Jigglypuff is a character that brings regular outrage across social media due to her amazing tools. This Pokemon is hard to kill, has a reasonable amount of range, is hard to interact with, and has a killer edgeguard and punish game. Higher tier characters can struggle with her, but it's possible to outspeed her. However, mid tiers and lower tiers can struggle further. HugS gives us some advice on this matchup and how to defeat one of the best characters in the game.

Neutral

This is an exceptionally tricky part of the matchup. Jigglypuff doesn't have projectiles so her approach options include drifting in and out of range with her aerials. Her drift prevents her aerials from getting countered played out of shield. Usually, Samus can catch different characters out with her up-B out of shield but Jigglypuff can stay out of range so it doesn't hit her. This puts Samus in a sticky situation, so shielding isn't necessarily ideal unless you can wavedash out of shield and away from Jigglypuff. With this, Samus can opt to wavedash away instead of shielding, which is a much better option as Jigglypuff's drift will make Samus near useless in her shield.

HugS says, "Trading with tilts is also useful as you usually win the trade war against her lower longevity."

Limiting Jigglypuff's drift options can be important and there are two great options that you can use to do so. Missiles will make it hard for Jigglypuff to linger in the air for too long in certain areas, so she'll have to weave in and out; firing plenty of missiles at different heights can help catch her off-guard and may even make it difficult for her to get down if she uses one too many of her jumps in the air. It can force her to stay lower. Secondly, challenging her jumps with forward air and neutral air will make Jigglypuff much more cautious in the neutral.

However, some of the biggest mistakes include using your smash attack to challenge Jigglypuff instead of tilts, missiles, and aerials. Samus can punish a laggy smash attack out of shield pretty easily and that usually means the stock is gone for Samus, as Jigglypuff can just choose to rest off of shield. Jigglypuff can certainly bait you into thinking she's vulnerable and can feign it easily, this is commonly smash attacked and punished swiftly by Jigglypuff.

HugS says, "I had a long call with Duck once where he explained a lot about the matchup that I didn't consider. Such as shielding less and not insisting on going for aerials until I've limited her options enough. I've also worked on confirms on throws so that Jigglypuff can't shield forever against me without some sort of threat."

Punish Game

Another advantage that Jigglypuff has is that Samus has very little combo game on her. It's all about racking up percent, be it through chip damage or projectiles, but Samus has a hard time stringing together moves against Jigglypuff. It's winning the neutral over and over again until you can finally hit Jigglypuff with a kill move. Samus can get some two hit combos from down-air and grounded up-tilt. However, it's not even close to what the higher tier characters can get on Jigglypuff. However, it's not all doom and gloom. Samus can get some juicy percent and kills on her down throw. For instance, she has a guaranteed charge shot on all DIs! Alternatively, you can opt for a sweet spot back-air on most DIs.

HugS says, "Jigglypuff is difficult because Samus' difficulty in KO'ing outside of a very risky grab combo. Also, Samus' poor aerial drift and floatiness makes it so that she lacks the safe pressure of aerials on Jigglypuff that other characters take advantage of."

While Jigglypuff is a force to be reckoned with, she doesn't have a huge amount of speed. Samus does have the advantage of charging her shot while Jigglypuff is nearing closer. Jigglypuff isn't fast enough to punish Samus charging up from a distance so this can give Samus easy boosts on Jigglypuff's percent. Having the opportunity to charge a shot during the match is not a luxury Samus gets in many matchups.

Edgeguarding and Recovery

Edgeguarding Jigglypuff is one of the hardest areas for most characters and it's certainly not easy for Samus. Sadly, Samus doesn't have much to challenge Jigglypuff offstage. A common mistake is challenging her offstage as Jigglypuff is much stronger offstage. Samus has a notoriously fantastic recovery, so going offstage sounds like it wouldn't be such a problem, but Jigglypuff negates this, one of Samus' greatest attributes, and leaves her struggling to recover after an offstage challenge. Charging a shot is a better option and you can choose to gamble and use it as she's recovering or wait to see which area of the stage Jigglypuff is trailing towards. If you notice that she's drifiting towards the edge of the stage, you can land a charge shot as she lands back on the stage or aim your charge shot at the last minute as a mix up. Staying on the stage is a much safer option and trying to land a heavy move to kill her is much more ideal.

HugS says, "Jigglypuff can fish for back-airs when you're bombing to recover pretty easily."

Recovering against Samus can be just as difficult as edgeguarding her. With this, as Samus, you should avoid bombing unless it's absolutely necessary, as Jigglypuff can challenge it very easily. A safer option can include drifting towards the stage and saving your jump to recover low. If Jigglypuff does come out to approach you in an attempt to end the stock, you can catch her with falling neutral air. You can then play the mix-up of jumping with an up-air, up-B'ing late or early to confuse the timing or you can grapple from a lower area.

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