Tommy Oliver Dashes Onto the Grid

White Ninja Ranger Tommy Oliver is a Legendary defender that can smother opponents with a flurry of fast attacks and big combos. His defender status and counterattack reliably help him fight off strikes, but it takes smart ability management to prevent block and counter cards from putting an early end to his combos. Once he uses his super gauge, his combo damage goes from decent to amazing, as he’s able to use two super attacks with just one activation. His great speed and range make him easy to use, but his counter and super mode give him a high skill ceiling that requires practice if you want to make big plays and serious comebacks.

Skills

• Primary 1: Ninja Strike
• Type: Strike
• Cost: 2

A 50/50 dash cancel strike that ends in a stun. Due to its low cost and stun ender, it’s an amazing combo ender or extender. The third hit won’t come out if the second hit misses.

• Primary 2: Meditation
• Type: Counter
• Cost: 3

A counter that leads to a blockable combo. During this combo, you can dash cancel to attempt to bait out the opponent’s counter. Additionally, you can dash cancel near the end of the meditation animation to make punishing it more difficult.

• Special 1: Dashing Impact
• Type: Breaker
• Cost: 3

A very fast elbow strike that goes the length of a dash. If it connects, it knocks back the opponent with a drill kick. To make things even trickier, you can dash cancel before this attack connects. Being a cheap and fast breaker, you should make this the cornerstone of your offense.

• Special 2: Teleport Attack
• Type: Strike
• Cost: 4

A strike that starts a flashy teleport attack if it connects. The animation is long and the opponent gets launched high, giving you a chance to recover energy for an extended combo.\

Super Mode: Shinobi Jutsu

Ninja Tommy’s super gauge builds from dealing and receiving damage. Once it’s full, he can use Shinobi Jutsu, which refills 2 energy and replaces his special moves. He does not get new primary attacks while in super stance.

Each Super Special takes up 50% of the gauge, so you can do two Super Specials before the super stance ends.

• Super Special 1: Falcon Divekick
• Type: Breaker
• Cost: 4

Tommy teleports into the sky and swoops down with a fast divekick that leads into a frantic teleport combo if it connects. Unlike Teleport Attack’s launch, it knocks back the opponent, so options for comboing afterward aren’t as open-ended.

• Super Special 2: Kunai Jutsu
• Type: Strike
• Cost: 4

Tommy throws a series of kunai that stagger and then knock back the opponent. The final kunai is slow, giving you a chance to dash after it and easily combo from across the stage.

• Assist: Falcon Launch
• Type: Strike
• Cost: 3

A fast backflip that launches opponents. It has sub-par range, but its speed more than makes up for it. As a bonus, it travels a bit backward, making it hard to punish if it misses.

Sample Combo
Dashing Impact → Teleport Attack → Ninja Strike → Dashing Impact
Teleport attack’s launch gives lots of time to recover energy.

VS Ninja Tommy

• Tommy needs Ninja Strike to do huge combos outside of Shinobi Jutsu, but sooner or later he’ll be forced to use the counter to make Ninja Strike available. Be prepared for him to whiff the counter so you can punish with a breaker before he’s able to dash cancel out of the way.
• If you can manage to play well and prevent yourself from getting hit much, it’s possible to take out Tommy before he builds his super gauge. Meanwhile, if he gets an early lead, it can easily snowball out of control by the time he activates Shinobi Jutsu.
• Tommy’s main weakness is breakers. His two strikes are on different slots. His primary strike is on the same slot as a hard to use counter, and his special strike is slow enough that you can often block it after it invuls through your breaker.
• Tommy is a defender, so he draws blocks more frequently. You can use this to your advantage by taking note of the attacks he uses during a combo. If he doesn’t use a special when it would’ve been a good option, he’s almost certainly got a block there. From that point, you can play a bit more patiently and be less scared of his more surprising attacks.

Advanced Tips

Shinobi Jutsu Primary Refresh

Activating Shinobi Jutsu reshuffles the available primaries, even though their behaviors are identical to outside of Shinobi Jutsu. If you’re sick of having Meditation, activating Shinobi Jutsu could give you the strike you need to beat an oncoming breaker.

Whiffing Ninja Strike

If you miss with the first hit of Ninja Strike, you’re able to continue a combo without giving a chance for the opponent to block. This is also true for punishing the opponent after blocking them.