Nope, not really rhino horns have no invincibility and whiff on crouchers, EX rhino horn does crazy damage though around 230 if all of it hits, it also has some projectile invincibility if timed correctly. I see normal rhino horn more as a spacing tool or combo extender. The fact that rhino horn is Elena’s charge move means that she pretty much always has a quick/safe way to get close to her opponent as it’s also crazy positive on block. 
Rhino horn also seems really good at catching backdashers, as does mallet.
experimenting a bit with oki, everything I found (90% from others) I will post in a bit. As for more technical stuff I am afraid her jump is so floaty that safe jumps look unlikely and none of her moves have the potential to roll reset. Cross rolls seem unlikely too without employing her backdash.
Is there a purpose for round arch? good advantage?
In better news, unless she has better options against cross ups, rhino gets her out of them easy.
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Thanx for the research bro, much appreciated. Nice application of rhino horn as well, i’ll definitely be experimenting with that can’t remember what move round arch is though?
Round arch is b.HK.
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ah right, think it’s good at blowing up lows & avoiding tech throws, it’s safe on block (around -1), on hit can link st.LK (I think), moves Elena forward or backward (can’t remember which). Seems pretty decent, need to look into it’s uses more though.
So almost done with preliminary Oki research, will finish soon. Until then here is what I found. Much of it is from DRU and Emblem, so thank them not me:
Cross Rolls: Depending on when you time your backdash during a forward roll, you can land on either side of the opponent waking up with enough time to deliver a meaty c.lk, sometimes f.mk. Seems like you can do both sides on reaction, given how godly her backdash is.
Roll Resets: Both Rhino and Mallet can corpse hop the opponent, negating their attempt to forward roll and they get up normally. All Mallets and LK Rhino leave you close enough and with enough recover advantage to deliver meaty c.lks (at least on most the cast, sometimes they can mash a DP), HK Rhino abandons your positional advantage but will send you far enough away to serve as a bait to punish Reversals.
Wakeup Backdash: As I said before, both Rhino and Mallet are perfect for catching any attempts to backdash.
General Oki Game: So why are c.lks so good? They are easy enough to hit confirm, and on hit you can either go into cross rush or a hard knockdown to start your oki all over again. On block, you can do a basic mixup with Lynx and Mallet, but Lynx can go a bit deeper. The strength of Lynx determines the amount of lows and afterwards you can attempt to go back into LK Lynx/c.lk or go for one of your command overheads, which lose some of their telegraphing or mallets. Reminds me a lot of one of Christie’s specials. This can be countered by strong reversals and quick moves, so if your opponent is savvy to this backdash after the LK Lynx and punish accordingly.
Only special that seems to autocorrect is Scythe, and I have yet to find a use for it. Maybe there is a frametrap in it?
I doubt she has any safe jumps, and I do not believe any of her moves change on counterhit. As for quickstand setups, what are her most common moves that soft knockdown? Scythe and Scratch?
A lot of you probably know from playing online but LK Scratch Wheel doesn’t have lower lower body invincibility, so it doesn’t beat meaty lows or lows of any kind. Neither does EX Scratch Wheel. Just backdash or something. Or block.
Thanks for the heads up
I find it tough playing against characters who have rapid fire normals.
The sooner we get frame data the better so I can set up my offense better.
As for her mallet smash You will have a better success rate hitting with :lp:, :hk: & ex. They are much faster than her :MP: version.
Once I hit the :mp: and have meter- it’s a wrap. Tag canceling for 450+ all the ti me.
Her game will be of her :mp: and ex mallet smash. that is what you should aim for
But of course it will be hard.
Air to air. Since her jump arc is so high she should be good.
Dont jump in to often unless you space :hp: like cammy’s forward jump :hk:
can any one confirm any other good jump in normals?
May I suggest that we blow up the sfxtk twitter to allow us to cancle :f::mk: to ex lynx tail 
I forgot to mention that LK Scratch Wheel is also not throw invincible on startup so you can get meaty thrown even if you reversal it. Someone else can test the same for EX. I can’t until next week.
Wondering since Rhino horn is her charge move and an option to roll reset, if there are not some oki shenanigans you can do with CADC
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sounds like there may be some “tech” in there somewhere. 2moro is the last day of my hols so I should be back home on Sunday. As soon as i’m settled I’ll start putting some of things we’ve looked at through their paces. Thanks again for all your hard work looking at OKI for Elena. I’ll be putting the finishing touches to a pdf guide I’m working on once I get home. It will cover a lot of the info we’ve been discussing here and on the combo thread (I’ve credited you, EmblemLord & the many others on this board who’s comments have been really helpful). Would you mind giving it a quick look over once it’s done?
Sure thing, but never take my word as absolute gospel, since this is my first time reallly exploring tech.
Gonna try one last round tonight of testing. watched vulcan’s oki video with Christie and it gave me some ideas.
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Don’t worry, I’m going to spend quite a bit of time testing (in training mode & real matches) all the things we’ve discussed before the guide is released.
So how does she fare getting in against projectile zoners and characters with longer hitboxes? I feel like she is rather weak at it, having no real gimmicks to get through them. Her speed and floaty jump might help, as long as you do not jump into DP range?
Which scratch wheels are the most common? All of them result in slightly different oki situations, do not want to waste time on ones never used.
Would love to find a purpose to scythes on oki since it seems to be her only correcting special. Anyone? Maybe it has a frametrap to it?
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Any have an idea what her best air to air is?
think j.MP & j.HK are the best at the moment.
Does j.hp trade a lot or something? It murders people who jump for me if I have room.
Hey melflomil, you mentioned getting 450+ tag canceling mp smash, what is the exact combo you are doing before the tc, or is your partner doing all the damage?
I hope your research goes well DRU now that you can, because I am feeling a little worried about Elena. As people have said, she seems to be stripped of the tools every other character has for little reason: no cancelable heavies or even a low medium (for someone who conditioning is so important for), a reversal option, and solo meterless combo options. (Outside target combo and followup).
Course, I do not think a death knell is sounding. This is my first time really exploring a SF character here, so I am not too good at discerning pokes and other things they specialize in. I think her solo damage is indeed replaced by her ability to cause hard knockdowns, and her oki looks to be strong enough but just lacks the options more varied characters have there.
Looks like it will take a lot of smart play to use Elena against those familiar with her.
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Spent some time in the lab with her and I have to say I can see where a lot of the worries come from. It was really frustrating at first trying to squeeze damage out of her (maximum I could get was 483dmg 2bars using hcb.MP xx cr.MP xx hcf.MK xx st.LK xx hcf + 3K)
I think some peeps will feel she’s definitely not worth the effort, but I see her as a “gateway” (a character who does little damage by themselves but opens the way to big damage for another character) she builds crazy meter but doesn’t really benefit from it herself (outside of super which is her go to damage dealer).
As a stand alone character I think she struggles, but in a team with proper synergy she will do just fine
Experimented with her anti-roll mix-ups and I have to say the strongest ones involve using dash coupled with moves that put her either side of the opponent for a simple mix-up (st.HK & b.HK work well because they look similar but leave you on different sides). Also her mallet smash anti-roll tech shows great potential it can totally mess where a person wants to roll (sadly it can’t be done on reaction you have to predict they’re going to roll limiting its usefulness)
I found that Elena struggles against heavy zoners, which was my worry but charging ex rhino horn is a great way to get in against non zoners.
I think she could definitly do with a buff in the area’s you mentioned, until then i think using Elena’s great footsie tools and high-low mix-ups into optomised boost combo’s is the way to go.
She may not end up a part of my A team, but she’s hella fun to play as and she has a permanent spot on my B team, definitely going to stick with her and keep searching for tech
NB this is all day 1 stuff so I’m sure I’ll have more positive feedback over the next few days.
The problem with the oki setups I did is that they were after moves that are not as common as I imagined for ending her combos. For instance, rhino and mallet can roll reset without needing to react to the roll from hp mallet and normal rhino, but those are never used. I also found interesting things to hurt those who quickstand after lk scratch wheel, but it cannot be used in juggle combos and hk scratch recovers too slowly and sends them too far away. Such a waste for me ; ;
Talked to Ryan Hunter about Elena, said things he would love to test are if she can create damage off b.hk in practically situations (after a punished low at poking distance) and experimenting with characters that can combo after HK Lynx TC. It seems you cannot launch them out before the sweep, but you should be able to carry them horizontally with a good move.
As for me, I think that Elena is going to be a master at baiting characters into moderate damage and tags. Epic backdash, the low avoidant b.hk, the much less useful crouchable avoidant st.mk, and her ability to mix up her oki to bait reversals (though not on her best enders 
) speak pretty clearly on this.
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