Browny
Smash Hater
Watching a stream now and Dabuz going on his rants against Mewtwo (A character he has absolutely no idea about anything, even today his commentary is full of misconceptions and lies) just made me want to explain a few points so hopefully some people out there can realise what went on with Mewtwos history in the tier lists.
A lot of people say Mewtwos buffs were so good and so many, that they took him from a bottom tier character to top 10 yet if you ask them to name what changed, many would not be able to get more than 1 correct. What people routinely forget is that in the time Mewtwo was buffed, the majority of the cast got a lot of buffs too. Bowser, DK, Marth, Ike, Samus and Robin all got massive buffs across landing lag, damage, combos and range yet none of them ended up being better than Mewtwo, despite being considered better characters to begin with. Therefore, for the people who keep saying that Mewtwo used to be terrible, that is literally saying that his buffs were significantly larger than the majority of the cast. But how big were his buffs really compared to other characters?
Run speed is considered the biggest one going from 1.7 to 2.05, taking him from 23rd to 7th, a 16 place jump and a 20% increase in speed. It's good no doubt, but moving 20% faster does not drag a character from bottom to top tier. He was the only character to ever receive such a large buff to run speed so that's why it was considered so big but relative to other characters, it is less so. Ike received a 10% run speed buff which sent him from 51-40, an 11 place jump. Relative to other characters it really wasn't such a massive buff and of course its important to note that many characters who received run speed buffs also received a wide variety of other buffs too. Ike is a great example with his ridiculous throw combo buffs.
Mewtwo lost a good deal of landing lag on nair going from 19-13, opening up multiple combos including footstool disable. His other aerials lost about 4 frames of lag too. This was a massive buff but compared to other characters who got similar buffs, it wasn't really that much better. Marth lost 2 frames on all his aerials which came with damage increase and tipper size. Samus lost 6 frames of lag on fair and her nair got a massive boost to knockback.
The damage increase to Mewtwos various attacks were all perfectly comparable to the majority of the lower half of the cast, maybe 10 knockback growth points here and there. The boost to upair was big but not unique.
A big one is the throw combos. A lot of lower tiered characters were given absolutely busted throw combos while Mewtwo received a 2.5% damage buff to fthrow. I think that fthrow buff was great but relative to other characters, his throw buffs were absolutely negligible. The throw buffs given to DK, G&W, robin and bowser sent all of their matchups about 20 points more towards their favour. Again, these other characters all received a wide variety of other buffs as well.
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When you look across the cast as a whole, it is obvious that while Mewtwos buffs were numerous, none of them were dramatically improvements like what many other characters received. Who would trade a throw combo that kills at 90 for a 20% run speed increase? Not many I'd expect. Ike really is a great example of a character who was given the same treatment with speed, damage, knockback and lag reductions all similarly strong to mewtwo except he got given a throw combo which basically turned all of his throws into 20+% ones which can KO at 90.
So many characters got so many significant buffs that it really does make Mewtwos buffs seem much less dramatic and that's because its true. Tier lists are a comparison, you can not look at a character in a vacuum and determine if they are now better overall without considering all of the other characters who were also made better at the same time.
In reality, there was one single thing though which shot Mewtwo up in the tier list, one change which turned his tournament results from nothing into top-tier worthy; In the character select screen, people pressed the 'A' button when hovering over Mewtwo.
That's it. Thats the single biggest reason why Mewtwo shot up the tier list. Because people actually used him. It is no coincidence that when a character is played, that character gets results. It creates a feedback loop where the more people who played him, the more realised he was good, the more played him etc. Of course his buffs made many people switch to him to give him a try but that means absolutely nothing about the magnitude of the buffs which are greatly overestimated.
Mewtwo was never as bad as people said. People just never wanted to give him a chance.
A lot of people say Mewtwos buffs were so good and so many, that they took him from a bottom tier character to top 10 yet if you ask them to name what changed, many would not be able to get more than 1 correct. What people routinely forget is that in the time Mewtwo was buffed, the majority of the cast got a lot of buffs too. Bowser, DK, Marth, Ike, Samus and Robin all got massive buffs across landing lag, damage, combos and range yet none of them ended up being better than Mewtwo, despite being considered better characters to begin with. Therefore, for the people who keep saying that Mewtwo used to be terrible, that is literally saying that his buffs were significantly larger than the majority of the cast. But how big were his buffs really compared to other characters?
Run speed is considered the biggest one going from 1.7 to 2.05, taking him from 23rd to 7th, a 16 place jump and a 20% increase in speed. It's good no doubt, but moving 20% faster does not drag a character from bottom to top tier. He was the only character to ever receive such a large buff to run speed so that's why it was considered so big but relative to other characters, it is less so. Ike received a 10% run speed buff which sent him from 51-40, an 11 place jump. Relative to other characters it really wasn't such a massive buff and of course its important to note that many characters who received run speed buffs also received a wide variety of other buffs too. Ike is a great example with his ridiculous throw combo buffs.
Mewtwo lost a good deal of landing lag on nair going from 19-13, opening up multiple combos including footstool disable. His other aerials lost about 4 frames of lag too. This was a massive buff but compared to other characters who got similar buffs, it wasn't really that much better. Marth lost 2 frames on all his aerials which came with damage increase and tipper size. Samus lost 6 frames of lag on fair and her nair got a massive boost to knockback.
The damage increase to Mewtwos various attacks were all perfectly comparable to the majority of the lower half of the cast, maybe 10 knockback growth points here and there. The boost to upair was big but not unique.
A big one is the throw combos. A lot of lower tiered characters were given absolutely busted throw combos while Mewtwo received a 2.5% damage buff to fthrow. I think that fthrow buff was great but relative to other characters, his throw buffs were absolutely negligible. The throw buffs given to DK, G&W, robin and bowser sent all of their matchups about 20 points more towards their favour. Again, these other characters all received a wide variety of other buffs as well.
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When you look across the cast as a whole, it is obvious that while Mewtwos buffs were numerous, none of them were dramatically improvements like what many other characters received. Who would trade a throw combo that kills at 90 for a 20% run speed increase? Not many I'd expect. Ike really is a great example of a character who was given the same treatment with speed, damage, knockback and lag reductions all similarly strong to mewtwo except he got given a throw combo which basically turned all of his throws into 20+% ones which can KO at 90.
So many characters got so many significant buffs that it really does make Mewtwos buffs seem much less dramatic and that's because its true. Tier lists are a comparison, you can not look at a character in a vacuum and determine if they are now better overall without considering all of the other characters who were also made better at the same time.
In reality, there was one single thing though which shot Mewtwo up in the tier list, one change which turned his tournament results from nothing into top-tier worthy; In the character select screen, people pressed the 'A' button when hovering over Mewtwo.
That's it. Thats the single biggest reason why Mewtwo shot up the tier list. Because people actually used him. It is no coincidence that when a character is played, that character gets results. It creates a feedback loop where the more people who played him, the more realised he was good, the more played him etc. Of course his buffs made many people switch to him to give him a try but that means absolutely nothing about the magnitude of the buffs which are greatly overestimated.
Mewtwo was never as bad as people said. People just never wanted to give him a chance.
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