She doesn't have that many good damage racking moves, but some of her moves pack a punch. Her best kill move is Usmash but it's kinda obvious when she will use it. You can survive Fsmash to good percentages (150% with good DI) but be aware that it can shield poke pretty well. Her Dsmash can send you at a bad angle if poorly DI'd but it shouldn't be too big a problem. Her Uair is really strong, but it's not hard to see coming. Her spike is pretty good and a sweetspotted Fair or Bair can mean trouble. Her kill moves are safe as well. Honestly, kill power is most of what's going for Zelda.
Zelda's generally dont kill with Usmash that option, its huge for stopping midair approaches, and packs some good damage (17 uncharged iirc). Really hard to SDI too. Fsmash is has good range and is safe on block with a low cooldown and its shields decently. If you're above 90% and you get hit with Dsmash, you're gonna have a really hard time getting back to the stage. It comes out in frame 4 and when fresh it's deadly. Seriously. The thing with uair is that most people airdodge on reaction and all Zelda has to do is wait out the airdodge and punish. It's the strongest uair in the entire game, it hurts if it hits you. Fair/Bair shouldnt be your huge problem here, considering Mario's too short to bair OoS. Watch out for a surprise Ftilt kill too at high percentages, its got hax range. Learn to hate dtilt. Leads into everything.
Basically, Zelda has the advantage on the ground, due to more range, safe moves, and power.
For Mario, Zelda can't approach and she can't keep you from not approaching. I guess she has Din's Fire, but cape and nair beat it.
Too true.
Though her spot dodge is good, but it shouldn't be that big a problem. Just punish her if she does it a lot. Zelda is gimpable, but it's not that easy. If you cape her during the teleport animation, she will go the other way and die. Don't rely on it, but if you see a chance take it.
Spotdodge is bad when you got dsmash coming out at frame 4. If mario gets inside though, keep the pressure on and **** her. Its the best shot you have on the ground. Zelda wont generall fall for capeing, she'll probably FW from far away and go for the edge sweetspot, so edgeguard like a pro.
We can rack up damage well with our quick aerials and she dies at kinda low percents. Dsmash works really well to get her off as well as use aerials. As A2 said, she can prevent us from fireball camping, but you can throw out a couple of fireballs at the right time. Get kinda close to her, but far enough away so that she can't hit you can just space with fireballs. It can also be annoying that she can reflect them, but she will definitely take some damage from them and you shouldnt take damage from them if used intelligently. FIHL works well on her which hasn't been brought up in discussions recently. Fsmash should kill her at low percents (around 100%) and Usmash a little later.
Zelda's light and floaty, dont be expecting too much uair/utilt juggling. Your fireballs are actually pretty useful in this matchup, know the range though. She can outcamp you and reflect you at certain range, but not at others. Generall try for mid-range spamming, if she tries to NL you can punish the cooldown, and if she takes the hits youre close enough to punish/grab if she shields. Mario's Fsmash has great range, use it up close at kill percentages, the animation mindgames me to this day too lol.
Stage wise, I would not want to fight Zelda on Halberd. It has a really low ceiling and she has really good vertical kill power. I would probably go to YI, BF, RC. Maybe Japes if it's legal due to it's really high ceiling. Platforms will really help, but the lack of them won't hurt you.
Dont take Zelda to anywhere with platforms like BF. She's killer with them. Halberd actually isnt that great, she cant sweetspot the ledge well and you can uair spam under the stage a bit. I agree with YI, iirc its a great Mario stage and a not so good Zelda stage.
I think it's 60:40 Mario, but I wanna see what the Zelda's have to say.
*Was thinking the other way around*
Looks like we got work to do xD