I’ve been ignorant about Blanka way too long. How do you pressure this character?
Any time I would try a string he would just do lightning and I got hit out of frame traps, tick throws, demon flip cancels and when I tried to back away to space a sweep on it he had stopped by then.
I’m also lost as to how to make him guess on a knockdown without just doing crappy ground meaties like a poor mans Ryu. Lightning and EX up ball had my knockdown routine pretty much covered. I know there’s a way to do a deep demon flip dive kick that will stuff his reversals if he doesn’t have meter for an EX up ball, but is there more than that? Since he doesn’t spend the whole match with empty meter, how does Akuma vortex Blanka?
If I understand the strategy correctly, you can safe jump blanka’s up-balls (4 frames startup) and and electricity (5 frames for LP elec), then punish accordingly. Once Blanka starts to block on wakeup, the vortex becomes viable for a short period of time. Cr. MK is what you use to get under and stuff his electricity attempts, though not if he’s too close.
If they spam electricity during block stings…? Hmmm… That’s a good question. Again, cr. MK is your best bet as it gets under the electricity, but I don’t know if it works at the range you’ll be when he tries to interupt your block string. Looking at the frame data, cr. MP could also work against electricity as it has a 4 frame startup while his fastest electricity (LP) starts up in 5 frames, though maybe that’s a little too tight timming wise? How about cr. LP x2 xx LK DF Kick: would it get over and stuff his electricity?
I don’t get to play very good Blankas very often, especially online. Mostly, I bait and punish slides. Wait for them to do a random full-screen ball that I block and then U1. I played one last night that found out the hard way that slides don’t work on me (anymore) and constant jumping on me is going to get AA’d so he started doing short blanka balls to try and mess me up. It worked for a while until I started to randomly throw fireballs when I thought he was going to try it and it worked: he started to get flustered and eventually tried a random U2 when he tought I was at a safe enough distance away that he could chip me to death…
I did try this, but landed on lightning every time.
Slightly delayed cr.MKs, cr.MPs and other things also got eaten by lightning when I tried them; since half the time it was jab and then electricty it was hard to work out how to counter. I tried an SRK at one point but he blocked it.
The one I was playing barely used any Blanka Ball and it didn’t do much for him when he did. He also used slide sparingly. He used it a few times that I blocked and a couple of good times where it was the last thing on my mind. He seemed good enough to be pianoing electricity when he heard the “hee!” sound of a demon flip. He made use of the hop to go for throws. I was teching them at first and then he started doing a hop up to me, hopping again through my throw and throwing me from behind.
He wasn’t a Blanka main, I don’t think; but he knew enough about Blanka to control what I was doing. He had been flipping around various characters who I had been beating with Akuma and vortexing pretty bad, then when he used Blanka he shut down all my offense and beat me 3 straight rounds.
Akuma doesn’t seem to ‘work’ against Blanka. I didn’t feel like trying jump back air fireballing at full screen all round in a best of 5 rounds game so I switched to Ryu and won in a close game. He moved to another character and I went back to Akuma.
any goddamn tick throw will beat electricity on startup. Same for just about everyone of akuma’s normals at tip range. Can’t believe you’re losing to a blanka spamming elect. during your blockstrings. You must be trolling.
Can’t really vortex blanka though, this is one of those MUs where you can really see the difference between an akuma that has a good vortex and an akuma who actually has solid fundamentals…and btw, GOOD blankas (not the ones doing elec. everywhere) give me a lot of problems tho.
It’s like when i play vs chocolillo (chocolo)…his ground game is so fucking superior to mine that even if i manage to land some combos and vortex him for a while, he always ends up winning. Gotta learn those footsies =(
I don’t see how I could troll a thread by saying I’m struggling with something. 80% of the people I end up playing are Shotos. If I do play a Blanka they are either ass or they leave before I can learn anything about the match.
All I know is I tried stuff and it didn’t work. Blocked demon flip, jab-jab, move forward for throw/normal got shocked as did a delayed normal. Being stuffed 2 or 3 times was enough for me to note that at least as it was only one game.
So I guess the answer is to forget throws and traps and keep the strings tighter to make him stop using lightning first? sorry man, I would have handled the question differently if I was the one who knew the match.
Thanks for the vid Shin. Next time I’ll try out that stuff jab by jab, keep the strings much tighter and do much smaller steps. Short flip to bait up ball is also something sweet to consider, and ultra on the cross-up ball.
[Edit] Ran a whole bunch of stuff through training mode and I’m now much more comfortable with what Blanka can and cannot stop.
Maybe it’s the online lag, but many times when I go for the tick throw and they’re spamming PPP, I get electrocuted. When that happens, I forget about throws and just complete the combo to push them away. Then I start to play more zoning and deny him the opportunity to get in close and use his button spamming again.
My mistake was using a block string game against him as if he had a DP. If you keep the throws tight as actual ‘ticks’ then he can’t mash out (without EX up ball). Meaties and throws are okay after he quickstands a knockdown as it can be quite difficult to maintain a down charge while quick-standing and still hit the reversal window. I would use that on a case by case basis though.
Deep/meaty air fireballs on knockdowns should also keep him honest.
What are the punishes for EX up ball?
So far I only know that if I block or get hit crouching I can take a teeny step forward for a tight sweep, or I can reversal Ultra if I bait it (tough to do on reaction).
Yeah that’s about it…on hit you can punish it with a sweep and on block with ultra/sweep…unless he’s in the corner, where you can basically punish with whatever you like. Even ultra on hit.
I’ve problem for an other matchup: Ibuki. What did you use to counter her backdash after your demon flip palm? I don’t know if it’s me, but I can’t catch her with OS shoryu (whif), same with OS sweep.
I think that would be a total buff to Ryu, whenever he doesn’t have 2 bars to FADC, why not just AA with LP SRK which will most probably trade because it doesn’t have much invincibility frames > bullshit free juggle ultra !
On wakeup, they can just use MP SRK which from what I understand is still considered airborne from the first frame, which only gives us a reset at most if stuffed with DF dive kick. I’m all for characters getting buffs with all the boring nerfs everyone is getting, but IMO no one should be able to get an advantage after trading with jump ins(i.e not properly anti airing), that’s just retarded.
I am gathering all the info from this thread into a single document, should I send it to the one who created this thread so that he can update the first post?
yeah, but I cant make one if not everyone agrees. prob I’d get flamed, so what do you say guys? should I create a new matchup thread? if yes, give me 3 days to collect all the info.
hopefully we can get a nice thread going.