Especially against long limbs (Birdie, Gief, Fang) and fireballs. It's not uncommon for me to spend a round losing a third or half my life to fireball chip, but Laura does healthy damage and stun, so a comeback is always possible.

I had to get reliable with my antiairs (stand strong and fierce elbow). They're really good, so I can get people scared to jump.

When they know the skies ain't safe, I toss out the claps and dance around trying to get them to throw something out so I can punish. I do use low forward into jab elbow and low strong into clap a lot, just to get in and annoy. Toward fierce is good at closing distance too if I catch them approaching, but you gotta be careful throwing it out.

If they turtle? Dash in for a throw or start the high/low mix-up grind. Once you score a knockdown you can really bully most of the cast. You gotta be a bit more careful with characters with 3-frame jabs or invincible reversals, block the wake-up buttons or dp, and put them back through the machine.

Laura's defense is kinda weak, so if you get jumped on (by a Chun, Mika, or Bison) you gotta use that v-reversal, otherwise you dead.