Well, here goes; I feel that this matchup is important enough to Ike players that it deserves a good discussion. I'll quote some valuable insights and respond to a few.
what sucks evenm more is if he knows how to counter.
This is very true. A Marth with good timing on counter can stop your Aether recovery unless you sweetspot the height from below and avoid the counter.
I love generic advice.
Hit him when he isn't shielding until he falls off the stage.
Haha, very true.
you can just **** him with jump away forward air.
Definitely a good strategy. I did this a bit in my matches and it seems to be very effective, I mostly use it out of a shield to punish. Retreating fairs are fantastic for Ike.
if u can, master his bair, it seems to b his faster arial.
Ike's bair is his fastest aerial and has the least landing lag along with great knockback - the only downside is the arguably small hitbox, especially for Ike. It takes different timing to SHFF than all of his others, but it is definitely worth mastering if you want your Ike to build up some speed. Unfortunately I'm not really comfortable with it yet and I prefer his other options, but it's I guess something I should work on.
I played Bluezaft yesterday and his Marth, he pretty much used the same technic and he was pretty much King of the Dallas smash scene for a while. When I tried to go to him, I got wrecked; so you have to camp a bit. Learn how to do treating aerials, preferably; your forward air. Learn to reverse grab while running (Smash Dojo even has this technique listed) to get him. Use your forward tilt, don't be afraid to go off the stage, you can jump to back air, jump to fair and still make it back to the stage. Use quick draw for attack purposes ONLY. Learn how to side dodge and grab, this will be your only way of really getting good.
Ike is naturally pretty campy and once again retreating fair is a fantastic tool.
Pivot grabs are nice, yet if you're being chased, chances are Marth's offense of choice will space him too far away to fall into your measly grab range. I prefer dash-canceled grabs personally, especially because you can change your mind and go with a shield dash instead.
I personally don't use f-tilt a lot but I certainly see the use. It's a great move but I'm always tempted to break out an f-smash instead. It almost always hits a shield but this still gives me an advantage as it halfway demolishes their block. In fact, once I did break an opponent's shield with two of them and punished it with a fully charged one. However, a smart Marth will release their shield to sidestep, grab you, slip in an attack first, or unshield-parry when you try to f-smash, so yes, f-tilt needs to see more use.
Camping the ledge with Aether seems pretty good against a Marth who doesn't utilize parry. That's really the only punish, so you can just camp out for a while and start moving in if you can land a hit.
Ike's off-the-ledge game is really quite good, and I often use fairs for that as I don't really have practice with the bair. His Aether is more than adequate for recovery from it and the super armor will prevent your from getting gimped on your way back.
I've had some trouble figuring out how to use Ike's over-b in an offensive way other than as a camping move - I'll run in the opposite direction and jump into charging it towards them, and they either wait or they are forgetful and land in your range. Obviously, as well, over-b is a risky recovery move as it is very easily ledge-hogged, or simply pwned by an opponent jumping in your way. If you need to use it, try as hard as you can to land on the stage if your opponent has taken the edge.
Spot-dodging and power-shielding seem to be very important in Brawl, as well as SHFF'd air-dodges, surprisingly. It's much easier to punish after any of those. Working on them will definitely improve all of your characters.
In this match up, I suggest the AAA combo, Grabs, Aether; Eruption when he's trying to air pursue, Fair, and D-SMash mostly. Though, if you can land 2 F-smashes on his shield in a row, you can break it.
Jab combo is essential for Ike, also down-throw to up-tilt at low percentages or uair at higher ones is a decent combo if they aren't expecting it. Aether out of shield is fantastic and is a great defensive move. Reverse Eruptions are very nice to stop pursuit.
Thanks for your input, RoK. On a side note, I'd like to play some Ike dittos with your sometime.
