How do I deal with high pressure situations as Marth?

[Blu19]

More specifically against Fox and Falco. They are usually either camping platforms, shooting lasers at me, or up against my shield. If I try to shield grab I just get shined and if I retaliate with an attack, Marth's moves are so laggy and lack a lingering hitbox, causing me to get punished. With such poor out of shield options and the threat of lasers in neutral game, how am I supposed to get in against a decent spacies player and how do I deal with their insane shield pressure?

 

[AirFair]

Well, if you lose control at any point in the neutral against a spacie worth their shines, then don't expect to regain it without a mistake on their part.

Don't let them run around, and go for a grab. A single grab is the most important thing you can get, because both Fox and Falco can be chaingrabbed, and you can techchase on the ground and uptilt/uair for when they land on platotforms

I would recommend practicing moving in the neutral. When you learn good movement, combine it with dtilt, fair, grab, etc. Learn how to threaten with Marth so they will respect your range.

Control the neutral, control the game. Punishing is easy since you can cover many options as mentioned above. Don't randomly throw out moves and you are good.

 

[Littlebear]

I have similar problems with this. I have very smooth movement but I went to my first tourney this weekend and got double eliminated by a pretty technical Falco and a pretty technical Fox. When I look at threads like this, all I see are generalities like "control the neutral game". What do you mean by this? Can you give specific examples of exactly how to do this?

It would personally help me (and probably OP) if you could think of any matches on YouTube that showcase Marth dealing with crazy spacie pressure. More specifically, I would like to see a match with a Marth dealing with Falco laser pressure. I know there are ways to deal with lasers (shielding, powershielding, jumping over them, etc.) but it seems like a whole lot of work to dodge something that Falco can spam so easily. Can you think of any matches where a Marth successfully controlled a game against a laser-happy Falco?

 

[AirFair]

Ok. If you EVER want to see an AMAZING Marth play neutral. WATCH PPMD. PLEASE. HIS MARTH IS LIFE. I PRAY EVERY NIGHT TO BE LIKE HIM

Watch some PPMD matches at Apex 2015. His movement and neutral are amazing.

I'll try to summarize what he said on Marth's movement.

Basically, you have your dashdance range and you want to stay in it if you are in a close quarters situation. Your best options are fair when they short hop at you, dtilt, and grab. You can dtilt into a grab so there's 2 combined. You have to carry the threat of a grab with your movement. Basically, scare the opponent into respecting your range. Once you get good at chaingrabbing and fighting spacies, you can do a pretty good job of punishing their options after getting a grab or getting them offstage.

Need any more help? ask me, or the great @Dr Peepee himself. He is streaming tomorrow around 7 EST I believe at www.twitch.tv/ppmd.

Good luck! I myself am not good at fighting the bird. Just know your range I guess, if it makes sense. Falco's laser can be countered with powershields, or wavedash OoS.

 

[Littlebear]

Yeah I love PP's Marth too. I used to watch a lot of M2K but in terms of playing a fundamental Marth that someone can watch and learn from, PP's the best. Powershielding is tough even for pros to do consistently. I can wavedash OOS, I just don't like his lasers eating my shield consistently. Especially with shine pressure coming at any moment.

 

[AirFair]

Yeah I'm gonna be at TGC in Houston this weekend, I'll see if I can get some knowledge on the Falco matchup. I'll let you know if I find anything.