Struggling to punish Toon Link

[Nakuri]

Hello Smash Boards!

I'm by no means a player with competitive experience, while I try to improve as much as I can. I'm playing with someone who likes to play Toon Link. Mostly on the stage, I find my way to damage him gradually, but as soon as I want to kill him, I feel that he's the strongest. His air-capabilities are enormous, fair, uair, bair and up-b are really strong while his recovery and speed feels unbearable to me. I really don't dare to leave the stage as I don't know how to approach. Toon-Link bests me whenever we're in the air.

How and when can I punish him the best? How can I edgeguard against Toon-Link? And are their definitive weaknesses of Toon-Link I probably don't know of?

 

[WindMajor]

Metaknight.





I-I mean...
Newer Toon Link users tend to follow typical patterns, so if you can pick up on any, then you can come up with counter strategies. For example, they will throw a bomb at your shield and decide to run up to you and Nair it. Always. If you can pick up on that, then you can probably find ways to abuse it. I don't know how skilled your Toon Link friend is, but I'm sure you can find some habits.

As for weaknesses, I always feel like Toon Link suffers from having slow attacks and being susceptible to getting hit while landing. If you use Marth or Metaknight, your fast moves will usually outspeed any of Toon Link's attacks. But to get that far means that you have to already be "in". So how do you get in? Well you have a point with Toon Link having pretty good aerial options, like Bair, Zair, and iBomb. That's why you have to catch him as he's trying to land. Or you can power shield a lot while he's close to the ground. Be careful with shielding a lot though, because grab beats shield. Now Toon Link doesn't have a particularly good or fast grab, but if he knows that you're just shielding a lot, the Toon Link will get more confident in trying to grab you. Your best bet at beating Toon Link offstage is to hit him after he's used up his second jump. Or use ledge invincibility to hit him when he's near the ledge.

 

[southpaw]

yoooo shining force anri avi!!!!! anyways it'd be helpful if we knew what character you were using. odd that you dont mention anything about toon links zair. but for the most part toon link is pretty unsafe when he tries to kill you. his smashes are all punishable by most chars quick-ish fsmashes/dsmashes. and when hes recovering offstage you can hit him from above on his head everytime. when toon link is in the air think about where his blind spots are which is mainly under him towards the sides so diagonal upwards aproaches do pretty well with most bairs/fairs/uairs so long as you watch out for his slow dair.

 

[Nakuri]

Your best bet at beating Toon Link offstage is to hit him after he's used up his second jump. Or use ledge invincibility to hit him when he's near the ledge.

That's probably what I will need to practice. I often try to engage in free air while Toon-Link still has all of his options. I'm often afraid to work at the Ledge directly as he's quick about it to hit me there and that's mostly a death for me then when I bounce against the side of the stage. I will look in the forum for some tips about ledgeworking. Thank you for your reply

yoooo shining force anri avi!!!!!

Showing some Retrogaming in Style At least for me

anyways it'd be helpful if we knew what character you were using.

My Main is Dedede and actually I don't struggle with him at all as I'm just fine by working with bair thanks to the decent flexibility. At least something, while the little annoying brat doesn't reach me. But I struggle with many other characters, so I thought I take this observation to the forum and ask about it. And I really like to hear about your opinions I appreciate the conversation.

his smashes are all punishable by most chars quick-ish fsmashes/dsmashes.

In my perception, Toon-Links dsmash is really really "quick-ish" as well, but yes, his fsmash hit's suprisingly hard, but I think that is avoidable/punishable if you watch out.

when hes recovering offstage you can hit him from above on his head everytime.

To be honest here, I can't imagine how. I see him killing me with his uair if I can't get him with some proper range.

mainly under him towards the sides so diagonal upwards aproaches do pretty well

That again sounds really good. I'm panicking when I'm below him just because his dair kills me when I'm struck, but at the same time, he must play with the risk to fall as well if I react to that. Good Idea.

Thanks to your answer as well