The Prince of Altea, speculated to dominate the metagame should Meta Knight disappear...
Here's my tidbit:
Marth
Ratio: 60:40 Marth
Synopsis:
Coming soon?
Ratio: 60:40 Marth
Synopsis:
Coming soon?
Here's my tidbit:
Discuss! ^^Okay, with Marth, you have to play defensive, just as you would Meta Knight. If you approach, you're vulnerable to pain of all sorts as he is by far one of the best defensively characters in the game, theoretically surpassing Snake in this regard.
Arrows are distractions, but a good Marth will have absolutely no problem with them. They will simply powershield them in his attempt to drive through your projectile wall, and then get you at close-mid range and close range, where he will try to **** and destroy you.
Instead, bombs with boomerang (especially angled down to reflect back by the stage) is strongly recommended. The boomerang can be destroyed by his sword, but that makes it so you can use it again immediately. By angling it down, you force him to either hit the boomerang early, shield it, or just past it and approach, only to worry of it later. Options 1 and 2 allow you to get the boomerang back and is mostly resetting the situation. Option 3 is unfavorable for any character, but may occasionally be taken.
Bombs should be set up in a way that limits Marth's options. Throwing a bomb up to delay its fall, and then keeping one in hand to throw toward him works well as a projectile wall with arrow cancels from shorthopped bomb throws being distractions. So from a shorthop, you can throw a bomb toward him, or above as a delay, and then go into a boomerang, or a lag canceled arrow. Personally, two bombs high up, one perhaps thrown with a medium strength (tilt + A), and another strong (C-stick/Smash) can lead to variations in their fall speed, along with the boomerang and a few lagless arrows, creates one of the better projectile walls Toon Link can conjure up.
This will force Marth to approach, but also have a difficult time approaching. These set-ups work brilliantly on stages with decent running room, such as Final Destination and Pokemon Stadium, as good Marths will indeed run through your projectile wall, and force you to reset it, and you'll need all the room you can get.
IF you get cornered to the edge, you're in trouble. Marth has frame traps and lightning quick moves. His Dtilt can force a reaction, and 4/5 times, he can punish that reaction due to the IASA frames of Dtilt (our Dtilt isn't long-ranged enough to be that cool guys, =/). His Dancing Blade beats your jab combo, which is your fastest move on the ground. If you're cornered, get out. Double jump with a bomb in hand and force some room to get back into the middle of the stage, and try to make him the one near the edges. It is absolutely necessary to control the middle of the stage, as that's all the control you will get.
If you need to fan him away and cannot get a projectile in, you can do an autocanceled Zair.
You can try to make a fake approach, then DI back into a retreating Zair, or just jump back and Zair. It lingers and can throw off a Marth that gets too aggressive.
Now as for how you can kill him, you'll need him to be hit by a bomb or boomerang and then set-up to a kill move (Usmash/Fair for instance) or use a move like Nair to edgeguard him. His recovery is linear, and can be easily gimped if you're patient. Use arrows to slow down his aerial speed toward the ledge, not bombs or boomerang since he can force a DI closer to the stage that way if he's smart. From there, stand close to the edge and ready for a speed hug (run off ledge, fastfall + DI into ledge). If you need to regain invincibility frames, limit it to 1, and only use it near the end of the initial ones. Dolphin Slash comes out fast, and even the weak area that barely phases you can stagespike you cold.
As for juggling, he's floaty, and therefore Utilt traps end very early. Bair can rack up damage. But if you're at a high percent do not attempt, as he will Dolphin Slash it and you will probably die. If both of you are at low percents, he will likely take it since the knockback of DS won't stun you enough to benefit him.
Killing Marth up top is easiest though, it just needs some traps and wits. At higher percents (past 100), you can very well start to kill him off. Utilt or Usmash, if they don't outright kill him, can set up to a baiting trap.
What you do here is force an AIRDODGE. Marth is weak below him since his Dair sucks. Use bombs thrown up, or a boomerang from a jump angled upward to force an airdodge, or maybe even a Bair (yes, it hits on the top a bit, don't do it near him since he can Counter you that way; Counter won't reach his bottom though). You can also try to do Zair -> grab, but that won't work if you used Zair's optimal distance. You'll have to get into him closer with Zair, and that can be risky (the follow-up might not even be guaranteed that way either). From there, you can do Dthrow, or Uthrow. Uthrow offers more vertical distance so the trap has a high success rate, but Dthrow sends them lower, so if they mess up and airdodge the throw, you can end the trap there with Uair as the airdodge ends, forcing a relatively early stock off of them.
However, you usually have to follow the airdodge, and do Uair. A weak Uair is the lingering hitbox, and kills later. If you can force an airdodge and activate Uair around the moment where the airdodge ends, you'll get the strong WTF broken one that kills him around 80-90% assuming the move is undiminished and it was set-off by a baiting trap.
If you didn't already know, Zair outranges all of Marth's aerials, but your other aerials don't compare, where his can kill safely. So let's go with what you shouldn't do:
- Up+B offensively (grounded can get shielded and Dolphin Slashed/or DI'd out of and Dolphin Slashed; aerial can be DI'd out of, possibly to a tipped Uair which may kill you early consider the vertical distance you sent yourself in at 90+ percents).
- Any tilts other than Utilt (His tilts are amazing, not MK amazing, but overshadow yours and outrange them). You can do a mid-range Dtilt to try to bait them into thinking you're vulnerable, but for all intents and purposes, stick to Utilt, and even that will be sparingly used.
- Try to combo him. Yeah, he's floaty enough that he can get out of a lot of Zair set-ups, or Fair you while you try to follow up with a sword attack. Stick to retreating zairs or those to bombs. You can try the VietG combo, or Zair -> Nair at low percents, but past 30%, it's VERY DI'able, and you're taking a larger risk than you'd gain in reward.
- Try to fight him close up. No, you'll lose. Dancing Blade beats out all of your ground attacks, Dolphin Slash stuffs everything, and your sword even in the air is no match unless you're below him.
- * Fsmash. He can jump away or Dolphin Slash between hits if you're not quick enough. Combined with DI where he is too high to do a second slash immediately, makes this kill move very hard to land.
* - Risky, but can work. It is usually equal risk-reward so it's considered neutral standing.
Also note that Marth has a similar advantage to you, and can exploit you similarly. Marth has a juggle trap with his Uair, and can kill, as well as just rack up damage on you by baiting airdodges. The juggle trap can end with Utilt or Usmash if they force you to try to avoid a Uair near the ground/bait you into an airdodge in other ways. You have a better Dair, but they will likely keep an eye on it and airdodge that, then punish you with Dancing Blade or whatever.
Marth does well on all the stages you do well on, so there's not anything you should explicitly ban except maybe Battlefield (and you can use that to your advantage too). He may ban Rainbow Cruise or FD if it's just a general dislike, but for the most part, there's no strategic reason to ban anything on both player sides. It will be general preference.
Comment/add/criticize/correct/whatever please.
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