What am I supposed to do in this matchup? Her pokes are fast, long reaching and safe, her specials are good for keeping me off and her healing super basically means she can potentially live forever.
I try to rush that shit down but of course I have to be patient and wait for openings against her great keepaways and air to airs.
It’s a 7-3 matchup in Elena’s favor. As an Elena player that plays against a Hugo player, the only advice I can give is that Hugo can do his anti-air grab against her standing roundhouse (because she’s technically airborne). This might not be that helpful, but that’s all I can give (that, and try to predict a parry into 360).
Thanks for the info though it’s not exactly encouraging 
Keep in mind that she has TERRIBLE lows, and as far as I know - cLK is her only Cancellable low (cMP hits mid).
Her cMK, cHK and slide have decent range, but have slow startup. You may not want to crouch as much because her fMP overhead does stupid amounts of stun.
Also, if she plays keep-away, maybe you should taunt to build defense (and do the taunt where Poison comes out because its funny). This will give you a better time.
Ramblings
When I play Hugo vs Elena I try to keep her grounded as much of the match as possible and rush her down. It depends on the player, but often times Elena will jump in + attack > neutral jump + attack > neutral jump + throw, and similar variations so when I finally get a knock down I try to use hugo’s overheads, hand clap, c.mk and moonsault to keep pressure on while keeping mind that after the first wakeup attack grounds them again I can wait and see if the wakeup kick uppercut (dunno the name) and then I can block/parry and punish accordingly.
TLDR: Knock her down, proceed to wakeup/bumrush/block/spd/tech throws on her until you win. Crowd her space. Hope this helps.
Odd question (since I’m an Elena player), but would Hugo’s SA1 be the right super to use against her? It’s kinda hard to land regular 360s due to her moves like sHK that make her airborne. Maybe SA3 for invincibility/priority?
I’d probably say SA3 is the ideal super to use against Elena. She’s either going to be airborne or spamming HK against Hugo in this matchup, and Hammer Mountain’s his only anti-air that’s invincible so it’ll at least make her stop jumping around or mindlessly spam HK/b.HK up close when you have meter. Her HK/b.HK doesn’t come out all that quick either so you’ll be able to punish on reaction. You’ll also be able to close the gap faster if you manage to connect it, be it on the ground or anti-air.
SA1 is good, but you have to be confident in your parrying skills and not be afraid to walk towards her and counterpoke.
I’m addicted to SA2, sorry.
Another vote for SA3. Generally, I find SA3 much more effective than SA2.
It might be but SA2 feels like a 2 stock Gigas Breaker for scrubs. I can do an ultra throw standing into SA2 for the damage, wheras a standing Gigas is impossible for me. I know it has ALOT more startup than a Gigas Breaker as well as no invincibility, but at the level I play I can sometimes net both the SA2’s off of ultra throws in one round.
I have to admit though, HAMMAH MOWNTEN looks severely badass, as well as having some very nice reversal and anti air properties.
the only bad thing about SA2 is that good ELENA player dont jump as much they poke so to catch them is pretty hard … but SA3 is the way to go against her just learn how to confirm your claps… :clapdos:
Megaton Press does have some merits; it does really good stun damage if you juggle into it off Ultra Throw->Clap, and you’ll end up close enough to the opponent that you can start another mixup game. Only problem is besides anti-air parrying and punishing early jumpbacks, almost any attack will knock Hugo out of it, and aside from Ultra Throw and a punish EX Clap(or a neutral throw in the corner but that’s a total waste), there aren’t many(if any other) ways to land a guaranteed SA2 besides parrying. Just playing SA2 will teach them not to jump and do nothing anyway, which isn’t too great because a lot of characters have a better ground range game than Hugo.
It’s not that great against Elena either, because as mentioned she does a good job of beating Hugo on the ground with her faster pokes and karathrow mixups(believe me, I’ve been kara-thrown MANY times by her). SA3 is ideal against Elena because it’ll help his ground game out a lot more, as well as give him a reliable anti-air in case she hops around. Not to mention a DAMAGING counterpoke against slow normals.
Basically to sum it up: SA3 = anti-air, comboable, pushes opponents to the corner when hit, punish slow normals
Dude, learn Yun.
Just kidding.
Short version:
I agree that most Hugo players are probably going to have most success with SA3, it just has so many benefits overall. Invincible startup, anti-air, can be confirmed in combos, 2 short meters, good stun power, can have delayed startup if you hold punch to fuck with their head (you’ll only get away with this once), can super through poke and block chains, etc.
Although her pokes are formidable (often just off the ground, long-range, etc.), if you can trap her in Hugo’s anti-wakeup routine then she doesn’t have the stamina to do much, so she panics.
Her healing super is a royal pain in the ass and I don’t have much to say about that. If you played carefully and punished her mistakes to close the gap, she cannot use it. A cornered Elena is severely crippled.
Also, get your defense and power taunts in at the slightest opportunity. 4 short taunts for defense (like Q) and poke power (per combo) bonus, 1 long taunt for grab power increase. If the Elena player chose healing then you need your taunts, because you are definitely in for the long haul if you can’t get close.
Long version
[details=Spoiler]I personally never use anything but Gigas though. I’m just a glutton for punishment. I know you said you don’t bother with Gigas because you can’t do a standing (tachi) Gigas, but don’t let that put you off. Hugo’s Gigas is definitely tricky to get the hang of, but not being able to perform a tachi should never hold you back. It can be busted from parries, reversed from blocking, from a dash, jump, cross-up jump (lulz), buffered from other moves (such as cr.lk or clap), and partitioned. Partitioned Gigas is a great substitute for not being able to do a tachi (there’s probably a thread about partitioned Gigas somewhere, have a search, it makes Gigas so fucking easy). It is high risk/reward in this match though. Great damage, hard to nail her with it.
My Elena strategy has mixed success but consists of being patient instead of charging in. I don’t poke much, because a good Elena will be able to super-punish many of Hugo’s whiffs on sight. It isn’t worth the risk. As most Elenas either hover right in your face poking and throwing like crazy, or just run away poking from distance, I just try to wait for mistakes to happen. Mistakes either come from them fucking up manually, or from you baiting a trap that they have fallen into.
Manual mistakes can be tricky to punish, but if you’re looking for them then they will become fairly obvious so you need good reflexes. You’re looking for the slightest mis-judgments on the part of the Elena player: throw whiffs, bad jump-in spacing, pokes falling short, and so on. Cr.mk, 360+lp and EX Lariat cover most of these mistakes, so just stay sharp and punish patiently. For example, if you try to zone her, it is possible to float just outside of kara-throw range and punish grab-whiffs with EX Lariat. It sounds tricky, but if you’re regularly buffering the fireball motion as you dance in front of each other, all you have to do is hit 2x kick when you see the opening.
Baited mistakes are another matter entirely. Ideally, you want to carefully setup a baited mistake from a manual mistake. If you manage to knock her down, then make the Elena player nervous as she is getting up. Hugo’s claps are perfect. I mix between claps that hit her on wakeup, and whiffing hp.clap then lp.clap so that the lp.clap ends a split-second before she has recovered, to add some tension. Initially, the Elena may get antsy and throw out wakeup supers - perfect you just block then punish with your biggest available technique. When the Elena catches on to the clap wakeup tactic, expect to see alot more cautious wakeup blocking - again, perfect, just pause then 360+lp that crouching bastard. This again makes the Elena player nervous, so they begin jumping on wakeup, so you include lk.Backbreakers. Okay, now the Elena player isn’t sure what is coming from where, so wakeup Shoryus and supers appear again.[/details]
cr jab is good and i use standing strong alot, but you have to say “bitch gimmie that money!” everytime it hits