Wow, I haven't checked this thread in a long time. I'll answer the questions that haven't been since my last posting, and hopefully the people who asked still visit smashboards.
Sadisticbore - I'd say counters to Samus vary mainly on the Samus, but I'd say that the only true counter to Samus is Sheik, although HugS would say she isn't one. Other than that, Samus has a hard time against Falco, Falcon, Marth, and Fox. I'm not sure if Link is a counter, but I find myself having a lot of trouble with him too. But yeah, Samus' counters will vary widely depending on who you ask, but the ones I named will most likely come up most.
For your other question, I'm not totally sure what you're asking, but yes, Beam Canceling into an attack can be very effective if the opponent is either trying to come out for you and not expecting something, or if they hang on the edge too long and don't get up in tome to avoid being hit. But yeah, I use Beam Canceling and the Rising Grapple a ton when I play, probably too much, but it does throw off some people's game, like you said.
Gonzales - Glad I could help, always makes it worth it to know that this helped or inspired someone. Keep a lookout for the accompanying video I plan on releasing soon to go along with this guide, well, it'll be solely on techniques, but I may throw in some examples of set-ups and other things.
LeX - Uh, I could add Ganon, but like, if I were to go back and change much of this, I'd really get caught just re-editing the entire thing to be more current and in tune with what I've learned in the last couple years. Yes, that would be a very good thing for this guide, which many have said is outdated, but I'm not sure I want to put that much time into it again. Maybe once Summer rolls around though.
I'll try to make a quick paragraph for Ganon based on the ones I've played. If you go onto FD, make sure to throw out as many missiles as you can, but don't always approach the same way behind them, sometimes try to jump above and drop or meet with a sex kick, maybe run up and go for a grab, maybe hope he shields and run behind the missile and past him, then stand behind him and wait for him to do something. Usually when I'm in that position, I hope they don't try to upB towards me, because there's not much you can do for that if you were too close. Normally though, I just wait and as soon as I see him do anything, I go for a uftilt (up-angled forward tilt = uftilt) and then try to either sex kick or follow up with something else. The main thing is to just try to control his movement and always be ready to throw out a tilt or smash if the ganon goes for a overB or downB. More than anything else though, and it's a bit less important on FD than elsewhere, is just to try to stay on the ground most of the time, Shorthop sex kicks are fine, but you really don't want to be in the air too much against Ganon. Also, uair and fair chain like a beast on FD, so if the opponent DIs badly or is at the right %, you can chain a few of these together and end with a sex kick, then proceed to edgeguard. I always suggest a dfsmash, although sometimes a sex kick off the stage can be just more devastating. I'd say to not use the meteor, just because Samus' isn't all that great and when they meteor cancel, chances are you're going to get grabbed, and so it's either a wall tech or a stage spike. utilts work pretty well, but when you would use them, if Ganon's recovering high, lets him DI up really high and actually help him make it back next time. In that situation, I'd shorthop a sex kick or jump up and missile him, but sometimes those allow for the same thing, so you just have to see how you're comfortable edgeguarding him.
On platformed stages, I always try to stay on the bottom level and look for any opening to get ganon above me, once he is, uair or fair is your best choice. They both stun him for quite a bit, so chances are you'll be able to land on a platform and go for another before he can wiggle free or anything. The biggest detriment to Samus' game on most platform stages is that she can't use her missiles as effectively, so I try to stay in close and just go for dtilts, ftilts, and any fsmashes I can find the time for. One thing that I found really helped me against Ganon was doing friendlies with one on stages like Yoshi's Story and Kongo Jungle 64. The disadvantage Samus is at there really helps you work on how to survive against Ganon and use your limited options as best as possible.
Office_Shredder To angle the attacks (ftilt and fsmash are the only ones I think) you simply tilt the control stick about halfway between the diagonal corner and the sides. It's the same spot you'd angle the control stick to to do the farthest wavedash. If you want actual numeric angles, I think the range is somewhere around 15-35 degrees either up or down from the horizontals. It takes some practice to get down well, but if you can already do the farthest wavedash consistently, it's just about the same spot so it's only remembering to angle the attack that will be hard to learn. Also, something super tricky I figured out about the farthest downward angle the other day, if Samus stands right next to a Peach facing her, the Peach can't shield the dfsmash. I think she can't even do it with the lightshield, but I can't remember if I tested it or not, if someone else could I'd appreciate it greatly. But yeah, very risky to do and unbelievably situational, but I've already won a few matches with that being a pretty deciding factor, so there could be potential if you mindgamed into it well enough. So far the best thing I have is to shoot a missile and wd behind it, since Samus stays in the missile pretty much, and then just fsmash the shield as soon as I get there, and usually the Peach is either still in lag or will hold the shield so you can get the hit, but there's always the chance of getting grabbed, which has happened a lot more than I'd have liked.
Oo AetheR oO Yes, like p-wee said, they can tech it. However, one thing you can do is expect them to tech, and as soon as you see where they're going shoot the beam at them. I've found that it'll usually hit them just as they're standing up out of the invulnerability and when it's too early to shield. It's not the most reliable thing, but you can throw it out and I've always had a relatively high success rate with it, although now that I think about it, I stopped doing that for reasons I can't remember. Personally, I've always thought it was a good trick, and at higher %s, like 120% or something, they'll be in the air long enough for you to just shoot them and have a guaranteed kill. On platformed stages though, make sure they're not going to land on one of them before you shoot, it sucks wasting a beam.
Yeah, hopefully that was useful and I think I'll actually try to post or at least check in here a bit more often, so if you do have questions, feel free to ask. And yeah, that means I'll most likely start editing this extensively soon, so like any input on how to change things to make them clearer or alterations to the format would be appreciated.
EDIT: Yay, good post for my 1,000th! Glad I didn't waste it somehow.
that´s why I ended up here with this guide
