Also, question for the thread:
What is it about Ike that makes us feel he's viable, that Marth doesn't have/can't do? We're used to Ike kind of being non-viable at higher levels, and now with his changes and the way he works we feel he's more solid and viable as a solomain. He's seen some results too. But how much, objectively speaking, does Ike have over Marth that makes him understood as 'viable' while Marth is understood to be 'non-viable'?
Marth isn't a character you can wall with anymore by tossing out aerials. Any time you toss an aerial out without hitting, or even the clear intent to hit (ie when you're trying to bait), you put yourself in a disadvantaged state. Ike works this way too, but I think it's much more obvious that you shouldn't be tossing aerials out constantly with him. Meanwhile for Marth, the opposite is true - you want to play him like in melee/brawl, but it just wont work and won't be safe. Ike promotes a safer playstyle, but I think you have to play basically the same way with Marth. It's just less obvious to realise.
This makes Marth actually look less problematic/crappy in my view - if Ike can be viable, Marth likely can too. Their matchups likely share a lot of similar strengths/weaknesses. When it comes to Marth, players just have to play safer and smarter, the way you have to as Ike if you don't want to get punished.
I'm actually curious about this myself. Admittedly, I did question his viability once, mainly before the update. This may be a bold statement, but the Ike you are seeing now almost fully eclipses his SSBB incarnation.
His attributes have been strengthened overall, notably his ground and aerial mobility. The increased air speed could help him approach characters more effectively as well as aid his horizontal recovery; this offsets the nerfed forward horizontal movement in Aether. A higher double jump further aids his recovery and also makes it easier to ledge-hop his aerials. Altogether, Ike can now be played a bit more aggressively and is less reliant on making reads.
Concerning his moveset, he may have lost his potent Jab, but it still has its uses. F-tilt is more useful now due to it being faster and can pivot. B-air is still a fast, yet deadly attack, retaining its auto-cancel property and use with RAR. Although the range on his F-air was nerfed from SSBB, he gains another auto-cancelled aerial with reduced start-up, which improves spacing, baiting, and even stringing together attacks. When paired with D-tilt's vastly improved start-up and new vertical knockback trajectory, this can lead to easy strings, or even combos, that are especially effective against heavies. I have these demonstrated in the following video.
Ike's strengths in this iteration are clear, but so too are his weaknesses. He retains his rather large hurtbox, though it is smaller compared to most heavies. His recovery, while improved, is still about average, and his attacks are still overall slower than much of the cast. He was already viable in SSBB, being able to keep up with some of its top tiers. Ike in SSB4 has been drastically improved thanks to buffs coming from both the update (i.e. F-air, D-tilt) and SSB4's mechanics (i.e. Rage, removal of ledge-hogging). All of this, especially Rage, more than compensate for his power reduction. His viability now depends largely on his match-ups against the perceived top and high tiers. If Ike can take on the characters in these tiers without too much struggle, it may be safe to say he is viable.
I have not much to say about Ike in comparison to Marth, but the latter's moveset is, of course, overall faster but with lower damage output than Ike's. Despite Marth's nerfs, the tippers remain strong. Both Marth and Ike would be safest when spacing their attacks, especially aerials. Their similarities may yield similar match-up spreads.
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