Neutral: Roy outspaces Fox with moves like SHFF nair, dtilt, jab, and ftilt, but Fox is also very mobile with his great dash and perfect pivot. Fox can maneuver around Roy's pokes fairly well, weaving in and out of his optimal range, but there isn't much he can do until Roy makes a mistake, since as a fastfaller and lightweight, Fox pays dearly for his own mistakes. Overall, Roy wants to carefully approach Fox, threatening him with his pokes and pushing him to the ledge, where Fox can no longer run away and is at a greater risk of dying off the side. +1
Roy far away from the opponent: Fox does have his laser to poke from far away, but Roy is fast enough to easily close the distance while Fox is firing, making laser unsafe. 0
Roy at mid range away from the opponent: This is Roy's optimal range for spacing. Fox's only option at this range is ftilt, which is still outspaced by dtilt and nair. However, Fox can also punish some moves on whiff, such as ftilt, at this range, so Roy must still play carefully. +1
Roy in close combat: This is where Fox can apply pressure to Roy. Fox has incredibly fast normals at this range, such as frame 2 jab, frame 3 utilt, and frame 4 nair, while Roy's fastest normals are jab and uair, both at frame 5. Roy can dish out a lot of pain at this range, and his jab is still a strong tool, but Fox is still at advantage here. -1
Roy edgeguarding: Roy has very solid edgeguarding tools, but Fox has an incredible recovery, being able to come back from almost anywhere offstage. Fire Fox and illusion are both punishable, especially an illusion onto the stage, but because he can mixup between the two of them, it's important for Roy to try and read Fox's recovery and punish accordingly. On the bright side, because fair and bair are very strong, a proper edgeguard will most likely result in a dead Fox. 0/+1?
Roy on recovery: One of the hardest parts of the matchup, for sure. Roy's recovery is not the best, and Fox is very good at gimping with moves like nair, bair, and even shine. It's very important for Roy to save his double jump and keep it from getting stolen, which is unfortunately much easier said than done. Blazer does have super armor, allowing it to power through attacks and potentially stage spike Fox, which will, at worst, leave Roy at advantage if Fox techs. Blazer also does have some flexibility in the angle you can recover from, allowing you to sometimes save your double jump, but this is situational. -1
Roy at an advantage: Fox is a lightweight fastfaller, which makes him very comboable and susceptible to early kills, but he also has jab and nair to try and poke out of combos. Shine also boosts Fox a bit into the air when used out of hitstun, potentially making juggles harder. Fox is unlikely to airdodge out of dthrow due to the threat of an fsmash read, but this leaves him susceptible to followups that otherwise would not be viable, such as fair at mid to high percents. +1
Roy at a disadvantage: Roy is also a fastfaller, which makes him very easy for Fox to combo as well. Dthrow > fair works for a long time and has a lot of dangerous followups, and Roy has a hard time getting out of utilt strings. DI down at 0-20% allows Roy to avoid fh fair, which prevents Fox from following up with dj uair. However, Fox can still connect sh fair, which can lead to a mixup where he either fastfalls and causes Roy to hit the ground, leading to a combo on missed tech and a techchase otherwise, or performs the full fair and gets guaranteed damage. At higher percents you cannot avoid the fh fair with DI down, but you can DI away during the fair to avoid the dj uair, though Fox can follow up with dj fair instead, albeit for less damage. (I'm still not sure if there are better DI options for Fox's combos, since I haven't had much time to test things out. If anybody knows better options, that would be great.) -1
