Spacing
Questions to ask yourself:
- Am I often hitting nothing but air with my moves?
- Am I often hitting my opponent with moves such as bair, ftilt, or fireball that are getting punished even after I land the move (on shield usually, but also can happen at low %)?
- Am I getting punished for whiffed grabs, smashes, etc.?
If your answers to any (or all) of these questions are yes, then:
- Focus on landing moves with the tip of your hitbox (i.e. the tip of Mario’s feet on bair or ftilt)
- Make sure you have adequate space to be throwing fireballs: even if they power shield, you still don’t want to be punished.
- Recognize they are baiting your moves and mix it up by waiting for a half a second longer before attacking or not attacking at all (empty hopping, etc.) and see if you can bait them instead. Also try to watch for patterns (are they shielding a lot, spot dodging a lot, etc.) and pick an appropriate counter (grabs, hold “a” for repeated jabs, etc.)
Momentum
Questions to ask yourself:
- Am I taking more damage than my opponent (by a significant amount)?
- Do I feel like I never get a breath while playing against my opponent?
- Do I find myself on the ledge the majority of the time?
- Are all of my attacks being shielded/dodged?
- Is my opponent making lots of reads on my movements?
Solutions:
- Reset the situation. If you find yourself having any of these problems, your opponent has control, which could mean a lot more percent for you, a loss of a stock, or even the loss of a game or a set. Run away and fireball camp or simply bair wall, etc. to try to keep them at bay while you catch your breath. Try to remain calm as you do this.
- As always, mix up your options. Know and be familiar with all of your options on the ledge, while in shield, or simply while standing or walking.
- Change up your timing or mimic your movements preceding an option that you have been using, but then choose a different option. (i.e. if you’ve been fireballing a lot, short hop and land and do three jabs or an ftilt instead)
- Make sure you aren’t doing a lot of laggy moves! This includes SMASHES and ROLLING, first and foremost. These moves are easily read, especially at high levels of play.
- Don’t be TOO aggressive, but you don’t want to give up your momentum either. Learn to read the situation through experience, and know when to stop going in, or when to stop being too defensive. This is difficult to master and will take practice. Don’t get discouraged!
Power Shielding
I was debating putting this under Momentum, but I think it deserves it’s own category. Why is this important?
- PS’ing has no lag from having to drop shield, making it possible to nearly instantly punish your opponent. This opens up a lot more options for punishment, because your punishing option effectively begins before your opponent’s move that hit your shield ends. This GREATLY shifts the momentum, instantly putting you in control of the situation.
- If your opponent is allowed to do this, many of our moves become detrimental to ourselves. For example, if you short hop at a DK and throw a fireball, and DK power shields a fireball, he can dsmash you out of the air before the animation for your fireball throwing ends. There is also the MK tornado < PS video out there on YouTube that is ridiculous… and helps prove my point.
Weak vs. Strong Moves:
Questions:
- Am I having a hard time killing with my smashes at high %’s?
- Am I trying really hard to kill my opponent but there just aren’t any openings?
- Am I getting punished a lot for whiffed smashes?
Solutions:
- Smashes are very helpful for landing that kill move and they make a great punishment option on a good read, but with high rewards come high risks. It is up to you as the player to decide when it is worth the risk. Most of the time with Mario, you may want to pick a weaker option.
- By choosing a weaker option, such as tilts or jabs, you give your opponent less time to punish your moves. While this may take longer to kill your opponent, if you can maintain momentum with these weaker moves you can eventually net yourself a kill move.
Conditioning
Questions:
- Do I find myself picking the same options a lot? (falling INTO my opponent, rolling in pressured situations, air dodging into the ground, using dsmash when feeling pressured, etc.)
- Am I being read a lot?
Solutions:
- Recognize when you have habits (or have a partner watch you play and tell you your habits) and work on removing them.
- At the same time, work on recognizing when your opponent has habits and capitalize on those habits. Don’t just go for crazy reads all the time. Make educated reads based on what you have observed them doing throughout the match in similar situations.
- If you want to condition your opponent, throw out the same option in the same situation (preferably one that isn’t too punishable) and when you notice that they are beginning to adapt to that option, watch what their new option becomes. Then, punish that option. (Example: use ftilt at a certain range a lot, notice your opponent begins spot dodging them, charge fsmash and release during their spot dodge for a satisfying kill)
Footstooling
This is a BIG one, I think. I believe that footstooling is the future of getting out of combos, and it has started becoming commonplace in upper levels of play. Learn to footstool when an opponent is coming up from below for an extra jump. Mario has some decent air mobility, especially with wavebounced/b-reversed fireballs. Utilize these tools + footstooling to avoid getting juggled. Also, footstooling is great for setting up team combos and possible reads/jab locks (if your opponent doesn’t roll fast enough) because it can’t be tech’d. On another note, a standing opponent can be footstooled-nair’d while in their shield, as footstooling them (sweetspotted, anyway) forces your opponent to drop their shield. Opponents who are trying to recover low and are dropping below the stage are often prone to being footstooled as well since they are waiting to use their recovery move.
Understanding RCO Lag
RCO lag stands for Recovery Carry-Over Lag, and it happens whenever Mario sweet-spots the ledge with his up-b. What happens is that the next time Mario lands on the ground without performing an action, he has quite a bit of lag where he just stands there with his hand on the ground… And we can't do anything about it. This severely limits our options since we can't simply fast fall to ground and grab, as you will have this lag. Our opponents, if they are knowledgeable enough about Mario, will take advantage of this, since after sweet-spotting the ledge, we HAVE to perform an action before landing or be punished during lag. This is a big problem for us! Now, knowing this, there are a couple of measures we can take to avoid being punished for this character flaw.
- If you aren't in a hurry to grab the ledge (i.e. you aren't in danger of being ledge guarded, etc.) then don't sweet-spot the ledge! Simply up-b so that you will either land on the stage or float away from the ledge before grabbing it. This way, you won't induce RCO lag and won't be punished later for landing on the ground.
- If your opponent has been knocked away and you know that you have previously sweet-spotted the ledge with your up-b, JUMP AND FASTFALL IN PLACE. This may seem silly, but it will allow you to get rid of your RCO lag while you are safe! I can't tell you how many videos I've watched where I was sitting there talking to my computer, saying "You have RCO Lag" over and over, only to watch the Mario get trapped and killed by it later! Be aware!
- If you have to land and know you are about to have RCO Lag, try to mix up your landing as much as possible. Wavebounce Fireballs, save your second jump, go for a footstool as they try to punish, etc. These tools will help you survive!
Faster Movement Speed
In looking at the higher placing Mario players and comparing them to less successful of their plumber brethren, one thing I always notice is that the higher ranked Mario mains move about twice as fast as the other Mario players. This is most apparent when watching Boss play Mario. Flameleon is another great example. While studying them and trying to figure out just what it is that makes them seem so much faster, I believe I am able to make a short list of things that they do that we may not be doing. These skills should make your play speed increase significantly and I believe that we will do better as a community with a faster play style. Here is what I have noticed in the higher placing Mario's:
- More fast falling after aerials. Boss does this after nearly every back air. He does SH bair -> fast fall -> immediate other option. This makes Mario appear to be moving very quickly from one action into the next.
- Constant motion. Xero, Flame, and Boss all do this. They appear to constantly be moving. However, this has to be intelligent motion. Don't put yourself in dangerous positions or in range of punishment while moving. Your goal is to make it harder for your opponent to be able to space properly and for you to be looking for openings while remaining safe and well-spaced for your own attacks.
- Shield cancelling. Shield cancelling is where you are running and you tap shield to stop running. By doing this you give yourself more control at the end of a run animation, but you also make it harder for your opponent to predict where you are going to be. This can be a good mind game if you want to run and shield cancel back and forth while trying to catch an opponent's landings in order to make them unsure of where you are going to be and what option you are going to use.
- Buffering Moves. When you perform an action, you can begin inputting another action while that action is still occurring, and your next action will be performed as soon as possible. This is known as buffering, and can be very beneficial when trying to string moves together, or just getting that move to come out a couple frames faster. This can be the difference between getting that kill and not sometimes, so learn to utilize the buffer system in Brawl to your advantage! So how should we buffer without inputting extra moves? Well, for one example, when you want to land and immediately up smash, you can fast fall air dodge to ground and during the air dodge begin inputting up smash. As soon as you land, your air dodge will be cancelled and you will up smash immediately. There are many applications for buffering, so experiment and see what you can come up with on your own!
