***CHARACTERS WHO ARE NAMED GANONDORF***
1. The one-and-only King of All Evil
Some characters needed one big buff. Some characters needed lots of small buffs. One character needed an all-you-can-eat buffet.
.....get it?
.....buff...et?
Eh. Sorry.
Ganondorf has always sort of been "a bag of tricks". He is slow, useless, and all-around awful... then he pulls out one of his tricks and kills stupidly low. With that perspective, we didn't want to just turn Ganondorf into Donkey Kong or Bowser... We just needed to simply give Ganondorf... more tricks. Specifically, he needs enough shenanigans once he gets going to make up for his ridiculously long and oddly character defining list of negatives.
TRICK #1: Initial hitbox of aerial Wizard's Foot grounds opponents; knockback (100/50) -> (45/35)
That's right. If you aerial Wizard's Foot just above an opponent's head, you will pound them into the ground. That means they are helpless, and you are Ganondorf. Do the math. (Don't get greedy, since they are going to escape. Expect a forward tilt or down aerial at low damage, an up smash at mid damage, and a forward smash at high damage. Warlock Punch only happens at damage competent Ganondorf players will never see their opponents at.)
TRICK #2: Entire duration of aerial Wizard's Foot is a spike; knockback (100/50) -> (0/100), angle (80) -> (290)
Ganondorf was jealous that Bowser got a new way to suicide KO as his big buff, so he wanted one too. This might be a nerf overall since you can't KO upwards with it anymore. (This was required for the grounding to work.) However, Ganondorf players will find that this fits in with the other changes very favorably.
TRICK #3: Landing hitbox of aerial Wizard's Foot pushes opponents back; knockback (35/80) -> (0/80), angle (80) -> (0)
Murder Quake: No longer useless. Use this to get out of tight situations where Ganondorf is too slow to do anything else. Unexpectedly for many, this is actually his fastest attack.
TRICK #4: More knockback on grounded Wizard's Foot (70/60) -> (70/80)
This isn't really a trick. Let's not beat around the bush, it just blatantly kills people. It is also the closest thing Ganondorf has to an approach and thus valued very highly (value may vary by matchup).
TRICK #5: More damage on Dark Dive shocks (1%) -> (2%)
It is exceptionally difficult and usually impossible to punish Ganondorf for landing his up special grab now. That means he gets gimped a lot less often when he actually hits his opponents while recovering.
TRICK #6: Deadly Dark Dive uppercut; damage (7%) -> (18%), knockback (90/70) -> (90/80)
This will kill you. Do you understand that? If you stay on the ledge against Ganondorf, he is going to kill you. Are we clear? To be even more clear, this is a more powerful kill move than any other uncharged move in the game. It kills most characters at around 60%. If you want to mess with Ganondorf off-stage, you had better be ready.
TRICK #7: 1% damage on wind hitboxes of up tilt
This trick seems useless... at first. The first obvious use is that it trades favorably with Sheik's chain, totally nullifying any lockdown she might attempt on poor Ganondorf. The second use is that it's a very solid counter to ledgestalling. Ganondorf isn't known for his nimble antics so being able to keep his feet on the ground and throw out something simple to respond to this is a great relief to him. The third use is that the wind hits inflict shieldstun and shield damage. If the opponent freaks out and holds shield, the overall up tilt does about the same thing to the shield that Marth's Shield Breaker does. Fourth, it passes right through stage geography without damaging it and regardless of solidity, giving Ganondorf an odd "projectile" on certain stages. Lastly, it sucks pikmin out of Olimar's side special and smashes (but NOT his grabs), traps them in the wind vortex, and kills them which is a great help in a matchup Ganondorf was looking for it in. It's not so trivial, is it?
TRICK #8: More damage on pummel, plus a cool darkness effect (2%) -> (5%)
Ganondorf already had a decent grab that was pretty safe to do; now grabs will result in a little more damage, no matter what throw you do. It also re-enforces a simple concept: When Ganondorf hits, it hurts.
TRICK #9: D-tilt trips opponents; damage (12%) -> (9%)
Ganondorf is a character about getting control. He is so awful and slow that this is very hard, but once you get that down aerial or Flame Choke, the fun begins. This change unlocks a new world of control for Ganondorf. He has guaranteed tech-chases in every direction against every character out of this trip, including forward Flame Choke on every direction but inward roll. (Also, jab is usually guaranteed.) Ganondorf mains reading this have probably already realized that since Flame Choke itself links into down tilt on most characters, this is a whole new level of tech-chasing.
Let's say you are Ganondorf and you get a Flame Choke, so you do a down tilt out of it. But you noticed your opponent was DIing forward between those moves, and will probably continue and roll forward out of the trip, so you Flame Choke forward to grab them again. And you down tilt again. Only this time you predict that they are going to try and roll the other way, so you backwards short-hop a Wizards Foot to pound them into the ground. Then you up smash them. You just did over 60% to them out of two tech chases and possibly killed them. Even if they're alive, they're at enough damage to die to any one of your fine kill moves.
Yeah, Ganondorf is suddenly very, very scary.
He still has lots of trouble getting in, and it's not like he automatically wins after he does finally get in... After all, outsmarting the Ganondorf even after he's "got you" will let you escape with minimal pain and no KO. Ganondorf is still playing with the same overall attitude and fighting style he did before, despite his many changes.
But now he's just very, very scary.
