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Ics vs samus help?

Mario Blanchard

Smash Rookie
Joined
Nov 11, 2013
Messages
14
How do you do anything in this match up? Every time I play vs samus they can keep me out with missiles and can never get near her. Controlling nana vs projectiles is super hard and getting a grab vs her tilts and smashes feel like it is not possible.

how do you play this as ics? I have in interest in playing another character.
 

Vanitas

Smash Ace
Joined
Jan 30, 2010
Messages
812
Location
Final Destination
I don't have the most experience in this, but I'll try to share what I know. In longer distances, I have found that ICs can crouch under the missiles. In platform stages, I tend to challenge her camping with ice block camping. Sometimes when you can predict she will missile, you can shoot the ice blocks at her missile (one ice block will cancel the missile and the other one will hit her). Definitely mix up your wavedash lengths when you are going in for the punish and try to whiff out some downsmashes and tilts and punish accordingly. This is one of the few matchups where I blizzard less as the missiles can go through the blizzard and hit my secondary climber.

When it comes to edge guarding, I like desynching ice blocks at her recovery and predicting where she is going to Zair or Air Dodge Zair. I think it is difficult for Samuses to get around this.
Most of it is outsmarting your opponent when it comes to the ground game.
 
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DerfMidWest

Fresh ******
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
4,063
Location
Cleveland, OH
Slippi.gg
SOFA#941
Lots of ftilts and lightshield.
You have to be pretty patient sometimes, but its for sure doable once you figure it out.
 

DerfMidWest

Fresh ******
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
4,063
Location
Cleveland, OH
Slippi.gg
SOFA#941
well you could also just dash attack the missiles then use the clank to desync.
I really only ever find myself powershielding as sopo.
 

Kyu Puff

Smash Champion
Joined
Feb 22, 2007
Messages
2,258
Location
Massachusetts
Use d-air to break through missiles and close the gap between you and her. N-air can work as well, but the hitbox isn't out as long so it's riskier. D-air gives you pretty much complete coverage in front of you and below, so you can just jump towards missiles and sh d-air to break them.

When you're in close quarters, most Samuses will be scared to shoot missiles and either try to escape, poke you with moves like f-tilt and ditlt, or crouch cancel your approaches. If she isn't shooting missiles, you can turn around and b-air which is really useful since it comes out quickly and isn't easily crouch canceled. Samus is kind of like Peach in the sense that you want to keep her at a range where she feels pressured and might throw out unsafe moves. A lot of her attacks are punishable with WD out of shield or shield grab. If she's f-tilting a lot to stuff your approaches, you can sit slightly back and throw projectiles or have Nana blizzard.

Since Samuses tend to shoot missiles from underneath the side platforms, a lot of the fighting will take place near the ledge (which is pretty different than other match-ups where your goal is to retain control of center stage). Her d-mash can be pretty deadly because it turns Nana around, making it impossible for her to grab the ledge, so avoid going in with moves that are easily crouch canceled.

If you can force Samus to jump up above the platform, you can get a lot of mileage out of u-air combos.
 

MCMike

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 28, 2015
Messages
16
when im trying to approach he uses mines. How can i react to this?
 

Army805

Smash Cadet
Joined
Aug 7, 2015
Messages
52
well you could also just dash attack the missiles then use the clank to desync.
I really only ever find myself powershielding as sopo.
Me too on the powershielding with sopo for the most part, sometimes i'll do it if i can ensure popo will be slightly in front of nana. Why does the projectile usually hit nana still if you powershield it while they are standing together? Does it have to do with the 6 frame delay or something? Also on the dash attack missile desync, is it popo or nana that is actionable out of the clank?
 

Joemama0s

Smash Rookie
Joined
Mar 4, 2015
Messages
9
Location
Colorado
One thing i do when dealing with samus is to pressure her very hard. I call it setting up shop when she knocks you away and starts firing missiles. you want to keep the pressure up and dont let her dig in
 

Jesus!

Smash Cadet
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Messages
41
Location
Ottawa
i find if i get hit by one missile, it means nana is just ****ed and if hit by a missile off stage she's basically dead. in neutral, i usually just try to jump over the missiles and then tends to work, but if i slip up i dont know how to avoid hardcore punishes
 

NTRN

Smash Cadet
Joined
Feb 8, 2016
Messages
38
The samuses I play I have made a bit of progress figuring out. You have to worm your way past the missiles, get close, and then wait for her to do her panic 'get away from me' moves, which I find are dtilt, dsmash, upb. So WD shield is decent because of the slow grab, and she can only grab one of you. Her normals are quite good for boxing you out and have a decent amount of shield stun, making reckless counter-hit attempts often a bad idea.

Also the ones I play love spot dodging after whiffing, then letting a d smash or something rip, which I think waiting also beats.

I think it boils down to:
- get close enough that she can't missile camp you
- threaten her space and stay on the ground
- shield and wait for dodges or get off me moves. Samus deals with shield against ICS primarily with pokes, so angling is important.

And I'm not sure about dair. I always get cc dsmashed when I dair a grounded samus.
 
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