[MU] Villager

[O1DsLeNdYwHiTe]

Any insight on this match-up will be well appreciated. What can I contribute to my play-style to go toe-to-toe with a well-versed Villager player? What approaches can I take when stepping into this match-up?

 

[Disaster-sama]

I had a match against a very skilled villager last week. I couldn't do much against him but I'll try to upload the set if it crontributes to the thread.
Some things I notice were:

• Low stage recovery against him is useless. He can send the pot diagonally down and throw the bowling ball downwards to gimp full vertical recovery. Also, I recommend banning wuhu island against him.
• Close quarters is dangerous, he has the MK-like fast nair attack.
• Side-b into grab mixup. Same mixup ZSS players use with neutral-b into grab.

I'm still struggling to figure the appropiate neutral against them. I noted that soft throwing the bomb near them works in Link's favor, just have to space it correctly so they don't pocket them.

 

[Dumbfire]

I camp -- I camp like ****. I stay at the range where Fairs and Bairs can barely hurt me. Then when he's close, lots of Utilt and Jab. I did lose to one in tournament recently, it is rather difficult.

 

[O1DsLeNdYwHiTe]

At a distance, they tend to lash out that tricky loid rocket combined with their approach and pressuring antics, not to mention the precise fair and bair spacing. And in Cqc, Villager is just as dangerous, because he has solid options such as nair out of shield, the d-tilt with accurate spacing and immense knock back, and that f-tilt comes out so fast, I often have trouble properly reacting to it. Not to mention the lingering hit-box on dair is rather bothersome to deal with.

So I suppose the question is, what are the safest options a Link can take when combating a good Villager? How do you counter their camping and pressuring game?

 

[Elessar]

So I suppose the question is, what are the safest options a Link can take when combating a good Villager? How do you counter their camping and pressuring game?

I believe that a very good option we have, and which seems to always be overlooked and forgotten, is the Hylian shield. That shield stops every projectile villager has, even his bowling ball.

Check out this video. I forget the time but it's important to watch it.

 

[O1DsLeNdYwHiTe]

I believe that a very good option we have, and which seems to always be overlooked and forgotten, is the Hylian shield. That shield stops every projectile villager has, even his bowling ball.

Check out this video. I forget the time but it's important to watch it.

Interesting, I suppose that's one mistake I'm making. Good Villagers often use the loid rockets to pressure a jump, and they often punish it with an immediate fair. Sometimes I'll manage to keep my composure and avoid jumping, but that often leads to me getting punished for remaining stationary, for villagers often run alongside the loids in order to further capitalize and priortize it. This covers the option to simply jump over the loid, shield it, or even roll back. I find myself stuck in this situation quite a bit.

And in regards to the hylian shield, Villagers short hop fair and bairs manage to go just high enough to where slingshots will constantly collide with Link's head. It's rather irratating to say the least.

So is the solution that we should remain more conservative and patient? What exactly am I doing wrong In that particular scenario?

 

[Elessar]

So is the solution that we should remain more conservative and patient? What exactly am I doing wrong In that particular scenario?

It's hard to say exactly what you're doing wring without seen footage of you playing vs a Villager. However, yeah, usually the idea is to outspam Villager.

 

[Zelkam]

When dealing with the Lloid, remember that you can always attack it as well. If I'm not mistaken, the Lloid rocket will explode on contact with any hurtbox or hitbox. Seeing as how Link has disjointed attacks, this means you can hit it with jab, ftilt, fsmash, or whatever you like. You can also throw out your own projectiles to counter it. All of your projectiles will stop it, and bombs will even push through if it hits the Lloid during the latter half of its flight.

 

[O1DsLeNdYwHiTe]

Any insight on slingshot spam / spacing? Does Link have any options against that?

 

[mackman]

So, this is just from my FG experience, so take it with a grain of salt. In my experience, Nair is amazing in this matchup. It comes out instantly, blocks the slingshot, and is practically lagless. When you approach, use Nair. When HE approaches, use Nair. Basically, just use Nair all the time.

 

[Goulmania]

I don't have much to say in regards to this matchup because I haven't experienced it very often, but here's how I think it should be played:

Bombs are your friend, it eats the slingshot, the explosion may touch villager through the Lloid and tree furthermore, pocketing a bomb is pretty much a waste of the ability compared to the boomerang or arrows, so trick him into pocketing it instead of the other two.

When recovering throw something at him and quickly use the clawshot the get back. If he's charging his Fsmash near the ledge, a well placed upB can knock him out of it.

Don't bother edgeguarding him, keep your stage control instead, set up bombs and wait for him to get back.

If you feel uncomfortable outcamping him with 85% bombs, you can rush him down with advancing fastfall Nairs and well placed fastfall Fairs.

Also for the Lloid into grab mix-up, watch what he's doing when the Lloid is out, short hop Nair over the Lloid covers most of his follow-up options but you should mix it up yourself since he might catch on and shield grab you (blocking the Lloid and shield grabbing him yourself might catch him off-guard).

in the end I think this matchup is all about who dicates the pace of the game. We have to force villager to camp on our terms, not his.