Hey, so, I have two main issues with Mario: approaches, and edgeguarding options.
Against good players, sometimes I can't seem to get close up, and my approaches always end up being punished. RAR, Dash Attack and Nair always get shielded, and when I try to grab them, they roll out of it. I've now been thinking about using Reverse UpSmash (idk its official name, if it has one), but still, I'd like to know about any other options.
When edgeguarding, I normally go with Nair or Bair together with some random Fairs, or try gimping them, but when they recover low, I run out of good counters that won't put me at a disadvantage and are likely to hit my opponent. Would Dair be a good option?
Any help is appreciated!
About Approaching: This is one of these things that makes me want to make a thread about Mario's movement, because ultimately, this game is about footsies. You have to know what beats what and what you can do at a given time. To answer your question, your problem is similar to what many rising Mario players have an issue with, and it's simply that you have to respect the neutral game.
If you're going in swinging, it's fairly obvious you'll get punished for it. You have to be comfortable with not forcing an approach, because it's telegraphed. You want to pressure your opponent with your presence, and force them to react. Condition them to react a certain way and then open up an opportunity to get your damage in.
This is difficult to explain in words, so it's better to
link a video instead. Start at 21:05, and watch how Ally plays the neutral state. During this stage, he is extremely patient. He's fine with sitting back, tossing fireballs, using FLUDD, and keeping the game in neutral, because NAKAT is waiting for Ally to make a mistake so he can punish. It's not until 21:43 that Ally actually gets in and starts dealing damage to Ness, but for nearly the entire time he hasn't taken damage (except for that initial 23%), and he makes up for it very easily.
About Edgeguarding Low Recoveries: This is one of Mario's pitfalls as he doesn't have a stellar time taking out low recoveries. D-air works for damage, but not for gimping, and depending on the recovery this could put you in a bad spot (Sheik in particular is pretty difficult to edgeguard without screwing yourself over). However, it's not impossible to get gimps like this. You can do a falling N-air, B-air stage spike, or FLUDD your opponent under the stage. Generally though you want to force your opponent to not recover low. The absolute safest option is to just go for ledge trumps and get a guaranteed B-air.
Hope this answers your questions.
@
Xeze
Can you go into detail with your troubles against Falco?
