Two Roads to Victory in Fox vs. Puff

Though Fox vs. Puff is widely held to be a favorable match-up for Fox, many Fox players still struggle to challenge Jigglypuff effectively. Between her near unedgeguardable recovery, her ability to evade combos because of her floatiness, and her explosive punish game, Puff is undoubtedly a tricky character, whose strengths Fox mains would be foolish to overlook. However, the beauty of Fox’s diverse moveset becomes quite evident against Jigglypuff; there is no one set way for Fox to approach this match-up.

Whether the Fox player is campy and defensive or semi-aggressive, with proper move choice and execution, they can still achieve success against Jigglypuff. To prove this point, I will present just two strategies for facing Puff, exemplified by the two Fox players who have had the most success against Hungrybox this year, Armada and Plup. Despite the distinct differences in their approaches to the match-up, both of these players have proven their ability to challenge and overcome the best Jigglypuff main in the world, showcasing the plethora of options Fox has for taking on Puff.

Armada’s Playstyle:

Dashdancing is one of the most prominent techniques that Armada uses in the neutral when facing Puff. He commonly dash dances whenever Puff is nearby, waiting to react to Puff’s approach and intercept her with an aerial. Even if he does not do it out of a dash dance, Armada commonly throws out aerials to catch Jigglypuff moving in the neutral. At mid-high percents, Armada uses these stray aerials to combo into his kill moves. Armada’s laser usage is very calculated, and he typically does not laser unless Puff is a good distance away from him. That being said, Armada is willing to create this space so that he can rack up damage safely with lasers.

Grabbing is central to Armada’s offense against Jigglypuff. Unsurprisingly, Armada often approaches with run-up grabs as a result. Armada use up throw into up-air to rack up damage at low percents, and to kill at higher percents. Even if Armada has racked up too much percent and Puff is outside of the up throw into up-air range, Armada still uses Fox’s grab to set up kills, looking for down tilts or up smashes off of down throw tech chases. Armada also occasionally uses down throw at mid percents, hoping to find another grab off of the tech chase and to subsequently land an up throw into up-air.

Outside of these grab combos, up smash is Armada’s primary kill move. Often times, Armada is able to land an up smash simply by reacting to Puff’s movement and catching her when she is near the ground. As previously mentioned, down tilt can be a solid kill move at high percents. Armada also looks for down tilts at lower percents to pop Puff into the air and allow for aerial follow-ups, either by crouch cancelling Puff’s attack and then down tilting or by approaching with a run cancel into down tilt.

Armada often makes use of Fox’s shine in order to force a knockdown, initiate a tech chase, and catch Puff with a grab or an up smash. Even if Puff is able to slide off of the stage and onto the ledge, this at least resets the neutral, allowing shine to function as a decent punish move in many scenarios. Armada will also makes use of Fox’s up tilt in the neutral to try to catch Puff’s approaches, or in punish scenarios to send Puff into the air for a potential up-air follow-up. Once Puff is at a high percent, Armada often looks for jabs, hoping to combo into an up smash or an aerial to kill.

In particularly tense scenarios, Armada will take to any available platforms, making it difficult for Jigglypuff to approach as he waits out opportunities to drop onto her with back-airs. Despite this, his go-to counterpick stage is typically Final Destination. On this stage, he is particularly good at creating space where he can freely laser, setting up tech chases off of shine or down throw, and catching Puff’s landing with kill moves like down tilt, up smash, or grab into up throw into up-air.

Plup’s Playstyle:

Plup’s approach to the Puff match-up leans more towards the aggressive side than Armada’s does, though his playstyle is still tempered and precise. Like Armada, Plup dash dances quite a bit in neutral, looking for opportunities to approach with neutral-air at low percents, to sneak in back-airs or grabs at mid percents, and to land up smashes or up-airs at high percents. Plup makes frequent use of Fox’s laser, even more so than Armada. Notably, Plup uses retreating lasers often, meaning he racks up damage while creating distance between himself and Puff. Basically, on most occasions where the neutral is reset, Plup can be expected to leap backwards while firing lasers, keeping constant pressure on Puff between neutral interactions as a result.

Plup generally opts to approach Puff by using leaping aerials, with neutral-air being his most common pick of Fox’s aerials. After connecting with one of these aerials, he will typically follow-up with a shine or another aerial and reset the neutral afterwards. Plup tends to look for frequent one-off aerial hits rather than complex combo extensions, and he generally relies more on his solid neutral than an explosive punish game. Whether he is lasering or throwing out aerials, Plup uses a lot of up-and-down movement in an attempt to match and beat Jigglypuff’s constant aerial movement.

Another similarity between Armada and Plup is their reliance on Fox’s grab when fighting Puff. Plup seeks out creative ways to sneak in grabs, especially at mid to high percents. Some of his strategies for landing grabs include jumping over Puff to dodge an attack and landing with an immediate turnaround grab, and comboing into a grab off of Fox’s drill. Up throw into up-air is Plup’s most frequent kill option against Puff. Even before Puff is at kill percent, Plup will still look for grabs so that he can rack up damage with a back-air or up-air after using up throw.

Whenever Jigglypuff is offstage, Plup will use a combination of movement about the side platforms (which consists of jumps, wavelands, and platform drops) and back-airs in order to follow her movement, catch her recovery attempts, and continue forcing her offstage. If Puff is past up throw into up-air percent, Plup will even employ this strategy to try to get a kill off the side. At these high percents, Plup may look for jabs so he can combo into an up smash or back-air to kill. If Puff is not at kill percent, Plup may still approach with jabs in order to rack up damage by comboing into options like neutral-air.

Plup will occasionally use up tilt to try to catch Puff in the air, though he does so less frequently than Armada. As far as defensive options go, Plup makes use of Fox’s spotdodge after getting hit by Puff’s down-air, as to avoid being caught by an up smash or grab afterwards. When it comes to stage counterpicking, Plup’s go-to choices are Pokémon Stadium and Yoshi’s Story. Stadium grants Plup plenty of room to retreat with lasers while hunting for aerial approach opportunities, while Yoshi’s is favorable because of how early Fox can kill Puff with up throw into up-air.

Certain aspects of Fox’s toolkit (his lasers, his shine, his grab, his dash dance) have a known importance in the Fox vs. Puff match-up and are employed by both Armada and Plup whenever they face Hungrybox. And yet, both players utilize these tools in distinct and different ways, while also using a handful of Fox’s other moves in order to create their own unique playstyles against Puff. Of course, such distinctions are not limited to these two; though Plup and Armada were easy picks to study as top players with clearly different playstyles, several high-level Fox mains have their own tricks which they apply to the match-up. The helpful variety present in Fox’s moveset gives Fox players a lot of leeway when determining how they would like to deal with Jigglypuff.

Truly, no Fox player is hopeless whenever they find themselves facing a Puff main. Though outright aggression tends not to work against high-level Puffs, there is still a spectrum from campy to reasonably offensive wherein Fox players can find success against Jigglypuff. My hope is that, by reading this article, Fox players may find the strategies that work best with their playstyle.

After landing a shine, should Fox try to tech chase and land a grab or retreat and reset the neutral? When Puff is inching closer, should Fox continue lasering or dash dance and wait for a clear opportunity to land an aerial? Should Fox try to kill with up smash, up-air, down tilt, back-air, or something else? The fact is, any and all of these options can prove to be effective with proper execution. For this reason, Jigglypuff players may find themselves needing to study individual player match-ups rather than “Fox vs. Puff” as a whole.

Like our content? Support us by getting our merchandise in our shop