Ok so, Im going share my thoughts on why link CAN win big tournaments.
Link has a style to adapt to each and every characters advantage over him, but most link players only prefer to use one style and one set of link tricks. If we master and use them all in one match this will make things MUCH harder for the other party.
Things we should remember-
1.Link is a combo machine, he can combo most of the cast VERY well and to a good ripe killing percent. You just have to figure out the combos
2.Link can do chaingrabbing via tech chase to grab. the fall, they roll a direction, you run that way slightly and let your grab range do the rest.
3.The ftilt, has more range the tipper, beleive it. using its great range to make up for its slow wind up time is key, wd back to an incoming nair and using the ftilt, it covers a decent amount of area in front of you so it SHOULD stop most aerial approaches (Given that its a move they have committed to and cant stop) and will probably send them at the least off the stage at higher percents to set up edge guarding shenanigans.
4.His spin attack ledge hog, its fast its efficient, and remember if you need to you can ledge hop into whatever aerial you need to when your opponent is back on the stage. I.E. - Get sheik off the stage at around %100, spin edge hog, she teleports back on, Ledge hop dair, game.
Edge guarding shenanigans. Link has a lot of them, Against link when at a decent percent, NO ONE should make it back, not even DK's insanely high priority up b. SKRAAAA
"Never try to sneak up on a man with a 360 degree magical spin attack"
1.Spin spike, if your opponent recovers even a little to high, you can spin spike them, and if its at low percents, you SKRRAAAA edge hog to keep them from grabbing the ledge. This technique works very well against characters who have a hard time sweetspotting, I.E. Marth, Falcon. Sometimes if your opponent isnt ready for it you can back throw to SKRAAA them into oblivion at the edge. And if they are the type to jump right back on with an attack... you guessed it. SKRRAAAAA! remeber that links up B has a lot more range then most attacks. also, if they grow wise to it you can shield to mind game them and then skraaa oos when they come up. Also, for additional mind games remember that the hitbox on the up b extends slightly at the end of the attack and will spike. test it out to see the range on it.
2.The fitilt, They getting wise to the spin spike? dont have the time to ledge hog? The fitlt reaches under the stage and is a good way of surprising your enemy, as mentioned before it has good knock back, so it will kill them at high percents and set up for ledge hogging at lower ones. You can even stand at the very edge and catch them with it if they are recovering high, but if they do that, just skraaa them.
3.Nair, Get gimped,
Watch this video, at 30 seconds in. He likes to jump right after he gets hit and when he's off the ledge. A wall was created to stop his jumping. The nair has a lot of uses, actually I wont even talk about, go read the guide on it.
4.Dtilt meteor. No one uses this, thats we should start using it more, cause you wont see a lot of link mains use it. and if you miss the meteor you will most likely pop them up and at the VERY least have to get out of harms way. but most of the time you can follow up with a variety of moves to get them back off the stage where they belong, or plant a nice dair into them. (Note this isnt very useful after cc'ing cause its so slow, edge guards are its only practical applications) Now, if they meteor cancel they will probably do so to soon and make it so they will up b past the ledge and above the stage. guess what you do....SKRAAAAA! Just but sure to wave dash backwards for the recovery's that can reach you while you stand there, like the spacies and falcon
5.Dsmash , it pops them up to a certain height depending on where you hit. and sets thing up for any aerial, the best option is probably nair or skraaa. not much more to say about it. except that it can kill if your at a stage like yoshi's story.
6.Boomerang, Yea, it can be used really well. they over shoot their up b a little bit? use the rang, to pop them up into a lovely skraaaa, the rang CAN reach under the stage when angled right. So even if they sweet spot it can work, its better against slower recovery's like fox, falco and falcon, the rang also works for foiling vertical recoveries, but most of the time skraaa is the better option for punishing those. choose wisely.
7.Bombs on the ledge. We've seen germ do it, but past that not so much. its more a fancy trick and there is usually (always imo) a better option to choose, but take out a bomb and plant on the ledge for those with big hitbox's on their recovery if you feel like loling.
8.throwing stuff at them. You've seen people get gimped by needles and turnips, link can do it to, but the best option for this is...the bow. yes you heard me right, the bow can be used to gimp recoveries. but doing so requires a lot more precision and prediction then other gimps. simply nairing off the edge is a better option for fast fallers, but if they grow wise to the nair and recover is such a way you cant use it. (Like THAT will ever happen, nair is to good) then you can surprise them by shooting off a seemingly useless arrow, they can and probably will recover afterwards so be ready with some ledge hogging or gimping. this is also one of those attacks that will make them up b above the stage sometimes.
-other stuff to throw at them, bombs and rangs, rangs usually pop them up higher so I wouldn't recommend use this one so much unless its in a manner stated above. same for bombs, but it will make them recover higher for some skraaa'ing , dtilting or more skraaa'ing . Or they will wait and try to sweetspot, in which case you just up-b to ledge hog (Or however you prefer to do it) and watch them fall.
(BTW the most efficient way to ledge hop aerials is to press away on the control stick and not down, just be sure not to di to far away from the stage or you will fall)
Getting back on stage- Link recovery is almost as good as his nair.
For now, I'll just write about recovering against fox. Cause I have done it a lot, most of this is getting around the shine, this can be solved with the air dodge to hook shot in a variety of ways.
You go off the stage
Fox comes down to shine you as you recover, you air doge up and AWAY from the stage, this way fox cant jump out of his shine directly up and spike you that way. This is where it swings in links favor, you become the edge guarder, which I've already covers, no one should get back on against link. At this point I usually waveland into a skraaaaa for fox's benefit, if he recovers to low, well, you know the drill. For info on recovering against other characters, ask skler or another more experienced link player than myself.
Grabbing- Im tired so I wont cover this to much, but most people will side step links grab and punish, thats what your waiting for, set it up so that everything looks like your going to grab them and then wait for that dodge animation to come to end (Or close to it for faster recovering characters) and then grab and punish.
ok so I think this is pretty much everything I have experience enough with to cover. but yea there are so many more link tricks, and if we just remembered how many options we had during tournaments then we would be getting a lot farther in the brackets.
