Match Notes

Miryafa · Dec 4, 2016

Summer of 2016 I started getting serious more about PM, serious enough to do something I'd been avoiding for a while. Some number of months before I read Umbreon's guide to rapid improvement, and I wanted that for myself. So I started implementing some of his suggestions. But in summer of 2016 I got the chance to travel to a bigger city with a more competitive smash scene, and I finally got desperate enough to try the last suggestion too: taking notes. I took notes on every match I played that summer, and by the end of the summer better players started telling me that I had gotten noticeably better.

Now I'm posting my notes here. In part because I'd love feedback on them - what's right and what's wrong. In part so I can access them easier. And in part because I want to give something back to the community. I'm not convinced my notes are particularly insightful or useful, and I'm not on any PR or nationally ranked, so I don't have any reputation behind my words - in fact I desire critique. So here's what I've compiled.

Intro

Name: Miryafa

Character: Zelda

Zelda's strengths (as I see them): strong finishers, can attack from melee and ranged, can wall opponents out, excellent off-stage recovery, built-in mind games with Farore's Wind
"You can force your opponents to recover in a very specific way." -Snok

Zelda's weaknesses (as I see them): sloooooooooow; her slow movement speed impedes dash-dancing, follow-ups, or punishes (impedes but doesn't prevent); most smashes are multi-hit and so can be beaten with a strong move or smash-di'd out of; and it's hard to get out of a juggle

(according to Plum/Sledg): no way to deal with campy neutral, dins too much endlag, no way to force approaches, you can bait dins, dies early, not good shield, too slow

My overarching strategy: Harass my opponent with fireballs and apply pressure with dash-dancing/teledancing until they make a committal whiff and I punish with a strong hit/combo into edgeguard to take their stock

My ideal stage strikes: anywhere the opponent loves (e.g. WL against Ganon, FD for Ness, PS2 for Fox/Sonic), and FoD (for now, until I get used to its walls)

My crucial mistakes:
-Bad spacing.
-Attempting to run away when I'm inside the opponent's range. Zelda is slow and rolls are punishable, so I get punished for that.
-Wavedashing from air to ground and hoping to shield an attack in time/shielding slowly.
-Playing on reaction all the time and trying to think instead of doing known moves.
-I'm slow (compared to other Zeldas).

Other things I need to improve:
-mind games
-pivot grabbing
-platforms (being on, dropping through and around)
-wavedashing to the edge
-aggressive dash dancing
-meteor cancelling

Singles Matches (by date)

2/11/17

Beastoftheeast
Character: Ike
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: ghz, ww
Stage/result: ps2-win, sville-win
Notes:
I got hit a lot more than I wanted, especially with fsmash and usmash in neutral

Snok
Character: Zelda
Opponent bans: sville, ps2
My bans/reason: fod,
Stage/result: battlefield-loss, fd-loss
Notes:
He said I caught him in a lot of DF setups
And that I dealt with his fireballs as I should when he threw them out

Hyuga
Character: Mario, Ness
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: ghz, ww
Stage/result: battlefield-win, sville-win
Notes:
Whenever I tried to cross up/jump over Mario he would hit me

Thatoneguy
Character: Luigi
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: ww, fod (blast zones)
Stage/result: ghz-win, ps2-win
Notes:
He killed me 3x with fair in game 1. I made a point to avoid it after that.
I noticed I shield after almost everything, and in at least one case it prevented me from getting a follow up. A quicker opponent might've grabbed me too

Jitty
Character: ROB
Opponent bans: ghz, fod
My bans/reason: ww, bfield (rob)
Stage/result: ps2-loss, sville-win, sville-win
Notes:
He keeps jabbing my grab and getting away with it. Gotta only grab from behind him?
Too many times I did a committal move when there was no way it would hit, like grab when he was behind me - in a lot of those situations usmash would've been better
When he was offstage, he'd always use all his jumps, fair/uair, then grab ledge. Can I grab ledge before him?
ROB was able to shorthop>sideb and fly over my grab, even though it looked like it'd connect
Dyl said I needed to use LK lower to the ground to get under ROB's shield (and Jitty was angling it up). I don't like to because it's very punishable, but if it hits...

Dad
Character: Kirby, Pit, Fox, Ness
Opponent bans: dland, dsecret
My bans/reason: ww, ps2 (low ciel), bfield(for fox)
Stage/result: ps2-win, sville-win, sville-loss, sville-win
Notes:
Kirby's NL (after swallowing Zelda) ignores shields

Snok
Character: Zelda
Opponent bans: ps2->fd, dsecret
My bans/reason: ww, fod (snok's combo game is good)
Stage/result: ghz-loss, dreamland-win, bfield-loss, sville-loss
Notes:
If they LK and miss, don't LK them - I whiffed and got LK'd back
Seemed like Snok made better use of fireballs than I did
I didn't react to his position well and threw out moves that couldn't hit.
Gotta remember to shield if within FW reappearance area
Gotta remember to FW far enough from stage that opp can't LK/uair during the animation
LK and uair seem big in this matchup because combos are rare, and they kill floaty Zelda early
But usmash combos at <30
I did entirely too many dash attacks. And a few too many rolls (against both Snok and Jitty) and got punished for them.
With me at 60, Snok landed DF > dash attack > DF > LK
We both started with DF, but I'm starting to wonder if it isn't better to go in for a grab or usmash and get a low% combo going. Snok showed it's at least possible on Battlefield if the opponent is trying to DF at the start

2/18/17

Plum Orchid
Character: Ike
Opponent bans: fd, dsecret
My bans/reason: ghz
Stage/result: ps2-loss, dreamland
Notes:
I heard about aggressive dash dancing from some commentators, and practiced it a bit. This is the first bracket match in which I get to try it out.
I tried to jump away and FW away from him when he fthrowed me but he always hit me with fair before the FW was able to start
His pivot grab is really fast and can do it out of side b, which also comes out really fast
I picked Dreamland to try controlling the stage with fireballs, but it didn't work.
I tried to pressure him into a corner with dding, but he would just hit me with his sword (nair, ftilt, side-b bair, side-b grab)
"You also need to grab ledge every time he tries to recover with side b. Have a dins out on stage so he gets hit by it. If he wall jumps & tries to upb you can ledge jump fading away from stage & upb to sweetspot the ledge" -PM Mentor

Picklestein
Character: Marth
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: ww, fd
Stage/result: ps2-win, fod-win
Notes:
He was very confident in his approaches so it was hard to push him into the corner with aggro dding. But he also ran away to the corner.
DDing seems much harder on FoD

Krombopulus Michael
Character: Sheik
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: dland, dsecret
Stage/result: sville-win, ps2-win
Notes:
He likes to be in the air to get over my attacks (ledgehop > fair missed his fullhop) and then fair me
He'll wait for me to attack and punish with grab, so dding seems good

Spartacus
Character: M2
Opponent bans: ww, fod
My bans/reason: ps2, fd
Stage/result: dsecret-win, bfield-win
Notes:
The longer I played in g1, the harder it was to pressure him into the corner
He'll act like he's running into the corner and then fake out by teleporting back behind me.

Jitty
Character: Diddy, ROB
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ww, bfield (rob)
Stage/result: sville-win, fd-win
Notes: -

Dyl
Character: G&W
Opponent bans: ww, ghz
My bans/reason:
Stage/result: sville-loss, ps2-loss, fod-loss
Notes: It seems like no matter which way I DI, I get hit by his fair
"Be careful of his aerials" -Snok
He has been using a lot of attacks, few grabs. Maybe shield/dd more?
GW's landing animation of both upb and dair made him too short to grab

2/21/17

Apple
Character: Ness
Opponent bans: ds, dreamland
My bans/reason: none
Stage/result: sville-loss, ghz-win, fd-win
Notes: I played Ness

HIV+
Character: Samus
Opponent bans: dland, fd
My bans/reason:
Stage/result: bfield-loss, dsecret-loss
Notes: I played samus g1
Dsecret was still great, even though I lost.
I was able to avoid missiles with platforms, but he was also able to get full beam charge while I did.
I tried to edgeguard with dtilt but his upb hit me instead.
When he was messing around offstage I tried to grab ledge with run off-upb, but he hit me with upb. Gotta wavedash to ledge instead I guess?
He was able to punish landcancel NL with dashgrab
He would shoot a missile and wait for me. If I NL'd or shielded, he'd dash grab
Seems like his edgehop fair > dtilt is a true combo

Aaron
Character: DK
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ww, fod (small)
Stage/result: ps2-win, ghz-win
Notes:
His bair and dtilt both beat my usmash

Pluto
Character: Ivy
Opponent bans: ww, ghz
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: sville-loss, fd-loss
Notes:
I'm feeling like everything I do is invalidated by Ivy (I guess Pluto's just in my head, and I sought help online after this). DD < her dtilt/jab, OOS grab < her jab, CCing < her dtilt/razor leaf/bair, shield < her nair/far/razor lead/dtilt
Ever time I tried NL she hit me during its startup animation
It's like playing against Falco with disjoints
I was able to shield grab and LK after her 2nd jab
I SD'd a few times g1 =(
Maybe I need to put DF closer to me and attempt to punish her attacking it. Putting DF at face height stumped her a bit too though
"If she's attacking shield from front, expect either a jab or grab to follow, you can buffer a roll behind and punish them cause they'll be in the middle of a move" -elf_aka_otheusrex
"She's a defensive character. So are you. You aren't SUPPOSED to be able to rushdown after getting a single hit. ESPECIALLY not against Ivy." -Kaeldiar

2/25/17

Black Jesus
Character: Captain Falcon, M2
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: ps2, fd
Stage/result: sville-win, dreamland-win
Notes:
M2 can float diagonally up and uair>uair>uair

Plum Orchid
Character: Ike
Opponent bans: fd, dsecret
My bans/reason: ghz, fod
Stage/result: bfield-win, ww-loss, dland-loss
Notes:
He sd'd g1
His nair beat my grab from front and behind
Ike juggled me exceptionally. Once he got fthrow, nair, or bair, he could got for an attack, miss, and do another attack before I could get back to stage
I tried to always keep a fireball out at neutral level, and I think it helped

Corynotag
Character: Wario
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason:
Stage/result: ghz-win, ps2-win
Notes:
He completely ignored my aggro dding, and I didn't know how to successfully punish it. Something to work on.
He liked to sideb a lot - he jumped and it hit me while I was doing full-hop upb

Tilde
Character: Metaknight
Opponent bans: dsecret, dreamland
My bans/reason: ps2, ww
Stage/result: sville-win, ghz-loss, fd-loss
Notes:
I wrote in-depth notes on this game and posted them below.
He sd'd every game
Don't usmash except to continue a combo - he's too short on ground, and will nair/dair in air
Seems like staying on the ground is better to avoid eating a nair.
Can't cross him up with NL b/c nair.
Uthrow > LK at 35-77?
Looks like MK has trouble dealing with NL?
"Zelda at even stocks is bad. Zelda is good when she's ahead (because they have to approach)."
Punish unsafe pressure behind me with bair oos b/c it's faster than fair.

Pluto
Character: Ivy
Opponent bans: ww, ghz
My bans/reason:
Stage/result: dsecret-loss, fod-loss, fod-loss
Notes:
PM_Mentor:
"the MU isn't that bad, but it requires a lot of good dins play.
there were a ton of scenarios where u popped Ivy up & coulda thrown a dins out, but tried to shark w/ a uair/fair instead.
ivy being above u is 1 of the few characters where that's a bad thing. dair is essentially unreactable & nairing to beat it doesn't provide good followups
and if she and u whiff, now she's below u to uair u
basically, dins is a safer option to throw out & if she hits the dins it's a free kill attempt
work on using the dins when it's returning to you. i don't think u got any followups when it was returning."
Atlas:
"Ivy will expect it to get reflected somehow, for sure. Unless theyre stupid, in which case do it to them a few times (nayrus works too) until you condition them to followup differently, in which case you just back off from the leaf and teleport past it
(Get more off returning Dins by) mixing up between manual on them, manual before them to change timing, attacking at same time to cover 2 options, attacking slightly before to make it safe, attacking slightly after to cover their oos option, etc"

2/28/17

Salty
Character: Zelda
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: dsecret, dland
Stage/result: ghz-win, ww-win
Notes:
He got a lot of grabs on me, I must be approaching unsafely.

3/4

Opponent name: Faun

Character: DK

Opponent bans: dland, sville

My bans/reason: fod

Stage/result: bfield-win, fd-loss, ps2-loss

Notes:

His neutral and combo game were good.

He wanted FD so I'd have no platforms to escape to

I'm doing ok if I can be behind him on the ground.

He mashed out of grabs well, and I couldn't get double usmash

His fthrow combod into nair when I di'd down-away, maybe try diing in

He had trouble with fireballs so an open space where ai can use mire might be good

PS2 was fine, except his roll off platform (armored?) through usmash

His dding was maybe better than mine. Might've been he knew our respective ranges better than me.

"You have to play defensively." -JTG

Opponent name: picklestein

Character: Marth

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason: fod, bfield

Stage/result: sville-win, ghz-win

Notes:

Opponent name: Claus

Character: Ganon

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason: bfield, ghz

Stage/result: sville-win, ww-win

Notes:

Opponent name: Spartacus

Character: M2

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason: ps2, fd

Stage/result: bfield-win, bfield-win

Notes:

I think being able to predict his teleports mattered a lot

Sparty tends to grab ledge, teleport to it 3x, the teleport straight on stage horizontally

Opponent name: Faun

Character: DK

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason: bfield, fd

Stage/result: ps2-win, ps2-win, ghz-win

Notes:

Opponent name: Jitty

Character: ROB

Opponent bans: fod, ww

My bans/reason: ww, bfield

Stage/result: sville-loss, ghz-loss, dland-loss

Notes:

When Jutty plays this well, I feel like he gets to attack me and I don't get to punish him at all

He got fair>jab>grab on shield

He got dthrow > uair when I DI'd down-away, had to start DIing in and jump to avoid bair, but when he read that he got a bair

When I tried to LK him and whiffed, he got nair

LK < his nair

And whenever he's in the air I'm almost guaranteed to miss him, because he can: jump>jump (above my jump uair reach) >sideb>sideb>sideb>fastfall nair>roll away, and I couldn't touch his falling nair with fsmash, uair, or LK

He did that a lot actually. He'd always use all 3 sideb's before ff nair

I think it's important to stay on the ground. When it comes to agility, juggling, and dacus, ROB has all 3

2/28

Opponent name: Saki

Character: Marth, ZSS

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason: fod, bfield

Stage/result: sville-win, ps2-win

Notes: -

Opponent name: Chance

Character: Wario

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason: ghz, dsecret (his preference)

Stage/result: bfield-win, fd-win

Notes: -

4/8

Opponent name: KM

Character: wolfx3, Ness

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason:

Stage/result: bfield-loss, dland-win, ghz-win, smashville-win

Notes:

He did a lot of dsmash and fsmash to get me offstage, mixed up with grabs

He tends to jump around a lot whenever I approach, so can I make him stop by not approaching? Or bait a jump and punish? It kinda worked but I couldn't hit him while he was in the air. The less I commit to on the ground the less I get punished by aerials

Opponent name: KM

Character: Fox

Opponent bans: dreamland->sville, fd

My bans/reason:

Stage/result: ghz-loss, ds-win, ww-win, fod-loss, dland-win

Notes:

He turned it up after losers finals.

In g1 I think I basically lost to uthrow -> uair. How do you DI away?

I started getting nerves in g2. Gotta calm down. Is this because I ate a sugary snack right before this?

I noticed he was approaching with attacks a lot and started shielding excessively. It worked.

5/27

Opponent name: MGL

Character: luigi/mk

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason:

Stage/result: ghz-win, fod-win

Notes:

Opponent name: Don

Character: fox

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason:

Stage/result: sville-loss, ghz-win, sville-loss

Notes:

Opponent name: Kenpo

Character: Marth, mk

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason: ww, bfield

Stage/result: sville-win, ps2

Notes:

Opponent name: Ashen

Character: roy

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason:

ww, bfield

+ dland, fd, sville, ghz

Stage/result:

Notes:

7/1

Opponent name: Pancakes

Character: Fox

Opponent bans: fd, delfino

My bans/reason: ps2, battlefield

+(good stages) FD, Dland, FoD, GHZ

Stage/result: smashville-win, sville-loss, ghz-loss

Notes:

He played campy and I couldn't ever get near him. Don't know how I won a game

Opponent name: Unspecial

Character: Fox, Falco

Opponent bans:

My bans/reason: ww, battlefield

+ FD, Dland, FoD, GHZ, Smashville

Stage/result: sville-loss, ghz-loss

Notes:

Opponent name: kuma

Character: lucario

Opponent bans: dsecret, dreamland

My bans/reason: ww, ps2

Stage/result: sville-win, fd-loss

Notes:

Opponent name: Grendo

Character: ROB

Opponent bans: dland, ghz

My bans/reason: ww, bfield

Stage/result: ps2-loss, fod-win, sville-loss

Notes:

Felt like he won games because of longer reach, disjoints, and fast speed.

Singles Matches (by character)

Note: For each character and match, I've included the stage/result, written as: [stagename] [wins]/[losses]
Take the overall stage/result with a grain of salt though, since it includes both players I was much better than, and players I was much worse than. Not to mention a small sample size.

Bowser

Overall stage/result: ps2 1/0, ghz 1/0, fd 1/0

CCT
Stage/result: ps2 1/0
Notes:
Bowser fsmash hits the edge
Fireballs were good against him

HIV+
Opponent bans: dreamland, yoshi's story > fd
My bans/reason: fod, ww
Stage/result: ghz 1/0, fd 1/0, fod 0/1, ps2 1/2, dsecret 0/1
Notes:
Watch out for Bowser attack strings (like dash attack out of flamethrower) - he's fast and armor makes them hit
Bowser was so fast he was able to shield DF and then dash attack before I could follow up
Dashdance grab wasn't great. Partly it seems HIV+ reads my approach and starts fsmash to make my grab whiff
Bowser can armor-dsmash through FW's ribbon when I'm trying to edgestall
He said I don't mindgame against him, and when he wins it's because he mindgames me.
I couldn't grab him. I'd grab and get hit, or whiff even when it looked like he was in my grab hitbox.
I would shield and he would shield-stab.
He rolled to ledge then away again a lot
Seemed like every time I connected with an attack, he completed an attack before my next one hit
Bowser seems fast - he crossed half of ps2 and dash attacked me while I was throwing out a short DF
And he got downb (hit me) > edge-jump > bair when I was about 0%
I could never edge-jump over his usmash, even when I thought I had edge invulnerability
I tried aggressively hitting LK at the top of his hitbox, and it worked when I sweet-spotted his shield, but his dash attack and downb both armored through it, and his dsmash hit me before LK landed (from surprisingly far away)
Note also I couldn't roll towards him while shielding his flamethrower. It seems like you just can't get past Flamethrower in general. I can roll away from it, but can't approach it with anything, including jump. Then I tried teleporting behind him, but by the time I reappeared he had already left the flamethrower animation and was throwing out an attack as soon as me.
He sideb spiked me out of hitstun from DF while I was falling toward edge - I tried to cancel the side b and it didn't work, so I need to work on meteor cancelling
Bowser usmash covers most ledge options - can't jump over it, can't waveland, can't roll past it, can't LK or NL it (b/c armor), can't normal get up, can't stay on ledge (or it meteors you). Must either refresh ledge invincibility or teleport on stage, I guess?

Captain Falcon

Overall stage/result: smashville 2/2, ww 3/2, battlefield 0/6, dreamland 1/1, yoshi's story 1/0, bowsers 0/1, ghz 1/0, ps2 1/1

Birdman
Opponent bans: ghz, fod
My bans/reason:
Stage/result: battlefield 0/1, ww 0/1
Notes:
Footstool is guaranteed hitstun
He chased me with uairs over and over
IASA jab can knock falcon out of nair (but use it sparingly)

Black Jesus
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: smashville 1/0
Notes: -

Brother Rob
Opponent bans: ghz, fod
My bans/reason: dreamland, fd
Stage/result: battlefield 0/1, ww 1/0, ps2 1/0
Notes:
Wario Land is my go-to counterpick for this matchup.
(G1) Jab stuffed his nair approach, but he got a lot of other free approaches that I couldn't keep track of, and I was feeling overwhelmed
(G2) I was more able to take advantage of his mistakes.
He was able to get uair > jab before I could get out of shield. Hold shield when he approaches in air

Czar
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: dreamland, ps2
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, ww 0/1
Notes:
He's more grabby than doc-brown (and generally better)
DI down and away from his grabs - he always dthrows - and get further away with FW
He got so many grabs into immediate dthrow knee at every %
Jab worked to prevent approaches
OOS usmash did not work - he always jabbed me out of it, even when he was doing an aerial move (if I recall correctly)
I tried to LK when I was near him but he Kneed me in the face for trying

DF
Stage/result: dreamland 0/1, bowsers 0/1
Notes:
Falcon edgeguards the top corners of bowsers
He ran away a lot, on a big stage he runs so far away I can set up fireballs.
Find out how to get out of Falcon combos (editing note: I've since learned to jump away and do a floating-away-teleport)

Doc Brown
Stage/result: battlefield 0/2, ww 1/0, dreamland 1/0, yoshi's story 1/0
Notes:
When he was aggro he lost, but he started playing defensive and I couldn't touch him
I don't wanna get grabbed (or I'll get 0-death'd)
Uairs were good
He would always junp to approach, try to catch him in it
Raw LK will almost never work, neither did my grounded moves
If I stand far enough away from edge to fsmash/NL a roll, he didn't do much and got hit easily
I feel like this stage list favors Falcon. (editing note: ghz, smashville, battlefield, ps2, dreamland, yoshi's story, warioware, fod, fd) (editing note: yoshi's has since been removed)
He can do anything into jab, and I can't roll away from it

Jay
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fd, ps2
Stage/result: ghz 1/0, smashville 1/0
Notes: -

Studkip
Stage/result: battlefield 0/2, ps2 0/1, smashville 0/1, ww 1/0
Notes:
His nair beat my NL!
Stay on ground and don't approach I think (editing note: ZHime's tactics are different)
DI his throws down and away b/c he gets knee followups off up-di
OOS punish game works
Shield even more
He runs away too far and gave me time to set up fireballs

(Misc. note) I don't like Bowser's Castle against Captain Falcon. Here's why: when I was recovering from the top-right corner, a Falcon jumped off a platform and up-air'd me (for the stock) while I was still off-screen. And it's big enough for him to run away from me, and the platforms are too high for me to touch him while he's on them, but not vice versa

Charizard

Overall stage/result: smashville 1/0, ghz 1/0

Riki
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fod, ps2
Stage/result: smashville 1/0, ghz 1/0
Notes:
Zard can drop with nair and beat my grounded usmash

DK

Overall stage/result: ghz 0/1, final destination 1/0, yoshi's story 1/0, ps2 0/1, dreamland 0/1, smashville 0/1, fod 1/0, battlefield 1/0

Aaron
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ww, fod
Stage/result: ghz 0/1, final destination 1/0, yoshi's story 1/0
Notes:
Fireballs and grabs were good
He's gonna go offstage for followups
My nair never beat his, use LK or retreat
Respect his oos upb

Knockers
Opponent bans: ww, ghz
My bans/reason: fod, distant planet (comfort)
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, fod 1/0, battlefield 1/0
Notes:
He can nair to jab
Shield-grabbing jab worked

Sledg
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: fd (too big), ww (sick for zss)
Stage/result: ps2 0/1, dreamland 0/1
Notes:
Can't shield-grab his jab or jab-jab
Sledg did OOS upb whenever I was above him
He countered with bair a lot (and then got away free, even when I was shielding), so be super careful in my attacks
He chained uairs on me even when I DI'd away, even when it looked like they couldn't hit - what can I do?

Diddy

Jitty
Opponent bans: ghz, fod
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: smashville 1/0
Notes: -

Luck
Opponent bans: ww, fod
My bans/reason: fd (items)
Stage/result: ps2 0/1, battlefield 0/1
Notes:
Don't forget preemptive hitboxes. I tried to react fair from neutral and he hit me
His fair got over NL
He comboed me pretty hard
He suggested usmash more to combo Diddy
He surprised me with bair edgeguard pretty far from the stage. Gotta stay away, go low recovering, or mix it up

Falco

McMurphy
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: sville 1/0
Notes: -

Fox

Overall stage/result: battlefield 5/0, fod 2/0, ghz 3/3, bowsers 1/0, yoshi's story 0/1, smashville 0/1, fd 0/1

Cory
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ps2, dreamland?
Stage/result: battlefield 1/0, fod 1/0
Notes:
My DF at ledge didn't stop his firefox
He rolled onto the stage through DF - just grab ledge
He was able to dash under DF at normal height, put it low

CP9
Stage/Result: ghz 1/3, battlefield 1/0, bowsers 1/0, yoshi's story 0/1
Notes:
Teledancing was good against CP9
I picked Green Hill Zone to combo Fox, but he landed on platform a lot
I felt like I had the advantage with grabs and upsmash, but he DI'd away from the 2nd upsmash every time. Try up throw more instead.
His jabs and upsmash seem to be faster than anything I can do out of shield, so hold shield or sidestep
Go to the edge and not stage or I'll eat an up-smash
Smash-DI away from Fox's jabs to avoid grab and maybe avoid usmash (gotta DI away to survive usmash anyway)

Dad
Stage/result: battlefield 1/0
Notes:
Shielding his approaches and smash-DI with c-stick worked
At low % he can combo me, at high he can edgeguard too well - recover to top platform by default, but switch it up
Fireballs worked because he gave me lots of space. LKs did too. In fact, everything except teleporting in front of him was good. (editing note: he got much better)

Fox
Stage/result: ghz 1/0, fod 1/0
Notes: -

Paradox
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ps2, fod
Stage/result: battlefield 1/0
Notes:
He started playing safe and it was hard to touch him
I had to trick him with telecancels

Quad
Stage/result: battlefield 1/0
Notes:
Remember fox has speed and gimps and uairs

Relkin
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ps2, fod
Stage/result: ghz 1/0
Notes:

Unspecial
Opponent bans: fod, dreamland
My bans/reason: ps2
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, fd 0/1
Notes:
He was all over me. Felt like I couldn't touch him and no matter what I did he always punished it
He laser camped some, but it really felt like he didn't have to. He didn't laser camp enough to make me feel like it was a problem, but I can imagine a fox doing that. Possibly I charged in too quickly when he started camping.
His nair beat my aerial NL
He got jab usmash even when I DId away
Usmash killed on smashville at 85ish
He often approached from above to avoid NL. But when I started using nair and usmash, he adapted and did dashdance usmash instead
Dtilt didn't stop fox's sideb. NL did.

(Notably missing) Dualcatz, who beat me, and my more recent matches against Dad, in which he won

Game and Watch

9.99
(friendlies)
Notes:
GW has so many disjoints! And what seems like no endlag. I gotta respect his punishes and not throw out preemptive hitboxes to prevent approaches (I just get hit)

Leo/Mao
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: friendlies
Notes:
Aerial disjoints do not clank and will hit me.
GW's ftilt "chair" hit me through FW's ribbon at the edge when I attempted to edgestall, also it lasted long enough to hit me after a sidestep or air dodge. Don't sidestep in front of him, roll or NL or usmash instead.
I couldn't roll through his jab.
GW up-b goes through fireball - just grab the edge
When I'm in the air, he was able to fly towards me with parachute and then retreat for free (and I couldn't reach him)
GW attacks come out so fast I gotta be super conservative attacking
He was able to duck under my grab and dash attack under it (Umbreon why)
His upb has no lag, because he can act out of it
His key has a hitbox in front of it that will beat LK
GW can crouch cancel anything into dtilt until maybe 30% (40%?)
Shield grab and LK worked against him. Why does smashboards say not to shield against GW's?
Fireballs worked too. So what's the logic behind the GW matchup info on smashboards?

S4J
Opponent bans: ghz, ww
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, fod 0/1
Notes:
Dtilt at the edge just lost to his upb (it's hard to time but can work)

Ganondorf

Overall stage/result: ps2 3/0, ghz 2/1, smashville 0/1, ww 1/0

Krombopulus Michael
Opponent bans: ww, fod
My bans/reason: ww, bfield (small, movement)
Stage/result: ps2 1/0, ghz 1/0
Notes: -

Legend
Stage/result: ps2 2/0, ghz 1/1, smashville 0/1
Notes:
Don't fsmash, it's too slow to punish his whiffs
Try more OOS game
Remember to respect his close range (e.g. jab), and grabs.
Legend is very hit and run. He doesn't often approach with grab though so shielding works. Remember OOS upsmash.
He used more grabs on ghz. His dthrow-fair seems true and death at <=66%, but not at 86% with proper DI
Note: I cannot cross him up with LK's, he just grabs me
Going to the edge when I'm off-stage seems safe because I don't see him grabbing it
Shielding and LK-punishing him worked well, but was hard to do. It's something I need to practice.
He stood at the right distance from the edge that I couldn't descend or teleport safely, and was good at punishing my teleports in onto the stage.
He was able to attack and shield superquick. I had trouble when he was behind me and I couldn't grab.
He punishes getup attacks very well.

Riki
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fod, ps2
Stage/result: ww 1/0
Notes:

Ike

Overall stage/result: smashvile 0/1, ps2 2/0, battlefield 0/1, yoshi's story 0/1

Krombopulos Michael
Opponent bans: ww, dreamland->fd
My bans/reason: fd (ness), GHZ
Stage/result: smashvile 0/1, ps2 1/0
Notes:
Make sure to dash dance
And sweet spot

Plum Orchid
Opponent bans: fd, dreamland
My bans/reason: ghz (ike), ww
Stage/result: battlefield 0/1, ps2 1/0, yoshi's story 0/1
Notes:
Battlefield was terrible. He just kept getting free hits and getting past my hitboxes without getting hit.
Putting fireballs out stopped his approaches
He just sideb grabbed me or naired a lot (3 nair in a row on my shield)
He was able to grab-sideb-grab before I could respond
Is his dthrow - dash attack or dthrow - fair a true combo? If I DI in I get fsmashed (I think) and if I DI out I get hit with fair/bair. I just gotta DI his throws in.

Ivysaur

Pluto
Opponent bans: ww or dreamland, ghz or fod
My bans/reason: fod (changed later), battlefield, smashville
Stage/Result: smashville 2/4, ps2 3/4, battlefield 0/1, dreamland 1/1, final destination 2/0, fountain of dreams 1/2, ghz 0/1
Notes:
She can cancel aeriels into ground attacks before I get out of shield (are those true combos?)
She has longer reach with dtilt
Her dsmash beat my aeriel NL and LK
Her fair beat my LK and hit over the top of NL
She has trouble with my fireballs (keeps getting hit or disrupted by them), so use them more
Her punish game on me is nuts
She often approaches with fair and cuts off approaches with leaf, shielding leaf won't work
I'm having trouble escaping things I feel like I should be able to escape
Try smash-DI down or away next time?
Don't forget Ivy has free jabs after nair. Her pressure game is strong so if I can escape that'll help.
Also maybe want close sides for LK. (It worked)
All she had to do was throw razor leaves and stay close and I couldn't get any hits. She had so little hitstun I couldn't combo her, and so little hitlag I couldn't punish her whiffs. What can I do about that?
(Apparently nothing: play very safe neutral. Also this was about when I went to smashboards for help.)
CCing was good
She's still getting free combos that I can't act out of, like bottom-hit of uair to usmash, or nair to jab to ftilt
LK is working at close range
Staying close with hitboxes out to apply pressure was pretty good
Seems like DI doesn't matter, but try DI down and away from her
"Nair is in fact super good. There's a lot of free followups that I get if you get clipped." -Pluto
But nair can be cc'd until 186 (from the linking hits), or 43 (from the final hit). If you take every hit, that means you have to start below 27 to cc all of it.
I couldn't cc nair, which was Jer's main approach in a game
Nair > jab > jab > grab gave me no option but to roll away
I couldn't punish her recovery by holding edge - back-jump-nair she smash-di'd to land on stage
Her fair > fair appears to be a true combo
Combo-DI didn't work against dthrow > up-b - I must DI down and away (I DI'd in one and she ran past me, jumped, and reverse-up-b'd me)
CC-ing was once good, but has become terrible - she just grabbed me, even when she started with attack, because her chains always ended in grab
In a match against another person, she rolled out of corner 4/5 times. I was able to punish her for it 3 times.
She often went to ledge from air. I started grabbing it to punish her
She was able to do attack-jab before I could shield grab (frame-data below)
She got a stock off up-b to ledge while I was telesnapping to it - while I was inbetween her and the ledge.
It's very hard for me to apply shield pressure if possible at all. Pluto never goes into shield because nothing I do can ever get past her disjointed attacks
My general experience trying to apply shield pressure: Pluto just uses dtilt and razor leaf, if I dash dance around those and go in she jabs me, if I cc them I get knocked up anyway, if I jump in for LK/whatever I get usmashed/utilted/faired
I keep being struck by Ivy's higher aerial maneuverability relative to mine - if we're both in the air, she is much faster than me, and can aerial dash dance fair on me or my shield - OOS LK didn't work when her fair was spaced right
My general experience trying to stay away and use fireballs: Pluto attacks with razor leaf/fair/nair/dash attack/grab. When I shield and go for LK her fair/nair, she actually falls away too far for me to hit. I can punish dash attack by shielding and OOS usmash, but not with OOS LK because she hits me with jab, nor with shield grab the times she crosses me up and ends up behind me.

Ivy frame data:
Jab-jab is -15 on shield. Comes out frame 2. If she spams jab, Zelda has 9 frames to grab/something.
Nair is -4 on shield. Her lcancelled nair-jab is +2 against Zelda's shieldgrab and +1 against anyone else's. Not to mention Ivy can nair shield and move back out of usmash range.
Ivy grab is frame 14. Nair grab is -24 on shield, so Zelda has 16 frames to grab first.

"Ivysaur is known for having nothing out of shield. Maybe nair, but that can be cc'd." -Guru/Azer

Kirby

9.99
(friendlies)
Is Kirby's nair-grab a true combo?

(Notably missing) Gnosis, who always beats me

Lucario

Overall stage/result: smashville 1/0, battlefield 2/0, fd 0/1

Bear/Kuma
Opponent bans: delfino's secret, dreamland
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, ps2 0/1
Notes:
Don't forget Lucario jumps really high and can double-jump to catch me out of hitstun or when I'm coming back to the stage
Bear looks for fsmashes above 100%
Bear often jumps to get out of the corner
He reacts quickly.
He often came at me diagonally, from the air if I was on ground, or from the ground if I was in air
Watch out for down-b > dsmash when he has aura (it covers a lot)
Watch out for him trying to smother me, and juggling me
Lucario has an uair sweet spot that kills early
On ps2: Make sure to nair onto platform instead of usmash from below
I whiffed ftilt and he was able to punish it immediately (same for dsmash)

HIV+
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fod, ww
Stage/result: smashville 1/0, battlefield 1/0, ghz 1/1
Notes:
Cc-ing is worthless against Lucario above 100% (I've since learned it's useless against most characters above 45%)
Aerial NL lost against any hitbox he threw out, including nair
His nair went through DF on the way up and hit me on the way down, like 30 frames later

Shadowlief
Stage/result: fd 0/1, battlefield 1/0
Notes:
He was able to get around fireballs easily
Snapping to the ledge was good
Gotta avoid his disjoints somehow
He always goes behind me to attack. Can use that to get him (until he starts mixing it up)

Best advice I ever got: "learn to play at over 100%" -Uncle Taint (after I said I always got combod 0-100% before it seemed like DI started mattering)

Lucas

9.99
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ww, ps2 (low ciel)
Stage/result: bfield 1/0, fd 1/0
Notes: -

Luigi

Overall stage/result: dreamland 1/0, battlefield 0/1, ps2 2/0, smashville 1/1

(
Opponent bans: fd, dreamland
My bans/reason: ps2, ww
Stage/result: dreamland 1/0, battlefield 0/1, ps2 1/0
Notes:
High ceilings (to avoid his upb kills)
NL and preemptive jab/fsmash worked fine
I couldn't fthrow-grab
When he got inside my character model he got free combos - keep him out
He didn't do too many up-b kills, can try ps2 for space (after note: it worked)

Dyl
Stage/result: smashville 0/1
Notes:
His Usmash beat LK
Dyl doesn't grab much, so I can shield a bit but he'll start grabbing if I do it too much so also use NL.
Be patient with him. He is with me.
Fireballs don't seem to stop him at all - takes more time for me to setup than him to nullify them (Dyl agrees)
I guess jab-upb is true? Dyl always does jab first.
(On a side note, he plays significantly better in bracket than friendlies.)

McMurphy
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: ps2 1/0
Notes:

Rawtoxic
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: battlefield (his comfort), fod (my discomfort)
Stage/result: smashville 2/0, dreamland 2/0, ps2 1/0
Notes:
I couldn't really combo him with usmash/fthrow/dtilt
His nair beat my usmash
My light hits at low % led to immediate counterattack - dtilt was useless
He was able to aerial attack, land, and attack before my hitboxes came out
His dair > nair came out super fast, even when he hit my shield I couldn't shield-grab

Mario

Overall stage/Result: ww 0/1, ps2 0/1, fod 0/1, ghz 0/1, yoshi's story 0/2

Stoks
Opponent bans: dreamland, bfield; ww, fod
Stage/Result: ww 0/1, ps2 0/1, fod 0/1, ghz 0/1, yoshi's story 0/2
Notes:
DI towards him when he does down-throw (so all the time at low%)
It's true I don't have strong punishes on him b/c he's mario and seems to get out of hitstun immediately and counter-nair.
Maybe bigger-better (editing note: I have no idea what this means anymore)
He's covers so much space with dash attack, if he's on ground he can reach me when I'm in air
His lingering hitboxes are great, and give him free punishes on missed sweetspots, so I gotta sweetspot the ledge with upb (focus on snapping to it)
His bair hits me out too straight to recover, I gotta DI up
Try a large stage and fireballs next time
Don't try to shield grab him - he has free jabs
Lcancel nair didn't stun mario long enough to usmash
He was able to maneuver around me in the air, don't reach for a follow-up
LK on Yoshi's is great.
Yoshi's platforms are great for my recovery, but I gotta land on them and not above
His Mario was like Pluto's Ivy with attacks that can miss and keep attacking before I could grab/dsmash/jump bair.
Stoks from the edge was able to wavelanded-turn-around-grab before my dsmash hit him (don't stand so close I guess?)
He can do a flying nair *across the stage*

Marth

Overall stage/result: yoshi's story 1/1, ps2 2/1, fd 1/0, ghz 1/1, smashville 1/1, battlefield 2/1, dreamland 0/1

Dad
Stage/result: yoshi's story 1/0
Notes:
Fireballs worked because he gave me lots of space. LKs did too. In fact, everything except teleporting in front of him was good. (editing note: he got much better after this)

Disco
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ghz, ww-close sides and big sword
Stage/result: ps2 1/0, fd 1/0
Notes:
He likes to wavedash a lot, can stall with fireballs
Marth gets outta hitstun fast, don't reach

Dyl
Stage/result: yoshi's story 0/1
Not just Dyl, but other Marths also consistently get 3 fairs in a row on me. How do I get away?
Marth's sword outranges my everything. Air approach is not safe.
Putting him in the air and juggling was good. Most of my wins were 2 hit combos in neutral though

Elijah/Yeesy
Opponent bans: dreamland, fd
My bans/reason: fod, ww
Stage/result: ghz 1/1, smashville 0/1
Notes:
Marth acts out of hitstun quick and can use fair/bair before I get fair/bair follow ups a lot. Respect his frames
Does Marth get out of every combo?!

Hona
Opponent bans: ww, ghz
My bans/reason: ww, fod
Stage/result: smashville 1/0, battlefield 0/1, dreamland 0/1, ps2 1/1
Notes:
He always like to cross me up with his jumps
He went really aggro game 2
He was able to bair/fair/dair OOS if I hit him unsafe, so make sure I'm safe

Krombopulos Michael
Stage/Result: battlefield 2/0
Notes:
He has super long reach. Use fireballs and punish.
Gotta DI in at low% to avoid tipper fsmash

Paco
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fod, ww
Stage/result: fd 1/0, smashville 1/0
Notes:

Paradox
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: bfield (his comfort), ghz
Stage/result: sville 1/0, ww 1/0
Notes:
He's got good read reactions, so on the assumption that those were reads, I tried to mix it up in g2. I don't remember if it worked.

Metaknight

Overall stage/Result: smashville 1/1, bowsers 0/1, ghz 2/0, ps2 0/1, battlefield 0/2

9.99
(friendlies)
NoteS:
MK has uthrow downb from super far away (like ps2 platform to platform)
9.99 often sidesteps whenever he Lcancels (try waiting)

Bran Poppin
Stage/Result: smashville 0/1, bowsers 0/1
Notes:
MK can uthrow-dspecial if I DI away

Kit
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: fd, ps2
Stage/result: ghz 2/0
Notes:
I was able to DF in front of him and attack if he tries to cancel it
Shield his cross-ups and dash attack after
Baiting with reverse landcanceled NL worked
His MK dash-dances a lot, especially on his last stock. I should bait him with movement rather than using moves to prevent approaches
Kit is good at sidestepping at the right time (so is Stoks)

Tilde
Opponent bans: delfino's secret, dreamland
My bans/reason: ps2, warioland
Stage/Result: ps2 0/1, battlefield 0/2, smashville 2/0, ghz 0/1, fd 0/1
Notes:
I need somewhere I can go to ledge or platform, otherwise he can edgeguard me too easily.
He always jumped to punish whiffs except when he's close enough to dsmash, so watch the air
His sword consistently outspaced my aerials - my nair is like dead, so don't use it
Fsmash never worked - he always hit me first, even when I think I spaced right (work on spacing against his side-b)
Make sure to DI away from anything at the ledge because he lept off and punished my survival DI
I can't LK him if he's above me in the air, he'll dair me
Throwing out lots of hitboxes, being aggressive, with hit and run, works well (although in hindsight, it may have just been that I mixed up my playstyle and he didn't adjust to it quickly enough)
On 2/25 he sd'd every game, called it his playstyle.
Don't usmash except to continue a combo - he's too short on ground, and will nair/dair in air
Seems like staying on the ground is better to avoid eating a nair.
Can't cross him up with NL b/c nair.
Uthrow > LK at 35-77?
Looks like MK has trouble dealing with NL?
"Zelda at even stocks is bad. Zelda is good when she's ahead (because they have to approach)."
Punish unsafe pressure behind me with bair oos b/c it's faster than fair.
Several times I grabbed after he crossed me up with dash attack. OOS NL or LK would have been better.

Mewtwo

Overall stage/result: battlefield 1/0, dreamland 1/0, smashville 2/0, ps2 2/1, fod 1/0, fd 1/1

BJ
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: dreamland, ps2 (big)
Stage/result: fd 1/0
Notes: -

Spartacus
Opponent bans: ww, ghz > fod
My bans/reason: battlefield, dreamland > ps2
Stage/result: battlefield 1/0, dreamland 1/0, smashville 2/0, ps2 1/1, fod 1/0, fd 0/1, delfino's secret 0/1, ghz 1/0
Notes:
Ban Battlefield.
My neutral seems good against him, and he runs away a lot so I'd like to ban ps2 and fd because they're so big (edit: he's since gotten better)
Do not ever land in front of him or he'll grab me (in hindsight, that's always true)
Uair kills him pretty early
He can move with teleport and act so fast - be aware of that, and spacing to get farther before using fireballs
He used aura sphere a lot, what happens if I pressure him? (Make sure to avoid oos nair)
Answer: It was much closer than last time I played him. (editing note: and... lost? I don't remember why I wrote this.)
He was able to fsmash then spot dodge before I could hit him
(editing note: after this he got better, and beat me in a match)
Seems like no matter what he does, he gets to shield afterwards before I can hit him. Then he shield grab upthrows
Can't cross him up with LKs
FoD was closer than I liked.
His upthrow killed me on FD at 108, and almost killed at 70.
He grabs a lot so "Don't shield." -Jitty/Cactaurz
He got a lot out of teleport-nair. At first I felt like I couldn't stop it, but was able to read it and put out hitboxes (NL, LK) to stop it. However, he apparently has no lag on landing

CCT
Stage/result: ps2 1/0
Notes:
Far enough away if I NL m2's powerball, m2 can side-b his powerball back at me ("far away" means like 1/2 ps2 length)

Ness

Apple
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fd, dland (I wanted smaller stages for shorter games)
Stage/result: smashville 1/0, ww 1/0, battlefield 1/0, ps2 1/0
Notes:
Although possible, it's really hard to LK Ness's fair

Krombopulos Michael
Opponent bans: fod, ww
My bans/reason: fd, ghz (want platforms for Ness) > ps2
Stage/Result: ps2 1/2, smashville 2/4, battlefield 1/1, dreamland 0/1, ghz 0/1
Notes:
PS2 worked great for his combos.
Avoid his dair when going for edgeguard (he second-jump-dair'd me when I tried it). Try LK until after he double-jumps
Large stages appear to be good for Ness. He can recover from quite far - I gotta relearn his distance.
He likes to dance around me and Ness was able to b/c he's too fast to chase, and can chase me if I try
I noticed he recovered to ledge every time and was able to punish that
I can't seem to stop his fair. What beats it? Do I just try to punish his direction?
I could sometimes FW out of his fthrow fair, but others not and I don't know why
Ness bthrow killed me off the top, don't DI it up (DI downish worked, depending on my %)
He always approaches with fair or run-in grab (or PK fire). I've been shielding too much and giving him the grabs, but how do I interact with fair? Nothing I do seems to touch him when he does it.

Rylan
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: fod, dreamland / I think I can win quickly
Stage/result: ghz-win, ww-win
Notes:
His "stand still and usmash/fsmash" strategy worked more often than I'm comfortable with. I think I'm making some unsafe approaches when my opponent is on the ground. Like approaching in the air.

(Notably missing) Hona

Olimar

Overall stage/result: ps2 0/1, fd 1/0, smashville 0/1

CP9
Stage/result: ps2 0/1, fd 1/0, smashville 0/1
Notes:
Smash-di away from Fox's jabs to avoid grab and maybe avoid usmash (gotta di away to survive usmash anyway)
Olimar has much more aerial maneuverability than Zelda - he can almost hang glide from the blast zone to the edge, so get above him and keep him away (but his up-b beats most of my weak hits like FW ribbon - why?)
Can't shield-grab during his nair-nair, respect it
He punished my fireballs real hard - it's like he's as fast as Fox, so put more distance between us before fireballing
Smashville is smaller than FD, so fireballs'll be harder. Make sure to sheild his punishes and don't rollTry to stay under a platform and not near him? That worked pretty well, he seemed nervous about using pikmin side-b, but I'm not sure why. All I did was NL/kick them.
He can nair to uair or fair - how do I get away? Do research (edit: it's now in the matchup thread)
Olimar can throw pikmin most of the length of ps2

"Nair and neutral-b get pikmin off.
Small stages are good for Zelda because she has killing power and Olimar is lightweight." -Irish (paraphrased commentary)

Peach

Overall stage/result: dreamland 0/1, ghz 1/0, smashville 0/1, ps2 0/1

Handles
Stage/Result: dreamland 0/1, ghz 1/0, smashville 0/1, ps2 0/1
Notes:
So much hitstun, even on shield! I can only roll away, not punish his aerials on shield
Seems like Peach is much faster, and her attacks (nair, bair) come out faster
I can't run away from his dash attack or kick or nair it. Gotta shield and roll
He used turnips as an approach, and follow up attacks worked even when I used NL (what's the use of a reflector?). I gotta space those out instead.

Pikachu

Overall stage/result: smashville 1/1, ww 1/0

Krombopulos Michael
Opponent bans: fd, ww
My bans/reason: fod, ghz
Stage/Result: smashville 1/1
Notes:
He killed off the top every time?
He didn't grab ledge - try edgeguarding on stage.

Rawtoxic
Stage/result: ww 1/0
Notes:

Pit

His nair's last hit can be cc'd until 60.

ROB

Jitty
Opponent bans: ghz, fod
My bans/reason: fd, ps2 (big, low ceil), later: battlefield, wario land
Stage/result: battlefield 0/2, yoshi's story 0/1, smashville 1/2, fd 1/1, ww 1/2, ps2 0/1
Notes:
Go small stage (editing note: preferably somewhere he can't freely charge the top)
Shield longer during his fair-jab and upsmash to not get linked into something
He'll dash-dance in the air with side-b a lot
He tends to give me space so use fireballs if possible
His uptilt goes through dreamland platforms
His dacus is super-fast. Watch out at that range.
Jitty just flies around and then comes in for a hit (like fair, which appears to combo into other attacks). A small stage with no platforms would be good, barring that bait an attack? (I like Smashville against him)
Practice LK and sweet-spotting
ROB jab is frame 3
On ps2 Jitty just camped lasers and the top. Then he got free approaches on my shield. Going defensive worked better than aggro, but either way I didn't like it. Trying a smaller stage.

Roy

Overall stage/result: ps2 2/1, ww 1/0

HIV+
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: ps2 1/0
Notes: -

Quad
Stage/result: ps2 1/1
Notes:
He was so fast that it was like fighting ZSS-he got 2 moves to every 1 of mine
He is self-stated impatient, but I dunno.
He dash-danced really far away from me, so I had time to set up fireballs
I still cannot be aggressive or he'll zone me out and use superior speed to get a bunch of hits on me before I can react.
A higher ceiling than PS2 would be good.
I think I'll have the advantage if I keep playing a patient game on a big stage where he can't combo me easily or kill me too early.
Or a small stage where he can't run away? I feel like his punish game is better though.

Relkin
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: ww 1/0
Notes:
He just threw out attacks and because roy is so fast, I'd try to punish and he'd hit me anyway. Gotta find out which of Roy's moves are punishable and which aren't.

Samus

Overall stage/result: smashville 2/0

High Santa
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: neutral stages to make him uncomfortable
Stage/result: smashville 2/0
Notes: -

HIV+
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: smashville 1/0, delfino's secret 1/0
Notes:
Jumping over her got me usmashed
I took 2 stocks, then he started playing much better and I couldn't get grabs or usmashes, couldn't touch him. I kept getting walled out from long range and attacked/grabbed at close range
My dash grab lost to her dsmash
He can stop super wavedash anywhere he wants, and mixed up stopping in front of and behind me
Also Samus can super wavedash > reverse charge shot

Sheik

Overall stage/result: dreamland 0/1, battlefield 0/1, fd 0/1, ps2 1/0, smashville 1/0, yoshi's story 1/0

DF
Stage/result: dreamland 0/1
Notes:
He likes approaching with jump-needle
I was able to shield his dash attack and jump nair/usmash
He was able to bair and shield/sidestep before I counterattacked
Sheik's bair edgeguards really high, gotta be far away to teleport

Hona
Stage/Result: battlefield 0/1, fd 0/1
Notes:
Fireballs let me space
Make sure to di down and away from Sheik's dthrow or he gets a free fair

Hard Reid
Stage/result: ps2 1/0
Notes: -

Quad
Stage/result: friendlies
Notes:
He was able to fair twice before I got to the ground. Stay away in the air.
He fell faster than me and could dair me if I missed uair.

Tiddy
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: fod, ww (too small)
Stage/result: smashville 1/0, yoshi's story 1/0
Notes:

Snake

Overall stage/Result: dreamland 0/1, smashville 1/1, battlefield 1/1, ghz 1/0, bowsers 1/0

Flashing Fire
Stage/Result: dreamland 0/1, smashville 0/1
Notes:
Down-b on the edge is good at getting rid of C4 and being hard for him to punish (or he was letting me get away with it for the mind games, since he was ahead)

Paco
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: ps2, ww
Stage/result: battlefield 1/0, smashville 1/0
Notes:

Plasmunky
Stage/Result: battlefield 0/1, ghz 1/0, bowsers 1/0
Notes:
Snake can edge-cancel into side-b
DF worked well, even/especially when he had a mine on the ground
Down-b continues to work well, but I couldn't hit him as sheik
I can blow mines by teleporting over them.

Sonic

Overall stage/result: ghz 1/0, battlefield 1/0

Frost
Stage/result: ghz 1/0, battlefield 1/0
Notes:
NL is good when he's spindashing toward me
He can go everywhere so fast that when I'm offstage, I have to go for edges
He can spindash out of hitstun before I get to him
He played more defensive in the second game, and it was battlefield, so I could throw fireballs
Using platforms to my advantage was excellent - gave me mixups against his horizontal play
Dsmash and other grounded options didn't hit him when he approached because he jumped over them - but he did approach on ground sometimes, maybe I'm just too obvious

(Notably missing) Kit, whose Sonic I lost to every time.

Squirtle

Overall stage/result: ps2 1/0, battlefield 0/1, ghz 0/1, smashville 0/1, final destination 0/1

Shadowlief
Stage/result: ps2 1/0
Notes:
Dash attack was ok, but running away was better

Dad
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ps2 (every time - Dad loves it)
Stage/result: battlefield 0/1, ghz 0/1, smashville 0/1, final destination 0/1
Notes:
Although unrecorded until now, my in-bracket record against Dad's squirtle is 100% loss.
When I was in the air, he was able to fair-bair before could I punish. (A lot of characters punish games in the air seems to be "zelda's so slow just fair, go past her, then bair", eg fox, squirtle, gw, falcon)
He had lots of movement and went in if I did something too close.
NL was pretty good when he used sideb.
Again, try staying on ground and getting him in air
He can water gun->approach attack (like dash attack or jab) from anywhere near me
I've been missing technical things like telesnapping to ledge and dying because of it.
I spent a lot of time off-stage.
*Goal: to just maintain stage next time.
Dad said: Just hold ledge. "It works really well." Don't dair when he's offstage.
Dyl said: Run off-bair is ok.
If I can't get to ledge, just hold stage position.
He approaches with aerials a lot. So Snok uses utilt a lot.
At 50+ Snok uses dtilt and aerial dins because reductive armor.
Squirtle can go from rebirth-cloud to ledge while still invincible on FD
I have to be really close to ledge to grab it, else he'll uair me from ledge and grab it
Final destination seemed good for squirtle - I lost by 1 stock on smashville, as opposed to 2 stocks on final destination
Seems like Squirtle has true combos on Zelda while I'm DI'ing away and trying to throw out LK
On the ground, he was able to throw out a bunch of attacks before I could hit him once with NL
How do I play this match?
I was able to usmash oos after he hit my shield with sideb

Toon Link

Overall stage/Result: ghz 1/1, battlefield 1/0

Kit
Stage/Result: ghz 1/1, battlefield 1/0
Notes:
DI down and techroll his dthrow??? Whatever other direction I use meets his dair.
Watch out for his fast nair/jab, and jab-jab-dtilt-...? (so hold shield or roll away - I can't usmash OOS because it'll miss him)

Wario

Overall stage/result: ghz 1/0, ps2 1/0, smashville 1/0

Cory
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fd, dreamland
Stage/result: ghz 1/0, ps2 1/0
Notes:
Be careful at the edge because wario covers a lot of distance with shorthop nair/bair from edge
NL stops his sideb
Avoid him in air, if he misses me with an attack he can maneuver and try again inside my reach

Sofaking
Stage/result: smashville 1/0
Notes: -

Wolf

Krombopulos Michael
Opponent bans: ww (later changed to fd), dreamland
My bans/reason: (before character-first) fd (ness), ghz, ww (wolf/ike), (now) fod, ww (he's good in close quarters)
Stage/result: smashvile 2/1, fod 1/3, ps2 2/2, battlefield 2/0
Notes:
He likes to dance around me and was able to b/c Wolf's too fast to chase, and can chase me if I try
Make sure to dash dance
And sweet spot
As wolf he was able to run away and approach freely.
Every time I read him and fsmashed/grabbed he still hit me! All he had to do was dsmash and it came out faster than my everything. What can I do about that? Just maintain stage position.
"It looked like you need to work on your timings and/or spacing." -KM
"You say Wolf down smash is faster than everything you have but it's frame 8, at least your down smash is faster than that and even hits at a similar spacing." -KM
Wolf dsmash hits edges even when I'm doing the sweetspot ribbon stall
Wolf fsmash beat LK every time, even when LK looked like it hit him
"Fsmash wins because you were lightning kicking where I was, not where I'm going." -KM
He always spaces for wolf fsmash on the ground, always gets out of my combos after the first hit, and always hits me with shine afterward
Hold shield longer against his approaxches
Wolf can jump in the same direction as me, get past me, and bair me. Don't use fairs against his approaches
"Usmash out of shield. Maybe follow usmash with dash attack." -Sledg. Usmash was fine, but following with usmash with dash attack didn't work - he was able to DI too far away.

Vmony (friendlies)
Notes:
He got point blank laser to fair/uair/fsmash
He did shorthop laser to dash, I reflected the laser with NL but it went over him while he was dashing

Yoshi

Overall stage/result: ps2 1/0, yoshi's story 1/0

JD
Stage/result: ps2 1/0
Notes:
He can mix up his fall with down-b

Sofaking
Stage/result: yoshi's story 1/0
Notes: -

Zelda

Overall stage/result: smashville 1/0, ghz 2/1, ps2 0/1, battlefield 0/1, yoshi's story 1/0, dreamland 0/1

Chance/Salty
Opponent bans: ghz, ww
My bans/reason: fd, dreamland - my combo game's better
Stage/result: smashville 1/0, ghz 1/0
Notes:

Hard Reid
Stage/result: ghz 0/1
Notes:
He may punish better, try a bigger stage than ghz

Irish
Stage/Result: ps2 0/1, battlefield 0/1, yoshi's story 1/0, ghz 1/0, dreamland 0/1
Notes:
I think my punish game is better. Consider smaller stages more.
I screwed up the battlefield due to tech skill, but in general feel good about the matchup there
Keep working on my neutral

Jordan/Gnosis/Aileron/Mr. Meseeks
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: battlefield 0/1, smashville 0/1, yoshi's story 0/1
Notes:
He just seemed to get things I couldn't. Seemed like he had better tech skill.
But he said he just knows how to exploit Zelda's weaknesses better (what she wants to do vs what she can do in neutral)
"You have to look at the frame data to know why LK beats fsmash." -Jordan

Zero Suit Samus

Overall stage/result: fod 0/1, ww 1/0, ps2 1/0

Cactuarz/Mr. Abernathy
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: friendlies (in which he usually wins)
Notes:
Feels like ZSS has like 2 actions to every 1 of mine
Her dsmash on shield appeared to be noncomittal - I couldn't punish it
Her side-b seems noncomittal but I can shield-DI in to punish with grab/OOS usmash, and if not in shield SDI first hit in and cc
She jumps high from ledge and while offstage so I can't jump nair punish (and have to be careful when returning to stage to go low or stay far away)
Cactuarz says when he's ahead, he'll get a read and not act on it - when the opponent's at low% - to make the opponent think they've got something. Then when opponent at kill%, he takes advantage of it. He says that's why I don't live to 150% against him.

Hard Reid
Stage/result: fod 0/1
Notes:
ZSS 0-death'd me twice! How do I even deal with that? She has so much speed and reach and zoning I dob't feel like I can do anything (editing note: I've gotten more ZSS experience since then. The answer seems to be to play super-carefully and use shield-DI)
I did NL to stop an approach
Grabbed once
Got an LK
I absolutely must snap to the edge or I get dsmash'd
Hold ledge until she comes up
I need more ZSS experience (editing note: still true)
Don't be above her in the air anywhere, nor offstage (if possible)

Paradox
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: ps2, fod
Stage/result: ww 1/0
Notes:
As zss he was slightly worse, tried to hit me with disjoints and combos and sometimes did - don't teleport too close to the floor or get hit with fsmash
Also ZSS can utilt through ww platforms (and other dirty things)

Sledg
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fd (too big), ww (sick for zss)
Stage/result: ps2 1/0
Notes:

Doubles Matches

w/ Pluto

Uncle Taint, Zeej
Character: (Uncle Taint) Diddy, (Zeej) Ness
Opponent bans: ww, ghz
Our bans/reason: fd, dreamland
Stage/Result: smashville 0/1, fod 1/0, bowser 0/1

Stoks, CP9
Character: (CP9) Fox, (Stoks) Mario
Opponent bans: don't remember
My bans/reason: -
Stage/Result: dreamland 0/1, fod 0/1
Notes:
They 2-on-1'd Ivy and I couldn't catch up to them
It's easy for fox to split up me from my partner and then 2-1 her

Trash, Matt
Character: (Trash) Fox, (Matt) Puff
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason: fd, dreamland so they can't run away
Stage/Result: smashville 2/0
Notes: -

Uncle Taint, Krombopulus Michael
Character: (UT) Ganon-Bowser-Ganon, (KM) sheik
Opponent bans:-
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: sville-loss, distant planet-win, ps2-loss
Notes: -

Picklestein, Flafi
Character: (P) Ganon, (F) Snake
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: ghz-loss, dland-win, sville-loss
Notes: -

Snok, Sledg
Character: (Snok) DK, (Sledg) Bowser
Opponent bans: ghz, battlefield
My bans/reason: (Pluto) ghz
Stage/result: ps2 0/1, fd 0/1
Notes:
DK punch has armor
They started winning when they split us up

Hona, Claus
Character: (H) Sheik, (C) Ganon
Opponent bans: dreamland, fd
My bans/reason: fod, ww
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, ps2 1/0, bfield 1/0
Notes:
Our plan after game 1 was to take 7 stocks off Claus, and it worked

Unspecial, JB IV
Character: (U) Fox, (J) ICs
Opponent bans: ps2
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: ghz 0/2
Notes:
Fox nair beat NL
We tried to focus on Fox, it didn't work

w/ Doc Brown

Black Jesus, Weaboo
Character: (Black Jesus) Fox, (Weaboo) Fox/Ganon
Opponent bans: dreamland
My bans/reason: ps2, (ww or ghz)
Stage/result: smashville 1/0, dreamland 1/0
Notes:
Avoid 1-v-1s, go to my partner (though I can't remember why)
If we die at same time, wait for him to be on platform before dropping

Arsenals, Troy
Character: (Arsenals) Fox, (Troy) ZSS
Opponent bans: dreamland, (ww or fod)
My bans/reason: ps2, ww
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, dreamland 0/1
Notes:
Lost by 2 stocks in game 1, use less big hitboxes (like LK) because my partner will be close to me.
Their edge game was sick. Don't stay close to the edge near ZSS, just maintain center stage instead (or hold edge?)

Tilde, Dio
Character: (Tilde) Falco, (Dio) Kirby
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: fod, ww
Stage/result: ps2 1/0, norfair 1/0
Notes: -

Krombopulos Michael, Pluto
Character: (KM) don't remember, (Pluto) Ivy
Opponent bans: dreamland, ww
My bans/reason: fod, ww
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, battlefield 0/1
Notes: -

w/ DF

Stoks, CP9
Character: (stoks) Mario, (CP9) Olimar
Opponent bans:
My bans/reason:
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, fod 0/1
Notes:
Olimar can dair kill me when I'm holding the ledge
CP9 tends to dash dance when he's not being engaged - DF says it makes dash attack better against him
Olimar kills me with uairs too easy, gotta stay away from stage when recovering

Dad, Kit
Character: (Dad) Fox-Fox-Squirtle, (Kit) Sonic-Ivy-Kirby
DF: ZSS-Peachx2
Opponent bans: fod dreamland
My bans/reason:
Stage/result: smashville 0/1, fod 1/0, dreamland 1/0
Notes:
Kit is worse at his neutral in doubles, easier to hit
Don more aggro, easier to take him out first

Snok, Lance
DF: Falcon-Peach
Character: (Snok) Bowser-Zelda (Lance) Wario-MK
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: don't remember
Stage/result: battlefield-win, dreamland-win
Notes:
Lance was the easier of the two to take out first

Jordan, Dyl
Character: (Jordan) Ike, (Dyl) Luigi
Opponent bans: don't remember
My bans/reason: -
Stage/result: Smashville 0/1, FoD 0/1
Notes:
Jordan seemed to be not trying or have bad tech skill with Ike, and he still kept his stocks and took ours (editing note: I've learned he has good mind games, which may have been what he was doing)

w/ Black Jesus

Stoks CP9
Character: (CP9) Fox, (Stoks) Mario
Opponent bans: battlefield, dreamland
My bans/reason: ps2
Stage/result: ghz 0/1, fd 0/1
Notes:
Gotta communicate with my partner better to tell him what I'm doing
Don't try to trade Fsmash with mario - he always won
I somehow took 3 stocks off Black Jesus. Be more mindful of my teammate

Bedevere, Quad
Character: (Bedevere) Roy, (Quad) Roy, Fox
Opponent bans: -
My bans/reason: ww-too small
Stage/result: battlefield 1/0, smashville 0/2
Notes:
Roy can space well, respect it and don't approach unsafely (I don't know how to approach him safely)
Just throw fireballs while he dashdances

Overall: It seems I'm a bad teammate, and need to work on my teamwork skills.

In-depth Notes (by match)

SSS-Tier #5 PM Singles LR2: Miryafa (Zelda) vs. Tilde (Meta Knight)

When Tilde was in the corner:
G1:
-He dashed forward and dtilted
-fullhop x6: naired once, prepared bair, actual bair
-grabbed edge x2: > fair, > downb
-double-jump > falling fair
-rolls away x2

G2:
-grab x4 (after crossing me up with dash attack every time)
-fullhop x5 (usually followed by dair if I'm close)
-run forward
-grabbed edge > waveland shield

G3:
-falls offstage and SDs
-fullhop x7
-rolls away (around my reverse dsmash)
-walks forward
-flies over DF and me to center stage
-shorthop
-sideb
-run offstage > bair
-dtilt

Total full hops in the corner: 18

His kills:
G1:
1. Sideb (from offstage) > nair
2. nair (knocks me offstage) > edgegrab (I upb onstage near the edge) > nair
3. (I grab edge, edgehop > LK) nair

G2:
1. nair (knocks me offstage) > edgegrab > nair > offstage bair
2. fair > fair > edgegrab
3. downb (knocks me offstage) > land > fair > fair
4. bthrow > edgegrab

G3:
1. down throw > downb
2. nair > offstage bair
3. nair (I mess up FW)
4. nair > offstage bair

My kills:
G1:
1. SD
2. SD
3. nair > DF (at 140)
4. (he's holding edge) edge-cancel FW to land onstage > shield (he does getup attack) > shield-grab > bthrow (at 111)

G2:
1. SD
2. grab > bthrow (at 134)
3. SD

G3:
1. SD
2. uthrow > uair (at 76)

Total SDs: 5

Context: I knocked Tilde offstage, then took stage position
Observation: Tilde sideb's at me, I get hit without doing anything. Two other times time I sent him offstage and he sideb's at me and hits me during fsmash charge. I cc'd it once and got knocked up.
Interpretation: I wanted to fsmash or dsmash, but I think my reactions were too slow, even though he was close to max distance on sideb.
Application/Evaluation: NL stuffs sideb and is invincible on startup and sends him back offstage, even if it doesn't kill, so I think I should use that instead of smash attacks. Or I could just shield and try NL/LK after he lands

Context: I put out a fireball in neutral at MK-height
Observation: Tilde gets hit. (but if the fireball's on the edge, he uses i-frames to go through it, and if it's on the ground he jumps over it)
Interpretation: Tilde doesn't respect DF
Application/Evaluation: I should probably use DF more in neutral, but only when he's far enough away that I don't get dash attacked or something in response. Jumping away and DF won't work either because of his aerial mobility and nair. He has to be far away from me or on the edge. In game 3 he started shielding it, but that did stop his forward movement and I was able to run up to the fireball

Context: I usmash in neutral
Observation: Tilde shields and the shield is hit maybe twice, but then all the rest of my hitboxes miss
Interpretation: Usmash, even OOS usmash, is very bad in neutral against MK
Application/Evaluation: I should probably not use usmash in neutral, or in respose to his shield pressure

Context: Tilde is on the edge, I'm standing too far to hit. I start charging fsmash
Observation: Tilde edgedashes into shield, I fsmash his shield. He fullhops and I usmash. He gets hit.
Interpretation: Fsmash can catch MK's fullhop (if I get it out before he nairs). I wasn't reacting to his full-hop, I was foolishly trying to usmash his shield and it just so happened he jumped into it. But if I can read his fullhop I can usmash him. However, important to note that in game 3 I also tried to usmash his fullhop in the corner, and his jump went above usmash and he dair'd me
Application: Sometimes when I think Tilde will sidestep or fullhop, I can run in and usmash. But even then it's not guaranteed - utilt would be better

Context: I send Tilde offstage somehow, but relatively close to the stage
Observation: I attempt dair/LK. It misses and Tilde sideb's to stage
Interpretation: MK can recover to the stage from far away, so I can't hit him on reaction - I have to follow him out if I want it. Also Tilde never sweet-spotted in game 1 or 2
Application: Prepare NL on stage

Context: Tilde dash attacks and crosses me up
Observation: After dash attack, he turns around and grabs. When I NL, it hits him.
Interpretation: I think he likes to dash attack > grab, but NL stops it
Application: Mash NL after he dash attacks. Another time I cc'd his dash attack, but I'm not sure how good that is yet (in theory I can dsmash and hit him with the reverse hitbox before he can turn around grab)

"Use upthrow more" -Flashing Fire

SSS-Tier #5 PM Money Match: Miryafa (Zelda) vs. Pluto (Ivysaur)

When Pluto was in the corner:
G1:
-tourny winner (TW) > uair
-tw > fair x2
-dash attack (when I was close)
-roll in
-shorthop backwards (setup bair)
-razor leaf (when I was medium-far)
-full hop backwards (from platform)

G2:
-TW > dair x2 (I shielded and LK'd once)
-TW > fair x3
-TW > double jump x2
-TW > nair
-roll x2
-dtilt
-ftilt
-run off stage > double-jump bair
-bair x2
-full hop backwards (from platform)
-dashed in
-jump to middle platform

G3:
-TW > dair x4
-TW > nair x2
-jab
-(on platform) spot-dodge > drop > nair
-dsmash to self-nudge off the edge

Her kills:
G1:
1. dsmash at edge (when I tried to full-length FW back to edge)
2. dthrow > solar beam
3. juggle > bair
4. I fw'd to platform (and didn't cancel), she uair'd

G2:
1. RAR bair
2. bair in edgeguard situation
3. I fw'd to platform (and didn't cancel), she uair'd
4. solar beam

G3:
1. usmash
2. usmash > solar beam
3. dash attack
4. SD

My kills:
G1:
1. She edge-hopped > uair and I hopped away and LK'd her close to the ground
2. Uair, she fell for awhile and attempted razor leaf, fair
3. bair

G2:
1. she rolled in from knockdown in corner, I platform dropped > fair
2. bair
3. bthrow

G3:
1. tw > bair
2. fsmash

Ivysaur Healing:
G1:
stock 2
11 (uair)
4 (neutral b)
stock 3
9 (neutral b)
stock 4
10 (uair)
2 (neutral b)

G2:
stock 1
1 (neutral b)
stock 2
4 (neutral b)
7 (uair)
stock 3
7 (dair)
5 (neutral b)

G3:
stock 1
13 (neutral b)
8+7 (dair)
9 (usmash)
stock 3
2 (neutral b)

Total: Usually 10, but healed 37 during an extended stock.
She gets 5% off a top-of-the-screen ko.
Neutral b is consistently 5% per stock, but usually not more. Seems like it's really not worth unsafely chasing her to make her stop charging when I'm respawning. Safely chasing her however...

Context: Edgeguarding
Observation: Jer always went for the ledge, usually with up-b
Interpretation: I think Jer wants the iframes for edgehop > dair/fair/uair
Application/Evaluation: I can grab edge to make her reel in to the stage and nair her.

Context: Jer on the edge
Observation: She almost always went tourny-winner > aerial (with the move depending on my spacing). She would even go offstage to grab edge for TW > aerial.
Interpretation: Jer put a lot of weight on her TW iframes and good aerials to start something in neutral.
Application/Evaluation: When I'm on stage (and not edge-hogging) I can either toss fireballs at her from a reasonable distance, or run up and shield, then bair after her aerial.

Context: Being grabbed
Observation: Jer never pummeled me
Interpretation: She wants to make sure she gets the throw
Application/Evaluation: DI when grabbed before mashing

Context: -
Observation: Most of my mistakes were related to movement or FW
Interpretation: I'm not completely proficient with them yet
Application/Evaluation: Practice movement and FW

Misc:

“Motor memories are stored as inplicit memory, not declarative memory. Trying to use your conscious brain for motor tasks is basically accessing the wrong database.”
(Source: https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/conscious)
The lesson: practice your punish game and matchups until they’re unconscious muscle-memory. Then don’t think about it during a match.

Parts of a game:
1. Neutral
2. Punish/defense against punish
3. Edge-guarding

How to win:
1. Tech skill (make your character do what you want them to do)
2. Matchup knowledge (what beats what)
3. Reading vs guessing (What are they gonna do? What path should I take?)

What is tech skill:
1. Timing
2. Spacing
3. Armor
4. "Priority" on the ground (if a move has 9% more damage than another, it overpowers it)

Types of gamers:
1. Mind - focuses on knowing everything (frame data, combos, etc); consistent
2. Heart - focuses on instinct and mind games; thrives in unfamiliar situations and good at producing them
3. Body - has physical capabilities (execution, reactions); able to perform difficult combos and reactions

During a game, there are 3 types of options:
1. Movement (e.g. dash dancing)
2. Defensive (e.g. shielding)
3. Offensive (e.g. throwing out a hitbox)

3 types of attacking:
1. Undershooting - attack in front of them for defense, e.g. Fox drill to stuff Marth's dash grab/dtilt
2. Normal attacking
3. Overshooting - "rush someone down and attack behind them because you're reading that they're gonna play very defensive and dash-dance-heavy."

Tilde's advice:
Throwing out more hitboxes in front of you prevents the opponent from hitting you with their hitboxes (and you don't do it enough)
"Has this gotten me punished before?"
If not, just do it. If I'm thinking too much, I'll be too slow.

Umbreon's advice:
Remove emotion. Have a plan. Don't make mistakes. Take notes.
"Zelda's fsmash and NL can't be crouch-canceled or ducked-under." (He was partly wrong though - fsmash won't hit if the opponent's short, too close, and crouching)

Snok's advice:
"Expect 3 things from every match up: their agility, their dacus, and their ability to keep people in the air. Respecting those three is typically all zelda needs to start making good judgment calls on where to be and what to do."

Jitty's advice:
"You don't focus on 'getting better,' you break that down into smaller problems that you then address."

Kaeldiar's advice:
"Zelda doesn't have anything that is guaranteed." (so I need to read my opponent)

FlashingFire's advice:
"You should always take note of how your opponent is trying to kill you."
"Getting a read on what people do in the corner is important."

Mango's advice:
"You have to accept that sometimes you get got by the other guy. Sometimes the other guy is better than you. In that stock, in that instance, in that moment of play, he's better than you.
And honestly try this: let's say you get solar beamed by Pluto in the dumbest way. You can
a. be mad about it
b. complain about Ivysaur
c. say Zelda sucks, or
d. nod a few times and say 'next stock.'" (paraphrased)

“The most important thing about Melee is making fewer mistakes than your opponent” (eg in Neutral, comprehending how opponent thinks)

“Hungrybox is the best player ever at playing his opponent.”
-Dualcatz

"Most games are decided before the players sit down"
-Zeej, referring to the players that have matchup knowledge and muscle memory vs those who have to figure things out during a match (and miss their punish windows because of it)

Individual move analysis

Jab
IASA 16 frames, disjointed, 2 damage/hit (last hitbox 3 damage)
Snok likes it against Falcon and Sonic.

"I find jab very safe. It's my noncommital option.
At higher percents, immediately throw a dins after jab hit. Nothing else will follow up and you can either get a great stagger or ping them back into you" -Atlas

"Jab is decent for poking in certain MUs.
It's good against the entire cast from 0-20% cause u get a dash attack/grab 90% of the time if you act on the IASA because they don't DI it correctly" -PM_Mentor

Fsmash
IASA 15 frames, disjointed, 1 damage/hit (last hitbox 13 damage)

"Long startup, wide disjointed hitbox, long active frames.
Fastfallers can jump over fsmash and punish while it's out, floaties can put you at a disadvantage if they're careful, but fatties are usually sad... my soft read choice since she steps forward then back, which throws off punishes a lot" -Atlas

"It's super effective against GnW's approaches.
The low endlag is great because if they shield, just buffer spot dodge to avoid their shield grab attempt" -PM_Mentor

Farore's Wind
FW moves ~10 squares (measured in Training Room) if cancelled on frame 19 of invisibility. That means it takes 56 frames for Zelda to move ~10 squares horizontally with FW. Zelda running only moves 7 squares in 56 frames, the same as canceling FW after 13 frames of invisibility. So canceling FW within the last 6 frames of invisibility is faster than running.

I know of essentially 3 good options with FW when recovering:

Land on stage.
Land on a platform.
Telecancel and grab ledge.

If you're in the right position (close enough to the stage, usually any angle between 315 and 360 degrees from the edge, depending on the platform), you can do any of the 3 and force the opponent to guess 33% which option you'll take. If your y-axis position is higher than the floor of the stage, you have 2 more options:

Telesnap to the edge
Teleport on top of your opponent (and hit them with the reappearance hitbox)

In my experience, telesnapping to the edge and telecanceling are close enough to be considered the same for your opponent. So it's like Zelda has 4 options, meaning the opponent will guess correctly 1/4 of the time if you're random enough. And unlike Fox, the opponent can't see where you're going - although they can see how the camera repositions, and sometimes react to that. So essentially Zelda has 1 more option than Fox when recovering, and is more difficult to react to.

However, that doesn't mean Zelda has free recoveries. In my experience, people who know the matchup will often shield (to cut off and punish the "on top of them" option) below a platform (to punish the platform option) and react to landing on stage (and you'll have to land near them if you're far enough away from the stage). So they force Zelda to either go to the edge or land unsafely. And teleporting to the stage isn't always safe either, depending on the opponent/character/stage.

Sometimes they'll be closer to the edge, to where they can attack or wavedash to the edge. In that case, if Zelda is below stage height, she has no safe options. Mangling sometimes works here. If Zelda is above the edge, she can telesnap but if the opponent guesses that, they'll wavedash to the edge and grab it first - so telesnapping isn't safe here either. So this position usually means Zelda is forced to teleport to stage or land unsafely.

Other times, opponents can start off edge-hogging. This usually means Zelda gets the platform or stage for free, and punishes vary by matchup (e.g. Fox can waveland > usmash on stage or TW > uair on platform, so Zelda has no completely safe options). In this situation I like to telecancel to the floor or a platform, and react to opponent movement.

Opponents have 1 more option that I don't see used as much except by Falcon mains. Anyone at the edge can jump offstage and attack Zelda before her teleport starts, even if they don't jump until after the FW animation starts. Falcon in particular can uair an area proportional to Zelda's y-position, including the top-right corner of the screen on Bowser's Castle. The hitbox on FW startup does nothing in this situation. To avoid this, I watch my opponent. If they're near the edge (or a fast character), I teleport from further away. Usually this cuts off the platform, telesnap, and "on top of them" option - and makes it a 50/50 whether I'm going to land on stage or telecancel to grab edge. If they're further away, I come closer to get more options. If they're right next to me because they're going in, I try a get-off-me move like NL or LK first and recover later. It usually doesn't work.

To discuss the options in detail:

Land on stage. If you're too far away, the opponent will always know where you can land and cover it. Note you can cancel the landing animation if you're horizontal with the stage when the teleport starts, and sometimes when you're below it. I'm not sure about when you start above the stage.
Land on a platform. If you land on platform, you must actually land on the platform and not above it or you'll get punished. Can edge-cancel this too.
Telecancel and grab ledge. By this I mean specifically telecancelling at the furthest distance away from the edge that's still inside Zelda's ledge grab box. It's pretty far and avoids smash attacks from the standard edgeguarding positions. But it loses to edgehogging and opponents' wavedashing to the edge on reaction.
Teleport on top of your opponent. The new Zelda player's favorite recovery method, and sometimes works against veterans, but is the most easily punished of all FW uses. E.g. the opponent can shield and use any OOS option, or just read where you'll reappear and put a hitbox there. Zelda's reappearance hitbox doesn't appear until frame 2 after she becomes vulnerable, so she can be hit out of the reappearance, and I have even Lightning Kicked Zeldas and Mewtwos with predictable teleports.
Sweet-spot. Works as well as it does for anyone else, and better than Shiek's up B because of the reappearance hitbox. Forces edge-hogging opponents to refresh ledge invulnerability or get stage-spiked. Otherwise the same as "telecancel and grab ledge."
Mangle. Doesn't work as well for Zelda as for Fox/Falco because she falls slower.
Teleport to the air over the stage. Usually a sign of a tech flub and easily punished even when the opponent guesses wrong.

Grab
Zelda being tall, she grabs high. She can't grab characters who duck low, e.g. Shiek or Squirtle, but can grab e.g. Fox out of his short-hop.

My personal win/loss chart by stage (google doc link)
It looks like I perform significantly better on smashville/ps2, and significantly worse on battlefield. But actually I don't think the numbers on the chart mean anything, because what I'm seeing is that my wins and losses depend almost entirely on who I'm playing, and not the stage I play them on.

Other matches I've taken notes on:

Snok vs CP9
Characters: (Snok) Zelda, (CP9) Olimar
Stage bans: (Snok) fd, ghz, (CP9) dreamland, bowser's castle
Stage/result: battlefield-Snok win, ps2-CP9 win, ww-Snok win
Notes:
Snok used NL autocancel into shield when CP9 was defensive
Fthrow dash attack seemed to work?
Snok used lots and lots of fireballs, I think whenever cp9 ran away
Fireball defense (editing note: no idea what this means now)
Olimar's ranged attack (side-b) seems superior to Zelda's in terms of speed/damage/range

ZHime vs Venom
Characters: (ZHime) Zelda vs (Venom) Falcon
Stage bans: ZH: ps2/battlefield; Venom: sville, FD
Stage/result: DL-ZH win, FoD-Venom win, GHZ-ZH win, DL-Venom win, DL-ZH win
Notes:
ZH always does jump-upB away from Venom's dthrow to escape the knee
ZH got usmash to ftilt to usmash (does that only work against Falcon?)
In neutral, ZH was pretty aggro, alternating fireball with LK/dash attack. Never in shield.

ZHime vs IPK
Character: (ZHime) Zelda vs (IPK) Lucario
Stage bans: ZH: ww/ps2;
Stage/result: smashville-ZH, yoshi's brawl-ZH
Notes:
IPK crossed half of smashville with downb-fsmash from short hop
ZH covered lucario upb with utilt (facing toward ledge, when IPK was below it, not beside/above)
In g1 against Venom and IPK ZH used DF offstage and then fell too low - sd against venom, had to up-b to unfavorable position against IPK and got killed. So don't use DF offstage unless I'm quite high.
ZH: dash attack > dash attack > usmash (is dash attack better than ftilt to lead to usmash on Lucario?)
Doesn't ZH go too low when recovering? I'm not going to claim to be better than him, but my observation was that by going below stage, he gave up his ability to 50/50 ledge-snap vs far-away on-stage (or platform). And he usually got punished for it.
"ZH sets up traps off throws where he puts a dins behind you and runs up to you so you don't wanna get up or roll forward" (he did fthrow, opponent was almost at ledge so dins was fast to place, covered forward roll with dash attack)
It seems to me like putting Dins behind the opponent works for ZH because he puts preemptive hitboxes in front of him
Note: at high % on smashville, maybe stay on the side with the platform for recovery mixups (but not if I get edge-guarded with it)

ZHime vs Envy
Character: (ZHime) Zelda vs (Envy) Ike
Stage bans: (Envy) Dreamland, FD; (ZH) WW, GHZ
Stage/result: ps2-Envy, smashville-ZH, battlefield-Envy
Notes:
Game 1:
When Zhime was in the corner, I think he tried to escape with Farore's Wind every time
Zhime killed Envy with LK at 85, and nair around 130
My interpretation is that Zhime attempted to kill Envy with LK at ledge starting at 33%, dash attack at 130, and dsmash at 144

When Envy was in the corner, I think he tried to escape with fullhop, shorthop-nair, side-b twice, and once just shielded and Zhime teleported closer to the edge
Envy killed Zhime twice with ftilt around 63%, with upB-bair, and with sideB while recovering at 117
My interpretation is that he attempted to kill ZHime with dtilt when ZHime was hanging on the edge at 50, attempted fthrow fair and dthrow fair starting at 60, and attempted offstage fair twice starting at 56

Game 2:
When Zhime was in the corner, I think he tried to escape with grab, jump-air dodge, offstage FW, ledgehop nair-Nayru's, LK, roll from ledge
Zhime killed with LK after 100, bthrow at 138, utilt at 166, and LK-LK at 23
My interpretation is that Zhime attempted to kill Envy with LK from center-ish stage 6 times starting around 100 (and 1 of them succeeded), uair starting at 138, dsmash at 105, 2 fireball stage spikes at 117, bthrow and fsmash at 140, nair around 150

When Envy was in the corner, I think he tried to escape with sideB, fullhop-dait 3 times, dsmash, ledgehop
Envy killed Zhime with bair around 76, fair around 78, and grabbing ledge when ZHime was below stage height and SD'd
My interpretation is that Envy attempted to kill Zhime with bair 4x starting at 76 (and succeeded once), with uthrow-bair-bair starting at 20, fair 4x starting at 78 (succeeded once), ftilt 3x starting at 78

Jitty: "From what I can see from game one, Zhime is using the threat of the toe to get away with probably more than he should"

Flashing Fire: Try the Observe/Interpret/Apply model:

Make observations (state facts)
Interpret causes and effects
Apply (or evaluate with the intent of applying) info.

"Also, be sure to put observations in context, especially when it comes to combos and repeated events."
For example, "around 4:19 in the video, I’d frame it something like this:

Context: Zhime is at the ledge. Envy has good stage positioning just outside the left platform. [take note of percents if you like]
Observation: Envy picks a spot, crouches and D-tilts twice. Zhime waits on the ledge for a bit, then does a ledge jump and lands after Envy dashes back. Zhime then teleports to center stage and gets himself out of the corner.
Interpretation: I think Zhime waited for a bit to see if Envy would attack him directly. He whiffed a few moves, so Zhime felt comfortable enough to get off the ledge, but not to get too aggressive. Envy probably D-tilted to try to get a reaction out of Zhime, but didn’t get the one he wanted. He dashed away from the ledge jump, which could have been a reaction or generally just a safe thing to do.
Application/Evaluation: It looks like Zhime was able to gain space by being patient and threatening to attack rather than actually attacking. Envy’s bait didn’t work, so he’ll probably do something different next time. If an opponent tries to bait me by the ledge like that, I might be able to simply take back space by teleporting through them instead of trying to muscle through.

Tilde vs Zeej (SSS-Tier #5)

When Tilde was in the corner:
G1:
-falls offstage and SDs
-fullhop x4
-roll away
-dashdance
-dtilt
-tourny winner from edge
-waveland shield from edge

G2:
-dashdance
-fullhop x3 (to edge once)
-running jump
-grab x2
-dtilt x2
-dsmash x2
-shorthop nair
-flew up x2
-shorthop > falling fair
-hold edge > waveland > grab

G3:
-fullhop x5

His kills:
G1:
1. dsmash
2. dtilt > bair

G2:
1. nair > dair
2. nair (he messed up returning)
3. nair > extended edgeguard
4. bair

G3:
1. SD
2. dair

Zeej kills:
G1:
1. SD
2. dthrow > bair
3. fthrow > dair
4. SD

G2:
1. fthrow (he messed up returning)
2. dair
3. bthrow

G3:
1. sideb > dair
2. (SDish) dair
3. dair
4. upb

Matchup chart (courtesy of discord chat):

Kaeldiar · Dec 6, 2016

Hot damn! I skimmed a couple pieces of this. Definitely didn't read all the way through, but I wanted to mention...

"Zelda's fsmash and NL can't be crouch-canceled or ducked-under." (He was partly wrong though - fsmash won't hit if the opponent's short, too close, and crouching)
"Fsmash has low endlag"

Not sure when he wrote/said this, but f-smash once had a 0x SDI modifier on it. Now it's x0.25. Additionally with Nayru's, you can SDI it down and tech out of it. I once had the honor of smashfesting with a handful of FS, and EVERY SINGLE MEMBER did this because of practice with Zhime, lol. So they can't CC > punish you for Nayru's, but they can reset to neutral

bboss · Jan 30, 2017

Good job on taking notes. I started doing this just this month as I realized it could make me a lot better. Your notes actually helped my understanding of matchups too

Match Notes

Miryafa

Smash Apprentice

Kaeldiar

Smash Ace

bboss

Smash Journeyman

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