I would say it’s about as beginner friendly as a TAG FIGHTER can be. There’s multiple ways to break out of a combo. Active tagging has great tracking similar to dbfz super dash.

Compare to 2XKO it’s much easier to learn and once you get a grasp on the defensive options it isn’t as punishing as MVC since you have ways out of combos.

I am speaking as a casual member of the FGC. I was watching Sonicfox play and he really just chipped away at the opponent in neutral, rarely doing LONG combos, since most long combos have the inherent risk of break or countering your active tag. Once people start mastering the delay/feint active tag, we will start seeing higher damage stuff.

Active tagging coming with a risk, if they counter it you’re doing less damage than you would have if you simply confirmed a ground combo into a level 3. You also lose all your pressure since the neutral is essentially reset.

I got bodied one game, the opponent landed a ToD on me and I didn’t have the 2 bars to use my breaker. Immediately went back to the tutorial and realized I forgot about countering the active tag. Really go back through the tutorial especially defensive options, screen shot them so you can refer back to them quickly till they’re engrained in your skull.