The Comprehensive Blanka Match Up Thread

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
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Also, anyone have proper matchup knowledge with Ibuki? Particularly with really good ones that know how to instant kunai in incredible ambiguous ways? There’s some incorrect shite floating around a few threads, and some of it is advice that gets you (me) killed. This is the most of what’s been said about the match:

This was from day one Super matchups thread, so it’s understandable, but yeah, backdashing doesn’t always get you a flip out. Also, if you guess wrong and end up front dashing, you get put into kunai stun as desired and the vortex continues.

From a tier list thread. Kunai stopping is unpredicatable. Inconsistent at best - it’s like trying to control which side of a horiball’s hitbox connects - the kunai will sometimes get stopped by some active frames, and other times it will blow right through them. The worst offending cases being U2 AA catching Ibuki mid-cross up but the kunai sometimes knocking you out of the animation, and a straight Upball vs high kunai, where the upball will win if they have travelled a certain distance…or something? Elec loses more than it wins.

Also, bait out an EX dp, but they usually throw kunai after to be safe, stopping ball, upball, slide the only punish that I’ve gotten is a c.HP but I think it was because they mistimed it and I walked forward. Similarly, if they decided to super, you’re fucked.

Yes she can. High, readable kunai can be interrupted, but a low and tight vortex will not be stopped by upball. You’ll end up whiffing her, and end up floating back down into a neck breaker.

Factor in that you can jab punish rekka kicks that end high, but not ones that end low (it seems), that she can raida you out of balls from full screen, and that she can zone you from your optimal zoning range (f.HP into neck-breaker, catches you from s.HP distance) and suddenly that low life she has doesn’t mean that much.

Surely there’s a better way?

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Vega has million ways to punish a blocked ball. Slide, walk up hp, FBA, U1, U2. You can’t random ball against him. I use hop xx electricity a lot in this match. I also use crossup mk OS hop jab electricity to catch his backflip.

Against ambiguous kunai I just use focus dash. There’s no way to tell where it’s going to hit. Although, I have really checked if you can coward crouch underneath it. Doubt it though. I think Ibuki beats Blanka.

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Sorry, but Ibuki can’t Super after blocked EX dp… no full meter remember? Many characters can punish the followup kunai with FA crumple, I don’t remember if Blanka can, definitely something I will try to confirm.

I still think this match is close to even. It’s a turtle/footsie battle, no reason to be doing balls really. It pays to learn the many kunai setups Ibuki has (normal jump, super jump, command dash + jump, etc.) so you can react accordingly and choose the best option in response. There are certain setups she has that are not safe and can be beaten by autocorrect U1. Spend some time experimenting in training mode. I played Ibuki for a while when Super first came out so I think this helped me in the matchup.

Also, I don’t think there is any reason to choose U2 in this match.

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I find Ken easier. Both can be kept out though and ken can’t use his super to punish blanka ball like ryu can. So that’s why i find him easier. I also find his fireball game to be horrible so it’s easy to really turtle him hard. i find both matchups to be in blanka’s favor slightly.

mullah mentions AA him with s.HK or c.MP. it is more of an thing on what he’s using for his jumpin. That with online being laggy sometimes can be annoying. j.MK and j.HP both hit at differnet times so it really depends. I try to space him better and just neutral j.HP him, that beats all his stuff (unless kens doing a tatsu in) and again i’m with mullah you can just turtle and win vs both. They both have a 3 frame jab and a 3 frame reversal so trying to rushdown can be hard hehe. Slide beats all jumpins obv and it’s floaty enough to see it coming. You can just see what jumpin he’s using then either c.MP or slide usually.

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errr vega is difficult because he’s hard to AA for some characters (i know dictators hate this matchup) but blanka mocks him in the air. he can’t really chip you and up close you’re just as strong if not better then him. His fastest startup on normal is 4 frames so easier to really rush him down and hop all over him. I do think that the biggest problem with matchups is people will overball and get them into trouble. It’s ok to ball even if a guy has ultra. I ball on chun li if she has u1 (level1) all day long i don’t care if she lands it, she can’t stop it before hand and i usually still have the lead after she lands it. Just gotta pick your spots when to use it.

I find the matchup to be in blanka’s favor. vega’s c.MP is pretty awesome but i mean it’s 1 normal and your c.MP has pretty good priority as well. I mean i think dictator vs blanka is 5-5 so i’m not sure what vega has to offer that dictator doesn’t hehe. Also concerning ibuki. I think that if yoúre doing a downback charge, if it’s a late kunai just rainbow roll and if it’s not then you can upball. another option is to just block and accept the vortex if you’re fearful of making a reversal mistake. Blanka requires some good blocking even though he has rainbowball. not everyone is perfect with their ambig setups.

edit: oh wondering if yo ucould ex hori ball if it’s just the kunai you’re worried about. You might go through it and then to the other side (if he’s crossing you after the kunai) i actually havent’ tried this but it might work. Someone can test and confirm? interesting to see if this is a possible option.

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Right, of course she can’t. Bah. In conclusion, learn the setups - fine. But can’t she adjust the timing on any arc and her jump start position to x-up or not? It seems like there’s countless variables applicable to kunai.

I can see how U1 makes more sense, just for the occasional unsafe ground slide and counterhit setups. But U2’s pros also help reduce vortex possibilities, and allow crumple ultra. It’s similar to cammy, U1 for blocked drills and comboability, U2 for dives, hooligan and baited spikes. I see major benefits on either side, and the opponent’s playstyle is the deciding factor.

Kunai hits EX horiballs like any other ball type - sometimes it stops it, sometimes not.

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oh i thought it would go right through it it doesn’t? i’ve never had my ex upball stopped by a kunai.

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my understanding of kunais (might be wrong) is that think of it as a mini character doing a jumping attack… it’s got hit boxes, if you hit the vulnerable spot… it dies…however if it’s attack hit box hits reaches your vulnerable spot you get hurt…

for ex upballs case… chances are you’re gonna beat the kunai most if not all the time.

-LAU

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As known, it’s not a fireball box but a solid hitbox, so it’s sort of like a dhalsim limb, more than anything. Ok, that makes sense and theoretically provides a better frame of mind for how to attack it if possible.

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ah so no wonder my upball never loses to it, because it’s immune to everything. while hori ball is just projectile immune so it would lose. thanks for feedback.

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OMG, I suck! Dudley added. Please correct me if you have to.

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strong, fierce and EX MGB are all punishable on block with a standing jab into Ball, with option to link into Super if you have the meter. Jab MGB may also be punishable, I may have not gotten the timing down yet.

I can tell when I meet a Dudley player online who isn’t yet familiar with this and is throwing MGBs out liberally for (what he thinks is) free chip damage. Sooooo freaking satisfying to shut their game down.

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jab mgb is -2 so i doubt it.

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After me beating Chris Hu’s Ryu and watching the match pitting Riceta against Daigo…, I am 100% sure that I know how to play the Ryu match. I honestly believe that this is the way to play against Ryu. I’ve linked up a match in the Ryu post that shows exactly how you should be playing against Ryu. Any other way IMO is straight INCORRECT.

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All i see from the riceta match is that random ball + turtle is certainly countered by ryu after the initial surprise of such a style of play. cr.lp on reaction and walking blanka to the corner and keeping him there with anti-corner escape cr.hp indicates to me that the way to play against ryu is to incorporate more than what riceta displayed. That’s not to say that the turtle strategy isn’t important to the matchup, as we’ve seen from mizoterus matches (are there any recent matches where he has won vs top level ryus ?) but if its all you do, then…well you saw what happened. After a jabbed ball ryu has momentum, its just luck that daigo was hit by so many random balls. luck is not a valid strategy, especially since riceta still lost. Considering that, i don’t see how it’s a good example of how to play the match.

What i did find interesting is that daigo was so focused on watching for the ball he completely dropped his anti air srk and let riceta jump on him, or land a naked hop elec, you dont see that often.

When ryu is on “random ball watch” he will counter balls more often than not but at the expense of precise footsies (or anti airing as i note ablove). This is why i believe Blanka must work the footsies to bring ryu OFF “random ball watch” allowing you to slip random balls back in. I think if you try to play one style of play (footsies vs turtle ball) you will lose as ryu’s counter techniques are marginally better than both of blankas styles, but since blanka can dictate the pace you can keep ryu off balance by mixing up between the 2, something riceta failed to do.

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I find that laming it out and doing random balls allows Ryu to advance on me. I can even maybe take him down to 60% but eventually I find myself with my back to the wall and then the match becomes impossible.

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Good input guys. I think that is how you play against Ryu because playing that way is so hard on the Ryu player. Riceta didn’t know how to adjust to the strategy Daigo was using, but generally, I feel that is how you play the match. There are counters to what Daigo did. First, Riceta did not use many fakes to disrupt Daigo’s timing on the cr jab when random balling. Next, to counter the cr fierce, he could have waited until Ryu got closer, then roll out, or he could have Rainbow Rolled before he got stuck so deep in the corner, or instead rolling straight out, he could have controlled when he got to the other side and mess up the timing of Ryu’s cr fierce counter. Also, there are other ways to get to the other side other then Rainbow Rolling.

The point I’m making is that, though he lost the match, tons should be taken from what he did. Generally, (at least this is how it seems) Blanka has a much easier time adjusting to Ryu then vice versa. If Ryu counters something Blanka does, Blanka can find a much easier counter to that, that Ryu will have a bitch of a time re-countering. The only reason this match is 5-5 imo is because Ryu can super punish ball.

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i agree with that, like i said the turtle strategy is just as important as the footsie one imo, and yes, ex roll out the corner works if you’re comfy enough to let ryu come in real close, thats what i do.

Next week were going to have to abandon turtle strategy since blocked ball = easy punish, the matchup is going to be a real grind, defo a loser because i honestly can’t see them buffing blanka i predict:

“bounceback on blocked blanka balls reduced so that everyone can punish and we chose to leave blanka as is because we feel he can play good mix of defensive and offensive due to his high mobility” or something like that.

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what can blanka do against honda’s butt slam besides ex upball?

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bendermac:

focus attack on the way down…

follow up on ryu discussion:

I gotta agree with Mullah, I was watching and I felt like… a lot of it was random ball/dash into electricity/ultra turtly until you back yourself in the corner… and not adjusting the rainbow ball correctly.

First of all… Ryu was using c.HP as the main interupt for RAinbow ball… which imo is an extremely good choice… but he was able to do it pretty much all the time was mainly because Ricetta kept trying to run away with it… by pulling all the way to the other side of screen… if he changes his arc a bit… I think it’s possible to even hit ryu on his recovery of c.HP… at least that’s what I do against Boxer who uses the same strategy against my ex rainbow

another thing is… although ryu’s got an extremely good footsie game… however… Blanka’s counter poke game isn’t weak either… s.HP is a pretty good tool to beat out c.MK/anything else in general… there’s always c.HP to keep Ryu from dominating space TOO much without thinking… although Ryu can easily counter that type of stuff with a FA… ryu… pulling off FA can be countered by Blanka’s hop/surprise foward -> throw/poke it all comes down to a guessing game again… but the fact that Riceta limited his options severely and not adapting fast enough cost him the match.

Finally as for random ball… I should watch the video again to see what version of ball was he doing and at what range… there’s a certain range where i feel it’s nearly impossible to react and jab ball consistently if you’re doing HP ball… i just wanna see if he was

  1. not doing HP ball at that range… if he was doing LP/MP it’s easier to hit blanka out of it since it’s much slower…
  2. doing it from too far… which gives time for the opponent to react to.

Imo… like most matches on how Daigo wins… he slowly pressures the opponent into the corner and finishes them off… if you manage to not let him corner you… you won half the battle… but if he does manage to corner you… it’s even possible for him to take your entire life bar away.

-LAU