General gameplan and tips

Our best opening we have vs Cloud is when he's off stage. Try getting him off stage, then killing him with bair. If he's recovering low, we can dash attack 2 frame his up B almost always (even with limit up b).

I'll opt for punishes that do less damage if they send at better angles. Especially dtilt. If you hit dtilt its prob ggs.

Play grounded, he can swat us out of the air very easily with huge hitboxes without thinking

Make use of dash -> shield and walk -> shield to mess up his spacing, to give us openings to use up b oos

Parry his fair/bair, then dash attack or grab

If he's constantly using falling aerials, we can open him up with a pre-emptive up b, or fh nair

Neutral

You mostly want to stay grounded not only because dealing with his aerials is annoying, but also cross slash farms most jump ins.

You only want to really jump in with like bair a2a or to stuff a jump with nair up close. Sometimes for dash backs to like fh over ftilt. Otherwise grounded play is best.

Grab is super good to call out shields as they're also looking to up b quite a bit.

Advantage

Juggles

Tbh mostly watch for dair and ff nairdodge. Upair does a pretty good job at covering it from most places.

Upair > upb at mid/high%s is pretty good at getting them offstage. Otherwise you may want to bair his dair whenever upair isn't cutting it. Positioning for this is key.

Ledge trapping

Chef at ledge is really good as it can force a jump from ledge. You can call out the jump with sh up air, which combos into up b, sending cloud back off stage.

Cloud's up smash is huge, he can punish spaced landing bair on shield with up smash

Cloud Neutral b can be absorbed by bucket, and bucket will kill at around 15%.

Disadvantage

Corner

Turnaround shield in the corner can be pretty good as it allows is to bair oos moves like ftilt.

Offstage

Tbh just like mix up timings to not get dair'd. Being too hasty is asking to get swung on pretty badly.

Ledge

Cloud bair/ftilt can be a pretty scary, but timing mixups are key here. Idt get up attack is really an option, but timing mixups of neutral get up, roll, jump, and drop down dj options are key. I've also found success in neutral get up into run off dj bair. If they are just bairing, find the opening between them and pick your option. If he is just standing to ftilt, you can usually just jump.

Juggling

Rarely worth challenging him with dair. Try your best to get to ledge if possible or find a platform to get to. Good use of bucket jumping can help imo. Just make sure it's too far for dj upair to nuke you. Landing with bair can also be okay. Just obv be smart about it.

Getting out of the corner

• If we're being pressured in the corner, don't jump
• Walk -> shield is really good here
• Getting grabbed by cloud never matters, so don't worry about that here
• You can also up b through his shit in the corner because of our iframes, then just have to deal with landing

Cloud up b counterplay

• Shield the rising hits, roll behind him, and charge down smash
• Shield the rising hits, spot dodge the falling hits, and down smash
• Shield rising hits, up b or up air him on the way down
• Shield rising hits, up smash him on the way down

Cloud side b counterplay:

If Cloud does a full side b on our shield, it's -24. We have just enough time to drop shield -> dsmash

If Cloud starts side b on our shield, we can roll behind him after the 2nd hit

Cloud's limit side B can be parried easily for a free down smash

Watch this video on how to spot dodge cloud side b, it's really free

Bread and Butter kill confirm percents

• Nair -> Dtilt kills at 105% at ledge
• Nair -> FTilt kills at 112% at ledge

Stages

FD

Tbh I think it's fine if you're willing to whiff punish dair over upairing it through a platform. Both disadvantage states are worse. If you're not good at handling dair, ban this stage. It can snowball some either way on the stage because of its nature.

Kalos

Insta ban. He can recover off the wall 100 times better and its also a larger stage so he doesnt get sent off as often. It plays against our wincon in the mu.

Town & City

High risk high reward. Thankfully cloud can't kill us off the top as easily, but bair and ftilt will nuke us. On the flip side, we can do the same and get some cheesy kills at times.

Smashville

Similar to TnC but we get them offstage even more often because of how small the stage is. Really good for us because of it.

Hollow Bastion

Pretty neutral stage. Has a plat to hide under for dair. Fairly normal size too so nothing too noteworthy. Pokemon Stadium 2 Prob worth banning this too. Big stage lower ceiling. He can nuke off the top pretty easily while it can be hard for us to send him offstage. Neutral isn't anything noteworthy, just a difference in advantage and disadvantage.

Small BattleField

Once again better PS2. Smaller side blastzones so we can get him offstage well enough. Pretty neutral stage. Likely where you will end up most of the time.

BattleField

Most clouds are comfortable on this stage and it does encourage them going high quite often. This does mean you can easily get jumps out of them to edgeguard them even earlier. This stage helps each character's disadvantage quite a bit though. Take that as you will. However, it does allow for safe juggles vs dair at least which can be nice.