Vs. Wolverine/Rushdown

akuma
#1

So lately I have been ending up with my akuma trying to hold down the fort against a wolverine. Is there any hope? Akuma’s normals just suck so much, his dive kick can been seen coming from two miles away, and smart opponents will punish M/H tat.

Other then that all he has is… fireballs?

Does anyone have any ideas how you could actually get in or fight against a rushdown character? It just seems that akuma really has nothing that can chain into a combo that isn’t either insanely easy to block or that just has such pitiful range (all of his normals) that you are probably already dead when you try using it.

#2

ugh, yeah I hate to say it but I really don’t like the wolverine matchup for akuma. without spending meter and XF, he’s gonna be a pain to deal with. personally, against relentless wolverine rushdown I like letting the opponent get my akuma (this also applies to doom, especially when it comes down to the wire against Phoenix) in blockstun, XF cancel the blockstun, then abuse his DP super’s invincibility frames to get some damage off. from there, your beam super should deal a respectable enough amount of chip for wolvie to start backing off and think about life for a sec.

blockstun XFC -> raging demon also works, but with akuma you generally wanna save your meter for beam super punish/combos. as for zoning without meter, make sure you’re out of berserker charge’s range when you throw fireballs. super jump and throw fireballs if you have to.

good blocking is VERY important in this matchup. don’t mash on pushblock because good wolverines will bait that out for a free ToD punish on akuma.

#3

Really great recommendations maziodyne. Previous to your post I was considering just jumping in with a L air tat and following up with a C.L hoping for a hit but the main problem is that the air tat isn’t actually an overhead! (???) Also, the range of the c.l is so low it’s incredible haha. :slight_smile:

I understand what you are saying about xfactor but i’m trying to use akuma in a pheonix team… perhaps it would be best for me to just leave akuma in as the anchor and try to use phenoix with akuma assist, leaving akuma for last?

I figure that with pheonix, lvl 2 x factor is still pretty damn powerful and if she gets nuked at least I will have an akuma with some bar to burn in my anchor.

I’ve been trying to use akuma as my 2nd char after my wolverine goes down but I am just having huge problems connecting any combos coming in from the air or ground because of his complete crap normals.

Maybe you could recommend a few ways to get in with him with a phoenix assist of some sort? If not, do you think it would be better to run phoenix out after the first character goes down and hope that level 2 xfactor + dark phoenix will be able to get things ready for a barred-up akuma?

One last thing… i have been seeing some REALLY weird behavior with his raging demon… I thought that it couldn’t be any more buggy then how it works in SF4, but it looks like half the time he just pushes the enemy across the screen. Stuff like using raging demon off of a hard knockdown should work (he’s pushing them along the screen as they get up), but then he ends up passing THROUGH them. What the heck is up with that??