Snakeee
Smash Master
Before I even type the thread in, let me say that I've had a good amount of experience in tournaments, and most of these match-ups are from first-hand tourney sets. It's still pretty early for me to make 100% evaluations on specific match-ups, but I've put a lot of thought into a lot of these, but they are open for discussion. If you believe a match-up to be wrong, then state your reasons for it being so. A lot of my match-ups I know a lot of people are going to disagree with, because for some of them you have to know a really good player with the other character, or you may have to know a specific way to fight them with ZSS.
Also, I made this very honestly without bias. There were many match ups where I thought "hey I can handle this character fine, its ZSS' favor" but realized it really wasn't.
7/3, ZSS Favor
Bowser
Fox
Ike
ROB
Ganondorf
Samus
6/4 ZSS Favor
Zelda
Samus
Donkey Kong
Charizard
Link
Ice Climbers
Jigglypuff
Sonic
Peach
Mr. Game & Watch
5/5 Even
Marth
Metaknight
Dedede
Toon Link
Lucas
Ness
Pikachu
Ivysaur
Mario
Wolf
Olimar
Wario
Kirby
Yoshi
ZSS...>_>
6/4 Opponent
Snake
Diddy Kong
Sheik
Squirtle
Luigi
Lucario
Pit
7/3 Opponent
Falco
Descriptions
I'm going to eventually have descriptions for each character, but for now I'll start with the ones I think will be the most controversial.
Ice Climbers - They can chain grab you to oblivion. One grab could mean the loss of a stock as they can even take you from one side of the stage to the other and spike you. So, the answer is to space forward Bs and Paralyzer shots until you create an opening. Once she does, she can break them apart quite easily and her speed can overpower them. D smash can hit both climbers at once, and with proper spacing she can't get shield grabbed out of it. Her aerial game is good enough to hit both of them separately, and she can gimp Nana really well.
Ganondorf
This is definitely ZSS' favor, but not by as much as you might think. At long range you have the advantage and because he's so slow, it's easy to create an opening. However, Once Gannon closes the distance he can destroy you at close range, so he is pretty dangerous. He can kill you at ridiculously low damages.
Snake
ZSS can outcamp Snake a LITTLE, and with precision she can win. However, Snake can punish any mistakes well. The biggest problem is at close range. It's very hard for ZSS to punish F-tilt spamming (as it is with most characters -_-). Her forward B obviously out-ranges his attacks, and paralyzer shots can break his dash attack cancelled up smash. Once he's in the air, ZSS has the advantage, but even here if he beats the timing on aerials his priority destroys hers and an upwards KO attempt could backfire horribly. It's hard for her Up-B to break his aerials as well. Up-Smash is probably the safest thing to do, and the best bet at lower percentages here. On the other hand, ZSS can do a lot to Snake's recovery, as ZSS has options to spike him (if he's low enough), or forward B him while he's on the cypher.
Fox
I figure people will think that this match up is just **** for ZSS, because she can basically 0-death him with a D-smash chain....well, to start that chain is pretty problematic. Fox is one of the hardest characters to hit with this move, and if you make it your mission to hit him with it, you may take so many hits by him, that you'll be at high percentages before you even get one. The better Fox players are becoming keen to this, and they are extra careful not to get hit by it. This doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it though...
Edit: Fox is hard to hit with D smash, but I got way way way carried away with that. All you need is ONE and his stock is gone. I don't know what I was thinking before.
Sheik
Sheik beats you at close range combat, has a much quicker projectile, and can combo you like crazy with her F-tilt. ZSS can still combo her pretty well though, and can kill earlier than Sheik can. However, if the opponent switches to Zelda, then that may make it easier to get the kill. (I know that doesn't exactly have to do with the match up since it involves the transformation, but its worth mentioning anyway)
R.O.B.
His priority and range is a problem, but ZSS can close the gap on him without too much trouble. A big advantage is that he is a rather big and slow target. ZSS can juggle him well, and gimp his recovery with ease. Basically if ZSS keeps on the offense yet with caution, it is her favor.
Olimar
Olimar is both hard to hit, and hard to combo. He is small, and outspaces you in many aspects. Your Forward B will barely outrange him, but using it can backfire against him and once he is past that tiny boundary you're basically in his grab range and down smash. He can also out-camp you his Pikmin latch. It's easy to get them off, but it pretty much forces you to approach, which you're going to have trouble doing. An advantage for ZSS is that her recovery is far better than his, and she can edgehog him nicely.
Edit: You can actually space a bit further than Olimar can by using Forward B properly, which makes a big difference.
Lucario
This match up isn't quite as hard as I used to believe. He is hard to approach, as his projectile beats yours when charged a bit. Even when you get close, his priority destroys yours. ZSS' main options are to carefully use aerials out of shield such as up air when his d-air hits the shield. It requires ZSS to properly space herself and roll away at the right times in order to fight this match up.
Falcon
He is better than we give credit for, at least in this match up. His speeds' a little better than yours so you it's not that hard for him to close the gap on ZSS. She still can camp him a bit, has a projectile while he doesn't, and the speed of her attacks and priority mostly beats his.
Ike
Strongly ZSS' advantage, but if you've played a really good Ike player, he can be hard to deal with sometimes. You really have to camp him a lot when you can. ZSS can't really get through his jabs, and he can kill her at low percentages. She can also edge guard him very well with a forward B at the top of his Up B. He really can't do much if she keeps retreating forward B's and paralyzer shots.
Wolf
You can D smash chain him.....but it's near impossible to even D smash him once if he's good, and then if you mess up that one hit it's all for nothing. It's like I said with Fox, but much worse. You do NOT want to get in that space where you can D smash him anyway. He can F smash you or simply grab you before you get out that D smash, and if he expects it you'll be in more trouble.
Edit: It's even harder to hit him than Fox, but it's still a big deal that I believe you can chain him from 0% to around 80%.
TL
He really only destroys ZSS if you give him the space to do so. I keep thinking that it should be his favor for a few reasons, but it seems that if you play this match up intelligently, the favor may even tip to ZSS (though I think it's around even). When ZSS closes the gap on TL, there isn't much he can do to punish her really.While she has him in the air, she can actually combo him decently. Her Up B usually even pulls him down through his D-air. On a side note, I used to think that ZSS' Up B had a lot of priority because of this, but it doesn't really. The reason is probably that it hits TL and Link's side or their head.
Pit
Pit forced you to make the approach with his arrows. The arrows aren't too hard to avoid, I usually dash, powershield, dash, etc. But, of course you'll get hit by at least a few throughout a battle and the main thing is forcing you to approach. He can punish an approaching ZSS because his priority mostly beats yours, and his attack speed is comparable to hers. His shield move also makes your armor parts pretty useless. The best I've gotten out of that is the same I can do to spacies, forward B them while they're trying to reflect the parts. His KOing ability isn't too great, yet he can still often kill you before you can kill him.
Luigi
His priority messes you up a lot. He can even match the priority of your armor parts with his aerials!... Ithink that's a bit much. His projectille is faster than yours which makes it a nuisance, though I haven't had them camp it much on me. He seems to combo ZSS quite well, and can kill earlier than she can. His down B is quick and clears the gap between him and ZSS pretty easily. Also, if you miss a grab you are getting Up-Bed (with fire).
Mr. Game & Watch
G&W can break through your defenses too easily, and this is a major problem. He can through your Forward B spacing quite easily which is the main option at a distance especially since he can bucket your Paralyzer shots.
So once he closes the gap you are pretty likely to get hit. You're going to have to shield camp a lot when he gets in close and go for a power shield if possible. G&W will eat ZSS' shield quickly if you don't find a way out.
You even have to watch out for him bucketing your D-smash (which will cause the strongest move in the game), but this is a lot harder for him to do.
Sonic
This match up requires great spacing and timing. Obviously Sonic can close the distance quickly with his speed. However, he doesn't really have a solid approach on ZSS. ZSS can use paralyzer shots to break up any of Sonic's B moves, and then rush in and counterattack if close enough. Not only that, but if there's not enough time to do that, she can almost always shield his B moves, and up air or back air out of shield after and hit him. On the other hand, it's hard for a ZSS player to space properly against Sonic, because you have to stay back pretty far for him to not be able to reach ZSS. However, if the ZSS player knows the match up it becomes her favor because Sonic can be punished when fought against properly. Another problem for ZSS is that Sonic's D-air can beat your Up-B, and Up Smash unless it's timed absolutely perfectly.
Metaknight + Tips
I'll give extra attention to this one because it is one of my favorite match ups and I have a lot of experience playing top Metaknight players.
ZSS can camp Metaknight and keep him at bay well. Retreating forward B's and paralyzer shots will do the trick for that. One thing to look out for, however is his tornado. This will stop both of your approaches, so whenever he does this I try to run to the other side of the stage and shield whatever is left of the attack. Metas often try to land right next to you and down smash after this, so I immediently short hop out of my shield after the tornado and B-air them after their D-smash comes out. If the tornado is close to the ground, ZSS can grab him out of it or down smash him. However, the better Metaknight players seem to come from above with it.
A MAJOR advantage that ZSS has on Metaknight is the fact that she can hit and even spike Meta out of his shuttle loop (Up-B). This removes one of his most broken attacks, and will help you big time. Most decent Metas will attempt to backwards shuttle loop as an edgeguard off the stage. It is possible to down B attack and spike him during it if you time it just right. Even if it doesn't spike, usually you will trade hits. When this happens most of the time ZSS gets sent towards the stage while Meta gets sent further away from it. So, if anyone is going to die from the clash, it's Metaknight.
ZSS can actually edgeguard Meta better than he can edgeguard her, especially with his Up-B taken away. I tend to be very aggressive with off the stage edgeguarding in general, while I hardly see any other ZSS mains do this. I use forward B a lot for this, and I even hit people with it while they're in the hourglass. This works against most characters including Metaknight.
When Metaknight recovers to the stage with his Shuttle loop and glide attack I do the following. Usually he'll Up-B from under the stage so I've learned to stay away from trying to D-Smash - B-air stage spike him like that.
Instead I'll shield when I expect the Up-B, then when he gets close with his glide (and he's going to glide attack)I usually short hop backwards and forward B him.
Metknights D-Smash out of their shield a lot, especially when you're behind them at higher percentages. Try to anticipate these and counterattack. What I normally do is shield the D-Smash and short hop out of shield and go for a B-air on the other side of him.
ZSS' Down B is perfect for getting out of Meta's combos in general. I don't mean to do the attack part, just the inital down B which will get rid of hitstun quickly, give you invincibility, and give you space to break out. An evasive ZSS is very hard for Metaknight to both combo and KO.
Jigglypuff
ZSS completely outranges her, has better kill power, and can camp her. The main thing that Jigglypuff has against ZSS is that she is good at evading ZSS' attacks, and can still make a decent approach.
Also, I made this very honestly without bias. There were many match ups where I thought "hey I can handle this character fine, its ZSS' favor" but realized it really wasn't.
7/3, ZSS Favor
Bowser
Fox
Ike
ROB
Ganondorf
Samus
6/4 ZSS Favor
Zelda
Samus
Donkey Kong
Charizard
Link
Ice Climbers
Jigglypuff
Sonic
Peach
Mr. Game & Watch
5/5 Even
Marth
Metaknight
Dedede
Toon Link
Lucas
Ness
Pikachu
Ivysaur
Mario
Wolf
Olimar
Wario
Kirby
Yoshi
ZSS...>_>
6/4 Opponent
Snake
Diddy Kong
Sheik
Squirtle
Luigi
Lucario
Pit
7/3 Opponent
Falco
Descriptions
I'm going to eventually have descriptions for each character, but for now I'll start with the ones I think will be the most controversial.
Ice Climbers - They can chain grab you to oblivion. One grab could mean the loss of a stock as they can even take you from one side of the stage to the other and spike you. So, the answer is to space forward Bs and Paralyzer shots until you create an opening. Once she does, she can break them apart quite easily and her speed can overpower them. D smash can hit both climbers at once, and with proper spacing she can't get shield grabbed out of it. Her aerial game is good enough to hit both of them separately, and she can gimp Nana really well.
Ganondorf
This is definitely ZSS' favor, but not by as much as you might think. At long range you have the advantage and because he's so slow, it's easy to create an opening. However, Once Gannon closes the distance he can destroy you at close range, so he is pretty dangerous. He can kill you at ridiculously low damages.
Snake
ZSS can outcamp Snake a LITTLE, and with precision she can win. However, Snake can punish any mistakes well. The biggest problem is at close range. It's very hard for ZSS to punish F-tilt spamming (as it is with most characters -_-). Her forward B obviously out-ranges his attacks, and paralyzer shots can break his dash attack cancelled up smash. Once he's in the air, ZSS has the advantage, but even here if he beats the timing on aerials his priority destroys hers and an upwards KO attempt could backfire horribly. It's hard for her Up-B to break his aerials as well. Up-Smash is probably the safest thing to do, and the best bet at lower percentages here. On the other hand, ZSS can do a lot to Snake's recovery, as ZSS has options to spike him (if he's low enough), or forward B him while he's on the cypher.
Fox
I figure people will think that this match up is just **** for ZSS, because she can basically 0-death him with a D-smash chain....well, to start that chain is pretty problematic. Fox is one of the hardest characters to hit with this move, and if you make it your mission to hit him with it, you may take so many hits by him, that you'll be at high percentages before you even get one. The better Fox players are becoming keen to this, and they are extra careful not to get hit by it. This doesn't mean you shouldn't go for it though...
Edit: Fox is hard to hit with D smash, but I got way way way carried away with that. All you need is ONE and his stock is gone. I don't know what I was thinking before.
Sheik
Sheik beats you at close range combat, has a much quicker projectile, and can combo you like crazy with her F-tilt. ZSS can still combo her pretty well though, and can kill earlier than Sheik can. However, if the opponent switches to Zelda, then that may make it easier to get the kill. (I know that doesn't exactly have to do with the match up since it involves the transformation, but its worth mentioning anyway)
R.O.B.
His priority and range is a problem, but ZSS can close the gap on him without too much trouble. A big advantage is that he is a rather big and slow target. ZSS can juggle him well, and gimp his recovery with ease. Basically if ZSS keeps on the offense yet with caution, it is her favor.
Olimar
Olimar is both hard to hit, and hard to combo. He is small, and outspaces you in many aspects. Your Forward B will barely outrange him, but using it can backfire against him and once he is past that tiny boundary you're basically in his grab range and down smash. He can also out-camp you his Pikmin latch. It's easy to get them off, but it pretty much forces you to approach, which you're going to have trouble doing. An advantage for ZSS is that her recovery is far better than his, and she can edgehog him nicely.
Edit: You can actually space a bit further than Olimar can by using Forward B properly, which makes a big difference.
Lucario
This match up isn't quite as hard as I used to believe. He is hard to approach, as his projectile beats yours when charged a bit. Even when you get close, his priority destroys yours. ZSS' main options are to carefully use aerials out of shield such as up air when his d-air hits the shield. It requires ZSS to properly space herself and roll away at the right times in order to fight this match up.
Falcon
He is better than we give credit for, at least in this match up. His speeds' a little better than yours so you it's not that hard for him to close the gap on ZSS. She still can camp him a bit, has a projectile while he doesn't, and the speed of her attacks and priority mostly beats his.
Ike
Strongly ZSS' advantage, but if you've played a really good Ike player, he can be hard to deal with sometimes. You really have to camp him a lot when you can. ZSS can't really get through his jabs, and he can kill her at low percentages. She can also edge guard him very well with a forward B at the top of his Up B. He really can't do much if she keeps retreating forward B's and paralyzer shots.
Wolf
You can D smash chain him.....but it's near impossible to even D smash him once if he's good, and then if you mess up that one hit it's all for nothing. It's like I said with Fox, but much worse. You do NOT want to get in that space where you can D smash him anyway. He can F smash you or simply grab you before you get out that D smash, and if he expects it you'll be in more trouble.
Edit: It's even harder to hit him than Fox, but it's still a big deal that I believe you can chain him from 0% to around 80%.
TL
He really only destroys ZSS if you give him the space to do so. I keep thinking that it should be his favor for a few reasons, but it seems that if you play this match up intelligently, the favor may even tip to ZSS (though I think it's around even). When ZSS closes the gap on TL, there isn't much he can do to punish her really.While she has him in the air, she can actually combo him decently. Her Up B usually even pulls him down through his D-air. On a side note, I used to think that ZSS' Up B had a lot of priority because of this, but it doesn't really. The reason is probably that it hits TL and Link's side or their head.
Pit
Pit forced you to make the approach with his arrows. The arrows aren't too hard to avoid, I usually dash, powershield, dash, etc. But, of course you'll get hit by at least a few throughout a battle and the main thing is forcing you to approach. He can punish an approaching ZSS because his priority mostly beats yours, and his attack speed is comparable to hers. His shield move also makes your armor parts pretty useless. The best I've gotten out of that is the same I can do to spacies, forward B them while they're trying to reflect the parts. His KOing ability isn't too great, yet he can still often kill you before you can kill him.
Luigi
His priority messes you up a lot. He can even match the priority of your armor parts with his aerials!... Ithink that's a bit much. His projectille is faster than yours which makes it a nuisance, though I haven't had them camp it much on me. He seems to combo ZSS quite well, and can kill earlier than she can. His down B is quick and clears the gap between him and ZSS pretty easily. Also, if you miss a grab you are getting Up-Bed (with fire).
Mr. Game & Watch
G&W can break through your defenses too easily, and this is a major problem. He can through your Forward B spacing quite easily which is the main option at a distance especially since he can bucket your Paralyzer shots.
So once he closes the gap you are pretty likely to get hit. You're going to have to shield camp a lot when he gets in close and go for a power shield if possible. G&W will eat ZSS' shield quickly if you don't find a way out.
You even have to watch out for him bucketing your D-smash (which will cause the strongest move in the game), but this is a lot harder for him to do.
Sonic
This match up requires great spacing and timing. Obviously Sonic can close the distance quickly with his speed. However, he doesn't really have a solid approach on ZSS. ZSS can use paralyzer shots to break up any of Sonic's B moves, and then rush in and counterattack if close enough. Not only that, but if there's not enough time to do that, she can almost always shield his B moves, and up air or back air out of shield after and hit him. On the other hand, it's hard for a ZSS player to space properly against Sonic, because you have to stay back pretty far for him to not be able to reach ZSS. However, if the ZSS player knows the match up it becomes her favor because Sonic can be punished when fought against properly. Another problem for ZSS is that Sonic's D-air can beat your Up-B, and Up Smash unless it's timed absolutely perfectly.
Metaknight + Tips
I'll give extra attention to this one because it is one of my favorite match ups and I have a lot of experience playing top Metaknight players.
ZSS can camp Metaknight and keep him at bay well. Retreating forward B's and paralyzer shots will do the trick for that. One thing to look out for, however is his tornado. This will stop both of your approaches, so whenever he does this I try to run to the other side of the stage and shield whatever is left of the attack. Metas often try to land right next to you and down smash after this, so I immediently short hop out of my shield after the tornado and B-air them after their D-smash comes out. If the tornado is close to the ground, ZSS can grab him out of it or down smash him. However, the better Metaknight players seem to come from above with it.
A MAJOR advantage that ZSS has on Metaknight is the fact that she can hit and even spike Meta out of his shuttle loop (Up-B). This removes one of his most broken attacks, and will help you big time. Most decent Metas will attempt to backwards shuttle loop as an edgeguard off the stage. It is possible to down B attack and spike him during it if you time it just right. Even if it doesn't spike, usually you will trade hits. When this happens most of the time ZSS gets sent towards the stage while Meta gets sent further away from it. So, if anyone is going to die from the clash, it's Metaknight.
ZSS can actually edgeguard Meta better than he can edgeguard her, especially with his Up-B taken away. I tend to be very aggressive with off the stage edgeguarding in general, while I hardly see any other ZSS mains do this. I use forward B a lot for this, and I even hit people with it while they're in the hourglass. This works against most characters including Metaknight.
When Metaknight recovers to the stage with his Shuttle loop and glide attack I do the following. Usually he'll Up-B from under the stage so I've learned to stay away from trying to D-Smash - B-air stage spike him like that.
Instead I'll shield when I expect the Up-B, then when he gets close with his glide (and he's going to glide attack)I usually short hop backwards and forward B him.
Metknights D-Smash out of their shield a lot, especially when you're behind them at higher percentages. Try to anticipate these and counterattack. What I normally do is shield the D-Smash and short hop out of shield and go for a B-air on the other side of him.
ZSS' Down B is perfect for getting out of Meta's combos in general. I don't mean to do the attack part, just the inital down B which will get rid of hitstun quickly, give you invincibility, and give you space to break out. An evasive ZSS is very hard for Metaknight to both combo and KO.
Jigglypuff
ZSS completely outranges her, has better kill power, and can camp her. The main thing that Jigglypuff has against ZSS is that she is good at evading ZSS' attacks, and can still make a decent approach.
