This Feels Different... OLD Abel Match Theory Thread

A simple thing i noticed watching some good abels here, against chars like fuerte or whenever theres a chance for cr.hp to only hit once, they always cancel the first hit into CoD and work from there, im not sure though if you fadc cr.hp will always hit twice but just something i noticed from watching people play. I guess since the first hit will always hit, why bother gambling whether the 2nd will or not and go with confirmed damage/mixups oppurtunity.

.
i always cancel off the first hit, unless i FADC’d in. I hardly ever used to get both hits in so i stopped bothering. I guess if you learn wen both will hit and wen both wont, ud improve in the match up

Hey guys! I have been playing SF4 since release and went through Ryu, Sakura, Balrog, Rufus…Ryu and now Abel! I’ve been messing around with him for a bit and he seems like a character that can be fun (mixups) but still needs to work at his victories.

I browsed through the Abel threads and it seems like most of you guys are pretty helpful and don’t get into huge arguments and flame wars like other character threads (luz). Anyhoo, look forward to learning and chatting.

Peace

You must have missed the Rico thread.

I’d just like to say and repeat , chun li is a retarded match up, iv never felt so stupid in my life.

if any one could answer these questions it would be a great help

what’s the current strategy for dealing with demon flip pressure on wake-up, sometimes i’m losing the entire round from one untechable knockdown, i’ve searched the forums but no one’s discussed this in any detail, am i missing anything ?

when akuma has ultra or super, how do you apply pressure on his wake-up ?

i have an execution question as well, i’ve learnt to do forward medium kick>dash by pressing mk on both forward taps it just feels more comfortable & it helps me time the p-linked st.fp, is there any reason why this would be a bad thing ? for instance could it make the dash slower ?

TIA :tup:

The best advice I can give you for dealing with Akuma wake up pressure is to just stay alert, and try find a way out. There’s no “one size fits all” escape route with Abel (this headspace applies fairly well to him as a character) - you have to pick your spots and stay on your toes. Don’t back dash on wakeup, as OS st.hk/raging demon eats it free. Sit tight, block well, and look to tech the throw/EX roll the fuck out of there.

Applying pressure on HIS wake up hard as well… While Akuma has plenty of escape options, they’re not without their weak points… If you can hit him, and hit him hard, he’ll be looking to teleport out of there… Punish him for trying to reset the match… Your baiting game needs to be really on point against Akuma, IMO, so once you get the knock down, mix up your attack/bait patterns and hurt him bad for it. I like using an ambiguous roll setup into meaty cr.hp early, to establish the pace, then use a similar roll set up, then hk roll to bait the teleport… it’s a gamble, but usually one I’m willing to take in order to mind fuck them.

As for the f+mk xx dash, only the 4th active frame can be dash cancelled, meaning there’s no faster/slower way to do it. The most consistent way to do it is to hold F as though you’re walking forward, press mk, then tap F once more. Practice it in the training room if you need to.

Man, I hear you dude.

A lot of Chuns back off and try to build up the offense slow with fireballs and those crazy long pokes of hers. I try to use the distance to build up meter as much as possible and then try to use Abel’s EX stuff to absorb or move through her offense. If you can, try to convince Chun to follow her fireball in and pass through it with EX Wheel kick or EX CoD. If you get the spacing right you can also jump the fireball AND Chun to land a crossup.

Also, if Chun’s awesome long distance normals have a weakness it’s that you can absorb them with FADC pretty effectively. For instance, a lot of Chuns really want to keep sticking you with normals until you’re pushed out of range. Get a feel for the longest normal they tend to end their strings with (often c.hk for a sneaky trip) and absorb that ish and punish for massive damage.

My mindset against Chun is basically to prep with meter, let her do her thing, and then work through or around her offense rather than outright mounting one of my own. I tend to get pummeled to a pulp, otherwise.

Is there any way to deal with Bison’s SK pressure ? Yeah, I’m bad in this match up because i rarely fight Bison

most of the time just block the SK, it wont hurt you much chip damage wise. just keep blocking and wait for opportunity to strike, for an example…

my current strategy against bison is make him jump at me(usually after blocking most of his SK pressure, tech throws etc) and start from there, sometimes the bison will try to jump over you to cross up and you st.hp that shit, cancel into a roll and he cant do anything to counter your next move(im not 100% sure but i was told that by one of the best bison players i know).

Unfortunately, the only answer is not to get knocked down. One thing I have found is that if you think he’s going for demon flip throw is to empty jump forward because the option select dp is going to come out and you can ultra. Never use backdash against demon flip because of option select. Akuma’s loop + sweep = random guessing game.

Just got bitch slapped around by a chun throwing out a lot of pokes. Nothing I could do unless I had ex =/

So vs Thawk.

Am I the only one having trouble with this matchup?

You’re not the only one.

I think max range sweep is useful. As well, you have to time your jump out of his vortex setup. Can’t just hold up on the stick.

To be honest, it’s vanilla Gief all over again.

honestly i don’t think the t.hawk match is nearly as bad as it was vs vanilla gief. now granted most of our experience vs t.hawk is of week 1 quality but i don’t think t.hawk has quite the amount of option selects and meaty pressure to keep abel as locked down as vanilla gief did. t. hawk lacks a lariat and a green hand to chase out our rolls to escape pressure but at the same time his 360 grab range is further and he has the health that old gief had.

its a give and take but once you get a knockdown you can cross him up a lot more free than you ever could on his wake up compared to gief as well.

T Hawk is not as bad as vanilla gief thats for sure, he don’t have the normals for that, however the match up does look like its bad. I’d just like to add that you can’t really cross up T Hawk as they can auto correct their ex reversal move whatever its called

There’s alot more guessing involved with Hawk, and the big advantage to Abel is that if Hawk wants to keep you in his vortex, he has to use his LP grab, which does piss poor damage. Gief was the opposite since he could cover multiple options with his OS and even a 50/50 ended up in his favor because of his damage.

When you’re knocked down, here’s your guessing;

Guess he grabs again - Jab TT to counter.
Guess wrong: Lose 120 health
Guess right: Deal 180 damage, escape vortex

Guess he DPs, hits for a tick throw, or condor spires - block to counter:
Guess wrong: lose 0-200 health
Guess right: Deal 200-450 damage as a counter, escape the vortex

Every knockdown is pretty much a guess between doing Jab TT, blocking, or doing Jab DP if you think he’ll jump. You come out ahead in terms of life lost versus damage dealt in nearly every situation. Breathless also completely fucks up his mixup and only gives him a crossup or IAHD as an option to counter you. You can cancel breathless with 10 years to spare before either of those are going to put you in danger.

He’s alot more scary for me at mid screen when he’s using his surprisingly awesome normals to make life difficut and sitting on a lead.

ew double post

T-Hawk is a retarded matchup for me

Sigh. I loathe to admit this, but Abel is actually kind of fun to play.

So far, the only characters I’m having trouble with are, of course, shotos, though more so Ken than Ryu. Besides that, Bison is kind of an asshole, but he’s an asshole to everyone, so…

Clarifying EDIT: I suppose I should clarify what I’m having problems with since the first post is actually detailed unlike a lot of other characters threads. But then again what you expect from HAV? [/fellatio]

Anyway, currently, since I’m just dick around online where like 80% of people run away, I’m kind of stumped as to what the hell AA Ken with. The damn shoto j.fk has so much priority. I’m guessing it should be c.mk, maybe? For reason I haven’t even touched that button unless I’m fighting Bison–I guess it’s probably a habit from using Makoto.

Also, versus the Shotos, do I want to be using Breathless? It seems like they get out of it more easily than other people. Same with Bison really.