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Critique My Doc

McWaffles

Still grinding to be decent.
Joined
Apr 17, 2015
Messages
149
Location
Taylor, MI
Slippi.gg
JAKE#988
NNID
TheMcWaffles
3DS FC
2337-7097-9360
Switch FC
SW-6907-3206-1991
Heyo! I'd like you the people of smashboards to watch this replay of a Doctor Mario ditto match (I'm the White color) and tell me what I need to improve on. Thank you!

https://vid.me/USmM
 

Dokokashira

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jun 3, 2015
Messages
302
Ya really shouldn't taunt when your foe punished your spot dodge with a forward air.

The most notable problem is that you constantly spot dodge. Your opponent took advantage of this at times, like 0:47, 1:19, and 1:32. Gaining temporary invincibility is a very good thing, but it's important to be aware that there are vulnerability frames at the end of a spot dodge, and that this can be punished with a spot dodge read or an attack with a long-lasting hitbox. You also seem to air dodge into the ground at times. I don't know whether this is because you intended an immediate shield when landing and messed up, but air dodging into the ground is always a bad idea, especially up close against your opponent. (It IS possible to time your air dodge so that you land laglessly, but this can be difficult.) Up air has a quick and deceptively big hitbox, as well as neutral air: if you can't risk getting hit but you're close to the ground, one of these might be a good idea. They're not interchangeable and they have vastly different qualities, so experiment with them to see when you can apply either one.

I also noticed that you seem to have some poor recovery habits at times. At 0:41, you used Dr. Tornado when you were right near the ledge, and could have easily grabbed it with up B or even your second jump. Your opponent quickly capitalized on this with a back air, and if you weren't on Wily Castle, your stock would be been gone to a stage spike. Your opponent displayed a very good recovery at 0:31, where he used his double jump and an aerial to secure his return to the stage as fast as he could. Try to only use Dr. Tornado when you are far away from the ledge (about two character lengths to past the screen), and mainly stay low unless you are able to make it on the stage without grabbing the ledge. If you can make it back without using Dr. Tornado, then you shouldn't use it.

You don't seem to make use of all of Dr. Mario's moves. Most of the damage you dealt was accumulated through dash attacks and aerial attacks. While having an aerial-based playstyle is not bad (My own Dr. Mario play is very much based around aerials and empty/short hops), you don't make use of Dr. Mario's ground game where you can. For example, at 1:25, your opponent was in landing lag from a neutral aerial, and was at the perfect distance for a forward or down tilt. Instead of making this punish, however, you did a seemingly random Dr. Tornado. While it did work in that instance, not every player would roll right into it and you would likely get punished for using such a laggy move. You made good use of an up tilt at 1:44 to punish your opponent's short hop, but you don't use his attacks like this enough.

This doesn't have to do with the gameplay itself, but I'd recommend that you try to upload Wii U matches if you own that version. It's difficult to truly critique a match without seeing damage percentages. Not to mention, it's quite blurry.

Hopefully this all helps. If you have the Wii U version, you can add my NNID (Dokokashira) and we can play if you want to practice or get critique on more matches.
 

McWaffles

Still grinding to be decent.
Joined
Apr 17, 2015
Messages
149
Location
Taylor, MI
Slippi.gg
JAKE#988
NNID
TheMcWaffles
3DS FC
2337-7097-9360
Switch FC
SW-6907-3206-1991
Ya really shouldn't taunt when your foe punished your spot dodge with a forward air.

The most notable problem is that you constantly spot dodge. Your opponent took advantage of this at times, like 0:47, 1:19, and 1:32. Gaining temporary invincibility is a very good thing, but it's important to be aware that there are vulnerability frames at the end of a spot dodge, and that this can be punished with a spot dodge read or an attack with a long-lasting hitbox. You also seem to air dodge into the ground at times. I don't know whether this is because you intended an immediate shield when landing and messed up, but air dodging into the ground is always a bad idea, especially up close against your opponent. (It IS possible to time your air dodge so that you land laglessly, but this can be difficult.) Up air has a quick and deceptively big hitbox, as well as neutral air: if you can't risk getting hit but you're close to the ground, one of these might be a good idea. They're not interchangeable and they have vastly different qualities, so experiment with them to see when you can apply either one.

I also noticed that you seem to have some poor recovery habits at times. At 0:41, you used Dr. Tornado when you were right near the ledge, and could have easily grabbed it with up B or even your second jump. Your opponent quickly capitalized on this with a back air, and if you weren't on Wily Castle, your stock would be been gone to a stage spike. Your opponent displayed a very good recovery at 0:31, where he used his double jump and an aerial to secure his return to the stage as fast as he could. Try to only use Dr. Tornado when you are far away from the ledge (about two character lengths to past the screen), and mainly stay low unless you are able to make it on the stage without grabbing the ledge. If you can make it back without using Dr. Tornado, then you shouldn't use it.

You don't seem to make use of all of Dr. Mario's moves. Most of the damage you dealt was accumulated through dash attacks and aerial attacks. While having an aerial-based playstyle is not bad (My own Dr. Mario play is very much based around aerials and empty/short hops), you don't make use of Dr. Mario's ground game where you can. For example, at 1:25, your opponent was in landing lag from a neutral aerial, and was at the perfect distance for a forward or down tilt. Instead of making this punish, however, you did a seemingly random Dr. Tornado. While it did work in that instance, not every player would roll right into it and you would likely get punished for using such a laggy move. You made good use of an up tilt at 1:44 to punish your opponent's short hop, but you don't use his attacks like this enough.

This doesn't have to do with the gameplay itself, but I'd recommend that you try to upload Wii U matches if you own that version. It's difficult to truly critique a match without seeing damage percentages. Not to mention, it's quite blurry.

Hopefully this all helps. If you have the Wii U version, you can add my NNID (Dokokashira) and we can play if you want to practice or get critique on more matches.
Thanks! and I actually don't own the Wii U version.. I recently got a 3DS for christmas and switched from Mac to Doc and I'm still making changes. I'm asking for this because I want to improve, and I don't seem to be that good. I didn't know what to do in the situation as I had no experience in ditto's or basically any matchup.
Also not to mention, I'm recording using an old tablet as my phone broke and I don't have any source of getting another one lol
 

McWaffles

Still grinding to be decent.
Joined
Apr 17, 2015
Messages
149
Location
Taylor, MI
Slippi.gg
JAKE#988
NNID
TheMcWaffles
3DS FC
2337-7097-9360
Switch FC
SW-6907-3206-1991
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