Any Match up Basics
Spoiler
T-Hawks main problem as since he’s slow and a huge grappler he is often defeated by neutral jump abuse and tick throws. To be a good T-Hawk player your going to have to have a great deal of reaction to these situations because if you abuse the jump you will easily be baited to command throw and will be punished highly for it. Your best bet when you sense a neatrul jump abuser is to use a :punch-light: DP to counter the move. It’s your only option to use and you must not be out read with this. It’s a 50/50 situation because if you become predictable with countering a situation then you will be punished for it as well.
Abel
[details=Spoiler][/details]
Guile
[details=Spoiler]Another 3-7 match up for our friend T-hawk. Just as difficult as the Dhalsim match up but much worse in the air. But as I said before that small 3 shows a ray of hope for T-hawk. The start of the match itself is already a mind game in Guiles favor so you must be sharp on your wits. Guile can begin the match in 3 was: He can either A. throw a sonic boom., B. Jump towards you, or C. Backdash to create space which you don’t want him to do. If Guile fires a :punch-light: Sonic boom your only option is to block it while walking forwards so he doesn’t create space. But if he fires off a :punch-medium: / :punch-hard: you can instant condor dive for a confirmed hit on him. You’ll still be at a good distance so your best follow up is a sweep or to just walk forward and block the next hit. Your not going to want to try and empty jump as much because of Guile’s 3 frame air grab he can grab you out of every one of your useful air-to-air moves and put you in a big disadvantage. If your ever set to a situation were your across from guile more then mid screen just walk and block. Use S. :punch-light: for a poke on distance to slowly push Guile into the corner. One in the corner Guile has no options against you, you can grab his :punch-hard: punches, grab him in between his sweep, bait a flash kick and set him up for mind games, your cross up in the corner can actually start a cross up chain on almost any character. If you cross someone up, and they try to respond with an uppercut you can cross them up again since you hit them in the air and any move will whiff. If you’ve gotten Guile to the point he doesn’t want to shoot sonic booms as much you can build meter by using :punch-light: Condor Spire’s to build up meter. With the meter you can use it for big damage and also use Ex Condor Spires to get a knockdown on Guile. For footsies your best tools will be your :punch-light: /C. :kick-medium: /Far :kick-hard: / and Far :punch-medium:. But you want to be weary of getting into the magic zone of Guile. This zone is where if Guile shoots a sonic Boom he can easily fire off a back hand, or standing :punch-hard: to punish attempts of walking/dashing/or poking. For corner situations your only option is to plan out when to use your Ex DP, it’s invincibility frames are the only way your getting out of his corner game. Again, another match of T-Hawk’s that takes patience and out smarting the smarter character. If you get reckless you will lose. Plain and simple. Be smart for victories against this character.
Arcade Edition:
- Nothing has really changed about this match up besides it’s easier to risk some health. The T-hawk x Guile match up in my my opinion with the buffs and nerfs slightly only moved it to a 4-6 still in Guile’s favor. But the nerfs on Guile’s end do help T-hawk land more damage. Guile’s backhand now only does 90dmg, and each of his Flash kicks got reduced 20 hits. [ Light 100, Medium 120, Fierce 140 ]. His Sonic Hurricane also lost damage and now does 300 damage. Now with Sonic Boom pressure you can feel a little safer because he doesn’t gain as much meter as he used to. Not much has changed, but overall with your choice of picking Ultra 2, and Guile being weaker it’ll take Guile a lot longer to defeat the giant.[/details]
Dhalsim
[details=Spoiler]As you might have already guessed this is in no way shape or form a good match up for T-hawk. Tier list wise this is a 3-7 match up in Dhalsim’s favor. Due to Dhalsims outstanding zoning game he can pretty much beat out everything T-hawk does, but that lonely 3 isn’t there for no reason we still have a fighting chance.!
In this match up you want to be as offesive as possible because if you try to out think Dhalsim you will not win this match. By using your Focus attack dashes in a respective manner you can close in on Dhalsim somewhat easily. When Dhalsim fires of a Yoga Snpier [C. :punch-hard: ] your going to want to focus straight through it and block. Each time he fires an attack focus and block until you are within jumping range to attack. If Dhalsim fires off a fireball your going to want to just walk up until near contact and block. Because most likely he’s going do a C. :punch-hard: for 2 hits. Your best bet is to just wait until he makes a mistake on a jump and go for the offensive. When Dhalsim jumps back he’s going to do one or two things. 1. He’s going to teleport to the other side of the screen to reset the position or do a fierce punch. You have to be patient because he’s trying to read your moves you must move after he moves. You can wait for the fierce and focus it for a free DP or you can fake it with say a S. :punch-light: and bait the teleport and for for the SPD once he lands. Now, once in on him you have different options depending on the move you do on his land. If you do a :punch-light: Mexican Typhoon you have these options:
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Do a :punch-hard: Condor Spire to get to the other side of him and attempt to use another SPD.
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Do a :punch-hard: Condor Spire and on his wake up do a C. :punch-medium: tick throw into :punch-medium: / :punch-hard: SPD
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Do a delayed :punch-hard: Condor Spire and then go straight for a DP
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Do a Delayed :punch-hard: Condor Spire, then a C. :kick-light: tick throw into SPD
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Do a Jumping Body Splash cross up into Standing medium to DP.
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Do a :punch-light: Condor Spire and either do a Standing :punch-medium:, or Far :kick-hard:
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Do a :punch-hard: DP and go for another SPD reset.
If you use a :punch-medium: SPD the only thing you can really do is a delayed :punch-light: Condor Spire to fake a hit to get him to block and do a SPD. Other then that you can do meaty sweeps into his wake up once in that close position.
If your worried about Dhalsim doing instant teleports a standing far :kick-hard: will stuff him everytime because he still has to technically jump to initiate it.
That’s pretty much all you have against Dhalsim, it may be a small 3 but once used the right way can make that 3 look like a thirty. The match isn’t a complete failure and even when you master the match up you will still have problems with the character. The key is to use defensive aggression and patience.[/details]
Ryu
[details=Spoiler][/details]
Ken
[details=Spoiler][/details]
Zangief
[details=Spoiler]- This is a 4-6 Match up so it falls more under Zangief’s favor and it’s pretty understandable why. Though both have a very strong poke game Zangief has the ability to combo his God hand into his moves for a knock down and begin his mix up game While T-Hawk can not. But to play this match up your main tool of offense is your Far Fierce Punch/Sweep/Far Roundhouse/Crouching M.Kick/ and Standing Medium punch. Since both characters are grapplers you both know each others mind games so you most refrain from grabbing him. Actually T-hawks Close Medium Punch --> Fierce DP takes 250 damage which is actually stronger then a fierce Mexican Typhoon --> 230 damage. When playing footsies your best idea is to stay on Zangief and pressure him without being command grabbed. A great way to do this is to sweep him and then dash in and go on the offensive. Using an instant condor dive on Zangief is a nice trade and almost always beats out a lariat. Utilizing empty jumps is also a great tool because when a Zangief is pressured he’s going to try and command grab you and being T-hawk one mistake could leave to Big damage. If your fighting a Zangief that abuses his Neutral Jump Headbutt you can easily counter it with a condor spire, it may trade, but you can either combo an EX DP or for a knock down cross him up. On knock down if your afraid of crossing Zangief up due to lariat you can always empty jump and when he does his lariat do a condor dive and it will beat it out. Another tool for that situation is neutral jump Fierce punch. It always beats lariat when timed right. Zangief and T-hawk are pretty even when it comes to fighting each other. Zangief has maybe one or two advantages due to his green hand being an offensive tool but all you need to do is keep on Zangief and you should be fine.
Edit: This match is in Hawk’s Favor. it’s 6-4 not 4-6[/details]
Adon
[details=Spoiler]A rather easy match up if you know Adon well. A 6-4 match up in T-hawks favor :). Most of Adon’s trick dealing with his Jaguar Tooth are not safe against T-hawk. You can pretty much counter all his pokes with your standing :punch-light: /Far :punch-medium: , Far :punch-hard: , C. :kick-medium: / :kick-medium: / and Far :kick-hard: . Actually just all of his pokes can, if timed right, beat Adon’s. One thing your going to want to watch for is his wake up speed. Adon wakes up faster then the rest of the cast so trying to cross him up won’t be easy. He can easily wake up and use a :kick-medium: Rising to beat out any attempts of cross up. What you do in this situation is use T-hawks Jumping :joystick-down: :punch-medium: [ Heavy Shoulder ] to lower your hit box and when used at the right time is a safe jump. This move can also be used for Ultra set ups, Throw set ups, and baiting up anti-airs. This match isn’t that hard because Adon doesn’t have a lot of tools at his disposal. Your only problems are going to be if Adon knocks you down and 70% he won’t be able to. But, if he doesn it will become a problem for you. Adon has few options once knocked down but when abused the right way can be bothersome. He can empty jump to C. :kick-light: , Empty Throw, Cross up with :kick-light: / :kick-medium:, Safe Jump with Jumping :punch-hard:, abuse neutral jumps, or fire off Rising Jaguars. To keep this match in your advantage stick to mixup game, reading his moves, and not abusing your thorws. Adon’s fast enough to react to anything you do so you must let him make the first move before you act.
Fun fact :D: Adon’s Dash is able to go under your far :kick-hard: so it’s advised to use it wisely. Also.! If he knocks you down and does neutral jump he can hit you out of Ex Tomahawk. Be careful using it when Adon starts abusing that neutral jump.[/details]
Bison
Spoiler
To be honest, when using T-hawk and seeing his matchups it surprises me sometimes that he isn’t that bad a character. This match up is a 4-6 matchup for T-hawk which isn’t that bad. Bison has a couple of tricks he can abuse to scare T-hawk but at the same time T-hawk can scare Bison. A few things you don’t want to do before we start, you don’t want Bison to corner you, that’s when the match because 1-9 for you. Bison, if able to read your actions, can destroy everything you try to do. You try to jump he throws out a :kick-hard:, you try to attack he’ll throw out a :kick-medium:, he has scissor pressure then he can tick throw you at any moment, and if you try to EX DP out of the corner he can read you and either backdash and scissor or throw you back in the corner or he can just focus you into anything he desires. What your going to want to do at the start of the match is either backdash [ take into consideration that he does have a :kick-hard: Scissor kick that will catch you ] or stand your ground with S. :punch-medium: and :punch-light:. Your going to want to try your best to get Bison on his back and in the corner to gain the advantage. On wake up Bison really doesn’t have any options besides an Ex of either of his moves and since there so readable you can counter them effectively with either a command grap or a sweep for more pressure. Once in the corner you have to out-play bison to defeat him. Bison will most likely try his best to pressure you with tick-throws and jumping out. On knock down you can punish any jump or any move he shoots out [ besides Ex Crusher ] and for more safety on wake up you can use a Far :punch-medium: to stuff his moves. A good tactic to use is a dash command throw. Bison has ZERO anti-air’s besides his standing roundhouse and if you’ve gotten bison to the point you can scare him into consistantly blocking then a dash :punch-light: Mexican Typhoon will surely benefit you into taking the match into your control. There aren’t to many gimmicks for this match seeing as both these characters are rarely simple in their actions. You just have to keep the match in your control to win.
