Why don’t you go to training mode and try it out for yourself?
Guys, please dont ruin this thread. Only the important stuff are gonna be put in the main post anyway. No need to troll or get trolled.
Only while standing? What’s the difference between blocking while standing and crouching?
I believe you’re in more block stun after crouchblocking. Only after blocking standing will you have enough time to dash and connect the f.mk.
Because this thread is the match up thread, not the Things To Try In Training Mode Because They Were Poorly Explained thread. Feel free to go start that one.
Fair enough. HAV has to sort through the crap in the end anyway, it’d just be nice if there was less of it.
Business post. More matchups to come in the next few days, probably.
Note: matchup numbers are the sole opinion of the Juicebox Abel. The first number is you!
ABEL (5-5)
Considering that Abel has crappy defense and you have good offense, rushdown should be your main priority. Try to land F+MK often and watch out for EX TT. Otherwise, work your full offensive capability like normal.
Tidbits:
- You can EX TT the second hit of a blocked CoD. You can also do a LV1 Focus attack and it will give you the counter hit crumple if he did a second mid or low.
- Wheel kick is unsafe if Abel’s foot is NOT the only part that touched you on block. Punish with F+MK or LP TT, based on distance.
- Bait EX roll on wakeup, especially if you can corner him.
- If you block a F+MK and the evil doppelganger dashes in, try backdashing to avoid a TT and pokes as well.
- Jump a lot, but not so much that you eat a pre-emptive Falling Sky.
AKUMA (3-7)
Definitely one of the hardest matchups, you will need lots of patience and mind-reading skills to win this consistently. Your main goal should be to maximize damage should combo opportunities arise. For example, if you get both hits of cr.HP, it is advisable to HP falling sky immediately or do LK roll, LP/MP Falling Sky. If you obtain a life lead, try turtling and reacting to Akuma’s offensive options.
Tidbits:
- You can use Ultra to punish fireballs of every kind. If he does an air fireball you can nail the recovery when he lands.
- If he uses lots of air fireballs, dash under them or roll under them then punish the recovery when he lands.
- A smart Akuma will use his standing HK A LOT. You are forced to block both hits, and if you eat the kicks he can combo afterwards. At the right range, you can try counter-poking it with far standing MP or LK. Be wary of his options after a blocked HK:
A. walk up throw/shoryu mixup
B. another HK
C. crouching HK
D. crouching MK xx hadouken/demon flip
E. teleport away - If you score a knockdown, the Akuma will likely try teleporting. If you predict a teleport, HK roll toward him and you can catch the recovery with a F+MK or a LP TT if you’re close enough. Alternatively, you can LK roll then ultra if you see the teleport.
- If he activates super or ultra, you can use ultra, MP super, or any non-EX TT to counter it quite nicely (LP is recommended).
BALROG (5-5)
Balrog, being a charge character, is somewhat easy to rush down after scoring a knockdown. However, because of his long-range pokes, armor breaking moves, and 3-frame jabs it can be very difficult to get that knockdown. Do you best to find a way in, utilizing your rolling and counterpoking skills effectively. Try to focus his dash straights and uppers to land a LV2 focus attack.
Tidbits:
- Remember that Balrog cannot cross you up. If you get knocked down, block low unless he jumps. If he does, quickly switch to low block and watch for the tick throw or possible overhead dash punch. You should be able to block that overhead punch on reaction.
- If you are blocking low and Balrog tries to use a dash upper or dash overhead, a well-timed throw or TT will get you a crucial knockdown.
- Learn the range of his cr.HK and respect it.
- Balrog is a charge character and cannot deal well with crossups. As long as you slightly mix-up your crossup timings to avoid attempted auto-corrected EX headbutts, a crossup leads to a very nice mixup.
- If he jabs you out of your pokestrings, use TT more often to discourage him.
- If you get knocked down and he attempts a meaty dash punch of ANY kind, you can EX TT all of them.
BLANKA (7-3)
Blanka, best known for his annoying poke-and-run style, has a hard time annoying a competent Abel player. Walk forward, block low. Rinse and repeat until you are in F+MK range. Abel has good answers for all of Jimmy’s moves.
Tidbits:
- Watch for horizontal ball shenanigans, which come in two varieties.
A. Blanka knocks you down and attempts to hit your back with a horizontal ball. This requires you to block the other direction, but on hit you can punish it. He likely won’t try this unless he thinks the damage from the hit will kill you.
B. Blanka does an “empty” ball, especially at the beginning of the round, landing in front of you instead of hitting you. Try to jab the ball if you’re fast, and if not make it instinctive to jab the recovery of all horizontal balls that do not hit you. - All rainbow rolls can be focused. Dash cancel then punish.
- You can punish all vertical or horizontal balls with ultra on block or even on HIT! You need reversal timing if you take the hit, though.
- You can also punish blocked horizontal balls with a dash followed by a F+MK if you blocked the ball standing. This requires precision timing, but it swings the match drastically in your favor so go to training mode and perfect this!
- If Blanka blocks a F+MK, he cannot escape LPs, LKs, or TTs with electricity.
- If you can corner Blanka, don’t let up with the pressure as you can punish all of his balls on hit at that point. Just watch for ultra.
- If you block the first hit of Blanka’s ultra, you can use LP Super to grab him out of it (Reversal timing). You can also use EX roll with the same timing to escape the guard damage.
Just a thought, why not post the matchups on the wiki as well? Would be nice to have it formatted on a separate page. Sakeido already did a great job on the wiki. Also, if people ask about a matchup, just link to the page. Personally, I prefer reading the info on a wiki rather than clicking through a bunch of pages here on SRK. The problem as I see it, is to keep it updated on a regular basis. Why don’t use this thread to discuss the additions and then have someone responsible for adding the content to the wiki. Preferably one of the more experienced Abel players but I’ll gladly help out if others have better things to do.
Anyways, I think we should decide on which headers to use and use them consistently. Also, be consistent with the names of the moves. I don’t want it to say Change of Direction only to have it say Rekka on the next line. For example:
Zangief:
General strategy:
One of the hardest matchups. Play it safe and poke from a distance with Wheel Kicks.
Normals:
<something>
Specials:
Lariat:
Can be stuffed with a well-placed wheel kick or a sweep from a safe distance.
Spinning Pile Driver:
Loses to Tornado Throw but if Zangief reads you and jumps, he will get the SPD anyway.
Super/Ultra:
Depending on the timing, Tornado Throw will beat even his Ultra.
Comments:
Have patience!
If all the matchups are organized in the same manner, it will be so much easier to read and to find what you want. I’m not that big of a fan of the “spoiler-thingy”.
If we’re to go Extreme Makeover on this, let’s do it right from the start. Great idea though!
EDIT: Check out Ryu’s wiki. I want that, only better: http://shoryuken.com/wiki/index.php/Ryu_(SFIV)#Matchups
I need as much info as possible on the honda matchup.
I know f. mk - s.fp only works on c. hit
i know i can reversal ultra after blocked mp/hp headbutt
i know i can ultra all his headbutts aside from ex.
This is my worst matchup with abel. I’d much rather fight a good gief than a good honda
eh? only works on counter hit? this is the first time i heard this. though ive proly used more f.mk s.mp against honda out of habit.
i dont think you can punish mp headbutt with ultra nor cod.
on reaction? headbutt is pretty fast, unless he’s at the edge of the screen and dumb enough to do hp headbutt then yeah.
If you refer to online play, then yes. But seriously though, where did you hear this?
This is not true. When you hit honda with f.mk, honda, on hit, has two animation reactions. One has his head kickback and the other has him putting his head down.
It is when he is doing the first animation mentioned that f.mk>FP works.
If you try it with the other animation it will not.
Usually when you do f.mk far enough you get that first animation and the link will work, but even that can feel pretty random at times.
Hitting honda at max range while he is in the corner is the best way to make the animation come out.
I think it has to do with moving hit boxes, if u hit him at the right time you will get the desired animation. Haven’t really tested that theory, even then, theres no real point.
alright just tested it out in traing mode. Hendrix is right, the link only works when the f-mk confirms from very far and honda’s head pops up. Regardless, I think i’d rather just not use this link on honda. does anyone know if its safe to focus dash tt the izuna drop on the way down? anyone one else have tricks/tips?
Could you just be seeing the different animations for having hit a crouching honda versus a standing honda?
It’s not like you can see much of a difference between the two when he isn’t doing something.
nice with the training mode. 
anyway, use more st.mp against honda.
oh and i dont think you can focus an izuna drop LOL
haha thats what i thought too. charge chars are usually crouching though since they need to keep their charge. thats why against them i prefer using f.mk dash st.mp (or c.lp s.hp or c.lk c.lp s.mp) UNLESS i clearly see that my f.mk hits them standing.
Alright, so I did some more testing in training mode. Seems that I was a little bit hasty saying that you can ONLY hit honda when he kicks his head back. This is not the case.
You CAN do the f.mk > to fierce even when he has the “head down” animation, but it has to be from a certain distance. If you are too close the first hit of the FP will whiff.
And no this was not on a crouching dummy.
Yes, you can focus an Izuna drop. As far as other punishes for it, if your timing is decent and you have the right angle, you can do the cr.fp for the pop up.
If you really wanna be fancy/risky you can do EX recca>armour cancel> EX Skyfall when he’s landing on you.
I don’t know if this is known or not, if it is I apologize profusely but st. mk works pretty well as an AA against Honda. It’s been consistent for me thus far.
Izuna drop is Vega’s move.
Izuna drop = Throw. You can focus that? Really? 
As for flying barcelona attack, j.hp beats it or if you blocked it, punish with CoD (reversal timing) - and yes you can focus this.
I’m sure thats common knowledge but just so my post aint totally useless.
Thanks for the new thread and re-organizing that fuck fest of info Hav.
You didnt know abelity? Abel got them Magneto powers.
Abel is Magneto.
The proof is in the Scoops Haagen-Dasz reset. (only works in the corner)
cr.HP cr.HP (normal people will TT here, idiots feel free to continue) cr.HP cr.HP
If it works you’re playing an idiot.