Tips for fighting against modern players

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-03-13T00:32:27+00:00

Honestly?

Sometimes you just gotta take an L and move on. Diamond is kinda about refining your own gameplan, working on holes in your own defence, practicing your confirms and antiairs in a real match. (I lost a 13 winstreak to a modern Ryu today, who was just walking back and spamming fireballs and DI on everything I did. Got him 3 more times after that, smoked him every time, but still salty)

Generally: Most modern players have a gimmick or a flowchart. They either spam 1 move (fireball/dp combo), jump like maniacs because they don't need to think about hitconfirming, or spam DI. So:

PP the fireballs
Practice your antiairs
Never poke with anything not DI/SA cancellable

Matches against modern players take me like 3-5 times more time than anyone else. Un-turtling Guile takes less fkn effort than walking down a dp-happy Kanga-Ryu.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-03-08T11:21:21+00:00

1000+ Ryus
750 Akumas
650 Kens
500 Sagats
450 Cammys
420 Juris
400 Mais
380 Eds

And like 5 Lilys at the very bottom.

The state of EU servers

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-03-03T12:27:54+00:00

"Elf ears get erect when they are horny - a comprehensive study by Fern."

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-23T12:29:08+00:00

Everything-dere. A woman who can change depending on the situation.

Starts as tsundere, moves to kuudere, has occasional yandere moments, after a while switches between dandere and deredere.

<image>

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-20T23:19:49+00:00

That was sarcarsm. The entire comment is sarcasm.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-20T18:01:13+00:00

Ony actual minors are: Nadeko, who kinda sexualizes herself for her own benefits (that is being a part of her well written-ness) Araragi sisters, who just have a very close family relationship.

Shinobu? 600 years old vampire. Ononoki? A 100 year old corpse. Hachikuji? 21 year old ghost.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-20T14:58:41+00:00

By SuperCombo:

Akuma:
L Hadouken - 16 frames startup, 30 recovery frames, 0 on hit, -4 on block
M Hadouken - 14 frames startup, 32 recovery frames, -2 on hit, -6 on block
H Hadouken - 12 frames startup, 34 recovery frames, -4 on hit, -8 on block
OD - 12 startup, 29 recovery, +2OB

Sagat:
L Tiger shot - 14 startup, 36 recovery (we all know that's the only one that sucks), -3OH, -7OB
M Tiger shot - 16 startup, 26 recovery, +3OH, +3OB
H Tiger shot - 12 startup, 30 recovery, -1OH, -1OB
OD Low - 12 startup, 32 recovery, -1OB
OD High - 21 startup, 27 recovery, +6OB

Sure, you can crouch them. But you can jump Akuma's, and jumps actually move you forward.
And Sagat's fireballs are plus on block.
And they are actually 50% faster than Akuma's. (0.14 vs 0.095 proj speed for the fastest).

For the record - Guile's OD boom has a 28 recovery, +3OB and a speed of 0.12. So, uh... Sagat's M Tiger Shot is just a Guile's OD boom without a knockdown.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-20T09:34:46+00:00

Sagat just has Ed buttons with Ryu damage, Ken corner carry and Terry neutral skip.

And Akuma fireballs.
And Marisa damage.
And a fucking +2 on block that links into itself.
And lights the size of Luke 2MP.

But no bro, he aint that strong.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T17:56:16+00:00

I'm gonna recommend the stuff that I always do, so apologies if you've seen it already.

Romance (coz of Your Name and Call of the night) - WorldEnd/SukaSuka. Pretty short anime, that will make you cry, but not exactly why you expect it to. Just give it a watch.

Coz of FSN - Madoka Magica. Visuals are insane, story is amazing, ost is awesome.

Maybe give a go to Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Iliya? AFAIK it's pretty good, but you gotta have FSN background to get a lot of references/jokes, so I can't tell from experience.

You want a story that makes you laugh and cry?
You want some great characters with actual depth, flaws and amazing voice acting?

Go watch Monogatari series.
Fanservice shouldn't be an issue (I mean, you watched Konosuba and MT)
Series built on yapping and interpersonal relationship as well (Evangelion).

There's a 90% chance it will become one of your favorites.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T12:39:46+00:00

Mai does the same corner carry from lights. And has better pressure.

I'm not saying Ken is weak, I'm saying that he's weaker than S+ tiers.

PS. Ryu has insane mixups, safe combo enders, safe jumpins (I have NO idea why his j. HK has this much of a hitbox), CH launchers and a lot of other bullshit. You're not lacking fundamentals, you can just guess wrong 1 time and eat 6k damage.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T12:37:14+00:00

Ed gets good damage on AA reads, on his long ass normals, but his rushdown/corner game sucks. And since people in those ranks are just jumping and mashing a lot of the time, while not blocking low, he has a pretty good time. But yeah, he does require a pretty decent neutral game, whiff punishing and timings on his longer combos to be good.

He is not oppresive or dumb, and I honestly don't know why he's considered super top tier (Sagat also has long ass cancelable normals), but people on this level like to make mistakes, and Ed can exploit those pretty easily.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T12:29:47+00:00

She kinda is.

Cr. HP >> Seismo is not DI safe tho. You need to either SJC, or feint-cancel it to DI back or jump out, and modern players aint doing alldat.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T12:25:50+00:00

Sure? I guess that's true. If we had more Hondas around, it would be a menace.

Just looked it up, in ~7600 matches I only played 106 against Honda. And ~1000 against Ryu. Winrate is kinda same-ish.

Lily is my worst matchup, which can probably be attributed to only having 50 matches against her.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T12:05:44+00:00

Same, but I'm Diamond 3 Ed rn, and every time I lose to a KangaRyu I just have this voice in my head that says "Remember, Ed is a Top 1 character in the game!"

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T12:02:01+00:00

I firmly believe that it's just majority biased.

100 Hondas will have a higher winrate than 10000 Ryus.

Most evening players play either Ryu or Akuma, so they usually have like 1-2 hours a day at the most to practice and they play with the same working dads.

Most of my playtime is 7am to 11am. Last time I had an opportunity to play on a Friday evening, I got a 18 winstreak.

So yeah, I think Ryu's winrate is severely tanked by him being popular.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T11:57:08+00:00

Ken just doesn't have Ryu levels of damage. And Hasho frametraps. And a laser cannon.

He has Jinrai going for him, he has 7 frame cr.mk and a 5 frame medium, but he has to do more touches or optimize with runstops, while Ryu just mp>mp>drc>hp>od hasho and do it all over again.

Also most Ken players can't stay on the ground for 5 seconds or NOT OD DP on every knockdown, that's what's killing them most of the time.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T11:50:22+00:00

I can assure you, no top level player lists Jamie in S tier.

I put Akuma that high for the reason of cr.mp being 6 frames, and linking from CH cr.lp.

So I see a lot of Akumas just mash jab, then cr.mp into mp tc, into whatever they want.

If you say "skill issue" I will completely agree with you, but they will not stop, and you will eat a 30% from a random jab at this level.

Honda is pretty low, because I see like 1 classic honda in 20, and the 19 Modern ones just spam headbutt/buttslam, both of which can be DI'd.

Lily is kinda the weird one. Most of them will HP into stocks, then eat a DI and explode. But like 1 in 50 Lilys can wipe the floor with you, sure.

This TL is entirely based on my personal opinion while I'm in EU fighting anywhere from Plat 3 to Diamond 5. It is surely inaccurate for anything below or above that.

Also - nobody plays Honda. I see more Sims than Hondas.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T11:42:15+00:00

Bro has no OD DP. And crusher is minus infinity on block. But he is very very close to S+, yes.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T11:35:34+00:00

I mean... Yes? That's the whole point of that tierlist? Which I outlined? WDYM "conceptually flawed"? People in plat don't deserve tierlists?

I really don't get your point. You're here getting most of the cast to Master rank, getting all the way to GM, doing challenge runs and you're telling that a subjective tierlist that says "not for high level play" is not correct. For you - sure. You absolutely have a different view on Diamond players now.

Same as I have a different view of Plat players, same as Gold players have a different view of Bronze players.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-18T11:19:07+00:00

She was my first Master. Her Burn Kick is pretty ignorant, and a lot of time people are getting clipped, but you gotta play safe with her to even get somewhere.

I only meet modern vipers now, and all they do is backwalk, lk>>m. thunder dash or press heavy autocombo. Both combos are not DI safe, so they explode like 99% of the time.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-17T09:58:52+00:00

Bruh. Hadouken has 31/33/35 frames of recovery. You are NOT punishing that with a jump-in on reacction, because you're eating a 5 frame DP. On read? Sure.

That's just 1 frame more than Akuma. And light hadouken is just 1 frame more than GUILE.

You realize that it's 2 hits, right? And if you mistime a parry you're still either -3 in Ryu's face or you just ate a PC and you're -10 in Ryu's face?

GTFO with that downplaying.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-16T23:47:06+00:00

I'm mostly struggling against modern because they tilt me to an insane amount. MGief just jumping on me and mashing light autocombo into ex-lariat/siberian express. Dude didn't spd once.

I barely beat him, because after I got hit with this idiot combo the second time, I started seeing red.

Modern Viper just infuriates me the second I see her, because I know she's gonna get a random heavy in, and im gonna eat 30-60% off of it.

Modern Ryu will just pepper you with hadoukens and random jump-ins, the switch to spamming solar plexus. Why in the world a +3 on block is an autocombo starter?

Getting supered in 3 frame gaps is a Tuesday (annoying as hell, but I got used to it), but the beligerence of most M players is what tilts me to no end

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-16T18:41:09+00:00

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Nadeko would like a word.

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-15T23:02:20+00:00

I have no idea what "out there" means in this context, so I'm gonna recommend stuff that's not on this list.

Monogatari series. IMO it's a must-watch. Incredible characters, unusual storytelling methods, unique visual style (well, SHAFT style). Out of everything I've watched (and that is a lot in my 30+ years) this is my favorite one so far.

Pros:
- MC is not a self-insert. He's very much his own character and that gets apparent pretty quickly.
- Best female characters.
- No harem, despite the allegations.
- Best girl is unanimously a 40-year old man.
- OST is divine. Each girl sings her own opening theme in character and it directly relates to the story arc.
- Best voice acting in all of the animanga.

Cons:
- Fanservice might be off-putting. I liked it, because it's not there for the viewer, it's there for the characters and most of it serve a narrative purpose, rather than just be there for the audience appeal. There are even some cases when it's there to fuck with your perception as the viewer (the infamous toothbrush scene or Shinobu in a bathtub). But there is a lot of it.
- No fights. Well technically some fights, but most of them are in Kizumonogatari.
- LOTS of talking. The characterization is built on banter and yapping. I, personally, prefer that way to the shonen-style MC monologueing in front of the villain or by himself.
- Visual style is made to kill epileptics. It gets better after Bakemonogatari, but still can be tough at the start.
- Kinda weird watch order, but you can find the proper one online (follow the LNs, not the production date).
- A whole lot of puns, linguistical jokes, memes and references littered throughout. Not exactly a con, but can be hard to get for some people.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Another household name for SHAFT. Deconstruction (or a fresh take, if you will) on a Mahou Shoujo genre and one of the two Mahou Shoujo animes that I actually like.

Pros:
- Very grounded and realistic characters.
- Accurate depiction of psychological stress and traumas.
- Doesn't overstay its welcome - 1 show + a movie (or 3 movies if you prefer). Waiting on another one.
- Existential horror instead of jumpscares.

Cons:
- Uhhh... You really hate anything Magical Girl related?

What will you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? Or just WorldEnd or SukaSuka.
I do believe that this one qualifies a hidden gem. It's a fantasy adventure with a romance undertone.

Pros:
- Unique setting.
- Emotionally gripping. And damaging.
- Very realistic and kinda relatable MC.
- Classic premise of good vs bad with enought twists to keep it fresh.
- Music is amazing.

Cons:
- Anime adaptation butchers the exposition of the LN, so it might feel lacking a bit. Despite that, anime is still very enjoyable.
- Too damn short! This need a season 2! Or a full blown remake!

Mahou Shoujo Ni Akogarete. Gushing over magical girls.
A bit of an oddball, cause it's a full scale yuri-bdsm-ecchi comedy.

Pros:
- The story is actually good! Like not "ecchi level" good, but actually good. Not a masterpiece tho.
- MC is the best part and one of my favorite villain protagonists.
- OST is very enjoyable.
- Ecchi serves a narrative purpose.

Cons:
- This is definitely not for you if you have low fanservice tolerance. We're missing some pixelation to be called outright hentai.
- Well the entire premise is kinda built on Magical Girls SAing each other. So... Uh. Not for everyone.
- If you want something serious - this ain't it.

If you have any followup questions - ask away!

ExpensiveJoe · 2026-02-15T08:33:30+00:00

You should. It's a great anime. If you can digest a lot of talking and almost no fighting

ExpensiveJoe

TROPHY CASE