[media=youtube]__XIEnXdOVM#t=3m24s[/media]
So i guess he technically does have a pseudo TOD.
You will never land it though.
[media=youtube]CX80LNuyCJY#t=4m17s[/media]
You finally understood the power of the Darkside. 
Iāve always played my ass off with Cammy, but so many times Iāll lose because sheās a bad character. Iāll āplayā better than the other guy but still lose. Then I randomly pick Vega and I start winning those matches just because he has better strength, life, and options. Street Fighter HD is a perfect example of why tier lists matter. So yeah, Iām gonna focus on Vega from now. If anyone has any general tips (Shari? Youāre the best Vega Iāve faced, and Iāve played Opemai and Blacmore) throw them this way.
I actually came here looking for Blanka vs Claw advice (me being a Blanka player at times) and was glad to find lots of recent discussion on the match.
Anyway I remember reading a while ago that Blanka did pretty well against Claw but I have absolutely no idea why when I canāt get near him. It seems all he has to do is charge down and back. Sure the occassional jab/strong roll into bite works but I find it hard to press the advantage without Claw pulling out a reversal and getting out of harmās way.
So any advice for Blanka?
Just to point out, Iāve seen Shari vs Emprion have 3-4 matches and I think Shari won convincingly each time; and Emprion is pretty good.
Here are some general tips for Vega since there seems to be quite a bunch of new Vegaās.
Always be charging.
This cannot be stressed enough.
One of the things that will separate an average Vega from a good Vega is this.
The most glaring instance where people do not seem to charge is during walldives.
Charging during your walldives is what allows you to do very mean and evil things with them.
Another instance is during backflips. Backflip into Kickflip is really good and will catch a lot of people regardless of skill.
Go into training mode and look at the hitboxes for all your moves.
Alot of Vegaās moves have invulnerability at the tip of the claw or feet depending on the move. The most glaring examples of this are :mk: and :d::hp:.
Here is a very basic matchup guide:
Ryu: From fullscreen walldive can izuna drop him out of hadouken on reaction.
Punish him for everything he does:
Hadou = :uf::hp: or walldive.
Tatsu = :mk:, :hk: Flipkick x2 on crossup :d::hp:
SRK = Anything you want.
If you get him into the corner :mk: is extremely hard for him to deal with.
It beats every move he has besides SRK. and SRK will whiff depending on your spacing. Keep pressuring with it and if he start turtling close :mk: is a perfect tick.
Ken: Practically the same as Ryu the difference being you should not place as much emphasis on Walldive.
If you can :d::mp: :lp: SRK consistently you can beat most scrub Kens.
Honda: :ub: :hp: is your friend. Beats headbutt and you should always link it into :d::mk::d::mp: x opposite wall. Once you get the opposite wall Honda has alot of trouble stopping you. hit or block always link into :d::mp: x Opposite walldive and repeat. :hp: Wallclaw beats Slaps.
Blanka:
:d::mp: keep him out of crossup range.
Walk forward :d::mp: after blocked ball is guaranteed.
Slide electricity as soon as you see it.
If you donāt have flipkick charged simply :d::hp: as an antiar.
If he starts to get close walk back while throwing the occasional :d::mp: or simply back :ub::hp: if you think he will ball.
If you get knockdown You can usually Roll on him without any major worries.
If he tries to emptyroll into mixup simply slide it as it is landing or flipkick if you have reflexes for it.
And if you need to apply pressure :uf::hp: is extremely hard for him to deal with.
If he does get in he can easily kill you.
Guile:
Slide is still extremely hard for him to deal with. Slide slide slide :d::mp: to get back to max slide range and snuff booms. I think J.chensor said you can do max walldive fake and walldive on booms or flipkick but iāve not had success with it.
Boxer:
:d::mp:,:d::hk: snuffs rush punches keep pressuring him and bait and punish Headbutt. Whoever gets the momentum usually wins.
Chun:
Getting knockdown and starting walldive mixups is your main plan.
She can pretty much beat you on the ground and the air. Mixup walldives with fakes that only go halfscreen and try to hit with the tip. Once you get knockdown she has alot of trouble.
Gief:
Play Keep away. Only slide lariat if itās close to you. The risk of getting knockdown outweighs the damage you get 10 to 1.
Keep him at max range from you with :hp: and :d::mp: at this range flipkick will always antiair and so will :d::hp:. Walldive hitting with tip of claw is very hard for him to deal with. If you get the lifelead you can practically win this Honda style.
Sim:
Walldive. Then do some More. If he does upflame :hp: wallclaw punishes for free at any distance. :ub::hp: stops his drills and gives you another walldive.
Sagat:
Play like like a ryu that you can more easily walldive but not :mk: pressure.
Oppsite walldive on reaction to tiger shots are extremely effective.
Claw:
Mirror match. :u::mp: beats walldives consistently. If your opponent knows this mixup walldives with halfscreen waldives hitting with the tip. Getting knockdown and starting the walldives is what wins the match. Kickflip on reaction to walldive should not bother you very much since you can generally punish it if itās :k: backflip and :p: backflip is another free dive.
Thawk:
Play it the same as Gief. Flipkick his dives and watch out for psychic SRK. There is very little else he can do to get in.
Fei:
Slide beats rekka. Play it like ken without a fireball and a less effective SRK.
His :d::hp: is very effective against you and has a strange hitbox than can hit some of your jumpins, :uf::mk: will always beat it though. Play keepaway and you can generally win this easily.
Deejay:
His :d::mk: is extremely effective against your ground game. Mainly focus on mixing up walldives and punishing his Maxouts. Your gameplan should resemble the chun matchup.
Cammy:
Bad distance drill can be punished with :d::mp:. Walldives are not very effective against Cammy due to her great Cannon Spike hitbox and arc. Other than that the matchup is not very different from Fei.
Dictator:
He has no real wakeup answer to walldives at all so once you get knockdown you can generally win or at least do lot of damage.
Flipkick crusher and Scissor if you can. Your groundgame against him is similar to against Boxer without the worry of headbutt. If he starts spamming :u::mp: bait it out and flipkick and then go into walldives or if he does it up and down in the corner time your walldive so that you reach him as he is going down.
That is the basic idea in your matchups.
GL with Vega.
Iād rep you if I could! Thanks ALOT, I have tons of info to digest for later. Iāll be sure to show you my Vega if weāre ever in a huge room, feel free to tell me of my progress.
EDIT: One last question. Sometimes when Iāll do a dive or the claw torpedo, Vega will just kinda make a small rolling jump. Is this because Iām too far away from the wall?
Itās dependant on how your opponent moves when you do the walldive.
I believe it occurs when you walldive towards the wall and they move so that the screen scrolls so the wall moves away from your jump.
Cheers to Shari for this basic explanation of matchups. He knows his stuff and Iād rep him too if I could! :tup:
Respect. :china:
Any more on this matchup I could squeeze out of ya? Any normals work for anti-air against j.mk or should I just block/flipkick/backflip? Maybe c.hp if itās a max range j.mk? I assume a meaty claw roll is not a good idea because she can upkick?
When you double flip kick what strengths do you use? Lk for quick recovery into a mk or hk? Or what?
Flip Kick works as Anti-air for j.mk for me. Many times Iāll slide under with RK, and suplex her upon landing.
Meaty roll is risky if youāre opponent has reversal down. If they donāt, go ahead and giveāem some meaty rolls with a can of kick-ass. If they have reversal down, purposely whiff a lp roll to miss, and punish upkicks on the way down. GL on your matchup with her. If sheās a jumpy one, mix up the Sky High Claw here since she gets lots of air time.
:hk: for Flipkick for both attacks.
Against Chunās j.:mk: your :d::hp: trades but will rarely beat it, Flipkick is your best option blocking it lets her go into :mp:/:hp:/Tickthrow shenanigans so rather if you donāt have flipkick go for the trade with :d::hp: to gain charge for Flipkickā¦ Backflip can work but with her walk speed she can generally just walk up and pressure you.
Clawroll can work but generally walldive is the superior choice unless she is in the corner. If you want to clawroll her try to hit with the end of the claw at max range.
Thanks guys. Any match vids would be awesome too if you see good things worth x-copying.
Thanks. I play sim and sheās hands down my worst matchup so I want to work on a counter. Either claw or blanka. Better with blanka but I assume claw is better overall.
Glad I found this forum. I believe my Vega has plateaued due to me not being able to come up with new ideas.
Ok, whatās the deal with Vegaās flip-kick and Chun-Li? I was facing a 'Gief/Chun player last night and I just could NOT deal with his Chun ('Gief was fine, I pretty much have that matchup down ice-cold). Iād always take 'em to max rounds. Half the time when Iād do the flipkick nothing would register and Vega would stay crouching (FUCK THE 360 CONTROLLER), and sometimes Chunās jumping short would beat it. Is the Flipkick vulnerable? Iām guessing its not like Kenās SRK or Akumaās.
I think they nerfed it in remix.
They only took the storing aspect out for vega. They never nerfed the flipkick priority, which is still insane good.
Itās all about timing. Flip Kick timing hits on way up and is different from DP. Check the hitboxes for exact vulnerability. Practice that Flipkick. It is unique from other moves with the db to f movement. Fightpad is pretty good for this in my opinion.
Wowā¦ Food for thought - thanks for the matchup tips Sharizord - do you mind if I host them on my guide site if I credit you?
I find Blanka generally easy now - I used to worrry about the matchup though. I think inadvertently I started playing the match similar to how Shar said, but less effectively, flip kicking balls - or blocking and punishing, sliding electric and keep off the wall dives, but always be ready to flip kick the jump ins.
Upon reading the recent discussion on here - Iām thinking I can improve my vega 10x by doing a simple change. I use an XBOX normal pad - so I set the four coloured buttons to light and heavy (I can never use the shoulder buttons very easily.) Iām now thinking, with Vega, itās probably better to have middle and heavy on the easier buttons to press?
I used to main shotoās in the good oleā days, and you really wanted light attacks to be easily available (PS1 pad.) I reckon with Vega it makes more sense to have middle and heavy though, as thereās rarely a situation where light makes more sense than heavy - does this make sense?
Matchup wise my most hated at the moment is Ken and his zero startup DP. I find it a real pain, when Iām not being reversalād Iām being knee tick thrown, canāt wall dive, cant roll or slide. The only hope is that heās rubbish and just goes for a ryuāesque fireball trap style game - or bait him into doing big SRK with fake wall divesā¦
Feel free to host it anywhere you want, you might want to look it over for spelling though since i wrote it in a hurry.
For the Ken matchup try watching these :
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[media=youtube]Ls-4fFw0SPA[/media]
Tokido plays a textbook Claw vs Ken.
Especially take note of how extremely effective :mk: is in the corner.
In terms of controller you should try to invest in a Stick.
It is vastly superior.
Especially when it comes to button placement.
I did think about getting a stick or a fightpad but I really want a wireless one, the only way I could think of doing this was modifying an EX2 heavily or building a custom arcade stick with Sanwa parts and stripping out a wireless 360 pad.
my other issue is I really gret up on pads, I played SF and SF2 in the arcades first, but there were no arcades near where I lived, I played SF2, SF2 Turbo and Super SF2 to death on the SNES, I had a fightpad for that system. Then I played the Alpha Games to death on the PS1, I played SSF2T on the PC and arcades, playing on a keyboard is tough, especially when you are playing two player and you could effectively win by getting one hit in - then holding down as many buttons as you could to fill the keyboard buffer and prevent your opponent making a move - yes this was a cheap tactic!
I think the hardest moves to do on a pad are the three sixty command throws, but I suck with command throw characters so it doesnāt matter that much.
Itās up! Actually Sharizord, if you can spot anything glaringly wrong with my Vega page, Iād appreciate any advice on how to correct it.
Bear in mind itās mainly aimed at people totally new to Vega and probably fairly new to SF2 - itās here