Zelda's shouldn't be a guessing game, the trick is knowing when to time you moves, and really there is a huge solution that i found to aerial pressure games, and that my friend is usmash, this move has so much priority on aerials its not even funny. Something i neglected to mention is that zelda's game is mainly based on punishing, so shield grabs, usmash outta shield, and charging fsmash are all great for zelda, i find myself using fsmash to push off heavy pressure and it works really well.
I disagree with you on dsmash, its one of the fastest dsmashes in the game (save meta's and kirby's) and its mostly likely my favorite move with zelda. I haven't had to much trouble with startup lag honestly until i start using uair, which is probably zelda's slowest move, but her smashes are instant and damaging i feel, and are incredebly tough to punish.
Smaller characters are probably Zelda's toughest matchup initially, especially when you're at the weakness of an incredibly hard to hit toe. Against small characters, Upsmash ,Dsmash, and dtilt are your friends, try to save fsmash for the kill since you can't really rely on you toe, or interchange upsmash or fsmash. but the best way to apply pressure is making them approach with din's fire, at anytime that somebody is away from you, use din's fire immediatly, only three matchups i would advise against that is earthbound kids and game and watch. but if you can keep the pressure up with din's fire, you can ussually get them into an usmash or fsmash, and if they refuse to become grounded and stay in the air (i.e kirby, meta, ddd) hit them with an usmash.
![[GB]Cecil](/data/avatars/l/35/35556.jpg?1360760895){kind=avatar}
