Match-up Thread 6: Zero Suit Samus

[FalKoopa]

It's been a while since the last thread. Discuss vs.

From the Match-up thread.

ZSS is a matchup I've been playing a fair bit lately, albeit not against the most varied lineup of players, and it's definitely one of the more interesting ones. On the one hand, ZSS is one of the few characters who feels to be an aerial threat to Luigi, on the other, he's able to shut down an incredible amount of her ground game through fireballs-- it outspeeds and clashes with her neutral and side B's, while also interrupting her tether grab follow-ups to the former. That, and cyclone also cuts through paralyzer shots and dash attacks, in addition to it working as a solid aerial defensive tool against her Fairs/Uairs (but not so much Nairs/Zairs). That said, ZSS's aerial speed is pretty high pressure, and her up B fills a similar role to Luigi's in working as a punishing KO move. ZSS's Usmash is also extremely troublesome, given it's lingering and Luigi's poor aerial mobility, and she has plenty of tools for potentially gimping Luigi-- particularly given how far she can safely chase offstage. Add to that her greater attack range in general plus her fairly easily comboed size, and you have quite the interesting matchup. That, and for some reason ZSS was the first I landed a Dtaunt spike on (the second being Bowser), which, while irrelevant, rather cemented my thinking of this as a curious MU.

I can say now that after the plethora of ZSS I've versed...it's really not too bad of a matchup. I remember posting about this matchup in the ZSS specific thread, so I'll just pull the info out of there:

"ZSS is certainly iffy...but not as bad as Rosalina or Sheik. She will outspeed you movement wise, and she's difficult to juggle [moreso than Rosalina]. Stun gun I have no found super effective as a projectile against Luigi attack wise, I always clank it out with Nair or tornado. So it won't pose a threat stunning you for the most part. But it will stop your momentum a bit. When she knocks you into the air, she will follow with an up B 9/10 times. Luigi seems a bit slippery for ZSS to directly land her side B, it usually only nicks him with the cord and not the sweetspot. When she grabs and misses , very vulnerable to an up B. Rising tornados are nice to kill off the top, be weary of down Bs or dairs in the air though.

Overall rough thanks to mobility issues, but not terrible. Like Vaporeon said, 60-40 or 65-35 ZSS, I can't decide...can we agree on 62.5-32.5 ZSS? "

Things have changed though, of course. Now, I think it's 60-40 ZSS and not a point higher. Most important points are tornado can clank out stuns, also nair can. Luigi can also crawl under all stuns cept a fully charged one. And when she whiffs a grab, she's basically dead. She's going to need a grab to set you up in the air high enough for a predictable up B. Fireballs work great here too, stop stuns and ZSS has no reflector. Also prone to dair gimps, she's not too trouble offstage asides from her spiking Down B, watch for it. If she misses though, she uses tends to whiff her recovery when focusing to set it up so much.

Verdict: 60-40 ZSS.

Fireballs stop ZSS' Paralyzer, no matter how hard she charge it. Forcing her to rely on her close combat. Now, what I usually do is wait for her to approach and punish her. She has tether, but like other tethers in the game, it's punishable. But her D-throw (I think? The one that where she slams you with her leg) can lead to her aerials and, this is just great, UP-B!

Well, Luigi need to stick with his ground combat. Occasional Cyclones, and rely on grabs, and make sure you use Fireballs often but not spamming..... and that's what I did. Dodge her grabs, and Cyclone her Down-b (Interrupt her in the air, but this will require some good reads), punish her as hard as you can, and when she miss a grab, she is dead.

We should get the problematic match-ups out of the way before moving on to others.