How is Meta Knight good in Smash 4?

[Blixen]

So I was wandering what makes "GOOD" in Smash Wii U is he similar to Meta Knight?

 

[Conn1496]

Smash 4 MK is no where near the level that Brawl MK was on. But as far as I know, MK has kept a pretty respectable high-tier placement in Smash 4 since release (Consistently in top 15-20 on most lists.), only really dropping when his ladder combo was nerfed pretty hard.

He plays a very strong bait/punish game and has pretty good movement speed and options (including things like dimensional cape), he has a wide range of combo starting tools and confirms (dash, in some cases, is even safe on shield), and he has early KO potential with things like Shuttle Loop and ledge trump B-Air, as well as a decent survivability off-stage because of his wide-range of difficult to punish recovery options and multiple jumps that help him stall.

A few notable things that MK has off the top of my head are:

• The previously mentioned ladder combo (has multiple starters, but basically just U-Air Ladder > Shuttle Loop), which can still work with multiple U-Airs, but can be effectively SDId by most of the cast.
• A great D-Tilt poke (frame 3-4, hits low, 15 active frames after the hitbox) that can trip at early %s or even just combo at late %s.
• A strong bait game with tricky movement options, mix-ups, and in some cases, F-Smash (only 18 active frames after the hitbox comes out, a very scary move to be hit by because of it's KO potential and general damage).
• Good edgeguards and reverse edgeguards (Drill Rush is especially notable for potentially stage-spiking opponents who come offstage as you recover.), as expected from a character with multiple jumps.
• Dash/Grab mix-ups as a combo starter. As previously mentioned, Dash is potentially safe on shield, but is mostly good because of it's speed (frame 7-11) and coverage as a punish. Grab > D-Throw is a good combo starter for obvious reasons, but is definitely helped by Meta Knight's quick run speed (12th fastest run speed).

Those are just the things I can think of off the top of my head, but I'm sure I likely missed something. As I said, MK has kept a decent high-tier spot, generally because of his strong bait/punish style, good movement options and good recovery game, but there are other things I'm likely forgetting (Probably about his defensive options.).

Hope this sheds some light on MK's style in Smash 4!