Having a lot of trouble with Little Mac

[PKnightmare]

Just played in a tournament where I played well but struggled against little mac very badly. I've read a little of the MU info in the MU section but I feel like I don't have a strong answer for a little mac that just gets on top of you insanely quick. Pigeons seem useless, I don't have time for can placement and my gunmen get destroyed instantly. Advice? Also, what are some options to deal with side-b? My opponent seemed to spam it to get on top of me pretty quickly. Thanks and sorry for the rambling!

 

[WispBae]

Once Lil Mac gets on top of ya, there is very little you can do honestly. You have to camp him out pretty hard and play lamely. Try to bait the Side-B with Trick Shot as a trap, it's very unsafe on shield and can be grabbed. If there is a platform on the stage, camp it with all your might.

If he get's up in your face, remember that Doggy's jab is his fastest move (frame 4). With one jab combo, you relieve yourself of the pressure and have enough time to set up Trick Shot. Don't use Clay Pigeons, they are almost useless in the MU, and gunmen should be use sparingly (only if he's camping you).

If you have game play footage, we can also do our best to critique you in the video thread, perhaps we can point out bad habits you may have.

 

[TheWorstMuppet]

I've had problems with him for a while (that dang super armour!) My best bet for you would be to get him in the air and don't let him come down!

Obviously that's easier said than done, but all you need is one grab and then you can play keepie uppy with him. Make sure you try and stay on the ground most of the time yourself. You can blow yourself up at times where it would prove to be a disadvantage for Mac (like, at the edge).

As for Side-B, you should be at a set distance most of the time that side-b won't catch you off guard. Power shield his side-b's while running and punish (a quicker way to power shield whilst running is tilting the control stick slightly upwards while already dashing. You end up running a bit slower. but it becomes a lot simpler to shield.)

 

[PKnightmare]

Wow thanks for the advice guys! I'm definitely going to change how i face little mac now. Focusing on my power shielding the side-b and keeping him off his feet as much as possible. I'm thinking that BF, Lylat, and smashville might be my best options?

 

[Joshua Flynn]

After being blungeoned to death by numerous For Glory Little Macs in search for a weakness for Little Mac, I can finally report I've found one, and it's almost the same as Ike's.

Now normally, if you attack an Ike in one of his attack states, your attacks gets overridden by his more powerful sword (so in trade-off terms a bad deal), but if you use a grab more often in place of an A attack, the grab uses the open window to interrupt his attack and always wins out, making Ike vulnerable. Due to his slowness, he's also vulnerable to light jabs.

Well, it turns out, after analysing so many games... Little Mac has the same weakness, but for a different reason, but with the same outcome. Normally when Little Mac punches versus say, a smash move, because of super armour, he doesn't flinch (and this goes for light jabs etc) making him almost unassailable.

But as you might have noticed, he has the same flaw as Ike: that powerful punching doesn't apply to grabs. Grabs interrupt an attack fully, regardless of super armour or not. And because of the hitstun on toss, he then becomes vulnerable to frisbees, cans etc. So Little Mac's weakness is... grabs!

And as an added bonus... it nullifies slip counter.


However, unlike Ike, he's immune to light jabs in most cases, and his speed presents a problem. So unlike Ike, his weakness is to grabs and projectiles (where-as Ike is weak to grabs and light jabs). Use projectiles to punish his retreat or distance, and then when he gets close, don't bother jabbing or smashing, go for grabs and projectile again. Eventually his percentage will increase and he'll start to juggle. Be sure to toss him off the edge so his air game is on edge.

So my friends, use grabs more heavily and in-place of A attacks with Little Mac. And if he spot dodges, frisbee punish.

 

[crashbfan]

 

[Joshua Flynn]

After encountering a Little Mac with moves so fast he'd make a disco ball spin, I found grabs ineffective, so I decided to do further research, and I have another tactic! The one hit KO charge punch!

You can KO Little Mac at zero percent with this move, but as you're guessing, it comes with a few stipulations that you will rarely see with a hardcore Mac:

1) The Little Mac must be doing a charge punch on you. It can be almost any charge (range and movement depending) but the longer the charge, the more likely this is to work. A full charge guarentees a KO so long as you don't muff up the down smash A response.
2) You must be a short distance away from the edge (about one to one and a half dog's length). If you're next to the edge you'll be forced off. If you're too far forwards, you won't be near the edge and it'll fail.
3) You must NOT perfect shield or spot dodge. You MUST shield before the punch impacts (if you want to shield camp, it works well with this). Spot dodges and perfect shields will mean you remain stationary, a non-perfect shield means you will not.
4) This relies on the down smash A's variant of the 'slide glitch' (you can trigger this by standing point blank to Little Mac).
5) DHD MUST face Little Mac when executing this move.

Basically, what will happen is Little Mac's charge punch will execute and impact your non-perfect shield, which will slide you towards the edge in-front of Little Mac. What should happen is you're sandwiched between the edge and Little Mac. Because Little Mac's charge punch has a cooldown period and Little Mac is already point blank, this sets up nicely into the 'slide glitch' down smash A (DHD must be facing Mac for this to work).

What will happen is the smash down A's first shot will hit Little Mac, sending him flying off the edge, but because the second and third shot don't connect (because Nintendo did a hatchet job on DHD and didn't fix the glitches), Little Mac goes downwards diagonally off the edge - out of range of any of his recovery moves. This will work in any instance you catch Mac near an edge (assuming your back is to the edge and Mac is point blank), but it works best after a charge punch because Mac can't escape the cooldown period.


The end result is one dead Little Mac.

Hardcore Little Macs will rarely use a charge punch, but if they do, rest easy you know how to counter it and kill them. It's not recommended to do this when you're a high percent because the charge punch tends to bypass the non-perfect shield (on higher percents).

Edit: Failure scenarios will include:
Little Mac going past you whilst you're shielding (either due to speed or a perfect shield).
Smash down A not doing a slide glitch (usually because Little Mac is too far from you, you must be so close as to be intersecting the outer parts).
The charge punch having insufficient cooldown period (usually due to being undercharged).
Little Mac coming up short on distance coverage.

Even with the failure scenarios, it's a chance at an early KO, and worth doing.

 

[lilinuyasha]

Usually I find the best way to beat little mac is to kill him without dying as many times as he does. It's effective in pretty much every matchup, I've found.