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

---

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

---

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