Hardest Matchup?

[Vermanubis]

I agree with Kalm. We can kill Samus so easily, that if we just chill and let the hits happen instead of forcing them (wherein Samus can body us), she's done.

 

[A2ZOMG]

I think the main thing about Samus is playing that matchup to win is pretty boring, and also hard to do on latency when you sometimes need to make relatively precise OOS punishes. I don't think the matchup is bad for Ganon at all, as opposed to annoying and not really fun.

Vs Link in contrast, you basically need to do the same things against him to beat him. While he does have better KO options than Samus, he doesn't have Samus's mobility, and he's also a lot easier to gimp. As I've stated earlier, I believe we in fact have slight advantage vs Link when he can be picked apart fairly consistently with careful midrange game, and when he's very vulnerable to being killed very quickly by Ganondorf.

 

[HmwkLater]

How do you tech the gordo throw of king dedede. I'm currently having trouble with him right now because every time I try to hit it away, i can't without getting hit. He also has a fair amount of range on his attacks and they can stack up damage fairy well.

 

[Dr. Krumm]

For me personally, it's Captain Falcon. both his grab and DA are surprisingly safe and if you get hit by any of these you eat at least 60% if the Falcon player is good with his follow ups and frame traps. He can approach well with mix ups between DA, grab and even n-air and all of these wrecks Ganon if they connect and due to Ganons weight Falcon has a couple of things into Knee.

I have no idea how to play this match up, my fundamentals have kept me alive so far, but outside of that I've tried a couple of things and none of them have been that successful. Any tips?

 

[A2ZOMG]

How do you tech the gordo throw of king dedede. I'm currently having trouble with him right now because every time I try to hit it away, i can't without getting hit. He also has a fair amount of range on his attacks and they can stack up damage fairy well.

SH U-air/N-air is usually good for hitting the Gordo.

For me personally, it's Captain Falcon. both his grab and DA are surprisingly safe and if you get hit by any of these you eat at least 60% if the Falcon player is good with his follow ups and frame traps. He can approach well with mix ups between DA, grab and even n-air and all of these wrecks Ganon if they connect and due to Ganons weight Falcon has a couple of things into Knee.

I have no idea how to play this match up, my fundamentals have kept me alive so far, but outside of that I've tried a couple of things and none of them have been that successful. Any tips?

Really, this matchup is very player dependent. Usually, N-air is one of your better go to moves especially if he likes grabbing. I actually wouldn't be afraid of blocking in this matchup after mid percents as long as you are confident in getting past his edgeguards (usually he will use F-air or D-air to edgeguard you, watch out for those). His DA is generally speaking a free punish on block, or you can do something like pivot F-tilt to bait him and try to catch him if he's being aggressive.

What's slightly more tricky is catching Falcon for trying to play a wait and bait game. If he tries to play that way, you first need to get him to slow down by throwing out a wizkick or DA where you think he will end up. If he starts blocking more for you making aggressive moves, this is what you want so you can start closing in on him with more grabs and Flame Choke.

The most important thing for winning this matchup is consistent edgeguarding. Falcon has two basic options for recovery. Either he recovers high with Raptor Boost, or he recovers low. These need to be responded to differently most of the time. If he likes to recover high, just simply wait and SH U-air. When he recovers low, throwing out virtually any aerial off the stage will likely work (tipman U-air works wonders in this matchup), just sometimes you need to be ready to tech his Up-B. Usually from a walljump tech you can seal his stock with F-air if you pull it off.

 

[Hi-Hatz]

Falcon is harsh. Take him to FD for some space and spam N-Air, or take him around some platforms and stay mobile like crazy. Other than being on point against his recovery, a lot of it is really just player skill. Falcon has that horizontal mobility and the range to mess you up really easily. Little things like Pivot Dash Attack will make you that much faster, but this match-up is one that will teach you the importance of being able to look at your enemy (are they standing, moving, jumping, recovering, on first jump, on second jump, facing toward, facing away) and immediately knowing their options as opposed to just fearing the wrong ones.

 

[Opana]

Sonic is my hardest MU by a large margin. I have played very skilled ZSS, Sheik, Pikachus etc. and taken games but rarely I ever best a Sonic. Even bad Sonics are difficult, he's so hard to punish and can punishbas easily and while not nearly as effectively as us he builds up. The spring either pushes me too far, air dodging costing me a stock too if they time it right, or a stage spike which while techable is still a potential gamechanger. He now has effective kill moves too, notably bthrow from my experience which isn't all that difficult to land considering his speed to ours. His mind game potential with side special alone is great. I hate him so much, he is the primary reason I am trying to pick up a top tier secondary, although admittedly Tink contributed to this as well.

EDIT: I've played a good deal with an amazing Falcon who had placed high in Xanadu. I almost always lost, but lately I've been at the very least keeping up. I find Smashville and T&C advantageous due to the recovery options the platforms provide, He was fast enough to edge guard me pretty much as soon as I committed to high or low, but mixing platforms into my recovery was a great help. I didn't fall on them thpugh, I'd dark dive and fast fall to the ledge. As for dealing with strings and chasing I usually di away and nair to interrupt. Imo if you cannot recognize any patterns, habits, or make an accurate read in general then you will get destroyed. This applies pretty much anywhere but I stress this as otherwise he's pretty damn hard to punish and can take you from 0 to mid percents while gaining the positional advantage simultaneously. Be on the look out four his nairs, uairs, and grabs. I too agree that edge guarding properly is essential, that's how I got the majority of my kills. Uairing him out of falcon dive is extremely useful and getting the timing down is a huge help.

 

[Hi-Hatz]

I find Sonic to be one of the easier high-tiers, having been intimate with the match-up since Brawl. I use Up-Smash extra frequently to catch things like Neutral B, which I can personally predict with high precision. He can punish a charged Up-Smash like anyone else (I never like to think of it as me actually fooling anyone), but it's still a really great tool in the match. The spring game can get really nasty, but it doesn't have to be so bad. You can air-dodge to the other side to use it to your advantage, and recovering high is still dangerous but it will save you every now and then. The main thing about Sonic is that he's often going to repeat the same thing over and over again, and you have to be willing to repeat the same defense over and over again until the "right" spacing occurs for you to safely approach him out of something. Sometimes you just can't force it. And a Sonic who prioritizes keep-away to the point of timing you out is just going to be tough no doubt.

 

[Dr. Krumm]

SH U-air/N-air is usually good for hitting the Gordo.

Really, this matchup is very player dependent. Usually, N-air is one of your better go to moves especially if he likes grabbing. I actually wouldn't be afraid of blocking in this matchup after mid percents as long as you are confident in getting past his edgeguards (usually he will use F-air or D-air to edgeguard you, watch out for those). His DA is generally speaking a free punish on block, or you can do something like pivot F-tilt to bait him and try to catch him if he's being aggressive.

What's slightly more tricky is catching Falcon for trying to play a wait and bait game. If he tries to play that way, you first need to get him to slow down by throwing out a wizkick or DA where you think he will end up. If he starts blocking more for you making aggressive moves, this is what you want so you can start closing in on him with more grabs and Flame Choke.

The most important thing for winning this matchup is consistent edgeguarding. Falcon has two basic options for recovery. Either he recovers high with Raptor Boost, or he recovers low. These need to be responded to differently most of the time. If he likes to recover high, just simply wait and SH U-air. When he recovers low, throwing out virtually any aerial off the stage will likely work (tipman U-air works wonders in this matchup), just sometimes you need to be ready to tech his Up-B. Usually from a walljump tech you can seal his stock with F-air if you pull it off.

Yea, this is very player dependent. Thanks for the tips! I'll definetly work more on incorporating N-air into my gameplan vs C.F. and practice on punishing DA. And yea, as you said. Learn to tech his low recovery and you get a free F-air, this part I've got down and it's amazing.

 

[the king of murder]

Ok I fought a ZSS today and let me tell you, a good ZSS is scary as hell. I am even more afraid of her than of Shiek.

ZSS projectile is not just there to harass you like other projectiles. Hers actually set up her deadly juggle game, or her kill options. Unlike other projectiles you are not allowed to get hit by paralyzer or you will either eat a good 40%, put on a very bad spot, or she just straight up kills us(contrary popular belief she does not have trouble killing). She will also use it to punish your rolls or play mindgames with you(watch out for pivot paralyzer)

Than there is her grab game, which is just obscene. We all know about her D-throw combo into either Uair, Nair, Fair with Uair being the deadlist because at certain percent, she can Uair, ascend Uair, Up-b for the kill at very low percent(80% I think). Not to mention her stupid Up-b OoS, which is why you should never Dash Attack her , unless you are sure she will not shield it. Normally, I am used being juggled by others and its not that much of an issue but ZSS can kill you while she juggles the hell out of Ganon, which is very problematic.

You also have to play a 50/50 game when you shield, which favors ZSS more than Ganon. She will either DA or grab you(note: good ZSS wont be predictable with their grabs) and I can never punish her, when she DAs my shield because she is too far away.

Also her down-b is stupid, it gets her out of her negative state which means I cant capalize on my punish game as effectively and if you are not careful with it she will bury you on the ground or kick you, not to mention she can gimp you with it, so I would recommend to recover low most of the time(mix your recovery up a little because if she sees you always recover low, she can act accordingly, meanig she can use a well timed bair). I can never punish her down-b when she hits my shield, because I am sooo slow.

All I could do in this MU is space with my tilts accordingly, play really carefully(powershielding a lot is important) and anticipate her next move. I also have a bad time with tether grabs because even if I see them coming, they still still hit me with it, maybe thats because of internet, but no johns I guess. I can say the same thing with her down-b, stupid attack always hits me, even if I see it coming.

 

[Hi-Hatz]

I really want to see how the Ganon-Falcon match-up develops. My friend manhandles me with his Falcon in a way that nobody else can really do with anyone else right now. It's still winnable, but the inherent risk of the match-up just makes it not worth it. I might win, or I might get flawlessly beat. The friend who often beats me (doesn't even main Falcon) called it 70-30, while my other friend who mains Falcon but goes even with me called it 60-40. For me, it's currently the worst match-up that I've experienced in the game. I'm the kind of person who stubbornly wants to keep trying, because I don't believe in immediately dismissing things as too hard, but I'm at the point where I feel like it would be stupid of me if I don't counter-pick that particular friend next time. My friend and I know each very well, but I wonder how much that really has to do with it. Right now, I think the match-up is clearly in Captain Falcon's favor. I'll see if I can change that next time I play friendlies with him.

 

[Opana]

I've fought one of the best around and feel Falcon has solid advantage.

Also, have fought a good amount of solid d3s and find them to be another difficult mu.

 

[A2ZOMG]

I really want to see how the Ganon-Falcon match-up develops. My friend manhandles me with his Falcon in a way that nobody else can really do with anyone else right now. It's still winnable, but the inherent risk of the match-up just makes it not worth it. I might win, or I might get flawlessly beat. The friend who often beats me (doesn't even main Falcon) called it 70-30, while my other friend who mains Falcon but goes even with me called it 60-40. For me, it's currently the worst match-up that I've experienced in the game. I'm the kind of person who stubbornly wants to keep trying, because I don't believe in immediately dismissing things as too hard, but I'm at the point where I feel like it would be stupid of me if I don't counter-pick that particular friend next time. My friend and I know each very well, but I wonder how much that really has to do with it. Right now, I think the match-up is clearly in Captain Falcon's favor. I'll see if I can change that next time I play friendlies with him.

imo Falcon wins 55/45. The main problem I have in the matchup is Ganondorf doesn't always have a very clear answer to his Jab pressure, but everything else can technically be answered in some way and then from there it's a question of doing the usual juggles/edgeguards and avoiding Falcon's D-air/F-air edgeguards. As long as you don't let Falcon easily land D-air/F-air gimps, usually most of this matchup will reset to the ledge a lot, and from there you need to wait until you have an opportunity to put Falcon offstage and end his stock quickly from there (you need to make a basic read whether he recovers high or low, a successful punish will typically be a stock from there).

My main tools in this matchup are usually N-air, wizkick, pivot F-tilt, and U-smash. Nothing is guaranteed on him in neutral, and it all depends on the way he prefers to space. Sometimes you need to throw out N-airs and wizkicks to force him to be less aggressive, sometimes you just need to remember that blocking his DA and Falcon Kick is important. Throwing a U-smash here and there sometimes has very favorable risk/reward and can net you like 40 damage with a followup juggle. Pivot F-tilt also has its obvious uses in punishing spacing mistakes.

Another thing that is very helpful in this matchup is when techchasing, Falcon is a character who you can cover inward roll and getup attack with pivot F-smash. Landing Flame Choke on him I don't find especially difficult due to his reliance on a lot of grounded options.

I don't think this matchup is explicitly terrible, though it's definitely hard. The most stressful part for me personally is dealing with Falcon mains with different playstyles.

On my youtube channel, I have videos of Gungnir and GN playing this matchup. I believe it's a very good demonstration of what both sides aim to do in the matchup.

 

[jahkzheng]

I don't really know what's hard for Ganon because I don't know if I've played any "good" players. I've only played a couple friends nearer to my level and some For Glory. I've faced people who just owned me with odd characters while I've also beaten fairly easily some of the characters listed here probably because the person I was playing wasn't good. I guess I've not really faced a godly Zamus or Sheik. I've been given trouble by them but my win ratio against Zamis is over 50% while I've only fought a Sheik in 1v1s 4 times ever and beat this particular Sheik every time.

I can say though that I could definitely see the terrifying potential of Sheik since her moves seem not only fast but oddly disjointed. Like her ftilt. You're in range to get hit by it much sooner than you'd think and it's pretty safe since most of what you got can't get through it unless you're ideally spaced. She also has great keep away tools. Again though, I've only faced one Sheik and I don't think it was very good. Were still close matches in spite of the Sheik's kind of spammy and amateur looking play style.

Zamus on the other hand... I've played four different people's Zami's and a couple of those people I only played once or twice. It's hard to say who was the best when I didn't even play some of them much. Epicender's Zamus seemed good, for instance, but I only played it twice with Ganon and I didn't feel I was able to learn how to handle it in that time. It showed me some things I hadn't seen though, so it felt like the best I'd played. Other Zamis I've played were very aggro and tried to manufacture combos that I was able to punish out of. Aerial Wizkick did well to cut those short and can kill Zamus relatively early. Like I said before however, my experience with this character is limited and I know I've not faced the true nightmares out there.

...

Now, the odd the characters that have absolutely wrecked me as Ganon and I can probably mainly attribute to the player's skill than the actual matchup..... Pac-Man and Dedede. Should be noted that my experience in 1v1s against these characters with Ganon was one of first experiences against them in For Glory. I'd faced a Pac-Man in For Glory with Falcon and figured it out easily and I'd played a Dedede just a couple times with Ganon before but he was much less skilled and annoying.

With the Dedede, if I got offstage I was in a really tight spot where my options were almost always read or reacted to. I talked about this at length in another thread so I'll just quote that....

...dealt with a pretty good Dedede with a nasty Gordo edgeguard a few days ago. Gordo's on stage aren't too bad, but once you're recovering, sheesh... I just never really figured it out. He just would set up a short Gordo that would bounce around near the edge....

- Edge attack back on usually meant meeting the Gordo with my face and if not, then I was usually punished by the Dedede before I could hit it back.

- Roll back onto the edge was always punished by a nicely spaced and perfectly timed down smash by Dedede. I foolishly got caught in this a few times, but at low percents it was one of my better options at regaining some stage control oddly enough.

-Jumping up from the edge was hindered by the Gordo a lot of times and I couldn't get behind Dedede in the air due to him rolling back a lot in these situations. My only options here was wizkick down to hit the Gordo and hope not to get punished since my timing at hitting it with other aerials was poor, or to eat the Gordo and hope the Dedede rolled out of range of a punish assuming I'd try to get behind him. He liked to charge up an fsmash sometimes when I tried the jump, just to challenge me to get over his Gordo and behind him without letting myself get too low.

- And last, just hanging there or trying to knock it back with uair from off the edge was a dangerous game. Firstly, bad timing and you get gimped hard off the edge during your jump if you choose to aerial it this way... and even when I did hit it with a uair, it just harmlessly flew up not pressuring the Dedede at all. And if I hung there too long, another Gordo could be deployed or the first could just bouce towards the edge until it fell on my head and knocked me off my ledgegrab. I did try fair onto stage a couple times but mostly got a Gordo dropping on my head, due to poor timing perhaps, before getting punished there as well.

Didn't realize how dirty this tactic was until I actually met a Dedede that was obviously well practiced with it and didn't miss an opportunity to use it. My conclusion after much failure from the edge was to just not get on the edge or hope he failed to set a Gordo up on me. Easier said than done, heh. It was much more back and forth on stage and I at least I felt I had some control although he was still very good on stage center with me. But once I was on the edge, I just had to try and pick my poison more often than not and hope he didn't punish with something that would send me back to a "hanging off the edge again" position... or just plain killed me.

Was curious what experience and thoughts anyone had on this.

(TL;DR - Him edgeguarding with gordos absolutely had me stupefied. I can blame some of my timing troubles on the lag perhaps though).

With Pac-Man, it was probably more to do with lag online and getting projectile spammed. Even so, Pac-Man's Neutral B is a pain to defend. Every projectile does something different and he could deploy any one of them. Approaching was a pain. He often caught me shielding too early or too late. The slow fruit punishes spotdodge and the little plane thing and the cherry can screw with a jumping approach. I'll also add that dash attack's hitbox is really weird and I never quite figured it out. I barely ever got within his annoying wall of projectiles, but when I did I could get a few hits in, but he was quick to set up camp if I let him get away. I'm certain that offline and in a place other than FD it would have been a different story.

Both this Dedede and this Pac-Man beat me 90% of the time, and probably a third of that time it was a two stock. I know I beat the Dedede once by putting a string together on it in it's first stock and killing it in the first 15 seconds, but then it nearly brought it back. I did this again in a different match and managed a two stock. Otherwise I was pretty much 2 wins to about 10 losses as I recall. The Pac-Man I fought less times and never beat. Think we did 6 or 7 rounds. I got close a few times but every time it got close he amped up his defenses even more and I think he would just wear down my patience and I'd get sloppy and frustrated. We nearly timed out a couple times. Probably would've if I'd played less aggressive toward the end just trying to kill him.

...

I'll just add a comment about Link as well here at the end. I've faced a few mediocre ones that were annoying but beatable fairly easily. I did face one that was pretty good though. I was originally playing Falcon in For Glory and he was really owning me to my surprise. Now, my Falcon isn't that good even though I love to use him. I don't do follow ups consistently and I don't have a scary grab game or any of the things even a decent Falcon should. Still, I thought my speed and usual casual tactics would work but they really didn't that effectively. Link's projectiles and his jab to protect him when you close in are the most annoying things. But then I switched to Ganon. Now, I still got beat the majority of the time, but the threat of that one big hit was so much greater. Even without Falcon's speed, Ganon's approach more often forced a retreating reaction from the Link. Link rolled a lot more with Ganon around for whatever reason. I was able to ftilt punish rolls. Timing wizkick punishes were still tough on him since he was so defensive. I never really approached from the air but I did jump and aerial toward him to bait him to come get me so I could sneak in a choke or something. Long story short, I faced who I thought was a good Link and Ganon seemed more comfortable in that matchup than Falcon to my surprise.

Anyways, /textwall~

 

[AngryDeathBox]

Zss' combo game is too good and easy on ganon.
Jigglypuff is annoying online for me cause lag makes punishes with rest basically free.
A patient little mac can be annoying because of his speed and punish game on a lot of ganon's moves.
Haven't fought any good sheiks or rosalinas but I see others say it's a bad matchup.

 

[HeavyLobster]

Zero Suit is painful. Most of them can be baited into attacking at some point and that gives me a chance to read her approaches, punish, and proceed to do some real damage. The ones that are hellbent on camping you out are a nightmare, as it's very hard to get in without getting punished. I mean in general matches become much easier if you can get campers to panic and feel they have to come after you after you've powershielded a couple of projectiles, but a patient Zero Suit in particular is much scarier than other campy characters because of how much she can punish you for a single mistake.

 

[Caryslan]

Zero Suit is painful. Most of them can be baited into attacking at some point and that gives me a chance to read her approaches, punish, and proceed to do some real damage. The ones that are hellbent on camping you out are a nightmare, as it's very hard to get in without getting punished. I mean in general matches become much easier if you can get campers to panic and feel they have to come after you after you've powershielded a couple of projectiles, but a patient Zero Suit in particular is much scarier than other campy characters because of how much she can punish you for a single mistake.

I've started running into ZSS players who will shoot their Paralyzer and then throw you while you're dropping your shield. It's annoying as Ganondorf, because there seems to be no safe approach options for that. If you misjudge an air dodge, roll, or spot dodge you end up eating the Paralyzer and are open to attack. If you decide to shield it, then you leave yourself wide open to being grabbed and thrown into the air where she juggles Ganondorf in a combo.

How do you deal with this? I'm generally good at handling projectile characters as Ganondorf, but ZSS annoys me. She is just so quick, she can follow up and punish Ganondorf even if he tried to shield or dodge the move.

 

[A2ZOMG]

Try to anticipate when she wants to dash in and Nair. Honestly that's all I can really say about ZSS. Playing against her is very similar to playing against Falcon. She is much harder to juggle but lighter and vulnerable to Flame Choke Dtilt.

 

[Candlejack]

Some of the hardest match ups for me: Captain Falcon, Shulk, ZSS, Sonic, and Link.

I don't feel like any of these are impossible in any way, however the hardest for me is definitely Falcon. I dunno if it's just me, or that I play a lot of amazing CF's, but I have been blown away by Fatality before. I lose to ZSS/Link/Sonic from sheerly loosing my cool, which I need to work on. Shulk may just be a personal thing but I have a hard time challenging his aerials/speed grabs/a well placed counter.

 

[JmacAttack]

Link and Shulk aren't bad for Ganon, but you need the matchup experience to be on even footing.

For Shulk, you need to not jump the gun on your punishes. Shulk has fast aerials that autocancel, so once you shield the aerial, you need to remember to also shield the jab or the smash attack. Fortunately, Shulk is one of the characters we have great options on out of a Flame Choke, so abuse that. Go for grabs against Shulk, and don't be afraid to challenge him offstage. His recovery is predictable and hard to sweet-spot, and you can go for up-tilt edgeguards if you think he won't quite sweetspot the ledge.

It's also very important that you not over-extend your advantage against Shulk. Let's say you've got a combo going, then you get a weak hit of dash attack. That naturally combos into Up-smash on most characters. On Shulk, he has just enough time to hit the Counter button and launch your ass back to the Sacred Realm, which hasn't even been in the timeline since OoT. Shulk is an even matchup, though it's volatile as hell. Single moments can win or lose you the entire match.

Link is another even matchup that heavily favors certain skills over others. To beat an average Link, you need to learn to read rolls and catch bombs. If you aren't confident in your powershielding abilities, don't try too hard to go for those, just regular shield the projectiles and scare him into another option. Link's grab reward game is awful, while Ganon's is among the best in the game, so if you get grabbed, don't fret. Keep your head clear and don't get baited into using Wizard foot on an up-air or up-smash.

ZSS actually becomes really easy once you get enough matchup experience. I no longer think ZSS is a bad matchup for Ganondorf, to be honest - I haven't lost a match to a ZSS since December, and I used to think it was my worst matchup! I've lost to more Falcons than ZSS, and I still say that MU is even. Turns out we have good options out of flame choke, her good attacks are laggy and highly telegraphed, and she is light as a feather. If you shield a Paralyzer (don't even need to powershield), you can immediately roll. This catches bad ZSS by surprise, since they will invariably go for a grab or dash attack and be left wide open. If you do get grabbed, don't panic, and don't try to challenge her followups with an attack. Just dodge it and land safely. DI away, since that will make her up-B whiff its most important hits. Be aware that she has up-B out of shield, so if you reach kill percent, DO NOT go for a dash attack. Poke from a distance with dtilt or grab her.

Sonic is a matchup that tests your timing. Sonic beats players, not characters, since pretty much any of his approach options are punishable with an attack... but only if you hit him with it. So until you get enough experience, it's going to be very difficult. Once you get good enough to nail him out of his spin dashes, those timing skills will carry over into other matchups as well.

Captain Falcon is a matchup that can sometimes be frustrating, but also very satisfying. His dashgrab is amazing, and his game revolves around followups out of it, so if you see him run at you, full hop and dair him. Try to make him fight in the air as much as possible. If he's a fool, he'll try to Falcon Kick from above. Warlock Punch him for his hubris. Get good at edgeguarding, because Ganon beats Falcon offstage. Doesn't need to be a dair, just needs to be a hit.

 

[toadster101]

I got my ass kicked by a Captain Falcon on For Glory last night, then he quit after I two stocked him with Dedede. Ganondorf struggles against the faster characters like Sonic and Pikachu. I don't have any problems with projectile spam, however.

 

[Kyzon Xin]

R.O.B. is my hardest matchup by far. His Nair is beast vs ganon, and he can 50/50 with a grab or downsmash out of it. Both are pretty quick. Then his gyro and laser. That's what makes it difficult. Approaching is damn near impossible, and if you get hit with the gyro they can relatively easily tech chase Ganon with it due to his slow rolls/get ups.

 

[Candlejack]

Link and Shulk aren't bad for Ganon, but you need the matchup experience to be on even footing.

For Shulk, you need to not jump the gun on your punishes. Shulk has fast aerials that autocancel, so once you shield the aerial, you need to remember to also shield the jab or the smash attack. Fortunately, Shulk is one of the characters we have great options on out of a Flame Choke, so abuse that. Go for grabs against Shulk, and don't be afraid to challenge him offstage. His recovery is predictable and hard to sweet-spot, and you can go for up-tilt edgeguards if you think he won't quite sweetspot the ledge.

It's also very important that you not over-extend your advantage against Shulk. Let's say you've got a combo going, then you get a weak hit of dash attack. That naturally combos into Up-smash on most characters. On Shulk, he has just enough time to hit the Counter button and launch your *** back to the Sacred Realm, which hasn't even been in the timeline since OoT. Shulk is an even matchup, though it's volatile as hell. Single moments can win or lose you the entire match.

Link is another even matchup that heavily favors certain skills over others. To beat an average Link, you need to learn to read rolls and catch bombs. If you aren't confident in your powershielding abilities, don't try too hard to go for those, just regular shield the projectiles and scare him into another option. Link's grab reward game is awful, while Ganon's is among the best in the game, so if you get grabbed, don't fret. Keep your head clear and don't get baited into using Wizard foot on an up-air or up-smash.

ZSS actually becomes really easy once you get enough matchup experience. I no longer think ZSS is a bad matchup for Ganondorf, to be honest - I haven't lost a match to a ZSS since December, and I used to think it was my worst matchup! I've lost to more Falcons than ZSS, and I still say that MU is even. Turns out we have good options out of flame choke, her good attacks are laggy and highly telegraphed, and she is light as a feather. If you shield a Paralyzer (don't even need to powershield), you can immediately roll. This catches bad ZSS by surprise, since they will invariably go for a grab or dash attack and be left wide open. If you do get grabbed, don't panic, and don't try to challenge her followups with an attack. Just dodge it and land safely. DI away, since that will make her up-B whiff its most important hits. Be aware that she has up-B out of shield, so if you reach kill percent, DO NOT go for a dash attack. Poke from a distance with dtilt or grab her.

Sonic is a matchup that tests your timing. Sonic beats players, not characters, since pretty much any of his approach options are punishable with an attack... but only if you hit him with it. So until you get enough experience, it's going to be very difficult. Once you get good enough to nail him out of his spin dashes, those timing skills will carry over into other matchups as well.

Captain Falcon is a matchup that can sometimes be frustrating, but also very satisfying. His dashgrab is amazing, and his game revolves around followups out of it, so if you see him run at you, full hop and dair him. Try to make him fight in the air as much as possible. If he's a fool, he'll try to Falcon Kick from above. Warlock Punch him for his hubris. Get good at edgeguarding, because Ganon beats Falcon offstage. Doesn't need to be a dair, just needs to be a hit.

Thank you so much for this, Jmac. I'm glad I finally made an account here, it's good to converse with other Ganondorf's to see how differently they approach things.