gallax
Smash Hero
Zelda
General Discussion
At first, one might think that playing against zelda is easy. She isn't that capable in the air. Shes floaty. Her projectile seems easy to evade. And her ground game seems to have lag and the inability to be super effective. Well, do not be easily fooled. This matchup is actually against pika. Zelda has the ability to counter the thunder. When used properly, her airiels have great priority AND range. Top it off with a projectile that is pure damage in a ball of fire and when in the right hands, it is not so easily evaded.
Pika's Advantages
1.) Speed!!!!!!! WHUAAA!!!!!
2.) A better ground game
3.) Small (very useful here)
4.) Faster pojectile
Pika's Disadvantages
1.) Easy to kill
2.) Can be spiked with the skullbash
3.) Less range and priority in the air
Strategy for Winning
The Projectile Game
Pikas tjolt
This matchup is very similar to gaw when trying to use your tjolt. The biggest defference being, obviously, that zelda cannot absorb it. But, she can reflect it back at you. She can use her nuetral B(NL) and it will reflect it back onto you. So, if you do not know how the gaw matchup then here are some ways to use your tjolt.
Depending on if you are on a stage with/without a platform and where you are sending the tjolt from, there are different ways to use it effectively. First off, the ineffective way to use it is when you are far away from her. Give her enough time and she will reflect it. It does not matter whether you are in the air or on a platform or on the ground. Using the tjolt far away is counterproductive. You cannot possibly follow it up with an attack and she now has your projectile coming back at you in some way and she can now use hers on you.
To use the tjolt effectively, you must either be close or know when she is not going to reflect it, in which case that is a mindgame and you know your opponent well enough to know how to use the tjolt effectively. Now you can either attack from the ground, the air, or from a platform with the tjolt.
Note* From here on in I will talk about the tjolt and when using it, you are close enough for her to have to shield and not use her reflector. The whole idea is to avoid her NL
Attacking her from the ground is an uncommon case at best. I hardly ever see a pika just stand ther and send tjolts. Mostly I see them jumping and using them. But, if you do decide to use it on the ground, your reason better be good. A situation in which you might be using it on the ground is when the zelda is also on the ground, duh. If she is using her din's fire(DF) and you can use your tjolt and have time to shield her attack, do it. She will not be able to shield it in time. IF you do hit Zelda with your tjolt, her DF is no longer capable of exploding.
Next, what most pikas do is use their tjolt by short hopping. This is fine to do, except whether DF has already been set loose. You see, her DF will travel faster than your tjolt. SO if you are in the air and she has sent a DF your way, either qa out of there or FF and put up the shield. Also, a good thing about being in the air is that you can use your first jump to use your tjolt and your second jump to jump over the reflected tjolt. Also, zeldas do like to play around in the air. The tjolt is great for spacing issues. This sounds weird yes. But you are playing the most powerful character in the air who is floaty.The tjolt may just be the thing that will keep the zelda from rushin in near to you at times if you can get a few tjolts to the face in a match. Plus, the chances of using her reflector in air is less likely.
Note* Some zeldas will transport above pika and hurt them when they are about to land frmo FH'ing or Sh'ing the tjolt. Be sure to watch out for this and react appropriately by FF'ing and/or shielding.
Zelda's Din's Fire(DF)
Zelda's DF is quite possible on of the best projectiles in the game. It can go the entire distance of FD, and then some. She can angle it upwards, downwards, or not at all. They control the timing of the explosion when they let go of the b button. the hitbox of DF is crazy. It carries a normal hitbox, but when it explodes, the full hitbox is never the same. Sometimes it will have a crazy range closer to zelda, sometimes it will be farther away. Basically, what I am trying to get at is that DF is a great projectile.
Now, the best way to counter DF is to shield is. Powershield it too since you need all the shield you can possibly keep healthy. Do not attempt to spotdodge it unless you are in the air or until you are sure that you have the timing down for it. But, remember that the zelda player can extend it a few more frames and still get it to hit by letting go past you just a little more or explode it sooner if they know you are going to spot dodge it. The only assured way of not getting hit, is by shielding.
When you are in the air and you see Df coming your way, you can try a few things. You can try to FF as fast as you can down to try and evade it. Or you can try to airdodge it if it gets to close. Other than that, we cant do anything. We do not have a reflector and are sol.
Approaching Zelda
A quote from a fellow player
"I hesitate to call mine spammy (Din's-wise), only because the fact is that Zelda lacks good approaches on most characters.... she's slow, her attacks & grab animation are all laggy, and as powerful as her moves are, the only ones that really push people out of punishment range -- if you happen to whiff or hit their shield -- are ftilt and sometimes Naryu's. I promise you, if Zelda had even one reliable approach, I'd use it more often..... I try to approach with her too much as it is, and I get punished for it a lot."
Approaching zelda will be one of the hardest characters to approach in the entire game. The reason for this is partly due to her awesome projectile which forces you approach her. Sure we have a projectile, but she can reflect it. In a a game where defense is the cornerstone of playing, making us approach is such a big advantage for her. So, to win, you must know how to approach her.
Approaching her with the QAC
Never EVER use the qac as a means of approach unless you are using it close to the ground. I mean as horizontal as your can get to the ground. Never use it otherwise. Zelda can just stand their and use her usmash or utilt to punish you and make you miserable.
From the Ground
Be cautious when approaching from the ground. Other than fsmash (and maaaaybe dtilt, but I don't think so?), Pika doesn't have anything that will outrange and outspeed Zelda's dtilt, which will lock you for a few hits and allow her to finish with dsmash, fsmash, or, at high percentages, utilt for the kill. If you see her crouching, jump and punish with fair, because her dtilt has cooldown lag -- it has IASA frames too, but it won't be enough for her to put up her shield in time.
I would recommend SHAD'ing behind her as much as you can without getting predictable. Most of the time when zelda sees pika coming from the ground, they will walk forward or backward a little and ftilt, fsmash, dtilt or spotdodge > dsmash, all of which leave Zelda vulnerable from behind. (Dsmash hits on both sides, but the spotdodge is punishable.) The only thing that will ruin this method is if she Naryu's, which I believe a lot of Zeldas use quite a bit.
As for trying to outrange her, they only way to do this, reliably, is by using the fsmash. Anotherwards, do not be afraid to space with you fsmash in this matchup. Use it and abuse it for spacing purposes. the zelda needs to know that you mean business and are not going to let them get in close. As for the use of dtilt/ftilt , go ahead and use them often to. Hopefully you can trip her a few times and get some grabs in. Ftilt for the awesome knockbacks and the surprise kill.
Running up and shielding is also a good tactic, as only her ftilt will push you away too far to be prevented from punishing her. However, make sure you always keep a full shield. If it's even a little diminished, especially since Pika's shield is small to begin with, fsmash and even usmash will eat through it and get you with the last few hits, which carry all the knockback. Even is your shield is up, sometimes the zelda's will try and fsmash you anyways to see if they can eat through your shield, which happens quite a bit. Be sure to always be prepared to punish her after she attacks you and you are unscathed. Grab her or fsmash or tilt her. You probably will not see a usmash or utilt from the ground since oika can duck below them.
From the Air
The objective here is to never ever appoach he from the air. Her usmash and utilt are the best at preventing aerial attacks.
Approaching with fair is okay, but do a bit of shield-poking first, moving backward at the ends of the first few fairs so you don't get shieldgrabbed. If you see her raising her arm, don't even try it, because usmash really does beat.... just about everything Pika has in the air. Instead, wait for usmash to end and then run in for a grab.
Approaching with a bair is sometimes effective. Not from above, but from the ground straight into a bair. Just make sure it will autocancel before you hit the ground so that zelda will not be able to punish you.
the Kill
Punishing Zelda
Now this may seem like a strange section. Why would we need to know how to punish her? The point of this is to inform everyone who reads this the best way to punish zelda is by keeping pressure on her and constantly grabbing her and then punishing her out of the grab, always trying to get her above you. Zelda's are easy to fight when you are underneath them. Plus, grabbing them get you much needed damage in this matchup.
Edgeguarding
When edgeguarding zelda, you will learn that sometimes, it is almost impossible. Her recovery transports her through the air. So, the best thing you can do is to grab the ledge and hope that she will try to land on the stage. berethat you maintain your invincibility frames on the ledge to just in case she tries to explode onto when you are grabbing the ledge.
Now what you may also want to try is to learn how to predict where they are going to land. if you can get close enough to that spot you can punish them. But, watch out. getting to close will hurt you. Getting to far away will not hurt you, but it will give them sufficient time to adjust to you.
When Zelda is trying to edgeguard you she will more than like try to use her DF. Like i said above, try to FF or airdodge the DF. Getting to the ledge is most important. Now, when you are on the ledge, she can do a few things. She can DF you again, or wait for you to rise up and off of it. If she DF's you, dorp straight down and then qac back to the ledge. It will never hit you this way. If you are trying to recover frmo the ledge, be very careful. She can just wait for you to jump and then go under you and usmash you. So, hit the jump button and quickly qac the H3ll OUT OF THERE!!!!!!
Killing Zelda
You are going to need to be really patient when trying to kill Zelda. I mean really patient. Any zelda will start spamming DF when they are close to dying and force you to approach, like usual, and then punish you as you are trying to use your few kill moves against them. Try not to be too predictable. You will need to know how to kill with the OOS nair. This is an extremely important tool. Running up to her and then into a shield and then pulling out a nair frmo the shield to kill is a great surprise tactic and not always predictable.
Remember that she will get to high percentages so ftilt and utilt will become good killing tools. And, as always, thunder her. I love using thunder to kill. But, most of my thunder kills come from the hitbox on pika and not next to the cloud. Like I said before, be unpredictable.
Zelda Killing Pika
As you can imagine by now, almost all of zeldas moves kill. Her aerials are the most powerful in all the game. SO do not get hit by them. the easiest one to avoid the the uair, since we need to be directly below her. So never get above her in the air. As for her bair/fair, they are almost, if not, the same thing. If you are sweetspotted you will die at mid percentages. She cannot hit you with these as long as you are on the ground though.
Her smashes kill awesome too. Her dsmash is the most reliable since it comes out quick and easy to combo into from the dtilt. Her usmash and fsmash can kill relatively quick to. the usmash at aorund 90% and the fsmash at around 110%. A good thing to know is that sometimes you can DI out of her smashes. SO SDI the h3ll out of them if you find yourself caught by them.
.
Helpful Video's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rpq72e4VI8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmJTAUmmizw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Y4tIWbGRk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77FKys6554s
Overall Matchup
zelda>pika
General Discussion
At first, one might think that playing against zelda is easy. She isn't that capable in the air. Shes floaty. Her projectile seems easy to evade. And her ground game seems to have lag and the inability to be super effective. Well, do not be easily fooled. This matchup is actually against pika. Zelda has the ability to counter the thunder. When used properly, her airiels have great priority AND range. Top it off with a projectile that is pure damage in a ball of fire and when in the right hands, it is not so easily evaded.
Pika's Advantages
1.) Speed!!!!!!! WHUAAA!!!!!
2.) A better ground game
3.) Small (very useful here)
4.) Faster pojectile
Pika's Disadvantages
1.) Easy to kill
2.) Can be spiked with the skullbash
3.) Less range and priority in the air
Strategy for Winning
The Projectile Game
Pikas tjolt
This matchup is very similar to gaw when trying to use your tjolt. The biggest defference being, obviously, that zelda cannot absorb it. But, she can reflect it back at you. She can use her nuetral B(NL) and it will reflect it back onto you. So, if you do not know how the gaw matchup then here are some ways to use your tjolt.
Depending on if you are on a stage with/without a platform and where you are sending the tjolt from, there are different ways to use it effectively. First off, the ineffective way to use it is when you are far away from her. Give her enough time and she will reflect it. It does not matter whether you are in the air or on a platform or on the ground. Using the tjolt far away is counterproductive. You cannot possibly follow it up with an attack and she now has your projectile coming back at you in some way and she can now use hers on you.
To use the tjolt effectively, you must either be close or know when she is not going to reflect it, in which case that is a mindgame and you know your opponent well enough to know how to use the tjolt effectively. Now you can either attack from the ground, the air, or from a platform with the tjolt.
Note* From here on in I will talk about the tjolt and when using it, you are close enough for her to have to shield and not use her reflector. The whole idea is to avoid her NL
Attacking her from the ground is an uncommon case at best. I hardly ever see a pika just stand ther and send tjolts. Mostly I see them jumping and using them. But, if you do decide to use it on the ground, your reason better be good. A situation in which you might be using it on the ground is when the zelda is also on the ground, duh. If she is using her din's fire(DF) and you can use your tjolt and have time to shield her attack, do it. She will not be able to shield it in time. IF you do hit Zelda with your tjolt, her DF is no longer capable of exploding.
Next, what most pikas do is use their tjolt by short hopping. This is fine to do, except whether DF has already been set loose. You see, her DF will travel faster than your tjolt. SO if you are in the air and she has sent a DF your way, either qa out of there or FF and put up the shield. Also, a good thing about being in the air is that you can use your first jump to use your tjolt and your second jump to jump over the reflected tjolt. Also, zeldas do like to play around in the air. The tjolt is great for spacing issues. This sounds weird yes. But you are playing the most powerful character in the air who is floaty.The tjolt may just be the thing that will keep the zelda from rushin in near to you at times if you can get a few tjolts to the face in a match. Plus, the chances of using her reflector in air is less likely.
Note* Some zeldas will transport above pika and hurt them when they are about to land frmo FH'ing or Sh'ing the tjolt. Be sure to watch out for this and react appropriately by FF'ing and/or shielding.
Zelda's Din's Fire(DF)
Zelda's DF is quite possible on of the best projectiles in the game. It can go the entire distance of FD, and then some. She can angle it upwards, downwards, or not at all. They control the timing of the explosion when they let go of the b button. the hitbox of DF is crazy. It carries a normal hitbox, but when it explodes, the full hitbox is never the same. Sometimes it will have a crazy range closer to zelda, sometimes it will be farther away. Basically, what I am trying to get at is that DF is a great projectile.
Now, the best way to counter DF is to shield is. Powershield it too since you need all the shield you can possibly keep healthy. Do not attempt to spotdodge it unless you are in the air or until you are sure that you have the timing down for it. But, remember that the zelda player can extend it a few more frames and still get it to hit by letting go past you just a little more or explode it sooner if they know you are going to spot dodge it. The only assured way of not getting hit, is by shielding.
When you are in the air and you see Df coming your way, you can try a few things. You can try to FF as fast as you can down to try and evade it. Or you can try to airdodge it if it gets to close. Other than that, we cant do anything. We do not have a reflector and are sol.
Approaching Zelda
A quote from a fellow player
"I hesitate to call mine spammy (Din's-wise), only because the fact is that Zelda lacks good approaches on most characters.... she's slow, her attacks & grab animation are all laggy, and as powerful as her moves are, the only ones that really push people out of punishment range -- if you happen to whiff or hit their shield -- are ftilt and sometimes Naryu's. I promise you, if Zelda had even one reliable approach, I'd use it more often..... I try to approach with her too much as it is, and I get punished for it a lot."
Approaching zelda will be one of the hardest characters to approach in the entire game. The reason for this is partly due to her awesome projectile which forces you approach her. Sure we have a projectile, but she can reflect it. In a a game where defense is the cornerstone of playing, making us approach is such a big advantage for her. So, to win, you must know how to approach her.
Approaching her with the QAC
Never EVER use the qac as a means of approach unless you are using it close to the ground. I mean as horizontal as your can get to the ground. Never use it otherwise. Zelda can just stand their and use her usmash or utilt to punish you and make you miserable.
From the Ground
Be cautious when approaching from the ground. Other than fsmash (and maaaaybe dtilt, but I don't think so?), Pika doesn't have anything that will outrange and outspeed Zelda's dtilt, which will lock you for a few hits and allow her to finish with dsmash, fsmash, or, at high percentages, utilt for the kill. If you see her crouching, jump and punish with fair, because her dtilt has cooldown lag -- it has IASA frames too, but it won't be enough for her to put up her shield in time.
I would recommend SHAD'ing behind her as much as you can without getting predictable. Most of the time when zelda sees pika coming from the ground, they will walk forward or backward a little and ftilt, fsmash, dtilt or spotdodge > dsmash, all of which leave Zelda vulnerable from behind. (Dsmash hits on both sides, but the spotdodge is punishable.) The only thing that will ruin this method is if she Naryu's, which I believe a lot of Zeldas use quite a bit.
As for trying to outrange her, they only way to do this, reliably, is by using the fsmash. Anotherwards, do not be afraid to space with you fsmash in this matchup. Use it and abuse it for spacing purposes. the zelda needs to know that you mean business and are not going to let them get in close. As for the use of dtilt/ftilt , go ahead and use them often to. Hopefully you can trip her a few times and get some grabs in. Ftilt for the awesome knockbacks and the surprise kill.
Running up and shielding is also a good tactic, as only her ftilt will push you away too far to be prevented from punishing her. However, make sure you always keep a full shield. If it's even a little diminished, especially since Pika's shield is small to begin with, fsmash and even usmash will eat through it and get you with the last few hits, which carry all the knockback. Even is your shield is up, sometimes the zelda's will try and fsmash you anyways to see if they can eat through your shield, which happens quite a bit. Be sure to always be prepared to punish her after she attacks you and you are unscathed. Grab her or fsmash or tilt her. You probably will not see a usmash or utilt from the ground since oika can duck below them.
From the Air
The objective here is to never ever appoach he from the air. Her usmash and utilt are the best at preventing aerial attacks.
Approaching with fair is okay, but do a bit of shield-poking first, moving backward at the ends of the first few fairs so you don't get shieldgrabbed. If you see her raising her arm, don't even try it, because usmash really does beat.... just about everything Pika has in the air. Instead, wait for usmash to end and then run in for a grab.
Approaching with a bair is sometimes effective. Not from above, but from the ground straight into a bair. Just make sure it will autocancel before you hit the ground so that zelda will not be able to punish you.
the Kill
Punishing Zelda
Now this may seem like a strange section. Why would we need to know how to punish her? The point of this is to inform everyone who reads this the best way to punish zelda is by keeping pressure on her and constantly grabbing her and then punishing her out of the grab, always trying to get her above you. Zelda's are easy to fight when you are underneath them. Plus, grabbing them get you much needed damage in this matchup.
Edgeguarding
When edgeguarding zelda, you will learn that sometimes, it is almost impossible. Her recovery transports her through the air. So, the best thing you can do is to grab the ledge and hope that she will try to land on the stage. berethat you maintain your invincibility frames on the ledge to just in case she tries to explode onto when you are grabbing the ledge.
Now what you may also want to try is to learn how to predict where they are going to land. if you can get close enough to that spot you can punish them. But, watch out. getting to close will hurt you. Getting to far away will not hurt you, but it will give them sufficient time to adjust to you.
When Zelda is trying to edgeguard you she will more than like try to use her DF. Like i said above, try to FF or airdodge the DF. Getting to the ledge is most important. Now, when you are on the ledge, she can do a few things. She can DF you again, or wait for you to rise up and off of it. If she DF's you, dorp straight down and then qac back to the ledge. It will never hit you this way. If you are trying to recover frmo the ledge, be very careful. She can just wait for you to jump and then go under you and usmash you. So, hit the jump button and quickly qac the H3ll OUT OF THERE!!!!!!
Killing Zelda
You are going to need to be really patient when trying to kill Zelda. I mean really patient. Any zelda will start spamming DF when they are close to dying and force you to approach, like usual, and then punish you as you are trying to use your few kill moves against them. Try not to be too predictable. You will need to know how to kill with the OOS nair. This is an extremely important tool. Running up to her and then into a shield and then pulling out a nair frmo the shield to kill is a great surprise tactic and not always predictable.
Remember that she will get to high percentages so ftilt and utilt will become good killing tools. And, as always, thunder her. I love using thunder to kill. But, most of my thunder kills come from the hitbox on pika and not next to the cloud. Like I said before, be unpredictable.
Zelda Killing Pika
As you can imagine by now, almost all of zeldas moves kill. Her aerials are the most powerful in all the game. SO do not get hit by them. the easiest one to avoid the the uair, since we need to be directly below her. So never get above her in the air. As for her bair/fair, they are almost, if not, the same thing. If you are sweetspotted you will die at mid percentages. She cannot hit you with these as long as you are on the ground though.
Her smashes kill awesome too. Her dsmash is the most reliable since it comes out quick and easy to combo into from the dtilt. Her usmash and fsmash can kill relatively quick to. the usmash at aorund 90% and the fsmash at around 110%. A good thing to know is that sometimes you can DI out of her smashes. SO SDI the h3ll out of them if you find yourself caught by them.
.
Helpful Video's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rpq72e4VI8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmJTAUmmizw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2Y4tIWbGRk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77FKys6554s
Overall Matchup
zelda>pika