[MU] Zelda

[ChainArmour712]

Let's discuss the matchup between Link and Princess Zelda here!


Now, about my experience:

I played in a sm4sh tournament at my college recently, and was just destroyed by someone playing Zelda. I am not familiar with the matchup since nobody I played with played her in Melee, and she has gotten some new abilities in this game that I think make her more difficult for Link to contend with:

The primary change she received was that now she can attack out of her upB, so that whereas before her mobility was limited now she can use the move to either chase you down or escape your projectile spam/melee attacks easily. I had a hard time landing attacks on her because she would just teleport out of there when I had something aimed at her and chase me down when I attempted to retreat for something like a bomb pull.

The second thing that I had a hard time with was her downB Phantom special. In my experience it ate up the majority of my projectiles and forced me to engage on her terms and not mine (meaning she could attack Link physically at a distance where I am focused on one of my projectiles). Also, the distance it covers pretty much negated any range advantage I had in fighting Zelda. When I would attempt to bypass the special she would either get me with a melee attack or teleport away. As for Din's Fire, it was mainly annoying when I was attempting to recover (I would attempt to air dodge and it would hit me anyways).

After getting dominated the first round I was able to get it pretty close the second go around just by playing angry and being aggressive but it always seemed like her player had the upper hand. What would be some good tactics to use against Zelda, and in my interest her up and down specials?

 

[Jasudin]

I haven't really played any good Zeldas...

Keep using projectiles. Zelda (still) lives off of punish game, her approach is still terrible, and her reflector is too slow. Also, if you have time, zair through phantom works. Be ready to shield a Farore's Wind or pivot ftilt it cuz it's definitely punishable. Be aware of that distance too. However, her up b is still punishable on start-up too making it more difficult when she's being pelted by projectiles. Zelda should be approaching YOU. Also, you have slightly more range because of da Master Sword. SH retreating bomb pull to avoid up b?

 

[ShinnyMetal]

I also haven't fought much of Zelda but trying to force out a reflect with bombs would be fairly crippling for her, she has so much endlag on that special (all of them, really). A good player would avoid being bated so easily but by trying them you can get desired results

 

[Malas]

Beware of Farore's Wind. Too many times I've been killed by a recovering Zelda player. That move is ridiculously OP and is not so easy to punish.

Also, her dash attack has extended reach (like Peach). I honestly find that Link does better against Zelda when his feet are glued to the ground.

I don't like Link's Usmash in this game, but against Zelda it's pretty darn effective.

 

[Huggles828]

I would think we'd want to stay comfortably in that midrange and not really approach her. Fully charging arrows is gonna be a bad idea against Zelda since she'll just reflect them, but unless she reads you well and remains uncommitted firing a quick arrow is probably fairly safe, especially if you're falling or shooting from/to a platform. Reflected boomerang just gets the windbox so it's pretty safe on reflector, and if you aim them well, bombs are hard to reflect back at you. Be aware of the distance Farore's wind travels and if she uses it know if she can hit you with it; you can shield and punish since it has a slow startup. I think you can still shield Din's? Just know she can throw it behind you and if none of it hits your shield it can hit you. Her usmash and uair hit hard, so I wouldn't challenge her from above unless you know you can win, be careful with trying to FF nair.

 

[Fox Is Openly Deceptive]

Actually, this is just a point to note about reflectors and Bombs in general; you all know that Bombs cannot be used against reflectors in this game regardless of how you use it because even an indirect explosion will be 'reflected', but it's nice to note (for what it's worth) that if a Bomb does get reflected and hits you, you won't receive any multiplied amount of damage. So even if the reflector is a 2x damage multiplier, the Bomb's damage always stays at a constant 5% for direct hits, 5% for timed explosions from a stationary or held Bomb, and then for forced explosions and timed explosions from moving bombs, it depends entirely on how fast the Bomb was moving at the time, but they can do up to 9%.

 

[Frost_Aer0]

I played a lot of Zelda in Pm 3.0 so I'm fairly familiar with how bad her options are. Generally speaking, she was too slow in PM to punish anything that had low lag and was well spaced. Thus since she's slower and has significantly less options outside of the BS she was using in she really CANNOT PUNISH YOU UNLESS YOU LET THEM. Also, reflector has A TON of lag so if you spam intelligently she can't reflect everything with out you setting up a frame trap by using your hylain shield. If you threaten her space in the air, she cannot compete with your fair cause she has no disjointed those on her aerials and her specials can be punished once predicted or they're useless.

Pm Marth on wifi did all of these things making my existence miserable to say the least.

Tl;Dr:
You should always be in control and never eat a nasty punish if you pretend like you're marth playing melee jiggs.

Edit: Grammar and Clarity and the following
better yet play this MU like m2k's fox played Armada at Sktar 3 (he won btw)