Name the Scythe ender before choosing a wake-up response
Elena’s light and medium Spinning Scythe endings prepare different attacks. Rhino Horn into Lynx Song adds another route into Mallet Smash. Learn which knockdown occurred first; treating all of her moving kicks as the same recovery hides the information needed to defend the next mix-up.
What to watch for
Medium Scythe changes with screen position
The source uses a corner jump setup but two dashes midscreen before throw or light attacks. The same ender does not mean the next approach will look the same everywhere.
Rhino Horn into Lynx Song
This route prepares a timed Mallet Smash. Include the intervening movement in practice, rather than testing an isolated overhead from neutral and assuming the result covers wake-up.
How to deal with common situations
A slide reaches your guard
The Japanese counter note emphasizes the distance at which you can punish. Record the slide at the depth seen in the replay and verify a reaching response against guard after recovery. Do not attach the source’s unlabeled old numbers to every sliding contact.
Drive Rush presents an overhead or low
The current notes pair forward medium kick with crouching medium kick. Train recognition from the same starting situation. An answer aimed only at the low leaves the overhead untested.
Distance-specific responses
Near the slide’s tip
Judge depth before committing to a short punish. A starter that works against deep contact may never touch Elena when the slide stops farther away.
Midscreen after medium Scythe
Watch the two-dash approach and the light attack or throw afterward. Keep that recording separate from the corner jump version.
Corner after light Scythe
The notes use a dash into timed standing heavy punch, or whiffed lights into a low. Identify the preparation rather than treating a deliberately missed light as an accidental opening.
Common mistakes
- Using a deep-slide punish at tip range.
- Applying the medium-Scythe corner jump timing to a light-Scythe setup.
- Testing Mallet Smash without the Rhino Horn and Lynx Song lead-in.
Training mode practice steps
Use your own character as the defender. Turn on the frame meter and input history so you can distinguish a real answer from a mistimed recording.
Map the slide response
Create deep and shallow slide recordings, each followed by guard. Try one starter at both distances and check Punish Counter and reach. Keep the reliable spacing range with the saved response.
Compare Scythe follow-ups
Record medium Scythe into its corner jump and light Scythe into dash-heavy-punch pressure. Confirm each setup from the combo guide. Test your wake-up defense against both before adding Rhino Horn into Mallet Smash.
Uses Elena’s Japanese slide-spacing note and current Scythe, Rhino Horn/Lynx Song, and Drive Rush high-low sections. Unlabeled historical frame snippets are excluded. For current numerical values, use the linked Frame Data page and confirm important situations in Training Mode.