Street Fighter 6/Lily/Introduction

Introduction

A descendant of the Thunderfoot tribe, Lily speaks with the spirits of nature, trusting in their guidance as she travels the globe. Don't judge a book by its cover—her small stature conceals truly titanic power.

Lily is the protégé of series veteran T.Hawk, and as such, plays a lot like him, even sharing many of his normals. She is a poke-focused grappler who prods opponents and looks for an opening to exploit with her gap-closing Condor Dive and Condor Spire. When she gets that opening, she sticks to the opponent like glue and forces them to guess with her command grab.

What sets Lily apart from T.Hawk, however, is her unique Windclad mechanic. With this, Lily uses her Condor Wind special to power up her other strike specials, giving them extra damage, frame advantage, and combo potential. Building up one or multiple Windclad stocks and landing one good hit can quickly swing a round in Lily’s favor, putting the opponent in sticky situations where they have to commit to risky options or face an endless loop of mixups and punishment.

Lily has her struggles in neutral, as her tools to get up close are reliant on her getting a Windclad stock, which not every opponent will allow. Her walkspeed is below average, making her play more like a heavyweight character despite her small size. She makes up for all of this with her great pokes that lead into her strike-throw mix, tick throws, anti-airs, spacing traps, and—most importantly—her fearsome Mexican Typhoon command grab.

Don’t let her small stature and cheery demeanor fool you—Lily is a high-risk, high-return character who devastates health bars with both strikes and throws. Though she may struggle in neutral against some characters, all Lily needs is one good opening and a Windclad stock to ride a tailwind of momentum straight to victory. If you enjoy the thrill of a vortex character but also like playing with good pokes, then be sure to give Lily a try!

Strengths

Weaknesses

Great Pokes: Lily's war clubs act as fantastic poking tools, giving her a wide variety of ways to check and punish opponents' movements. Wind Power: Windclad greatly powers up Lily's special moves. Most notably, Condor Spire becomes much faster and is always plus on block, which is extremely important for her pressure. This also urges opponents to approach Lily first before she can get a Wind stock, which is something other grapplers can struggle to accomplish. Scary Vortex: Once Lily gets in, the combination of her pokes, anti-airs, Drive Rush and her devastating, long-range command grab forces opponents to take big gambles or risk being put in endless disadvantage. It isn't particularly bad that Lily is put full screen after her command grab, as it lets her easily charge a Windclad stock and start her offense once again. Aerial Dominance: Lily has several air tools, including an air target combo, a DP followup and an aerial Level 2 Super, all of which are uniquely devastating against those who try to escape her pressure by jumping.

Poor Reversals: With Tomahawk Buster lacking full invincibility and Breezing Hawk being quite slow for a reversal Super, Lily’s reversal options are expensive, unreliable, or both. Slow: Despite her small size, Lily's walk and dash speeds are below average, impeding her ability to play footsies and force opponents to whiff. Weak to Drive Mechanics: If Lily wants to get a Windclad stock in a blockstring, she must explicitly call out Drive Impact with 214LP or she will get Punish Countered. Windclad Condor Spire, while plus on block, is easily Drive Reversalable on reaction, getting the opponent out of her pressure and making her lose the Windclad stock to boot.