Heya Rizen I actually want advice from a Brawler so I can incorporate some stuff into my P:M play. How does the Brawl Link vs ZSS matchup work?
LordXavior could give you a better explanation, he played Salem, but here's mine:
Link has a good anti powersuit piece game with his normal psudo-camping style of SH projectiles and platform camping/bombing. Throwing out bombs, Boomerang and arrows walls off the pieces and forces ZSS out from under them. Link is also very good with the pieces with Zair and Fsmashing while holding one, the same way he bomb smashes. As long as Link plays passively he won't get schooled at the beginning of a game by pieces.
Link also has a few 'advantages' (and by that I mean he gets exploited less than other characters) like escaping ZSS' Dsmash without taking a ton of damage. Link's fast fallspeed and good use of bombs helps him avoid air juggles. SH Zair is a great approach/way to sort of shut down ZSS without being in her whip or paralizer range. Bombs can be thrown through paralizer blasts and Link can cancel them easily with other attacks. Link 'out-camps', not that he can truly camp but he can make ZSS chase him for damage. Link has a longer reach but he's significantly slower; any position except directly above ZSS Link can win an attack reach contest (except for ZSS's whip but that's slower than Link is, spotdodge slide and punish or shield dash>grab). Also beware deceptively large hitbubbles ZSS has with attacks like her down B kick; Link can still beat it with Zair but he needs to space farther than you might think. ZSS doesn't have any significant CGs or locks on Link and he has decent combo evasion stats mentioned above.
ZSS is much faster to attack and more mobile so spacing can be hard. Link needs to play a fast passive camping game mixed with sword spacing. The big thing is to not be baited or trapped in a bad space like against an edge, wall or without a 2nd jump. Link will take a lot of damage but he can take a lot of damage and be okay for a long time. Link can get low % KOs with tactics like platform camp>throw bomb down>chain to a Dair, get a good read with Dair or smash, and bomb, arrow or jab locks. Link also has a quick KO Dsmash (frame 6) and Utilt (frame 7). Punishing a missed whip or grab is an easy Dair or Smash. Link can grapple the ledge and hang to stop ZSS' recovery from very far but she probably will recover in most cases. Link can make it hard on her be spamming projectiles and dropping bombs as she recovers.
ZSS will try to pressure Link, make him panic, get him offstage and gimp or intercept. When she does force Link offstage, which can be avoided for a while if he's smart:
High recoveries> FF airdodge>tether can be good but watch that she doesn't whip Link from afar. Whip will beat BRang and arrows so don't spam if she's on the spam horizontal plane. Like all MUs, pull a bomb as Link is launched after momentum canceling.
Link has to accept he will take damage and keep his cool. Good DI and SDI is very useful. SDI jabs, paralizer and juggle starter hits. ZSS has a good gimping game (but who doesn't on Link?) but she doesn't have a great way to get him offstage like CGing characters do. Like most if not all Link's MUs, if Link knows what he's doing it's much better but if he doesn't he will get destroyed. I learned the MU from Bio and he destroyed me the early games. I also have beaten a ZSS in a live tournament and a PRed player in my state uses her. ZSS has more of an advantage on wifi because Link gets nerfed.
So it's an endurance match. ZSS is faster but Link can throw projectiles and has a longer reach. Link will take more damage but can KO earlier. What sucks about this is ZSS can time out Link and run with the lead. Even so Link can answer ZSS fairly well. Xavior thinks the MU is -1 Link. I can see it as a -1 or light -2.
Stages: Brinstar but it's gone (thank you MK). PS1 is ideal; just be careful that ZSS' whip doesn't go through the terrain and hit Link. If that's banned go for Delfino. Link needs room and platforms to evade ZSS without fear of being backed against a ledge.
For starters strike YI and FD. YI sucks for camping and stops projectile spam and FD is a big space with no platforms which gives ZSS a big advantage with higher jumps, faster movement and no obstacles to obstruct her spacing. Hopefully BF will be chosen as SV doesn't help Link space much. Halberd isn't bad but it aids ZSS' spacing and Delfino or PS1 helps Link more. Frigate isn't that bad if you stay away from the ledge-free right side in phase one. I think banning FD would be more beneficial than banning Frigate. Ban Rainbow Cruse if it's legal. Link doesn't have any horrible stages vs ZSS but he is at a disadvantage on several.
I don't have any live replays unfortunately. This is the best example I have and it's wifi so take it with a grain of salt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFG8jjQadCk&index=28&list=PLr1TA6mS1hkv4aAyML6Se--hAXN4qTFZw
