I'm also not sure how to play this MU, do we rush him down or do we try the game of attrition.
let's see,
I had the chance to go up against HolyNightmare and HoH AKAgenesis, here's how I think we should play that match-up.
first up, if you can get rid of smashville do it. This stage gives him mobility while charging his gyro on the plateform and it's dangerous for link to go up there to prevent it.
NEUTRAL
In the neutral you want to watch out for his 2 projectiles and keep track of his laser charge. At 80% you must play against grab because if you do get grabbed you're dead to Dthrow>Uair. At around 100-110% it becomes a 50/50 on the airdodge read.
it's best to keep him at sword lenght and just weave in and out of that range. (weave out to pull out a bomb or throw a boomerang and weave in to pressure and punish his attempts to relieve that pressure.)
You can pressure him with jabs, Fairs and Zairs.
You can get some good % with jab setups in grab and tilts because he is big and heavy.
What do I do if I can't get close?
Simple, try harder! I assume you can't get close because of a pesky gyro spinning of the floor, grab it and ROB will come to you! If the gyro is not on the field, you can just walk up to him and shield his stuff while being careful of the grab mix-up. You can then proceed to pressure him with jabs
LASER
The laser is the main reason why I think ROB should be kept at sword length, a good rob will get free punishes as we pull out bombs and search for that boomerang in that infinite pocket of ours.
The big laser destroys bombs while the small one does not.
GYRO
Grab the gyro if you can, it can be very anoying for rob if you camp him with his gyro in hand. You can "bombslide" the gyro which can lead to fair, RAR bair>Up-B and possibly other stuff as well be creative
.
You can also toss it down to punish neutral get up on the ledge and do some gyro set-ups of your own. This can lead to up smash easily and maybe Fsmash (yet to be tested).
if you don't feel confident in your gyro play just toss it up so it's out of play longer.
if he leaves his gyro on the ledge as you try to recover you have few options:
- let got of the ledge double jump>fair and try to catch the gyro (if he read that and catches you before you hit the ground you're probably dead since you'll be off-stage without a jump)
- roll, but don't do that since he's most likely waiting for an Usmash
- if you have a bomb you can ledge jump, toss it down to cover you escape and return to neutral.
- you can also stay on the ledge and wait it out, He may commit to a Dair or Dilt, this may give you the time to ledge roll away. Carful not to get baited though!
also of note, if you Zair his gyro while it's flying at you it will bounce back and you will win the trade.
ROB's main spacing tools are Fair, Nair and Dtilt.
NAIR
They love to drop down with Nair since it has no landing lag. Whatever you do, don't try to shield grab it, you will get punished for it. You can punish it while he's in the air with Fair or Nair if you do it before the fire comes to your side (it begins below and goes clockwise)
FAIR
If you think they'll go for a Fair just bait it and up tilt or shield grab it, you will not win against it with your own aerials.
DTILT
There's nothing we can do against Dtilt other than back off, I find myself jumping over ROB and try to convert from the 1st hit of Bair more often than not when I think they'll go for Dtilt. If they shield, jump back boomerang or Nair should keep you safe enough.
EDIT: Offstage game
When you're off stage, you want to mix-up your recovery not to get spiked, I prefer to use the clawshot against rob, either reel-in before he can react or delay to avoid the spike.
When he's off stage you want to wait for up-B and throw bombs at him in the hope that you can convert into Dair or Fair. Dont just Dair him since his Uair beats it and you will loose stage control or even worst, it can end up stage spiking link.
How do I get the kill?
I find Dthrow>Uair pretty easy to lend on ROB from about 105% to 120%, you can also bait the airdodge after Dthrow and make him land in a charged Usmash.
Fair is now a good option to zone and kill from neutral which is nice.
His weigh also makes him prone to jab setups like jab2>Up-B/Usmash/Fsmash
if all else fails Uthrow at 170% but let's not think about it too much! D:
OVERVIEW
I covered the basics of how I think this matchup should be played, the rest is pretty much situational. You have to respect his options and his camping game since he has one of the few projectiles that can beat the bomb. He is a camper though so if you get in his space he will try to relieve pressure and that when you can get the %.
Hope I helped a little!
