Quoted from nohoho’s player profile on ARG:
The highlight of ARG’s fighting style is his corner trap. Like trapped birds, his opponents flutter fruitlessly as they are stabbed to death. Fear the horrible “Bird Cage of the Claw.”
Any idea what this is about? What is looks like? How we can be using this? etc etc
: D
I’ve got some vids of him doing that, but I don’t know if they are on the web anywhere anymore. ARG is great at locking you down with pokes. He’s one claw player that doesn’t have to just spam wall dives to win. It’s like a work of art watching him stand just less than half screen away and psychic poke the shit outta his opp.
Xmania 7, A block finals, versus ShootingD’s Ryu. Very NICE. :karate: He’s a Ninja.
Can someone explain the claw/sim match for me? I hate getting into the tick trap, cause I swear my throw range is less than dhalsims. Does my jump fierce beat his anti air s.MK or his karate chop? which of his moves beat my low strong?
claw v claw?
Don’t get knocked down. Ever. To me, this match is all about who can land the first wall dive.
The best thing you can do against Blanka is upset his charges by going to the opposite wall, then play with your opponent’s head by moving the control stick back and forth while you’re in the air. (This is a good thing to do against uppercut and flash kick-crazy opponents, too) This leaves some doubt in their mind as to where you’ll drop, and you can zoom in at the last possible second and Izuna Drop them (or if you already had it charged, super combo), assuming they’re not using the electrical attack, in which case, pull back, drop about a body length in front of him, and slide kick. Some Blankas go crazy with the anti-air roll, which can be tough (though not as tough as it was on Hyper Fighting) but a simple block / slide strategy ends that party before it starts.
Best advice in general? Charge during EVERYTHING. Your thumb should be glued to down-back, but the trick is to not look like you’re charging. The Backslash (Vega’s backflip evasion move) helps with that, it’s invincible if done at range, it removes the necessity of blocking, and while you do it, you can charge for a wall jump or a Rolling Crystal Flash. Doing a half-Backslash and then going to the wall for a Sky High Claw, Rolling Crystal Flash, or even breaking out the Scarlet Terror (Flash Kick) really throws your opponent’s timing off. If you must jump attack, always go with the Jump MP. It’s quick, and it gets you more than a few nasty air throws.
My biggest gripe about Pros who use Vega is they’re way too afraid to Barcelona Attack, and they simply don’t half-backslash enough. There’s this tendency to play him like Balrog, and just use his flash kick as a buffalo headbutt, and to simply pick away at your opponent. I don’t like that approach, because you can do obscene amounts of damage with the wall jump / Izuna Drop combo, and there are more than a few ways to execute it safely. For instance, the prevailing wisdom against a Ken or Sagat is to stick to your ground game, because of how lethal their anti-air arsenal is. However, if you can manage to draw the Dragon Punch or Tiger Uppercut out of your opponent, (best done with fakes, such as a LP Rolling Crystal Flash) you can hop right off the opposite wall and grab him on his way down, or launch a nasty combo right in his face.
Most of what you’re saying I agree with, but this one I’m not so sure. Are you talking air to air or air to ground? Air to air I agree it will net you some air throws. But air to ground, he has better. Jump fierce is my go-to because it has a nice hitbox, and leads beautifully into either cFK, cSP or throw (an important mixup for Claw). I find myself using a lot of jump RK as well, but it’s got a really small hitbox so unless you’re spacing it perfectly, the fierce is more advisable. A lot of pros will use jump FK, too, I presume for its ticking ability, but I don’t use it much. Style thing I guess.
Jump strong DOES have a good use, though. Jump attacking from a greater distance. For jSP to be the jump attack of choice you have to be a step back further from where you’d typically use his other stuff. It’s got much better range than his other attacks so you can tag em w/ the tip from a different range than they normally get used to.
I’m gonna mess with jSP just to make sure I’m not putting my foot in my mouth, but for air to ground fierce should be your 1st candidate. (also note jump straight up FK makes for a good tick on wakeups if you’re confident they won’t DP you for it)
Yup thats the truth, fierce is your best high priority air to ground attack. Using roundhouse will get you some more speed though since it reaches lower earlier, i use it on occasion when my fierce wont reach a fireballing character in time before they can block or dp. Also roundhouse can hit dhalsims short slide whereas fierce will whiff since it cant hit that low. As for jumping strong, i usually use it in air to air distance fights or when i jump at a ryu from a long distance purposely to ‘safe jump’ if he throws a fireball, ill tag him with that into a low strong from far. Simple 2 hit combo does nice damage though.
i’ve been 3k flipping wall dives in claw/claw matches. if i’m in the corner i try to beat it with jump mp. what do you guys do?
thats exactly what i had planned for tokido when i was gonna play him. of course i was gonna make one of my buttons 3K so it would be easier to bust reversals on wakeup. Anyway thats exactly how you beat it but i do charged flashkicks in corner instead.
ThisGuileKillYa, I agree with you. On ST, Capcom switched his jumping MP so that not only is it not as effective as on Hyper Fighting, but many times if you do it to a ducking opponent, you will whiff them entirely. On Turbo HF, his jumping MP is great for anti-air and anti-ground alike. ST, it’s usually best to do a jumping HK or HP. My mistake.
And to answer the Claw / Claw match question - the best approach for me against wall-jumpers is air-throwing them, but sometimes when the speed is set high it gets way too difficult to properly time that air-throw, and I stick to flash-kicking at the last second.
Graham- Any advice on Vega(Claw) vs Bison (Dictator)? This is the one match that has always eluded me, and i don’t play against enough Bisons to get trained for this match. To me it seems Vega is at a disadvantage. Thoughts?
its a tough match, best advice is alot of patience.
dont try fancy stuff, block his scissors and do throws afterward if he does them too close, a good way to make him do that is by walking forward a tiny bit just enough so he cant do it at his perfect range
Against Bison, the Scarlet Terror (flash kick) is murder, because if timed properly, it’ll knock him out of short Psycho Crushers, and it also prevents him from abusing his jumping HK in perpetuity. Once you scare your opponent away from that jumping HK, bouncing to the opposite wall fouls up his charges and pretty much ruins his day. Oh, and alot of Bison players (even experts) are soft low, because for some reason the Pump Kick is easier to do by holding straight back as opposed to down-back. Avoid slide-kicking him, but attacking him low with LKs and MKs is effective.
I’m not sure about that, actually. Vega’s flash kick is such a high risk move against Bison. Most Bison players I know never jump at opponents often anyhow, so the threat of a Razor Kick againt a Jumping Bison seems moot. And if you try and Flash Kick Scissor Kicks on reaction or by prediction, either of them will get you killed if he baited you and you whiff.
And if I’m charged and you go off the back wall, a Fierce Psycho Crusher pretty much is a Get Out of Jail Free card. Either Vega gets hit or you both whiff and nothing happens. If Vegas tries to go off the other wall (to make Bison lose his charge), he’s actually in too good of a position for Bison to Jump attack defensive and escape (and you give Bison a lot more time to react by trying to fly over his head).
Also, for Ground to Ground combat, Bison’s Crouch Forward beats almost everything Vega does (it’s stupid). So I dunno… This fight is definitely in Bison’s favor, IMO. Vega basically has to play a different game than the one he normally plays to win.
Could you elaborate on this a little? I’m always on the lookout for new Blanka strategies and this anti-air roll party that can be tough for Vega sounds pretty sweet.
Off topic and wrong thread… But I know you’ll come beach here…LOL…
Are you going to do that blanka write up on the blog?
“I’ve been patiently waiting kind sir! Please give to the children! We know not Blanka love…” :lol: …
Ehhhh I really lost my motivation for that project for a variety of reasons. Anyway I think I may start working on more Sengoku Basara X stuff. Also I’ve been meaning to do some Vampire Savior related posts.
SINCE you brought it up, I do have something I did a while ago. Scope the Blanka thread.
Thanks for the heads up!