[MU] Roy

[MintyGuy700]

Alright, Roy is an interesting character.

• He's a fastfaller which means we can't combo him well.
• He has insane kill power.
• He combos us like no one's business.

But...

• We've the tools to keep him away.
• We've better range.
• His poor recovery compliments our edgeguarding game.

So this begs the question, what do we do in this matchup?

 

[Goulmania]

Let's see,

Roy doesn't do well under pressure but can apply good pressure himself.

The way I play the match-up is pretty straight forward, looking for a way to pull out bombs to apply pressure.

It's a 60-40 in roy's favor IMO. He has a slight advantage due to his running animation (smaller hurtbox unsafe/hard to Zair), ground speed and good aerials.

Neutral Game:
First, you need an openning, so you have to challenge him with ftilt, jab and pivot grabs to get him out of your space and give you time to setup your pressure tools. If he spaces Nairs you can do the Zair into grab mixup.
Just predict his approach and act accordingly.

One thing I like to do on character that can't handle pressure is bomb slide into spaced shorthop fastfall Fair (regrabs the bomb if he shields), then repeat or mixup. the only option he has to challenge that is ftilt and jab both are too short if you space well enough.

One thing I cannot stress enough is DON'T LET HIM GET YOU IN A CORNER. (srry caps =P)
Try to keep center stage and you should have the upper hand.

Roy is fast on the ground, that means we must avoid throwing our boomerang too much unless it's a sure hit since he can just powershield and grab/Nair.

Off-stage: just go for a Nair to steal his jump, if you succeed he's most likely dead. You can also use a bomb on his predicatble recovery to pop him up and get an aerial (Fair, Nair or Dair spike preferably).


If I think of anything else I'll update this post!

 

[Jenna Zant]

Roy can weave in between all of your projectiles and can combo you, hard. Try to keep him as far away as possible, but kill him fast. Don't let him get rage; just kill him. Be very careful in this matchup, or else Roy will get you.

 

[Goulmania]

Roy can weave in between all of your projectiles and can combo you, hard. Try to keep him as far away as possible, but kill him fast. Don't let him get rage; just kill him. Be very careful in this matchup, or else Roy will get you.

I disagree with the "Try to keep him as far away as possible", if you enter with this mindset you'll end up cornering yourself against the ledge and if that happens he'll wall you off. Roy is a character that can pressure very well when your back is against the ledge.

If you fight for center stage however, Link will have the room he needs to get his setups ready and pressure roy, this matchup is all about momentum IMO.

 

[Jenna Zant]

I disagree with the "Try to keep him as far away as possible", if you enter with this mindset you'll end up cornering yourself against the ledge and if that happens he'll wall you off. Roy is a character that can pressure very well when your back is against the ledge.

If you fight for center stage however, Link will have the room he needs to get his setups ready and pressure roy, this matchup is all about momentum IMO.

I don't mean hide on the side of the stage. I guess I forgot to mention to keep him offstage, with you at center stage. Sorry.

 

[Rinku リンク]

Goulmania basically listed the gist of the MU but i'll still share my input.

I honestly don't find this MU all too hard considering his approach options are fairly limited and his fast fall speed tends be more in our favor than his. We can combo and juggle him much easier than he can us in my opinion.

His options offstage are very limited as well considering if he goes too far he won't make it back. On the contrary, we can gimp him fairly easy with arrows, rangs, and n-airs.

However, I do believe the MU is 50:50 considering he's pretty fast and can KO us pretty early (especially with rage) if we're not careful.

 

[ShinnyMetal]

Roy has such a bad approach game. I tried maining him for awhile and it was not a fun time. Keep him spaced, like others are saying, and he won't be able to hurt you too bad. It always feels like I'm playing a heavy except they die easier

 

[TastyComaWife]

Not much to add to this other than to try to use boomerang less. Roy's bair just cuts through it and since it turns him around in the process, it leaves you at a disadvantage due to the lag of the throw. Replace with some arrows or soft throw a bomb with some empty hops/bair/zair to intimidate.

I typically like to play Roy when confronted to a Link ditto, but I'm not a very technical player so explaining my processes is hard.

 

[GhettoNinja]

Roy's main advantage over link is his graceful movement. Fox Trotting allows him to weave in and out like nobody's business along with the previously mentioned Combo game that I'd kill for. I'll gloss over the netrual since that's been covered extremely well. The best thing you can do against roy is abuse his recovery. Bomb confirm Dairs and Up B's are the name of the game. Up B if he tries to recover from above, this won't always kill him. But even with optimal DI you'll be able to just wall him out with Nairs. For below you need to land the bomb towards the end of his up B(since some of it has Super armor) so hitting him right before he snaps ledge is ideal. After that you gotta land the spike box or else there's a chance you'll save him.

 

[DarkDeity15]

Here is a list of all possible follow ups Roy has on us off his Dthrow from 0-100%. I know we already win this MU and all but I was labbing Roy's Dthrow stuff on every character, so I labbed it on Link and this is what I got. If you're interested in checking out what characters I've labbed so far, here ya go: https://smashboards.com/threads/knights-of-elibe-discuss-roy-strategies-and-technology-here.417968/

Link:
0%: Nothing guaranteed.
10%: You will get a sour jab if Link DIs away and he can avoid Jab by DIing in and air dodging. DED and Ftilt will also miss if Link DIs in. The upwards variations are advised. Utilt can be avoided by DIing away.
20%: DED no longer works. Ftilt is will miss if Link DIs in.
30%: As above.
40%: Uair is true, but you will get the sourspot if Link DIs away. Ftilt will miss if Link DIs up or in.
50%: Link can escape Blazer by DIing in or DIing away and air dodging/jumping. Jab no longer works.
60%: Ftilt no longer works.
70%: Utilt no longer works.
80%: Fair is true. Usmash and Bair will combo if Link DIs in. Link can no longer avoid Blazer by DIng away.
90%: Usmash no longer works. Link can now DI away and airdodge to avoid Blazer again.
100% and above: Blazer no longer works. Go for aerials and airdodge reads.

 

[8MAN]

Here is a list of all possible follow ups Roy has on us off his Dthrow from 0-100%. I know we already win this MU and all but I was labbing Roy's Dthrow stuff on every character, so I labbed it on Link and this is what I got. If you're interested in checking out what characters I've labbed so far, here ya go: https://smashboards.com/threads/knights-of-elibe-discuss-roy-strategies-and-technology-here.417968/
Link:
0%: Nothing guaranteed.
10%: Jab is true, but the sour spot will hit Link if he DIs away. DED is true but the upwards variations is advised. Utilt can be avoided by DIing away.
20%: DED no longer works. Ftilt is guaranteed.
30%: As above.
40%: Uair is true, but you will get the sourspot if Link DIs away. Ftilt will miss if Link DIs up or in.
50%: Link can escape Blazer by DIing in or DIing away and air dodging/jumping. Jab no longer works.
60%: Ftilt no longer works.
70%: Utilt no longer works.
80%: Fair is true. Usmash and Bair will combo if Link DIs in. Link can no longer avoid Blazer by DIng away.
90%: Usmash no longer works. Link can now DI away and airdodge to avoid Blazer again.
100% and above: Blazer no longer works. Go for aerials and airdodge reads.

Probably worth noting that his FF First hit of Nair option too, as it is a very strong option for kill confirms. It has set knockback (if I'm not mistaken) so it sets up for a lot of options at higher percents.

FF FH Nair > Blazer
FF FH Nair > Ftilt
FF FH Nair > Jab > Fair
FF FH Nair > Jab > Bair
FF FH Nair > Grab

Another thing worth mentioning in the MU is Roy's atrocious recovery. Without his double jump, he shouldn't make it back. FF Nair, Fair, Bair, Uncharged Arrows, Gale Guarding etc.. Tether Trumping is also a good option because of how predictable Roy's recovery is, his window for mixing up his recovery is also small, due to his extremely fast falling speed, weird lack of magnet hands when recovering (which limits his ability to fade back like Falcon for ex.) and the short distance of Blazer.

 

[JayE]

It can go either way honestly. Maybe its just me, but Link can struggle against characters who vastly outspeed him, like Roy, Falcon, Sheik, Sonic. Link can keep Roy out with projectiles, but Roy is Top 10 in speed, so it may be more difficult to zone him out. Link combos Roy pretty well, but so does Roy. Roy can combo Link pretty well. Link also can edgeguard Roy better than Roy can edgeguard Link.

 

[LouLouXz]

Here's a vid I made on the Roy matchup. I commented for one of my subscribers, but i give a few insights of what i think about the roy matchup.