i am having alot of trouble with the rufus match up when he has big bang. seems like when he has that ultra all of my offensive options are nullified. big bang is like a better version of the raging demon. it anti airs, beats footsies, punishes fireballs and takes a great deal of life. i do ok in the matchup till he gets ultra. and i do play ultra 2 against it. please help
Bait it by throwing a fireball then FADC. Practice safe jump options, and mix in face palm demon flips with dive kicks. Big bang is good, but good Rufus players will use ultra 1 in this match. You just have to play really safe. If you know he has ultra, don’t do stupid stuff.
Good rufus’s will use U1? I’m not up to scratch with the Rufus match… why would they use U1? Combo-ability?
It all depends on the way the Akuma player plays. the downsides of U2 are it can be baited with a safejump, if they’re using Akuma’s vortex depending on what they do he’ll fall out after 1 or 2 hits. It does punish jump back air fireball, or air fireball in general, as well as fireballs from mid-screen. However, if you get Akuma into a corner and land your Rufus BnB and don’t have U1 it’s a lot of missed damage. (Which can make you win or lose because you can’t get that extra damage.) It’s not a bad decision to use U2 or U1, either one’s good. It’s all up to personal preference.
only way I can avoid this mess of an ultra is to literally run the hell away. cant jump, cant get cornered, cant even be standing up…
gotta block and run…
I hear what u guys are all saying, but I don’t think u guys are understanding how bad it is. Akuma’s gameplay is altered dramatically when he has big bang. Try to play a good rufus and tell him to pick big bang and make sure he is aware of all the way u can punish things with it. Or just go in training mode and find out for your self. A good rufus doesn’t need u1 in the matchup against akuma. He takes enough life already.
not really, if the akuma is smart he wont get hit by U2 like ever. for example, why would you do unsafe pressure or dumb stuff when he has U2?, even if you got the knockdown and he has U2, he can be safe jumped to hell. U1 is better for rufus since any random hit can be devastating.
Baiting and safejump setups hurt U2 bad. Which should be apart of your game anyway as psuedo pressure.
Simple things like light attacks, or even just crouching and standing can work wonders if they are looking to punish pokes.
^ Exactly
When you catch on to their habits, you can bait it out like no tomorrow. Now against really good Rufus’ … well I’ve yet to play one. And thank god cause I have enough trouble with that match up as it is lol
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To be honest, I wasn’t sure if he’d U2 on the overhead, but I got lucky enough to bait it out
@Diveman, remember that Rufus’ main way of landing U1 is the FADC from Ex Jesus Kicks (or the air TC or ground TC) so they may be praying that it lands and do an unsafe one, which you can punish with U2 (provided they don’t do a late lk ender). What I am getting at is with that in mind, they may want to stick to U2 to limit Akuma’s options rather than opt for crazy damage (which he does anyway)
Take a good look at your options and his patterns when he has U2 ready.
You can’t:
Demon Flip
Air Fireball
Ground Fireball
Teleport
But you still can play the ground game, your tools are better than his on the ground, and if he ever jumps, learn to anti-air his dive kicks. Ah, and bait the shit out of U2, it’s worth it. You can always look at his pattern and throw out the best bait on his attempts.
you can still demon flip palm against rufus, as long as you meaty him after a knockdown. also, if he tries to punish your teleport, you can just activate your U2 (which you should be using against rufus anyway), and it’ll counter him. i don’t think he can punish the recovery frames of the teleport since you’ll probably be too far away.
really like that first vid 
your input for demon is flawless, and so damned fast… using the invincibility to the best effect, I never even considered using it against rufus that way. OFF TO TRAINING MODE!
I think that kind of setup is the last resort. If you have the ultra you can try and bait it with a normal like a sweep or something like that. But if I remember, the timing for the reversal demon needs to be pretty specific, because Rufus has invincibility during a set amount of start up frames (I think it’s like 11?) so your demon needs to go in a tiny bit delayed after that.
I think that kind of setup is the last resort. If you have the ultra you can try and bait it with a normal like a sweep or something like that. But if I remember, the timing for the reversal demon needs to be pretty specific, because Rufus has invincibility during a set amount of start up frames (I think it’s like 11?) so your demon needs to go in a tiny bit delayed after that.
Correct. If the Demon is done too soon, you run out of invincibility before Rufus does, so you get sucked in. Some Demons, like countering Seth U1, Fei U1, Sagat U2, Vega U2 etc has to be done ASAP, while others, like Rufus U2, Rose U1, etc have to be specifically timed