Setting Up Yun's Offense (Yun: Series 1; Entry 3)

So far I've put up two entries for Yun.  One was some of his more commonly used combos and the other was showing how his specials could be linked together to deal some nasty damage.  Armed with that knowledge you may be wondering, "Well how do I set my opponent up for this kind of damage?".  I'm going to do my best to try to break some of this down for you.

Yun excels as a high pressure, rush down type character.   Using dive kicks against blocking opponents puts them in a situation where they have to make some tough decisions. Let's suppose your initial dive kick is blocked and you immediately throw your opponent. Next time you are in this situation they may attempt to tech or OS crouch/tech in anticipation of a throw immediately after blocking your dive kick.  In this instance following up the blocked dive kick immediately with another dive kick could land you the counter hit opening up your opponent for huge damage.  Now your opponent may be turtled up hard, only blocking.  This opens up your command grab game.  It may also be especially useful to batter your opponent with overheads forcing them to block high only so you can start a combo off with a cr.LK.

At some point your opponent will get frustrated and begin back dashing or mashing out attacks in hopes of scoring a reversal. This is an ideal time to set up some option selects and safe jumps. If your opponent is back dashing (mostly happens on wake up) to avoid having to deal with your dive kick pressure, you could set up an OS that would result in a L Zesshou Hohou coming out if your jump in whiffs, and thus knocking down the back dashing opponent (more on this later).  If you attempt to pressure via safe jumps after scoring an untechable knockdown, if your opponent were to mash out a reversal move in frustration you could either beat their attack out cleanly, or land and block before their move enters its 'active' frames, allowing a free punish (more on this later, as well).  However, a smart opponent is going to try to zone Yun out and keep their spacing to avoid this very frustrating mix up game.

Luckily for Yun players, Yun has many tools to combat being zoned effectively.  He has dive kicks that can carry him over fireballs and a good distance across the screen while your opponent is in recovery frames.  Tetsuzanko is another good tool to go under fireballs and strike an unsuspecting opponent and leads to several opportunities for follow up moves for each version (light, medium, and heavy) if it connects.  Kobokushi's have the properties of projectiles and will absorb incoming projectiles. What's more is that these Kobokushi's build a ton of Super Meter and Yun is DANGEROUS with Super.  Anytime you have the opportunity, be it from scoring a knockdown, an opponent running away, etc. you should be building Super Meter by throwing out Kobokushi's.  So, while being zoned you should be building meter and trying to close in on your opponent, preferably by landing a big damage combo off of one of his specials (see earlier Yun entries). If you have a full Super Meter once you've got back in on your opponent it should be enough to close out the round.

Other opponents will tend to keep you at a distance that is advantageous to them and attempt to out poke you.  Typically, if you are in poke range then you are in dive kick range.  It is however a good idea to engage in "footsies" to some extent as Yun has some excellent pokes that lead into combos and it will mentally commit your opponent to a ground game softening their reaction time to a well timed low dive kick.  While poking, stay just outside of cr.MK range and use your cr.MK and buffer a M Zesshou Hohou behind each cr.MK.  Since, you are out of range (just barely) your cr.MK will whiff and you will never see the Zesshou Hohou come out.... That is unless your opponent tries to poke, and now they are in range for your cr.MK to land as a counter poke and the M Zesshou Hohou will instantly follow up as the second hit knocking your opponent down and placing you right next to them and in prime position for a mix up.  Another strong poking tool is your standing MP as it carries Yun slightly forward and has deceptively long range. Use a similar style of spacing with the MP so you are always at max range for MP to connect or just outside of it and buffer behind it a HP so that if the MP connects, you will get a standing HP,  and you can read this hit confirm and finish the target combo by pressing Back + HP (this would be a great time to cancel into Genei Jin if your Super Meter is full).

Yun's Special Juggles (Yun: Series 1; Entry 2)

This is the second entry in my series sharing some basic knowledge about Yun in SSFIV:AE. The focus of this article is to point out all the special moves that will juggle off one another with Yun and by learning this, you will be sure to get the most damage out of all of your combos.

Let's start with the Tetsuzanko, or shoulder charge. Damage will be shown to the right in parentheses.

H Tetsuzanko->H Zesshou Hohou (270)
H Tetsuzanko->EX Tetsuzanko (290)
*Corner only H Tetsuzanko->Ultra 1 (440)
*Corner only H Tetsuzanko->Ultra 1->EX Tetsuzanko (489)

The Kobokushi, or Palm Strike, will primarily be limited to corner combos unless using the EX version.

*Corner only Kobokushi->L Zesshou Hohou (250)
*Corner only Kobokushi->H Nishokyaku (300)
*Corner only Kobokushi->EX Nishokyaku->EX Nishokyaku (340)
*Corner only Kobokushi->Ultra 1 (460)
*Corner only Kobokushi->Ultra 1->EX Tetsuzanko (508)
EX Kobokushi->L Tetsuzanko->H Zesshou Hohou (364)
*Near Corner EX Kobokushi->Ultra 1->EX Tetsuzanko (508)

How about Zesshou Hohou (which you can combo into the EX Version, see my previous entry)

EX Zesshou Hohou->L Zesshou Hohou (230)
EX Zesshou Hohou->Ultra 1->EX Tetsuzanko (488)
*In Corner EX Zesshou Hohou->EX Nishokyaku (240)

Finally, let's add in our Nishokyaku, Up Kicks, as its the primary combo ender.

2nd Hit of L Nishokyaku->L Zesshou Hohou (140)
2nd Hit of L Nishokyaku->Ultra 1->EX Tetsuzanko (398)
EX Nishokyaku->L Zesshou Hohou (190)
*Corner only EX Nishokyaku->EX Nishokyaku (200)
*Corner only EX Nishokyaku->Ultra 1->EX Tetsuzanko (448)

With there being so many, I surely have left some out and hope to keep everything updated.

Yun's Key Combos (Yun: Series 1; Entry 1)

I'm going to make these next few entries kind of a series of entries to relay some basic Yun info.  It is just some common knowledge that I am sharing among friends, and by putting these things here, they will already be written down.

My first entry is simply going to be some of the more common combos I use and their variations depending on if you have or choose to expend EX meter or Ultra.

Key : Meterless; Requires EX; Requires Ultra and possibly EX Meter
Chain: -
Link: ->
Cancel: xx
L: Light
M: Medium
H: Heavy
EX: what do you think EX means?
cr.: crouching
j. jumping
f.: far standing
no prefix: either close standing or you will already be at the correct distance
B: Back; F: Forward; D: Down; U: Up

Here are some of my most commonly used combos:
cr.LP-LP->MP xx H Nishokyaku  (188)
cr.LP-LP->MP xx EX Nishokyaku->L Zesshou Hohou  (214)
*in corner cr.LP-LP-MP xx EX Nishokyaku->EX Nishokyaku  (220)
*in corner cr.LP-LP->MP xx EX Nishokyaku->Ultra 1(->EX Tetsuzanko)  (377)


cr.MP->MP xx H Nishokyaku  (232)
cr.MP->MP xx EX Zesshou Hohou->L Zesshou Hohou  (295)
cr.MP->MP xx EX Zesshou Hohou->Ultra 1(->EX Tetsuzanko)  (460)


cr.MP->cr.MP->MP xx H Nishokyaku  (258)
cr.MP->cr.MP->MP xx EX Nishokyaku->L Zesshou Hohou  (284)
*in corner cr.MP->cr.MP->MP xx EX Nishokyaku->EX Nishokyaku  (290)
*in corner cr.MP->cr.MP->MP xx EX Nishokyaku->Ultra1(->EX Tetsuzanko)  (447)


cr.MP->cr.MP->cr.MK xx M Zesshou Hohou  (245)
cr.MP->cr.MP->cr.MK xx EX Tetsuzanko  (273)


cr.LP-cr.LP-LP->MP xx M Nishokyaku  (189)
cr.LP-cr.LP-LP->MP-HP-B+HP  (179)
cr.LP-cr.LP-LP->MP xx EX Nishokyaku->L Zesshou Hohou  (216)

Featured in SSFIV:AE OMGWTFLOLBBQ Moments Episode 4

DontTaseMeBro has been putting together some video montages of clips from Super Street Fighter IV:AE and other popular fighting games for sometime now.  He usually features outrageous, hilarious, intriguing, and often times just plain odd moments that have been recorded while playing.

His latest compilation video dropped today with your's truly being featured for the better part of a minute.  The clips of me consist of three of my signature 'Kanevo Cancels' , as they are now known as, and lastly an Ultra Combo set-up that no one would expect to be hit with.  I've embedded the video below. I make my appearance starting around 3:18. Or you can follow this link to jump right to my clip. Video quality is rather poor.

Been a long time...

With real life issues to deal with and the pending release of SSFIV Arcade Edition, I have paid absolutely 0 attention to my blog; both updating it and publicizing it. But now AE is out and I'm pumped and I have to put something new on here. Oh, be sure to check out my Cody Combo Video (just to the right --->) along with my (unedited & unfinished) SSFIV Balrog highlight reel!  In the meantime, how about my thoughts on AE? Sure...

Let's start with the rebalancing of the game from Super.  I love it. I love the tweaks they did to the characters and really closed the gap between the worst characters and the best characters.  Am I going to whine and cry about Yun, Yang, and Fei Long being incredibly awesome? Hell no. Some characters are always going to have advantages over others, or even most of the cast, it doesn't matter which way you cut it.  I personally like the challenge of having to step up my play to a higher level to beat someone.  It makes you a better player to take that approach. On a side note, I actually miss Sagat from vanilla SFIV (playing against him that is).  And in case you are wondering, no I'm not excited about the rebalancing because it benefits my character.  I'm a Balrog player and I've seen his Heavy Buffalo Head damage drop from 180 to 140 to, now, a whopping 100. Throw that in with damage scaling and the missed hits on his Ultra 1 when used to juggle an airborne opponent and you have one seriously piss poor combo. I'm not dropping him, though I am learning some new characters simply for fun but for a match that I NEED to win, Rog is still my guy.

Speaking of new characters, the four new ones in the game, Yun, Yang, Evil Ryu, Oni.....I love them all! They are all a blast to play with and for every pro there's a con and vice versa, yet all four are still competitive.  Oni plays in a manner such that he may have some difficulty closing in and hit confirming some combos, but to make up for it, he is a power house in the damage and stun department. One combo, with a reset, I came across adds up to just under 800 damage if the opponent does not block the reset properly. Here it is, I'll share with you what I found (j.HP-cr.MP -> B+MP-HP xx L Demon Slash xx FADC -> cr.MP -> B+MP-HP xx EX Demon Slash (the EX Demon Slash doesn't combo but it crosses up serving as our reset) -> Ultra 1. I'll try to put a clip on here for you guys.


 Yun & Yang, have had their fair share of the spotlight and you've probably seen just about everything you want to with them BUT... I couldn't help but put a vid of me linking Yang's standing LP into Ultra 1. Enjoy!


Moving on to Evil Ryu, some people call him a watered down version of Akuma.  Low vitality, big damage and stun, but he lacks the vortex Akuma has and isn't seen as a justifiable pick over Akuma.  But he is fun as hell to play!  The axe kick move is really what sets E. Ryu apart and gives him some unique (and damaging) combos.  For example: j.HK-cr.MP -> HP xx M Axe Kick -> cr.MP xx L Tatsu -> H Shoryuken.  Wow!

Anyways, not much else to speak of  at the moment. No new sticks, no game breaking strategy.  Oh, very likely I'll be featured in the next LOLWTFBBQURMOM videos posted by DOntTas3MeBro with the funny, weird, & cool moments in SSFIV:AE, MK9, & MVC3 videos. Watch for it, it should finally set in stone me coining the move the "Kanevo Cancel". ...so pumped.

Thoughts on Xbox Live matches vs. AiR

As promised, I am giving a brief summation of my thoughts on the matches (1 of which I have posted on my YouTube channel) I had against AiR. I played him a total of three times, winning one.  The first match was my first match of the day and it was around 7 AM EST before I went to work.  With a gamertag that didn't flat out indicate to me that this was indeed Air (aka Air Ryu) I thought it may just be another xbox live player. I was wrong. He was actually playing his Sagat and took me to the cleaners just using his fundamentals, spacing, and reading my attempts to get in on him.  This man has astounding footsies and zoning. I checked into his gamertag and realized that this was indeed Air Ryu but he just wasn't playing as his main.  The third bout and the one that I won, I felt I did so cleanly but certainly not easily.  Air is one hell of a player and I'd love to play his Ryu sometime.  Didn't get much out of him in the form of communication, not a gg, nothing.  Not a big deal but I wanted a shot to play him again sometime soon!

Thoughts on match up vs Marn

So sometime around the beginning of December I signed up for an online tournament hosted by newegg.com  There were 500+ entrants organized into 4 different brackets in this single elimination tournament.  My first match was against someone that didn't ring a bell with me, no high level competitor or anything however, I did see that if I won my first match, my second would be against the winner of EG Marn and his opponent.  Of course, I knew it would be Marn.

I was surprised that he played C. Viper and not Dudley for the tournament match. Definitely caught me by surprise. So granted that this is only online play, but it is still a tournament in which I am fighting a world renown player, it still made me kind of frazzled.  I played the first match scared.  Making mistakes that I've known not to do for the past year and just not keeping my calm enough to play patiently. 

After the first match, there was just enough time for me to tell myself that I have very possibly only one more match and then my mark on this tournament is over and I didn't enter this to turle up under pressure and not take the risks necessary to win. I came to play and I was going to control the tempo of the next match.  Well, the first round was neck and neck, and I can definitely point to a decision near the end of round 1 that definitely sealed the deal.  I was close! If only I could have kept my calm.  Round 2 was mine.  It may have been the only round I won out of our first to 2 set, but I won it decisively.  Round 3 was neck and neck again, and just like round 1, the excitement, the pressure, the white knuckle type play eventually got to me and I, again at the end of the round, made a bad move and threw out an unsafe, random headbutt.  Now Marn needed only 1 round to win the match, the set, and advance in the tournament.  Well, in the 4th and final round he took it, decisively.

I am thrilled with how I played.  No, it wasn't the best I've ever played and I certainly am embarrassed at how much health and how many ronuds I cost myself by doing things I know much better than to do. It's all a matter of experience though. I didn't have any tournament experience going into this one, Marn has had his fair share of international tournament experience.  Marn has phenomenal execution and is a damn smart player.  I know with more experience, I can keep my cool and not make the stupid mistakes that cost me round 1 and 3 of the second match and had I been able to do this I would have won the second match 3 rounds to 0 and who knows what would have happened in the third and final match, 

All in all, it was a great experience and I owe a big thanks to Marn. A lot of people hate on him or say he has a terrible attitude (someone even called him Street Fighter's public enemy #1) but he's caught his fair share of hate from internet forums and he has every right to be upset about it.  But my first impression was that he is a cool ass guy who is an unbelievably good player.  He even played an exhibition match after the tourney matches with me as his Dudley (WOW!!).  I'm looking forward to playing him again.