Hi I'm Rizen. I've been using 
in live tournaments since Ultimate came out. YL can be a real scrub killer and nightmare if you don't know the MU. This guide talks about the most effective ways players have beaten me to prepare you for the MU.
Rule #1 BE PATIENT! YL can overwhelm you and capitalize on your hasty habits if you're not careful. In most cases this is an MU of attrition. YL will try to wear you down; you want to pin him down and exploit his disadvantage while taking the least amount of damage possible.
Rule #2: be smart stage picking. Yl loves big stages with platforms on the sides he can use to cross over on. Don't let YL take you to PS2. Kalos and Town and City are often the next best stages for him but some characters can abuse them more. Specifically charging characters like Samus can charge on platforms and highly mobile characters like Greninja and Sonic can make better use of the space while still being able to corner YL. In general YL's worst stages are BF, Yoshi's Story and Lylat. YL has tiny hitboxes and can't control the tri-plats as well as most characters, especially swordies. What stage you fight YL on can make the MU an entire step easier or harder so +1s for YL on BF would be closer to even.
Rule #3: control the stage. YL can spam you as long as he has room but stages are finite. You want to patiently get closer, push YL into a corner and abuse his poor CQC game. This can be done in a couple of ways. 1 walk forward and shield projectiles; as long as you're on the ground you can shield and YL has weak shield pressure. Don't worry about a shield break. 2 approach with a long lasting hitbox. All YL's projectiles lose to hitboxes. I've had a Yoshi Nair sex kick strait through my boomerang and hit me. Bombs can be caught with any standard attack and I've had Wolf's Ftilt catch a bomb and hit me. 3 What goes up must come down. YL likes to hop around and throw projectiles, including throwing bombs down. You don't want to run directly under YL; you'll eat a bomb>Dair. Instead, corner YL and punish him as he comes down. YL has a great landing game with only 6 frames of lag on 3 aerials but these have weakness which brings me to the next rule...
Rule #4: abuse big hitboxes. The thing YL hates the most are bigger, faster disjoints. YL has fair to slow frame data (although the buff to Jab and Zair really helped) and a dinky sword. All his aerials poke out in one direction and have blind spots at diagonal angles. If YL is fighting Lucina for example it's like she has a big circle around her where her sword can hit and YL has a little + representing his hitboxes. This is why he struggles to control tri-plats. Much of the cast can zone him in CQC and his projectiles are laggy and need space. Abuse his blind spots and hit him before he even gets a chance to hit you. YL does not have the mobility to rush down and hit quick buttons and can struggle to get past disjoints.
If you play a character without big disjoints they're probably faster and more mobile than YL (Fox, Pika, Mario...). Get close safely, abuse burst options and stay on YL. YL generally has an easier time in these MUs but is still lacking in rush down qualities.
Rule #5: abuse YL's crappy OoS game. Unlike the other Links, YL does not have a fast spin attack OoS. His fastest OoS is frame 9 (spin attack) and his tether grab is F12. Unless you use a high commitment attack he can't do much to punish you for hitting his shield.
Rule #6: get the most out of your advantage state. YL gets destroyed by big hitboxes in disadvantage. If he's offstage he can throw out a boomerang to cover his recovery but that loses to hitboxes. If he's above the stage trying to get down, Uairs will catch bombs and big ones like Palutena's beat his Dair or FF Nair. YL does not have the airspeed/mobility to escape big Uairs and his recovery is only average. YL gets walled hard in disadvantage.
If you don't have big hitboxes YL's disadvantage is significantly better. Dair covers his lower body really well and Nair is fast and very hard to punish. You can still abuse him with true combos but watch out that he doesn't turn the tables on you.
Rule #7: don't let YL camp you for free. YL has an amazing projectile game but many characters have tools to counter it. The best is Banjo's wonder wing which plows through everything and landing traps hard. Reflectors are an annoyance that keeps YL from mindlessly spamming or attacking from long range (but his Zair buff can punish them if he baits you). Many projectiles will beat YL's. Pac's fruits for example cancel out YL's spam and keep going. Things like Samus' charged shot or Robin's charged thunder beat YL's spam. Charizard's flare blitz and Ganon's downB can power through it and punish landings. Just because YL out-camps you doesn't mean you can't fight back. HOWEVER always be closing the gap on YL; don't try to outcamp him. I've seen players try this and YL always wins. Even against Snake and Olimar YL's fire arrows are extremely spammable.
And above all else BE PATIENT!!! Most characters only need to win a fraction of the exchanges to beat YL. He'll wrack up damage fast but you can kill him much earlier than he can kill you. Don't freak out, just look for patterns and openings, corner YL and abuse your advantage.
in live tournaments since Ultimate came out. YL can be a real scrub killer and nightmare if you don't know the MU. This guide talks about the most effective ways players have beaten me to prepare you for the MU.Rule #1 BE PATIENT! YL can overwhelm you and capitalize on your hasty habits if you're not careful. In most cases this is an MU of attrition. YL will try to wear you down; you want to pin him down and exploit his disadvantage while taking the least amount of damage possible.
Rule #2: be smart stage picking. Yl loves big stages with platforms on the sides he can use to cross over on. Don't let YL take you to PS2. Kalos and Town and City are often the next best stages for him but some characters can abuse them more. Specifically charging characters like Samus can charge on platforms and highly mobile characters like Greninja and Sonic can make better use of the space while still being able to corner YL. In general YL's worst stages are BF, Yoshi's Story and Lylat. YL has tiny hitboxes and can't control the tri-plats as well as most characters, especially swordies. What stage you fight YL on can make the MU an entire step easier or harder so +1s for YL on BF would be closer to even.
Rule #3: control the stage. YL can spam you as long as he has room but stages are finite. You want to patiently get closer, push YL into a corner and abuse his poor CQC game. This can be done in a couple of ways. 1 walk forward and shield projectiles; as long as you're on the ground you can shield and YL has weak shield pressure. Don't worry about a shield break. 2 approach with a long lasting hitbox. All YL's projectiles lose to hitboxes. I've had a Yoshi Nair sex kick strait through my boomerang and hit me. Bombs can be caught with any standard attack and I've had Wolf's Ftilt catch a bomb and hit me. 3 What goes up must come down. YL likes to hop around and throw projectiles, including throwing bombs down. You don't want to run directly under YL; you'll eat a bomb>Dair. Instead, corner YL and punish him as he comes down. YL has a great landing game with only 6 frames of lag on 3 aerials but these have weakness which brings me to the next rule...
Rule #4: abuse big hitboxes. The thing YL hates the most are bigger, faster disjoints. YL has fair to slow frame data (although the buff to Jab and Zair really helped) and a dinky sword. All his aerials poke out in one direction and have blind spots at diagonal angles. If YL is fighting Lucina for example it's like she has a big circle around her where her sword can hit and YL has a little + representing his hitboxes. This is why he struggles to control tri-plats. Much of the cast can zone him in CQC and his projectiles are laggy and need space. Abuse his blind spots and hit him before he even gets a chance to hit you. YL does not have the mobility to rush down and hit quick buttons and can struggle to get past disjoints.
If you play a character without big disjoints they're probably faster and more mobile than YL (Fox, Pika, Mario...). Get close safely, abuse burst options and stay on YL. YL generally has an easier time in these MUs but is still lacking in rush down qualities.
Rule #5: abuse YL's crappy OoS game. Unlike the other Links, YL does not have a fast spin attack OoS. His fastest OoS is frame 9 (spin attack) and his tether grab is F12. Unless you use a high commitment attack he can't do much to punish you for hitting his shield.
Rule #6: get the most out of your advantage state. YL gets destroyed by big hitboxes in disadvantage. If he's offstage he can throw out a boomerang to cover his recovery but that loses to hitboxes. If he's above the stage trying to get down, Uairs will catch bombs and big ones like Palutena's beat his Dair or FF Nair. YL does not have the airspeed/mobility to escape big Uairs and his recovery is only average. YL gets walled hard in disadvantage.
If you don't have big hitboxes YL's disadvantage is significantly better. Dair covers his lower body really well and Nair is fast and very hard to punish. You can still abuse him with true combos but watch out that he doesn't turn the tables on you.
Rule #7: don't let YL camp you for free. YL has an amazing projectile game but many characters have tools to counter it. The best is Banjo's wonder wing which plows through everything and landing traps hard. Reflectors are an annoyance that keeps YL from mindlessly spamming or attacking from long range (but his Zair buff can punish them if he baits you). Many projectiles will beat YL's. Pac's fruits for example cancel out YL's spam and keep going. Things like Samus' charged shot or Robin's charged thunder beat YL's spam. Charizard's flare blitz and Ganon's downB can power through it and punish landings. Just because YL out-camps you doesn't mean you can't fight back. HOWEVER always be closing the gap on YL; don't try to outcamp him. I've seen players try this and YL always wins. Even against Snake and Olimar YL's fire arrows are extremely spammable.
And above all else BE PATIENT!!! Most characters only need to win a fraction of the exchanges to beat YL. He'll wrack up damage fast but you can kill him much earlier than he can kill you. Don't freak out, just look for patterns and openings, corner YL and abuse your advantage.
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