For real, he’s pulled it out on me a couple times and believe me, it works. Even though you have a huge ass window to escape frame it, you’re still holding :db:, then outta no where, he cuts off HHS and then after that, all you’re gonna be smelling is Sumo ass.
We have all had to deal with the mega man’s sumo ass… damn dude… use some soap. 
Seriously? That link is very handy. Just because you can’t do it doesn’t mean it’s not useful.
the only times I go for it are:
a) meaty low forward (where it’s more forgiving)
b) do or die
c) casuals and I’m not worried about losing cause I scrubbed my combo
d) block string cause even if I miss it it still makes for a tight block string
I don’t know how you guys play blanka, but mine is all about well timed sweeps/slides into xup short s.strong mixups. the opportunities I get to do low forward x2 aren’t really all that frequent. if you’re talking about dizzy xup short f+strong xx electricity or xup short s.strong fierce or xup short s.strong f+strong all dizzy almost as often or leave you a fp away from dizzy.
s.strong mixup is just so much more versatile in my mind.
all the scrub blanka’s I play go for low forward x2 all the time but it leaves them with no pressure afterwards. kinda like in marvel where when you end your magic series with a launcher you’re left with no offense. you gotta hit them once and gauge their reversal first. bait it and then the next time you can grab them. I donno that’s how I play. always setting up grabs, waiting punishing reversals until they get scared and then grabbing when they’ve committed to block.
same with corner pressure you stuff pokes outside their poke range with s.short and low forward and sweep until they stop pressing buttons, then you walk up grab them.
no low forward x 2 there.
seriously. good combo and if you do it reliably more power to you! but for me my style is more pressure games -> pressure game -> pressure game -> death more than I like a lucky gamble combos into death.
I don’t know, st.mp mixups are good (and probably better on the whole), but with blanka you should mix it up a lot. Keep 'em on their toes. I guess you can link s.mp to c.mk too though. Crossup lk into c.mk x2 is pretty sweet because you can verify into blanka ball or if it’s blocked I think it still leaves you at a good range. Walk up sweep, slide, c.hp, hop forward, hop back jump/ball forward… whatever shenanigans. Not throw range though, which is nice to be in.
I mean I guess it’s not vital but like especially if you’re punishing something, it’s a bomb ass link. Way more damage than it needs to do for a 3 hit combo into ball.
Yeah its a good combo to know for sure just like you should know all his high damage combos, but I can’t land it 100% of the time and it isn’t part of my main game and my blanka is doing more than fine against all top level players like DGV, Calipower, or Afro. I think there are other combos that are vital which are way more useful than that one.
LEARN ALL LINKS FOR YOUR CHARACTER especially the character specific links as well as the links off of meaties. It is very important to do MAX DAMAGE when you have the chance. Trust me, something simple like this will put you a cut above the rest and can really cover your mistakes when you can wind up doing more damage on your opponent than they are doing to you.
There’s more to it than that
If you can successfully do your links consistently on block you won’t take pointless damage from reversal dps or throws. They can try, but then they’ll end up taking damage (if they can’t dp to block properly in between your moves, or they try to throw) But it’s important to know which links are air tight on block. For example I got into a grove where I saw someone do meaty cr.MP, to standing far HP, to cannon drill with cammy and I was all for doing that combo but it wasn’t air tight on block and ended up getting reversaled often, but if you do something like cr.mp, cr.mk as opposed to cr.mp, cannon drill you can’t be interupted and you are safe on block afterward while doing something similar can leave you exposed to punishment, so while you might be giving up a small amount of damage and a knockdown you will know that you’re safe from any type of punishment, and it puts you in a situation where you can be better prepared for what your opponent is going to do next (eg walk up to try to throw you, or jump in).
The less risks you take with trying to do big damage in one combo, the more risk you can take trying other things such as jumping in and even small things like eating fireballs and dp trying to get to your opponent.
These are pretty general examples and apply to how I approach the game, it doesn’t work for everyone but it kind of gives an example of my thought process and why I think learning the links is extremely important to upping your game. If you give your opponent fear of what you are capable of doing it can really give you an advantage and also give you a ton of options.
You want to get yourself to where you know that if your opponent messes up you’re going to be doing a great deal of damage possibly leading to a dizzy, and links are the key to getting this down especially when your opponent isn’t giving you too many opportunities to get hits in. The less you have to think about what YOU need to do to win, the more you can think about what your opponent is doing to try to win as well as being able to play out the matchup properly.
Didn’t mean to spark so much Blanka discussion, but you OG’s have really made me reconsider what I thought I KNEW about him.
And…let’s not forget the most important thing about cu.:lk:, cr.:mp:(x2) XX :hp: Blanka Ball…
TOUCH OF DEATH!!! You land that combo, you dizzy them, you do it again, that’s all she wrote for that round.
You must demonstrate the Dim-Mak.
On the top brick? No problem.
No. Bot-tom one.
I totally agree with Syxx, by the way, if that wasn’t obvious.