Cloud's weaknesses

Cloud's weaknesses are as follows:

*Weak recovery
*Effective melee lock w/ full Limit (THIS IS BIG)
*Tall
*Dubious anti-air
*Low air acceleration
*Iffy burst damage ability, not just throw problems

They might not seem significant individually, but together, because of them, Cloud's Glass Cannon status becomes much clearer.

*Bad recovery
Recovery problems are well known at this point, and manage to get to the point where Cloud can die against not edgeguarding but simple stageguarding, so he can actually find himself dead at 70%. Of course, bad recovery doesn't address that Cloud can still be so dangerous when on-balance. However, that's where the other weaknesses come in.

*Effective melee lock w/ full Limit
This doesn't seem like the big deal I make it out to be, because Cloud can still use Blade Beam when under full Limit, but here's the important thing: if Cloud does that, he completely expends his Limit on a projectile. Yeah it can kill, but it's just a flyswatter, which isn't going to justify the Limit expenditure. What Cloud is trading for that is Cross Slash kill ability, making Cross Slash much less able to kill; Finishing Blow as an option for a risk-reward kill; and Climhazzard height which means no recovery ability for a while. With Blade Beam becoming a bad idea all of a sudden, the opponent can start considering keepaway. I do need to point out that Cloud is still fast enough so keepaway won't be so easy. However, psychology begets psychology. If the Cloud player can be expected to catch this idea, consider a surprise melee blitz to catch the opponent not thinking to use the Cross Slash, but be aware that they still could read THAT idea instead.

*Tall
Not the tallest out there, but Cloud is still above average height. This means that he can be hit more easily, making it more reasonable to knock him off balance with reads in addition to comboing him, and since Cloud can die at surprisingly low percents, every little bit is bound to add up. Break your limits, folks.

*Dubious anti-air
Before people tell me about how Up Air has disjointed hit detection to let it juggle, that has to be set up first. In the meantime, Up Smash and Up Tilt have maybe decent at best horizontal reach, which in combination with Cloud's tall stature limits his surface-to-air ability. This allow safer air attack, which won't care nearly as much about the dreaded Down Smash.

*Low air acceleration
Cloud has subpar air acceleration, which prevents using momentum to add much horizontal range to his aerials other than the Forward Air, which comes out too slowly to stave an unexpected rush. There is no mistake that the base range amounts are still good, but Cloud still has to worry about things like standard Back Airs making sure he needs to care about his offense.

The offense problems can get troublesome by preventing Cloud from hitting anything and managing air-to-air that way, while the vertical aerials have the standard weaknesses actually more pronounced. There are significant defense problems too, as Cloud is still a tall target, so it's a problem for him when he can't move far unless he empty jumps or uses a Forward Air.

*Iffy burst damage ability
This all adds up to how Cloud has only moderate burst damage ability outside given moves people would identify. This when the guy is clearly a Glass Cannon whose defensive weaknesses are actually relevant, perhaps to enough surprise, so ANY offensive blindspots become significant.

I included the stuff about Cloud's throws in this category too, because even without combo ability, throws still do utility things like provide stage control. The throws weakness is still worth mentioning alone because that particular bit works as an equalizer that makes it more useful to shield when sieged, which makes it more reasonable to turn the tables even if Cloud has full Limit ready.


Closing

Cloud is still capable of no shortage of threat, so avoiding the situations that warrant this advice as reasonably as possible is still advised, but when they do crop up, he still has hopefully now clear weaknesses that will allow for weathering the strife.