It's ... Blanka time!

[Maj]

Ok i guess it's time to start discussing one of the top tier characters. Doesn't get any topper tierer than Blanka. His wiki page has a lot of nicely organized dry info such as frame data and combos, but it's missing a lot of strategy:
http://www.shoryuken.com/wiki/index.php/Blanka_%28CvS2%29

Go take a look and then talk about whatever you feel it's missing.

[noodleman]

wow, this is going to be a beast thread. Blanka (especially A blanka)'s game is really complex and deep...I wouldn't know where to begin with strats.

He's got a wicked mixup game, good anti-airs (not the best, but still quite effective), RC electricity is near broken if used correctly.

I guess the some tips for blanka would be:

-don't whiff RC electricity and cr.FP in close range...they can be punished easily.

-use his mix ups alot. if you can do whiff cr.lk -> RC electricity, there are stupid amounts of mixups on wakeup starting with cr.lk. It can either whiff or be meaty, then either can be followed up with RC electricity, or throw, or hit confirm combo.

-alot of these are "general" strats that you would want to follow anyways, but gets better for blanka i suppose. it's very easy to push an opponent to the corner with blanka, and once you get him there, throw ALOT. Many people will be afraid of eating RC electricity in the corner for obvious reasons, so go in for tick throws for some damage, then rc electicity when they think you're not going to do it.

-command hop back can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Many blank players have developed a natural habit of mashing hop back whenever they feel they're in trouble. In a large number of situations, this is pretty safe, but against smart/top tier characters, it can get dangerous, as the hop is punishable.

[tetsuye00]

One of the first things I learned with Blanka that helped my game a lot, was whiff BBall -> Elecltric. Gave me a way to chip at the opponent without RC. People can HEAR it coming if they are smart, as you will start mashing during the ball. Guess you can play mind games after and mash during a fierce ball, but that sounds dangerous to me.

[misterbean97]

hop, jump straight up....ALL YOU NEED

[noodleman]

One of the first things I learned with Blanka that helped my game a lot, was whiff BBall -> Elecltric. Gave me a way to chip at the opponent without RC. People can HEAR it coming if they are smart, as you will start mashing during the ball. Guess you can play mind games after and mash during a fierce ball, but that sounds dangerous to me.

gotta be careful about moving forward with blanka balls (jab version in particular), as people look for that and can walk up and block it to punish. another old trick with blanka ball is that the mp version stops RIGHT in front of non-fat characters for a quick throw.

hop, jump straight up....ALL YOU NEED

so true haha.

[misterbean97]

-command hop back can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Many blank players have developed a natural habit of mashing hop back whenever they feel they're in trouble. In a large number of situations, this is pretty safe, but against smart/top tier characters, it can get dangerous, as the hop is punishable.


an old trick in the book, command hop back can also be used as a tech bait. say you get a knockdown that puts you right next to the corpse, command hop back just before they get up and punish whatever they whiff (usually a fierce/rh because they are trying to tech). mix that with throws and you got yourself a gay ass blanka.

[Nick T.]

Blanka is good because he punches you in the nuts ftw.

[Se7in]

Blanka is good because he punches you in the nuts ftw.

And he has to reach to anally fist you from the front as well.

:sweat:

[Hail And Kill]

hop, jump straight up....ALL YOU NEED

what are you talking about? If im raged i can super you for free everytime. you can do it with vega too, it's so easy. jesus. you scrub.

[noodleman]

what are you talking about? If im raged i can super you for free everytime. you can do it with vega too, it's so easy. jesus. you scrub.
raged in a-groove? :P

[Se7in]

raged in a-groove? :P

:rofl:

Nominated for post of the year.

[caliagent#3]

s.roundhouse xxx flash kick super. Learn that combo and you've learned blanka

[Hail And Kill]

Noobleman its called a k groove bar.

[noodleman]

Noobleman its called a k groove bar.
i was kidding.

[ZenFire]

I liked the Gief thread better, because it never degraded into a to and fro ping-pong game of smart-alec remarks. Oh well, long live the internets.

So yeah, a lot of things make blanka good. But I especially like the fact that you can play him in such different styles, not many characters are that well rounded. You can switch between runaway meterbuilding, stand-off slugfest and maddog rushing depending on the matchup/situation/groove. He's got mobility in cmd hop and quick jump and I suppose using blanka balls for moving around counts as well, supreme normals and RC Elec which deserves a category of it's own IMO.

I don't know if I can add much to the discussion, but I'll say this: Blanka moreso than any character including Vega can set up a wall of limbs and adds electricity whose penetration is a titanic undertaking. This wall of limbs, or perhaps should I say Electrified Fence lol (I crack me up), even when you do get through because of some random thing like a roll or a well timed jump, can move itself backwards almost instantly because of the command hop back. It's like trench warfare only that Blanka doesn't really care about giving up ground as long as he can bloody your face while you try to get close enough to hit him. And god forbid you get hit with electricity. He's got mixups and his throw leads to another guessing situation.

The only thing I find him lacking in is AA department, I know ppl will tell me the pimp slap and rc elec take care of that. But I still feel it's his biggest defensive opening. I'd wager to say that they're more likely to successfully enter their attacking range through the air than by any other means.

[CMX]

Well I just learned this today but when you do blankas elec you lose your charge which sucks but good in other ways for the opponent I guess. Hop forward and d-u.k ball as they jump is dirty since they think you gave up your charge to hop forward. The timing is pretty strict and probably could use it for a cross up super on the opponent wakeups.

When blanka is being jumped at with an attack his hop forward, slide (reverse) to catch the trip guard is pretty dirty.

AA a jumping A-Blanka with bar is such a lose/lose situation its not even funny.

[DaDesiCanadian]

: Blanka moreso than any character including Vega can set up a wall of limbs and adds electricity whose penetration is a titanic undertaking.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :rofl: :rofl:

Oh...god...

:rofl: :lol: :rofl: :lol: :rofl: :rofl: :lol: :lol: :rofl: :lol:

[kimjongiLL]

Blanka's best move by far is his b+KK backhop. It's totally invincible and airborne on the first frame. Although it has punishable landing recovery, your opponent really has to be totally guessing that you're going to use the backhop, and even then a lot of character's don't have an easy move to punish it with.

All the ball moves are also instantly airborne. If the opponent tries to mix you up on your wakeup, you can spam out a ball move to instant get yourself out of the mixup situation. You'll get hit, but you'll bounce away safely.

RC Electricity can be dealt with. If Blanka wants to use RC Elec to chip you on your wakeup, just give it to him and let him do it (block afterwards, since Blanka gets +10).

The b+KK move is really what's most difficult about fighting Blanka though. It lets him get around moves and punish with d.MK/d.MP xx Super in situations where he otherwise wouldn't.

Whoever's starting out playing high level CvS2, to avoid frustation, the most important things to practice first in my opinion are...

1. anti-airing claw Vega's j.HK
2. punishing whiffed RC Electricty
3. punishing Blanka for using a b+KK backhop

You can punish with a slide move on reaction for example. If you're non-run groove Akuma, Geese, Ken, or anybody else who's not A-top tier team, I think you're out of luck though. A and K-Blanka are the strongest characters in the game IMO. No other specific character counters them.

[Mihai]

Be wary of doing straight up jumping fierce as anti air when in SNK grooves. More jumping frames means slower start up on the jump.

A good way to gain momentum mid screen is to do his hop back when they're in your face, then start low jumping in with RH.

Blanka's cross up combo is cross up forward, c. short, s. jab xx rh Up ball. I heard some characters can punish you for it. I'm guessing the same ones that can punish Hibiki B&B on hit.

Blanka's c. RH is a good footsie move. Has good priority and long range. Out ranges all of Hibiki's normals, can beat Guile's c. forward, etc.

Blanka can just RC hop forward through fireballs, which is actually really good versus Guile, Iori, etc.

A pretty good wakeup if you don't screw it up is reversal hop back. Also good on their wakeup if they attempt RC's, supers, activate, dragon punches, etc.

In SNK grooves, run up low shorts are pretty good pressure. Mix it up with low jump RH's.

[CMX]

A pretty good wakeup if you don't screw it up is reversal hop back. Also good on their wakeup if they attempt RC's, supers, activate, dragon punches, etc.


I thought he can still be caught by dash supers, and a bunch of other supers that move forward when he does that on their wake up? I remember seeing it happen where Kim caught Blanka with his dash super and same for Hibiki, and I believe OTKs Rock vs Blanka I don't remember who he was playing but he caught Blanka with the shine knuckle during a hop back.

[noodleman]

I thought he can still be caught by dash supers, and a bunch of other supers that move forward when he does that on their wake up? I remember seeing it happen where Kim caught Blanka with his dash super and same for Hibiki, and I believe OTKs Rock vs Blanka I don't remember who he was playing but he caught Blanka with the shine knuckle during a hop back.
yup, i already said on like the first post that the back hop is very punishable, so one should be careful about using it. There are lots of stuff that you can't get out of with back hop. fast fireballs, just about ANY super that moves forward, (sagat hot foot super, Rock's shine knuckle/deadly rave, Ken's shoryureppa iirc, hikibi's supers except for black out super, etc).

mind you some of the supers mentioned will do less damage as some will whiff abit before actually hitting you (sagat's hot foot super for example), so in some cases, its' still worth it to mash backhop.

[Nick T.]

3. punishing Blanka for using a b+KK backhop



I agree with this considering its like free damage with the right setup.

I know Sagat can do jab jab, opponent expects you to keep moving forward for the mixup, so they hop back. Sagat can do dash right after the jab jab, as the opponent dashes, and get a free cr. fierce xx super to punish.

[FullMetalRoss]

What should blanka do against sagat if he has no meter and sagat is correctly spacing the jumping rh? Also sagat is not spamming it, he is smartly moving forward with it.


As for against Blanka, is there really any reason to attempt to attack the Elec if you are getting shocked on wake up? Even against non-roll grooves fierce elec seems pretty hard to reverse.

After blocking it how often do you guys guess the next move? As I see it Blanka can do a few things
1. Sweep
2. RC Hop foward RC Elec
3. Hop backwards
4. Do nothing

So upper cut beats the first one, and the second one, but you have to time it differently. A fireball could cause them to block if they do the 3 and possibly 4. Seems the safest plan is to just wait and try and react to the hop forward and uppercut it, but if you fuck up you get zapped. So what do you guys generally do? (I try and psychic out something)

Low jump straight up fierce with blanka can be an annoying poke if used correctly, I'm pretty sure you can link a sweep off of it on counter hit...

Blanka is good. His moves rock, and if Blanka ball knocked down like it does in CVS 1 he would be as the Alpha 3 announcer says UNBEAATTABBLLLEEEEEEE

[noodleman]

if sagat isn't empty jumping, you can slide with blanka.

other moves that blanka can do after a blocked elec:

cr.lp/lk xx hop in either direction -> more mix up.

if the electricity got 6 block hits (ie, the elec was mashed), blanka CAN have charge and can ball/super almost right after it (i believe you need to wait a split second to complete the charge).

also, it is possible to do cross up mk, cr.lk, st. jab xx fp ball (or super for that matter). I haven't gotten the exact timing down, nor how it actually works, but it does (as I have done it before in practice mode). It has seems like it has something to do with where you jumped, and how late you do the cr.lk so it still combos with the mk, and how late you link the st.jp.

other old news: hop super can be easily done with charge, neutal hop, 720 during the hop, land, f+punch. go forth and impress your friends.

[FullMetalRoss]

other old news: hop super can be easily done with charge, neutal hop, 720 during the hop, land, f+punch. go forth and impress your friends.

I want someone to do cross up hop super, when someone is waking up. And then learn how to time it so you can do cross up hop super and then recross up with the super. That'd be tight.

[noodleman]

I want someone to do cross up hop super, when someone is waking up. And then learn how to time it so you can do cross up hop super and then recross up with the super. That'd be tight.
that WOULD be tight. Cross up hop super takes abit of practice, but by no means impossible. For those interested, you here's how you do it:

Charge, neutral hop, HOLD the direction your hopping (ie forward), land, the opposite direction (crossed up forward) + FP.

Once you get that down, i can see that double cross up happening if you can get the charge fast enough.

other hop super tricks:

low jump rh, hop back, hop forward super.
jump in, cr.mk xx hop super. This one is tougher as it's hard to get the neutral hop from canceling db.mk.

[jreinert13]

My Blanka Tip of day:

C.Strong and even better C.Strong->lvl 3 super for wiff punishing. Punishes everything from it's near max range...I had a Sagat wiff C.Jab (used to fake C.Fierce's) 3 times in a row because he was testing it's 'luck' : I punished every one of those jabs.

[CMX]

if the electricity got 6 block hits (ie, the elec was mashed), blanka CAN have charge and can ball/super almost right after it (i believe you need to wait a split second to complete the charge).

other old news: hop super can be easily done with charge, neutal hop, 720 during the hop, land, f+punch. go forth and impress your friends.

What do you mean by CAN have charge?

KabukiMono - that Blanka trick is mainly a trait that K-Blankas pick up or SHOULD pick up, not to abuse it but a useful trick to have in your arsenal.

[noodleman]

What do you mean by CAN have charge?

KabukiMono - that Blanka trick is mainly a trait that K-Blankas pick up or SHOULD pick up, not to abuse it but a useful trick to have in your arsenal.
i mean if you charge as soon as you start the electricity. I guess most people hold downback during the electricity anyway...so 90% of the time, you will have charge.

I'm pretty sure the way it works is that you LOSE the charge you had before the electricity, but the game doesn't prevent you from charging DURING the electricity.

It should be noted that Hop super of any kind most likely shouldn't be used any longer in tourny...most pro's won't fall for it anyways(they'll block and tech throw after hop). and the situation where you can knockdown and have charge fast enough to do cross up hop into cross up super doesn't happen very often imo.

[Gwai Lo ½]

I want someone to do cross up hop super, when someone is waking up. And then learn how to time it so you can do cross up hop super and then recross up with the super. That'd be tight.

I've seen it done..

[DoublexxCyclone]

What's Blanka's strategy against rolento, and chun li?

[Nick T.]

What's Blanka's strategy against rolento, and chun li?

vs Rolento:

I keep him in the corner, limit his movement.

vs Chun:

I try to land a few basics crossups xx elec then 50/50 her all day.
Oh and don't slide

[Mihai]

About back hop being punishable, well duh, don't back hop when you know your opponent will do a LVL3 Maiden Masher or stuff that easily catches him in recovery. And anyway, if you wanna fool characters that can punish back hop, just do RC forward hop and punish them from behind.

[noodleman]

About back hop being punishable, well duh, don't back hop when you know your opponent will do a LVL3 Maiden Masher or stuff that easily catches him in recovery. And anyway, if you wanna fool characters that can punish back hop, just do RC forward hop and punish them from behind.
thank you for repeating what everyone else has already said again. coming from you really brings it home.

on vs rolento, don't let him do walk up jabs, you can RC ball through them. He'll stop doing them and just walk up jab then try to bait out RC ball. Wait for scooter jumps and punish them. No rolento can resist. It's a generally good match for Blanka. One thing to look out for is don't whiff electricity from full screen vs C-rolento with full bar...good reaction + trip wire will own it, so be careful. You can RC ball right through knives, so if he does that from afar, you can punish that too.

on vs chun, there isn't much specifics on the match up to look out for, except for getting out of SBK block traps, and try not do get crossed up. also know that blocked blanka balls can be punished with st.mp xx super -> death.

[gridman]

I see why Geese hated everyone here a while ago (back when I lurked)

[Mihai]

I see why Geese hated everyone here a while ago (back when I lurked)

Lol what? I don't hate anyone, cause I don't really care. I don't even hate noodleman altho he is a major noob.

[laugh]

I've added a few more things to the wiki page yesterday I think. Mostly more things to punish Blanka Ball and just little notes on the practicality of some of the combos that were there.

What I've found to be really good recently is sticking out s.jab right after a throw tech. I know Kim does it, and I've been abusing it a lot lately in iffy situations to gain advantage again.

This is just random, but I think Blanka's kick super is vulnerable to throws for some or all of the 4-5 pre-flash frames of the super, and the first non-invincible frame after the flash. I did Lv1 kick super (blocked) and then another one right afterwards, but the other guy's iori did reversal command grab after blocking the first one and grabbed me out of the super (I think, I'm pretty sure) and I didn't get a flash but lost meter.

I can't think of anything really good to talk about Blanka. Antiair K groove jumpins with either jump back fierce or s.fierce, those seem to be the safest even if they're JDed.

If you're using him in a groove with lv3 supers, there's a little trick I learned a few years ago on doing supers in time to punish a whiff. If you have meter and charge ready, do the super motion at random times at anticipation of a fireball or a laggy move and then if the other DID do something press punch, if they didn't, get your charge again.

[Ouroborus]

rolento has a hard time dealing with blankas j.mk or pretty much anything air to air from blanka. c.lk and c.mk works pretty well vs his standing lps.

just my observation as a rolento player.

[Mihai]

Walkup jabs are useless if you just mash on something. The only time Rolento's jabs are good is when they're used as a setup for a hitconfirmable counter hit combo like CH jab, low forward xx fierce Patriot Circles, and if they're going for that, then they're not doing walkup jabs, they're going for a counter hit. Any tactic like walkup jabs is a weak ass and superficial tactic meant to do nothing but piss off/confuse shitty players that don't know better. Just like ppl who go for random throws without knowing the matchup or at least first conditioning their opponent to block after a certain move.

[gridman]

Lol what? I don't hate anyone, cause I don't really care. I don't even hate noodleman altho he is a major noob.

Just seemed like everyone was against you a while ago and against you now for no reason at all besides that you gave harsh criticism or something. Meh whatever, just going off what it looked like

[FullMetalRoss]

I've added a few more things to the wiki page yesterday I think. Mostly more things you punish Blanka Ball and just little notes on the practicality of some of the combos that were there.

What I've found to be really good recently is sticking out s.jab right after a throw tech. I know Kim does it, and I've been abusing it a lot lately in iffy situations to gain advantage again.

This is just random, but I think Blanka's kick super is vulnerable to throws for some or all of the 4-5 pre-flash frames of the super, and the first non-invincible frame after the flash. I did Lv1 kick super (blocked) and then another one right afterwards, but the other guy's iori did reversal command grab after blocking the first one and grabbed me out of the super (I think, I'm pretty sure) and I didn't get a flash but lost meter.

I can't think of anything really good to talk about Blanka. Antiair K groove jumpins with either jump back fierce or s.fierce, those seem to be the safest even if they're JDed.

If you're using him in a groove with lv3 supers, there's a little trick I learned a few years ago on doing supers in time to punish a whiff. If you have meter and charge ready, do the super motion at random times at anticipation of a fireball or a laggy move and then if the other DID do something press punch, if they didn't, get your charge again.

Best thing about standing fierce as anti-jd, is you can cancel it into kick super, it's a fun little trick. Also you can try and do that with a far cr.fp anti-air into regular ball super though generally it's too fast and you whiff.

And if you are feeling really dirty that day, go ahead and charge db and then cancel standing fierce into the mash super. yay.

[DoublexxCyclone]

^Thats some broken shit!!!

[Jimmy_Blanka]

If your playing someone who always walks back as soon as the fight starts, hit'm with the slide, you can still escape getting hit if he blocks, vs some chars, but I dont know vs all

[ZenFire]

Some generic things ppl probably know:
Raged K Blanka can guard break really well. Once you getin with frame advantage you can stick out a c.lk and start a patern from there with run and such. A nice way to finish the guard break is through c.mk xx hp ball,
if it hits, then free raged combo
if guard break, then free c.mk xx direct lightning
Works the same as ryu and sagat normal x DP on a flashing guardbar.
Besides actually going for the guard break, which might be hard without leaving holes through which your opponent can get out or counter, actually having a flashing guard bar makes them anxious and will do silly things like jump away or stick moves out they shouldn't.

A hypothetical example would be raged blanka lowjump hk's in on someone with half a GB, does two c.lk while charging then steps back a bit then buffers f,b,f and watches for a jump, roll or normal to finish the super input and punish.

[wepeel]

Yeah! Blanka Time! MY only hope for many of my matches!


In SNK grooves, run up low shorts are pretty good pressure. Mix it up with low jump RH's.

Ok I'm getting into N-Blanka and this is one of the few things that mention running with Blanka. Of course, we've all seen BAS and his hopping antics, but I would like to know more about his options with RUN.

What does running low shorts do? With a shoto, the pressure is scary because you can combo into super. Why should I fear running shorts from Blanka? Unless I'm missing something, running low shorts is not a good example of pressure.

One thing I do sometimes is after a knockdown, I'll run and use the KKK hop to land on a random side to continue my offense. But that's all I got, really.

[skisonic]

I didnt read this thread, so Im not sure if this has been said (if so let me know Ill delete it or whatever).

Anyway here's my tip (not that I thought of it). When fools (aka good players) start catching on to your hop electricity (post knockdown or well spaced), and throw you, mix it up with just hop fierce electricity (no rc). It sounds stupid, but it definately works. Dont throw it out at random obviously, but if you are at the level where the other dude is looking for your rc's and he feels them coming, he's most likely just gonna block, possibly roll through, or try avoid it worst case, so you are generally no less safe than if you had done the RC. If they went for throw, you get a big ole counter hit electricity, plus knockdown, plus you can hop up and do then RC the electricity cuz they are for damn sure not gonna throw you after that. Also you can then mix it up with good shit like well-spaced hop shorts or whatever. Just a little trick for keeping/building/capitalizing off of your momentum.

[vkuwabara]

hop super is what made me play Blanka, it's so fun.

knockdown, crossup hop, crossup DL is my favorite.

How do I fight Vega?