Updates
November 14th, 2010 - Dudley Added
July 8th, 2010 - Ken Added
June 22nd, 2010 - Balrog added, E. Honda added, Ryu edited with more input from The Mullah
June 20th, 2010 - Ryu Added, Abel Edited
June 18th, 2010 - Abel Added
Vs. Abel
Current Tier List Match Rating
6-4 Abel
Can Punish Horizontal Ball with:
Dash step kick, Ultra 1 or Ultra 2
Recommended Ultra to use:
Unknown
Summary
This match is in Abel?s favor. He can punish your Horizontal Balls without revenge or EX meter with his step kick which leads into combos. With revenge, he can punish your Horizontal Balls with Ultra 1 or Ultra 2. You have no way of keeping him out and you will straight up have to guess to get him off of you. Though both Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 are can both punish balls, expect to see Ultra 2 (Breathless) more often then not as it can not only punish balls, but it is much more versatile then Ultra 1. This match, you want to rush Abel down when you don?t have meter and turtle and play keep away when you do. Not sure which one of your Ultras will be more effective in this match. Ultra 1 would be good for the ambiguous mix up, but if Abel has EX meter, he can get out of it and if he also Ultra, he can punish you after getting out. Ultra 2 is always a decent choice because of focus attack comboed into Ultra 2 Anti Air version, but you of course have to fish for a focus attack hit for a crumple.
Notes
You can throw Abel out of his roll
You can Horizontal Ball Abel out of Ultra 2
Abel is vulnerable to cross ups
Long Range Strats
The fight won?t happen here. Only thing that can be done is Fierce Horizontal Ball from you and a full screen Ultra 2 from Abel. Both are very unlikely to happen. If you have a lead, you should be here. You don?t want to fight Abel if you don?t have to.
Mid Screen Strats
This is the safest distance for you to attack from. Your footsies beat his for the most part, but you will still have to watch out for his step kick. It will hurt and he will get in on you. Test the waters a bit here. Horizontal ball once or twice while Abel does not have meter just to check to see if the player has the skill to dash up and punish with step kick or not. That might be useful information for later on in the match. Be ready to anti air Abel with crouching strong or with some sort of air to air answer. Also be ready to throw him out of his roll. Even if he breaks, that?s ok. But if you do nothing, he?s in.
Close Quarters Strats
You do not want to be here unless you are on offense. If you do not have a lead, you will have to rush Abel down somehow. But any mistake and you can eat an EX command throw or a block string which gives Abel the advantage and you do not want Abel to have the advantage in close quarters. You should probably rush Abel down if you do not have meter also. Blanka has a good cross up, but you must be really close to get in cross up range. Electricity pressure is good here, but you have to be very careful. EX Tornado Throw is invulnerable on start up. Please keep in mind though that his EX Tornado Throw is only invulnerable to attacks. You can throw Abel out of it. If you do find yourself on the defense against Abel up close, see the section ?Combating Abel?s Rush Down?.
Combating Abel?s Rush Down
In its most basic form, Abel?s rush down is a horrible game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The problem is, you only have 2-4 options, while Abel has about 10 or more options depending on how creative the Abel player is. Another problem is Abel can make you guess over and over again very quickly. So not only do you have to guess right, you may have to guess right again, one second later and then one second after that. You will also have to guess what side Abel is on a lot of the times because of his roll. The point is, your options are limited and his options are not. You do not want to be here!
Combating Breathless (ultra 2)
Breathless deserves it?s own section because it maybe the single best Ultra in the game tied with maybe Rufus? Ultra 2. It is very versatile, can be used in way too my situation and he does a ton of damage. Abel can not combo into Breathless aside from hitting a focus attack, but it makes up for it for being able to punish pretty much anything including jumps. Breathless a throw, so you can not block it. The Abel player can hold/delay this move or cancel it completely, but if they do release it, it is ridiculously fast. It also has Super Armor on it, so it will absorb the first hit of an attack that doesn?t break armor. So the first rule of dealing with Breathless is to not jump unless you are crossing Abel up. Non-cross up jump ins mean free Breathless for Abel. If you have a back charge EX Rainbow Roll immediately. Horizontal ball will work here also if Abel does not hold the Ultra, but you will completely avoid Breathless with EX Rainbow Roll even if they hold it. You can sail over to Abel’s back with it where you can not be caught.
What other players say about this match
?Make sure you have a least one meter against Abel so you can Rainbow Roll out his mix-ups.? ? Justin Wong
"This is a really tough fight as Abel dominates Blanka up close. Learn to back dash EVERYTHING or you’ll be spun. Ball is unsafe once he gets meter and your options becomes limited fast. You can dominate footsies but make sure you have your cr.mp aa ready as one jump in is all it takes to wreck shop and Abel has the best cross up you’ll encounter as Blanka.
Abel loves to jump back and hit you with j.hp, its really good anti air so st.lp pressure is good to catch Abels that preemptively jump. it is sometimes worth doing early j.mk in anticipation of a jump back fierce and land with a throw. Abel’s jabs are slow so you wont often be jabbed out of landing unless your opponent is expecting it.
Electricity pressure is difficult vs Abel not only because of ex tornado throw, but because it whiffs vs him quite a lot, so its best to sweep after the electricity. This may condition them to crouch block allowing you more of a chance to walk forward and jump cross up.
Once ahead try to stay just outside of st.mk range and grab any rolls, cr.mp any jumps and try to st.lp any wheel kicks done out of position after you block it." -Mullah
Match Videos VS Abel
Reserved for vs. Adon
Reserved for vs. Akuma
Current Tier List Match Rating:
6.5 - 3.5 Boxer
Can Punish Horizontal Ball on Block (and upball on hit) with:
Dash Straight, super & U1
Recommended Ultra to use:
U1
Notes- Can throw boxer out of his dash punches
- Can hop through dash punches
- Boxer can be swept out of reversal non ex headbutts
- Electricity cannot be hit by any headbutt
- Standing lp can be used to punish blocked swing blows, overheads and dash punches.
- Blanka?s Crouching mp beats all jump ins
- Boxers Crouching hp beats all your jump ins
Long Range Strats
This is a great range for Blanka at full screen you can mix up the below:
- Build meter with elec reps and in doing so beat any dash punches except a max range sweeping dash punch.
- You can jump forward in anticipation of a dash punch and land a juicy combo.
- React to any non ex dash punch with an immediate slide.
- For the above, boxer risks a fair chunk of life for each of his offensive options whilst possibly dealing not a lot of damage to Blanka.
Mid Screen Strats
Mid screen is a mixed bag, and where most of the fight will take place.
- Outside Boxer?s headbutt range: it?s a great place to hang out. You can throw out a st.mp out of range and catch any errant dash punches or pokes, all while buffering fierce electricity to come out right after to tag any attempts to counter poke with a dash straight or headbutt. You can FA to catch the same attempts to counter or do a neutral jump right to catch any attempts to dash straight with a combo. At max mid range distance you?re safe from his sweep and his headbutt so you can cycle electricity/mp/neutral jump and Focus Attack
- Within Boxer?s headbutt range: you cannot neutral jump. And you can?t do random electricity unless you know the cool down will finish more quickly than the time it takes for him to walk forward and sweep.
-Within Boxer?s st.hp range: Blanka?s st.mp > all of boxers pokes except st.hk. Blankas st.hp will beat boxers st.hk to the punch but loses to his st.hp. So to win the poking war you will have to mix up st.mp and st.hp. If your opponent doesn?t know how to counter st.mp just use that. Boxer doesn?t lose to Blanka’s pokes, it can go either way.
Close Quarters Strats
Due to his great Crouching lp and counter hit traps you want to avoid the up close battle under most circumstances.
- If Boxer is pressuring you with jabs just block and delayed Crouching tech after the first jab, if he does 2 or more jabs you can easily Stand hk him if he tries to walk in to tick throw (its easy to see coming). Blocking rush is good, it builds ultra your Ace in the hole.
Countering Boxers corner pressure.
- by the time you get into the corner you should have built up your ultra meter, stay crouched, the whole time, this will undoubtedly tempt boxer to throw the overhead punch. If blocked you land your U1. Tick throws are easy to late crouch tech or Stand hk the only thing to worry about is a counter hit trap (crouching lp x2 walk back crouch punch x straight x super etc) you just have to choose when not to crouch tech.
- if you block a swing blow or overhead and don?t have U1 then st.lp x ex rainbow. If you have no meter then st.lp x hop and hope they miss the cr.lp punish. You can poke with st.hp as they should be trying to get close, if they’re standing just out of range just stay crouching and wait for an overhead or swing.
Boxers wakeup
-Get in close on boxers on wakeup and if you hop crossup hit him with a meaty Crouching mk x fierce elec. Or if you don?t, to avoid the ex punch, just fierce elec.
- I would recommend fake crossup electricity almost every time until they catch on or they get super/ultra meter. Fake crossup electricity works* vs everyone, I?m talking Daigo standard players its actually the only mix up I use with Blanka. (*nb ? doesn?t work vs scrubs)
- Safe jump Boxer after knockdowns and throw once you land, if they mash jab you will grab them, if they are throw tech masters then catch the delayed crouch tech with crossup > pause > cr.lk x2 > Standing hk. This is one of the most important skills to acquire (see conditioning boxer below)
Conditioning Boxer:
- If you start the match with lots of focus attacks you can make the boxer abandon straights and start doing TAPs and swing blows. You might choose to do this for 3 reasons. 1) FA becomes a huge liability once he gets super/U1 (boxer can release tap and super cancel it for massive damage etc) so you want to get utility from it whilst you can. 2) FA causes the opponent to actually go on the offensive because they can break your focus easily with TAP and swing. This opens them up to being countered with electricity and neutral jumps. And 3) Tap and swing are easier to counter than dash straight as they have longer recovery.Remember either swing or overhead or badly spaced TAP blocked is a free st.lp x fierce ball every time. Always watch for overhead or swing blows as they’re gifts!
- If you start repping electricity you will make the boxer advance and attempt to sweep. You can FA their attempts if you know your electricity cool down time and space it well.
- If you remain crouched you make the overhead punch an attractive option for boxer which is great for u1 punish.
- On cross ups you are free to attempt a throw before he can get out his jab. Once conditioned into late crouch teching you can begin using crouch tech traps (cr.lk x2 x Standing hk etc)
Closing words
This match can be quite enjoyable and plays unlike any other Blanka match. In this match Blanka enjoys the rare chance to have higher damage punishes than boxer. This match can go one of 2 ways and a mixture of both, either you will be looking for a way around well placed dash punches or you will be faced with a counter poking turtle. Match changes drastically when boxer achieves super (and to a lesser degree U1)
Reserved for vs C.Viper
Reserved for vs Cammy
Reserve for vs. Chun Li
Reserved for vs. Cody
Reserved for vs. Dan
Reserved for vs. DeeJay
Reserved for vs. Dhalsim
Vs. Dudley
Current Tier List Match Rating
4-6 Dudley
Can Punish Horizontal Ball with:
Fierce & EX Machine Gun Blow on block
Recommended Ultra to use:
Ultra 1
Summary
Ill regardless of what the tier list says, this match feels like a 5-5 match. Once Dudley gets in, he can do a lot of damage in just one or two right guesses, but Blanka can keep him out pretty well with his normals, anti air him pretty well, punish him for his focus attack, and punish his EX MGB hard with Ultra 1.
Notes
Horizontal Ball is pretty much a no-no in this match unless it is done up close where you can FADC out of it or it?s used as a punish
Ultra 1 punishes Dudley?s EX MGB
The Close Standing Medium Punch, Standing Jab, Electricity frame trap is inconsistent against Dudley
Dudley?s Rolling Thunder can punish a few of Blanka?s normals
Long Range Strats
The fight won?t happen here. Just gain meter
Mid Screen Strats
Much fighting won?t happen here either, but there are a few things you can do like hop mixups and empty jab ball, but I wouldn?t recommend doing these things if you do not have to. If you have the lead especially?, don?t bother. He has to come to you.
Close Quarters Strats
Get use to using your normals because that?s all you can really do in this match. The good thing is, Blanka has a lot of good normals you can use at range 1 and 2, while Dudley really only has one (Standing Fierce) which if whiffed, you can punish pretty easily. You should really be ready to use pretty much all your normals that have range. Stand Light punch, stand and crouching Medium punch work best in my experiences. If you want to create some space, you can do Standing Light Punch and combo it into a command hop back. You can also punish Dudley if he?s fishing for a Focus Attack with this same technique. But instead of Stand Light Punch combo?ed with command hop back, combo the Stand Light Punch with command hop forward. When Dudley release his Focus Attack to counter, you will actually hop right through him and get behind him for a free combo (I usually walk up and do Jab -> Electricity, but you can probably walk up and do Crouching Medium Kick -> Electricity for a little more damage). Stand Fierce and Crouch Fierce should be your whiff punishers here, but watch out while using those if Dudley is using Rolling Thunder. That ultra is really fast. Fast enough to punish those normals on block.
If Dudley jumps in you can anti air all of his jump ins with crouching medium punch except his Jump in Roundhouse. The attacking hitbox on that jump in is at the front of Dudley?s body and it is flat (Almost like a straight line). This makes it really hard to anti air him with normals from certain distances. You can only anti air that move with crouching medium punch if you can get to the back of Dudley?s body while he?s in the air. Even then, it may trade. Dudley players will know this distance, so you have to know the distance as well. When Dudley jumps in at the correct spacing, you must use your EX Upball or you just have to block. Again?, don?t bother using normals against this jump in unless you know you can get to the back of Dudley?s hitbox.
Dudley has no crossup defense whatsoever. Dudley also needs 3 meters to get out of pressure safely. So if you hit a knock down or can surprise him and get over his head, Blanka can run some game. Frame traps and throw setup are great, but be careful because Dudley does have a 3 frame jab that he can combo that does a lot of damage. So really train them well with frame traps before you go in for throws or make sure you put yourself in a position to be able to throw him out of the start up frames of his jab.
Lastly, Dudley is just a beast if he gets in with his frame traps. He also has a really quick overhead that he can combo into many things including his Super. One wrong guess and you lose a third of your health, two wrong guesses and you?re probably dizzy. Round pretty much over! It is a must that you save at least one meter so you can EX Rainbow Roll out of pressure. There isn?t much Dudley can do to stop you from Rolling out, but he can option select Jet Upper you if he has you in the corner and you are predictable when trying to escape. You may have to guess correctly once or twice before you EX Rainbow Roll out to avoid the option select. Backdashing in open space isn?t the worse thing to do in this match either.
That pretty much it. Step your footsie game up in this match. You will need them.
What other players say about this match
Example Matches
Vs. E. Honda
Current Tier List Match Rating
5-5
Can Punish Horizontal Ball with:
Fierce Head Butt, EX Head Butt, Super, Ultra 1
Recommended Ultra to use:
Ultra 2 - Blanka can punish Honda’s Strong and Fierce Headbutt with Ultra 2 ground version. Also you can use the anti air version to beat Honda’s Butt Slam also.
Summary
Some players just can?t stand turtling? Sorry, but that is the only way to win this match. Honda is a tank, but he has problems making a come back. Unfortunately Blanka has this same problem. So this match is going to be all about getting the lead and sitting on it. You can punish Honda for trying to get in on you, but Honda can punish you even harder (IMO) if you try to get in on him. I think this match is slightly in Honda’s favor, but Blanka can win it for sure. 5.5 - 4.5 Honda.
Notes
You can punish Strong and Fierce Head Butts with Ultra 2, but if you do not have meter, you can punish with River Run (Slide)
Fierce Electricity beats all Head Butts AFTER start up only
EX Upball beats Butt Slam
Standing Strong and Standing Fierce generally beats Honda’s jump ins
Long Range Strats
The fight won?t happen here, but if you have the lead, this is where you should be. Honda has no business doing full screen Head Butts, and you have no business doing full screen Balls. Just gain meter here.
Mid Screen Strats
Depending on who has the lead, you will have to be wary of what Honda can do, and what you can do to him. From here, either of you may try to jump in, but both characters can anti air each other pretty effectively, though Honda will have an easier time stopping you then you will have stopping him. Honda has an all purpose anti air (Head Butt) while your anti airs will be dependent on what Honda jumps in with (either jump in Roundhouse, jump in Fierce or jump in Strong), where he jumps in from and how much meter you have. Generally, your Crouching Strong and Standing Roundhouse works, but you’ll have to know your timing or you will trade often especially against Honda’s jump in Strong. If Honda jumps in from a little farther out, you can also use Crouching Fierce. Of course EX up ball beats everything including the Butt Slam, but that?s only if you have meter.
Close Quarters Strats
Every hit you get and take in this match is very important. One hit can swing the lead back in the other characters favor. So you will have to play the most cautious game of footsies here. The problem is, when you hit, you will get a single hit while Honda will probably get multiple hits. This is because of Honda?s low jab into Hundred Hand Slaps. You can beat Honda?s low jab with a well timed Standing Fierce or Standing Strong, but again if you mistimed and that low jab hits you, you will eat a set of hands. You also need to look out for Honda?s longest ranged poke which is his Standing Roundhouse. That has more range then pretty much all your pokes except maybe your Crouching Fierce.
Playing with a lead
Honda has to take some risks to come back on you. The safest thing Honda can do though is low jab into Hundred Hands for chip damage. If the Honda player is as patience as you should be, he will be totally fine with chipping his way back into the match. (Trust me? this has happened to me before!) You do not want to be stuck in the corner against Honda so make sure you have at least one bar to get out of danger with EX Rainbow Roll. You will have to stand your ground and build some meter at points in the match though. Look out for his Standing Roundhouse as it is Honda longest range normal. Have Crouching Fierce and Standing Strong ready to go. Standing Strong will beat his Crouching Jab, but again be careful. You should be able to anti air all of his jump ins and just play keep away. If you have the reaction and Honda is close enough to you, you can take chip damage (or more) if you Horizontal Ball when you see Honda move forward. Honda can only punish your ball if he has a charge and if he just moved forward, you know he doesn?t have one and if you do it while he’s close enough, he won’t have enough time to recharge to punish you. You should totally be prepared and ok with winning by time out in this match.
Playing from behind
This is really tough. Honda is much better at turtling then you are. If you jump in without crossing up, you will eat Headbutt. If you footsie wrong, you can eat Standing Roundhouse or Crouching Jab into Hundred Hands and the lead can just get larger and larger for Honda. The only way (IMO) to attack Honda safely is to cross him up. Blanka has a good cross up, but you must be close to use it. You have to EX Rainbow Roll into position or get a knockdown. Sliding or fishing for a Crouching Roundhouse is probably not going to be an option. So you will have to threaten with Focus Attack which is dangerous because Honda’s Headbutt will beat it, but that what you get for letting Honda get the lead!
Reserved for vs. El Fuerte
Reserved for vs Fei Long
Reserved for vs. Gen
Reserved for vs. Gouken
Reserved for vs. Guile
Reserved for vs. Guy