“This matchup seems really simple because they only have a few options… but in my opinion this matchup is really, really complicated because of the ground game.”

“I think this is not great for Fox. Like, I think this is one of Fox’s harder matchups which a lot of people would think is kinda crazy.”

“This character has legit mixups that will beat most of your moves. A lot of times you have to play with awareness that the character is actually pretty dangerous.”

“You have to be careful to not disrespect them. There are certain situations where you win really cleanly, and you want to look for those, while trying to create chaos in a beneficial way.”

“If you’re playing Ice Climbers the most frustrating thing is when either Fox plucks Nana away and kills her instantly, or he gets you alone as Popo and Nana stands there watching you get destroyed, or the Fox is going off on Nana and every time you try to save her he hits you and maybe combos you. Those are the three situations you want to create.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l--P6hKV5SU

• Desync: have control over both climbers.
• Disconnect: have control over only Popo.
  • When Nana reconnects to Popo she can buffer an option.
  • When disconnected, Nana will only attack you if you’re already in range of one of her attacks.
    • She can not do aerials.
• Don’t go to FD or Stadium
  • ICs are better on FD but Stadium is also very rough.
• Don’t listen to “Melee culture’s” takes on the matchup.
  • Ice Climbers are a good character into Fox and you need to treat them as such.
  • “I wonder why there’s no Sopo comebacks against Falco. I mean they’re always against Fox I wonder why!”
  • Don’t be afraid to camp

General / Neutral

• There are two styles of play, the fullhop shine style and the juggle style.
  • Juggle style you’re trying to disconnect ICs through a popup (upsmash or uptilt) then just going for Popo
  • Fullhop shine style is about looking for early shines to separate ICs and go for Nana.
• When ICs take center: going to the outer edge of the side plat is a safe place to be.
  • When in-between stocks or if you feel threatened: go to the outer edge of side plat.
    • ICs start off disconnected when coming off angel plat meaning they have to land before reconnecting.
  • ICs only way to hit there is with a wavedash fullhop bair.
    • If you happen to drop through platform there then they will be in one of their worst possible positions.
• When ICs are coming down from a fullhop upair they will have to fall with either dair or fair
  • Both options lose to being spaced around.
  • Be sure to not run into the Nana’s fair right after spacing around Popo’s.
  • You can also shine the upair from below to create chaos.
• Nana can buffer shieldgrab during shieldstun making drill on shield less consistent than it already is
  • Only use drill for guaranteed punishes, not in neutral.
• Your objecting against Sopo is to play defensive enough to learn his movement patterns and then look for ways in.
  • Fullhops and fullhop bairs are very good for this reason
• Don’t play within ICs wd dsmash range
  • Retreat to the outside of side plat if you don’t have room on stage.
• ICs are vulnerable to being split by shine while wavedashing and dash attacking.
  • The stagger between the two makes a noticeable gap.

Punish