Alice Senki 2/Rance

Rance

Overview

Pros	Cons
He is one of the easiest characters to use, with a simple gameplan. Has a very fast reversal dragon punch. Easy and damaging combos. Long normals. Good at trading hits. Decent rush down techniques. Has a helper that shoots projectiles. He is well rounded, versatile and can be played in your own way.	His mobility is not very good. Slow normals. Weak/Hard/inconsistent mixup game.

Gameplan

Try to call Shire (or Shill... or Sill... i don't really know the name of the girl, but i do know that every time this guy says "Shire", she comes in and shoots something across the screen) every time you can. She is good to protect your unsafe moves or to control the screen and give you an opportunity to take the initiative and press the attack. She is also good in some setups for some mixups after a knock down, although Rance is not very effective as a setplay character. He is quite good at neutral game because of his ranged normals and high priority attacks on ground and air. His normal moves also deal a good chunk of damage by themselves. You can allways go for the best damage and rely on trying to win the neutral game, or sacrifice damage for position and keep the iniciative, or try his inconsistent mixups.

His main blockstring for pressure is 66C, J.2C,\/, B,66C, J.2C,\/, 66C,J.2C, etc...

Move List

Normal Moves

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	【5A】 Cannot be self cancelled but it can be cancelled into 2A. Good to catch opponents if they're trying to jump.
	【2A】 Can't self cancel either, but comboes into 5B. Use this to confirm ground combos at a short distance. You can use this to low profile a lot of things thrown at you, use it wisely.
	【5B】 Great advancing move with great priority. Good for poking and your main tool for anti-airing jumping opponents at a distance. You'll start a lot of combos this way.
	【2B】 Cannot be comboed from 2A. Has some good active frames and can also low profile some attacks, but it is much slower than 2A and doesn't hit low. It also reaches far, but it is not as good as his other normals in my opinion.
	【5C】 Long reaching move that deals a lot of damage by itself, but is very slow. Deals a lot of damage to the guard bar as well. Good to throw it once in a while and it can also be used succesfully as an extremely slow anti-air against characters with fearsome jumping attacks (remember that this game is slow, you can time this attack against people who likes to do double jumps). You should make sure that you will not miss this attack on hit or block, unless you have Shire covering you. It is very unsafe and missing a ground throw will get you swinging his sword like this as well.
	【2C】 This is also an unsafe move when it wiffs. It can be cancelled into 3B to end some combos into a sliding knockdown and trying to do some setplay this way. If you can't time well 5C against a jumping foe at a long distance, you can try this when they are landing.
	【J.A】 Standard light jumping attack. Can cross up, but it's a bit hard to combo from this.
	【J.B】 Can beat toons that are above you very easily, but not the best idea to use this against grounded foes.
	【J.C】 This does what J.B doesn't. Good to jump into opponents below you. It can also cross up and it is easy to combo from here.

Dash Attacks

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	【66A】 Can even low profile some jumping attacks and beat them clean. Also a tool to confirm some combos, but not recommended in this situations because you won't deal much damage with it, but sometimes when you are far away this is the only option you'll have.
	【66B】 Can dodge low attacks. Causes a knockdown and can't be cancelled into anything other than a Break/Roman-Cancel. Grants a ground bounce on counter hit. Keep in mind, despite it looks, this move is not an overhead.
	【66C】 Good on combos and a main tool for a rushdown gamestyle. It has frame disadvantage on block, but you can always jump cancel this. Other than that, you can try to do a surprise far reaching attack from a dash with this and can lead to combos or pressure.

Throws

【close 4C/6C】 Throws always in the opposite direction, on air and ground. You can only combo this into Shire's projectiles if she is out there going around shooting things. Causes a hard knockdown. Air throw has the same animation and outcome.

Command Moves

	【6B】 Overhead. Can only be followed up by health recovery or super moves. Unsafe on block.
	【3B】 Causes sliding knockdown on hit. I can't see it being useful outside combos. Can't be cancelled into health recover, but you can follow up this with 623C or 421C in the corner with success.
	【J.2C】 Has good priority against opponents from below. Similar animation to 66B and it also is unable to be cancelled into anything other than Breaks. Allways causes ground bounce on hit. Advantageous on block at low heights, and combined with 66C both moves are the main tools for a rush down playstyle.

Special Moves

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	【Rotation Dragon Punch Attack - 623X】 A doesn't have invicivility. A can be used for OTG dying toons and to do anti-airs or to combo from it after a Break. B is invincible, can be Light Broken at the maximum height of the move. C version has a lot of invincible frames and can go through a lot of things. All moves are air-unblockable until Rance leaves the ground. Very fast reversal that will be hard to safe jump into.
	【Shire! - 236X】 On air and ground. Calls Shire to throw a projectile. A shoots a fast traveling fire ball. Shire shoots fast and will leave the screen faster quickly. B shoots a slow moving ice ball. Shire moves slow and you have to wait a bit more before you can use her again. C shoots a big electric multi-hitting (7 hits) arrow. Shire can be attacked when she enters the screen and be interrupted before she can do anything. Air fire arrows and grounded ice arrows can be Light Broken. Every time you end up your combos with a 3+B, you should call Shire and keep your initiative. Also very recommended at the end of your air combos, just to build a bit of meter and keep the screen with projectiles.
	【Troll mixup 1 - 214X】 Overhead attack. It can dodge low attacks. The hitbox of this move is very low, so it is easy to dodge or evade this by jumping if you see this coming outside blockstrings. You can confirm A and B versions on hit with a 623C. A and B versions have a slight disadvantage on block, but C version has advantage. C version is an Ex Move and does 4 attacks in a row and the second hit should be blocked low (the order is high-low-high-high).
	【Troll mixup 2 - 236X】 Hits low Has the same animation on startup as 214X so they are actually hard to block. This also has a hitbox very low to the ground, so you can also jump out of it. You want to use the B version because you can combo from it, but the A version is more likely to hit against a good player, because it is faster and can doesn't leave a gap on blockstrings. Depending on the distance you pulled this off, it might be safe on block or even advantageous. C version hits two times, the first attack is low and the next one is an overhead and can be comboed from there into 66C.

Lv3/Legendary Sword

【Rance Attack - 624C】 First hit is an overhead and has invincible frames until it hits. Slow move that won't combo from anything other than 421C and after 3B as an OTG. Not recommended doing an otg with this because the damage scales a lot and you should do better things with your meter. Causes massive amounts of ridiculous damage, specialy if Rance has low health. It also depletes the guard bar (and the Exs) if blocked, although never breaks it unless it is already depleted. If you have 4 bars and your oponent doesn't like to use the special defense, you can force a guard break. Just do the lvl3 and roman/break the move and do a J.C. Can't be normally guarded in mid-air.

Special Activation

【??? - 22D】 Costs 1 gauge. Shire stays on the screen for 20 seconds and you can use her more frecuently, unless your opponent starts to attack her consistenly. It'll be easier to do light breaks and you can store the three different projectile commands on Shire and she will shoot them in succession. You can't store the same projectile move until Shire shoots said move. Cooldown for this activation is 20 seconds.

Miscellaneous

Light Break

• 623B at maximum height.
• 236B between the "i" and "r" of "Shiire" call (Shii-re?).
• Air 236A at the start of the call.

Break Style (B+C)

• Sautarelle/Catapult.

Special Defense

• Parry.

Health

• Health Recovery= Can recover 25%, long recovery and you will lose more life against a good opponent with proper a punish. There's no way to safely activate this (maybe you can do it with the special activation and Shire's 236C).
• Health is higher than average at 11000.

Combos

Meterless or one meter

5B,2B,2C,66A:

• vs Seed 623A (1hit), Break(B+C), B,C>DJ.B,C,2C>\/5B>J.B,C>DJ.BC2C. (one bar)
• vs Fanel 66A, J.B,C,+2C,>\/5B,>J.B,C,>DJ.B,C,Break, etc...
• vs Fanel 623A(1 hit)>Break,>J.A,B,2C,>\/5B,etc...
• vs Miki J.B,C,>DJ.B,C,2C,>\/5B,etc...
• vs Miki 623A(1 hit),Break,>J.A,B,2C,\/5B,etc...
• vs Hanny 623A(1 hit),Break,>J.B,C,>DJ.+,A,B,2C,>\/5B,etc...
• vs Patton, J.A,B,C,2C,>\/5B,etc...
• vs Tiger Joe J.B,C,2C,>\/J.A,B,>DJ.B,C,etc...
• vs Tiger Joe 623A(1 hit),Break,>J.A,B,2C,>\/j.A,B,etc...

5B,2C,66C,\/:

• vs Miki 66C>+J.A,B,>DJ.B,C,2C>\/5B
• vs Fanel, J.A,B,2C>\/5B,J.B,C>DJ.B,C>Break,J.B,DJ.B,C.
• vs Hanny and Hatsune J.B,C>DJ.B,C,2C\/5B, etc...
• vs Mike Patton J.+,B,C,2C>\/5B, etc...
• vs Seed and Alietta 66C>J.B,C>DJ.*J.B,C,2C>\/5B, etc...
• vs Tiger Joe J.B,C,2C>\/J.A,B,etc...

66B(CH)>\/5B>J.B,C,etc...

421B:

• vs Miki 2A,5B>J.A,B>DJ.B,C,2C>\/5B,etc...
• vs Fanel 2a,5b,66C>J.+B,2C>\/5B>J.B,C>DJ.B,C>Break,B,C>DJ.B,C
• vs Hanny and Alietta 623A,Break>J.B,C>DJ.B,C,2C>\/,5B, etc...
• vs Patton and Tiger Joe Break>J.B,C,2C\/5B,etc...
• vs Maria Break>*,J.B,C>\/5B>J.B,C>DJ.A,B,2C>\/5B, etc...
• vs Seed Break>*,J.B,C>\/5B>J.B,C>DJ.B,2C>\/5B, etc...
• vs Tiger Joe Break>+,B,C>\/J.A,B,DJ.B,C,Break,etc...

Two bars or more

421C(2 hits)>Dash 66C>J.B,C,2C\/5B>J.B,C>DJ.B,C,Break> etc...

• Corner 214C(4 hits)>5A,5B:
• 421C(2 hits)>624C>:
  • vs Miki 66C>J.B,C>DJ.B,C>\/5B etc...
  • vs Fanel 66C>J.B,C,2C, etc...
  • vs Patton Corner 66C>J.+,B,C,2C>\/5B, etc
  • vs Seed Corner 66C>J.+,B,C>DJ.+,B,C,2C>\/5B, etc...
  • vs Tiger Joe Corner 66C>J.B,C,2C>\/J.A,B, etc...

Meterless for setups

• 5A,5B,2C,66C>J.B,C,2C>\/66B ①
• 5A,2A,5B,2B,2C,3B,>236A ②
• 5A,2A,5B,2B,2C,3B>236B ③

One bar for setups

• 5B,2C,66C>J.+,B,C,2C>\/,623C(3rd hit wiffs)>\/5B,66B ①
• 5B,2C,66A>623C,>\/5B,66B ①
• 5B,2C,623C>\/5B,66B ①. Good to evade the corner carry.
• vs Miki 66C>j.A,B,2C>\/623C>\/5B,66B ①
• vs Seed and Alietta 66C>J.B,C>DJ.+,B,C,2C>\/623C>5B,66B. Corner carry.
• 421A/214A>623C>\/66C>J.B,2C>\/5B,66B ①

Big Combos

• 2C,66C,+,J.B,C,2C>\/,623C>last hit>236C>\/66C,break(B+C)>B,C>DJ,+,A,B,2C>\/623C>last hit 236C>\/(5B),66C>J.etc... Useless combo. The damage is just a bit higher than his other basic combos, but the meter usage is too much.
• video

Throw

• Throw ④
• You can combo the Throw into the iceball and from there go for your best combo. If you have time, try to start this combo with a 5C for good damage.

Pressure

• 66C,J.2C
• 66A,J.2C
• 5B,66C,J.2C
• 5B,2C,66A,J.2C

Mix-ups

His mix-ups are difficult to do. You have to vary your timing depending on the enemy you're facing and sometimes they just can't be done (Patton, Maria...). You'll need to practice them against different characters and see by yourself if they are possible, easy or too hard to bother.

①:

• J9,2C. This move can cross-up on a lot of characters, but you need to adjust the timing depending on the who is your enemy, and sometimes it even depends if that said character decides to block standing or crouching. Against some characters as Alietta, for example, you need to do a microdash before the J9,2C. Can't crossup in any situation against fat characters (Patton, Maria). Please, experiment with it.
  • When this move hits, you can follow up with 5B or J.B,C directly.

②:

• Run, 2A,5B,2B,2C,66A>214A/421B>5B, etc... Blockstring followed by an overhead or low. There's a gap between 66A and the overhead or low, but this is my most consistent string to capitalize into combos. You can experiment with other strings, but i warn you the timing varies depending on where you are on the screen.
• Corner 5B,66C>412/214C, etc... The fireball will protect you after 66C. If your foe is not blocking, follow up with a regular combo.

③:

• Dash, J.2C>5B>J.A,B>Break(B+C),J.B>DJ.B,2C>\/(Ice arrow freezes),5C,2C,66C>J.B,C>DJ.B,C. Trying to cross up with this setup is very hard to do and so far it seems to work only on Satsu. Very cheap though.
• Corner microdash J.C(safe jump)>\/5B,66C>j.B,C>DJ,B,C,2C>\/(Ice arrow freezes),C,2C,66C,etc... Do this combo if your opponent gets hit.
• Corner microdash J.C(safe jump)>\/5B,66C>J.2C>\/5B,2C,214A/421A, etc.... Use this when the enemy blocks. The ice arrow will freeze after the high/low mix-up.
• Corner microdash J.C>\/5A,2A,5B,2C,66A:
  • 214B
  • 421B

④:

• Dash J.A/B\/: etc... Do a late J.A for cross ups, or an early J.B to attack on front.