Demon between hits, leave it a bit late else you’ll come out of invincibility and get hit by his trailing leg anyway (as I manage to do quite flawlessly). -_-
Counter-sweep during the two hits to get an UTK.
Focus crumple the second hit and go into a BnB for a meter-less punish.
I always choke on punish guile’s cr.hk. lp.dp whiffs or is early, cr.Hk from wrong distances get counter hit by kick #2, focusing the 2nd hit doesn’t always net you a level 2 focus, sometimes you can jab a demon and hit hit before demon comes out.
So, I cr.mp. its nice.
i dont think its possible to go beyond a level one FA when focussing between the two kicks.
Thanks for the tips. In training mode I can pull off sweep consistently enough now but that’s me knowing it will come out… in a real game I guess i’ll go with cr.MP.
Doesn’t level 1 counter hit crumple too?
Counts as a reversal or a counter and crumples iirc, 2 sec I’ll go boot up the game. <- lies
Edit: Triple post 20 minutes between eachother, gg internets.
Oh and it doesn’t reversal or counter, just a timing issue. The closer they are to you the easier it is.
I’m having a lot of trouble against Balrog. I was wondering if someone well experienced with the matchup can give me a breakdown on it. Would really appreciate it. Thanks!
For the Cody matchup some guaranteed ultras are off of any version of a blocked ruffian kick(for HK version you have to block it standing), blocked MP and HP criminal uppers, and blocked ex zonk knuckle. You can super all the same things plus all versions of zonk knuckle and LK criminal upper.
Focus his rushes, avoid his TAPs. Once you get a knockdown you should abuse the DF palm, if he headbutts you’ll recover in time to punish. You should also land safely in case he does not headbutt, but he’ll be forced to block so you can continue applying pressure. And be cautious when you throw FB’s 
Any advice on using the OS throw? I usually mash it during a block string but what ends up happening is my cr. LK comes out and I get thrown. Or worse, they use a frame trap and I get punished hard. Or after a knockdown I go for a demon flip palm OS throw and the cr. LK comes out and I get thrown. I really suck at these up close tick throw situations so I’ll start to mash teleport and eventually my opponents will begin to anticipate it and punish it.
tap the os tech to the rhythm of the hits you are blocking if u do that u will have a better tech success rate.
That works with players who use rythmic block strings, but better players will use off-beat strings to bait out OS Tech. You really shouldn’t do it unless you read a throw.
just mentioning it since hes mashing it out. it will increase his success rate since he wont be mashing anymore but yes what you said is true also.
Here’s a very brief summary of the way I approach the matchup…
Vs. Balrog:
If you anticipate Armor breaking dash punch or TAP just throw out a standing round house. Just make sure you’re spacing it proper I.E. Not where the second hit whiffs. So focus everything, and once they wanna destroy your focus you can start setting up roundhouses, which lead to tatsu sweep combos, which means you can employ your…
General wake up flowchart vs Rog:
Safe jump a couple times. See what he does. If they like to headbutt out, keep doing it til they block! Safe jumps I find to be underused amongst your average Akuma players. If they like to EX dash out, start using that palm. Either way, they’ll start blocking. Then you mix in your x-up tatsus and empty jumps into low short. Just try and keep them honest by still using safe jumps/palms. Get that life lead, then run like a bitch.
In my experience, the match up has come down to footsies and guesses. His footsies are better than Akumas IMO, but you still have to play the game. Then you’ve just got to anticipate/guess which dash punch they wanna throw, and act accordingly.
This is not my strongest match up, and I’m not the greatest player, but if anyone has any Q’s and/or counter points ask/counter point away. I will do my best to answer any questions, and/or find a solution to your counter.
I used to HK, but I found if he tries to EX Rush you and you have time to react to just grab him. It beats it clean and gives you a nice untechable KD. The kara grab gives you a little more room for error too. This destroys full screen rushes and sets up your pressure game. Also if you want some nice damage you can c.MK > SRK OS.
I started having much greater success against Rog when I started grabbing him and use safe jumps against him. You are right that safe jumps are under used by Akuma players, but man oh man do you notice a difference once you start using them. Rog scrubs become super easy because you got all day to safe jump a headbutt. It also helps keep pressure on characters like Chun, Bison, and Ibuki.
Although another useful habbit against Rog is to double tap Jab every time you use a sweep or s.HK. If you see him do any rush or turn punch you can cancel into Ultra. Just make sure not to jump the gun.
I need some tips vs. Chun and Rufus. These characters are just stupidly annoying and it makes me sick.
Chun: Does anyone know what the best way to time a safe jump against her post sweep? I swear to god I time it incredibly tight and Im still getting tagged by EX SBK shitload of times and it’s throwing my chances of getting a worthwhile lead right out the fucking window. It’s really pissing me off because I time the safe jump against Viper and other chars very similarly and I watch their reversal get blocked everytime, but Chun is just stupidly hard for me. Is it better/easier to time the Safe DF Palm than going for a regular safe jump?
Also, is there a better way to deal with Hazan-Shu’s than to just show a focus when you think she might go for it and hope for the best? I really hate that fucking move because it seems to leave her at frame advantage, goes over fireballs and gets her in.
Rufus: Seriously, is there anything that can be done about Ultra 2? 90% of Akuma’s movelist gets shafted by this goddamn thing. No demon flip dive kick traps, no air fireballs, no ground fireballs. Nothing. It’s fucking stupid. I either take the hit or I push myself in the corner to get rushed down anyway. Someone please tell me there is some miracle strategy to get around this retarded move.
If there isn’t a better way to deal with this than Im just going to play my other characters because the headache I get from working my ass off against these characters and then coming up short is just ridicolous. Rufus in particular is just a giant perpetual comeback. Chun is just unecessarily annoying.
Safe jump Rufus all day. Pick U2 as well, as it punishes EX Messiah. Against Rufus you really just have to play a basic wake-up game, at least until you condition him to block your safe jumps. Then you can mix it up.
And about using HK against Balrog, I meant that pretty much in the context of expecting an armor breaking dash punch. If you anticipate an EX one, well you can either focus, throw, or low forward into whatever, including Demon. That’s why I say that the match-up seems to be a lot of anticipation, or guessing.
from my personal experience against rufus and as rufus vs akuma. playing footsies against rufus is the key to defeat him when he has U2, because his normals are shit at close range so you can start applying pressure with that, so this means NO jumps, no random teleports etc, bait rufus to use U2, most of them want to use it ASAP and get desperated, and of course, if u block EX messiah, EX shoryu beats all followups
Don’t forget U2 punishes all EX Messiah follow ups. If your opponent likes to do “psychic” Messiahs, bait and punish accordingly.
Rufus is basically free on wake up. His wake up specials (even u2) have to much start up frames to be used as an effective counter on wake up. I made some vids on how i counter rufus on wake up.
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[media=youtube]IN7A7mVCoTs[/media]
When you look at my inputs, you can see i still use option select in the last two vids (the ones where i counter the u2). So even if rufus did use messiah instead of U2, he would still get stuffed.
This makes rufus free on wake up since he has no other options. Once he starts blocking (i mean seriously, he HAS to block)… you can start mixing up bartender style:P