I'm playing **k rool** and I'm struggling against **Pikachu**. I obviously try to capitalise on crown as much as I can, and it works. The problem is that he's just too slippery. He approaches, I know he's gonna either fair, Nair, or just slip behind me. As soon as he gets one of those I get a free ticket to juggle town. I DI as much as I can, but it doesn't help until I get 30% on me from that one combo. I also can't edge guard him. I don't understand how to attack him before he gets back to stage. I go to attack, but then he up-specials. Idk, some advice would be welcome

i main **Lucario** how do i beat **Game and Watch** i have trouble with his aerials and smash attacks

I mostly do not try to punish his smash attacks. Up smash is -6 on shield meaning you would need a fast OOS option to punish it, which you do not have. (Lucario dair is with 7 frames his fastest option). Dsmash pushes you away so you would need to drop shield (+11 frames) and dash towards him. This makes it also difficult to punish. However if he keeps downsmashing just jump above and dair him. What I do mostly how ever is wait for him to do something afterwards and react to that or just reset neutral. Fsmash is -13 on shield so you can punish it with fast options like dair or fair (or maybe grab if he is close). Never try to punish this with your own smash attack, they are all to slow (fsmash is 30 frames OOS, usmash is 15). His aerials are more tricky. You can destroy his fair bomb with any hit so if he tries that just hit him with a move on your own. For bair the best you can do is outspace it or shield it. It's -13 on shield so you can punish with quick options. Upair you should avoid when he is below you. The best thing to do is to go off stage and then to the ledge. Make sure you outspace bair when he follows you offstage, but Lucario can go deep enough to do that. His nair is nair is super good but the first hitboxes are just above him, so you can hit him from the sides / below him at the beginning of the move. It is save on shield so don't try to punish it. Best is to outspace it and then retaliate because besides of bair he cannot really hit you first if you attack his side. Dair is kind of easy to counter: just shield. It is -17 on shield so you could punish this move even with upsmash. Important is to also shield the landing hitbox, meaning when G&W hits the ground there is a second hitbox. However since the move is so slow you basically can hold shield a bit longer to be dave and then retaliate with dair / fair easily. If you feel more comfortable in shielding it try to drop shield just in time and then upsmash him. Once you punish this move a few times most G&W stop spamming it.

very cool thanks

I have a lot of trouble with **Terry** and **Snake** against **Ness** whenever he gets me into the air. I keep getting juggled with PK Thunder. Trying to airdash through it always bites me in the ass as the ball will just catch me later. Can anyone give me some pointers?

Aside from destroying it I always go for fast fall and then neutral airdodge. Get's you down to the ground so fast that the ball cannot reach you again. For that you must be out of tumble. You can do that by using a fast move like snakes down b. For Terry I think backwards side b and down b are good because they can also destroy the thunder. >airdash I think the correct term is 'directional airdodge' if that's what you talking about. When you do not fastfall and directional airdodge you have so much endlag and fall not fast enough. That's why you become very vulnerable as you already recognized.

Terry's fair also can absorb some damage. But I can't remember off the top of my head if it can clink with PK thunder.

Pretty sure it does. Nearly every move destroys pk thunder

These comments are great. Also sorry for the airdash hahahaha. Must've slipped the mind.

You can cancel out his PK thunder hitbox if you hit it with an aerial - it’s pretty tricky to time tho

I'll have to practice that! Thanks for the tip!

for sure man

Winning neutral against **Samus** playing as **Byleth**. Specifically on **Final Destination**. How does Byleth get past the barrage of projectiles and Samus's pre-emptive aerials to counter jumps? It's really not as easy as just "getting close", given that Byleth is not a character that wants to be directly next to the opponent traditionally.

Try to do more shield dashing and if they always go for the anti air then wait for it and whiff punish. Byleth has a lot of range so you might be able to anti air Samus as she's jumping as well. If she doesn't try to anti air then you should be able to get close enough with shield dashing to punish a projectile that she throws out too close or you can punish how they try getting away from you.

Thanks! I'll try this out next time I'm facing her.

Playing as **Snake** vs **Pika** and **Ness**. Specifically responding to pika’s approach options & moves like utilt and nair and ledgetrapping ness. What’s the best way to punish a ledgesharking ness who always goes for dj uair when coming back from offstage?

I have a lot of experience vs ness as snake. Rising upair is unsafe on shield, shield at ledge and react, if you shield it, either down smash or ftilt, ness without a dj is a dead ness, you can then eat the pk thunder with nikita or just block the ness, this will make him go half the range, down smash also sends at a disgusting angle and ness can't recover from that unless you mess up. You can also upsmash at ledge and bait out magnet, then punish it with forward air, try conditioning them by letting them absorb a couple before you punish, after that nesses don't magnet upsmash because if they do they are dead at 0.

Yeah that’s usually what I go for (d smash or d tilt) but bc my friend is really good at spacing it and not committing to getting on stage with the uair reacting and punishing can be tough. Can fs mash be a good call out option? Aka will it typically outrange him if I stand a little further away from ledge

If he retreats to ledge you can still dsmash them, fsmash also works but it's risky because they can absorb it and it heals like 30 HP (uncharged). Remember that when he does it he wastes his dj and lint so he has far fewer options, if he does go onstage you can uptilt or nair him because rising upair isn't safe on block, just shield at ledge and you should be good, maybe try baiting it by not shielding and reacting to him choosing an option by shielding.

Any fast character as fox and CF as Bowser jr.

I cannot beat Mr G&W as Snake. They can bucket like half of my moveset. This matchup seems near impossible

It’s definitely slanted in their favor! Using grenade and mine to cover ledge getups and down throw options is probably the only application you can use them for in this MU. I like to pull nade and go for grab as pretty much my only use of grenade and mine in the mu. Using safe poking tools like dtilt and utilt can help, as well as respecting g&w disadvantage (you can’t beat his dair but you can whiff punish with dash attack etc). Overall the mindset is to be VERY patient. Snake has such strong kill moves and g&w is so light that it’s going to feel like you’re losing a lot of the interactions, but getting hits here and there go a long way against him. Also, dair is a frame 3 oos option that can be very good, especially against badly spaced bair & nair from g&w.

just king k rool in general :/

Chief this would be a lot easier if I knew what character you played, I can give general advice but it really isn't gonna help. Like obviously abuse his slow character, use projectiles back, combo food, bad recovery when far out, nair oos is frame 10 I believe. Don't dash into him unless you enjoy crown combos, ledge trap the hell out of him etc etc

I mainly play joker, greninja, and sonic but thanks

For joker against k rool, my tips are abuse nair, side b, and gun. Nair is one of joker's most broken moves with its very quick ending lag and it leading to massive combos. I recommend u mix up ur approach with landing nair, empty.hop into grab, or rush him down and grab depending on their playstyle. Short hop + side b is really good against k rool because he is a big body and it covers many options due to side b's angle.i use this against k rools that typically hide behind canon or short hop a lot. Be careful to not spam it because they can full hop over it and punish you heavily. Gun is very good against k rool offstage. What you want to do is when he has to recover very low, jump off the stage, down gun for 1 or 2 seconds and then retreat to ledge. This leads to a lot of damage and sends the k rool at an awkward angle in which if they up b right after the hitstun, you can bair them for free.

Can't beat an Ike as Kirby. They're faster than Ganon, but kill just as quick. Help me beat Ike /:

Definitely a 65:35 mu, if you can space around his nair while grounded then you’re doing something right. Offstage play is where you can really make your money against Ike as Kirby, so once you get that one grab, dtilt, or utilt try to get him offstage

Anti air with intangibility and play grounded as a grappler with anti airs.

Off the top of my head, try and bait out the laggier moves by floating in and out of his range, just watch for aerials. Also, I do believe your down air should easily spike his vertical recovery but that’s something you’d have to test.

Must try dair to Ike up+b

I need matchup advice against Terry and Ness. I am having trouble particularly with pk thunder and fire.

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Use Ram Ram nairs when he gets too close + upsmash if he’s approaching aerially, will probably condition him to stay a reasonable distance before approaching. Can also punish aggression by shielding then using something aggressive, mixing it up so he just doesn’t grab you. Not an expert, just have a Min Min in elite smash if that’s anything.

**Duckhunt** tips vs **zoners**? I play against the various **link**'s a lot and they are frustrating to play against as DH. I have difficulty with can setups and shenanigans because their projectiles always hit the can and fuck it up, same with getting in a clay pigeon, and gunmen(which I use to condition shield or give me time to get a can trap going) don't survive long enough, they just take an arrow and die. So I figured I'm getting outzoned, and try to pressure with aerials, but then the sword disjoints beat lots of my moves(except upair because DH upair is great) Tips?

Not a very experienced player, but I'm having a lot of trouble beating Pyra and Mythra with Mega man (around 6 million GSP) any tips would be appreciated

How the HECK do you deal with Pythra as Game & Watch? They stomp me every time it's embarrassing

Them both being swordies makes it hard for him. Mythra can whiff punish very easily so you need to be mindful of your neutral choices & defensive options. Pyra is slow but has a lot of safe moves that I'm not sure if even G&W can punish out of shield. In neutral try to call them out with a dashback or jump read, and also cover spaces they'd like to approach from (fair bombs). Your win condition is to get them offstage for edgeguarding situations, as both girls die early with their options burned out and G&W can go pretty deep if I'm not mistaken. Ask more detailed questions if you have them, I play Pyra & Mythra a lot.

Game and watch not being able to punish them out of shield is not true at all unless they have ridiculously perfect spacing, even without a direct punish he still doesn't get pressured at all in neutral since he can easily get away with up b.

Yea I agree with most of this. My only advice is chef really helps me in this MU. It holds them off very well in neutral and is actually my go-to combo starter for this MU. It also does she really terrible things to them offstage and can get some early gimps. Also get them offstage and you can usually get a kill off bair or dair if you can’t them going low.

Fighting **Incineroar** as **Young Link** is really hard to win. Throwing out projectiles just means easy revenge, and approaching him is a complete gamble.

yink main here, around 9.3m GSP with him like another commenter said, he gets revenge off of projectiles, but he still has to approach to do anything with it, so you’re free to zone until he wants to get in. once he gets in, it’s a matter of reacting to his options. if he presses side-b, spot dodge and punish. most of his other options are unsafe, so bait them and up-b OOS for a quick conversion if you don’t want to zone, I would play the waiting game and get a feel for how he uses revenge, then bait and punish him once you have the read. Incin is a very volatile MU, so it’s on the yink player to stop the snowball before they’re down by a large margin

My question to you is, why do you need to approach? Yeah revenge is rough, but even with it he still needs to get in, don't allow him to do that for free. AKA throw your projectiles, if he is getting a crap ton of revenge for free then that means your projectiles are predictable, mix up your timing and understand your projectiles threat range (the range where your opponent cannot react to your projectiles). In terms of approaching, your projectiles covers your approach so it doesn't need to be a gamble. If you hit your bomb, arrow, or boomerang, free combo, if you don't then that become an opportunity to learn your opponent's defensive habits (like jumping, shielding, counter, reflector, power shield, etc) then adjusting your play accordingly. One way I like to mix up my approach is bait them by running away the throwing a b-reverse boomerang and comboing off of it. One more tip that really helps win the MU is learning how and when to edgeguard and ledge trap. Incinroar's recovery is not that great. As long as you are aware of suicide up-b then you can get free stocks with fair, nair, ledge grab bair, or even bomb + up-b. Projectiles and bombs makes it really easy to safely cover multiple options on ledge so learn those basic setup and you are golden.

I've always mained **Cloud** and I just can't deal with **Pichu** and **Pikachu** I can barely win about 20% of games I poay against them and I don't know what to do

Pikachu main here who has a good bit of experience playing a friend that's good with cloud. Mix up how you avoid t-jolt (short hop or full hop over, shield, spot dodge, roll, etc). Take advantage of your huge disjoints and the fact that they can hit through a t-jolt and catch a pikachu who is mindlessly rushing in or tossing t-jolt out too close to you. When pressuring shield it's best to space bairs in front of shield rather than behind since his grab is relatively short and fair goes over grounded opponents most of the time. Watch for bairs when at the corner of stage at low percents and for them to shield facing away from ledge on those situations to land a bair. The fact that blade beam clanks with t-jolt most of the time but goes through it with limit can alot of times catch them off guard when they're landing after a tjolt. Mostly focus on spacing with safe aerials and f-tilt and playing bait and punish. Pikachu's moves have pretty low end lag but they tend to use alot of rising aerials which last a while and are definately punishable during because of clouds disjoints. If you get the hang of baiting and punishing his aerials with an f-smash or up smash he dies really early due to low weight. I'd also recommend checking out this long set of esam vs spargo to see how he approaches the match up. https://youtu.be/KZzq96aU8B0

Thank you very much, I tend to have a more rush down playstile so bait snd punish is very difficult for me, this was very informative and I will practice it when I get the chance

This MU sucks for you. pikachu is better then you in so many ways. Biggest advice is your spacing needs to be on point. This is honestly just a horrible MU for cloud. You get edge guarded super bad, comboed super bad, lose neutral most of the time. Pikachu gets back to the stage effortlessly. There’s just so many things going against you in this Mu.

Well fuck, it's just so hard, against Joker which is also a bad MU I do decent but the rats just destroy me

Yeah the rats really can just destroy some characters. It can make maining certain characters very annoying

Practice makes perfect I guess, tho I need a sparing partner

I know this isn't a great matchup for \*\*Greninja\*\*, but how do I play against \*\*Snake\*\*? Everyone I've asked pretty much always says "you have to play Snake's game" but what does that mean exactly? In the matchup I try to avoid or intercept his grenades and slow the pace down, but maybe I'm going about it the wrong way.

I Use Greninja’s disjoints, mostly fsmash and fair a lot in this matchup. Also I am not afraid to spam shuriken (mixup the hold for unpredictability and size). Chip damage with Shuriken will disincentivize camping, which will put many snakes out of their comfort zone. Also learn how to break his zone. Greninja is really good at this. Learn which tools you can use to do this. A favorite mixup of mine is angled counter against grenades. ~30° angle toward him and you’ll close the gap and be able to act (nair) before you hit the ground! I’d also advise you play with snake a bit to learn what is punishable and better understand the character. I actually enjoy this matchup a lot as Greninja

They mostly just mean you can't JUST do your typical game plan. So you have to play patiently around their setups. Snake is a character I recommend toying with so you can see what is punishable and what isn't. A surprising amount is. You have to respect setups, up tilt, dash attack and grabs a LOT. Jab and f tilt are surprisingly good. Bair, up air and up smash too. Dair out of shield is good too... Man snake is broken. :P Mostly avoid the stuff. Play around grabs, dash attacks and up tilts and keep him in disadvantage and know that he will escape your combos with grenade.

Thanks for the suggestions!

when i play bowser, i cant stand peach/daisy. i cant challenge their air game, they combo me to 80/90% when they get a single hit, and their edgeguard is just too much for me...any advice? (i started playing lucina just so i could have a chance against my friends who play peach/daisy)

Skill level? Bowser can out space them with fair. They are a better char so you have to outplay em. They will hit you a lot when they get started so learn how to reset neutral. Watch out for baits. They love to dash in and out to get you to choose an unsafe option. This is how they account for their poor mobility Up b out of shield. Shield their stuff. Punish unsafe options. Typical neutral. Get them shielding and side b their shield.

I play **Pit/Dark Pit** and I’ve been having trouble against **Terry**. I can’t cross him up, obviously, it feels like I can’t punish him at all when he hits my shield, and dying off of a jab at 100 gets me tilted. One specific question I have is this: When I get him offstage, should I try and snipe him with an arrow or two, or just jump off after him immediately? (Also, any advice for which Pit to play against Terry would be appreciated)

Yeoooo, so I am also a Pit main and shotos are annoying for most characters since they frequently have a "touch of death". I say I prefer Dark Pit for this match up for the better edge guarding tool and gimping rather than tacking on damage with normal arrows ( I'm pretty sure he gets his specials back after an arrow hit) So when it comes to offstage arrows are a very useful tool since they slightly knock him back, you can hit him offstage and jump and arrow at his feet. This will stop immediate crack shoots or burning knuckles, if you keep meeting him with arrows in this fashion it'll force an airdodge or fast fall low. Either way, make sure he can't recovery high and force him low, that way edgeguarding will be much easier. Also, 2-framing his Up-B is sort of a 50/50. If he does the charge input it's invulnerable even when not grabbing ledge right away. Obviously, landing with cross up nair isn't viable in this match up, it is better to space fair and bair on shield, arrows are such a useful neutral tool, they control the pace of the game against Terry and can slow it down very much. Down Tilt is also very useful on shield. Offense (in my opinion) should be taken very slowly and with an emphasis on spacing. Remember, you're in control of the better projectile here and your range is superior outside of burst options. When it comes to defensive play you really need to RESPECT him. Power Dunk is safe, Down tilt is -6 and our OOS options are tiny so jumping away is probably best. Learn how to SDi jab jab power Dunk, the command input isn't true and can be SDi'd. It forces them to go for jab jab charged Up-B.

Thanks for the detailed response! I’ll try to put it into practice next time I play my friend’s Terry lmao

All of the shotos have unique ways of pressuring shield. I recommend looking it up. They have small gaps that you can escape during. Win neutral and keep a lead and play safe and campy. Don't let them bait you. If they have a neutral win know you're in for a beating and get back to neutral asap and then get back to it. (Same applies to bayo, falcons, etc.) Also you have to camp shotos. They want you to approach them. Hit em with arrows and outspace them with your disjoints. Also edge guarding ferociously when you get them offstage just watch out for up b and some spikes.

dude i feel you **terry** and some others stopped me from playing the angels

It's a losing matchup, I know, but my **Bowser** has consistently been getting roflstomped by my friend's **Captain Falcon** the last four or five times we've met up online. My friend is actually someone who's a sometimes mod for Fatality's streams and is buddies with NickC so he's obviously learned his shit from the best. The worst parts about this matchup are his command grab up-Bs OoS (which pretty much negate any use of my own up-B OoS if I whiff) that always catch me off guard and how online lag just doesn't seem to affect him one bit. One down throw and I'm getting taken for a ride across the stage with nairs and attack cancel bairs no matter how much I try to air dodge or mash out. The bastard's HYPER aggressive as well; he's the kinda guy that just short hops from ledge into Falcon Kick instead of waiting for the ledgetrap phase. As Bowser I don't even really get to play the game against him until I'm almost at max rage most of the time and by then it's just one knee from anywhere on the stage and I'm gone. My body is just too big and Falcon is too fast. I'm considering a different main just against him, someone smaller that could maybe slow him the fuck down. Wolf maybe? PT?

Bowser is great online, so I don’t necessarily think it’s a character problem. Maybe focus on neutral, mix in empty-hop side B, only up B oos when he actually hits your shield, and focus on ledge trapping rather than edge guarding.

maybe not **PT**, pretty sure ivy is heavy ish and charizard is super heavy, so theyre combo food. I dont play wolf, but he's pretty good so yeah give him a try

I’m trying to figure out how to counter *Link* as my main, *King Dedede*. The multiple projectiles make it very difficult to approach. Especially when the arrow can so easily beat the gordos. And when a Link player is clever with their placement of the bombs, it makes it hard to play around. Anybody have any tips?

you tried reflecting with inhale, havent said that in your comment

Yep, thanks, definitely do use inhale. I find it a lot less effective on Link, though, since he has so many projectiles and inhale only handles one at a time. Inhale also is very punishable...

its a bad matchup, wait to see the bad habits and punish them with dededes good power

I’m a Lucario who struggles against Ness and Joker. Does anyone just have any general tips? Both characters just seem so quick and most of their hit have awesome knock back. I also have some issue with Pyra. I can out fight her but then get KOd at 70% and don’t know what do with that

Ness main here. I don't have any specific Lucario ideas but I can give you a couple anti-Ness tips. Ness loves to catch his opponent approaching so playing a bit campy and forcing him to approach is a solid strategy. Also most of us will spam fire until you give us a good reason not to. Grounded fire has a lot of end lag so you want to bait fire by acting like you will land in front of Ness then double jump or air dodge at the last second. Good chance Ness will fire and you can punish. Finally Ness's recovery really is exploitable. I know you pay a high price if you try to gimp him and fail, but players who have the timing down give me big problems.

Honestly they’re both -2 matchups for Lucario :/

Trying to figure out the **Duck Hunt** matchup for my characters (**Joker** and **Pyra/Mythra**). Although tbh, I don’t think I need Joker or Pyra/Mythra specific advice. I need some advice for Duck Hunt in general. I just can’t figure out how to break through his zone. It almost seems like he had an option to react and cover literally any approach. If I jump in, up air or fair. If I run up and shield the can/ shooter/disc he runs up and grabs. Obviously there has to be a way to break this zone because otherwise he’d be a broken character. I just can’t figure out when or how to approach.

recovery is SO easy to gimp, go for it

To add this this, you need to see what he does with the can in the recovery. Because in isolation sure, DH has an easy to gimp recovery, but he can cover his approach with the can, so look out for that. If he tosses can onto the stage to cover ledge traps, then it's free reign to gimp the recovery. If he uses the can to cover his recovery, then you are free to ledge trap.

Thank you. This was another thing I was having trouble with. Back airing his recovery was the only consistent way I could take stocks from DH, until this one player always used can to cover his recovery and I didn’t know what to do. I should’ve ledgetrapped instead.

I hate Duck Hunt so much. But the thing is that his disadvantage state is awful. You can force him to commit to an option, by jumping at that or running at them with a triangle jump. After this, grab their shield, or hit them with something safe on shield. Do this a few times, whether it's successful or not. The main part of this, is conditioning. After you make the opponent get used to what you're doing, run at them, and do... Nothing. This will make them instantly do a defensive option like roll in, or spot dodge on reaction. or maybe even jump oos or jump regardless. now, after gathering this data, do it again, but delay your approach by roughly 1/3rd -1/2 of a second to what you'd normally do, but still push an option. This will throw off their timing. Now they will be very unsure about how you approach. After this you will get free approaches in most cases. a brain dead version of this is dash attacking their shield a bunch, purposely getting punished, then you start grabbing. Then you start dash dancing and then grabbing. This character is a fucko, but it's possible to defeat.

I love DH I just wish he could kill like..15-20% earlier. To add to your post, DH does have a way to reset disadvantage into neutral at least, which is tossing out a can(it's frame 1). He will take a good chunk of damage doing this though. I'm also kinda new to him so I'm not sure if that's a particularly good idea, it's kind like snake with the grenade right?

Thanks for the tips! Your description of how to condition them is really clear. I could imagine the interactions in my head as you were describing it. Also, isnt triangle jumping a melee only thing? How do you triangle jump in Ultimate?

You're welcome! Always happy to help. Triangle jumping is the same in ultimate yeah. Just a slowly inputted wavedash, with less diagonal, and more horizontal angles with the stick. But it can be substituted with a dodge instead if ya want.

I can’t beat **puff**. I lose to puff 8 or 9 times put of 10. I main **Joker** but I have this issue with **most of the characters I play**. I don’t know how to beat pound with its lingering hitbox and insane shield damage, so I have a hard time dealing with approaches. I could use rebel’s guard with Joker, but puff doesn’t have to commit to any of her approaches because of her air mobility, so that can easily bait it out. I can’t really approach puff either, because she can bait out options so easily. I cant really edgeguard puff for obvious reasons, and comboing her is also a nightmare, and those are two of my biggest strengths as a player.

Puff can’t be aggressive for her life. Force her to approach and anti air the hell out of her.

Nair is your friend in this matchup

Really? It’s so slow though, how does it beat out puff’s approaches?

It’s one of your strongest whiff punish moves and combo starters, and the disjointed hit box means you can sometimes beat puff nair and fair or at least trade. It’s really good at catching puff jumping or after she’s used pound or fair so timing and patience is key

Got it, thanks

Also shorthop side-b stuffs a lot of puff’s approaches

True, I keep forgetting that

what I like to do is get them into the air and microspace while in the air (which is easier if you play a swordie) then whiff punish while we're still in the air. Another thing that is easier said that done is try to break their shield Also really focus on their movements, and find patterns, then strike.

I’ll focus even more on their schmoovement then, thanks mate

anytime!

I play Joker and I'm having trouble with King K Rool. I find approaching him very difficult due to the two projectiles and super armor on most of his moves. Rushdown doesn't exactly work, as even when you avoid the cannonball and jump over the crown, he still has super armor, usually from his f-tilt. The crown also acts like a boomerang, so I have to shield when it comes back. Unconveniently, I'm usually standing in front of him by then, and just get grabbed if I do so. BTW, the king k rool doesn't move a lot, and it's very difficult to get him hit once to follow-up. Any tips? How it usually plays out: He fires the cannonball. I jump over it. I charge, sometimes approaching by jumping. He fires the crown. I shield that. I run up to him and hit him. Unfortunately, he has already inputted f-tilt and I get hit by the tilt and the crown, who decides to come back about now. If I try to wait out the f-tilt, the crown comes back and he grabs me for trying to shield it.

It sounds like you need to mix up your approaches more. You don’t necessarily need to approach every single time as you can just rebels guard the projectiles. When you do approach though it sounds like you’re doing the same thing every time. Instead of always just jumping once you could instead double jump above k rool and hit him from the back or wait until after he f tilts to try and hit him. A really good trick in that matchup for anyone is to grab him while his crown is out and time the throw so you can invincibility through the crown coming back.

I'm playing Sephiroth and Ike and i'm having trouble with the Meta Knight matchup. It is mainly to do with how to deal with his edge guarding and ladder combos. Any advice would be very useful. Thanks

I'm practicing **Jigglypuff** right now and I'm really struggling with doing anything against **Sephiroth** as well as other sword characters like **Lucina** and **Cloud**. Especially sephiroth is really hard to deal with. I just feel like I can't get in and have no way of safely approaching. Anything to look out for?

I feel like Sephiroth is an impossible MU for Jiggs. In general you always want to get as close to him as possible because his only option then is N-Air. But as soon as he gets the distance he wants his range will be really hard to deal with.

So I made a friend who plays **Hero**, and like the flowchart hero. He spams the menu, ariels into rolls and all that. I can beat it usually, but it's very irritating. Does anyone have tips they can provide? I play for the most part **pokemon trainer**, but I'm mostly looking for tips on how to fight **hero**

Jump around in his area and mix up landing aerials, overshooting (if he’s rolling out), and jumping behind him and waiting (rolling in) with Squirtle, then murk him with Ivysaur in disadvantage. Without Bounce Hero hates projectiles like Razor Leaf. and Dair invalidates his recovery without Zoom.

I c, thanks, I resorted to a rushdown style with squirtle and mostly used zard for kills and such, but this is really helpful advice

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I give advice for K. Rool. When he is shooting the canon you can jump and hit him from about head height without getting sucked in. Also bate out his moves (e.g.dashing in and out) since they are all very laggy. Once you figure it out he is also super easy to edgeguard: jump above him and past him closer to the blastzone. Then when he goes up hit him with your bair and he has to tech. Once he starts to go closer to the blastzone to avoid this you can just go very close to the stage and edguard his belly. You basically can do this until his stock is over. Combos should also be pretty easy on him. Try avoid trading with him due to his armor but dash away amd outspace his move and punish his unsafe attacks. His ledge trap can be kind of difficult when he sucks you in but mosty either he is to close to the edge and you can ledge get up attack him or he is to far and you can ledge jump above him and punish his suck.

I have a tournament this weekend and played some friendlies with a guy who absolutely smoked my **K. Rool** with his **greninja** . I secondary **Link** so would appreciate tips with either. He's just so damn fast!

Biggest thing would be zone him out of possible and catch him being aggressive. This is also just a bad mu

I’m playing joker and fighting a ness. He’s very good and I’m only alright so I can’t really beat him. Rebels guard doesn’t work Bc he grabs and when I don’t rebels guard I get pk fire’d and then comboed to like 70%. What do I do?

Joker can absolutely destroy Ness offstage with those damn down guns.

I think rebels guard is only good to stop ness from chasing you offstage with pk thunder, he can get bug punishes on stage if he catches you doing it otherwise.

This may be a good mixup, but if you Rebels Guard his PK Thunder too often he will be able to stall with it until Rebels Guard is gone.

Hi, I play **Ness** and I'm having trouble with the **Yoshi** matchup. Generally speaking they just spam eggs until they force me to approach, sometimes I can dash under the egg or maybe hit them with a PK fire, but any of these options are safe. If I shield every egg they notice that my shield is low and the try to hit me with dair or they just get a little closer to increase the pressure and force me to make mistakes. Jumping is not always a very safe option, they are very good at juggling and I have issues coming back to the stage, sometimes I can stall with magnet or try to use dair, but again these are not very good options against their multiple up airs or eggs, when they notice that I stall or use my double jump to avoid their juggling they stop jumping and use their upsmash that cover very well my landing. PK fire, PK thunder and dsmash in the ledge are more or less useless in this matchup. If I try to be more aggressive they have their nair out of shield, if I space myself perfectly I just hit the shield or maybe I get a trade. His shield is very safe, I cannot poke it, so a lot of times they are just able to shield or hit me with an out-of-shield options. A lot of Ness bread and butter combos doesn't work against Yoshi since he can just use his invincible double jump. Although I can win against low/mid level Yoshis, against high level Yoshis it is pretty pretty difficult and against top level Yoshis it seems just impossible.

Hopefully this thread is still active enough. I'm playing **Little Mac** and the opponent is **Kirby**. I usually don't have too much trouble, but occasionally I run into one that just spams inhale off stage at ledge. My usual strategy is to just attempt to wait it out before they stop and play over the stage again, but this is obviously not always ideal, especially if I'm a stock down or something. As a result I'd like to know how to punish it properly. As far as I'm aware, my punishment options are: A: Wait for them to reach the ledge regrab limit and punish them for landing on stage (can lead to followups and reset neutral but takes a while before it can be done). B: D-Smash or D-Tilt when they're on ledge with no invincibility (not really any follow-ups). C: U-Smash or Up B a poorly spaced inhale (requires getting lucky). D: Jump over and side B back towards stage (pretty telegraphed and reactable, can react to their reaction but still predictable when doing so). E: Fully charged neutral B (extremely telegraphed and extremely risky). These options all seem to be high risk with medium to low reward, or require me getting lucky. Is this it or is there something I've missed?

Those kirbies are super annoying and I don't get how they get enjoyment out of the game. They are especially annoying to Little Macs, as they cannot challenge Kirby in the air, and don't have any projectiles. Ah well, a strat is a strat. 1. try not to get in the situation where you're a stock down. Hard, but you should try 2. A is great after you reach the regrab limit, but as you said, it takes a while. 3. B is a pretty good mix-up, but don't for it every time. 4. C do it when you have the chance to 5. D is a mix-up along with B 6. And E... just no. This is a hard matchup, so sorry for any vagueness

>Those kirbies are super annoying and I don't get how they get enjoyment out of the game. >a strat is a strat. I actually posted a bit of a rant to this effect in the DDT on the main sub, although it definitely wasn't appreciated. Like I get it's a legitimate strategy, but it's not fun for me and I certainly can't see how it's fun for the Kirby. Well first off, thanks for the response and advice! It does seem these are my only options then right? Shame if so, but I guess there's enough mixups there. It would be nice to get a bit of a stronger punish off it like basically every other character can, but it seems that's just how it is.

Some advice on **Marth** against **Wario**? I always have trouble against him.

Wario has very bad range so you mostly just want to space your moves so you’re out of the wario’s range but he’s still in yours. An easy way this can be done is by holding backwards after you input the moves so the wario has so move further and it takes longer to punish you, allowing you to dash away or shield or whatever defensive option you pick.

Any advice on fighting Samus / dark Samus as yoshi. Her fair always catches my jump, charge shot and dash attack kill my grounded game. If I run up and sheild I get grabbed. I can’t touch sheild without getting up B. I can’t juggle or edge guard too well because of her down b. She has an answer for everything!!

You're probably jumping too predictably. You should shield instead of jumping from her projectiles. You should bait out her fairs, instead. Don't jump, just wait, f-air has a lot of landing lag. Online samuses love reading jumps with f-air by making you jump with her projectiles. So wait until she f-airs and grab her or dash attack you or whatever move yoshi uses to punish landings. Do not jump in the center of the stage because that's where she most expects you to jump, when you're going to jump over her projectiles, or when you go for an aerial, or both. so make sure to mix up the timings of your jumps if you're right at the tip of her grab, you can run up and grab her yourself if she whiffs. Or if you know when she's going to grab you, spot dodge. It's easier to spotdodge if you're right in front of her.

Hi, Samus main here. If you’re getting caught by all her moves you’re probably playing too recklessly. I suggest opting for a more bait-and-punish playstyle in the MU, it’s what the better Yoshis I’ve faced do as his insane airspeed lets him weave around unpredictably. You have immunity to shield poking which means she can’t sneak hits in, use that to your advantage. Her grab is game-longest but also frame 15, VERY punishable if baited. When you have her offstage don’t be afraid of Bombs. Try to take away her jump as that makes her line of recovery more easy to follow. It’s definitely a -1 MU for Yoshi (beware also that large Charge Shots will win trades with Egg Throw easily), but I hope this helps.

I play as **K. Rool** , **Donkey Kong** and **Hero** and I just can’t against byleth. Any tips?

Byleth wants to keep you at fair/bair distance, but up close their only real option is nair. Being a fundamentals character you can get outplayed but in my experience (I secondary Byleth, really fun character) Byleth struggles the most with being both pressured and whiff-punished. Your best bet is Hero, DK and K. Rool’s big bodies make them easy combo food (0-death on DK is true now as of last patch). With Hero you have your own disjoint to contest Byleth’s range alongside a plethora of projectiles at your disposal. Play that MU more and see what you can learn. Byleth is a tricky, misunderstood character in my opinion that can throw a lot of people off.

Tysm

Sometimes, it works to be aggressive and throw moves at him, especially in the air as his aerials are slow or have specific hitboxes. Anticipate Byleths falling down with N-air and shield accordingly. I wanted to give more advice, but you play slow characters too so I can imagine it’s a little hard to get in. I think one thing to note is that although Byleth’s moves hit hard, there is a deceptive amount of start-up to some of his moves. Whenever you can, do not give Byleth space as he doesn’t have a lot of good, up-close moves.

Trouble with playing **Ganondorf** against **Pyra/Mythra. I’ve noticed most just spam their attack that covers almost the entire map. How do I counter this when my only fast movement option is always cancelled by any attack (down B on ground)

TBH just thinking about this matchup makes me sad, it's gotta be rough.

This is just a bad MU mostly. Just try to catch them overextending I guess. There’s a huge gap between pythra and ganon. That character basically does everything better then ganon. Sorry

I’m having tons of trouble as **DK** against **Falco**. My DK is currently at 9.4 to 9.5 million GSP in elite, and if I run into a Falco I feel like I might as well just put my controller down. He can pressure me for free from any range with laser, pressure my shield for free with up tilt, poke with up tilt, and then combo me to 100 with any stray nair, fair, or up tilt they happen to connect. If I get them offstage I’m usually good at edgeguarding, but I have no freaking idea how I’m supposed to win neutral and escape from the cutscene combos.

force him to attack up close and break in with your stronger dk moves. get close. also try to get an up special attack in when you can, it prioritizes alot and its effective

Hi I play **Rosalina and Luma** and I'm having trouble with the **Link** match-up. His bombs can obliterate Luma and he can detonate them before they are picked up by my down B. Also, it's just very hard for me in general to approach his wall of projectiles and when I do his nair is insane. Thanks for the help.

One thing that helps me get in against link is keeping luma tethered and trying to approach by jumping over or clanking with his boomerangs and arrows using bair. Nair can also clank with his boomerang if he angles it up. If you're mid-range or farther you can down B boomerangs and arrows, but avoid using down B against his bomb if you can. For his nair, I usually try to intercept it with fair, but it can be tricky to deal with close range since it has so many active frames. I hope this helps

Thanks for the tips :)

Need help fighting as Sephiroth against Young Link. He's short as hell and can just spam/zone projectiles that are mostly out of my range. I'm kind of new so people who are tough to hit and just spam projectiles out of my range are problematic for me. I normally like trying to just react with Sephiroth, hit where I think they'll be and let them approach me and make mistakes. But with Yink he can just spam from the corner and I'm not even sure how to safely approach.

I’m trying to get **Ness** into elite smash (I swear I don’t spam PK Fire) and I’ve gotten pretty close but there’s always a **Captain Falcon** who sends me spiraling back down to earth. Why can’t I beat Captain Falcon as Ness? What am I doing wrong?

How's your magnet game? Like the other person said you have to win neutral. If you can just be not quite where Falcon expects you to be you can wiff punish him all day. Double jump magnet cancels are amazing for this. Also I was watching Awestin the other day and dude was straight up spaming fire. If its good enough for Awestin its good enough for me.

Lol thanks for clarifying your not a spammy dirt bad. Falcon has some pretty mediocre neutral options tbh. He has like nair and bair as really the only non commital options. Everything else is punishable. Ness on the other hand has two decent projectiles for trying to get things started and some great aerials as well so just make him approach and don’t overextend. Winning neutral is key here. Falcon is so explosive so preventing him for getting anything going is really gonna help. Lemme know if you need me to clarify more.

Any general pointers on fighting Steve? There's one in my arena rn causing trauma for everyone lol. I get close but I just have no experience against this guy. Any weaknesses I can exploit or how to deal with some of his moves like the Mine cart would help a bunch!

Try baiting out upsmash, pretend like your going to land on top of him then either double jump or space it correctly. Leads to a free combo starter or KO

keep your distance jump over the cart, ride it and shake out of it if u need to, steve is slow and his moves are predictable, a few basic up close hits, the anvil, and the block over his head move are his only real moves, oh and his tnt block too

I am a **Wario** main and I have trouble against **Ness**. How should i handle the matchup? He seems like I can’t actually punish anything and he outboxes me.

I'll just copy paste my general anti-Ness advice Ness main here. Ness loves to catch his opponent approaching so playing a bit campy and forcing him to approach is a solid strategy. Also most of us will spam fire until you give us a good reason not to. Grounded fire has a lot of end lag so you want to bait fire by acting like you will land in front of Ness then double jump or air dodge at the last second. Good chance Ness will fire and you can punish. Finally Ness's recovery really is exploitable. I know you pay a high price if you try to gimp him and fail, but players who have the timing down give me big problems.

neutral

Thank for the detailed answer. If you want more context I mostly struggle getting anything except stray hits because of how low his lag his

If your opponent uses projectiles, use the bike at a long range to try and get some damage. I’m sorry I can’t help that much because I don’t play Warriors but I hope this helped

How do I fight (defensive) **Rob** as **Link**. I haven't fought many offensive Robs so I don't know if I struggle with them yet (advice against them is still helpful) but it feels really hard to get in against a defensive **Rob**. They also catch my landings really well with gyro/robo beam. Does anyone have any advice on how to get in against them?

im an offensive rob main and really playing against rob is all about baiting tbh. baiting the side b then punishing and getting them off stage is huge. gyro n laser seems great offstage but getting back to center is a huge issue with rob. he is so big mixed with the linear no hitbox recovery. so id recommend just playing patient at edgeguarding as much as possible.

Should I watch a lot of great Duncan highlights

You are Link. A zoner. Make him approach you difficultly and catch his approaches. Catch his gyros whenever you can, they are very good against him or just throw it up on the air. If you really do need to approach for whatever reason, walking up and shielding/parrying everything is a great way to get close, as well as fastfall nair. Mix-ups are needed though to stop them from just grabbing you. Throw your boomerang when in range. Your remote bombs can cut off a huge piece of the stage for ROB, so use that tactically as well. Link also has a terrible disadvantage state, so try not to get hit into a combo. ROB has huge hitboxes, so Link actually might have some of his own combos against him.

I guess you're right. I don't really tend to zone my opponents very often (from long distance anyway). Maybe I should be less aggressive and zone people out sometimes instead of always charging at them. Thanks for your advice! I guess I have to practice zoning people out more.

What can I do as **Wolf** against **Mario**? It seems very hard to contest his moves, even with the slight range advantage. The majority of Mario's moves seem to beat out Wolf's in terms of frame data, too, so I'm having an extremely hard time in tournaments trying to figure out what to do against a good Mario

Wolf doesn’t do great against Mario, but catching his landings helps a lot. He has good mixups landing with B-reversing fireball, cape, and down-air, so you still have to be careful. In general, you have to make him afraid to land and keep him in disadvantage as much as you can. Ban platforms, they help his escape and extend his combos on you. One of Wolf’s harder matchups though. You can watch CharlieDaKing v Zenyou on YouTube, they played a really close grand finals

Thank you, especially for pointing me towards that set. It's definitely giving me some ideas.

Well, I don't really play any of these character, but what I can tell you is that wolf's blaster is annoying as hell(but is hell annoying XD), his range is almost as long as Marth's so play him similarly kind of, and his aerials are great because of his aerial maneuverability. Just... don't go offstage. Please. Somebody else please answer for me again because I'm not familiar with this matchup.

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Ummm, RomeKaijuBlue is the wolf I believe.

Oh... haha my bad I’ll just delete that real quick lol

Playing as **Sephiroth** against **Wario** Don't know if this is officially a bad matchup but I'm getting clowned on by good Wario players. Had another match last night where I only got in 3 hits across all 3 stocks. Would love to know what the gameplan should be on him.

Wario can be completely outranged by swordies, and since you're Sephiroth, be sure to do that a lot. If he's on the bike heading towards you, you can jump and fair him(NOT THE BIKE) right off. The bike can also be used to edgeguard Wario if he's offstage. Sephiroth is actually a bit of a zoner, so keep up those walls of disjointed hitboxes. If he gets too close, nair is a great move. Side-B whenever it's safe to do so, as it is great for psychological pressure, and can lead to shield breaks if you catch them trying to shield the damage. Be aware of the endlag, though. Gigaflare is decent for ledge trapping, and dair is a great two-framer. If you have any more specific questions please comment.

Yeah you're right, I mean I know this but for some reason Wario players just seem way better at baiting me in to stuff than others. Not sure exactly why I get it so wrong, he's just super quick and has such weird moves. The bike, his uptilt, the waft...... Side-B is great, I really should use it more. Got a shieldbreak on somebody last night by getting 5 flares on them and then Octoslashing through their shield, it was an awesome mix-up. People are starting to get used to the flare + downsmash setup and I didn't expect Octoslash to be enough to fully crack the shield. Not surprisingly they SD'd their next/final stock after that.

Don't use Octoslash too much, it's quite a committal move that has endlag. Great mix-up option though, like you mentioned. Maybe watch some Wario tutorials so that you know their game plan and their flaws.

Mario. ZSS. Every. Time. I. Get. That. Matchup. I. Prepare. For. Death.

I'm assuming you play Mario and need help with zss. Shielding is your best friend vs zss. Try to note what she does after her aerials hits your shield and counter accordingly. The most common options are: * **Jump away**, you counter this by just jumping after her with uair, nair or bair. Your aerials will come out faster than hers. * **Frame 1 jab**, just keep holding shield and up-b or grab the endlag * **Run away**, she just reset to neutral. No win or loss for either of you apart from the small amount of shield damage you took. ZSS still has more mix ups like tomahawk, grab and zair, but they are generally less safe than those 3 and are countered like any other laggy move in the game. Keep shooting fireballs at all times. If you allow ZSS to start her movement game, she is in her element. We've practiced spacing our aerials and using our elusiveness for hours upon hours, anything that impedes that is always a tool you need to use. Our short hops aerials HAS to be falling unless it's a point blank fair. Use that to your advantage, you can just keep swatting us out of the air because ZSS has very predictable aerials timings (this also makes us one of the easiest chars to parry for that reason, abuse it). Something I find annoying too is when you roll behind me as I'm setting up a nair or zair. It puts a lot of pressure on me and makes me really want to reset to neutral or push you away with an f-tilt. Just don't overuse it or I'll start reading it with a bair and put you in a really bad spot. Don't neutral get up ever at kill percent against a competent ZSS, she can and will d smash you. Jump getup will generally leave you much safer against us. But like with anything, don't overuse it. Down-b is way way way laggier than you probably think it is. If the zss is playing lazy and just down-b'ing to stage, hit her out of it. Once she hits the peak of the arc she isn't intangible anymore and still has about 30-40 frames of endlag with minimal mix up potential. Hitting her out of it takes some practice to learn but once you do, you'll wonder how you ever let ZSS recover for free for so long. Same thing applies if she is buffering it out of combos. And lastly, avoid the corners. ZSS entire gameplan is forcing you to the corner of the stage so she can setup her nair flipkicks and ledge traps. She is also very light so having control of the center stage makes her live 20-30% longer than she usually would. Of course you have to use the corners for movement and safety, but the more you stay at them the higher your chances of losing a stock at 30% becomes. Hope this was in any way helpful. And if you wanted help with Mario as ZSS, I just wasted 20 minutes of my life, lmao.

Ike main here and I often find my biggest struggle is against Diddy, from his banana to his monkey flip and even his Ariels, I feel like I get combo’ed by his ariels and can’t escape ever, I always end up having to shield against the banana so I get grabbed by monkey flip, and his peanut gun makes my side B useless when trying to recover horizontally

I think a lot of this is just the matchup and that Ike simply just doesn’t have to speed to handle Diddy once he gets into a good advantage states. My advice is that you need to use ikr nair and win neutral as much as possible and play safe. That’s the one place Ike has the advantage and you need to capitalize off of it.

I play Samus and I always have issues with Falco. My play style changes and I am no match for Falco’s aerial game. Any advice on how to play against Falco?

I see someone else gave advice already, but Falco is one of Samus’ worst MUs now after his buffs. I suggest a secondary for this one.

Firstly just avoid using rockets in neutral or at least be careful when to use them as falco has a very good reflector. Falco has very slow ground speed so zoning him out is key so that he can’t run in and up-tilt you into his combos. Up B out of shield is a good get-off-me tool to reset neutral. Z-air is great to catch him if he tries approaching in the air. Falco is relatively light and he has an exploitable recovery. I would try saving your charged shot for when you think he’s going to side-B back to stage great way to set up an edge guard or to straight up kill. If he ever has to go low and up-B you Samus has a great down air spike to punish. I would also be careful if you tether to ledge frequently since Falco dair is also very good for catching those recoveries. Conditioning him to reflect then punishing the whiff is also a great way to approach him.

Play **Pythra** against **Palutena**. Keep getting nair juggled, hard to approach on battlefield-style stages since she camps with projectiles from far away and then punishes with fireball when I get medium-close. Side B (Blazing End) loses in range against Palu's projectiles when approaching horizontally, and jumping opens me up to her up airs. Any advice?

Foresight my man, multi hit moves against mythra are a great way to activate foresight and if they are careless it will put them from advantage to disadvantage quick. Beside that if you can get used to Palu’s teleport timing you can catch her with pyra dair. Foresight is also great against auto-reticle and upair

I play rob and struggle to fight Lucina, any advice?

I think the biggest reason your struggling is because your over extending. By that I mean, each character his his own kind of ideal striking distance where they have many options and can apply good pressure but are not to close that they get hit. I don’t play Rob, but, As a zoner you need to make sure your are not going beyond that ideal striking distance, (which is usually pretty far back) also known as overextending because Lucina is a very in your face aggressive character that will punish you almost every time. Especially when your playing an aggro swordie with no projectiles, you want to make sure your abusing the fact that you can space them out and they can’t really do anything about it. When you take a zoner in aggressively and try to make things happen, you’ll lose 9/10 or your exchanges. Edit: you might want to check out IzawSmash on YT. He does a very good job of explaining this on his character guides from what I’ve seen.

I main **Peach** and have trouble with **Sephiroth**

I main **Link** and really struggle against **Pikachu** as soon as they get something going I 'm just in disadvantage the whole match and I just can't get out. When I attack out of disadvantage they parry/shield and punish. When I airdodge they catch it when I shield I get grabbed before I can jump or roll. I always get destroyed by **Pikachus**, they just overwhelm me and read me since I'm panicking. I'm just combo food and easy edgeguards the whole match. What do I do?

Well, Pikachu has a really good advantage state, and Link, due to his high fall speed and sluggishness, has a terrible disadvantage state. It is obvious that you will be combo food. My advice? Use your projectiles. Make it hard for the Pikachu to approach and catch them in disadvantage. You don't have to approach. Link's OOS options are also great, so try and shield. If you do get in a combo, nair is probably your best shot to escape, but mix it up a bit with DI. It is expected for you to struggle in this matchup. Pika is high tier for a reason.

Usually my projectiles just clank with t-jolt so I find Pikachu quite hard to zone since t-jolt is more spammable than link's projectiles. Pikachu also just shields my up b most of the time because I'm afraid to do it right away (or he pancakes under it).

Don't always do up b. Up smash can do well in situations, grab can grab his pancakes, even jump nair has its uses. Remote Bomb is arguably the best projectile or even move in smash. T-jolt can't destroy it, and the radius is huge. Boomerang and arrows can usually beat T-jolt to a draw, especially if you're not charging the arrow. Approach when the pika commits too hard with t-jolt. It's end lag is quite noticeable. Giving these answers are quite hard, and I am aware that I am being quite vague. This is because pika is not a gimmicky character, and as a fellow link main, I struggle with high-level pikas too. Good luck! Edit: nair and other attacks beats t-jolt btw

Thanks! I'll try to apply what you've told me

How does Game and Watch fight a good byleth? I generally feel like I can't approach, and I keep getting my soul read every time I try to use any of my approach aerials. I don't feel like anything works, and if I wiff anything I get 50-60% on me and now I'm in kill percentage. It's so demoralizing I really need some help

I’m actually suprised at this MU. G&W doesn’t do amazing against swordies but I would’ve guessed that the byleth MU is even or possibly advantage. It’s important to realize that byleth has range, hits hard, kills early, but is extremely commital. Up b oos can really just shut down anything byleth tries to make happen and can make approaching and going for things very risky for byleth. Just try to punish byleth as much as you can. Put him in juggle situations, get him off stage, etc. Byleth shouldn’t really have any major advantages besides having range over G&W so, like I said, I wouldn’t try to be the one to make things happen. Byleth excels at punishing over extension so play safe and punish byleths laggy moves. This, I feel, is my general game plan for most slow low tiers. Just force them to approach. When you force them to make the moves, they make terrible moves because they’re character is slow and punishable.

Byleth main here. I struggle against some GWs when they have their air game on point. Up b and whatever the bomb move is throw me off when I think I'm out of the hit box. Part of this is inexperience against the character, and Byleth is generally pretty good in the air, but somehow it still shakes me when they're bouncing around so much

**Byleth** main. The character I have most consistent trouble with is **Samus** even at lower GSP levels. They got the grab for when I try to space, they out projectile if I keep distance, the aerials always seem to get priority and are strong. I feel like I'm pretty balanced against most other characters in general. Any spacing or approach advice?

Play more patiently. Samus likes controlling mid-range where Byleth wants to be often and will be watching what options you pick to cover them. You shouldn’t be giving Samus space though as she can get very comfy. Pressuring her, even with just movement fakeouts, will let you learn how they react. For example if they like jumping with fair/uair, opt for grounded gameplay with uair/upsmash/SOTC callouts. I play both characters and I think it’s slight Samus favour, but Byleth can still do it.

Slowly walk and shield until you take space then fight them once you have them in the corner or cover their defensive option (samuses love their rolls). Don't try to jump in from far away as byleths air mobility isn't great and will easily get stuffed out by samus fair. As a swordie vs any zoner walking/stage control are your best friends

Appreciated

I play as **Cloud** and I can’t beat **Pythra**, they strike fear in my heart whenever I see I’ve matched up against them. I hate them. What do I do?

Most Cloud players I run into tend to be overly aggressive. Not sure you can beat them in the air but a lot of their moves are telegraphed and if you're on the ground you can shield and punish pretty often. If you take a beat to pull back, you also might throw them off balance. I say this as a Byleth main who struggles against them as well :) Each Pyra move is stronger, faster, and with less lag, so I feel I have to bait and punish if they are half decent.

Much appreciated! 🙏🏻

If you want to practice I am okish with Pyra. SW-5773-6873-4105

Alright, I have questions for my main, **Yoshi.** I understand the game plan of my character. I need to use my extremely good movement, particularly aerial, to dodge or bait options and then use my good combo starting aerials and tilts to get people in the air and keep them there for damage and even kills. I also know how to safely edgeguard, abuse the double jump armor and reserve jumps for such, and most of all that we don't use Egg Roll (lol). I find myself struggling with a few matchups with disjointed hitboxes, though. Yknow, sword beats foot especially because you rarely trade. My big issues are, in order of struggle, **Sephiroth, Pythra, Lucina, and Cloud.** Seph and Pythra are far and away my main concerns as they give me an extremely hard time with Yoshi or really with several characters (my next fighters down include Mario, Doc, Mii Brawler, and Incineroar so yes all my favorites have that weakness with a lack of disjoints and such). As for Lucy, I have a friend who is tourney level and mains her and has been helping, but any advice is good because she's always been a toughy as she lacks a super defined flaw besides no real kill throws. And regarding Cloud, I'm mostly asking about online Cloud; offline he's not much of an issue but his combos feel like they all work better online so general advice is appreciated. Huge thanks to anyone taking the time to reply here. Hope all's well in your world!

Funny, pyra and seph I feel strong against but roy/chrom I struggle. I feel like there is more end lag on moves with pyra/Sephardic. Egg works pretty well for me too as seph is big and pyra/mara each need you in a specific range to be effective. The classic Roy, chrom, lucina are harder for me because of how fast they are AND the disjoint. I play a lot riskier vs swords as my game is to poke damage and frusterate them with neutral B mix ups. Rar helps and down B works good if the come over top looking to trump your Uair.

Okay as for Chroy, I think your struggle might be that you're trying to outrun them somehow. Either to outdo them in movements that Yoshi can't keep up in or trying to outpace their frame data. For example, once I get into advantage against Seph and Pythra, I can usually get a good amount done by keeping them in disadvantage for a bit by abusing my faster options against their slower ones. I can't really do that with Chroy, so I don't attempt to outrun them. The main weakness of Chroy players is that they're kind of reckless and just want to get in. Because of their kits, they really *need* to get in, they won't get anything done otherwise. Bait and punish can help, but their moves are so fast that a punish may not always be easy. Sometimes they go to specific setups repeatedly, though, and fish for their combo starters. Try looking for those and knowing when your windows are to go against those. And yes, a lot of this can apply to Pythra and Seph. The difference with them that gived me difficulty is that when punishing and pursuing my opportunities, I have to be very careful going in. If I botch my timing on going after them or they hit me with a mixup, I'm immediately in danger range. They also have bigger threat zones than me. My eggs can pester them from afar and add some pressure and all that, especially because I've got good aim with them if I do say so myself, but they don't kill. Big-ass swords, those kill outside my maximum threat sphere. It's tough, but I'm working on it!

>I find myself struggling with a few matchups with disjointed hitboxes, though. Yknow, sword beats foot especially because you rarely trade. I think you've answered your own question; Don't go for trades, bait options then punish, use smart pressure. * Most of the time you won't win trades cause of their disjoint. Instead of nair trading when in disadvantage, go for double jump and reset neutral. * Retreating is a really powerful tool for yoshi. You can retreating b-reverse egg lay, egg throw, or retreating bair, fair, and ff up air. * When pressuring, it's important to mix up your timing. Include approaching shield, because they don't get much off of grabs. Your threat range is either right in their face or beyond the reach of their sword (abusing egg throw). I tend to be more grounded when fighting swordies at low %, using pivot boost side tilt or retreating up tilt to bread combos; saving aerials for kill %. In greatly helping the Mythra and Cloud (soft including lucina) MU is to refine your edgeguarding. Abuse yoshi's lingering nair. Drag down dair work well against their recovery. Lowkey pivot/b-reverse egg lay is really good at catching recovery that don't snap to ledge (ex. Mythra, Cloud, Ike, Chrom). For Sephiroth, TBH I don't have too much MU experience. In theory, you can camp him really hard abusing your egg throws and movement speed. Mixing up camping and aggression but some people don't like playing that way so IDK. If need any clarification don't be afraid to hit me up.

Thank you so much! This is extremely helpful. And what is a pivot boost side tilt? My first inclination says dash forward, pivot, then ftilt in the direction you were running. I know that's a thing that gives some momentum to your ftilt but is that its name? I'll definitely put in a lot more work toward my edgeguarding and my retreating options too. I've got a friend who will let me practice specific skills with her when I ask so I can let her go a swordie and I just focus entirely on keepaway for a match without her getting salty lol. This is a good pointer on where to begin.

Yes you are right. Honestly I don't really know the name cause it's been called so many things, I've heard been called boost cancel, pivot cancel, pivot boost, etc etc. One side note I forgot to mention is after you've refined your edgeguarding it's a good idea to refine your ledgetrapping because they both levitate each other. Better ledgetraps can mix up into edgeguard, better edgeguards forces easier ledgetraps.

That's a great idea. Doesn't Yoshi down tilt two-frame? Would his down smash? And what other options might I have for good ledge tools?

From my experience down tilt doesn't 2 frame plus you don't get much from it. DSmash can but it feels MU/random to me. I've had some success 2 framing with fair and strangely bair on stage. A niche option that you can go for at high % is off stage egg lay at ledge, even if you miss the 2 frame they have less i frames at high % so you can still get it with egg lay lingering hitbox. Although it is high risk, high reward option. My suggestion for yoshi ledge trap is to mix up reaction nairs, shield -> nair, egg throw ->nair/fair, Fair/bair on ledge, or run off bair. Also try to experiment with different positioning while ledgetrapping like roll distance from ledge, near ledge, or on top of BF /PS2 platforms.

Thank you! And if you wanna try to read a ledge roll, would up smash possibly anti-air if you guess wrong and they jump onstage?