Zafina is a stance-based character with strong movement and space control. Her toolkit allows for stylish play, with some tricky moves and stance transitions, while still retaining the ability to play in a solid, fundamental way thanks to her backdash and spacing options.Zafina's strong movement and far-reaching moves such as f,F+4 give her excellent space control, and her stance transitions such as wr1+2 and ws3 are effective ways to start her stance pressure, which can be devastating if the opponent lacks matchup knowledge. However, she pays for it with long and telling recovery on whiffs, and generally slow start-ups (her df+2 is i16, uf+4 is i18). Her damage output is below average, and she often has to choose between using Azazel moves in combos, which consume health, or giving up on extra damage.She has many evasive lows that shift her hurtboxes, allowing her to evade even mids sometimes, similar to Lili's Matterhorn and Xiaoyu's Art of Phoenix stance.
Strengths
Many evasive options
Good backdash that can escape even some strings
Strong keepout
Good stance pressure and mixups
2 Heat Smashes - one of which is a low
Weaknesses
Slow, commital moves, easy to whiff punish
Subpar punish options
Below average damage without Azazel moves, which consume health