GENERAL OVERVIEW
As Thunder is a grappler, the core of his game revolves around getting hard knockdowns and utilizing his command grab, Call of the Earth. Getting into your opponent's head and planting the fear of Thunder’s grab game is your ultimate goal. To do this, however, can be quite challenging, as it requires you to be up close, and Thunder’s mobility is extremely limited. His Instinct makes up for this, but you will not have access to it all the time. In these moments you will have to rely on long-range whiff punishing with Ankle Slicer or Horn Breaker. Once up close, you can mix in his Back Throw, Horn Breaker, and crossups to lock your opponent down with additional hard knockdowns, creating a cycle—or vortex, if you will.
To be successful, you have to pay attention to the Shadow Meter, both your and your opponent's, and manage it well. As most of his attacks have multiple hits, Thunder is very susceptible to Shadow Counters when the opponent has Shadow Meter. On the flip side, using Thunder’s Shadow Meter at the right times can determine the outcome of a match.
NOTABLE NORMALS
When it comes to his normal attacks, Thunder has some of the largest hitboxes in the game. His crouching Heavy Punch is a fantastic anti-air, but also functions well up close when canceled into Special Moves. His standing Medium Kick and standing Medium Punch are both really good poke tools with decent range. While the Medium Kick is one frame slower to startup, it gives advantage or neutral on hit or block. The Medium Punch has a tiny bit more range and starts up faster, but it is negative on both hit and block. Thunder’s standing Heavy Punch and Heavy Kick are both advancing normals with excellent range; however, Heavy Punch is much faster. Up close, crouching Light Punch and close standing Medium Punch are great poke tools to set up throws. In the air, jumping Heavy Punch and jumping Medium Kick are your best bets for crossups. You may find jumping Medium Punch useful for air-to-air situations because of the range and height of its hitboxes compared to the rest of Thunder’s jumping attacks.
HARD KNOCKDOWNS
A hard knockdown, or untechable knockdown, is one in which your opponent’s wake-up timing is always the same. This allows you to set up and practice your timing exactly for this scenario. The following are Thunder’s main options to get a hard knockdown sorted by distance the opponent is left from you: forward grab, crouching Heavy Kick sweep, Call of the Earth, Shadow Call of the Earth, Call of the Earth Ender, and Ankle Slicer Ender, To follow up after a forward grab, you will have to walk forward quite a while before setting up your offense. Thunder's sweep has deceivingly good range, and although it is combo punishable on block, it does have some pushback, making it a bit safer. The range you are after a sweep is the best for setting up ambiguous crossup attempts with jumping Medium Kick or jumping Heavy Punch. All Call of the Earth variations leave you at about the same spacing, similar to sweep hitting at mid range. The Ankle Slicer Ender leaves your opponent right beside you.
POST-KNOCKDOWN GAME
Once you get a hard knockdown, the first thing you have to do is check your opponent’s meter. If he or she doesn’t have any meter, then a well-timed Horn Breaker is your best option as it will beat ducking opponents, jumping, and backdashes to start a full combo. If your opponent blocks the Horn Breaker, you can cancel into Light Ankle Slicer or do a late cancel into Call of the Earth.
Regardless of whether or not your opponent has meter, you can attempt an ambiguous crossup with either jumping Medium Kick or jumping Heavy Punch. You have a lot of time after a hard knockdown to make sure your positioning is right before you jump. Once in the air, it's all about the timing of the attack button. This will take some practice to perfect, so don’t expect to get it right on the first try.
If you make these two strategies the core of your post-knockdown game, then you have done two things. One, you have shown your opponent that he or she cannot wake-up blocking low. And two, you have shown your opponent that jumping and backdashing won’t help him or her get away, either. Once you have sufficiently conditioned your opponent with these strategies, it will be easier to use the rest of your tools.
At this point, after a hard knockdown, your opponent will hopefully be stand guarding on wake-up, hoping to block your crossup attempt or block and Shadow Counter your Horn Breaker. Because he or she is standing and not jumping or backdashing, you have multiple options. You can sweep your opponent, resetting the same wake-up situation. You can grab your opponent with Call of the Earth, also resetting the same wake-up situation. Or we can look for a crouching Light Kick or Ankle Slicer to start a combo, then use the Call of the Earth Ender or Ankle Slicer Ender, to again reset the same wake-up situation.
Now your opponent should be getting flustered and will have to seek riskier alternatives to escape this situation. This is where he or she will try to use invincible attacks, perhaps even invincible Shadow attacks. Though invincible attacks like Jago’s Tiger Fury or Orchid’s Air Buster will beat Thunder’s offensive options after knockdown, do not be discouraged. Blocking any of these options leads to a full combo for Thunder to put your opponent back in the same situation, while if your opponent is successful, he or she is getting minimal damage. The main downside of your opponent landing the attack is that you will have to work your way in again. In the end, it all comes down to making the right reads on your opponent and conditioning him or her effectively.
USING METER EFFECTIVELY
Each of Thunder’s Shadow Attacks has a very specific purpose. Shadow Call of the Earth is for an instant chunk of damage and is used to make your opponent uncomfortable whenever you are near him or her with Shadow Meter. Shadow Triplax has a hit of Super Armor and is also the attack that comes out when Thunder performs a Shadow Counter. In theory, this allows Thunder to Shadow Counter a three-hit string, whereas everyone else can only Shadow Counter two-hit strings. In practice, this is much harder to do, but it certainly works against Thunder’s Heavy Triplax. Shadow Ankle Slicer is designed to be used as his damage Shadow Linker in combos.
Managing Shadow Meter is extremely important. Having a Shadow Call of the Earth locked and loaded can instantly turn a match around, as can having a Shadow Triplax ready. In any match, if you feel you are behind in meter, end combos with the Ankle Slicer Ender, as it builds meter. Using Horn Breaker into Medium Triplax is also a very good meter-building strategy.
USING INSTINCT
With Instinct activated, Thunder gains a Spirit Dash that has 16 frames of invulnerability on startup. The Spirit Dash is much farther and faster than his regular dash and allows him to dash through opponents as well. One of the key features is that you can cancel the recovery of Special Moves into the Spirit Dash and that you can cancel the end of the Spirit Dash into Special Moves. This allows you to dash, attack out of the dash, then dash out of the attack. This can get tricky when you are immediately next to the opponent, and getting next to your opponent isn’t impossible once you activate Instinct. Generally, opponents will panic and try to jump to avoid dealing with the ground mix-ups caused by Thunder dashing to the opposite side of him or her. Be on the lookout for this and punish your opponent with Sammamish. It should also be noted that you cannot cancel the recovery of Sammamish or Sky Fall into the Spirit Dash.