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Official 4BR Tier List V4 - Competitive Insight & Analysis

Ordeaux26

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What are your guys opinions on this current season?
its has been a good season with hype sets geat moments crazy upsets everything you would expect in a smash 4 season but there has been a noticeable lack of major tournaments the only major ones are Genesis 5 Frostbite Hyrule Saga and CEO in my opinion
 
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The_Bookworm

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its has been a good season with hype sets geat moments crazy upsets everything you would expect in a smash 4 season but there has been a noticeable lack of major tournaments the only major ones are Genesis 5 Frostbite Hyrule Saga and CEO in my opinion
There wasn't a lot of majors at the first half of this season, but then it kicked out into action at the second half. I say that all the A/A+ tiered tournaments are majors.

It least it wasn't an over-saturation of tournaments like it was in 2017.
 

Ordeaux26

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There wasn't a lot of majors at the first half of this season, but then it kicked out into action at the second half. I say that all the A/A+ tiered tournaments are majors.

It least it wasn't an over-saturation of tournaments like it was in 2017.
good point but what I meant to say was supermajors
 

Iridium

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Mar 17, 2018
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No way is T going to be ranked lower than Kome. Kome is very good, but I really can't see him being higher.
 

Iridium

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T has also attended almost no major tournaments this year
That did not stop shky from ending up on the PGR. Him, Kirihara and Tsu- all got in without leaving Japan, and T has quite the amount of wins and results to get in. I never mentioned majors, and even knowing that, T has a better argument, but he probably will get snubbed hard.
 

C0rvus

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Sinji making top 50 is so exciting!! He put in a lot of work with Pac-Man, but I wonder where perception of the character is at the moment. There seems to be a general consensus that most of the projectile zoning characters are on a similar level of viability, with Villager, Mega Man, Toon Link, and Duck Hunt clumped in the middle of the cast. Pac-Man could easily join them in my opinion. The game is almost over and Sinji is getting better results than ever. I dunno, I just really want to like the character.
 

The_Bookworm

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Sinji making top 50 is so exciting!! He put in a lot of work with Pac-Man, but I wonder where perception of the character is at the moment. There seems to be a general consensus that most of the projectile zoning characters are on a similar level of viability, with Villager, Mega Man, Toon Link, and Duck Hunt clumped in the middle of the cast. Pac-Man could easily join them in my opinion. The game is almost over and Sinji is getting better results than ever. I dunno, I just really want to like the character.
Pac-Man is probably at the upper low tier or lower mid tier. I personally put him at the top of low tier, but who knows.

I think Pac-Man has a bit too many flaws to join the other upper-tiered zoning characters.
 

Heracr055

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Except that Duck Hunt has separated himself away from those other characters (with the potential exception of Toon Link), thanks to his strong results as of late. Per DasKoopa's latest article iirc, Duck Hunt's results put him in the realm of high tier now.
 

JustCallMeJon

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Editing posts after posting posts...
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Here are the current PGR v5 Top 50 Players! Now, here is the top 40-31 players in the current PGR!
Link: https://www.redbull.com/us-en/pgrv5-40-31
40. Rags :4metaknight::4bayonetta:(NEW)
39. tyroy:4bayonetta::4metaknight:( +1)
38. AC :4metaknight::4falco: (+12)
37. Nietono :4diddy::4sheik:(BACK)
36. Captain L :4pikachu::4jigglypuff:(NEW)
35. Shoyo James :4diddy::4luigi:(+7)
34. Vinnie :4sheik::rosalina:(+12)
33. Ally :4mario:(-19)
32. Choco :4zss:(+4)
31. MVD:4diddy:(-6)
 
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Lord Dio

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Honestly?
Posted this opinion on the reddit post, but it's very upsetting about how much priority is being put into placements, and how little is being put into big wins. You can see that MVD has literally one big win, but out places numerous people who have beaten zack, mistake, etc., because he didn't get 49th or 25th or something at one or two events.
My money is that this will keep komo out of top ten because he did poorly at hyrule saga and ceo, when hehas wins on nairo, mistake, dabuz, and got 9th or higher at literally every other US event he went to this season.
 

JustCallMeJon

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Honestly?
Posted this opinion on the reddit post, but it's very upsetting about how much priority is being put into placements, and how little is being put into big wins. You can see that MVD has literally one big win, but out places numerous people who have beaten zack, mistake, etc., because he didn't get 49th or 25th or something at one or two events.
My money is that this will keep komo out of top ten because he did poorly at hyrule saga and ceo, when hehas wins on nairo, mistake, dabuz, and got 9th or higher at literally every other US event he went to this season.
MVD isnt the only one who got carried hard in this PGR by his G5 placement, Vinnie and Shoyo James placed higher than Captain L by their peaks despite Captain L clearly having better consistency and wins alongside having better attendence.

If this PGR relied more in peaks than consistency, I could honestly see Zack, Mr. R, VoiD making it to top 10 rather than Samsora and Komo. They have better peaks than Sam or Komo.
 

The_Bookworm

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MVD isnt the only one who got carried hard in this PGR by his G5 placement, Vinnie and Shoyo James placed higher than Captain L by their peaks despite Captain L clearly having better consistency and wins alongside having better attendence.

If this PGR relied more in peaks than consistency, I could honestly see Zack, Mr. R, VoiD making it to top 10 rather than Samsora and Komo. They have better peaks than Sam or Komo.
Consistency is part of it. L is somewhat consistent, but not that consistent, and Vinnie and Shoyo showed excellent performances in their own rights at B and C tiered events. Both of them also got a high placing on the major PGR'ed events they did participate.
 

Ordeaux26

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Honestly?
Posted this opinion on the reddit post, but it's very upsetting about how much priority is being put into placements, and how little is being put into big wins. You can see that MVD has literally one big win, but out places numerous people who have beaten zack, mistake, etc., because he didn't get 49th or 25th or something at one or two events.
My money is that this will keep komo out of top ten because he did poorly at hyrule saga and ceo, when hehas wins on nairo, mistake, dabuz, and got 9th or higher at literally every other US event he went to this season.
to be honest, I have never been the biggest fan of how the PGR is set up they need to fix this issue when it comes to wins
 

Deku Prince

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I think what happened in MVD's case was that he didn't have any big wins, but he also had no big loses, like, everyone of his loses were to PGR players.
 

J0eyboi

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Woops I posted this before I was done writing. I'll edit this once I actually finish writing it or you can just delete this
 
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Minordeth

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Placement is only as good as who you beat to get there.

If a beat a bunch of low skill players to get into Top 8, and go 0-2 to top players, what good is my top 8 placing?

If I get knocked into Loser’s from pools due to some freak seeding where I play 2016-era Zero, and sweep through Mistake and Larry only to lose to Void and get 17th, what does that say about me as a player? You think people will focus on the fact that I didn’t get top 8, or that I swept some of the best players in the world?
 

|RK|

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Placement is only as good as who you beat to get there.

If a beat a bunch of low skill players to get into Top 8, and go 0-2 to top players, what good is my top 8 placing?

If I get knocked into Loser’s from pools due to some freak seeding where I play 2016-era Zero, and sweep through Mistake and Larry only to lose to Void and get 17th, what does that say about me as a player? You think people will focus on the fact that I didn’t get top 8, or that I swept some of the best players in the world?
Seconded. This is what I always say - and why I really don't think placement should be balanced with wins, as people say. Should just be wins & losses IMO. But that's just my preference.
 

J0eyboi

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Apropos of nothing, I've been thinking about character archetypes in Smash recently, specifically the grappler archetype and how often the term "grappler" is misused in Smash. So I wanted to make a post about the grappler archetype, why :4bowser: and :4dk: aren't grapplers, and why another character you might not expect is one.

On a surface level, Bowser and DK look a lot like grapplers in other fighting games. After all, they're big buff dudes who deal a lot of damage and grab a lot, which sounds very similar to Zangief, the prototypical grappler as far as I'm aware. But that comparison really doesn't hold up to scrutiny. There are a bunch of other, far more important commonalities among grapplers that Bowser and DK lack.

For one, grapplers tend to struggle in neutral, due to low mobility and big hitboxes, and while Bowser and DK do have somewhat linear neutrals, I wouldn't say they really struggle to approach in the same way traditional grapplers do.

The second point is their disadvantage states. Grapplers don't always have great disadvantage states, but their disadvantage is almost always extremely threatening, as command grabs do the same damage no matter how you land them and can often lead to side switches, putting you in the corner when they were previously. Again, neither Bowser nor DK really has this; they do have disadvantage options that can reverse the situation, but they're so generally terrible they may as well not exist, and their disadvantage states are notoriously terrible.

Most important of all, though, is how they play neutral. Grapplers are generally some of the best characters in the game at exploiting their opponent's fear and conditioning them to take certain defensive options they excel at punishing, and Bowser and DK just don't do that. They dash grab, occasionally pivot grab, and sometimes they use jab/dtilt comboed into grab, but no matter what, they always grab, and they get the same reward off every type of grab. They can get early kills off stuff like airdodge read bair or airdodge read regrab on a platform, but every character has stuff like that. Bowser and DK don't exploit fear or conditioning any better than Palutena, another character with a good grab game who is decidedly not a grappler.

So if Bowser and DK aren't grapplers, who is? Ike is a good candidate, as he utilizes and benefits from fear and conditioning a fair amount and struggles to deal with zoning, but there's one character I think fits the bill better than anyone else in the game. One character in particular who has high damage output, explosive disadvantage, weak approach, and heavily benefits from fear and conditioning because her best damage comes from calling out defensive options. I'm talking, of course, about Bayonetta.

"But Bayo doesn't have a grab game!" That's correct, yes, but she doesn't need to. Being a grappler isn't about having a threatening grab. It can certainly help because it forces people to choose non-shield defensive options, but you can be a grappler without having a strong grab game. Grapplers are, first and foremost, about fear and conditioning, things Bayo is great at taking advantage of, and she ticks the rest of the boxes, too.

So in summary, please update your stereotypes about grapplers.
 
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The_Bookworm

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Apropos of nothing, I've been thinking about character archetypes in Smash recently, specifically the grappler archetype and how often the term "grappler" is misused in Smash. So I wanted to make a post about the grappler archetype, why :4bowser: and :4dk: aren't grapplers, and why another character you might not expect is one.

On a surface level, Bowser and DK look a lot like grapplers in other fighting games. After all, they're big buff dudes who deal a lot of damage and grab a lot, which sounds very similar to Zangief, the prototypical grappler as far as I'm aware. But that comparison really doesn't hold up to scrutiny. There are a bunch of other, far more important commonalities among grapplers that Bowser and DK lack.

For one, grapplers tend to struggle in neutral, due to low mobility and big hitboxes, and while Bowser and DK do have somewhat linear neutrals, I wouldn't say they really struggle to approach in the same way traditional grapplers do.

The second point is their disadvantage states. Grapplers don't always have great disadvantage states, but their disadvantage is almost always extremely threatening, as command grabs do the same damage no matter how you land them and can often lead to side switches, putting you in the corner when they were previously. Again, neither Bowser nor DK really has this; they do have disadvantage options that can reverse the situation, but they're so generally terrible they may as well not exist, and their disadvantage states are notoriously terrible.

Most important of all, though, is how they play neutral. Grapplers are generally some of the best characters in the game at exploiting their opponent's fear and conditioning them to take certain defensive options they excel at punishing, and Bowser and DK just don't do that. They dash grab, occasionally pivot grab, and sometimes they use jab/dtilt comboed into grab, but no matter what, they always grab, and they get the same reward off every type of grab. They can get early kills off stuff like airdodge read bair or airdodge read regrab on a platform, but every character has stuff like that. Bowser and DK don't exploit fear or conditioning any better than Palutena, another character with a good grab game who is decidedly not a grappler.

So if Bowser and DK aren't grapplers, who is? Ike is a good candidate, as he utilizes and benefits from fear and conditioning a fair amount and struggles to deal with zoning, but there's one character I think fits the bill better than anyone else in the game. One character in particular who has high damage output, explosive disadvantage, weak approach, and heavily benefits from fear and conditioning because her best damage comes from calling out defensive options. I'm talking, of course, about Bayonetta.

"But Bayo doesn't have a grab game!" That's correct, yes, but she doesn't need to. Being a grappler isn't about having a threatening grab. It can certainly help because it forces people to choose non-shield defensive options, but you can be a grappler without having a strong grab game. Grapplers are, first and foremost, about fear and conditioning, things Bayo is great at taking advantage of, and she ticks the rest of the boxes, too.

So in summary, please update your stereotypes about grapplers.
If that is how "grappler" stereotype works, then they need to work on the naming convention.

The reason why DK and Bowser works entirely differently than characters in other fighting games that are considered to be "grapplers" is because Smash Bros is a vastly different type of fighting game.
 

Minordeth

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Apropos of nothing, I've been thinking about character archetypes in Smash recently, specifically the grappler archetype and how often the term "grappler" is misused in Smash. So I wanted to make a post about the grappler archetype, why :4bowser: and :4dk: aren't grapplers, and why another character you might not expect is one.

On a surface level, Bowser and DK look a lot like grapplers in other fighting games. After all, they're big buff dudes who deal a lot of damage and grab a lot, which sounds very similar to Zangief, the prototypical grappler as far as I'm aware. But that comparison really doesn't hold up to scrutiny. There are a bunch of other, far more important commonalities among grapplers that Bowser and DK lack.

For one, grapplers tend to struggle in neutral, due to low mobility and big hitboxes, and while Bowser and DK do have somewhat linear neutrals, I wouldn't say they really struggle to approach in the same way traditional grapplers do.

The second point is their disadvantage states. Grapplers don't always have great disadvantage states, but their disadvantage is almost always extremely threatening, as command grabs do the same damage no matter how you land them and can often lead to side switches, putting you in the corner when they were previously. Again, neither Bowser nor DK really has this; they do have disadvantage options that can reverse the situation, but they're so generally terrible they may as well not exist, and their disadvantage states are notoriously terrible.

Most important of all, though, is how they play neutral. Grapplers are generally some of the best characters in the game at exploiting their opponent's fear and conditioning them to take certain defensive options they excel at punishing, and Bowser and DK just don't do that. They dash grab, occasionally pivot grab, and sometimes they use jab/dtilt comboed into grab, but no matter what, they always grab, and they get the same reward off every type of grab. They can get early kills off stuff like airdodge read bair or airdodge read regrab on a platform, but every character has stuff like that. Bowser and DK don't exploit fear or conditioning any better than Palutena, another character with a good grab game who is decidedly not a grappler.

So if Bowser and DK aren't grapplers, who is? Ike is a good candidate, as he utilizes and benefits from fear and conditioning a fair amount and struggles to deal with zoning, but there's one character I think fits the bill better than anyone else in the game. One character in particular who has high damage output, explosive disadvantage, weak approach, and heavily benefits from fear and conditioning because her best damage comes from calling out defensive options. I'm talking, of course, about Bayonetta.

"But Bayo doesn't have a grab game!" That's correct, yes, but she doesn't need to. Being a grappler isn't about having a threatening grab. It can certainly help because it forces people to choose non-shield defensive options, but you can be a grappler without having a strong grab game. Grapplers are, first and foremost, about fear and conditioning, things Bayo is great at taking advantage of, and she ticks the rest of the boxes, too.

So in summary, please update your stereotypes about grapplers.
This is a good post, but I’ll disagree with a bit of it, as I started with 2D fighters, and Smash is weird sometimes.

You are right, in a way, in that Bayo has a lot of traditional grappler aspects. She has high damage output, great defense, and if she is playing a zoner, she must approach. Her ability to tap into her damage output is dependent on her ability to get in. And, like a grappler, she ultimately requires the ability to mind game/trap the opponent into letting her in.

On the other hand, she most definitively is not a grappler, as she has three things that almost immediately disqualify her: no command throw, no centralization around grabs, and perhaps most damningly - a means to force an approach.

In a sense, she is like a slow rush down character with grappler aspects.

I’ll ignore DK for a minute, and say Bowser is closer to a grappler than you give him credit for. For one, he has high damage output based around getting the grab. For two, he actually has a command grab, which can seal stocks. For three, he has a (passive) form of armor that allows him to power through the opponent’s moves - much like the classic grappler Zangief. Finally, he has a ground game based around the ability to do quick turns and movements combined with decent pokes, to pressure opponents.

Bowser lacks good defense, of course, and I think if he had a better disadvantage, and had to rely on active moves to get in, or had conversions from his command grab, he’d be a dead ringer for a classic grappler.
 

J0eyboi

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Dec 28, 2017
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In a sense, she is like a slow rush down character with grappler aspects.
I wouldn't call her a rushdown character, but that's overall a better way to put it, yeah.

If that is how "grappler" stereotype works, then they need to work on the naming convention.
People came up with the name because they noticed a lot of characters with command grabs played very similarly, hence, it was named "grappler". The term denotes a playstyle that's most commonly seen in big slow bois with command grabs, but that doesn't mean they're the only characters who play in that way.

The reason why DK and Bowser works entirely differently than characters in other fighting games that are considered to be "grapplers" is because Smash Bros is a vastly different type of fighting game.
Read the post again. I wrote in exclusively generic terms that apply to Smash just as well as any other fighting game. Bowser and DK just don't play like grapplers; they're glass cannons who rely on grab.

If you're saying that the term "grappler" has a different meaning in Smash, there are two problems there. First of all, using the same terminology to describe very different things defeats the purpose of stealing the terminology in the first place; we may as well call Duck Hunt a rushdown character if that's how we're doing things. Second of all, if DK and Bowser are grapplers, why stop there? Palutena, Ness, Lucas, Lucario, Ike, Charizard, arguably Roy, ZSS (who's arguably pretty close to a traditional grappler as well, possibly moreso than Bayo), Mario, Luigi, and G&W could all reasonably be considered grapplers. These characters do not play even remotely alike. The only common thread across all of them is good grab combos. The term ceases to define an archetype or playstyle and instead defines a function.

Edit: While I'm here, Anti tweeted his final Mario MU chart yesterday.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

The reason Pit is listed as losing but Dark Pit is even is because Anti thought Dark Pit was heavier with worse frame data. Pro players don't actually know what they're talking about all the time.
 
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Prince Koopa Jr

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Apropos of nothing, I've been thinking about character archetypes in Smash recently, specifically the grappler archetype and how often the term "grappler" is misused in Smash. So I wanted to make a post about the grappler archetype, why :4bowser: and :4dk: aren't grapplers, and why another character you might not expect is one.

On a surface level, Bowser and DK look a lot like grapplers in other fighting games. After all, they're big buff dudes who deal a lot of damage and grab a lot, which sounds very similar to Zangief, the prototypical grappler as far as I'm aware. But that comparison really doesn't hold up to scrutiny. There are a bunch of other, far more important commonalities among grapplers that Bowser and DK lack.

For one, grapplers tend to struggle in neutral, due to low mobility and big hitboxes, and while Bowser and DK do have somewhat linear neutrals, I wouldn't say they really struggle to approach in the same way traditional grapplers do.

The second point is their disadvantage states. Grapplers don't always have great disadvantage states, but their disadvantage is almost always extremely threatening, as command grabs do the same damage no matter how you land them and can often lead to side switches, putting you in the corner when they were previously. Again, neither Bowser nor DK really has this; they do have disadvantage options that can reverse the situation, but they're so generally terrible they may as well not exist, and their disadvantage states are notoriously terrible.

Most important of all, though, is how they play neutral. Grapplers are generally some of the best characters in the game at exploiting their opponent's fear and conditioning them to take certain defensive options they excel at punishing, and Bowser and DK just don't do that. They dash grab, occasionally pivot grab, and sometimes they use jab/dtilt comboed into grab, but no matter what, they always grab, and they get the same reward off every type of grab. They can get early kills off stuff like airdodge read bair or airdodge read regrab on a platform, but every character has stuff like that. Bowser and DK don't exploit fear or conditioning any better than Palutena, another character with a good grab game who is decidedly not a grappler.

So if Bowser and DK aren't grapplers, who is? Ike is a good candidate, as he utilizes and benefits from fear and conditioning a fair amount and struggles to deal with zoning, but there's one character I think fits the bill better than anyone else in the game. One character in particular who has high damage output, explosive disadvantage, weak approach, and heavily benefits from fear and conditioning because her best damage comes from calling out defensive options. I'm talking, of course, about Bayonetta.

"But Bayo doesn't have a grab game!" That's correct, yes, but she doesn't need to. Being a grappler isn't about having a threatening grab. It can certainly help because it forces people to choose non-shield defensive options, but you can be a grappler without having a strong grab game. Grapplers are, first and foremost, about fear and conditioning, things Bayo is great at taking advantage of, and she ticks the rest of the boxes, too.

So in summary, please update your stereotypes about grapplers.
Very well said, I wouldn't really call Bayo a grappler though, she's a combo heavy character.
 

Frihetsanka

Smash Champion
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I think Anti's Mario chart is too pessimistic. I suppose we could compare it to Dark Wizzy's:

Which I think is too optimistic. I think Mario is pretty good overall but that Sonic MU seems really bad for him. Still top 15 though.
 

MercuryPenny

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anti's is pretty resonable aside from a handful of wack placements (greninja and pit losing? bayo shiek diddy fox dk even? kirby charizard even? falcon hard win? what)
 

Minordeth

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Oct 14, 2014
Messages
921
Yeah, if you have read/heard either of their thoughts on Mario, you get a nice example of matchups based on hypothetical reasoning versus directly personal feelings. Not a surprise that both of them have disagreed heavily on staff throughout the lifespan of the game.

ANTi is more inclined to go off of his feelings on how the matchup plays out at a high level. It’s a reasonable approach, given that he has a lot of high level experience. I don’t think he would ever portray himself up as a lab grinder though.

Wizzy is a lab monster. He approaches the game like Dabuz and ESAM approach it, and is always looking for optimizing his character and play. Like ESAM, he is inclined to fault himself, rather than his character, for his losses, as he truly believes his character is top tier. Much of that is based on his lab and grind work.

Up until recently, whenever Wizzy would chime in on Ally or ANTi’s performances, the common retort from ANTi was that Wizzy didn’t really know what the MUs were like at the top level, because he wasn’t a top player. Of course, now Wizzy is starting to see success at the top level, so we will see where it all goes.

The main thing Wizzy would always try and encourage was more FLUDD use - both in certain MUs, and in general, from the top Marios. He truly believes that FLUDD, along with optimized Mario footstool combos, make Mario top tier. As it happens, you can see increased use of FLUDD in Ally’s recent Bayo matches and also see some benefit.

It is a bit funny to see Ally and ANTi beating some of the top Bayos now, especially after how much both of them despised that match up.
 

ReVerbIsSuperb

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anti's is pretty resonable aside from a handful of wack placements (greninja and pit losing? bayo shiek diddy fox dk even? kirby charizard even? falcon hard win? what)
Tbh most of those placements you mentioned seem fine to me. I would disagree with Mario beating Falcon that hard for one quick example though. Pit he thought for some reason had different frame data/properties than Dark Pit so he actually moved Pit back down to even as shown in the tweet thread below. I like the statement above by Frihetsanka about Anti's chart being too pessimistic while Dark Wizzy's is too optimistic though, I see what he means.

Not really sure what to think about that Kirby placement but Zard lowkey can legit wall Mario out with his big hitboxes and ground speed so I can see why he placed him the way he did. Same with DK and his giant limbs and ground game. They both outrange and outspeed Mario which makes approaching hard & they can live a long time despite both of them getting rocked when in disadvantage. I can see why he placed them the way he did if anything. Even Dark Wizzy feels similarly as shown by his MU Chart.

Fox is a case where both characters **** each other up in advantage state but Fox's speed is hard for Mario to deal with whether getting his landings chased or trying to chase Fox for a grab; I don't think the placement is a bad one. Every Top Fox player atm would agree on Fox not losing to Mario from what I've seen. It's very back & forth in all aspects of play so marking it as even makes sense.

Bayonetta however I feel is quite annoying for Mario to deal with despite how hard he messes her up once he actually does land a solid hit on her and can pressure her with his frame data. When not in advantage state, he gets walled out by her giant limbs and has difficulty chasing her around the stage, it can be rough when Mario loses the lead. Anti in a tweet below said its probably just slightly in Bayo's favor but he wants to try out some Fludd techniques next time he fights one, and from what I've noticed, it does help a lot in regards to how neutral & pushing a lead plays out so it might not be as bad as people once thought it was. The sets at Top Level have been playing out a little better than they used to at the very least.

Speaking of Greninja though, like Minordeth said, Anti focuses a lot on his experience at a high level in regards to how he believes MUs play out. Ally probably has the most experience in the MU out of all the Mario's and believed Mario lost slightly for a long time while Anti disagreed. He only changed his mind as he played the MU more, especially after he lost to Lea at EVO Japan and then had to switch off Mario vs Venia when he has traveled to Xeno. If you want me to go deeper into why I believe Greninja does well besides the obvious (dictates the pace of neutral due to outranging, outspeeding, and outcamping Mario), I can do so however.
 
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EMT~

Smash Cadet
Joined
Apr 15, 2018
Messages
41
Location
Iowa
Apropos of nothing, I've been thinking about character archetypes in Smash recently, specifically the grappler archetype and how often the term "grappler" is misused in Smash. So I wanted to make a post about the grappler archetype, why :4bowser: and :4dk: aren't grapplers, and why another character you might not expect is one.
I'm incredibly glad that this has been said, as it has been needed to be said for a long time now.

To me, the thing that truly makes a grappler isn't just the grab-based gameplay. It's the combination of command/regular grabs and powerful normals. But beyond just that, its the ability to combine those two factors together into a mixup-based game. Once you enter this game, with proper reads/guesses, the opponent is effectively defenseless against your assault if you get in; because your combination of normals, grabs, and proper guesses can beat out basically anything they try. It's this mixup game that really drives the factors that you mentioned - the fear and conditioning. There's a reason the Spinning Piledrive mixup game is called the "blender", after all.

Back to Smash. Bowser and DK have the grab game, and they have the good normals, but they don't have the definitive grappler mixup game that results from combining the two aforementioned factors. Bowser and DK are ultimately about getting the grab and leading that into grab autocombos, i.e., they lack the combined grab/normal mixup game that really defines grapplers in my mind. The biggest mixup I can think of for Bowser is UThrow into airdodge-read Smash attack, but I don't really count that. And I'm even less familiar with DK, so I'll decline commenting on him.

But then again, most of my traditional fighting game knowledge comes from watching Itazan and Snake Eyez matches, so maybe my perception is a bit biased in this regard.

"But Bayo doesn't have a grab game!" That's correct, yes, but she doesn't need to. Being a grappler isn't about having a threatening grab. It can certainly help because it forces people to choose non-shield defensive options, but you can be a grappler without having a strong grab game.
This inspires a question: Who are some characters in traditional fighting games, that you would call "grapplers", but don't have a threatening grab game?
 

MercuryPenny

Smash Journeyman
Joined
May 17, 2017
Messages
278
NNID
MemorialDime
Bayonetta however I feel is quite annoying for Mario to deal with despite how hard he messes her up once he actually does land a solid hit on her and can pressure her with his frame data. When not in advantage state, he gets walled out by her giant limbs and has difficulty chasing her around the stage, it can be rough when Mario loses the lead. Anti in a tweet below said its probably just slightly in Bayo's favor but he wants to try out some Fludd techniques next time he fights one, and from what I've noticed, it does help a lot in regards to how neutral & pushing a lead plays out so it might not be as bad as people once thought it was. The sets at Top Level have been playing out a little better than they used to at the very least.
i still wouldn't call it even. characters who go even with bayo tend to have the ability to pressure her when she has a lead, usually through countercamping (shiek needles, cloud limit charge, arguably fox lasers) which is a luxury mario definitely, definitely doesn't have. bayo being a fastfaller is pretty good for him but she's one of the characters who invalidates dair's usual 50/50 nature (and the only one i know of to always do so regardless of rage), so his low-percent damage output and emergency high-percent kills are pretty much out the window.

fludd is likely just another niche thing that's being blown out of proportion because people aren't used to playing against it yet, so it's working in situations where it...really shouldn't? like raw fludd in neutral can be beaten by just running against the current, fludd to relieve ledge pressure can be beaten by shielding, and there's a lot of matchup-specific stuff you can do against it (projectiles ignore fludd, villager's tree blocks it, etc). i'm not convinced that it's this magical tool that will singlehandedly make mario's bad matchups even, especially since top marios only just started using it regularly, but i guess only time will tell
 

Guido65

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jul 30, 2015
Messages
144
Re Mario kirby being mentioned: Honestly this reminds me of something I've wanted to know for ages. What makes people think kirby does well vs mario minus the komata beating ally? If anything this matchup is horrible for kirby for the same reasons luigi invalidates kirby: he plays a vastly better than kirby, gets a ton off beating kirby in neutral while doesn't get much if anything at all bc they just nair out his combos, and kirby is very easy to combo for a floaty. This matchup has been well overrated for a long time because of one fluke win. Truth is mario falls in one of the 2 categories of characters that ruin kirby that being the opponent ignores his biggest strength and plays a better neutral but he gets a ton of reward on kirby too.

Re: wizzy's chart: too optimistic as always and some placements are a bit wrong like mario winning vs sheik and diddy, and Rosa is a lot closer to her favor than mario's and tlink does much worse than link in this matchup. The more obscure character's placements are fine minus mii sword doing way better vs Mario than brawler, and Rob being only slight advantage otherwise it being too optimistic it's not the worst mu chart I've seen.

Also since i see a lot of people thinking toon link is still upper tiered what makes him still upper tiered to everyone? Honestly believe link is a better character due to having less polarizingly bad mus with link's only real gatekeeper being sheik while toon link gets bodied by ryu(this mu is really bad in practice), cloud(cloud and bayo are why hyuga has a diddy) , and Mario.
 

The_Bookworm

Smash Master
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
Messages
3,202
Umebura 33 (418 Entrants) (Japan)

1st: Abadango:4bayonetta::4mewtwo:
2nd: Kirihara:rosalina:
3rd: HIKARU:4dk::4cloud2::4sheik:
4th: Kameme:4megaman::4sheik:
5th: Etsuiji:4diddy:
5th: Choco:4zss:
7th: Towa:rosalina:
7th: Zackray:4corrinf::4marth::4bayonetta:
9th: Raito:4duckhunt::4marth:
9th: Yuzu:rosalina:
9th: Eim:4sheik:
9th: Kuwa:4ryu:

Notable Players out Earlier:
13th: T:4link::4sonic:
13th: RAIN:4bayonetta:
17th: shky:4zss:
17th: Paseriman:4diddy:
17th: Mao:4cloud2:
17th: Umeki:4peach:
25th: Masashi:4cloud2:
25th: takera:4ryu:
25th: Lea:4greninja:
25th: Shogun:4fox:
33rd: Tsu-:4lucario:
33rd: Earth:4pit::4corrinf:
33rd: Gackt:4ness:


Edit: Can someone reply here so I can post another comment?
 
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|RK|

Smash Marketer
Moderator
Joined
Jan 6, 2009
Messages
4,033
Location
Maryland
Just one comment, 'cuz Kirby:

Kirby and Mario do the same things to each other, Mario is just a little better. Even & slight advantage are both fine as far as placements go.
 

JustCallMeJon

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 5, 2017
Messages
1,072
Location
Editing posts after posting posts...
3DS FC
3067-7373-5050
Switch FC
SW 4274 8573 0226
Top 50 PGR v5
30-21:

30. KEN :4sonic: (-22)
29. Wrath :4sonic::4bayonetta:(BACK)
28. Zinoto :4diddy:(+3)
27. SDX :4mewtwo:(NEW)
26. Shuton :4olimar:(+1)
25. Marss :4zss::4falcon:(-6)
24. Kameme :4megaman::4sheik::4cloud2::4yoshi:(+20)
23. Raito :4duckhunt:(+9)
22. WaDi :4mewtwo::4rob:(-10)
21. ESAM :4pikachu::4samus:(0)

Possible Top 20:
  • Abadango:4bayonetta::4mewtwo:
  • ANTi:4mario::4zss::4cloud2:
  • CaptainZack:4bayonetta:
  • Cosmos:4corrinf:
  • Dabuz:rosalina::4olimar:
  • Elegant:4luigi:
  • falln:rosalina:
  • Fatality:4falcon:
  • komorikiri:4cloud2::4sonic:
  • Larry Lurr:4fox::4diddy:
  • Light:4fox:
  • Lima:4bayonetta::4peach:
  • Mistake:4bayonetta:
  • MkLeo:4marth::4cloud2::4bayonetta:
  • Mr. R:4sheik:
  • Nairo:4zss::4bowser:
  • Salem:4bayonetta:
  • Samsora:4peach::rosalina:
  • Tweek:4bayonetta::4cloud2::4dk:
  • VoiD:4sheik:
Stay tune for August 1st for 20-11!
 
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Guido65

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jul 30, 2015
Messages
144
Just one comment, 'cuz Kirby:

Kirby and Mario do the same things to each other, Mario is just a little better. Even & slight advantage are both fine as far as placements go.
Could you explain how this is the case? I'm not seeing it because Mario combos kirby pretty hard while kirby doesn't get nearly as much on Mario who also plays a considerably better neutral than him. It really sounds a lot closer to a -2 like the luigi matchup which is pretty difficult for kirby for similar reasons(ignoring his main strength and playing a better neutral).
 
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