How to Beat: Olimar

Olimar

Introduction:

Olimar is the 68th-70th heaviest character and the 59th-62nd fastest faller, making him a light floaty. Light floaties are subject to juggling and early deaths, especially vertical. They however are less burdened by recovery (on average), and are less likely to be combo'd, especially at higher percents. Olimar plays a zone game with aspects of baiting and punishing. Instead of a traditional zoner that would stand at the corner of the stage, Olimar excels at the midrange zoning due to his limited range as a zoner. He'll stay out of your area and push you away from him via f-smash and side-b, allowing him to control the pace of the match. He'll toss Pikmin and go for safe options to keep you away and rack percent, but if you overextend, he can pull out 40-60% combos at early percents off an u-smash, depending on Pikmin order. In fact, all of his Pikmin based moves change depending on which Pikmin is currently first in line. These differences are based around:

HP: 1% of damage = 1 HP of damage. Use a move that deals more than the Pikmin's HP, but also don't use the same move too often, as it'll stale and eventually deal less damage, further wasting your time.

Damage and Knockback: All of the Pikmin have a knockback and damage multiplier of varying degrees. Knowing when to avoid Olimar is dependant on knowing which Pikmin is first in line. 

Physical Properties: Some Pikmin are thrown differently than others, some fall faster, some are thrown faster, etc.

Special Properties: Some Pikmin have special properties based on their element/nature.

All of the Pikmin have very different properties, so knowing the differences each has will be hard, so maybe keeping notes on your phone to review before, during, and even after sets is important for the matchup. Staying focused and always paying attention will help you immensely. These differences are:

Red: 

- 6 HP

- 2% per tick when latched on via side-b

- 1.4x damage multiplier and stronger knockback on smashes and aerials

- 0.8x damage multiplier and weaker knockback on throws

- Special fire properties: Has fire based attacks and are immune to fire. This means the Pikmin can't be killed by, for example, Ness PK Fire or Mario/Luigi Fireball. The fire based attacks also do things like activate Link Bombs, including Remote Bomb

Yellow:

- 6 HP

- 2% per tick when latched on via side-b

- Has 50% larger hitbox on smashes and aerials

- When using side-b, throwing arc is more vertical than other Pikmin

- Special electric properties: Has electric based attacks and are immune to electricity. This means the Pikmin are immune to moves like Pikachu/Pichu Thunder Jolt, and can't be shaken off by things like Pikachu n-air and Pichu b-air. Electric attacks increase hitlag, which are the freeze frames you take before you're actually launched (A common misconception is that it increases hitstun, which is the duration that you're unable to move after being hit. It's actually hitlag)

Blue:

- 8 HP

- 2% per tick when latched on via side-b

- 1.7x damage multiplier and much stronger knockback on throws

- Special water properties: Has water based attacks and is immune to water effects. The Blue Pikmin are immune to drowning on stages like the stage Pirate Ship, or moves like Squirtle Waterfall and Greninja Water Shuriken. Water attacks have no effect in this game in competitive play anymore, as drowning-based stages are banned and Pokemon Trainer's Pokemon no longer suffer type weaknesses

White:

- 5 HP

- 4.7% per tick when latched on via side-b

- 0.8x damage multiplier and weaker knockback on smashes and aerials

- When thrown, flies much faster than the other Pikmin horizontally

- Deals "darkness" damage, which has no effect in competitive play. They're not immune to anything either

- Increased grab range

Purple:

- 11 HP

- 6% damage, does not latch. Instead acts as a single hit projectile that runs back to Olimar after being thrown

- 1.6x damage multiplier and much stronger knockback on smashes and aerials

- F-smash and d-smash have shorter range and active hitbox duration (how long the move stays able to hit)

- Reduced grab range

- Falls faster than the other Pikmin when thrown

Knowing what moves of yours have different properties against Olimar's Pikmin is important. Going on autopilot is bad, but it's even worse against a decent Olimar. Always be paying attention to their Pikmin order, especially if you're a character that utilizes fire or electric property moves often.

Strengths:

1. Oppressive Neutral and Pace Control

Olimar can heavily pressure you with side-b zoning. He tosses a Pikmin, and if it hits you, it'll stick, dealing damage, with varying effects depending on the Pikmin colour. He plays in the midrange, focusing on racking up damage with f-smash and side-b, and/or baiting and punishing with burst combos of damage through u-smash and Purple Pikmin side-b -> grab, both at early percents. Olimar can also condition very well due to the pressure of side-b in terms of fear of damage or knockback. Staying calm and not panicking while you're taking damage is important to not being preyed upon. Find what option your character has against being latched on that would work on all the Pikmin, and make sure it's safe in order to prevent punishes. Olimar forces you to play his game, playing around his Pikmin, allowing him to control the pace of the match to however he sees fit. 

2. Shifting Playstyle

Olimar can't really play as a true zoner or as a true boxer. By playing fully aggressive, he is now forced to play his opponents game, losing control of the match. He can't play fully defensive either, as he lacks the stage wide range of a turtle character like Villager or Duck Hunt Dog, and would gain nothing from it aside from losing center stage, which Olimar needs due to his bad disadvantage game. Being able to play both aggressive and defensive depending on his lineup makes Olimar very unpredictable to fight. Based on player preference, recognizing the Olimar's lineup when he goes aggressive and their lineup when they go defensive should give you some idea.

3. Fantastic Punish Game

Olimar can do an incredible amount of damage in a very short amount of time. U-smash -> u-smash -> u-air can net 40-50% based on Pikmin order as a basic bnb, and a more complicated combo of side-b -> side-b -> d-throw -> f-air deals 67% minimum with white -> purple > blue lineup. This order may seem specific, but at the start of the match, you can throw away 2 Pikmin and then pluck 2 -> u-air to cycle the blue to get this specific lineup. There are even more combos that reach 70% (however they can be DI'd) with f-smash -> grab. Having access to such high damage bnb's with minimal execution effort makes fighting most competitive Olimars threatening, which only adds to his fear factor in neutral. Most of these setups require conditioning, so not falling prey to shielding everytime he side-b's and staying unpredictable can prevent these setups. Olimar preys on finding your defensive habits and punishing them for high damage.

He's also got incredible kill power/potentail. With a very safe f-smash, he can use the first to clank with moves and then punish the clank with a second f-smash, killing at 93-125% for middleweights (purple to blue), with DI at center FD. In a normal situation, the attack would kill even earlier if it was at the edge, if there were rage, if the DI was improper, or if it was on a lighter enemy. Purple f-smash on Pichu kills at 72%, while blue f-smash on Bowser kills at 152% under the original conditions. Blue u-throw kills at 140% on middleweights, comparable to Mewtwo u-throw. Avoiding f-smash and u-throw is about respecting the low endlag and not letting him read your options by staying unpredictable and adapting before Olimar can adapt himself to your defensive options.

His juggle game is also pretty decent due to disjointed aerials and high kill power with u-air. He is rather floaty, making it more difficult, but it's still very much doable and highly recommended. He can also cover airdodges with f-air, and can rack up even more damage on triplats.

Weaknesses:

1.  Bad Disadvantage State

Olimar's floaty nature and lack of a burst movement option like Pikachu up-b coalesces into a poor disadvantage state. It's hard for him to get out of juggles outside of grabbing ledge, which is hard due to no way of getting there besides floating offstage and up-bing to to it or airdodging to the ledge. Reading the airdodge and preventing him from getting near the ledge in the first place is key, so expect him to go there, but don't count out his other options, including platforms just landing on stage due to poor option coverage on your part. If he tries to directional airdodge left or right, you can just stand there and wait for him, and then dash attack, dash grab -> u-throw, running u-tilt/u-smash -> rejuggle or even running f-smash/kill option.

If he goes offstage, his only way of surviving is if you have poor edgeguarding, or if hes able to mix up his movement. He can steer left to right and rise and dip, as well as quickly attacking out of his up-b, giving him better control than other characters with similar recoveries. Getting him early is important, but committing too hard lets him recover for free and allowing him to regain advantage and control the game. Staying close to the ledge but still dipping down allows you to control space but also regain you double jump if need be. It mostly depends on character choice, but not committing is important. He's also got a poor ledge game due to a lack of burst movement speed. Getting good at ledgetrapping is important as well.

2. Large Hurtbox

Olimar's hurtbox is deceptively large. After a recent patch, patch 3.1.0, Olimar was nerfed, giving him a larger invisible hurtbox. Due to this, his shield rarely works without having to tilt it. If Olimar does shield, it's possible to hit and even kill him if you aim for the top of his head, however it can still work regardless. Good moves to hit this are Cloud's b-air or moves that can be tilted upwards.

Playing Against Olimar in the Neutral

If you've ever played against a Melee Falco, you're probably more experienced against this type of playstyle. Olimar plays in the midrange, throwing in side-b's that pressure you to shield, to which he punishes. If you dashback or jump, he'll throw more side-b's. Again, like Melee Falco, getting hit may be better than shielding. If you get hit, dispose of the Pikmin, and then try again, You can also just get hit by the Pikmin and keep pushing advantage, since he'll probably be in the air, you can punish him with running u-tilt. The essence of Olimar's neutral is to not panic, to pay attention to his lineup, and to not be predictable in your options. Find what options your character has in getting rid of Pikmin the fastest, to punish side-b, and OOS options to counteract grab and such. Olimar is probably the only person who can contest Wolf for title of best neutral.

Punishing Olimar

Being so light and floaty, combos can be hard to pull off. They definitely do exist for most characters, it's just that they're more limited than if Olimar was someone like Fox. Practice bnb's and optimized combos on Olimar, but definitely focus on juggles and practicing your read game in order to keep him there. Getting him offstage is also very important, as that's when he's at his weakest. Being able to constantly push him off the stage is vital to the matchup, as well as punishing him when he is actually off. Practice your character's edgeguarding to the limit, including option coverage during ledgetraps and not committing/overextending when offstage, as you want to limit the amount of times you play neutral against Olimar, similar to Wolf. The more opportunities to play neutral, the more opportunities he has to find out your habits.

Recommended Matchups: 

1. Chrom

Chrom is an incredibly fast character with a ton of range and damage to boot. His speed allows him to avoid side-b much easier than others, as well as getting rid of the Pikmin is just using your aerials, all of which except d-air have 10 or fewer frames of landing lag, with n-air at 9, f-air and u-air at 8, and b-air at 10. Chrom is able to rushdown Olimar and overwhelm him with speed, range, and the threat of an f-tilt/f-smash at high percents for the kill. Chrom's speed and range also help him punish side-b, as there is no real knockback, allowing him to take the damage and keep pushing through Olimar, hopefully to get him offstage, to where he'll either edgeguard with a f-air/n-air close to the ledge or even further if he saves his double jump. 

In the neutral, just rushing down Olimar's defensive options and zoning is a very viable strategy, but don't do so if he has a purple Pikmin in his 1st or 2nd lineup, as that's the only one with knockback. If it is, try to bait it out with fake approaches and then kill it asap. Most of your safer moves don't kill purple in one hit, so try and combo them together, but don't commit too hard. Otherwise, if it's a non-purple that either latched onto you or was whiffed, swiftly jab it off of you or d-tilt it if you want to kill a whiffed Pikmin, and then back off. When approaching, try to either push him offstage into a d-air or to the ledge where you can ledgetrap him, or maybe knock him up with u-throw, u-tilt, or fast fall u-air. 

Chrom has an exceptional juggling game due to his speed and huge u-air range. He's also a fast faller, meaning if Olimar airdodges, Chrom can land and u-tilt, or if it's directional, land and then f-air or grab -> u-throw to reset the juggle situation. Chrom has also got an exceptional ledgetrapping game. Most of his moves are low lag like jab, f-tilt, d-tilt, and f-air, and all of them either kill (f-tilt and f-air), confirm into a kill (jab -> b-air works at upper mid %), or put them at a low angle returning to the stage. Most of these moves can also 2-frame well, mainly jab, f-tilt, and d-tilt. F-smash is a great punish tool after using these to cover options. Edgeguarding, Chrom is on the lower side, but don't discount it that much. He's still got great range and kill power offstage, making for a great surprise RAR b-air, a n-air, or a f-air. However, be ready to tech the wall if you dip below the stage, as Olimar can f-air you if you don't time your aerials/whiff them.

Good Chrom Players:

Tweek: No longer mains Chrom, but his sets are still good to watch for excellent Chrom play. Considered #2 for Smash 4 and Ultimate, with multiple wins at majors and top 8's at supermajors. His list of wins is incredible.

Mr. R: Former top Smash 4 Sheik. Currently without a true main, however has used Chrom the most, using him to take sets off ZD, ESAM, and Larry Lurr.

Shoyo James: Current best Chrom main. High placings at many tournaments and incredibly solid wins against VoiD, ESAM, and MuteAce.

2. Zelda

"Zelda???" I hear you ask. "How could a mid tier beat a top tier?" Well, Zelda's zoning and turtling allows her to outcamp Olimar very well. Her down-b has very good mixup timings that allow her to kill Pikmin and can catch Olimar doing SH side-b, sometimes even at the same time. Her propensity to zoning is great, but what makes the matchup difficult for Olimar is her skill at anti-zoning him. Her Nayru's Love acts as a reflector and an anti-Pikmin tool. It has decently low lag for a reflector, and it deals 11% when it hits something close to her, like a Pikmin. Coincidentally, she also does enough damage to kill all the Pikmin, as the highest HP of a latched Pikmin is 8, from blue, and it can reflect Olimar's smash attacks, as they count as projectiles. Her teleport is also a good move to close the distance, as it's pretty fast, it has a great hitbox for punishing side-b, and puts Olimar above her.

In the neutral, using side-b and down-b to either keep Pikmin away or to hit Olimar is your strongest option. If he gets closer to try and punish your moves, you can instantly close the gap with teleport to catch him off guard (of course don't always go for it), you can jump over him and land with moves like n-air, d-air, or even f-air/b-air, or you can run up grab to u-throw -> u-air and/or then start a juggle situation. Nayru's Love is a great defensive tool due to the solid damage if Olimar is close enough, and that it can kill multiple Pikmin at once. F-throwing him offstage can also set up an edgeguard situation.

Punishing Olimar is pretty safe for Zelda. Against his f-smash, you can spotdodge -> up-b at later percents for the up-b ladder kill or you can neutral b his f-smash to reflect it back. In an edgeguard situation, you just want to be using down-b to cover his horizontal options and using side-b to hit him above the stage should he go for a high recovery, or to hit him below the stage to keep him away and rack percent. Finish his stock with a f-air/b-air or even a d-air if he up-b's from below the stage. Juggling Olimar can be tricky, especially since Zelda is so prone to juggling herself. Fast fall u-air is your best bet to juggling, mixed with u-tilt to cover airdodge landings. She does however have pretty good ledgetrapping, as down-b covers a ton of grounded options as well as side-b covering jump from the ledge. She can also make hard reads with her teleport that will kill early off the side, they're just very risky, unless you can edge cancel them consistently. Killing Olimar boils down to punishing f-smash with spotdodge up-b or reflecting with neutral b, landing a f-air or b-air, juggling with u-air, or b-throw, which kills very early, especially at the sides of the stage.

Creating option coverages with side-b and down-b in neutral allows you to push Olimar further and further offstage, with both moves also sending him upwards to start juggle situations. Not being afraid to outcamp Olimar will help you succeed against him.

Zelda Player(s) to Study:

ven: A Zelda die-hard since Brawl, he's been known to be the best Zelda ever since. Maintaining high local PR ranks, he's been able to take sets off of very good players like ESAM and Megafox and place well, despite his character's poor standings in the metagame.

Meru: A Peach main with a very strong Zelda secondary, the best one in Europe.

3. Peach

Peach in this matchup is all about getting in. Olimar wins the neutral game in theory, due to large disjoints he never had before, especially with Yellow Pikmin. However, Peach wins in the punish aspect due to her raw damage and ability to repeatedly pressure Olimar. Turnips help very much in getting in and to push your advantage state.

In the neutral, Peach has to get in through this massive wall that Olimar can put out. Your best bet in approaching is to waste his yellows with turnips or fake approaches, utilizing float to halt your movement and then go in after a whiffed move. Your best chance of getting in is if he doesn't have yellow Pikmin, so watch out for the lineup. Purple is also a very dangerous one, as it can trade very well, especially if he's got 2 in a row. Mixing up vertical/horizontal approaches saves you from purple u-smash/f-smash. D-tilt will kill all Pikmin except blue, but it's your fastest option by far. If you see a blue that was whiffed, you can f-air and drift back, or quickly clean n-air.

Punishing Olimar can be tough if they're experienced. Normally you would d-tilt -> n-air -> d-tilt -> n-air, however, Olimar can use down-b, his Whistle, to gain super armor to tank and punish the 2nd n-air. The damage still goes through, you just have to reset neutral, so be very careful at higher percents where a whistle'd n-air can get you killed. Mix up your n-airs during the sequence with d-air for multihits that would punish his whistle. Edgeguarding is Peach's forte. She's able to solidly take stocks against Olimar with this, and it's probably her best bet. Ledgetrapping is of course, ledgetrapping. Olimar has very few options out of the ledge due to lack of mobility so Peach can definitely take advantage of that. Juggling can however be tricky. Peach has got great aerial movement, and u-air is a great tool, it's that her landing lag is so slow that she can drop the juggle very easily, and Olimar's whistle can break through u-air, despite it being a multihit.

It can be tricky to get in, but if you can, Peach can do very well against Olimar. Practice edgeguarding against him to solidly take stocks with consistency.

Good Peach/Daisy Players to Watch:

Samsora: Easily the best Peach. Top level results with multiple top 8's at supermajors and wins over MK Leo, Tweek, Dabuz, VoiD, and Nairo.

Captain Zack: 2nd best Peach in the world. Top level results and has wins over Nairo, Salem, and Ally.

MuteAce: Wins aren't as good as Captain Zack, but still are incredible. Has beaten Zackray, ZeRo, and Dath.

Meru: Best European Peach with high results in his region and wins over cyve, Nicko, and Big D.

Umeki: Highly technical Japanese Peach. Very good wins in Japan, but has not made any big waves in NA yet. Still very solid placings at US majors and has good placings in Japan and wins over Choco, KEN, Nietono, and RAIN.

Stage Select:

Smaller stages are good against Olimar if the opponent is able to pressure and approach very quickly/well and/or are really good on stages like Battlefield. However, he can still do very well on the stage without much trouble, so most of the stage picks will be based on how good your character is on that stage in the matchup. He does however do very well on Kalos.

Summary:

- Very similar to Wolf matchup

• Stay unpredictable, don't get conditioned
• Limit neutral interactions
• Punish as efficiently as you can

- Focus/pay attention to lineup

- Do not autopilot ever

- Use move that kills latched Pikmin fastest/safest

- Practice edgeguarding

- GLHF

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Follow me on twitter! https://twitter.com/jkoga6

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Changelog:

Apr. 20/2019 - Added notes to White Pikmin

Apr. 22/2019 - Added Chrom pro player

Jul. 3/2019 - Added Weakness - Large Hurtbox

May. 29/2020 - Updated Twitter Handle

How to Beat: Wolf

Wolf

Introduction:

Wolf is the 45th/48th heaviest character in the game, making him a midweight. Midweights have really no extreme when it comes to dying early or being combo food, but also don't have the benefit of getting out of combos easier or surviving well over 180%. He is however, a fast-faller, tied for 11th-16th fastest in the game. This means he can be combo'd easier, but it also means he can use multiple aerials faster, land better than otherwise, and survive vertical kills just a bit better. Wolf is a heavily versatile character with a ton of safe options that lets him play the neutral game very well as a defensive zoner or an aggressive mix-up fighter.

Strengths:

1. Safe Moves:

Wolf boasts some of the safest moves in the game. His landing lag is very low, n-air/f-air/b-air/u-air/d-air being 9/10/15/10/19. The 15 and 19 might seem high, but d-air will rarely be used on the ground and b-air autocancels on SH. In fact, all of his aerials autocancel on SH. His FAF is also crazy good. FAF in essence is the first frame he is able to act, First Actionable Frame. Wolf's f-smash is safe on shield and sometimes can bait opponents when whiffing, with having a FAF of 42, allowing him to jab, d-tilt, or f-tilt to cover OOS options. Punishing Wolf is all about not shielding everything. Shield can be a very useful way of preventing his long f-air strings and d-smash kills, but it can also prevent you from learning other ways to punish, and he might end up baiting you. Making use of dashback instead of shield will either reset neutral or allow you to punish if he's still in the air, depending on your character of course. If he lands with an aerial, odds are it was autocancelled. If you dashed back and he already landed, punishing can be dangerous. He can f-tilt to cover his landing, or even d-smash, as it's the fastest smash attack he has. If he's just landed, you can shield his f-tilt or d-smash into n-air or whatever OOS option that you have is the fastest. Shield grabbing is risky, as grabs are just flat out worse in this game than the others. If you get f-smashed on shield, punishing it will be the exact same as approaching him. Unless you've got a sword/disjoint or a fast projectile, it's unlikely you'll be punishing f-smash. Reset neutral or bait whatever he throws out after the f-smash if he panics. Odds are it'll be f-tilt, which has great range, can anti-air, and is also safe on shield after f-smash due to the shield pushback. I'd recommend dropping shield after the f-smash -> dashback -> dash attack.

2. God Tier Neutral Game/Blaster:

Wolf has one of the best neutral games in Ultimate. His Blaster forces approaches, conditions shield, has low lag for such a long range projectile, high knockback/hitstun for a projectile, has a get-off-me hitbox at the gun, and is actually a good edge-guarding tool to force recoveries below the stage, a la Melee Falco laser. It's also a ledge mixup, double jump Blaster from the ledge can hit the opponent with the base, creating distance and putting them at disadvantage. However, it can be punished pretty easily if they expect it, so use it very sparingly. Blaster itself can be punished by characters with great air mobility like Wario, Yoshi, Jigglypuff, and Peach. Characters without good air movement can parry the Blaster, but parrying can be inconsistent without a ton of practice. Some characters have good options against Blaster such as reflectors like Fox/Falco/Wolf shine, Wario/Kirby/Dedede eat/swallow, Ness and Lucas can absorb it, and smaller characters like Jigglypuff, Pikachu, and Pichu can crawl and/or crouch under the laser. Aside from Blaster, all of his aerials can be used in neutral to keep your opponent away. If he aerials to snuff your approach, it's best to just stop once you see him jump, and then dashback out of his range and run in for a SH aerial, dash grab, or dash attack. Spaced f-air, tipper b-air, and strong/clean hit of n-air -> drift back are all safe on shield, so if he drifts forward to try and catch your dashback, you can shield, so f-air is no longer spaced, b-air is no longer tipper, and his n-air will no longer be drift back, and you can b-air or in some cases drift back u-air him OOS as he is now behind you. F-air is also hard to whiff punish if he fast falls it, but attacking while he's jumping, anticipating the late f-air, beats it. His smash attacks are also great for defense. D-smash has a ton of range, so dashback d-smash can hit you, even without turnaround, charging u-smash makes Wolf go low to the ground, meaning he can dodge things like Pikachu f-air or Fox RAR b-air, and f-smash can bait approaches due to low FAF -> dashback f-tilt. D-smash can only hit mid-low on the ground, so if you expect that, go for an aerial option directly above Wolf and d-air him. U-smash has very good range above, so if he knows you're going for that aerial option, u-smash will catch you. If you can't predict if it's either, waiting them out -> dash grab/dash attack is optimal. F-smash on the other hand preys on these wait outs. Honestly if you see an f-smash, it's better to just let it whiff and wait to see what he does next, unless he just barely misses. Out of all of these though, f-tilt is probably his best defensive tool. Fast, long range, can anti-air, and is safe on shield when spaced, and can still whiff punish you due to very low FAF relative to it's range. Beating Wolf's f-tilt boils down to having a sword, projectile, or if you parry it. You could also shield it up close, but that will rarely happen due to dashback f-tilt. 

Offensively, Wolf also has a ton of options. Now Wolf is better played defensively, but offensively, he plays similar. Blaster conditions you to shield or jump, which is where Wolf wants you to be. If you shield his Blaster, he'll grab, if you jump, he'll go for f-air or u-air, or even side-b if you're at a high enough percent. Against this, you can dashback his Blaster, but if you're not center stage, the Blaster can chase you down all the way to the ledge, meaning you'll be offstage and at disadvantage. When jumping the laser, you can retreat to platforms, but being above him puts you again at a disadvantaged state where he can u-air and f-air you, both high range options. The solution I've been using is to SH over the laser and then reversal. Some characters cannot SH over the laser due to low jump height, so those characters are more restricted to ground-based punishes, such as parrying laser or other options there characters may have, such as Lucas using PSI Magnet to absorb it, or Kirby and Jigglypuff, both being able to crouch underneath lasers.

Outside of shield conditioning with Blaster, Wolf's approach game is a very mix-up heavy whiff punishing aggro. He uses low lag moves to whiff on purpose, force a retaliation, and then capitalize. with fast moves like f-tilt, d-tilt, and d-smash. Jab and u-tilt can also punish, but they have low horizontal range. He can cross up with n-air and dash attack and punishing your whiff shieldgrab/OOS option. He can also safely f-air or b-air to hit your shield with their tipper hitboxes, but if he misses the tip, you can punish both of them. Dashback is also a godsend, as you can punish him if he's autocancelling as he descends, and even if he fast falls, as both are punishable unless they tipper your shield, especially b-air with it's 15 frames of landing lag. Against cross-up n-airs and dash attacks, you'll want to find a character that can hit both sides out of shield. Moves like Lucina d-air, Ike n-air, Shulk n-air, or a character with good enough aerial drift that can use a long-lasting move OOS and then drift into you with it. These include Yoshi d-air, Wario n-air, Jigglypuff n-air and d-air, and Peach d-air.

Good reaction time and self control is the cornerstone of fighting Wolf in the neutral. He's got a ton of mixup options with cross up n-air and dash attack, strong whiff punishes due to deceptively low FAF moves -> fast long range options, one of the best projectiles in the game, and incredibly safe aerials when spaced. Attack his rising aerials after their hitboxes and OOS punish his un-autocancelled fast fall aerials. 

3. Amazing Ledgetrapping

Wolf's ledgetrapping compensates his lackluster edgeguarding. His low angled f-tilt can 2 frame, his d-smash can hit you below the ledge before you can even get 2-framed, and his ability to fake whiffs and then punish translates here as well. There's not much you can do when getting 2-framed or killed before you grab the ledge, and if you recover high, he can b-air, d-smash, f-smash, or even side-b, so mix up your airdodges and recovery when recovering high. Characters that can recover high and avoid Wolf are Snake, Yoshi (who can also use eggs to contest Wolf at the ledge and then get back on), and Pikachu/Pichu who can recover high and then grab the ledge, get back on stage/platform, or even hit Wolf and reverse the situation with up-b. The other way to avoid a 2-frame is to recover from above the ledge, which bypasses the animation. The only characters able to do this would be spacies and teleport recoveries. However, Wolf can still catch you out before the teleport/spacies up-b. 

Wolf can also cover a ton of options with his aerials. He can fake an u-air whiff and then land with n-air, f-air/f-tilt, a grab, or b-air to cover getup attack, double jump from ledge, getup shield, or roll in. Faking the u-air whiff can also cover any tournament winners. Staying unpredictable helps a ton against his ledgetrapping, and even staying on the ledge and waiting for him to land instead is underrated. However, if he goes for an f-tilt, he'll catch you staying on the ledge. You could pick a character like Yoshi, who can egg Wolf while on the ledge and then double jump n-air, f-air, or d-air.  Wolf can also whiff a fadeback n-air into f-tilt to pretty much cover the entire ledge. Much like neutral, self control is key to recovering back from the ledge.

4. Consistently Strong Punish Game

Wolf's punish game is consistently strong. He can combo the entire cast with f-air strings at early percents, his d-throw sets up for jab resets, tech chases, and even confirms into dash attack at 30-40%. His juggle game is incredible. His u-air is almost like a sword, it's fast, low lag, and Wolf's a fast faller, allowing him to repeatedly land -> u-air. F-air also confirms into a ton of stuff at mid percents , like RAR b-air, side-b, and u-smash if they DI down. Your best bet against his combo game is DI away, and avoiding his juggles is just like any other. Airdodge mixups, double jump mixups, stage striking triplats, picking characters with strong landing like Fox or counters to bait the u-air like Shulk and Ike.

Wolf's biggest strength is his neutral game, able to bait opponents panic options exceptionally well. Self control and being unpredictable is how you beat a Wolf, though easier said than done. He does however, lack in a few areas.

Weaknesses:

1. Mediocre Recovery

Wolf doesn't necessarily have a bad recovery. Side-b can kill if you improperly edgeguard, it's fast, and can be angled. Up-b can also kill horizontally and has a decent hitbox. The problem lies in distance and predictability, especially with his fast fall nature. Relative to the top tiers, Wolf has a terrible recovery when comparing him to the likes of Peach, Pikachu/Pichu, Lucina, and Inkling. Characters with counters or very long range moves offstage are able to beat side-b and up-b if timed, such as Palutena counter and n-air (beats out side-b), Shulk d-air, and Ivysaur d-air. You can even hit him before he uses the move if you can predict it, as side-b and up-b take 19 and 18 frames as startup, respectively. If you 2-frame him, odds are it'll be at a low angle, where he'll double jump side-b 90% of the time, to which you can punish. Due to his lackluster recovery, he also has a...

2. Mediocre Offstage Game

Again, Wolf is by no means a terrible edgeguarder. N-air and b-air cover a ton of space offstage, are both incredible for killing, and can really catch people off guard as they expect a more 2-framing/ledgetrapping type of Wolf. D-air is also a solid spike. It's just that without a good recovery, he's not able to make use of these tools. Often times he won't be able to even double jump offstage, meaning you have to make the simple jump count. You won't need to in certain situations, but it's a great risk when you can instead practice/go for 2-framing and your ledgetrapping game. Offstage, expect a n-air or b-air, and definitely don't count it out, but realise that he's probably going to be ledgetrapping you, so you should definitely focus more so on that in the matchup, and what tools your character has against that.

3. Combo Food

Wolf is very combo-able. He's a fast faller, one of the fastest, he's got a tall hurtbox, and he isn't very light. He's near the middle, so he's still vulnerable to combos, but he's also vulnerable to combos that knock him far off the edge/even kill due to his weight, and then abusing his lackluster recovery to seal the stock quicker than you would a heavier character, or preventing the combo like you would a lighter character. Optimizing punishes against Wolf specifically is very important. The quicker and more efficient you take his stocks, the less neutral you have to play, which is his strongest suit.

Playing Against Wolf in the Neutral

Neutral is an area where Wolf can't be beat. Figuratively speaking of course. Wolf's most effective gameplan is to play a defensive zoner, using Blaster and forcing your approach, only to then punish your option with his long range moves like f-air and f-tilt. Getting in close without aggravating Wolf is tricky, but you want to play close to the midrange area, staying close enough to where you can punish Blaster, but far enough to stay inconspicuous. Especially if you're a fast character, some characters can SH the laser and punish. These include Sheik, Pichu, Pikachu, and Cloud. Making sure not to whiff is pivotal, as whiff punishing is Wolf's specialty in the neutral. Dashback is one of Wolf's favourite evasion options. Dashback f-tilt, f-smash, dash attack, f-air, and b-air are all common, and all are either safe on shield if he spaces his dashback properly, or are able to cross you up (dash attack). Allowing him to poke your shield does nothing for you, so staying mobile and not falling prey to his bait tactics allows you to punish Wolf and take that inch you need to get him offstage for a kill. Using your own projectiles to condition Wolf to shine or shield is optimal if you play as a zoner, as it leaves him open for a dash grab, or if he jumps, it leaves him open to an anti-air or a trade that could knock him offstage, provided he's at mid-high percents.

If the Wolf is more aggressive, he'd be preferring to condition you instead. Using Blaster to cover the area in front of him, he'll be safely poking at your shield from a distance, ready to dashback, spotdodge, or simply outspace you with his low lag and long range forward facing moves. Shield grabbing is risky in Ultimate, and is a death sentence against Wolf. Spaced f-tilt, f-smash, and f-air are all safe on shield, pushing you back a considerable distance. Shield grabbing just makes it worse. If you're able to parry, you'll beat his approaches solidly. However, it's incredibly risky, as if he lands that move, it could mean a 2-frame and the stock. A more safe option would be dashback -> punish. If he does a late fast fall f-air, which is hard to punish on shield, he'll be open early on, so if his f-airs have been late, punish OOS early. Early f-air however is safe entirely. Dashback -> dash attack, a long range tilt, or a projectile will make work of early f-air.

Wolf's got an insane neutral game, I'd say the best in Ultimate. It's all about conditioning and baiting you until you pull out an unsafe approach or retaliation, to where he'll punish and deal a ton of damage. 

Punishing Wolf:

Practicing your punish game against Wolf himself is vital. Due to his intense neutral game, limiting the amount of neutral interactions you have per game will make it much easier on you. Practice follow-ups and different ways to get him off-stage, and then practice edgeguarding his side-b. Maybe get a friend who plays Wolf to help you practice edgeguarding him, and also helping your friend recover as well. Getting the punish game down to a science helps in nearly every Smash game, and especially against someone with such an oppressive neutral. Characters with exceptional edgeguarding and/or combo game are Peach, Inkling, and Lucina.

Recommended Matchups:

The top 3 characters I'd recommend picking vs. Wolf are:

1. Pichu

Probably Wolf's worst matchup, Pichu is an incredibly agile fighter, able to dart around the stage and capitalize off a slight mistake, where he then combos them in a multitude of options. Pichu's speed allows him to utilize dashback and capitalize hard, especially since his grab followups are insanely good at the early percents. His approach against Wolf is good too, with him being able to both SH over lasers and crawl underneath them, he can also fire his own projectile, which will cover his advances. Due to his speed, he can punish Blaster with n-air if he's close enough, while f-air and d-air will trade with Wolf's anti-airs. Use Thunder Jolt to cover Wolf's dashback f-tilt and then dash grab. If he rolls or dashes back, he gets hit by the TJ. If he shields, he'll get grabbed. If he rolls in, he won't be active for 29 frames, allowing you to punish with b-air. Not letting Wolf control the pace of the match and staying actively in his zone while avoiding his moves is key to playing the matchup.

Pichu's got a deep combo game, which is further accentuated by Wolf's large hurtbox, fast falling speed, and decent weight. Optimizing and seeing how the pros punish Wolf is key, especially learning different combos at different percents is important for the matchup, and Pichu in general. Moves like d-tilt and u-tilt are amazing for comboing into themselves and then transitioning into u-air, b-air dragdowns, and down-b for kills or spikes. The first few hits of b-air can confirm into u-smash, and TJ can confirm into f-smash if hit. At around 10%, d-tilt -> u-tilt -> u-air -> b-air will net you about 40% as a basic bread and butter combo, which is just surface level stuff. For killing, Pichu's b-air dragdowns can confirm into u-smash, Pichu run off u-air can confirm into down-b offstage at early percents, getting a free spike that'll kill Wolf due to poor vertical recovery. Edgeguarding Wolf boils down to TJ to stop side-b during start up/having it cling to the stage and stop his up-b, d-airing him offstage which sends him either straight down as a spike or at a low angle downwards, making it harder to recovery, or covering his high recovery option with down-b.

Recovering against Wolf is tricky, as you don't have a hitbox on your up-b like Pikachu, so 2-framing is near risk free for Wolf. If you're sent high, use TJ to hit him at the ledge to either prevent 2-framing or land and punish him.

Some Pichu players to study:

VoiD: Former best Sheik in Smash 4, now top 5 in the world with Pichu. Has the best combo game with Pichu hands down, and arguably in Ultimate right now. He's always been known for one to optimize the punish game, since Sheik and now with Pichu. Watching his sets with Wolf players will give you a ton of insight on combo possibilities and how to punish Wolf Blaster.

Captain L: Former Pikachu in Smash 4 now a dual main of Pichu and Pikachu. Solid placings at DPotG, Genesis, and BoBC. Well known for labbing both characters and theory crafting their punish games.

2. Shulk

As a swordie, a long range one at that, Shulk is able to punish Wolf's fake whiffs from a distance as well as being able to adapt to the different kinds of Wolf's due to Monado Arts allowing him to approach and evade Wolf's aggressive mixups.

In the neutral game, Shulk should be trying to gain center stage. A Wolf at the ledge is one step closer to a Wolf offstage. Shulk's aerials and Speed Art movement should be able to push Wolf to the ledge based on fear factor and the threat of n-air/f-air alone. He'll most likely be forcing an approach with Blaster, so SH over them to punish the lag with f-air or n-air. If you combine this with Smash Art, you'll be able to push him off the stage, depending on % and distance of course, but if you have center stage, it should be enough. If you land the n-air punish on Blaster, you can push him off even further with moves like f-tilt at lower percents, and f-air at higher percents. Staying grounded is important, as Wolf can catch you in the air with his rising aerials, all lagless, and Shulk's only option aside from airdodges and jumps like every other character is up-b, which is frame 10, so avoiding that situation in the first place is best. If you're not fast enough/too far and you jump over his laser, he'll either rising f-air or rising n-air, so using your own f-air or n-air early enough to catch his jump and still punish Blaster if he doesn't jump is key, as if you whiff it, he'll fast fall f-air and then combo you. Conversely, if you know he's going to rising aerial you, you can instead drift back on your landing after the SH and punish his f-air with u-tilts, u-smash, or even Air Slash.

Speaking of Air Slash, it's your best OOS option. It's the fastest, it has good range, but it can be punished just like any other up-b OOS. It's pretty strong on the 2nd hit, which is almost always guaranteed. Frame 10 is still pretty bad, so staying in shield isn't good for Shulk. Dashbacks are good, but not so much with Shulk as his f-tilt and f-smash aren't very fast and have no followups. Against rising aerials, shield works. Against fast fall aerials, recognizing them and punishing them with u-tilt is your best option, as it's range makes it a godlike anti-air. Fadeback SH fast fall f-air will protect you from Wolf approaches, either hitting him or just keeping you out of range. You however lose stage control, and regaining it can be tough against a mixup/pressure character like Wolf. Reganing stage control is dependent on getting out of the corner, something Shulk can struggle with.  Your best options for getting out of the corner are dependent on how close Wolf is. If he's in the center stage, Speed Art can help you switch the roles, mixing up your movement and faking approaches with his newfound speed can reverse the situation and allow you to regain control. If he's closer and actively trying to open you up, you can Jump Art out of the situation and try to land somewhere else, as Jump Art lets you land faster, along with Speed. N-air is your best landing option-it hits below you, has nearly no landing lag (6 frames!), and if you have Buster on, can be used on shield along with d-smash to break some shields.

On the other hand, Shulk has some of the best cornering games. His long range aerials and threat of edgeguarding make it hard for Wolf to try and contest him, and Buster and Smash are two very scary threats that can make people nervous. Speed Art is also great, as it lets you dart around and allow you to whiff punish hasty defensive options like shield grab or rising aerials. Shulk's high range and coverage allows him to cover a ton of defensive options, and in doing so, makes him a great ledgetrapper.

Comboing Wolf with Shulk is again something that must be practiced. Shulk's combos are usually either very basic with things like n-air and u-tilt strings or incredibly intricate, utilizing Dial Storage and switching Arts quickly for maximum results. Punishing Wolf is less about getting a hit for a combo and more so getting him offstage. Shulk's edgeguard game is top notch, both offstage and onstage. His Smash Art f-air can kill Wolf, but at mid percents it will usually just knock him far away enough that he can't recover, and d-air offstage has a ton of range. In general, run-off f-air covers a ton of space, especially the diagonal area that Wolf's side-b covers. If you predict side-b, run-off f-air as soon as Wolf dips below the stage. 2-framing options are d-tilt and SH fast fall f-air. He's got a few other niche options like Air Slash and f-smash, but they leave Shulk vulnerable, making them too risky. There is a technique with n-air for 2-framing where you run off, fast fall, jump back on stage, and n-air. When ledgetrapping at early percents, you wanna be shielding, but not too long or their getup attack will poke/break shield. The only thing you can really react to is neutral getup and roll. For those, grab the getup and reverse Air Slash OOS. If you can read it, use f-air to catch their jump from ledge. You can however stand further away from the ledge, out of getup attack range, giving you more options to punish. Getup can be punished now with d-tit, f-tilt, and dash grab, and roll can be punished with turnaround grab or turnaround f-tilt. At higher percents your ledgetrapping becomes deadly. By being in Smash Art, you can threaten a ton of options with death. Grab -> f-throw in Smash Art will kill Wolf at around 110%, Smash Air Slash will kill at around Wolf 80% at the ledge. Smash art d-smash while out of getup attack range will cover neutral get-up and roll if reacted fast enough, killing at around 80-85%. Full hop n-air while facing away from ledge can be used to cover jump, baiting a neutral getup, and using the back end of the hitbox to punish that. It's low lag also allows you to punish rolls upon landing.

Good Shulk Players Worth Checking Out:

Nicko: One of the top Shulk players in both Smash 4 and Ultimate, known for his strong defense and reads, he is arguably the face of Shulk in competitive play.

Kome: Top Smash 4 and Ultimate Shulk, considered the best in Smash 4. A more offensive style of Shulk.

Darkwolf: Top Shulk player with good placings at a major level. Not as active as the others, but still one worth checking out.

3. Pikachu

Another electric rat to make it in here, Pikachu is very similar to Pichu in terms of core aspects. Certainly not similar in ability to play, but the ideas are there. Where on one hand, Pichu is able to break through Wolf's defensive zoning and edgeguard him or even straight up kill him, Pikachu is able to do the same, but also has the option to play defensively with Thunder Jolt. Pichu isn't able to play as defensive with Thunder Jolt due to self-damage, reducing his ability to spam. Pikachu is able to break through Wolf's defenses just as easily, however the reward is not as high. He also has more options in terms of game plan, he's got just as good edgeguarding, and has better recovery overall due to Quick Attack being able to hit Wolf, giving him a level of threat greater than Pichu.

While Pichu is autoset to be an aggressive combo fiend, Pikachu has a variety of options. When playing defensive, full hop Thunder Jolt and making use of Thunder Jolt off platforms allows you to dodge Wolf's horizontal Blaster while still shooting Thunder Jolts directly at him due to the nature of the move. If he goes on the platform, you're able to shark him with u-air as an approach or even full hop TJ that would land onto his platform. If you really want to force the approach you can keep using TJ as long as you want, as there is no self-damage. However, using TJ aggressively will get you stocks much faster and easier. Using TJ to cover yourself will force a defensive option before you're close enough to be punished. If he jumps, u-air, if he shields, grab, if he reflects, SH n-air/f-air/b-air -> combo/edgeguard. Predicting his option is important, so even resetting neutral just to see how he would react and then repeating can be a viable option as well. If the Wolf does approach, dashback pivot f-smash can punish his attacks, but if you whiff, he'll either grab or f-air, so be careful using such a laggy move. You can instead dashback and then drift in with n-air -> u-tilt into your combos. Again, self control is important to not being punished by Wolf, but in being so small, it can be hard for him to hit you, so don't stand still too often. Your up-b is also great for recovering and avoiding 2-framing as you can sometimes hit Wolf himself if he messes up d-smash at the ledge and then punish him. Recovering from above with QA can prevent 2-frames but it can also get you back-aired. Consider it an option but not the end-all-be-all for avoiding edgeguards. QA is also an option for getting off the ledge as you can mix up distances, location, and hit Wolf with it.

Comboing Wolf should again be down to a science, especially for someone like Pikachu who can struggle to kill. Optimize Pikachu combos, mostly n-air dragdowns and u-air strings. Learning how to cover low options with d-air and high recoveries with down-b is also very important for Pikachu edgeguarding. Against side-b and such, TJ is your best bet, as you lack the range to contest his side-b without being there before the startup, which you can punish very well as all your moves except u-air and the last hit of n-air can kill him through edgeguard. Up-b is also very large for Pikachu's size to contest, so avoiding it and punishing it is the best option. D-airing him when he goes for up-b under the stage is a good option, but on flat wall stages or if he clings to the wall, TJ can reach him due to it's properties and edgeguard risk-free. 9 times out of 10, edgeguarding will get you the kill offstage, and that's what you should be optimizing. That 1 out of 10 is still a possibility however, so when ledgetrapping, you can cover getup attack and roll by waiting at the stage and then quickly pivot f-smash, as it's got a ton of range, especially when getup attack extends Wolf's hurtbox. You can also spam jab at the ledge to cover regular getup but also if they take too long/regrab the ledge and their invincibility runs out, forcing an edgeguard situation. Pivot f-smash can also cover getup but it's hard to time as they can shield it before it connects.

The Best Pikachu Players to Watch:

ESAM: An incredibly passionate Pikachu player since Brawl. He provides a ton of content on how to play Pikachu, making the transition much easier. He's also been the best Pikachu player since Brawl with very strong secondaries. His aggressive nature makes studying fun to watch and promotes a high edgeguarding and Thunder Jolt using style of Pikachu, one that fares against Wolf well.

Captain L: A Pichu/Pikachu main, however he prefers using Pichu against Wolf, so there's not much to study for the particular matchup, it's still good to watch if you want to play Pikachu/translate those skills into the Wolf matchup.

Stage Select: 

Wolf does not really struggle on any stage. A defensive Wolf who can camp and zone out an opponent will fair well on FD and Kalos, and against people who can be juggled well, triplats. Pick whichever stage you're most comfortable in/your character does best in.

Summary:

- Pick someone who's able to avoid lasers and punish Blaster (swordie or fast character)

- Make every punish count, practice combos, edgeguard setups, and edgeguard, to limit neutral exchanges

- His edgeguarding is reliant on 2-framing or n-air, b-air, and d-air offstage-must have double jump to survive offstage

- Practice self-control. Some moves are hard to be/cant be whiff punished. These are: landing f-air, landing n-air, f-smash on shield, tipper f-air and b-air on shield, landing n-air on shield, and tipper f-tilt on shield. Even then, whiff punishing requires you to be fast or have a disjoint.

- Edgeguard

- Edgeguard

- GLHF

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Changelog:

Apr. 17/2019 - Fixed title formatting

Apr. 23/2019 - Fixed some text formatting
May. 29/2020 - Updated Twitter handle

How to Beat: Peach

Peach

Introduction: 

Peach is a light and floaty character. She is the 54th/55th heaviest character, tied with her Echo, Daisy. She's also the 2nd/3rd floatiest character, again tied with Daisy. Her unique characteristic is being able to float. By holding the jump button in mid air, she can float around for 2.5 seconds at the same height. She can also hold the jump button while crouching to perform a float very low to the ground.

Strengths:

1. Hard To Combo

Peach has the combination of being light and floaty. Due to this, she is knocked back from combos much further than heavies, making it harder to reach her after a hit, and she's incredibly floaty, meaning she won't fall back into your moves in a combo like someone like Fox. Being hard to combo makes it hard to rack percent against her, unless you can outrange her via projectiles like Pac-Man or with a huge sword like Shulk. Cloud has a weaker projectile game than Pac-Man but he has a more range with his sword, but a smaller sword but a better projectile game than Shulk. Using strings at early percents still work on her like any other character, but once she reaches about 40%, it's hard to get more than 2 hits off on her. Controlling the stage with projectiles and bullying her with sword spacing is the best way to play against her at %'s where your character's combos no longer work.

2. Arguably the Strongest Edgeguarding in the Game

- Offstage

Peach's Vegetable, her turnip, is one of the biggest reasons her edgeguarding is so potent. Peach can space her toss in a way that turnip can hit you anywhere offstage. Whether you recover downwards, horizontally, diagonally, and even above. She can also threaten space very effectively with floating, especially since her double jump -> Parasol basically lets her recover from anywhere (reasonably) while edgeguarding. Recovering against Peach is mostly dependant on how good the Peach is, but what you should be focusing on is mixing up your drift and directional airdodges to bait out Peach f-air and turnips. If she hits you with a turnip while you're offstage, and you're not someone like Villager, you're most likely dead. I recommend saving your double jump until you absolutely have to up-b. Double jump forwards/backwards in order to dodge the turnip, or you could even up-b into the turnip and then use your double jump to mix up recovery. Of course it all depends on what characters you're playing. Some good options against Peach for getting back on stage are Pikachu (pretty much impossible to edgeguard), Inkling (hard to edgeguard, but not impossible as not as many options as Pikachu), and Meta Knight (6 jumps, Shuttle Loop is hard to edgeguard, and all of his B-moves can be used to recover, allowing for mixups).

- Ledgetrapping

Peach has a ton of low-lag and low-committal moves that allow her to ledgetrap very effectively, especially with her float. She can also use z-drop turnips to cover jumping from the ledge, while covering space with dair or whiff punishing a getup attack by using bair and drifting in and out or landing and quickly shielding. Her d-tilt is also very low lag and can easily setup for a followup that sends them offstage again like n-air. She can also cover recoveries like Chrom/Ike due to her Toad counter. When getting back onto stage with the ledge, you'd want a character with a strong disadvantage state (at least, relative to the rest of the cast). Some good examples are Pikachu with his up-b allowing him to zip to platforms, to get behind Peach, or maybe to even hit her and flip the situation around, Yoshi, with his double jump armor, insane aerial drift, and his eggs allowing him to stall in the air for a bit, possibly even hitting Peach -> u-air, and Meta Knight (again). The 6 jumps and fast fall speed allow him to mix up his positioning, and again, his insane versatility in recovery options make him scary to try and chase on the ledge.

3. High Damage Combos

Peach's combo game is incredibly powerful, especially at early percents. Her bread n butter d-tilt -> n-air -> d-tilt -> n-air -> d-tilt -> u-air can net you about 60% when done properly, and the execution on her basic combos are very low risk high reward. She can bring you to kill percent off a single d-tilt, and her optimized combos can 0-to-death with many DI coverage with turnip regrabs. Her combos are hard to escape, especially at early percents, and so being combo'd is inevitable. If you wish to avoid her d-tilt, staying in the air and trying to stay unpredictable during tech-chases is your best bet, or just pick up Jigglypuff.

4. Best Projectile

Aside from maybe Wolf's Blaster, Peach has the best projectile in the game, able to be thrown in front of her, below her, above her, and can rack up a ton of damage with even the common faces. Dot-eyes, Stitch, or Bob-Omb will usually appear once per set, usually multiple Dot-eyes and/or maybe one Stitch/Bomb. She can also shield break if she pulls a Mr. Saturn. The turnips allow her to edgeguard, ledgetrap, approach, play defensively, combo, use them out of shield, and even use it to cover landing. It's the most versatile projectile throughout the Smash series, and this is probably the best iteration of it thus far. Your best option to play against turnips is to either catch them, or to avoid them in the first place. Staying mid-range to Peach and being ready to attack at any time can pressure her into not pulling turnip in fear of getting punished. Characters like Fox, Pikachu, and Wolf are able to either get in and out of her range to pressure defensive options over pulling turnips, or have incredibly safe moves that force her to shield/spotdodge so often and make her prefer those over the chance of catching a back air to the face due to a greedy turnip pull(Wolf).

5. Towering Pressure

Peach has some of the best shield pressure in the game, due to her low lag moves like float cancelled n-air, spaced f-air, and spaced d-tilt. Aerials are especially useful with attack cancelling, even to the point where she can attack cancel f-air in and out and avoid counters altogether if spaced perfectly. Her turnips also can control space with z-drop/throws forcing shield or a defensive option that she can punish quickly with her frame 3 n-air and long range f-air. She can also pressure you in the corner by covering multiple options with just turnip and her low lag moves that you're bound to either get hit by one of those, or end up having to retreat in the corner. Again, you want characters with a strong disadvantage state, or those who can get out of the corner quickly. Getting out of the corner and not being pressured is mostly Smash/Fighting game fundamentals, but some good characters for this include Pikachu (again) due to up-b allowing you to cross up or avoid Peach entirely, and Zero Suit Samus, as her jump -> flip kick can get you out of the corner very well, and could possibly let you put Peach into the corner if she extends a bit. Making use of your offstage options is an unpredictable option you can choose over shielding/spotdodging that I highly recommend you use as a mixup here and there.

6. Kill Power

Peach's f-air kills incredibly early, especially since she has setups like d-tilt -> f-air, which still works at 70% and can kill at the sides for medium-lightweight characters. Her u-smash and u-air are also both solid anti-air/juggle moves, as u-air is a multihit to counter people like Ryu's Focus and kills decently, and her u-smash can hit and kill both above and on the sides. U-smash also allows her to duck and dodge SH aerials that don't hit low. Staying away from Peach at kill percents is important, so at around 60-80%, avoid the ground near Peach, as d-tilt is quick, low lag, and sets up other aerials insanely well. When getting juggled, mixing up directional airdodging and using your landing options to the best of your ability will prevent u-air kills. Characters like Fox can land incredibly quickly avoid u-air entirely, and characters like Cloud can outrange her u-air with d-air. At late percents, aside from avoiding her float as she can drift and space f-airs, avoiding u-smash is tricky. If you go for a higher aerial like Pikachu f-air/b-air, she can straight up dodge it with u-smash. If you go for a low angle attack like Lucina d-tilt, she can float up and f-air. Your best option is to pick someone who can keep her entire range at bay, or focus on moves that can do so. Swordies are exceptional at keeping space and poking at her/threatening space with strong moves like Cloud and Lucina b-air or Ike n-air. For characters that can't beat both f-air and u-smash, I'd recommend playing safe and not trying to approach.

7. Recovery

Peach has an insanely effective recovery. Float lets her recovery horizontally from anywhere, double jump -> Parasol covers a ton of vertical distance, she's floaty so she won't fall down offstage as fast, and her Parasol actually clips the stage and can prevent 2-framing if it hits. She also has an insane aerial drift, allowing her to dodge your edgeguard attempts and either get back onstage to edgeguard you, or even reverse on your and take you down. Edgeguarding Peach is near impossible unless you ARE Peach. Some characters can definitely contest her offstage, but no one has a real solid grasp. Some characters that can match-up are Lucina, Pikachu, and Inkling.

That was... a doozy. Peach is an incredibly strong character with a ton of options and strengths at her disposal, but she's not without fault.

Weaknesses:

1. Dies Early


Being light and floaty DOES mean you aren't combo'd that well, but it does mean you die much earlier than the cast. Being light means you get knocked back further, preventing combos, but causing your own death much earlier. Being 54th heaviest character means smaller moves like tilts and aerials can have the kill potential of a smash attack. Some strong tilts and aerials you can use against her that kill but aren't as committal as smashes are Chrom and Roy f-tilt, Wolf, Cloud, and Lucina b-air (Wolf however has very safe smash attacks that cover a ton of distance and are very safe for smash attacks), and Snake u-tilt. Optimizing your kill setups on Peach/being able to read Peach makes killing her much easier, as a lot of kill confirms and setups don't work on her due to being too light. She is also very floaty, the 2nd floatiest in the game. Fall speed is very important for surviving vertically. For example, Greninja is tied for 56th heaviest in the game, lighter than Peach herself. However, due to his fall speed, he'll be able to live longer than Peach when hit vertically. The best way to kill Peach is simply through reads. Unless they're Armada, odds are, they'll start panicking when they reach high percents and you start approaching. If you see them shield often, they'll almost always shield. Characters with kill throws or reliable confirms are very good at killing Peach. Namely, Ness b-throw, Mewtwo u-throw and b-throw, Inkling u-throw -> u-air at 109% - 117% (no rage), and Chrom/Roy jab -> b-air, percents unknown (apparently works at around 65% to 75%).

2. Technical Barrier

More of a metagame weakness than a regular weakness, but one that should definitely be said. As it stands, optimal Peach is one of the hardest characters to play consistently at a high level. Some characters like Shulk have very niche techs, but in order to move and combo consistently, the Peach has to play at at least 80% at all times. Shulk's have to push further, but in neutral and even comboing, they don't have the technical demand of Peach at all times. In doing so, Peach's can flub a lot of their float movement/combos, unless they've really got it down to a science or it's a short set. Peach's can often choke in longer sets due to the technical demand of their character, but it's all about practice. Not much you can abuse this aside from playing defensive to draw the game out and force the Peach to play longer.

Playing Against Peach in the Neutral:

Peach's neutral is focused around utilizing turnips to pressure and corner their opponent to catch them with a d-tilt -> whatever combo they like to use. They key to beating her neutral is to not let turnips open you up. Spotdodging is usually the worst option against turnips, as they throw it, land with a n-air, and then continue into d-tilt to punish you. However, if you've got a long range move that is able to come out quickly, you can anti-air Peach pretty hard, as she's now in disadvantage state and took some damage. Moves like Snake u-tilt. Otherwise, spotdodges are not a good defense vs. turnip approaches. Rolls are good for maybe once per game due to how predictable multiple rolls can be, but are definitely good as a mixup sparingly. Another option would probably be to shield and to soak up the damage, or to counter/reflect the turnip back at Peach. You'd want to soak up the damage and then start a string/counterattack starting with a good OOS option. Moves like Palutena and Pikachu n-air are great for OOS against Peach. However, if Peach pulls a Saturn, shielding may not be a good idea. Shielding can be bad if she has a Saturn/Stitch/Bomb, if your shield is currently low, or you're playing a character without great offensive OOS options. You could instead try for dashback/dash-in. Characters like Greninja would greatly benefit from this, where instead of shielding, dashback -> punish, usually a n-air at low percents or an u-smash. If she predicts the dashback and drifts backwards instead of punishing you, dash into her and punish with maybe an u-tilt or u-smash to kill.

Sitting in shield is still a potential strategy, but doing so in Ultimate is a pretty bad idea, especially due to characters like Peach and Wolf having such safe options that can pressure you into whiffing an OOS option or just straight up shield poking and killing you. Parrying could work, but honestly it's not worth practicing due to the small 3-frame advantage and basically no advantage vs. projectiles, one of Peach's best pressure tools. Your best option against her approaches would be dashbacks and dash-ins, but don't only do this, as it gets predictable. You could also just contest her approach. Peach is really good at trading, but if you're a swordie, you could most likely outrange her on everything except f-air, which usually trades unless you're someone like Shulk or Cloud with their f-airs.

Approaching Peach is dangerous as well. She seems slow in the ground, but her aerial drift lets her "dashback" b-air you into turn-around d-tilt, so approaching her is like a Fox approaching a Marth on FD in Melee. Having a good offensive game is key to approaching tricky characters like Peach. Self-control is a huge step in approaching in all Smash games. When you approach, you may want to dash attack where she just was, but if she's been driftback b-airing you the entire match, you should just follow her drift and then dash attack. Learning to undershoot and overshoot your aerials is an incredibly important technique to learn in every Smash game.

You can also play the midrange game if your character has the range and speed to threaten Peach. By staying close but not within hitting distance, you can pressure Peach and prevent any turnip pulls. If you see her pull a turnip, be prepared to go in, as that's where she's vulnerable. Good characters to play the midrange game are characters that are fast or can safely poke at her due to low lag and/or range. These characters include Fox, Wolf, and Shulk.

This blurb has only scratched the surface on the neutral game. The neutral game is a complex weave of layers where each player has to adapt to the other one to remain on top. The person who adapts the quickest and most effectively is the one who comes out on top. This is more generic but preventing auto-pilot and paying attention to what the opponent does during your games is important. Everytime you lose a stock you need to ask yourself this question, "What just beat me?" Asking yourself that question every single time is important, as it keeps you focused on the game. Do it in friendlies, analyze the shit out of your games as they happen. Reads are sick. Make it a habit.

Punishing Peach:

Once you finally have a hit on Peach, there isn't much you can do. Sure you can get a good 30-40% with a string, but outside of early percents, it's rare to be able to get more than 2 hits on Peach due to her attributes. However, because of these attributes, punishing Peach with killing is more effective than the threat of taking percent. As with most floaties, you want to be juggling them and keeping them above you, where it's harder to fight you. Characters that can juggle exceptionally well are Cloud, Lucina, Ike, and Meta Knight. Basically anyone with a sword. Now once they're at kill percents, they're usually aware of how light their character is. Much like Peach players, they can often panic at higher percents as they're no Bowser/Ganondorf. Picking characters like Ness and Inkling who have kill throws or kill confirms off grab can punish their shields.

As with most light/floaties, punishing Peach is all about juggling and keeping them above you, playing patient, and making reads on their shield.

Recommended Matchups:

The top 3 characters I recommend against Peach are (in no order):

1. Shulk

Shulk's Monado Arts lets him change his playstyle on a dime, allowing him to control the pace of the match exceptionally well. His massive sword allows him to outrange Peach and clank with her turnip, preventing approaches most of the time. In the neutral, Shulk can bully Peach very well, as his range negates her approaches and he's one of the few characters able to edgeguard her, as he covers and threatens so much space offstage and has a decent recovery distance-wise to boot. He is also an amazing ledgetrapper, as he covers so many options with Speed Art and his f-air. He's also able to combo her better than almost any other character due to Buster Art, as it reduces the knockback she takes, making mid-percent combos possible with it on. All of Shulk's Monado Arts are key to beating Peach. If you want a good chance against her, fully utilizing all of his Arts is optimal.

In the neutral game, you want to be adapting your playstyle based on the Peach. Against grounded Peach players that like to float low and land -> shield, Speed Art can make it much easier to fight. Against an aerial Peach that likes turnip approaches, Jump Art can anti-air with u-tilt -> u-air juggles/chases. Against a combo-heavy Peach that is very competent with their punish game, Shield Art Dial Storage at higher percents and Smash Art at lower percents will help you survive and escape combos, respectively. Approaching her depends on her playstyle, while defending against her is mostly comprised of u-tilt/SH u-air anti-airs and Vision.

Punishing Peach as Shulk is very different than other characters. Buster Art allows him to combo Peach at mid percents due to the reduced knockback, and Jump Art lets him chase Peach anywhere, including offstage with a single jump. Juggling/killing Peach off the top is insanely effective as Shulk. His edgeguard game is insanely simple yet effective against Peach. Smash Art -> run off f-air will cover pretty much the entire bottom half of the stage, and it beats Parasol. If Peach tries to recover high, he can switch to Jump Art and chase her around the top, even using up-b to kill Peach off the top.

Jump: Access to the Jump art gives Shulk insane vertical mobility. Against Peach, this is a major boost. This allows him to recover high, recover from very low, or switch from mid height to low to high in whatever combination he wishes by utilizing his massive double jump and up-b that can trade or flat-out beat Peach's edgeguards, aside from maybe d-air, which only hits about once or twice before Shulk falls out of it, allowing him to up-b again. Having this vertical mobility also grants him offensive properties. One of them includes his u-throw -> u-air with Jump Monado, and with Dial Storage tech, he's able to switch immediately from Jump -> Smash, allowing him to kill Peach very early off the top. As well as jumping high for kill confirms, he can chase very well when she's above him. He can jump/double jump -> u-air to try and catch her, and due to his increased falling speed via Jump, he can quickly land and chase her drift. Jump Monado is arguably the most important Art in the matchup and is the most important Art for punishing Peach.

Speed: The Speed Art makes Shulk one of the best rushdown characters in the game for a few seconds. His movement speed and air speed are both increased, allowing him to dart around the stage like wildfire. His aerials in Speed art have increased "range", as they travel with Shulk, increasing the area around him where he can threaten Peach. He also has lower jumps, which reduces the amount of time needed to re-land and startup another aerial. Jump Art allows Shulk to chase vertically, but Speed Art lets Shulk chase horizontally. If the Peach like to stay grounded and float low + shield often, Speed Art is more useful than Jump Art in the matchup.


Shield: Against competent Peach players, LEARN DIAL STORAGE. Dial Storage is a technique that allows Shulk to essentially instantly activate any Monado Art. In order to learn Dial Storage, one has to get used to the locations of all the Monado Art on the wheel. By buffering a Monado Art on the wheel, one can activate it as soon as Shulk would normally be able to. By buffering Shield Art, Shulk is able to instantaneously reduce the knockback of any move hitting him, letting him escape combos, one of Peach's biggest strengths. Outside of this, Shield is a pretty decent Art, allowing Shulk to take a breather and wait. Shield Art is essentially a waiting room for your other Monado Arts to recharge. Due to Dial Storage, Shield Art is arguably the most important Art you need to understand in the matchup and as a Shulk player.

Buster: One of two high-risk high-reward Shulk Arts, and probably the most dangerous to use against Peach. Her combos are naturally some of the highest damaging strings in the game, as her most basic combos can net her 60%. By getting caught with your Buster out (😉), you both increase the damage you take and reduce the knockback, allowing for more strings possible, meaning even more damage. I'd recommend against Buster unless you're at high percents and she's lower-mid, where it basically makes you a better character by reducing your knockback taken and increasing the damage against her. Buster is also very good if the Peach is at high percents and you can read the shield. A Buster n-air -> d-smash breaks shield on the 2nd hit, and if they shield the first hit, they'll be in shield stun long enough for the 2nd to break their shield. An optimal shield break punish would be n-air -> MALLC Buster -> d-smash, which would break shield and has very low lag due to Monado Art Landing Lag Cancel. The timing can be rough, so Buster n-air -> d-smash should work just fine.

Smash: The other high-risk high-reward Shulk Art. The knockback boost is insane on both ends, and should only be used if you're at low and she's at a high percent, if you can get a Dial Storage kill confirm, or if you're edgeguarding her, something that Shulk really excels at due to range and base kill power. Smash Art is also a decent Monado at early percents, as it makes it easier to get out of her strings and throw combos due to the increased knockback. If you're able to land Dial Storage kill confirms consistently, Smash Art can be a great tool at mid-high percents.

Some good Shulk players to look out for:

Nicko: One of the top Shulk players in both Smash 4 and Ultimate, known for his strong defense and reads, he is arguably the face of Shulk in competitive play.

Kome: Top Smash 4 and Ultimate Shulk, considered the best in Smash 4. A more offensive style of Shulk.

Darkwolf: Top Shulk player with good placings at a major level. Not as active as the others, but still one worth checking out.

2. Cloud

Another swordie. It's a pretty recurring theme, as Peach has a history of being poor against swordsman throughout her Smash career, especially due to swords beating turnips. By nature, her attributes lend herself to losing to them. Being light is a good thing, as swordies often don't combo at mid-high percents as much as fighters like Mario and Falcon. Peach being so light allows for swordies to push her into a corner much easier and kill her, depending on how good the character is at killing in general, which Cloud has in spades. Being floaty is also a detriment against a sword due to how easy it is to juggle them, as swords cover a ton of vertical area that Peach can't contest except for maybe d-air or if she has a turnip, which she shouldn't since she's, well, in the air. She's also got a pretty slow ground speed, meaning it's harder to play the spacing game, which is where float comes in. Floating allows her to space as if she had a higher run speed, and so, while she's floating, she instantly becomes a much faster character, capable of insane dashback drifts that make it difficult to approach. Cloud however, has a great approach game. His Blade Beam forces the Peach to land and then shield, allowing you to grab, jump away, forcing her into the air, and sometimes they double jump instead of land -> jump, so it makes it even easier to juggle, or drift away, which puts Peach into the corner and instantly grants Cloud stage control.

In the neutral game, Cloud should be shooting a few Blade Beams every once in a while while also using d-tilt, dash attack, and dash grab as approach options. I personally actually like to use n-air crossups on their shield, forcing an OOS option. Grab for when she's in shield, d-tilt to catch her drifting away, and u-tilt/SH u-air when she jumps. The main focus isn't to actually hit her with d-tilt. If she gets hit, she gets propped up. If she jumps out of the way, she's still in the air, putting her in disadvantage. Cloud's u-air is not what it used to be, but it's still a terrifyingly good anti-air and juggle tool due to low lag, still good range, and it hits decently hard/sets up for u-tilt at very early percents. If you wish to play defensive, charging Limit and shooting Blade Beam is a great way to force an approach.

Edgeguarding Peach can be tricky. Offstage, you're pretty much limited to rising b-air or Blade Beams to poke at her. You can also go for some f-airs and d-airs, but hitting the sweetspot requires some precision and are well telegraphed. Ledgetrapping mostly consists of autocancel n-airs and b-airs and 2-framing with d-tilt/d-air. Once she's in the air. U-air, u-air, u-air. It's got good range, it's fast enough to be used multiple times, and deals good damage/can kill well. If she airdodges, you can often land and then u-tilt if there's platforms or just u-air her again. If she directional airdodges, you can catch her with a f-air.

Cloud's niche is Limit. By charging Limit via down-b, hitting Peach, or getting hit, Cloud has access to 4 very powerful special attacks. With these, the neutral, punish, and edgeguarding become massively different.

Limit Blade Beam: Limit Blade Beam is infinitely more oppressive than regular Blade Beam. If you throw this while Peach is at high percent, it's almost a fact that she'll shield, allowing you to get a free grab/read their OOS option and punish. You should use this move while midrange, almost close-range, as if it's too far, they'll easily react and jump away. LBB is also a very underrated edgeguarding tool, as you can toss it out under where she currently is, as she'll either not react/expect it and fall into it, or expend a resource such as Parasol. LBB is hard to contest, as it is transcendent, meaning that nothing can really stop it from coming. It's also incredibly hard to parry due to the multi-hits and the danger factor that no Peach is seriously going to attempt it at high percents. LBB can also be used to cover rolls and Peach side-b.

Limit Cross Slash: LCS is an incredible close range punish option. It's insanely fast in both startup and endlag and incredibly hard to telegraph. It's great for reads, offstage kills, using it on reaction, and even baiting an opponent. Sometimes players won't realise just how little lag LCS has and will try to shield grab, allowing you to jump out of range and land with an aerial. Hitting them on shield might even be a good thing, as it  LCS is fast, strong, and very safe.

Limit Climhazzard: Limit Climhazzard is leagues above Climhazzard. It snaps to the ledge, more vertical and horizontal distance, faster, and is an unexpected kill move off the top, as it's the fastest Limit move to come out (Frame 7). Peach is arguably the best edgeguarder in Ultimate, so depending on how potent the Peach is, you might wanna save your Limit for LC when you're at mid-high percents. I still recommend using LCS or LBB more than LC, but if the Peach is good at edgeguarding and/or you're at a high percent and she's at low percent, having LC in your pocket to save you is gold.

Finishing Touch: The ultimate reads move. This is mainly for reading spotdodges, airdodges, rolls, getup attacks, etc. Kills insanely early, has deceptively large range, and has a windbox for edgeguarding purposes. FT is mainly good for during juggles, where you suspect an airdodge, or when you're ledgetrapping and you suspect a roll/getup attack. FT is mostly conditioning your opponent, so much so that raw FT can work in very small situations depending on the opponent. Against Peach, FT would mainly be used if you were to spotdodge Peach side-b, if she whiffed a move in front or behind you, or most commonly, if you read an airdodge while juggling. FT is a very risky play but very rewarding.

Limit changes the game for the 15 seconds it's active. Neutral is now much more frightening for the Peach at mid-high percents. You can't really spam Blade Beam, but you can get in mid-close range and then LBB, forcing a shield or expending their double jump, giving you stage control/advantage. If she's been spotdodging your LBB's, you could try and cover the spotdodge with LCS, as it'll catch her, or even FT if you want the kill that much. Cloud is also much more mobile while Limit is active, allowing him to move around Peach and cross her up much easier. Limit also makes Cloud fall faster, meaning he can juggle faster, allowing him to return to the ground, only for him to start the juggle again.

Edgeguarding Peach is also different in Limit. LBB can often catch people if they're in the top right corner and are kind of boxed in, you can use run off LCS to catch them by surprise, or just b-air and then LC back to the stage. When ledgetrapping, LCS can be used to cover an option behind you and LBB can catch Peach if she floats near the ledge. FT is very good at ledgetrapping, as it hits in front and behind, covering roll, getup attack, and standard getup. If they start jumping from ledge, you can jump -> LCS to catch them, or just b-air to save Limit.

Some Cloud players to check out:

ZeRo: Former King of Smash 4, played a bit of Cloud on release, now mains Wolf. Still has some sets online to watch.

MK Leo: Former #1 of Smash 4 after ZeRo retired, contention for #1 in Ultimate. Has a Cloud that he uses sometimes, mainly uses Lucina, Ike, and Wolf.


3. Lucina

Although she's not blonde, she's still again, a swordsman. Lucina is widely regarded as the best swordsman in Ultimate, due to her speed, kill power, consistency, and ease of use. She is almost entirely fundamentals, focusing on spacing, edgeguarding, and reads. She is much more aggressive than her counterpart, Marth, as he relies on proper spacing and dashbacks, while Lucina prefers close-range spacing, hitting their shield with the tip of her sword, despite the damage being the same throughout. She's one of the few characters who can reliably edgeguard Peach, and she gets the job done. N-air and f-air about halfway offstage can kill at 70% and she can still make it back onstage after an edgeguard. She also retains a strong juggling game with quick u-airs and u-tilts. Lucina is considered a very honest character, as she really has no gimmicks and her hitboxes line up with her sword just right.

In the neutral, Lucina is almost purely based on fundamentals. She doesn't have anything really character specific that shakes up neutral. Just pure spacing, reads, and conditioning. Most of the time when approaching, all your sword attacks should be spaced, as far away as possible while still hitting their shield. Your best approach options with the sword would be SH f-air and run -> d-tilt on shield, and SH u-air and run -> u-tilt when jumping. If she shields a lot, grab instead. If Peach tries to throw a turnip, hit it with a f-air and disengage. While fighting Peach, you want to prevent turnips in the first place, so you should stay close enough to hit her if she goes for a turnip, but not too close as to get counterattacked. When being approached, u-tilt is a fantastic anti-air and anti-turnip tool. If she tries to land on top of you, you can shield -> OOS option, dashback/dash-in f-smash, SH u-air, and counter if you suspect something strong like f-air.

Punishing Peach is again, all about juggling. Lucina's u-air is great for repeatedly juggling Peach, and if she airdodges, land and use u-tilt. Directional airdodges should be chased into f-air or u-air. When offstage, you're most likely going to be using f-air, n-air, or b-air, all which kill pretty early when halfway offstage. For ledgetrapping, d-tilt is a great 2-framer, side-b reaches pretty far, and u-tilt can hit in front of you, but it also extends to behind Lucina, covering a few more options including roll, getup, and jump from ledge. It does however lose to getup attack.

Lucina is arguably Peach's worst matchup. It has nothing to do with gimmicks/niches like Monado Arts or Limit Charge. Just pure strength as a character. Reliable in a ton of fields, essentially a master of all trades.

Some Lucina players to watch:

MK Leo: Contention for best in the world, mains Lucina, Ike, and Wolf. Leo's phenomenal spacing, mixed with his aggressive style, allows him to cover a ton of options at the safest distance possible with Lucina, further accentuating his ledgetrapping game.

Nairo: Using Lucina as a secondary/pocket, he's been able to take a ton of names with the character. Normally a Palutena main with a popular Ganondorf secondary, Nairo is one of the most consistently dominant players in Smash history.

Stage Select:

Peach's choice of stage is dependant on the aggressor. Against characters like Ganondorf and DK, who are most likely going to be approaching and killing ASAP, she'd usually go a larger stage like Kalos, regarded as Peach's best stage. Against a defensive zoner like Simon/Richter and DHD, Peach would prefer somewhere small like WarioWare. Banning Kalos is ideal, while practicing your movement and punish game with platforms can force a Peach away from tri-plats like Battlefield.

Summary:

To summarize,

- Pick a swordie

- Hit her turnips with sword

- Stay close to punish turnip

- Keep distance to prevent n-airs 

- Juggle her

- Pick Shulk/Cloud/Lucina

- GLHF

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Changelog:

Apr. 14/2019 - Added top Lucina players
Apr. 14/2019 - Shameless plug
Apr. 14/2019 - Fixed formatting
Apr. 15/2019 - Added Darkwolf as a top Shulk
Apr. 16/2019 - Renamed title
Apr. 17/2019 - Fixed formatting
May. 29/2020 - Updated Twitter handle