Help With Mixing up my Approaches

[Nesious]

Recently I've been feeling like my approaches have been stagnating a bit more than I'd want, and while it doesn't get punished very often if I notice it in match or set, I also seem to default to the same strategy if I get frustrated, making me way easier to read and then subsequently get knee'd 3 times in the face . Specifically, I need help with my early approaches (relative to enemy %), where I generally just rely on DD Grabs or baiting out an attack (into more DD Grabs >.<). Sometimes I'll mix up with DTilts or FAir OOS (if I'm being pressured), but DD Grabs are pretty much my bread and butter. Obviously there are a lot of different approaches and they all differ based on who and what you're facing, and the stage, but is there any general advice ya'll can give :O?

 

[-=Untamed-Beast=-]

Don't approach.

Spoiler

Empty hop, watch their reaction.
Empty hop, waveland forward or backward.
Move on the ground like PPMD (aka Learn to move on the ground well, and then do it.)
Short hop Fair and Short hop Side B allow for wavelanding.
Late fair, just before touching the ground and into and immediate action because:
Don't be a sitting target.
Wavedash into dtilt
Dashdance wavedash dtilt
(Dtilt is awesome because you can interrupt with just about anything (not shield) at frame 20.)
Jump pass the opponent.
Wavedash jab
Wavedash ftilt

There's tons and tons of possibilities. They all become useful depending on the matchup, the opponent, and how you've conditioning them to expect something or certain things. Any of these that involve actually throwing out an attack are riskier and better reserved for reacting to the opponent's movement. You can approach without attacking, and you can opt not to approach at all (and that doesn't directly imply camping! ;D).

 

[ObdurateMARio]

Don't approach with Nair ever. Nair's best use is either in a combo, or as a space control. Do a stationary nair, or a nair just outside of your opponents range and hope they jump into it.

You should be approaching with movement more than with attacks. Dash dance, WD in/out, etc to find the opening to go in.

 

[ItsChon]

Well, judging from your starting post, you've pretty much got it down haha. I'm not a Melee expert but just from watching different videos and competitive play, the things you should be focusing on ARE DD Grab, DTilt, and SHFFL Fair. Those are the things you approach with. DTilt is great for poke and interrupting certain things, and really it depends on the character your facing. If you're against Spacies, just DD and get that grab. Once you get a grab you should pretty much get a guaranteed thirty percent which can lead to other things as well. Try moving form ledge to ledge, wavedashing forward and backwards, etc. I mean, there isn't a whole lot to Marth's neutral game. Most of it is spacing, though that's admittedly not an easy thing to do, and perfecting your movement game which includes WD/DD/WL/Etc. Capitalize on your enemies mistakes. Once you perfect that, then you can start thinking about approaching and getting stuff to happen.

 

[MarthZ]

short hop fair fast fall L cancel short hop nair fast fall L cancel
wave dash grab
jump cancel grab
run cancel D tilt
pivot behind enemy f smash
wave dash pivot grab