Taking Sagat to the next level

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
121

Overhead works dude.

You look at it and it seems slow but really your opponent won’t react fast enough to attack you and even so the elbow would usually beat whatever they do aside from a reversal attack and they probably won’t get that out in time.

So generally the worst case scenario is that they block.

I generally don’t have much trouble breaking my opponents defense when I’m up close, not even worse very high level players like Arturo. It’s just a matter of knowing all your options and constantly mixing it up.

I use FA lvl2 frame traps alot as well. A jab after that is tight so once people become conditioned to that, grabs are basically free.

Low shorts strings are frame traps by themselves. Mago does wait after one then poke again but he doesn’t have to. Even a “tight” low short string has a 2 frame hole that an opponent can initiate a jab in, but if you do it tightly the short will hit them before their jab becomes active and they will get counter hit.

Cross-ups are good just realize that on block following up a low short after j.lk isn’t tight, at least I REALLY don’t think it is. Been grabbed out of it so many times even when I hit deep with it. So cross-up to low jab I think is Sagat’s only tight cross-up string.

122

heres some next level shit:

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123

yeah, Mago using s.lk to beat/catch/prevent that ryu c.mk spamming shit :wgrin:

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125

does anyone have any good strategies for kara knee/TU? i mean, i can do them fairly easily, i think they have a lot of potential, but i’m struggling to find situations where i can work them in. i guess kara knee can be good for getting across the screen after a EX TS or something, but what else?

126

I’m jumping on the Sagat bandwagon since Rufus and Sagat are practically twins.

I played Eric Kim a lot; I’ll be glad to disclose what I observed although it’s only how he’s played my Rufus. Some of it is universal.

1.) Not enough Sagat’s maximize on his mix-up game on his opponents wake-up. Cr.short, overhead, grab, and SRK can be interchangeably mixed and can be predicted if you know what kind of opponent you’re playing and how they have adjusted thus far in the match.

For example, if you’re playing a Rufus, Sagat CAN throw in a meaty cr.short and block before a Rufus wake-up EX Messiah. Based on this event, you can probably expect any adequate Rufus to block increasing your chances of landing an overhead or a cr.short. Finally, if you notice that your opponent has a habit of throwing out cr.jabs on wake-up or as a weird anti-air (to prevent landing grab) don’t fail to TU it.

Making a person hesitate on wake-up is perfect for allowing Sagat to start his cr.short chains. On hit, you combo cr.short x2, cr.jab, TU. On block, you can do cr.short x2, s.lk, lk tiger knee. Another option (after your opponent gets use to your block strong) is to do 2 to 3 cr.lk’s is to follow up with a dash. Sounds silly, but don’t knock it 'till you try it. From there, you can start the whole mix-up game over again and the pressure will keep building.

2.) Not enough Sagat’s combo correctly from cr.short. Very crucial.

3.) The forward roundhouse kick is a great bait for patient, reactive players. If you’re trying to get a reaction out of a person who is in mid-range or a range that’s dangerous for you to throw a tiger shot do a forward houndhouse kick. From your opponent’s view this looks like an opening, but the small wind down time from the kick can net you a juicy TU. Keep in mind it’s always a safe bet to attempt this only when you have meter to FADC it.

From what I’ve seen, the biggest thing most Sagat players are lacking is close range battles and mid-range pokes (outside of s.HK).

127

So…a fat American with blonde hair and uses his own variation of kung fu in a yellow jump suit is nearly identical to an extremely tall bald one eyed Asian who uppercuts the shit out of bears?

Me thinks you need an eye exam. :looney:

128

Bob Sagat/PGL: Please tell me you were dl’ing something while we were playing. lol

It was 4 bars, but it sure didn’t seem like it. It lagged pretty bad for being 4 bars. Not too mention some of my moves didn’t come out even after multiple times of inputting stuff.

In our very last game, when you whiffed ultra, and I could counter-Ultra for free, I inputed ultra twice, and it didn’t come out. The 3rd time I tried, I accidentally taunted! LOL!

gg’s though. It was pretty fun. I just wish it wasn’t as bad as it was cuz I don’t think you could really get a good grasp of my play and evalute it. My strengths/weaknesses, etc.

Hopefully next time, it’ll be way better. Or maybe you can host. lol. I dunno. I wasn’t running anything other than MSN on my comp at the time. Not sure why it wasn’t too good despite the fact that, again, it was 4 bars!

EDIT: You’re also probably really pissed off at me because I did what you said in one of the other threads to NEVER DO. And that’s use Ultra against Sagat in a mirror match in the corner. LMAO. Sorry. I was down to like 5% health, so I just took the opportunity to use it.

129

yeah, it was fun. LOL at that rufus viper match, I saw you taunt after i whiffed, then you ultra’d back and I came back with that super haha, shit was stupid. My net is good generally, verizon fios internet. 2.5megs a second dl speed. We’ll have to try it again sometime.

Game before I played aliounesensei… cept this time the lag was the other way around. I couldn’t jump over a full screen tiger shot it was that bad. I’ll reset my net tonight and we can try again tomorrow. Make sure you have the game installed to your hd too.

130

Funnily enough, I main Rufus and Sagat is one of the characters I have a lot of fun with too. Might just be the fact that they both hit like mack trucks and get to attack a lot for free (Firing tiger shots= attack).

Rufus is what you’d get if Sagat and Viper had a love child.

The scariest Sagats I fight are those who will hit you with a hit confirmed c.LK> c.LP> TU> FADC combo from 1/2 a character distance away. Honestly, sometimes I swear that I’m fighting a slower, buffed version of Iori.

131

I think when I go for cross-ups from now on with j.lk when I want to continue with pressure I’ll do low lk+lp instead of just low short. I been getting grabbed on occasion after a cross-up but with the option select low short this should alleviate that somewhat.

Thoughts?

132

Does it work? If so, then cool!

133

I feel like an ass every time I try to j. lk cross up a Blanka only to get fried.

134

I think its only a really good idea if you want to bait an uppercut, not so much if you want to bait a throw.

If you press LP+LK early you’re going to get thrown out of the starting frames of your low short (5 frame low short vs 3 frame throw).

If you press it late, then at best you tech the opponents throw or block a reversal uppercut. But if the the opponent hits jabs and shorts, he’ll push you out… Between this and a teched throw, it kinda defeats the purpose of crossing him up in the first place (you get pushed out without any pressure being applied).

IMO if you want to pressure after a cross up short, its better to just hit the j.LK as low as possible then go straight into crouch LP (x1 or 2)> Tiger Shot if you want a safe string. Or mix it up with stuff like cross up jump (no short)> Throw or cross up short> Delayed TU or cross up short> Verticle jump MK.

135

Yeah, the option select short is just a mindless answer really but it’s still dependent on timing.

But ever since I confirmed that Sagat has only a few safe strings I been scared shitless when I’m on the offensive and it’s been making me predictable.

Vs characters that lack good reversals I just go to town with Sagat’s option tree off of low short strings. All his offense comes off of that string and whether it hits or not.

But characters with DP’s can just mash one out and blow through your low short string due to the 2 frame gap. Shit is lame and it’s sort of been paralyzing my game lately.

I been working around it though by relying more on traps off of single low shorts.

Still bullshit though.

136

here is a pretty sweet combo i have used lately. it works best against bigger guys because their hit box is bigger. if you are close enough to an opponent and you throw out a weak HTS and they jump into it you can follow up with a f+hk (if you are close enough) into your ultra. when i knock a character down ill usually dash back about 2-3 times throw a LTS and hope they jump into my weak HTS. It’s tough to land it and it shouldnt be a main combo but if your in the right position it works and it works good. give it some practice and find out the distance you need to be to land the f+hk after the weak HTS.

137

i just pulled that off earlier against a ryu today and ye its a pretty sweet juggle. you usually have to pause before throwing out the light HTS so they actually jump into it.

btw s.lk xx TS will piss ppl off to the point where they’ll be doing unsafe jumpins. never really knew when to use this move before but it works wonders. use it whenever they jump towards u but arent close enough for a hit. learn the distance of it and walk in towards them while theyre in midair if theyre going to land too far away. then hit them when they land.

138

seems a little risky, since I don’t think you can hit confirm… I’d rather use slkxxLTS… I haven’t tried it out, so I’ll have to see how it works… if I had the execution, I’d rather use f+LP to cLPxxTU

139

I believe the sagat combo thread is more appropriate for this. Could you keep things of this nature that rely on an opponent messing up out of this thread?

140

well its not necessarily always when the opponent messes up. i try to shoot people out of the air plenty of times with TSs. im just saying if you do time one and ur close enough F+HK will connect. i mean if your opponent is going to get hit by the HTS then its a safe move to try and connect that can lead to a nice juggle. its a nice combo that i never see sagats use. then when i do it to one of them i always get a message saying they never knew you could do that. so i decided to list it.