Gameplan Summary

Maypul is fast, and Maypul has a really strong punish game using Lily and wrap setups. Maypul does not have the big buttons to outright contest or wall out opponents, so she often needs informed reads on the opponent in order to start approaching and opening them out. Don't expect to rush your opponent down if you have no idea what they are playing like, since your Aerials do not have the space or speed to necessarily do that.

She doesn't have to worry about kill confirms, thankfully. Tether aerials are king here. She's also got a good recovery as long as you get to wall, and your aerial drift is pretty good for that.

One of the biggest factors with Maypul is also Lily. Where she is placed heavily affects combo routes as well as your threat range, since opponents have to commit with shield or parry to get into Lily's range. Having Lily out is always going to improve combo game, but it can be a liability sometimes, since opponents can remove mark from themselves and/or exploit her bite to get parry invincibility.

Neutral

In terms of movement, you want a lot of it. Since Maypul doesn't have frame data or range to win neutral, she has to make up for it with constantly moving in and out of opponent threat ranges. Run cancel Tilts, undershooting and overshooting Neutral Airs, these are all important.

One of the most important things for Maypul is being able to counter CC. Because at low percents, she suffers heavily from getting all her moves crouch cancelled, so to counter this, use a lot of Grab, and feel free to also throw in some Forward Airs. Around mid-percents is when she can start finding better launchers, but for the most part, her early percents are very degenerate.

Getting good at being able to Grab the opponent in neutral is a major boon to Maypul's neutral. Once at higher percents, Maypul's starters begin to open up, and that's where the fun begins.

There's a few moves to pay attention to:

Dash Attack. This is good for catching landing opponents, but if you're going to use it in neutral, be careful. It's unreactable, and it can beat CC, but it can be beaten by opponents doing a preemptive shield or Amsah tech, leaving you in a lot of disadvantage. It also doesn't lead to a ton of combos if the opponent DIs out. If the opponent is grounded, you'll have to think carefully about this move.
Down Air might look very fun, but the major problem is that the move isn't strong enough at low percents, and it's too laggy on landing to throw out consistently in neutral. This is more of a surprise poke that works best when Maypul is too far to be punished, and sometimes it can be a starter, such as into Forward Air, but don't constantly throw it out.
Leaftasm is similar to Dash Attack, but this will lose to crouch cancel. This also loses heavily to shield, often being stuck on shield and failing to cross up, leading to a free shield grab. Generally, this will be come up more mid-combo.

Advantage

Shield Pressure

Maypul doesn't have a ton of range on shield, and her moves aren't super safe. However, she's got a really good speed to contest shields with run up Grab, so that's the tradeoff.

For shield pressure, hitting low Neutral Airs (-3) on shield can work, and Forward Airs (-6) spaced on shield can also be interesting to consider.

Maypul's also got an interesting case with her Jab. Unlike other moves, it is truly loopable, but it's got some quirks. Jab 1 is usually -2 when cancelling into another move, and Jab 2 is -6.

Tech Chases

Before reading, make sure to read here to get an understanding of how tech chasing works in general.

This is Maypul's strength. She's so fast, she can chase down every option. She also has a unique option in her Strongs to chase after opponents, either as a potent finisher or as a rewrap option.

Wrap

This might be why you like Maypul. If you get the opponent wrapped, you get a lot of advantage.

At lower percents, there's typically not much time to do anything off it. Usually, all you will get is a Grab, which isn't necessarily bad, but it's obviously not as rewarding as her other launchers.

This page is missing significant information. You can help by editing it. Add more information about options at higher percents, as well as how charging strongs and lily distance impact the wrap time.

Edgeguarding

Combined with her wall cling, her Leaftasm, and her rising Up Airs, she has a lot of ways to contest the opponent offstage.

Consider Maypul's Forward Air. Top player Nbad will tell you that if he ever spots the chance to dunk an opponent offstage, he will go for it as many times as he can. It's not strong on its own, but being able to loop into itself and carry someone to the bottom corner of the stage is the shining star. It also is fine to simply just reset the position from a single dunk.
Also think about invincible Aerials from ledge. Maypul has a lot of coverage with dropping with Neutral Air and Back Air, and she can also hit hard to send opponents away from the stage with her Up Special.
If you have a tether confirm, go for it, especially if they're close enough to the blast zone.

There's also a useful tool to think about: Terry. If you want to go for an extremely deep edgeguard but don't want to trade stocks, putting this down as insurance can aid a lot in terms of offstage strength.

Ledgetrapping

On stage, you can also trap ledge with moves like Down Tilt and Forward Tilt. Obviously, don't charge Strongs at ledge unless you're confident, but moves like Up Strong and Forward Strong have a lot of good mileage from being able to cover space beyond the ledge, and if they happen to wrap, Maypul gets only more advantage from being able to continue an edgeguard.

Kill Confirms

If Maypul finds the opponent at high enough percents, there are a ton of options for kills.

The biggest one will usually be tether Aerials. Knowing your tether openers will help a lot here. Remember, even if it looks like they're sent extremely far, once you kill them, you have all your resources to get back to stage. This works especially with Maypul's Forward Throw and Back Throw.
There's also Lily to think about. If you knock into them while they're marked, that's a free kill on a Lily wrap.
If you manage to get Poppy off, you can find some good openers with this as well.
Catching landings with Up Special or Up Air will always work.
There are also some more conventional openings, like Down Tilt into Down Strong, or Down Tilt into Up Special on DI in.
It's also fine to kill off a tech chase with a Strong. Remember that Up Strong kills significantly stronger vertically, especially if the first frame connects, Down Strong is the fastest and most consistent kill option, and Forward Strong is a great callout if the tipper connects.

Disadvantage

Out of Shield

Let's be real, Maypul's out of shield game is tough. She's got a really short roll, she's got a meh wavedash out of shield, she's got a small Grab that means it's easy to space moves on her, and her Aerials out of shield are not particularly fast. Her Neutral Air out of shield is frame 13, for crying out loud.

There's a few ways around this.

If you can land a perfect shield, this allows Maypul to have her grounded options as out of shield punishes, which are much better and faster in terms of setting up for combos. These have the range to punish opponents a lot better.
Uppercut out of shield is the "wakeup DP" that Maypul has. It's actually the fastest offensive option after Grab at frame 10, even faster than Back Air out of shield. The spacing is pretty strict, but she really thrives in getting the opponent off her shield if it lands. If she's on a platform, she can even platform cancel it into her double jump or a waveland, giving her even more options to combo with.
Ultimately, just get out of shield as soon as possible, honestly. Maypul's strength is in her movement, so if she's constantly stuck in shield, then she's not able to take advantage of that movement in a meaningful way.

Landing on Stage

How do you get out of an air combo? Well, Maypul's got the fewest options since she's such a fastfaller, but here's a few options.

You can use Leafdive and Leaftasm to get out of disadvantage. Just scram out of there.
Down Air can really catch opponents who are just waiting on the ground off guard. Of course, this can be anticipated with a parry, so be wary.
Because Maypul's air speed and fastfall are so fast, sometimes she can just fastfall out of her combos and get to the ground before the opponent does. If she really wants to, she can also just get to ledge instead, since her recovery is so strong.
Try to not to tether to the opponent on instinct, but if the opponent is stuck committing to an action that is clearly going to whiff, you can tether out.
Terry is a really powerful tool here. It's your one escape hatch in some situations.

Recovery

Make sure to read the universal strategy section on recovery before reading this page.

Compared to other recoveries, Maypul looks bad on paper. Her movement options of Leaftasm and Uppercut are quite short compared to something like Fleet or Zetterburn. However, there's a few things to keep in mind:

Maypul has some insane aerial drift, having fast air speed with above average aerial acceleration.
She's also got one of the most useful tools in Up Air. If you do this out of a double jump or a wall jump, you gain a LOT of height.
Once Maypul gets to the wall, she has no problem being able to hit the opponent and regain her wall jump back. Refreshing her wall jump off of hits is an essential tool for Maypul.
Unlike other characters, once Maypul gets to the wall, she can wallcling to wait out an option from the opponent and potentially punishing them for it.
Her specials might not go far, but they importantly are fast and have good protective hitboxes.

The elephant in the room, of course, is Maypul's tether, but we'll get to that in a second.

This is the key to Maypul's recovery. You can split it into two parts: getting to the wall, and fighting for ledge at the wall.

Getting to the wall involves anything you can. Ideally, you want to protect your double jump and air dodge as resources, since these are the most precious for mixups. Wall jump is the most discardable, and as long as you can hit the opponent again, there is no issue with using it.

Remember that you can go low with a Leafdive, or if you even want to, just fastfall. Just have confidence with being able to reach the wall with a Leaftasm.
Sometimes, however, the opponent is trying to stop you from getting to the wall. Remember that you can just Uppercut to ledge. Maypul's air speed is your friend here, and sometimes an early recovery to steal ledge can grab it, even from what looks far away. Maypul's also got some hurtbox distortion going on with her Up Special, meaning that if you reverse it, it's even harder to hit.
If you have to double jump out of hitstun to survive, make sure to chain it with Up Air.

Once you get to the wall, it's time to go to work. Maypul can cover a lot of space with her Aerials, and her Leaftasm does a good job of quickly getting Maypul back to the wall while also sending opponents away from the wall. You can send them away in all sorts of directions depending on the move you choose, but in general, always be ready to look out for an option that you can reversal them off of

Remember that you're not the one in danger, they are. Confidence in your recovery is what will give you mileage, since Maypul's recovery can be very scramble-based compared to others who have a very linear mix.

Tether

Okay, let's talk about it.

It's not that good. It's definitely the last resort option compared to everything else, since if the opponent is ready, it is extremely exploitable. However, it's not the end of the world. The advantage of tether is that you cannot be intercepted by projectiles, and you also lose your ECB, meaning that you can simply travel through the bottom of the stage if you want to.

This is also applicable to Terry. In fact, if Terry is on the opposite ledge, this option actually becomes super strong, since if the opponent is busy edgeguarding you on one side, they obviously cannot contest the other side at the same time.

This is the only case where tethering above should be actually considered.

Stages

Like most things in this game, it all comes down to matchups and preferences. Here's some general frameworks that might be useful to think about when considering stages:

She really does better with wall jumps, but weirdly, all the stages are pretty good for her. Her worst stages currently are ones where she does not have enough space to keep herself safe.
The more space that Maypul has, the more control she has over when to go in and when to play evasive.
Hyperborean Harbor is a special stage where Maypul can actually camp out opponents incredibly hard on the wall due to her wall cling. Of course, all characters can do this to a degree, but Maypul gets a lot of mileage out of this stage in particular.

Tips and Tricks

Tilt stick is almost always preferable, since having easy access to run up Forward Tilt is a really strong tool in her toolkit. You may, however, prefer to have strong stick, especially for instant Down Strongs.
Try to keep the opponent marked at all times. The more they're marked, the more you can convert off openings.

Counterplay

Maypul is a very tricky character to beat, but there are a few weaknesses you can heavily exploit.

Maypul suffers from the light fastfaller archetype, meaning that all of your fastfaller combos will work excellently on her and kill earlier than most. Having a strong punish game against Maypul is essential, since her mobility is incredibly hard to pin down.
Maypul has very little pressure from afar and needs to run in to make things happen. By this standard, walling Maypul and keeping her out can help, especially since many of Maypul's buttons will trade or lose to other character's buttons.
Taking away double jump or airdodge as an offstage resource can make Maypul easier to edgeguard, though her reversal potential off a walljump still demands a lot of respect.
Parrying Lily can be a valuable tool, since disabling her makes it a lot easier in general.