Critique My Puff

[Hot Toddy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvkw0JKYDMw

About half a year in as a Puff main (been playing Puff since November with breaks)
Please critique my Puff since I want to know what I should be practicing more than other things.
One thing I know I need to practice is my rest setups since I still struggle setting up. I have trouble practicing them since I don't always have access to other players.

Thanks!

Also I lost to Nugget in pools so I was feeling real nice during this set LOL

 

[iAmMatt]

you did a pretty good job at punishing fox's flubs with smash attacks, but your rest punishes could use some work. I noticed several spots where fox recovered with sideb, and you easily could've shielded it + rest oos. a lot of puffs don't punish fox's sideb with rest, because they don't realize how much lag it has. even if you can't get there in time for the rest punish, you can tomahawk and force fox to shield, and then rest or an even better option would be grab. your tech chases could use some work, but you also did a good job in regards to movement. puff's ground movement is notoriously bad, but you made it look good

Either way, I rate 7/10. Good movement overall, lacking in punishes, and one other thing I forgot to mention was forcing fox to respect your space. Constantly keeping that bair hitbox out is important, and you did a good job at that.

EDIT: as for rest setups, upthrow rest on fast fallers is extremely effective, but you have to act immediately out of upthrow. wait too long, and you'll miss your rest, even phantom it on rare occasions. Downthrow rest works at high percents, after they can jump out of uthrow rest, but they have to di it right so you can full hop and adjust your positioning in the air. This takes a little longer to learn how to do, especially when adjusting to di. Opponents will almost always try and land on a platform and try to tech away, so jumping up and wavelanding on the platform, you can get a regrab or even a rest if you play your cards right.

 

[Trezz]

Kind of late to the party, but I wanted to share some of my input. Overall though, I think you played pretty well this set! Bair spacing was solid, your SDI on up-airs was really consistent, and your edgeguarding was pretty decent too. Good stuff! lol I also like how the commentators got overly hyped over relatively common Puff stuff like up-throw->rest and offstage edgeguards.

Here are some little things I noticed, some of it is just personal opinion so feel free to take it or leave it:

Game 1:

• 0:50 - Normally I wouldn't say rest oos in this case is worth it at 0%, but in this case Nugget is pretty close to the right side of the stage so it might've netted you a super early cheese kill. Plus since he'd get knocked offstage, he probably wouldn't have had much time to get a good punish if he survived. Your bair here was also a perfectly fine (and probably safer) option too, I just like to be flashy.
  
  
• 0:58 - Here Nugget was randomly dash dancing really far away from you, and as soon as you started doing it too he just ran up and you got scared and shielded, giving him a free grab. Puff doesn't get anything out of dash dance really, especially when you're that far away from your opponent anyway. I think either approaching with bairs or even just setting up another wall would've thrown him off and given you some mileage.
  
  
• 1:05 - Drift back towards offstage after your fair here rather than falling on top of him. Here you want to use fairs to make him respect your space and back off, not as an approach tool. I notice you like to drift in a lot with your fairs and try to get grabs from them, which isn't bad, but leaves you open for jab->up-smashes or grabs.
  
  
• 1:20 - It looks like you were going for a read here, which wasn't a bad idea considering it covered 3/4 of Nugget's options here. Waiting just underneath a platform basically lets you react to whatever option your opponent goes for rather than having to guess and possibly miss like in this case.
  
  
• 1:30 - Perfect rest opportunity, and you were at low percent. You should take those.

• 2:17 - I think this probably would've been a rest too? I like to go for rests at really high percents like that since if you get the rest then you trade stocks with him and you now have a fresh stock lead on him. He gets you to near death percent already with the rest of that stock so that would've been a good trade for you.

Game 2:

• 5:12 - I noticed Nugget liked to side-b onto the stage a lot rather than onto the ledge, and you got caught by it here and a few times between both games. If you catch onto things like that, keep throwing out nairs/fairs while onstage until he learns better.

• 6:10 - It seemed like you were hoping he'd drop shield and you'd clip him with up-smash. Just a grab would've worked better here, or since you turned around for the up-smash, up-tilt would've also maybe shield poked him. If not, it's fast enough that you might've gotten a second one out in time to clip him when he tried grabbing.

• 6:19 - Mid-level players have a tendency to roll in when they get thrown towards the edge. In this situation I think rest would've gotten you killed too, but in general get in the habit of punishing roll patterns like that. He rolls in again at 7:00 that you also could've rest punished.

• 6:23 - Nice job taking that free stock from his mindless dash dancing!

• 7:18 - Don't get antsy for the last kill! That bad d-smash left you open for a grab and possibly up-throw->up-air'd to oblivion.

• 7:20-7:25 - SUPER clutch SDI on the jab and up-air. Nice.

 

[iAmMatt]

Kind of late to the party, but I wanted to share some of my input. Overall though, I think you played pretty well this set! Bair spacing was solid, your SDI on up-airs was really consistent, and your edgeguarding was pretty decent too. Good stuff! lol I also like how the commentators got overly hyped over relatively common Puff stuff like up-throw->rest and offstage edgeguards.

Here are some little things I noticed, some of it is just personal opinion so feel free to take it or leave it:

Game 1:

• 0:50 - Normally I wouldn't say rest oos in this case is worth it at 0%, but in this case Nugget is pretty close to the right side of the stage so it might've netted you a super early cheese kill. Plus since he'd get knocked offstage, he probably wouldn't have had much time to get a good punish if he survived. Your bair here was also a perfectly fine (and probably safer) option too, I just like to be flashy.
  
  
• 0:58 - Here Nugget was randomly dash dancing really far away from you, and as soon as you started doing it too he just ran up and you got scared and shielded, giving him a free grab. Puff doesn't get anything out of dash dance really, especially when you're that far away from your opponent anyway. I think either approaching with bairs or even just setting up another wall would've thrown him off and given you some mileage.
  
  
• 1:05 - Drift back towards offstage after your fair here rather than falling on top of him. Here you want to use fairs to make him respect your space and back off, not as an approach tool. I notice you like to drift in a lot with your fairs and try to get grabs from them, which isn't bad, but leaves you open for jab->up-smashes or grabs.
  
  
• 1:20 - It looks like you were going for a read here, which wasn't a bad idea considering it covered 3/4 of Nugget's options here. Waiting just underneath a platform basically lets you react to whatever option your opponent goes for rather than having to guess and possibly miss like in this case.
  
  
• 1:30 - Perfect rest opportunity, and you were at low percent. You should take those.

• 2:17 - I think this probably would've been a rest too? I like to go for rests at really high percents like that since if you get the rest then you trade stocks with him and you now have a fresh stock lead on him. He gets you to near death percent already with the rest of that stock so that would've been a good trade for you.

Game 2:

• 5:12 - I noticed Nugget liked to side-b onto the stage a lot rather than onto the ledge, and you got caught by it here and a few times between both games. If you catch onto things like that, keep throwing out nairs/fairs while onstage until he learns better.

• 6:10 - It seemed like you were hoping he'd drop shield and you'd clip him with up-smash. Just a grab would've worked better here, or since you turned around for the up-smash, up-tilt would've also maybe shield poked him. If not, it's fast enough that you might've gotten a second one out in time to clip him when he tried grabbing.

• 6:19 - Mid-level players have a tendency to roll in when they get thrown towards the edge. In this situation I think rest would've gotten you killed too, but in general get in the habit of punishing roll patterns like that. He rolls in again at 7:00 that you also could've rest punished.

• 6:23 - Nice job taking that free stock from his mindless dash dancing!

• 7:18 - Don't get antsy for the last kill! That bad d-smash left you open for a grab and possibly up-throw->up-air'd to oblivion.

• 7:20-7:25 - SUPER clutch SDI on the jab and up-air. Nice.

you're making my post look bad lol