Help with the Puff matchup

[YurWill]

Getting into local tournies and so far the hardest matchup for me is puff. Really struggling to set up kills with her being such a lightweight. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Soupeschleg]

There's a local puff player that has always given me trouble too. Floaty matchups, eh?

Anyway, the only advice I can give is to move in and out of shield a lot. When puff is in the air, they can't grab you, so you're free to shield. Luigi is so mobile even when shielding thanks to WD so you can still punish their landing. Dair, nair, and upsmash can kill of the top. Do **** out of D-throw.

Take it slow. Vudujin is hella good against floaty characters, so I'd recommend watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5rZCrbxNxA

 

[BluEG]

I'll write some stuff up eventually.

Credentials: school with hbox for 3 years...I've got a lot I can share.

 

[Thomdore]

Upsmash OOS/ Nair is really good way too kill puff (at 80-90%). I also feel like ftilt and utilt is viable, and possibly bair. Always wanna dthrow puff, for possible turn around fair/dair. It's really a battle of spaceing and surpriseing. Wavedash dsmash is not the best approach against puff, cause she always opt for aerials so rather go for upsmash and bait their aerials. Go in with shield and wdash OOS for Usmash is also great. Should be a doable match, but Luigi suffer from his slow recovery and can get edgeguarded really well..so burning DJ early on stage is not a great choice

 

[Mariokartmoney]

Luigi's Wavedash Dsmash BnB approach won't work on Puff because she's in the air 90% of the time. What usually works for me is Wavedash Usmash. If they're pestering you with aerials, don't be afraid to shield and punish with Usmash or really any aerial. Oh, and always punish a whiffed rest with Up-B (Seriously that s*** kills her at like 55%)

 

[Zappdos]

Approach facing away more.

 

[Verda Stelo]

Learn to throw fireballs and watch how your opponent reacts to them. The animation is a little long for fireballs to be a real neutral-defining option but properly spaced (maximum range at least) they can force your opponent to act in some way that you can react to and punish. Puff shields? Wavedash grab. Puff jumps forward? Wavedash usmash. Backward? You own all that space now. Puff jumps twice? Now you can position yourself directly under them which is really hard for Puff to deal with with his mostly horizontal hitboxes. If they keep jumping you can keep using your movement to force Puff to try to find either a safe place to land or a different angle to attack you from.
A good opponent will begin to recognize the situation and what you're doing before too long and that's when the world of mindgames gets really deep by subverting your opponent's expectations. For example one time I shot a fireball, my opponent baired over it (this is the default response!!), I walked forward slightly, ducked the bair, utilt -> fair combo. These kind of player versus player interactions are the heart of the floaty matchups and why I consider Puff one of my favorite matchups, despite the havoc his uair can wreak on Luigi and I don't think I even need to mention the struggle of recovery. Just try to above Puff if you can.

 

[BluEG]

Puff is an interesting match up. Normally for match up advice I'd say stay grounded in the neutral etc. But I find an aerial approach on Puff to actually be a key component in playing against her. With careful spacing and spamming of Dair, Bair, or Upair, interspersed with DJ -> Nair, and L-Canceled Nairs, Luigi can create his own 'Wall of Pain' that can compete with Puff's and prevent her from entering your space. Often, you'll even get trades. (thinking hitting a 80% puff with dair as they attempt to upair. you get free kills). Bonus points if you use platforms to ledgecancel bairs and Nairs.

Also, on the subject of the Nair. Guys. Nair kills puff at like 80-85%. If I lose a stock and I'm at a super low %, I literally throw my self at puff and let her do w/e and then Smash Di into her and immediately Nair. It's so free!
And another awesome way to combo into Nair is to Soft Nair! You can just float around the map and catch Puff with a late nair and then just DJ and kill her with a Strong one.

I find my self in the air about equal if not more than the time on the ground in the neutral vs Puff. When I'm in the air, I'm basically doing this ^.
But you always gotta keep your opponent guessing.

Alongside the aerial spamming, I play a ground game of basically pokes and grabs. Puff can crouch cancel -> rest stuff like Down-smash, Up smash and Ftilt at low % so be careful of that. But essentially zip across the stage with wavelands after spamming aerials and use dash cancelled -> Upsmashes and spaced F-Tilts. Scare her into shield and grab or jab into grab.

Luigi has great grab punishs on puff. One thing I usually try not to do is pummel, to raise chances of her missing DI on down throw. DThrow -> Chop leads to a lot of early stocks.

At lower percents I like to UpThrow into which ever aerial they Di for, usually an UpAir.

Mid % DThrow into Nair/Chop

FThrow -> WD -> Regrab

at like 60%-70%
FThrow -> WD -> Dash -> UpSmash is a favorite of mine.

So yeah.
Recovery is hard. If you're offstage you're as good as dead against Puff. Just stay on stage. Use fireballs and UpAirs to protect you're coming back. And try not to use the missile unless you ABSOLUTELY have to. Puff will just hit you out of it every time.

 

[Verda Stelo]

I'm not sure that any stages truly favor Puff in this matchup. Some are debatable and certainly come down to personal preference and the Puff's playstyle but consider each stage:

• YS - A debatable one, considering that there isn't much stage to land on if you're getting hit at higher percents, and rests will kill slightly earlier. Luigi's killing power on Puff is much better than vice versa without edgeguarding, which happens less on this stage, but you do have the wall, shy guys, and Randall to work with. The neutral game can be cramped but this hurts Puff at least as much as Luigi.
• FoD - The blast zones aren't the most ideal for Luigi, but he maintains his killing power and his movement is far less hampered by the platforms. Usmash through platforms will make Puffs sad if they get caught by it. Like YS, you can up B safely at mid-stage, which partially mitigates the high ceiling as well.
• PS - All that horizontal space with a low ceiling. The transformations will generally favor Luigi unless you get caught up in a really sick rest setup off wall bounces/techs or moving platforms.
• DL - Probably Puff's best stage because he can live forever, but those same blast zones allow Luigi to recover as high as possible, and you know Luigi kills Puff better than the other way around. On stage you're less likely to get knocked off at higher percents and there's so much area for Luigi to control with his wavedash and fireball.
• FD - Not being able to follow up or threaten Puff at heights is a disadvantage but Puff loses much more from not being able to refresh jumps on platforms. The ceiling is low too. Fireball zoning is at its strongest here thanks to Puff's limited options in the air.
• BF - The neutral stage in the matchup. No significant advantages or disadvantages are given to either character, which arguably makes it Luigi's worst possible choice.

These are just my opinions on the stages drawn from experience and discussion with other players from other perspectives. I'm pretty sure I already said it but I love this matchup and consider myself relatively good at it. Unfortunately even with all of this uair still outspaces all of Luigi's aerials and edgeguarding is free for Puff meaning he still wins the matchup overall.