Help Choosing a Secondary

[yodajediyoda]

I want to start really focusing on one character for a secondary but am having a hard time choosing. I have been bouncing around mains from when I started learning Tech-skill, and have literally mained all of the characters down to Ice Climbers. I like to play nearly every top tier but like all of them for different reasons. I finally decided on Marth a while ago, and am going to keep him as he is my best character. Also, I am willing to put in the practice on any character, so learning curve is not really an issue.

Reasons for choosing a secondary:
1. I want to cover the puff and sheik matchups, as i find the puff matchups very unintuitive and slow (Granted that may be what all puff matchups are) and the sheik matchup really hard.
2. I think it would be good to be able to mix up my play in a tournament setting if i start with marth and lose badly. Plus learning a new character would be nice to stop auto piloting.
3. I honestly am tired of practicing marth. Hes fun and is my best by quite a bit, but is mostly fundamentals, which can always use improving.

So those are the main reasons.
Now on to the characters I am deciding between:

Fox: He is the best compliment to marth (Said by ppmd himself), and is the only character with a positive puff + shiek matchup. I also personally like the fun stuff you can do with shine, such as shine sheild pressure and shine spiking. My concerns are that everyone that is serious about melee knows the fox matchup really well, and I would prefer an offbeat secondary.
Falco: His lasers are so much fun. He can space and zone really well, which is something i like a lot. He also has down air, possibly my favorite move in the game. He was my top choice but his wavedash and awkward multishine timing makes me rethink it. That and I have no idea how to get any followups off of his grabs.
Sheik: Her simplicity would force me to actually learn melee, not characters specifically. Basically she would hopefully stop me autopiloting, and has some easy confirmed setups while at it. Even though she has a negative matchup with puff i can still play marth vs. puff well, i just find it boring.
ICs: Desynching is so cool and they seem to have an endless skill roof. However, I have trouble knowing what to practice with them however and feel like there are few people who could help 1 on 1, as they seem to be played by only a select few.
Peach: Downsmash and turnips are a ton of fun but armada switching away disheartens me. She also seems to have a bad match up with shiek which is one of my main reasons for picking a secondary.
Reasons for not picking:
Puff: Matches with her are just. SO. SLOW. I find rest hilarious and fun but im not willing to sit and space bairs until the opponent is dead.
Falcon: My friend mains him and honestly his recovery bugs me. I feel like after I throw him off its a free kill as long as I don't mess up. I love his ground speed and his combo game, but hes just not worth it.

Thank you for reading and replying :D.

 

[MurphyPrime]

To be honest, the first two points shouldn't really apply if you practice and improve your Marth. But I totally get wanting something new. Anyone of those characters except puff would be decent secondaries for your specific case. Fox obviously meets the best criteria. So it's more up to you who you like. IC's are a strong counter to sheik if you can get good with them. IC's aren't great against puff though so maybe not the best.

You aren't really going to decide by someone saying "my main is the best so second them!". You got to put in the work to find out. Also if you want an off beat secondary why are you only listing the top 8? Anyone in the top 8 (except maybe puff, peach and ICs) are mainstream. Luigi, Samus, Pikachu are off beat. If you get into competitive play everybody should know any of these matchups, so you don't really get an advantage off of it. I would recommend picking Fox, Falco, Falcon to complement Marth's slower air speed. But again, practice them all and use them in friendlies to test how they feel.

 

[yodajediyoda]

To be honest, the first two points shouldn't really apply if you practice and improve your Marth. But I totally get wanting something new. Anyone of those characters except puff would be decent secondaries for your specific case. Fox obviously meets the best criteria. So it's more up to you who you like. IC's are a strong counter to sheik if you can get good with them. IC's aren't great against puff though so maybe not the best.

You aren't really going to decide by someone saying "my main is the best so second them!". You got to put in the work to find out. Also if you want an off beat secondary why are you only listing the top 8? Anyone in the top 8 (except maybe puff, peach and ICs) are mainstream. Luigi, Samus, Pikachu are off beat. If you get into competitive play everybody should know any of these matchups, so you don't really get an advantage off of it. I would recommend picking Fox, Falco, Falcon to complement Marth's slower air speed. But again, practice them all and use them in friendlies to test how they feel.

thanks for the input, i will definitely consider what you said.

 

[Dolla Pills]

If you want a fast character that can deal with Puff and Sheik well you're going to want either Fox or Falco. Whatever you choose is up to you, but if you are considering between these two I'll point out a few things.

One, while everyone does practice against Fox and should know the matchup, the same applies to Falco so you shouldn't be worried about needing an "out of the box" character (especially since most of them suck vs Sheik).
Two, Falco's timings are slightly different but once you put more time into it I guarantee it won't be a problem. Also doing more than a double shine is not very practical.
Three, Fox has a better match up against Puff than Falco does. I want to say the same is true vs Sheik but I feel that one isn't as easy to say.
And four, Fox is faster than Falco, although both can be played extremely campy, especially vs Puff.

So on paper I would say choose Fox 100% of the time, but Falco would well too so if he's your top choice then go ahead. I would stay away from the other characters because they are slower or have more obvious flaws, but ultimately it's your decision.

 

[pagedMov]

You wouldn't need a secondary if you mained the best character in the game
B)

 

[yodajediyoda]

If you want a fast character that can deal with Puff and Sheik well you're going to want either Fox or Falco. Whatever you choose is up to you, but if you are considering between these two I'll point out a few things.

One, while everyone does practice against Fox and should know the matchup, the same applies to Falco so you shouldn't be worried about needing an "out of the box" character (especially since most of them suck vs Sheik).
Two, Falco's timings are slightly different but once you put more time into it I guarantee it won't be a problem. Also doing more than a double shine is not very practical.
Three, Fox has a better match up against Puff than Falco does. I want to say the same is true vs Sheik but I feel that one isn't as easy to say.
And four, Fox is faster than Falco, although both can be played extremely campy, especially vs Puff.

So on paper I would say choose Fox 100% of the time, but Falco would well too so if he's your top choice then go ahead. I would stay away from the other characters because they are slower or have more obvious flaws, but ultimately it's your decision.

thanks for the advice. I think im going to end up going falco and just play marth vs puff, boring as it is. I just find falco's lasers more fun and less and hand breaking than SHDL, and i kinda want to play a more campy style.

 

[yodajediyoda]

You wouldn't need a secondary if you mained the best character in the game
B)

i mean.... you're not wrong XD