« Basic Tips for Dealing with the Blanka Menace »
FuriousRGD
With the release of Super Street Fighter 4, there are a lot of new players out there. There are also many players who are trying out new characters. This is Blanka's time to shine, as he is really his most effective when the opponent doesn't know how to deal with his tricks. Of course, this makes him one of the most annoying matchups when you are fighting against him.
In this article you'll find tips for dealing with some of the more common situations you'll find yourself in during a Blanka matchup.
The tips are also pretty much universal as well and should work regardless of character. The only things that will be character specific would be your ability to punish Blanka after you've dealt with his attack.
These tips also work for both Street Fighter 4 and Super Street Fighter 4.
This article is meant for players who are of beginner to intermediate level of skill.
If you have anything that you feel should be added to this article or a correction needs to be made, (regarding the situations in this article, further articles are planned for other situations), feel free to hit the comments. If we incorporate it into the article we will add your name to the article as a contributor.
Avoid the match-opening whiffed Blanka Ball into Bite Trick:
The match begins. Blanka immediately uses a Rolling Attack. You block on instinct. Instead of hitting, he lands right in front of you and bites you in the face. Sucker!
This is an old trick which still works on a lot of people. When the match first begins, Blanka players will sometimes use a Light Punch Blanka Ball right as the action gets underway. Assuming that the opponent doesn’t move, the Blanka Ball will whiff and Blanka will land right in front of you. Before you can react, Blanka will then grab you and bite your face, which results in hurt pride, good damage, and a knockdown (which any good Blanka thrives on). The reason it still works is that the first instinct of players not actively anticipating the trick is to block. Blocking holds you in place, which is exactly what Blanka wants.
Tips:
Like pretty much anything Blanka does, this trick relies on surprise to work. At the beginning of a round, always expect it and have a plan, and there are several ways to thwart the trick. The first is to mess up the spacing. If you move forward just a bit at the beginning of the round prior to blocking, the Blanka Ball will actually hit instead of whiffing. This does little damage and gives you an opportunity to punish. Moving backward at the beginning of the round either normally (if Blanka is slow at throwing out the attack at the beginning of the round) or by back-dashing puts you too far away for Blanka to get the throw. Throwing out an attack that interrupts the move (like throwing out Jabs if your character has fast Light Punch) or throwing out a move that actually beats the Blanka Ball in-flight (such as a Shoryuken) also not only gets you out of the trick but puts you in the advantage.
Dealing with Blanka’s Slide:
Blanka’s Amazon River Run (Slide) can be very annoying to opponents. It has pretty good range and starts up fairly quickly.
Tips:
If Blanka uses slide at medium to long range, you have plenty of time to Focus Attack.Like many of Blanka’s moves, it is unsafe on block. In this case, the slide has a ton of recovery time. A good Blanka will only throw out the move either at max range (so that only Blanka’s fingertips hit the opponent), which reduces the opposing player’s time to react, or use it in a situation where the opponent is already in the middle of a move which doesn’t beat the slide such as a fireball.
One tip is to not throw out fireballs at a range where Blanka can have time to react with a slide.
If the Blanka throws out unsafe slides (not using it as a counter to a move or not using it at max range) you can simply block it and then punish. If this thing is blocked, you have what seems like an eternity to hit him back hard with a move or combo.
Another method to use against the slide at any range (if Blanka just throws it out and you are not in the middle of another move) is to use Focus Attack. Once you see Blanka slide, hit Focus Attack and charge it until the slide hits you. The slide only does one hit so Focus Attack will absorb the hit. If the slide wasn’t max range you then have a long window to unleash the Focus Attack while the slide is in recovery (make sure Blanka is actually getting up from the slide to initiate the Focus Attack, as it will whiff if he's still on the ground). If the slide was used at max range and you feel like you can’t hit with the Focus Attack, just hold the Focus Attack until the slide does its hit and then dash-cancel the Focus Attack backwards to put you out of harm’s way.
If Blanka has even one EX Bar, Don’t Do Unsafe Projectiles:
Blanka’s EX Rolling Attack (Ball) can go through projectiles (such as Fireballs, Cody's Rocks and Knife Throw, etc) and hit the opponent as they recover from throwing it out.
Tips:
If Blanka has an EX stock, only use a projectile if you have enough time to recover.The tip here is to not throw out a projectile at a range where you cannot recover from it in time to deal with an EX Blanka Ball. You have to experiment with the max range you can do this, but it is around full-screen for many characters (some characters recover from throwing projectiles at different speeds). If you throw the move at a long enough range where you have time to recover, even if he EX Blanka Balls through the projectile you can have time to either block the attack or punish it. In fact, a good tactic I’ve seen many intermediate to advanced players use on Blanka is to throw out a long range projectile to bait an EX Blanka Ball reaction. The EX Blanka Ball goes all the way across the screen so you have plenty of time to either use a move which beats it out or just time a jump-back regular move that beats it out (jump-back Heavy Kick/Roundhouse usually beats it out if timed properly for many characters).
You can also throw out a standing Jab to try to bait the EX Blanka Ball instead of committing to anything that may get you punished. Many times, if the Blanka player sees any type of movement, they will throw out an EX Blanka Ball. Certain moves such as Sagat's Crouching Heavy Punch actually look like the start up of a Low Tiger Shot, so you can use attacks such as these to trick the Blanka player into burning their EX meter.
Dealing with EX Rainbow Ball:
Blanka’s normal Rainbow Rolling Attack is usually pretty easy to deal with, as it is fairly slow in the air and its trajectory is set. You just block the right direction and then take the next second or two to think about the many ways you can beat on him when he finally lands. The EX Rainbow Ball is a different story. It is much faster than the regular version and, to make it even more annoying, the Blanka player can direct its flight path, making it like a Blanka guided missile! Good Blanka players usually use this to get out of corners fast. If the Blanka player tries to use this to actually hit you, he tries to guide it in such as way that it is very hard to tell which way to block. This is where the annoyance comes in.
Tips:
Use your Focus Attack. The Rainbow Ball is not an armor breaking move, even the EX version (unless it is used as a reversal). This means that as Blanka comes down toward you, you can charge your Focus Attack, let the Rainbow Ball hit you (if you are using Focus Attack, you don’t need to worry about direction) and then you can Dash Cancel out of it. Your options and ability to punish as a follow-up to this depend entirely on your character. However, this does get you out of taking the damage.
COUNTERING BLANKA ELECTRICITY
A properly spaced crouching Roundhouse is the easy way to take down Blanka's voltage.
Many newer players probably wonder how you can knock Blanka out of his Electricity.
Tips:
While there are other methods which are character specific, the easy method is to use a crouching Roundhouse to sweep him out of it. You should do this toward the maximum range of the move. If you are too close, you will be hit by electricity. If he is spamming the electricity and you are too close you obviously can't just push back in order to back up to sweep (you will be put into blocking mode) so use a backward dash to get some space then knock that green lightning rod on his butt.
Also, Blanka's electricity does have some startup so if you hit him as he is trying to get the electricity started you can knock him out of it with pretty much any move which is faster than the startup of the electricity or which is properly timed to hit before it can get fully sparking.
Reader Comments (30)
Woo yesh! As a Vega mainer i need all the help i can get with this match-up. Even with Vega's changes this match-up still seems way too hard.
If i catch a Blanka in the RanBat today i'm gonna cry.
Good stuff. Your site rules.
YES!!! THANK YOU! I HATE Blanka!! haha sooo odd to fight T_T
Blanka stuffs cross-ups with ease thanks to his electricity. This Fact makes it pretty easy to bait the electricity with a cross-up empty jump on most Blankas (space correctly to have the electricy wiff for max punish opportunity) . Then punish accordingly.
Could you guys cover how to block/counter Blanka's Ultra I? Out of all the stuff Blanka does, I have the most trouble with dealing with his ultra. Normally I try to do EX shoryu to gtfo out of there but I don't always have super meter to do that.
Anon, in another day or so I will do a short article specifically on dealing with Blanka's ultra 1
i would add, tips against 'the Blanka hop', as i see this quite often.
a lot of guys tend to hop forward or backwards, while doing this, it allows them to hold their charge while moving quickly across the screen, be careful of the Hop Forward Up Ball.
if a guy starts hopping forward you can be sure that he'll likely Up Ball, sometimes they'll throw in a hop forward throw to keep people guessing. It's just another surprise Blanka move, so if someone starts hopping around be ready to block and punish, or throw tech.
@Anon,
Like FuriousRGD said we'll have another article for punishing the Ultra but the basic idea is to block Low first, then during the second part of the Ultra where he hops up and drops down, you will want to block high because it's an overhead.
So again, the start up hits low, the follow up "hop" hits as an overhead, so you have to block it two ways from close range.
After you block it you can punish with pretty much whatever you want.
You can also peep this song if you ever forget: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ssYWthtlx8
;)
@Eraldo_Coil GAF
That's an excellent idea.
I will make another article on the hop as well (separate from Ultra 1)
and i think that would also be a good article/topic to deal with Blanka's mix-ups on a downed opponent, which heavily involve the hop.
@ ANON I assume you mean with him @ point blank range. U must block the ultra low on first hit then high as he's on his way down.
There are a lot of character specific things you can do to avoid it entirely , like teleports and specials with invulnerable start-ups (EX srk).
Using the Record feature and Experimenting in training mode with your fav characters is the best advice any1 can give you IMO.
just a quick fyi : By the sound of it you use ryu, try blocking the first hit low then bust out your ultra2. this will avoid the majority of the chip and put the hurt on him.
This is prob the match up i see the most. I play my friend a lot who has a tricky tricky Blanka. I suppose i fail most to the Hop tricks seeing as i still am low tier on throw teching. If you are bad at teching throws This match up can be a damn nightmare.
Great stuff IPW.
SSF4 can be tough on new players and I find it great that you guys put the effort on explaining some tricks most of oldtimers can take for granted. Kudos.
There is also the ex upwards Blanka ball which has quite a bit of invincibility frames on startup that can stuff most meaty attacks.
Another trick of Blanka is their surprise hop to mixups which can range from throws, electricity, combo, or even ultra 1.
aww.... dont reveal my dirty secrets.
Some additional info that I can provide:
EX Rainbow Ball:
Sometimes they know of the focus attack weakness of the move, so they land the move just in front of you. And since the recovery is so quick for the EX version, they will be able to grab you immediately.
Blanka Electricity:
Sweeping is probably the most efficient way to punish the move, but it doesn't apply to all characters. Characters like El Fuerte will execute a slide when performing a cr.HK. With 17 startup frames, this move will have him slide a short distance before the attack hitbox becomes active. Best to experiment punishes against Blanka's Electricity with the character of your choice besides just sweeping them.
I appreciate you writing this guide, 'cause I freakin' hate fighting against Blanka.
@Danny Chong,
Yes, I suppose there are a few exceptions. I will update the article to reflect that. Thanks!
Also, great tip on the EX Blanka Ball. I have only seen that happen a few times in all of my play time but I have seen it happen. Its rarity for me is probably why I forgot about it.
@SleepyG
Yes I do need to add that to the guide. Blanka does have tools to shut down a cross-up game and make close-range wake-up games dangerous for the opponent. I'll certainly add that. Thanks!
I'll add both of your names as contributors to this article. This will be added to the Super SF4 guide we're putting together, so it will be available to anybody who needs it.
Thanks to everyone with the positive comments as well. We're going to do more of these very basic guide articles in the future, because there are thousands of new players out there and we want to get as many of them as possible to stick around.
Thanks for the compliment.
I always played sf4 against a friend who only uses blanka, so I've experimented various counters to his tricks. Another thing that many of us know is to be extremely careful about throwing a fireball right after his horizontal ball because they'll most likely use Amazon River Run to hit you if you aren't able to EX cancel it. Some moves that travel a large range horizontally (honda's headbut, hakan's oil slide, etc.) hits him as a reversal after blocking it.
Jumping away from a Blanka from within mid-screen is asking to eat a vertical ball.
Also, something really basic but helps is always make sure to watch when Blanka is sitting on a charge or not. If sounds super obvious but if he isnt sitting on a charge the dynamics of the match change up a lot.
Probably a good section to have is confirmed ways to punish certain moves. Also something to note, as it just crossed my mind, is that the Blanka electricity has really high advantage on block, around +10 frames for the HP version, which makes it impossible to punish. So if you get hit by it, just continue blocking and watch out for that walk-up/hop grab.
About the punishments, Rolling ball, EX or otherwise, can be punishable by certain moves. I don't know all of them, but I know a few.
Akuma: Ultra 1 (Need reflex of a ninja to pull this off)
Balrog: Dash punch
Cody: EX Ruffian Kick will get you close enough for a grab, but that makes it not 100% effective
Dhalsim: Standing HP
El Fuerte: Habenero Dash -> HK ?
Hakan, Oil Slide?
Makoto: EX Hayate?
Ryu: HP Super
Zangief: Kara HK into HP Green Hand (Rumoured to work. Never managed to pull this move off)
I'm unsure of those with a ? so do feel free to correct them or add on to them.
@DannyC
Yeah we will definitely be posting a chart which shows how to punish Blanka ball. There's one in the Prima guide so we'll start with that and add more as they are found.
Sweet. Thanks for the nod too. Just trying to give back to the community.
Great guide! Well written and easy to read and understand. More stuff like this, please. Maybe one that covers how to deal with Vega ^^?
I thought this guide was about blankas being able to take advantage of the NEW characters people haven't had much time to study yet. Why do the main examples for Ryu/Shotos lol. I know the article has some good general advice, I just found that funny :)
It would be nice if you could provide a guide on how to counter El Fuerte's mindtricks and where to block especially since El Fuerte's seem to be a problem still for both intermediate and beginner and even some professional players.
@LOL,
actually, every bit of this article except for the part about Fireballs and EX Blanka Ball can be used by virtually every character in the game including most of the new ones. The fireball one is the only more specific one one, and actually, I should have worded it as "projectile" instead of "fireball", because there are some characters who have projectiles that aren't fireballs (cody with rocks and knife for instance)
@Mr. Diddles and Gholizadeh,
Great ideas! We'll keep those in mind and we will certainly do more matchup guide type stuff for sure!
good post... giving away some of my secrets. Luckily these are the most common ones.
@BLZ1 (post4)
That advice helps my match-up drastically. Thxthxthx!
this is just a quick tip for shotos/fireballers - one of the only uses in the game for FADC-ing a special without dashing afterward is to bait and punish slides like blanka's amazon river run. If you notice the Blanka's really sharp on his slide punishes for fireballs, Fireball-FADC (Hold). He'll slide into your Focus, and get hit by the level 3 -> whatever.
Awesome Guide.
I hope this becomes a regular part of this site.
Well done for putting in the effort guys.