The 2021 Smash Bros Amiibo Tier List – Staples

This is the third amiibo tier list found in Amiibo Tier List week. The main amiibo tier list can be found here.

Zelda in A+/Ridley in A: As of lately, Ridley has not been winning as often as Zelda, and Zelda has the most wins among the amiibo cast, even beating out Incineroar. (For context, Zelda has 23 recorded wins, Incineroar has 18, Bowser has 3, and King K. Rool has 21) Zelda also dominates her tier, while Ridley has problems with heavier characters being in A+ (Link, King Dedede, and King K. Rool) which causes Ridley to struggle while Zelda does well. Zelda also seems to do well in A+ and below tournaments and prove to be a much better AI than Ridley.

The entirety of A Tier aside from Piranha Plant and the aforementioned Ridley: I had always felt A was too small of a tier. Hard hitters such as DK, Hero, and Ganondorf are always a threat in bracket, and although Lucas and Olimar are lightweight characters, their AI is phenomenal and can be a scary bracket demon. (See: gamer’s “Booger Boy”, PrinZ’s “Gamer Girl”, MiDe’s “Depression” and “HandCannon”) And now for the more controversial picks in PT and Snake:

PT – Charizard is ridiculous, if trained correctly PT is a busted A tier, possibly A+ tier if fully optimized.) People often complain that Ivysaur and Squirtle are bad, but their benefits outweigh their drawbacks. Squirtle is small and harder to hit, and he can put together some serious strings in compensation for his low kill power. And now Ivysaur…. Ivysaur has some STUPID hitboxes. Look at that up smash. Look at the size of that up air. And y’all say Pokemon Trainer is NOT busted?

Snake – Snake’s graduation to A Tier is pretty much centered on most of the others doing so. Snake, although very inconsistent, is a wildly good amiibo, as we can see with Kangoni’s “Ban Snake.”, Zenabie’s “Oyecomeova”, and now, more recently, my Snake, “In My Boot” has been getting results. Snake has taken tournaments in A-Tier and below, and even A+ and below tournaments. This character is ridiculous, and it’s all uphill from here.

But what about the poor Pits, falling from A to B+? The main reason this has happened is because, yes, Pit and Dark Pit are good, but due to their results dwindling as well as their representation, I just don’t really think they are A material anymore. There are very few gems when it comes to them, and in order to bring back their status, they must be represented and start winning.

Duck Hunt and Ice Climbers have some ridiculous AI. Ever since the AI buff in 9.0, Ice Climbers have been some WICKED bracket demons. Representation for this character has soared, and so have their results. Far more people have been using the Climbers and winning with them. Duck Hunt is also pretty wacky, due to the character being anti-meta. Duck Hunt fares well with hard hitting heavies like King K. Rool and Bowser, and suffers solely from lack of representation. Come on, people, show us your ducking dogs! (Yes, that pun was intentional, and yes, you may euthanize me for it.)Isabelle would join them in B tier, but in a good chunk of B and below tournaments, she just kind of dies. (I don’t say all, due to Noah’s Isabelle, “Mustard” doing well in AFC, getting first place in the final season 3 tournament, being number 1 on the PR, and coming in second in the top 20, when AFC is restricted only to AI Clause. Seriously, this thing is nuts.) Though this may be one little outlier, this just goes to show what Isabelle is capable of. Though, Isabelle, compared to Icies and Duck Hunt, is a much lighter character and has much less kill power. Other than that, she can be nuts.

The Belmonts have been pretty atrocious, and they do not do well anymore. It can be argued that they have great range and decent kill power, that can be debunked with the insane startup lag on forward smash, and how easily these guys are gimped. They just pretty much fail, and it’s hard to even watch them in tournaments.

Ken in bottom 10 – Ken’s AI is…. well, nothing short of a disaster. As a character, Ken relies on combos to rack up percent in order to secure stocks. Ken simply cannot survive in a world where combos do not exist. So just swinging his legs around and praying to amii-Jesus that things connect doesn’t work out for poor Ken. Also, shoryuken SDs are a thing. Always something you hate to see.