Looking for advice on a set!

[WizKick]

Hey ya'll, got to play my first Tournament ever this weekend at Tipped Off 9 and had a blast. I'm also excited to finally have some footage of myself playing! I'm not great I know, but I'm proud of how I performed here and I think is definitely some of my best play yet. I wasnted to hear what fellow Samus mains think however! (Yes I know there's a lot I need to improve on! )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iEFTevIRrs

 

[sharpman5000]

Evenin', brother. You fought valiantly. ^^

I'm no pro, never was, never will be...

But, if I may, I've been playing some serious Samus this past week, and got a lot of good pointers from other people on the boards...

And it would be my pleasure to offer a fellow Samus player some advice/my own thoughts on how to play her.

-Disclaimer, I'm no pro.-

Alright... First of all, you make good use of your forward tilt. Don't stop doin' that. ^^ Forward tilt is your bread and butter. Nice use of the throw+up Ice smash. I learned something new today. :D

Okay, now for a few tips.

First off, I understand if you prefer ice Samus over fire, but don't start a match out by switching. Most players will want to rush you, so as soon as the match starts, pop that super missile! Missiles, also Samus' bread and butter, try to pressure medium/long range by short hopping and popping a missile right before you land. If you time it right, it'll cancel out the animation and you can proceed to do something else right after. Works for both missiles. Try to jump backwards while facing the opponent and doing this trick to give you some breathing room. (short hop)

Always try to have a full charge, but don't charge when it's not safe. If you see someone recovering back to the stage and you have a clean shot, TAKE THE SHOT! ^^ NO MERCY >:D

Defensive game... Okay. If someone's on you like butter on toast, pop that down b. Bombs. Always be bombing. Abb. Especially if your opponent is dumb. Let them run right into your bomb field. Works good if people are chasing you in the air, but keep in mind it's not always your best option.

Samus' short hop is terrible, btw. So it's gonna be hard to be aerially aggressive with her. So you must learn to Zone! Keep your opponent right were you want them, with missiles/bombs. But, if you need a quick and ranged option, you can short hop, and near the full height of the short hop, air dodge left/right and hold the shield button, during the animation, press the A button for a nasty surprise... ^^ Using this technique you can attack quickly while being low to the ground. Experiment with it! (It's her grapple beam aerial, by the way.)

Recovery... Alright, use her Screw Attack when your right below the ledge, but make sure you stall long enough that when you use it, you just catch the ledge (but keep in mind, most everything in smash is situational, so the more you play the more you learn on what to do when) and if you're anywhere but right under the ledge, hold up, press the shield button for an air dodge up, hold it, and press a. Yes, I seen you use her tether recover during the matches, but it looked like you used the pre set button to perform this, which doesn't allow you to use your air dodge to gain extra height. Keep in mind though, only air dodge up if you NEED the height. Just practice on several stages to find the range of all your recoveries.

ALSO for recover over long distances, and for stalling near the ledge, you can bomb jump. I did see you use your bombs to make it back, but you can also bounce off of them in midair to gain some height. USE THIS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE! ^^ Just practice. As soon as you lay a bomb in mid air, lay another one, then bounce off the first one. (If that makes sense?) It works.

Hmm... what else...

Don't be afraid to go in for the kill. If someone is near/off the ledge, stop zoning. KILL THAT SOB!!! Down aerial, neutral aerial, back aerial, ALL SORTS! ALL SORTS OF OPTIONS

Use your boost ball move to catch them off guard, if you roll past them, while still in morph ball, roll back a bit and down tilt them as their hitstun ends for a good bit of damage. (fire mode)

Also, try mixing up her modes according to what you need during the match. Fire is great to start off with, while ice is great for keeping them offstage. (In my experiences, other peoples mileage may vary.) Fire mode also has two very strong moves in the forms of her forward smash and down tilt. Try to land her fire mode forward smash at the tip, where the fireball forms for great knockback.

Don't be afraid to use her fire mode up smash either. It's great for attacking people safely underneath a platform and is a decent combo filler (with pretty good kill potential at around 100-130%)


Underneath her armor... Samus is a delicate lady. You must learn balance, child. And balance will teach you to be delicate. Make every move deliberate. And make your opponent hate you even more with each move you make. Pressure with your missiles. Aerial chase with back airs.

But be delicate. Be gentle.

But never... never hold back.

 

[WizKick]

Yeah it's been tough for me to adjust to sit back and wait kind of playstyle, I come to her from being a Ganon main and she has way more options than he does. It's hard for me to remember everything she has at any given time, much less put it to good use. I'm hoping to get more frequent jam sessions in to work on some of this stuff! Thanks for the write up!

 

[sharpman5000]

Yeah it's been tough for me to adjust to sit back and wait kind of playstyle, I come to her from being a Ganon main and she has way more options than he does. It's hard for me to remember everything she has at any given time, much less put it to good use. I'm hoping to get more frequent jam sessions in to work on some of this stuff! Thanks for the write up!

No problem brother. Anytime. ^^

I know that feel. I too, know that Ganondorf -> Samus feel. Until 3.0 came out, Ganondorf/Marth were my mains. But now I gotta learn all this stuff and it's very overwhelming.

 

[bubbaking]

Will give you some input after I finish my last final exam today, but from just watching the beginning of that set, I'm questioning why you decided to switch to ice at the very beginning of the first match. <__<

 

[WizKick]

Will give you some input after I finish my last final exam today, but from just watching the beginning of that set, I'm questioning why you decided to switch to ice at the very beginning of the first match. <__<

Because I'm still mostly a noob!

 

[Scidadle]

I didn't see you up-b out of shield once. That's her go to anti-pressure option most of the time. Additionally you should really to to incorporate more wavedashes and tilts into your neutral game.

When edgeguarding you should be thinking about your up tilt, fsmash, and ftlt mostly as those are your go to moves while edgeguarding. Additionally if they are too far to make it back on stage, just grab the ledge and roll on when they get close, try to grab ledge when they are close so you can conserve the invincibility to make the timing a little easier on yourself.

And yeah, like people said, fire is generally better in most situations. It allows you to combo better, has more range, and gives you a better option on the ledge. The only time I would really say the ice beam is better is when they are at high percent and you can kill them with a dthrow fair or up smash or something

You should also look to crouch cancel down smash at lower precents vs weaker single hit aerials and tilts. This is another samus staple

 

[ph00tbag]

The immediate change to ice was unnecessary and costly. You could possibly have taunt canceled it, but that would also have had a positioning cost. Plasma is a pretty good beam, so you might as well stick with it when you start.

That utilt was real good.

You want to be careful when chasing in the air. Since you fall slow, failure to connect can result in faster fallers punishing you. Control space responsibly, and conserve your second jump. Sometimes you can actually throw out a missile and control your opponent's descent more efficiently than if you had chased them directly.

Avoid being on platforms. If you had just dropped through the platform when Zard double jumped, you'd be good to juggle him more safely and prevent him from dropping to the ground easily.

You definitely overuse usmash. Be more mindful of positioning when using it, because it's very punishable.

Learn PMC. On Yoshi's Story, you can cancel missiles the moment they come out and create flurries of missiles. (You can extend this to many other stages by using double jumps intelligently.)

Don't forget your tether! It's by and large a better recovery option than Screw Attack. Also bomb jumping.

As a rule of thumb, I'd say MC after every fj aerial that hits. It costs nothing, and gives you so much space control. Charge Beam is flashy and does a lot of damage, but it doesn't control space while you're charging it.

For pete's sake, learn to sweetspot the ledge.

By the end of the set, your opponent was simply spacing outside of fair, and punishing. That means you're probably overusing it.

Avoid kicking the wires.

OMG when DK is recovering above the edge like that, you just have to shoot him.

You could stand to learn how to wavedash.

 

[WizKick]

I know how to wavedash, I just can't do it under pressure.

 

[ph00tbag]

Then you don't know how to wavedash.