Importance of secondary characters

Ever since Evo, I've realized that having a secondary character that compliments your main can be a vital asset towards bad matchups that your main character might have. I personally main Ryu, and over the course of time I've found that some of the matchups that I have trouble with are characters like: Blanka, Dhalsim, Sagat, and Viper come to mind. With that, I've decided to pick up Akuma as a secondary. I feel as if he compliments Ryu pretty well as far as specific matchups that might be a bit more difficult for Ryu. Also, Akuma's overall strategy is drastically different then Ryu's in my opinion, setting different goals for different matchups. For instance, Akuma has a lot more tools as far as gaining ground compared to Ryu, through moves like ex demon flip, ex air hadou. In matches that keep Ryu zoned out (Dhalsim and Sagat), Akuma can get in their a bit easier compared to Ryu.

All in all the benefits to having a secondary that compliments your main can be quite useful! There are a few top players who have mains to compliment their secondaries as well...Momochi, Kindevu, Justin Wong all come to mind. Reading the Singaporean SF4 blog, I was reading how Japanese players say that they like to stick to their characters through thick and thin, no matter how high they are on the tier list, they tough it out and try to main their character to the fullest. I think it's a good mentality, and it's not to say that having a secondary would be bad...but I will say that being able to understand the situation you put yourself in is important as well. Valle had a quote that I remember him saying: "If you can't beat a character that you have a disadvantage against, you're going to need to pick up a character that puts the odds at even or in your advantage." The mindset is pretty simple to understand...even if your main can't stand up to your opponent, your going to have to put the odds in your favor in some sort of way...having a secondary character is probably the best way to do so.

- Mickey