Tough Love Arena/Rice/Strategy
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Under Construction
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Disclaimer: This is a community written page and may contain opinions that not all players may agree with. Use at your own discretion.
Goals
Rice wants to stay in control for most of the match. In neutral, they want to cover space in front of them with long range normals. Rice wants to stay in neutral most of the time if they can, so they want to have as much space as possible to work with while they zone their opponents out.
Neutral
Pokes
Whip: It has huge reach and is Rice’s most common poke due to its fast speed and modest recovery. It has a low hitbox making it prone to getting jumped over. It’s useful for stuffing moves, for opponents walking forward, for punishing whiffs in neutral, and for baiting out risky moves that beat it (i.e. Jump Attack). It also has solid frame trap potential when cancelled into Swipe or Whip Pounce (when you want to approach).
Swipe: It has limited uses in neutral due to having a large startup and recovery, along with having less horizontal range than Whip and being unable to cancel into Whip Pounce/Splash. It can be used to anti-air from far away, but becomes inconsistent as the opponent gets closer. Swipe’s main use for neutral comes from it being able to cancel from Whip to create an automatic frame trap, but it is occasionally useful as a timing mixup.
Drill
Drill: It’s good for starting offense during neutral due to its fast speed and frame advantage on block. Use it occasionally as a mixup to zoning with Whip.
Anti Airs/Jump Punishes
Slap is a solid meterless anti air given the jump isn't spaced.
Swat is HUGE, is Rice's most reliable anti air, and has better metered conversions compared to Slap.
Whip is better for punishing jumps compared to Swat and Slap given you are spaced out far enough.
Teleport can be a decent fail safe if you aren't confident with using Rice's anti airs or if you're looking to time out.
Pressure
Rice's pressure will be short and sweet without meter due to how Slap doesn't keep pressure very well. Their main tools for offense will be Slap, Swat, Drill, Swipe, and Throw.
Slap Pressure
Slap is one of Rice's few move that are plus on block and gives them solid meterless strike-throw pressure. Due to the pushback on block, Rice gets a small amount of block pressure midscreen. Rice's main goals during their Slap pressure are to get a knockdown or to reset to neutral where they are strongest. Assuming Rice is able to land Slap at point blank range, they have a few option to pressure the opponent:
Slap > (delayed) Swipe is a useful frame trap to use if you suspect the opponent will mash. The cancel into Swipe must be delayed or else it will be a true blockstring. The second hit of Swipe can link into 5L for a combo if done close enough and Rice is only -2 if the opponent blocks.
Slap > Throw punishes reversals and blocking.
Slap > Walk back is Rice's safest, least committal option that can reset to neutral given the opponent backs up as well.
Slap > Jump Attack has a large gap and loses to mashing, but keeps the pressure and gives Rice more strike-throw opportunities.
Slap > Slap is only recommended when the opponent is in the corner due to how easy it is to walk outside of Slap range and whiff punish.
Whip Pressure
Whip's long start up and ability to frame trap make it a useful tool for pressure in the close-midrange area, especially when Rice has meter. Whip Pounce and Swipe are the two follow-up options to Whip and are useful in different scenarios:
Swipe is a very good threat meterless due to how it is an automatic frame trap when cancelled out of Whip and how safe it is when the opponent blocks it. If close enough, Rice can hit-confirm a full combo if the opponent gets hit by Swipe. Although the scenario doesn't come up often, point blank Whip does give Rice a similar strike throw opportunity to point blank Slap.
Whip Pounce usually starts offense when Rice has meter. Due to how much Whip Pounce can be delayed, Rice can actively threaten Whip Pounce as a frame trap and hit-confirm tool when combined with meter. Even if the opponent doesn't get hit by Whip Pounce, Rice slides a large distance forward and can immediately do strike-throw pressure with Slap afterwards.
Swat Pressure
Rice can get decent pressure scenarios off of Swat due to them being +7 while the opponent is airborne. Midscreen, Rice has relatively safe RPS versus the opponent considering Whip is always an option after Swat on hit and Rice is close enough to punish the opponent blocking with Drill, Throw, or Slap. With meter Rice can get some decent pressure off of using 5S > RC > 6S4 to create a reset scenario or set up solid oki:
Breakdown of the scenario Courtesy of Yung Hambo.
Swat also gains much more utility in the corner due to Rice being able to combo into Slap right after Swat. Besides the raw damage and oki boost, Rice also has solid setplay they can use to pressure the opponent. After landing Swat on a cornered opponent, Rice can follow up with Slap and choose to cancel into Swipe for a meaty frame trap, not cancel Slap at all and go for a strike-throw scenario, or get a knockdown with Whip Splash. After Whip Splash, Rice has a frame kill with throw that they can use to get a very meaty Swipe or meaty throw on wakeup. See video supplement below:
Quickport Pressure
With the addition of Quickport, Rice gains some new offensive options. Forward Quickport will always lose to mashing 5L or throw, but can be used to get close and reset pressure if the opponent respects Rice. Back Quickport can be used to shimmy certain moves. What can be shimmied depends on the opponent's character and spacing, but 5L4S and 5HH4S can be used to shimmy every character's 5L and throw regardless of distance. 5H4S can only shimmy Carb's 5L.
Okizeme
Rice has okay oki in most cases. Most of the time Rice will only get a safejump, meaty Whip, or meaty Slap for oki. Drill is a good fakeout tool that Rice can use to throw off the opponent in a safejump scenario. In some cases Rice can set up a fully meaty Swipe, which is strong due to it being able to combo into Whip and the fact that Rice is still +2 afterwards if it is blocked. Timing a teleport to happen right after a 5HHH will leave Rice plus for a mixup. The teleport will only leave Rice close enough for a mixup if the 5HHH connects from further away, however.
Defense
Rice can struggle more on defense due to their slow 5L, the fact that Teleport is solely a repositioning move with a large amount of endlag, and because they have the slowest 5H in the game. Rice will have to find windows to safely use Teleport to get out of pressure, spend meter to Reject the opponent away, or choose wisely to mash out when the opponent least expects it. Slap and Whip are Rice’s most useful abare options. Teleport will typically be the most useful when the opponent is right next to Rice since if they commit to a move while Rice Teleports out, they will be unable to continue their pressure in most cases. Be careful of the opponent reading Teleport or standing further away during pressure, however. Reject is a solid reversal to use to reset to neutral with the only downside being that it costs meter to use.
Fighting Rice
Rice is a character that struggles the most once the opponent can get in and pressure them. You want to play a patient neutral and look for habits Rice has with Whip zoning while also walking and blocking them to the corner. When you do eventually get in on Rice, you can bully them for as long as they choose to not Teleport or Reject. Rice can really struggle to make comebacks due to how little threat they pose when they are close to max Whip range, especially when they don’t have meter. If you have a 200+ life lead, consider forcing Rice to approach you and catching them actively trying to make up the life lead. Look out for Drill to keep Rice from getting a free approach. Whenever you are defending against Rice keep in mind that they are mainly only threatening when they are in range to threaten Slap > Swipe as a frame trap and get a full meterless conversion.
Resources
TLA Rice Combo Doc Partially outdated - 5HHL doesn't work as a combo anymore. Some other combos might not work anymore too.
Off the Grain - TLA Rice Guide Private; requires access :(
