Tomoka’s gameplan is straightforward. You want to win neutral, cause hard knockdown and setup oki. Once she begins her oki setups the opponent will have to guess the multiple options she has to break her opponent’s defense on their wake up.
Example of oki setup: 5A 5B 5C 5AB~5AB~5AB[Perfect shot] 66 2B 5C 214B
This specific setup will be your bread and butter to initiate oki. Perfect Shot 5AB will cause HKD as long as hitstun is low enough. 214B will call as the opponent wakes up meaning they cannot get out of it unless they trump card, power blast or back dash (specific to Kirino, Emi and Miyuki)
Tomoka’s strong point is within her deadly oki setups so getting the first hard knockdown is extremely important! Make your opponent guess incorrectly and loop them in oki setups for the rest of the match!
Round start, Tomoka doesn’t have solid options to immediately put herself on the advantage. Don’t make the approach right away and wait for your opponent. You can hold back, empty jump, jump back + j.C or stay in place. With J.C's strong hitbox you could use it slowly close yourself in or keep your opponent out.
Power blasting is your first priority. Heavily recommended to do it in a combo rather than in neutral. Doing it in a combo can potentially allow you to throw out 214B or 236X to lock your opponent down as they wake up. The only risk of this however is your opponent air teching TOWARDS you which players will do. If they do and you do 214B they will be able to punish that attempt. Be careful!
In the case that your opponent comes towards you or you find yourself having to go to your opponent, it's best to pressure with stagger pressure to open them up. Tomoka's options while applying blockstun is quite minimal. You can cancel your normals, namely 5A, 5B, 2B , to jump cancel back or forward to pressure. With j.B and j.C being horizontally huge you could swing it after these jump cancels or choose to back off back into neutral. Most players cancel their normals into 214B series which leaves them vulnerable for a short time. If your opponent can react, they will capitalize on those bad habits so keep in mind on when you do this in pressure. Get that hit in and get that hard knockdown!
Once you’ve done that, Tomoka’s mission to take over the starts with her first hard knockdown.
Quick explanation on how to get Hard Knockdown with Tomoka.
5AB ~ 5AB(During the 3 dribbles) ~ 5AB (When Tomoka turns “White”, you need to get Winged Tomoka): This is the most commonly used method for hard knockdown. Its meterless so it's really good to use. You would want to use it like this.
5A 5B 2C 5AB
Note: If you do this at the end of combo with a lot of hitstun the hard knockdown won’t happen.
236AB (EX Shoot): Just like the one above, doing it after a long combo (or too many hits) will not cause hard knockdown. Usually do this one after 5AB but don’t do it too often. The air version you should only do if you're going to do a climax art.
214AB: In regards to this one to get the hard knockdown is more strict. In certain situations, you need to only hit the opponent with the first hit and it will cause HKD. This is best used in the corner.
2C: 2C gives a hard knockdown. If done raw, the opponent has to be close to the ground to be knocked down.
Grab: Allows OTG into oki.
Ranbu: Even though it's a hard knockdown you cannot OTG this one.
Climax Art: Same as Ranbu, does more damage.
Trump Card: Ending a combo after a trump card offers huge damage as a plus. It can also be done off a 236AB, grab, assist, etc. Best done in the corner. Depending on hit stun the last hit of the trump card will whiff.
Assist dependent: Depending on assist they can cause hkd which allows stronger oki.
236A: After the last hit of your OTG combo, use shoot.
If timed wrong you can...
Get grabbed
Ranbu Punished
Trump card
After 236A oki you can do the following
Grab: A few frames after the shoot you can go for a grab and reset the oki setup. On reaction it can be teched, power blast or ranbu. Although this WILL throw all Trump cards.
2A: Meaty into full combo.
4AB: This option can be beaten if the opponent mashes a button on wake up.
Trump Card: Can be thrown if you’re within grab range.
Jump: Grab bait that leads into a full combo.
Block: The opponent attempting to attack will cause counter hit into full combo.
Grab and 4AB lose if the opponent is mashing 5A/2A on wake-up. Do be careful of this.
214B: If you do the regular Ice basket you can do the following
Run up and either hit them low or 4AB (make sure you space correctly)
Run up and push them into the ice basket by 5B -> 2C (The opponent can push block 5B to make 2C whiff. Bait the push block accordingly)
Run up and attempt to grab (recommend forward grab so you can combo further
thanks to ice basket.)
Run up (not too close) and Block cause sometimes they will try to get away from it by 5ABing. If you block its a free hit (unless they trump or combo blast)
And if you want to be dirty about it, if they decide to hit you and you’re close enough, push block them into the ice basket.
4AB, enough said. You know the risk.
Grab Bait. Run up, make it seem like you're gonna grab but jump instead causing them to get hit by the Ice.
Depending on the assist this method lets you “break cross up protection” if you execute it correctly. (Zero/Mashiro/Dokuro assist recommended)
214C (Recommend 214C~B) : Generally used as oki after a successful ranbu in the corner or after a trump card that puts the opponent into the corner.
In the situation this is done after ranbu, this should be used if your opponent has 1 bar or less. If the opponent is aware of this they can time a wake-up ranbu and punish that oki attempt. Otherwise, as long as the timing is perfect their main option is to block. Being locked down by this oki lets you freely mix up. If the opponent is crouching and attempts to push block the timing is inconsistent and can lead to the opponent getting counter hit. Standing during the whole move lets them push block everything but also risks getting hit by a low. Your options are usually 2a, 4AB, grab, grab bait and even trump card.
Assist Oki: Assists like Mashiro, Rusian, and Kuroneko are good for oki. After any given HKD where you didn’t use them in a combo, I encourage you to use your assist as oki.
Oki Examples
5AB(AB~AB -Winged Tomoka-) HKD 2B 5C 236A
[Same as above] HKD 2B 2C 214B
[Same as above] HKD 2B 2C 214B 5B
Doing this will disable the opponent to mash on wake up. The only thing that can beat you with is Blue Trump, Power Blast and Ranbu. If the opponent doesn’t mash and blocks your options are 214B 5B 2C Grab/4AB/Trump Card.
Each option comes with its own risk but has heavy reward.
Opponent CAN push block your 5B causing your 2C to whiff. Be careful with that. Sometimes you can even not do 5B and perform a grab bait.
An advanced technique that allows the player to break the cross-up protection forcing the opponent to block the correct way. Tomoka, like the other characters, cannot do this alone and relies on an assist to set this up. Each assist has different means to help her perform this.
Dokuro
Enju
Mashiro
This involves you performing 214B after the usage of your assist. Then you must position yourself to go behind the opponent before they wake up. As they wake up you jump onto the other side. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as that due to the strict timing.
Ice Age was performed on Side A while the opponent was on Side B. Ice Age is registered to attack from Side A. However due to the opponent waking up ,which the game will have them focused on blocking from Side B, the game doesn’t know what to do when you cross back over to Side A. The moment you cross Ice Age should be active and the opponent will get hit if they plan to block you when you’re on Side B.
This is a lot stronger while in trump card mode due to not having to spend meter to use your assist to set this up.
This can be beat escaped by blue trump and if the opponent wants to, escape blast. They can also power blast, leaving them safe if you decide to cross up. Depending on your setup you can mix things up by not crossing over and empty jump low. The reward is relatively the same and offers many mixup options.
You have to time this perfectly or else it’ll just be a normal block. Feel free to review the notation examples below:
Dokuro: XX 5AB 5S 214B walk a little forward 9 land 9 (cross-up break)
Enju: XX 5[S] 5AB 214[B] 66 2C[whiff + cross under] 8 9[delay] (cross-up break) SAMPLE
Mashiro: XX 5AB 5S 66 214[B] 66 2C[whiff + cross under] 8 9 [delay] (cross-up break)
Tomoka, unfortunately, lacks solid defense options. Her dedicated anti-air button isn't completely viable due to its hitbox. She has to heavily rely on her assist while in trump card to potentially get the opponent off of them.
Learning how to push block is crucial for Tomoka's defense so she can put herself back on the offensive.
She is very susceptible to grab baits. With her 5C low profiling if the opponent grab baits with 4AB, it will NOT clash with the 4AB getting Tomoka punished. This is ESPECIALLY terrible since she can't use the 4BC option select. At least she can use the plink ver. of this option select 4B~C to do 5B and clash with the 4AB that way.
Against jump-ins you do want to fuzzy 5A since that is more reliable than 5B.
DO NOT USE TRUMP CARD AS A REVERSAL! Tomoka's trump card is by far one of the worst ones of the cast. Not only can it blasted before the final hit but it can even trade with moves on the FIRST hit making the usage pretty much wasted. PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS!
Option Selects you can use with Tomoka to decrease risk in taking actions.
Due to Tomoka's lack of a j.214 she has access to this option select that can beat reversals. Namely reversal power blast, impact skill and strike trump card. By inputting this OS while falling the following will happen:
If they block the j.C nothing happens and you can continue pressure as normal.
If they power blast, ranbu will come out and you get the punish.
If they strike trump, ranbu will come out.
If they impact skill, you will safe jump it making you safe. However they can also use their resources to make them safe so be careful of combo blast frame trap. If it also possible to jump when reacting to the clash between j.C and their impact skill.
This OS works similarly to the ranbu one but is usually good to use if you don't have the meter to ranbu or want to conserve the meter. However this one will not always work depending on character's strike trump cards as it will not clash with it. It's a good one to use if you anticipate a wake up power blast.
Same as above.
As they opponent jumps in and attacks you can use this to either block or hit the opponent if they empty jump instead. By holding 4 and inputting 5A as they opponent descends, perfectly timing this will cause the following to happen:
If they attack, you will block their attack.
If they empty jump, your 5A will either have them block or hit.
If they try to empty jump low, the same outcome as above will happen.
If they double jump, the 5A will whiff but you will have enough time to block afterwards.
This OS will lose to delay jump attacks.
For some reason, after Tomoka lets the opponent go after a 5AB her hurtbox completely disappears. "What does this mean?" This means that when someone escapes blasts as they are being released from Tomoka's grasp the escape blast will COMPLETELY whiff allowing Tomoka to get a punish off that. You can even trump card after the 5AB and if the opponent escape blasts immediately, the trump card will go through the escape blast netting you raw trump card damage!
This is especially strong to close out rounds. Naturally your opponent may not use they escape blast right away. If you manage to get them into a 5AB before they use escape blast this sets them up into a checkmate situation where they lose the round no matter what. Not even increasing the escape blast radius nulls this.
However, this isn't an impenetrable attack since there is a way to get out of this. If the Tomoka player knows of this and decides to bait it the opponent can delay their escape blast and get out. This will only happen if the Tomoka player doesn't react on time to seal the deal. Most players escape blast immediately which is what the Tomoka player will expect, but that isn't always the case. To combat this delay Tomoka does have an alternative option. Ranbu. By doing ranbu after 5AB, even if your opponent escape blasts Tomoka will do her ranbu animation and go straight through the escape blast. With enough time to recover and punish the escape blast. This uses meter so not having enough meter to seal the deal will make that ranbu almost null but bring the opponent closer to defeat. If the opponent decides to delay escape blast but Tomoka does ranbu then they take the whole ranbu and potentially closes the round. This whole thing depends on both player's decisions in the end but it's a very strong thing to keep note of.
In the corner, the same thing can happen if you do 5AB~5AB and let Airi do her rainbow swipe. If they escape blast immediately, the blast will whiff allowing a full punish.