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Strategy How do you pressure with Sonya?

KRYS9984

KRYS9984

Noob
Down 4 + Military Stance pretty much sums it up.

When Sonya has as little as 1 bar of meter, your opponent will usually be very cautious (around jump distance) to avoid getting blown up by EN Cartwheel. With this fear instilled, you will have the opportunity to start checking them with d4 + military stance while on block, or chase them throwing out d4's if they decide to run away.

No one (except for heavy rush-down characters) will really want to fight Sonya face to face or jump in on her. You basically have to understand your opponents character / habits / gameplay and adapt to that.

But yeah..........D4 + Military Stance ftw.
 
GamerBlake90

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
This is one of the most common misconceptions I see about the character. Sonya is not a pressure character...the core element to her game is mix-ups.

A lot of posts here point out d4 - Military Stance, which you can follow with f1 for +1 advantage. But what people fail to realize is that there are only two fast options to follow a blocked f1 with:

1. Her d1 poke, which I believe is six frames. If the poke is blocked and she tries to follow with a stance mix-up, Sonya won't be at enough advantage to make a guess because she can be stopped by a counter-poke or they can jump away.

2. Her instant-air divekick, but this is very unsafe. Should it be blocked, you're eating a full combo punish.

I guess you could also include the EX Cartwheel, but are you willing to just throw them out and not think that the opponent will be smart enough to see it coming and block it, or whiff punish it? From my experience, Sonya doesn't have many other counter-measures when she's being pressured herself. A blocked cartwheel, EX or not, leaves you at negative frames.

And before anybody else makes such arguments - how are you gonna "pressure" with Sonya? 1 1 4 or 1 1 2? Unless it's off a jump-punch, they can be ducked mid-string and interrupted by d1 or d3. Poke to stance? Read the first criteria above about what happens with blocked pokes. f4? Possibly, but it's not that fast. Throws? That leads to a potential Wake-Up and therefore another guessing game.

This is only a snippet of a Sonya guide I have in mind that I'd like to release some time in the future, so until then, I hope this helps out.
 
GamerBlake90

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
zaf said:
What if a sonya player does d4>ms f1 , then d1~cartwheel ?
Click to expand...
The cartwheel is 23 frames and therefore has a slow start-up. An attempt to cancel a blocked poke into a cartwheel will fail just as stance mix-ups will - provided they know the timing.
 
zaf

zaf

professor
Sonya Blake said:
The cartwheel is 23 frames and therefore has a slow start-up. An attempt to cancel a blocked poke into a cartwheel will fail just as stance mix-ups will - provided they know the timing.
Click to expand...
perfect, just checking but yea i thought i should be able to stop that.
unless they do d1~ex cartwheel and my counter has no armor either =[
 
zaf

zaf

professor
yea i double checked, there is 0 cancel advantage from using a d1. So a d1~cartwheel , the cartwheel will still be 23 frames after the d1.

Good to know.
 
GamerBlake90

GamerBlake90

Blue Blurs for Life!
zaf said:
perfect, just checking but yea i thought i should be able to stop that.
unless they do d1~ex cartwheel and my counter has no armor either =[
Click to expand...
Yes, but as per what I said, EX Cartwheel shouldn't be mindlessly abused. If the Sonya player manages their meter conservatively, she will be a very dangerous character to play because she'll have a great sense of control over possibilities. It's why I love playing as her, she has so many options! :)

Meter management. I cannot express the importance of that concept, no matter how good you or your character are.
 
bipolar_shango

bipolar_shango

" Bros before Hoes"
Sonya Blake said:
This is one of the most common misconceptions I see about the character. Sonya is not a pressure character...the core element to her game is mix-ups.

A lot of posts here point out d4 - Military Stance, which you can follow with f1 for +1 advantage. But ..............................................................

This is only a snippet of a Sonya guide I have in mind that I'd like to release some time in the future, so until then, I hope this helps out.
Click to expand...
Sonya is one of the most miss understood characters in this game.
 
Showtime

Showtime

Reptile/Sonya
This is good, if they try to jump kartwheel wins, if you have meter to burn tho d1 ex kartwheel is better bc if they try to counter poke they get blown up

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2
 
Justice

Justice

Noob
zaf said:
What if a sonya player does d4>ms f1 , then d1~cartwheel ?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if this helps but the majority of Sonya players will cancel the f1 directly into kartwheel. On hit, the Kartwheel will whiff but has the opportunity to stuff Wakeups due to Sonya being behind you. On block, it's a safe chip and massive meter build for Sonya.

One thing people seem to forget about EX-Kartwheel is that it's only armored for the first 20 frames. So basically, when Sonya is at the vertical point of the Kartwheel, EX or not, she's as wide open as Jenna Jameson at work.
 
MashPotatoTower

MashPotatoTower

Noob
Just because a character can't quite pressure mid doesn't mean she doesn't have incredible pressure.
No she doesn't plow through you like cage, kabal, and like sindel useing advantage and pressuring mid
Her pressure is more like Kungs and kitanas where they can't just keep leaning in on you. At high level 112 ms f1 cartwheel/d1/4/dive kick Is a dangerous thing to do that can loose you the lead or even a round.

make more use out of ms and its messed up block stun. End strings earlyer with a ms 4 to pressure mid and push them away safely to attempt a wife punish or d4
Try to punish with 4 cartwheel as its rather quick and also hits mid
Also you have over heads! Move in with a f4 ( has good whiff) and use the f2 2 4 string. There all 0 on block and easy to lead with her fast normals.
Also like Lao don't be afraid to mix shit up with dive kick cross over or fake. It's not nearly as good as Laos but still scary.
Just remember to always make some distance with ms! And always counter poke with dive kick.

D4 really community? D4 is awesome don't get me wrong but its hella whiff punishable. Not to mention useing it up close to pressure can get you blown up.
 
Eminent

Eminent

Forum Lurker
GamerBlake90 said:
This is only a snippet of a Sonya guide I have in mind that I'd like to release some time in the future, so until then, I hope this helps out.
Click to expand...
GamerBlake90

I'd very much like to see that new Sonya guide. The one that foxy made was pretty good but I feel is a little dated. I don't see many pros use the combos he recommended. The use of the 312 string isn't mentioned either.
 
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