Alright, I think I got a decent grasp, gonna make some assumptions throughout this argument but whatever, it'll be clarified to me at some point. I don't know too much about Kirby since I only played Super Star Ultra and Star Allies.
First thing we got is that Meta Knight's Regeneration won't be enough against Cloud's Regen Negation, as he beat Sephiroth's Regen, Mid G. Plus, he can harm intangible things. So anything Meta does with those don't really... Do much.
Next we got fighting styles. From my experience, Meta clearly prefers swordplay over much else, the same as Cloud, although we don't know for sure just how Cloud fights with a large amount of Materia on hand. In that regard, they should be evenly matched, although, Meta could have the range advantage with his sword beams and tornado, Galaxia clearly is a better sword that Cloud's Fusion Sword. However, Cloud has dealt with range before since... Well, Sephiroth's sword is massive, and it can attack in more angles than a simple sword beam can, especially with Dual Wielding with the Fusion Sword.
Right now, I'm leaning quite on Cloud's side, but Meta Knight's Duplication (not sure which version to use but I'm going to assume Star Allies's version). If I recall in the boss fight, it's been awhile, attacking one clone of Meta Knight damages the health bar in general, though, that could just be game mechanics. Regardless, Meta has four clones, which greatly overwhelms Cloud's singular body. However, factoring in that they both like to use their swords more often than not, this shouldn't be a problem if Cloud has the 4x Cut Materia, which allows him to basically attack four times simultaneously. He can use this to counteract Meta's four clones and their attacks. Of course, Meta still has the advantage since he's coming from multiple angles. I think this would be in character to use (again, don't really know how Cloud fights with more OP Materia), since this Materia directly enhances just his sword capabilities.
In addition, Cloud has All Materia. When paired with any of his Magic Materia (which he WILL use as the battle intensifies, likely), he can strike all opponent's with a single magic attack, when normally it'd just be one. In this case, he would use it with Bolt3, since Lightning and Ice Materia are his go to Materia (during the Bombing Mission in the original FF7, Cloud brings along Lightning and Ice Materia instead of the Remake, where it's Fire instead). One could argue that Meta can attack deflect, but in my opinion that's a big hard to do when lightning comes from above. But if that's the case, Cloud does have an answer to that, which I will go over in this next section.
The next thing Cloud would have to worry about is Meta's full health healing. Normally, I would call this as a stamina battle since Cloud also basically has a full heal of his own in Cure3 or FullCure (I don't say Curaga because I play the original FF7 so suck it I guess?). However, Cloud still has a lot of tricks at his disposal that I feel make it not the case. First case being that Meta Knight doesn't resist Time Stop, with his... Well, Time Materia. He wouldn't have enough... Well, time.... To heal himself before Cloud piles on his strongest Magic Spells on him, such as Comet2 or Ultima, attacks that cannot be reflected by Reflect Magic, aka Attack Reflection. And, if Cloud lands a Bio3, which can poison, the healing Meta receives will not be as great as it could be with the constant damage he is taking.
Meta Knight's greatest strength, to me is Healing and Duplication, but those two are shut down. So then there is teleportation, which, when paired with his usual fighting style of melee combat, eliminates a lot of options that Meta can use this ability offensively, as they will all be close up attacks anyways. Even with my argument towards Cloud, Meta will still get a lot of hits in due to Teleportation, Duplication, and fighting style. Thankfully for Cloud, that's where defensive Materia, along with his healing come into play. Barrier, Wall, MBarrier, or Big Guard will immensely help reduce the damage Meta deals out significantly
And... Friend Hearts... From what I remember in the game, those things are.... Slow... And if I recall, Cloud does resist Emphatic Manip too
However, again, we really don't know how Cloud fights, and he may just stick with his sword the majority of the time, in which case... Well, he loses. But I'm willing to bet that isn't the case, as soon as Meta Knight starts overwhelming him with speed and teleportation, his 4x Cut Materia just won't cut it, and he'd be forced to use his other Materia to win the fight.
This is a Cloud, Mid-Diff for me.
