Sean vs. Gouki

Table of Contents

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• Overview
• Close Range
• Mid-Range
• Far Range
• Okizeme
• Gimmicks
• Super-based strategy
• Hyper Tornado
• Hadou Burst
• Shoryu Cannon

Overview

The match-up vs Gouki is favorable for him due largely in part of his tools, overall control of neutral and damage. What gives Sean a chance in this match-up is the low health/stun Gouki has which allows Sean to kill him in 2 touches once he has enough meter. This is a match-up that has to be played by ear as its tough chasing Gouki down meanwhile its can be difficult to get him off of you when he has you incarcerated in plus frames. 

Close Range

Gouki's fastest Options:

• MK/HK Tatsu - 2f
• LP/MP/HP SRK - 3f/2f/1f
• Cr. LP - 4f
• Cl. HP/Cl. MK - 4f
• Throw/Kara Throw - 2f/3f
• F+MP - 14f

When it comes to close range, Gouki is stronger than Sean due to his Cl. HP and Cl. MK being 4f start-up. These normals will beat any normal that Sean presses other than St. LP due to heavy priority. This means that Cl. HP/MK will likely be pressed habitually in multiple situations (like getting up from knock-downs or walk-up shimmies) as Cl. HP is -4 on block while Cl. MK is +2 on block. 

How to fight against wake-up Gouki Cl. HP and Cl. MK? 

Shimmying the normal itself, walking out of range of its close recognition right before the button is pressed.

By doing this, Gouki will do Far HP or Far MK  instead which are slower normals and more disadvantageous on block (-6) and (-7). You can also occasionally place a forward parry on the screen at times which will also catch it but mind the risk and situation beforehand. Delay tech is another potent answer that is possible but requires timing and practice. 

Gouki's kara reaches far, even further than Sean's Cl. HK max range recognition which makes Gouki's shimmy game tough to deal with. By itself, Gouki's F+MP is a relatively fast overhead with the unique property of being throw invulnerable from the 4th frame all the way to the 29th. Some Gouki's will use this as a means to beat your throw attempts as it also does tack on a decent amount of stun if it hits. 

In short, its not advantageous for Sean to be near Gouki without putting him into plus frames when you can help it. 

Gouki is likely going to be setting up the same mix-up of Cl. HP or MK/Kara Throw/Cr. MK that Sean does at a distance but the weakness of this is that Gouki needs super in order to make the mix-up truly threatening. 

                                                               

       (Very favorable spacing for Gouki with meter once he has initiated plus frames)

If Gouki has managed to get near you by means of one of many approaches he has, don't try and trade blows with him. Its time to evade and reposition (which is also something he might do as well if you managed to weather the storm). 

What Sean can do in Close-Range:

• St. LP - Fast +5 tick that can go into other buttons to keep the pressure on him. (Can use Cr. LP in lieu but is +3)

• Cl. MP - Fastest of the 3 close range buttons; Can somewhat frame trap with St. LP or Cr. LP (3f/4f) on block; hit confirm into TC

• Cl. HK - Furthest hitting and most damaging confirm of the 3 close range buttons; +2 on block and puts you immediately at mid-range after hit/block

• Kara throw - Doesn't go as far as Gouki's but is still necessary to use to set up Cl.HK/Cr. MK/Kara Throw from a distance.

• Cr. LK x2 - Low confirm into super

• Cr. MK - The stronger single hit low confirm; More damaging but harder to confirm as a result. Be aware of how much Cr. MK can move you forward as its easy to get thrown out of it if they decide to mash throw.

• Shimmy - To either get a slower normal with more recovery to come out or to bait a throw. In the case of throw, Sean needs to be a little further back than normal since Gouki's kara reaches far. 

• Cl. HP - Almost the same exact normal Gouki has except for being a frame slower than his and having less pushback. This can also be used to confirm although it isn't easy. This normal might be the most useful one in this MU and its because Cl. HP x EX Tornado does half a stun bar. 

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Mid-Range

• Cr. MK - 6f
• Cr. HK - 7f
• St. MK - 5f
• Far HP - 9f
• Air Zenku Hadou - 11f 
• Divekick - 8f
• Dash - 13f

Gouki also holds the advantage in the mid-range as well. His Cr. MK and Cr. HK start up faster than Sean's which will deter Sean's approach heavily. 

Gouki can buffer his tatsumaki's in his Cr. MK and Cr. MP, making recklessly breaching the mid-range from right outside of it a bad idea. 

Gouki St. MK is faster than anything Sean can do in the mid-range but its effectiveness is offset due to how unsafe it actually is (-7 on block). Gouki's rarely use this button as a result so you'll see Far HP much more often which is safer on block (-6) and pushes you a lot further away. 

Air Zenku isn't as big an issue in the mid range as it is in the far range as there are more counter-measures for it but there are still things to take into consideration. Depending on when he throws it, he can either be slightly negative or be plus enough to dash forward and frame trap/shimmy/mix you.  

Dive kick at this range at its earliest is +2 on block and can get upwards to +4 if done late. Caution needs to be exhibited as a divekick can hit you in prediction of Cr. MK which can lead to nearly 45% to 50% of your health gone.  

What Sean can do in Mid-range:

• St. MK - Low crush property; receding sprite box on frame 2 which makes lows whiff. Effective against long reaching lows, will pre-emptively beat them often. 

• Far MP - One of many anti-dash normals; fairly fast whiff punish to press outside of the range of Cr. MK/Far HP

• St. LP - Will hit the top part of Gouki Far HP without risk of getting counter-hit right outside of its range. +5 on hit

• Whiff punish with Cr. MK or Cr. HK
  
  
• Cr. HK - Knockdown at Max range only; Gouki can always punish with his Cr. HK otherwise on block if any closer. 

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Far Range

• Hadou - 7f 
• Divekick- 8f
• Dash - 13f
• Air Zenku - 11f
• Fireball - 13f/17f/21f
• Air Tatsu - 5f
• Demon flip - 1f airborne (timing variance of dive kick)
• SA1-  2f

From far range, things get more muddied in this match-up. Gouki is strong for his amount of options but at this range, they come attached with a good amount of risk. The most common options are: 

• Zenku
• Demonflip
• Dive kick
• Dash 
• Hadou 

Zenku will largely be used to zone you out to force a mistake on your end. This means a slow and methodical approach with minimal jumping will likely be the course of action. 

I haven't mentioned it yet but jumping in on Gouki is not recommended at all. If the Gouki player is ready then you could potentially eat 45% for your troubles. This means one of the 3 methods of approach for Sean is more-or-less sealed off for this match-up unless you get an opportunity for a safe jump. 

Demon flip won't be done just raw in neutral but rather as a mix-up option post SA1 or cancelled from max range Cr. MK. The strength of D.F shows when you have to respect the other options Gouki can do from a jump. Aside from that, If you can react to the flip then it is also very risky for Gouki. 

Dive-kicks at this range usually hit around the feet area which is around +9 on block territory. Its strong but the weakness of dives is the fact their trajectory can't altered as much as the twin's dive kicks. There is still mix-up in timings that can be done which is still something to make note of. 

Gouki's dash doesn't go as far as Sean's does although his kara throw goes much further. 

Gouki's hadous are faster than the other shotos but they are still rather unsafe so you won't see them unless they're used as a neutral disruptor or chip-out sequence. 

What Sean can do in Far-Range:

• Dash/Tackle Dash - Cover distance quickly; Dash is safer to use but tackle dash (especially EX) can get under Air Zenkus when the spacing and timing is right. 

• Far MP - One of many AA anti-dive kick normals; Also meter building tool

• Jump back HK - Another good AA against dive kicks; good damage and meter gain

• Wheel Kick - Covers half the screen; Can snipe air tatsu's and jumps pre-emptively. Risky to use if the Gouki player is ready and looking.

• Jump forward - Riskiest option; One jump in can lead to over 50% stun with meter but can cause you to lose 50% of your health. 

• Dragon Smash - Can also be used to snipe jumps and/or trade with dive-kicks occasionally. If used to snipe air tatsu over head, Sean can follow up. 

• Hadou Burst (SA1) - Can blow through regular hadous making Gouki's zoning with Zenku's more risky. As Sean, if it is set up properly he can get a double SA1 combo (if he has the resources) by allowing the Zenku to knock him out of the recovery of the first one to be allowed to super again. 

• Hyper Tornado (SA3) - Can also blow through projectiles due to its fast start up + 12 frames of invincibility with large damage in addition. Gouki's zoning needs to be air tight or else 45% of his health is gone. 

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Okizeme

Gouki is tough to deal with when he's knocked down largely because he's the only character in the game who can use their specials to reversal. They are:

• Teleport
• Demon Flip
• Shoryuken
• Tatsumaki 
• Supers

Sean has to set his okizeme up in a way that at least lets him counter 2-4 options at once if he wants to deal substantial damage to Gouki. 

Teleport/HP Shoryu/SGS/KKZ are frame 1 invincible which heavily discourages sticking too close to Gouki on wake-up which as a result always gives him breathing room from pressure. Its important to pay attention to the amount of meter Gouki has cause this means how Sean should approach him changes relative to it. 

Demon-Flip is airborne frame 1; this makes what pressure you try to set up against him reset him mid-air potentially making you whiff something heavy, leading you to get slaughtered as a result.

HK/MK Tatsumaki starts up in 2 frames also discouraging trying to throw/pressure Gouki. 

What Sean can do on Okizeme:

• Delay Crouch Tech - Will block anything that Gouki tries and will tech wake-up throws while being able to reversal or confirm super. If he teleported, demon flipped or backdashed, recognize then punish in response. Watch-out for ShunGokuSatsu though.

• Jump back immediate parry - Will make everything whiff outside of wake-up SA1, allowing Sean enough time to respond and punish. 

• Forward Parry - To catch habitual HP/MK mashing; Requires recognition of player tendencies first.

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Gimmicks

• Tatsumaki Spam- Tatsu can be annoying for Sean to punish if you don't know how to deal with it properly. Here are a few effective courses of action: 
• Sean's crouching sprite is a blessing as it makes the middle part of MK and HK Tatsu whiff, allowing an easy blue parry. Its not always this simple though as the timing at which the Gouki can tatsu changes so its still advised to learn the parry for it.
• Red parry is a little harder to do in the heat of the moment but it yields great benefits when successful. 
• Sean can punish HK Tatsu on block with: 
• Kara Throw (if close)
• Cl. MP (if close)
• St. LP (if close)
• Supers (SA3 is by far the most consistent; 1 and 2 won't if Gouki is too far)
• Demonflip Spam - Demonflip pressure can be very difficult to deal with once respected but at lower levels the pressure might seem tough to deal with. Here are some options:
• Jump Back Parry~HK - If the demonflip dive kick is on top of your head, you'll jump back parry and get J. HK to send Gouki away.
• EX Tackle Dash - Can be used to get underneath demonflips and reset the neutral, expensive option but consistent.
• Dragon Smash - will hit dives that hit around chest area but also hit demonflips over his head. DP trade combos are sometimes possible.

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Super-based strategy

Hyper Tornado

SA3 is very hazardous to Gouki as it is fast, invincible and deals nearly 50% damage. It will punish anything -3 or worse on hit or block giving Gouki enough motivation to respect Sean once he has it ready. This means that a Gouki player  might be more inclined to rushdown so they can prevent you from acquiring it. 

The gameplan with SA3 in the Close Range is to block reversal Gouki's unsafe normals (except for max range Cl. HP because it won't work). The max distance you can be at that allows you to punish all of Gouki's mid-range normals is 50 pixels which conveniently is out of his Cl. HP range (shown below). 

 

This spacing can be setup by 2 consecutive lights or Cr. MP at point blank range. This is mainly for when Sean gets an opportunity to breach into close range at an advantage (to score a knockdown whether by throw or confirming super). 

                                                        

In the Mid-Range, the emphasis is on counter-poking and whiff punishing with:

• Cr. MK 
• Reaction SA3

Now that you have SA3, there's no need to randomly breach (until there is a opportunity to) into close range as Sean can really hurt Gouki for over-extension. 

Since SA3 is invincible, it will blow-through hadoukens and Zenku's (although there is a chance Zenkus will trade with SA3 but it is usually in Sean's favor). If the Gouki is aware of this, the amount of hadou's you'll encounter will be almost nil. Zenku's can be made difficult to super through especially if Gouki is on the run or altering the timing at which he throws them. This means its best to get a read on the Gouki player's tendencies before looking for the blow-through.  

This also applies to Far Range as well.

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Hadou Burst

The game-plan is more of the same with SA3 but without the block reversal ability. Instead, Sean has access to super earlier and can stock it to higher quantity. Since its Gouki, SA1 does the max damage it can do vs any character in the game which also makes confirms into it more threatening especially when he is caught crouching. 

Since it is 2f start up, it can function as a pseudo blow-through/whiff punish in the neutral but it has to be done quicker in response as opposed to SA3 since the projectile takes time to travel. 

With 1 SA1 stocked, landing a combo into EX Tornado can become a win condition for Sean since it does over 50% stun and the situation for Gouki after is not favorable for him in the slightest. One wrong guess on his end and the round typically ends for him (An example shown below).

If Gouki has 2 bars however, using EX Tornado isn't advised. If Gouki reversal shungokusatsus there, Sean will get caught if jump wasn't already inputted ahead of time. Play it safe with confirms into super when this happens. 

With 2 stocks of SA1, Sean can double burst in trade situations. A common one is trading with Zenku's in the Mid or Far-Range. Sometimes it is only possible to follow up with one depending on how it trades but other times its possible to get 2 SA1's off. 

                                                   (Vid by Amagimon)

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Shoryu Cannon

The game-plan is to get close enough to land SA2 or AA into it via:

• Dash under Cl. MP 
• Dash under cross-cut SA2
• Dash under Cr. LK x 2/Cr. MK x SA2
• Dash under St. LP x ∞ (can go into DP which can lead into SA2)
• AA Cr. MP or Cr. HP x SA2
• AA St. LP x ∞ (can go into DP which can lead into SA2)
• AA Early LP Dragon x LP Dragon x SA2
• Reaction SA2

What this super lacks in range, it makes up for in damage and okizeme time after. Due to lacking range, getting the corner is the number 1 priority over anything else so that this weakness is mitigated. With this super, Sean can easily kill Gouki in 2 touches (although getting said touches is easier said then done when Gouki holds the advantage in close and mid range). 

Defense and movement are going to be the key until its possible to breach into the close range to run mix-up. Since Gouki doesn't want to be hit by SA2, his pressure will likely be spaced out of reach of its already short range. 

On a normal SA2 knockdown, Sean is +86 (but can increase to +87 depending on the kind of bounce happens during the super). This allows for 2 set-ups that are possible on Gouki mid-screen:

• Left/Right 
• Whiff Throw (same side), Whiff Kara Far HP Throw (Cross-up) [+86 only]
• Kara Far HP UOH (Cross-up), Kara Far HK UOH (Same side) [+87 only]

                                                        (+86 KND)

                                                       (+87 KND)

• Taunt + Meaty hit
• Dash Twice, then Taunt 
• Cr. LK x Cr. LP x MP Dragon Smash (Multi-hit low meter-less confirm)
• Cr. LK x Cl. HK x SA2 
• Cr. MK x LP Dragon Smash  (Single-hit low meter-less confirm)
• Cl. HK x LP Dragon Smash (Single- hit high meter-less confirm)
• Throw 
• Back-dash 

The damage Sean can deal with SA2 is immense. Below is from where Sean can kill Gouki from in the corner if he has both stocks with a simple Cl. HK confirm. 

   

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