Air protection advice

[jchaosmaster]

I play on 3ds only but was wondering if anyone had advice for protecting myself when in free fall as mega man.

My best example is when matched up against mewtwo. I don't super struggle with him until he usmash me. Im almost dead even early on because I can't figure out any good way do defend myself from getting usmashed again.

I drop to fast for my down air and my spinning blade isn't much good unless im high present and grab it mid fall and even then

 

[ravemaster47]

Mix ups. Bait his up smash then jump at the last second. Leaf shield is a pretty solid out so long as you airdodge.

 

[CopShowGuy]

Leaf Shield will generally help you easily get to the stage again. Just air dodge any attempted follow up. If they're on the ground, don't land close to them.

 

[Megamang]

Using the momentum change from Leaf Shield. Try and throw him off by making him think you are committing to a direction before you use the Leaf Shield Momentum Change.

Throwing metal blades downward, DJ - Dair, FF Fair/Bair, and landing nair are all viable mixups. Mewtwo isn't as great at changing directions as we are, so work on throwing your friend off.

If you have to , its not terrible to reset to the ledge and make him guess your options.

On platforms, you can also drop a Rush Coil, drop back to the rush coil with an aerial to defend you (dair and fair are good here) and land on Rush... then once you are in the air, you can use a leaf shield to defend you and you have a second jump to mess with your momentum.

go watch some high level play, especially Scatt if you want Megaman examples, and you'll see lots of ways to mix up your landings to get down. Fair is an ok landing tool, but isn't really 'good' compared to high/top tier landing options. We make up for that with Zoning.

Against big characters, such as M2, you can do a landing uair to punish their shield -> punish coverage.


Starting to hit someone into the air, and repeatedly taking advantage of their bad position, is what we in smash refer to the advantage state. Certain characters and players are better and worse at this. You aren't in a good position, so there is no 100% guaranteed escape, so just learn your opponent to find a way out. Know that you aren't alone in struggling to land. You have a good uair, bair, fair, and pellets/blade/crash bomber to help keep other people up when you get the chance.

 

[jchaosmaster]

That is useful advice with the leaf shield. That might help when im getting camped from below.

 

[Megamang]

Also, against characters that can't 'burst' upwards and prefer to camp with really strong ground options (such as characters that are mixing you up between utilt/smash and grabs, rather than jump uair) a nice option is leaving a rush coil on the ground. You can then do a much more unsafe dair, and land on the coil to get rid of all your lag.

Not impenetrable or always effective, but its an option.