My mains: Dudley, Alex, and Remy (who I just mess around with, Remy doesn’t have much in his favor). This is admittedly pretty dumb and will lead to flaming by the SRK elitists but humor me. And if you’re nice, I will send you some really funny 3S Hentai. Deal?
Shoto’s don’t really give me trouble, but I’ve consistently noticed this among Shoto players. They do this almost all the time: crMK, followed by Sweep. Now, I try to punish the crMK with whatever (Dudley’s crMP, or Alex’s crMP/crMK) and the Sweep will beat it clean. I played this mentally retarded guy who took this to the nth degree by doing (with Ryu) crLKx2, then Sweep, and variations on that. This is all online btw. Just framing that. I also want to say that my parry skills absolutely suck, and I’m still trying to get better at that (and yes, I understand that parrying alone will not lead to victory, you don’t have to explain this, but it’s still good to know when to parry).
So, I’m just looking for input on what you guys do against that.
Why not try parrying the sweep at least once? If these guys really do suck as much as you make them to be, then one failed attempt and getting knocked down doesn’t hurt as much. If you fail, then just resort to blocking and poking. If they do the sweep up close like an idiot, then most likely all your characters’ supers should be able to connect.
If you’re fighting 'tards who can’t resist sweeping all the time, you really SHOULD use this as your golden opportunity to get your low-parries down. Are you playing on Supercade or GGPO? If you’re playing on GGPO then you’ve got nothing holding you back from trying to improve your anticipation of and reactions to things like sweeps.
Either way, you have shitloads of options for dealing with sweeps. Firstly, there’s the parry which you HAVE to try and nail at some point, it does wonders for your in-game confidence. Secondly, Universal Overhead will hop over the sweep and annoy the shit out of them. Thirdly, just block the sweep and bust their chops with whatever punishment you feel is best at the time.
I’ve compiled a list of punishments (there are probably others) for blocked shoto sweeps for each of your characters. I tested on Ryu/Ken because their sweep recovery is fastest of all shotos, and I also presumed that the sweep was blocked at point-blank - a few of these won’t work at further range (just use your best judgment).
Alex SA1
SA2
EX Chop xx SA2
EX Dash Elbow xx SA2
Lk xx SA2 (you’ve gotta be fast but does more damage than just SA2) EX Chop
EX Dash Elbow
Mk
Cr.mk
Cr.mp (you’ve gotta be faster than with cr.mk but it’s a bit stronger)
Duds SA1
Cr.mp xx SA1
SA2
Fp xx SA2 (see how they like THEM apples!) Cr.mp xx SA2
SA3
Fp xx SA3
Cr.mp xx SA3
Lp.Machinegun Blow
Fp
F.mp
Cr.mk (gives you a knockdown obviously)
Remy SA1
Cr.mp xx SA1
Cr.mp xx fk.Sonic Boom xx SA1
SA2
Cr.mp xx SA2
Cr.mp xx fk.Sonic Boom xx SA2
SA3 (go on, activate when you have a gut instinct he’ll sweep and notice him going low for something ;)) All Flash Kicks
EX k.Sonic Boom
Fp
Mk
Cr.fk
Cr.mp
Cr.mk
Thank you Circle Masher, S3LP, and Aku. You win Hentai. PM me for details. The rest of you win a bottle of urine with a picture of jesus on it, and the urine has AIDS.
Another dumb question: Any particular strategies against players who can consistently parry jump ins? It’s a problem against characters like Urien or Makato, where they can poke you out or have really good grab priority. Let’s say I’m using Alex, I quickly realize the other guy is just going to parry everything I do. So I try to mix it up by doing Power Bombs, then the other guy realizes that the LP/LK grab easily beats the Power Bomb and just grabs all day. The problem is on GGPO, because of the lag involved, it is incredibly difficult to tech grabs. So I’m kinda’ up shit creek. It comes down to trying to out poke him, and hoping to get that one knockdown and put the pressure on him.
Just looking for general strategy against players who parry every jump in. And more Hentai will be sent to the winner(s).
Have you tried changing the timing of the jump-in? If you try a really late jump-in, then at least Urien won’t be able to do much about it. Against Makoto, you’re either going to have to jump back up, dash back(Alex’s backdash is good, I’m jealous D: ), block or try a throw.
Empty jumps are also an option. Empty jump->throw is one of the more basic 3S mixups. It would help if you can air-parry though.
Tried varying the timing of your jumping attacks? With Dudley for example, his j.fk inflicts insanely good blockstun. Combine that with the fact that Duds has a very low jump, and you can vary the timing of j.fk any time from around the peak of the jump to very late. Duds is also able to play headgames with shenanigans like empty jump > Short Swing Blow.
Alex also has a very low jump, but I’m not too sure about how early he can get away with jumping attacks. However it is easy to whiff an attack (such as j.mp) at just over their head and then go for a grab immediately upon landing, hopefully the worst that will happen is a throw-tech. Another fairly common Alex trick though is to do an empty jump-in, then immediately do a neutral jump (or two or three!) upon landing, often baiting throw whiffs. This often panics people and lets you get away with oddly-timed j.fp and such-like.
With Alex’s neutral jumps, try to do them at just outside normal grab range. That way you can bait their grabs and punish with a Powerbomb or kara throw.
Mixing empty-jumps with Boots is also useful, and against big characters like Hugo it is easy to keep mixing-up between normal Boots and cross-up Boots. If you stay outside of normal grab range then it’s also possible to do neutral jump > lp xx Boots, or even lk xx SA2 (tricky, and the range is quite strict to be far away but be close enough for the SA2 grab to combo).
@ Aku: Yeah I’ve tried that but online is a little wonky in that regard. And I’ve tried empty jumps into throw, but the problem (like I said) is that online it’s very difficult to tech.
@ Circle: Ah, good idea. Never thought of neutral jumps. I’ve tried faking them out by doing an early jMK/MP with varying success.
@ Bodler: Fish? This isn’t prison. And I don’t think you’re African American or even Aryan. That is an unfounded insult sir. I say good day to you.