I'm studying in depth on a few characters to decide my main. Link was my main in Melee (somewhat by accident) because I fell in love with using the boomerang's backstroke for mind games. Here's a short compilation of useful strategies I've found and implemented. Most of the following is common knowledge to dutiful readers of these boards but I'm posting them here in summary as a "one stop shopping" of Link ATs. I was not the first to invent any of these and do not take credit for their discovery though I did find many of them through my own dabbling independent of the boards.
Reverse Arial Rush: this is what minirally mentioned above. You hit a dead sprint, also doable by foxtrotting if you're into mind games, and reverse your direction then immediatly jump and slam to your previous direction. This was doable in melee but lost your momentem almost entirely. Here you keep it all, the only difference is a split second of hesitation as you turn around before the jump. If you master the timing of it it makes your f/air and b/air interchangeable. This is vital to switching between damaging and finishing tactics.
Clawshot Cancel: Jokingly referred to in a previous thread as TACTICS (Tether Attack Cancel Then Immediately Continue Striking) this turns the old hook shot into a suddenly viable attack method. Hit the clawshot in a short hop and fast fall. The claw shot now has improved knockback and a pulsing damage effect making it difficult to side dodge and impossible to shield grab. It also immediately cancels upon hitting the ground making it an excellent mind-game combo starter.
Tether Camping: when edgehogging using the tether you make the ledge almost completely inaccessible to tether dependent characters like Olimar and Ivysaur. Other than this, no further application has been found for clawshot recovery since it has lost its ability to third jump off walls and is slightly shorter than in melee.
B-sticking/Wavebouncing: This is usable on all characters but has a most profound impact on Link and Lucas. This is done by binding your C-stick to your special moves. Then jump forward and hit the c-stick in the opposite direction. The effect is a boomerang toss with a slight backward bounce. Enemies who rely on priority to win like lucas and anyone with a strong n/air (link, fox, mario, pikachu etc) usually try to counter a forward arial jump with a slightly higher counter jump. This tactic is perfect against these characters as it will completely reverse your momentum and smack them with a boomerang right where they thought you would be. This also allows for some intriguing anti edge guarding tactics when combined with a ledge hop.
Quickshot: sparsely useful, this is simply done by tapping b right before you hit the ground. Your arrow draw animation is canceled when you hit the ground firing the arrow immediately. Shoot two arrows almost simultaniously by pulling one on the way up and releasing it and tapping b again on the way back down. Points on being trippy, but lacking of any great utility that I can see.
The Gale Boomerang: This is probably the most open ended strategic tool Link has at this point. It seems no one is quite sure how to use this to its full potensial but everyone agrees it has a ****load of potensial. Some strategies and speculation tentatively referred to as "Wind Dancing," "Wind Walling" and my personal favorite "Gale Gheyness" the current speculation seems to be that if you throw the boomerang in the opposite direction of your opponent then fail to catch it you can push them off the ledge, negate some distance they may have gained from up B or even cancel certain recoveries all together like Ness and Lucas. Other than that you can pull edge guarders off ledges by doing a ledge hop, b-stick toss of the boomerange behind them then catch the ledge again. If they don't shield it they'll be pulled off, but this is of little relivance if you cant come up with a way to keep them off. Other than that it appears the uses involve strictly offensive tosses which, if whiffed, can turn into combos using primarily utilit or usmash, or whiff opponents attacks by sheer randomness.
I apologize for the wall of text but this seems to be what the thread was calling for so I've submitted my information to the best of my ability. Please add and critique.
