The Comprehensive Blanka Match Up Thread

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
61

Ok, added Honda, Balrog and The Mullah’s entire match right up against Ryu.

Hey Mullah, I read your Balrog write up while editing it (just for spelling errors and stuff) and you were talking about using Standing Roudhouse in that match a lot. The way you were recommended to use it made me think there are properties that move has that I do not know about. You are talking about using it in block strings, combos and using it to beat tick throw attempts. Is Blanka considered airborne or something at some point during that move? Tell me about it! Because I don’t use Standing Roundhouse all. Also tell me what you think about my Honda write up.

And anyone else with input, please chime in.

Really, any match that requires turtling to win, I got it covered lol.

62

One thing not mentioned about boxer is you can throw him out of his dash punches if you’re fast enough. I do it 2-3 times a match and they stop doing that with a quickness.

63

There has been a few notes written about Bison before. I will state that AndyOCR did tell me about how he’s made his scissor pressure safe from my standing lp. I think he just blocks because I’m having trouble doing anything besides block when I’m in the corner.
Balls are unsafe basically with any distance, with him moving forward or whatever, so only use lp ball for a once in a millennium mix up.
Crouching fierce or standing mp to beat start-up of scissors. Neutral fierce any jump ins to reset the match since crouching mp can be beat by a deep jumping fierce. Standing RH is improved so use this instead of crouch teching or as an anti-air. Electricity pressure is very good against Bison since he has little reversals to do outside of an unsafe scissor. If he does this, either punish with slp or more jab/electricity.
Punish dumb air to air attacks like head stomp with neutral fierce and devil’s reverse with dash slide depending on where he lands. Don’t worry about Bison building meter as it has no effect on your life bar. Turtle in this match-up until opportunities for mix-ups present themselves.
A few correct guesses and good electricity pressure equals a stunned Bison (best time in any match).
If you want to add, since there’s a lot more to say, please do. This is just a short write-up.

Against Ryu (a few notes)

  • random hori balls to disrupt the Ryu’s flow and rhythm.
  • crouching mp to beat most jump-ins
  • be careful with up balls as most good Ryu’s safe jump or do ambiguous cross-ups (jumping lk).
  • slide under fireballs mid-screen (obvious note)
  • standing fierce beats low forward, smp beats out other pokes, crouching fierce is dangerous as Ryu’s can read it and jump in for a juicy combo
  • electricity pressure not recommended in my opinion as that SRK 3-frame reversal threat exists throughout the match
  • Go for your safest punish and continue to turtle.

Last Edit for now:
I like the Honda match up as I can move back in the beginning of the match and build meter. If the Honda loses patience and moves forward, it’s a free lead. By then, the unsafe methods start happening - a random jab for fishing that gets beat by standing mp or a crouching RH that gets beat crouching fierce.

64

Regarding st.hk, it’s not OTG so thats not why i use it as a throw counter vs boxer. I use it if boxer has pushed himself out of range with 2 or more jabs and then i visually react to him walking forward for the tick throw. The reason i use it is because it has a good hitbox to beat any errant pokes and also its his fastest poke (as long as it not the very close version) and so if i trade it will do more damage than if i used st.lp.

The reason i use it in the now amended (please can you amend to match, so sorry) cr.tech trap after a crossup is because there is less margin off error when comboing into st.hk rather than st.lp x ball after a cr.lk and more importantly if i miss the link its safe on block unlike a ball. Its one of the few matches i use st.hk at all.

“- 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 cr.tech with crossup > cr.lk> pause (for 1f lol) > cr.lk > st.hk. This is one of the most important skills to acquire (see conditioning boxer below)”

i didn’t know you can slide honda after blocking a mp headbutt! :slight_smile: your writeup is good, i follow the same gameplan. i will do a short writeup covering a few of the nitty gritty things i use and things have to deal with from local hondas. I wont cover the basics as urs has got it covered. France has 2 great hondas, 1 of which i have played against many times, and has been a teammate in my last tournament, so i know the Honda match quite nicely.

Can you put my boxer matchup advice in a spoiler too? i think it makes it much easier to navigate as the page is compressed and people can see who has written the matchup! This thread is great so far, i always wanted to do this but never had to drive to do it as i dont know all the matchups to the same degree. This collab is very nice, i’d like viscant to do some writeups too as his are always a good read.

i included that in the notes section! The first one

I think giving general advice is what this thread is aimnig to avoid, and whilst you’re correct cr.mp beats most, at close range its definately going to cause you to take big damage if you go for it vs jump ins from ryu. Also ryu’s cr.mp beats your st.mp for free. His cr.mk is the only counter to your st.hp if he’s spacing it properly, if hes in st.hp range it will be beat, but good ryus wont use it there.

65

Just a small tip fighting Honda that I discovered (every little bit helps!) If both of you are fullscreen distance away from each other, and Honda does a jab headbutt to try and close the gap between you, it’s a free HP Hori ball for you. :slight_smile: I’d venture to say that pretty much any jab headbutt that DOESNT hit you is a free HP hori ball due to his long-ass recovery.

Don’t expect to use this much beyond the first time an opponent tries closing the gap, but with Honda, every advantage that gets you that life lead helps. :slight_smile:

66

I think doing slide instead of Hori ball would be the best option. Keeps you close and gives you a knockdown.

67

I played the best Feilong in Canada yesterday and was completely mind fucked.

He is obviously on another level as a player ( and has won many tournaments in ontario) but god damn… the match is soo tilting.

You cannot wiff a poke, or use anything that leaves him at an advantage, his rekka is used to punish everything you do, so you cant ball for chip

this is one tough match… .I got mindfucked.

68

I don’t know the Fei Long match too well. But I do know that is Fei Long’s game. You can’t whiff against him regardless of what character you are using.

Matches I don’t fully know that I would like to work on are Rufus and Cammy. Especially Cammy cause she seems to have an advantage over Blanka. I should have some free time at work to do the Ken write up sometimes next week.

69

i played a set vs a good cammy on my oyutube channel, its very much in cammys favour. i talked through some aspects of the matchup in the vid, check it out its alright.

70

Questions and comments:

Chun Li. After talking to Shizza:

He thinks it’s 5-5, and I agree to a degree.
She has 1 safe jump where she can cross up lk and it forces you to either A. block or B. ex rainbow ball to prevent tech/block string.
After grab, she can dash and safe jump unless Blanka has meter to prevent the meaty jump in.
Level 1 focus attack back dash gets punished by Super. Consequently, level 2 back dash does as well. This may be unlikely because that would mean you’re whiffing or just using focus as a fishing mechanism. The one trick to combat this if you do mistakenly use focus attack without it absorbing and attempting to crumble Chun is to power it to level 2 and forward dash. Super will not hit but it does put you both in a dangerous 50/50 or shorts or attempted grab.

Pokes that beat Chun Li- safer to use
crouching mp, standing mp, standing fierce.
Once she has super, avoid everything but jabs or shorts. She can also counter poke with st strong or if she times it well, standing fierce.

Strategy
Ball when she moves forward. Move forward only to pressure with standing pokes or to anticipate fireball, which should happen rarely. No balls full, 3/4 screen away.
Block more than you poke, use standing pokes rather than crouching ones.
Use hop mix ups when Chun has no meter. Jump in rarely and only when she no charge. Hop mix ups are tougher against Chun for her lack of reversals. Try to walk her to a corner if you’re aggressive and make her guess with tic grabs and focus mix-ups. Electricity is wasted in this match up. Momentum is key and if either character has the life lead, expect them to be turtling.
Hop back more and build meter when the lead is yours. Meter is very important for Ex Up ball or Rainbow. No flip kick is safe against meter or meter-less upball.

I know Mullah or Realyst has more to say about this. I just wanted to add some notes to this from what I talked to with Shane.

71

I will list what I have to say about Chun Li in a bit, but I said in a previous post that that match should be played just like the Honda match. You can make it hard on Chun Li if you have a lead.

We really need to start doing the character Blanka has disadvantage against. Those are the only character I lose to consistently now. So after I finish up Ken, we have to come together to figure out how to beat Cammy, Bison, Ibuki, Dudley, and Sim. Those match up will get first priority because those are Blanka’s worse. Abel and Balrog are also bad for Blanka, but I think were have those covered.

Also, and I know I’m babbling here… I think I need to look into mid screen turtling as opposed to full screen turtling.

72

I would like to see an Ibuki one because I haven’t really faced any tough ones yet. Abel, I’ll need a lot more work against because he’s a tricky match up. No balls or you get step kicked, then it’s a 50/50 mix up with him having more options.
I want a write-up for C. Viper because I’m having issues playing against Jayce the Ace’s. As for Dudley, I haven’t encountered many tough ones yet. Just Joe Dubbs and a couple other local guys. I hear Marn’s isn’t a great example because he’s known for being flashy and doesn’t mind damage scaling as long as many buttons are being pushed.

73

momochi did a a couple of matches vs mizoteru and fax with his ibuki i think. defo mizo.

74

At the moment I’m having much more trouble vs Dudley than Balrog. It’s a bit like the Cammy matchup in that he can punish all balls without charge on block (reversals v.ball on hit), and his wakeup game is a pain to deal with because even if you defend against the initial barrage properly you still have to deal with frame traps. Also feels like Dudley can stuff EX rainbow as well without even really trying. I forget which of his attacks beat it though. Backdashing is also risky against a good Dudley because of anti-backdash OS with his humungous FP.

[edit]
Maybe as Realyst says everyone should just start posting their matchup experiences/observations until we have enough info for a matchup post. I play a Dudley quite regularly and these are some of the things I’ve found:
Balls are unsafe on block, of course. Punishable with HP/EX MGB (has to be non-reversal for full damage). U1 punishes balls on block. Reversal Up ball is completely unsafe.

Blanka footsies > Dudley footsies. Problem is most Dudleys know he has sub-par footsies, so they don’t even try to engage you at that range with normals so you’ve basically have to force the issue. Dudley f.HP is can be nasty though (can alter distance, follow-up with another). st.lp is good but buffering electricity from far isn’t as useful as in the Rog match. You can st.lp xx hop, but “jabby” Dudley’s will stuff your hop attempts. st.MP, st.HP are cr.HP are good tools in this match. Careful with unsafe blockstrings and predictable ground wakeup pressure because of reversal swing blow.

Dudley’s empty duck > throw is a better version of Blanka’s lp.ball into throw. It’s basically a guessing game in his favour.

Did some testing with safe jumps. I was wrong in thinking that Cross counter beats it. Safe jump beats/is safe against all reversals except U2.

Meterless Dudley is free on wakeup. Meaties stuff all his reversals except Ultra.

At the moment I’m using U1 for the scare factor on wakeup. It can be cross-countered though.

Careful when jumping backwards at mid-range because EX MGB catches it, and I’m pretty sure he can combo off it as well. The worst part though is that it swings momentum heavily into his favour.

Wakeup is essentially a guessing game. EX Upball is useless, and backdashing is risky because of OS (use it if Dudley doesn’t know/use OS though).If he knocks you down in the corner, Dudley will stand on the edge of his f.HP range so he watch for Ultra or EX Rainbow, and pressure with f.HP or duck into throw/blockstring if you don’t do anything. At this range he can also make st.FP whiff to bait counter-pokes/crouch tech and then swing blow, EX Jet Upper, or Super. cr.lp + cr.lk + backhop handles throw attempts and evades unsafe blockstrings.

Good Dudley’s can beat Blanka balls on reaction with U2, while U1 will whiff because of it’s startup.
My current record is probably 5:5 using footsies and shenanigans, but I think this match is in Dudley’s favour.

75

Do you have links to those? Ibuki is annoying as fuck

76

i think its blankas to win, hes so free on wakeup and crossup, has no divekick or demon flip type stuff in the air, and his footsies are worse

77

Hehe, I get caught with cross-counter if Dudley sees me trying to jab him out of strings. Then it just becomes a guessing game, with him having more options.

The trap I have to deal with most often is f.mk into cr.lk, but lots of his moves leave him at +3 on block so I’ve found that it’s not really a good idea to try to jab him out of strings.

Guess I just need to turtle more then.

Heh, you’re right. I probably wasn’t holding back long enough when I tested this in training mode so the Ultra flash ate my blocking inputs.

I remember getting hit out of attacks, but it could be that I did it too early or maybe I used the wrong move? I’ll test out different scenarios.

78

ahh that livaaaa balowwwww blockstrings, i forgot about those, yeah they can be troublesome, i usually fudge my way out by dashing back or throwing him out of the overhead after blocking cr.lk x2. once duds is in like that i usually resign myself to losing 30% of my bar, but it is possible to make getting in very difficult.

79

Yeah my biggest problem in this match is dealing with Dudley’s close-up game but I guess every char has to deal with that. Right now I’ll just work on keeping him out.

80

I dunno how I feel about the Dudley match. It’s either 5-5 or 5.5 - 4.5 in Dudley’s favor. I really can’t give Dudley too many extra point in that match when his footsies are so bad.

Blanka’s Focus Attack dash forward into AA U2 does not work on all characters. Right now, I can confirm that it does not work on Blanka and it does not work on Chun Li.