i dont have another sf4 tournament till december !!! 
but on a side-note i won rounds 1 and 2 of madden 10 and am going to round 3
Just won my second round in Cevo. This guy was beating my ass with guile until I went random. Then he switched to rog stole a win and then it came down to the timer going to 05.
It was another Gootecks vs Me moment. (In all honesty that was the only way I could win.)
Oh yeah he taunted me with guile too. And then came the GRRRR moment. 
Playing against Dhalsim is all about mixing it up and taking calculated risks. Playing textbook simply wonât work because dhalsim is designed to keep people out indefinitely and has an answer to every defensive situation. Before you can beat Dhalsim, you have to understand how sim keeps you out.
**
Anti Air:**
S.rh: Far S.rh is simâs 3/4 of 1/2 screen distance anti-air. He uses it on reaction to keep you out after jumpin ga fireball thatâs at half screen. Why did you get hit by it? You jumped from not full screen against a fireball while dhalsim was not in recovery. To avoid this, donât jump fireballs while dhalsim is free to position himself and is not in yoga fire recovery.* "i dunno if you caught this pie, but if a sim is trying to anti air you with a far rh, you can beat it by hitting rh right around the peak of your jump. a better option even yet is mp around the peak of your jump. it will beat the rh, and if you see him go up for an air to air and you hit it early enough, it stuffs it as well.
not that i would endorse getting in the habit of jumping at sim in the first place, but if you choose to jump from a distance, you have a few options. not like close jumps, where he can shut you out if he chooses the correct option "* -HNIC Mike
Air to Air Strong: jumping strong functions simliary to s.rh. Keeps you out for jumping fireballs 1/2 screen to close range. How to avoid it? Donât jump the fireball while sim is free to move and punish. Just walk.
S.rh: the infamous knee, dhalsim uses the knee when you jump in on him predictably from close range. You jumped in while he was barely coming out of the recovery which is fine, but you did it from a bad range if you got AA cleaned. When you jump in on sim while heâs coming out of the recovery of a fireball, you have to jump at two specific ranges. Range 1 is max range j.rh. You stick the roundhouse out early with the intent to trade (125 dmg vs 98ish) and trade or contact sim with the tip of your foot. Any other distance will lead to knee hitting your thigh resulting in a perfect AA. The other range to jump in on sim is from close range, almost the brink of crossing up. You make sure to use j.mp and and time it so that your hand clips dhalsims head while your hand is at the bottom of your character. See akimo vs sabin for j.mp correctly.
S.mp: the raise your hand anti air cleanly beats splash coming down, prevents crossup attempts and AAâs incorrectly timed j.mp. Getting around s.mp is difficult but possible through randoming the timing of splashes. Also, it does pitiful dmg and youâre now much closer to sim, which is where you wanna be.
AA slide: A very weird AA to predict, itâs effective at dealing with Hondaâs far j.rh. Fortunately for honda, it puts sim rite next to you and at a fairly close frame advantage. Almost all sims will do either instant jump back fierce overhead or mash the fuck out of throw. To deal with this, make sure you have a back charge and get ready to tech. If he does the overhead, block high and punish the blocked overhead with fp headbutt/ex headbutt/ultra (yes!). If he throws and you tech, get ready to headbutt (ex) any teleport attempts or to punish any jump back overheads once again, but youâll probably need ex since itâs going to be about max range.
Things to keep in mind:
When youâre watching for teleports (when dhalsim you cornered or heâs cornered), you have three punishment options. lk splash, s.fp or lp headbutt. Akimo likes to lp headbutt but I have a tendency to get oichos cause I hold down a lot. You do this like youâd do anti-crossup headbutts, press the lp late after heâs switched sides. For s.fp, make sure youâre doing it after simâs switched sides otherwise you just stuck out a laggy fierce in the wrong direction. S.lk imo is the best option because you got a knockdown with decent oki and he took a good amount of dmg. Ex splash has even better oki but I personally like to save meter for ex headbutts.
FA does have applications in this match-up but people often overuse it. If you donât successfully FA a limb, you didnât gain much ground cause honda has the chode of all dashes (cept gief). Also, he got a free fierce on you cause he caught you in FAâs recovery. So, be careful with the FA usage.
LK/MK/HK splash does lose to late instant overhead so be careful with the splash usage. EX splash beats overhead easily and sets up fantastic oki.
OKI (situation when heâs getting up):
When you get a successful knockdown on dhalsim, you just gave yourself a big opportunity for some huge damage. Every headbutt you hit on sim is more than 15% of his life meaning you donât have to guess much in order to kill him. When heâs getting up, he has 4 options.
- do nothing but block
- jump-back (vertical jump is suicidal for sim)
- teleport
- back dash
When you play a sim, youâll usually figure out what type of options he usually turns to. Some sims like to spend a shitload of time in the air which I find dumb while others like to abuse teleports. Very few take the upclose fighting approach and fish for a knockdown before they attempt to retreat.
When fighting sims, I rely on 3 options.
First, I like to use meaties. One I use constantly is meaty xx fp headbutt. If you guessed a jump, a wake-up throw or a backdash, you usually have enough time to punish either of these three options. c.lk, c.lk xx fp headbutt is imo, the best meaty option because you can punish the teleport on reaction pretty easily. If he didnât teleport, itâs a hit confirm, although difficult. Another meaty option is s.mp, s.hk. Itâs a 180 dmg meaty option that punishes jumps and backdashes but not teleports because s.mp takes forever to whiff. Another meaty option is meaty lp headbutt. Punishes throw, backdash and jumps provided you time it right and do it point blank.
Second OKI option is to meaty oicho. You do this if you think he wonât jump but honestly, almost all sims jump. If youâve trained them by meatying them a few times, you can usually squeeze in an oicho or two (use fp) before theyâre afraid again and being to jump or teleport.
Third OKI option is to lk splash. LK splash on wake-up jumpers is a knockdown provided you do it early enough, can crossup, is unpunishable for sim and does decent dmg if it actually hits. Problem is, they can teleport this and possibly backdash it if youâre not right next to them. They could probably FA, backdash as well, but this is punishable by a s.hk. I honestly dislike this option tho cause splash has terrible follow-up if they block it. Itâs just another guess but this time, youâre doing the hard guesses since youâre -2 on block.
Fourth OKI option that isnât really an option, but more of a guess and act of desperation. Late meaty ultra. Iâve caught good simâs before doing late meaty ultras as its a punish to teleport and backdash. I actually knocked a good sim out of a fairly large win streak before with this option recently at SVGL (norcals best arcade) because itâs just so random and rewards huge damage for relatively little risk (sim hits for shit). Ways to set this up is to be mid-screen and not corner and having meatied the sim a few times or wake-up oichioâd him. They instinctively want to teleport and when they do, bam, big dmg. Another way to set this up is to have a sim cornered. When youâre out of s.hk range and have a sim cornered, they naturally want to get out, so they have a tendency to teleport. If you can set up a telegraphed teleport (you wait for him to throw a fireball and walk forward since he wants to get behind you), you can flip the ultra like you do an anti-crossup headbutt, but with your ultra. I forgot where I saw this done, maybe it was akimo.
Other interesting things to note about this match-up are s.lk beats far fierce/crouching fierce from sim, but itâs a guess. S.fp (chop) beats instant overhead (hard to time), ULTRA PUNISHES POINT BLANK YOGA CATASTROPHE. If a sim is ever stupid enough to desperately throw out a yoga catastrophe, mash ultra and just smoke him in the face with it. Sim is in quite a bit of recovery after he throws the ultra so make him pay (25 frame recovery).
Simâs slides are all pretty negative, although hitting you with the tip of the slide is considerably safer. You can usually get away with a reversal ex headbutt or reversal oicho to thwart his throw attempts.
Sim has no true block strings. If heâs looking to push you with with db+fp, s.lk, s.lk, just reversal ex headbutt for some counter-hit dmg. On block nothing links with sim so donât play into his tricks.
Rufus:
Honestly, everybody hates rufus, just like everybody hates blanka. Theyâre just annoying to play against and make weird noises as they jump up and down stupidly.
Rufus imo is one of the most annoying characters imaginable since dive kick is ridiculously good, throws are very good in this game, ex messiah kick (JEBUS KICK!) is ridiculously overpowered and rufus has like 1000 ways to land his ultra.
Inherent weaknesses rufus has are heâs really shitty without meter. Thereâs no fear when he doesnât have ultra or ex messiah (250 dmg!!!). Also, his normals are relatively awful at not point blank range meaning s.fp/s.hk/s.mp and c.lp mess him up pretty badly. His FA also really blows.
In general, big things people do wrong against rufus are, they try to tech, they jump too much (im guilty of this too), and they donât pay attention to their spacing. Honda has very poor option selects because c.lk is a 5 framer. It leads to unnecessary counter-hits and throws because if you donât tech late enough, you get a startup lk which gets you messed up. To avoid having to tech, learn to jump back rh to box rufus out and to ex headbutt reversal very well.
Also, DO NOT STAND UP. YOU DO NOT NEED TO STAND THE F*CK UP. STOP STANDING UP DAMN IT. WHY YOU STANDING DOG? Target combo can only launch people standing up. That means as soon as you do something stupid like STAND UP TO TECH, you eat a target combo linked off a dive kick. Also, DIVE KICKS CAN BE BLOCKED CROUCHING. You also need to crouch to splash bitches.
Rufusâs combos work like this. Galactic tornado can only combo off of cl.fp. Cl.fp xx fp galactic is only safe on hit (thereâs a hole between fierce and tornado). The only good link to cl.fp is s.lk and itâs a one frame link that does not link on block. Watch for holes and then punish attempts to do s.lk, s.fp on block with ex headbutt/splash.
Dive kick is a good jump-in that can link to target combo so again, donât stand up. If you are not in corner, back dash, jump back rh, ex headbutt, ex splash, lk splash, fa backdash, do anything to avoid the damn throw tech baits.
The trick to fighting rufus is to be unpredictable without opening yourself up to rufusâs close offense. AA with lp headbutt, s.fp (chop works ridiculously well unless you do it too early), ex headbutt and lk/ex splash. Keep him out as best you can and when heâs close, burn meter to get away (ex headbutt) or hk splash and just eat the c.fp punish. Itâs worth it. Do not do too much nj.fp because if the rufus jumps from below you, instead of from far away, he can rh you as the nj.fp is retracting, leading to ex snake strike and ultra. If you jump, make sure heâs half screen away, not 1/3 screen away, otherwise do jump back roundhouse cause he canât reliably j.rh it.
In terms of offense against Rufus, donât bother relying on HHS cause it leaves you too close and with unfavorable positioning. Rely on headbutt which rufus canât punish (he can punish fp headbutt, but not mp, lp, ex). A trick is to throw a mp headbutt and then an ex headbutt in order to bait the c.fp from rufus on block. You just got a nearly 200 dmg counter-hit cause he stuck out his fat hand. C.Fp from rufus is -14 on block so technically you can reversal ultra it. Thereâs a reason why nobody does it in Japan (hondaâs ultra is 10 frame startup).
Focus attack only works against rufus against really early dive kicks. Otherwise youâll end up getting a weak lvl 1 fa that you dash into your death after.
Do not whiff unnecessarily against rufus cause you get hit by galactic tornados and c.fpâs. Against ex messiah kick on block, do an ex splash late. I found that to be the best punisher. If you donât have meter, you can do lk splash which will trade with the overhead follow-up, or you can nj.fp and punish rufus on the way down if you spaced it right (rog does the same thing with wiggly punch). EX headbutt that goes head to head against messiah kick, takes full damage from messiah as if you?re grounded. EX Splash just gets knocked out and you take 40 damage.
When punishing rufusâs ultra on block, know that the last kick whiffs when you block the full ultra. He can be reversal ultraâd so just mash when the ultras finishing.
If you?re challenging rufus?s wake-up, which you shouldn?t do too often, make sure to watch for wake-up snake strike. Punish wake up snake strike by blocking and then doing c.mk xx fp headbutt for safe push away. Another good way to bait/option select against rufus is do meaty c.lp xx fp hhs. If he jumped or threw, you got a free hhs, s.rh. If he ex messiahs, you can still block in time since messiah starts in 11 and c.lp recovers in 7. If he snake strike?d, his first hit will hit you for negligible damage and then you can punish with c.mk xx fp headbutt. If he backdashed, nothing happens cause hhs doesn?t come out if you did the cancel right. So in general, pretty safe offensive tool. If you do a meaty lp headbutt, it?s also a good option because you?re airborne during the middle of the move so ex messiah?s do 1 hit only.
When you?re waking up, watch for the cross-up dive kicks and try to burn meter or ultra to escape the corner crossing up. It?s worth the meter. Rufus?s who knock down from mid screen away like to do a safe-jump fierce so make sure you block high when waking up if they ?re jumping. It?s a very tricky jump-in that doesn?t look active when he?s coming at you, but it is.
For a good example of how to beat rufus, see here:
[media=youtube]rcfDLOCxK2k[/media]
[media=youtube]YwzYYm9kNZc[/media]
I donât feel as bad vs. rufus as I do vs. blanka. I find that I have the eye of the tiger when it comes to stopping the falcon kicks, I just N.J.Hp them to oblivion. Iâve gotten lots of rufus hatemail saying âOMG learn moves newbâ since they ran into it so much.
Really, rufusâ best approach is the dive kick which loses to New Jersey easily. He canât approach you on the ground as easily.
Rufus is a match where I will whiff an ochio or 2 whenever possible because in case he does get close, ex-headbutt is your ticket out. I also will always go for the crossup on wakeup to make him waste his ex-messiah and do only one 40dmg. hit and reset with you far away on the other side of the screen.
Blanka just pisses me off though with his god damn tricks, and everybody uses a different one. EX-Rainbow crossup/non-crossup/non-hit+throw, horizontal ball distance + throw mix, dash ultra which is hard to block, slides, dashing crossups, crossup horiz and vert. balls, crossup MK, electricity that neutralizes wakeup games etc. I just hate it all.
i dunno if you caught this pie, but if a sim is trying to anti air you with a far rh, you can beat it by hitting rh right around the peak of your jump. a better option even yet is mp around the peak of your jump. it will beat the rh, and if you see him go up for an air to air and you hit it early enough, it stuffs it as well.
not that i would endorse getting in the habit of jumping at sim in the first place, but if you choose to jump from a distance, you have a few options. not like close jumps, where he can shut you out if he chooses the correct option
Iâll throw that in with some credit. I honestly donât jump at 3/4 range but if somebody chooses to, les give em that info.
On wake up vs downed Simâs Iâve had luck with the following options:
meaty c.mk xx hp.HHS, (s.hk or ex.HHS)
meaty n.j.lp, ochio
crooss up j.mk HHS combos
Iâve also landed alot of auto correct Ultraâs vs fire ball > teleport behind tricks. Iâm not sure if itâs just bad timing by the Sim players or internet shenanigans but I can do it consistently âonline.â but Iâm going to have to study up on the getting in part of this match up because thats my main struggle.
how about the ryu match-up?
also, for HHS combos that link into cr. mk/lp EXHB etc. can you do those things from a jump-in with a cr.lp? or do you have to hit them with HHS immediately after a jump-in or straight from a close cr.lpxxHP HSS?
This match-up information is great. Now if I could find a Dhalsim to fight instead of the G-1 local cast. Thank you very much for the insight.
Damn whoever suggested abusing s. Fierce against Chun-li is my hero. Just played around with it against a jumpy chun and even when I missed the early standing fierce I was still hitting her with cl. Fierce against her crossup. Took her life down really really fast too with all the counter hits I landed. It was glorious.
Ryu:
Despite some arguing here and there, I still think Honda vs Ryu is 4-6 or 4.5-5.5 Honda. Ryu is just solid in this game and getting in on him compared to most of the other cast is just difficult as hell. Not as bad as Sagat, but still hard. The biggest annoyance about fighting Ryu is his retarded amount of good AA?s. He has jab SRK, fierce SRK, s.rh, j.mp (L:DFJ:LSJKFO:SJFOWEJFWOJF) and a very good focus attack. Depending on his meter management, trading AA?s or eating any of these AA?s can often lead to 1/3 of your life disappearing so jumping is never a great idea.
So because of Ryu?s incredibly annoying AA defense, you?re kind of forced to approach Ryu from the ground. Hadouken isn?t as good as SB or TS so if you?re going to jump them, make sure to do it out of AA range (3/4 to full screen). Also, nj.fp is a great tool for jumping fireballs but don?t do them predictably because good Ryu?s can dash and srk punish (yes, my friend does this to me all the time). Once you?re at about a half screen distance from Ryu, stop doing laggy things that leave you open to getting jumped in on. Most shotos wait for you to lose charge and then hope in on you with fp or rh so keep out of sweep range and try to stay at a range where you can reliably nj.fp/s.fp/lp headbutt for AA.
If the Ryu is pretty solid, he?ll also have a good understanding of proper fireball zoning which makes your life considerably harder. He?ll be throwing fast fireballs in your face (yes, right outside your s.hk range) and will be throwing slow fireballs from far away to force you to jump fb?s while he?s free to move around. Don?t play into this trap and jump a bad fireball. Focus attack fireballs outside your s.hk range (hold f, hit fa+f) and then punish him with s.hk. For farther away fireballs, block or nj.fp unpredictably to avoid getting jumped in on unexpectedly.
Another thing that Ryu?s like to abuse, is Ryu?s ridiculously good c.mk. C.mk has a few properties that makes Honda?s life miserable. 1) it?s about the same range as s.hk, 2) it ducks nj.fp (:KJ:SDJKF:SLDKJF:SLJF), 3) it cancels into hadouken, super and srk->ultra. If a Ryu sees that you like to focus close range fireballs, he?ll start inching in on you and throwing c.mk xx hadouken to combat this. Keep in mind that max range c.mk xx hadouken on block has a hole between the kick and the fireball so you can ex splash and ultra between the two for free damage. If he?s doing this, keep walking outside of the c.mk range when he walks forward and whiff punish c.mk with s.fp. The c.mk makes Ryu?s upper body inch forward a hair so that it can be counter-hit with s.fp. 175 damage against a whiffed c.mk is an amazing trade. You can also try FAing the c.mk so that you counter-hit the hadouken in startup leading to a free oicho or c.lp xx hhs, s.rh (ideal).
A few things to keep in mind while working out your spacing. Nj.fp can move while airborne so a clever trick I saw a Korean Honda do was purposely bait c.mk?s with it. He?d nj.fp right outside the forward?s range and then whiff punish when he landed with s.hk. It worked pretty well. Also, if Ryu gets in on your or knocks you down and likes to meaty, keep in mind that Ryu has no safe block strings outside of light attacks. Strong, strong or strong, forward or forward+fierce, strong or even overhead, crouching forward all have holes and are free ex headbutt counter-hits. Don?t let him spam these untight block strings on you cause they?re clever frame traps.
A big craze a while back was to punish fireballs with ultra and while viable, it?s a really difficult thing to pull off consistently. You have to find ways to bait the hadouken and then have to watch out for ex hadouken?s and ultra baits (ryu?s will start to whiff normals, etc.). EX hadouken recovers faster than regular hadouken so it?s a bit harder to eagle eye (punish w/ fireball) but still doable. The best method I?ve found to landing eagle eyes is to whiff laggy normals. Whiffing lagging normals gives people the impression you?re not holding charge for some reason and they have a tendency to fireball. Also, people tend to fireball twice. I don?t know why, but after you fail to punish the first one, they often think, ?fuck this guy, Ima throw another one because I can.? That?s when you?re free to punish. Honestly, you?ll know if a Ryu is used to fighting Honda or not right when you get ultra meter because Ryu?s who know the match-up are REALLY careful about careless hadoukens. Nobody in Davis, CA where I play throws bad fireballs anymore /sad.
Another thing I?d like to talk about when fighting Ryu is trip guard and jumping with fierce. If you jump in on Ryu at the right range, about of a screen and stick out a fierce (the big slap), you will hit ryu or eat a traded SRK. If you don?t stick out the fierce, you?ll land and be able to block the late SRK cause your tripguard is still up. This range is the best range to jump because it makes the Ryu panic about whether or not you can be successfully AA?d so you get free jump-ins. Also, if you don?t jump at this range and magically still get a blocked jump-in, don?t waste it. Do a c.lp xx fp, hhs if it?s blocked or oicho for 50/50 mix-up. Wasting jump-ins is one of the biggest mistakes Honda?s make.
Other random notes on this match-up:
- ryu?s c.hk is -9000 on block (actually, -14). That means you can reversal ANYTHING. You can block it, go rub one off, bake cookies, mow your lawn, and then come back and still reversal ultra it. I kid you not. If a ryu is dumb enough to get a c.hk blocked, make him pay.
-When a Ryu has ultra meter, you have to pay close attention to his super bar. 1) If he?s pushed you to the corner, he?s fishing for ex fireball into ultra. 2) If he has 2 bars and is attempting to cross you up, either back dash after blocking the cross-up or just eat the throw. DO NOT TECH CAUSE YOU WILL GET POPPED UP. 3) If he whiffs the cross-up, do not instinctively tech either. Just stay away from the guy when he has 2 bars + ultra. 4) When he has 3 bars plus ultra, he?s going to fish for c.mk xx ex hadouken, fadc, ultra. Block low or run away. Don?t try to counter-poke in this situation. 5) If he?s going for the ambiguous cross-ups without knocking you down, jump back roundhouse and don?t do dumb things like attempt to anti-crossup ex headbutt. 6) STOP JUMPING, Y U JUMPING??? 7) In corner if he walks up to throw you, he?s not throwing you. He?s going to ex tatsu you for a free ultra. DON?T TECH, Y U TECHING!!! I TOLD U NOT TO TECH!!!
-Super punishes all headbutts on block and if a Ryu has full super meter, don?t use nj.fp too much to jump fireballs. Jump the fireball neutrally so that you land right behind it to bait the super canceled off the hadouken.
-Tatsu?s an armor break, don?t FA too much or else he?ll pick up on it and randomly tatsu you. Tatsu on block is -6/-2/-1 so don?t bother trying to punish anything but short tatsu on block.
I didnât know this. Many Ryuâs like to sweep over/under shooting buttslams. Maybe, at a certain range, you can use buttslam to try to bait c.hk and then punish?
I often get screwed by trying to tech this sort of thing. Why oh why do I not pay more attention to their super meter? (Of course, you usually do have to tech a hell of alot as Honda. Sometimes muscle memory / instinct just takes over)
Cammy:
6-4 Honda
After EVO, I thought everybody would stop sleeping on Cammy?s potential, but it seems like people still underrate her. I don?t know why though. Maybe it?s because they haven?t played a good Cammy? Well, I?ve definitely played against a good Cammy, arguably as good if not better than Sanford?s Cammy (although Sanford deserves the respect he gets), and I gotta say, she?s one dangerous bitch. The reason she?s so dangerous isn?t so much about her damage, but more because of her mix-up. She?s like Sakura, but better, and with much safer options.
Cannon Spike: Cammy?s form of SRK, it?s invincible (full body) for long enough that you just don?t mess. It beats all headbutts pretty clean except for early EX Headbutt and it does a shitload of damage. Also, it has very good push away that makes it unpunishable by a lot of the cast, but not Honda. On block you can usually squeeze in a fp headbutt for a good chunk of life.
Spiral Arrow: Cammy?s form of blanka ball or headbutt, but it hits low and is highly unsafe on block usually. However, if she hits you with the tip of her foot, she?s perfectly safe and can often retaliate or block. It is cancelable on the first hit so Cammy?s can purposely throw an unsafe arrow and then FADC it into throw or Cannon Spike. It beats all headbutts clean except for the startup of ex headbutt which has full body invulnerability for a few frames. EX goes through fireballs, useless info for Honda match-up.
Spin Knuckle: it sucks
Hooligan Combo: This shit is weird. It?s an airborne ?attack? that throws you on contact if you?re standing or if you jump. It can be ducked, but not when you?re waking up? WTF?!? Apparently, when you wake-up, you?re forced to stand so yeah, I still don?t know what to do against it if you?re waking up w/o meter. Maybe lk splash? If you do have meter, ex headbutt it when it?s close or you can probably c.mp/c.lp it. If she chooses to, Cammy can also come out of hooligan with a low slide attack. Again, hits LOW and cannot be fast recovered. If she hits you with a meaty slide that?s blocked, it?s safe. If she hits you with it in corner, she gets a free cannon spike (dumb bitch). Ton of mix-up after she hits you with this since you can?t mash and get up quickly.
Cannon Strike: Cammy?s dive kick, this shit takes a ton of work to use but has retarded amounts of mix-up. Because Honda has such a slow jab and short, this thing is hell to deal with because it forces you to guess the tech and can be done tiger knee?d to punish tech attempts. This is why I hate the up-close game with Cammy. In general, if you can ex headbutt or lk splash to avoid guessing the tech, I?d do it cause if you don?t, Cammy can do tiger knee?d cannon strike, ex cannon strike, ultra or tiger knee?d cannon strike, s.fp xx cannon spike, fadc cannon spike (350 dmg, WTF!)
Things to watch for:
-Cammy?s jump in of choice is roundhouse. It?s a really odd looking jump-in where she spreads her legs (aaahhh yeahhh, no j/k) and kicks you with a really horizontal hitbox. I have ridiculous amounts of trouble AAing this with chop but it can be done if you stick the chop out pretty early. Problem is she can bait chop?s with cannon strike. After a jump-in roundhouse that connects, she can do throw mix-up or c.lk, c.lp, c.lk xx spiral arrow. I?ll explain why eating spiral arrow sucks really badly, shortly.
-Cammy?s cross-up is j.lk and honestly, it sucks against people with good reversals. Honda however has really shitty cross-up reversals, which is all bad. After a connected or blocked j.lk from Cammy, she can do nothing and bait your lk splash, she can c.lk, c.lp, c.lk xx SA you, she can tick throw you, or she can tiger knee cannon strike to bait your tech. In general, you don?t want to get crossed up. Burn meter or FA dash to avoid having to guess. You want to play the mid screen battle against cammy and make her come to you.
OKI options that make Cammy annoying:
-If you just got hit with a Spiral Arrow and got knocked down, sucks for you. Right after getting spiral arrowed, cammy can jump up for a tiger knee?d cannon strike that is completely ambiguous to block and looks ridiculously odd. If she spaced it right, you completely can?t tell if you will in fact get crossed up and honestly, unless you training mode and test it for yourself, you?re pretty much at the mercy of the Cammy player. If you ex headbutt, you get hit in the ass, but at least you?re airborne so that she can?t do any follow-ups.
-If you get forward thrown, this again, sucks for you. Because you can?t fast recovery, just like you can?t fast recovery after eating hooligan slide, you now have to deal with another ambiguous cross-up. This cross-up is so ambiguous, most Cammy players cannot even tell which side they?re attacking from. They just tiger knee cannon strike next to you and stick out the meaty and hit confirm to low forward xx SA. Dumb right? Well at least with this OKI setup, you can usually lk splash to trade for some damage if you have charge. If you don?t do this, you?ll probably eat a good 230ish damage combo and once again, have to deal with the ambiguous tiger knee?d cannon strike.
Important Notes about this match-up:
-The only way I beat California?s best Cammy, VasAznIon is by jumping around (but not into). I keep her boxed out with nj.fp, jump back roundhouse, headbutts. I burn meter to avoid OKI situations and don?t splash much cause Cammy has a ridiculously good FA and dash (both ways, front and back).
-Spiral Arrow/Ultra punishes FP headbutt only so you can do a mp headbutt which looks like fp headbutt, followed by an ex headbutt for a free counter-hit bait. Cammy?s SUPER punishes ALL headbutts. Shit is lightning fast.
-Cannon Strike might seem like it has a ton of hitstun and blockstun, but in reality, it has very little block stun. You can backdash sometimes and then jump away to escape but watch for the spiral arrow punishes.
-Her throw range is bad (.75). After c.lk, c.lp she usually has to inch forward a hair before she can throw you so keep that in mind.
-If she ever walks up to you with 2 meters and ultra, she?s probably baiting a tech so that she can spike, fadc, ultra you . It does respectable dmg, probably 300-400 depending on meter. I prefer eating the throw rather than guessing the spike, fadc.
-Punish blocked spiral arrows with oicho instead of headbutt due to better startup
-If you are at max screen range, occasionally whiff an oicho to make her come to you, but realize that she can cover ground retardedly fast with hooligan and hk spiral arrow.
Here?s some videos, not the Honda match-up unfortunately, where you can see a few oki setups in action. Watch for the mix-up following spiral arrows, throws and hooligans. Shit?s nasty. VasAznIon (Allen) has a lot of new setups that most of America bit off of so expect more annoying shit after WestCoastWarzone.
[media=youtube]f40AyWUuulY[/media]
[media=youtube]wIGpUUWuxW4[/media] (choi?s too good. Damn fireballs)
[media=youtube]bVEdz0SrAhk[/media]
[media=youtube]kg9oYsVNf0o[/media]
Guile:
Despite guile being shit tier in SF4, he still gives certain characters a bit of trouble. One of these characters is E.Honda and the reason is because he turtles like Honda, but he?s better at it. Sonic Boom has nearly instant recovery upon leaving his hands, c.fp is an AA wall and rh, b+fp, f+fp and c.mk are like spikes on the side of a fort gate. You just can?t get in.
Now before people start going on and on about how you beat Guile, realize that most Guile?s in the US blow. But there are a few good ones like DaggerG, Gilley, Dieminion and Lamerboi (always room for up and comers to). These Guiles are all thorns in your side that are content with throwing sonic booms like a machine gun, all day. You jump; you eat a fist in your ass. You FA dash; he shoves his fist in your face. There?s a lot more to these Guiles than your average scrub, sonic boom, sweep, wait, FLASH KICK!!!
Understanding Sonic Boom
Sonic boom is not a damage tool. You might think it?s a damage tool, it was a damage tool in ST, it looks like a damage tool, but really, it?s not. In fact, sonic boom damage is straight up awful. I could eat and block sonic booms all day and not give a shit because the things do 50 damage. That?s only 10 damage more than Honda?s crouching jab! So if SB isn?t a damage tool, what is it? Well it?s a spacing tool of course. Guile uses it to start his safe (and extremely shitty) offense so that you can?t just spam some safe reversal and kick his ass. His offense is literally 3 or 4 normals: forward/back fierce, c.mk, f+rh and sweep (which sucks).
As soon as the round starts and you face off against Guile, you?re main enemy is pretty much the timer because in this match-up, Guile does nothing but charge for a SB, throw it, and wait for your reaction. You jump it incorrectly; you eat an air throw, either of the fierces or a j.rh. You FA, bam, f+rh or f+fp. You do nothing, he throws another one.
So you?re probably wondering right now, how do you beat guile? The answer is, you be random. Guile is fundamentally the same as Dhalsim, which is why Capcom has a hard time balancing them. They?re made to keep you out and force your move so the only way you can get around his defense is to be unpredictable.
Offensive Tools:
BEST TOOL: WALK. Wait what? Yes, you walk. You stop jumping, you stop doing fancy focus attack shit, you stomp splashing like a stupid kid in a pool and you stop headbutting like a dumb boxer and just walk forward. If you get into Guile?s poke range, you walk and you block more. Fundamentally, if you?re doing nothing but blocking, guile can?t really hurt you. It?s only when you do stupid things like jump predictably that you open yourself up to damage. If you watch Akimo vs Guile, you?ll see that whenever he jumps in stupidly, he loses and whenever he spends of the round walking about, blocking, he wins. Ironically, even though Akimo?s the best, he sucks at fighting guile because half the time he?s patient and half the time, he just doesn?t care.
Even though you shouldn?t jump, sometimes it?s still advantageous to do so because there is a range where jumping works well. It?s slightly farther than guile?s f+rh range and you only do it after the boom has been thrown. Soon as the boom?s thrown, you have to be already in the air. The reason for this is because c.fp has startup and at the range where you?re jumping in, guile can only get a piece of honda?s j.rh?s foot. So you?re most like to win or trade. He has no charge to flash kick you, back fierce won?t work cause the of the angle, it?s too late for air throw and any attempts to jump roundhouse. The other range you can jump is within Guile?s sweep range. It has to be fairly unpredictable but the way to do it is to jump and stick out an early strong. You?ll clip Guile in the head and be able to link a c.lp xx hhs, rh.
One last situation to jump is when Guile is following behind his boom, coming in to poke you. If you neutral jump and then fierce really late, you?ll usually be able to trade his c.fp that he?ll attempt to throw out underneath you. Sometimes what?ll happen is you?ll fall on the boom, but that?s ok, 50 damage taken and no follow up.
Now that you know when to jump and when to walk, you whole purpose now should be keeping guile in the corner. You spend of the time walking, and of the time poking and handslapping the shit out of him. You watch the guile for his patterns and when you can figure out a good opening, take some time to poke him. Use s.fp (chop), s.hk (good for hitting boom startup), s.mp (also good for hitting boom startup) and an occasional headbutt. If the guile tries to jump out, jump back roundhouse or nj.fp. Don?t get knocked down cause then guile gets out of the corner. If you can keep guile cornered, counter-poke him a bit, throw in some hand slap pressure and make sure to AA his jump-ins with lp/ex headbutt, you have a very high chance of winning.
Sometimes, throwing in some FA?s helps because guile has no good armor break after boom. Just make sure you?re close range and that after the boom absorb, you let go cause his pokes are all fast (5 or more frames). Also, walk up Oicho is another good trick because if they do nothing, they get thrown and if they jump back, you can punish with cl.fp. It?s hard timing but go into training mode and try it. Guile has no jumping normals with vertical hitboxes, only horizontal ones so sticking your hand on his ass and attempting to grab it (close fierce animation is weiiirddd?) works wonders.
Splashing is something that?s a bit risky at times for Honda to attempt for a few reasons in this match-up. First off, c.hp beats it clean. If you attempt to throw off his timing by using different strengths of splash, it does work, but if you get a cross-up, he?s now out of the corner. Make sure to cross him up with mk in order to switch back sides. Same thing with Oicho. If you get him with an oicho, you now have to cross back over to prevent him from escaping.
Other things that work well against guile are meaty Oicho, meaty s.fp, meaty c.mk xx headbutt, meaty s.mp, meaty c.lp xx hhs and cross-up mk into c.lk, etc. In general, guiles like to jump away so don?t let him. If he becomes really obvious, knock him down and as soon as you can visually see him jump back, ultra. Guile has a very high arcing jump so the ultra will literally catch him before he can land, and it?s hilarious.
Overall, don?t be afraid to take risks against guile since his damage is awful, but don?t rush in stupidly and blindly so that you get counter-hit and poked to shit. Take the match-up slow even if you hate it.
[media=youtube]_1jpH07LYcY[/media]
guile was decent
[media=youtube]I_9p_aFC0XI[/media]
guile sucked
[media=youtube]AuebfDkjghQ[/media]
guile was good
[media=youtube]e0ujyBC1PKM[/media]
guile really sucked
[media=youtube]6bOyuARatiA[/media]
akimo was impatient and guile didnât suck
Cammy can throw a Hooligan after a cannon spike hits, and it acts as a tech trap if you do the quick get-up thing or whatever itâs called. Iâve also heard that regular wakeup forces you to stand for a frame or so, but I havenât seen this confirmed yet.
Edit: Also, great job on the matchup stuff, Pieguy. Shitâs a thousand times better than the people who say âlol Honda beats non-fireball characters for free but loses to fireballs.â
Another issue w/ using Butt slams vs Guile is that his jump angle lets him jump out it. Blocked buttslam > lk.BS can be forward or backward jumped out of allowing him to regain distance or whiff punish you. Pie, how are you able to poke Guile? Every time I try, his s.hp (straight punch) owns me. I try to bulldog Guile but he keeps punching me in the face.
Thats why high tigers meaty you on walk up(which is bullshit). Against Cammy I suggest that you always hit her out of EX hooligan w/ ex.hb, c.mp, or c.lp because if you just duck it will cross you up and if she whiffs the command throw she recovers instantly and will throw you.
I chop a lot against guile (chop counter hits back fierce for big dmg) and do s.mp. Guileâs back fierce can also be focused decently since itâs 21 frames overall. I also do nj.fp in his face if heâs not holding down charge. Throw the occasional random non cross-up splash hoping to psychic a sb and the occasional random headbutt as well.
Does doing a wake-up crouching normal prevent you from standing?
As an Akuma/Honda player thought Iâd throw out there that no decent Akuma will throw out a super or ultra that can lose to headbuttâŚI mean, there are gimmicks I suppose, but in general you wonât get that chance
And focusing that is a nice trick so long as the Akuma player doesnât have meter. Otherwise he will cancel it into demon for big damage (+gray bar)
I donât know that particular matchup at all, so I look forward to seeing where this thread goesâŚ
I just tested this with Hondaâs c.LK and high tigers from Sagat, and it doesnât.