A little intro and a few questions.

[YourCityPigeon]

(I'm a little new around here so if I posted this in the wrong place feel free to correct me!)
Hello there! My name is YourCityPigeon, but usually people just call me James or Pigeon. I have started playing Melee, but I am pretty trash still. I live in Australia, there aren't too many Samus players down here (at least I think not)

I have decided to main Samus because she is probably the character I played the most in Melee, and I love the Metroid games. My colour of choice is green, but if I ever play anyone with the same colour I will switch to purple (like a gentleman). I haven't really competed much at all, but after my mid year exams I am going to buy myself a new CRT and get a Wii to play 20XX.

I have a few questions regarding Samus/Samus players.
1: What is the best way to practice alone? I don't know anyone I can practice against, and I can't go to tourneys often. This will probably change when I finish Year 12, but for now a solid way to practice alone would be cool.
2: Do you guys have some sort of Skype group or something like that? It would be cool to talk to other players.

Anyway thank you for your time. See you next mission!

 

[BillNyeTheSamusGuy]

Playing smash is 5 different situations: Comboing, Being Comboed, Edgeguarding, Getting Edgeguarded, and The Neutral.

People say playing other people is the best form of practice because you organically hone everyone of those categories. However, that's not your only method to strengthen those arenas.

Comboing- This is probably the most straightforward to practice. Go into 20xx, turn on hitstun colors, set it to 99 stocks or infinite time, choose a character and then beat the crap out of that character while trying to get the longest movestring possible. 20xx's random di will train you to use true combos.

Being comboed- This is a little trickier. Set a fairly high level cpu and let it hit you. Practice different di directions and teching when it hits you. Watch vids and base your di patterns in practice off of what you see in tournies.

Edgeguarding/Getting Edgeguarded- This is two different situations but they're both really hard to practice alone and you practice it the same way. Watch vids and create routines out of the edgeguarding sequences you see. Rehearse those by yourself.

The Neutral- For Samus, the neutral is strongly based off the ability to counter your opponents movement and commitments. Make a list of every characters most likely approaches and theorycraft options that defeat those approaches. Then rehearse those options with a low level cpu or with just your character on screen. See this vid for further detail of neutral game practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_He30J-Oag&list=UUScwRwPS2P4BRE8G1s7m7kg

 

[pizzacato]

Movement is big. Whenever you warm-up, trying getting around every inch of every stage as quick as you can via wavedashing and wavelands. Practice Ledge stuff, get with your tether. Practicing missing a ledge dash, and fastfalling while drifting away to grapple the wall. Also how far away you can try to be to recover. These small things add up, and the more comfortable you are with movement and basic functionality, getting to where you want to go as quickly as you can, really goes a long way.

Missile stuff is cool too.

 

[Mervis]

Missile stuff is cool too.

As as Samus who only practiced missiles for the longest time, don't work on them right off. I could SHFFMC and RunoffFFMC pretty early, but I would lose to really bad players because I sucked. (Still do lol). I started getting better results from learning movemment and spacing. I won't say my regiment is best for everyone, but missile game is only ok.

 

[Anfantast]

1) I agree with pizzacato, practicing movement/recovery is super helpful and will probably be the most fun you'll have training by yourself. Oh and of course practice the essentials like the infinite walljump on Battlefield, the FoD recovery, the Super Wave Dash and Extendurr xD

2) Here is the Skype Group thread if you are still interested: http://smashboards.com/threads/any-interest-in-a-samus-skype-group.391666/