You know, I really want to get some more input from the community about all of Zero’s matchups because this thread is pretty dead. I’ll write up a few thoughts on some soon, probably tomorrow (no time atm) but I just wanted to get some attention here. Don’t make Kef a liar with all those “coming soon”'s
True, this thread needs some fixing. But remember guys, if you find any of the tips in this thread useful, just request me to add it on the first page of this thread so everybody can see it better. And try not to just ask match-up questions, but also contribute on what you think and/or how you did after you applied what people told you to do. So now that I’ve been playing more in the arcade, I have more match-up info that could be helpful:
Dante
Not so hard anymore. Air throw once you seen him teleport, his j.H nor j.M are fast enough to hit you out of the air-throw attempt.If he bold cancels out of Stinger and ad-forward, you can anti-air with s.M or launcher (if he decides to go for Hammer instead, you’re probably gonna get hit). Anytime you see a j.S, dash behind Dante and proceed to punish any attempts at Killer Bee or Hammer cancels. Like with Magneto math-up, try to control the air. Smart Dante’s would also anti-air you with things such as Jam Session or Tempest so be careful, because if they really want to, they can just X-Factor and kill you, so don’t whiff random stuff at the top of the screen like its safe. Dante’s fastest ground attack is both his s.L and cr.L but both are have 8 frames of startup, so invent new frame traps that could work on him. A good Dante can also zone you pretty well if you don’t have a long range assist, and you can’t zone him as good because of Air Trick (teleports). I consider this match-up to be 5/5, or maybe even but a little bit on Dante’s favor, but not enough at all to make it 5.5/4.5 Dante or 6/4 Dante.
Sentinel
Kind of easy if played right. If he jumps, just see a chance so you can dash (normal dash) to the other side so he whiffs any of his slow air moves and you can punish (but be careful of cr.M on the ground) On the first page of the thread there’s a way so you can punish HSF force with Genmu Zero without getting hit. Instant overheads you can use include j.M>M Setsuizan, j.M>j.S, and j.2H>j.S. If you stay out of the cr.M range, you can out poke him with s.H. Punish any normal with s.M, so try not to push block to often so you can punish. If he tried to do something like cr.M>Flight Mode, you can try and go for the air grab, but be careful because one of those j.S means death. Sougenmu fireballs cause tons of problem to Sentinel, even the shadow helps tons in locking him down. 6.5/3.5 in Zero’s favor IMO.
Taskmaster
Any Forward-H from him means an air throw for you. His Back-H cango to projectiles, but pretty sure it can’t go through a lv.3 buster shot. You can punish Back-H and launcher, but be careful of the gap between them, because he can delay the launcher and hit you. He is one of the best at zoning Zero, more specifically
with his M and L Arrows. M Arrows blocks Zero main path for offense, and jumping Arrows are a pain to deal with. Even do Zero’s normals are amazing, Taskmaster can keep up with his, so don’t try to play much of a poking range if you don’t know the range of his attacks. Try to bait Web Swing+Assist Call by staying just outside the range of Web Swing and launching him right away (with S). Definitely one of Zero’s harder match-ups. 6/4 in Taskmaster’s favor IMO.
Haggar
Bait pipe, and try to dash behind him any time he jumps. If you’re playing a good Haggar with something like Ammy-b or Sent-a backing him up and he has you in the corner, try to jump but not press any buttons until you see him get very close for the air-throw. Hadangekis make Haggar have a very hard time getting in, specially the L, M, and Sougenmu versions. Don’t fire too much fireballs recklessly, seeing how he can jump over and hit you with the crackpipe. His Hoodlum Launcher (the block-able grab that sends you to the air) the L versions leaves him at +4, so don’t stick anything out, instead try to backup a bit, the same goes for his L and M Violent Axe. If you play correctly and don’t press many buttons, this should be a 6.5/3.5 match-up for Zero.
continue…
Tron
Not that hard if you are careful like in the Sentinel or Haggar match-ups. Always charge buster so you can get a combo from an anti-air S or s.L>s.M>s.H>S as an anti-air to stop Tron’s j.H.*** Pushblock every j.H so she has less chance to mix you up with throws (including lv.3). ***Jumping and throwing lv.3 busters into L Hienkiaku or L Raikouzen is a good idea to stop j.H or air drills. Watch out for air-grabs too, because with the right assist she can combo out of it and probably kill you. 6/4 in Zero’s favor.
Magneto
The one who gets either the momentum or normal jump distance air control wins. Be wary that Magneto can cancel any of his block-strings into Flight Mode for an j.S overhead. Don’t try to pushblock that flight mode overhead much because they can delay it and punish you (the same with constant cr.Ls). Smart Magneto players can use H Hyper Grab to grab you from any random j.Hs you do from far away. Magneto can also zone Zero very easily with L Disruptors, and if he has an assist such as Doom’s Plasma Beam or Sentinel Drones, he can TK the Disruptor to cover almost all your ways to getting, so it’s important to rush him at all times. Jumping lv.3 buster is also a good option in this fight seeing he can’t do much about it. Anytime he’s in the air, block high without exceptions (NOTE: Many experience Magneto players fake a tri-dash with an fast j.H or j.L so people either pushblock or wait to block the air attack and attack low so be careful of this.).*** Any j.Ls while they are doing a combo and the combo has already gone kind of long means they are going for an air-grab reset, so prepare to tech (they can also jab while you’re trapped on a L Hyper Grab and then tri-dash and hit you with a fast overhead). Assume more of the buster game if the Magneto players has a low-hitting assist so you don’t get caught on unblockables. 6/4 Magnus.
Hsien-Ko
Weirdly enough, Hsien-Ko does a great job at keeping Zero out. If the Hsien-Ko players has an assist like drones that help her zone, Zero has a very hard time getting past her reflectors. Her normals can also be used to Anti-Air Zero’s normal jump air-dash offense. If she decides to activate Armor Super, best idea is to runaway and wait for it to end. The idea is to try to rush Hsien-Ko but not recklessly, but in a patient way so you can then mix her up. 5/5 IMO.
If Taskmaster does Web Swing properly, you can’t air throw him after it. Will most Taskmasters not do it properly? Yes. Does this include me? Yes. Also, his Charging Star will go through any non-hyper projectile, including Hyper Zero Buster, but it’s not like he can do anything about it on reaction. You should really worry more about him reflecting the shot.
I also agree about Hsien-Ko being a tough match up, I’d even say it’s 6-4 in her favor. I remember playing a friend with my Task/Dante/Zero team and, if I wasn’t playing Dante at the time, his Hsien-Ko gave me more trouble than any of his other characters. Her st. :h: and j. :h: are actually higher priority than anything Zero has, including Ryuenjin, so don’t bother trying to AA her. Henkyo Ki shuts down a lot of Zero’s options, too, turning Hyper Zero Buster against you and making it impossible to do j. 
Hienkyaku/Raikousen to get in. :h: Hienkyaku works just fine, though, since she doesn’t have much to stop you from getting behind her once you are already in, just be careful not to land on a Senpu Bu. Your best approach is probably to super jump in and mix up between :l: Hienkyaku, :l:/:h: Sentsuizan, j. :h:, and air dashes before landing. If it’s just Zero and Hsien-Ko left, don’t be afraid to go for Genmu Zero if she gets too gong-happy. If you really want to ruin her day, though, you can grab Hidden Missiles to almost completely shut her down, especially since she doesn’t have any good way to punish it.
Just picking some random matchups. Going off my experience, playstyle preferences and a little theory fighter.
Akuma - I play Akuma like most characters, stay in the air until I can find a safe way to start an offense. Akuma can’t do much about repeated air buster shots, and his only way out of pressure is an uppercut. My gameplan depends on the meters available.
If he has a meter, don’t do anything risky. No assists, no long range air dashes, no sonic booms, only buster shots. Your goal is to get close enough to threaten Akuma where he won’t be shooting random hypers. Once you’re in that range, lock him down with safe assist calls and protect your assists accordingly. Akuma has as much health as you do, so it should only take once mixup to get rid of him. You should also be wary of Akuma’s uppercut, which has invincibility and cancelable into his air hyper viper beam. If you can keep them in enough blockstun to call a pinning assist and get a mixup off of it, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about it.
**If he has no meter, **get in there and rush down. Even if he lands an uppercut, he won’t be able to combo into a hyper after, and if it’s blocked, he won’t be able to make it safe with a hyper either. Do be wary of the random Tatsu’s though.
If you have 3 meters stocked and are willing to use it, you can attack Akuma knowing you have Level 3 ready to counter any beam he throws at you. You can even bait him into throwing out a beam by calling your assists out in the open, basically asking for a beam hyper. If they fall for it you can Level 3 for almost 50%. However, if they have X-Factor available they have the option of XFC’ing the ground based Beam and punishing Zero with a super powered beam hyper. Or if they have a good enough DHC option to beat Zero’s level 3 (not many, I think) then there’s that. If Akuma does the air beam, there’s not much he can do to counter a Genmu Zero.
I’d give it a 5/5 because a smart Akuma player could keep Zero out well enough with a fair amount of meter (Zero also dies to an x-factor guard cancel raging demon almost all the time,) but Zero has the right tools to counter most of Akuma’s tactics. Nothing overpowering the other imo.
Magneto - I tend to play an extremely safe game against Magneto, and rely on Zero’s full screen capabilities to slowly defeat Magneto. I shoot lots of air buster shots, which basically creates a line across the screen that Magneto can not air dash through. At this point, he will start relying on DISRUPTA to keep Zero out of the air. Lucky for Zero, a super jump followed by a Hienkyaku H is above Magneto’s reach. However, disrupters will keep Zero off the ground, so you should make all your approaches from the air. Being on the ground isn’t good against Magneto anyway since you don’t want to get mixed up. If you can find a safe opening, take it, but such openings usually require an assist, and a Magnetic Shockwave is quick answer to both an assist call and an approach from Zero. However, if you do manage to lock down Magneto, there is little he can do to escape. The best he can do is DHC out of Magnetic Tempest to a fast hyper. Second best he can do is obviously Shockwave.
I want to give this 6/4 Magneto just because it’s a hard fight for Zero, but it’s not unwinnable. Magnetic Shockwave is a great tool for Magneto against Zero. The match becomes much easier if you can control the pace, slowing things down with buster shots and safe approaches.
X-23 - Unless she has a ground based projectile assist, you can react to every Talon Attack, one of her primary methods of starting an offense, with a Hienkyaku M to completely reset the spacing. You can play good keepaway against X-23 this way, forcing her to attack at different angles, usually angles where Zero has the advantage. If she does have an assist to cover her approach, keep peppering the ground with level 1 buster shots. Should X-23 jump, the buster will tag any assist that comes out behind. Buster shots have fast enough recovery that they are completely safe to shoot in this matchup. Assists like Jam Session also help in this matchup to beat out Talon Attacks, which you can then combo off with a lighting dive or level 3 buster.
Once her air options are cut off, you can start a ground game where your normals will beat out X-23’s normals in range. However, X-23’s normals will beat Zero’s in speed. Frame traps, advancing guard bait, and smart spacing will keep you in control. Once you have them block an H or forward H, call a pinning assist and go for a mixup.
I’d say 6/4 Zero. Even though Zero has the best tools for the matchup, X-23’s speed and DHC trick capability give her a fighting chance.
Try to give actual numbers like 6/4 and the like so we can later average them, and maybe even use them in one of those community tier lists.
Aaaand updated. I’ll get a few more in here in a bit.
Wolverine - Another match where you want to be off the ground until you can safely attack. Being ground makes you susceptible to Berserker Slash and instant overhead L’s. Depending on Wolverine’s team and your own, you may decide attack, or play keep away and force Wolverine to come to you. If you can call a covering assist safely, you can make an easy ground approach. You can also run behind the cover of a level 1 buster shot or Hadangeki L, just to keep Wolverine from pressing a button. If he takes to the skies, you can reposition yourself and call an assist, just be wary to not put your assist in the direction of a dive kick.
Because of Zero’s size, a blocked dive kick won’t be terribly unsafe if guarded, if at all. This means Zero can not punish a dive kick with a throw; he can’t combo off of it anyway. It’s best to just avoid dive kicks and punish wiffs. If you get pressured, push block as much as possible.
Looks pretty 5/5, but it could be team dependent. It’s one of those “first hit wins” kind of matchups.
Tron assist - 10-0 Tron assist ;_;
Noticing that lvl 1 buster spam in the air really gives sentinel problems. His hit boxes is so huge, he really has to work to get through them. I’ve recently taken an approach to just annoying this shit out of him with run away. Can’t stand getting randomly hit into herp derp 100% combo as Zero so I really just don’t give him a chance to fight me.
I’ve noticed no one has posted anything about the trish matchup. I don’t think zero loses in a lot of match ups but trish is problematic. She’s the only one in the cast that teabags the ground more, and better than zero does, and while you can swipe her dive kicks out with s.h, when she’s covered with sentinel assists or any other projectile support, she’s extremely safe. her air utility, mobility and gimmicks makes it very hard for zero to bnb her out of the air without some extremely tuned height adjustments. That’s not even mentioning the traps she throws that further ruins zero’s mobility. Anyone have experience facing a very good trish?
Not me 
Not many people at my local arcade play Marvel. Seeing hos AE is going to be released Tuesday, even less MVC3 practice for me.
For me, Plan A is to attempt to outspam her with massive amounts of super jump H Hienkyaku Level 1 Buster spam. What’s great about Zero is he can jump higher than anyone in the cast who doesn’t have a double jump by using H Hienkyaku in the air. I try to get above her at an angle where I can pester her with buster shots. Even if the angle isn’t high enough, she’s sure to land on a few of them on the way back to the ground. Zero can stay in the air longer than Trish this way. The only major problem with this is you will barely do any damage. But it will force Trish to do something else. You want to pester her all the way to the corner, your options increase considerably there. If you have an air control assist like Dante-a or Doom-b, that will help a lot. Once you get her on the ground, you’re only a mixup away from a dead Trish. She can’t do much to get out of lockdown pressure. It can be a hard fight for Zero, but I can’t say it’s a bad fight.
Plan B is to switch to Dante.
Yeah I do the same thing toaster does… I also run Dante so you know… just walk up and call Jam session > Profit.
Threatening with air throw is pretty useful too. Your normals are better than hers in the air, so I really just try to stay above her. That or when she has to come down, call assist > M command dash to cross her up.
Trish j.h outrange every zero normal
yeah, I started trying Dante recently, only I used weasel shot because I was used to the cold star assists and I was afraid the 10 hits on jam session would ruin zero’s combo extention. Maybe I should take this to the team or combo thread, but I noticed you guys both run Dante. How well does Jam session work in combos, as well as cover zero’s matchups?
It’s Zero’s best assist. Jam Session gives Zero cross up options, combo extenders, space control, extra pressure, unblockable setups, air throw combos, DHC parter, DHC glitcher, oki setups, and probably more. Trust me, it does everything.
Jam Session is one of the best combo extenders in the game for Zero. There’s a set of only 6 assists in the game that allow a specific combo extension for Zero and Jam Session is one of them.
Dante Jam Session, Chun Legs, Skrull Tenderizer, Sentinel Drones, Wesker Jaguar Kick, Amaterasu Cold Star are those assists…I feel like I’m forgetting one though.
Also, what Toaster said.
thanks! I’ll start using that from now on. And unblockable set ups? does Jam session hit high or low?
Mid.
High or low would be damn broken.
:f::h:+:a1:(Jam Session) canceled into Sougenmu gives you enough time to do a Sougenmu unblockable.
gdlk. Canceled at which hit of :f::h:? 3rd?