The Kirby Matchup Thread

[N.T.A.O ChangeOfHeart 死の剣]

PM Kirby wrecks

 

[Jethroo]

Alright so I want all of you to ignore what I've said thus far because I'm approaching match-ups from a different perspective.

That being said I'm only going to comment on the ones I think I know from tourney (and non-tourney) experience.

Also note that when I say "bad" I don't necessarily mean terrible. In fact a lot of the time I mean that I'd rather go Snake (which is just a personal thing and probably doesn't apply to like 98% of you).

Also note that I'm not claiming that I am, in any way, a definitive or even remotely accurate source of match-up information.

-- bad (possibly one of Kirby's worst)

-- evenish (maybe slightly in DK's favor)

-- 70/60 Kirby's favor

-- bad for Kirby (ughu)

-- evenish (maybe slightly in Kirby's favor)

-- bad for Kirby

-- good for Kirby

-- evenish (probably slightly in Kirby's favor)

-- even (I've played this match-up a lot against various players and I think it's dead even)

-- lol wait wut

-- a little bad for Kirby (but Kirby can still do some stuff)

-- slightly in Kirby's favor

-- good for Kirby (some Snake players say it's his worst matchup, I don't know if I agree)

-- evenish (feels pretty even, might be a bit in Squirtle? could go either way)

-- slightly in Kirby's favor

-- slightly in Wario's favor

-- good for Kirby (guys the chaingrab in this match-up is just ridiculous; i need to test more but I did it today in tournament and the guy was DI'ing as hard as he could; ban Dreamland against Zelda because by the time fsmash will kill her dthrow to fsmash will stop working)



I hear that Ivy/Kirby is really good but I don't have experience in it. Olimar/Kirby is weird. I played today and I lost most of the time but I was having a hard time figuring out the match-up, plus the guy was a bit better than I am, so I don't know.

Ivy/Kirby match is kirby's favor just because of Solarbeam he gets which allows kirby to kill Ivy at like 40-50% on a lot of stage. However, if kirby didn't get the free solarbeam I think it would be even or in ivy's favor because of ivy's great range especially that Bair. If kirby doesn't know how to DI throw to upB combo ivy can kill kirby really early.

I believe the kirby/snake fight is kirby's favor. Kirby can duck under most of his attacks and can intercept him up high during edgeguarding and we all know he will try to recover high... just get your Bair and hammer ready for it.
The Meta knight fight is pretty horrible in my opinion for kirby.

 

[skellitorman]

Kirby vs. Metaknight has to be the worst MU I have ever experienced in any Smash game. I never played such a one-sided MU, even with Kirby in Melee (except for maybe Fox vs. Kirby in Melee).

I disagree with Snake vs. Kirby being in Kirby's favor. Snake zoning with projectiles is quite effective vs. Kirby. If Kirby is too aggressive, then he may trade with grenades which is generally in Snake's favor since Kirby dies very early in this MU (Anything into low percent sticky KOs, Up tilts, grab-walk-throws into his mines).

Throwing grenades against a grounded Kirby is effective since any contact is good (if you block it can explode and do shield damage, if you grab it/explode, if you get hit/ explode, if you attack it/explode). While in the air it is easier to outmaneuver but it is still effective. Obviously Kirby in the air is more vulnerable to other attacks and is less effective at approaching.

If Kirby tries to inhale him while a grenade is out the Kirby will inhale the grenade and be stunned for a long time allowing Snake a heavy punish.


I think these matches by MVD demonstrate the efficacy of Snake's projectiles against Kirby here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ubjKViOxE

This set by Professor Pro demonstrates how well Snake can KO Kirby with a more aggressive approach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_dIUPsPMns


Either way I don't see Kirby having the advantage at all. Having said all this, Kirby does have good options in this MU as well. Ducking is useful, his comboability in this MU is good, and Kirby can KO Snake reliably.

 

[FreeGamer]

I'm convinced that Meta Knight and Lucas are his worst MUs.

 

[Jethroo]

I believe metaknight is kirby's worst match up by far... Lucas is a hard matchup, but NOOO where as bad as metaknight.

 

[SSS]

I haven't played MK. . .hmm. . .

 

[Jethroo]

I haven't played MK. . .hmm. . .

I hope you never have to.... If you find yourself getting Uair juggled DI and pray because that is basically all you can do before the UpB comes.

 

[SSS]

I hope you never have to.... If you find yourself getting Uair juggled DI and pray because that is basically all you can do before the UpB comes.

no rock? :'(

i'll just switch to Snake. . .although MK/Snake probs isn't good either

 

[Phan7om]

Your not gonna be able to rock. MK is probably his worst matchup, Link and Marth are right there too. Zard is probably 4th. Characters that outrange Kirby are just baaaad for him.

 

[SSS]

How do y'all feel about Boozer?

 

[Jethroo]

I think bowser isn't that bad a match up. You need to be careful though because he can kill kirby really early. He kind of like ganon just a less annoying because he doesn't have ganon's foward-B or his amazing jab.

 

[SSS]

also guys we have a 0-to-death chaingrab on Puff. so there's that.

 

[Phan7om]

I dont even consider the CG anymore just in case the PMBR removes that. I wouldnt just then not know how to play a whole matchup cuz chaingrabs are gone.

 

[JRad]

Metaknight is our worst matchup easily. ALl of his tilts/aerials beat ours except maybe our back air. Dash attack loses to any of his moves. MK's biggest weakness is crouch canceling, and our CC options are pretty bad (Kirby's crouch is amazing for evading/surviving but not for retaliating). The Zero Suit Matchup is in her favor, you can't even gimp her with inhale if she mashes out. You can crouch under her stun gun/grab but crouching understun gun doesn't really do much since she can just downsmash you since you cant move. I think DK is in our favor, his grab setups don't work ever after like 40 percent. Marth is also in our favor, just stay grounded and crouch a lot, he cant grab our kill us while crouching. Wait for him to miss and then react to it. Ledgeguarding marth is so easy too, grab ledge and then drop off back air, falling nair, or just grab ledge and uair/bair him when he goes to stage. I also play Marth so maybe I just know how to abuse him.

 

[Phan7om]

B-but you can gimp her without inhale.

 

[JRad]

Realistically you can gimp anyone without inhale, that doesn't mean it will be easy or able to be done consistently

 

[Unwavering_Canadian]

I picked up Mario to deal with MK. Mario has a strong cc which destroys MK, Mario has a chain grab from like 20->80 on MK, and MK can't clank projectiles so you can fireball spam. Otherwise, you should be able to handle the rest of the cast with Kirby. There are matchups which aren't in your favor like Lucas, ZSS, Marth, but they're not awful (maybe like 60-40 against Kirby). Any big and heavy character is Combo food. This includes Charizard, Bowser, DK, DeDeDe, etc... Pretty much all of Kirby's moves combo into each other with the right DI, heck I combo'd bair into Up-tilt in tourney recently.

Remember that MK is a fast-faller so use fast-faller combos against him. Things like multiple up-tilts into up-airs into bairs. It's a really bad matchup, don't choose big stages against MK or you'll never be able to kill him first.

 

[Jethroo]

I agree with no big stages, but don't pick warioware either...

 

[Scoob]

I don't know if you guys have discussed this, but do you have any tips for the Kirby-Peach matchup? I was playing with a friend who only recently started playing Peach, but I still lost pretty hard. It just seems like she can down smash her way out of most situations, and poking her is hard, since she has such high priority. Plus, her floatiness makes it hard to get much off of grabs. I'm just not sure how to handle this matchup.

 

[SSS]

I don't know if you guys have discussed this, but do you have any tips for the Kirby-Peach matchup? I was playing with a friend who only recently started playing Peach, but I still lost pretty hard. It just seems like she can down smash her way out of most situations, and poking her is hard, since she has such high priority. Plus, her floatiness makes it hard to get much off of grabs. I'm just not sure how to handle this matchup.

i absolutely adore the Kirby/Peach matchup. I think it's really even. You have to play slow though. Camp the top platform because she has a hard time getting up to you, since her double jump is so slow. If she does try to jump up, move off the platform, wait for her to aerial, and bair her. If she starts throwing turnips up at you, laugh in her face and just rotate through the platforms. It's a slow matchup. Test her reaction to dash attack. if she's smart she'll float low, going away from you facing the opposite direction, and bair you out of it. If she floats too high you can dash attack under and bair her. Learn how to techchase with dthrow. You can get dash attack on reaction after dthrow, unless she starts either neutral teching or not teching. Actually i think if she techs through you you can regrab on reaction, if she techs away you can dash attack on reaction (to utilt to uair which will kill pretty early). If she neutral techs you can sometimes grab on reaction, but she might spot dodge or something so you'll have to mix it up. If she doesn't tech, dash dance away a bit to avoid get up attack and wait for her to do something. If she techs toward you, gets up, or get up attacks, grab. If she techs away, dash attack. If you notice she always doesn't tech or neutral techs you can hammer or forward smash to be mean. Sorry if you already know how to techchase with Kirby, but it's important in like all matchups, particularly this one since she's so floaty so it's hard to combo her otherwise. In neutral, other than camping top platform, dash dance away from her and wait for her to put something out and punish. It's a matchup in which you can't approach much (unless she's bad and she can't react to dash attack). So you have to avoid her until she does something dumb and then mess her up. You can dash attack through her shield and she'll try to nair OoS and you can punish. At around 100% to 130% you can do Dthrow>fsmash and kill her. Don't go to Dreamland because it's so big and by the time fsmash will kill her, dthrow>fsmash will stop working. Dthrow to fsmash will be your main method of killing Peach, so get it at 100% ish and don't wait too long and let her percent get too high. Since her double jump takes NINETY YEARS to start and get anywhere, spitting her out under stages actually works, since you can react to her double jump and hit her again and she'll be under the stage and can't recover. She can, however, sometimes just float under the stage to the other side and recover to that edge. . .and there's not really anything you can do about that. Anyway it's an even matchup, and a slow matchup. It's a matchup in which Kirby has to make Peach really frustrated and make her do stupid stuff, which you'll be able to pretty easy. Kirby lives for making people frustrated. If you can, get a Kirbycide in there just to make her extra mad. You just have to out-camp Peach, which is already a pretty campy character. Remember she can't get high up quickly due to her ****ty double jump, so you can just jump above her full jump range (learn it) and troll her out. Good luck. This matchup is dope. Don't go to Dreamland (a lot of Peaches love Dreamland so ban it). Ban Fountain of Dreams. Pick Battlefield for delicious top-platform camping godliness.

 

[FreeGamer]

I won a set against a decent Snake recently, and he told me Kirby is Snake's worst MU. Thoughts?

 

[SSS]

I won a set against a decent Snake recently, and he told me Kirby is Snake's worst MU. Thoughts?

I have heard Snake players say that. My mains happen to be Kirby and Snake and while I have not played the matchup from either side, I can say that considering how Kirby operates and how Snake operates, it is not a good matchup for Snake. Kirby can duck under so many of Snakes options. Kirby can combo Snake very easily. None of Snake's reliable set-ups work on Kirby, due to how small he is and how floaty he is. Just from my knowledge of both characters, I can say that it is probably in Kirby's favor by quite a bit.

 

[Jethroo]

I won a set against a decent Snake recently, and he told me Kirby is Snake's worst MU. Thoughts?

I agree with the snake. However, if the snake is REALLY good at landing the C4 (think that is the name of DownB) then kirby can die really early. I think this is a hard fight for snake, but not MK/Kirby hard.

i absolutely adore the Kirby/Peach matchup. I think it's really even. You have to play slow though. Camp the top platform because she has a hard time getting up to you, since her double jump is so slow. If she does try to jump up, move off the platform, wait for her to aerial, and bair her. If she starts throwing turnips up at you, laugh in her face and just rotate through the platforms. It's a slow matchup. Test her reaction to dash attack. if she's smart she'll float low, going away from you facing the opposite direction, and bair you out of it. If she floats too high you can dash attack under and bair her. Learn how to techchase with dthrow. You can get dash attack on reaction after dthrow, unless she starts either neutral teching or not teching. Actually i think if she techs through you you can regrab on reaction, if she techs away you can dash attack on reaction (to utilt to uair which will kill pretty early). If she neutral techs you can sometimes grab on reaction, but she might spot dodge or something so you'll have to mix it up. If she doesn't tech, dash dance away a bit to avoid get up attack and wait for her to do something. If she techs toward you, gets up, or get up attacks, grab. If she techs away, dash attack. If you notice she always doesn't tech or neutral techs you can hammer or forward smash to be mean. Sorry if you already know how to techchase with Kirby, but it's important in like all matchups, particularly this one since she's so floaty so it's hard to combo her otherwise. In neutral, other than camping top platform, dash dance away from her and wait for her to put something out and punish. It's a matchup in which you can't approach much (unless she's bad and she can't react to dash attack). So you have to avoid her until she does something dumb and then mess her up. You can dash attack through her shield and she'll try to nair OoS and you can punish. At around 100% to 130% you can do Dthrow>fsmash and kill her. Don't go to Dreamland because it's so big and by the time fsmash will kill her, dthrow>fsmash will stop working. Dthrow to fsmash will be your main method of killing Peach, so get it at 100% ish and don't wait too long and let her percent get too high. Since her double jump takes NINETY YEARS to start and get anywhere, spitting her out under stages actually works, since you can react to her double jump and hit her again and she'll be under the stage and can't recover. She can, however, sometimes just float under the stage to the other side and recover to that edge. . .and there's not really anything you can do about that. Anyway it's an even matchup, and a slow matchup. It's a matchup in which Kirby has to make Peach really frustrated and make her do stupid stuff, which you'll be able to pretty easy. Kirby lives for making people frustrated. If you can, get a Kirbycide in there just to make her extra mad. You just have to out-camp Peach, which is already a pretty campy character. Remember she can't get high up quickly due to her ****ty double jump, so you can just jump above her full jump range (learn it) and troll her out. Good luck. This matchup is dope. Don't go to Dreamland (a lot of Peaches love Dreamland so ban it). Ban Fountain of Dreams. Pick Battlefield for delicious top-platform camping godliness.

So, play the peach/kirby match up like Moyashi plays kirby in smash 64?

 

[Gold Dart]

Any of you have Lucario MU experience? I struggle a lot in this MU especially when it comes to taking stocks.

 

[steelguttey]

yo. so the olimar matchup thread is doing kirbs this week have fun

 

[SSS]

Olimar's tech roll is hella short and hella easy to techchase and I've been hanging out with too many NorCal players and now all I say is hella.

 

[OstrichGlue]

I'm not sure what's been said on Mewtwo, but I just pulled out a close set against one at a recent tourney and thought I'd share my thoughts, because it was a tough tough MU.

Learning Up-B habits is critical, and I found that throwing out nair was the best way to cover it. It tacked on lots of percent and frustrated my opponent whenever his "safe" approach was stuffed. Knowing the range is also important since Teleport -> Fair will KO Kirby really easily.

Approaching was very tough, trying to space aerials or wall out with bairs didn't work well. The last game was on Lylat and dash attack off the platforms was a great option, as always. Other than that I played really patient and did lots of dash dancing.

Aerial hammer literally turned the set around. I lost the first game, and once I started using it the second game it was like night and day. The first hit kills Mewtwo absurdly early, has a great hitbox, and has safety that other follow ups don't have. It also punishes float out of hitstun really well (I punish Peach's float this way too, works amazing).

D-throw sends Mewtwo really high, but I found that I could follow up with well spaced hammers. This might have been a fluke but it worked even at high percents.

I had to play hit and run to win. Follow ups were so difficult and dangerous in the air that I stuck to tilts, grabs, and very safely spaced aerials.

Hopefully there's some stuff in there that can help people out!

 

[SSS]

wait i forgot about this game **** stupid smash 4 this game is good

 

[Scoob]

Yeah I don't have much experience against Mewtwo in general, but the matchup is always a tight spacing battle that he usually wins. At least Kirby isn't easy to combo. It seems like since every Mewtwo has different teleporting tendencies, it means reading your opponent's play style and putting out hitboxes where he may pop up. I imagine it plays out like the Marth matchup, squeezing into his blind spots and getting hits in.

I wonder how Inhale could help this one? Seems like its windbox is too far to suck Mewtwo in, and his ability is largely useless. Gimps and Kirbycides probably won't get much mileage versus Mewtwo, so it's a struggle for sure.

 

[Phan7om]

Ducking is a crucial in the m2 matchup. Wavedash while ducking to gain mobility. It literally lowers his moveset to dsmash, dtilt, ftilt, FC fair, FC bair, and maybe a few others. Point is it narrows down his moveset, taking things like grab and hover nair out of the picture (he can still drop the hover but if you read it you can avoid it or just crouch-powershield it). Use it to your advantage. As for getting kills, its gonna be hard, you gotta read him to get kills whether that be a roll or a teleport, etc. if hes playing the matchup right you gotta read him to even hit him.

I feel if both people play the matchup perfectly it could go to time w/o any camping. Its very hard for either of you to get a hit in.

 

[Random23]

Played a lot of the snake-kirby matchup with prof, it's definitely in kirby's favour but the snake can easily punish aggressive kirby. You can get killed super easily, and die at ridiculously low %'s because of c4. Kirby needs to edgeguard really well, and get a huge amount off of each combo to stand a chance against a great snake.

 

[Jinjo64]

Questions on handle projectile camping and the such. I am mainly talking about Mario and Link. With Mario I will Nair through the projectiles then get dsmashed. If I DA I get dsmashed. It seems my only option is to stay in the air above the fireballs and Bair endlessly until I see an opening. Link I just use duck, but man that boomerang is a butt.

Any tips on mario or link? I have played my friends Mario for months now and he hasn't changed his tactics. Just fireball and dsmash are so hard to get by.

 

[Phan7om]

Powershielding, even tho it takes mad practice, is really good vs projectile heavy characters, and with Kirby's crouch it makes psing certain moves like fireballs a lot easier. Boomerang im not too sure with tho, every character seems to have trouble with it. Im sure you can duck it if he doesnt aim it, but if he does aim it towards the ground you got to shield roll or jump.

But yeah, I know Link is one of our worst matchups. Theres just a certain way you have to play, and its not really an aggro style, but you want to be as close to him as possible while being out of his range so you can punish when he whiffs an aerial or tilt or whatever and not be too far away that he can keep you out with projectiles.

Mario on the other hand relies heavily on his projectiles, and to me at least fireballs are very easy to crouch-ps since they move relatively slow. And then on top of that you can get fireballs yourself and use it right back at him. Just bait out capes. Once projectiles become less of an issue its just a matter of keeping Mario from grabbing you. And to avoid his dsmash you gotta bait it out, know when hes gonna do it and then punish. Do a lot of fake landings and mix it up with late nairs, waveland backs, and double jumps. Kirby's dair cant be CCed but use it wisely since its rather slow. Mix it up with some grabs or falling inhales. You really just gotta think hard when facing him.

 

[SazoonTheBoon]

Based on a lot of the stuff in the forum. it seems as if kirby loses a lot of matchups. What matchups are even positive in kirby's favour without gimmicks?

 

[Scoob]

I would say Kirby beats Bowser? Probably DK and Luigi as well; anyone with bad or awkward recovery. Maybe not Roy, since his disjoints are troublesome and his up-air combos are stupid. One **** up near him and stupid f-smash kills at like, 60%.

Also, we apparently beat Snake, and I would say Ganondorf, since we can duck most of his attacks lol

 

[SazoonTheBoon]

I feel kirby has to work too hard for his kills. He can do some pretty good combos up to 100 percent but after that all of his kill moves are predictable or gimps. Nothing really leads into a ko move other than like dashattack into uair on like some characters.

EDIT: Also imo kirby feels REALLY easy to adapt to, but people like chu just are so good at adapting faster than their opponent. Right now kirby feels to reliant on swallow gimmicks and I'd personally like so see a shift towards kirby being better overall in neutral, but sacrificing some of the cheese he keeps in his back pocket.

 

[skellitorman]

Its not that Kirby is easy to adapt to, its that Kirby doesn't have the means to mount a solid offense against certain characters.

It would definitely be for the better if Kirbycide is replaced with significant buffs that remedy this problem.

 

[SazoonTheBoon]

Its not that Kirby is easy to adapt to, its that Kirby doesn't have the means to mount a solid offense against certain characters.

It would definitely be for the better if Kirbycide is replaced with significant buffs that remedy this problem.

Yee. I think if they actually made forward cutter an approach option like they originally intended, that would be a good step forward

 

[SazoonTheBoon]

Idk if this is a double post? But how has kirby's matchups changed now in 3.5? Metaknight is now redone and other characters like link and ivysaur have received nerfs too. Also now that the metagame has switched towards worse recoveries in general, will we see kirby's stellar edge guarding kit swaying match ups in his favour?

 

[Phan7om]

Ivy is definitely way easier, and MK which is still bad will be easier as well.