Just a heads up “Being able to punish Blanka Ball” is the laziest requirment for why a character beats Blanka because that is something a lot of the cast can do, including Blanka himself.
What if the Blanka player doesn’t ball? What if they try to control your movement with his strong footsie normals and jab xx elec pressure?
I mean most Blanka players are morons, and will continue to ball once you’ve shown you can punish, but looking at the matchup more in depth is a good idea.
I’m sure he just meant that as a sentence where we can experiment ourselves on what can punish Blanka.
If the Blanka player doesn’t ball the MU is different. Elena loses a free punish and a hard knockdown. The question is how Elena pokes interact with blanka’s. This should probably be one of those long drawn out MU’s where you turtle.
I’m not sure what to do after the jabxx electricity pressure. I guess it depends on what the blanka player does afterwards and then finding an appropriate response.
It was almost 4am when I wrote that, give a dude a break will ya 
I think Blanka is 7 -3, in part because of the fact that she gets a hard knockdown if they try to do a blanka ball, and because c.mp buffered into ex Ms works wonders for her. None of his pokes beat that and a Blanka player that tries to play footsies will find him or herself eating those a ton. st.hk and b.hk aren’t as useful as in other MU’s because slide beats it clean every time. It’s also extremely overshadowed by c.mp, which like I said, beats all his options.(his best counter to that would be s.hp, which is likely to trade with c.mp if you can get it to hit in the later active frames) So we got unsafe blanka balls no matter the strength and spacing and he can get counter poked into good dmg and a knockdown in footsies, so there isn’t much Blanka has left except to rely on being completely random and gimmicky like every blanka player knows how. This is mainly in his jumps and jab xx elec pressure. Even then with proper reads and reactions, you can stop a Blanka player from doing this as well. s.lp is her best AA in this MU imo because it deals with his jump arc from surprisingly good angles, it only loses to him crossing up and this is where you switch to either dashes or neutral j.mp. j.hp has tendencies to whiff if you do an immediate j.hp. With j.mp this is not an issue.(I think it’s because j.mp hits higher up) A Blanka player that is crossing you up will be hit by it every time, unless of course you timed it late. you deal with jabxxelec pressure the same as everyone else. Block. The limited options and the fact that in neutral he just gets wrecked makes it heavily in her favour. A blanka player needs to get really creative to win out in this one, while Elena can just sit back and turtle all day long. But hey, Blanka players do love doing random shit.
Chun, Evil Ryu, Rufus and Yun will be the death of me…UGH! lol. Bison and Ken are pretty hard to go against as well, but Jesus. I need extreme training against those first four. Every other character in the game seems almost Even are slightly in her favor. Even against grapplers. I think T. Hawk is her hardest grappler MU though.
I’m having just a hell of a time trying to play against Vega with her. Anyone have any interesting tips to help it outside of lame it out? His buttons just feel so oppressive (cr.mp, cr.mk and s.lk in particular).
Do not agree
Rose, Yang, Gen, Fei, Makoto, and Decapre all provide a lot of trouble for Elena. There are others that are slightly not in her favour as well. Viper will not be in her favour post hurtbox patch. I personally think E.Ryu is even though and Rufus only slightly against her. T Hawk is def her hardest grappler MU.
My opinion on my first sentence could very well change later on…but that’s all I’ll say about that…
I second that I played about three hours, with my bro and I couldn’t beat CLAW at all I need help.
I forgot about Decapre. I think Rose is just eh. I dunno, that Matchup doesn’t seem that bad to me, since she is pretty much free on wakeup now because of the nerf to EX drill. I forgot about Yang and Fei. Those are def hard for her. Even after post hurtbox patch, I still don’t think Viper will be that bad. I come from maining Rose, and being mobile against Viper helps so much and Elena has great mobility. Also, is there is there confirmation on the hurtbox patch? I really think they need to give her something to compensate. If they don’t it will kill her immensely in so many match ups.
After playing around with what Rose can and can’t beat and playing a few more matches with some Rose players, I think I’m now inclined to agree with you on that MU. The key is to be very conservative with your slide as she can blow that up pretty easy with st.mk. st.mk also beats c.lp, while her heavy’s beat st.lk. c.MP is about the only reliable poke against her as it beats st.mk and her heavies, but that goes about even with her c.mp. Overall I still think it’s in Roses favour, but not by much, just because she has more tools to work with than Elena.
This Decapre matchup has me like UGHHHHHHHHHHH
Character is TOO CHEESE
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
I need to start looking up info about that teleport in particular. I keep trying to interrupt the startup and getting handled for it. >_<
I don’t have an issue with this MU but i stopped playing for a while waiting to buy a new TV, i recently jumped on with Abel only and the think i noticed about decapre is that hands are safe for whatever reason. I do not try to stop the start up of teleport cause it just doesn’t work but a blocked teleport mixup is a free combo punish and so thats where my damage comes from against her.
Took a break for a long time from Elena. I got on the grind today and fought a ton of Decapre. Here are my thoughts.
“I won against every Decapre therefore she is free!”
I’m just kidding. Every though I did win, there was definitely a shift happening to Decapre players. After seeing this and checking out that K.Brad video on Decapre’s damage and mixup potential. It does scare me how the matchup will evolve and I believe it’ll be in Decapre’s favor. The main problem is finding an effective Strategy against hands. There aren’t a lot of options for Elena and the situation becomes a little desperate if she chipping away at you at the corner. Elena definitely has to guess more in this match up. I suppose you could red focus hands but it could be countered with EX hands. It’s definitely not a situation you don’t want to be in.
There are three goals you should be aiming for in this matchup.
What I mean about this is you want Decapre to “Think” defensively. You want her to stand in one place, charging DP wondering what are YOU going to do next instead of thinking of what SHE could do. Play aggressively and dictate the fight with pokes until you get the knockdown. Once you get the knockdown, you wanna test to see if she’s going to DP (85% of the time they will wake up DP). If she doesn’t DP, you can do your mixup Shenanigans and open her up. Since she is a charge character, she will have to lose charge to defend against you, either way the fight falls to your favor. If she does DP and you take the damage, You win mentally because she’s thinking “Man if I don’t DP then I’m gonna get mixed up,” and that is what you want. You will either play her game or she will play yours. This is what this matchup comes down to.
She has three (four possible) wakeup options
-DP (Block, punish with combo)
-Backdash (OS U1, Slide, OR HK.)
-Grab (You can do meaty mid rage pokes out of her throw rage or if you feel gutsy .B.HK link into combo for big damage)
-ULTRA (If it’s U2 Block or adjust accordingly. If it’s U1 depending on your positioning you could get her if you’re near point blank rage. If you’re midscreen wait for her to make a move then EX. RH through the ball. If she did teleport above I think you beat it or you set the match to neutral.)
(I don’t think teleport on wake up is safe but I don’t play Decapre so I’m not sure.)
-Bait the DP
Decapre is fully open after wiffing or blacking her DP. You can do a Bread and butter of U1 if you’re fast enough. In one match I may have even traded a DP, with a move, but I don’t remember what I did. Could be more research there. Once you get Decapre scared of throwing out that DP, you’ll have more offensive options available to you and the match goes in your favor.
-Avoid the Corners
As I previously explained, the worst place you want to be is in the corner while she is chipping you with hands. Play this match midrange until you get the knockdown. Elena’s normal walk back speed can get you out of her offense and mixup game fast, so you’ll want to stay mid-range 3/4 away to limit her options. If she gets you hard knockdown in the corner, you’re going to have to risk taking damage and meter to get out otherwise you will lose.
These are the strategies I’m using in this match-up and I am having a lot of success. On paper though, Decapre wins this match. She has more mixup opportunities, easy damage, and better pressure than Elena. However if you can get the player to get on the defensive and playing your game, you can win.
Hope I helped.
Nice writeup. One thing I’d like to note is that I believe Decapre’s EX DP is the only one that is fully invincible, the others should be only throw, projectile, or strike invincible depending on the strength. If someone likes to use non-EX DP a lot, work more throws into your game to beat it.
Too bad B+HK doesn’t get extra frame advantage on CH.
Yup, I’ve been thinking the decapre has been in Decapres favor for a while now. It’s just that online most Decapres are terrible and dont know Elena is free to hands pressure.
I originally thought Elena Vs Decapre was in Elena favor because of how she can punish teleport pressure but after playing the match recently, Decapre now have a style which is the EX teleport dive kick into lows. The pressure really good against Elena and most charc and overall it is pretty deadly to Elena. I still don’t think this MU is really bad but i do believe it is now in Decapre favor now that they have a style down. Your punish game has to be on point to get this MU to be in your favor.
After playing a really good Dudley at my local scene for a few hours I really think the Dudley MU is in his favor. Besides fwd fierce, Dudleys pokes beat Elena’s pretty badly. st.hk/b.hk isnt even useful here as a counter poke as it tends to trade at best with many of Dudley’s pokes especially his st fierce. Also her AA’s get mauled by Dudley’s j.hk. If you dont tag him before that move comes out, the best you can get is a trade that will not be in your favor or just get beat outright. I found that the only way to deal with Dudley jumping in is to do a neutral or jump back fierce, but if it ever trades with his j.hk(which it will if the move comes out as Elenas jump fierce will never beat it outright) you’re in deep shit. Combine this with dudley’s extremely high stun output and it turns into a MU that is very bad for Elena. two mixups and you’re stunned easily.
The key imo is to pretty much try and play keepaway with c.lp buffered into a spin scythe(as he cant punish these) and st.lk. Get him frustrated and tag him with neutral EX MS if you think he wont press a button. Chris G vs Smug matches give a pretty good idea on what to do.
I also think that Makoto isnt in Elenas favor as well, though it’s slightly more manageable that Dud. The saving grace is that st.hk is very useful as a counter poke here, as it’s her only poke(as well as b.hk) that beats Mak’s pokes pretty free. Every other poke elena has though gets destroyed by Mak’s c.mp and st.mp. c.hp is the most useful AA here as it’s the only AA Elena has that wont get beaten outright. Of course if Mak’s j.hp comes out it will trade not in your favor, but given Mak’s floaty jump it is very possible to tag her with it before her jump fierce can come out and trade with you. Like Dudley, this is primarily a game of keepaway until you get in and then you mix her up hard until you pull out a win or a put back into neutral. Unlike Dudley mixing her up is significantly easier due to mixups off spin sycthe being very viable against her and her weak defensive options. If Mak ever gets in on you though, she can destroy you faster than Dudley can. Mak’s options to punish backdash are also very against Elena. Meaty c.lk’s and neutral jump tsurugi’s destroy any attempt to backdash out of Maks mixups.
I played some sets against Dudleys recently and I can see it being a matchup in his favor. Elena basically has to play this Dictator style and refuse to jump unless you’re taking a risk and jumping in as Dudley wakes up. Otherwise, jumping is a no-go and you HAVE to control the ground. Weaving in and out of Dudley’s complicated footsies is essential and you typically want to stick to c.jab and c.strong, mostly c.jab. The idea is to abuse the positivity on block and Elena’s walkspeed to really put Dudley on a leash.
If Dudley jumps, you have to AA with s.jab. Walk forward into s.jab if you have to (it’s easy). Dashing under is inconsistent and not worth getting hit over, sliding to go under can sometimes work, but if he lands close enough to land a c.short to punish the slide, it’s over. s.strong gets completely blown away (trades at absolute best). s.forward actually isn’t terrible, but it’s risky and eating the trade on this is often not worth it. s.fierce, as usual, is great if done super early, but in this matchup it’s more of a guess so I don’t prefer it and c.fierce is great, but you need space and time to use it–two things Dudley tries not to lend the other player.
You just want to be extremely lame and boring in this matchup. You can’t take him head on; just nail your links, get your damage and back off. Try to catch on to crouch tech habits to see if it’s safe to EX Mallet Smash. If it is, you can start using s.short to advance your mixup game and Dudley more or less has to take it. s.short is really good here, but I don’t like it too much just because step fierce can blast you while Elena’s standing. Normal c.jab and c.strong pokes will go under step fierce. Smarter/braver Dudleys can adjust by tossing out s.roundhouse at a range and buffering with EX Machinegun Blow.
You want to be careful with overheads and the super obvious pokes. Dudley’s focus is pretty good here and even if you don’t get hit by it, he’s getting an opportunity to dash in. When Dudley starts doing defensive things like focus, that’s when Elena can take the advantage and start walking forward. You still don’t want to be fighting Dudley head on, but you really want to start pressing the issue and making him take increasingly higher risks to start establishing his game. I like EX Rhino Horn for punishing his midscreen focuses (or doing nothing is also good) and I like walk up c.jab into whatever to deal with closer focuses. EX Ducking will start coming out at c.strong range and it’s important to be able to scout out when Dudley is hungrier than normal to blow it to get in.
Regarding the corner game, Elena can keep Dudley there kinda, but it depends more on player habits. c.jab into any roundhouse stops Dudley from jumping out and doing a c.jab shimmy will punish any retaliation while also letting you react to EX Ducking. s.strong can stop focusing out of the corner and also prevent jumping out. If Elena’s in the corner, I don’t really know how to help here. Personally, I call the Dudley player’s bluff and see how willing he is to stay in on me, keeping his resources in mind. If they try to shimmy, sweep is good to keep them honest. I really like sweep in this matchup, actually. Maybe I just like sweep in general. Anyway, everything goes back to the first point. Play lame and safe and CONTROL THE GROUND. You can give Dudley space if you want, but it’s still important to let him know that he is at your mercy on the ground. The idea is to really make him take obscene risks to get in and stun you, or to suffer death by footsies.
P.S. - I definitely feel that Ultra 1 makes this matchup much more playable. Elena has tons of ways to go into it and definitely needs tools to compete with Dudley’s damage output for this matchup to stay playable.
Nice writeup Yannick. I’d definitely agree that U1 is pretty much all she has going for her in terms of Ultra’s, as if the Dudley player picks UW or U1, theres no setup(not even a cancel setup) that will work against him that cannot be punished by a well timed U1.