Ryu vs Yang

Yang

Yang, Yun’s twin brother, in my opinion is as good as Yun in arcade edition. He does little damage, harder to use and seems like takes much more effort to win in a battle. However, if used in the right hands, Yang is extremely strong mainly because he has better normals than Yun. It allows him to create scary and deadly mix ups with just a knock down. It might be weird to say, Yang is actually like a Bison but stronger with similarity like Yang’s Roll Kick = Ex Psycho Crusher/ Ex Scissor Kick, 3f low short has a longer range especially when he can connect into another 3f stand short and he has a better teleport than Bison’s, an Abel roll. Without a doubt Yang beat Ryu 6:4 if you ask me….I think when I was training in Japan Yang was one of my worst matchup next to Fei Long/Dhalsim. Now I will share the knowledge that I know of in this match up!

Ground Games:

Far Range: Probably I don’t have to write it out, but YES, Yang is going to build meter full screen with his Palm and it’s a faster Palm than Yun’s so it takes him lesser time to charge up a super meter, however, like against Yun, you have to respect his full screen projectile invincible move, Yang’s roll kick. You can’t let him build meter for free because it’s a BIG disadvantage to Ryu, so like Yun’s matchup, throw Hadokens (unpredictable ones) to mess up his meter management or walk closer to him (close enough where his Palm whiffs) and then punish with sweep. If you are not confident with your spacing or zoning, I suggest that you should build meters yourself with jab SRK.

Mid Range: This is Ryu’s uncomforted zone because of Yang’s dive kick. Yang can just neutral jump here without doing anything and it’s already the strongest mind game. Ryu will lose air to air if you ever try to knock him out of the air, you are going to fail. If you throw a fireball, Yang can just react to it and dive kick so basically you have to wait for him to do something. I mean of course you can risk it and use HP SRK to AA his jump, but if you miss, basically you gave him a chance to land a free combo on you. It doesn’t really mean that you shouldn’t try to zone him, but make sure you are throwing your fireballs as a surprise attack or maybe throw an ex Hadoken making it harder to react or something.

As bad as it sounds, there are still strategies to not get owned at this range. The strategy is to always look at Yang and prepare to AA with St.LK or cr.HP (I prefer crouching fierce against Yang), of course if you can react to it, use SRK. Once you have focused on the anti airing, you will have to focus on footsies. Eventually Yang will put you in the corner by just walking you in the corner and out in order to prevent that to happen, you have to out footsies Yang.

Close Range: As I mentioned above, Yang is like a Bison, especially when he’s up close with his 3f low short, it has great range and not just that, it also allows Yang to combo into standing short into combo which greatly extends more range of 3f normals. Moreover, like Bison, depending on how close Yang does low short > 1 hit Rekka, he can do a loop like Bison’s low short > scissor kick. Bison can do it two times, but Yang can do it up to three times if he’s close enough. Not trying to repeat myself, but like I said, like Bison, you can also counter Yang like how you do against Bison by using standing short to make Yang’s low/stand short whiff to break his loop.

Counter:

Mantis Slashes (Rekka): Yang’s first hit jab rekka is always safe on block and the second hit is always punishable on block. His fierce on block is -6, which means you can always reversal with SRK no matter which hit of the Rekka you blocked.

Ex Version: The full combo contains 5 hits, the first 3 hit = a true block string, but after it’s not, which means you can mash a SRK on block unless your opponent stops during the 1-3 hits and that’s what usually people do when I was in Japan because the first 3 hits are completely safe on block. When you block the 1-3 hits of Ex Rekka, once they stop, they can grab you or keep applying pressure by attacking you, therefore make sure you pay attention.

Kaihou (Teleport): Any normal attacks (The normal version is useless on wake up)

Ex Version: Throw (Exactly like Abel’s Ex roll)

Palm: This special move is like an invisible projectile with little range and can only be countered with MP/EX SRK and ultra.

Ex Version: The ex version gives invincibility on start up, but it still can be beat by MP/EX SRK.

Roll Kick: A projectile invincible move, but any attacks can stop it before the kick stretches out.

Ex Version: Though this move starts up quite fast, you can still counter it with SRK (I never beat it with normals), however I would recommend you to block and then punish even if you can react to it.

Flip Grab: Any attack

Ex Version: The ex grab is invulnerable to any attack that has no invincibility. Therefore only SRK/Super/Ultra can beat it.

Against Ultra 1: This ultra is usually used to connect into combos and it’s an extremely great to use as an anti air.

 Against Ultra 2: This is just a more damaging of the regular version roll kick. It has no invincibility on start up……hmmm I don’t think I need to explain much. Just don’t throw fireballs when he has ultra meter and at a distance where he can easily react to.

On Ryu’s Wake Up:

There are a lot of mix ups Yang can do on Ryu and here is a list of the general mix ups

-After forward throw -> dash forward -> forward jump mk = ambiguous cross up (Ryu has to block, wake up SRK will whiff)

-Forward throw -> dash forward -> dive kick = hits front (can be countered by wake up SRK)

-Anything that leads to low forward (cr.mk) > MK roll kick > immediately forward jump MK = an ambiguous cross up ONLY if you quick wake up (Ryu has to block, wake up SRK will whiff). However, if you perform a 5f delayed wake up (I mentioned this in the Zangief/Rufus guide) it is possible to auto correct wake up SRK.

-(I might be wrong on this, however, I am 80% sure, lol…somebody can correct me ) When Ryu is in the corner, after any knock down, whether you quick wake up or not, a LK dive kick on your wake up is always an ambiguous cross up and it always lands in front. The MK dive kick can land both front and behind, but you can still block it as a non-cross up. The HK dive kick simply whiffs.

-When Ryu is in the corner, after Yang lands a forward throw > forward dash X 2 > earlier forward jump MK = ambiguous cross up.

-When Ryu is in the corner, after Yang lands a forward throw > forward dash X 2 > late forward jump MK = cross up BUT you still block it as a non cross up and Yang will end up behind you.

-After forward throw > forward dash > forward empty jump > low short x 2-3 > Rekka

-After forward throw > forward dash > forward empty jump > command grab

These are general mix ups that Yang can do on Ryu’s wake up. I am sure there are more and on the other hand he also has a lot of reset combos that can lead to a command throw/hitting low/cross up/ambiguous crossup or simply just block. Therefore I will not list any because there are just way too much to and it’s not possible to react to it, it’s all pure mind games.

Mind Games and Option Select:

Alright, like his twin brother, Yun, his roll kick is somewhat different compared to other wake up reversals. After a sweep, forward jump attack immediately then OS sweep is a true safe jump plus option select. But the weird thing is that whatever OS I do following the jump in attack voids the safe jump even if I use ex SRK.
As you know, when you do a jump in attack, you have two frames after you land where you cannot block or move or anything other than throw tech. After those 2 frames, there are two more frames where you can block, but you cannot perform any other actions except throw tech.
If you buffer a move during the jump in, the frames that you cannot block when you land are extended to 4 instead of 2, UNLESS the move you did ends in the down back position (which is why you can sweep)
This prevents stuff like OS srk beating reversal SRK, feilong safe jumping and performing ultra 2 against SRK.. anything like that would be ridiculously cheap.
Also against Yang, aside worrying about his back dash, he also has ex teleport to get out. Therefore you got to guess when he’s going to do it and switch up your OS into grab.

When I play against Yang, I usually don’t save up a super meter, instead I usually use ex Tatsu as a frame trap because it works extremely well. Whenever you approach Yang and he’s blocking your poke string, he’s going to mash on low short (tech throw) or back dash. Either one loses to ex Tatsu, and once they are scared to mash, then I throw or do an over head on his wake up.

Tips and Tricks:

Majority of the tricks are the ones I mentioned against Yun. The on ground cross up tatsu (back throw > forward dash X2 > HK tatsu, and then the fake safe jump ex Air tatsu to beat his wake up roll kick.

Also if you didn’t read it carefully above at the ground game section, Ryu’s standing short works extremely well against Yang because it makes all his lower normals whiffs (e.g Yang’s stand short, low short, low forward, etc).

Things to be aware of:

Yang’s dive kick into in to low short is a true block string (if Yang’s dive kick is performed correctly), so mashing on anything will get you hit. His ex command throw is like Yun’s, so basically there’s nothing much you can do but guess when he’s going to do it during a poke string then jump to evade and punish.

In this match up, it’s best to rush him down rather than letting him put you in the corner. Once you are in the corner, the match up turns in to 7-3 or even 8-2. But putting Yang in the corner makes the match up 6-4 in Ryu’s favor.