Guile Trapping Patterns Guide
Crying Freeman
Patterns. I'm sure most Guile players have developed some sort of
variation on these patterns, but I figured I'd post my fav. techniques.
"Good Guile players play defensively, Master Guile players play offensively"
Of course that statement isn't completely true, because jumping in on
Blanka (and Honda on HF) is pretty much suicidal... But anyways...
Also, the key to these patterns is not to become predictable... Against
mid to high level players, I can practically play in my sleep and
barrage them with patterns, but against master players, you need
to be more unpredictable.
Since the patterns can almost be executed mindlessly, I'll post them in
a mindless algorithm form...
Most patterns will start with a slow sonic boom. I'll try to cover all
the different variations.
Pattern 1 : FOLLOWING THE BOOM
o Slow boom
o follow and suplex/throw
NOTE: You need to be very careful with this "tick", it is most effective
when you throw the boom when you are relatively close. (I'd say
right outside the forward kick range is the optimal range to
execute this tick.)
Usually when I execute this tick, especially against weaker
counter throwers (hehe. Hi Joe and Caine) I like to suplex in
the opposite direction that the boom is travelling in. It's
so much more humiliating... :) Of course, I get counterthrown
more often when I do this.
VARIATIONS: Before the suplex, it often helps to do a standing short
or crouching jab right outside the opponents throw range.
This usually will hit them if they are trying to counter throw
and when they instinctively pause to block when they are getting
hit, throw them.
RYU/KEN NOTES: Since we have an over abundance of Ryu/Ken players, I am
most familiar with patterning against those players.
o If your Ryu/Ken player is roundhouse sweep happy, the
inverted roundhouse kick is a great variation to
throw in to the sonic boom follow. Ryu/Ken will
execute a sweep and you will kick them in the head.
o If they are dragon punch happy (Hi again Joe and Cain :))
it is a good technique to just follow the sonic boom,
duck (defensive crouch), watch them DP, and suplex
them as they come down.
o Of course, against anyone, a great fake is to follow the boom
and roundhouse sweep, RIGHT outside of the throw range.
You need to be careful, however, if you get too close
you can get tossed, obviously.
o Against certain characters, most notably Blanka (and Honda in HF)
it's dangerous to follow the sonic boom.
Pattern 2 - AERIAL PATTERNS
The MOST important thing to realize about combos is that the
critical factor is hitting your opponent low, and the second
most important is buffering your special attack.
It peeves me for some reason when I see local scrubs doing
"combos" and screwing them up. There's this one Ryu player
who we used to call the punching bag Guile (He switched
to Ryu on CE cause he couldn't handle the power reduction
from Classic.) Anyways, he always hits the opponent with
a high roundhouse, crouching forward, PAUSE, fireball....
I don't know why, but it peeves me...
Anyways, back to the original point it is important to
land your attack low, in the neck/chest area of your
opponent, or you can be sac thrown, (or even blocked and thrown)
and are not truly executing combos.
There are several Aerial patterns that can effectively "pin"
your opponent, so that he has very small windows to react.
A typical "pin" pattern would be executed as follows.
o SSB (Slow Sonic Boom)
o Jump in
o Forward "neck" kick
o Crouching Strong
o Buffered Strong Sonic Boom
o Crouching Forward
o SB
o Jump in
o Forward "neck" kick
o Crouching Jab (or Strong)
o Buffered Jab (or Strong) Sonic Boom
o Suplex
o Jump in (Sure, skip the sonic boom, but time your jump
so that you will hit them just as they get
up. Yes they can Special Move you out of
but the point is if they screw up you
can stun them and effectively kill them.)
o Fierce Chop
o Crouching Strong
o Buffered Strong Sonic Boom
o Forward Kick
o SB
o Jump in
o Fierce Chop
o Suplex
o SB
o Jump in
o Crouching Jab
o Suplex/Throw (This will often catch them by surprise, especially
if you do the buffered Sonic Boom pattern a few times)
NOTES: Some of you may have noticed that I did not include :
o Jump in
o Fierce Chop
o Standing Fierce
o Buffered Fierce Sonic Boom
o Backfist (if needed)
I generally reserve this combo for when the opponent is stunned,
or when I KNOW that I will at least connect with the Standing
Fierce (blocked or whatever).
When you land the Fierce Chop from too far out, and go for
this combo, you will usually whiff with the Standing Fierce,
leaving yourself vulnerable.
Some of you may have also noticed that I didn't include :
o Jump in
o Fierce Chop
o Crouching Strong
o Buffered Razor Kick
If I do land the fierce chop, then I will sometimes modify
my combo into this one. I also use it when I'm fooling around
against my opponent. If I see that they block the chop,
I execute it anyways, just because it looks cool.
Regardless, the Crouching Strong/Buffered Sonic Boom patterns are
IMO the most effective trapping moves. It is fast enough
that you will stun your opponent (alone or with the added
forward kick), and it knocks your opponent back to the ideal
range if he blocks. Also, it doesn't leave you as vulnerable
as when you miss with a Standing Fierce... (Though one advantage
of the FFSBBF combo is that when you screw up, you'll often
get the reverse suplex)
GENERAL NOTES :
Though, I posted this pattern guide as a mindless algorithm,
if you play it that way, you will probably lose to high level players.
The key to playing SF2 is outguessing your opponent. You need to
pick up on the styles of your opponent.
For example, if your opponent Hurricane Kicks too much (Hi AGAIN,
Joe and Caine. :) they can often be faked out if you execute a
pattern and just pause when you would normally sonic boom.
They will more often then not instinctively go into their
HK and are set up for a razor kick.
I'm just picking on Joe (Zell) and Caine because they have the
tendency to HK too much. I'll admit when I first switched
over to HF, they would catch me alot with the HK over the
sonic boom (esp. Joe) or go over, land next to me and throw (esp. Caine)
At first, I had trouble adjusting to the slightly different
timing, but the last few times I played these guys, their downfall
was too much HKing, IMO. (Just some constructive criticism guys :)
I'm drifting off on a tangent... Anyways, hope this Guile
patterning guide helps some of you aspiring Guile players out
there, and beware the danger of spacing out when executing
the "Guile Algorithm"
BTW, the Guile patterns are most effective against :
Chun Li, Ken, Ryu, Bison, Vega, Sagat
Somewhat effective :
Zangief (risky...), Dhalsim, Balrog
And, least effective against :,
Blanka, Honda (HF), Guile
Of course, on HF the character potentials haven't been completely
tapped yet...
Also, I'm pretty sure I've missed some other cool Guile patterns,
but I'm too lazy to go back and add them, and most patterns
are just variations of the ones above anyways.
Remember : Variation and unpredictability is the key to an
effective Guile trap...
Have fun.
--
Che-Yuan Wang
cw2...@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
cyw...@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu