Jeepy Sol
Smash Ace
~Rotation 3~ Link (pg. 18-23)
Hey! Listen! (sigh...)
Link, the left handed green man in tights. The Hero of Hyrule and Time.
To bad the same can't be said for Link in Brawl.
-Tedward2000
Behavior:
Fundamental Moves:
How to Win:
Recommended Stages:
--It is not necessary to post in here. If you have any problems with any of the information, or you think anything should be added, post here, in the Stickied Match-Up Discussion, or send me a PM.
Hey! Listen! (sigh...)
Link, the left handed green man in tights. The Hero of Hyrule and Time.
To bad the same can't be said for Link in Brawl.
-Tedward2000
Behavior:
- Link is by no means an opponent to be underestimated, except when he's off the stage.
However, on stage, his range is pretty good. Unlike Toon Link, his first slash on his forward smash is enough to send you flying, so he'll only do the second hit as a mind game sort of thing. He can really close the space between you two with his boost smash. If you haven't seen the range on it, go look up a video. While it looks scary, it's really not that bad after you've seen it once or twice. In fact, if you see it coming, Link's a sitting duck for an Aura Sphere or f-smash if you're fast enough. His up smash is pretty powerful in general, and it doesn't have issues keeping you stuck for all three hits until very high percents in which you probably should be dead anyway. His down smash is powerful as well, like a middle ground between the non-tip and tipped Marth down smashes.
Link also has jab cancel combos, but if you're paying attention, he most likely will not be able to follow it up (u-tilt is his best option, since he can juggle you with more u-tilts), so you should just be prepared to eat the third hit, or roll out of the way. Also be careful, his up-tilt can juggle you if you just fall back down, and f-tilt hits behind him on the start up swing. Down tilt will spike you if you're hanging on the edge, but you shouldn't really be on the edge that long anyway. You'll also have to watch out for Link's z-air (the clawshot), it has pretty long reach and two disjointed hit boxes if I recall correctly... It's used during approaches AND retreats because of it's range. Though since Lucario isn't THAT big, you'll probably be able to shield it or air dodge it just fine.
The main things you'll probably see from Link are projectiles, followed by attempts to launch you into the air and then follow up with aerials, or simply to stay on the ground and attempt to kill you via smashes. Most of their damage racking will be a result of projectiles, jabs and tilts, and if they can, smashes. Up smash and forward smash deal quite a bit of damage, and forward smash can connect both hits at low percents. Link's aerial game isn't a big issue if you play it cool, because your aerials will beat his, almost by speed and priority alone. His ground game isn't bad at all, but I wouldn't say it's better than ours. We can probably rack damage faster than Link can, and we don't really "have to." Get Link off the edge and slap a few fairs, or a dair, maybe even a BAS, and well he cries explosive tears that turn into fireworks. His tether recovery is mediocre, and while his spin attack has high priority, it doesn't shield him completely. In terms of him trying to gimp you, he might try to run off the edge and fair/(dair if they're feeling courageous) you, but he'll probably prefer to just wait on stage with some projectiles, because they don't want to risk being gimped themselves.
-Pentaoku - His aerial game pales in comparison to anything Lucario can throw his way. Not only is he slow but attacks don't have the awesome combo potential that Lucario has (Link does have some combo potential but nothing to lucario's degree. More hit or miss).. He can't FoP, edge guarding is rough because his recovery is pitiful and basically is outclassed completely while in the air.
His ground game isn't bad but definitely not something to brag about. He has a upsmash that can slide a bit but it can't approach because the lag afterwards and it's easy to avoid if you know the spacing of it. His range is pretty good but if I remember correctly, Lucario's fsmash has more range than any of his non projectile attacks.
Now his projectiles give him some camping potential but not to the quality that TLink can. his arrows curve much more without charging so he can't spam as much. His boomerang isn't as good.
-Kasai - Link performs best when he's controlling the pace of the match... which isn't at ALL abnormal for any charachter... but Link.. well his ideal pace is SLOW. He wants you to be at mid distance the whole match so he can just RAIN projectiles at you. His projectile game is VERY good and can make even some of the most patient players frustrated enough to make a mistake. He's also a RIDICULOUSLY fast faller (I know the chart says Fox is the fastest... but, honestly, I've never seen anyone on the game fall quicker than link if he dicides to fastfall) so Lucario should be able to juggle him fairly well with, say, an uptilt... but good luck keeping him in the air.
Link is also Rather strong andf has a WIDE variety of REALLY good KO moves at his disposal... they just all tend to require some prediction to use... so don't you dare let him inside your head, or else it's already over.
-Sonic The Hedgedawg - Once again, Link is a very technical character. His arrow cancel immensely speeds up his projectiles. If your opponent doesn't use this, Link's projectiles are pretty easy to punish. If they do use arrow cancels, you have to be a bit quicker on your feet.
That brings up Link's second advantage: zoning
A good link will use his projectiles to zone off certain areas of the map. For instance, he can throw a bomb upwards, short hop a boomerang, then shoot a canceled arrow forwards to attack every sector of the map that you could possibly approach him from. That puts pressure on you to block or roll, which he can then punish.
A good link will spam Zair to compete with your aerials. It is quick, has good priority, and combos into other attacks like his dash attack and DAC. This will be a good Link's bread and butter against Lucario's aerials along with his projectiles.
-Ark22
Fundamental Moves:
- Projectiles, projectiles, projectiles! Bombs, boomerang, and arrows. His entire game revolves around how effectively he can use these. With these projectiles, Link is able to bait you into action, forceing you to play offensively.
- Bombs: Easily Link's most over used projectile. Not only can he spam bombs with relative ease, he can also attack with bombs in his hand.
- Boomerang: Link's most effective spacing tool. If spaced correctly, Link's boomerang can push you off the stage. It can also be bounced off a stage and can drag you to your death. Beware the boomerang!
- Arrows: Compared to Link's other projectiles, his arrows are not as much of a problem. The only thing you need to worry about is when Link is landing. If Link fires an arrow just as he lands, it will come out much faster.
I recommend you watch this video to understand the true potential of Link's projectiles:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=V0u3sUOShcI
How to Win:
- Looking at this matchup, I would say Lucario is going to do best in the air with careful spacing. Link play kind of like Ike does in respect to his close combat game, he waits to punish, because his attacks are all too slow to use for an approach.
That said I think that while Link can use bombs and projectiles to stop Lucario's camping game, the reverse is true as well. I know a baby aura sphere will stop Links bombs, and Im pretty sure it stops his boomerang and arrows as well.
That said it puts both characters in a rather un-fun position. As neither will really want to approach, but neither can really effectively camp against the other as well. Also something to be aware of is that against a projectile user like Link, double team works wonders and his boomerang isnt really an issue on the return because he needs to pay attention to it as much as you do, otherwise he could get a f-smash in the face because of it.
So onto the approach. With both characters projectile camping ability pretty much nullified by the matchup, someone has to approach, luckily, Lucario has a pretty decent approach and with some decent spacing that shouldnt be a problem and if he tries to use projectiles to stop you, you can just hasten your approach by using double team, just make sure you can hit with it before you try.
Something else to know about Link is that he is going to try to control the center of the stage. Since due to a terrible recovery he wants to be as far from the edge as possible. This means you arent really going to have to cross a stage of projectile spam to get to him, more like half a stage, and because of this he has a great disadvantage on stages that are smaller, like Smashville for example since he is close to getting knocked off at all times.
-manhunter098 - Links combos pale in comparison to lucarios. Links very good dash-cancelled usmash is not only difficult to do properly (theres 2 variants, one which goes a mile and one that goes about half as far. the perfect one is near impossible to do repeatedly), is stopped in its tracks by Aura sphere. It really isnt that threatening once you get the spacing down. just like snakes, with a little practice you will memorise the range of links d/c upsmash, and it becomes nothing more than an annoyance and a free hit for AS. everytime you see the enemy line you up, its pretty obvious whats coming.
-djbrowny
Recommended Stages:
- 1. Green Greens. Why? Well...we all know Lucario rocks on this stage. The blocks prevent his projectile spam from reaching you, and the platform layout is horrible for him. Plus you can get easy KO's to the side with anything really, including throws. This stage does not particularly counter Link though, because it's really easy to make it back to the stage once off. The blast-zones are kinda small.
2. Frigate Orpheon. Why? This stage is similar to Green Greens in the respect that it's small. The stages size prevents the overuse of projectiles, and allows you to fight close-combat more easily. Plus you can wall cling all over the place, and the stage on the right side has a long blastzone, so he'll likely fall too far down to make it back up the ledge-less right edge. You should be good enough to control the match and keep him on the right side(for the most part, or at least send him off the stage in that direction most of the time). Good stage. The stage flip? So? It's an itty bitty teeny tiny area in the middle where he can duck down and be projectile master. You've got good approach options against him, figure it out. There's a ledge now though, but who cares? He'll still be too low vertically to make it back if you Extreme-Hog, or whatever it's called.
3. Delfino Plaza. This stage can set up for easy gimps, if you abuse his terrible recovery correctly. Also worthy of note is that all of the stopping points have smallish blastzones. They're very close.
-Erich - Yoshi's Island: One of Link's favorite stages. Set's up easily for Gale Guard, and is overall a stage that Link excels at.
- Rainbow Cruise: Link completely dominates at this stage. The moving platforms set up perfectly for his bombs and boomerangs. Honestly, playing a Link on this stage is just asking for trouble.
--It is not necessary to post in here. If you have any problems with any of the information, or you think anything should be added, post here, in the Stickied Match-Up Discussion, or send me a PM.
