Best Counter to My Friend's Marth?

[EmblemCrossing]

So I'm hosting my first tournament soon, and it's a cash prize at stake. That's pretty hype. There's around 60$ in entries so far, which is pretty good for a teenager and friends. I'm really excited, except..

My friend. He is quite possibly the only Smash player at my school who can beat me 1 on 1. He mains Marth, and no matter what I do, I can't win. He constantly spaces me out so I can't get near him, and manages to tip me when I move in.

So my question to you, the Marth players. Which matchups do you have trouble with? Who would be a good character to pick up so that I can get an advantage? I play Roy and Ivysaur mainly, and Dr. Mario as a secondary. I've started working with Lucas, and I really like the options he has to deal with Marth, but thoughts?

 

[InfinityCollision]

The best counter in almost every matchup is simply getting better at the game. Training up half a dozen characters just means you have half a dozen mediocre characters when you could have had 1-2 great characters, and now you're losing matchups you should be winning instead of winning matchups you used to lose.

I say almost because there are still a few legitimately terribad matchups in PM. None of them apply to your characters, especially not against Marth.

 

[Azureflames]

Relying on a 'more advantageous MU' is almost like hoping to win on gimmicks. I've fallen victim to that so many times in the past whenever i got frustrated with my friends Marth before i really started practicing. you can beat any other character if you are good enough with your own. For the characters you listed: Roy can combo Marth really well bit it requires you to outplay the marth to get in in the first place. You kind of have to out-marth the marth in his grab/approach game. Ivy can do well if you wall Marth out well and play keep away, but he can be really hard to get off you if he gets in and you dont know the matchup. I've heard mixed things in the mario/marth MU. Personally, I think Marth can crush mario if he gets passed the pill wall. I personally think Lucas has the highest potential and is among the top characters atm. It's really all up to you and what you feel most comfortable with. The MU in general is very based on movement and baiting out his moves. So just try to bait out his moves, approach as safely as you can, wait for him to screw up and utilize the grab game the best you can and punish with whichever character's combos you have.

I'd say you just need to understand how to better utilize fundamentals to not only outspace, but out mindgame and predict what your marth friend is gonna do. No one is perfect and everybody has a bad habit or two. I have no idea about your game but maybe you have a gaping hole in your game that you dont realize that's making it really easy for Marth to get in on. I mean... I think the worst problem i've had to deal with that i'm fixing is 'reaching' too much. By 'reaching' i mean throwing excessive aerials or throwing out hitboxes to hopefully hit an opponent, despite how punishable (which i hadn't realized) the moves were. Another way to think of it is forcing a move without being patient. I realized i would do this whenever i got flustered from losing and i had no idea i was doing it. Once i started fixing it, it helped me with ALL my matchups, cause it was an overall fundamental's flaw in my gameplay. In the Roy vs. Marth MU i find that Marth really benefits from me reaching, since when i do so it's really easy to catch me in a Ftilt, Utilt, or Fsmash.

So what infinitycollision said, pick one character and really focus on it. I think that's the best way to go about improving in general.

 

[Peacanator]

Quick things: don't use Roy against a Marth. He struggles so much against Marth it's almost hilarious. Ivysaur is pretty much combo food for a good Marth and assuming he's that good, you won't be able to get in on him. It's a good thing you're about to use Lucas. He can rack up damage fast and edgeguard Marth easily (if you aren't good at edgeguarding, don't worry, Marth's recovery is almost always straight forward). If your friend plays a more punishing and spacing Marth, Pk freze is good for approaching; all Fire Emblem characters have problems with projectiles. Try to string a lot of down airs, neutral airs, and maybe down-b to put on pressure. That's pretty much all I have to say other than this: avoid using too many characters if you feel like Lucas can't do it. Focus on the four that you listed and you should be fine. Good luck :]

 

[DMG]

Roy is completely doable vs Marth in this game. If the MU was that big of a struggle, M2K wouldn't bother using Mario/DK/others against Sethlon

If your friend has noticeable flaws or patterns with Marth, you can try to CP characters that take advantage of those issues. Say that he doesn't grab very much, and generally goes for Fair/attacks. You could pick DK/Charizard/ and CC most attacks, then counter with a decent grab or punish of your own.

I recommend Ivysaur though. I would just get better with the character, and wait a bit more. Ivysaur vs Marth is tough for Marth once Ivysaur uses a deeper moveset than Bair, Side B, Grab. If that's primarily what you are doing (which is ok, even the best Ivy players get caught using those options too much), I would focus on adding moves like Dtilt or Seed Bomb to make things interesting. I've done Marth vs Denti's Ivysaur a few times, and I've seen his sets vs Zinth, so I have a pretty decent idea of what troubles Marth in that MU and how you might win.