulty was getting in, but 70% of they were able to get in Guile’s personal space base of good reads, habits or patterns in his zone, and playing patiently. I think each had a first to five and both Rashid players took the set.

Balrog: Did you know that Rog players find Rashid to be a bad MU lol? Anyway, He is scary up-close and will make you guess on knockdown and especially in the corner. But Rashid can also do the same (arguably better) to him, right? Cr.HP is still effective in this fight to stop dash up attempts…just can’t be predictable or spam it so much since a smart Rog will space himself out of the range and punish it. Normal Straight punches are minus on block…so the next button attempt is getting stuff if he doesn’t decide to walk back. If Rog is predictable…sweep or st.hk for CC. Not the best tactic since you have to anticipate it…but that’s just the nature of this game so…

The only tough part about the MU imo is Rog’s V-skill which is pretty good against lk.wws zoning and will give him a combo and his X-factor aka V-trigger. I usually prefer to save V-meter for V-R to escape the pressure, and try my best to get Rog to spend his V-meter early instead of sitting on it. For now I feel the MU is even. Granted I feel Edma’s Balrog was the only good one I faced and lose, I still didn’t feel the MU was really bad for Rashid. Most so I just didn’t adapt fast enough in the set. Maybe you can provide more insight. I don’t think Japan have good Rog players so I didn’t see the Rashid trinity fight him much.

Urien: Hands down the most active and entertaining MU, not sure why you see him as a pain. I handle him the same as the others…play patient and pressure him once I find a good opening. He really can’t zone with fb…Rashid can avoid it or punish him. Rashid can stuff random headbutts with cr.hp, st.mk, lk.wws (up-close I think he does it to avoid lows or get to throw range (Old 3S tactic). Rashid can anti-air or avoid knee dives. Shoulder charge can be spaced to be made safe but usually his turn is over.

Sure, he does have long great pokes but we’re not dealing with Chun here. He hits hard and V-T is the only part of the MU I feel is problematic, but I think getting Urien to spend his V-meter (like Balrog) will decrease the problem a little. Oh, EX. shoulder charge can be thrown…of course if timid well and think he will do it. Or after blocking it…Rashid can stuff his next button (usually fwd.mp) and get a CH due to the start-up if you want to challenge him.