What are your views on observation of opponents habits and reading opponents? How does one get better at that? How important is it at high-level play?
Once you understand a character well enough, you know how many options, and what options he has in every situation. Once you know a player's playstyle, and general decision-making (aggressive/defensive/baiter/scared/pro-active, etc.) you can basically read their reactions. If you for example, see an MK getting juggled, and you know that one of MK's decent options is to land with a F-Air, and you also know that the player you're playing is one who likes to do aggressive options, he will most likely F-Air/do an attack when landing, due to his desesperation to always input an attack. This is how true readings are created: Mixing character knowledge + player style.
You get better at this by :
Studying every character + your character's options in important situations. Options when getting juggled, options when getting grabbed, options when you got grabbed, or when he's grabbing, options to juggle, off stage stuff, etc.
Recognizing your opponent's playstyle decision-making wise. Decision making is NOT the same as playstyle. Decision making: Overall attitude/ideas behind every move. Playstyle: How the player generally interacts with his opponent. Ally is a baiter/aggressive player when it comes down to decision making, but a completely baiter one when it comes to playstyle. He will always try to input attacks and pressure you whenever he can, and also try to make you feel like you can punish him in situations where you really can't.
Is your opponent an aggressive one? Baiter? Defensive?
Simply knowing what attitude your opponent has at decision making, and what options he has, will allow you to start reading what he does in a consistent basis.
hey zero. i've got a few questions?
1. how do you glide past the edge without grabbing it like the japanese mk's do?
2. what are good situations to use ftilt instead of dtilt? i generally use dtilt because its safer on block.
3. can i get a pro matchup summary vs snake, diddy kong, marth and pikachu matchups?
thanks a lot if u get some time to answer.!!
1.- It's a very tricky thing to do. You have to glide down to gain momentum, then go up towards the ledge, when you're about to touch the ledge, you press down+ towards the stage, then as you're out out of the range of the ledge (range of grabbing it) you stop pressing down and keep going forward. If you did it correctly you will glide past the ledge. It requires practice to do this consistently.
2.- F-Tilt and D-Tilt have the same range. However, D-Tilt like you put it, is safer on block, due to having a couple less frames than F-Tilt when you want to do another attack/move. F-Tilt is great to cancel out your opponents Air Attack when he's about to attack you, sort of GSL. It's also great when you want to quickly punish something and you don't want to D-Smash, or you're out of grab range (At F-Tilt range, F-Tilt is faster than a dash grab). It's also great to punish MK's who like to SH around, simply wait out for their attack, walk forward and F-Tilt! F-Tilt is best used to punish things immediatly, due to it's ridiculous speed, and decent damage output when spammed (10%-13%). It's also easy to follow up into itself. F-Tilt>wait for airdodge/reaction>F-Tilt>if they end up above you, you shield and then N-Air, etc. It's a great set up tool.
3.- Sure!
Snake:
Bans: PS1 if you don't like Snake's strings. Halberd if you don't like dying early to him. FD if you don't like getting camped.
Counterpicks: Delfino/Halberd/Brinstar/Rainbow Cruise/Smashville are all good picks. Don't pick delfino if you dont want to deal with Snake's crazy tricks. Same with RC.
This match up is very one sided if either player is better than the other. What does this mean? That if you're not on the same skill level as the other player, he can just do whatever he wants, and be succesfull with every one of them
That being said, this MU can be in both ways:
The M2K way, which means, constant agression and pressure.
This strategy relies on you reading what your opponent will do, and counter it every time:
- Shields/grenade in hand: Dash grab.
- Spotdodge: Short hop tornado.
- Dash attack: Tornado in place, walk away>F-Tilt. Short hopped F-Air while moving backwards.
- F-Tilt: F-Tilt/SH Tornado/Shield + Grab/F-Tilt as a damage racker, if not D-Smash for the kill/Upb if you got hit in your back, and you're quite far. If close, N-Air, whenever it's possible.
- U-Tilt: Same with F-Tilt.
- Grenade spam: If he cooks them, you will need to learn his pattern and go for the way he isn't covering, and then read the action he will do to get you. Every Snake has a pattern when grenade camping. If he likes to throw them very together, catch him when he's pulling one (GSL Works great, since you explode the grenade with him, and abuse your invencible frames). If he throws them quite apart from each one, and not cooked, then you can throw them back at him after 2 seconds so they explode when they get in contact with Snake, if they're cooked, simply get out of the way completely. Shielding/Spotdging is bad because Snake will slowly approach at you and punish these, or, lower your shield to shield poke you with F-Tilt/U-Tilt. If he likes to only throw them in one direction, go for the other, and so on. In general approaching him careless, will mean a bunch of damage to you. Most Pro's would play very campy in this phase, until they see an opening, or completely analyzed Snake's grenade pattern.
When Juggling:
- Air dodge (when high in the air): U-Air, fast fall U-Air/N-Air.
- Air dodge (when lowin the air): U-Air, Fast fall N-Air, if there's no time (cause he will land after you U-Air), then D-Air.
- B-Air (you're on the ground): U-Air if you're below him. If not, GSL/Shield+ punish.
- B-Air (you're high on the air): Fast fall U-Air. Don't try to challenge the B-Air hitbox, it's pretty outrageous to do so. And hard to do consistently. You can also Fast Fall while up-airing, and then jump and N-Air. Works awesome too.
- B-Air (when he's landing behind you): Hardest angle to get him. I would simply walk towards it then shield and react. If you run at him, it's an easy to predict GSL).
- B-Air (when the B-Air is in the other direction): Easy tornado in general, especially in landings. Otherwise easy F-Air/U-Air.
N-Air (high in the air): Go below him and fast fall while U-Airing, if you don't get him, then jump and N-Air. You can also challenge it with a shuttle loop, but the timing needs to be this way: Hit Snake with your strongest hitbox (early), if not, don't try to challenge it.
N-Air (Mid air, he's gonna "almost" land with it): Tornado below him. You can see this tornado in my set vs Ally, just at the start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQi4_JSHsPc
Last thing:
Don't spam Upbs against he cypher. Mix it between D-Air's/Shuttle Loops/N-Airs so none of them get stale, and you can still kill Snake.
Or the conventional way, which is extremely campy.
Involves around D-Air camping, and waiting for Snake's pattern to show up and punish him with what I typed above.
Diddy Kong:
Ban: PS1 if you fear getting infinited in a wall/combo'ed. FD if you don't like getting camped. YI if you don't like him recovering easier to the stage.
Counterpicks: Halberd/Delfino (watch out for infinites/spikes in the water!) Brinstar/Delfino are all very good counterpicks.
This match up is all about getting around the bananas and not getting combo'ed across the stage.
You can play effectively in both ways: Campy, or aggressive.
Here's a summary on how to deal with Diddy's common strats:
ADHD strategy (Banana in hand, in ground and peanut spam): You have to move around his banana throw range, and grab it. Then with it hand, you can approach his wall because he's not covering the ground. Glide toss to grab. F-Air, tornado are all good options. So is dash attack/F-Air (to counter the throw)
In general:
Space everything correctly. He will punish you hard for any technical mistake you make. Make sure to only tornado when his shield is low. D-Air camp is good to lower shields, and F-Air/Dash attack catch bananas is great too.
Don't play too agressive, or too campy, he counters both styles. Play aggro, then go all in when he's in the air.
Juggling him is pretty easy. Tornado on landings owns him very hard. U-Air beats all of his options, and you can shuttle loop his monkey flip. You can also tornado it when he comes back with it from off the stage.
Edgeguard:
You want to D-Air him over and over, shuttle loop/Tornado his monkey flips, and Shuttle Loop/N-Air/D-Air his upb and then he is dead.
He is tricky, but very easy to gimp. If you constantly get him in the air, you will win easily. But if you can't, then he will own you hard. His ground game is excellent.
Marth:
My posts above me are very good, but here's some more information:
Bans: FD if you don't like getting grabbed easier. If not, BF/SV depending of what platforms you like more. YI is also a good ban if you don't like him recovering easier.
Delfino (watch out for spikes), Halberd/Brinstar/RC are all great CP's.
The Marth MU is pretty simple. Whoever spaces the best, and counters the other player's approaches, wins.
In general:
- SH F-Airs: Shield>Dash grab/F-Air/GSL/N-Air if not spaced properly.
- Double Jump: Upb, or catch the landing with tornado.
- Side B's: Shield/tornado.
Summary:
You basically need to counter one of Marth's option, then juggle him until he is dead. U-Air/Shuttle loop/Tornado on landings beats EVERY single one of his options, besides Down B. When he starts Down B'ing, you simply wait, and it's a free grab/N-Air.
Edgeguard:
Go all the way down to him, and Down Air at 45 degreeangle. He can't survive it. If he's pretty close to the stage, he will UPb you, and land on the stage. To counter this, simply bait it, and punish afterwards.
Tornado the ledge when he is grabbing it. It's SO good vs him.
SH's: Tornado in general destroys Marth's SH. So does running + shielding, because of Marth's poor dash grab.
Pikachu:
Ban: FD if you don't to get camped/grabbed hardcore. If not, PS1 for Pikachu's tricks there.
Delfino/Halberd/Brinstar/RC are all great. Just be careful of getting killed very early on Halberd/RC, or CG'ed to death on Delfino/RC's third transformation.
This match up is all about properly spacing your attacks and not getting grabbed early. Pikachu will own you "Falco Style" if he gets a grab on you early on. Proper spacing of Full Hop D-Air camping, F-Tilt and D-Tilt are key. So are backward SH F-Air's to prevent his dashes/ground movement.
Juggling him is pretty easy. Standard things. U-Air/tornado's like I said earlier are all great options.
D-Air camping is very good vs Pikachu, because it's hard for him to hit you. And it also keeps you safe from his proyectile camping.
D-Air camping to landing to dash grab is a very good mix up vs him.
In general, play careful, don't over extend, after 50%, you can be more aggressive because you won't get 50% if you get grabbed. And also, be extremely careful of going too high into the air, that is a free thunder kill for him, also: DI HIS D-SMASH. MASH UP, AND THAT'S IT.
Edgeguard:
He's really hard to gimp, because if the Pikachu recovers smartly, you won't really catch him. But you can punish poor recoveries: If he Upb's to the edge/stage, you can tornado over to the edge, and then go back. If he misspaces his Upb, you'll hit him. You can also Down Air, N-Air him in the same fashion as Falco's Side b. If you see he will make it to the edge using his second movement of his Upb, grab the ledge, and he's dead. Besides of this, you can't really do much.
M>11 PM: Time to watch videos, and study down what's going on in the current meta game. What are the other top players doing in tournament? What tactics are they using? Strategies? I study all of this, and type the down in a word document and textbook, so I don't get "surprised" when I finally play them. Developing strategies for everything>preparing yourself for every scenario is the way to consistently win.
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