Help VS Little Mac and Dark Pit (as well as characters with counters)?

[Dedemelon]

Hey all! Took a long break from Smash and am now coming back to it. Dedede has been one of my faves for a long time, but often I find the bane of my existence is counters.

I realize part of my issue may be my own predicability. I always try going for aerials and then get countered and destroyed when my opponent is falling. Usually when they try getting back up on the ledge. Any ways around this?

Dedede is also suppose to have a slight advantage against Little Mac to my knowledge but I still find myself getting pummeled. Especially by neutrals. Dark Pit??? Oh boy...

So yeah I'm basically just looking for some advice from my Dedede brothers. Thanks! :D

 

[williamsga555]

If you're getting caught out by counters a lot, try landing with Inhale instead. Quick 10% and a bit of stage control. Obviously not guaranteed to work, but it's worth trying now and then.

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Mac rolls over Dedede for the most part, but Dedede's advantaged state in this matchup is so one-sided in his favor that the matchup comes out close to even.

You're probably going to get hit a lot vs. Mac. Just keep patient and wait for your opening. Once you get a grab, dthrow→bair is your best friend: deals good damage and, importantly, sends Mac horizontally.

The entire goal is to get Mac to grab the ledge. While he's there, up-angled Gordo and ftilt work together to make getting back on a nightmare for him. With proper spacing, ftilt will cover roll-in, standard getup, and attack. Gordo discourages jumping, and if spaced right, can stage spike him if he hangs on the ledge for too long. Rinse and repeat until he finally gets back onstage or dies.

Another thing of note is dsmash. Dsmash kills Mac stupid early, even from center stage, because it sends him almost purely horizontally. If you call him out on a dash-in, etc., it's well worth throwing one out if you're not at risk of dying on whiff.

If Mac has KO punch on deck, respect his ability to confirm into it with dtilt. Try to stay airborn and don't get greedy on punishing him. Just wait for an opening and get in something to get rid of it.

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Can't speak on Pit/Dark Pit much, due to lack of experience. They dominate neutral pretty handily, but they don't get much reward for it, and they lack a truly scary finishing move against D3. Again, the key is going to be to play patient and mind your spacing. The Pits have deceptively long reach on most of their moves, so try to stretch that hammer as far as it can go when challenging them.

Their recovery is a little too quick to warrant harassing them offstage. Instead, just set up a ledgetrap with gordos and try to punish their getup options. Like Mac, up-angled gordo and ftilt to a great job at stuffing options. The Pits can jump from ledge more freely than Mac, though, so if you condition them to jump+airdodge, you can punish with a bair or nair pretty reliably.

 

[Dedemelon]

Thanks, I'll try and keep that information in mind next time. Double thanks for the tidbit on neutral B for people who like to counter a lot. Won't mean I'll always be able to abuse my air game but evens things out a bit into a 50/50 with either they counter or neutral. (I think Inhale can cover airdodges but not 100% sure). That way I'm not just getting rolled over by that.

Also appreciate the guidance on the ledge covering options. I do use Gordos but the f-tilt on top of the up Gordo sounds a look more reliable than trying to snipe em' off stage with my little buddies. As for the Pits I guess I'll just have to get some more practice and hope for the best.

Thanks a lot! :D

 

[Dedemelon]

Also quickly realizing that even though it's currently just against the AI, that ledge technique you were talking about also has a chance to punish with a downsmash too! Thanks again!