Matchup Tips and Tricks

[Red Shirt KRT]

Mega Man matchup tips
By: PwnCall (aka RedShirtKRT)

Work in progress...

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Intro:

I thought I would make this thread to help others with matchups that they may be unfamiliar with. I will post about the character and what things you should look out for when facing them as well as things that work well against that specific character.

This is also a great reference when you haven't played a certain character in a while. As I play high level players I will update this with new things that I get rekt by.

For those who don't know me I have been playing smash since the 64 days and have been ranked the second best mega man on the smash ladder several times.

Please post if you feel you have something to add to the thread. I will be adding as much as I can and will hopefully have all characters done soon.

I will also put how I feel the matchup is next to the characters name.

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Sheik (60-40)

So sheik.... Yea.

Watch out for:
-Fthrow > bouncing fish (low %)
- fair>fair>fair>fair>fair>.... etc (low %)
- Fthrow> Usmash (if you land on a platform especially, mix up your tech rolls/techs)
-fair>jab (if you go for shieldgrab)
-needles ( not much we can do but close the space between you)

What works (usually):
-up b can be hit with hard knuckle ( if you hit her during the startup spin)
- pellets ( very disruptive for shieks)
- leaf shield ( very disruptive)
-zigma upper ( if you can hit sheik with MB)
- if expecting them to recover high with bouncing fish punish with u air or Bair.
- Uair can hit sheik out of bouncing fish and many other moves, use it when they are approaching in the air.

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Zero suit samus (55-45)

Similar matchup to sheik so most from sheik still applies.

Watch out for:
- if offstage lookout for down b it will spike you.
- watch out for grab>Uair>Uair>upB (try and stay closer to center of stage to avoid the KO)
- watch out for Dsmash when getting up off ledge, use roll recovery to avoid.

What works (usually)
- if you use nair to approach she cannot shield grab you if you keep firing pellets because of slow tether grab.
- tether recovery, you can hit her while she is dangling from the teather.


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Pika (55-45)

Watch out for:
-quick attack (Uair works well to hit pika out as well as leaf shield)
- utilt>utilt>utilt... Etc ( not much you can do, watch out for Uair and nair follow ups)
-thunderjolt to grab( throw leaf shield, power shield, or jump on platform to avoid)
-offstage or understage Thunder
-Usmash (many will spam this at kill percents)
-jab locks off platforms

What works (usually)
- Uair to hit quick attack
- leaf shield can make it tough for pika to get in.
- pika is hard to gimp so read onstage quick attacks or go for ledge trumps. Most will go for ledge.

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Mario (60-40)

Watch out for:
-up tilts>up air>upB ( at low percents DI away and shield, high percents Rush coil out)
-fireball to grab
-smash attacks (low lag and spammable)

What works (usually)
-pellets
-leaf shield (watch out because many of his aerials and smashes hit through LS)
-Dtilt for quick punishes
-zigma upper
-pwn call upper (down MB, to upper)
-try to hit Mario before his up b for gimps, up b is hard to hit him out of)
- thrown MB to jab lock upper (around 80-90%)

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Yoshi (55-45)

Watch out for:
- B egg offstage (just be aware of this it can catch you off guard)
-down B shield break
-Dair shield pressure
- egg camping (lead shield clears the field when thrown)
-nair to jab on shield
- jab to jab
- up air (very good kill move and he can rise surprisingly fast with his 2nd jump)
-Usmash (comes out fast , many yoshis will spam this at kill percents)

What works (usually)
- air shooter works wonders on yoshi, most his moves are from the air
- hit recovering yoshi with Bair after invincible frames are gone
- zigma upper
- pellets to shutdown neutral.
-Shield is generally a safe option (if they catch on they will hit you with Down B or Dair to go for shield breaks, also they will go for Neutral B or grabs more)

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Ness (45-55)

Watch out for:
-PK fire>grab>fair chain (PK fire can be shielded and rolled out of, sometimes)
-PK Thunder (can be used to hit ness at you onstage or just for chip damage, also can be used to disrupt recovery offstage(can stage spike))
- Uair has scary killing potential
- Bthrow (kills around 100 at edge, don't try to out roll And grab ness by the edge)
-has solid aerials

What works (usually)
-ness likes to recover with second jump just above the ledge, Bair will put them in a bad spot
-If ness is recovering with PK Thunder, hang from ledge and let go to Bair can keep him out. Repeat until the kill
-if crash Bomb is on ness and he jumps to use the energy absorb, run up and get a free Uair.
-MB out ranges PK fire

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Captain falcon (55-45)

Watch out for:
- grab>pummel> to grab release by edge ( I try and always use the analog stick rotation to break from grabs, if you accidentally do Dair or a Laggy move it could be a stock)
-Uair strings>knee
-raptor boost can kill at high percents off top
-Dair offstage (mixup your recovery)
-Utilt edgeguards (recover high to avoid)

What works (usually)
-pellets keep him out
-leaf stool if he recovers low
- thrown MB to jab lock to upper (85-100%)
-pellets to disrupt recovery

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Rosalina & Luma (50-50)

Watch out for:
-Uair kills crazy early off top
-Luma hits (after knocking rosa away)
-Dair spike
-strong smashes with great range
-rosa has good roll and spot dodge frame data
-dash attack (goes very far and is a good punish against a thrown MB)

What works (usually)
-expect the Uair and airdodge>Uair (this works really well actually)
- Dair gimps and Bair edgeguards work very well. Bair after letting go of ledge.
-mixup lots of projectile periods with periods of just a few projectiles.
-zigma upper
-pwn call upper (down MB to upper)

General tips
-when rosa has the lead it becomes a difficult matchup. If you have the lead don't stop spamming projectiles even if she just grav pulls them. She doesnt have any. This is usually a patient game.
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Diddy (50-50)

Watch out for:
-banana >grab>hoo ha ( pellets cancel out banana)
-Dtilt >grab>hoo ha (often will do 2 dtilts to grab)
-barrel circle (onstage barrel Bomb can KO)
-quick smash attacks
-great aerials
-monkey flip kick (can catch us off guard)

What works (usually)
-many will monkey flip when recovering high, read and hit with Uair where they are going to.
-pellets cancel out many of his approach options
-Bair him when he is off stage.

General tips
-at high level play Diddy will try and play keep away, if he gets the lead he can monkey flip away and punish us for approaching. Try to get the lead from the start and keep it. Don't feel like you have to approach when you are winning.
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Fox (55-45)

Watch out for:
-Usmash (at high percents they may spam this)
-Uair (kills quite early and fox has great vertical jump speed)
-Dair>Usmash (at kill percents it can be a true combo)
-jab 1> jab2 >jab1>jab2 (if you are close to fix this can combo, it is escapable)
-after getting hit if you jump watch out for fair (he can hit you with part of it and it will knock you onto the floor leading to other follow ups)
-shine (don't get reflected)
-jab1>jab2>Usmash

What works (usually):
-leaf shield messes up his combo game huge, I almost always have leaf shield up when facing fox.
-utilt can hit illusion to the edge when times right
-Usmash works great for punishing above stage illusion
-thrown MB to jab lock to upper (75-90%) fox is light so kills very early.
-zigma upper - works early fox is light
-pwn call upper (down thrown MB to upper)
-pellets
-Bair and Dair work well against fire fox

General tips
Bait out reflector by using projectiles. Alternate periods of lots of projectiles with periods of sporadic projectiles to keep them guessing.
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Luigi (35-65)

Watchout for:
-Fireball>grab> many aerials and possibly death
-grab>many aerials and possibly death
-Dthrow>Up B (try and avoid airdodging right away, try using rush instead, you can get rekt by this)
-Cyclone approach

What works (usually)
-Stay as far away as possible (this is never a bad strategy, the tough part is once he gets you to the edge of the stage trying to get back without getting grabbed or combo'd)
-Pellets
-Pellets
-Pellets (they are extremely helpful in the matchup, if he spams fireballs, pellets, if he walks up to you, pellets, etc)
-Bair wrecks luigi if he side B's back to the stage
-Dair can spike his UpB
-Dtilt is a great combo starter, to pop him up

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Sonic (45-55)

What to Watchout for:
-spin dash>Uair>upb>Uair (if you start air dodging the last Uair they will start to wait out your air dodge and hit you with a late Uair or Bair. (Sometimes they will end the combo with a dair instead)
-spin dash>footstool>tech chase > repeat
-upb >dair. ( they will try and hit you with the spring)
-spin dash>homing attack
-upb Spring edgeguard
-at kill percent look out for the run up and usmash.

What works
-pellets (stop most if not all approaches)
-leaf shield (is your friend, it will stop almost everything and if you shield too you are nearly invincible, this also allows for lots of grab damage.)
-if they are at a decent percent you can airdodge their upb>Uair and hit them with an air shooter of your own.
-occassional fsmash can catch them off guard,.

Play this matchup very cautiously and never commit to laggy moves because you will get punished.

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Coming soon...

 

[Kamtheman56]

I'd add for Zero Suit Samus to watch out for Down B aswell as it can hit us when we're approaching if we aren't careful.

 

[Red Shirt KRT]

Kinda the same as shieks so I didn't repeat similar ones. Uair hits her out of her down B

 

[Kamtheman56]

It's a bit similar but I wouldn't leave anything out of the picture here when listing all the information as it's important to have everything rather than just a portion of it.

 

[CopShowGuy]

You should also watch out for Sheiks needles. We can't stop them with any of our moves.

 

[Red Shirt KRT]

Added Mario and yoshi,

Ness and captain falcon will be next

Also I will tidy this up hopefully this weekend with tables, colors, smileys, and spoilers

 

[Kamtheman56]

For Yoshi consider adding his upair as being a major threat along with being above the guy as we don't have a reliable way to get down from being up there due to being pressured with eggs and that frame 5 up air.

 

[Sneak Sneaks]

Also add shielding makes wonders against Yoshi

 

[Sorichuudo]

Good stuff Red Shirt KRT!

If possible, could we add DI tips for characters with good strings like Ness/Falcon/ZSS ?

I know some stuff becomes a 50/50 at kill percents, but anything to avoid getting killed early, or taking the least damage possible, would help.

For instance, Locke said that for ZSS's boost kick:

"It launches at a 50° angle.

Down and away if you don't want to get killed off the top. DI straight in if you don't want to get killed off the side. Combination of the both depending on your positioning"

Of course, i'm not saying you should do all the research, just we posting stuff we know to help you make this list.

On Fox, remember that if you time it right, you can get some early utilt kills if they attempt to side B onto stage:

1:12

 

[Mega-Spider]

Good stuff Red Shirt KRT!

If possible, could we add DI tips for characters with good strings like Ness/Falcon/ZSS ?

I know some stuff becomes a 50/50 at kill percents, but anything to avoid getting killed early, or taking the least damage possible, would help.

For instance, Locke said that for ZSS's boost kick:

"It launches at a 50° angle.

Down and away if you don't want to get killed off the top. DI straight in if you don't want to get killed off the side. Combination of the both depending on your positioning"

Of course, i'm not saying you should do all the research, just we posting stuff we know to help you make this list.

On Fox, remember that if you time it right, you can get some early utilt kills if they attempt to side B onto stage:

1:12

I remember when I did that to one of my sparring partners, who's a Fox main. He literally just stood there for a while, saying how disappointed he was by getting hit by my U-Tilt after he Side-Bd. He puts up a good fight, and this match was no exception, so when I got another U-Tilt on him, he was pretty angry about it. Let's just say that Mega Man's U-Tilt is one of the most satisfying moves to kill with, at least in my eyes.

Any advice on fighting Olimar? I don't fight many Olimars since he must be a rarely played character (I don't constantly check up on the tournament scene), but when I do fight one, he gives me a hard time. Any tips for that?

 

[Red Shirt KRT]

You have to be super patient with olimar. If he is at kill percents go in for the kill. If he is in the lead stay as far away as possible.

Try and keep the lead early on. Gimp his recovery with run off bair

 

[Kamtheman56]

Leaf Shield is pretty effective on Olimar when the Pikmin are attached to you or to keep them from attaching to you as well, not entirely effective but it certainly gets the job done.

 

[Red Shirt KRT]

Anyone know how to add tables to a post, I couldn't figured it out, I must be not very intelligent. XD

 

[Unclesatan]

I play against a solid olimar and he manages pikmin well. He's always got a purple pikmin to blow through leaf shield and MBs. the only thing that works solidly well against him thus far is bair, whether it be RAR or gimping. olimains laugh at leafstooling too.

 

[HIMA14]

For Sonic I will add:

-Watch out for Homing Attack,if you see Sonic is about to do that you can use Uair and Sonic most of the times will get in the trap.
-Use Leaf Shield alot because almost every Sonic will try to grab you by running.
-Nair when you see a Sonic player jumping several times,you can stop some moves like Homing Attack with the pellets.

 

[Deleted member]

You should also watch out for Sheiks needles. We can't stop them with any of our moves.

This. And to add, be especially careful of a camping Sheik. I got to play DKWILL who was intentionally camping me (training) and a camping Sheik is utter chaos.

 

[Megamang]

If you get hit with a pk fire, SDI down into a perfect shield (its never going to be a regular shield if you do it right, since the hitbox is right there) then jump away/continue megamanning.

Something i like to do is get a metal blade in hand, then try to stick him with crash bomber. When he runs off to heal, you can time it such that the metal blade hits right before the explosion, and possible bair from here to start a stock ending edgeguard sequence.

If things get really hectic offstage (usually only if the ness is really agro, as he is more gimpable than us IMO) you can take a pkt2 to the face to shorten it significantly, just make sure you ledge tech.


Dont forget the little ****ers bat is a reflector, and he has psi magnet cancels to keep him safer. Only fsmash if you know it will hit. And unfortunately, charging fsmash traps are probably gonna backfire as often as not, but his bat makes it stronger and faster so... dont do it.

 

[Red Shirt KRT]

If ness hits you with pk fire hold shield and try and roll out of it. It works at the low percents really well

 

[Funkermonster]

Just pointing stuff out for , as someone who plays both him and MM competitively.

• Against a ninja who knows this MU, Dash Attack is basically completely worthless against him, and I advise against using it. For some attacks he can cancel his hitstun with Shadow Sneak and do it right before Top Spin's finishing animation and give you a good kick in back, potentially killing you if you're at too high a percent or too close to the ledge. As if Top Spin wasn't awful enough in MM3... If you're not careful, I believe he can do the same to the Dthrow > Fair combos we like to do at low %.
• Crash Bomber isn't all too reliable here either, since he can counter it with DownB/Substitute as long as he can get the timing down (after all, Crash Bomber glows red a bit just before it explodes). You could probably get him offstage with if you distract him with other projectiles though.
• His combo game is scaaaary and he has many of them: Nair > Anything (Fsmash, Usmash, and Footstool combos are the best followups, Dash Attack > Fair, Uair Spike (these can be teched tho) > Dair/Dsmash/Fsmash, Uthrow > Uair, Utilt > Usmash/Uair (Utilt to Uair is a kill confirm even), Dthrow > Fair, Dtilt > Dash Attack/Fsmash/Dash Grab/Fair/ Usmash; just to name them. If you get too comfortable with air dodging, he can also dal with that using Uair Spikes or Shadow Sneaks. Whatever you do though, don't get hit by Nair, Dtilt, or Utilt; if he gets a Nair his footstool combos and other junk reaaaally hurt. You might deal like 22% to him from neutral only for it to be equaled by just one combo from him
• His OoS options are laughable: A shield grab that comes out on frame 14 and no UpB, Usmash, or Nair out of shield; closest thing he has to one is jab. His lack of out of shield options means lemon pressure works even better against him than normally, and its easier to do Fullhop Diagonal Metal Blades (or maybe Metal Blade approaches in general) on him as well. Do be wary of jab and his dash out of shield game though, one of the fastest runners along with one of the best dash grabs in the game.
• Thanks to his bad frame data, you have more than enough mobility and range to deal with many of his BnB neutral game tools. Nair is horrifying when it hits and is safe on block (only because of the shieldstun patch that hit us), but its slow to come out with poor range, easily stuffed by lemonz and shorthop Uairs. His Fair and Bair are also safe on shield, but are outranged and outsped by your Fair and Bair. If Greninja's in the air, all his aerials barring Bair should lose to yours. Normally, he likes to force approaches with shurikens, but lemons destroy uncharged ones and he is forced to play a different game in this MU. Thanks to this; Greninja needs to commit to charged shurikens, dash up shields, onstage hydro pumps, and Fair approaches to actually deal with lemonz.

Personally I consider this 50:50 (some Greninjas may call it 55:45, but I ain't convinced he beats Mega Man just yet), and it might be even better if customs were still here. For the most part he gives the same problems Falcon does: mobility to bypass your zoning, a much better advantage, and is even harder to kill because his recovery is better. But unlike Falcon his frame data sucks, his OoS options are even worse, his aerials aren't quite as threatening, and you also don't fall victim to his Hydro Pump Shenanigans since it usually just pushes you upwards (he may try to punish your landings with SideB, Dash Grab, or a Smash Attack but considering how MM can save his double jump after an UpB this shouldn't really be an issue) and he can't really do much to stop your recovery. I absolutely love doing this matchup and I play it any chance I get. Nothing feels as fun as playing as your main vs your other main

 

[Megamang]

Be wary with your airdodges. Greninja loves to call them out then hit you with that crazy usmash of his (its strong and hits really high up. Itll get kills way earlier than you think it should). This will come after dtilt and dthrow.

Fully charged shurikan can actually fight your zoning effectively, dont try and challenge it.

Our fair might be longer in reach (need to test) but his hits like a damn truck (14 damage, safe on shield) so use its slow startup to avoid it as well as you can.

As always, ftilt into nair is great for shoving him offstage a preparing a kill. If he starts moving slow in the air, he is gonna shadow sneak. Punish with dair for early kills.

Patience is huge, try and take him to battlefield but NOT dreamland. Dtilt and utilt kill confirm, but you shouldn't be that close when your damage is around 80 for dtilt and 100 upwards for utilt.


As a greninja main, his pummel ****ING BLOWS compared to mega. If he is getting lots of dash grabs, dont get discouraged, and try to minimize followup damage.

Try not to land near him when recovering, that fsmash can eat lemens and send you back out or outright kill.