Vs. Elena

"Full Power Match-up"

Sean's options get substantially better in this match-up due to Elena's hitbox, allowing Sean to combo into his DP off of any of his cancel-able normals. He can even connect Cr. MP/MK x EX Tornado on her whether standing or crouching fairly easy. His meter building also improves greatly due to being able to hit with combos like J. HP x Cl. HK x HP Dragon Smash consistently which builds 47 points of meter (which is 2/3s a stock of Hadou Burst, a 1/2 stock of Shoryu Cannon and a 1/3  stock of Hyper Tornado).

Elena is one of the few characters that Cl. HK x Dragon Smash works consistently on, which means this MU is where Sean is at his strongest without meter. As such whenever the opportunity arises to land that combo, do it. Elena will usually try to keep you at a distance and sneak in when she gets the opportunity which means, Parrying again is an important part of this MU. Elena has one of the best wake-up mix-ups in the entire game. She can stand in one position and effectively go for a low knockdown, an incredibly fast overhead, a successful kara throw, or land her best combo, leaving you only to guess what she can do.

Elena will stay at max range on your wake-up at which she can land a C.Roundhouse, T+Foward Overhead, UOH, Kara-Throw, or C. Strong XX EX Spin Scythe/SA2 Combo if she knocks you down. She'll stay at this distance to reduce the options that you have while making hers more ambiguous. The two basic things she'll do here are to constantly tap crouch (to move forward), or go into all of her moves from a crouching position.

Elena's only low option is very unsafe against opponents with moves that move forward at a quick speed (Hyper Tornado or Hadou Burst if she's close enough). At the max range, it can usually only be punished by a reversal, but this is sort of useless, since she can change her position, but which can limit her options, and it'll become possible to telegraph what she'll do.

Sean specific knowledge:

I feel this match-up isn't as bad as its said on paper, solely cause of the amount of damage Sean can do and how much he has to gain in this match-up. The one issue with this match-up is dealing with her Cr. MP as Sean needs to relinquish space in neutral to be able to hit it without risk. Its more or less the same as fighting Makoto in neutral where you have to keep her out while edging her to the corner. To add another benefit of this MU, Sean gets to cross Elena up in HIS corner if she quick-stands meaning you can run some quality mix-up game should this happen.

She only has 2 positive on block normals: B+HK and St. LK. The rest of her normals are more negative upwards to punish-able. You have to be aware of what she cancels into as well. Mallet Smash overhead is slow but is 0 and gets increasingly plus on block if you respect it while lynx tail can make for a nice "gotcha" trick if you aren't paying attention. Also, respect the spin scythe on block since she can delay the 3rd hit of it to specifically catch you pressing something (like Yang and his slashes albeit worse) but know that if they decide to do the 3rd hit, she's extremely punishable (enough to dash up Cl. HK/Cl. MP/whatever). 

Once you have SA1 stocked, she can't spam her Towards + MK overhead at any range for any reason on block because it is always punishable by SA1. Be aware of sweep at max range cause not even Shippu Jinrai will punish that. However, Elena Slide (Down-Towards HK) will be punished by SA1 free too.

Standing Forward will often end up trading with her Cr. MP (in Sean's favor) more often than not. Other than that it stops almost everything she wants to do like slide, Cr. MK, Cr. LK, sweep (pre-emptively). Just be aware it can be whiff-punished handily if you whiff it too much.

Cl. HK x EX Tornado works on her Standing or Crouching. You have to cancel Cl.HK as late as possible in order for it to work.

Cr. HP is integral to this match-up solely cause it will catch almost all of her extended normals in neutral and on parry. With a SA1 behind it, the Elena player has to be careful of whiffing things or giving you parries for free. 

Her oki timings are the exact same as Ryu/Gouki/Sean; HP Dragon gives you the safe jump J. HK (provided close enough), EX gives you dash meaty UOH, etc. After a DP, Elena is pretty free to corpse hopping with HP/EX Tackle (if you have the meter) which sets up "which side" mix-ups. 

Sean's strongest combo without meter in this match up is J. HP (can substitute Neutral Jump HK) x Cl. HK x HP Dragon Smash [Positioning is important for this super] (add a SA1 to it for great damage and stun)

Always buffer parry in the air, Elena has 3 jump strings (J. HK/ J.LP ~ J.MK / J.MP ~ J.HP) that hit twice and lead to throw mix-ups if let hit.

 

Elena's unsafe main pokes:

• Cr. HK is -7 on block
• Towards + MK is -6 on block and -4 on hit
• Cr. MP is -3 on block (and can be parried both high and low)

Recommended Super:

SA1 - To take advantage of Cl.HK x Dragon Smash, and punish her mistakes
SA2 - To take advantage of corner juggles, EX Rhino horn/T+ MP & MK punishment, and damage


Her normals that can be Tackled:

Back + HK
Standing HP
Crouching HP
Crouching HK
Down + Towards HK (Can be EX Tackled)
Towards + MK (Overhead)
Towards + MP (Overhead)
Standing MP



Against her cancelling into Mallet Smash:

• Parry it all and punish her with Cl.HK x Dragon Smash or
• Before it hits Crouch Forward x Dragon Smash x Super (if its stocked)

Punishing her SA2:

1st Scenario: Parry the first 2 hits/Red Parry the 2nd then Roll. Back up a bit then J.HP x Cl.HK x Hadou Burst or Shoryu Cannon

2nd Scenario: Parry the first 2 hits/Red Parry the 2nd then Cl.HK x Dragon Smash x Hadou Burst

3rd Scenario: Parry 9 hits and jump parry the 10th/Red parry the 9th and jump parry the 10th then J.HP x Cl.HK x HP Dragon Smash x Hadou Burst


Punishing her EX Spin Scythe:

Red Parry the 2nd hit then Zenten to the other side, then J. HP x Cl. HK x HP Dragon Smash x Hadou Burst


Punishing her HK/EX Scratch Wheel:

Down Parry then Forward J. HP x Cl. MP x HP Dragon Smash x Hadou Burst


Punishing her SA1:

Down Red Parry the 1st hit of the 2nd set of kicks then LP Zenten to the other side, then J. HP x Cl. HK x HP Dragon Smash x Hadou Burst

Forward Red Parry the last set of kicks then J. HP x Cl.HK x HP Dragon Smash x Hadou Burst