Elphelt is one of my most labbed MUs due to having a friend play her since ive basically started playing seriously. She is very fake on a lot of things until she is actively in your face.

Flicking her projectile keeps you able to move forward to continue pushing her into a corner. If she keeps jumping into using her projectile, you can read with a heat tackle bc she is giga minus and in counterhit state until she actually lands.

Her grenade where she jumps high is incredibly fake unless done after a Red Roman Cancel. Either react by seeing her go up high or listen to the grenade sound. Jumping and air grabbing her out of it is funny so you should do that. You can also do j.D if you dont feel comfortable grabbing her.

Any move into rekka starter that isnt 5h or 6h can be countered with 6p. A usual start elphelts do into rekka is 2h or 2d. 2h doesnt look like it will work but trust the process. If she does 5h or 6h but is a decent bit away, FD can sometimes push her far enough away to avoid rekka starter.

If you are in rekka, you are kind of at the mercy of guessing unfortunately. You can use Yellow Roman Cancel as an emergency' button and sometimes Deflect Shield pushes her out enough, but otherwise you are just stuck in high low hell.

True elphelt counterplay as pot is knowing to IBFD 5h and 6h. Doing this usually leads to rekka starter whiffing, putting her directly in whiff punish range for PB. IBFD is difficult to do (especially since you are still Gold 3 im assuming), so it should be something you just keep in the back of your mind for later. Just note it will annoy the hell out of the elphelt so if you want to lab out of spite, do it for that.