I can believe Zelda being a good Meta counter. And Wario.
I beg to differ on Snake. Either I am not using Snake correctly or he is simply a bad counter to Meta. That is why I came to this thread. While heavy, Snake is slow, his air game is A55, his recovery is extremely punishable, and his best kill moves (AAA and f-tilt) are easily disrupted and punished by MetaKnight. Part of the problem is that Snake is such a ground fighter and a slow one at that. He needs grenades and mortars as cover fire to make his kill moves safe. Meta has many easy approaches and once he has Snake in the air, Snake's only hope is getting back on the ground and at a safe distance.
Shielding is good, but Meta's dash grab punishes that too. Snake is slow after shielding. Even Snake's mines can be safely detonated by Meta's down-tilt..
For me, Snake's best moves against Meta are short-hopped bairs (carefully, though), dash attacks and shield-dropped grenades. Throw a grenade and then do a dash attack to pick it up and immediately shield. This timing will grenade a grounded Meta without him being able to safely grab or attack. Don't roll; don't try to grab. Never fsmash. Always cook grenades, but keep them close. Always air-dodge. Spam mortars and learn to mortar slide, but switch it up and use it carefully too. Vary it's charge and stay near the mortar. When edgeguarding, don't steer the Nikita too much because it slows down. Instead, predict, point and let it gain speed. Don't be afraid to abandon a Nikita shot early if you miss. Otherwise, Meta will get to you before you regain control. Instead, try to drop it and get under it. When knocked off the stage, recover high enough to connect with dair and try to time it so that the last hit connects with Meta. That lands KOs. Bair works too, but don't get predictable. Don't use down-tilt on its own unless Meta short-hops. Meta will rarely get above you, so d-tilt and u-tilt don't get much play. If he does approach from above, vary uair, u-tilt and d-tilt to keep him guessing. Get under plaforms to entice him, and always keep a C4 planted above the main platform. Don't even detonate it all the time. Meta will just avoid it altogether. Just put it out there, let him get used to you walking over it and get near it after it becomes unstable. Let him trigger it. Snake's general game is about providing cover fire to make his kill moves safe. In a sense, Snake is constantly running away. Never stop running.
Meta is just broken. The game is almost ruined as a result. It's sad because while I don't mind a few top-tier characters I feel like Meta changes the game for the worse; worthy of Nintendo issuing a patch. Somebody prove me wrong.
