The first member of the DK crew is one of the more difficult heavies to deal with, as his spacing options and ability to KO put him above the others of his archtype.
His moveset doesn't really restrict how we play at all, so our usual game of bait and punish or however you play sonic will work as well as it usually does. Bair,dtilt, jab and ftilt are the moves to watch out for in neutral, as DK outranges us with longer limbs which can stop us in our tracks and give him stage control, and everyone knows how fun it is to be in disadvantage against someone as strong and mobile as DK. Although they can be difficult to deal with they're all easy to bait out and punish, so we can control the pace of the match. His weight means he can KO us earlier than we KO him, especially when he has rage and using his infamous ding dong setup, which can KO as low as 50% off a grab, depending on stage selection. We're in serious trouble if he gets an early stock this way, since his survivablity makes it hard to make a comeback. The only way for him to make us approach him is through Giant Punch charging, but Giant Punch is less threatening than something like a Samus Charge Shot so rush down isn't essential, but can be useful.
The key to beating DK is similar to other heavies, which is exploit him as much as you can when hes in disadvantage. DK is one of the easiest characters to combo, he really can't land and his recovery is linear and leaves him open to good edgeguarding. We can also camp him pretty hard, since his own approach isn't spectacular and he lacks a projectile. However, don't underestimate his ability to comeback, be on your toes and stay patient, DK can struggle to deal with a Sonic who stays safe and attacks when he can, overcommiting will get you showered with coconut cream pies.
General stuff on DK
- His Upb on the ground has armour on start up, keep this in mind as he can use it if he reads an aggressive approach
- Giant Punch can be B-reversed in the air as a movement option, be aware of patterns
- When offstage with him, keep in mind he has many spikes including fair,dair,sideb and downb, all of them are fairly telegraphed
- Side B and Down B can deal heavy shield damage, downb is very dangerous if he corners us especially
- His approach in the air when he is facing you is really bad, more often than not they'll have their back to you so they can bair you, pay attention and you can tell what he's up to
- His Utilt can cover platforms very well, be careful he catches you on there
55-45
Roy is a speedy swordsman who doesn't focus on spacing, but rather a powerful close up game. On paper that sounds like he's quite powerful but fortunately he is pretty simple to deal with.
Roy lacks a projectile and has no way to make us approach him. However if he gets the lead then he can use nair, dtilt and jab in an attempt to keep us out. They do a good job of blocking spin dash, but Roy's sourspots means if we run in shield he is very easy to shield grab out of his attacks so he ends up playing a very heavy mixup game due to the lack of safety in his neutral. As such, its very easy to punish him if he guesses wrong, and our own mixups have more safety and less commitment than his. Roy boasts high kill power with a lot of powerful moves, but he lacks kill setups and they all require sweetspots so if we play patient he can really struggle to land a decisive blow.
We can juggle and combo Roy easily because of his fall speed, and gimp him easily with spring. Compared to us he ultimately gets significantly less reward with much greater risk. Despite this he is still capable of comebacks if he can land his sweetspotted attacks, particularly his fsmash which can kill as low as 70%.
General stuff on Roy:
- Upb has super armour on start up when used on the ground (sounds familiar), its a solid oos option so be sure to respect shield at kill%
- NeutralB has suprisingly little cooldown, don't get baited by it
- His counter is 5.99 levels of power, but its knockback angle is forgiving, hes unlikely to use it against Sonic who has few powerful moves worth countering
- DI away and jumping avoids many of his grab combos
- His uthrow can KO at around 160%,be ultra patient and watch out for the grab around this % as Roy may get frustrated, allowing more opportunities to punish him
60-40
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