Learning to use Meta Knight as a new/bad player...

[Aristobulus]

I've played Smash since the n64 but I've always been more of a casual player. I'm not that great at the series and never really have been, but I wouldn't mind at least attempting to learn Meta Knight in more depth, especially now that he's not just spin to win and I can pick him without all my friends giving me dirty looks and being like "you only won because he's broken"

Point of this thread isn't to whine about that though it's to ask for help learning him. I'm talking about the very basics of how to play him and then onto more advanced tactics. Reason I wanted to make this thread over just reading the forum is I have read other threads and most are kindof directed towards people that...are more advanced, both with him and the game in general, so it's hard to learn anything to actually apply to my playing.

So I figured I'd make a thread and ask for help just figuring him out. I know he's nerfed, but there still has to be tricks to him that I, as a not very good player, just can't figure out on my own. Videos or basic how-to's would help immensely if anyone can offer those or any tips.

And maybe this thread would help other players too.

 

[Ulevo]

I can't give you basic information on the moves because I haven't had time to break it all down yet. But from playing with him with friends I understand his overall purpose. I think what you need to understand first is how Meta Knight is supposed to be played, or how he excels when played a certain way, then you can branch off your knowledge from there.

In Smash 4, essentially what they've done by and large from what I can see is they've made movement options faster and more applicable while making options that involve commitment or recovery time, like attacks, more of a commitment. What this means is that characters with innately high movement options will have an advantage because the window of opportunity to punish people for committing to an action is greater. Meta Knight in particular excels at this, not only because he can easily capitalize on attacks, but because he can also apply pressure with his movement and spacing tools to force your opponents in to making these commitments.

So, in short, Meta Knight is a glorified punish character. He excels at making you pay for making mistakes, as well as putting you in to positions where you essentially have to make them.

Moves that are really good for this are his dash attack, his dash grab, and well spaced aerials out of a dash like forward air or dair. The dash is the key. Since it's so fast and has flexible options out of it, it kind of becomes the crux of his gameplay. Another thing to note that I haven't seen a lot of Meta Knights do but was always an option in Brawl is fox trotting and using the dash attack out of a delayed dash animation. This creates mind games against your opponent because they have to decide whether or not you are going to empty dash, dash attack, or use a delayed dash attack. And because of how far the dash attack goes on its own without the dash itself, you can easily choose to cross up against the shield if you so choose.

I think a good basis for learning the character would be to 1) understand these concepts for him, and apply them, 2) learn his true combos that generally work on most characters at certain %, 3) learn which moves do the most damage for given situations (i.e. your opponents shield breaks, what do you use if you want to kill vs if you want to deal the most damage?) 4) learn his best kill options. Once you have these down, you can extend in to things like match ups and deeper theory.