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Meta Colors of Yoshi - Metagame Discussion and Tips

Fuzzio

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I'll give my +1 that short hop -> air dodge -> nair works. I'm wondering how well mixing in egg lay works if you opponent starts to get used to it and shields. Too much startup time? Another alternative is auto-canceling the first hit of bair from the SH AD into f-tilt. I've had some mild success with it in the past, but having options other than nair to keep your opponent guessing would be good.
 

Delta-cod

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Funnily enough, SHAD > Egg Lay might work if your opponent becomes conditioned to shield. The dead frames on shielding are longer than ever in this game, meaning if you don't hit their shield, there's quite a bit of time where they can't do anything. That could potentially nullify the disadvantageous startup of Egg Lay and make SHAD > Nair/Egg Lay a valid 50:50
 

Sinister Slush

❄ I miss my kind ❄
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I'll most likely abuse SHAD into Nair, if people start adapting, I'll go into Neutral B attempts and see how that works.
Saturday/Sunday, sooooon
 

noft

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Funnily enough, SHAD > Egg Lay might work if your opponent becomes conditioned to shield. The dead frames on shielding are longer than ever in this game, meaning if you don't hit their shield, there's quite a bit of time where they can't do anything. That could potentially nullify the disadvantageous startup of Egg Lay and make SHAD > Nair/Egg Lay a valid 50:50
Ok so the what makes this 50/50? The off chance they spot dodge instead of shield? So shadnair or shadnairel is more of a mind game? Any luck with jab pp utilt game?
 

CelestialMarauder~

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Ok so the what makes this 50/50? The off chance they spot dodge instead of shield? So shadnair or shadnairel is more of a mind game? Any luck with jab pp utilt game?
Because it doesn't matter what they do, one option beats it, the other option looses. If we nair a spotdodge we win because of how low our endlag is, if we egglay its a loss. To be fair though if they time it right they can ht us before we anything.
 

Delta-cod

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Yeah, my problem with Yoshi is that he tends to lost to early, well timed spotdodge. If they know how the timing works, they can dodge such that we won't get Nair to work and they'll be able to get around Egg Lay as well.

Luckily, this is a SUPER rare occurrence in my experience, so I wouldn't worry too much.
 

GSM_Dren

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I can vouch for SH AD's viability. Mr Yoshidora has pioneered a way for Yoshis to approach/punish with it. Anytime we're off the ground we are pretty susceptible to being swatted, but SH AD nair means we can dodge our opponent's hitboxes while punishing them with our own. SH AD nair/uair/egg toss or even empty SH AD all seem to be decent options for us, lets get more yoshis to abuse this and see how it can evolve our neutral game further.
 

CelestialMarauder~

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It works for our character even though its pretty easy to beat actually. Lingering hitboxes and well timed quick aerials wreck it. It's just when people see a yoshi jumping at them they just aren't sure if they want to commit that hard to something so we can get away with it.
 

xXDR.SWOOCEXx

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SupahHotFire17
I actually really like platforms as Yoshi.


One thing I tend to do is, for example, at the start of a match on battlefield, I'll run off the back side of my starting platform and b-reverse an up-b into the middle of the stage. if they drop down and rush mid they're going to get hit with the egg, and your momentum from the reverse carries you to mid stage almost immediately.

Not only that but it looks super stylish.
JP3, I don't understand the technique you were just talking about with running of of the platform with the egg throw. Could you explain some more?
 

noft

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I can vouch for SH AD's viability. Mr Yoshidora has pioneered a way for Yoshis to approach/punish with it. Anytime we're off the ground we are pretty susceptible to being swatted, but SH AD nair means we can dodge our opponent's hitboxes while punishing them with our own. SH AD nair/uair/egg toss or even empty SH AD all seem to be decent options for us, lets get more yoshis to abuse this and see how it can evolve our neutral game further.
I'd still like to see how people are using this, does any one have an example they can post
 

Enoki

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I've always used SH AD a lot, especially with nair. It's such a fast punish if your opponent isn't expecting it.

SH AD to uair is also a thing. I've used it many times to finish off a stock. And if you get the hard read and land this early, it combos right into an utilt-uair string. On a few occasions, I've gotten some degree of uair->utilt->utilt->uair->uair->uair. That is a LOT of damage for one read.
 
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xXDR.SWOOCEXx

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I just wanted to say the Yoshi has some of the best out of shield options. SH Nair is amazing and gives a quick 10%. His F-tilt is also really good. Are there any other tips someone could give me?
 

xXDR.SWOOCEXx

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Will it reverse if you have your c-stick set to attack?

WOOOOOOOOOW!!! I just saw that Yoshi has passed Sheik on the eventhubs tierlist. He is now number 2.
 
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DragN

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WOOOOOOOOOW!!! I just saw that Yoshi has passed Sheik on the eventhubs tierlist. He is now number 2.
Eventhubs is kinda just votes based on popular opinion, rather than actual facts. (Not to say that Yoshi isn't great in Smash 4, he is.) But I don't trust Eventhubs, the list changes every couple hours and has shifted dramatically since the 1.06 patch.....also Dk is almost always dead last on their "list." XD poor dk, except he's not the worst. Personally I think Mii Swordfighter is the worst.
 
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xXDR.SWOOCEXx

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I would have to agree with everything you just said. (Especially the swordfighter part):4miisword: lol
 

Codaption

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I just wanted to say the Yoshi has some of the best out of shield options. SH Nair is amazing and gives a quick 10%. His F-tilt is also really good. Are there any other tips someone could give me?
Yoshi has some of the best out of shield options.
best out of shield options
Woah woah wait what

I mean.....F-tilt and Nair are pretty decent, I'll give you that. But in fact one of Yoshi's biggest weaknesses is his LACK of out of shield options. Especially a shieldgrab. Yoshi doesn't do shieldgrabs.
 

xXDR.SWOOCEXx

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lol I love how you took out most of the words. But you are right, it's just that his sh nair out of sheild is really good
 

xXDR.SWOOCEXx

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Exactly. It's really funny how many moves it out prioritizes.(is that a word)
 

noft

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so about that reverse nair out of shield. did u turn around before shielded?
 

xXDR.SWOOCEXx

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I finally got my adapter and am having a little trouble with c-stick set to attack. I usually end up doing a F-air or B-air.
 

ccthirteen

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I just saw a video today on YouTube where dtilt to knock the opponent off the edge followed by running off the edge to chase with a fair worked as a great spike setup. Has anyone thoroughly tested this and found it to be reliable?
 

Delta-cod

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It's almost certainly not a guaranteed combo, although it's probably a decent setup for getting it off one time. Once people know about it it probably won't land again.
 

xXDR.SWOOCEXx

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Do you guys have any tips for landing Yoshi's F-air. It is pretty hard for me to land.
 

Phyr

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I think i have took a ceiling here. I have huge problems as a Yoshi players trying to engage any player playing hiper defensive or playing the spacing game looking for whiff punish.

This is painfully specially when you are on kill percentages. If the enemy stays on the ground, any of your moves are easily telegraphed/punisheable on a set distance (like 2 yoshis away from you). Is not that easy to just camp with eggs or spam our shield because yoshi's grab is terribly laggy. I mean, EVERY move can be easily dodged, and countered after a whiff.

I think the best options are to try to pressure shield with landing nair/uair or try to get a jab/usmash but these are terrible risky as well, and if the adversary just stays in his shield... the worst punish it can get is becoming an egg, and trying to read how he goes out for an uair. Meanwhile, most usmashes will kill us or get really easy percentage when doing this.

I'll bring you a breakdown of how every kill moves fares:

Usmash: the best option if the enemy is in the air, punishing their landing. Yet is really hard against most characters and there is a strong 50/50 against airdodge or landing perfect shield. Missing this will let you open for any Smash.
Also, you have to make the enemy airborne, with grab or dash attack. Good job landing those on someone who is plainly zoning or playing the waiting game.

Uair: there are no safe combo from anything into this, (maybe Dthrow with bad DI?). You can easily punish an early spotdodge with this, but if the enemy tries to go sideways or save his spotdodge, he can just fastfall through yoshi with a dodge or try to punish the uair with a horizontal reach aerial...

Fair: easily dodgeable. Trying to do it grounded autocanceled wil not save you from a running dash attack or shield grab. Easily one of the worst option against grounded oponents. In the air you have to try to punish and airdodge to get the fair, but again, easily dodgablee.

Fsmash/Dsmash: best tools to kill on a hard read, but in a miss they are heaaaaavily punisheable. Also, even with a hard read you might miss because of the small duration of the hitbox.

Downb: Most people will roll away after the first hit of the hitbox. If misses, it again leaves you open for any smash punish. If it lands is one of the best moves... It only is useful as a sort of oos. You can shield break with this, but the opponent must be under great pressure to not try to roll it

TLDR: most kill moves are really useful for punishing engages or attacks, but are terrible trying to pressure shields or in melee range. They have noticeable lag and are vulneable to heavy punishes. Lack of a grab kill doesn't help either. I find like every time someone starts playing the run and punish i don't have any tools other than getting a very hard read and punishing them for it. The rest of the time i find like hiting a wall. Any ideas?

TLDR 2: This applies to most characters with good land speed/usmashes. Bigger characters have a worse time trying to play the defensive game, as well with slow characters/airborne characters. You can get them in the air. But any character with a good ground game will give me problems when just trying to zone/make you miss.
 
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DragN

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I feel you man. I hate it, struggling to get that kill. What I do(this usually works for me) is I run up towards my opponent until I almost run past them. (To look like I'm faking a dash attack) and down b. They don't expect this and either get hit by both hits or I break their shield. It's a pretty good option I think.
 
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Delta-cod

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@ Phyr Phyr I merged this with the Metagame discussion thread (this one we're currently in), as I felt that your thread fit under the sorts of discussion that this thread is trying to accomplish, and that any insight into this problem would be valuable to put into the OP here.

As for your problem, I don't really have a good answer. I also share your pessimism in Yoshi's ability to deal with these styles, so hopefully someone can help shine some light into this dark place.
 

YoshiYoshi

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I'm just posting my one bit of advice to Yoshi players: practice grounded down-B reversals. With a quick motion to your back when using down-B, you can flip the move around and the flinching hit that (semi) locks in the second hit.

I was having a lot more trouble KOing with Yoshi before I mastered this technique. There are a lot of situations where you spot dodge and the enemy ends up behind you or shield/perfect shield with your back to the enemy. Most of the time, an F-tilt or turn-around Jab is the right call, but if they have enough lag for you to land a 7 frame down-B reversal you can easily get a KO in half the frames of an F-smash and a little quicker than a turnaround U-smash. It's as fast as the first hit of D-smash, but you can do it behind you immediately.

Sorry if I'm just reiterating common knowledge, but I believe that this technique helps justify the public opinion of Yoshi being high tier.
 

muddykips

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I wanna second DragN's thing about running up and just using downb; against a defensive opponent, if you're pressuring them with eggs and careful fairs, they'll be pretty well conditioned to use their shield, since what's Yoshi gonna do? Grab them?

A downb will either get them on the way up if they try to roll, get them on the way down if they try to spotdodge, or break their shield if they just don't know how to react. If they're sitting under a platform, you can probably try to herd them out from under it...
 

Phyr

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@ Delta-cod Delta-cod you are right, this place is better for the post. Thanks for putting it here.

About your suggestions i'll commentate in what i know/have used:

Reverse Down-B and all in all DownB: is a GREAT out of shield tool, but i find it lackluster to use it against passive opponents, even when pressuring a shield. Any clever guy will try to roll across yoshi: yoshi has a TERRIBLE roll pressure, with his best coverage move being his dsmash (who has a short timed hitbox). Even his grab may whiff while covering all the roll trayectory.

If you try to downB a shield opponent, the best tool they will do is roll when they see you aproaching, or, shiled the first hit and roll before you drop. They will have enough time to Kill you with any smash. I have been stopping to use down b unless to counter attacks or engages running to shield. Against a defensive opponent it wont work.

Btw, is shield break after almost any attack, but only if the opponent is dumb enough to keep the shield on after taking the drop. The stars are the ones who cause the shield break, but there is a noticeable delay (small, but noticeable) between both hits. Leaving the shield will leave you unscathed.

Moreso, i have had experience and most times you can shield the stars too and make sure to leave the shield just after it, and the shield wont break. It will be at minimun, but it wont break. Dunno if it's any sort of shield drop buffer or that the most damage to the shield is from the time out. Really.

Anyway, if you get it, you can get a kill as early as 50, or less, by pushing the opponent to the nearest edge walking with yoshi at his side. I was trying to find you a vid where I did but it seems it haven't been uploaded.

I really don't advise using it against defensive opponents. Most of the time they will act accordingly. It's best to use it as a counter or as a pressure move.

Tip: Against a pressured opponent, jab poking to downb or grabs are greaaaat tools. Just don't try to do it against people playing neutral on the defensive.

About solutions i have thought to this problem...

I have been thinking about wavebounce heavily to pressure shields and try to fish for kills after they leave egg, although is not that sure, it seems like the best option.

Another option is to try to get into closer range doing empty jumps or trying to go for a tomahawk. Yet, if they roll to you the best response is none other than a nair oos, which is not very useful *sigh*, or try to fish for a down b. Will work on those.

PS: Forgot something. A lot of people will tell you that yoshi has no lag or their attacks are quick, and will try to show you what i have called the "crazy yoshi". That's just a Yoshi that will throw attacks all the time without any strategy, just trying to be a hitbox ball. This yoshi loses even more heavily against defensive opponents, but it destroys low skilled peoples harder, because you need to know how to play against yoshi. I heavily advise against it. In my opinion, is almost as playing a card game: most of the time it comes to luck (and only if your opponent is unprepared).
 
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Y

YoshiStar5000

Guest

Friends, Yoshi's, Hominids! Lend me your tails.
This is our Smash 4 Yoshi Guide/Metagame discussion. It'll be a project done by you the community.
YES, YOU! THE ONE BEHIND THE CUTE PINK LADY!

It's a work in progress so some areas in this will be empty cause right now just trying to get the thread up. For the past month or two, me and a few others have been explaining to people Yoshi isn't some Top 3 threat or how to punish him accordingly that people don't see/know somehow, which is why this thread is brought upon this world finally.
That and not many people really click the guides tab on this site and checks around for stuff.

So excuse me if there's copy/pastes of some posts only in the future, some of us say something right in a previous wall of text we've said but then another one is completely different on the same subject and might be wrong. So bear with us as we continue updating and fixing this!



1. Frame Data (By Yikarur and Sinister Slush)
Attack | Frame Hitbox (Or Just Move First Out) | Landing Lag | Duration
Jab 1 | 3-4 | | 17
Jab 2 | 10-11 | | 20
Dash Attack | 10-12 / 13-20 | | 49
Forward Tilt | 5-7 or 6-8 (angled up or down) | | 38 / 39 (tilted)
Up Tilt | 8-15 | | 31
Down Tilt | 8-10 | | 23
Forward Smash | 14-14 | | 52
Up Smash | 11-13 / 14-16 | | 46
Down Smash | 7-8 / 22-23 | | 49
Neutral Air | 3-4 / 5-11 / 12-25 | 11 | 44
Forward Air | 16-20 | 17 | 44
Back Air | 11-11 / 17-17 / 25-26 | 19 | 55
Up Air | 5-6 | 14 | 38
Down Air | 26-26 (6 hits) / 39-40 (7 hits) / 41-41 (Last hit) | 28 | 56
Grab | 14-24 | | 55
Dash Grab | 11-21 | | 67
Pivot Grab | 10-19 | | 64
Pummel | 6-6 | |
Neutral Special | 21-24 | | 43
Neutral Special Lick (2)| 14-19 / 21-23 | | (TBD)
Neutral Special Egg Launch (3)| 20-23 | | (TBD)
Side Special Egg Roll | 1-2 | |
Side Special Heavy Egg Roll (2) | 1-2 | |
Side Special Light Egg Roll (3) | 1-2 | |
Up Special Egg Throw | 15 | | 53
Up Special High Jump (2) | | |
Up Special Time Egg Throw (3) | 1-2 (Egg Hit) 1-4 (Explosion) | |
Down Special | 7-7 / 27-28 (Ground) 20-21 (Aerial) | | 73
Down Special 2 Star Bomb (Star Data and 2) | 3-9 / 10-19 / 20-27 | |
Down Special Crushing Bomb (3) | 19-20 / 51-52

Sources: http://smashboards.com/threads/yoshi-frame-and-misc-data-thread-wip.391441/
http://opensa.dantarion.com/s4/mastercore2/index.php?char=yoshi&mode=view104
http://smashboards.com/threads/yoshis-moveset-data-incomplete.384506/


2. Attack Descriptions, Pros/Cons (By Sinister Slush)

Jab 1 (3%) :GCA: Jab 2 (4%) :GCA::GCA:
A high kick for the first hit then a roundhouse kick for 2nd hit

Pros:
3rd Fastest Jab in the game
Relatively good slide when perfect pivoted
Fastest option to use as a panic button when in CQC next to Nair
Can reset Jab 1 continuously and chain into other hits

Cons:
Can't Kill

Dash Attack, DA (9% Early Hit, 6% Late Hit) :GCR::GCL::GCA:
A long dashing kick with high knockback early on.

Pros:
Good to catch airdodges/landings
If opponent misses tech from any of your moves onstage, a good way to knock them back up if quick enough

Cons:
Destined to use this move numerous times if attempting Perfect Pivots
Only high knockback worth noting at low percents, will not kill at high percents
Was nerfed so laggy and very punishable if enemy shielded or missed it

Forward Tilt, F-tilt, Ftilt (7% Normal, 8% Tilted) :GCR::GCL::GCA:
A swinging tail whip in front of Yoshi that can be angled in a cone in front of him.

Pros:
One of the few tilts that can be tilted
1% more damage when tilting
Our fastest tilt

Cons:
Can't kill

Up Tilt, U-tilt, Utilt (7%) :GCU::GCA:
A tail whip that hits above him.

Pros:
One of the better moves to use for perfect pivots
Decent range
Combos into Uair at early percents

Cons:
Can't Kill

Down Tilt, D-tilt, Dtilt (5% if middle of tail, 4.5/4% tip of tail) :GCD::GCA:
A spinning tail smack aimed towards the feet of opponents.

Pros:
Can trip enemies
Possible to hit people that regrabbed the ledge
Has gimp potential if hit confirm from them recovering
The least amount of ending frames so able to use to zone possibly

Cons:
Stops momentum from perfect pivots completely


Forward Smash, F-smash, Fsmash, Side-Smash (15.5-14%) :GCCR::GCCL:
Yoshi rears his head back and does a devastating head smash.

Pros:
Kills
Highest damaging Smash
Head has intangibility
Can be angled
Able to dodge moves sometimes

Cons:
Slowest Smash attack
Longest duration

Up Smash, U-Smash, Usmash (14-12%) :GCCU:
Yoshi does a back flip kick, knocking anyone who gets hit by it high into the air
Pros:
Can Kill
Intangibility on the feet
Can hyphen Usmash and change your direction
Able to avoid projectiles with the Usmash hop
Smash with the least amount of ending lag

Cons:
Intangibility doesn't last too long
Telegraphed kill move since one of our very few reliable kill moves

Down Smash, D-Smash, Dsmash (12/10% both hits) :GCCD:
A hard hitting tail whip that hits both sides of Yoshi.
Pros:
Can Kill
Able to hit people if they regrab the ledge
Fastest Smash attack
Most damaging Smash if both hits connect
Knocks them down diagonally so able to gimp with it possibly at high percents

Cons:
Hitting with weak hit barely sends them anywhere
Neutral Air, N-air, Nair (10% 7% 5%) :GCY::GCA:
Yoshi sticks out his foot swiftly to hit people away.

Pros:
Can Kill, but not as reliable as Brawl's
Has the least amount of landing lag
One of the fasest nairs in the game
Airdodge into nair works surprisingly well

Cons:
Lasts forever

Forward Air, F-air, Fair (15% 14%):GCY::GCR::GCL::GCA:
Yoshi throws his head back and hits the enemy with his Nose.

Pros:
Can Kill
Has a deceptive reach this time around
Cause of change in Smash 4 mechanics, spiking easier to do this time around with it
Can SH fair to auto cancel it
Catches airdodges well

Cons:
2nd slowest aerial in the game
Wind up till move actually out incredibly long

Back Air, B-air, Bair (2.5% 2.5% 5%) :GCY::GCR::GCL::GCA:
Yoshi swings his tail behind him 3 times.
Pros:
Turned into a kill move
Catches airdodges
Hitstun/Spikes first two hits sometimes

Cons:
No longer a spammable move
Can't SH bair anymore
Attacks so slow people can power shield all 3 hits and still grab anytime between the attacks
Only last hit can kill reliably


Up Air, U-air, Uair (12%) :GCY::GCU::GCA:
Yoshi swings his tail above him and hits his enemy hard.
Pros:
Can Kill
Disjointed
3rd fastest aerial in game which is decent since diddy alone fastest Uair, so technically 2nd if not counting him

Cons:
Airdodges better in this game, so landing this is more difficult

Down Air, D-air, Dair (34%) :GCY::GCD::GCA:
Yoshi does 14 flutter kicks under him.
Pros:
SDI not as strong in this game, so able to land most or even all the hits for big damage
Catches airdodges really well

Cons:
Can't Kill
Our most laggy aerial in the air by barely 1 frame from Bair (56)
The most landing lag after the nerfs

Neutral B, Neutral Special (7%) :GCB:
Yoshi sticks out his tongue and swallows his enemy.
Pros:
Possible for people to die from it due to it being harder to mash out of it at higher percents
Wavebounces and B reverses still gives Yoshi great mobility in the air

Cons:
Was nerfed immensely to the point it's our slowest special
Double Jump cancels removed

Side B, Side Special (4% 9%) :GCR::GCL::GCB:
Yoshi does a small hop and turns into an egg, rolling around the stage to do damage.
Pros:
You can jump in it now
No longer puts you in free fall animation

Cons:
Still prone to dying if you used it offstage by accident
Less time in egg roll if you hit a shield or enemy
Most likely the worst Side-B in the game

Up B, Up Special (1% 6%):GCU::GCB:
Yoshi tosses an egg in an arc until it explodes or hits an enemy
Pros:
More mobility during the egg toss animation
Cons:
Duration of move still very punishable
Nerfed to only 3 hops (last one not even worth counting as a hop)
1% eggs are more common than landing 6% eggs
Randomly disappears into ledges
Being between platforms can sometimes make the egg explode before it gets a chance to go anywhere
Arcs can go lower, but in return the distance they travel if a grounded egg toss is much much shorter

Down B, Down Special (19%) :GCD::GCB:

Pros:

Fastest grounded special
Breaks shields more easily from the extra 20% shield damage it does

Cons:
No longer able to slide off ledges
Only breaks shield after a hit or two, or if they hold shield long enough
Laggiest special in terms of duration if we miss

Standing Grab :GCZ:
Yoshi sticks out his tongue to grab enemies
Pros:
Hitbox lasts the longest
Cons:
One of the slowest grabs to come out

Dash Grab :GCR::GCL::GCZ:
Yoshi dashes in front of him and sticks his tongue out
Pros:
Longest Grab
Faster than Standing grab

Cons:
Our laggiest grab if we miss
Pivot Grab :GCR::GCL::GCZ:

Pros:

Fastest grab to come out
Cons:
Can no longer use it to wall people out because of the nerf

3. Neutral, Advantage, Disadvantaged State & More (By Delta, possible changes by others in future)
The Neutral state is perhaps the most important part of any match you play in Smash, so it goes without saying that understanding what it is and how to work it is crucial to your progress as a player.
Naturally, the first thing to do is understand what Neutral is. The obvious answer is that it’s the state where neither player is at a distinct advantage or disadvantage. Not quite the most illuminating statement, so let’s try to identify it in terms of gameplay.

Imagine the game has just begun. You’re playing on Smashville, so you both spawned on the ground, on opposite ends of the stage from each other. What’s the first thing that’s going to happen? Odds are, both you and your opponent will start moving back and forth, weaving into and out of each other’s range, getting a feel for the other’s habits. You’ll probably also see a lot of threats, either from movements or from attacks actually being thrown out.
If your opponent is Diddy, he might start walling you out with SH Fairs, looking to poke you with the move to try and knock you offstage. If your opponent is Sheik, it’s very likely you’ll see things like empty Short Hops from her. She might not be actively throwing out an aerial, like Fair, but the threat of that lightning fast move keeps you from diving right into the fray with her. Alternatively, you could be playing against a character like Villager, who will just keep his distance from you with slingshots, Lloid rockets, and trees.

These are three pretty distinct ways of playing the neutral game, but there’s a common theme underlying all these strategies: your opponent is trying to get you into a situation where you’re uncomfortable, where you’re disadvantaged and they’re advantaged. In other words, the goal of the Neutral Game is to move into an advantaged state.

While these two states are basically complete opposites, they can’t really be discussed in a vacuum. In essence, being in an Advantaged State is having your opponent in a Disadvantaged State, and vice versa. I’ll discuss things mainly from the side of the Disadvantaged Player, since I find it’s a more concrete way of explaining things.

Imagine you’re playing against, say, Fox. He grabs you, winning the Neutral Game, and then he Uthrows you. You now have very few options. You can’t use any grounded options, because now you’re in the air. Looking at your aerial options, we’ll find that Fair, Bair, and Uair are kind of useless now, because they probably won’t hit Fox, since he’s below you. Looking specifically at Yoshi for a moment, you’ll see it’s probably a bad idea to try Dair, since its range is poor. Nair is okay if he gets in close. You could try Down B, but that’s pretty laggy, so it could end poorly. Basically, you don’t have much you can do, and even what you have is pretty poor.
This is the essence of being in the Disadvantaged State. The Disadvantaged State occurs when you are cut off from most of your options, and those that you have remaining are pretty poor.
Naturally, the Advantaged State is the opposite of this. The Advantaged State occurs when you have cut your opponent off from most of his options, giving yourself an easier time obtaining follow ups.

And that’s basically it. The goal of Neutral is to force your opponent into Disadvantage and put yourself into Advantage. So naturally, the next thing to examine is just how to accomplish this goal:

While every character tends to approach the Neutral Game differently, there are three general ways that it is played. Before we get into these general strategies, it’s important to understand some terminology.

Stage Control – The effective areas of the stage that a character controls, either by directly being there, or having threatening access to that area. Stage control can be claimed through a character’s physical location, a character’s potential movement, a character’s attacks, a character’s potential attacks, and projectiles.

Threat – A threat is either a physical option being used, for example, Sheik’s using Fair to swipe at you, or the idea that the character could potentially hurt you. The potential part here is key, as it allows you to not actually use a move to take up the space that it would otherwise occupy, allowing you to remain noncommittal. For example, imagine Sheik is Short Hopping in front of you over and over again. Technically, she’s doing nothing, so you could approach and try to hit her. But in reality, she could swing her lightning fast Fair at you at any moment, making approaches risky. The threat of this move is what keeps you out. This allows Sheik to keep all her options available to her and prevents her from needing to actually commit to the frames of Fair.

Contrast this with say, Shulk, who would want to use something like Fair or Nair in neutral. These moves have moderate start up, so he is forced to commit to these moves early and frequently if he wants to threaten you with them. Therefore, Shulk is less threatening than Sheik.

Zone – Very closely related to Stage Control, a character’s Zone is the area he or she is directly occupying with attacks. Characters that tend to play defensively rely on Zones and Zoning (the act of keeping up a Zone) to win Neutral.
For example, consider Villager. He’ll fire up a Lloid rocket near the ground, forcing you to shield it or jump over it, but he adds in the use of his Fair to occupy the space above the rocket, so jumping is less effective. This space that he continues to occupy with these moves is his zone, and in order to hit him, you must break through his zone. Zones can also be kept up without the need for projectiles. Imagine Sheik staying jusssssssst outside your range and Fairing over and over again. Again, you need to break this Zone to hit her.

Zone Breaker – A movement option, attack, or some combination of both that allows you to break through an opponent’s Zone. These tend to be fast and have long effective range.

Effective Range – The true range that a character has. Taking Fox’s Usmash as an example, we can see that it doesn’t have incredible range while he’s stationary. But since he can run so fast and Usmash out of his run, the Effective Range on this attack is much larger than the move’s hitbox itself. This concept also applies to aerials, which can be done out of a run (you can jump into one), or drift while performing one.

This vocabulary is not entirely standardized everywhere, but it’s convenient to have terms for these concepts instead of having to use long, drawn out explanations every time the concepts need to applied.

With this vocabulary in mind, we can easily list the three main strategies people use in Neutral.

1. Walling the Opponent Out - In this case, characters will tend to use fast, long ranged, high priority moves to take up space, effectively Zoning their opponent. The wall will tend to force retreats towards the ledge, or just hit you.

2. Threatening the Opponent - This is similar to Walling, except that you tend to not have to actually throw out attacks to zone your opponent. This is very characteristic of fast characters, who use their movement speed to give them large Effective Ranges, allowing them to exert a lot of stage control.

3. Camping. – This strategy involves the use of projectiles to force your opponent to approach you. When your opponent is forced to approach in this manner, they are typically disadvantaged (airborne, shielding, etc.) since they must maneuver around your projectiles to approach. Characters that camp also tend to have good anti-air or defensive options to send their opponents away after they’ve broken through the projectile wall.

Smash is quite a dynamic game, so naturally people’s Neutral games are not always this cut and dry. However, I think being familiar with these three concepts is a good starting point for thinking about Neutral.

With the generalized Neutral Game discussion out of the way, we can move on to thinking about how Yoshi interacts with all of these concepts. In a vacuum, Yoshi tends to fall under category 2 for the Neutral Game. He generally wants to threaten people with his moves, since he lacks a fast, long ranged attack to wall people with, and his camping game is a bit too slow to be relied upon. He also lacks amazing defensive options to complement his projectiles.

However, characters do not exist in a vacuum, so it is essential that we consider Yoshi’s Neutral Game in relation to other characters. And looking at Yoshi through this lens is what really causes me to love the character. Yoshi is not a character that has just one possible game plan that he always sticks to. Yoshi is flexible, and he can handle every style of Neutral Game out there. This means it is not easy to shut Yoshi down and give him an impossible match up. He always (for the most part) stands a fighting chance if you’re smart enough and patient enough.

This flexibility comes with some downsides, however. Yoshi is basically a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of none. Since he is flexible in his Neutral Game, he can do a little bit of everything.
However, he is not amazingly strong in any of these aspects. Therefore, he is frequently forced to play other people’s games. For example, if Yoshi goes up against a character with a strong walling game, he’s forced to try to beat that walling game. He will not be able to play his own game and force the opponent to change their tactics.

Usually, when a character cannot play their own Neutral Game, they lose the match up, unless they reap fantastic rewards when they actually win Neutral (think of Ice Climbers in previous games). Normally, we’d expect Yoshi to be an incredibly weak character since he is almost always forced to play his opponent’s game, and his punishment game (Advantaged State) doesn’t tend to cripple his opponent.
However, Yoshi’s options are generally strong enough to contend with opposing Neutral Games, and he almost always has an answer to what his opponent is trying to do. This makes it so that he’s not actually disadvantaged by having to play other characters’ games, because he’s more than capable of doing so. And on the off chance that you’re playing a match up where Yoshi decides how the Neutral Game will be played, you’ll find that Yoshi dominates.

Yoshi is a very hard character to shut down, and it’s this strength that allows him to remain competitive. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to provide general advice for playing Neutral as Yoshi, because it all depends so much on who you’re fighting against. In general, the basic idea is to use your mobility to get around your opponent’s traps and to put yourself at Advantage.

Against faster characters, you’ll need to stay grounded more often, as Yoshi can have trouble landing, so jumping for Short Hop Egg Tosses and Fairs becomes risky since your opponents can just run under you.
Against slower characters, Yoshi can control the air with his mobility and long reaching Fair, or set up frame traps through the use of Short Hop Egg Tosses.
Against characters that camp, Yoshi can utilize his mobility to outcamp them using aerial Egg Tosses, or just use his mobility to weave through the projectile walls and punish his opponents. He can even jump out of shield now, allowing him to approach characters from the ground.

It’s important to realize that all match ups with Yoshi are unique, and you must be very knowledgeable about all characters to see great success with Yoshi. You’ll want to know what your opponent’s general game plan for Neutral is, where the weaknesses in that plan are, and how Yoshi can exploit them. Smash is a series of minigames for Yoshi, each one a bit different from the next. However, if you’re patient enough and if you put in the time, you’ll definitely see success using this character.

4. Defensive Game

5. Advanced Techniques, Smash 4 Mechanics, and Tips (By Sinister Slush)
5.1 - Having C-stick set to Attack for Aerials
This is preference for people, but if you looked at the pros and cons for Smash on C-stick and Attack on C-stick, you'll most likely second guess.

The reasoning for the switch for most players is because in this game, due to C-stick now being able to charge Smash attacks. The game will sometimes mess with your mobility when using cstick smash for your aerials. It's most apparent when you're trying to use a retreating fair.
Basically what happens is you're stuck either going in the direction you jumped, or just unable to move any direction at all if just did a straight hop with no inputs to either direction.

Setting your C-stick to Attack fixes this issue, drawback being we can't use smashes on the ground anymore but I'll get into that later.

5.2 - Shields Being Stronger (click meeeeeeee)
Smash 4 changed shields to be more rewarding when you hit somebody's shield. That's a good thing and all, but it also shows even more reason why to change to Attack.
Might sound weird at first, but most peoples smash attacks are laggy, ours especially. And since one of our few kill moves in our arsenal is Usmash, we can't be throwing that out all the time. So setting C-stick to attack makes us use less laggy moves on shields and gives us more time to react, along with getting us out of the habit of throwing out our smashes even if they're not shielding.

5.3 - Neutral B Techniques
Since our double jump was changed, we can no longer double jump cancel Item throws or neutral B in the air.
Due to this, we've had to figure out other ways to work around that. Sadly we haven't found much, but we still at least have b-reverses.
In order to do this, simply press :GCB: then immediately after click the opposite direction you're facing :GCR::GCL:
https://vine.co/v/Ojpl7vAjhIK

Recently though (while not new really) japanese Yoshi's has been dropping a bunch of vines illustrating
wavebounces with neutral B.

Few Examples: https://vine.co/v/OT9A3xngnzm
https://vine.co/v/OXlZ6b209rj
The way this works is you must have C-stick set as attack and a R button for Special. It's wonky, but a couple (me included) have it like this due to Brawl.
If you don't wanna do this, then the only other option to do this is claw, https://vine.co/v/OEg6z7X9tiV

For inputs it's like so
Say you're facing Left while on the left ledge of the stage.
Run off and still hold :GCL: now whenever you feel like it press your :GCRT: (or whatever button you're using for special) and the opposite direction you're facing with :GCCR: (yes this direction) at the same time in order to do the wavebounce.
To know if you got it right it'll look like this.
https://vine.co/v/OThniHpTX3t
https://vine.co/v/OTuuuWKLeAw
Be weary of doing this off stage as you'll do an egg roll and die if you mess up (if you do the way in the first vine off ledges at least, doing it from a short hop offstage you should get out quick enough to recover)
If you have enough running momentum when going off platforms/ledges you can go even further when doing Wavebounces.
https://vine.co/v/OErBpvplzrb
https://vine.co/v/OFdegLbYtai

5.4 - Jab Resets

Not too sure for brawl, but setting C-stick for Attack allows you to Jab Reset more successfully when you get it down.
If confused on what Jab reset is, it's basically using your Jab 1, crouching to cancel second jab from coming out, then using Jab 1 again.

Basically what you do with Jab Reset is you hold down the entire time and click your now Attack bound C-stick diagonally. :GCCUL::GCCUR:
Here's how you do it along with if you successfully do it, it'll look like this. https://vine.co/v/OQbVYa9MZQj

Not 100% sure who can get out of it, but it can lead into some interesting things if you do it right. If the combo counter goes up during training they probably can't get out of it.


5.5 - Perfect Pivots (click meh)
The last thing (until more is found, or unless I'm forgetting something) for having C-stick set to Attack is Perfect Pivots.

If you clicked the video, then you already know what it can do for you. Here's a couple things it can set up for Yoshi.
https://vine.co/v/Ox3n20nr7Au


5.6 - Tap Jump Off
Having tap jump on leaves you prone to messing up your recovery or just making you waste your double jump when attempting to use Egg toss only.
To show an example of how TJ On can severely gimp you in some way, click the following


6. Egg Toss WIP (By Celes)


7. Match-up Chart (<------- Click This guuuuuuuuuuuuy, By Sinister Slush)
This is a WIP.
 
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Delta-cod

Smash Hero
Joined
May 29, 2009
Messages
9,384
Location
Northern NJ or Chicago, IL
NNID
Phikarp
Snip Snip
You're going to need to actually post your own comment in the future. You can't just quote the OP and add nothing to the ongoing discussion. Please be careful with your posts.

@ Phyr Phyr The problem with relying on wavebounce/B-reverse/whatever Egg Lay for shield pressure is that it's also very slow and also loses to roll. I don't think it quite solves Yoshi's problems against experienced players. =/
 

Regralht

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Nov 15, 2014
Messages
81
Location
Howell, Michigan
NNID
Regralht
Have any of you found a use for Uthrow? It seems pretty terrible ;-;

Only use I've found for it, is that it sets up for a guaranteed tech chase on Battlefield if we throw Captain Falcon under the top platform from 86-117% no rage (I'll eventually be going through every character, and 0 50 100 rage). If you throw him from near the center, he actually can't DI away from the platform to escape (that's with perfect DI anyways. You should be able to catch people with this if you read their DI, or if their DI is slightly off).

It might be a kill setup with rage, but I'm not sure quite yet.
 
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