I have to disagree here. To be clear, I define defense as the ability to block punish (BP), parry counter (PC) or whiff punish (WP). In each of these categories, Twelve has options off which he can capitalize.
Whiff punishing (WP’ing) is enabled by evasion, so saying this is suggesting that Twelve is an excellent whiff punisher (which is true), but again—he can BP (block punish) and PC (parry counter) as well.
So far as his anti-air defense, it’s strong because Twelve is designed to be a “poker”; not making COMBO PLAYS so much as SINGLE PLAYS. And the best way to make single plays (with ANY character) is by choosing singles with the highest potential for stun. This is called “stun driving” (as in driving UP the opponent’s stun bar), since doing so takes only 3 or 4 successful exchanges to make the opponent’s next move critical.
For Twelve, there are MANY stun drivers, including:
S. MP, S. MK, S. HP, S. HK, and
J. LP, J. MP, J. MK, J. HP, & J. HK.
If you’re able to focus on WP’ing with singles and using his anti-airs as “rising snuffs” (hitting opponents on the RISE of their jumps instead of at PEAK or FALL), then you can begin to see how he doesn’t *need *combos to control the match. At least, against players on or behind the skill curve.
The other SA’s actually reduce your options, because to use them (as a discipline) you have to REFRAIN from using EX. I agree with you here (about SA1 being the best choice), but again, I think this applies to people on or behind the skill curve only.
…which is WP’ing with combo plays. Now, to clarify what I’ve been saying about the skill curve, players who are on or behind that curve (newcomers, below average players and average players) are susceptible to gimmicks and tiers. And so far as I can tell, all of these players can lose to a “good Twelve”. This doesn’t only apply to his gimmicks OR low tier status, but to his PLAIN ability to consistently drive stun w/those whiff punishments (WP’s). Again, because he can do this, he can pressure his opponents without combos. The only difference then is that the user focuses on SINGLE PLAYS, and anybody can do that with any character.
So the question is, are other characters superior at making WP combo plays…? Yes, but characters *without *WP combo plays (such as Urien) can otherwise make up for it: Urien has a much better ability to capitalize off knockdowns than those who can make WP combo plays (say, the Shotos) and a much easier OUTSIDE GAME (making up for his lackluster FOOTSIE GAME). And Urien is considered upper tier because of that. Likewise, Twelve makes up for his lack of WP combo plays with a great outside game and (through poking) his excellent ability to drive up stun with SINGLE PLAYS.
The real reason for “[other characters being] superior at the usual style of gameplay” is because in order to **enable **Twelve’s poking/outside games, players have to master his low glide input (people call it ‘instant air dash’ or ‘IAD’, but I refuse to). Which (to be fair) is a very unique input for Street Fighter players to learn, *let alone *incorporate into a regular set of tactics and (overall) strategies. And they also have to master his cross up (J. HK) and S. MK xx SJ (what I call ‘Spike-Knee’) tactics. But your average cross section of players (high and low level alike) refuse to do this.
So in other words, the ONLY reason he’s “inferior” is because inferior players refuse to master what it takes to use him.
And in *yet *other words, he’s NOT inferior; he’s only called that by people who are (plain) lazy.
The longer I’ve played Twelve, the less distinct I’ve found him from the rest of the cast. For me, using him has literally become like using anyone else. There is a baseline set of rules to Street Fighter. Any top player who’s picked up and/or gone streaking with a low tier character will tell you the same thing. If you abandon those rules and work off gimmicks alone, you MAY enjoy a few “surprise” wins; but in the end, (without those fundamentals) you’ll be dead in the water.
Just my opinion.
