MookieRah
Kinda Sorta OK at Smash
Foreward
Sadly the Mewtwo player base is experiencing quite a lull. Taj had taken a leave of absence for a long time, and has only just recently returned from his hiatus. Thankfully, M2K lived up a bit to his name and actually used Mewtwo very effectively in a few tournament matches. I am not going to discuss which of these players are better, that is not the point. The point is that both of their play styles work incredibly well competitively.
I am not saying that these players fall 100% within this style of play, these are simplifications of the overall strategies both players seem to employ. In fact, both of these styles are actually not drastically different, and both players have elements of both. It’s also important to note that this is simply my interpretation of their play, and this is largely conjecture, as I have not talked with either player regarding this. This is gleaned purely from observation.
M2K, aka Counter Style
The basic goal:
Mewtwo’s shield is one of the largest in the game, coupled with his weird height and traction, it subtly messes up people’s l-cancels and attack timings. Couple those properties with his amazing grab, this often leads to players hitting M2’s shield too early giving Mewtwo a free shield grab. The counter style of play that M2K employs takes advantage of these attributes, and essentially his entire game is an elaborate bait. Just watch,he very rarely makes a true approach. M2K relies on his opponent to simply not respect M2’s abilities, and just patiently waits for their action and plots an appropriate response.
Why this is way harder than it looks:
The crux of this strategy is having an overwhelming understanding of the spacing of Mewtwo’s grab. If you do not, then this strategy will lead you to getting destroyed quite easily, as you will either whiff grabs or attempt grabs when they were never safe to begin with. That would be hard enough, but another thing that M2K does incredibly well is forcing mistakes from his opponents. He often will place himself so that his opponent will hit his shield earlier than intended giving M2K a free grab. This is often accomplished by wavedashing forward into shield, but it can also be accomplished by expecting your opponent to overshoot you in an attempt to catch you while you retreat, and more. So while it looks very easy, it’s absolutely not.
Why this is effective:
Mewtwo rarely wins in a direct confrontation in the neutral game. His moveset just doesn’t allow for it, for the most part. This style of play essentially removes the burden of Mewtwo making all that many neutral game decisions. In the above examples I mention about the shield grab, but if your opponent doesn’t land within shield grab range of Mewtwo, he still retains several other options. For instance, if an opponent crosses Mewtwo up and is just outside of M2’s grab hitbox, M2K often uses an upsmash on fast fallers. This usually works, as it covers lots of options and usually is not expected. Mewtwo also has the option of retreating, due to his amazing movement options.
This style is very irritating to opponents as it prevents your opponent from gaining much momentum. If played correctly, the neutral game becomes a game of cat and mouse, in which Mewtwo essentially weaves around waiting for his opponent to make a small mistake in their aggression. Once the mistake is made, there is almost always a grab and Mewtwo’s throws often set up for some very nice stuff. Also this is quite a safe, reliable strategy if your opponent is aggro, because you have time to react and doesn’t require much prediction or risk.
Foreseeable problems with this style:
A lot of this style relies heavily on your opponent’s lack of knowledge regarding Mewtwo and how he works. It also relies heavily on your opponent being aggro. That is not to say that this cannot work against a fairly passive opponent, or someone that is knowledgeable, but it certainly makes things way more difficult the more your opponent knows Mewtwo. It also keeps Mewtwo from ever really setting the pace in a match, if anything this merely upsets your opponents momentum and pace, but you are essentially just waiting for your opponent to mess up.
Taj, aka Rush-Down Style
The basic goal:
This style reminds me a lot of how the Marth boards describes good Marth play in neutral. It uses a lot of aggressive movement, and generally employs only safe pokes and frame traps with shadow balls. It comes off as being way more aggressive than it is. In general, Mewtwo approaches with a grab or dtilt in mid to close range, and uses shadow balls before a dtilt/grab approach from long range. After any sort of advantage, you go beserk mode and milk what you are able to afterward.
Why this is way harder than it looks:
Personally, I have never been able to truly adapt any sort of style that relies very heavily on any sort of rush down, so at least from that perspective I find it very hard to get this to work. It’s also fairly hard to mix things up a lot with just movement, dtilt, grabs, and a few shadow balls here and there. It’s hard to be patient and avoid getting greedy when trying to ride the thin line between safe and non-safe approaches. It’s even harder to judge what is or isn’t over-reaching whenever you start up a combo, and it is very easy to overextend and have the tables turned on you. It requires a ton of rapid decision making regarding prediction to make the most out of it.
Why it’s effective:
When played correctly, this style can be devastating. Riding momentum is one of the most effective ways to inflict damage on your opponent’s morale as well as his character. Again, Mewtwo rarely wins in direct confrontations, so obviously turning up the aggression to make the most of every advantage is a very important thing for Mewtwo to do, even if it might be a tad risky.
While M2K was definitely not lacking in the combo department, the aggression I am talking about is not the same. Almost all of his setups relied around grabs, and very few combos were created off of anything else. This is not the case with Taj, where a single dtilt could turn into a psuedo combo that traverses the entire stage racking up a lot of percent or end with a KO.
Foreseeable problems with this style:
Essentially if your goal is to ride momentum in order to win then you must have momentum more than your opponent. Styles that rely too heavily on momentum, and in general, prediction, are inherently riskier than relying on safer options. In order for it to work one must carefully weigh the risk and reward and to also maintain a level of unpredictability.
Conclusions
I think it’s clear from just their matches that Taj clearly has a broader understanding of Mewtwo and all of the character specific tricks; however, one can’t help but feel that M2K does an amazing job with just the basics. I think that both players could learn a lot from each other, and I think that one could merge the best of both of these play styles together into something even better.
Obviously, this is a false dichotomy. These are not the only two styles out then and one can incorporate both, and both players already do to an extent. In general I think that it is easier to simplify and isolate the two more distinct sides to each player and discuss their merits. I think that having these kinds of discussions get players to actually think about how they play, and more importantly helps them discover things that they could improve on.
Sadly the Mewtwo player base is experiencing quite a lull. Taj had taken a leave of absence for a long time, and has only just recently returned from his hiatus. Thankfully, M2K lived up a bit to his name and actually used Mewtwo very effectively in a few tournament matches. I am not going to discuss which of these players are better, that is not the point. The point is that both of their play styles work incredibly well competitively.
I am not saying that these players fall 100% within this style of play, these are simplifications of the overall strategies both players seem to employ. In fact, both of these styles are actually not drastically different, and both players have elements of both. It’s also important to note that this is simply my interpretation of their play, and this is largely conjecture, as I have not talked with either player regarding this. This is gleaned purely from observation.
M2K, aka Counter Style
The basic goal:
Mewtwo’s shield is one of the largest in the game, coupled with his weird height and traction, it subtly messes up people’s l-cancels and attack timings. Couple those properties with his amazing grab, this often leads to players hitting M2’s shield too early giving Mewtwo a free shield grab. The counter style of play that M2K employs takes advantage of these attributes, and essentially his entire game is an elaborate bait. Just watch,he very rarely makes a true approach. M2K relies on his opponent to simply not respect M2’s abilities, and just patiently waits for their action and plots an appropriate response.
Why this is way harder than it looks:
The crux of this strategy is having an overwhelming understanding of the spacing of Mewtwo’s grab. If you do not, then this strategy will lead you to getting destroyed quite easily, as you will either whiff grabs or attempt grabs when they were never safe to begin with. That would be hard enough, but another thing that M2K does incredibly well is forcing mistakes from his opponents. He often will place himself so that his opponent will hit his shield earlier than intended giving M2K a free grab. This is often accomplished by wavedashing forward into shield, but it can also be accomplished by expecting your opponent to overshoot you in an attempt to catch you while you retreat, and more. So while it looks very easy, it’s absolutely not.
Why this is effective:
Mewtwo rarely wins in a direct confrontation in the neutral game. His moveset just doesn’t allow for it, for the most part. This style of play essentially removes the burden of Mewtwo making all that many neutral game decisions. In the above examples I mention about the shield grab, but if your opponent doesn’t land within shield grab range of Mewtwo, he still retains several other options. For instance, if an opponent crosses Mewtwo up and is just outside of M2’s grab hitbox, M2K often uses an upsmash on fast fallers. This usually works, as it covers lots of options and usually is not expected. Mewtwo also has the option of retreating, due to his amazing movement options.
This style is very irritating to opponents as it prevents your opponent from gaining much momentum. If played correctly, the neutral game becomes a game of cat and mouse, in which Mewtwo essentially weaves around waiting for his opponent to make a small mistake in their aggression. Once the mistake is made, there is almost always a grab and Mewtwo’s throws often set up for some very nice stuff. Also this is quite a safe, reliable strategy if your opponent is aggro, because you have time to react and doesn’t require much prediction or risk.
Foreseeable problems with this style:
A lot of this style relies heavily on your opponent’s lack of knowledge regarding Mewtwo and how he works. It also relies heavily on your opponent being aggro. That is not to say that this cannot work against a fairly passive opponent, or someone that is knowledgeable, but it certainly makes things way more difficult the more your opponent knows Mewtwo. It also keeps Mewtwo from ever really setting the pace in a match, if anything this merely upsets your opponents momentum and pace, but you are essentially just waiting for your opponent to mess up.
Taj, aka Rush-Down Style
The basic goal:
This style reminds me a lot of how the Marth boards describes good Marth play in neutral. It uses a lot of aggressive movement, and generally employs only safe pokes and frame traps with shadow balls. It comes off as being way more aggressive than it is. In general, Mewtwo approaches with a grab or dtilt in mid to close range, and uses shadow balls before a dtilt/grab approach from long range. After any sort of advantage, you go beserk mode and milk what you are able to afterward.
Why this is way harder than it looks:
Personally, I have never been able to truly adapt any sort of style that relies very heavily on any sort of rush down, so at least from that perspective I find it very hard to get this to work. It’s also fairly hard to mix things up a lot with just movement, dtilt, grabs, and a few shadow balls here and there. It’s hard to be patient and avoid getting greedy when trying to ride the thin line between safe and non-safe approaches. It’s even harder to judge what is or isn’t over-reaching whenever you start up a combo, and it is very easy to overextend and have the tables turned on you. It requires a ton of rapid decision making regarding prediction to make the most out of it.
Why it’s effective:
When played correctly, this style can be devastating. Riding momentum is one of the most effective ways to inflict damage on your opponent’s morale as well as his character. Again, Mewtwo rarely wins in direct confrontations, so obviously turning up the aggression to make the most of every advantage is a very important thing for Mewtwo to do, even if it might be a tad risky.
While M2K was definitely not lacking in the combo department, the aggression I am talking about is not the same. Almost all of his setups relied around grabs, and very few combos were created off of anything else. This is not the case with Taj, where a single dtilt could turn into a psuedo combo that traverses the entire stage racking up a lot of percent or end with a KO.
Foreseeable problems with this style:
Essentially if your goal is to ride momentum in order to win then you must have momentum more than your opponent. Styles that rely too heavily on momentum, and in general, prediction, are inherently riskier than relying on safer options. In order for it to work one must carefully weigh the risk and reward and to also maintain a level of unpredictability.
Conclusions
I think it’s clear from just their matches that Taj clearly has a broader understanding of Mewtwo and all of the character specific tricks; however, one can’t help but feel that M2K does an amazing job with just the basics. I think that both players could learn a lot from each other, and I think that one could merge the best of both of these play styles together into something even better.
Obviously, this is a false dichotomy. These are not the only two styles out then and one can incorporate both, and both players already do to an extent. In general I think that it is easier to simplify and isolate the two more distinct sides to each player and discuss their merits. I think that having these kinds of discussions get players to actually think about how they play, and more importantly helps them discover things that they could improve on.
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