Had someone come over from PGH that I don't normally play. He was roughly the same skill give or take.
He used Squirtle and Ness the best.
So on Squirtle..
Bacon is useless. Literally awful, controls nothing, stops nothing, and that is even when it does hit him. He's so small he can not respect it and still probably not hit it, but if he does it will probably be with armor.
He can duck under grabs, his CC game is good just because the distance he slides only when you hit him makes it hard to get a follow up even if he got stunned. He has good options out of CC, dsmash goes into literal anything, Bubble is obnoxious, but dtilt is the main issue. Dtilt leads into UpBwhich had KOd me at around 90 to 100% range. It sounds super bad, but if he UpBs immediately I could not act fast enough to avoid the hit. Alright, so you can however SDI behind himto avoid the final hit, but if he's spaced for that hit there isn't much you can do. Also, if he whiffs you are above him, but he falls a tad faster so I had a hell of a time trying to punish UpB... annoying. Bubbles into dtilt and grab of which dthrow is pretty strong, but DIable. Our combos work ok on him, but he's so small that landing hitboxes in general is tough. The way the character can throw out dtilts from a distance and the way his pivot has a hitbox can also make him hard to approach and pretty much nullifies DACUS. It is quite good at punishing distant dsmashes and even bubble if you catch them slipping though.
Edgeguarding: His moves have some pretty good priority, they aren't as big as GnW's, but they are quite lasting. He was abusing stage spikes hard against me and I realized how strong they are in this game. I need to be wary and tech them always. I am pretty sure back air beats out UpB straight up, but I could be wrong. He just comes so deep with fairs, bairs, and nairs it's hard to contest off stage so it gets pretty scary.
Overall I could see it going in GnW's favor slightly.... He has weird movement and hitboxes like us, but his extra movement makes him very hard to hit/combo. He's very annoying to face until he gets at high % and then chair beats everything except bubble...
On Ness...
I learned to also kind of hate/respect this character. Even after changes PK Fire is a pain. I don't even want to think of the move before.... His stuff pretty much leads into bair/fair/whatever. Dash attack is HUGE now, always respect it. Always respect fair I couldn't beat it with my fair, but I think that's me spacing it bad since every time he used fair it was with double jump momentum flying at me so I couldn't really retreat fair well. Always respect dair, at worst it will trade. Nair is king of trading too. This MU felt like a pain, he didn't really know who's favor it was in, but I couldn't help but feel slightly disadvantaged. PK Fire still goes into grabs and yeah I need to get good and mash SDI, but that's so arbitrary to have to mash every multi-hit, to be honest I just kind of accept it and believe I will outplay them even if I take free damage. Dthrow still leads into things, you want to pretty much always DI HARD in front of them and it makes follow-ups limited or null. Bthrow KOs still, DI up basic stuff. When recovering.... hope he doesn't dair. I had been getting considerably better at meteor-cancelling, but his dair was so strong I would get the cancel at around 90% with UpB and not make it back... For sure worth trying to cancel with Double jump because at higher %. Again this is another MU where the opponent has typically better movement options than us, be extra wary of throwing out punishable moves because DJC using momentum can place bair upon you much faster than you think. Pretty much shield a lot against him because he can't do anything about it with PK Fire changes, crouching is bad because his dtilt is stupid, always DI away on his combos because fair links into fair into dair, and conversely bair links into bair, into bair. Oh, and PK Fire is hard for me to bucket on reaction, it's still an annoying move because if spaced well you can't really do much. And combos work well on Ness. He isn't terrible small, has like average weight/fall speed kind of like comboing Mario in a way. bair leads to fair and all that jazz, UpB combos are far more potent than against Squirtle.
Edgeguarding:
Chair puts in work to beat out PKT2. I was also having success with dair, but sometimes his invincibility went through it and I would die or come close as a result. It may be worth going deep to bucket PKT or just running into it so he can't recover. Dtilt is another really viable edgeguarding tool. Unless he is using PKT, try not to rush him offstage. His dair, fair, bair make him very potent and you will either end up meteored or stage spiked. Up air is strong as the dickens too.
Anyway that matchup feels at least even. Ike has a hard time doing his side b shenanigans due to wavedash/CC downtilt. Outside of quick draw, Ike doesn't really have a quick sword move to punish you with. Ike is such a great combo weight, I was getting 70% punishes really easily with up B and up air combos and platform tech chases. At one point I carried Ike from below Skyworld with up b and up airs to be killed off the top with f air. Seriously, Ike is so easy to combo.
