Samus in the neutral?

[Davregis]

Just picked this character up yesterday at the behest of the board (great posts, guys!) and I gotta say Samus isn't very intuitive. Biggest issue is the neutral where I find myself getting slowly pushed all around the stage due to no quick normals/grab. How should Samus behave in the neutral, and how to deal with gap-closers? Been using nair/zair/dtilt but it's not incredibly effective...

 

[Zylach]

Samus' best tool in neutral is her zair, especially on slower characters. It's got hardly any landing lag and puts up great pressure. You should be practicing with it a lot so you can master the different distances it goes when you use it from SH. You can sometimes mix up your neutral game by throwing out seeker missiles so you can condition your opponent to shield them that way you can run in for a dash grab. When an opponent gets in on you, you'll want to rely heavily on your jab to get them out of your face and, if you're in the air and need a landing option, go for uair as it has next to no landing lag so you can immediately follow up with a jab if they try to punish it.

Samus struggles heavily against gap-closers since her up-close game isn't the best (ftilt isn't safe on hit lol). Samus relies on just getting away from enemies that get close to her so that should be your priority number 1 unless you're able to stuff their approach with a jab or even utilt (I personally like throwing out utilts against an approaching opponent because, if they don't shield it, then free combo starter, and if they do shield it, you can follow up with a jab to cover yourself from most characters, especially those going for a grab).

If I know my utilt will be shielded and punished by a quick character like Sheik, I'll just opt for throwing out a jab 1 to see if they shield it or not since it's Samus' safest option to use in neutral up close. If they shield it, you can choose to grab them if you know the character isn't fast enough to do anything to you within the time it takes for jab 1 to end and grab to actually grab. If you suspect they can punish you from shielding your jab 1, then just get away with a SH or legitimately just run away and look for an opportunity to pivot ftilt them if they continue to chase you down. At higher percents, jab 1 will true combo into jab 2 and even in fsmash I've heard. I don't remember the specific percents off the top of my head though.

Don't forget to mix up your neutral game with dash attack especially because it can be used as a cross-up tool against shielding opponents if they think you'll be stopped by their shield. You can sometimes get away with a grab in neutral as a mixup too but don't rely heavily on this at all. It's not safe in the slightest lol.

 

[Boney]

Back airs, both short hopped fast falled and air dodged work wonder for spacing and threatening with a long range move.

Don't sleep on ftilt and up tilt either. First one covers a huge amount of ground distance, while the second one denies air space and roll ins. You can throw them out and not get punished due to the low recovery and range they have.

Missiles also have utility in denying space and forcing options. They'll either jump or shield the missiles. Fair and nair work wonders to deny aerial approaches in those instances.

Keeping the charge up is important as well. Unless you're Shiek, just charging in their faces puts them in uncomfortable positions due to how fast it shoots while you're charging. They'll either run up shield or jump and even double jump to protect they're landings. And you need to take advantage of those situations.

Also don't sleep on up air that has very little end lag for shield cross ups and dairs for spacing away and catching roll ins, it also auto cancel and can catch people off guard. And if you need space away bombs are handy and disrupts approaches.

There's a thread about the neutral here as well, check it out!

 

[Davregis]

There's a thread about the neutral here as well, check it out!

Wow and with lots of top-quality posts, hard to believe I missed it! Thanks to the both of you.