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Charizard Tactical Discussion

Myollnir

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That's what I thought. Charizard's Forward Smash has invincibility frames when he's about to hit with his head. I can't say how many though. I've already dodged a laser with the fsmash, but I wasn't sure if it was because of the Z-axis or something.

So I just went to the training mode, I used Charizard with 1 controller and Squirtle with another controller. I used Squirtle's jab when Zard was about to hit, and Squirtle got hit by the smash even if his jab his frame 1. Just to make sure that wasn't priority or something, I gave Squirtle a starman. Zard wasn't hit by the jab during his FSmash.

Well, that's not much, but I thought it was good to share for those who don't know.
 

Dre89

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Are you guys saying to use usmash oos as a regular move or to save it for KOs?

:phone:
 

Myollnir

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Shouldn't we stall more?
I mean, it can help to refresh our other Pokémon, or simply to fake out.
With Charizard, we can use our UpB after a ledgedrop to regrab it.
As you may know, when we ledgedrop ASAP after grabbing the ledge, we have 21 usable invincibility frames. Plus, we have a super armor on our UpB. Moreover, if we "DI" towards the stage during the Fly attack, we can create a hitbox on the stage (you don't need to change the direction of the Fly to create a hitbox, but it's easier). Between the iFrames, the super armor and the hitbox + the new 46 frames we get when we grab the stage, we shouldn't be too vulnerable, no?

PS : With Squirtle, we can attempt to stall by pressing left/right (depends on which side you are), and using Waterfall almost immediatly after. Squirtle can regrab the ledge very quickly to regain some invincibility frames. By using this technique, you can create a small hitbox as well.

What do you think?
 

TheReflexWonder

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Shouldn't we stall more?
I mean, it can help to refresh our other Pokémon, or simply to fake out.
With Charizard, we can use our UpB after a ledgedrop to regrab it.
As you may know, when we ledgedrop ASAP after grabbing the ledge, we have 21 usable invincibility frames. Plus, we have a super armor on our UpB. Moreover, if we "DI" towards the stage during the Fly attack, we can create a hitbox on the stage (you don't need to change the direction of the Fly to create a hitbox, but it's easier). Between the iFrames, the super armor and the hitbox + the new 46 frames we get when we grab the stage, we shouldn't be too vulnerable, no?

What do you think?
The invincibility from a ledgedrop does little to help Charizard, because his jump sucks, his aerials don't keep him safe, and his hurtbox is enormous. However, Charizard has a number of useful traits that make him a competent planker.

Having two mid-air jumps is a huge help, since we have significantly more options when coming off the ledge in the first place (in that we have the option to delay any attack for up to about half a second), and if we get hit by a move while attempting to ledgecamp, we still have another jump to keep our Up-B safe from punishment that involves knockback. B-Air is a long-range aerial that can take decent advantage of the invulnerable period, and depending on the opponent's choice of move to stop you, Rock Smash counter is as reasonable an option as any. It's worth noting that a perfectly timed ledgedrop Flamethrower is invulnerable until after the fire starts coming out, but the timing is too strict to expect anyone to realistically manage it. That said, the threats of both B-Air and Rock Smash counter allow you to simply B-Reverse Flamethrower onto the stage, so those two moves have good mindgame potential.

I believe that the super armor on Up-B starts on Frame 4 and ends on Frame 16. We gain the ability to grab the ledge on Frame 21, so that leaves six frames of vulnerability. It would be neat to test how far under and/or away from the ledge we can grab, as we could ideally Up-B underneath the ledge and stay safe (at worst, someone takes the ledge from us and we Up-B through their offensive option).
 

Killanator90

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What would you say is the best way to get back on the ledge with Zard? I always have a hard time getting back on with him
 

TheReflexWonder

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What would you say is the best way to get back on the ledge with Zard? I always have a hard time getting back on with him
No good way to do it. Charizard has so many issues with it. His head stays up when he's on the ledge, his jump doesn't go very high, and his F-Air isn't safe. You can get back on just by changing up the three primary ledge options (move onto the stage without rolling, roll onto the stage, and do a ledge attack), since they all have varying amounts of invincibility time, but there are other options depending on your opponent, too.

You can Rock Smash or Flamethrower onto the ledge if you think you can cause it to blow up in their face via counterattack, but most attacks will avoid or straight-up break the rock and come out before Flamethrower starts, so you have to be careful about that. B-Reversing helps throw the opponent off.

You can also do a ledge jump, but Charizard has difficulty landing when people are below him. If they like to react immediately (as they would if you have platforms to land on, like Battlefield or Smashville), you can D-Air or N-Air immediately and hope to beat/trade with their attack, and that works alright, especially if their jumps aren't super-fast/high.
 

Gadiel_VaStar

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Reflex, your Charizard is fun to watch. You should have used PT vs Mikehaze, and you would have wrecked him with Squirtle on a neutral stage!
 

CoonTail

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^ LOL

Luis and I even talked about it and that MU is so bad, even with Luis's godlike Squirtle I do not think the PT v. Marth MU will ever go well.

Except for T block......LOL!
 

Myollnir

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Well I think it's -3 for sure with Squirtle (and Ivy but that's a different story). The only thing we can do is juggle him :v
 

Gadiel_VaStar

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Well I think it's -3 for sure with Squirtle (and Ivy but that's a different story). The only thing we can do is juggle him :v
Didn't people say that about the Marth vs Pikachu, and look what ESAM did...

Squirtle has the speed to get around Marth's attacks. I don't see how it's so bad. Also, you have to account for the P v P. This game is not entirely matchup based. The best players are able to overcome their matchup deficiency which is more of a made up # than actuality in my opinion. Stating....X beats Y character really messes up one's focus, so it's best to view every matchup as winnable and all you have to do is beat the player behind the character.
 

CoonTail

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^This

This MU is dominated by the fact that Marth's GR on Squirtle is a secured kill every time. The only time the GR doesn't happen is when the Marth is REALLY REALLY BAD because that GR is really hard to drop.

This is a blatant form of a 7:3 and there is not much we can do whether the person playing PT is amazing or not. Plain and simple grab Squirtle -> Take stock.
 

Myollnir

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Marth hasn't to support a silly CPU that acts 6 frames after him ; and his grab range is actually good, as well as his range in general.
 

CoonTail

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Umm, ICs? What do you do in that matchup? Avoid grabs right? What else?
LOL cmon now, IC's is bad yes but if we take advantage of Nana the 0-death goes away. Against Marth it never goes away and his grab range is silly. Go on ahead if you insist on this being a doable MU and talk to Luis about it if you really choose to not believe us, he'll tell you the same ****.....
 

TheReflexWonder

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Squirtle can't mount any sort of offensive threat without putting himself at risk of getting reacted to via F-Air, Up-B, or grab (and it's not an ambiguous crossup dealie--we just get grabbed). All of our aerials lose to F-Air. Airdodging into him gets you grabbed. He easily outranges our F-Tilt and Jab. Our KO options are basically limited to just D-Throw at about 135%, and he can grab-release us into D-Air or F-Smash at about 50%.

There are a lot of reasons that we lose this matchup in general. Ivysaur has no reliable way of dealing damage without platforms (and even then, it puts you at risk of getting juggled), gets juggled incredibly easily (see?), and can't do anything safe about Marth's general spacing tools.

Most of Charizard's good spacing tools are bad here. Flamethrower gets you Up-B'd, many of Marth's attacks straight-up beat Rock Smash, gets juggled incredibly easily (SEE?!), and generally loses the spacing battle.

Not every lopsided matchup can be pushed to manageable just by sticking with it. Some characters are just straight-up counters to others.

Ice Climbers have zero range on their grabs, don't have an incredible spacing advantage, and can be neutered with a single good read. There are a lot of other factors in that matchup, but I think it's no worse than -2. I lean toward -1 for us, actually.
 

Gadiel_VaStar

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LOL cmon now, IC's is bad yes but if we take advantage of Nana the 0-death goes away. Against Marth it never goes away and his grab range is silly. Go on ahead if you insist on this being a doable MU and talk to Luis about it if you really choose to not believe us, he'll tell you the same ****.....
I was just kidding, lol to fire you up, but I see what Reflex posted, and I can see how it's a bad matchup.
 

T-block

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I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Squirtle vs. Marth is no worse than -2, even with the grab release. If it weren't for grab release, it would be even or veeeery slight advantage Marth.

Unwinnable for Ivysaur on every stage.

Not unwinnable for Charizard if you have space (ie- not too many platforms and lots of running space). Really tough if you don't have space.
 

CoonTail

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@T-block

How can you seriously consider it a -2 for squirtle when you can get grabbed out of every attack and essentially get yourself killed when your above 35-40%?

Not trolling just seriously asking because I tend to struggle with this MU it always feels like Marth's Pivot Grab > Squirtle's approach.
 

Myollnir

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I'm more leaning towards -4 than -2. Hard counter for sure.
Squirte can avoid getting grabbed, but you won't win by doing it. I personnally do it because I want to switch to Ivy ASAP (she does a bit better than Squirtle imo).
 

CoonTail

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^Ugh

But doesn't Marth still manage to link F-air to grab on Ivy really easily and also link F-air to F-air when close to the edge creating a very rough edge situation for Ivy?

Like I said guys I just want to understand since this is a rough MU that I'd like to have a better grasp of.
 

CoonTail

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But even with SDI your still in a bad spot because SDI'ing up can cause you to get u-air'd, n-air'd, or grabbed while SDI'ing out nets a possible gimp.

I just don't seem to know a correct way to DI against Marth's F-air as Ivy.
 

Myollnir

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Unless you're at low %, you should be fine if you SDI and DI Up.
If you're at low %, Marth has better options than air releasing.
 

CoonTail

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Unless you're at low %, you should be fine if you SDI and DI Up.
If you're at low %, Marth has better options than air releasing.
Yea at low % thats where the silly F-air -> F-air can happen (due to % it's a bit harder to DI) or F-air to N-air/F-air -> grab which really leaves us in bad position.

High % though that GR -> anything that pushes us further out is a rough scenario.
 

Myollnir

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Well, Ivy isn't Squirtle. If Marth has a guaranteed Fair on her, the Fair will connect quite high, so we don't even need to UpB to recover (if proper DI).
 

CoonTail

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Ok so the more I look over the past few posts I find that knowing how to DI against Marth's F-air with Ivy/ knowing how to DI against Marth in general with Ivy is very important in this MU.
 

T-block

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don't underestimate grounded approaches against marth

Squirtle:

Squirtle is actually just as mobile as Marth. He has similar aerial mobility values, and has that fantastic pivot with hydroplaning options that allow him to stay mobile on the ground. However, he loses to Marth because Marth outranges him, and because he gets punished harder for mistakes than he punishes. That said, because Squirtle is highly mobile, there is room to outplay Marth, so this matchup is not unwinnable.

Marth can force Squirtle to air release out of a grab, and has plenty of options once he does so. His most popular options are f-air, d-air, f-smash, u-smash and regrab. Grab release > d-air can be survived by good SDI so that the spike sends you into the stage floor instead of to your death. The other maneuver to be aware of is his usage of up-b. Due to the way Squirtle applies pressure, and the fact that Marth's grab is so deadly for Squirtle, Marth will be relying on his shield as a strong defensive option. Up-b OoS is invincible on frame 1, so be wary of being too eager to pressure his shield.

Playing Squirtle against Marth is all about finding ways to get inside, and maximizing your damage output once you do. Approaching via aerials tends to be unsafe due to shieldgrabbing and up-b OoS, although a rising b-air can be effective, especially at low percents when his up-b is unsafe on hit. Shellshifting/hydroplane f-tilt, mixed with short-hop-air-dodge jab, and empty short-hop grab can all be effective as well.

Once you get in, you need to be relentless without being careless. Always keep in mind that Marth has strong but high-risk gtfo options (frame 4 counter, frame 1 invincible up-b). When you go into this match, one of your early goals should be finding out how he uses up-b. If you can bait one early and punish it hard, you make it much easier to apply pressure later on in the game. There are two positions you want to be in to apply continued pressure. The first is below him. Squirtle is a fantastic juggler, as double jump u-air is lightning fast and can be done in reaction to an attempt to use side-b to stall. Use empty short-hops to gauge reactions, and punish with grabs/u-tilts/u-airs. Marth isn't great at dealing with Squirtle below him, as d-air has high cooldown, and stalling with side-b can only help so much. Stay lower to the ground so you don't overcommit to your juggle attempt though - you don't want to end up above Marth, as he is also a potent juggler. The other position is when you have Marth trapped on the ledge. Marth suffers heavily from RCO lag, although using f-air before he lands is still pretty safe. In any case, Marth still has a lot of trouble returning to the stage from the ledge against a waiting Squirtle. Stand outside of ledgehop f-air range, but don't try to challenge him on the ledge. Use f-air/f-tilt/jab combo/d-air/grabs to keep him off the ledge.

Camping Marth is also something that shouldn't be dismissed. If you notice that Marth is approaching you (which will likely happen if you have the lead and are already fatigued), don't be afraid to play defensively, because Squirtle can make it hard for Marth to approach as well. Be smart with Water Gun. Catching his f-air with a Water Gun creates a good opening for an approach. Otherwise, use it to mess with his spacing/zoning, which will diminish the effectiveness of his approach.

The Squirtle player really has to be the one dictating the flow of the match here. Make Marth feel uncomfortable, and don't let him get into that flow where he's shutting the match down, easily swatting away all of your approaches. Whether you fighting or staring each other down should be determined by you, and when you can do so, this matchup becomes winnable.


Ivysaur:

Contrary to Squirtle, Ivysaur can compete in the range department, but lacks severely in the mobility, which unfortunately equates to a much harder time against Marth.

Marth doesn't really have any Ivysaur-specific tricks that make this matchup difficult. Rather, it's just his basic moveset that gives Ivysaur trouble. D-tilt by the edge is particularly dangerous, but Ivysaur just has to be careful around the edge in general. It should be noted that Ivysaur can Bullet Seed out of the final hit of Dancing Blade if Marth uses the down-variation.

Ivysaur has a lot of difficulty dealing with the way Marth approaches. Confronting Marth from the air while facing him is out of the question, since Ivysaur's f-air is so slow. If going from the air, Ivysaur needs to be facing backwards, and Marth's dash speed combined with the range on his f-air (RAR b-air from Marth really hurts too) makes b-air less safe than it should be, when b-air does minimal damage in the first place. Approaching from the ground isn't much better, so Ivysaur shouldn't approach at all. B-air works when spaced perfectly if Marth is already in the air, and grounded up-b is great for sniping a Marth that gets too comfortable closing the distance. Ultimately, however, in order to keep Marth from getting past Ivysaur's defenses, the Ivysaur player needs to be outplaying the Marth player pretty hard. Once Marth does get in, Ivysaur has trouble getting Marth off, as Bullet Seed is extremely high risk, b-air hits in the wrong direction, and f-air is too slow. Marth also edgeguards Ivysaur extremely well. Overall, I would recommend switching Ivysaur out as soon as possible.


Charizard:

Charizard has an interesting matchup with Marth. They both have similar movement values, notably the very high dash speeds, yet the matchup is not all that dynamic, largely because Charizard should be focusing on completely controlling the pace of the match.

If Marth manages to get Charizard in a compromising position, between juggling, edgeguarding, and Charizard's general ability to avoid follow-ups due to his slower moves and large frame, Marth is going to be able to tack on a lot of damage. If you end up in the air above him, make sure you are thinking hard about when to use your jumps, as once you are stuck above him without jumps, it is virtually impossible to return to the ground. B-reversals may be able to give you enough of a momentum shift to get past the juggle, so always keep those in mind. Because of this, you want to shut the match down to a zoning game, and aim to deal damage gradually, but safely. Short bursts of Flamethrower can be effective, as can f-tilt. The overall goal is to slowly limit Marth's space, and push him towards the ledge.

However, this does not entail standing still and throwing out moves - Marth will outmaneuver you if you play that way. Instead, take advantage of Charizard's amazing movement. Move in and out of Marth's zone (use that dash speed; the closest you get should still be outside of his f-smash range). If he goes for an approach and you're not sure you can punish it, ride the dash away from him - depending on the situation, you can throw out a turnaround Flamethrower, a Rock Smash, or even do nothing and note his reaction to a failed approach. The tricky part is recognizing while doing this when Marth is open, and capitalizing. Most of the time this will come in the form of a dash grab or a dash > u-smash. If you manage to push Marth towards the ledge, these opportunities will present themselves more often.

Just as with Squirtle, juggling and ledgetrapping are strong tools for Charizard in this matchup. Charizard's juggling on Marth is not as effective as Squirtle's since he requires more commitment on his moves, but between u-smash, u-air and grab he can still do very well. Charizard does extremely well at ledgetrapping Marth though, between Flamethrower and grab. Conversely, returning from the ledge as Charizard against Marth is also very difficult. Ledgehop away, mid-air jump Flamethrower landing on stage is a strong option, as if Marth is standing far enough away to avoid the ledgehopped aerial, it's difficult for him to obtain a guaranteed punish on that. But of course, mix it up.


Switch Strategy:

Whether you start Squirtle or Charizard should depend on the stage. On cramped stages such as Lylat Cruise or Battlefield, you should definitely be maximizing your time with Squirtle. On stages such as Final Destination or Pokemon Stadium 1, which are more spacious and are worse for Squirtle's grab releases, you might consider starting Charizard.

The switch strategy I follow in this matchup is to use Ivysaur as little as possible. With the other two, play as outlined above until Marth is at kill percents, then switch for the kill.

Try to avoid the situation where Squirtle is at KO percents and Marth is at very low percents, especially on cramped stages. If Squirtle were to die, Ivysaur would not be able to get a switch off without leaving Charizard to take a hit, which on cramped stages could mean 70+%. I would strongly consider switching to Ivysaur as a sacrifice in such a situation.

Stages:

From a starter list of BF/FD/SV/PS1/CS/LC/YI, this would be my preferred order:
  • Smashville
  • Pokemon Stadium 1
  • Castle Siege
  • Battlefield
  • Yoshi's Island
  • Final Destination
  • Lylat Cruise

So strikes would be from the bottom up.

Ban either Final Destination or Lylat Cruise. Maybe Brinstar since that stage does not favour Charizard at all.

My counterpicks would be Rainbow Cruise, then probably Smashville and Pokemon Stadium 1.

---

Okay... I wrote a lot more than I expected to lol. I hope that helps, as I think Marth is one of my better matchups. Any comments or additional input would be great. I'm fairly confident in my Squirtle and Ivysaur evaluations... less sure about what I think about the Charizard-Marth matchup.
 

CoonTail

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^T-Block

But this doesn't say much tho as far as Ivy goes.

Key notes.
1. Don't try to fight Marth in the air.
2. Grounded approaches are rough and B-air is not that great.
3. Switch Ivy out asap.

Did I miss some key points or something because this only seemed to leave me at square one, Bait throw -> Switch, or just GTFO move -> switch.
 

T-block

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@T-block

How can you seriously consider it a -2 for squirtle when you can get grabbed out of every attack and essentially get yourself killed when your above 35-40%?

Not trolling just seriously asking because I tend to struggle with this MU it always feels like Marth's Pivot Grab > Squirtle's approach.
i was responding to this

idk what to do as ivysaur. i think to survive you need smart use of up-b though. you need to make marth fear being in the zone that your up-b covers, and that might be enough to stop marth from overwhelming you?
 

CoonTail

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i was responding to this

idk what to do as ivysaur. i think to survive you need smart use of up-b though. you need to make marth fear being in the zone that your up-b covers, and that might be enough to stop marth from overwhelming you?
Ok my bad I will re-read your post and edit my original to reflect on the Squirtle MU with Marth.

Trying to snipe with Up-b is a little difficult and unsafe but if you manage to start baiting short/full hop Air Dodges, then we could start attempting to punish with U-smash which to me is an awesome thing.
 

Myollnir

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My strategy against Marth is Charizard, then Squirtle+Ivy and a fresh Charizard for the last stock.
If I am on SV and I feel like playing very defensive, I play my first stock as Zard.
When I get KO'd I stay on the platform as Squirtle (I often do this so my other pokemon have a little bit of a rest). I use the ledge to have invincibility frames and try to rest my Zard and take minimum damage. I play very defensively, I don't approach at all. When I'm at ~40%, I zero switch. I play very carefully as Ivy and when the opportunity comes, I zero switch to Zard (or B-throw/Fair/etc + switch obviously). Same thing for Stock 3. Very difficult to do, but it works (at least for me).
 

TheReflexWonder

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Charizard's turnaround-in-a-dash (his shellshift, if you will) should be looked into; it appears to have potential for approaching and landing strong single-hit moves.

It's...fast. We can't sling ourselves forward or anything, but, running toward the opponent and turning around appears to have many practical mix-up applications.

We can cancel the turnaround animation with a few options: a RAR'd B-Air, which is what we're used to; turn toward the opponent while standing; start another initial dash towards the opponent.

The second option allows us to throw the opponents' spacing off while putting us in an ideal position to use our own spacing stuff, like tilts, Flamethrower, or Rock Smash counter.

The third option's quick speed change will make it more difficult for people to wall our standard approaches, as Charizard's initial dash is hard to react to, and you seem to get extra starting distance when you start a dash from the dash-turnaround animation.

It is also worth nothing that the turnaround cancel happens before your tail comes around, so you pull back your head and don't put your tail in that spot, which lessens the issue of having a large hurtbox straight. out while approaching the opponent.

Mess around with it. This may help our approach play a good deal.
 
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