Official 4BR Tier List v1.0 - Competitive Impressions

[Megamang]

Idk, its weird to me that it just happened to be Nairo falling out of all the hitboxes that you can. LB beam Blade, Fsmash, Cross Slash... he was falling out. Then there was this comment, below Zero's of course but I think reasonable.

megavolt1123

it may be possible to SDI out of it. There are no autolink angles (ala Falco), there are 4 hitboxes in the first hit in which 2 pull you toward cloud. 3 hitboxes in the second hit, in which 1 pulls you towards cloud. Meaning you could get lucky with the first hit (which is true since Nairo was a sitting duck with his tether out) but you could probably have some control of where you get hit next.

Not sure which hitboxes they are but it may be closer to the base of the sword. Nairo was hit both times, from what it looks like he was hit by the 60 degree angle hitbox of the first hit, and if he managed to SDI and avoid the one hitbox of the second hit that pulls him toward Cloud, it could've been possible. The second hit of f-smash has 2 hitboxes that have relatively high wbkb at an angle of 15 degrees (forward)

...

I'm not definitely claiming im right, I'm just wondering when we started accepting Zero's explanations in this thread. He is a tournament winner first, crowd pleaser second, but I don't think much of a lab rat. Given ultimate power, he'd have us playing diddy hoo hah dittos.

Someone also mentioned that ZSS contorts herself in a way that she easily escapes multihit moves... I have really noticed this with Bayonetta, perhaps because missing a hit on her is more annoying, but her thin hitbox almost offsets how tall it is. Its the opposite of when you swing at DK or Bowser and you expect to miss, but it clips their hand and you're like... oh, that hit. Sweet.

...

On the doing nothing, my most prevalent form of doing nothing so far has been to walk towards the enemy. As ZSS, I have a myriad of options from a walk. I particularly like PP backwards -> dsmash, since that can punish aggressively spaced SH aerials, particularly popular in the smash community, they are more punishable in this smash than any other and I think we will see more ground wars in the future. Not too many, since the spaced aerials have more freedom of movement, and also often more followup potential. As ZSS, I like the D-smash for this style since it is safe, and powerful. Her tilts are wonderful, but lack the extreme reward that makes her Zero Suit. Dash grabs are punished by short hop back -> nair. If they have the fear in them, or a lead, and don't want to approach, spotting a simple grab or zair/nair to grab is easier.

This is very juxtaposed to my usual main, MegaMan, where there isn't a nothing game so much as a zoning game. If you are doing nothing, you should be pestering with pellets, setting up a leaf shield, getting a metal blade in hand/on the opponent... something. Its good to play a variety of the cast, we see top players have a tournament main, but we know that they play a decent amount of the cast with proficiency. This helps MUs, and general skill building.


Microspacing... spacing. What is the difference? Its a silly term, I guess it can refer to the precision of spacing we are using but its really just spacing.

 

[Nu~]

That's not exclusive to disjoints and can be said for almost every move, fruits and hydrants are easy to nullify if you up put out a hitbox at the right time. That's why pacman has to be really creative with placement and option coverage.

Oh I'm aware. it's just that big, swinging, disjoints make it easier.
Marth doesn't have to put up with as many of Pacman's traps

 

[Y2Kay]

I'm wondering if you guys think that Mewtwo is now the new secret high tier character?

He's pretty brutal to play effectively since you can't afford to make many mistakes, but technically you can work around this flaw.

I dunno, I just feel like an optimized Mewtwo would be pretty terrifying.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

I'm wondering if you guys think that Mewtwo is now the new secret high tier character?

He's pretty brutal to play effectively since you can't afford to make many mistakes, but technically you can work around this flaw.

I dunno, I just feel like an optimized Mewtwo would be pretty terrifying.

I don't personally have a fear of Mewtwo instilled in me yet, but I also haven't faced a decent one basically ever (and especially not since his buffs), so...yeah.

That said I don't think he's a bad character anymore, and I enjoy messing around as him for funsies. I struggle linking his aerials together because is double jump is Ness-tier weird, but that's my only complaint about him as a character anymore and it's mostly a practice issue anyway.

 

[TriTails]

People are talking about neutral.

So far. I can say my new play of neutral I recently switched to has helped me immensely on dealing with disjointed opponents.

I mean. I only have FG, and nobody here plays in 3DS, so I'm kinda stuck with that mode, so don't judge it way too hard. But my new play of neutral consists on foxtrots, shorthops, and Fireballs. I'm basically switching from aggresive Luigi play to a passive one, the one that baits and punishes.

To make it short, I try to bait something out with foxtrots and sometimes walks. Shorthops are often my friends due to their tomahawks mindgames and safe spaced B-air. Fireballs are VERY useful on disrupting those opponents who 'I just wall him out and retreating F-airs lololol'. Basically, I don't approach when I don't need to, and I do nothing when I know my buttons aren't going to get me rewarded. I constantly move around to maneuver around projectiles if there're any, then I bait a reaction for me to punish.

Even against some things like Charge Shot or Shadow Ball. I feel more comfortable at long range because powershielding them is easy. If they want to get any better than that, they're going to have to approach me, something that I can capitalize on if I manage to make them commit first.

My game is basically 'Don't commit first'. Luigi's disadvantage is not great so he has to stay away from ****s as much as possible, and press on his strong advantage when he gets the chance. Shielding doesn't work, so he just has to avoid attacks altogether to ensure a good punish. When I switched to this kind of playsytle, there were rarely cases of 'Holy ****. I got walled out' of me now (Save for ROB and Yoshi. That robot and dino are pretty obnoxious to maneuver around). In cases where I HAVE to commit, I try to look for opportunity to do so safely.

Works wonders for me. Every attack is virtually unsafe on whiff so pressing buttons nonsensically is a horrible strategy, even with Luigi's frame data. Instead, I try to get THEM to press buttons first.... and punish.

And I can say I'm pleased with the results. Although, I'm no tourney player, and beating FGers aren't something to be too proud about. But this strategy is pretty gud IMO .

 

[Megamang]

I definitely agree. I don't like seeing M2 in my bracket/ladder match any more than most top tiers, so yea he is good. He just keeps you out, does a lot of damage, and has the invaluable ability to just end stocks with grabs. His jab is a top tier quality IMO, as is his fair. His SHAD game is something I abuse when I mess around with M2, but I don't see it much from other players. That is something he could see improvement in the future, but ive said that about a lot of SHAD stuff and don't see it at top level, so im probably overestimating it.

Top/High Tier traits M2 has, in my opinion:
Kill Throw
Solid jab mixups. This plays into his kill throw, the two benefit from eachother.
Kill confirms. The first time I landed Jab -> utilt -> Usmash, I was thinking people must be sleeping on this character.
Buttons that just win/trump your opponents options: Dash attack comes to mind, this thing eats most options and isn't too punishable. Generally any move that uses a tail also beats out a lot of other options, though not the plasma whip/metal hand of doom.
Fair. Fair... what can I say? Really amazing range, solid frame data, on a mobile character. This move being buffed alone could have boosted M2 a lot... but the other buffs are amazing, mostly in my next point
Mobility: His mobility is now borderline amazing. And this is a trait we see in all the succesful characters, unless they really REALLY have amazing buttons to overcome meh mobility (Villager comes to mind), the tier reads somewhat like a mobility list. Artosis said that mobility gets more and more important as a meta progresses, since people learn to use it more every day. Early on in the meta, strong buttons will dominate. But as people learn to simply engage on their own terms, the buttons that are 'unbeatable' but easily avoidable fall as people learn to choose their engagements.


Problems:
Light Weight + Huge frame. While this is 'bad', it seems to afflict mostly top tiers. Interesting.

Anyways, I'm probably missing a few things on both lists. What are M2's serious problems? Doesn't he have DK level super bad ledge options?His ability to avoid that situation entirely is better than DK's, but DK's up-b as an escape option that does crazy damage is something M2 wants... which makes me think, his nair isn't a good combo breaker, but his mobility and good airdodge probably serves that purpose.

How does he do vs the DLC? I'd imagine Cloud is a fat pain in the ass, but having a chargeable projectile + strong f/b throws is always a nice thing to have in the MU. I think he could probably mess with Cloud's recovery using dtilt effectively, but Cloud can just recover really far away with his snap hands. IDK. What is M2's biggest problem? Character problem I mean, lack of representation doesn't count.

 

[Asdioh]

Microspacing... spacing. What is the difference? Its a silly term, I guess it can refer to the precision of spacing we are using but its really just spacing.

It's the same thing, but it kind of makes sense when you compare to traditional fighters. Here's a screenshot from Kuma's match on the last page, and a screenshot from a random Street Fighter 5 match. When you keep in mind how much bigger SF characters are in relation to the stage, and how much more mobile Smash characters are, it becomes pretty clear why spacing is "harder" in Smash.

And about the "do nothing" strategy: I think Jigglypuff's Rest is the most extreme example of the concept. You always have to be aware of the threat of that move, because frame 1 invincibility, frame 2 hitbox, and KOs extremely early... but as soon as someone uses it and misses, the threat is gone, and there's your opportunity to punish. Most stuff in the game has that kind of threat/risk, but to a smaller extent.
Another note about that is that you have to sometimes "do something" obviously, if you never do anything then a smart opponent will realize you're baiting them with no threat :D and that leads into conditioning and etc.

 

[Pazzo.]

This passive "nothingness" approach to the neutral is very interesting.

I wonder if Robin could benefit from this in some form...?

 

[Goesasu]

This passive "nothingness" approach to the neutral is very interesting.

I wonder if Robin could benefit from this in some form...?

No because you should be charging thunder.

 

[Metalex]

Megamang Your correct on most of what you wrote, i would also list a intimidating punish game as a strong trait he has too because of his high damaging combos and the threat of the 25% dmg FC Shadowball that beats out any attack that doesn't do over 17% dmg. Also his recovery is probably one of the best in the game.

As for weaknesses outside of what you listed he has relatively slow start up on moves and no good combo breaking aerial, which
combined with being light weight and having a big hurtbox makes him have a quite bad disadvantaged state.
He has the best airdodge in the game though which is his saving grace, and can mix up his landings with Confusion jump, his high double jump and occasionaly Teleport but it's still a problem for him in matchups against some rushdowns like Fox and Captain Falcon who can juggle Mewtwo quite badly if they break into his comfort zone, preventing Mewtwo from playing the spacing game which he excels at.

It's not as much of a problem as it might sound and you can work around it with Mewtwo's tools but his kind of bad disadvantage state is still a weakness.

 

[Megamang]

Robin is an interesting example, because she has the Thunder spells to charge. So her doing nothing also passively puts pressure on the opponent, since no one wants to fight someone who has arcthunder/thoron on deck. Additionally, if she is out of a certain spell/levin sword, she is essentially charging that as time passes. Unfortunately, her poor mobility means she is also easier to manipulate in neutral, since walking her to the edge is easier and her recovery... eh. She certainly is threatening in many other situations though.

I think the ability to burst out of the nothing into a powerful move, that is not telegraphed and is easily spaced, is what high level players are searching for when they say a character needs rising aerials. The ability to fade back afterwards is also invaluable, since it increases safety.

As mentioned previously, don't take the nothing too literally. Just standing there is something we do see occasionally at a top level, (see M2k especially) but it has to be mixed into a much larger neutral gameplan or else it is really obvious. Consider that nothing can be done while in the air, or on the ground walking, but NOT when you are dashing, with the asterisk that characters with incredible dash to shield or initial dashes are closer to their nothing than more committal characters.


...


I was just looking around on youtube for MySmashCorner and BeefySmashDoods updates, and I found a really cool Corrin video. -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrViMjysaBQ <-

The most interesting thing to me was how many options are covered by her standing with her back over the ledge and charging f-smash... It covers all of your ledge 'buttons', meaning roll, attack, standup, and jump... basically all the things that are able to be buffered! So this, in tandem with a fast ledge trump -> bair, makes corrin especially terrifying at the ledge. Also, the charging paralyzer at the ledge covering so many options... I never realized how strong corrin was at the ledge, besides of course both f-smash and dragon lunge being able to poke your fingers for a really early kill. I think this is where we will see some development in corrin, and it especially gives some power to her f-throw.

Unfortunately, her tilts aren't great at pushing you to the ledge, but I think she covers so much area with her threatening burst hitboxes that she can force opponents to the ledge pretty easily. I'm glad she has gotten some high level support and I hope to see her develop. I guess she is 'easy' in the fact that her nair covers so much ground and covers so many options, but I don't think any character with such limited mobility (excluding her specials) can really be considered 'easy' when the top tiers are able to outmanuever her pretty severely.

DFS gives her a kill confirm too, which we know is good. Having a 'broken' counter is also pretty sweet to have in the metagame, as we are recently learning, since it pushes the RPS game in your favor and also conditions more grabbing and less follow ups. In doubles, I like setting it off with a full charged shot from megaman =B

...

I understand that the field is larger in smash, and that characters have more mobility.. But spacing in 2D fighters can refer to a single pixel, if you barely dodge a move then counterrattack with your larger hitbox... That is spacing. The larger area being covered as people move around is footsies. Idk, it just seems odd that there is a specific point where it is micro, especially since the point in every system of dodging is to barely dodge a move. Of course, I hear it in commentary and it is probably here to stay, so im just expressing a pointless opinion now. <3

 

[(Buddha)]

I'm wondering if you guys think that Mewtwo is now the new secret high tier character?

He's pretty brutal to play effectively since you can't afford to make many mistakes, but technically you can work around this flaw.

I dunno, I just feel like an optimized Mewtwo would be pretty terrifying.

I think that Mewtwo is a lot better than people think. Especially in Smash 4. Although I am not good at explaining why I think certain things are good. I am much better at playing at tournaments. But I can say that Mewtwo needs more recognition. He is currently being represented the most by Mew^2. He beat M2K with Mewtwo and almost got a bracket reset against DKwill. Those players I know are very good. The problem is that Mew^2 is one of the few good Mewtwo players that go to tournaments.
If you want to see him in action, go to Tourney Locator's YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWPtyLEJlkQ

 

[shrooby]

Megamang
Thinking on it more, a "nothingness" style probably works more with characters that aren't momentum based - basically anyone not rushdown. I say footsies or punishment based characters probably benefit from this more than, say, Sheik.

Sheik can benefit a lot from more passive play because she gets so much out of a punish. And has the frame data and movement to play that way effectively.
ZeRo and Void (for example) are perfectly capable of playing that way. And sometimes do because they're smart enough to know when it's optimal.


As for the discussion at large, whether you like to apply offensive pressure in neutral or passive pressure (which is what this comes down to) is partly the character you play and partly just your play style
Keep in mind that good players play waiting for their opponent to make a mistake. That's sorta the essence of the game. How you like to force those mistakes is up to you and is defined by the character you use. (DDD isn't good at applying offensive pressure because his offense is punishable, for example.)

 

[Big-Cat]

How could I forget that Sheik has everything? I suppose Fox might be a better example.

 

[PK Gaming]

This passive "nothingness" approach to the neutral is very interesting.

I wonder if Robin could benefit from this in some form...?

Robin is without a doubt one of the most "active" characters in this game. You're always being charging Thunder, casting Thunder spells, spacing with SH aerials, managing tomes/LS... the list goes on. He's a character who is literally rewarded for doing actions.

If you aren't setting the pace of the match, then you're defending against your opponents offense, and Robin absolutely does not want to be on the defensive.

EDIT: Basically, you don't want people to get in on you.

 

[Y2Kay]

The only other flaw about Mewtwo besides his weight worth mentioning is that his grab range is pretty small.

Which is weird since he can move things with his mind.

 

[shrooby]

Robin's benefit from more passive play is MU dependent because, like I said, some characters have poor offensive pressure. So against those characters you want to force them to play offensively so you can punish them for it
Raziek and I will tell you that "just wait" is how Robin should play v. DDD~ (RIP)

 

[ぱみゅ]

I can't trust a matchup chart where somebody put in Pac-Man as an advantage for Marth. Pac-Man destroys Marth; with all the projectile, he can't do anything or approach. I'd say that matchup is -2 in Pac-Man's favor.

The thing with Pacman is that he, in my opinion, is a gimmick character.
If you are paying close attention and are aware of his micromanagements, the toll of Pacman's projectiles is highly alleviated. In theory it would be nullified because you're always aware of what's coming next, but in practice Pacman has near-infinite options, including the ones added by the Hydrant's Stream, and can be very creative with them to find openings.
But a lot of Pacman's success, from what I've seen, comes from catching people offguard with moves that could have been prevented by paying closer attention.
Also, -2 is close to the Falchions' worst matchups, and Pacman is definitely not there.
Again, this is only theory from my part.

That's when you use fire hydrants. If Marth jumps up to hit you with an aieral, use fire hydrant, his moves are too laggy for it to not work if he is right under you, if not use neutral or back air.

Now, there are a lot of misconceptions about the Falchions, in general. A lot of their moves are laggy (particularly their aerials), but that's the reason they won't really commit to moves throwing them everywhere, they'll wait for openings and strike, that's the kind of passive/defensive style he had since Brawl (this is not Melee to just throw the sword everywhere). Their damage output for correctly landing moves this way is rewarding enough for their patience (particularly Marth).
Also, it's not like you can't wait for the Hydrant to come out.

 

[meleebrawler]

The only other flaw about Mewtwo besides his weight worth mentioning is that his grab range is pretty small.

Which is weird since he can move things with his mind.

Yeah, well so can Ness, and he doesn't have such a great grab range either, plus Lucas has to use a snake to increase his.

At least Mewtwo has Confusion for a sort-of long range grab.

 

[deepseadiva]

Not to make fun of y'all too much, but it's cute to come in here and read about your fighting game progressions and realizations.

"I should SPACE you say...? Very interesting concept I may incorporate that into my gameplay soon."

 

[Big-Cat]

Better late than never.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

Unfortunately, her tilts aren't great at pushing you to the ledge, but I think she covers so much area with her threatening burst hitboxes that she can force opponents to the ledge pretty easily. I'm glad she has gotten some high level support and I hope to see her develop. I guess she is 'easy' in the fact that her nair covers so much ground and covers so many options, but I don't think any character with such limited mobility (excluding her specials) can really be considered 'easy' when the top tiers are able to outmanuever her pretty severely.

I think most people consider Corrin "simple" in the sense that his buttons do more or less exactly what you expect them to, without any real frills attached; Dragon Lunge is the single most complicated move he has. (Related: In the Direct, Sakurai said you could attack forwards or backwards, jump, or cancel the move once you pin someone. But I've never managed to do a cancel other than just standing there and letting it time out. How do you do it?) And IMO being on the slow side is a plus to the "pick up and play" crowd since it gives them a bit of extra time to process what they're doing and how to follow up. I'm terrible with Sheik, Fox, Sonic, etc. for this reason. So I can easily see how Corrin is viewed as "easy" if you mentally translate that to "easy to pick up for the first time".

 

[Jams.]

The most interesting thing to me was how many options are covered by her standing with her back over the ledge and charging f-smash... It covers all of your ledge 'buttons', meaning roll, attack, standup, and jump... basically all the things that are able to be buffered! So this, in tandem with a fast ledge trump -> bair, makes corrin especially terrifying at the ledge. Also, the charging paralyzer at the ledge covering so many options... I never realized how strong corrin was at the ledge, besides of course both f-smash and dragon lunge being able to poke your fingers for a really early kill. I think this is where we will see some development in corrin, and it especially gives some power to her f-throw.

Unfortunately the fsmash linking hits don't actually combo into the fsmash strong hit, so opponents privy to this knowledge can just hit Corrin with a fast move or airdodge out. Fsmash's sourspot is also fairly weak, which is compounded by the fact that you're hitting them away from the closest blastzone. You'll rarely kill with this set-up even if they don't airdodge out of the strong hit, and it gives your opponent a neutral reset at low and mid percents, in contrast to stronger ledge traps that let the aggressor maintain an advantageous position. She's still good at covering ledge options, but I don't think the reverse fsmash ledge trap is her best tool in these situations.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Not to make fun of y'all too much, but it's cute to come in here and read about your fighting game progressions and realizations.

"I should SPACE you say...? Very interesting concept I may incorporate that into my gameplay soon."

This is why me, @Baby_Sneak, Nobie , and countless others have recommended various articles on fighting game theory to others in this thread. It is applicable.

Juicebox's tutorial on whiff punishing is an excellent and topical example.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Nobie]

Other than Mewtwo's light weight and large size, his biggest weaknesses are his lack of traction and the fact that his fastest attacks are Frame 6.

These are the reasons why Mewtwo is vulnerable to rushdown. It's harder to swat away someone who's in your face compared to other swordsmen (Marth's jab is frame 5), and the sliding you do when you block a strong attack means that your out of shield options are less effective because you've been pushed out of range. Granted, frame 6 for what down tilt DOES is really fast, but it requires you to basically keep the opponent at bay at all times.

 

[~ Gheb ~]

Not to make fun of y'all too much, but it's cute to come in here and read about your fighting game progressions and realizations.

"I should SPACE you say...? Very interesting concept I may incorporate that into my gameplay soon."

Best post in the thread so far imo.

 

[Man Li Gi]

Gonna be real for a sec here, a lot of characters would be considered good (not top tier tho) if they had ledge options that weren't garbage. I've said it before that DK is easily the worst character on ledge (and even getting back to ledge for that matter). Look how many times people play a character with horrendous ledge options get abused by game mechanics. Zelda, Mac, Charizard are neutered by this (many more too but I'm too tired to make an exhaustive post when all you have to do is imagine their ledge options). Usually what exacerbates the issue is if you play a character with a bad Nair or fair, which surprise, most characters in the lower region have. Truly a sad case.

 

[Megamang]

The best posts are always one liners that 'getcha' without adding much.


Thumbs up if you agree!

 

[[BROF]]

I feel "Nothingness" will come more in handy when people start developing even more Perfect Shield Option Selects.

 

[LancerStaff]

I'm surprised yomi isn't a more well understood concept. The golden rule in most action oriented games (or at least the ones I play) is to wait around and punish the big bosses instead of going ham.

Might explain why people think Punch Out is dumb and why people usually get stuck on Xaldin and Roxas in KH2, though.

 

[Emblem Lord]

Plus, the expectation that you should always be moving can be subverted by doing nothing, even if for a moment. Yomi is silly like that.

yomi is amazing like that.

My man you really need to play street fighter. I feel you would do so well.

 

[jet56]

so, why is mac a bottom 10 character? his toolkit his too large, and frame data too god for him to be this low. perhaps the biggest reason his he is underdeveloped and misrepresented by a lot of bad players. otherwise, i don't understand.

 

[Y2Kay]

Watching people bromance over the art of nothing is as educational as it is entertaining

 

[L9999]

so, why is mac a bottom 10 character? his toolkit his too large, and frame data too god for him to be this low. perhaps the biggest reason his he is underdeveloped and misrepresented by a lot of bad players. otherwise, i don't understand.

Who said he was bottom 10?

 

[Emblem Lord]

so, why is mac a bottom 10 character? his toolkit his too large, and frame data too god for him to be this low. perhaps the biggest reason his he is underdeveloped and misrepresented by a lot of bad players. otherwise, i don't understand.

Best at footsies in the game but he only does that ONE thing making him one dimensional and linear. Developing counter play is not hard or you can simply not play footsies wiih him.

But hes not bottom ten. His burst damage/KO potential is too great for that. As well as his obvious dominance at mid and close range.

 

[NegaNixx]

Does MK benefit from "Nothingness"? I was under the impression that nothingness in his play garnered much less reward than proactive baiting. I thought that was the difference between Aba's and Tyrant's Metaknights and why Aba's wasn't as impressive.

Or am I missing something?

 

[FullMoon]

Watching people bromance over the art of nothing is as educational as it is entertaining

The thought of being able to get away with doing nothing is very appealing for many people, not just in video games =V

 

[Mr. Johan]

Robin can make use of "nothingness", but he's got better things to do. Even something as minor as pecking opponents with basic Thunder helps in the long run since he's getting closer to a discarded tome to use for immediate pressure.

But then, I guess nothingness really shines when he actually has the tome in hand. One false move and the stock's gone at 110. Robin can wait.

The Robins have recently tried incorporating tossing tomes up in their game as a means to control the vertical zone. Maybe controlling none of the zone, and thus all of the zone, is the next step.

 

[Nu~]

The first time I experienced the concept of yomi was in Wii sports boxing :^)

Move side to side but don't attack-> evade attack-> punish HARDDDDD

It was an intuitive concept to me personally, but I can understand the need for some to "press buttons and mash faces!"



I think sonic makes some of the best use of yomi with his insane speed and high damage dealing punishes.

 

[BunbUn129]

Does MK benefit from "Nothingness"? I was under the impression that nothingness in his play garnered much less reward than proactive baiting. I thought that was the difference between Aba's and Tyrant's Metaknights and why Aba's wasn't as impressive.

Or am I missing something?

The "nothingness" approach is either very effective with MK or completely useless. Meta Knight's biggest issue is, because he lacks a projectile, he has no real way to force approaches. Say an MK player stands on the other side of the stage and doesn't move. What's he going to do? How is he threatening me? He can't do anything from that distance, and approaching MK proactively will put you at risk of being punished. In fact, MK himself is extremely vulnerable to the nothingness strategy, which is why people will often stand at the ledge and camp without committing to anything.

However, the nothingness strategy works wonders with MK only once you have a substantial lead. Your opponent can gain chip damage by camping, but most players simply won't have the patience to do that. Now they'll most likely commit to an approach, and that's where doing nothing is perhaps the single best strategy, because you now have every option (dash attack, grab, and d tilt for combos, and f smash, f tilt, and dair for spacing) at your disposal, and these are quick and safe enough for you to be able to pick one according to what your opponent commits to. The fact that MK can kill ludicrously early off of something as dumb as a dash attack contributes heavily to his fear factor in neutral, and having a fear factor synergizes well with doing nothing.