Match-Up Discussion - Sonya Blade Sonya Blade Matchup Thread

[Dedlock]

Due to Sonya's poor zoning and Kotal 's excellent Anti air and range I've always struggled against this character.

Best advice I can give you is poke and throw to open him up more and force mistakes.

Tremor I don't fight enough but jip 1 should be your friend against him, keep the pressure.

 

[HugeMcBigLarge]

Vs Kotal: Suppress your instinct to jump. Stuff that works against everyone else will not work against him. You lose air-to-air and he can push almost any button grounded and either low profile or flat beat you. Also he's going to back walk a lot and catch you if you're just running up or doing normals. You can yolo dive kick a lot against kotal and you should win trades against his b1 in active dive kick frames. Kotal should stop doing that and be a little more scared. Armor break everything. His options are slow and once he stops waking up, you'll have immediately bumped your win chances up a TON. You want Kotal on the ground and guessing. His normals will beat yours.

VS Tremor: He has no armor options to beat you. B33 or 121 will break all of his armor options pretty reliably. This has been an easier match up for me because you will beat him at point blank neutral and his zoning is good, but you can get around it if you're just a little bit patient. Throw out d3's and d4's like a fiend. Disrespect every window with your pokes. He suffers from not having a fast mid, and you can poke him out of any of his fast strings. Watch the back walk into f12 (super advancing 6f high). If he starts to catch you with the ex low crystal from you poking through every pressure window, just start to cross him up. You can get over the crystal into full combo.

 

[Kris.Hornett]

Vs Kotal: Suppress your instinct to jump. Stuff that works against everyone else will not work against him. You lose air-to-air and he can push almost any button grounded and either low profile or flat beat you. Also he's going to back walk a lot and catch you if you're just running up or doing normals. You can yolo dive kick a lot against kotal and you should win trades against his b1 in active dive kick frames. Kotal should stop doing that and be a little more scared. Armor break everything. His options are slow and once he stops waking up, you'll have immediately bumped your win chances up a TON. You want Kotal on the ground and guessing. His normals will beat yours.

VS Tremor: He has no armor options to beat you. B33 or 121 will break all of his armor options pretty reliably. This has been an easier match up for me because you will beat him at point blank neutral and his zoning is good, but you can get around it if you're just a little bit patient. Throw out d3's and d4's like a fiend. Disrespect every window with your pokes. He suffers from not having a fast mid, and you can poke him out of any of his fast strings. Watch the back walk into f12 (super advancing 6f high). If he starts to catch you with the ex low crystal from you poking through every pressure window, just start to cross him up. You can get over the crystal into full combo.

Thanks a bunch... Do you think Demo is best against them both?

 

[colby4898]

Against kotal use special forces and lame it out using homing missiles and energy rings

 

[Kris.Hornett]

Against kotal use special forces and lame it out using homing missiles and energy rings

Cool I'm gonna check your guide out today!

 

[HugeMcBigLarge]

I actually think CO does REALLY well against Kotal (for Sonya variations) because he really doesn't use his low starter. You force him to change his game really hard and change his spacing a lot if you can start getting your parry out. Takes a lot of comfort with the character, but when you can start beating his b1 with your parry, kotal is forced to d4 A LOT and stay right up close, and that's where you really want it. Just make sure youre footsies/poke reactions are appropriate.
Vs. Tremor demo is 100% my rec.

 

[skater11]

I love how Sonya can beautifully punish Johnny cage's forceballs (the one with the arc), It's arc makes it difficult for a lot of the cast to punish But I find that Sonya can punish with f2b1. The f2 whiffs(low profiles the arc of the fireball) then b1 punishes. Is there anything much easier/optimal that I'm not seeing here? I tried simply ducking the fireball and punishing it's recovery with f2 but I wasn't getting the punish. It was always blocked. Never labbed this, just talking straight from online matches.

EDIT: I decided to lab it and found out you can f2 into full combo in Demolition. Idk how I feel about this matchup. A list, to be more specific. I don't even know which variation would be best against him. Special Forces might throw off a JC who doesnt know the matchup but I don't think it completely destroys A list.

 

[errormacro7]

How do you beat Cybernetic Kano? lol

I've been struggling against this character online lately. Kinda hard to get in when he's zoning with his mid hitting knifes. And when he MB's that shit, it's like he's plus for days and I don't know when I should press buttons after that.

 

[Youphemism]

How do you beat Cybernetic Kano? lol

I've been struggling against this character online lately. Kinda hard to get in when he's zoning with his mid hitting knifes. And when he MB's that shit, it's like he's plus for days and I don't know when I should press buttons after that.

Hard to get in? Plus for days? Lol. Literally just walk and block, the knives do 1% chip per knife. You can also divekick over them and even J1 at him, it's harder to anti-air it with B1 and he'll have to spend meter on laser instead which gives pretty crap reward if he does it. Also MB knives are only +5, backdash any followups.

 

[errormacro7]

Hard to get in? Plus for days? Lol. Literally just walk and block, the knives do 1% chip per knife. You can also divekick over them and even J1 at him, it's harder to anti-air it with B1 and he'll have to spend meter on laser instead which gives pretty crap reward if he does it. Also MB knives are only +5, backdash any followups.

Well, I mainly play Covert Ops, and his mid hitting knifes + her horrible neutral game, it was kinda hard for me to get in. Whiffing divekicks were risky. But I'll admit I had no MU experience against this variation, so that's why I was struggling so much. lol

 

[Youphemism]

Well, I mainly play Covert Ops, and his mid hitting knifes + her horrible neutral game, it was kinda hard for me to get in. Whiffing divekicks were risky. But I'll admit I had no MU experience against this variation, so that's why I was struggling so much. lol

Sonya's neutral game isn't horrible, what theeeeeee? Kano's neutral does happen to be one of the strongest due to the range on his moves and safety but Sonya's isn't that bad in comparison. But yeah just walk and block until you're in F2 distance then do what you want

 

[errormacro7]

Sonya's neutral game isn't horrible, what theeeeeee? Kano's neutral does happen to be one of the strongest due to the range on his moves and safety but Sonya's isn't that bad in comparison. But yeah just walk and block until you're in F2 distance then do what you want

In Covert Ops I do think her neutral game is pretty weak. Now, in Demo and Special Forces, that's a different story. Sometimes I just run in and mash F2B1.

 

[Invincible Salads]

how do i play against demolition sonya? its like her grenades are breakers, and they keep whiffing divekick into divekick.

 

[skater11]

how do i play against demolition sonya? its like her grenades are breakers, and they keep whiffing divekick into divekick.

Its a guess on Sonya's part on when to detonate bomb. you can literally treat the bomb as if it were a reptile forceball(except with more caution). Jump over into punish/pressure. If the Sonya wises up and goes for close bomb, it opens up your backdash option. If they detonate as soon as possible then its your turn to press buttons.

 

[Invincible Salads]

Its a guess on Sonya's part on when to detonate bomb. you can literally treat the bomb as if it were a reptile forceball. Jump over into punish/pressure. If the Sonya wises up and goes for close bomb, it opens up your backdash option. If they detonate as soon as possible then its your turn to press buttons.

but what about when she does close bomb out of a string? i tried backdashing and still got caught.

 

[skater11]

Which character are you using? and at what point in your backdash were you caught? At the end-of-backdash/mid backdash/beginning? You gotta factor your character's mobility too. Sometimes it pays to respect her close bomb and block the detonation that way you get your turn. It's a guess in Sonya's part after all.

EDIT: also you mean a string on HIT or BLOCK? Obviously the answer would be much different on hit than it would on block.

 

[Invincible Salads]

Which character are you using? and at what point in your backdash were you caught? At the end-of-backdash/mid backdash/beginning? You gotta factor your character's mobility too. Sometimes it pays to respect her close bomb and block the detonation that way you get your turn. It's a guess in Sonya's part after all.

EDIT: also you mean a string on HIT or BLOCK? Obviously the answer would be much different on hit than it would on block.

on block, she doest close detonation on block. and im using dvorah.

 

[skater11]

Sounds like the Sonya player just pressed "Detonate bomb" at the right time. You should be able to block it/jump over/jumpback/backdash. I'd say go for jumpover some more and make the Sonya player go for instant detonation that way you get the most plus frames on your turn

 

[Invincible Salads]

Sounds like the Sonya player just pressed "Detonate bomb" at the right time. You should be able to block it/jump over/backdash. I'd say go for jumpover some more and make the Sonya player go for instant detonation that way you get the most plus frames on your turn

alright

 

[Invincible Salads]

Sounds like the Sonya player just pressed "Detonate bomb" at the right time. You should be able to block it/jump over/jumpback/backdash. I'd say go for jumpover some more and make the Sonya player go for instant detonation that way you get the most plus frames on your turn

is armor an option?

 

[skater11]

is armor an option?

It is, but unless the armor moves you & your opponent forward/backward, anywhere away from the bomb you are not 100% safe. You may end up getting punished for using an armored move even if its safe on block because armor isn't active throughout the entirety of a move. (and the bomb can be delayed). If you notice the Sonya player has 1 grenade left, uses it as pressure from a string. Feel free to do an armor move that moves you away from the bomb, even if its unsafe, the sonya player has no grenades for big dmg. I think it's a good risk-reward.

 

[Invincible Salads]

It is, but unless the armor moves you & your opponent forward/backward, anywhere away from the bomb you are not 100% safe. You may end up getting punished for using an armored move even if its safe on block because armor isn't active throughout the entirety of a move. (and the bomb can be delayed). If you notice the Sonya player has 1 grenade left, uses it as pressure from a string. Feel free to do an armor move that moves you away from the bomb, even if its unsafe, the sonya player has no grenades for big dmg. I think it's a good risk-reward.

how do u keep track of her grenades? how man can she hold?

 

[skater11]

Not sure if you're trolling me now, but look at her holster. There's 3 yellow spots for 3 grenades, when Sonya uses a bomb, 1 of the spots will turn blue. Blue means Sonya doesn't have access to that grenade. Once Sonya uses all 3 grenades her holster will have 3 blue spots indicating she has no bombs.

 

[Invincible Salads]

Not sure if you're trolling me now, but look at her holster. There's 3 yellow spots for 3 grenades, when Sonya uses a bomb, 1 of the spots will turn blue. Blue means Sonya doesn't have access to that grenade. Once Sonya uses all 3 grenades her holster will have 3 blue spots indicating she has no bombs.

k, and no im not trolling, i really know that little about demo sonya.

 

[errormacro7]

k, and no im not trolling, i really know that little about demo sonya.

Just look at her legs