the whole of smokes up close game comes from poking and trapping with mixups, which isnt the case with other characters which have low starters to mix with. The only problem with this is that you can jump out from pokes with a relatively large success rate, but low starting strings obviously you shouldnt be able to (see lui kang b312). His mid/far game is something that reflects how poke heavy smoke is, even his smoke bomb is a poke to some extent. It works in a very similar way atleast, it builds pressure and forces a reaction (blocking usually and most easily) and if they dont react then you get the damage, Just as if somebody stood and took 50 D4's without blocking. The fact that you have a turbo overhead and a turbo teleport work in great effect with both of these:
You poke with D1,d3,d4 then the enemy either jumps out or ducks, if they jump out you can anti air them (with practice) by predicting the jump, and if they duck well you judo chop them in the face for a full combo, which ends in whiffed TP leaving you back in poke range or stomp range to meaty string their wake ups. Smokes play is all based on enemy reactions and your own predictions and reads to these leaving you with a win.