Important things I noticed about Ultimate Cloud, written by a Sm4sh Cloud main.

[Struck_in_Two]

- They not only fixed Climhazzard to make it viable, it's literally the most unga bunga thing you can spam in bracket, essentially slaying button pressers for free.

• Opponent is jumping at you? Up-B.
• Opponent is attacking your shield? Up-B.
• Opponent is slightly above you? Up-B.
• Opponent is pressing a button? Up-B.
• Opponent is stringing together multiple hits? Up-B.
• Opponent thinks they can pick you off the ledge and is not named Rob/Dedede/Snake/similar? Just press it again. That'll drive em' off.
• Opponent thinks they can punish you for whiffing Up-B? That's ok, you can put up your shield in literally a third of a second just to press it again.

This move is crayon material, free.

- Cross Slash is not only one of the best anti-airs/whiff punishers in the game for the damage & good hitbox, they also properly fixed the aerial version to connect all the hits properly, which:

• This gives him a consistent, low-risk offstage edgeguarding tool that kills at 120%+ (weight dependent) since one use stalls him in the air. That's ridiculous. It grants him enough time to use another aerial if necessary. If they decide to recover low you can stage spike them then do another option if they tech your Cross Slash.
• It also does 22%. You hit this thing off 4 reads and they're already at 80-ish%.

- Blade Beam not only gives him a more balanced neutral on FD thanks to its decreased FAF from 61 to 54, it also allows him to properly contend with other projectile users (Samus, the Links, Megaman, etc.)

• It also harasses people offstage and makes them burn resources like their jump or airdodge. That's important. You want them to burn those.
• This thing is extremely spammable. You can literally have 2 at once onscreen at a time.
• Did I mention you can mixup the trajectory with a SH version to stuff their movement out even more?

People say Landing Up-air doesn't exist anymore. That's not true. When you SH, Just FF it then flick your C-stick upwards. This is notably easier in Limit mode. Lab the height & timing in Training Mode. Too bad it doesn't work on peeps like Pichu or Greninja though, they're too sleek for that. The lowest you're gonna get it on is Inkling but that's still kinda hard don't do that. Use the spacies / Young Link's height for reference if you want your actually skilled Sm4sh confirm back.

But man can we talk about F-air?

F-air, man. This thing is also crayon tier.

This thing is dumb safe on shield, as spammable as Dante from the Devil May Cry series in addition to your already safe B-air, not to mention both of these confirm into Cross-Slash/Up-tilt/imagination for free at low-mid %. Combine those two with Cross Slash, up-B, your barely existable neutered frame 9 grab and rising N-air and you now have a mixup game.

"But SiT! N-air sucks now! It doesn't even cover the entire sword!"

Yeah you're absolutely right my guy, it's absolute ass. It doesn't even hit below him properly, that's how trash it is. But N-air is still the same as Smash 4, when it hits. It's a reverse OoS option, shield pressure, shark option, decent edgeguard and combo string. But you know what else a confirmed N-air is good for?

Setting up tech trap kill confirms. N-air, Jab lock with Jab 1, Finishing Touch. Bam, that's a stock. This thing is no Landing Up-Air > Finishing Touch, but if you find a way to land this, man oh man does it feel good.

Oh that's right, Jab 1 actually Jab locks now. Go figure.

Also you can just Back Throw for the same thing. Or just Dash Attack off of it because that's actually true at 0-low %. What!? Cloud actually has combos off throws now!?!?!? Colour me surprised



Ok I'm done. I still miss my old N-air and grab. Sakurai should give him back those things.