R.O.B. Matchup Analysis #20 - Shulk

[GwJ]

I'm really fee-getting sick of that joke

 

[Ze Diglett]

From my experience, this matchup is pretty close to even, although Shulk does have an advantage. Many of his attacks clash with the Gyro, making him somewhat difficult to zone out, and all of R.O.B.'s aerials are beaten by all of his. Shulk can also devastate us offstage with Fair chains and Dair spikes. He also outranges R.O.B. from a melee standpoint (albeit not by a whole lot), although we can easily harass him with Lasers beyond that range. His recovery isn't exactly the greatest in the game and his recovery options are really easily limited by Gyro alone.
Matchup ratio is somewhere around 45:55 or 40:60, Shulk's favor. Again, pretty close to even.
Source: Friendlies with Ze Dewott

 

[Lord Xanthan]

From my experience, this matchup is pretty close to even, although Shulk does have an advantage. Many of his attacks clash with the Gyro, making him somewhat difficult to zone out, and all of R.O.B.'s aerials are beaten by all of his. Shulk can also devastate us offstage with Fair chains in Jump mode. He also outranges R.O.B. from a melee standpoint (albeit not by a whole lot), although we can easily harass him with Lasers beyond that range. His recovery isn't exactly the greatest in the game and his recovery options are really easily limited by Gyro and Dair.
Matchup ratio is somewhere around 45:55 or 40:60, Shulk's favor. Again, pretty close to even.
Source: Friendlies with Ze Dewott

The gyro's work pretty well against me when I try to approach as Shulk. The frequency that it can be used is quite frustrating whenever I play against a Rob. I am still somewhat inexperienced as a Shulk main and this matchup in general but iirc, Rob's aerials seem to come out faster than Shulk's. So use that to your advantage.

 

[Syde7]

I give this a slight advantage to Shulk, but will be 100% happy calling it 50/50, but will go so far as to reasonably accept a 40:60 (Shulk's favor).
Biggest things to consider in this MU, from a character standpoint:

1. I am unsure of the Monadao Arts Cancel (MAC) is still in after the most recent patch. If it is still in, I will assume the player can do this with decent enough consistency to make use of it in a tournament set. Under that assumption, this MU gets significantly tougher. MAC enables him to (pseudo)L-Cancel his aerials, which gives him a ton less landing lag. Couple that with his already ludicrous range, and Shulk plays like an entirely different character.
   
2. I am assuming that the Shulk is making optimal, creative usage of his Monado Arts.
3. Knowing the Monado's +/- almost as well as the Shulk player; in terms of what he can do in each stance in each situation. This potentially is one of the deeper MU's to learn (anyone vs. Shulk) in the game.

The being said... onto my notes:

• I feel that if the Shulk is making near perfect use of the Arts in various match situations, that the MU is much, much more difficult.
  • Shield makes it tough to for us to get KO's, making us more susceptible to chip damage (that can later come back to bite us if he chooses to use Smash).
    • Depending on the percentage he uses this, this can be a + and - for him, though; as it may allow us to essentially "Re-combo" him (that is to say, use set-ups/strings/ combos that work at mid percents at the higher percents, which thereby increases his damage and makes KOing w/ tons of other moves after Shield wears off viable.
  • Jump makes it significantly easier for him to pressure us from below (something ROB is inherently susceptible to) using U-airs, diagonally below using N- and F-airs, and from the side via F- and B-airs. It also allows him to be more aggressive with his edgeguards.
    • Granted, this makes him fall a bit faster, which can lock him into combos/strings longer than he would like.
  • Speed, paired with powershielding our projectiles makes it significantly easier for him to get in on us/to his optimal range, while speeding up his various tools and aerials. Once he gets into that range, he can then utilize MAC to make the most of it with well-spaced aerials (to safely pressure shield) or to get hits.
    • However, the downside of the speed is that it lessens his jump height. This helps us continue strings by disabling him from jumping out of them, and potentially even making him waste a jump that could set up for all sorts of tasty rewards (gimps, high damage, bad positions, etc).
  • If he is in Smash, keep in mind that he takes increased knockback as well as dealing it. This is a great time to look for a somewhat early/unconventional KO option (basically un-nerfing our U-throw, lol; as well as lots of other stuffs that won't kill to much later percentages.. depending of course on his percentage.)
    • If he's at high % in Smash mode and ROB is at low % = Solid KO opportunity for ROB.
    • If he's at low %, and ROB is at high % = ROB needs to gtfo and space/camp
      
    • If both players are at high percent = Either go for the KO (if you've been winning neutral consistently or have a solid read on him) or camp/runaway (if you've been losing neutral consistently or are having a hard time reading him).
    • If both are at low %... ?Why is he using Smash? (aside from maaaaybe taking more knockback so as not to get combo'd as easily?)
• Of course, if Shulk is making poor usage of his Monado, then the paradigm changes completely (but I'm operating on the assumption of the characters being played at their relative peak performance).
• Shulk has comparably fast (not necc faster or slow, just around the same speed) on his aerials, with the boon of having range that trumps ours. However, the cooldown is real. If he doesn't MAC the aerials, you can generally retaliate with a quick, well spaced aerial of your own
  • In reference to the above, it seems like a lot of Shulk players like to utilize their aerials (due to their range) when getting launched at those mid-percents (where their opponent could potentially follow up) more than most characters. This serves as a great way/time to bait out those aerials, in a position where they can't cancel the cooldown, to punish accordingly (grab, smash, or pivot grab/smash/tilt if they are falling close to the ground in range, an aerial of your choice/situationally relevant if in the air).
• In a completely neutral stance (in this regard, meaning no Monado's being active), the MAC adds to his game a great deal, as I touched on briefly before. It provides him significantly safer options, both offensively and defensively. However, the downside to this is that he could potentially burn a Monado that would be quite useful. But, I feel that a Shulk should know his Monado lineup, and know what ones he can 'burn' via the cancel in each situation.
• Shulk's angled F-smash is real. The range is absurd, and the potential AoE via tilting is surprisingly large due to it.
• Shulk's D-smash is silly in terms of how long it lasts. IIRC, it has one more hit on one side, than on the other (can't recall off the top of my head whether its the front or back), so don't get tricked and go in for a punish only to eat the last hit of that move.
• Shulk's jab (esp jab 3) + tilts (I believe) do a decent job of keeping us out, in the event we want to get in (Low percents to get a string going, high percents looking for a grab/d-smash/u-smash).
• Shulk can do a sufficient job, even in vanilla stance, of harassing ROB while he tries to recover. This is improved by the various stances, while others make it a bit harder. He doesn't have to commit quite as strongly (read: go as deep or far offstage) as some chars to bop ROB out of his up+B due to his range... which really helps him given the mostly vertical nature of his recovery. Plus, if the Shulk has a solid stock lead, look for the stylish, YOLO aerial string into up+B for a trade-off KO, or even a risky Backslash.
• ROB's U-smash OoS is a solid (imo) punishment option in this MU if the Shulk spaces an aerial poorly + doesn't MAC it. Depending on the stance, this can net you some KOs at ridiculous percents.
• ROB can do a good job of keeping Shulk out if you play your projectile game intelligently. Lasers to snipe aerial approaches (maybe baiting an airdodge, which if he is at that sweet range where your laser cooldown is finished, but his airdodge lag is still active, can lead to a dashgrab or pivotgrab if he likes to spot-dodge). Gyros are great to control where he can land, and a gyro in hand automatically gives you an option that outranges everything he has (by throwing it... I'm thinking SH or FJ gyro throw an aerially approaching Shulk)
• ROB can do a decent job of edgeguarding shulk. Gyros & lasers to harass. I think ROB in this MU (and in this game as a whole) is much better served to lay on chip damage/harassment vs. recoveries with the occasional off-stage KO at reasonable percentages than trying to outright gimp at low percentages (esp. with customs off).
  • Forget about D-air, unless you can space it perfectly and Shulk goofs up his up+B vertical spacing, imo.

 

[Lizard_Buttock]

If you keep the pressure up with gyros and lasers etc., you can easily screw up his monado arts and make him stay in 'vanilla' mode. His lack of a safe approach outside of Speed and Jump is also easily abused, and you can easily gimp his recovery. Watch out for his range, though. Most of his attacks can hit from quite far back, making it quite hard to zone him out once he gets close. 60:40 to us, I'd say.
Also, what's with the sanic in the OP

 

[MintyBreeze]

What about Shulk's counter ability? I realize that it may be the same as the rest of the cast, but I feel like it's something that would be helpful to address... Seeing as R.O.B can have a hard time getting in with melee attacks in the first place, wouldn't the few approaches that we would have, in that case, be easily countered? Maybe it's just because I'm bad, or that the Shulks I fight have excellent timing, but this happens to be very often when I'm trying to get back down to the stage after having gotten launched.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is, what are some visible cues that give away a Shulk like this? Do they do it after specific moves, like a failed smash attack? It seems that they love to do it after F-Airs.