Smashboards

And I realise that in spite of being fairly aggressive (or more like wreckless), I can still be a fairly campy player. I just realise I do it in a different way, through dash dancing baits (need to start doing that again, good results).

also stay tuned I still owe you real advice

Indeed. I've been noticing the past month or so, that even with the aerial and mobility changes, it's still not safe to jump or land. It's much harder to time than previous games, because there is still a fair amount of options to sift through, but you can punish those. That's why using Phantom is important, to limit as many of those options as possible and then you can focus on punishing the few remaining ones.

Zelda is slower than other characters however, so you will need to have much better spacing and positioning than some of the top tiers. We need to both understand Phantom and Zelda herself, because it will be Zelda that ultimately intercepts and punishes the opponent. This is why Phantom will never be a crutch, like a lot of people have been saying, because in order to use Phantom to its full potential, you need to be able to use Zelda effectively as well. They need to work as a team, not used in isolation.

To that end, I've actually been playing less of Zelda and more of other characters. I've decided to learn all the characters, at least to the point of getting them into Elite, in order to understand the intricacies of mobility and DI better, while learning exactly what the optimal paths a character wants to take. I've gotten seven characters other than Zelda in there and I can already see improvements to my understanding, which made even my combo game with Zelda better. Being able to see the game from the perspective of other characters, has made me better at playing Zelda.

And no hurry on the critique, I got time to wait. Although, those videos are probably dated now, maybe it's time to update. I'll still appreciate any advice, regardless.

Oh and I forgot to mention, Phantom displacement stuff is hard, so try just using it in specific circumstances, like if you're getting torn apart by projectiles. Timing that complex doesn't work well, for doing it in actual matches frequently. I tend to only attempt RAR displacement stuff when I can't get around projectiles, so that way if I screw up, I'll only be hit by the projectile, instead of a close range attack. Even though I have it down pat in practice, I can't do it very well in an actual match, for some reason.

I'm also trying to study the platform version I uploaded examples of, some time ago. It can lead to some pretty hilarious freezes on the opponent's part, because they've never seen it before and don't know what to do. I need to be a better player, before I can really utilize it, I think though.

RAR Phantom is pretty feasible, and by no means at a scale of something like the teleport cancels (which are also far more situational and hardly ever worth the risk). I've already gotten a couple of them before even formally practicing them, so don't get discouraged just yet. When I miss it, I tend to get a Din's or a B-Reversed Nayru's. It's something you can somewhat correct by trying to make it concious.

I'm not quite sure what is going on here, but I've gotten a tremendous boost to my Zelda game, ever since I started learning the other characters. I'm not really doing anything different, but I seem to understand the whole DI and movement thing I was struggling with earlier, much better. This has made my Phantom punishes better than before, which is what I was hoping for. If we were talking about a zenkai boost that one time, this would be like a potential unlock or passive skill. I'm not even conscious of what's different. Maybe I subconsciously learned all their different DI and movement while playing them.

I think I also conquered my Mario issues with this. Doing much better against him than before. Still having Falcon and Yoshi issues, but maybe I'll try learning them and see if I can get similar results.

And yeah, RAR Phantom isn't as hard as I may have made it sound, it's more that I still can't pull it off very well under pressure, right now. I tend to get normal Phantom when I attempt and if my opponent's paying attention, I get punished for it. I think I'm accidentally doing a full hop. It's fine in training, but when I'm in an actual match, I might be holding jump a little longer, due to the pressure of an actual match. Hopefully that will get resolved with practice, I need it for the Greninja MU.

Perfect RAR Phantom isn't impossible, as I said before. Your best bet is to start practicing it more against real opponents. And if you're reluctant of letting go of your GSP, just try finding rooms to remove that pressure. Even before formally practicing it, I couod somewhat get a few here and there. It's a smooth motion. The hardest part is just perfrctly landing behind the Phantom.

And to all of this, do you think the traditional RAR mdthod is more convenient than the Macro sticking thing? The latter just seemed like rocket science to me, while the first is mostly a manner of timing.