Elena

Elena is a unique poking/counterpoking character, with an emphasis on powerful whiff punishes to back her up. She gets absurdly good reward out of playing “grounded footsies” Street Fighter is known for, dancing in and out of her effective range and encouraging her opponent to poke back. Once they stick out their feet a little too far forward, Elena pulls them into her offense and takes them straight to the corner. While Elena has several good pokes, she's much more balanced around encouraging an opponent to recklessly extend.

Elena brings with her a whole savannah plain of buttons that could dominate neutral if played well. Her bread and butter button is 5MK, a good poke, target-combo starter, and one of the few pokes in SF6 that's plus. 2MP is a long poke for checking drive rush and counter poking. If the opponent loves walking backwards and turtling, then 2MK, 2HK, and 3HK let Elena run them down. Crouching opponents can be opened up with her long-range 6MK, a quick overhead that leads to a small target combo and a knockdown. Elena is really good at checking opponents behavior, especially with her wide arsenal of target combos that can push her poking reward without using Drive.

Other than checking, she also excels at whiff punishing; being one of the characters that gets absurd reward for landing punish counter heavy buttons. 5HK and 5HP punish counter combos are devastating, crippling an opponent's health bar and dragging them to the corner like a raging elephant. Speaking of corner carry, “Rhino Horn” is a flying kick special move that lunges Elena forward. Almost all of her combos midscreen can end with this move, which gives great corner carry on hit. Outside of that, Elena also has “Scratch Wheel,” an anti-air DP, ”Moon Glide,” a backsway to bait pokes for a big counterhit, and “Spinning Scythe” for damage and decent okizeme.

Most essential to her gameplan is "Lynx Song" or "Roll". This causes Elena to roll along the ground, ducking under fireballs while charging up for a followup. If fully charged, each followup becomes very threatening; either she gets a plus on block meaty, a plus on block overhead, or a launcher. If you sense the opponent is going to retaliate, Elena can halt the roll and go for a bait or throw. Wake up with the wrong option, and Elena's strong punish routes will have your head spinning.

However, this meterless offense comes at a cost- Elena is very dependent on whiff punishes to get her gameplan started. While she has great ways to check the opponent, she lacks a lot of ways to enforce her own offense- her walkspeed is unremarkable when compared to other footsie-heavy characters, her Drive Rush is slow, and lacks fireballs to advance behind. As well, she is very dependent on Lynx Song to enforce her offense, which might he a turnoff to those who want a more traditional offensive kit. To sum it up, Elena is a beautiful and unique character to play. If you love characters that have good pokes, long buttons, and reward you for having rock solid fundamentals, then feel Elena's rhythm for yourself.