Help with the Diddy match-up

[Klauis2915]

Can you guys tell me how to play this match up? I'm having a lot of troubles with Diddy Kong.

 

[DMan64]

I haven't played as Robin in a long time, but hopefully I can remember some things. Also the advice I may give may be stuff you've heard before, but hopefully it can help.

The key thing you need to keep in mind with Diddy are his key strengths, mainly his excellent neutral.
What makes it so good of course is banana, but even without it, he is incredibly nimble, being able to we've through a lot of what Robin can throw at him with the using of crouching and monkey flip.
Perhaps the most important thing of course his ledge trapping game with banana, which is extremely bad for Robin given her lackluster recovery game and disadvantage state.
This obvious makes Diddy Kong a very bad match-up for Robin, one of her/his hardest ones actually.

So with that said there are a few things Robin has over Diddy however.

1. Power: Robin hits hard and with Diddy being rather light, you can KO him pretty early.
2. Range: Aside from the obvious use of projectiles, it is also important to utilize the Levin Sword to space out Diddy. In fact if you space LS Fair just right so that it auto cancels, it is extremely hard to punish, not to mention a sword typically wins over limbs so work on spacing especially.
3. Reward: While Diddy Kong has a fantastic neutral, he actually doesn't get much off of it, whereas Robin gets a lot for what she/he is looking for, despite an average neutral, so knowing how and when to press Robin's amazing advantage state is important.

Now when it comes to tactics there are a few things you should do.

1. Stages: It is almost, nay, never a good idea to fight Diddy on a flat stage, Robin has a very hard time landing, so a stage with platforms like BF, Lylat, of Town and City are your best friends since it helps Robin land easier.
2. Landing : Though landing with Robin is tricking their are some things that can help. Notably, B-reversing neutral B is great since you are shifting your moment around. Make sure you mix it up though, land with up-air or come down with bair if your opponents behind you, the ultimate key is to mix it up.
3. Edge-guarding Diddy: This is a tricky part, since Diddy can get away from edge-guarding easily. One thing to note is that most Diddy players like to recover high, and b-reverse neutral B to throw opponents off, with that being able to respond to that is key, and I'd recommend having Thoron charged because of it's power, range, and duration to which you could catch Diddy's landing. If they are recovering closer to the stage, having Arcthunder and ready is a good idea. With it you could potential hit side with it and go for Ignis (Arcthunder to Dair which launches as if it were a horizontal meteor hit) or grab to Checkmate. Arcfire of course can be used to keep Diddy on the ledge and bait the player to do something.
4. Recovery: This is the hardest part, but there are ways around this. For starters, if you watch Dath, notice how he sometimes weaves around or fast falls around opponents to not get hit. Knowing how far Robin's recovery goes is key so keep that in mind. As for getting off the ledge, you could try to come up with an attack, to either bait Diddy to shield or hit him away and grab the banana. Aside from that you just need to make sure you do one thing, DON"T LET DIDDY HAVE YOU OFF STAGE!

If none of that works, it may help to pick up a secondary character to help in that match-up. See as Robin is a zone based character, Olimar would be your best bet, given that Diddy actually has a surprisingly bad match-up against him.

I hope that was able to help, and hopefully you can find some use out of this. Also if you have any questions about other match-ups that are troublesome, don't be afraid to go to other forums and ask someone there about the characters strengths and weaknesses, you'd be surprised at how much that can actually help. If you want me to give you advice on another character I'd be happy to help however I can.