Well, seeing as how my campus’s AE cabs got reduced from 75 cents to 50 cents, I’ve gotten a lot of time with the game lately. Here are some things i’ve noticed about Vega.
*Yes, CH was nerfed, but it can still be safe if spaced perfectly. I know I may be in the minority here, but I’ve tried to avoid depending on this thing since Super(In Vanilla, CH and gimmicks were really the only options available to win most matches). I guess it might be my own personal preferences, but the move has always felt unsafe if it’s something I’m constantly throwing out(Unlike most of Vega’s pokes). Because most of the buffs from Vanilla to Super carried over, I think he’s solid enough to the point that while this remains a very use able move, it’s not something you want to use a great deal.
*Cr.mk is a great new tool, especially for my style of play. I think Pedoviejo mentioned him earlier, but I try to base my style of Vega play on ARG’s Vega from SSF2:ST Basically, solid footsies and solid defense, trying to slowly work them into a corner. If I can get them into the corner, I take my time and try to pick them apart and try to mix up my footsies to lock them down. cr.mk is a GREAT anti-fireball tool if used in the corner. It’s not the anti-fireball meaty beast that st.mk was in ST, but with one ex meter you can punish a fireball on startup with a cr.mk->cr.mp->ex-walldive. From there you can either go for an izuna loop, or hop over them to repeat the process again. It’s also not too shabby of a meaty, of course you want to use it very sparingly on a character who has a wakeup DP option.
*EX Scarlet Terror seems to be a bit more use able as a general purpose anti-air now, but I could be (and probably am) wrong. I think I’ve just gotten better at knowing which situations to actually use the thing.
*Yun and Yang…Yes they are a pain, but honestly the matchup is nowhere NEAR the nightmare inducing terror that Akuma was for Vega in Vanilla. Yes getting knocked down puts you at the mercy of their divekick, but honestly it doesn’t feel as scary as Cammy’s divekick pressure was in Super. As for divekicks when you aren’t knocked down, well you actually have quite a few options to deal with them. If you really predict the thing coming, you can always go for an air throw. If you have to react to one, a few moves you can use are st.hk and st.mp(I honestly had no idea to try this till I saw it on the Vega forums a while back, and honestly if you can get the timing down it works pretty well). Finally, a move I’ve been using to shut down predictable divekicks is jumping neutral hk. It’s a move you only want to throw out after you’ve read the opponent and get a good feel for how often they like to throw out dragon punches, but generally if Vegas legs collide with the divekick it should beat them.
*Yun and Yang might not make me rage…but Zangief does. Fuck that new lp spd range.
*I predict that once AE comes out for consoles, and more people start using the higher tiered offensive characters (Yun,Yang,Fei,Ken,Makoto,etc), Kara throw mixups will be even more important than they were in Super. A very basic kara throw mixup I’ve been using on knockdown is st.lk and then a few stutter steps backwards to try to get into max kara throw range. From there either go for the kara throw, or block, or wait then go for a cr.lp(to combo into cr.mp->ex-walldive), or walk forward and throw out a st.lk. I know, this isn’t exactly earth shattering new information or anything, but it’s something that I seem to be going for more often these days if I can get a high offense character cornered.
Just my two cents I suppose