Funny thing is I never had a problem with sf4 guile, lol. And I played a lot of good ones.
The OZ st.mk thing, saying it’s like Laura’s is a bit nebulous I think, I don’t think you mean the cheesy repeatability like st.mk Xn over and over aggain since Zeku st.mk doesn’t move forward, so I’m going to assume you mean using it as an interrupt on defense like how Laura uses it to v trigger cancel into? I was thinking about trying to use it this way kinda but I haven’t had the chance to really look at it. Definitely didn’t think about it’s CH properties on defense… good show. Actually now that I think about it, this can probably be used as higher risk versus reward thing for a lot of characters on defense. Jab is lower risk, mediums higher risk but with higher rewards… hmmmm.
I’m getting back to work on that oki thread in a bit. It’s tedious boring time consuming work but it’s so worth it to have shit catalogued. I miss meatiest and then I look at the thread like… what should I have done there? Oh yeah. Then use it next game and catch a fool slippin. One day it will all be memorized, one day.
Ok so 2 matchups I’m currently having trouble with:
Cammy…
She outpokes zeku and her BMP hits crossups. Just played one that basically advances with cannon drill which hit me everytime, divekick… and just cr.hp. Then AA with bmp all day. It was like a wall, but with a divekick attached.
Fang…Young Zeku seemed outclassed here, oz out in some decent work but fang can just command dash through koku… so neither stance seems great.
It really seems like if the opponent just has good AA it makes it pretty hard on zeku in general because his ground game really seems lacking for decent pokes.
Cammy - I recall her being really easy to AA. Old HK Dp or st.mp should stop any approach from the air.
Fang - …I have no idea. I remember it being very difficult to punish him with young or old. Most useful thing for Old is that Jyakura (flip) Elbow can beat out his Cr.Hp. Young I would wait for him to throw fireballs and run slide.
Played against another guile… still a shit matchup if they keep calm and just mixup their teching/jabbing/walking back. Hozanto is bad. Gets a free cr.lp xx boom>sweep combo if he blocks you.
Biggest problem with this game is the inability to really put blocking pressure on your opponent. Everything has mad pushout and there is no neutral poking game so pushout is really bad. If the game had strong ranged pokes it would be different with the pushout not being so bad, but as it is… it just don’t be feeling like streetfighter but instead some sort of weird mini game where you basically take turns guessing what each other is going to do and having few in between moves. Moves that are good and don’t leave you open but also don’t do much damage. Like everything I try in this game just fails. No ways to set people up. just do random shit and see what sticks. Oh I got countered, let’s try random move number 47 then! Oh that worked! Now let’s try random move 31! Hey it worked! Random move 68? Awwww…
Didn’t work. Little strategy.
Just saw your replays vs Guile,you goes full throttle too much. I’ve seen the one where you won the 1st round, you started immediately with a flip,but was too high, there’s no advantage if you did Jakura that way. Then going for it vs Guile isn’t useful since from that distance he could counter it pretty easily, in fact he goes for an A2A the next round. YZ tc isn’t bad,but cr.mp,st.mp xxMP Hozanto,MP Palm is better and give you a better oki with run-stop cr.mp. Guile V-Skill has 10f recovery, no reason to use EX Hozanto for it and he could just use it to bait your shoulder mive and go for Flash Kick. The Guile just played full ape throwing Flash kicks all over the place,but you didn’t use cr.HP CC once, giving up a lot of damage. His gameplay convinced you to try to start jumping too much becoming predictable. Against V-Reversal happy opponents st.lk-grab works amazingly, cr.lp has less pushback,but less frame advantage oB. From a hitting st.lk you can confirm with cr.lp xxHozanto xxCA if you need damage or to close the round. Sometimes you was able to hit with your j.mk crossup, but instead of proceeding with cr.mp into combo you started with cr.lp losing the opportunity to take home the match. In YZ form sometimes is better using V-Reversal at the start of the round to keep your opponent at the bay, you gonna get VT later anyway. Once you get it you need to stop sliding too much, I did this fault myself sometimes, we become too predictable. The Guile player was way more worried than you was, you just didn’t noticed that, can happen. I’m gonna watch the Cammy match now.
You played too much ‘calm’ compared to the Guile match. Cammy b.mp is a showstopper,no surprise here, there’s no character in the game able to jump at her without a dive move. With that in mind the only way to do that is jumping with j.hp looking to her face instead,we don’t need a crossup. Her AA didn’t work there,but you are in a perfect range for a dp, so think twice before going for it. I was able to count how many koku you did, just 5 at the start of any round. You was to afraid about keep with them because of can’t aerial attacks. The solution here is using LK koku right out of her st.mk range, then using the normal able to stop Cammy ground and aerial attempts, st.mk. With that OZ is able to counter st.lk/st.mk with ease and punish cr.hp on whiff (you can use lk koku also, but it’s risky),st.mk can stop every move targeting at your face,cr.hp is gdlk vs predictable jumps. If you get the CC here is a good idea going for the st.hp-flip reset, a perfect placed elbow leaves you at +4 if blocked, you could mix that up with the kick version. In the first match you had a good number of chance to kill Cammy with cr.mp into VT cancel,but you didn’t get once. Cr.mp is slow,but is super good when w have V-meter,cr.mp xx VT,cr.mp xxVT,st.mp-st.mk-st.hp-st.hk-st.hp+hk is a quick ~300dmg punish,go for it once you have the chance.
Until now I had issues vs Akuma and Urien,mostly because my stubbornness to use YZ only mid match. Finally I decided to go ham since start limiting OZ to AAing possible jump ins at the very start of every round.
I used to play like this, determining which Zeku was better for each MU… Recently, I’ve been experementing a more movement/stance switch heavy playstyle. It opened up a new way to play with more oportunities. I’m less predictable, opponents make more mistakes…
Regarding the Guile MU, although I switch stance a lot, I had a lot of success with Old, mostly thanks to sl.lk buffered into lk koku. Stops Guile from throwing booms at a certain range, stop the infamous follow-ups after blocked booms mid-screen (st.fierce, back fist, knee bazooka) and recovers so fast that you have time to AA just in case.
The hardest MU is Chun, mostly because she seems to low profile everything.
I have a hard time against Laura too, but always had (mained Vega and Bison, tough).
There are a couple match-up where I don’t switch stance : zangief (old) and Dhalsim (young).
But still, I really think that Zeku could use some buff here and there. Koku could be faster (I don’t mind the recovery), Teki’s hitbox shoud be improved upward (even with a good read on a jump-in, it often whiffs), jumping normals need a better hitbox/hurtbox ratio (for god sake, even Vega manages to AA him with st.lp), throw range should have a bit more range (0.85 ?), Young’s st.mp could reach a bit further… I hope there will be a S3.5 patch like past year.
Yesterday I played a couple of sets against a Menat. Didn’t really know what to do. She outranges you in old form, and keeps you out in young. I guess young is still better, but her dives are a pain to anti air
Still have no answer for fang. Can’t jump at him and his stupid ground fireball keeps us from getting in. Tried to ex hozanto through multiple times but it doesn’t work unless you are decently far and he can just do ground fire bubble thing and then regular up fireballs and even if you make it through the stationary ground fireball you don’t make it through the upballs. Also constant,y getting my sweep CH in the matchup as well. YZ is all offense. He has zero defense.
Zoning him with old doesn’t seem useful with his command dash being projectile invincible. And once in on YZ it’s a wrap cause you have no defense against him save for your slow ass v reversal that doesn’t seem to ever want to hit him.
once you get in, the pressure is insane, Fang doesnt have a 3f normal to stop zeku gap of 4f for s.MP > cr.MP at any range. And dont spend meter on hozanto, save ir for super
Best way to fight Menat is playing more lame than her. Once the orb is out just stay behind it,get closer when she recalls it. Once you’re in range you can risk a jump in against an orbless Menat, but looking at how Dhalsim-like she is I don’t mind playing with the timer against her. Her dives are exactly like Sim ones, you don’t need to AA them, instead it’s better getting hit by them since she has less advantage after.
No need for Hozanto vs Fang,you can walk under his poison balls. The V-Skill is useless,even being touched by doesn’t harm us enough to be worried about. OZ can give Fang problems from far/mid ranges, then YZ can seal the deal. Under pressure Fang often use his V-Reversal to get out of the corners,just keep him there with meaty st.lk into grab, the latter catches Fang effortlessly. We have to pay attention on his plus oB normals, that’s the problem against him.
how do you guys sneak in your stance switches? the urien match up feels bad as chun but with the added benefit of urien having a v-trigger that just murders you.
Things got better when I had a chance to switch to Young Zeku but don’t want to get used to just switching fraudulently. Gets you murdered against fast EX moves.
Switching shouldn’t be hard tbh. The hard part is getting a switch and not having to play neutral with Young Zeku. Switch is less time than a fireball so it’s really not hard at all. Jumpback into jab/switch/mk Koku should be enough to keep your opponents guessing if you don’t mind switching at range. In close it’s easy to switch. Just cr.lp x2 st.hp xx switch and you are semi close at +1 frames.
The only real safe switch is oz s.hp > switch. Everything else is -
That said, the switch is really fast and hard to react to, so you can s.lk > switch and the opponent wont react until it is too late.
From my experience, switching after doing oz combos midscreen is good, and switching after doing yz combos in the corber to oz is also very good. His command jump pressure in the corner is respectable