So I've been playing Ganon vs a lot of Fox lately and I thought I'd take the time to break down all of Fox's approach options on Ganon and how Ganon can counter them. I'll start with the most common and then get less common as I go on.
- Short Hop Nair -
Probably one of the most common approaches Foxes will try to do against Ganon. They'll shoot lasers as you until you get close and then dash forward into an instant SH nair, that will likely lead into a shine.
How to Counter: Crouch Cancels are your friend here. You're going to be CC jabbing more than you are CC grabbing because it is very likely that the Fox can shine you before your grab even comes out, so it's best to just get him off of you so that he can't get and easy 40% on you from a waveshine upsmash or whatever he feels like. Retreating bair can also counter this if you can predict it early enough. CC or shield are really your last resorts if you are purely reacting.
- Short Hop Drill -
Another common approach that Fox can do that is more difficult for Ganon to counter because it can't be CCed.
How to Counter: SDI away or behind Fox, depending on where you are on the stage and how much room you have to SDI. If you are near the ledge and Fox is going to try to drill shine you towards the ledge, you should probably be focusing more on grabbing the ledge when he tries to shine you off stage. This however can be countered if the Fox double-shines you, as the first shine will put you in the air, and the second one will put you in the air a little more and make it much harder to impossible for you to grab the ledge after being shined. Some easy you can do it C-stick in a direction to ASDI the drill, and use the control stick to SDI the shine.
- Running Shine -
Basic and common approach that a lot of Foxes will go for especially if they see you jumping a lot in the air. They will try to sneak underneath you and shine you while you are in the air, allowing them to keep you there and combo you pretty badly.
How to Counter: This one is a bit more easier to react to than the other short hop options that Fox has since he has to get pretty close to you to shine you, not to mention he has to run straight at you just to hit you with a grounded move. Ganon wants this because his retreating aerials beat this approach 9 times out of 10, especially if you anticipate it in neutral. You don't want to challenge this approach directly cause Fox's moves are faster than yours, so you need to be defensive and retreat. This will also work if the Fox wants to run-up grab or run-up upsmash.
- Full Hop Nair -
A bit more uncommon but this approach is very difficult for Ganon to get around. Not only is the start up for nair really good, but because it's a sex kick, he can rise with it and come down with the nair and still hit a standing Ganon from a full hop. That hitbox it out the entire time, covering all that space that Fox will be full hopping into. This is especially deadly if Fox catches you jumping in the air with this, cause he can fall faster than you, land, and shine/uptilt/whatever before you're even able to touch the ground. My friend was playing a bunch of Fox yesterday and this was the thing he kept doing in neutral a lot that was really starting to get on my nerves because of how many options it was covering.
How to Counter: the same way you counter a short hop nair, except it's a smaller window to get a jab after the CC cause Fox can hit you on the way down from his fastfall, where in the short hop version, he can hit you as he's rising, giving you a lot more time to respond with something. You can also beat this by reading it ahead of time and spacing an instant upair to beat the nair, but it can be very tricky as you really need to do it ahead of time. Of course it helps to read them jumping in the first place, but that goes for any jump really.
- Full Hop Drill -
This one is different from Full Hop Nair because it doesn't last as long as the nair does, so it's more susceptible to being instant upaired, but this is also not CCable, and you will have to ASDI and SDI your way to get out of it.
- Short Hop Upair -
This is a weird one and very situational, but if you're not careful it can really mess up your day. It has a bit of start up, but if it lands, not only will it catch you in the air, but it can catch you on the ground, and it's also not CCable.
How to Counter: Fortunately, since there is a good bit of ending lag for Fox if he does this, as long as you don't get hit, you can counter this with a lot of things. It doesn't have good horizontal range, so you can easily outspace it. A Fox will likely do this as a weird approach mix-up, and the reward is huge if he lands it.
Coastward i hope you can find stuff of me from this to add to the video if you haven't done it already
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