Alex
Alex is a wrestler from New York. His best friend and father figure Tom has been seriously injured in a fight with Gill, and despite Tom's promise that Gill had won fairly, he went to participate in the World Warrior tournament for revenge.
In a nutshell
Move List
Normal Moves
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ + Throws
or 
or 
+ + 
Command Normals
+ + + + + > > Special Moves
+ 
+ + + 
+ 
(charge) 
+ (charge) + Super Arts
+ + qcf + qcf + Frame Data
Move Analysis
Normal Moves
Command Normals
Target Combos
Normal Throws
Special Moves
Super Arts
SA1 - Hyper Bomb (360 + P)
Your standard grappler super. Alex grabs the opponent and performs two German Suplexes on them before finishing them with a jumping Power Bomb. High damage. Guess what. Don't bother using this super.
But it does so much damage! Yes. But if you want to maximize Alex's highest potential, you're going to need lots of EX meter. Hyper Bomb doesn't provide as much EX meter as Boomerang Raid does. On top of that, once you've used an EX meter, assuming you previously had full bar, now you lose the threat of super. Alex is heavily dependent on EX meter, but to be fair, a lot of his damage comes from the okizeme game (attacking on opponent's wake-up). A hard knockdown is so useful for Alex and the only way he's going to get that is with the threat of super. But guess what! You just burned an EX. Say goodbye to your hard knockdown threat!
Variant: Quintuple German Suplex If Alex does Hyper Bomb on a back-turned opponent (usually set up by landing strong or fierce Flash Chop), instead of two German Suplexes followed by a Power Bomb, Alex does five German Suplexes. This does more damage than standard Hyper Bomb, but the problem is landing the turn-around state on the opponent (outside of a stun combo).
SA2 - Boomerang Raid (QCFx2 + P)
Alex's best super, by far. Not that his supers are actually any good, but of his three mediocre supers, this one is the least mediocre. Alex hits the opponent four times and finishes with a German Suplex.
So, why pick this one? It's simple: METER. Remember how I mentioned that Alex is heavily dependent on meter? Boomerang Raid gives you the most EX meter. Plus, if you burn meter for an EX move, you potentially will still have a super to threaten the opponent with. On top of that, of Alex's three supers, Boomerang Raid is the only one you can actually confirm off of a normal (s.forward is his best confirm for Boomerang Raid). And yes, get good at confirming the hit. You have half a day to confirm s.forward into Boomerang Raid. So get into training mode and practice, practice, practice!
Note: If you activate Boomerang Raid and all four punches whiff before the grab at the end, the grab becomes a Power Bomb. You don't get the full damage, I believe, but eh, it still looks cool.
SA3 - Stun Gun Headbutt (QCFx2 + P)
So Alex has that sick move where he headbutts the opponent (b.fierce). It does an exorbitant amount of stun damage and leaves the opponent wondering, "How did I just get hit by that?" Imagine if you could do that to your opponent four times in a row! Alex leaps into the air and, upon nearing the ground, grabs his opponent and headbutts them four times. Done on its own, this stuns EVERYONE. Off of a stun, this won't re-stun most opponents but still leave them with like, 85% stun.
So, a high stun combo? What's not to love about that?
Plenty. First off, the only way to confirm the hit is off of a strong/fierce Flash Chop, or off of dive against an opponent's air attack (air d.fierce), or off of a successful shoulder tackle. Meaning you're going to end up fishing for it.
Good news is that you're completely invulnerable on the way up. Bad news is that as soon as you're falling, the opponent can jab you out of it, or uppercut you, or teleport. Some characters can just activate super and pass right through the grab portion of Stun Gun. Some characters can outright dash forward and make you whiff. Alex, in SA3 mirror matches, can jab SA3 to counter your SA3. It has one short meter, so you don't get a lot of EX, and like I said before, if you burn meter on an EX move, you lose your super.
But hey, it goes over fireballs. That's always cool.
Strategy
Tips and Tricks
Basic Strategy
Alex's strength lies in how hard he hits. He hits like a mack truck. Every basic combo does at least 15% of damage to the opponent. So your goal here, at the basic level, is maximizing your damage. Utilize s.strong/forward into EX Flash Chops as your most guaranteed damage. Then dash back in and mix that up with a combo of normal/command/kara throws as well as s.fierce to hit overhead/stop jumpers.
Midscreen, you're really only looking to push them to the corner. Alex does his damage best in the corner. GET THEM TO THE CORNER.
In terms of jump-ins, look to use j.fierce to start your combos and j.jab/short for tick throwing.
Other than that, Alex is a very straight forward character who utilizes a high/throw mix-up to gain huge damage and stun on his opponents. I'll cover more in advanced strategy.
Advanced Strategy
Playing Alex on an advanced level requires that you be extremely comfortable with Alex's weaknesses. As stated in Basic Strategy, you want to maximize the amount of damage and stun you inflict on the opponent. But what happens when your opponent is showing strong defense? Or what if you don't have the corner to your advantage?
Okay, first off, don't panic. Know that EX Slash is a useful tool for punishing whiffed moves. Often times, at the start of the 2nd or 3rd round, I'll have a charge held and look for a whiffed medium or heavy move, or a backdash of sorts. Train yourself to catch moves like that and punish with EX Slash Elbow. This will give you good position (assuming you're not just fighting out of the corner, this will push the opponent to the corner). From there, you can implement your corner game.
Speaking of corner game, nowadays, as soon as someone's cornered, you want to test whether they want to get out immediately by either jumping out or using some sort of reversal move to stop your momentum. Fortunately, Alex's f.strong and f.fierce are good deterrents to shut down jump-outs. Just be wary; both are weak against jump parry. I've often heard ReNiC say that Alex is most dangerous from the tip of kara-throw range, so... work with that.
Matchups
- Vs. Akuma
TBW
- Vs. Alex
TBW
- Vs. Chun-Li
7-3 Chun.
Okay. Fighting Chun-Li is like fighting a guy with two bazookas when all you have is a pearing knife. Yeah, it's pretty shite. As soon as she's close to one meter, 90% of your offense becomes unsafe. You can't EX Slash against her unless she unwisely sticks out a move, Jab Flash Chop whiffs when she's crouching, s.strong whiffs when she's crouching, she can react to everything you do. So what exactly do you do?
It's simple. You move the cursor left to Ken and pi—oh, that's not an option.
Okay. Against Chun, your best bet is to inflict as much damage as you can before she gets close to one meter. And by close to one meter, I'm referring to the point where she can confirm a normal into super and said normal, if confirmed, will give her enough meter to super on confirmation (DED technique/meter confirming). As soon as she gets meter, you can't go buckwild like most Alex players do, unless the Chun-Li player is that stupid. You'll end up having to fish for small damage here and there.
If you score a knockdown, EXCELLENT. This is where you need to assess risk/reward. Gauge your Chun-Li player and see if they're going to fish for parries or burn meter on EX Spinning Bird/EX Legs to get you off of them. Obviously, if you're parried and she has meter or can get you into the corner, GGs, nice try, pick a better character next time. Get to the tip of kara-throw range and see if you can bait a reaction from Chun-Li. If you smell EX Bird, remember, it can be stuffed by UOH.
Mid-range, she dominates you completely. You can try fishing for cr.strong to counter-poke any low attempts, but you also need to be vigilant about range. Also, if you smell s.fierce, you can try and counter with sweep. But be sparing about placement. Chun moves faster than you and pokes better than you. The midrange game is not something to completely rely on here, but if that's where you are, that's where most of your damage will come. You could try to whiff punish as well using EX Slash Elbow, but you must have a good eye for punishing her on whiff, or have a read on your opponent.
If she starts doing that whole tick into kara-throw/b.fierce/cr.forward bullshit, pay close attention to where she's ticking from. If you have her kara-throw range figured, what's left is to figure out what she's using to gain that range. One cr.short, two cr.shorts, cr.jab, and others all move her closer to that range. The good thing, though, is that if you smell the throw, congrats, you've been charging down. You've opened up stomp. Once you teach her not to kara-throw you, she might start relying on cr.forward and b.fierce to fish for the opening. So don't get predictable with the stomp, but know that it's an opened option.
The biggest key is to persevere, here. You can't be afraid as soon as she stocks Hoyokusen. But you have to be smart. Pick your spots. And most of all, don't get buckwild unless you completely have to.
- Vs. Dudley
TBW
- Vs. Elena
TBW
- Vs. Gill
TBW
- Vs. Hugo
TBW
- Vs. Ibuki
TBW
- Vs. Ken
TBW
- Vs. Makoto
Makoto. She's a faster, harder-hitting, better version of you. She's a fracking little girl. With horrendously big feet. But this little girl does so much damage and stun!
Fortunately, so do you. And while most of your follow-ups after good damage don't leave you with quite the advantage, remember, Makoto doesn't take damage as well as you do.
Okay, first thing's first. Test, test, test the Makoto, and see what the post-Hayate (dash punch) move is. Beyond that, know what the punish for each incorrectly placed post-Hayate move is. For instance, if she lands a Hayate, she has the mix-up choices of Karakusa, another combo into Hayate, doing another Hayate, anti-airing, or jump attacking you to catch your jump up/back, or simply blocking if you're going to try and reversal her yourself. What you need to know is how to punish her if she chooses the wrong option.
If you block a Hayate, you can use b.fierce (HEADBUTT) to punish. Not only does this do decent damage, it does great stun damage. If you jump upwards and Makoto does Karakusa, she recovers fast enough that she can parry your jump-attack. In this case, you can bait the parry reaction and just throw, or land and command throw (risky, but eh, oh well). You've sorta got a 50/50 situation there. You can backdash and Makoto can't do anything, but this also resets your position and makes you lose ground against her. Sometimes, you just have to do this, though, in order to get some breathing room. Alternatively, if you smell Karakusa, you can just s.roundhouse (SIZE 20 TIMBERLANDS) and boot her away from you.
I've seen Makotos use all three supers against Alex for varying reasons. SA1 gives a guaranteed confirm. SA2 makes Alex think about the corner game, and as well, she builds meter fast enough that she can spend EX without having to worry. SA3 is a decent wake-up option against Alex, seeing that you get 60 frames to see what Alex does when you activate (as opposed to 30 frames for every other super) and tons of invincibility.
When starting a second or third round against Makoto, test to see if she takes initiative when starting the round. Also, be wary of starting the round immediately with EX Slash unless you see something that can be punished. If she smells EX Slash Elbow, she can fierce and input super without having to worry. Her s.fierce will beat EX Slash Elbow unless EX Slash Elbow hits late in the animation.
- Vs. Necro
TBW
- Vs. Oro
TBW
- Vs. Q
TBW
- Vs. Remy
TBW
- Vs. Ryu
TBW
- Vs. Sean
TBW
- Vs. Twelve
TBW
- Vs. Urien
TBW
- Vs. Yang
TBW
- Vs. Yun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnChSpd9nV4 should have a lot of the info that you need when dealing with Yun. It's ReNiC's personal notes about the matchup and his experiences dealing with Yun.
On top of what ReNiC stated, things to remember. You can anti-air dive-kicks with s.strong. It's not the best option, but then again, you could risk EX Knee Smash. But I'd save the meter. Teach Yun not to dive-kick and you've already halted the easiest way for him to get in.
I tend to not use headbutt in this match-up because the twins can duck under it and punish you for your effort.
A note from a friend of mine who plays Yun: You want to limit the amount of offense that Yun gets when he's out of Genei-Jin. If the Yun is good, you have to assume that Genei-Jin will be on for about 80% of the match. Shore your defense up at that point. But allowing him to get hits out of Genei-Jin means he gets free damage AND meter. (Note: I'm not talking about Yun landing Genei-Jin enders, though those still suck as well). Now, you might think, "Uh, but that means I'm going to be on the defensive at all times." Let's be honest. What's worse? If you're hit outside of Genei-Jin, Yun gets damage AND meter. If he's in Genei-Jin, if your defense is good, you'll burn through some of that timer meter and limit the amount of damage that Yun gets on you.
On the bright side, you hit like a mack truck on him.