Marth huh? Well first off, know that at a beginner level, Marth gets ***** by Sheik. If any of ur pals like to use Sheik, don't even try with Marth. At professional levels of play, the disadvantage isn't as severe, but at the casual level? Forget about it. In the words of Ken: "Switch to Fox and **** the Ho."
Next thing to know: Marth is all about his grab. Grab often. Against opponents who don't know how to DI (your friends probably don't) The fthrow to fsmash (throw forward and immediately do the forward smash attack) *****. At higher damages, throwing up and juggling is a great strategy. Pretty much never use Marth's upsmash. It sucks. Use his uptilt. It owns the upsmash. Trust me. Juggle ur buddies with it. It's a blast. It's also a good strategy to throw them backwards, and then just sit there waiting for them to techroll back towards you, then you can just grab 'em again without even moving, making them look like an idiot. If they don't do this, just pay attention to what they habitualy do when you toss 'em, and either techchase, smash 'em, whatever works. Marth's grabgame is deadly.
Never use Marth's dsmash: Marth's Down smash sucks. To my knowledge there is never a situation in which another move wouldn't serve you better. Just don't use it.
Shield Grabbing is crucial: This works with Marth better than any other character, because he has the longest grab range of any char (that doesn't utilize a tool of some sort, like Samus and link, whos grabs are consequently slow as hell and almost useless to shieldgrab with.) Shield grabbing is ur best friend. Just sit there with ur shield on, and when somebody tries to hit u from ur front they will be stunned for a short time because they hit your shield; grab 'em, and punish them for being a slow learner with the grab strats I have mentioned thus far. When ur buddies catch on to shield grabbing, the jig isn't up! Often what people do to get around shieldgrabbing is to do an aerial attack and land behind you, so you can't grab 'em. Well, there is a counter for this counter. They still hit your shield, so they still have shield-hit-stun, so if you time it right, you can immediately jump from your shield and nail them with a down-A in the air. (Make sure to DI [directionaly influence away from them with the control stick] after nailing them with this attack)
All's FAir in Love and War: Marth's FAir (his forward aerial attack) is his best move IMO. It is fast as hell. So fast, that you can pull of two of them in a row from a shorthop (a very short jump executed by tapping the jump button for a very short span of time). It's great for combos and breaking ur opponent's combos.
Lord of the Edge: When your opponent is off the edge, Marth is a wizard at edgeguarding with his fsmash.
Seriously, the edge is urs: Wanna know an awsome trick? This works beautifully when you are outnumbered because it makes those numbers mean nothing. This is great in situations when you have a lot of damage and your opponent only needs one decent hit to kill you (e.g. you are on Corneria and you have 110% damage, and you are fighting a Fox, who only needs to grab you and throw you up once to nail you with an UAir (his scissors kick) and kill you. This is also how you deal with overzealous, overconfident, and over-aggressive players of every sort: Grab the edge. Ur opponent, believing he now has the advantage, has already been lulled into a false sense of security. Now, once he approaches you, let go of the edge by pressing away from the course with the stick. (Don't press down, it'll getcha killed) Then air jump, let the stick go neutral and press A to perform a NAir (neutral air attack). Fall back down to catch the edge. Ur opponent will often be unfazed and will continue his attempts to knock you out. Now alternate between pressing down on the stick to ff (fast fall) and jump back up to catch the edge (this will take you out of his range temporarily, and when you grab the edge you are invincible for a short period, so this strategy makes you harder to hit) and performing the ledgehopped (that's what letting go of the edge and air jumping back is called) NAir. Eventually, smarter and more experienced players may catch on, and attempt to shieldgrab this attack. All you have to do in this situation is push away from them as you hit them to DI out of shieldgrabbing range and then DI back towards the stage and grab the edge again. Rinse and repeat to wear down ur opponent's shield. This attack can also kill people if they have high enough of a percentage; all you got to do is DI forward as you NAir and finish the attack while ur behind them. Once your opponent realizes his mistake and backs off, it's often too late, and you can return to a more level playing field.
These are all the techniques I know that are really important, easy to pull off, and will **** noobs. As will all strats, there are ways around them, but noobs and casual players will fall victim to these strategies time and time again. To learn more advanced techniques just look up a proper Marth guide, and I strongly reccomend going to youtube and typing in "ssbm advanced how to play" and "wound of the wind" and "kaze no kizzu" and looking for videos of Ken, Azen, and other pro Marths and immitating them. Enjoy playing as Marth. You've picked an excellent player, with many strengths and few weaknesses.
