Pit vs Diddy Kong MU guide

Pit vs Diddy Kong, by @NotYin

MU Ratio: this is a weird case. It's debatably even, but if so, the Pits have the harder side to it. Arrows can become rather important in this MU, so it'd probably be best to go Pit

Neutral game (AKA Banana 101):
Diddy easily has a top 3 neutral in the game, with a lot of combos he can get out of it, with banana being the major key to why Diddy is so good. In general, Diddy's approach is going to be grounded, or a spaced fair. However, this doesn't mean Diddy is going to be the aggressor at all, as he can just as easily pluck banana. You can punish the startup on reaction, but the banana will usually be in play anyway, so keeping him in a spot where he can't quickly hover over to retrieve the banana, or trying to get the banana for yourself, is a good idea. If you have the banana, it'd be ideal to keep the banana in your grasp, far away from Diddy, a bad spot (I.e. Behind your near the ledge), or challenge Diddy himself, and toss the banana at him. However you want to use the banana, is entirely up to you, but doing the same good idea time and time again, will quickly turn it into a predictable and bad idea.

When Diddy has the banana, everything changes, as he holds a lot more control over the stage, even if he's at the ledge. The best idea is to shield, but a good Diddy will know how to condition and cross shields up, and punish accordingly. If you do get hit by the banana at any percent, he can do just about anything he wants, unless you're somewhere up in the air. However, it is worth noting that when Diddy has the banana in his hand, he can only throw the banana, shield, or his specials, so things like grabs and dtilt pressure won't be something too big to worry about. It is possible to aerial z-drop into an aerial move recatch, but this isn't used too often. Diddy will usually just throw the banana directly down, or towards you, although tossing the banana upwards does have some usages, just more situational.

Diddy's neutral is all about trapping, conditioning, and controlling, which is something characters like Luigi, Mega Man, and Olimar can beat out, by playing their wall/fortress style of game. Since banana is such a huge part to Diddy's game, these characters who can safely avoid it, or even nullify it like Rosalina, can cause Diddy some trouble. Pit can definitely play like a fortress, but can't quite nullify banana nearly as much as the rest of the characters I mentioned.

Gameplan:
Like I touched up on in the last paragraph, Pit should be walling Diddy out, while keeping an eye on Banana. The Angels have multiple jumps, so taking the air against Diddy can do okay against Diddy, but Diddy can mess up landings if you're going crazy with it. If you're directly in Diddy's face, odds are, you're going to get punished by Diddy's plethora of up-close options, made worse by the fact that Diddy will be capable of keeping you within arms reach for a while. Challenging Diddy OoS is tricky, as he has some of the best OoS options in the game, with a good escape/burst in flip kick, potential barrel technician traps, can immediately throw a banana towards you OoS, and aerials with fast startup.

Always mix up your options OoS, especially before and after a banana toss. Pit lacks amazing options to immediately break out of shield, and Diddy does a really good job punishing roll and spot dodge habits, made easier by how little distance your rolls cover, and aerials get beaten by banana, and if he can see what you're doing, he can usually just grab. If Diddy plays you right, he'll punish your options every time, you'll still be forced to use shield anyway, as there's not really much you can do outside of avoiding banana, and any methods to avoid getting conditioned to shield, or not shield, which is incredibly hard, and arguably nearly impossible.

The big plus to the MU is when Diddy is in the air, Diddy has a few great tools to land safely, and a few ways to limit your way of punishing with your ideal move, so beating Diddy in the air isn't necessarily flowcharty, but it's definitely something you'll need to be doing. Flip Kick is one of Diddy's best ways of escaping pressure, due to how much distance it covers in a short time, but you can easily chase it from the ground, and Usmash it if you see the flip kick coming, and know if it's a tilt stick or smash stick Flip Kick, especially if it's just above your head, which is a common situation when edgeguarding. All of Diddy's aerials aren't the best in terms of landing, and get beaten out by disjoints fairly well, so using those to your advantage work as well. The big problem with taking Diddy into the air, is how much you'll have to outplay Diddy in the neutral, which is where he shines. You'll likely have to do this off of a dash attack or grab, but those can be risky upon whiff, so it's very important that you think about how you're going to do this, before actually doing these mindlessly.

When it comes to getting the KO, you both are capable of getting it around the same percent, and both can rack the damage up for it just as easily depending on who's getting the most reward off exchanges, Diddy has way more consistent and efficient ways of getting it, with dtilt in Usmash, or JCIT (Jump Cancel Item Toss) banana -> any smash attack, being rather safe to set up into if you aren't careful. Most of your KOs will be off of Fthrow and Usmash, so keep those as fresh as possible when the percentage finally comes.

For the most part, you will be trying your absolute best to avoid getting Diddy out of your face, while trying to avoid the traps and power of banana, which is a hard task, which will get punished harder if you aren't ready for it. However, with a few calculated decisions, you can get a ton of reward off of it.

Edgeguarding:
While it is possible to go out and go all in against Diddy's recovery, Flip Kick will beat that out most of the time, and will end what could've been a successful edgeguard almost every time, so arrows are the way to go, which is why I suggest going Pit for the MU.

When setting up for the edgeguard, you want to keep Diddy as far and low as possible, as Diddy has a ton of ways to safely mixup if you he's close and has his resources (wall jump, double jump, flip kick, and instant UpB near ledge). Finding the best option to send Diddy offstage is very situation dependant, so you'll have to figure it out yourself. You're going to have to practice figuring the arc of Flip Kick, and punishing with arrows, to supply pressure when he's trying to return to stage, alongside trying to beat out his jump, and keep him as far from the ledge as possible before he has to UpB, then punishing that. It's a lot harder to do than you'd think, so if you have a hard time with it, don't feel bad, just keep working at it till you finally got it down to a science, as the reward off of beating his UpB and having him plummet to his doom is very satisfying.

If Diddy has the ledge, trumping him isn't a bad idea, as Diddy can't just Flip Kick back on, and will have to mixup his options pretty hard, which can potentially extend the edgeguard. His options from directly off the ledge get beat out by disjoints, so those can work too, but if he just does a roll or something, then it becomes a bit hard, so it's pretty much a RPS situation.

From Diddy's POV, he can force you into a bad spot, and beat you really badly of you let him, so all I can really say, is be smart with your recovery, and save your jumps.

Stages:
I'm just gonna gloss over Duck Hunt, Dream Land, SmashVille, Battlefield, FD, T&C, and Lylat

Smashville: Overall neutral stage, platform can come into handy at times, and nice size in general.

Town & City: a great Diddy stage. The low ceiling, and the fact that platforms aren't always there, really helps Diddy more than it does you.

Dream Land: Another neutral stage, but with exchanging more platforms than Smashville, in exchange for more space for Diddy.

Lylat: easily the best stage for the Pit in the MU, the tilts make the edgeguards easier, while harming Diddy's banana, and the platforms are the right height to get Usmash kills.

Duck Hunt: Definitely a Pit stage, the high ceiling and tree help a lot, and the dog can occasionally mess banana up. The walls can help out Diddy's recovery though.

FD: Don't go here.

Sets:
Nairo (ZSS, Dark Pit) vs MVD (Diddy Kong): http://youtu.be/yqZTMN5e8Yo (12:33)
Earth (Pit) vs I-C (Diddy Kong): http://youtu.be/wrbfLAIIt_w
Chompy (Pit) vs JJROCKETS (Diddy Kong): http://youtu.be/1YOxrmQqYEg (kinda old)

Alright, that should be it. Hopefully this helps <3