How do I beat Samus?

[Mijah]

My buddy and I are going to be having a friendly money match in a week or two (loser buys dinner), and I know he will be maining Samus. I have next to zero experience with the matchup and think it may be a tougher matchup for Marth especially for an inexperienced player. I was just wondering if anyone knew the matchup well enough to give some quick pointers. I'm not looking to become a god at the matchup in a week, but anything to help me smash my friend will be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

 

[Chesstiger2612]

Well I will try to help you but it is always somehow tough to give appliable advice when I have no clue about what you know yourself, where your strengthes and weaknesses are and what you will expect Samus to do.
You will need to practice edgeguarding Samus, hitting away missiles, reacting to crouch-cancel attempts and maximizing your punish off a grab in every case, so that is sure to say.
One good kill setup is side-b -> up-tilt from ~120% onwards. Don't aerial approach at low %s because Samus can crouchcancle into tilts/d-smash. You can't really juggle Samus because of her floatiness but you can make it hard for her to land, never go too high in the air.

 

[Mijah]

Thanks for the help! I'm just worried that I wont be able to aproach with all of the missiles flying about. My opponent will have no problem playing a long and campy style. Is Samus's edgeguarding game good vs Marth? What are good stages to strike and counterpick?

 

[Chesstiger2612]

You want to counterpick small stages and ban big ones, basically.
I'd go for Yoshis Story, Green Hill Zone, WarioWare and Final Destination for counterpicking while striking Dreamland, Skyloft and maybe some stage you don't like personally, or just a stage Samus feels comfortable on.

You can approach very slowly when you do for example a sh double fair with c-stick while holding forward. You always have a bit of time to approach before you have to hit away the next missile. Don't be impatient.

Samus has a good edgeguarding game if Marth has few recovery options, but some of the edgeguards if you have more options are pretty hard (like the powershield shield DI instant edgehog) and you can mixup. Try to save your jump and your first side-b because Samus can't really go low to edgeguard you.

 

[Spralwers]

Definitely strike PS2. Maybe battlefield as well. Those platform heights are so good for missile spams if the Samus has grinded down that tech skill.

 

[Red Rice]

Space your tipper fairs. At mid percents, if she tries to crouch cancel a tippered fair, she falls down.

You always want to space fairs with your sharp stick

 

[Nigamon]

Your up throw is based on fall speed not weight. (I am sure everyone's is) So if Samus is at a high percent and you grab her, just throw up. You might want to go into training mode and see when she will die from up throws. Just remember about DI though.

According this this chart

Fast-fallers:
1) Wolf [3.2]
2) Falco [3.1]
3) C. Falcon [2.9]
4) Fox [2.8]

Semi-fast-fallers:
5) Diddy [2.55]
6) MK [2.45]
7-8) DK/Roy [2.4]
9) Lucas [2.3]
10) DDD [2.25]

Semi-floaties:
11) Marth [2.2]
12-14) Link/Sheik/Toon Link [2.13]
15) Snake [2.12]
16-17) Ike/ZSS [2.05]
18-19) Ganon/Lucario [2.0]
20) Yoshi [1.92]
21-25) Bowser/Olimar/Pikachu/Pit/Sonic [1.9]

Floaties:
26) Wario [1.85]
27) Ness [1.83]
28-32) Charizard/G&W/Ivysaur/Mario/Squirtle [1.7]
33) ROB [1.65]
34-36) ICs/Kirby/Luigi [1.6]
37-38) Mewtwo/Peach [1.5]
39-40) Samus/Zelda [1.4]
41) Jigglypuff [1.3]

 

[Chesstiger2612]

Your up throw is based on fall speed not weight. (I am sure everyone's is) So if Samus is at a high percent and you grab her, just throw up. You might want to go into training mode and see when she will die from up throws. Just remember about DI though.

According this this chart

Spoiler

Fast-fallers:
1) Wolf [3.2]
2) Falco [3.1]
3) C. Falcon [2.9]
4) Fox [2.8]

Semi-fast-fallers:
5) Diddy [2.55]
6) MK [2.45]
7-8) DK/Roy [2.4]
9) Lucas [2.3]
10) DDD [2.25]

Semi-floaties:
11) Marth [2.2]
12-14) Link/Sheik/Toon Link [2.13]
15) Snake [2.12]
16-17) Ike/ZSS [2.05]
18-19) Ganon/Lucario [2.0]
20) Yoshi [1.92]
21-25) Bowser/Olimar/Pikachu/Pit/Sonic [1.9]

Floaties:
26) Wario [1.85]
27) Ness [1.83]
28-32) Charizard/G&W/Ivysaur/Mario/Squirtle [1.7]
33) ROB [1.65]
34-36) ICs/Kirby/Luigi [1.6]
37-38) Mewtwo/Peach [1.5]
39-40) Samus/Zelda [1.4]
41) Jigglypuff [1.3]

It is also dependent on weight because that determines the throw release point and if they DI, also the horizontal component of the knockback. You are right for the most part though.
As counterexample, you can't really CG Wolf as well as Fox although he is more of an fastfaller, mainly because of his weight

 

[pinkdeaf1]

Use fairs and f tilt to cancel her missiles, or just shield or jump. Stay below her since thr worst samus can do without disjoints ar3 nair and dair. Missiles aren't too much of a problem. Just don't give samus space. Always apply constant pressure. Samus is slow enough in the air that you can catch her relatively easily. Don't be above samus too often... hmmm. What else do I know...

If they use fire, watch your spacing. If they fight like me, up smash will be a problem. And f smash if you misspace or are read

I don't think fire mode can combo well out of throws.

Ice mode can. If your fri3nd is good at following up on throws, ice mode will hurt. Samus can only combo out of down throw, and this is di dependent. If you di in, you get up smashed of naired. No di and the same thing. Di out and you get faired. Or at high enough percents, di out and get off scot free. Youll never make that high if your fri3nd is good though.

Fire power missiles are more dangerous in this matchup so watch out for those. Followed by ice homing, ice power, and then fire homing. Hom7ng missiles can get cut out of the air with your sword. Power missiles are harder to time a hit on, but maybe you should just guard or jump.

Tipped up air is your friend.

 

[pinkdeaf1]

You want to counterpick small stages and ban big ones, basically.
I'd go for Yoshis Story, Green Hill Zone, WarioWare and Final Destination for counterpicking while striking Dreamland, Skyloft and maybe some stage you don't like personally, or just a stage Samus feels comfortable on.

You can approach very slowly when you do for example a sh double fair with c-stick while holding forward. You always have a bit of time to approach before you have to hit away the next missile. Don't be impatient.

Samus has a good edgeguarding game if Marth has few recovery options, but some of the edgeguards if you have more options are pretty hard (like the powershield shield DI instant edgehog) and you can mixup. Try to save your jump and your first side-b because Samus can't really go low to edgeguard you.

I beg to differ. Her tether is ridiculously long. If she sends out a nair in the way up up b, you will trade and she can just tech stage and you are dead. Your recovery depends on the situation. Ifnshe is down their, recover high. If she is high, sweetspot ledge. If she hangs from ledge... well you should recover high because of the tether ledge regrab. Your recovery should be not too difficult.

 

[usernamecloi]

get ur edge hog game straight. samus' up-b and tether grab is really easy to punish.

space ur fairs properly