Always throw bridal express unless the Elphelt player has it spaced right. Air Bridal has to hit your toes to be safe-ish and normal bridal can pretty much always be thrown if blocked. The exception being when it's used at maximum range. A lot of Elphelt players will mash throw on a blocked bridal since it leaves them at frame disadvantage and close to the opponent. You can use HSHD(which is throw invuln) > RC > BnB of Choice after a blocked bridal if you know your opponent is the type to mash out throw afterwards.
ALWAYS look out for her 2HS. After she uses this move in a blockstring she will either have to jc it or do bridal. After you condition Elphelt not to use bridal it's possible that your opponent may start jump cancelling the move. React with j.K or 6HS to gain momentum. If Elphelt does bridal and RRC's it then you're forced to block more. It's common for elphelt players to try and use 6P sometime after a RRC bridal, so watch out for that. Sometimes your opponent will use the grenade explosion to keep them safe after a bridal, in which case it might be worthwhile to learn some instant blocking. I haven't personally tried it but I'm sure instant blocking could help you escape that string somehow.
Elphelts 6HS covers a lot of space in front of her and above her. Don't spam HSVD, HSHD, or IAD because you will lose a lot of approaches this way.
Neutral j.2HS is not good at all in this matchup, Elphelts c.S is a 5 frame anti-air that will always beat out our j.2HS attacks and leads to a pretty damaging combo. I especially get caught with her c.S when trying to do fake crossups using j.2HS on oki. Yeah, don't do that.
Elphelts only real reversal is Judge Better Half, and if blocked you can punish with c.S > j.S > j.HS > j.D > jc > j.HS > j.D > Ensenga? For quite a bit of damage. Optionally, you can OHK her as she lands. With meter the OHK route gives more corner carry and better oki than the c.S route does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt9qr37L0os
Elphelts Grenades are a pain in the ass, and she can throw them out in the air too making them extremely safe to throw out. If you try to jump out She'll usually respond with j.D which is basically king of fuck mountain. I found that a super-jump into air dash would keep me from getting cornered by the grenade MOST of the time. And you definitely don't want to be cornered. Elphelts shotgun pressure is a 2f gap, and it does massive chip damage. When being pressured by the shotgun in the corner you have to just block and look for the command grab, or the roll to get back in, etc. . .
If you can learn to instant block her forward shotgun attack then you should be able to consistently get out of the shotgun pressure.
It's really easy to repect El when she has the grenade out, but part of this matchup is learning when to disrespect. Don't let El throw grenades in the middle of her block strings. Dont let El grab you from bridal just because there was a grenade on the floor. Hitting elphelt and removing the grenade threat is huge; sometimes you just need to be agressive, but be smart about it.
Never use ultimate whiner as a reversal for grenade oki. The grenade will blow you up and you'll be right back where you started.
If a grenade is on-screen it will continue to move during the superflash of Elphelts bazooka super. If you aren't blocking before the superflash, the grenade will hit you and you will eat 100% of that super.
Elphelt usually only appraoches you from the air with a grenade to assist but when she doesn't you can AA her with 2HS. You can also CH air-bridal with 2HS if timed right. This is huge because it leads to some pretty insane damage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhxVmGxKPhI
Be patient in this matchup and you should do okay.
