First I would like to say nice job to both sides for presenting their arguments. I will make a second post after reading through this thread, but for the meantime, I will refer only to the OP.
The red line is just nitpicking. Genesis was in Antioch, which was near San Fran. Normally, I would insert a smiley to stick a tongue at you, but the one of the emoticon eating it's eye is not appealing to me and actually creeps me out a little.
MK does not have unlimited safe options. While MK is pretty comfortable at nearly every junction, Marth can effective prevent MK from getting back onto the stage from the ledge until MK outsmarts him. Without the use of his tilts, or grab, Marth severely pressures MK since he generally beats him in the air. It is true however, that even Marth does not have answers to Dimension Cape shenanigans.
Marth is also at an extremely distinct advantage when MK is high in the air. MK is actually WEAK from below in many match-ups, such as vs. Marth. In Marth's case, he outranges MK's Dair with Uair, and can send him up again. Furthermore, Marth has greater aerial mobility than MK, so he can effectively juggle him or platform pressure him until MK goes for a ledge, which still leaves Marth in an advantageous situation. Metaknight can Tornado, but high in the air, this is punishable, so it is not at all broken. It is also beaten by Marth's Usmash. Of course, Marth still does not have answers to Dimension Cape shenanigans or planking.
Metaknight has the best recovery, but it is not perfect. A perfect recovery would be the ability to automatically transport yourself from any point to the ledge, or recover with unbeatable hitboxes in front of you. As it stands, MK has an excellent recovery, being able to transport himself to the ledge from an amazing distance, or using a priority ball to reach the ledge or stage. Still, Marth can challenge this. Both Counter and Dolphin Slash breaks all priority balls, which must be committed to when recovering. Dimension Cape is easily thwarted if Marth is holding the edge, or close to MK and hits him before he warps. If Marth hits MK far off stage, and jumps towards him backwards, his Bair will beat all of MK's aerials and hit Glide attack from below, where MK is weak when gliding. If MK tries to recover from low, Marth can pressure MK so that he is unable to SL to the ledge. If MK tries to Glide under the stage, nearly any character with a reasonable falling speed (Marth can do it) can drop down and FOOTSTOOL MK out of his glide.
Yes, MK has a lot of options, and he may have a perfect recovery. In that case, my brother claims that Marth has a perfect edge guard. Naturally, it's difficult to cover all of the options at once, and requires good reflexes, but it is possible to severely limit MK. Not every character is guarenteed to get hit once they get knocked off stage. In fact, edgeguarding Marth is nearly equally difficult, since he actually has aerial mobility, and is protected extremely well due to Fair/Bair/Counter. Dolphin Slash is invincible on start-up, and Dancing Blade prevents edge-hogs.
I feel like MK is helping other characters develop their metagame FASTER. If I had not invested discovering so many ways to beat or mimic MK with Marth, many of the things discovered would not have been learned. Furthermore, m2k discovered a lot of the ATs and strategies with MK, and since he is the best character, top players have developed him to win. Other characters are slowly catching up, even if their number of players is dropping. I completely agree with the fact that MK over-dominates mid-level play though.
Air camping does not beat Marth, lol. Actually, wait, yes it does! Please don't aircamp me LOLOLOLOL.
I'm sad that my friends in the SBR haven't come to me with questions or discussion. I'm well versed in both sides of this argument and know quite a bit that I wish I could've contributed.
