Undoubtedly, many beginner 3rd strike players (myself included!) have gone through the "spamming shoto low-sweep" phase where they initially think it's a great, spammable move because of the range and low knockdown. It isn't until they get punished for the umpteenth time that they realize it's actually very unsafe on block, and very easy to punish on reaction due to the massive frame disadvantage, and start using it more sparingly. Same goes for wake-up uppercut, wake-up super, and any other number of scrubby tactics that any reasonably experienced 3S player will be familiar with. However, although some moves like shoto cr. HKs and uppercuts are very obviously unsafe if blocked, there are quite a few unsafe moves that aren't as easy to identify. Fortunately, in this day and age many years after the release of the game, we have pretty detailed frame data on most moves in the game, and identifying which moves are safe and which ones are punishable has become a much easier task.
When it comes to punishing blocked moves, the most common references in terms of how "safe" a move is are Ken SAIII and Chun-Li SAII. Both have very fast startup (Ken SAIII - 2 frames; Chun-Li SAII - 3 frames) and excellent horizontal range (particularly in Chun-Li's case - the automatic tracking makes pushback virtually a non-factor for her). It's important to note that both of these are important: for example, there are plenty of super arts with 1 frame startup but very limited range (i.e. Makoto SAI). Super arts like these aren't as useful for punishing most blocked normals, since any sort of pushback will push the character out of range.
Below is a table showing some less commonly known, punishable moves. As an example for what can be punished with what, Ken's super has 2 frames of startup, which means the first active/hit frame is the 3rd one after the super flash. Therefore, you want to look for moves that are -3 or worse on block as potential candidates for reversal super punishes with Ken. Of course, there are things that can prevent a reversal super art punish, even with favorable frame disadvantage properties:
- Pushback; getting pushed back to the point that the first hit misses, or some number of initial active frames don't connect
- Cancels; a classic example occurs in Ken mirror matches when one player baits the other into going for a reversal SAIII after a blocked cr. MK, only to cancel it into EX fireball, which hits Ken out of his super art and effectively wastes a full stock of meter. A lot of moves have cancels that make them safer than the frame data may suggest.
Therefore, figuring out what moves you can always punish on reaction and which moves require more caution requires some degree of experience and research beyond just a single frame advantage number. As always, this isn't intended to be a comprehensive list, just a starting point; for a comprehensive list you can use a resource like the bradygames guide. There are many unsafe moves that I left out for a variety of reasons:
- Too obvious to merit pointing out (most super arts, for example).
- Too rarely seen to be all that useful
- Requires using a super art that nobody would use in serious play (for example, Chun SA1 can punish stuff like a blocked Ken MP, HP target combo, but nobody ever uses SA1, so it's moot).
The idea is to point out commonly used moves that can be punished frequently enough to be worth knowing the frame data for. I've only listed moves that I'm 100% sure are punishable by at least one method (usually Ken SAIII or Chun SAII) on block, either because I've done the punish, seen the punish, or have heard from a high level player that the punish actually works.
When it comes to punishing blocked moves, the most common references in terms of how "safe" a move is are Ken SAIII and Chun-Li SAII. Both have very fast startup (Ken SAIII - 2 frames; Chun-Li SAII - 3 frames) and excellent horizontal range (particularly in Chun-Li's case - the automatic tracking makes pushback virtually a non-factor for her). It's important to note that both of these are important: for example, there are plenty of super arts with 1 frame startup but very limited range (i.e. Makoto SAI). Super arts like these aren't as useful for punishing most blocked normals, since any sort of pushback will push the character out of range.
Below is a table showing some less commonly known, punishable moves. As an example for what can be punished with what, Ken's super has 2 frames of startup, which means the first active/hit frame is the 3rd one after the super flash. Therefore, you want to look for moves that are -3 or worse on block as potential candidates for reversal super punishes with Ken. Of course, there are things that can prevent a reversal super art punish, even with favorable frame disadvantage properties:
- Pushback; getting pushed back to the point that the first hit misses, or some number of initial active frames don't connect
- Cancels; a classic example occurs in Ken mirror matches when one player baits the other into going for a reversal SAIII after a blocked cr. MK, only to cancel it into EX fireball, which hits Ken out of his super art and effectively wastes a full stock of meter. A lot of moves have cancels that make them safer than the frame data may suggest.
Therefore, figuring out what moves you can always punish on reaction and which moves require more caution requires some degree of experience and research beyond just a single frame advantage number. As always, this isn't intended to be a comprehensive list, just a starting point; for a comprehensive list you can use a resource like the bradygames guide. There are many unsafe moves that I left out for a variety of reasons:
- Too obvious to merit pointing out (most super arts, for example).
- Too rarely seen to be all that useful
- Requires using a super art that nobody would use in serious play (for example, Chun SA1 can punish stuff like a blocked Ken MP, HP target combo, but nobody ever uses SA1, so it's moot).
The idea is to point out commonly used moves that can be punished frequently enough to be worth knowing the frame data for. I've only listed moves that I'm 100% sure are punishable by at least one method (usually Ken SAIII or Chun SAII) on block, either because I've done the punish, seen the punish, or have heard from a high level player that the punish actually works.
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(hurricane kick) |
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(EX elbow) |
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(EX spinning bird kick) |
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(fireball) |
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(EX fireball) |
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Ken (mid-screen, unsuccessful) |
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(command overhead) |
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(launcher) |
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(command overhead) |
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(slashes) |
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(shoulder) |
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(hop kick, overhead) |
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Wherever possible, I've put links illustrating punishes in real play. The link description says which character is performing the punish. As I find more links I'll update this table over time, I might even just sit down and make videos of all of these punishes just to fill out this table.
As you start looking out for these moves, you may be surprised at how easy some of these moves are to punish when you're actually watching out for them. A common example is Yang slashes; many players have the bad habit of not mixing up the number of slashes, and just stopping one short of the maximum, thinking that they're safe in doing so. If you latch on to a pattern like this and actively anticipate slashes, it's very easy to reversal super after the 2nd or 4th slash with any number of characters, and get free punishes where before you felt like you were just stuck in block strings forever.
Happy reversals!
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