Them's Fightin' Herds/Oleander/Strategy
Neutral
Important Normals
- 5A: Low committment ground check, main pressure normal. Fast with big range and disjointed.
- 2A: Primary fast low. Less active than 5A but it will hit low profile moves.
- 6A: Anti-air. Fast with high vertical reach but slow recovery.
- 5B: Main ground poke. Quick recovery, can be used preemptively. Also a good button for pressure.
- 2B: Crouching anti-air. Very active and quick recovery, but not fully disjointed.
- 2C: Long range low. Very active, very slow recovery.
- jA: Low commitment air-to-air. Fast startup and recovery.
- jB: Main jump-in normal. Hits crouchers reliably.
- jC: Big air-to-air. Not as good as a jump-in, but longer ranged than jB.
General gameplan
Oleander has tools for long range zoning, mid-range footsies and close range pressure. But in general she works best when keeping the opponent out and focuses on building resources to start offense on her own terms. Her ground & TK Shadow Sparks, double jumps and big normals help to stop the opponent from rushing you down and make them hesitate, which buys you time to use Read during neutral. Be mindful however of using fireballs too close to the opponent where one sudden jump or airdash can punish your startup/vulnerable double jump recovery. With Magic, you can also use Chapter Traps defensively and maneuver around them with Teleports.
Once you have enough resources or a hit, you can choose to continue zoning the opponent and snowball with Chapter Traps and Epilogue, or push them into the corner to use strong okizeme setups and prevent them from escaping using your long reaching buttons. Your ultimate goal is to build 2 bars of meter to summon Fred and end the round before his timer runs out.
Offense
Oleander's basic offensive structure is to threaten frametraps from her normals, and then dash in to reset pressure or go for a throw/throw bait. Her fast initial dash speed and big range jabs let her combat pushblock effectively, but it is still capable of making some of your key normals whiff.
5A, 2A (-2) and 5B (-3) are your main stagger point normals. They are fast, have good frame data and recover quickly with plenty of cancel options available. Example strings:
- 5A 5A 5B 5A
- 5A 2A 5A
- 5A 2A 5A 5B
Once your opponent is conditioned to not pushblock, you can start incorporating 2B and 6A rebeats into your pressure to make longer blockstrings:
- 5A 5A 5B 6A 5B
- 2A 5B 2B 5A 5B
- 5A 5B 5A 5B 2B 6A 5B 2B
During any of these blockstrings, you can use 6C for a long range overhead. This can be hard to react to as it can chain from any of your normals. It is weak against opponents using Pushblock Absolute Guard, can only be converted with 2 frame link 5A or 1 magic stock for Chapter Trap and its an easy punish on block.
Throws are also very useful. Besides opening up turtling opponents and adding to the mental stack, Oleander can combo out of her ground throw reliably. It also generates 1 magic stock, so its low damage potential is offset by the amount of resources you can gain by meterstealing with magic specials instead of going for optimal combos.
Going into your C normals or 6B gives you high damage frametraps, but also makes your pressure much more linear and potentially unsafe. Your remaining options will be special cancels:
- 236A/B/C: The C version can make true blockstrings at most ranges, but they end your turn and are punishable up close if Instant Blocked. They can become plus if spaced.
- 22C: Ends your pressure and returns you to neutral. Some characters have an easy time punishing its startup after IB'ing your moves.
- 214A/B: Can reset pressure at +2, but tends to leave gaps for reversals and projectile invulnerable moves. It's also not ideal to use your magic in this way.
- 236D: They are fast enough to true string at any range, and can potentially be more plus on block than traps, but this uses up even more of your magic.
Utilizing Fred
It's difficult to describe how strong Fred can be, so we will give you a basic rundown of how to use each specific attack:
- 1D Is your quickest Fred normal.
On defense it's a powerful tool that punishes any gaps in the opponent's pressure while still allowing you to block. It can even make a wakeup 22D plus enough to continue pressure from it by doing the charged version afterwards!
On offense, it makes quick plus frames and messes with the opponent's ability to pushblock. Can mixup the uncharged and charged versions for tick-throws (before or after it connects) as well as Teleport crossups. It vacuums, so it can pull the opponent out of the corner for crossups without magic as well. Input 22X>1D quickly to crossup with this move.
- 2D, the charged version especially, stops the opponent from jumping ever.
It has massive vertical and horizontal reach and if you combine it with 22B the hitbox swipes across the entire lenght of the screen in an anti-air unblockable attack as you teleport. Combo fodder for corner carry.
Not much use for pressure otherwise.
- 6D controls the ground in front of you:
Like 1D it is good for making plus frames, tick-throws and for more damaging crossups. During a blockstring, 6B~6[D] can make you up to +52 on block when timed perfectly, which nets you enough advantage to get a clean empty low vs delayed double jump j.B mixup, or a deep j.B into fuzzy overhead vs low. Input 6D>22X for magic crossups.
This normal can also be used after HKD to easily loop 50/50s until the opponent's JD is maxed. This sequence is 2C>5D>6D after the opponent hits the ground> 22X as soon as you recover from 5D. It covers backdashes when done properly.
- 4D locks the opponent down from afar, and can be used for fullscreen crossups.
It also pulls the opponent out of the corner. Best for annoying the opponent if you are turtling inside an Epilogue.
- 3D's only use is as combo filler. Either version of 2D makes for stronger anti-air moves, especially combined with Ollie's own.
Okizeme
- Midscreen
Oleander's options for oki midscreen are rather limited. Most of the time, trying to setup tricky situations with Traps ends up vulnerable to the various timings and options that the opponent has on SKD and can let them escape for free. The more consistent okizeme you can apply is simple meaties in SKD situations. 5A, 2A and 5B are good for this purpose. 2B has a niche as it is a very active move, and can be plus on block if it connects with its final active frames.
- Corner
Once in the corner though, your options open up a bit. Now you have access to the following setups:
6A jc > j.C j2C j.D(1) > 214A/B/C
This combo ender puts down a trap while leaving Oleander mid-air but very close the ground with a double jump available. From this position, she can either fall and go low/throw, double jump and go for a double overhead (j.BC) or overhead>low (j.B 2A) and then possibly further go into fuzzy overhead jB after a blocked jC. She can also get mixups off of the trap depending on the version used: the A version will stay right in front of the opponent without touching them and can be used for an unreactable crossup with 22B, the B version will meaty the opponent and can dissuade them from attempting to mash and the C version acts as a delayed version of the A trap which you can play mind-games with such as throwing them right before it connects or resetting pressure into a jump.
Corner Epilogue
Placing an Epilogue outside the corner and slightly above crouching height is a very powerful and obnoxious tactic. If done at the right spacing, it makes you able to get away with nearly anything, as any attempt from the opponent to even punish will have them run into its hitbox. If they respect it, you can feel free to do whatever blockstring you wish and use 6C with impunity for several seconds.
Defense
When you are on defense, you don't have much in terms of inmediate action. 22D is a very slow reversal that is easy to OS and safejump. However it may still be rarely used against characters that don't have a lof potential for safejumping. Chapter Traps stay out on block, and Epilogue stays out on hit to potentially interrupt your opponent by falling on top of/pushblocking them into it, but that's not something you can rely on. If you are blocking, Oleander will simply have to keep blocking to find out a way out.
If you don't have Fred out that is.
If you do, Fred is able to attack the opponent during gaps in pressure, as he does not stop his attacks unless Ole gets hit. 1D is the best move for this purpose as it is fast, and can be done while crouchblocking. Your opponent will probably be aware of this, so they are likely to go for throws or overheads. Keep that in mind!
Matchups
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| Because Tianhuo is going to try to stay in close range and keep up pressure, you will have much less opportunity to safely generate Magic with 5D / j.D. Instead, focus on good defensive play to keep Tianhuo out using 6A, j.C, 236X, and j.236X. 22D is also useful here as Tianhuo is less likely to be playing defensively and thus more likely to be caught by these.
Because Tianhuo's gameplan relies heavily on movement, you will want to make heavy use of j.C to control air space. Use 6A to shut down Tianhuo's jump-in attacks when possible, or also 5B and 5C to threaten the space in front of you. 214X can also be used to control space, though you will likely have less opportunity to generate Magic with Tianhuo moving in on you - so make them count. Simple 236X > 214X combos can push Tianhuo away from you while setting a trap to make it tough for her to get back in. |
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| Oleander can use 236X / j.236X to play her own ranged game against Velvet's while generating stocks of magic with 5D and j.D. j.D can be especially useful for its unique movement to help avoid Velvet's ranged attacks. Your goal at long range should be to avoid Velvet's ranged attacks while generating Magic, but eventually you want to move in to start a mid to close-range offensive. Teleports can be used to close the distance of course, but the Magic is probably better saved for other offensive tools; therefore, practicing moving in the old-fashioned way with patience and space-threatening normals (j.C, 2C, etc.) is important.
22B can be useful for intercepting Velvet if she tries to escape the corner back to midscreen. Be mindful of Velvet's Magic Ice Eruption which has invincible startup when pressuring her in the corner. |
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