Intro
Marth is a unique character because all his moves revolve around using his sword to attack. This means Marth is able to hit other characters safely if the player focuses on playing around the distance his sword travels.
Grab
By safely playing around the swords tip, a Marth player can condition their opponent to remain in their shield. This is a great opportunity to go for grabs. Since shield is keeping your opponent safe, the best counter attack is grab. A lot of Marth players focus on just using their sword to attack, forgetting that they have a grab.
While it is true that Marth can continue pressuring an opponent with his sword, grab conditions your opponent to not shield, or at least choose to evade with rolls or side steps. It’s at this point that your opponent enters a vicious cycle of attacks and grabs. If they shield they get grabbed, if they don’t they get attacked.
Down tilt
Down tilt is a great move, it allows Marth to stop grounded approaches like walk or run, and can be used to combo. Moreover, it can be used to edgeguard by potentially catching your opponent before they can grab the ledge, or hitting them when they try to get off the ledge. Because of its range, it can be used at a safe distance and can be mixed up with just a crouch to bait a reaction out of your opponent.
As a combo tool, at around 100% damage to your opponent, it can cause your opponent to get hit in such a way that it causes a tech chase scenario. If your opponent doesn’t react or misinputs their tech, it’s fairly easy to chase them with a jump cancelled up smash for the kill. If they do tech, Marth has the movement and range to deal with every response. It’s all about reacting than reading.
Up tilt
Up tilt does get used a lot by Marth players, but usually it’s not used the most optimal ways. A lot of times Marth players will use it when they’re button mashing or in ineffective scenarios. The best way to use up tilt is simply to keep your opponent in the air. However, your opponent can still air dodge through the move, but the cost is landing lag from air dodging to the ground.
This occurs because Marths up tilt range is far enough to keep him safe from incoming attacks from above, but short enough that air dodging will likely lead to landing lag from your opponent. This means you can hit them with another up tilt or go for anything within that landing lag window. This will usually force your opponent to choose landing closer to the edges of the stage, where Marth excels at putting more pressure.
Perfect Pivot
Perfect pivoting is almost fundamental to Marths metagame. Thanks to MKLeo, perfect pivoting with Marth became essential to succeed at high levels of smash 4. Perfect pivoting corrects your distance to your opponent by once again being out of their range, but still being in yours. Since Marth can miss if he’s too close to his opponent, or trade attacks, it’s important to use perfect pivoting to make sure you will hit your opponent without getting hit.
A great way to use perfect pivoting is to get within range of your opponents attacks then perfect pivot out of that range. This baits your opponent to come in and approach you while you keep your effective range.
Aerial Dancing Blade
Aerial dancing blade is a severely underutilized move that needs to develop in Marths metagame. While perfect pivoting got exposure due to MKLeo, aerial dancing blade is rarely utilized, and when it is, it doesn’t usually get used in creative ways. It has a lot of potential, but will require serious developments from Marth players.
What’s great about dancing blade is that it can be used to combo, and to stall Marth is the air. The combo aspect of aerial dancing blade is usually what is used from Marth players, though not much either. It can be used as a punish instead of using forward air or grounded dancing blade.
However, the true potential lies in aerial dancing blade stalling Marth in the air. When Marth players do use aerial dancing blade to stall, it’s usually in disadvantage to throw off their opponents timings. This is only half of what it can do. Aerial dancing blade can be used to stall while in advantage as well.
While Marth can remain in the air quite a while after a jump, aerial dancing blade can keep him up longer. This is important because it means that a Marth player can use a stall to react to their opponents recovery. Many opponents like to go above Marth to get away from his pressure on the ledge. Aerial dancing blade can keep Marth in the air longer to react to high recoveries or to wait out an opponents options until ultimately they decide to recover low. Forcing your opponent to recover low means they have to deal with Marths incredible ledge pressure.
All in all, utilizing these moves correctly and creatively will allow the Marth player to improve their wins by pushing their advantage state further, and keep them alive longer.
Thank you for reading this smash guide, if you have any questions or want to start a discussion please do so in the comments section. If the guide was useful to you please give this blog a like!
-Espada
Marth is a unique character because all his moves revolve around using his sword to attack. This means Marth is able to hit other characters safely if the player focuses on playing around the distance his sword travels.
Grab
By safely playing around the swords tip, a Marth player can condition their opponent to remain in their shield. This is a great opportunity to go for grabs. Since shield is keeping your opponent safe, the best counter attack is grab. A lot of Marth players focus on just using their sword to attack, forgetting that they have a grab.
While it is true that Marth can continue pressuring an opponent with his sword, grab conditions your opponent to not shield, or at least choose to evade with rolls or side steps. It’s at this point that your opponent enters a vicious cycle of attacks and grabs. If they shield they get grabbed, if they don’t they get attacked.
Down tilt
Down tilt is a great move, it allows Marth to stop grounded approaches like walk or run, and can be used to combo. Moreover, it can be used to edgeguard by potentially catching your opponent before they can grab the ledge, or hitting them when they try to get off the ledge. Because of its range, it can be used at a safe distance and can be mixed up with just a crouch to bait a reaction out of your opponent.
As a combo tool, at around 100% damage to your opponent, it can cause your opponent to get hit in such a way that it causes a tech chase scenario. If your opponent doesn’t react or misinputs their tech, it’s fairly easy to chase them with a jump cancelled up smash for the kill. If they do tech, Marth has the movement and range to deal with every response. It’s all about reacting than reading.
Up tilt
Up tilt does get used a lot by Marth players, but usually it’s not used the most optimal ways. A lot of times Marth players will use it when they’re button mashing or in ineffective scenarios. The best way to use up tilt is simply to keep your opponent in the air. However, your opponent can still air dodge through the move, but the cost is landing lag from air dodging to the ground.
This occurs because Marths up tilt range is far enough to keep him safe from incoming attacks from above, but short enough that air dodging will likely lead to landing lag from your opponent. This means you can hit them with another up tilt or go for anything within that landing lag window. This will usually force your opponent to choose landing closer to the edges of the stage, where Marth excels at putting more pressure.
Perfect Pivot
Perfect pivoting is almost fundamental to Marths metagame. Thanks to MKLeo, perfect pivoting with Marth became essential to succeed at high levels of smash 4. Perfect pivoting corrects your distance to your opponent by once again being out of their range, but still being in yours. Since Marth can miss if he’s too close to his opponent, or trade attacks, it’s important to use perfect pivoting to make sure you will hit your opponent without getting hit.
A great way to use perfect pivoting is to get within range of your opponents attacks then perfect pivot out of that range. This baits your opponent to come in and approach you while you keep your effective range.
Aerial Dancing Blade
Aerial dancing blade is a severely underutilized move that needs to develop in Marths metagame. While perfect pivoting got exposure due to MKLeo, aerial dancing blade is rarely utilized, and when it is, it doesn’t usually get used in creative ways. It has a lot of potential, but will require serious developments from Marth players.
What’s great about dancing blade is that it can be used to combo, and to stall Marth is the air. The combo aspect of aerial dancing blade is usually what is used from Marth players, though not much either. It can be used as a punish instead of using forward air or grounded dancing blade.
However, the true potential lies in aerial dancing blade stalling Marth in the air. When Marth players do use aerial dancing blade to stall, it’s usually in disadvantage to throw off their opponents timings. This is only half of what it can do. Aerial dancing blade can be used to stall while in advantage as well.
While Marth can remain in the air quite a while after a jump, aerial dancing blade can keep him up longer. This is important because it means that a Marth player can use a stall to react to their opponents recovery. Many opponents like to go above Marth to get away from his pressure on the ledge. Aerial dancing blade can keep Marth in the air longer to react to high recoveries or to wait out an opponents options until ultimately they decide to recover low. Forcing your opponent to recover low means they have to deal with Marths incredible ledge pressure.
All in all, utilizing these moves correctly and creatively will allow the Marth player to improve their wins by pushing their advantage state further, and keep them alive longer.
Thank you for reading this smash guide, if you have any questions or want to start a discussion please do so in the comments section. If the guide was useful to you please give this blog a like!
-Espada
