Updated SSF4 Akuma Matchup Thread (2011)

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
281

Moving on…

Makoto
-Fireballs are punishable with Rush Punch and instant air axe kick at certain distances
-Do air FBs low to the ground to avoid being punished by EX Hayate
-Don’t abuse teleports, as they’re punishable with EX Hayate
-Crossup tatsu is not the best wakeup option: It trades with (and sometimes loses to) Fukiage, and EX Karakusa makes them whiff.
-Wakeup EX Oroshi will make all DPs (including EX) whiff
-Don’t attack after blocking a s. MP - Makoto is at frame advantage
-Nasty safe jump setup: Back throw> Walk backwards>Instant air axe kick
[LIST]
[]Any reversals will whiff
[]The axe kick will cross up but Makoto will land in front (yikes!)
[/LIST]
-Another safe jump setup: After landing Ultra 1…Forward dash, f+HK (corpse hop), hold toward Akuma for a short time, then jump MK. This makes reversals whiff and looks like a crossup.

M. Bison (Dictator)
-EX Knee Press>FADC leaves Dic +7 on block, so don’t try to attack
-He likes to stay in his s. HK range during footsies
-EDIT: If Dic does a point blank EX PC ‘through’ Akuma when Akuma is against a wall, it cannot be punished with Super or Ultra, even with Reversal timing. Verified in Training.

282

Rose
-df. MK (slide)>st. MK is a frame trap, so don’t try to punish her slide
-Rose’s st. HK beats Akuma’s cr. MK
-Do not backdash or focus attack to escape pressure strings - Rose’s drill will punish these

Rufus
-EX SS beats Demon Flips clean - only do them in safe jump situations, if Rufus is holding block or spaced properly as bait (e.g. LK DF palm from halfway across the screen)
-Mid screen is a good place for Akuma
-Block strings ending in Hadoken are unsafe if Rufus has meter - EX Messiah can punish. To be determined: if EX Messiah punishes a max distance cr. MK>Hado

283

I didn’t really find anything substantial in the Ryu forums except that we should probably not throw air fireballs if Ryu has Super or U1 stocked, since they’ll happily take the trade. I’m not sure if this applies to close-to-the-ground air FBs.

284

As a former Ryu mainer, I can offer some insight here.

The Ryu forums are in a sorry state these days. There are some really helpful people on there, but no one keeps anything up-to-date anymore.

TK’d air FBs work to stuff or avoid Ryu’s Super/Ultra 1, but it’s entirely dependent on your spacing and whether or not Ryu does them as a reversal. I’ll elaborate a bit.

For cross-up TK air FBs: If Ryu’s Ultra 1 or LP Super is delayed until the last possible second, either one CAN auto-correct, so that will make for a bad day for you, as you’re just going to land on it once you’re on the other side. On the other hand, if they time their wakeup Ultra 1 or Super poorly, thanks to the Ultra flash/invinc frames, Ryu probably will not get hit by the air FB, but you’re on the other side with 45 years to punish Ryu’s horrible recovery time on that Ultra. I also know from experience that Akuma can be punished by Ultra 1 from a bit closer than mid-screen even if he TK’s his air FBs. Honestly I’d say to just use other tools if you’re facing a skilled Ryu who has Ultra 1 stocked, it’s really not worth the risk.

Super is a bit more tricky since Ryu can vary the speed at which his Super travels. Much like how I recommend not using your air FBs if Ryu has Ultra 1 stocked, I’d discourage them even more if Ryu has Super stocked.

This is all pretty reliant on the Ryu player’s reaction times and familiarity with the Akuma match-up, of course. I’m just going off of personal experience with both characters, both playing as and playing against. Hope it helps a little, sorry if that was confusing. I kinda rambled a bit there :slight_smile:

285

how do you deal with dic’s st. hk and st. mk pokes, especially when you are cornered…
are they of the same range? and can akuma whiff punish both pokes with a sweep?

also, how do you stuff the second part of devil’s reverse (if done close, does any normal stuff it?) without using U1?

286

When you’re cornered against Bison, it becomes a guessing game to whether he’s trying to fish a counter hit to scissor kick, do another scissor kick after the first one, or trying to beat your neutral jump/jump back with st. HK

Just try to find an opportunity to air tatsu out of there or guess with a reversal.

And you can stuff the fist dive from Devil’s Reverse with a crouching dp.

287

I’ve been playing a lot of Bison’s lately and have been doing decently (Bison is excellent to practise option selects against), though I do have one question:

Devil’s reserve to build meter/frustrate. Bison’s like to Devil’s reverse backwards for various reasons which doesn’t throw off my gameplan nor frustrate me in the way they’re hoping but I am curious if it can be punished. A long time back I saw Momochi walk up and fs.hp the whiffed outstretched arm and score a clean hit. He did this multiple times. Thats 120 damage and around 130 if its a counter-hit.

Do any of you guys know if this is strength specific (i.e. if Bison’s uses hk/hp or whatever) and if its possible in Super? Or if it is spacing dependent on where Akuma starts walking forward from? I’m about to go into training mode to have me a tinker but if others have already spent some time figuring out our options for this I’d like to hear it.

Right now if I choose to advance on Bisons as they are doing this, I time an EX flip palm just before he hits the ground to snatch back the offense and get back on the pressure horse. It would be nice to smack out that devil’s reverse for damage however and 120 is very tasty. I also managed to score a couple of demons by mk flip palm whiffing and then performing demon to go under his arm and grab him. I don’t think this is particularly reliable however but I did manage to snag a couple of demons this way in a FT10 set.

Re: the above question about Bison’s corner pressure - be patient. Bison has an answer for all of Akuma’s exit options, but many do require him to guess your choice much like we have to guess his potential response. In Super, a popular choice is to immediately escape tastu after blocking a roundhouse (the recovery and push back can give you ample room to escape) though a good Bison will immediately dash chase you for a fs.mk or fs.hk response. But hey, at least you’re out of the corner. Another option is to gauge distance and out-footsie him with your c.hk. This can be tricky to reliably connect however.

In AE, escape tatsu is out but on the flip-side Bison’s lk scissor has a LOT more pushback which gives you room in itself. c.mk comes in very handy now, as does c.hk as he’s not right on top of you anymore. In AE I often hk flip palm whiff to get out and change sides (and I sometimes do in Super also) though in AE I find myself much more patient in the corner due to the loss of air tatsu. I catch myself also inching slowly forward due to the reduced scissor pressure and stand blocking as I do this. Stand blocking reduces the pushback of blocked attacks allowing you to slowly regain a little bit of space.

288

More random tips…

Sagat
Don’t do many jump-toward air fireballs if Sagat has meter - EX Tiger Uppercut will punish
Don’t use KKK teleport to avoid a jump-in, as Sagat can o/s a Tiger Knee into the jump-in normal

Sakura
Don’t abuse crossup tatsu if Sakura has U2 stocked - it seems to autocorrect
Be careful retreating with a jump-back air fireball, as Sakura can shouken through the fireball to hit Akuma
Sakura is at +0 frame advantage off a blocked LK Hurricane Kick, so avoid trying to punish these with heavy/long startup attacks.
Sakura is at +4 frame advantage off a blocked EX Hurricane Kick, so avoid trying to punish these at all.
Don’t do random jump-ins - Sakura’s cr. HP is very good

Seth
Don’t backdash to escape a jump-in attack - Seth can o/s his Spin Kick to catch backdashes
Don’t use a lot of air FBs - they lose to Seth’s Super and he can teleport and punish at certain distances
Don’t abuse st. HK if Seth has meter - EX SPD can beat the second hit
MP/HP Shaku and EX Hado (Ground and Air) all beat Seth’s Super
Don’t throw fireballs if Seth has U1 stocked
To escape Seth’s Sonic Boom>U1 trap, do air FB or EX Tatsu after the flash

As always comments are welcome!

289

I updated the Ibuki section with some Guaranteed Demons, and also found some potentially helpful things during training.

First, Ibuki players usually follow up blocked Dragon Kicks with a kunai to escape punishment, but if you do an immediate jump-back HP, it stuffs the kunai outright, and does better and more reliable damage than trying to DP her on the way down.

Second, Ibuki players usually follow up a blocked Hien (that jumping overhead kick) with a kunai to avoid punishment, but if you do a st. MP kara Demon with the correct timing, the MP will nullify the kunai and the Demon will catch Ibuki.

EDIT: Tried out some option selects on Ibuki’s wakeup.

DF Palm o/s Sweep seems to be the safest option - it beats command dash, neck breaker and Hien and Dragon Kick whiffs.
DF Palm o/s Tatsu is trickier - if I did Exploding Heart Technique immediately, it beat neck breaker, Dragon Kick and command dash but Hien would get Ibuki out. If I slightly delayed it, it beats Hien but not command dash.

DF Palm o/s DP is a bad idea - it loses to command dash and leaves Akuma open for a big combo or Ultra.

290

You can also cr.hp to negate the kunai and cancel with ultra demon on dragon kicks.

291

sagat matchup needs to be reviewed. been thinking about it. that certain stuff especially with exploding heart into flip divekick doesn’t work as well now.

after from knowing the ranges of the normals.

what are the tricks that works really well in this matchup?

also what are the best option possible after max pushback of x-up tatsu sweep?

292

With Sagat all i look for is St.RH and cr.rh. Safe jump into safe block strings and so on.

I need help with the dic. matchup. How the hell do you get in on this guy? What’s the best option on him after a UT knockdown? I know of the OS’s to deal with his escape options. But when it comes down to it whenever I try to apply pressure, I always get cr.lk’d out of my strings and tick throws.

Also Vega…how do you get on this guy too? I can’t even footsie him…I always eat cr.lp/mp into wall dive…what can I do to apply more pressure??

293

For both characters you DF palm strike their wake up after an UTKD. Also for both characters you need a strong footsie game and tight frame traps. If you find they are always hitting you out of pressure strings then your frame traps aren’t tight enough.

294

[quote=“wongkey, post:292, topic:117768”]

With Sagat all i look for is St.RH and cr.rh. Safe jump into safe block strings and so on.
/QUOTE]

can further elaborate on sagat matchup?

especially the divekick setup possible on him.

eg.

corner

Bnb into Sweep Instant Heavy divekick (sagat forced to block can?t uppercut)

Grab dash*2 jump lk (ambiguous crossup, can?t uppercut)

Air grab dash heavy divekick (sagat forced to block can?t uppercut)

mid screen

grab * dash*1 heavy demonflip whiffland behind meaty c.lk/c.mp

etc.

i find that my momentum against a good sagat is oftenly killed half way through the match and i have to work really hard to find another opening.

so i am trying to improve my vortex against sagat and mixup as much as possible.

i am not dealing with normal sagat player, i am dealing with best sagat in my area. even though this matchup is 5-5 or slightly in akuma favour im finding it hard getting zoned toughly.

like things to watch out for.

his f.lk i can’t seem to react to it, it comes out of nowhere when he’s zoning me and the fear of it going into kara uppercut makes it hard for me to corner sagat.

his c.hp tricks, range is so far…and it hurts. and random tigerknee from that distance just throws me off.

and also its particularly very hard for me to beat sagat tech pattern…still trying to improve on that. maybe i should add video for reference in critique thread.

295

More random tips…

T. Hawk
EX Tomahawk beats wakeup crossup tatsu
EX Mexican Typhoon can also beat crossup tatsu, according to some. (Unverified)
Don’t teleport backwards to avoid a Condor Dive that looks like it’s going to cross up - it often reaches far enough to punish the recovery. Teleporting forwards should avoid this.

Vega (Claw)
Vega can punish air fireballs with the Claw Roll

Zangief
Meaty wakeup attacks lose to EX SPD
Avoid fireballs or st. HK when in range of EX Green Hand (unless you’re baiting the GH out to kara Demon)
Gief has a setup that punishes attempts to jump: SPD>LP Green Hand>cr. LK. Teleport out of this setup.

And that concludes my research into the other character subforums. As always I’m happy to get any feedback, additions or corrections.

Next I’ll try to figure out good wakeup option selects against some of the characters that don’t have any info in the ‘Effective Option Selects’ section.

296

Someone recently mentioned the j.hk os ex tatsu against Cody.

It works beautifully. Thanks!

297

I think I’m doing that too early cause it trades for some reason.

298

does anyone know how to get around ryus that low forward to get out of your mixups off of a forward throw? i play against a buddy alot and he’s started to low forward underneath all my demon flip kicks. i was wondering if there was a direct counter to that.

299

Don’t do DF outside zoning and okizeme.

300

Mix-up your setups. Don’t always go for a demon flip or cross-tatsu. Instead try dash x2 > j.lk which will snuff him out if he expects the dive kick and tries to c.mk. Try dash once > lk flip palm whiff > block or back dash to see if you can catch his c.mk whiff. Try a d+mk dive kick which will stab his c.mk. Maybe try dash x2 empty jump > SRK.

The idea is to mix things up enough so he starts to get unsure at otherwise go-top responses to being thrown. If you’re going through the same routines after a forward throw he’s naturally going to hedge his bets and go for the option which best counters (or screws up) your most preferred attack.

Many people have developed a familiarity with Akuma’s setups and as part of them knowing the Akuma match-up they need to understand what we are doing and also identify our various setups and the options they entail. Thankfully our options are huge so we have many ways to fuck them over and bait expectations which might be applicable to your matches with your mate. I kinda know where you are coming from as I play a mate of mine a lot (he uses Dhalsim) and the matchup is a true chess match a lot of the time. He knows Akuma’s setups better than many players and has developed a way in which to handle a LOT of Akuma’s bullshit. Naturally it factors in a guess now and then but on the whole his knowledge makes the going extremely tough. Key for me is throwing out his expectations and baiting him. Give it a try.