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Elbow Spike

Elbow Spike (エルボースパイク) is one of Rock Howard's Command Moves in The King of Fighters series, first appearing in Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

This was originally Rock's High-Evade Attack, though only in Capcom vs. SNK 2, it acts as his crouching Heavy Punch.

Input
MOTW, Neo Geo Battle Coliseum +
KOF series +
CVS2 + (crouching Heavy Punch)

Description

Rock briefly ducks low and shifts his stance to drive his following-armed elbow forwards-and-upwards slightly.

Originally was used as his High-Evade move and was even named as such in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum (上段避（じょうだんよ）け攻撃（こうげき）; High-Level Evade Attack).

Strategy

While rarely used, it still did its job well as an anti-air until Capcom vs. SNK 2 removed its high-crushing properties. However, it also did not have any natural cancel options, making it rather limited as a poke compared to some of his other normals.

While it returned in NGBC, the move was nerfed in its startup speed in spite of returning its high-crushing properties. Even then while it cannot avoid mids, it is at least cancel-able this time around.

However, while the upper invul frames have been removed in both KOF XIV and XV, the Elbow Spike in trade gained bigger buffs in startup speed. This makes it a solid combo tool that connects easily from most close-standing light normals aside from just heavies. On top of always having advanced Rock forwards a bit, this makes it a solid pressure tool/combo confirm in one unlike before.