This is why I never do a walk forward B+HP anymore. Not worth the risk of eating a full jump in combo. I only use B+BP when I’m in a close range where DP would whiff or I’m retreating.
I commented on Wolfgang’s tier list asking him about Sagat, Ive been torn between slightly bad and even but his response was quite good. Basically comes down to the Sagat players patience.
I also really love his format here, best Ive seen, very easy to read and interpret. Stealing it for mine
I think he’s about to put a lot of DOA costumes into SFV…the madman…too bad DOA models are stick figures compared to THICK SFV models
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No, he isn’t
Akuma b.HP is just insane, the real question is why he has that cmd normal when his main AA should be the classic dp. That Twitter post makes me smile just for a second, then I realized how much rich gets richer in this game.
I disagree, his command grab can easily be flash kicked on reaction and good Guiles pre-emptively stuff River Run with neutral jump fierce or simply block and punish with cr. roundhouse. River Run should be used only very sparingly to keep Guile’s boom spam honest, and preferably only if you can VTC it.
I think blanka can be exceptional in the right hands, but that can be said for many characters. Still though, I think it’s very applicable to blanka that even if you’ve seen a bunch of them, you haven’t seen them all… kinda like zeku. Player skill means a lot for these kinds of characters.
But at the end of the day I can’t see him being tourney viable without a strong second to cover his matchups.
… like problem X had abby to cover for some bison matchups.
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The only way to save SFV and all the characters…give us 2D mode
This is easily the best Blanka in a SF in a while. Not CVS2 good, but he’s pretty up there. I’d argue he’s better than G outside of VT1 G. Few struggle matchups but can always cover those with another character. He doesn’t have the low tick you for damage problem that’s plagued him in other games where he’s not good. He’s in a game where he can make shit hurt and one of the few characters with access to things like a low that cancels into plus frame special (that gives free oki on hit). Can fight all of the top tiers pretty decently and doesn’t flat out die to any of them.
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SFxT Blanka was secretly really good (some of the best buttons in the game and a blockstun infinite offset his bad solo damage) even though he wasn’t played much. That’s probably better than his SFV iteration.
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Blanka has tools, them working as expected is another story. People tried him big after the release and even after the 3.5 buffs I’ve seen just two people using him at tournaments at high level. Blanka is in a similar position with Zeku tier wise, with the advantage of a more threatening VT. Like Angrybird did with Zeku, every Blanka user need a top tier as a backup. Too many people hits the panic button against Blanka by default, but even if his tools looks stronger than the previous version he lost his trickster ability or at least that trait of him is less dominant this time.
Or you can just not have shit reactions and reaction slide booms like a good player?
Edit: if you can’t reaction slide booms guile probably is AWFUL, but if you can he’s manageable.
This was true in 4 as well as xT
Also Blanka is stronger in V than 4.
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Having any tool around booms is really important in the matchup.
I remember that I thought it is rough for Akuma (as you have to guess Tatsu, or use DF correctly), until I’ve tried playing against Guile with other characters.
Booked off a couple of days close to Capcom Cup so I can watch without being bothered by work schedule. I can’t make it to Canada Cup tho 
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Managed to get in a grip of games over the holiday weekend (thanks US fed job!) Paid the iron price for a bunch of dojo points - glory to Susgang - and the climb up Ranked is real. I feel like actually holding SG once I get there is going to be tricky but I’m doing well enough against the myriad Golds and Super Golds I’ve been running into that it’ll work out. Just gotta keep plugging away at it (though I’m splitting focus when SCVI comes out to see how that game feels to play).
Highlights:
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The other Laura player I ran into that fucking rage quit on me in a Casual match during the second game. I’ve run into plenty of rage quits and 1-and-dones in my time online but usually in the mirror everyone knows the score. Ran into him later that day and he opted to suicide the match and bounce. Damn dude. Everyone else already hates Laura, we can’t have infighting.
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Threw Menat into some Casuals and it went about as well as I expected.
Got mauled but it was a good learning experience if I’m going to play her more. The one set I did win with her was against an Akuma player I had sort of mauled earlier that day. I managed to pull the set back 2-1 and he seemed to be quite frustrated by the second game. Dude was missing inputs and everything. Few things as sad to an Akuma player than beefing up air fireballs left and right. -
So many fucking neutral jumps. I understand it in “neutral” as a lot of people in the Gold ranks are dashing in or using forward moving specials/normals to get in, though it is still funny to see them chain like 3-4 together and fuckin’ Kriss Kross for a bit.
But what sort of kills me are how many people do it on my wake up. Again, I think I get the base reasoning - a lot of people still wake up tech/throw here - but it ends up just being a shitty throw bait that is easy to anti air.
I can clearly remember at least 2-3 rounds and therefore games and therefore sets I won that I probably should have lost because the other guy had me dead to rights in the corner but opted to neutral jump and landed himself in a post-AA mix up into death.
Laura has a good/great AA normal for dealing with neutral jumps so maybe I’m spoiled. Just a funny phenomenon that I keep seeing over and over. -
Online Alex continues to be my bane. Every time I feel like I have a good plan they throw another strain of crazy at me and I die. I think I am getting better at it overall though and the big takeaway is that I need to work on my defense especially in pressure situations. Most of the time I’m dying due to bad defensive choices and that carries over to other match ups so its a good thing to work on.
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Yeah but that’s like crossover. I consider games like that and CVS2 kinda in the same deal. SF, but not mainline SF so parenthesis. Yeah he was supposedly good there too.
He has access to meterless damage much better than in IV so he doesn’t have to rely on low damage gimmicks at much. Which is effectively better than what he’s been doing in games before. Still has his tricks including a new hop grab that you just wont react to everytime and is very dangerous when people are nearing stun. Most of his stronger mix up is in VT2 and he has one of the better sweeps in the game for fishing for CC’s and starting the ball rolling with it. Once VT2 is activated you are not escaping it without getting hit and lasts long enough to bring the round back.
Rainbow ball moved from a tool that’s mainly used for gimmicks, to a legitimately threatening tool that’s hard to challenge and goes into full combos on hit (ala HD Remix Blanka). Basically get a free frame trap and get in if its blocked. Big change for him to have rainbow ball be the most effective its been in a long time.
Pretty easily better than Zeku just by having a better trigger alone and being a better one character than Zeku’s spread out 2 character thing. Electricity gives him some of the best oki in the game off a plus on block tool that there is which is really big.
Blanka is like Birdie where people just don’t play him enough even though he’s really good because he’s a specialty character with a visual design that only fits certain people. He isn’t an edgelord or a waifu for people to flock to.
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105 ranked matches, 77 wins and 28 loses on the PS4 with Falke so far. Ended yesterday on the verge of ultra silver because I couldn’t take ranked any more after a jump, jump super star Ken and a silver Ryu that tried to lag switch to keep his rank.
That sapped my will to keep playing for the night.
I am bad at SF, but damn, I didn’t expect the level to be so low at the silver leagues. I ought to be back to gold today and hope people stop being so much worse than me.
I mean… why this Ken kept jumping at a range where I could easily AA him?
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That’s like the moth that keeps moving towards the fire. Lower level players always eventually run into a pattern and once you get them into that pattern its over.
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Thank you Capcom!
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Papa Capcom…
DOES IT AGAIN
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Just in time for my birthday.
I’ll have to send Ono one of those nice bottles of Japanese whiskey as thanks.