TimeMuffinPhD
PhD in time travel and muffins.
Fox McCloud 
Before you begin to read this, I have permission from Mumbo, the original creator of this idea. I will be using his format and some of his information, so give a big credit for the work he's put into this. Thanks. Unfortunately I'm not great with formatting so it won't look as nice as Mumbos.
This will be the first of a series of threads, each dedicated to a single matchup, covering all 41(+) matchups. These threads are going to be a collaboration, so PLEASE give me your thoughts and opinions. Post your videos here, even if you lose. Post your preferred stages, even if people think otherwise. Post your tips, even if you think you aren't the best player.
I. Videos:
II. Overview:
Fox is a fast character with a lot of pressure potential and early kills. Here, we discuss key points and basics of the matchup, we will go into analysis later on. Firefox = Fox's Up special/recovery; Illusion/Phantom = Fox's side special; Shine/Reflector = Fox's down special.
Fox's Strengths:
Neutral Game:
Ultimately, Stage striking, banning, and Counterpicking comes down to personal preference. People will also have conflicting opinions as to which stages are better or worse for certain matchups. Use this as a rough baseline, understand the reasons why each stage may help hurt a particular character, and learn what your opponent might want to ban/counterpick against you. Different Tournaments use different stage lists with different sets of starters and different amounts of stage bans.
Both characters do well on every single stage, so CPing is 100% personal preference. That said, I think the player who is better on the aggressive end of the MU would do better on much smaller stages, so If you are controlling the pace of the match with aggression and consistent conversions, I would go to Wario ware, Yoshi's island, GHZ, etc.
If you aren't the aggressor most of the time, you NEED to pick a stage that can give you some breathing room. (Thankfully PM has a lot to chose from). Dreamland is great although you won't be getting kills with Fairs at all. Skyworld is good if you want the platforms to recover on to, and are okay with giving that option to Fox. Both of these 2 have large open areas under the top platform that allow for chain grabs and easier juggles as well. FD works if your shtick is grabbing and converting off those, or really enjoy tech chasing and are confident on converting well off them when there are no platforms. PS2 is great if you need running room, but it opens up the option for fox to go for up-throw>uairs to kill which aren't the best option normally in spacie dittos.
I would personally try to strike to fountain/battlefield/smashvile because they are great neutral stages and can let you get a feel of the opponent and who is going to be the aggressor more of the time.
Counterpicks: Dreamland
Even: Everything
BAN:
???:
V. Tricks, Tips, Do's and Don'ts:
Don't:
Do:
Tricks:
Tips:
Guide Contributors: @
Soft Serve
Before you begin to read this, I have permission from Mumbo, the original creator of this idea. I will be using his format and some of his information, so give a big credit for the work he's put into this. Thanks. Unfortunately I'm not great with formatting so it won't look as nice as Mumbos.
This will be the first of a series of threads, each dedicated to a single matchup, covering all 41(+) matchups. These threads are going to be a collaboration, so PLEASE give me your thoughts and opinions. Post your videos here, even if you lose. Post your preferred stages, even if people think otherwise. Post your tips, even if you think you aren't the best player.
I. Videos:
II. Overview:
Fox is a fast character with a lot of pressure potential and early kills. Here, we discuss key points and basics of the matchup, we will go into analysis later on. Firefox = Fox's Up special/recovery; Illusion/Phantom = Fox's side special; Shine/Reflector = Fox's down special.
Fox's Strengths:
- Extremely Fast
- Strong Vertical Kill power in UpSmash and UpAir
- Very fast mental game with a lot of pressure and maneuverability
- Strong Crouch Cancel game
- Linear recovery is easily edge-guarded
- Light Fastfaller, nearly ideal combo weight
- Perfect height and very long hitstun animation for maximum punish
- Tech level required to play Fox consistently is very high, this ******* the mental game of the player if it's not second nature
- The better player will win the neutral game
- The aggressor will most likely have the advantage (if playing well)
- Efficiency and consistency is key
- Wolf can punish Fox harder
Neutral Game:
- In neutral, Fox is just ever so slightly faster than Wolf, but Wolf has a projectile and significantly better air control and imo better hitboxes. Fox approaches better because a lot of Wolf's approaches can get anti-air Utilted. Wolf's main pressure move, Nair, also doesn't trade well so if both do Nairs at each other Fox will come out on top. Running shines are great for both characters, and both net tons off of grabs as well.
- Wolf has to not get grabbed and then he has options deal with approaches. CC>shine is really strong against early% Nair approaches, and wolf has a great DD to get around approaches. If he gets grabbed, its up-throw>tech chase or Usmash/utilt>combo depending on percent.
- Since the MU is so volatile, the smarter player will probably win neutral. Its the closest MU you could get to the Fox ditto without it being 2 foxes. Whoever moves and baits better and puts themselves at the least risk will probably win neutral more often. The player with the better tech chase game will come out on top in punishes imo. At early percents thats what you have to do to make conversions back into a juggle.
- Wolf's shine OOS is better than Fox's in this match-up, if Wolf hits his shine it can start a combo or a punish
- B-Throw to F-Smash works very well at low percents and it also carries Fox very far along the stage, which is exactly where you want him to be.
- Jab resets are essential if Fox is ever on the ground. This will most likely happen after a throw. Jab and then continue the combo after the get-up animation.
- You can punish many of Fox's approach moves. As you may know, CC is very powerful in this game, so if you CC his approach and then follow up with D-Smash it works well as a counter attack.
- U-throw is great for starting up combos, you will want to follow up with double U-Air's; sometimes you will have to do falling U-Air's to follow up consistently.
- F-Air is a great move for comboing and juggling fast-fallers. You can chain multiple F-Airs into enders such as Side-B (refer to Chillindude vs. Hax).
- As I have mentioned previously, you can use both crouch cancel and shine OOS in the neutral game, but both are efficient methods to escape Fox's pressure.
- Using blaster defensively by wavelanding backwards with it allows you to create space for yourself to breath, this is especially useful if the Fox is the aggressor.
- Fox's recovery is pretty linear, so hitting that D-Air spike is made much more possible. If you predict well enough you can just kill Fox instantly.
- If you're holding ledge, you basically need to predict whether Fox will go straight horizontal or upwards (or for the ledge if some crazy mind games are going on), so you just need to be at the right place at the right time.
- B-Air gets the job done nicely, you can go out really deep with it and it comes out quickly so you can recover back to the stage in time.
- If you predict his recovery well enough, you can get back on stage and get the hitbox of U-Smash which will send Fox really far.
- U-Air also has the same sort of hitbox as U-Smash, but I would say is a bit harder to actually hit.
- Also if you're skillful enough, shine can be used to stage spike Fox if placed well. Shine can also be comboed into many of Wolf's aerials off stage.
- D-Smash can be used to punish missed sweet-spots.
- Wolf's recovery is pretty much the same as Fox's, he just has more range and it's better in general. However that doesn't mean you can't be smarter than Fox about it. Fox's edge guarding is weaker than Wolf's, however he has a shine spike, which if aimed correctly will more than likely kill you.
- You will want to mix up your recovery with sweet spotted side b's and Up B's aimed in different directions.
- Shine stalling will also help to confuse the Fox player if you're having trouble getting back to the stage.
- Most of the time you really don't want to be off stage, because a good Fox won't drop an edge guard.
- This match up is mainly even, you have to make the most out of your punishes and win the neutral game against Fox.
- Don't drop edge guards.
- Don't let Fox pressure you for free.
- Pull some sick combos, that's why you're playing Wolf and not Fox.
Ultimately, Stage striking, banning, and Counterpicking comes down to personal preference. People will also have conflicting opinions as to which stages are better or worse for certain matchups. Use this as a rough baseline, understand the reasons why each stage may help hurt a particular character, and learn what your opponent might want to ban/counterpick against you. Different Tournaments use different stage lists with different sets of starters and different amounts of stage bans.
Both characters do well on every single stage, so CPing is 100% personal preference. That said, I think the player who is better on the aggressive end of the MU would do better on much smaller stages, so If you are controlling the pace of the match with aggression and consistent conversions, I would go to Wario ware, Yoshi's island, GHZ, etc.
If you aren't the aggressor most of the time, you NEED to pick a stage that can give you some breathing room. (Thankfully PM has a lot to chose from). Dreamland is great although you won't be getting kills with Fairs at all. Skyworld is good if you want the platforms to recover on to, and are okay with giving that option to Fox. Both of these 2 have large open areas under the top platform that allow for chain grabs and easier juggles as well. FD works if your shtick is grabbing and converting off those, or really enjoy tech chasing and are confident on converting well off them when there are no platforms. PS2 is great if you need running room, but it opens up the option for fox to go for up-throw>uairs to kill which aren't the best option normally in spacie dittos.
I would personally try to strike to fountain/battlefield/smashvile because they are great neutral stages and can let you get a feel of the opponent and who is going to be the aggressor more of the time.
Counterpicks: Dreamland
Even: Everything
BAN:
???:
V. Tricks, Tips, Do's and Don'ts:
Don't:
Do:
Tricks:
Tips:
Guide Contributors: @
Soft Serve
Last edited:
