As some of you may know, a ZSS just won the 2nd largest Brawl tournament ever (Apex 2013). This was due to both amazing skill by the winning player and a complete lack of knowledge on how to fight the character. As a character that has such large advantages on ZSS offstage, it was appalling to me to see Salem edgeguarded well only once out of every set he played against a ZSS (Dojo, M2K twice, Otori). This will be a little guide on how to edgeguard that *****, as it is clearly your biggest advantage in the MU.



Now I know what you must be thinking "***** ESAM you aren't a MK main." You are right, but edgeguarding with MK and Pikachu is pretty much the same considering we both have a really important move for it that is nearly identical; Nair. Nair is nearly all you need, and edgeguarding is even easier for MK since you have 6 jumps as opposed to Pikachu's measley 2.



Anyway, let's get started. The first thing about edgeguarding ZSS is you need to be able to REACT to what she does. Reading works, but I'm assuming you aren't playing against your training partners so you can't analyze their habits that quickly. If you don't have a reaction time, work on getting a better one. Playing Robot Unicorn Attack actually helps a little bit #Erasure







Now, there are 3 situations that you can put ZSS offstage.



1. In the up-away corner

2. About stage height far away

3. Between 1 and 2 in terms of height



I'll go over some others, but those are the main 3.





Now, when you hit ZSS with say, a nair around 90%, she goes into the corner, assuming good DI. ZSS has 3 options to recover.





1. Recover high by using her double jump and up-b and have to deal with landing mix-up



2. Wait really far out and recover low



3. Hold forward and just coast near the stage and eventually throw out moves/mix-ups



None of these options are very good for her. You guys should all know how to punish landing characters using uair frame traps and d-smash **** and blah blah. Don't really need to go over that since it isn't very character specific.



LOW RECOVERY



2. if ZSS recovers low, it is really quite simple to edgeguard her. Imagine her being at like a 30 degree angle off-stage and like 3-6 MK lengths away from the stage (I had a picture but smashboards hates using the space button to actually space out diagrams)



Step 1, grab the ledge. Unless she is in DJ uair range, she can't **** with you. All she can do is throw out a side-b and hope to catch your invulnerability wearing off. That isn't very difficult, but now you win. If you don't want to get hit, see her throwing out the forward B and get off the ledge. ZSS can NOT choose to not tether to the edge, it is a mandatory effect. At this point she has a few options.



Fastfall off of the tether, DJ and attempt to hit you/grab the ledge with up-b (Take note that in order to do this effectively she will have to wait a bit so that she can swing down and not still be stuck out really far)

Reel the tether in.



You wanna know what option beats both of these? Nair then fastfall. If they try to reel the tether in, your constant nair hitbox will hit them out and then you can follow up with another ledge grab and react to whatever they do from below the stage (Which I will cover in a minute). If they decide to wait and try to get fancy, the ff will cut them off considering they would have to immediately un-tether and hit you without a DJ which would probably cause them to die, or miss anyway. Obviously it isn't a 100% thing as your spacing could be off, but at least 80% of the time that option will work.



"But ESAM, what if they untether immediately and down-b?



Down-b is a really long move so you can literally throw out the nair, recover from your lag, and up-b them off-stage. Move is bad unless you hard overcommit





MID HEIGHT RECOVERY

If ZSS holds forward immediately, pressure her in the air. Just DJ and throw out really safe up-airs from ranges that you won't hit her. She won't want to fall into you and get uaired, so she will either drift out or DJ above you. If she DJs above you, land back on the stage/platform and hit her landing. Again, not gonna go over this since it isn't very character specific (Besides the fact that you don't **** with Bair) after being hit she will probably around this position. Assuming she doesn't DJ, she will probably end up around 2-3 MK lengths off-stage.





This situation is a little more ambiguous, but still easy. At this point she has a few options.



1. DJ and try to weave in and out to try to get you to commit to an option you shouldn't.

2. Fall with an aerial in hopes you did something and she hits you far enough away from the edge for her to be able to grab it safely.

3. Down-b mix-up



Key #1 to this situation. Don't overcommit. Don't up-b until you see them do something that you KNOW can get up-b'd For example, don't try to run off and nair her without reacting to the side-b. You just lost stage presence, she got back on stage because she DJ'd above you and now you have to fight her on stage (Which is still pretty easy).



Key #2. Learn when you can hit ZSS out of down-b. Right as she reaches the apex of her hop she is vulnerable. She can neither kick nor footstool at this height, so throwing out, let's say, a SL is perfectly ok and AT WORST if you have bad reaction time you will trade with the spike...but if you DI on stage you won't die anyway blah blah I'm ranting



Key #3 Don't be scared of her. Unless you are at 130+% you aren't at kill range from her uair at about stage level, in which case you just have to space better. More than likely you aren't, so even if you get hit you will be OK since ZSS can't really edgeguard MK unless you have the assest of all reaction times *CoughM2KCough*



IN every situation, just stay on-stage until you can react to something. Stand on the very very end of the stage so you don't have to waste any time running off-stage assuming she throws out a tether.



If she tries to DJ:



Just stay on the stage-side of her. If she tries to weave out, walk forward. She can have down-b mix-ups, but then you can punish that **** since it is super free to hit. Again, just don't commit. Don't dash since then she will react and down-b on stage or fastfall to the ledge and you won't be able to do anything about it. She is still in the air above you which is a horrible horrible place for her to be because of MKs juggling/landing traps. All ZSS wants to do is catch you committing so she can get back on stage safely.



Assuming she tries to fall and attack you to give herself space



If you understand the spacing of ZSS, you can tell when she is going to swing at you...or at least the imaginary hitbox bubbles around her. Just stand out of them. Assuming she isn't turned around you can just be like a MKs length away from her and she can't hit you with anything. If you respect her and she tries to FF and grab the ledge, just throw out a d-tilt or something to poke her back off. Then she goes into panic mode like in the first example of when she is below the stage.



If she falls low, you obviously just go back to the first section.



JUST FOR REFERENCE



If ZSS down-b's, she is pretty much ****ed unless she is at a ledge grabbing angle. Just wait. There is a near 0% chance that the ZSS will wait all the way until the very ****ing end of her down-b to throw out the kick, so you can normally see it and punish accordingly. If she doesn't seem to be doing anything, she probably pressed jump to flipstool (Unlike normal footstools, the flipstool isn't timing based, she just has to press jump in her down-b animation and she will do it when she comes into contact with anything flipstoolable). So...if she down-b's and doesn't kick soon after she can, just (assuming you are below) uair it or (assuming you are above) dair it.



If she has her DJ...you really don't want to be below her. Uair can beat all of your aerials. That is why, when edgeguarding, the ledge is your friend. Invulnerability is a hell of a tool that lets you get away with a bunch of ****.