@dapurplesharpie requested an Eliza guide from me. Well, ask and ye shall recieve....
(Note that this is based on, like, one month of experience with the character. Still, it's better than what you're doing with her...)
So, the basics: unlike most characters in Skullgirls whose neutral game revolves around disjoint hitboxes and active frames, Eliza's key moves all project her hurtboxes at least as far forward as her hitboxes, frequently further. The trade-off is that Eliza's pokes are incredibly fast for the very long range that they cover. The basic key to Eliza neutral is to space her pokes so that you're in range as soon as they're active, rather than trying to "jump in" with an attack that's active for a long period of time. It's less like playing typical Skullgirls neutral, and more like playing c.mk/sweep footsies in a Ryu mirror in SF2.
As far as the nuts-n-bolts of neutral, you can basically divide her matchups into three categories:
Val, Painwheel, Squigly. Possibly Double, I don't have enough experience in that matchup yet: These fuckers are going to dive on you with active hitboxes, but their kinda "floaty" movement gives you room to anti-air from the ground. Rely heavily on playing lame with MK Servant; do it at a range where they won't counter-hit you out of startup (which means you'll have to read the jump-in, rather than triggering when they're within Servant range). It's easier if you have a DP assist, but it's not required. If you somehow find yourself in neutral at a close range where they haven't already done some crap like "jump back -> air dash -> some active normal" (or, in Squigly's case, if you're somehow in a position where she's on the ground at close range and one of you isn't blocking/getting hit), jump and gauge whether you think they're going to jump before you or not. If you think they will jump first, j.mk; if you think you will jump first, IAD j.lk, or possibly c.lk if you're *very* confident in your read (it's an amazing ground poke -- amazing range for 7F startup -- but if you do c.lk and they jump over it, RIP in pieces you). If you think they'll jump, but after you (or at least not earlier), and they're very close, Eliza's airthrow is amazing and leads to a full combo.
Peacock, Fukua, Big Band: Against these fuckers' fullscreen nonsense, just sweep, and cancel into an appropriate special before you hit; good choices are MK servant, HP Shoryu, or LK servant, depending on what they're doing. Once you're to midrange close, do just like the "close range no active normals bullshit" in the above paragraph. Oh, and HK servant can be hilarious against Peacock and Band. Just toss it out there if Peacock is throwing shit mindlessly, or if Band decides he doesn't want to do anything but play his "herpaderp, Brass, A-Train, or Giant Step!" game.
Everyone else: Get to a good range, and do the "close range no active normals" gameplan. If you want to gain distance from midrange (useful against 4-Chan, in the Eliza mirror, and, to a lesser extent, against Filia), an instant jump-back j.hk should do the trick. S.lp is your main tool to stuff midrange Filia IAD bullshit (and I really should do a better job of taking my own advice here...). Toss some Servants around against Parasoul, as well.
OFFENSE:
First off, learn a combo with a restand (that's going to be REALLY important in just a second). The one you'll probably want that everyone does is:
some kind of hit confirm and then launch -> jump cancel -> j.mp -> j.hp
ADC
j.lk -> j.mp -> j.hp (the j.hp restands)
c.mk -> s.hpx2 -> lk spiral
s.lk (2-frame link, will take some practice to get the timing on this) -> c.mk -> s.hpx2 -> hk spiral -> super (don't end with a Lady of Slaughter in the corner without DHCing unless it will kill, since that's unsafe on hit in the corner).
Note that this doesn't work on Double. On Double, swap the order of the air chains if it won't trigger IPS with the starter you used; if it would trigger IPS at midscreen, do launch -> j.mk -> air HP Sekhmet Summon -> land -> sekhmet M -> sekhmet H -> recall -> c.mk -> ground chain shit. In the corner, you can just keep the normal airchain order, but replace the j.mp -> j.hp with a j.mk -> j.hk.
The reason you need that restand is because it's the basis for your reset game. You're probably thinking "but Cynical, everyone reversals after a restand!" Well, if you've got assists, you can convince people not to do that with assist call -> empty neutral jump and block -> more pressure after confirming that they blocked the assist (or, at least, didn't super or DP; sometimes someone will try to combo the assist when you do this, but if they do, you just kill them for being retarded), but you can *also* fuck with the reversal timing by using some jabs after the restand. If they're just mashing the motion instead of trying to time it, it'll fail to come out about half the time; the math on that generally works in your favor, since it's you eating a super vs. them eating another reset into combo(possible exception: Big Band. Fucker.) So, once you've done the restand (and your desired number of jabs), your mixup is high/low/throw, and crossup at midscreen.
High options:
Instant j.hp ADC j.lk j.hp
IAD j.lk j.hp (I prefer this one against Double, since it means that IPS won't fuck me if I reverse the order of the air chains. Also really nice at midscreen, since it crosses up at seemingly entirely random times.)
IAD j.hp (nice crossup at midscreen; worthless in the corner)
Low option:
If you're going low right off the restand, there's no reason to not just do a slightly delayed c.lk (delayed just enough so that it won't combo). If you're going low off of jabs, a late-chained c.mk is better. Just be ready to cancel into servant or L spiral on block.
Throw option:
Seriously, just fucking throw. Although I'd only do this in the corner for the most part, the midscreen follow-up is a bitch.
DEFENSE:
Well, your reversal options are ass other than level 3. Learn to block and pushblock, or you're fucked.
Well, that basically covers it. There's the guide you asked for, Sharpie!
