AE 2012: Rufus 'Rope-a-Dope' Punishes

Classic Fighting Games Ultra Street Fighter IV
#1

Rope a Dope is just short for EX GT xx FADC, TC1, U1. Got tired of repeating it.

This thread will list all of the specific ways Rufus can punish the cast with his new U1 set-up. I’ll add more as they are tested. Effectively Rufus can punish any whiffed normal with EX GT at midscreen but the list below will only list moves/normals that can realistically be punished with normal reactions.

Think of the Rope-a-Dope as an extension to his normal TC. He can literally pull his opponent closer (while he dashes forward) allowing his normal TC1 > U1 combo to connect.

Some general all-around applications are:

  • Against people charging FA midscreen (suction breaks armor immediately)
  • Against characters who do unsafe neutral jump attacks (timing differs)
  • After a counterhit df.MK
  • After a LP Snake Strike against a standing character (character specific)

Some of the Rope a Dope’s require a cr.jab, cr.lk starter.

vs. Abel

  • Against a blocked wheelkick (cr.jab)
  • If Abel whiffs a wheel kick midscreen

vs. Akuma

  • If Akuma teleports from behind Rufus
  • If Akuma whiffs st.RH (cr.jab)

vs. Adon

  • If Adon whiffs any Jaguar Kicks close to midscreen

vs. Balrog

  • Against blocked gut punch, overhead punch, and low punch (cr.jab)

vs. Blanka

  • If Blanka whiffs his slide (use cr.LK)
  • Against a blocked slide (use cr.LK)
  • Against a blocked MP and HP Blanka Balls (midscreen)
  • Against any Blanka Ball if Blanka is in corner
  • Against any whiffed electricity midscreen

vs. Cammy

  • If Cammy whiffs Spiral Arrow
  • Against spaced blocked Spiral Arrows (use cr.LK)
  • Against a blocked DP (if she does it at max range) (use cr.jab)

vs. Chun Li

  • If Chun Li whiffs Hakunsho midscreen

vs. Cody

  • Against a blocked Bingo (use cr.jab)
  • Against an unspaced Criminal Upper (use cr.jab)
  • Against a blocked Cody overhead (use cr.jab)

vs. Dhalsim
- Need to test against Yoga Teleport.

vs. Dudley

  • Against all MGB’s (except LP) (use cr.jab)

vs. E.Honda

  • Against MP and HP headbutts

vs. El Fuerte

  • Against a blocked Tosteda(?) Slam
  • Against a blocked Quesidilla (chest slam)

vs. E.Ryu

vs. Fei Long

  • Against a blocked and misspaced Rekka (cr.jab)
  • If Fei Long whiffs a Rekka in front of Rufus(!)

vs. Gen

  • If Gen whiffs an aerial special and lands at least midscreen to Rufus

vs. Gouken

  • Against a blocked Dash Punch (cr.jab)

vs. Hakan

  • Who cares

vs. Ibuki

  • Against a blocked Head Stomp Kunai Toss Thing

vs. Juri

  • Against an unspaced Juri Senpusha [Pinwheel] (cr.jab)
  • If Juri whiffs a fireball store at least midscreen

vs. Ken

  • o_O? Dunno.
  • I guess against Ken’s who like to spam midscreen LP Dragon Punch.

vs. Dictator

  • Against a blocked and unsafe Scissor Kick (cr.jab)
  • Against an unsafe Reverse Devil (cr.jab)
  • Against an unsafe blocked Slide (cr.jab)
  • If Dictator whiffs a Devil Reverse landing at least midscreen

vs. Makoto

  • Not sure!

vs. Oni

  • Against an unsafe MK/HK/EX gay cross-up thing (cr.jab)

vs. Rose

  • Against an unsafe Soul… Splash? w/e it’s called (cr.jab)
  • If Rose uses Soul Grab to escape punishable on landing

vs. Rufus

  • If Rufus whiffs a SS at least midscreen

vs. Ryu

  • Hm. Dunno.

vs. Sagat

  • If Sagat whiffs a tiger knee at least mid screen
  • Against a blocked Tiger knee that can’t be regularly punished with st.FP (cr.jab)
  • Could try to use this against st.HK

vs. Sakura

  • Dunno.

vs. Seth

  • Against Seth’s who do midscreen divekicks
    - Need to test against teleports

vs. T-Hawk

  • Against blocked Condor Dives (oh yesss)
  • Against whiffed Condor Spires (oh yesss). Timing may be strict since Hawk becomes air-borne.

vs. Claw

  • If Claw whiffs a Wall Dive landing near Rufus

vs. Yang
- Need to test if this works against Yang’s whiffed midscreen palm

  • Against any unsafe Rekka’s (use cr.jab)

vs. Yun

  • Against a blocked TC2 combo from Yun (use cr.jab)
  • Against a blocked Dash Punch that can’t be regularly punished with st.FP (cr.jab)
  • *Yun’s UpKicks can be meterless punished with dash or divekick to st.FP
    - Need to test if this works against Yun’s whiffed midscreen palm

vs. Zangief

  • Against Zangief using a midscreen Lariat
  • Against a midscreen SPD whiff
  • Against a blocked Crouch Sweep (cr.jab)

I’ll update this more as I spend more time in the lab. Feel free to add ones you’ve confirmed.

#2

Damn. I’m just imagining how much stronger Rufus would be with a 3 frame jab. Excellent stuff here. I wish the Rufus forums were more active.

#3

^I kno’ right. I feel like I’m spamming the boards because of the lack of overall activeness. Lol.

Finished for the most part. A few in bold need to be confirmed. And there are a few I may have missed. A few of these punishes are game changers if Rufus has 3 bars and U1. Especially against Fei, T.Hawk, and Boxer. Akuma, too, now that he can punish teleports.

The next step for this is to test his df.MK Roll to see if he can use this gap closer to punish close to fullscreen whiffs or teleports.

A few examples I can think of would be against Dictator, Claw, teleporters, Yun/Yang, Blanka (electricity meter gaining), E.Honda (Orochi throw meter gaining), etc.

#4

I’m not sure if EX GT has quite the reach for that kind of application…guess you gotta test it out and report your findings. I need to go back in the lab to test out some ideas for frame traps using his new EX Galactic Tornado tech.

#5

Speaking of frame traps I found an interesting set-up (non EX GT related):

From any meaty jump-in or meaty divekick: cr.jab, cl.st.MP, cl.st.HP xx HP GT.

The frames in between cr.jab and cl.st.MP eat crouch tech. Same with the frames in between cl.st.MP and cl.st.HP. And if cl.st.MP is a counterhit than cl.st.HP links afterwards.

#6

Good job on the thread.

Against akuma’s air fireball, there are situations where u can roll under, but if u can land a c.lp, u might as well tc straight.

df.mk on counter hit will combo into c.lp, leading into the same combos.

There are instances where after you block a light srk, you can’t move in for a TC, i think this is where ex Gt comes in.

#7

Would this work with a similar frame trap using cl.st.LK? I think people would be more prone to pressing buttons if it’s after cl.st.LK.

#8

Didn’t try. I’ll test it later.

Edit: The reason why I used cr.jab was because it doesn’t normally combo with cl.st.MP whereas it naturally does combo with st.lk. That leaves frames for the opponent to press buttons.

#9

I like the rope a dope term. Way easier… a few notes from a quick test

The ex gt doesnt seem to add scaling, the vacuum part I mean, the cr jab fadc is still 3M and if you rope a dope thats 4m-5m ( by m I mean moves that cause damage scaling ) before ultra which isnt too bad.

The vacuum doesnt add to the combo counter either btw, If you so cr, jab xx ex gt to tc its 3 hits on the counter, but always keep in mind fadc adds 2 hits to scaling.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

#10

Thanks.

I tested the damage.

Rope-a-Dope (cr.jab) does more damage than cr.jab, EX GT xx LVL 2 Focus Attack, Ultra 1 and cr.jab, EX GT xx LVL 2 Focus Attack, TC1, Ultra 1.

#11

Yeah he could do this since super, but it’s a decent frametrap, though I’d probably use it more against people who OS-crouchtech with c.mp or c.hp, such as Ryu or Sim.

#12

Hey! This change is actually a pretty significant buff to the ultra 2 as well since you can now reliably combo off it with just a jab and 3 meters. Even after all those nerfs U2 does have some use to it now at the very least.