vs R.O.B

[B.A.M.]

I dont know about anyone else, but recently i have had trouble with a decent rob, its just a hard match up with that metal gear. Does any1 have suggestions?

 

[abit_rusty]

I face ROB a LOT. Here's an old strat of mine.

vs. ROB

I face ROB often...good ROB's are a consistently tough matchup.

First, what to expect:

-His lasers can quickly blow up your nades before they even reach him or while you're attempting to cook them. Did I mention he can angle it? In addition, if he doesn't use the laser for a while, it charges automatically and at full it becomes a large, powerful beam of light that can KO at high %'s or if you're at the stage's edge.
-His gyro (top-like projectile) also deflects nades and Nikita quite well, comes out fast, and a charged one can be a deadly edgeguard/kill move.

Now, you'd think that you would be able to just avoid these by approaching from above, but ROB can best Snake in the air as well, since his aerials have irregular advantageous properties and come out quicker.

-Most notable is ROB's nair, where he does a quick front somersault and burns his thrusters as he does so. These thrusters have a disjointed hitbox, as in they can cancel out any incoming mortars if they make contact at the right time. They also have a ridiculous priority over Snake's aerials, and they send you flying up at a near vertical angle. It's a nasty move that easily blows you out of cypher too.
-To complement his nair is his bair, where ROB takes a similar position as Snake's bair, flares his thrusters once more, and propels himself forward a little too. Again, thrusters have a disjointed hitbox. The fact that it propels him forward moves him out of shield grab range, even after a powershield. Oh, and the hitbox extends to his head so he can hit you on the side he moves forward too.
-ROB's dair is a spike move. Once more utilizing his thrusters, he boosts himself up a tad and contact with the thruster flames will spike you. This is meteor cancellable, luckily. Still, since it pops him up, it gives him a bit of a stall before landing which can cause you to mess up prediction, and puts him out of range of punishment as well.
-The aerials that aren't as bad for you are his fair and uair. Granted his fair can start up juggle combos and his uair comes out quick to juggle and rack up some damage, they aren't as deadly.

Now how the heck do you win against these odds?

Well, wins vs ROB are almost always about patience and outsmarting him (really, what Snake matchup isn't? ). Here's some tips.

-While his projectiles make it a hassle to camp, and even approach, the key is to move during the cooldown. After ROB fires a laser, he can't fire it again immediately. After he shoots his gyro, he can't fire another until the gyro disappears (if it landed) and even so, he can't fire another immediately anyway. Dodge(often) and (power)shielding are your best tools here. Use these to approach, and after avoiding his barrage of projectiles, you have your opening. You've got a few options. Get in there and mix up your grabs/jabs/tilts/mortar slides so you don't get predictable/shield-grabbed, or add nades into your approach (either tossing them in or dash attack grab) for some insurance if you're playing safe. If he gets away, repeat the process. This is basically how you will rack up damage on him.

-There's a few ways to deal with his aerials. First off, don't put yourself in a position directly above and in front of him (in the air). You'll almost always get out prioritized by his nair. If you're recovering and you get in that position, air dodge like a madman. (time it though lol). Get below him ASAP. Bair is a good finisher to catch him unexpectedly, but the lag can result in getting punished so don't make your bair approach too obvious. I also found that if a ROB is coming from above and tries to dair you, and you dodge or shield that dair, you can follow up immediately with a full hopped nair or uair. I don't recommend following a ROB upwards with your cypher for an uair finisher too often, because this is easily seen coming and he'll just nair you out of cypher. Fair edgeguard works above average in this match up because of ROB's predictable recovery, but know your limits because his recovery can surpass yours in terms of maneuverability.

Misc. stuff:
-Um you can pick up his gyro and throw it back at him. Just make sure it's stopped spinning cuz it has a weird little hitbox while it spins on the ground. You can also catch it in midair when he throws it at you, timing for this is just a tad hard. I tend to not mess with the gyro too much because I've been stuck in it and combo'd multiple times, with the gyro acting as a pseudo-wall (Snake between ROB and gyro) o.O.

-If you face a ROB that doesn't spam projectiles, consider it your lucky day. If they're actually expertly aggressive, then you should imploy your camping strategies and this most likely will just cause them to start using projectiles more often. And I already mentioned how to deal with those

-About edgeguarding...using a Nikita is always a good choice, in fact it's often my choice. Mortars work pretty well too. One thing to note is that ROBs sometimes laser or fire their gyro as they recover. Keep this in mind if you try a close up edgeguard, say mortar or an aerial. Be prepared to dodge or shield, and you can also approach with crawling and hopefully the laser doesn't hit if they don't angle it (or the angle is wrong).

-About mines and C4...I think it's personal preference. Keep in mind that ROB just sets mines off easily and quickly with his projectiles from a distance. Then again, you can use this chance of him wasting his laser/gyro to approach. C4 is more useful and better for mobility since you might have to be the aggressor at times.

Some new things I noticed since I wrote that strat:

- An easy way to pick up his gyro is to dash attack and/or mortar slide into it.

- ROBs will tilt often as an approach, usually ftilt or dtilt. They're both good spacing moves for him so you need to space yourself as well. Make sure you don't get caught up in them, because ROB can do a jab-lock on Snake. Powershield these tilts and/or space yourself smartly to give yourself a chance to retaliate.

- ROBs will punish bad rolling often with dsmash. To avoid this, simply don't roll so often when you're near him. If you're expecting a dsmash, either dodge (in which case ROB will just twirl around and the attack has a short duration) or shield the full hit (if you're hit the first time he'll do a longer spin). He'll also often do this if you're regularly spamming jab and tilt, usually dodging the last part of the jab or ftilt and then dsmashing. One way to keep yourself from being too predictable is to cancel your jabs/tilts into grabs. You may have to dash a tad forward to grab. This keeps the ROB on his toes if you're mixing up the close range game.

- Another good thing to know is shield dashing (especially powershield dashing) is a good approach against ROB because his projectiles are single burst and don't come out in quick intervals.

 

[Sinz]

Also, try not to abuse your grenades too much in this match. Lazor>Nades. Getting his Gyro really helps out the entire match, and glide toss it to an ftilt, it works surprisingly often.