Summary
Mariah has many disadvantages while fighting characters with Active Stand. Try to keep your distance and bait enemies into your Magnets or grabs. Be careful to not be punished while performing any moves by long-range attacks and tandems. Enemies will most likely try to go for a grab once you have enough Level Ups. Use this opportunity to strike them down with your fast normals.
While opponent blocks Electric Burn, try to bait them into using a Guard Cancel. If they mistime it Electric Burn will still damage them, leaving them wide open for a punish or even a reset. If they block it in midair, you get a free 5C and possibly more afterward.
Always use your Stand, even at the maximum level. It doesn't do much damage but can stop your opponents from doing a rushdown if placed properly. It makes a great shield against opponent's jump-ins and single projectile attacks. Just note that canceling into any S attack out of your normals can be easily interrupted and punished by majority of the cast. Try to go for longer strings to push them out of their attack's range.
If you don't feel safe by using your projectile attacks from the ground, remember you can still use Collection in the air. Timed properly you will manage to jump over opponent's projectiles or other moves. If opponent rolls through your projectiles, feel free to grab them. Just watch out as Collection is generally very slow and can be even punished as you land back on the ground if you used it midair.
Use your 5C a lot, especially against enemies with larger hitboxes. It is very fast and easily catches any attempts at jumping, however, do not abuse it as it can be sometimes easily read and punished. Its anti-air capabilities, while good may not be good enough against certain opponents with better move priority, so use it wisely.
Where 5C won't work, 5B and 2B become your best friends as long distance pokes. While 5B is fast, 2B covers a decent range. It will help you in a lot of situations, especially against opponents with shorter hitboxes that can easily duck under 5C. Watch out for its long recovery while fighting opponents with fast rolls.
Mariah has a lot of good pokes. Her 2A and its dashing version comes out really fast and can easily check opponents. If you feel like being more aggressive, 2A, 2B, and 5C are your best friends. Remember to cancel your Normals into special moves when you feel you're at a safe distance away from the opponent. Mariah can set a lot of frame traps using her Magnets and Enrapture.
Magnets work well as a thing you can cancel into. If your opponent mistimes their attack after a blocked string, you'll most likely get a level up with a possibility to continue your rushdown. Remember that you can place Magnets in different places. 5S, 6S or 2S are best after a successful attack. 4S makes a good anti-air trap.
Alternatively, you can 214+A/B/C after a successful or blocked hit. While it can't combo it might force the opponent to block or jump, which again allows you to keep your rushdown in a lot of situations.
Alternate between your Specials. Always try to use Electric Burn whenever you have the opportunity. If the opponent leaps forward at you after attempting to cut the cable midair, strike em with 5C or punish with Super depending on the range.
Winning neutral as Mariah can be really tough without proper knowledge of her moveset and what her specials are capable to do, but once you learn to use her moves properly, opponents might have a hard time trying to reach you without taking any damage.
Okizeme/Resets
Once Mariah trips her opponent down, quickly cancel the last hit of your 2A>2A>2A auto-combo into Electric Burn. Try to throw the knife so that the opponent won't be able to cut it down with their moves. Once that's done, you can do several things with your opponent.
2A is your primary low attack that doesn't cause a hard knockdown, and so it's the easiest thing to do in this situation. Remember to not mash it so you won't do Mariah's auto-combo by accident. Short Hop j.B or j.C is great if you need an overhead. You can also use 6B though it requires a slightly more precise timing. You can attempt to jump over the opponent with j.B and hit them from the other side too. Try to alternate between Lows and Highs or bait opponents into using Guard Cancel. Alternatively, try to chip down their health if you want to keep a safe distance with 236+A/B/C projectiles or 236+AA super. 2S while slow, can be used from some distance. Unfortunately, it's easy to predict and most likely will be blocked.
Once Electric Burn manages to damage your opponent, you have multiple finishers you can do:
Primarily, use your 2A>2A>2A auto-combo as it will ground your opponent, then repeat the whole process again. You can also finish it with 214+AA Super for more damage as it will also allow you to continue the process of resetting your opponent. Alternatively, when Electric Burn manages to gain some longer duration, just feed your opponent some Magnets to quickly increase your level to maximum. With proper timing, you can use 214+A/B/C to wrap your enemies right after cable's last hit (though the timing is very precise or the move might just miss, read it as go through the opponent entirely if done at the wrong moment).
That's not her only Oki though! If for whatever reason you don't want to use Electric Burn, use 2S to put a Magnet on the ground then use any jumping attack during a short hop. Big chances are both attacks combined will become nearly unblockable! You may also attempt to use 6B instead of the jumping attacks although that depends on who you're fighting as some enemies have faster/slower recovery times and it might end up being too slow or you'll just mistime it.
On characters with longer recovery times, you can place the outlet on the ground, roll behind them and perform 6B or 2C for safe oki from a different side.
Enrapture (214 + A/B/C) Setups
Once you manage to land this move on your opponent, you may ask yourself 'alright, how do I do most damage now?' well, there are several options you can do:
In case Enrapture managed to land while you weren't performing any Special moves like Electric Burn, in case you're close enough, use 5S to put a Magnet right behind them (6S appears too low), then quickly slash them with 5C if possible. Once opponent hits the Magnet, finish the combo with 214+AA super. All of this requires precise timing. That is one of the most optimal things to do, though you have other, simpler options too. You can simply inject an S Magnet into them, works well enough if you're desperate to raise your magnetism level quick.
In case you were further away from the wire when it connected. 5C will be enough to reach your target from afar, and in most situations you can instantly combo it into 214+AA super, though 214+AA super alone might be a better idea considering the wrap itself does not count as a combo, meaning the damage from super won't scale down. 236+AA super on its own is capable of doing more damage than the 214+AA super on max level, however, do not smack the opponent with the first hit of that super or they will fly away which may reduce the damage or instantly knock them down when used in a combo.
Finally, you can use Electric Burn. If it connects quickly enough opponent will stay on the ground, meaning you can add some Magnets into the mix and finally trip em over with your auto-combo. A good combination is to use Electric Burn first, then to put a Magnet behind the opponent, run into them so that they get pushed to the Magnet and finish your combo. Using 236+A/B/C projectiles might not cause the opponent to be launched like they usually do which can also lead to some combos. Note that Enrapture will launch enemies no matter what, so you can put a Magnet behind em, wait when they are launched and the Magnet will prevent them from slamming into the wall.
Sadly, it is impossible to get two Electric Burns in a single combo THIS WAY (or rather, it is extremely hard to time properly), therefore use other methods in case you wrapped opponent from it. Remember that you can use Enrapture in a combo twice though (Enrapture > Electric Burn > Enrapture again > Finisher).
However, that would be too simple now, wouldn't it?
It is possible to use Electric Burn and Enrapture to actually continue using Electric Burn multiple times in a combo. By timing a 4B knife properly during Electric Burn, it is possible to make the hitstun slightly longer, increasing the delay between two Electric burns which results in being able to throw out another one earlier. The timing can be still very rough, but it becomes slightly easier this way.
