Your Character's Disadvantage, Neutral, and Advantage

[Blobface]

Lets decode your characters DNA.

How your character performs in these three areas pretty much dictates how they perform competitively, and I felt it would be useful to compile all this information in one place.
Just put your main's/secondary's name, how you feel they perform in the three categories, and why.

I'll start of course.

Ganondorf
Disadvantage: Average
While Ganondorf's high falling speed and weight make him very susceptible to true combos, his huge, hard-hitting, and surprisingly fast (N-air frame 7, U-air frame 6) aerials make it difficult to chain him outside of hitstun. On top of that, aerial Wizkick, while it is a large commitment, can kill at hilariously low percents, forcing players to be careful about pressing their advantage.

Neutral: Utterly horrendous
Ganondorf is infamous for this. Everything Ganondorf does is a commitment, and on some characters, he has to make reads just to get in. There's really not much to say. Ganondorf can't approach. But then of course, we come to his...

Advantage: King of Evil Tier
Pretty much why every Ganon main plays Ganondorf. Ganondorf has easily the highest damage-per-hit average of the entire cast combined with the chaining ability of Captain Falcon, meaning that almost any hit Ganondorf lands is going to be at least 30 damage, usually much more. Ganondorf's amazing aerials allow him to just laugh off any attempt at challenging him, and flame choke gives him a landing punish that can extend a combo even more. Combine that with Ganondorf's instakill edgeguarding and a tireless supply of kill moves (even his jab can kill you), and you have a character that can ruin your day in 10 seconds.

 

[Jaxas]

Ehh, I'll bite. May be way off base though, so take this with a grain of salt:


Disadvantage: Decent (standard) to Poor-ish (juggl situation)
Depends on the type; she has a lot of quick options (F2 jab, F3(?) Nair), decent OoS options, a super-good recovery, etc.
Her weakness is getting back to the ground during a juggle; Dair is super laggy when you hit the ground (and loses to most Uairs anyways), and while she falls fast she has no way to challenge people below her outside of simply outmaneuvering them. Bouncing Fish is good, but can only be used once without landing.

Neutral: Probably the best neutral in the game.
Fairs are safe, super fast attacks with very low lag, needles are amazing, top-caste mobility across the board, and can convert the tiniest of pokes into huge (but low Damage-Per-Hit) strings.

Advantage: Extremely solid, but not in the normal ways.
She has great strings, but they do fairly low damage per hit. This means little when it's so easy to get 4-5 hits, but where her strength really lies in advantage isn't straight damage or killing people with a strong attack. The reward is stage positioning and forcing people into edgeguarding situations, where she Shines.
Basically she has an extremely good advantageous state, but if she doesn't convert it into something she gets less out of it than many other characters.


(Probably way off; picking her up as a second main, but still learning)
Disadvantage: Solid on ground, poor-ish in a juggle
Similar to Sheik in some ways. Great grounded options (F1 jab breaks a ton of strings when you can use it), amazing mobility, Dspecial is F3 intangible and hugely maneuverable, etc.
Also doesn't have a super easy time getting down, though. At least she can (attempt) to AD through an attack and then cancel it with a Zair, but outside of that she's in the same boat as Sheik.
Also, not sure if this goes here but Boost Kick OoS is scary, and can even punish Sheik's Fair if not spaced absolutely perfectly. This move kills, does solid damage, can be JC'd OoS, and is Frame 4.
Oh, F3 and Leg-invincible Utilt helps as well.

Neutral: Difficult? Honestly not sure
She has solid range on her pokes, and can convert landed paralyzer shots into her strong advantage. Rather safe when spacing correctly, but has some SERIOUS troubles with short characters (Pikachu, Kirby, Jiggs, crouching, etc - Jab, Ftilt, Utilt, Fair, Bair, Uair, Zair, Grab, and more will whiff or are very hard to hit with)
Mobility and range seem to be her strengths, and she can trap people pretty well too.

Advantage: Freaking terrifying
Solid range, combos, really good damage-per-hit, and oh yeah Boost Kick. Probably the one of the scariest moves in the game, and an amazing finisher. You haven't played a good ZSS until you get hit with (Dsmash->)Dthrow->Uair (A bunch)->Boost Kick and die immediately.

 

[Budget Player Cadet_]

(Probably way off; picking her up as a second main, but still learning)
Disadvantage: Solid on ground, poor-ish in a juggle
Similar to Sheik in some ways. Great grounded options (F1 jab breaks a ton of strings when you can use it), amazing mobility, Dspecial is F3 intangible and hugely maneuverable, etc.
Also doesn't have a super easy time getting down, though. At least she can (attempt) to AD through an attack and then cancel it with a Zair, but outside of that she's in the same boat as Sheik.
Also, not sure if this goes here but Boost Kick OoS is scary, and can even punish Sheik's Fair if not spaced absolutely perfectly. This move kills, does solid damage, can be JC'd OoS, and is Frame 4.
Oh, F3 and Leg-invincible Utilt helps as well.

Neutral: Difficult? Honestly not sure
She has solid range on her pokes, and can convert landed paralyzer shots into her strong advantage. Rather safe when spacing correctly, but has some SERIOUS troubles with short characters (Pikachu, Kirby, Jiggs, crouching, etc - Jab, Ftilt, Utilt, Fair, Bair, Uair, Zair, Grab, and more will whiff or are very hard to hit with)
Mobility and range seem to be her strengths, and she can trap people pretty well too.

Advantage: Freaking terrifying
Solid range, combos, really good damage-per-hit, and oh yeah Boost Kick. Probably the one of the scariest moves in the game, and an amazing finisher. You haven't played a good ZSS until you get hit with (Dsmash->)Dthrow->Uair (A bunch)->Boost Kick and die immediately.

I disagree with the juggle part. If ZSS still has her downB, then she can get out of most juggles pretty easily. It's invincible, fast, can get you way out of there, and attempts to follow it can often be whacked away. Most of the time, disadvantageous situations just aren't that bad for her. Offstage too - unless you did something stupid, like try to spike someone with flip kick and miss, her options are really solid for getting back to the stage.

Everything else seems pretty spot-on. Once you lose the advantage against a ZSS, good luck getting back on your feet. Everything about her once you end up above her or diagonal to her is terrifying.

 

[Deleted member 269706]

Advantage - Fights for his friends.

In the end, isn't that all that matters?

Spoiler

(Nah but seriously, he's got great range, ridiculous combo potential, and high powered attacks. His aerial game is on another level, and with the right reads he can kill as early as 60-70%. His grab range is decent, and throws all deal a fair amount of damage, several of which have great follow up options. When in rage he has several more killing options making him something to fear, and his heavy weight keeps him alive longer. His autocanceling attacks can be deceiving and allows for deadly mindgames.

Neutral is pretty rough due to high amounts of landing lag and no projectiles for spacing. Also many of his attacks are slower, and the weaker ones. Similar to Gannondorf, it's more of a commitment than anything. The character is based around reads, so he isn't the best in the neutral.

Disadvanges include his slow speed, and heavy size leaving him easier to be comboed. His Up B recovery has very little to no horizontal distance making it harder for him to get back onto the stage if he is beneath the stage. His quick draw (side B) makes up for this but can be punished as the endlag is deadly. Also his lack of projectiles puts him at disadvantage against characters who do have long ranged attacks meaning he must stay close enough to protect himself, but far enough to avoid being grabbed or smashed.

 

[HeavyLobster]

Since my main's been taken, I'll go with my secondary, .
Advantage: Pretty strong all around. He's got some pretty good damage racking off of grabs and jab cancelling, Uair is excellent for juggling, and he's got a variety of good edgeguarding tools thanks to Gordos, his multiple jumps, his disjoints, and his high fastfall speed that let him cover multiple recovery options effectively. He can also put cornered opponents into scary situations with Fsmash's huge hitbox. He's not quite as good as most heavies when it comes to kill power, but still scary once he gets going.

Neutral: It depends. D3's effectiveness in neutral varies greatly from character to character. Generally, he can wall most characters without effective projectiles thanks to the strength of his disjoints, though some of the more mobile ones can get through and harass him. Generally he does well against most any character who can't outcamp him and has middling to poor mobility. Projectile campers, on the other hand, can really make his life miserable by forcing him to approach. He has terrible mobility in the air, and his ground mobility is fairly lousy too, and he has no good(sorry Dash Jethammer) burst mobility options like Ganondorf to alleviate the issue. His options out of dash are pretty lousy, and his aerial approaches are slow, telegraphed, and laggy. It's not a pretty picture for him when he's forced to play the opponent's game. His inconsistent neutral is the main reason for his polarized matchup spread.

Disadvantage: Not very good. He's easy combo fodder because of his size, his only anti-juggle option is Nair, which loses to most any Uair and is punishable if shielded, and his airspeed is atrocious. He does have multiple jumps to mix things up and his recovery is good, so he at least won't lose too many stocks early to gimps a la Mac, but he will be eating a lot of damage whenever he gets put into disadvantage. Thankfully he's hard to kill, but he definitely does not have great tools for getting out of trouble cleanly.

 

[Terotrous]

I'll attempt I guess, but other Yoshis can feel free to correct my fraudulence if I get stuff wrong.


Disadvantage: Very good

Yoshi has the highest airspeed in the game and an armored double jump, which makes him among the best characters in the game at escaping juggles and setups. He can simply mash jump to escape combos and some multihit moves if they're not frame perfect, so combo heavy characters often have to use suboptimal options against him. He also has downB, which forces you to respect him when attempting to juggle, because if you trade with it above the stage you can die at very low percents, and Nair is a decent combo breaker. His one weakness if recovering low, he almost can't do it at all due to the way his UpB works, and thus he's also pretty susceptible to being footstooled. In general though the aforementioned traits make recovering high a pretty reliable option so it doesn't hold him back too much.


Neutral: Very good

Yoshi is also blessed with among the game's best neutral play, largely because of his UpB, which is a strong contender for the title of best projectile in the game. Yoshi has a ton of control over where he aims his eggs, allowing him to cover a ton of space, and the little bounce he gets when using it in midair allows him to remain absurdly mobile when throwing them from a short hop. As an added bonus, eggs blow up when they hit something, preventing opponents from reliably clanking them. The extreme flexibility of eggs allows Yoshi to force almost any character in the game to approach, allowing him to dictate the pace of the match vs most opponents. Yoshi also has solid approaching and close range options as well, thanks to his airspeed and his fast pokes and aerials. Fair, Jab, Ftilt, and Dtilt are all fast pokes, and his air speed also allows him to use his Neutral B command grab as a mixup to reduce the effectiveness of shielding. His dash attack also crosses up at close range, creating a guessing game between dash attack and grab and generally making his ranged grab easier to land. Yoshi's one disadvantage comes from characters who are very aggressive and can stay in his face constantly, as this mitigates the strength of his zoning.


Advantage: Poor

The thing that keeps Yoshi from being a gamebreaker is that his advantaged state simply isn't anything to write home about. While he does have some very solid punish options in Nair OOS, USmash and Grounded Down B, Yoshi has no reliable kill confirms and his throws grant very little advantage. He can edgeguard somewhat competently with Nair, as it lingers a long time and the soft hit is quite useful, but he sometimes has trouble getting opponents offstage as his forward and back throw deal very little knockback and send the opponent at a high angle, usually allowing a fairly easy return to the stage. The main reward he gets on hit is usually stage position, which can be very helpful for him in some matchups as it allows him to fall back and throw eggs, but against opponents with strong approaching options the weakness of his advantaged state becomes very apparent.

 

[redblade]

I'll attempt one for Pit. Feel free to correct as necessary. (I'll keep things simple by assuming default specials only.)

Disadvantage: Poor

For a character with a good recovery, 3 double jumps, and wings on his back, Pit's aerial mobility (38th in air speed) isn't very good for getting out of juggles. At least with the double jumps, though, you can try and escape (moreso with platforms in play). The Guardian Orbitars may have a secondary ability to tank physical attacks, but they don't really help you when their cooldown time is so horrendous, so they're not what you want either. All of Pit's directional aerials are 10+ frames (and I've tried dair against a Falcon uair juggle--I can confirm it doesn't work), and while nair comes out on frame 4, I need to see if it helps against juggles (I'm skeptical, since I'm not sure if the hitbox goes far enough below Pit).

Probably every Pit player's worst nightmare is facing edgeguard situations while needing the Power of Flight. His recovery covers great distance but offers no protection whatsoever, so you always have to be wary of spikes or stage spikes. Being able to guide arrows to force edgeguarders to react is at least some consolation.

Neutral: Great

The very existence of Palutena's Bow means that Pit can hit opponents in almost any circumstance. Distance and direction are barely a consideration with Pit's projectile game. At long to medium-long range, opponents have to respect Pit at all times unless they have a significant anti-projectile tool (like Ness and Mr. Game & Watch's Down Bs; reflectors aren't that big a deal, given proper arrow angle control). And while the damage and frequency of the arrows may be toned down from Brawl, you can't ignore the potential for free damage and staggering at a distance, which is nice when you want to slow the game down a bit.

Even without Palutena's Bow, Pit has good tools for controlling the neutral game. His ftilt and dtilt have, I believe, similar range to Marth and Lucina, so he can poke very safely in closer quarters, while his jabs and fair have respectable range as well. And of course, who doesn't love disjointed hitboxes? Upperdash Arm has some super armor on the initial frames, allowing him to power through other hitboxes when given the right read. Lastly, the Guardian Orbitars are excellent at neutralizing projectiles from a distance (keep in mind that there's non-negligible startup and cooldown on this move) and forcing approaches.

Advantage: Great

I don't think there's a Pit player around who doesn't love getting a juggle or a grab (Or a juggle from a grab!). His nair, fair, uair, and up smash are all good for juggling and racking up damage. Complementing his juggling moves, Pit's down throw leads to true combos and juggle situations at early to early-mid percents and potential kill setups at late percents (via uair, fair near the edge, bair from center stage if you just want to style and don't feel like being practical). Palutena's Bow, of course, can follow up with little to no commitment from up throw, forward throw, and back throw from mid percents onwards. Forward throw itself even kills at the edge around 120-130%.

For all of Pit's iffy moments when getting edgeguarded, Pit himself is really good at edgeguarding. Palutena's Bow provides considerable offstage pressure with, again, very little commitment; uncharged arrows alone can rack up damage and/or gimp, and a charged arrow at the blast line can potentially even kill. For the more adventurous among us, Pit's three aerial jumps and the Power of Flight mean that Pit is free to go to the blastlines and back for kills and gimps. And given that fair, bair (note: having multiple double jumps means you can double jump to turn and use bair), and dair (sweet-spotted or stage-spiking) can kill in edgeguarding scenarios, you have every reason to try your luck.

Overall, Pit's decent speed, good all-around range, useful grab game, surprising repertoire of kill moves (sweet spot ftilt, all directional aerials, smashes, charged arrow at the blast zone, and Upperdash Arm), and combo capabilities mean that a Pit in advantage always has a way to get his damage and his kill.

 

[wedl!!]

peach:

disadvantage: even or bad, depends on mu. float can save you but you depend on not getting clipped by an uair (normally if it's faster than your dair)

neutral: decent. turnips and float change the pace, otherwise it's pretty regular. her ground game has a lot of disjoint.

advantage: mega broken. peach has arguably the best non-Diddy/Luigi punish game. hers is better than zss imo because she has more than like two killmoves.

 

[Reaperfan]

My impressions lean something like this:

Bowser Jr.

Disadvantage: Underwhelming, Poor

Once you get caught in a combo, you have very limited options to escape. Being a rather large and heavy character it's also very easy for opponents to make longer combos against you. Your fastest aerials (Nair, Uair) have hitboxes that only work against opponents approaching from certain angles and so can't guarantee an escape even if they don't have full combos going. All his other potential options for escape are slow on startup and risk just getting you combo'd again. He also lacks a truly safe OoS options meaning it's rather tough to peel opponents off of you once they get in.

Neutral - Very Strong

With the standard mechakoopa and Side-B feints into aerials to punish your opponent's various options it's very easy to manage a stage and keep your opponent's options locked down. He may not have the fastest moves, but his kit lends itself very easily to setting up traps and forcing an opponent into a situation that is to your advantage provided you manage your tools correctly.

Advantage - Above Average

He has amazing combos out of Side-B that, when landed, allow for some serious punish and setups into more traps. While it seems predictable to only have strong options out of one move, his great neutral game keeps it from being a predictable option. While you can rack up the damage pretty well, his kill moves are inconsistent. Only a few of them can be done out of your reliable Side-B combos, with the rest requiring good reads or edgeguarding setups. That said, he has plenty of options for kill moves, it's just that the situations you can use them in aren't always consistent and require very careful management of your neutral game options to set up for them. So while it takes a learning curve to overcome, the better you are at managing his neutral options the less trouble you'll have finding kill opportunities.

 

[PND]

Jiggs:

Disadvantage: Good. She has multiple jumps to escape pressure, and due to her lightweight many combos simply don't work on her. She can pop out, pop a nair, and drift back in and interrupt many strings. Oh, and the invincible startup of rest can bail her out of situations if you read it right.

Neutral: This is where I feel she falters the most. She's got amazing mobility, but her range is pretty bad. Because she's approaching from the air so often, shield is a pretty strong option against her. Even Pound, as much as it eats shields, has a laggy enough startup that good players can powershield it pretty consistently on reaction. She does have a super quick grab, so empty hop to grab can catch them some of the time, but dealing with shields on the approach is still her big issue. If the opponent has a stock lead or percent lead, and you HAVE to approach, this is where her kit starts falling apart. If you have the lead, her kit is amazing for defensive clock play. Just time 'em out and space with bair. Rest em if they get restless.

Advantage: Above average. Wall of pain. Rest. Bair is a kill move. Crazy good at edgeguarding. I feel Jiggs does pretty darn good at pressing advantage.

 

[FullMoon]

Greninja:

Disadvantage: Very Good

Greninja can very easily get out of a disadvantage with Hydro Pump, stopping the opponent from chasing him and maybe even putting them in a bad position to allow him to turn the tables.

Neutral: Average

Greninja has shurikens to force approaches and good range behind his moves, however most of his attacks have somewhat long start-up, making it hard for Greninja to approach himself. He does however have an amazing dash grab to allow him to punish any mistakes his opponent makes.

Advantage: Amazing

Greninja has potentially the best mobility of the game, very strong attacks for character of his speed and good aerials that allow him to juggle his opponent very well. He also has great gimping ability which makes being offstage against Greninja extremely risky due to b-air, Hydro Pump and even Shadow Sneak at times. Greninja is very much capable of chasing the opponent around and make their life hell with his combos and kill-setups if they let him.