1. Hungrybox
I know the number one spot would normally be reserved for the first person to revolutionize the character’s meta (e.g. Isai for Falcon), which Hungrybox isn’t, but I think he deserves this anyways for a number of reasons. Most importantly, he has pushed Jigglypuff much, much further than anyone else has ever been able to. He is the best Jigglypuff player ever by a considerable margin and it doesn’t look like anyone’s going to be fighting him for that position for a long time. In addition to being the best, I think he has more variety in his play style than any other Puff. He doesn’t rely on bairs, cheesy rest setups, or autocancelled nairs. He combines Puff’s tools extremely well and even continues to add to his arsenal. At Big House 4, for example, he pulled out both autocancelled nair into rest and rest to interrupt Fox’s up throw into up air, both of which I haven’t seen many Puffs use lately. Every Puff knows about them, but very few actually use them. Besides being the best and having the most diverse style, he has also been continuously contributing to the Puff meta for longer than most Puffs. Admittedly, at the beginning of his career the majority of his contribution consisted in showing how important bair is as a zoning tool and perfecting edgeguards, but both of those were extremely important contributions. In terms of modern meta, if you ask anyone who knows anything about competitive melee who to study to learn Puff, they will invariably point you to Hungrybox. In short, Hbox da bess
2. King
King gets #2 not only because he was the first to revolutionize the Jiggs meta, but also because of how long-lasting his contributions to her meta have been. Everyone knows that Hungrybox showed people why they should fear Jiggs’ bair, but King showed them why they should fear her nair. Besides inventing autocancelled nair into rest and using it with extreme consistency he also showed how Jiggs’ nair can be used to control the neutral game, start combos, approach safely, and bait. King also brought lots of attention to Jigglypuff by playing an extremely combo-heavy style and posting some of the best Jigglypuff combo videos ever. People have viewed Puff negatively since the earlier days of Mango and Hbox’s Puffs, but King’s Puff was always exciting and aggressive. King’s spot as 1 or 2 is pretty much indisputable, the best explanation for why he’s 2 on this list is that Hungrybox is 1.
3. Mango
I don’t know whether this is a controversial opinion or not. Despite how intuitive it seems to put Hbox and King at 1 and 2, it also feels wrong to put Mango so low. But yeah, I wouldn’t say he deserves to be any higher. I think people often make the mistake of assuming that since Mango had such an enormous impact on the community and Puff was his main, he must have had a huge impact on the Puff meta. This isn’t actually entirely true. I’ve been watching lots of old Mango Puff videos recently and what I’ve realized is the way he played was incredibly suboptimal. He would do ridiculous things like edgeguard Falcon by nairing him after he up-b’s, jumping back on stage, and repeating. No Puff that knows anything about edgeguarding would do that now. I believe that Mango’s impact had very little to do with the fact that he played Puff. What was important is that it was MANGO. He could’ve been a DK main and he would’ve revolutionized the game. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but the point is he didn’t launch the meta forward the way King and Hbox did, he just Mango’d people to death and it happened to be with Puff. Not that he didn’t have lasting, note-worthy contributions. His guide on Puff match ups is still frequently studied and referred to by Puff mains. Mango’s Puff was indisputably one of the best ever, but I really believe that’s because Mango just is the best ever at the game.
4. S0ft
S0ft barely earns this spot above other potential 4’s, but I think he deserves it. Not because he is considerably better than other Puffs (though he certainly shouldn’t be underestimated either), but more because his style is so unique and he’s been playing for so long. S0ft’s grounded, aggressive style is so different that it was inevitable that he would change Puff’s meta. I think Hungrybox is the Puff bible, but if someone asked me how to make their Puff more of a threat on the ground, I’d probably point them to S0ft.
5. Mew2King
This might seem like a troublesome pick for a number of reasons, but I think it’s defendable. Before anything else, it’s worth mentioning that M2K’s Puff is extremely good and he has made note-worthy contributions to Puff’s meta (though he’s pretty much made significant contributions to every character’s meta). But in addition to this he also plays one of the best teams Puffs ever; Hungrybox is the only one competing with him in this and it’s not even clear who’s better since they’re so difficult to compare. M2K probably has the best support Puff, whereas Hbox has the best aggro Puff. Despite almost never using Puff in singles, he’s extremely good with her and probably better than anyone else who might’ve been considered for #5.
Honorable mentions:
Darc
An obvious candidate. It saddens me that I couldn’t put him on the list. He just doesn’t play enough. I really think if he played more he could compete for as high a position as #3, but we don’t get to see enough of him.
Tekk
Comparing PAL and NTSC is a messy business and I’d rather not get into it, but as the best Puff in Europe, he’s certainly worth mentioning somewhere. I really wish he’d come to America some so we could see how he does against some of our top players.
BlueFoxXT
I don’t think he really deserves a spot on this list, but Heir to the Crown is my favorite combo video, so he deserves something
