the word "clone" doesn't mean much. e.g dr. mario and falcon are obviously not clones, but you can play them using almost exactly the same button inputs lol (except twice as fast for falcon, and just use falcon nair instead of a projectile lawl)
there are a few characters whose optimal metagame strays from the normal 'dashdance/wavedash spacing, shuffle aerial->" basic melee gameplay. but mostly the the generic strat for all characters lol
in 64 its like, dash dance, do move that puts your opponent in the air, death combo. with every character lmfao
in brawl the game revolves a lot more around positioning and grabbing, but the tools are used the same way. with almost every character, retreating fair is a good spacing/baiting tool for example.
i generally wreck lucases with snake, but I played Mekos on wifi one time and literally did not know what to do. he was running circles around me.
reflex used to beat metaknights with falcon, but i guess people eventually learned how to play the character.
falcon sucks though. The thing with most low tiers is they rely heavily on gimmicks. and once you learn the gimmicks, they literally can't do anything to you anymore. as opposed to high tiers, who also rely on gimmicks, but also have ridiculously awesome movesets to back it up.
i think Mario is kind of underrated as a character though.
