Max Ketchum
Collegiate Starleague Smash Director
I'm aware that this is widely known, but unfortunately I don't see it used nearly as much as it should be. Doing this is extremely useful and really helps with frame traps/shield pressure.
How to perform: When doing a down tilt, rather than holding down on the control stick and pressing A/c-stick down, move the control stick about halfway between neutral and down, then press A/c-stick down.
Crouching before you dtilt adds something like 7 frames to the move (could very well be more or less). This is a pretty big deal. For example, Dedede must do a non-crouching dtilt in order to perform the dthrow -> dtilt combo on heavy characters. When walling characters with fairs/ftilts/fsmashes/dtilts/whatever you set up your walls with, that difference is incredibly noticeable.
It's also not that easy to do. There are some easy ways to buffer it (input the c-stick down before landing when doing a non-fastfalled nair or fair), but those are slow and can be punished due to the lack of a fastfall. Fastfalled aerials into non-crouching dtilt is one of the hardest things I've found tech-wise in Brawl, as you have to tap (smash) the stick down to fastfall your aerial, then ever-so-slightly tilt it down immediately afterward to make the dtilt come out.
Fortunately, doing this in the mix of a bunch of ftilts or after fsmashes is very easy. Additionally, it's something good to get used to doing after a glide attack on block (beats the hell out of the generic dsmash/spot dodge). I wouldn't be surprised if glide attack -> non-crouch dtilt was a true block string if done properly, but it's Brawl, so it's probably not.
Basic find with basic purposes, but immensely helpful. I've been working this into my game lately (slowly but surely) and I'm pleased with the results. Expect to do a LOT of unintentional jabs at first, though.
How to perform: When doing a down tilt, rather than holding down on the control stick and pressing A/c-stick down, move the control stick about halfway between neutral and down, then press A/c-stick down.
Crouching before you dtilt adds something like 7 frames to the move (could very well be more or less). This is a pretty big deal. For example, Dedede must do a non-crouching dtilt in order to perform the dthrow -> dtilt combo on heavy characters. When walling characters with fairs/ftilts/fsmashes/dtilts/whatever you set up your walls with, that difference is incredibly noticeable.
It's also not that easy to do. There are some easy ways to buffer it (input the c-stick down before landing when doing a non-fastfalled nair or fair), but those are slow and can be punished due to the lack of a fastfall. Fastfalled aerials into non-crouching dtilt is one of the hardest things I've found tech-wise in Brawl, as you have to tap (smash) the stick down to fastfall your aerial, then ever-so-slightly tilt it down immediately afterward to make the dtilt come out.
Fortunately, doing this in the mix of a bunch of ftilts or after fsmashes is very easy. Additionally, it's something good to get used to doing after a glide attack on block (beats the hell out of the generic dsmash/spot dodge). I wouldn't be surprised if glide attack -> non-crouch dtilt was a true block string if done properly, but it's Brawl, so it's probably not.
Basic find with basic purposes, but immensely helpful. I've been working this into my game lately (slowly but surely) and I'm pleased with the results. Expect to do a LOT of unintentional jabs at first, though.
