The Worst Matchups in Smash 4

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Good morning everybody.

In Smash 4, and fighting games in general for that matter, there are different types of matchups. There are the about even ones, such as Mario vs. Bayonetta (feel free to disagree with me on that), and then there are the ones that are more in one character's favor by a little bit, like Marth beating Lucario (feel free to disagree with me on that too). But that's not what I'm here to talk about.

Today I'm going to go over nine matchups that are ridiculously bad for one character, for one reason or another. Matchups where one character's tools almost completely shut down the other's, making it nearly impossible to win. Let's take a look, shall we?

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Table of contents

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Ness vs. Rosalina

King Dedede vs. Mega Man

Ganondorf vs. Bayonetta

King Dedede vs. Sheik

Jigglypuff vs. Marth

Jigglypuff vs. Cloud

Floaties and lightweights vs. Meta Knight

Rosalina vs. Meta Knight

ROB vs. Zero Suit Samus

Conclusion

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Ness vs. Rosalina

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The most infamous bad matchup of them all, Ness vs. Rosalina, is part of the reason why it’s almost impossible to solo main Ness.

I mean... Sheik is also a thing, but...

Really any character that can easily get rid of PK Thunder while Ness tries to recover with it is going to have an easy time against him. And Rosalina does this the best. Gravitational Pull is one of, if not the best means to deal with projectiles in the whole game, thanks to its long range and low ending lag. If-- no, when Rosalina snatches PK Thunder, Ness will fall helplessly to his death. Footstool optional.

On top of that, Ness doesn’t survive all that long onstage either, thanks to his lighter than average weight and very slow fall speed. These two factors combined make Rosalina’s up air with Luma an extremely deadly kill move, especially on stages with lower ceilings or platforms closer to the blast zones, like Dream Land and Town and City.

Unfortunately for Ness, he doesn’t have the best means of killing Luma, unlike another character I’ll take a look at later in this blog. Ten bucks if you can guess who it is.

Oh, you uh, read the table of contents? Oops.

No money for you then.

Because of this, Luma may stay by Rosalina’s side for quite a while, which isn’t fun for Ness at all. Luma basically turns Rosalina from a low tier character to a top tier. That’s how good he is.

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King Dedede vs. Mega Man

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Another one of the most well-known atrocious matchups, playing King Dedede against Mega Man is basically asking for you to get bodied. Lemons are incredibly difficult for Dedede to deal with, because of his slow frame data and an enormous hurtbox. It’s also easier for Mega Man to pull off combos on Dedede, because he’s so heavy and falls so fast, not to mention his enormous hurtbox. This makes it easier to perform the, uh, let’s call it the Kameme Combo. You know the one, z-dropped Metal Blade to footstool to jab lock to z-drop to up tilt.

While Mega Man has projectiles for almost half of his moves, King Dedede only has one, and it sucks. Yup, I’m talking about his Gordo. As you know, Gordos can be reflected by any hitbox that does 2% damage or more. As a result, Mega Man can use lemons to send the Gordo back in Dedede’s face. But only neutral air lemons; jab and forward tilt won’t work.

Total number of semicolons I’ve used on Smash Amino: 5

Despite Dedede having some of the best survivability in the game, Mega Man has no trouble at all getting damage on Dedede, because of his lemons and some high-damaging combos. Because of this, Dedede has a very hard time even hitting Mega Man, let alone beating him.

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Ganondorf vs. Bayonetta

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One of the best combo characters in the game with amazing edgeguarding against a heavy, slow warlock with a terrible recovery. Who wins?

I swear if you get this wrong...

Bayonetta's combos obviously work best on heavyweights, and Ganondorf is the fifth heaviest character in the game (or fourth, I forget). In any case, there isn't much Ganondorf can do against these combos. Bayonetta can knock him silly all she wants and there's not much he can do about it.

Edgeguarding is also a huge issue for Ganondorf in this matchup. He has an awful recovery, and Bayonetta can abuse this by using her aerials to send him further away from the stage.

Another issue Ganondorf has is dealing with Witch Time. The best way to do so is with grabs and throws, since those can't be countered. Ganon's grab game is mediocre at best, and he doesn't have many combos out of throws. That's just the icing on the cake though. So overall, it really isn't a fun time for Ganondorf.

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King Dedede vs. Sheik

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Let’s pit another superheavy bottom tier against a combo-heavy top tier, shall we? Like Mega Man, Sheik can overwhelm Dedede in the neutral, camping him with needles, reflecting his Gordos back at him with aerials, and using her stupidly low damaging attacks to slowly chip away at his damage. Fortunately, since Dedede is so big and heavy and falls so fast, it’s easy for Sheik to string together 37 bazillion hits and next thing you know, Dedede is dededead, despite his extremely good survivability and Sheik’s lack of kill options.

Dedede at least has a decent grab game, unlike Ganondorf, which makes the Bayonetta matchup a little less bad. But not by much. His slow frame data, huge frame, and combo food-ness makes him no match for Sheik.

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Jigglypuff vs. Marth

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So these next two matchups were discussed in the comments of a post I made asking people what they thought the worst matchup was. Troupple King and Linbin talked about whether Jigglypuff has a worse matchup against Marth or Cloud. And to be honest, I’m not sure about the answer to this. So leave your thoughts in the comments of this blog. Whether you do so before or after you read what I have to say is completely up to you.

As we all know, Jigglypuff is an INCREDIBLY frail character. She is the lightest and floatiest character in the game, and on top of that, she’s the only character who will insta-die from a shield break. Granted, it’s possible that you won’t die from a shield break, but that’s only if you’re stupid enough to stand in shield long enough for it to break, your opponent is stupid enough to be directly above you, and they have godlike reaction time and manage to footstool or attack you as you whiz by. But that’s besides the point. Because of this fact, tipper Shield Breaker will insta-kill Jigglypuff, and she dies from tipper anything obscenely early.

Marth also has no trouble beating Jigglypuff in the neutral, since her mobility is trash on the ground, she’s already at a disadvantage by being in the air since she can get juggled by Marth’s up air, and Marth has long range with his sword. Edgeguarding is also a strong point for Marth in this matchup, since he can footstool Jigglypuff to force her to use more double jumps or use forward air and neutral air to keep pushing her towards the blast zone. So all in all, this matchup is absolutely atrocious for Puff.

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Jigglypuff vs. Cloud

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And now we come to Cloud. Like Marth, Cloud has a sword, but this time, he has even longer range and more consistently strong kill moves due to his lack of a tipper. His up air is one of the best juggling tools in the game, and Limit is just the icing on the cake. As you all know, Limit makes Cloud’s special moves a lot stronger, and you know what Limit Cross Slash can do? Break shields. And you know what Jigglypuff does when her shield breaks? She dies.

Unlike Marth, however, Cloud can’t really edgeguard Jigglypuff that much due to his poor recovery. If he does, he’s probably not getting back on stage. Rest in RIP Cloud Strife, 2018-2017.5.

Regardless, Cloud's consistently strong kill moves and range and Jigglypuff's severe lack of survivability make this an absolutely nightmare of a matchup for the Puff. Again.

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Floaties and lightweights vs. Meta Knight

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Unlike most characters, Meta Knight’s combo game works best against floaty characters and lightweights, because of his down tilt locks and ladder combos. Since he can’t set up down tilt locks against heavyweights due to their weight and the knockback they take at low percents, as well as the fact that he likes to be under his opponents to do up air combos, being light and floaty is a terrible combination against Meta Knight.

Floaties and lightweights are extremely easy to combo to the sky with up airs into Shuttle Loop, killing them ridiculously early. This makes Meta Knight a good counterpick character in today’s metagame against a variety of characters. And yes, this is technically Jigglypuff’s third appearance in this blog. Poor Jiggs.

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Rosalina vs. Meta Knight

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The most prominent example of a really good floaty matchup for Meta Knight is Rosalina. She deserves her own section for reasons you’ll see in a little bit.

On top of Rosa’s light weight and floatiness, which we’ve already established is a terrible combination in the Meta Knight matchup, she relies heavily on Luma, which Meta Knight can easily dispose of. Jab, down throw, forward air, and dash attack can all be used to dispose of Luma or drain his HP. Dash attack can also kill two birds with one stone, as Meta Knight can knock Luma offstage and start to ladder combo Rosalina to the sky with the same move. Since the amount you can DI up airs during a ladder combo is minimal, it’s very difficult for Rosalina to escape this combo.

Rosalina is a pretty bad character without Luma, making Meta Knight’s moveset extremely scary to go up against. However, if Rosalina somehow finds a way to hold on to Luma, then that’s a huge plus. Unfortunately for her, anti-Luma strategies are at an all time high, which makes it exceedingly difficult for her to keep him alive.

Bonus: If Meta Knight pays attention to the in-game timer, he can see when Luma dies. By doing this, he will know exactly when Luma is going to come back (13 seconds), and be prepared to get rid of him again.

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Zero Suit Samus vs. R.O.B.

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ROB is combo food as is, but when you put him up against Zero Suit Samus, he’s probably gonna get bodied. ROB's huge hurtbox and heavy weight makes it easier for ZSS to combo him, and hit him in general. His big hurtbox and below average mobility also makes it easier for ZSS to get a grab. Since she has fantastic down throw combos but an atrocious grab, this definitely helps her out a lot. His hurtbox also makes it easier for ZSS to paralyze him with neutral B and down smash, which allows her to set up kill moves like forward smash and down B.

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Conclusion

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Welp, that's all the matchups I've got. If you think I've left any out, let me know down in the comments. Any other suggestions are also welcome. I'm always looking to improve my content in any way I can.

Baibai.