[Help] Being Less Predictable

[Deflect]

So... I've been practicing with Meta Knight for some time now, since it's my main character...

I seem to be having a little bit of a problem when coming towards the stage. I'm usually too predictable and I get hit or smashed off.

Usually I try to:

Glide on and attack
Shuttle loop and attack
Tornado on to the stage
Glide and grab on to the ledge, let go, then shuttle loop back on... etc.

I know the possible recoveries, but is there something I'm doing wrong? Why am I being so predictable, I try to change it up, but that doesn't seem to work.

Is it just experience or the way I play?

 

[Atria]

Have you tried using any of MK's aerial moves to ward off any off stage attackers first? If you can't attack them, try to air dodge their attack. Once the attack misses, you can safely get back on the stage without any fear of getting attacked off the stage again.

I wouldn't recommend tornadoing back to the stage, especially if you are far from the ledge. Because some attacks can hit you out of the tornado. Also, if your opponent shields it and you are moving away from them to get to the center of the stage, they can just walk up to you and punish you once you come out of the tornado. Also, gliding + attacking towards the stage is rather predictable because the opponent can see you coming and can either power shield the attack and attack you immediately or just dodge it and punish you from the ending lag from the glide attack.

Also, when you grab on to the ledge, you don't always have to ^B to get back to the stage while it hits your opponent away in the process if they are too close to the ledge. In conjuction with the ^B, you could also try to Down B past the enemy, (Occasionally attacking out of it. Alternate between the 2) use >B back on the stage (I wouldn't recommend this one though...) or the one I use often: Fair or Dair back to the stage attacking your opponent in the process. You could also trick your opponent by letting go of the ledge and jumping in front of them (MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN RANGE TO GRAB THE LEDGE!) to bait them into using an attack. Once this happens, either >B to the stage if they try to attack you while they are still on the stage. You will hit them with this move as they are recovering from lag. If they jump off stage to try and attack you, dodge the attack and grab the ledge. Once they've jumped off, this is your chance to get back on the stage because they have jumped off. If they did try to attack you, you've got even more time to get back on stage because they have to recover from the cool down lag from their attack! If you're lucky, they might fall to their death in the process. (Doesn't happen often though...)

I could help you more, but I need more details about:

Do you have all of your jumps?
As soon as you are knocked off, do you use one of MK's specials/glide immediately?
What character you are having trouble against + what moves are they doing to you that you can't get around?
Also for the 2nd option, do you mean ^B to attack the enemy or are you using the glide attack out of the ^B to attack them?
Where is your opponent when you get attacked off stage again? At the end of the stage above the ledge or off the stage?

 

[Crizthakidd]

grabbing the ledge is always safe. so just float back on and attack anyone coming at you or airdodge if they try to hit you with an arial. once on the ledge you have 4 choices so pick one

1. jump back down and wait a little bit until an opening
2. get up attack
3. roll
5. ledge hop and use ur jumps to get passes him.

you can also just press left or right to get on the stage normally and then surprise the shielder with a grab

 

[Deflect]

As soon as you are knocked off, do you use one of MK's specials/glide immediately?

Well, it depends on the situation. When I get knocked off, I'll try to DI and usually find my way back onto the stage...

What character you are having trouble against + what moves are they doing to you that you can't get around?

Characters with projectiles mostly. Toon Link, Falco, King DeDeDe, etc.

Also for the 2nd option, do you mean ^B to attack the enemy or are you using the glide attack out of the ^B to attack them?

I mean Up+B and then attack after gliding.

Where is your opponent when you get attacked off stage again? At the end of the stage above the ledge or off the stage?

Around the edge of the stage.

 

[thatsyournamedude]

you could always glide under stages that allow it to avoid your opponent all together. Crizthakidd is on the right track with using aerials. You can use the moves several times without wasting any jumps.

 

[Babar-Thorbald]

Few more ways beside what you said:
-glide attack then up b (be care ful to space well, so you don't get shieldgrabbed...
-side b
-side b
-side b
-side b
-drill rush
-side b.

that's the best way to recover...

 

[Atria]

Few more ways beside what you said:
-glide attack then up b (be care ful to space well, so you don't get shieldgrabbed...
-side b
-side b
-side b
-side b
-drill rush
-side b.

that's the best way to recover...

You forgot triple dash... Therefore that's only the "second best way" to recover. Anyway, back to business...

So it's mostly against projectile attacks huh? Well for King DeDeDe, 1 thing you can do is just air dodge his projectile and stay low when approaching the edge. Once you think you are about parallel to the edge, ^B and grab the edge. If it didn't hit the opponent but you grabbed the edge, do what I told you to do in my earlier post when it comes to getting past your opponent. If you don't think that you've got enough jumps to do that, try to >B towards the ledge. As you move foward, it should swat the waddle dees away in the process. Watch out for Gordo's though, (Sea Urchin looking ones.) they're invincible. It's the luck of the draw on that one...

For Falco, stay low and air dodge the first set of lasers. Be wary however when you approach the stage. Falco may jump off and try to spike you with his Dair. Meteor canceling won't work too well here. I suggest you air dodge that too.

For both Link's, (I know you said T.Link, but IMO, both work in pretty much the same trend.) I think their projectiles are quite easy to air dodge. The only one that can be remotely controlled are their bombs, but I think these are fairly predictable too. Could just air dodge them too I suppose.

The 1 solution for all characters is that you can glide underneath the stage (Only if it's possible!) and grab the edge on the other side of the stage as thatsyournamedude mentioned earlier. Although if up against either Link or T.Link, (Or anyone else who has a pick-up projectile like their bombs.) I probably wouldn't glide under the stage because if the bomb hits you, they can use their Dair to hit you while you're in hitlag (Whatever it's called.) and may KO you depending on your %. Don't know if their Dair's spike you though.

Also for that 3rd question I asked, I wouldn't recommend using the ^B just to attack the enemy. Use it as a quick ledge grabber. Also, if an enemy tries to attack you during your ^B as you attempt to grab the ledge, it won't work for 2 reasons: They'll get hit by the attack if they were too slow to attack you beforehand. Second reason is that if they attack you and you've just initiated the attack before the hitbox comes out from the enemy's attack, you'll hit them because of the invincibility frames that occur at the start of attack. Therefore, you can't get hurt/be interrupted when you start the shuttle loop. (I think I may have said it the wrong way. However, you are invincible when MK initiates the shuttle loop. So reason 2 still applies.)

Lastly, do they use these projectiles in a certain way or do they just spam it hoping that they'll hit you? Let me know if this didn't help. Its been a while since I have been put into situation like this.