Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike/Elena/Introduction

Introduction

Elena is a nature lover from Kenya. She employs Capoeira, a martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music which matches her light-hearted personality. She first appears in Street Fighter III: New Generation.

Elena is a rushdown and middle range poking character specialized in EX Move Combos, her main gameplan is a keepaway footsie and anti aerial counter defensive to gain stock for an offensive EX Moves and meaty rush plan. She has some very tricky animations that can be hard to keep up with, allowing her to make opponents trip themselves up with incorrect reads that she can then exploit.

Super Arts

SA1: Spinning Beat

Having a super that stocks up to 3 times and has short bars is great for any character, especially one as EX-move dependent as Elena. It's a good combo ender and anti-air option, making it a solid choice versus the Twins. It also has enough i-frames to bypass any taunt setplay from Dudley, and punish him for it. Its major downside is how incredibly minus it is on block, and how it tends to fall out at longer ranges on her cancellable normals.

SA2: Brave Dance

Having 2 stocks and medium length bars ensure that its as viable as SA1 for EX-move usage, but where it really shines is how much more of a threat it adds to Elena's overall gameplan. It doesn't drop at longer ranges like SA1 does, allowing for it to be buffered after 2MP, and has post-super juggle options in corner, making it a terrifying finishing tool. Its also nearly as a good a reversal as SA1, though it does suffer a bit in this regard due to it having less i-frames and anti-air potential as the latter. Still the preferred super in most match-ups.

SA3: Healing

Infamous for it's USF4 iteration, Elena's Healing super is much less notable here but still occasionally favored by some players in 3s. Its large bar size has it's benefits for allowing more usage of EX moves, which is something that empowers Elena quite a bit.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Single Damaging ground and air normals Varied specials for any kind of situation A lot of juggle options after EX Spin Scythe Decent Recovery and damage command moves and air Target Combos	EX Moves dependent Easilly Parriable Supers Linear gameplan and specific corner combo follow ups