Diddy Kong Match-Up Thread (Hoo Huh?)

[kenniky]

Diddy is still annoying

Make sure to space your attacks. Diddy's extendable limbs are still long enough to punish badly spaced nairs and fairs.

yeah

no one likes diddy

 

[Monado Master]

This video should help us discuss the Shulk vs Diddy MU (Trela vs Zinoto).

I think that we should be focusing on aerials for KOs since smash attacks look way too risky for this MU. Jump would help, especially for going low and hitting him while he's charging up B, and Smash would not be bad for when he's recovering with monkey flip.A spot dodge is better than shielding if the Diddy does not do the kick with the monkey flip, but if he does you can shield grab it. I wonder if a retreating Fair might do the trick as well (do it oos)?

@ Berserker. These are very helpful.
Otherwise, I agree with everything Zephil said as well. This seems like a match up that is in Diddy's favor though.

I wonder at what damage we get out of Diddy's Dthrow Uair while in MSmash. Also, is a well spaced Bair safe if Diddy shields it, or is the landing lag too high?

Yea i agree this match-up is by far in Diddy Kong's favor.

I'm about ready to break Diddy's tiny pencil neck

 

[Berserker.]

Broken Kong used to beat Shulk solidly

Then patched Diddy was even or slightly favorable against Shulk

Now, this is probably Shulk's favor or even. Diddy still has great aerials but his damage output and KO ability has been severely nerfed. Not only that, his ability to escaped disadvantageous situations has been gimped quite significantly because of the u-air nerf (u-air was his most reliable tool at the disadvantage). The only aerial we should really fear now is f-air but for as long as you space your aerials right and for as long as you know how to capitalize once you land a hit with buster/speed/jump n-air, b-air or f-air, or d-tilt or grab, the match-up is yours to win. +1 for Shulk or +0

 

[Virum]

Broken Kong used to beat Shulk solidly

Then patched Diddy was even or slightly favorable against Shulk

Now, this is probably Shulk's favor or even. Diddy still has great aerials but his damage output and KO ability has been severely nerfed. Not only that, his ability to escaped disadvantageous situations has been gimped quite significantly because of the u-air nerf (u-air was his most reliable tool at the disadvantage). The only aerial we should really fear now is f-air but for as long as you space your aerials right and for as long as you know how to capitalize once you land a hit with buster/speed/jump n-air, b-air or f-air, or d-tilt or grab, the match-up is yours to win. +1 for Shulk or +0

I can't say I agree with this at all. I've been playing this match-up quite a lot with one of the top Diddy players in the UK. Diddy still wins this match-up and always will until Shulk gets better frame data. The nerfs Diddy received honestly didn't have too large an impact on the neutral overall. Diddy still wins most exchanges due to how vastly superior his frame data is combined with his great range and while his punishes are certainly weaker he still has no problem converting them. He doesn't have to fear about over committing to his punishes either. If Shulk commits to a punish Diddy can still throw out an aerial and either reset to neutral or punish Shulk back. Diddy's banana is still an incredibly powerful tool that prevents Shulk from approaching with aerials (spaced aerials versus Diddy's shield are punishable while Diddy is holding a banana). I'd actually say the main thing that lessens the blow in this match-up for Shulk is the fact that Diddy has more trouble killing now. UAir is a shell of what it once was so the main things you have to worry about are FSmash, USmash, FThrow and BThrow near the ledge.

So yeah I still think this is +1 in Diddy's favour.

 

[Berserker.]

Oh um about that

I just came back recently from some small pools tournament (came out 2nd), Diddy Kong is still annoying. Bananas are definitely the main issue in the MU imo. I can still feel that Diddy beats Shulk since I can't almost ever be comfortable using my aerials against him. Probably -1 for Shulk. I might have said that it could have been even but Shulk is still lacking quite a lot. I can really feel that the u-air nerf (sort of obviously) helped with making this match-up much more tolerable

Edit: That old input was ripped from a convo with a Diddy player which I know. We were conversing about the MU then I jumped the gun too quickly. My bad

 

[WindHero]

I finally ran into some Diddy Kongs on FG today, so now I can add something to this.

Diddy's grab potential is infuriating. His side B can miss even when you stand still (don't know how), but that and his speedy dash grabs make him a pain to fight. His peanuts are no problem imo, but his bananas, if used right, can be lethal. Normally I move in to grab the peel before he can, but one foe I fought was excellent at grabbing it first. I got 2-stock'd by one such Diddy. It's really hard to get Vision in there too. I don't know, I'm not particularly great at fighting Diddy to begin with, and my skill level is still kinda meh. I don't even condition foes consistently enough.

However, I had two matches against a Diddy who didn't know how to use his recovery properly. That made for an easy pair of matches. If the foe doesn't know his Diddy, Shulk has a shot.

Still, -1 in favor of Diddy, possibly -1.5.

 

[Grexin]

Can we start talking about this matchup with customs and see which work best vs Diddy? I've personally had far more success in this matchup with HMA than RMA and DMA, I've been doing a lot of things at early percentages with Hyper Smash to send them off stage and proceed to easily gimp with Hyper Jump , and my neutral has been better with Hyper Speed , Hyper Buster I use when I have the positional advantage or am way behind in damage , it makes it easier for me , backslashes are preference really , I use AAS all the time but that's just me , I use PV too while some might like DV more since they like to counter the banana more but that is kinda predictable sometimes , also haven't really seen this topic much so I'd like to talk about stages so I'll just go ahead and talk about starters , we should probably avoid FD since we will have no platforms to land on and get juggled easier , Smashville doesn't really give an advantage to neither Shulk or Diddy but we have a platform on which we can perform some shenanigans on but with little space , Battlefield is solid for us due to all of the platforms we have and the tricks we can do , T&C is the same case as Smashville but we have more space to run around and more platforms which may be comforting or discomforting on the player and Dreamland 64 is the same case as Battlefield but with smaller vertical blastzones which may benefit Diddy more but that's just how I see it , I could very well be wrong and there's also player preference for stages like FD but I'd love to hear the input of others on these 2 matters.
Also the matchup itself I'd say is a -1 for Shulk

 

[Sonicninja115]

Question, how viable is Shulk's ftilt in this MU? Can it be used to punish side special or fair?
Also, I think that because of diddy's nerfed combo game that buster would now be very viable, as well as smash, on account of diddy's kill potential now lying in banana set-ups and f- throw. +0/-1

 

[Berserker.]

@ Sonicninja115

Deleted the computer lag replies for your sake

And yeah, buster is perfectly fine in the MU imo