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[MU] Shulk

RighteousWednesday

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 29, 2014
Messages
6
Location
MA
Anyone have any tips for dealing with Shulk as link? i just faced someone playing as shulk in my first tournament and got destroyed. He just seems to space link and his monado allowed him to outspeed me and air combo me off stage. He was also blocking like every projectile i had and would punish me with a grab after. Any body else have trouble with this matchup?
 

Jade_Rock55

Smash Lord
Joined
Oct 4, 2013
Messages
1,047
3DS FC
4656-7001-2336
Space him out with your long range projectiles and grab building damage til you get an opening for a smash.
 

HarryTheChin

Smash Ace
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Messages
815
(^ adding on to that)and if your spacing isn't doing much help try throwing out a Zair (hook shot in the air) to get in easier following up with either an f-tilt, dash attack, d-smash, or f-smash. It's a mix-up so don't rely on it too much. works best when they are right about to jump off the ground. Regularly, short hop Fairs and Nairs are good to throwout at your opponent in neutral (when you aren't holding onto a bomb or throwing out a rang.) since both moves have pretty quick start up and not as much end lag.

If you have ever played Brawl competitively (as a Link) then I would shape my style of play as if I would be going up against an Ike. For the most part, they are pretty similar, move-set wise.

I would counter pick to Battlefield/Yoshi's since it adds platforms which non-projectile characters don't seem to shine as much.

Hope this helps.
 
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Cattribal

Smash Rookie
Joined
Oct 3, 2014
Messages
6
(^ adding on to that)and if your spacing isn't doing much help try throwing out a Zair (hook shot in the air) to get in easier following up with either an f-tilt, dash attack, d-smash, or f-smash. It's a mix-up so don't rely on it too much. works best when they are right about to jump off the ground. Regularly, short hop Fairs and Nairs are good to throwout at your opponent in neutral (when you aren't holding onto a bomb or throwing out a rang.) since both moves have pretty quick start up and not as much end lag.

If you have ever played Brawl competitively (as a Link) then I would shape my style of play as if I would be going up against an Ike. For the most part, they are pretty similar, move-set wise.

I would counter pick to Battlefield/Yoshi's since it adds platforms which non-projectile characters don't seem to shine as much.

Hope this helps.
Can you clarify a bit more what you mean about fighting Ike? I didn't play a ton of Brawl, and I didn't main Link in it, but I find Ike and Shulk to be by far my two hardest matchups on 3DS (followed by Robin, whose fire move really troubles my projectile game).
 

Jade_Rock55

Smash Lord
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Oct 4, 2013
Messages
1,047
3DS FC
4656-7001-2336
I would counter pick to Battlefield/Yoshi's since it adds platforms which non-projectile characters don't seem to shine as much
Hope this helps.
I suggest final destination since he can't use platforms to go over your projectiles and his short hop nair and fair and bair can hit you easily.Shulk is worst at fast combo characters with projectiles IMO like zzs and sheik.
 

HarryTheChin

Smash Ace
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Messages
815
tbh just spam projectiles rofl

down-b is ur friend. Bomb is harder to deflect than the Gale boomerang and with the new lag canceling item toss AT it is a tool that is essential for any type of good spacing since it allows you to use arrow much like quick draw arrow into instant bomb toss on the ground.

When sending your opponents off stage (at higher percents (around 90-above range)) I usually go for a running wave-bounce fully charged arrow and 50% of the time (if you have good aiming/timing) will be able to gimp vertical based up-b recovery characters much easily (Ike, Shulk, Marth/Lucina, etc.) because this requires them to air-dodge in order to avoid being KO'd.

I may be speaking out of my ass since I never have went up against a competitive Shulk main at tournament level as of yet and this game has really barely been out for about two weeks.. But if you have played any other iteration of smash base it around match-ups such as Marth or even non-projectile users. IMO, the key thing is to know how to properly space around these types of characters and somewhere in that spacing you find an opening and go in and capitalize. Smash 4 doesn't really have any "true" combos so use Link's full range and arsenal to your advantage. A good way to practice spacing is by using Toon Link a couple of times and running around as he is much quicker.

The only thing that I am not entirely sure on is Shulk's neutral special (Monado Arts) which is a completely new and different type of ability that the previously mentioned sword chars don't have..

and yeah, I retract my statement about picking a platform stage. FD is going to be your best bet.

I mean other than that I think I have covered most of the important bits albeit it might be a bit vague to you guys LOL.

Shulk probably doesn't have that much of an off stage game so recovering as Link should be fairly standard.
 
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Jade_Rock55

Smash Lord
Joined
Oct 4, 2013
Messages
1,047
3DS FC
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Shulk has an offstage game by using jump which multiplies jump and air air speed by a lot. His nair and fair have great range and dair meteor smashes.He can recover from almost the bottom corner but he weighs less so edgeguard.
 

imnotdannyboy

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 11, 2013
Messages
52
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Bellingham, Washington
NNID
Ianjohn
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Shulk main butting in. Projectiles are hard ****. If we go buster, punish heavily with projectiles. If you really wanna space me out, learn to do that thing where you grab a bomb, then shoot an arrow in midair, and right when you hit the ground release it and press down-b to toss the bomb. Do that with some boomerangs and decent spacing and I'll back off a bit, letting you rack on some damage.

My most common approach is to nair you while jumping over you. This can be punished by rolling just after I commit to the nair, then grabbing or tilting or even smashing. If I turn on speed, I might nair or I might aggressively turnaround grab. You can counter by putting up distance and stop using arrows or bombs as they;re a bit too committal. Just keep your boomerang out, then hide in shield and grab when I get close.

I think Toon Link has a really good vs Shulk matchup, and while Link's is probably a bit weaker, it's quite doable.

FD is definitely the best map to counterpick on. After that, Yoshi's. I think Shulk has the easiest time on BF due to utilts and uthrows.
 
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Jade_Rock55

Smash Lord
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If someone counters jumping Nair's approaching I just use shield and wait for you to come as arrows won't kill.
 

Jade_Rock55

Smash Lord
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Because he can see the future so in his head everything is in slow motion...wait doesn't make sense I am confused!Shulk OP eyes!
 

TheBuzzSaw

Young Link Extraordinaire
Moderator
BRoomer
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Jul 21, 2005
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Shulk can also be gimped with Link's fast fall nair while recovering.

As others have stated, keep the projectile pressure up. Try to chain attacks into a grab.
 
Joined
Jun 8, 2009
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18,990
Shulk main here also whose brother has been a competitive Link since... Smash 64. Note that this has custom movesets involved

Projectiles are your best friend against Shulk. Avoid using the bow though especially against speed. Shulk players are likely to use jump or speed over buster anyway in the match up. Boomerangs and bombs are great. If the Shulk's using enduring back slash, just punish it IF you don't take that much hitsun. If you're % is around... I'm not sure like... 60-80%+? Well, idk. The only retaliation against EBS if you're at a moderately high % is don't spam projectiles. By spam, I meant don't just throw it out for the **** of keeping Shulk away or putting a wall of spam (Because that's punishable and it's not gonna work). Be smart with them. I think you can try luring Shulk to use EBS then punish. Not sure how since I haven't seen a proper retaliation yet but I'm sure you guys can think of something. Just be super defensive. Always have a bomb ready if the Shulk you're fighting has dash vision ready because Shulk dashes for the attack when he counters which is effective against campers. He can be hit out of it by throwing out another projectile

DO NOT throw out f-smash or dash attack a lot. If countered, it's gonna suck for you and plus, it's not hard to telegraph so don't risk it. Stick to d-smash or FF n-air. I should also note that if you whiff d-smash (which is stupid), the 2nd hit will leave you vulnerable to back slash (I think but this worked on some characters).

The tricky part in recovering as Link is when Shulk goes on jump. If he properly spaces f-air, you'll be hit out of spin attack. If he just plainly uses b-air, that's probably gonna seal a stock. To be honest, I've only landed f-air on spin attack like 1/16 times. I usually am hit by spin attack whenever I attempt to f-air so I'd just stick to b-air which is a bit harder to land but it's pretty safe. Just prepare your anus when your sent off stage. Shulk's edgeguarding is ridiculous especially with jump. IMO, just use z-air for recovering unless you need vertical height, then use spin attack and hope Shulk doesn't use d-air on it

Edgeguarding Shulk (Not on jump) isn't that hard. Edgeguarding jump Shulk may be tricky but N-air does stuff. I'm talking about Link's n-air. It's probably fast enough to stop Shulk's n-air before it even happens. One trick as a Shulk player I use is full hop nair to air slash. If you're fast enough and close enough (Fast fall m8), you can probably counter this. I think.

Against shield Shulk, well... Just projectile spam. Won't do much but he won't do much either unless he n-airs his way through which can be punished or not depending on how well spaced it is. My brother at first was pretty iffy on this because he was under the notion that I could easily zip through with jump or speed but if you apply enough projectile pressure, it won't be as annoying as it seems. The match up's tricky but it's not hopeless at all (nor even reminiscent of hopeless)



Same goes for TL in this one except it's slightly easier for TL (Plus, he has some differences which either don't help at all or help against Shulk) but still kinda of tricky anyway.

tl;dr: Projectile spam. Sure, Shulks can SHFF n-air all day but it's pretty punishable imo (This may vary). Just don't be dum. Be smart. Boom. You win. Projectile pressure will be the key for winning here

It sounds difficult but (it kinda isn't) if you keep up projectile pressure very well, you probably wouldn't have to worry about Shulk for the most part


Oh and one mistake everyone makes is that they assume Shulk sucks ass because most of the Shulks online suck. And when they go against an actual good Shulk, they drop their ****. Don't use the tactics you use against Bad shulks be used against good Shulks. >_____>

Seriously, this helps

Shulk sounds OP lol
Nah
 
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LightLelouch89

Smash Cadet
Joined
Oct 20, 2014
Messages
40
shulk's reach can be a pain. If I'm fighting him up and close, like Rosalina, I find zair to be a pretty useful counter when he is close and spamming fair/nair. I also like to bait out attacks by conditioning shulky into thinking I'm gonna throw three jabs, only to throw one, dodge and then quickly counter.
 

Sheik_Pwns

Smash Apprentice
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Sep 2, 2007
Messages
157
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Miami Gardens, FL
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aluran
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Up-B is what i sometimes use to get shulk off of me other than that i try nair to down-tilt or job combos
 
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