hippiedude92
Smash Hero
Knowing Your Alternatives
My fellow Mario mains! I usually post around here but never really contributed to this awesome board. So how can I call myself a Mario main whose been to tourneys before and not contribute? Well here it is! Also I wanted to make this my 3,000th post as a silly celebration but got really inpatient, so count this as my 3,000th post just for you guys =].
Credits to Steel2ndd, for making almost similar guide for Marths and format and what not and **** before l get flamed at >.>
Inspired by the great Emblem Lord. Reading this should give you a better insight what I'm talking about.
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=206225
Also this guide can be related to the HugS's blog post "The Zone" meaning neutral, (definitely one of the best ****ing smashers in the country, he spreads his knowledge upon us and in brawl as well). http://allisbrawl.com/blogpost.aspx?id=16108
Alright so we all know Mario is one badass balanced plumber and he is a versatile character who can deal with just about every option at every given situation. The only drawback to this is that, he lacks range and a character who specializes in that situation can do twice as better then Mario can do in that situation.
The 3 states of gameplay: is the Neutral state (where you and your opponent are at free at will and can do anything you please) Advantage state (where your **** begins <3, or more likely where the momentum is in your favor) Disadvantage state ( where you get your a$$ handed to you, and your opponent has the momentum in his favor).
The Neutral State- This is where Mario's options are open here. His basic approachs can work at any given moment. This is no momentum of the match in neither yours or your opponent's favor. Basically you have your time to think over what your planning to do next. I'll be listing the alternatives that are open for you and what you can do about it.
Fireball- Definitely staple of Mario's basic approach options. You can full hop this, you can SH this, you can mix it up with your aerials and some fludd/cape. You have alot of mixups for this. This is Mario's ONLY PROJECTILE! MAKE GOOD USE OF THIS! Why is important to use fireball espically in the start of a match or in your neutral zone? Because we all want to know how that opponent reacts. What option will he use? Powershield? Cancel with an attack? SH over it? Roll forward?
If you know that in any fighting game espically Smash, observation is EVERYTHING. You want to test your opponent and take a snapshot of their reaction and setups what you want to do next about it. We can do this as an approach working towards our advantage state, since your opponent will be in a defensive position and we'll be able to follow up with anything we want.Your at a safe distance from your opponent so I recommend ANY Mario player to do this.
Bair- Easily Mario's best aerial and one of his safest in aerial terms of approach. Bair can approach,kill, combo itself to other aerials, it's lagless, can fit 2 bairs in one SH, WoP, gimp people, defensive game, wow it has ALOT OF USES FOR 1 AERIAL. We make use of that. With this many uses, we can switch it up however we please. Remember we can use Bair and work towards our advantage state where we want most and apply our damage from there. Bair and fireball work great in terms of walls and camping methods. So switching from offensive to defensive and vice versa is really easy for Mario.
The drawback to this? Well, anyone who can do twice as better then Mario that is (like that blasted Marth and is Fairs). That and anything really disjointed wrecks this and someone with really good OOS options. Many Marios will be using this approach ALOT and probably never notice it either. Just don't be predictable with it.
Walk to Powershield- If your good with reflex timing and observation skills then this will greatly add to your approach asset. A moving wall is really good espically against spammers/campers. Pretty much characters like falco and his SHlasers can't do anything about this and we have the option to follow up after getting to the distance we need and/or use OOS options we have in case they follow up with something else. This is a nice way to get inside your opponents range and stay inside and deal the damage we need to apply with.
Walk to Jab/Ftilt- Pretty much the same as above ^^. Out of a PS, a jab (seemingly has same range as Dsmash 0.o) OOS is a nice way to start things off witihin your range. Our jab comes out fast at frame 2 so taking human reaction account is like nearly impossible for them UNLESS they predicted it. Also walk to ftilt works too , comes out around frame 5 (?) if you wanna make use of your ftilt :]
That pretty much concludes our alternatives for neutral state. Remember that at neutral state, it's always a good thing to think over and review what happened in the match. It's always good to take a breather because if you rush to much, you'll end up more in the disadvantage state than the advantage state. Onwards to Advantage State.
The Advantage State- We all know that Mario is one hell of a beast once he enters this state. The battle is completely in his favor, and he has alot of alternatives in each different state here. He can do alot in this state and try to maintain this state as long as possible.
When they are offstage- Who? When did this plumber can gimp at least 80% of the cast? Undoubtly Mario's strongest point in his character and where he can score a ko/gimp. As of now, Mario has upper hand because of his position and his tools to keep the opponent offstage, while the opponent has to figure out a way to get past Mario's gimping tools, and get back on to the stage safely. This what you call a advantage state for Mario.
Mario has **** ton of tools for offstage. If you've been reading the recent Mario guides this board has given, you'll realize Mario's gimping skills is unreal. He has the cape, the fludd, fireballs, and aerials to aid him in gimping his opponent. Also don't forget to speed edgehug! Know your timing on this because this can result them missing the sweetspot scoring a win for you also can force a stage return. By speed edgehugging the edge, you use the inv frames and your opponent will be force to recover and land in lag on stage giving you a free ledgedrop aerial. Basically you rack up damage on them.
Remember if you don't score a ko or gimp on them while offstage, you can still rack damage on them, by throwing a bair or 2, or maybe a up air. Or you can mindgame them and set them on the edge. People with bad edge options like Snake can be easily taken advantage off with things like Mario's Fsmash. Also don't be afraid to pressure them! Sure you don't get to gimp them, but you can pressure by sniping with fireballs, people like MK will look for the edge, but you can pressure fireballs and maybe waste a jump or 2 on them.
With the given guides on the board, I don't need go further in this part as you all know Mario is at his peak point when he has his opponent off stage.
When your opponent is being platform pressured- This works so well if your opponent has a blind spot below them such as Rob and Marth. We can do our old school upair binds on them like it was melee though they can DI away. Now remember, this ISNT ALWAYS AN ADVANTAGE. This character dependent. Remember your opponent can platform drop aerial or break your momentum with snake such as nade-shielding. But by putting them in a bad position let's say, hiding in their shield, we can force a shield drop and push them off the platform and most of the time, most people don't really tech it resulting them lying on the ground which I'll cover shortly next. Mario is usually relatively safe since he is pressuring someone with aerials, and your opponent, is forced to hide in their shield OoS, force a shield drop, or platform drop aerial (mario can oos upb this yay).
When your opponent is lying on the ground- This can pretty much result after you forced a shield drop, or a missed tech or something. Now your opponent has 4 options. Regular wake up, Wake up attack, Roll left, or Roll right. We're pretty much at a guessing game here. It's all about mixing up and predicting what they'll do. You can just do a bair or bait the wake up attack and and shield oos upb or you can walk away slowly and just stutter step fsmash them. Pretty much got 2 of their options covered.
When they're lying on the ground, you just got yourself a huge advantage since basically 3/4 options just got covered and the only way is for them to roll towards you or end up behind. Again, our attacks and a good fsmash can cover their option if they happen to lie on the edge. Remember that it's a good chance to take advantage of this alternative since your opponent will only have 4 options to do and it's your job to guess and punish them.
When your opponent is in the air This definitely without a doubt, Mario's strongest point in his character. Being he can combo so well, spike people, create decent walls. Mario can juggle trap his opponents as well too. If they happen to be high in the air, they'll either airdodge or use a aerial below them or to cover themselves (like Rob's nair). You can punish these by resetting the situation with a grab dthrow/uthrow, dair. Mario needs to keep his opponent in the air as long as possible to rack up damage and lead it to a ko. Mario usually stays inside his opponent's range and gets them in the air and keep him there as long as possible. That's Mario's job and his best alternative.
When your attacking and comboing Obviously, this is ANY favorite Mario's advantage state. You pretty much have all the momentum, your opponent needs to look for a way to break your momentum and regain his momentum back. Mario is definitely comboing his opponents in the air (as stated above a advantage alternative). Most Mario players know, they will begin there **** as soon they get a utilt lock at 0%. Then you can follow up however you please, and bait out their attack etc, just like l said above. As cool looking and awesome this state is, it's alot harder to do it straightforward in this game, seeing as how many characters can break your momentum and shift to neutral or disadvantage.
If you know Mario well, you know how to make him start. Jabs, utilts, dairs, dthrows,upairs at lower %s, are generally what your attacking and starting your combos. All your other tools in your moveset is the rest you'll need to attack fully armed and loaded.
Well this concludes the advantage state. When Mario's at his advantage state, he's A BEAST! Mario's objective is to work his way inside, stay inside his opponent's range and get them in the air and deal as much as possible and score a ko or more likely a gimp offstage. Mario's will be constantly shifting this state back and forth depending on the character. Remember that it's isn't always great to stay in the advantage state. There's times where you'll need to back off, and go back to neutral state to give some air and refreshing your gameplan. It's alot better then ending up in disadvantage state. Anyways onwards to the disadvantage state!
The Disadvantage State-This is where the opponent's gain the advantage and Mario will be looking for a way to break his opponent's momentum and bring it to his advantage or shift it to neutral. You'll be getting in this state very frequently espically when you start out. But don't fear! Mario is a character who can deal WITH EVERY GIVEN SITUATION, AT EVERY GIVEN TIME! To get out of this, it's all about knowing your alternatives.
When you are on the ledge- Anyone who outranges or just simply steps out of Mario's range will a hard time on this. Mario's options can be fairly limited depending on the character and his positioning. You'll be finding yourself alot on this state if you rush too much and don't think. This is all about taking a look at your list of options on the ledge, then taking the risk vs reward concept. If your on the ledge, you have roll forward, regular and laggy get up, get up attack and laggy get up attack (consider this over 100% with this alternative), ledge hop attack, ledge jump, ledgedrop and lastly *cape stall! So you see Mario has ALOT of options on the edge, but remember risk vs concept comes after that.
But what makes Mario so special on the edge and many Marios love to use is his ledgedrop *reverse* cape and his cape stall. *many people don't have to reverse it* Due to Mario's special characteristics, he can ledgedrop, cape and use his double jump and do a aerial or fireball. With this, we just added alot more options in our arsenal. If you mix this up alot, alot of people will be caught off guard on this. As for *cape stalling, it's great to slow down the pace of the match, give you time to review your game plan. It's also great mix up and can catch off your opponent greatly after you cape stall. Just don't do it without thinking if their right next to the edge and could probably stage spike you or spike you since theres enough frames for you to get hit.
Look at this vid beginning 1:40 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B-k3TLMa-w
Fancy gimmick no? Kirin stalls on the edge and ledgedrops down with a reverse cape and uses his double jump to fireball, and sucessfully gets back on stage and regains his momentum of the match.
So remember, Mario has a TON of options on the edge. But it really comes down to risk vs reward. Think smart on the edge. Don't always rush and do a silly ledgedrop attack. You'll get punished easily. Mario's cape is really special on the edge. Use it to your advantage and mix it up! The main drawback to Mario being on the edge is that, if you use your second jump and you get hit hard offstage, it'll be impossible or you'll have a really hard time getting back on stage since mario's second jump is vital to him. THINK SMART MARIO MAINS!
When you are being combo'd/attacked Marios a fastfaller, so he'll be combo'd alot at low %s. This will happen alot when your opponent has gotten you in a infinite, chaingrab, any sort of locks, any jab follow ups. Mario isn't bad at that much in this state at all. His OOS game is great, his upb has start up inv frames, and cut through any some sort of chaingrab, some combos and sometimes infinites. You'll be using oos upb/upsmash/nair alot if your being attacked on your shield so you'll always have time to follow up an attack. You can upb chaingrabs like falco, but people who know how to fight Mario well usually expect and bait mario's upb so don't always mash for upb because you'll be baited and punished. For multi-hit moves, you should be SDI-ing out of it, or you can use upb to cut it.
If your being combo'd / juggled in the air, Mario's nair has great priority and can be used as a combo breaker for those who follow up after juggling you. But becareful as said before, anyone who knows Mario well, can easily bait/powershieldgrab Mario's nair and reset the situation. Be smart of what you do. DI also helps alot as well.
When you are above your opponent - Mario has a bad blind spot below him, so many people who excel at juggling traps can take advantage of this espically such as Marth. But don't fear! Smart DI and cape stalling who can escape and throw off guard your opponent. Cape stalling can still give you a breather and let's you nair so you can combo break whatever they'll follow up next. Also don't forget to double jump if you happen to have it. Mario doesn't get that badly wrecked in this state. Use your alternatives smartly!
When you are lying on the ground- This is all about knowing your options and out-think your opponent. It's more of a gamble as well. Just don't be dumb and roll towards your opponent if hes using ike's charging fsmash. Many newbs/noobs have the bad habit of rolling towards your opponent. Don't be predictable in what you do, unless you are conditioning them. There's sometimes certain locations, your opponents where will expect you to roll. That's the edge. If you just got Dthrow'd by Snake near the edge. He covers a large amount of range, and your options, but do not rule out the obvious ones as it will sometimes catch your opponent off guard. Do not be predictable, always mix it up, know all of your alternatives, consider risk vs reward.
When you are offstage Mario has medicore recovery espically in distance. All it takes is to use your second jump and get hit again or possibly wall'd and your basically screwed. Don't get gimped.
Now many times, your opponent will either chase you offstage, to ensure you don't come back alive, or time a edgehog and/or force a stage return. We don't want to stay in this situation all the time. But in high level play, speed edgehogs/forced stage returns will wreck Mario alot. The alternatives to keep in mind when your hit offstage is that, you have the cape which slightly increases your vertical momentum and your second jump and all of your anti-edgeguard tool kit. Also cape stalling can help against edgehogs. Always throw fireballs at your opponent, they might just get hit and completely screw up, or you can use a falling Fair (kinda risky) to spike them. Any type of aerials helps, fireballs can prevent edgehogs, sometimes you might even get a upb-stage spike.
When you get hit off stage, ALWAYS HAVE SMART DI! If a MK hits you with a dsmash, since it hits you straight, DI to upper right/left of the blast zones to increase your survival. Don't rule out airdodging as well.. it can still help in some situations. So remember when you are offstages, be smart, use DI well, use all of Mario’s anti-edgeguard tools, cape stall if you need to, save your second jump for right moment, airdodge if you need to. Mario isn’t terrible offstage as long you use everything smartly to an extent.
That concludes the final state, disadvantage state. Notice how all of these are against you, but Mario has every tool for every situation when he is a disadvantage. This makes him able to get out of disadvantage situations alot easier then other characters because of how versatile character he is and how his defensive options aid him in regaining his momentum. Always remember to be smart!!!, choose a alternative wisely, consider it's risk vs reward. Learn to get out of these situations and practice it.
Shielding, Advantage? Or Disadvantage?
I wanted to touch this for a small bit. Now Mario has great out of shield options. You have oos upb (first start up frames are inv), you have oos upsmash for anyone behind you/close to you, oos bair for anyone who lands behind your shield, you have oos jab to start up or follow up with anything. Mario can deal with anything if anything touches his shield. But, is it a advantage, or a disadvantage? Someone like MK's dtilt can shield poke you relatively safe on the block and reset the situation to a neutral or disadvantage <-(this happens ALOT when your next to the edge). So remember when your shielding, it isn't ALWAYS a advantage, it's character dependent, there are some characters who can touch your shield and be safe from any of your oos options. They'll reset it to neutral or disadvantage state.
Conclusion- Well this pretty much sums it up here. I wanted to to bring the point that Mario is a very good versatile character, that he can deal with any given situation with the right tools at hand at the right situation. Remember to know all your alternatives, to give yourself a breather or slow down the pace of the match when it hits the neutral state, maintain a control over advantage state, to look for ways to break your opponent's momentum.
I'll read it when I get back from work.
you should have ledgedrop dair'd him 
