Critique my Sonya gameplay.

[Slego]

Hey folks! Sonya's my favorite char by far and I plan on sticking with her for the conceivable future. However, since Sonyas online are few and far between, I find it somewhat difficult to glean tactics and whatnot off other people playing, since there hardly are any. So I figured I'd rip off Vulcan/Pmarc over in the Stryker forums.

I'm posting these vids to get some honest feedback, receive/give out tips, discuss matchups, and I encourage others to post their vids as well.

Here's the first couple matches I've recorded off of ranked, the opponents didn't seem terribly difficult. I'm working on getting some more high level footage, matches of me losing, etc.

Lemme know what you guys think! if you like it I'll record more stuff, maybe some wharf matches.

 

[Badboy Takuma]

nice sonya!
u play sonya very well!
the next time, make video against good opponents, the smoke and cyrax wasnt..

 

[Slego]

nice sonya!
u play sonya very well!
the next time, make video against good opponents, the smoke and cyrax wasnt..

Yeah, noone I know is online atm so I'm stuck with ranked. Usually its either these kinds of guys or 2041/9 KLs that just spin a shit-ton.

I'll work on better games when the wharf comes up.

 

[A F0xy Grampa]

When you're doing MS mixups off of a blockstring and you wanna go low, do a MS B4 sweep its so quick that they cant even jump out, if they predict the low punches they can just jump away, it helps you make them respect the stance more, so that way you can have more throw attempts/crossovers/blockstrings

Against the smoke teleport you couldve punished with a divekick combo, just jump vertically up and divekick the second they hit the floor.

Other than that lookin good

 

[Shady]

Good stuff so far... A few things I noticed (they don't happen too often but I thought I'd just point them out anyway). Learn the distance for all MS moves... you definitely got it down, but once or twice you're out of reach for the grab out of it and it costs you frame advantage where I would just do F1 into Cartwheel if you're that far out on a crouching opponent. Also, you don't pressure them on wake up. The new wake up system makes it a little difficult, but against Cyrax and Smoke you can still D4 them to check them (the only move that can potentially blow that up is Cyrax's saw but he rarely uses it, everything else, your hitbox is too low for them to do anything). So D4 into MS or into Cartwheel for more pressure of wake up or straight up Military Stance trap them on wake up with F1 and into Cartwheel. I do this in my casuals and if timed right MS F1 into cartwheel can beat out hella moves (I did it against Kitana's cutter on wake up yesterday).

Ninja Edit: Oh, and like F0xy said, you missed a few really good punish moments. I know 1,1,4 is a good string, but you have to realize when your punish opportunity is better. If I know I have a guaranteed punish for example I will go into B2,1,F2, njp. dash in Kiss, Dive kick 2,1, Cartwheel 1, dash, 1,1,2 MS for close to 44%. It's not a good combo to just fish for since it's not one of her best jail strings on block (like say 1,1,4), but on a guaranteed punish its one of her best options.

 

[Slego]

When you're doing MS mixups off of a blockstring and you wanna go low, do a MS B4 sweep its so quick that they cant even jump out, if they predict the low punches they can just jump away, it helps you make them respect the stance more, so that way you can have more throw attempts/crossovers/blockstrings

Against the smoke teleport you couldve punished with a divekick combo, just jump vertically up and divekick the second they hit the floor.

Other than that lookin good

I have practiced MS B4 a bit, but I guess I just need to break the big F1 reflex I've developed. do you find it more worth it than a potential kartwheel/EX Kiss cancel mixup?

And agreed I should be punishing whiffs more heavily, esp on cannonballs. Can you dive kick punish a blocked slide? the times I have tried they ended up getting blocked, or do I just need to make my IA dive kick just a little bit more Instant.

Good stuff so far... A few things I noticed (they don't happen too often but I thought I'd just point them out anyway). Learn the distance for all MS moves... you definitely got it down, but once or twice you're out of reach for the grab out of it and it costs you frame advantage where I would just do F1 into Cartwheel if you're that far out on a crouching opponent. Also, you don't pressure them on wake up. The new wake up system makes it a little difficult, but against Cyrax and Smoke you can still D4 them to check them (the only move that can potentially blow that up is Cyrax's saw but he rarely uses it, everything else, your hitbox is too low for them to do anything). So D4 into MS or into Cartwheel for more pressure of wake up or straight up Military Stance trap them on wake up with F1 and into Cartwheel. I do this in my casuals and if timed right MS F1 into cartwheel can beat out hella moves (I did it against Kitana's cutter on wake up yesterday).

Ninja Edit: Oh, and like F0xy said, you missed a few really good punish moments. I know 1,1,4 is a good string, but you have to realize when your punish opportunity is better. If I know I have a guaranteed punish for example I will go into B2,1,F2, njp. dash in Kiss, Dive kick 2,1, Cartwheel 1, dash, 1,1,2 MS for close to 44%. It's not a good combo to just fish for since it's not one of her best jail strings on block (like say 1,1,4), but on a guaranteed punish its one of her best options.

d4 MS/Kartwheel mixups are awesome for wakeups, and is a great way to keep pressure on. It seems however (with many chars) the d4 can be punished by any wakeup with invincible frames and even some that don't. Timed wrong it's a free jump in. Definitely agreed that low pokes are the way to go, though.

Ive never been able to be consistent with the midscreen kiss combo(online) so I usually only try and do it when I'm feeling froggy (around 20% sucess rate, lololo)

Good stuff guys, like I said, I'll try and get better matches when I get off work.

 

[Slego]

Here's a couple matches from fellow TYM and Wharf player gamma_is_back, complete with hilarious fails.

 

[Gamma]

Looking at these again makes it even more embarassing to see how many combos were dropped on both ends due to lag.

 

[Slego]

Looking at these again makes it even more embarassing to see how many combos were dropped on both ends due to lag.

Yarr, not one reset! /sadfaec

you two need to work on landing your combos just kidding!!! hahaha i enjoyed watching you verse gamma's stryker, slego. you play your sonya very well. keep it up

Danke kind sir.

 

[Slego]

Hey folks, its been a bit, but here's some footage of me at the grand final of a small local tourney. For a fun game, take a shot of solvent every time I whiff the second part of my AA combo.

 

[GamerBlake90]

Watched the tourney footage. Excellent stuff!

You will definitely need to practice your juggling with Sonya as well as the 1 1 2 Stance ender. A little hint: to cancel into the Stance, start inputting it on the last hit of the string. Always works.

We need to have Sonya mirror matches soon. I would have played you this morning, but I had just finished playing somebody in a series for three hours and I needed to get breakfast. Perhaps you would care for me to record the footage so as to add to this thread?

 

[Slego]

Yeah, my online-warriorness caused me much trouble(first time playing offline) Its gonna sound ridiculous, but my combo completion rate is better with lag. :salty:

And I have no problems with you recording anything.

 

[Lord Beef]

Good stuff man. After playing you online, I could definitely tell the timing was messing with you. But I digress, awesome to see you getting out there. I envy you, every local tournament around here is conveniently always on Saturdays when I cannot get out of work. Great stuff man, again

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

[Buffalo]

Watched the tourney video, and I'm proud of you bro. That was some good stuff. One thing I noticed is that you could incorporate the 112 reset more. A personal use for it is instead of doing a mess hall(b2 1 f2), leave off the f2 and do a quick dash forward on the bounce and do the reset there. Then cancel into ms and it leaves you with some good options.

Just something I thought might help. Easier than trying to hit them on the way down from a mess hall.

 

[GamerBlake90]

Okay, Mr_Sl3go, here is the video I promised.

Be warned, everyone...the total footage lasts up to two hours. I suggest getting ready for a hardcore watching session.

Feel free to comment and critique.

 

[Slego]

Jesus, that did go for a long time.

For anyone that feels like they missed out on the chat, here's a rough transcript.

Blake:*some bit of calm constructive advice*
Me:"I DON'T NEED YOUR GODDAMN BULLSHIT GO TO HELL"

 

[Buffalo]

Watching this makes me happy knowing that I'm doing the right things to play Sonya properly, but it also makes me realize I really need to work on my corner combos.

Good shit bros. I can't imagine playing Sonya mirror matches for two hours straight.

 

[RampaginDragon]

Hey Slego, I have played Sonya verylittle so I cant give big tips on that, but I watched a couple of vids here.

1. SZ 222 Is VERY punishable. If you block that (which you did every timeI think) punish him hard with a full combo.

2. In my short time playing Sonya one thing I did learn is how to stop the projectile comming out instead of F2 and the end of B21F2. Instead of this B21F2, do B211F2. just by pressing 1 one extra time the fireball wont come out. It took me a couple of games to get used to but it was definitly worth it. I plan on picking her up eventually.

And from the videos I watched (all of them and like he first 3 matches of the big video) it seemed like you were doing quite well. Good shit.

 

[A F0xy Grampa]

You two were jumping at eachother a whole load there, noticed blake ended up using the air throw because of the priority.

If some1 keeps jumping at you like that just space yourself and blow a kiss, that should stop the divekick spam from both players.
Also you both seemed to Cartwheel after blockstrings/MSF1, which IMO is something you only wanna do sparingly, because if the opponent expects it every time then the footsie game after it is gone. The MSF1 alone gives a good enough footsie game to go by and its closer (or is) to neutral than a blocked Cartwheel.

If you're Cartwheeling after a MSF1 hits you're losing some advantage of your knockdown. When Sonya knocks somebody down they're in a world of shit:

Roll - D4MSF1 on block
Jump Forward - AA 1
Wakeup - Can be baited/punished
Playing Dead - Cross over

Thats what I noticed at least from like 15mins of watchin