KV@20xx 9th place · @kiddovaipah
29th Oct 2015 from Feenix
General things vs elphelt:
S> 2hs
Regular block has a 2 frame gap, instant block has a 4 frame gap. If you're not getting hit by the tip of the fS for the most part she's in your throw range. If not you have room to back dash out. If you're playing at Max fS range you can fd to push her out and 2hs will whiff.
General answers:
Throw, blitz, backdash, dp
fS >shotgun
+2 on regular block, -2 on instant block. Generally you don't want to challenge s> shotgun, as sg.P only has a 1f gap on regular block. It's best to just wait it out.
Grenade
Grenade has 2 different levels of blockstun, level 0 and level 4. The block stun only reaches level 4 when the timer goes below 1 second. General rule of thumb is to only try to challenge if grenade is tossed while still level 0 AND she is within range of your fastest normals. Most common places to toss in a block string is after mid fS range, 2hs, 2d, sg.P, sg. S.
Corner shotgun pressure
Your main goal is to fuzzy jump with the intent of instant blocking sg.S. This means do not rush to fuzzy jump out as you could get caught by p or h on jump start up. You want to delay the fuzzy jump inputs so you can block p/h, ib/fd the S, and jump out of the command grab. If you instant block the sg.S and she is within your throw range, you want to use whatever you do to OS throw in the case that she rolls. Rule of thumb on whether she will be in throw range after sg.S is if she's positioned anywhere before the RISC gauge. If she's under the gauge it's questionable.
Lvl 2 sg.S > grenade pull > hs is a check to stop auto piloting the throw. Because of grenade pull, elphelt stops her forward movement and stays out of throw range at the further ranges. On regular block this string has a 3f gap but you never really want to bother challenging this as she has a 1f shot waiting for you. The safest thing to do is to just block it out. If you want to try to challenge then you can either blitz or backdash.
When elphelt has a grenade out her shotgun attack range increases to about HS range since she can use sg.H to shoot the grenade as a poke. If you see her grenade out you still want to go about defending vs shotgun as you normally would except be more cautious when she's further out.
Unblockable
There's 3 general combo enders that lead into unblockable:
1)sg.S >grenade pull > sg.H > back dash >toss yrc rifle
If this is timed right there is no gap even on instant block. For most character you can only blitz>backdash to escape.
Chipp can blitz>alpha blade.
Millia can blitz>roll.
Sin and ram both can dead angle out of this setup.
Faust can blitz >backdash >2p.
Sol can blitz > grand viper or blitz> 2d>block (grand viper will hit the recovery of the shot)
Ky can blitz >2d/stun dipper or just wake-up reversal RTL
May can wake-up reversal 63214h
Pot can blitz >flick
Slayer can blitz > forward dash
I-no can blitz > S STBT or wake-up reversal super
Axl can blitz > 63214s
Venom has the hardest timing to get this route due to his fast wake-up speed. Usually IB> back dash is enough but you could also blitz > 2s
2)sg.s > grenade pull > shotgun h x3 > back dash toss
This ender is made to force you to block the grenade toss > explosion and the unblockable shot follows after. This route is usually only used when elphelt has 50 or more meter to be able to get a combo at any time but if you get hit by the grenade she can just confirm and switch to shotgun.
Because the gap between the initial grenade hit and the explosion is small, you have to back dash immediately after the blitz and then just jump forward.
3) 2hs > grenade pull > cS > 7jH late toss
This route is trickiest for the unblockable because she has way more options than just the unblockable. Her option include safe jump> fuzzy, safe>jump low, safe jump command throw, overhead or low.
Elphelt has to commit to the unblockable right away so if you see her go into rifle stance do the usual blitz > backdash.
If she wants to do the safe jump fuzzy/low/command grab she has to commit to a dash jump right away. Crouch blitz/ crouch slightly and then standing blitz will proximity reject her.
If she runs your most consistent option will be to crouch blitz the grenade.
The other common corner ender is to end the combo with a low to the ground j.d> grenade pull>toss for meaty grenade.
This option is used for anti dp/reversal and adds to high/low/throw mix up.
My general approach to fighting elphelt is to play a ground heavy counter poke game at outside fS range. If you want to jump you have want make sure to have meter to yrc and slow her down when you approach or jump in and throw out a normal outside of cS range, though if the elphelt is aware of the range they'll just use 2s or totally avoid the situation if they can.