Please note that most of this information is actually rather obvious. However, it does contain some things you might not know about. Most of the things are mentioned in the three posts before this one, however; this is more of a guide which practically lays everything out for you.
Well, this is one of those matchups you won't see too often, but seeing as I play both Zelda and Samus, and happen to have some sort of knowledge in this matchup, I'd like to share my views with you all. A big disclaimer, however: there're very few pure Zelda players. Probably 95% of all Zeldas you'll see are actually playing Sheilda and have gotten you to a high percentage before going to Zelda, which changes this matchup immensely. I'll discuss both cases individually, however, I won't go over how to play the Sheik part of Sheilda.
With that out of the way, let me start.
Pure Zelda
How do we win?
Patience is the key here, as it is in most of Samus' matchups. What Zelda wants you to do, as Fuujin jokingly has as his avatar, is to approach. She can then safely react with smash attacks such as Usmash. However, seeing as we have no reason to approach, we shouldn't, unless you are behind in percentage. In that case, please refer to the Sheilda part of this matchup, which will treat Zelda as if you have higher damage.
Continuing from what I said earlier, we have no reason to approach. We've got various camping tools at our disposal; we can use
homing missiles safely (and I recommend this),
super missiles are relatively safe (but watch out for surprise
Nayru's Loves),
Zair (another recommendation) and finally, we can even use
Charge Shot pretty well on Zelda, but again, watch out for that
Nayru's Love. Like Dryn mentioned, don't use it in a predictable way, and be prepared to put up your shield.
If you just calmly keep putting on the pressure, she'll have to approach sooner or later, since
Din's fire won't be able to camp us out. To create space, you should use your
Ftilt or
Jab, and
up-b OOS if she ever gets in your shield.
Tl;dr: Camp her out. When she approaches, just Ftilt or Jab. Up-b oos when you're in trouble.
What do we watch out for?
Well, seeing as Zelda doesn't have many options except for approaching as we're camping her, there aren't many things to look out for.
As I mentioned earlier,
Nayru's Love might be a problem, but putting up your shield will fix most of that.
Don't fear
Din's Fire. When we're camping, she can't use it safely, because the move is
extremely slow and this simply means that one of our missiles or our Zair would've reached in the meantime, causing the blast to happen a mile behind you.
When she's approaching, simply watch out for
Nair. This move is Zelda's main approaching move, and it has some nifty features, such as that it autocancels on hits 1-4. She'll try to land behind you with this move, which forces us in a bad position. However, if we can simply prevent this from happening, there's no need to fear her approach either. And we can! We can simply
put up our shields and
up-b out while she's nairing our shield and nearing the ground. Afterwards, we can go on with camping. We can't put on our shields all the time, however, because she might just
grab us out of it. The other option is to simply wait for the jump and
ftilt when you see her jumping, however, this requires you to pay accurate attention. This also beats her earlier mentioned form of approaching (going for the grab).
Desperate Zeldas might try to hit you with a Up-b. However, this is usually predictable and punishable, so just be patient.
Tl;dr: Punish her Nair by up-bing out of shield. Or just use Ftilt to keep her away.
DI'ing against Zelda's FSmash, DTilt and USmash
I'd like to make an apart section on how to DI against Zelda's most dangerous moves. This information is taken directly from the Zelda FAQ, and I should not be credited for this information in any way.
1. How do you SDI Zelda's Fsmash?
- Push up and away with both sticks. You cant punish Zelda after SDIing. Occasionally you pop over and behind her, setting you up for another move.
2. How do you SDI Zelda's Usmash?
- Quarter-circle SDI straight up with both sticks. Only Marth, Lucario, Pit, Ice Climbers, Ness, Lucas and Samus can reliably SDI out of Usmash. If you are caught at the tip, you can SDI to fall out on the side - works especially well if your character is small. A staled Usmash becomes harder to SDI out of.
3. How do you SDI Zelda's Nair?
- The hits of Nair stun and drag you back in. Zelda has semi-control over your character's SDI based on its trajectory. SDI in the route you think is quickest to get out. You cannot SDI if it hits you when grounded and it's being autocancelled.
4. How do you SDI Zelda's Dtilt lock?
- SDI sharply away from her with both sticks. You may trip in the process!
Stages to BAN/CP?
Rainbow Cruise is an absolute disaster for us. We won't be able to camp easily and it forces us to move around. Ban this.
Brinstar is another one of those stages which isn't really that great for us, but it isn't great for Zelda either. It simply depends on whether you know the ins and outs of the stage.
I wouldn't say ban, but
Yoshi's Island simply isn't a very good stage for us. The Shy Guys might block our projectiles and I, for one, don't like the curving of the stage. Also, the ghosts are stupid. Just try to avoid it.
Final Destination is probably our best stage. The size of the stage allows camping and the ledges make it somewhat hard for Zelda to sweet spot the edge (though this shouldn't be a problem for most of them). You might just score an easy kill.
Battlefield is another stage which serves us well. This should be self-explainatory, since it works for most of our matchups.
The rest of the stages are pretty equal or a slight advantage for Samus.
Matchup classification
I'd say it's an
advantage for us. Samus has a lot she can easily do, but she has to be on her toes and has to keep playing a solid camping game.
Sheilda
This part of the 'guide' will consider that your opponent has you near 110% with Sheik, and has switched to Zelda safely. He is now at an advantage, because Sheik beats Samus most of the time, and, assuming Sheik indeed beats Samus, will cause you to have higher damage than her. This changes the matchup by a lot. A smart Sheilda player will, however, stay Sheik, since the matchup Sheik - Samus is far easier than Zelda - Samus.
This part also applies to when you are behind in percentage against a pure Zelda player.
How do we not lose a stock?
Assuming you are indeed behind, you have to look out for Zelda's many killing moves. The pattern stays relatively the same; we'll still be camping using our
Zair and
Homing Missiles, and she'll still be trying to get in by powershielding and Nairing in our shields. The most important thing is
to stay calm. We still don't have to approach, so don't do so, unless you see an opening.
Don't do things like
Dair on her shield, because you will get
downsmashed which will make you lose an stock.
Avoid Up-b and start Ftilting more often, since Zelda will be aggressive, wanting to get that stock off you so she can change back into Sheik.
So, simply put, just do the same as you do against Zelda, but stay calm at all times.
If you are losing at ANY time against a Zelda player, he is outsmarting you. Find out why he is hitting you, and why you aren't hitting him. Mix things up a little, but remember: STAY CALM. Patience is a virtue, and especially in this matchup.
And for those who think I shouldn't waste my time on writing about this matchup since it is so blatantly obvious, I feel that it improves my personal game and I also like to write, so ha. It might also help some others who actually have problems in this matchup.
