The Complete Alex Thread

Yes. Both of those are good options to add variety to the mix up :tup: After watching some more of the Denjin Ranbats, I am going to try and use c.fp more as well as the c.lk > flash chop (varying strength) mix up.

Quick question. I just need to make absolutely sure of something: If Urien does LK or MK Shoulder Rush, you block it, you can punish that with crMK/crMP or Sweep, right?

Because on GGPO they always consistently parry my punishment. Same weird thing applies to Shoto’s who do Sweep, I block, and I can’t punish it online.

I’ve seen in one of the really old FFA Ranbats that Alex can punish Urien’s Tackle with SA2 full-connect. I forget which one, probably LK. But yeah, cr.MK or cr.MP should work provided it’s fast enough.

Again, timing differences with GGPO.

^^ Yeah I figured. I mean, Urien is all ready a bad matchup for Alex but when you take lag tactics like that into consideration it becomes a big uphill battle.

As for blocked Shoto sweeps, that’s a free Ex Slash Elbow. You should be able to get that consistently online. I know I can. It’s good to punish every sweep you get cuz the reward is huge. They take extra crouching damage so it’s like every blocked sweep is free 30 dmg, plus tons of forward progress on the stage, and a free mixup.

I know about that, and yes I punish that shit every time with EX Elbow Slash. The problem is (again) online bs. Sometimes that shit is safe online.

Would you say Alex benefits alot from having his opponent in the corner?Because as far as I can see all of his mixups on his opponents wakeup can be done outside anywhere on the screen.

I want to know because I’m trying to figure out spacing with Alex.Right now I play footsies/poking games alot and I want to make my positioning and spacing better.I just wanna know if it’s worth it to try and take a risk/sacrifice stuff to get your opponent to the corner than go for guaranteed things outside of the corner.

I agree that Alex has a great mixup game all over the screen so I would not risk/sacrifice to get the opponent into the corner because, imo, if things are going your way they’ll end up there eventually. On mid screen wakeup, moves like powebombs and ex flash chops usually send them flying towards the corner often enough. xD IMO.

Well, any character would benefit from having their opponent in the corner. It’s important for Alex to get: Yun, Urien, and Chun in the corner. Everyone else is up to you.

Alex has a great mixup game as stated. Be careful when using his pokes on Parry-whores and Ken.

Yeah, you just pretty much have to ride with the momentum with Alex and you’ll eventually find yourself having the opponent cornered. From that point on Alex becomes a potential rapist.

Makoto is also another character that suffers in the corner, but be careful of that meter!

Looking for some Alex vs Necro advice.

Since the only experience I get is on ggpo there have only been two necros that I have played against consistently enough: DieOxin (sp?) and Artayes. Having said that, I can tell you what I try to do that has helped me specifically.

[list][]Block jump ins rather than parry them - These two change their jump ins quite often and mix in drills so it makes it tough to correctly predict and parry them. You don’t want to let him land a drill which leads to him spin hooking in close or especially a j.hk xx sa3.
[
]**Use s.mp when they land after a blocked jump in **- Maybe this is a ggpo thing, but I have found the close elbow to stuff some jump in follow up attempts…might be the lag though
[]After blocking (or even getting hit by) his spin hooks, block, wait and see what he does afterward - sometimes they will try and out poke you with a light attack and then they will do another hook or keep the rush on. Sometimes they back off and try to bait a throw. When I got hit by a hook I used to panic and would get myself hit with more damage instead of getting out of the situation.
[
]More as I think of it…
[/list]
I hope some of this has been helpful.

Using sMP after blocking a Drill Kick is hit and miss. Sometimes I hit them, and sometimes they get their hook or a grab. It’s random, and it’s online play. One of my big problems is when they use Electricity (randomly), and it beats a lot of Alex’s normals.

Use the headbutt it beats electricity clean.

bHP? Interesting. Never would have thought of that.

Tested bHP on Necro, works like a charm. Thanks.

Another thing that bugs the crap out of me against Urien. I don’t know if it works as well offline or whatever. But what can Alex do against Urien’s Headbutt? Because the LP/MP version of the Headbutt will tend to whiff, but give Urien an excellent chance to do a grab. And it seems like I can’t do anything to push him away or knock him out of it because it’s so fast. And I can’t tech the grab because it’s online. Again, I don’t know if this works for Urien so well because of GGPO lag or whatever, but I thought I should ask.

Hm yeah thats a harder one to counter imo. Most often, I find myself instinctively mashing grab as soon as they whiff or I block a headbutt because headbutt to grab is so common. And when I do that I’ll either get a tech, throw, or if I guess wrong I whiff. I know that you can meaty him out of it with a close standing mp/mk or even the headbutt if you can educated-guess your opponent correctly. Not sure how helpful this is cause you probably tried this! xD

Eh, sMP/sMK never works online against that shit. Urien plays with the cheats on.

If lag is the issue, then you’re gonna have to adjust for the time being. It will potentially hurt your offline game, but you can always adjust back with time. This is what I did back when I played GGPO. I was mainly restricted to Q and Urien but I adjusted my timing for online play(don’t let the awesome Japanese internet fool you, there IS lag). Once I quit GGPO for good I managed to get my offline timing back in a couple days.

Your headbutt will actually stuff Urien’s wake up headbutt. I’m not sure if it depends on which strength he does, though.

I find Urien players have a tendancy to wake up parry more than most other characters. That’s why I like headbutt so much in this match up, it makes Urien think twice. Low short xx SA2 is also really useful because if people parry against Alex they tend to do it high (that’s where he gets the best damage in, after all). There’s no way I can confirm a low short but sometimes I just go ahead and do it in anticipation that they will parry high. I don’t really recommend you do the same though, as it’s obviously very risky.