Match Ups
Abel
(Henaki) Abel: Don't rely on tiger shots in the first part of the match, if you do, he can easily build up ultra and shut down a useful tool without you getting much in return. Use them when they will be hard to FADC through. HK is a good move, it stuffs crack shoot and Abels standing game in a few ways (hes a big guy). I wouldnt recommend knee UNLESS you do it at a safe distance, otherwise he can get a command grab off... if he does a blocked rekka, into followup, you can tiger upper inbetween for a combo. fwd HK really isnt that good in this matchup, since abel is going to be focused on the ground. uppecut does not hit him out of roll, you need to do a c.LK c.LK combo into it.
(Pistol Shrimp) Abel: Abel can't do much about your pokes. Like, Icege would get in, do a block string of c.lp, and as soon as he was out of c.lp range, s.lk beat anything he tried to follow up with. After standing lk you can do standing mk, and there didn't seem you be anything he could do after that. If the standing mk counter hits, I think you can combo into standing fierce. I definitely know I hit a 1 hit mk (dunno if it was the last hit of the 2 parter, or the only hit of the longer range one) into 2 hits of standing fk. Probably could have gotten more damage, but I didn't necessarily expect FK to hit, I was mostly just doing it to keep him from jumping in with mk.
Rolls can be responded to by throwing, which I like better than FK because I like keeping Abel full screen away. I'd bait Icege is FADCing fireballs, to set up a ex tiger shot to chew up all that life. Basically my idea was to get him use to fadcing fireballs full screen to build ultra, and try to trick him into messing up and eating an ex fireball. It worked a few times, but this seems more tricky than anything else.
I think did a full screen tiger shot, he ultra'd, and I ultra'd him in response and actually managed to recover from the fireball in time to counter ultra (it worked!) Obviously it won't work often, as I'm fairly sure Icege would have just closed the distance a bit next time before ultraing so that he's have hit. Abel's ultra is scary. And Sagat has a big ass, so he get hit when other characters would have fallen out. Lame.
Tiger knee seemed pretty good in this match. I had success with it. I don't tend to throw it out when it's close enough to be blocked and punished, mostly just kara'd knee's to get in or knock him out of a wheel kick.
I didn't get AA'd too much against him, but Abel's aa's suck anyways. But I was doing j.MP just in case. I still can't punish rekka's mid-rekka, so Icege basically does that crap all day. He knows it's punishable, just that *I* can't punish it. Ugh.
I had tons of success just poking the holy crap out of him, and tiger uppercutting his limbs. LK is great, c.lk is great, mk is great, fk stuffs so much crap. This match up doesn't really seem that bad to me. I just zone him and poke at him until he dies.
I don't really worry about him rolling to much, since I'm normally poking some sort of limb out he would just roll into it, and eventually just stopped rolling.
All in all, be patient when he's close to you. Realize your standing LK beats out tons of his stuff, so does mk and fk, and just play safe. I don't really rush down so I don't know how to play abel with that strategy, but I had tons of success poking him.
Akuma
(Henaki) Akuma: Land a combo, its hard, but do it, thats all you gotta do twice. The second time, its gonna be a lot harder cuz of demon. I don't know a lot about this matchup currently. dont Focus Attack Cancel air fireballs if he's really smart.
(Henaki) Akuma: pretty much never focus attack at mid range, unless stand HK's first hit will whiff, and even then, if he has ultra, bad idea. once he has ultra, just dont focus attack... ever.
LK fireball, LP uppercut can make his ex demonflips not turn out well.
go for uppercut trade with divekick, it will generally trade, and it hurts akuma waaaaaaay more. trading in general is something you want to take in almost every instance, ive found.
jump striaght up MK is a really, really good move to use just as hes getting up.
if you fireball too predictably, he can teleport, demon you!
in a fireball war, use HP fireball, neutral jump over red fireballs after they meet (so you gain super meter at the same rate he does, and you dont take chip damage), forward jump is fine too if he doesnt have ultra, or you're full screen.
Blanka
(ScrubyDan) Blanka: dont throw fireballs in sliding range, only do it once in a blue moon when he doesnt expect it. block blanka balls, the only way he can get in is slide, jump in, blanka ball or hop. this match is waiting it out, dont cross up on him too much because blanka ball or ex ball can beat u all the time. if u frustrate a blanka good enough, he would start making mistakes like jumping in or sliding, punish. becareful wakeup ultra, because that's the only way he's going to land that, punish with knee or ultra after.
some people dont know how to block blanka ball, its 1) block low, 2) block high when he jumps up, 3) block mid/low. usually i just sit at sliding range at this match, and wait for what he's going to do. he really cant do much imo, but jumping in is generally not a good idea because he can st.rh or jump straight up fierce. after a good deal of turtling, u can start throwing one or 2 fireballs, or jump in, cross up for some combos. patience is the key to this match
Boxer (Balrog)
Grits N Gravy (Boxer) One good thing Rog doesn't have is a crossup, if he does I haven't seen it. The big things with Balrog are to watch out for his sweep because it's incredibly fast, and his throw. One thing that's really helped me is to watch what your opponent is doing very closely, if you see Balrog walk up to you, alarms should be ringing because he's probably looking for a throw. You're not going to want to throw out too many pokes of your own unless you block something other than a jab because Rog can jab jab headbutt you before anything comes out.
Besides teching the inevitable throw your real defense here is to 1) tiger uppercut if you know what's coming, 2) block something slow, then do whatever you can to push him back. It's going to depend on what you block or bait what you can do: if he throws out a dumb headbutt you can low forward uppercut, if he tries to sweep I will do low short x2 low tiger. You can also throw him which will reset the match in your favor.
Not having to worry about being crossed up is great though, cause you can block and tech without a real big worry. I'm more concerned if fighting Ken for example cause he can do tick kara throw, has a great crossup, and great options off his lows as well.
(Pistol Shrimp) Balrog: Point 1: Without meter, all Rog can do is TAP, Headbutt, and hop/duck.
If you sit about 3/4 screen away, and toss fireballs, headbutting becomes extremely risky. A jab headbutt might not always clear a slow high tiger shot, and a fierce headbutt will get you fierce kicked or worse. Tap is good, but if the distance isn't right it can be blocked on reaction, and you shouldn't be tiger shotting balrog from so close anyways. Ducking is fine, but hoping is dangerous as Sagat has way more range than you think he does.
Point 2: With meter, he has so many tools that break tiger shot
With meter, he gains super armor on his dash punches. If you're zoning from the right distance, this won't matter, as you'll still be able to block on reaction. If Balrog is even remotely wrong on his dash punch (IE, doing the overhead when you aren't ducking), you can often times just mash FK and knock him out of the dash punch. I've done with plenty. Also, you can bait an ex dash punch and run Balrog into an ex tiger. Also, tiger knee isn't hard to do on reaction from the proper distance. Basically, I'm saying you should always been zoning balrog so there really should be a problem.
Quick side rant: A lot of balrogs I've played online (so I mean, I don't have top player balrog experience) try to bait tiger uppercut, or headbutt Sagat's long arms/legs. This leads to them turtling up a bit while trying to get in. It really isn't that hard to throw them (Maybe high level play this isn't applicable, but I wouldn't know yet :( ) and both of Sagat's throws put Balrog back at full screen. It's really not hard to keep Balrog out unless he gets right on top of you, but then you've got as good of a guessing game as he does. He doesn't want to random headbutt, because you can erase half his life if he does. You don't want to random uppercut for the same reason. His c.lp is really good, but once he gets pushed out to a certain range by his own pokes you can just push him the rest of the way out. If he wastes ex meter to dash punch back in and stay close, just block and be patient. If he doesn't ex his dash punch, you can interrupt it. c.lk and standing lk are really good. Same with standing hk. If he doesn't have a headbut charged, you can pretty much just fierce kick him whenever you want. You're right, it IS a big guessing game, but it's not so bad, and if sagat ever guesses right, balrog is all the way full screen again. Damn. :(
Point 3: If Rog gets in he can jab all day.
I already covered this, but I mean, you're sorta right and you sorta aren't. Yes, he can chain his jabs on block and keep pressure on, and if you've let yourself get backed into a corner, you can be in a bad spot. Don't let yourself get pushed into a corner. It's easy to cross Rog up after a knock down, so just switch sides. Remember, just be patient. He deal more damage with meter than him anyways.
Grits N Gravy (Boxer) It's actually not that hard if you can react and stand hk all his EX rush punch moves from full to 3/4 of screen. That was really one of the keys to the match for me, had I read frame data and figured it out sooner I would've never had an issue. Closer you can do Tiger Knees to break armor and his only real options against it is to bait and headbutt, or block otherwise he gets hit. If he headbutts early and trades though, you lose the trade BIG. He can still give you some trouble but I am having an easier time with him. I like to have one meter open for EX Low or High Tiger whenever he has EX meter for rushes.
Another thing I am using a lot against him is low fierce. It stuffs almost all of his regular dash punches and does wonders if he tries to jump or poke at you. Low fierce is just good in general, because most of the time it will land as a counter hit for really good damage. (Counter Hit Damage is 150ish on Ryu I think)
I wouldn't say its an easier match, but I definitely gave Balrog too much credit before I knew about stand HK.
Cammy
Scunsion (Cammy) Cannon drill isn't safe on block so you can punish with uppercut or whatever. You should be able to keep her out somewhat with tiger shots if she gets in close enough she might try to go under with cannon drill or go through with her punch move just be prepared for this. Keep her out long enough and she will be forced to jump which you can easily punish with HK or uppercut. Hooligan is also easily punished by sagat, ex version is fast though so stay on your toes.
x Z32 x (Cammy) You want to stay away from her (yeah obvious) and throw some LTS. This prevents her from doing Cannon Drills. If she does manage to tap you with it while you're blocking, depending on the stun and distance, I return it with a cLK > LTS or block because if she's close enough, she'll do a Cannon Spike right after.
Most Cammy players like to save 1 stock to do EX hooligan. You have to be quick when she does and jHP backwards. If you're a little late, use jLK because she'll be just a little below you and HP will come out to slow and too high.
To counter regular Hooligan, just sHK, jHP/HK backwards, HTS, or my favorite, sHP.
I try to intimidate and be annoying in this match as much as possible with sHP and cHP. This is because it does decent damage and puts Cammy in a position where she either does Cannon Drill and get punished, walk up to you, or retreat and play the Tiger Gymnastics.
Chun Li
(TornadoFlame) Chun Li: All I can really say right now is that if you see her jump, stand and block instantly. She has her Jump MP instant overhead that is really annoying. And if she has an Ultra or super, don't throw Tiger Shots unless she walks forward with out enough time to charge back. I've found that staying at the range of an HP Tiger Uppercut is best. This gives you acces to your sweep, FADC, or just a Focus Attack. Also gives access to a safe Tiger Knee on block.
(Henaki) Chun Li: i would pretty much never sweep vs chun because she has a really safe saving attack and overhead kick which pretty much beats anything that isnt stand HK or uppercut
imo most of the chun match is trying to back her into a corner because once shes in a corner her options suckkkkkkkkkkkkkk her jump is easy to tag and the only way she can gain space is with kikkoken which means she loses ultra charge.
also you should almost always look at a chuns charge, because once she drops that shit, be prepared to throw a tiger shot (or get ready to anti-air if she knows whats up).
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