In my opinion the only real bad match up for Ken is Dhalsim. You really need to outplay your opponent. But Ken has a lot of tough matches. Like Guile, Chun, Balrog, Adon, Cammy and others. I would put Rose and Ibuki too. Deal with Ibuki’s vortex and Rose’s normals sometimes is very difficult. But you have equal chances, just have to play very solid.
For me these matches are hard to win because you have to play a knockdown based game. Ken is very powerful against these chars that we said before once he gets a knockdown. Using OS, Safe Jump set ups and ambigous cross ups after knockdowns make their wake up always a guess in Ken’s favor if you dont mess it up.
But Dhalsim is really hard to win, you have to sacrifice a lot to get close, do everything to get a knockdown, take him to the corner, and be perfect with your set ups to end the round. If you drop a combo, or somehow let him escape, good luck with that.
I think Ken’s a top character, for sure. He has trouble with characters with better normals but they’re very winnable. Sim is the only match-up I would consider 7-3. I have to rethink Adon now that his Jaguar’s don’t seem as crazy.
Ken’s mix-ups are insane, damage and stun wise on oki. Offense at neutral? It’s good but I wouldn’t consider it amazing.
I enjoy playing the Sim matchup, even though I rarely get to play a Sim that is Champ or Sabin tier. Toughest Sims I’ve played would probably be Chat de Thunder (got in a good set with him at UFGT7) and that WetWilly guy on XBL (I’m probably the only guy that knows that dude).
As for Ken in general? He’s a solid, well rounded character, but you have to play assertive and really have a feel for when your opponent is getting tight. If you play too timidly or go in at the wrong time, it will be an uphill battle in a lot of matchups.
Neutral game
Ultra 2 is the choice obviously.
Ken out footsies sagat no doubt . Take a Mid range game out of his standing round house range and poke with low forward. If the sagat
ur up against likes to use tiger knees in footsies ken will duck under and punish accordingly . If Sagat likes to use standing medium kick which has lower body invincibility and is a counter to ur low forward , you need to throw out crouching mp buffered into ex hurricane kick at mid range to let him know you have a counter for his standing medium kick .
Sagat shouldn’t get free jumps on ken make sure he won’t .
Don’t jump on sagat unless he is getting comfortable throwing firballs at mid range and when u do jump , it is smarter not to throw out any normal in the air
cos you don’t want to get a trade which he can followup for extra damage ( Wao tactic) .
When you jump on sagat make it count and knock him down. If you like using tatsus in ur combos go for medium kick tatsu or an ex tatsu .
Your best bet after a medium kick tatsu is a grab cos ur both at the exact frames 0 and if he does anything other than an uppercut or a back dash or a grab ur gonna scoop him . Midium kick tatsu mind games are better than high kick tatsue which leaves u at a -1 .
full screen you want to get close but you don’t want to make it obvious . You need to send a message to sagat that you can handle his firball game by dodging some focusing some just like michael tan . untill ur in a comfortable range .
Up close , sagat’s huge hit box lets ken abuse the standing jab . standing jab up close gives sagat a hard time. you want to use this to creat amazing pressure by walking forward and sticking it out just like how balrog players used to abuse their standing jab in the old sf4 and ssf4 . jab walk jab walk jab walk jab walk jab its a +5 on block so !!! .
this is great cos he can’t really press anything when your doing it . He can’t jump away eaither … he can only uppercut. So abuse it .
Use standing forward in frame traps ( you can link it into crouching fierce in this match-up)
+Knock downs .
Fierce Dp : If you knock him down with a fierce dp jump low kick tatsu cross up . This set up cannot be uppercuted by sagat . check if he uppercuts or not …if he does uppercut you beat him with the cross up tatsu … when he stops uppercutting you jump in fierce for cross up non cross up mind game .
Jab Dp : personally , I use Kara jab Dp in all of my bnbs against sagat . Y ? it gives me automatic safe jump against his dp . not just that . If I jump emty and low short option select throw I will be able to block his uppercut automatically and tech his throw if he stand throws . but most importantly , if he does not quick rise what you do is neutral jump after your low short wiff and that is another safe jump for you . its a full attack with no risk .
Forward throw : here is your game . ill give you one set up that is a pure guess for the sagat. And he can’t Dp both options. he has to block .
After a forward throw wiff a low roundhouse and jump forward if you stick a fierce punch he has to block in front but you will land at his back ,if you stick out a roundhouse you will hit him in front and land in front and if you tatsu your crossing him up. non of these setups can be uppercuted .
You can also back dash after the throw and empty jump into low short option select grab to avoid both uppercut that you will block and tech the thow if hes throwin’.
back throw : after landing a back throw wiff a low forward and emty jump into low short option select throw . again you will block his uppercut , tech his throw and start a block string or a combo with your low short if he decides to block . you can mix that set up with a kara air tatsu for a cross up .
or you can dash after your throw , very tiny step back jump fierce ( very ambiguous and his reversal wiffs )
sweep : Sagat wakes up later than most of the characters by one frame along with cammy and blanka . keep that in mind .
after landing a sweep wiff a low jab , emtpy jump into low short option select throw ( perfectly safe ) .
or you can take a tiny step forward and jump for a safe jump ( this one needs practice for the timing) .
Try those , and let me know what you think , I also have corner knock down setups against sagat that are sweet and very hard to block
thats some good shit dooki, i knew most of it except the low short whiff on untech KD after your kara jab dp, AND the low roundhouse trick off forward throw… that shit sounds so damn sexy. good looks my dude. does the low roundhouse trick apply to all biggies or just gat?
all biggies bro … its one hell of a set up , fucks boxer up when os’d sweep . and if you jump mk on blanka he will wiff his reversal (os ex tatsu and ull land infront of him to punish)
another thing on the sagat match-up is , a back dash after landing a rh tatsu will make his uppercut wiff … and their are the corner setups … I have four set ups 2 for each throw in the corner …
Forward throw ( wiff standing fierce and jump either fierce or round house both will cross up )
or wiff sweep or mk over head jump short for a cross up ( ull land infront of him which is tricky )
wiff low short dash in front then jump kara tatsu or regular tatsu ull get two air tatsu hits (non cross up ) and ull land in front of him .
back throw ( wiff fake tk jump roundhouse , fierce or short to land in front)
or wiff a stepp kick jump roundhouse .
these are all very very ambiguous and hard to block .
Does anybody know if balrog’s EX headbutt hit Ken’s c.MK? Im not sure, but I was playing a friend these days that did EX headbutt after I land an EX tatsu combo and it hit Ken. I always thought that c.MK with fierce DP buffered beats all his options on wake up, now i’m not sure. EX headbutt always hit, or depends on the spacing?
Does anybody know how much frames of advantage or disadvantage cammy has after fadc cannon spike? And other thing, do you guys have any safe jump setup agains her?
1)F throw - back dash - emty jump low short os throw . ex hurricane for cross up
2)Back throw - wiff C.mk - jump Rh or fierce , safe … If you emty jump fierce Srk you will stuff her srk and fadc into a full Ultra, Kara ex hurricane for cross up.
These are safe jumps
There are setups the make her srk wiff , You need to hit her over the head example
Back throw - dash - tiny step back jump feirce .
make sure you Os select short hurricane kick or else you wont be able to punish .
The setup after forward throw is an emty jump true , but you hit cammy when you reach the ground , and if she reversal ull block! , if she throws you teck. its the same thing bro
all of Cammy’s cannon spikes are 5 frames startup.
you can throw her, take a half step back then forward jump for a safe jump
there are many other safejump setups since its only 5 frames startup
mix it up with cross up lk.tatsu and youre golden as long as she doesnt have U2
if she does have U2 loaded then go with dooki87’s suggestion to bait the U2. just make sure to really delay the cr.tech after the empty jump.
Yeah I know her cannon spike is 5 frames, but these days i was trying to find some safe jump setups after f.throw for all characters that have good reversals and the setups that I was doing with Sagat doesnt work against Cammy. Im not sure, but I think her wake up is different. The only thing that I found was setups that make Cammy wiffs her cannon strike. But the thing that Im looking for is someway that Ken does a jump in attack, and if Cammy does cannon strike, Ken can block when he lands. If she doesnt do the reversal cannon strike, the jump in attack hits her, and you can do a combo or continue the pressure. I cant find a setup like this for Cammy. Never works for me. ImagineVC if you have a video doing this it would be great.
Cool man. For me doing safe jumps setups with tiny steps is hard. I need to see it. I prefer to do safe jumps wiffing normals to get the right time. When I just walk back for the timing I always do it the wrong way, especially against good cammys. Maybe with you video I can see better. Looking forward to it.
yeah, not gonna lie, its hard at first but like the age old saying goes "practice, practice, practice"
my safejumps are quite consistent now.
but youre right, i wish Ken had some natural safejumps.
i’ll ask DRS Chris, he has a lot of whiffed moves into safejump setups. maybe he can share the knowledge.
Hey man I got a question, lets say I forward throw cammy but I want to hit her techs:
If i know she is teching fast, do I use faster normals such as jab? or doing a shoryu after jumping in?
If i know she is delaying her techs do I use slower normals?
Im pretty new but I just want to make sure I understand hitting people’s techs because I get mine hit alot and want to know how to do it myself.