i techchase 90% on reaction and 10% on knowing that they generally only have one good option in the first place
also for some stupid reason whenever i techchase people to the edge and bthrow them to reset the stage positioning and continue the techchase, they always tech roll away thinking that i'm not fast enough to catch them
my general flow chart for it is this though
1. dthrow
2. check DI
2a: di'd up and in - dash > SH nair > regrab or dash > sh fair > uair > nair etc, or instant dimensional cape at kill percents
2b: di'd down and away - dash foward, crouch to cancel run animation
3. did they tech?
3a: no - ftilt > regrab or dtilt hilt hitbox > nair/etc, or instant dimensional cape at kill percents
3b: yes, in place - regrab
3c: yes, behind - dash back, regrab
3d: yes, away - dash foward, regrab or instant dimensional cape at kill percents (they will probably be DI'ing with it still due to teching away and so it will kill earlier)
this is virtually inescapable until you either hit an edge or they DI in
once you hit an edge you have three options which are all hard DI mixups
dthrow at the edge is arguably the worst for an opponent at high percents - if they DI correctly (down and away) you cannot get anything guaranteed except sometimes on super floaty chars, but they are in a terrible position to recover against a superb edgeguarding character. if they DI incorrectly (up and in), you have guaranteed nair and IDC against basically every character in the game and it will kill at like 80-90% on most stages regardless of DI
fthrow at the edge is a very good DI mixup with bthrow, especially if you have been shown to habitually bthrow them when you get to the edge to continue a techchase - it is basically impossible to DI on reaction (unlike dthrow and arguably bthrow), if they were DI'ing for a bthrow (down and away from you, therefore towards center stage - technically survival DI), you have guaranteed nair and IDC even at kill percents on most chars (haven't tested with really floaty chars like jiggs because i rarely play against them). if they were DI'ing for a dthrow (hopefully down and away from you and the stage) then you still have basically the same options but you will probably kill yourself with IDC
bthrow at the edge is good at low percents, hard to DI on reaction, and continues tech chases by forcing the opponent back on stage, also if you condition your opponent to expect this when you grab by the edge you will get super free kills with fthrow
uthrow is bad don't use it please
didn't really intend to write paragraphs on this but w/e now people know how it's done
also since i think it will be useful here:
some people in my scene were calling me out for only recovering with shuttle loop in my match against arcadia at apex so i wrote some stuff on why i think mk's other recovery options are terrible generally
basically the reasons i dislike other recovery options are thus:
once you dimensional cape up, you have three options: attempt to grab the edge with no jumps when every aerial you could cover yourself with has too much endlag to be used without missing the ledge, attempt to dair onstage which won't work against a good opponent because there are literally only two places you can land with it, or get hit by a non-killing move, DI up, and try a different option (your only viable one will be shuttle loop at this point)
as i mentioned before, dimensional caping to the edge while offstage is dangerous because you have a good chunk of endlag where you can do literally nothing if you want a chance at grabbing the ledge; this would only be useful against a character that goes out to edgeguard you, which doesn't exist because you are metaknight and designed to beat basically everyone offstage
if you sideb to the edge, any character with disjoints and a move that can hit at or below the ledge can literally kill you for trying to sweetspot; marth happens to be one of these characters. against characters with few or no moves like this sideb is a safe option and i sometimes use it because the last hit has a pretty big hitbox and deters people from edgeguarding me when they realize i can combo off it when they get too close
tornado is a generally bad recovery move because it's priority was huuuuuugely nerfed, but it does have the most vertical recovery distance outside of shuttle loop. it can't be sweetspotted or edge cancelled like his other recovery options because of its special endlag properties; it always has a certain number of endlag frames and will play them out entirely regardless of whether you are in the air or on the ground, or transition between the two. if you land in the last few frames of this endlag it will appear to autocancel on the ground, but if you land too early or go into special fall you will get the remainder of the lag or the heavy landing animation, respectively. it is unarguably the most punishable of his recovery options
i hope to actually get my mk up to par with monkey