Okay so this is the first summary I have written and its on peach because that's the most recent match I played. PLEASE hit me if I've written anything completely wrong
or feel free to take this and change parts of it, rewrite your own summary or whatever, I don't really care, as long as we know how we can win, then whatever achieves this best is the way forward. I'm gonna place this in the OP just to see how it looks.
OVERVIEW
Peach cannot approach Zelda as she would the majority of the cast. Her float approaches are hampered by Zelda’s USmash. Instead she’ll try to bait Zelda into making mistakes, and punish her severely afterwards. Once Zelda makes a mistake, Peach’s Dair combos arrive at early percents, getting a quick 40+% lead. After further pokes, Peach will be attempting to get Zelda off-stage with a variety of moves that achieve this – Fair, Nair, FSmash and some throws all do this. Once Zelda is off-stage, Peach can wait by the ledge to hog it, or float in the general area where Zelda will teleport to. In either case, Peach will be punishing Zelda’s recovery very easily this way. Additionally, Peach’s USmash outprioritises the hitbox of Farore’s on arrival, however this may be tricky for her to time.
Peach can feel the pressure if her baits are failing to work on Zelda. If Zelda is keeping up with damage percents, or even leading, then Peach is at a loss, as Zelda has much stronger kill power. In this instance, Peach will be attempting to mix things up dramatically with random movements here and there and looking for opportunities to attack safely.
MOVES TO WATCH OUT FOR
FAIR
Fair is her primary killing move. It hits on frame 16, so is quite lengthy, yet it has excellent priority, range and knockback. It can be auto-cancelled so that it is lagless when it hits the ground. This allows Peach to immediately follow up with another attack. When auto-cancelled, it cannot be punished. It gives Peach a -2 frame advantage, and Zelda doesn’t have a 2 frame attack or under to hit Peach before Peach makes her next move. This gives Peach free and safe shield stun on Zelda if Fair connects. Follow-ups from Fair include her two jab combo, her grab, or a jab-cancelled grab (she slaps and then grabs), or possibly a glide tossed turnip amongst many others.
• How to deal with this move?
- ROLL AWAY OR BEHIND HER when you see it coming. Don’t shield, don’t spotdodge, or you will be punished by either it or her follow-ups. Rolling away allows you to miss the attack plus all follow-ups from this attack, and puts Peach in Zelda’s range for a potential FSmash. You can shield from your roll enough to avoid a glide toss follow-up as well.
- You might have the chance to interrupt her with a Nair or USmash or an attack that is primarily faster than that 16 frame hit. This is very risky.
- Remember, Zelda’s Utilt trades with her Fair. Utilt is almost double in power and will guarantee the KO on Peach unstaled at around 110% with DI, possibly even earlier. Make this tradeoff as her Fair is most likely to be stale.
DAIR
This is her main combo move. It chains together from the float and links to so many other attacks at lower percents. It hits 4 times, and there is a slight delay before her next attack comes out after the 4th kick.
• How to deal with this move?
- Angle your shield upwards and count the number of kicks she does. After 4 kicks, USmash if she’s above you. DO NOT USMASH IF SHE’S NOT IN RANGE. She can float Dair across you and on the 4th kick she can simply get out of range of Zelda.
TURNIPS
Peach’s quasi-projectile. It can be glide-tossed to extend its reach. Without the glide-toss, it doesn’t have enough range to threaten Zelda. Pay attention to the faces on this turnip. The majority won’t have many special effects, however beware of the dot-eyed and stitchface turnips, they will deal significantly more damage and knockback, particularly stitchface.
• How to deal with this move?
- There’s no point in attempting to reflect it with Nayru’s. Instead choose to airdodge, spotdodge or Nair instead. Nair has a long duration and will catch turnips easily if they are thrown at you. Once a turnip is in your possession, remember that you have glide-toss approaches as well, most notably forward glide-toss to USmash.
WHAT CAN ZELDA DO?
Watch Peach very carefully. Track her movement both on ground and in the air, and seek opportunities to rack up damage with USmash. She will be trying to bait you with turnips and float mixups – falling for these baits is ultimately how she will win against you. The match becomes even when you learn her patterns and remain difficult to bait.
Don’t let her inside your range with auto-cancelled aerials. Move out of range of Fair and she won’t be able to follow-up successfully. Jab can be useful in stopping some of her float approaches also, due to its hitbox height. Avoid her Dair by shielding and punishing afterwards. You can shield and roll to get away, or simply punish her with USmash after the 4th kick. Interrupt her float with your frame 6 Nair, it’s very handy at making her get away from you. As a sidenote, USmash and Utilt trade with all of Peach’s aerials, ALL OF THEM! Utilt is the better trade off because of its insane power. To kill Peach quickly it may be very wise to make this tradeoff if both of you are at higher percents, as most likely Peach will be the one to die first.
Dtilt > Utilt setup works against Peach effectively on Final Destination at around 90+%. The undecayed Dtilt will have a chance at popping her up more consistently around this percent with enough hitstun for a follow-up, such as Utilt. Keep in mind, Dtilt can start locking Peach at around 50%.
DO NOT USE DIN’S. Only use it to pressure her recovery when she’s really far away from you. Her aerials cancel out Din’s so remember this.
Her float recovery can be sourspotted with Dair, and this has the opportunity to kill her considering she lacks vertical height. Of course, a sweetspotted guarantees death on her. It is easy to sweetspot Peach when she floats as she travels on one axis of movement. However, it difficult to land kicks in general as Peach protects herself very well. But, the moment Peach reaches 70+%, she can be KO’d by Lightning Kicks with DI. Always be on the lookout for chances to sweetspot her. Peach can be Fair’d or Bair’d OoS by Zelda, so remember this if she gets too close to you.
STAGES
Take Peach to Distant Planet if it isn’t banned. The layout effectively hampers her float approaches and makes it difficult to bait Zelda in general. The toys can be used against her for glide toss approaches, and Zelda has excellent glide toss options. As Peach is mainly a horizontal killer, she’ll struggle with achieving kills on this stage, the landscape is long (though careful on the left part of the stage). Zelda’s vertical kills are more effective on this stage than Peach’s horizontal kills.
If Distant Planet is banned, counterpick Corneria. Zelda kills unbelievably well on this stage, and again the layout makes it difficult for Peach to really get close to Zelda.
MATCHUP RATIO
Zelda 45 : 55 Peach