Looking For Input

[Anema86]

I've been playing Smash since the N64 days, but I always mained Link. That's changed in the past few years, and I really like Zelda's style better. I'm no expert or pro, but I would wager that I'm in that awkward period between "casual/amateur" and "hardcore" play. I certainly need a lot of work, particularly on timing--I miss a lot of attacks.

Anyway, I'd really like feedback on things that I may be doing fundamentally wrong. I know that one match isn't a good indicator of anyone's style, but if I'm doing x too much or not doing y enough, I'd love to know so that I can improve. I seem to do okay in For Glory and win about 75% of matches, which has definitely increased over the past week or so as I've really worked to improve. All the missing aside, because that will be resolved with further practice, could someone give me some input on what I can do better? Also, I do spike, but, as this match was against Jigglypuff, I didn't want to risk it--her recovery is better than mine.

And I'm really sorry about the quality of the video. My Wii-U had to be shipped back to Nintendo because it stopped reading discs, so I'm playing on the 3DS version for the time being. The video is terrible, and I'm deeply sorry for that.

So please offer some assistance to a longtime fan of the princess who doesn't just hang around, waiting to be rescued. :D

 

[r_greening1]

@ Macchiato @S.F.L.R_9 @evmaxy54 @|ven| @Rickster @BJN39 @ Zylach @ Alacion @#HBC | Scary and whoever else that plays her competitively that I can't remember right now. This gorl needs some advice and I think you gorls could give some insightful advice to improve his or her's game

 

[Anema86]

Thanks for that.

"He," by the way.

Also, when I watched the video before posting it, there was no sound. I assumed the app didn't record audio. Sorry (or you're welcome) for the InuYasha that can be overheard--evidently I just had media muted on my phone.

This was also my second match with this person. I didn't lose a stock on the first one, so he/she was hesitant to approach in this match, and I wasn't going to force it.

 

[Zylach]

Thanks for that.

"He," by the way.

Also, when I watched the video before posting it, there was no sound. I assumed the app didn't record audio. Sorry (or you're welcome) for the InuYasha that can be overheard--evidently I just had media muted on my phone.

This was also my second match with this person. I didn't lose a stock on the first one, so he/she was hesitant to approach in this match, and I wasn't going to force it.

Since you're new to the Zeldaboards, I'll just let you know now that there are several people here that refer to all other Zelda mains as "gorls." Personally, I'm still not sure why. I just kind of accept it. The majority of people here are guys. It's weird. Zelda mains are weird. Embrace it

The first thing I'll say is that, had you not said you were still working on timing your attacks, I would've thought it was just FG being laggy. I could tell there was lag. Quite a lot actually.

As for your own gameplay, one thing I would recommend (especially against Jigglypuff) is to use your tilts in place of fsmash and Nayru's more often. You threw out quite a few fsmashes and a few NL's both of which are inherently unsafe. You whiffed a lot of them and that'll get you punished hard by skilled players (I'll say that Jigglypuff wasn't very good though it's hard to judge someone in such a laggy environment). Against aerial characters, you'll want to use utilt some more. Experiment with it since it's a decent anti-air and also has several other uses outside of that like juggling, setting up for uairs or something, and, rarely, for setting up for a FW kill (I wouldn't recommend practicing this as it's really gimmicky). There were several instances I noticed where you decided to throw out fsmashes to punish your foe and whiffed them (because fsmash has a pretty slow startup) where a dtilt would've connected and would've gotten you some really good damage off of followups. Fsmash is a good punish tool when your opponent does something that's really unsafe. Oftentimes, if my opponent has used an aerial thinking they could punish me (for a nair or something that isn't all that punishable) then I have the opportunity to use fsmash because it can hit the opponent when they use that really unsafe move. While fsmash does a decent job at spacing and stuffing approaches, it's still unsafe and high level players will take full advantage of that. Mix it up with your tilts because Zelda's tilts are pretty good (not ftilt though lol).

My main critique is your use of FW. You use it often to return to the middle of the stage as the opponent approaches you with an aerial. The first thing is that the ribbon of FW doesn't protect you very well from a lot of aerials and, using FW how you were in that match, you'll be hit as you're in the ribbon animation very often. The second thing is, Zelda can't recover on stage with FW. The endlag/landing lag on it is horrendous and you'll be punished every single time by any opponent that's worth anything in this game. If Zelda is offstage, she has to recover to the ledge 85% of the time because recovering onstage with FW is horribly unsafe. Face a Fox main and you'll know just how bad that strategy is as you get usmashed and KO'd at 80%. The other reason Zelda has to recover to the ledge is that she can't cover her landing with aerials either since an opponent coming up towards you from the stage can't be hit easily by any of Zelda's aerials. The best you've got is dair and it's not great at that. Get used to going for the ledge over going on stage when you're in the air.

You'll also need to do a bit more practice on your grab followups. Zelda gets a lot out of grabs. I know you knew what you were supposed to be doing after a dthrow but just had the timing a bit flawed. One thing I'd say is that you'll probably wanna go for uair more often out of a dthrow rather than bair since you can't sourspot uair, it has a bigger hitbox, and you don't have to use a double jump to get up to the opponent with the attack meaning you save your jump for when you need it and you save a few frames. Uair is guaranteed after dthrow on a lot of characters at mid percents (Not Jiggles though) and kills around 100-ish percent.

You might also wanna practice your neutral game a bit. You like to throw out attacks in anticipation of the opponent's approach which is something I do too and it doesn't do anything to higher level players. You have to get a sense for how the opponent is approaching you before you throw out attacks expecting them to stuff the opponent's possible approach. It might be a better idea to space with SH nairs so you stay mobile compared to throwing out dtilts/jabs/fsmashes/etc hoping that the opponent runs into them. You can also practice what I deem the "do-nothing" mindgames where you simply stand there until the opponent commits because it's impossible to read or punish you if you literally do nothing lol. I tend to do this while sitting in shield, which is a bad habit of mine, but protects me from all approaches save grabs and, if the opponent starts to get grabby, I can counter that habit with a dtilt or jab setup. Furthermore, Zelda's out-of-shield game is one of the best with Nayru's Love, Farore's Wind, shield grab, SH bair, etc.

That was what I got out of the top of my head. Any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Anema86]

Wow, sweet! Awesome! Definitely a lot to think about and work on, but I'm certainly going to take that and apply it.

I've been stalking the boards for about a week pretty heavily, so I noticed the "gorls" thing. r_greening1 had just used he/she, so I wanted to clarify so that wouldn't be necessary again.

There was a lot of lag. I've just come to expect that from Nintendo. I thought for a while that it was my own Internet connection, but it's definitely not. If the lag is too bad, I just SD and find a new match, but the one here was bearable. I can't say how much that affected my attack accuracy, because my combo timing still needs practice and I'd have missed a lot anyway.

I definitely use Farore's Wind too much, and I'm aware of that, but I haven't really run into it being a problem yet--but I know that it is a problem. It was actually over the weekend that I realized this, when training my Zelda Amiibo, because that was a habit that she broke real fast. It hasn't been such an easy habit to break for me, because it works so well on AI... I'll make that a higher priority and immediately stop trying to recover to the stage. Doing so definitely doesn't work out well for me in about 50% of matches.

Interesting. Really, I keep thinking about my Zelda Amiibo. I criticized her recently on the Cubed3 forums because she Utilts and Usmashes regularly, and I almost never do; I FW a lot, and she almost never does.

As I said, I'm going to comb through that again and again, and put it to use. Thank you very much for the help, and for taking the time to do it. :D

 

[r_greening1]

So I'll just leave a link:
http://smashboards.com/threads/the-great-fairy-fountain-ii-zelda-data-research-repository.370698/

It just leads to the frame data thread here. I suggest going through it to see an overview of her moves and on how fast slow they are. It can help you figure out which moves you'll want to use more/less of.

Also about that first post I made, I said "his or her's" because I wasn't sure if you were a "him or her" or if you'd take offense to "she/her/etc." gorl

 

[Alacion]

Didn't watch the vid. Jigglypuff has an aerial game. Read her jumps, punish with dair. Once you do that a few times, Jigglypuff will be more reluctant to jump and Zelda has the better ground game.

Don't recover right away since Puff has a lingering nair to deal with recovery.

 

[Katy Parry]

Stop rolling everytime you land. You roll backwards and after awhile, that will cost you. It's predictable. I grab the majority of the time with Zelda, its frame ten, its her next best gap closer really. I immediately down throw or I'll try to pummel once beforehand.

Also You have to really use Phantom Slash at the best time spacing wise. I feel almost always we want to hit their hurtbox and keep it the furthest away from our hitbox as possible. So using it upclose like that made no sense to me.

 

[Macchiato]

Too much rolls

Don't approach with fair

Don't approach with dash attack

Be faster on follow-ups after a dthrow

Don't use Farore's wind to hit your opponent, it's punishable.

 

[Anema86]

Here is a new video (with hopefully obvious improvements). I actually fought another Jigglypuff earlier, but I forgot to save the replay, which sucks since that would have made a better comparison.

Thank you again, everyone, for the feedback. I doubt I was able to apply every suggestion, and I don't mean to imply the improvement is drastic or done, or anything like that.

This is a fight against a not-very-good Little Mac. It was my second match with the same guy, and I'd pretty much given up trying to grab him at this point. He was just too fast and his attacks always hit me first. I HAVE stopped using FW to recover to the stage, though this video doesn't show that well--I'd already learned that his reaction times are about as slow as mine still are, and I'd used it a few times in the previous match to fake him out and make him thinking I was moving when I wasn't. In the end, he mostly stopped trying to handle FW.

I'm back on the Wii-U version, thank goodness, because the DS analog stick is awful. I'm still having problems using tilts rather than smashes, but that's just a control issue. That issue wasn't really prevalent in this match. I'm also still having issues with the controls in general, but that's just a flaw in the game design and one I'll get used to. I just facerolled with Hyah! And Ayah! with Link, so controls weren't much of a problem in Melee. And until Project M I mostly avoided Brawl.

Enough excuses. If anyone wants to continue critiquing, that would be much appreciated, but I still have work to do in what you all have already suggested, so... I'm posting this mostly just to say "I listened" and, hopefully, the video demonstrates that. I would call the improvements... 10% ish...? Maybe 8%. I'm not like "Hey, look at me now!" or anything.

Edit: Wrong video or something. Will fix later. Lol

 

[Katy Parry]

Here is a new video (with hopefully obvious improvements). I actually fought another Jigglypuff earlier, but I forgot to save the replay, which sucks since that would have made a better comparison.

Thank you again, everyone, for the feedback. I doubt I was able to apply every suggestion, and I don't mean to imply the improvement is drastic or done, or anything like that.

This is a fight against a not-very-good Little Mac. It was my second match with the same guy, and I'd pretty much given up trying to grab him at this point. He was just too fast and his attacks always hit me first. I HAVE stopped using FW to recover to the stage, though this video doesn't show that well--I'd already learned that his reaction times are about as slow as mine still are, and I'd used it a few times in the previous match to fake him out and make him thinking I was moving when I wasn't. In the end, he mostly stopped trying to handle FW.

I'm back on the Wii-U version, thank goodness, because the DS analog stick is awful. I'm still having problems using tilts rather than smashes, but that's just a control issue. That issue wasn't really prevalent in this match. I'm also still having issues with the controls in general, but that's just a flaw in the game design and one I'll get used to. I just facerolled with Hyah! And Ayah! with Link, so controls weren't much of a problem in Melee. And until Project M I mostly avoided Brawl.

Enough excuses. If anyone wants to continue critiquing, that would be much appreciated, but I still have work to do in what you all have already suggested, so... I'm posting this mostly just to say "I listened" and, hopefully, the video demonstrates that. I would call the improvements... 10% ish...? Maybe 8%. I'm not like "Hey, look at me now!" or anything.

Edit: Wrong video or something. Will fix later. Lol

So video?

 

[Anema86]

Quite right. Sorry, been a busy two weeks. I haven't even played since I uploaded the incorrect video.

Interestingly, the incorrect one is the first match I had with this Little Mac, and when I learned he has slow reflexes, particularly for someone playing Little Mac. The match didn't lag, if I remember correctly.

That missed Elevator opportunity breaks my heart.

 

[Zylach]

Quite right. Sorry, been a busy two weeks. I haven't even played since I uploaded the incorrect video.

Interestingly, the incorrect one is the first match I had with this Little Mac, and when I learned he has slow reflexes, particularly for someone playing Little Mac. The match didn't lag, if I remember correctly.

That missed Elevator opportunity breaks my heart.

That missed elevator wouldn't have killed anyway but you played it safe so it wasn't a huge problem. Basically, you missed out on 7-14% is all.

What really stood out to me in this particular clip were missed opportunities. I know you said your reaction time is still something you're working on but there were a few things you could've capitalized on given the amount of time you had to do so. There were two times you sent out a phantom and Mac countered it. Countering phantom is exactly what Zelda wants the opponent to do because there is no chance for that counter to hit Zelda as she'll be too far away and the lag on counters allows her to rush in for a dash grab or dash attack. Instead, you rolled away and gave up your advantage. Just something you should be on the lookout for.

Also, never use Din's against Mac unless he's offstage. He'll run right past it every single time.

You still have to reduce the amount of FW you use. I know you said this video isn't a great example of how much you're learning about FW usage so I'll be brief on this point. Especially against Mac, using FW is dangerous. Because of his ground speed, he'll be able to punish you every time you reappear. Furthermore, using FW as a mindgame mechanic when Mac has his KO punch is suicide as, again, his ground speed will allow him to reach you before you can do anything. That Mac didn't take advantage of FW's lag. He was not a good Mac. Any good Mac would have.

Also, approaching Mac isn't a great idea. Especially because that Mac was trying to approach you in terribly unsafe manners. You and your shield should be best buddies in this MU because Mac has nothing from grab and can be shield grabbed from dash attack every time given your timing is good. Be a little more sparing with your Nayru's Love usage as well since it's really really punishable. Again, that Mac didn't punish it because he's not good but good Mac's will do that. You said you had given up grabbing him but there were a lot of opportunities you had to grab him especially when he countered. He countered a lot and grabs are the most effective way to punish counters. Throws get Mac into the air which is right where you want him because, when Mac lands, it's another free grab as he can't cover himself with attacks and can only really counter to get down which is susceptible to grabs.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[Anema86]

I'll definitely keep that in mind. A lot of my usage of the phantom is more defensive, to buy me a little breathing room, but I will certainly begin using it to create opportunities. I've noticed it's kinda like the Luma: people just charge and attack it. This happened repeatedly in matches I played earlier, and I did exactly as you suggested. My dash grab timing is improving, but I opted for the dash attack at each one of those because I was fighting a subpar Palutena who didn't seem to mind being above me, no matter how many times I made her regret it. It was a strange match. I can upload the vid if you'd like to see that input being put to use.

No, I wouldn't FW against must Little Macs any longer. This one had supremely slow reaction times, and there's even a part in the video where for about half a second we both stood face to face, both of us momentarily surprised that we weren't flying through the air. Lol. I am getting better at that and those reaction times, because so much of that is really pre-emptive and based on expectations. I'm getting a better feel of what to expect, so my reaction times aren't really increasing so much as my ability to anticipate is.

I suck at dash grabbing, and that's definitely an area I'm focusing on now. That and pivoting, which I only tonight really started to get the hang of, though it seems about the only useful pivot I have is ftilt. Is that correct?

Again, thank you for the input. I'll take note and keep working on it.

 

[Zylach]

I'll definitely keep that in mind. A lot of my usage of the phantom is more defensive, to buy me a little breathing room, but I will certainly begin using it to create opportunities. I've noticed it's kinda like the Luma: people just charge and attack it. This happened repeatedly in matches I played earlier, and I did exactly as you suggested. My dash grab timing is improving, but I opted for the dash attack at each one of those because I was fighting a subpar Palutena who didn't seem to mind being above me, no matter how many times I made her regret it. It was a strange match. I can upload the vid if you'd like to see that input being put to use.

No, I wouldn't FW against must Little Macs any longer. This one had supremely slow reaction times, and there's even a part in the video where for about half a second we both stood face to face, both of us momentarily surprised that we weren't flying through the air. Lol. I am getting better at that and those reaction times, because so much of that is really pre-emptive and based on expectations. I'm getting a better feel of what to expect, so my reaction times aren't really increasing so much as my ability to anticipate is.

I suck at dash grabbing, and that's definitely an area I'm focusing on now. That and pivoting, which I only tonight really started to get the hang of, though it seems about the only useful pivot I have is ftilt. Is that correct?

Again, thank you for the input. I'll take note and keep working on it.

Ftilt is the standard pivot attack because its easier to do than anything else. For dtilt and utilt you have to actually do a perfect pivot whereas for ftilt you only have to turn the control stick instead of control it so it doesn't turn you around too powerfully. I think our jab and dtilt would be the best pivot options but they're very difficult to perform. Remember to use pivot grabs as well when you're facing a shield happy opponent (especially people that run up to you and shield. People that do this are fishing for you to attack. Grabbing them is obviously better and pivot grabs cover your options better under those circumstances). Our Pivot grab has some really good range on it too.

 

[Anema86]

I've spent a lot of time trying to end a dash with an Utilt and finally decided it was simply impossible. Honestly, maybe 1/4 of the dash attacks in the jigglypuff video are attempts to do that. That can be done? THAT is about to take my training priority then! If doing that is possible... That would be a tremendous valuable skill against aerial enemies.

 

[Zylach]

I've spent a lot of time trying to end a dash with an Utilt and finally decided it was simply impossible. Honestly, maybe 1/4 of the dash attacks in the jigglypuff video are attempts to do that. That can be done? THAT is about to take my training priority then! If doing that is possible... That would be a tremendous valuable skill against aerial enemies.

To my knowledge, you can't dashing utilt. You can dashing usmash but not utilt. The only way to do that would be to perfect pivot an utilt which, again, is really difficult.

 

[Anema86]

To my knowledge, you can't dashing utilt. You can dashing usmash but not utilt. The only way to do that would be to perfect pivot an utilt which, again, is really difficult.

Seems using the c-stick trivializes it. I never even thought about trying the stick (I actually didn't know it did anything until about a month ago). It's usmashes, of course, but that can still be effective if I don't get stupid about it.

 

[Rebel13]

You can set your controller settings to tilts, if you want to be able to do a tilt easier. Also keep in mind, especially vs an aerial opponent, that you can dash and shield (before letting go of the control stick) to cancel your dash. From there you could use either Usmash or Utilt, which are good for juggling people. It's also relatively safe if they try to land with an aerial, just be wary you don't drop shield then.

 

[Anema86]

Is it the "Attack + Special Move Smash Attack" option? Turn it to off? I'm going to try that, but if that's not it then I don't know where the option is.

 

[Rebel13]

Whoops wasn't clear about that. Meant you can set your C-stick to tilts for easier use, since a smash attack can be easily done anyways.

Just go to your (make sure you're using a gametag) controller settings under whichever controller you're using, and select the C-stick. You can choose to set it to smash attack (default), attack (tilt stick) or special (b-stick). Attack can be hard to get used to because diagonal inputs lead to jabs or Nairs, but it helps immensely for tilts, especially if you play with tap jump.

 

[Anema86]

I've hardly been as happy as I was (when it comes to video games, anyway) the day I found I could disable tap jump. I've hated that from the beginning.

I really don't like the controls, though. I map grab to both left shoulder buttons and shield to both right shoulder buttons, but sometimes my character will shield when I press L. I've even had Zelda do a tilt attack instead of a grab, though I've never mapped attack to a shoulder button. With a lot of testing, I've confirmed that I'm not accidentally pressing attack or shield. But I use the Wii-U Pro controller, so maybe it's just flawed and it isn't a flaw in the programming that handles input. I don't know.

Ah, I see. Hmm. That's a tough call, then, about changing my right stick. I use it almost exclusively for Lightning Kicks, Uairs, and down smashes. I am probably better off just continuing to ease up on the left stick for my tilt attacks. Being able to throw out a lightning kick to the left while moving to the right has been invaluable to me.

Thank you.

In regard to the other topics, I've been exclusively battling AI lately to get a better feel of how to counter each character, and what immediately strikes me as neat about Zelda is that I have no "one size fits all" combo. Generally, Dthrow, Nair works, but only against about two thirds of the cast. I really like that because it means I can't do like Fox and master one combo, then always use it.

On Little Mac... I've improved drastically with my grab timing, though that fast loser still gives me a hard time. However, taking everyone's advice, once I grab him once... He's done. Poor guy. It wad only AI, but last night I took Mac from 0% to 95% through repeated grabs.

 

[Rebel13]

I was not aware you used pro controller. Also doing retreating fairs/bairs is possible with tilt stick, but has stricter timing. Using smash stick, because it now charges attacks, causes a directional input in whichever direction you press, which will skew your momentum slightly. Beware of that when using smash stick.

Also D-throw Nair works on every character in the game, but the percents vary, as does your timing and whether you have to full or short hop. Most of her combos work on most characters, with particularly brutal combos vs fastfallers and heavyweights.

Most advice, since I'm bored; don't fight cpu. Lv8s can help you string attacks better and shield and whatnot, but they will give you bad habits vs real players. Lv9s are just impossibly unrealistic. I've noticed I regress and become worse after playing cpu than if I just take days off playing entirely.

Final note. Does anyone know why the grab button sometimes does a pivot tilt when you want to pivot grab? It's incredibly frustrating. Glad I'm not the only one with the problem though.

 

[Anema86]

They've definitely given me bad habits--hence me FWing all over the place. I'm mostly fighting them for timing practice and to learn better what individual characters play. Though humans are definitely better, the AI can teach me that Robin's side b can be devastating, that eliminating Luma is critically important, that I can just lolquit against Zero Suit Samus (though since she's my secondary I knew that anyway) (that's an exaggeration--I can beat AI ZSS).

I do train against my Amiibo, but that's because she's simply a better Zelda than I am. Generally. I actually took the crown back from her a few days ago. It's a little unfair since her attacks do about 2.5x the damage that mine do, but it forces me to play more cautiously. For the most part, it's just practice, though, and not really training, except that it helps teach me how to deal with individual characters, like Marth and his annoying counters.

I'd never encountered a Ness that ate my Din's, though, so I didn't even know they could do that. O.o I did fight a Ness online that did so, but I had already encountered the AI doing it, so I knew how vulnerable it left him. After I combo'd a stock from him by throwing Din's and charging as he ate it, he finally stopped trying. I also didn't know that Mario's cape would reflect Phantom. I know--I even remember reading about that in the MU thread. But for some reason it just didn't register until my own Phantom KO'd me.

The MU thread has been invaluable, but it's far from finished and it's a lot of stuff to remember until it's been applied. I can read about the Bowser/Zelda MU all day long, but until I've had the chance to put it to use it isn't very helpful. Fighting the AI lets me put that info to use against someone who isn't going to 2 stock me while I'm trying to remember how to handle them. With the AI, I don't mind losing and can always pause to look it up if I can't figure out a viable strategy (like I couldn't with Peach). The only reason I beat AI Peach is because it's AI, so it hasn't helped me there at all. The AI just doesn't play Peach well, judging by the MU thread.

 

[onehundredhitz]

The only reason I beat AI Peach is because it's AI, so it hasn't helped me there at all. The AI just doesn't play Peach well, judging by the MU thread.

I'm going to tell you right now, Peach is a straight up demon in the hands of a good player. Even worse against Zelda.

 

[r_greening1]

They've definitely given me bad habits--hence me FWing all over the place. I'm mostly fighting them for timing practice and to learn better what individual characters play. Though humans are definitely better, the AI can teach me that Robin's side b can be devastating, that eliminating Luma is critically important, that I can just lolquit against Zero Suit Samus (though since she's my secondary I knew that anyway) (that's an exaggeration--I can beat AI ZSS).

I do train against my Amiibo, but that's because she's simply a better Zelda than I am. Generally. I actually took the crown back from her a few days ago. It's a little unfair since her attacks do about 2.5x the damage that mine do, but it forces me to play more cautiously. For the most part, it's just practice, though, and not really training, except that it helps teach me how to deal with individual characters, like Marth and his annoying counters.

I'd never encountered a Ness that ate my Din's, though, so I didn't even know they could do that. O.o I did fight a Ness online that did so, but I had already encountered the AI doing it, so I knew how vulnerable it left him. After I combo'd a stock from him by throwing Din's and charging as he ate it, he finally stopped trying. I also didn't know that Mario's cape would reflect Phantom. I know--I even remember reading about that in the MU thread. But for some reason it just didn't register until my own Phantom KO'd me.

The MU thread has been invaluable, but it's far from finished and it's a lot of stuff to remember until it's been applied. I can read about the Bowser/Zelda MU all day long, but until I've had the chance to put it to use it isn't very helpful. Fighting the AI lets me put that info to use against someone who isn't going to 2 stock me while I'm trying to remember how to handle them. With the AI, I don't mind losing and can always pause to look it up if I can't figure out a viable strategy (like I couldn't with Peach). The only reason I beat AI Peach is because it's AI, so it hasn't helped me there at all. The AI just doesn't play Peach well, judging by the MU thread.

Just hop into the social and ask for some matches. You'll usually find somebody