I thought this matchup became better for T.Hawk in AE since Hawk got buffed and Blanka got nerfed, but it’s still the same bullshit like in Super. I really really REALLY hate this matchup! I played against a friend of a friend in offline matches today, and we played about 50 games, and I hilariously lost each and every single match. My god, it just fuckin feels like there’s NEVER a time when T.Hawk has even a slight advantage over Blanka. I mean sure, you can punish HP Blanka Ball with some stuff, but if a good Blanka player knows this they will NEVER do it and instead they’ll use LP or MP ball which isn’t punishable at all. It just feels like I have no choice but to sit there like a bitch and embrace all the retardedness that comes. This matchup has got to be 8 - 2 in Blanka’s favor at the VERY fuckin least. T.Hawk is at such a great disadvantage in this matchup that I can’t imagine it being anything better then 8 - 2 in Blanka’s favor.
I know I’m embarrassing myself by posting this whiny thread, but I’m so infuriated that I don’t even care. I even cussed my friend’s friend out because he was laughing at how free I looked playing T.Suck. I still think T.Hawk is a good character, but is there a way to not get dominated by Blanka’s bullshit? (-_-)
It’s an incredibly up-hill battle and even against a shit Blanka Hawk has to be on top of his game. On GFWL (which I mainly play) I’ve played a few of the top ranked (I know it’s not overly important but y’know) Blankas on there with various degrees of success.
Not unlike Sim, Guile and Sagat and other match ups you need to play patiently, if the Blanka is just going to spam balls all day while laughing because you’re seemingly unable to punish it start trying to bait them out with jump back splash which beats most/all horizontal balls clean then you can obviously follow up with s.MP > lp.Tomahawk. Additionally, if they’re being predictable and throwing full screen balls you can punish with Tomahawk and Condor Spire (provided it is from the full screen, otherwise they’ll catch you in the start up and you’re almost guaranteed to lose).
The other thing that Blanka will probably use to try and catch you out is the jumping and hopping shenanigans where Blanka will constantly try and cross you up with j.MK and hops and will either try and go for a tick throw or a basic combo into lp.horizontal ball which puts them at a safe distance. There’s not a whole lot you can do to stop it, you have to just stay calm and not try and mash out SPDs or Tomahawks because they’re incredibly likely to fail. However, Thrust Peak and st.MP are really handy tools in this situation if you can time them right. It won’t give you a situation where you’re able to score massive damage but it will give you some damage and relieve some of the pressure.
The real problem is once you’ve scored the knockdown your options are reasonably limited because Blankas wake up options tend to beat everything Hawk does, practise the safe jump splash that Ponyo has in his video or just try safe jumping, most Blankas will either wake up with an Up-Ball or with Electricity, if he wakes up with Up-Ball and you’re in the middle of the screen there’s not a whole lot you can do except try and punish with st.HK, in the corner you can sweep for the knockdown.
I’m not as experienced as some of the other players in here, but my general game plan is to try and bully Blanka into the corner, score a solid life lead then back off and try and bait and punish balls. I use Ultra 2 in this match, if your reactions are good and you’re able to tell the difference between which strength of ball Blanka is throwing out you can beat it with U2 and it’s also a good punish for Blanka’s U1.
Again, this is all things I’ve learned from my own experiences playing and there might be some more solid technology I don’t know about that the other guys might be able to shed some light on. I have a couple of replays on GFWL against a few Blankas that I’ll try and upload as soon as I can get a good stable frame rate on Fraps with. But I hope this helps in the mean time :]
Are you on PSN?
Ask Sites. He’s got some good strats… Patient strats, but good ones against my Blanka. I usually go about 7/3 with his Hawk, but that’s better than when I used to merk him 10/0.
You can play me too: PSN: m1x4h
Thanks Clangers for your advice and input, it’s very much appreciated. I know I’m supposed to be patient, but sometimes it’s just so damn hard especially when you keep losing like crazy and getting intensely frustrated at the same time. I know that skill is still the biggest factor in helping someone to win, but in the T.Hawk/Blanka matchup it really feels like the Blanka Player can just dick around even with the most masterful T.Hawk Players, and their chances of winning are still better then the Hawks. These Blanka Players don’t even have to be good at all, they can just imitate the mixups and strategies of great Blanka Players and still have a better chance of winning compared to great T.Hawk players. I really hate to say it (And I’m not trying to take anything away from Blanka Players who are reading this), but I really believe that this is the kind of matchup where the character counts more then skill (-_-)
I’m not on PSN unfortunately. I’m glad that some T.Hawk players know what they’re doing though. I have to be more patient.
Well, since I play both characters, I’ll tell you some tricks…
Don’t jump in. Balls beat you up.
c.lp when you think they might ball. Try to pick up on their patterns and c.lp them out of ball. If you do it at the right time, you can actually just walk up and SPD.
Don’t use the spire attack. It puts you in a bad position, because if you’re not on time with a follow up, you’ll eat a mashed electric or up-ball.
c.mp can hurt Bla a lot in a poke-fest. I tend to c.lp a lot when in close because I can usually hit confirm into elec (Every 1 time I c.lp, I actually swipe it 4 times, so hitconfirm is literally 1 more jab). C.mp will beat my attempts for some reason… At least, that’s how Sites beats it.
s.hk punishes blocked balls.
After knockdown, walk close, block down back and punish a wakeup. DON’T BE IN MY THROW RANGE. If you see a throw whiff because you stand outside of it, SPD me. If I upball, s.hk. If I electric, c.mp or c.mk.
I can’t mix you up. You can mash out a SPD or a s.lp if I try any form of hop shennanigans.
Keep in mind, you have to out play the player, not the character.
Don’t worry about beating Blanka. Worry about beating your opponent.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll keep all of this in mind.
Idk, I just hope he’ll have an easier time in the next potential update. If he could win more consistantly against his bad matchups, that’d be wonderful.
Oh one more thing…
You’re playing against Blanka… you’re countering him.
If he wakes up and sits there, just sit there. It’s a patience game. Punish the mistakes. Don’t overpower… You just can’t do it. You don’t have the priority for that.
this match is a real joke, reminds me honda vs hawk in superturbo, impossible… learn balrog to win against this fucker
the hp ball is punishable now, big deal… good blanka will use the lp, mp versions and will be that same bullshit, you cant crossup him too, only thing you cant do is a safe jump medium kick, its very easy to blanka get out of the corner, i think you cant do anything against the ex vertical ball, his jump its too damn fast and i cant react to punish with tomahawk or the ultra 2.
whats me piss off about that shit its blanka can be a complete scrub just throwing the ball, mash somes buttons and mashing eletricity and will win very easy, im tired to lost against people who play like 1 week mashing buttons with him and still win against me lmao, i fell your pain, i lost to blanka when they chosen on the character selection
Blanka is a match-up that I scream at my screen “Thanks Capcom” Its hard but its not a terrible matchup. One of the problems against blanka is that you have to play each player differently… My note book has a lot of different things. I don’t really like sharing my notebook (them thawk secrets) but Ill write out some of my big things that helped me deal with them.
-Rainbow Ball can be focused; If you see it punish it
-Stay out of range of Crouching Feirce and slide at all times.
-If you see a Blanka Ball at mid screen. Jump back feirce will catch him on the other side for an ambigious cross up.
-Dont try to do anything on a knock down thats really risky (splash etc…) keep him on the ground and make sure you do too…
-Sweep Electricity
-Have life lead? Back off
Punish unsafe normals
-Jab Blanka balls on reaction its easier than it looks
My notes have this matchup as a 4-6 but its eh…its hard but its not THATTT impossible. Its better than Vega thats for sure. Their are a lot of conditions however where you will just be mind fucked becuase what will happen will just not make sense. Here are some in my notes:
If you safe jump blanka. Ex Rainbow will cross you up in the air and it will look like he never ever hit you.
Eletricity beats everything except EX Condor Dive
EX Rainbow breaks armor in certain situations
All blanka balls have the ability to cross you up if you try to jump over them and you are late
Thanks alot for the advice, I appreciate it. I agree that it’s not impossible to win this matchup.
We know that T.Hawk is a rare fight these days and so most Blanka Players out there don’t have adequate matchup experience with T.Hawk, but I really believe that if any of us we’re to play against not only a highly skilled Blanka Player but one that has a very good understanding of the T.Hawk matchup and won’t fall for his gimmicks, that it is virtually impossible to win this matchup consistently. My idea of consistent, is literally winning this matchup as if it we’re a 7 - 3 matchup with T.Hawk winning at least 30 matchups out of 100 against Blanka. I don’t even think a masterful T.Hawk will even win half that much against a masterful Blanka.
The thing I really hate is that even though you know what kind of bullshit is coming your way, most of the time you can’t do a single thing about it because T.Hawk wasn’t designed to win against Blanka on a competitive level.
Definitely agreeing with you Chazz. Hawk’s “bad” matchups only get exponentially worse as the level of play from your opponent increases. It’s easy for us to say a matchup isn’t THAT bad when we play online or casuals, but imagine going to these top tier tournaments. The Blanka matchup goes from yelling at the TV and firing off profanities to binge drinking mixed with domestic violence.
What do you partially agree with me on? Or don’t agree with me on? I’d really like more of your input on this. You’re definitely more skilled and experienced then I am.
i think i lost to a scrub yesterday who was about to pick up the game, the only thing he do was jump, mp ball e eletricity and i can do anything
hes jump is to damn fast and i cant react to do the crap no invencibility tomahawk buster
the mp ball i cant do anything, if i jump back to try to punish he smash the fucking eletricity and i cant do anything
when he smash the ramdom eletricity i punish with the sweep… great shit, basicaly doenst do any damage and i cant mixup when hes down
i tried to stop the ball with cr jab… no damage at all and sometimes i get trade and lost a lot of life
I experienced all of these things playing against the friend of my friend who uses Blanka that day. It just really bugs me how we know what’s coming, but we can’t do shit most of the time because T.Hawk is so limited. It’s so frustrating, but I love T.Hawk so much that I can’t bring myself to dropping him. He’s just too awesome.