The Master Warlord is an leader (The servants of Mendez from the Make Your Move series. He was once a good man, but once his wife cheated on him and participated in pagan has amazing organisation which is present in this set as well. While allowing him to get over the unfortunate turn of events and giving him untold power, it drove him insane. He has his guards bring him the people under the false pretenses of accusing them to be PPL, then devours them alive. Not a pretty sight. While he is ultimately defeated, he is offered one more chance for survival by Mendez. . .If he sacrifices Kupa, the only thing he still holds in value. The Master Warlord refuses, and is then promptly dragged to the gates of hell. The Master Warlord is able to turn parts of his body (Or all of it for that matter) into slime and extend it. In addition, he also has mind flayer like abilities in that he can use his slime to brainwash unwilling victims, leeching off of their brain. He also has a rather monstrous demonic slug form, the peak of his power.
Priority »»» 10 Traction »»» 10 Weight »»» 9.5 Falling Speed »»» 8.5 Size »»» 7 Range »»» 6.5 Recovery »»» 6 Attack Speed »»»5 Aerial Movement »»» 3 Power »»» 1.5 Movement »»» 1 Jumps »»» .5 You can’t honestly tell me you were expecting these stats from a fat a
ss like him, can you? That horrendous movement would make one think he was sitting in his throne (Which he isn’t, he walks normally), for crap’s sake. That’s also not an exaggeration in attack speed at all. It’s rare for him to have that much lag, the only thing bogging him down being the long duration of a good amount of his attacks. He’s also pitifully weak and has no attacks that cause actual knockback beyond some set knockback, relying on his grab-game to score KOs. Beyond that, nothing else is too surprising, but the Master Warlord has ways to make up for his bad ground mobility (He doesn’t even have a dash). . .Though the same can’t be said for his p
iss poor air game.
The Master Warlord has no aerials. Seriously.
Neutral Special – Bodyguard
The Master Warlord claps his hands casually to summon Kupa, his captain of the guard, who comes in from the background with very little lag. He has a very stupid AI and has a miniature moveset of his own (Detailed later).
While Kupa only takes half as much damage as normal, the catch is that he and the Master Warlord share the same damage counter. The Master Warlord can’t resummon Kupa after he gets KOd for the rest of his stock. If you press this button input with Kupa already summoned, you’ll instantly switch control to Kupa and he’ll start taking full damage while the Master Warlord takes half damage.
You can swap at any time even if your character is in hitstun/is in the middle of a move with no lag or visual indication whatsoever. When your other character is being controlled by the cpu, they'll generally play defensively and aim to protect you/themselves, meaning you don't have to constantly babysit the cpu character (Usually Kupa), though you'll have to swap between them a bit to get much offense done. Both are essentially immune to grabs/combos seeing you can just switch control to the other character to free your comrade. This helps massively with the Master Warlord’s otherwise high vulnerability to them. . .
[0%] Up Special – Slime Base
The Master Warlords lower half turns to slime, then starts rapidly extending upward (You control the horizontal movement) triple Ganondorf’s height, propelling up his upper half. You can easily sweetspot a ledge with this to end the move early and this all happens pretty fast, but this has no hitbox. Hitting the Master Warlord’s main body with a melee attack ends the move early, but hitting the slime won’t hurt the Master Warlord at all. You can easily sweetspot a ledge with this to end the move early and this all happens pretty fast, but this has no hitbox. Hitting the Master Warlord’s main body with a melee attack ends the move early, but hitting the slime won’t hurt the Master Warlord at all. While it is a respectable recovery, using it on the ground is where this move truly shines. If used on the ground, you can manually control the slime with the analogue stick, allowing you to extend and retract it as you please. Since the Master Warlord is still technically connected to the ground via his slime base, he can use all his ground moves from atop this makeshift podium. This is an excellent way to get the Master Warlord out of harm's way, and decent compensation for the fact he has no aerial attacks. If you input the Up Special once you already have a slime base it’ll quickly snap back to the Master Warlord. This is your only real way to get up into the air due to the Master Warlord’s bad jumps. In addition, seeing the Master Warlord has no –real- aerials, if you input a “dair” when within double Ganon’s height of the ground the Master Warlord will perform the Up Special in reverse. This creates a slime-base underneath him to firmly secure himself to the ground, where he can actually function.
[0%] Side Special – Slimeball The Master Warlord coughs up a ball of slime that flies forwards unaffected by gravity, going two Battlefield Platforms at the rate of Ganon’s walk. It’s the size of Mario’s fireball and has identical disjointed priority, dealing 6% and small set knockback on contact. This has below average lag making it a great projectile, though the fact it moves so very slowly and it’s out-prioritzed by nearly all other projectiles can limit its’ use at times. If you hold B during the starting lag of the move, the Master Warlord will instead puke the slimeball on his hand then lob the slimeball forward. It travels in an arch-like arc half a Battlefield Platform forward before falling down to earth. The lag is increased ever-so slightly for this and all it does is buff the move by 1% despite decreasing its’ range so severely. What’s the point? Well, you can use your up special to get at a nice elevation so the slimeball will fall down a lot longer before vanishing, thus increasing the range. You can also take advantage of the arch-like arc of the projectile to hit foes while hiding behind Kupa
[6%][7%] Down Special - Behelit
The Master Warlord takes out his donut (The first of the five pictures) from his cloak, the source of all of his power, gaining superarmor for the start lag. He holds it up to summon a random member of Godhand (Besides Femto) who then tells you to “Bring the sacrifice”. Unfortunately, you can’t just sacrifice the foe, as that’d hardly be a “sacrifice”, now would it? The Master Warlord becomes controllable again after this brief bit of lag while the Godhand member stays where you summoned them. This is your que to bring over Kupa or a teammate to sacrifice, as if you just ignore the Godhand member by leaving them idle for 10 seconds, they won’t take too kindly to it. If you –do- ignore them, they’ll summon in an army of d
amned souls to drag you to hell from the background for an instant KO (Though you have more then enough time, this is more of an easter egg).
Once you bring over your sacrifice, the Godhand member envelops them in an aura of darkness to instantly KO them, then vanishes.
This dark ritual restores the Master Warlord of half of his percentage. While a welcome bonus, without Kupa the Master Warlord’s percent will go back up to where it was pretty d
amn fast without him there to save you from being comboed/chain grabbed. Use this strictly as a last resort.
[0%] Grab - Leech
The Master Warlord reaches forward with his stubby arms for absolutely terrible range and huge lag. It’s nearly impossible to ever grab anything with this. Kupa on the other hand has an excellent grab, but can’t do to anything once he’s grabbed the foe. . .But this allows the Master Warlord the chance to grab the foe from Kupa. The foe has no “grab release” animation upon getting out of the Master Warlord’s grab to prevent Kupa from just regrabbing them the moment they escape. Anyway, once you’ve grabbed the foe, you can input your pummel to begin letting your slimy essence out of yourself and begin forcing it down the foe’s throat. He faces away from the screen as he does this to avoid being as disturbingly graphic as the picture. This does no damage, and you’ll struggle to notice any effect of this until you continue pummeling the foe for 5 seconds (You can stop pummeling and pick up where you left off). . .
If you do it for 5 seconds, two slimy tentacles sprout out of their body and starts rapidly pelting at them, doing 1% every other second and being unable to be removed. At 7.5 seconds, their controls reverse at random intervals briefly in addition.
At 10 seconds, the Master Warlord takes over their body entirely for a KO (A slimy head sprouting out of the foe’s head as their head just lays limply, devoid of life) and the foe loses their stock while you gain control of them while the Master Warlord’s old body falls over lifelessly and vanishes. You can play as the foe normally (They’ll respawn with a fresh body), with the exception of their grab and neutral B being replaced by the Master Warlord’s, you still having Kupa at your disposal if he’s still alive/hasn’t been summoned yet (Though if he’s dead, feel free to Whorenado away).
But that’s still not all. You can also grab Kupa and force your essence into him, the Master Warlord able to do so 5X as quickly due to Kupa not resisting him and getting massive buffs to his moveset, now becoming your primary character as his arms bust off in a (cartoony) explosion and tentacles come out to replace them. Why not just instantly summon Kupa and take him over at the start of a match? Well, while Kupa is now a great damage racker, it’s near impossible for him to KO, and there’s no going back once you take this form due to the Master Warlord’s old body vanishing so you’ll inevitably get behind in the stock Master Warlord. The only time you should do this is after you’ve KOd the foe to further secure your lead. If you accidentally grab Kupa and don’t want to take him over yet, simply press B to release him.
[0%] Standard Attack – Whirl The Master Warlord rather stupidly spins in place once. His body is a insanely low priority hitbox that deals 3% and weak set knockback. You can keep “whirling” around in circles for as long as you want and there’s little lag in entering the stance, meaning it’s a decent move to make space, if nothing else. If the Master Warlord has slime extended out under him with his Up Special, the move becomes incredibly useful, though, as not only does this makes the Master Warlord’s main body spin about,
but also the slime connecting him to the ground. The slime base deals 5 hits of 1% and flinching per second as it grinds about with infinite priority and can’t be damaged (As always), and is the only way in which you can make your slime-base a (gigantic) hitbox.
[3%][5% per second] Forward Tilt – Slime Wall The Master Warlord retracts his arms into his robes, them brings them back out as slimy tentacles and merges them together, creating a slimy wall the size of Ganondorf in front of him. This has little lag and has no hitbox, but it’s not a trap, as the Master Warlord has to hold his fused arms out in this position to keep the wall up.
The wall absorbs all attacks (Including projectiles) and you can keep it up as long as you hold A. This serves as an alternative defense against camping once Kupa croaks.
[0%] Up Tilt – Tentacle Swat The Master Warlord retracts his arms into his robes, then brings them back out as slimy tentacles and rapidly flails them above his head as if swatting at flies. The tentacles are disjointed hitboxes that reach up Mario’s height above the Master Warlord, covering everything directly above him and slightly to the sides. Contact deals 7% and weak set horizontal knockback and the move has below average lag on both ends to boot, the only downside being the slightly long duration (Talking Wario’s dsmash here). In any case,
it’s great anti-air, further bolstering the Master Warlord’s defense.
[7%] Down Tilt - Cannibalize The Master Warlord turns to face away from the screen, then does a sweeping motion downwards with his arms. The vast majority of the time this does nothing but give the Master Warlord a bit of lag,
but if there’s a foe who’s lying on the ground within the small range he’ll proceed to cannibalize them, dealing 6 hits of 1% per second and healing himself for the same amount. Even if you use an attack that specifically knocks the foe down they’ll roll away long before you can do this, but Kupa can hold them down for you to allow you to feast. . .
[6% per second] Forward Smash – Drawing Close The Master Warlord retracts his arms into his cloak as he charges the smash, then upon release they come out as slimy tentacles. The tentacles go directly forward by default, but you can angle it like a tilt. The length of how far they go out is based on charge, varying from 1-2 Battlefield Platforms. The ends of the tentacles form a grab hitbox together, the Master Warlord reeling in the foe afterwards to put them in his regular grab. If he doesn’t grab anyone, he’ll still extend out his tentacles the whole way and have to retract them, making this highly punishable. This only works as an alternative grab at high percents, as foes can still escape the grab while being reeled back to the Master Warlord (Though the timer will be refreshed once they get put in his main grab). While this has plenty of setbacks, it’s a great option to mix things up with at higher percents. Seeing how many grabs you need to get in to brainwash the foe, you’re definitively gonna want some variety. This is more then an alternative grab though in that
it can also save Kupa should he be knocked off-stage. Much like your regular grab, you’re able to grab Kupa with this move. While using the two characters in tandem to cover up each other’s blind spots should prevent this from happening in the first place, this gives you some very welcome leeway. Unlike normal characters, Kupa can still perform attacks while being dragged by the Master Warlord’s tentacles. This means you can switch control to him and throw your battleaxe onto the stage (Down Special) to defend the Master Warlord while he’s helping you recover.
[0%] Down Smash – Puke in Disgust The Master Warlord turns to face the camera, then pukes a stream of slime downwards. This has low lag on either end, but a duration as long as Wario’s dsmash. This does 22-35 hits of 1% and tripping (Not flinching), and if foes are already tripped (Including by another hit in this attack) they’ll be knocked down. With the disjointed priority, the only big downside on this move is the
tiny range of it,
but you can solve that by using your Up Special to get into the air before you rain down your slime on the foe. Just be cautious of the overly long duration. . .
[22-35%] Up Smash – Slime Explosion The Master Warlord starts bringing up a layer of slime under himself as if you were using the grounded Up Special as you charge,
the move having an identical animation. The maximum height it’ll go up is double Ganondorf’s, just as always. If you already had a slime-base under you, it extends farther up then it would normally be allowed otherwise, losing the surprise element but increasing your elevation all the more. Upon release, all of the Master Warlord’s slime explodes with little lag in a gooey disjointed explosion that deals 27% and spikes foes down to the ground. Once they hit the ground, they’ll shake the goo off themselves for a bit more stun, which is needed for the Master Warlord not to get punished due to him going into helpless after the move’s complete. . .And also probably get you a free grab via Kupa.
[27%] Special Forward Smash - Vomit Due to having no aerials, the Master Warlord makes up for it with all the more moves that he can use while grounded. Unlike normal Specials, the Master Warlord can’t use his Special smashes when in the air, but considering he’s never in the air (Without a slime-base connecting him to the ground) anyway outside when he’s forced to be it hardly matters. For this move the Master Warlord leans back and gets a constipated look as charging, then upon release pukes forward a giant blob of slime 1.5X the size of Bowser. It travels in an arch-like arc, going a tad bit above the Master Warlord and traveling half a Battlefield Platform forwards before crashing down, vanishing as it does so. The move has high start-up lag (Ike’s fsmash) with below average end lag. Should the blob hit anyone, it’ll trap them within it with disjointed grab-priority. Foes must escape from the blob with the usual grab difficulty, but they can’t be hit while inside it. Used next to the ledge this could theoretically gimp, but the high lag makes it very hard to do so, and even if you do hit them with it the fact the blob falls so slowly doesn’t guarantee a KO. Foes take 5-10% a second while in the slime blob.
The Master Warlord can interact with foes trapped in a blob by going up to grab them, turning his arms/head into slime and going in the slime blob with the victim as he performs his pummel.
The foe will still have to escape from the slime blob before they can escape from the Master Warlord’s regular grab, giving you much more time to pummel the foe. The best way to actually hit with this is to have Kupa grab the foe first, though the foe will probably escape before you pull off this laggy move until higher percents.
[5-10% per second] Special Down Smash – Tidal Slime Wave The Master Warlord’s entire body turns to slime as he crashes downwards. This deals no damage, simply pushing foes away with a strong FLUDD-like effect, though it’s useless for gimping seeing it can only be used on the stage. The Master Warlord then forms into a puddle of slime that’s as wide as 1-2 Battlefield Platforms. From here, you move the Master Warlord’s invisible main essence across the puddle at his usual walking speed, then press A to have him lurch out and try to grab foes. While he pops out with below average lag, if the move’s whiffed you’ll get terrible lag. The Master Warlord can only stay like this for 5 seconds, at which point he’ll automatically pop out. While the ending lag may seem rather unattractive,
you’re invincible for the rest of the entire move outside the brief start-up lag. Your best bet for actually grabbing foes with this is to try to pressure them into dodging with Kupa (The Master Warlord won’t pop out of the puddle when AI controlled, don’t worry), which is easier said then done. You’re better off using him as bait, though it –is- possible to distract the foe with some of Kupa’s quicker attacks.
[0%] Special Up Smash - Devour The Master Warlord turns to face his head upwards, opening up his mouth as wide as possible. He extends it open farther then normally possible by using his slime abilities as you hold the charge, but only
upon release it becomes a (grab) hitbox where he’ll chomp down any foes that fall into his mouth. His mouth can be as wide as Kirby to 1.3X Bowser’s width, meaning that you’ll have to charge the move in order to be able to devour larger characters. This has next to no lag, but the Master Warlord holds his big fat mouth open for a full second before you can perform other button inputs. Thankfully, you can move him left and right and extend/retract his slime base while performing this move to make it more feasible to land, though only at half the Master Warlord’s already slow speed. Once you’ve devoured someone, they’ll take 3% a second while inside you and must escape with grab difficulty. You can use your Side Special for the foe to be spit out and be hit by the projectile the moment they get out, or better yet use your Special fsmash for them to be contained within the blob you spit out, automatically being “grabbed” by it. If the foe escapes before you do anything, you’ll explode in a slimy explosion as they burst out of you, being forced to perform your Special Dsmash. This is great anti-air and a way to much more easily land those Special Fsmashes.
[3% per second] Kupa is the Master Warlord’s slave and seems to be a rather typical egotistical fellow. After failing to defeat the top ten (The main protagonist of the series), he becomes hellbent on revenge, claiming he’d do anything in order to place in the top ten. Anything? Oh ho ho! The Master Warlord has just the thing for you, Kupa. :3
Size »»» 9 Weight »»» 8 Priority »»» 7 Falling Speed »»» 7 Range »»» 6 Traction »»» 6 Movement »»» 4 Jumps »»» 3.5 Attack Speed »»» 3.5 Power »»» 2 Recovery »»» 2 Aerial Movement »»» 1.5 Kupa’s inferior to the Master Warlord due to a more limited moveset, slowness (Though once again, on many of his moves it comes from long durations rather then actual lag), and bad recovery. Kupa can’t do anything remotely worthwhile on his own, but when you put somebody between two characters everything becomes much more complicated.
Neutral Special – Bodyguard See the Master Warlord’s Neutral Special.
Side Special – Spinning Blade Kupa takes his battleaxe and starts spinning it in front of himself rapidly.
This reflects projectiles and deals 10 hits of 1% and flinching per second to those caught in the large disjointed hitbox, but is very easy to DI out of. This is a surprisingly fast move, but has a laughably long duration of 5 seconds, meaning the foe has more then enough time to go behind him and fully charge an fsmash…If not for the Master Warlord. Have Kupa stand in front of you and spin his blade to negate projectiles and force an approach, then punish the foe when he rolls/jumps around him. While having two walls against Projectiles in the Master Warlord’s ftilt and Kupa’s Side Special may seem pointless, try making a wall with the Master Warlord then switching control to Kupa (The Master Warlord will keep the wall up until you switch back to him) and using Side Special against a foe trapped between you and the wall.
This is an excellent way to potentially get a free 50% (!).
When Kupa’s taken over by the Master Warlord, he turns to face the screen for this move, and you can move around the spinning blade at the speed of Mario’s run in any direction you please with your tentacle arms as you spin it, able to move it up to a Battlefield Platform in any direction.
This means you can move it about so you aren’t defenseless and can prevent foes from using DI to get out, though they can just DI out of it’s range to prevent you from getting more then 28% or so out of this. The move’s ending lag gets a slight increase in this otherwise broken version, meaning you’ll have to push foes away with the battleaxe during the main move to avoid being punished (And even then they can hit you with a projectile). This is the main thing that makes Kupa such a terror when combined with the Master Warlord.
[1-50%] Up Special – Thrust of Salvation Kupa swings his axe upward then crashes it down, making for a mini-tether around the distance of Snake when he’s crouching. This has large lag, but foes hit by the disjointed axehead get spiked with decent power and take 16%. Needless to say, you’ll be saving Kupa with his fsmash a lot.
If Kupa is on the ground when he uses this move, it simply translates into a large range upward grab where Kupa impales foes on his axehead, dealing 4% and putting the foe in his regular grab. While the range beats out his normal grab and it does some damage to boot, the lag is average on both ends. When taken over by the Master Warlord, Kupa first extends his tentacles out the distance of Two Battlefield platforms before slamming his axe down, giving this recovery far more range. While it’s still a tether, anybody who dares to edge-guard you will more likely then not get spiked and die with you. Unfortunately, this version of the move loses its’ grab hitbox properties when used on the ground, functioning identically to the aerial version. The one thing Kupa becomes worse at when the Master Warlord takes control over him is grabbing.
[16%][4%] Down Special – Axe Toss Kupa turns to face the screen and angles the direction he’s going to throw his battleaxe in (Which you have complete control over), then hurls his battleaxe as it rapidly spins. He throws it 3 Battlefield Platforms away, and it does a single solid hit of 20% and spikes foes to the ground, and the hitbox is around the size of Bowser, having infinite priority. While the move only has average lag on both ends,
Kupa has to wait for the axe to hit the ground and has to go pick it up before he can use any of his axe oriented moves (Most of his moveset) again, meaning that if you use it to gimp (And it’s hard enough to get a foe off-stage what with the duo’s lack of knockback) he’ll never get it back. Kupa never uses this move when under control of the AI, so you don’t have to worry about him doing anything stupid with it.
Now then, if Kupa is taken over by the Master Warlord,
he’ll extend out the tentacle he threw the axe with to catch it at the end of it’s arc, then pull it back to himself at the end. All the while you’re still capable of moving and using your non-axe attacks after the initial end lag of throwing the axe is done, though you always have to stay within 3 Battlefield Platforms of the axe or you won’t be able to catch it at the end. While you could use the move for gimping and *gasp* kill stuff, if Kupa’s tentacle arm is hit as he’s extending it out to get the axe it’ll retract (Though Kupa won’t take any damage), meaning it’s still very risky.
[20%] Neutral A – Axe Spin Kupa starts spinning around with his axe rapidly in place. This has the range of a third a Battlefield Platform on either side of him as he continuously spins about, doing so for as long as you hold A. The axe is a disjointed hitbox that deals 9% and average set knockback and
blocks projectiles, but there’s a window where Kupa can be hit due to not constantly keeping the axe on either side, meaning Side Special is your primary projectile defense. While this instantly comes out and you can hold it as long as you want,
Kupa gets dizzy at the end of the move, having ending lag that’s as long as the time you spent spinning. There’s no limit to how long you can hold this or how dizzy Kupa can get, and if you swap to the Master Warlord while Kupa’s spinning his AI will keep doing it forever, making this the ultimate way to “set and forget” Kupa. When you want to use him for other things, end his spinning and grab him with the Master Warlord to snap him out of his dizziness. With the Master Warlord’s essence in him, the ending lag is cut by 75%.
[9%] Side A – Axe Slam
Kupa lifts his axe over his head, then slams it down in front of him. The axehead reaches out half a Battlefield Platform ahead of him and is a disjointed hitbox the size of Kirby dealing 9%. While the move comes out nearly instantly, should Kupa miss he’ll have to pull his axe out of the ground over the course of 2.5 lengthy seconds (If used next to the edge, he’ll continue the arc of his axe to hit said ledge), foes taking 2% per second.
Should anybody get hit, they’ll be pinned to the ground under Kupa’s axe during the ending lag in their knocked down state where the Master Warlord is free to cannibalize on them. If the Master Warlord has taken over Kupa, then he musters the strength to pull his axe out of the ground with below average lag should he miss.
[13%] Up A – Headbutt Kupa performs a headbutt upwards with nearly identical properties to Dedede’s utilt (11%), though the knockback is set and rather weak. In addition,
should Kupa actually hit anyone with the otherwise overpowered move,
he’ll hold his head in pain for bad ending lag afterwards, meaning this should only be used if the Master Warlord is nearby to defend Kupa during the end lag. With the Master Warlord having taken over Kupa, the slimy head of the Master Warlord leeching off of Kupa’s head bites upward as Kupa headbutts, shielding Kupa’s head from the pain he’d otherwise take. This eliminates the ending lag when you hit with the move and also makes the priority disjointed.
[11%] Down A - Stomp Kupa performs the obligatory Warlordian stomp with average range and below average priority,
holding down foes who are lying on the ground under his boot (The move turning into a grab hitbox on them) and dealing 10%. Unlike Dingodile and Bear Hugger, this is just an alternative grab, as Kupa can’t follow it up with anything, being locked into position. However; the Master Warlord is more then happy to take advantage of the situation and cannibalize on his foes (They’re too low to the ground to grab). . .This is one of Kupa’s very few moves he can throw out with little thought, there being below average lag on either end, though unlike his ftilt he needs the Master Warlord to knock the foe down first for him (Probably with his dsmash). If the Master Warlord has taken over Kupa meaning he can’t punish the stomp with his other body, so he simply uses his tentacles to pummel the foe with, dealing 7 hits of 1% per second. In addition, the stomp will knock foes down and then pin them, them not having to be already knocked down.
[10%] [7% per second] Dashing Attack - Collapse Kupa clumsily collapses in an animation similar to Dedede’s dash, but lower start lag and better range/priority. This deals 14% and knocks foes down to the ground.
This also leaves Kupa in his knocked down state, where he’ll have to use one of his incredibly laggy rolls or situationals to get out of the position. If the Master Warlord has taken over Kupa, he’ll catch himself with his tentacles at the end of the move and push off the ground to get to his feet with much lower lag.
Grab – Normal/Leech Normally Kupa has Dedede’s ridiculous grab but no throws, meaning the Master Warlord is the one who’s required to follow up the grab, more often then not with one of his own. When taken over by the Master Warlord, this translates into the Master Warlord’s regular grab. . .Complete with the terrible range and huge lag of it due to the Master Warlord now being in command of the body, meaning
it’s impossible to hit with it. The screen zooms in on the Master Warlord as he goes under a massive transformation, turning into a massive demonic slug-like creature as tall as Giga Bowser and twice as wide, becoming invulnerable. From here, you can bring out two tentacles in each direction by pressing A or B in the direction you choose, reaching out with the range of three Battlefield platforms at high speeds. To pinpoint exactly where the tentacle comes out of the Master Warlord, you can move them slightly before they come out of him. While the ending lag of bringing out the tentacles is somewhat bad, you can bring out all eight at once if you spam enough button inputs, the ending lag of each individual tentacle only preventing you from using that specific tentacle again.
Should you grab anyone with a tentacle, they’ll be pulled back to the Master Warlord where he performs his normal pummel on them at twice the normal speed and difficulty to escape. Each of the eight tentacles is assigned to one of your eight button inputs (B and A in the four cardinal directions), and your ninth button input (Neutral B) allows you to make use of Kupa (Who is invulnerable during the final smash) as always. Neutral A allows you just chomp the Master Warlord’s main mouth, which is a rather small hitbox but instantly KOs anything it hits, the Master Warlord devouring the victim. The thing about this final smash is that the Master Warlord moves insanely slowly and it’s easy to just hide on the ledge away from the Master Warlord out of tentacle range. . .if not for Kupa. While he’s still his usual slow self, if you grab him you can infest him with your essence as if you’d brainwashed him normally, then proceed to own anybody hiding on the ledge with your Side Special. Anybody you KO becomes a brainwashed level 9 AI partner, but they’ll vanish and Kupa will return to normal when the Final Smash ends.
Lasts 10 seconds. [0%] At the start of the match, the obvious thing to do is to immediately bring forth Kupa and turtle up with him on the far side of the stage. Have Kupa use either his neutral A or side special (Side Special if you can handle the micro-management of switching back to him renewing it) and hide behind him as you create a slime base with your up-special so you can get tall enough to fire projectiles over him. If the foe gets close, lob a slimeball by holding down the input or use a special fsmash to hit them. However; the defensive fortress of the Master Warlord is far from impenetrable. Hell, in this turtled up mode he’ll probably only get in one actual hit on the foe as they have to jump over Kupa to get to the Master Warlord. The Master Warlord can’t function as a stereotypical ranged character all that well, he’s more doing this just to get the foe to approach. Once they do, the Master Warlord will want to try to catch them in his mouth as they jump over Kupa with a Special Usmash. From here on out, the foe will constantly be in your face. You have no way of getting them back at that range to camp them again due to lack of knockback, though if –they- want to fight at a range it’s very easy for you to turtle up to force them to do so. From here, you’ll be primarily relying on the fact you have two characters at your disposal to get the foe to actually be hit by your moves. Once you hit with one move, many more will generally follow, as most of the duo’s combinations result in holding the foe down for the other to whale on, more often then not ending in a crucial grab for the Master Warlord. While both the Master Warlord and Kupa are ridiculously vulnerable to being juggled and comboed individually due to their lack of aerials, you can just switch to the other character and knock them out of it, as the enemy will generally be too busy kicking the other character’s a
ss to dodge. In addition, the Master Warlord using a “dair” when being juggled to connect himself to the ground followed by immediately whirling via Neutral A proves to be an excellent way to escape combos. Damage should always be a secondary concern for you rather then a focus. You can theoretically KO somebody at 0%, the only thing damage does for the duo is make their grabs harder to escape. That said, early on getting –some- damage should definitively be a goal due to foes escaping grabs near instantly at low percents (Try to go for Kupa’s side special against the Master Warlord’s ftilt slime wall). Beyond that, though, focus exclusively on grabs. Once you get your foe halfway ready for the kill (5 seconds of pummeling), they’ll be taking constant damage anyway, so you won’t have to worry much about it. At 7.5 seconds, their controls will be randomly reversed, meaning you’ll get a few free hits which’ll be all you need to take them out for the Master Warlord. While one hit does generally lead to a few more, it’s pretty d
amn difficult to land that first hit, especially considering the fact that you essentially have to control two de-synched characters at once. Things do get much easier later when the foe takes constant damage/gets reversed controls, but the hard part is getting to that phase. The Master Warlord’s a character of momentum in many ways. The main thing that allows him to be able to build it up, though, is the sheer amount of time he’ll be sticking around. The Master Warlord’s recovery is pretty good and Kupa can try to stop foes from going after him, and Kupa simply won’t ever die so long as the Master Warlord lives due to his fsmash. They also have a variety of defensive measures and can easily save each other from long strings of moves, and as a last ditch resort the Master Warlord can shrug off half the damage he’s taken by sacrificing Kupa. Once you’ve taken over the foe, you’ll generally only want to stay in their body if they’re godly damage rackers (Meta Knight) and otherwise should go over to take over Kupa (Assuming you haven’t had to sacrifice him), abandoning the foe’s old body. While taking over a heavyweight gives you the ability to KO through traditional means, you generally won’t have the time to get the foe’s percentage up due to your own being so high, so you shouldn’t get too greedy. Just try to get ahead for the next stock. After taking over Kupa, hide behind your axe as you spin it out away from yourself with Side Special and use it for your main damage racking or Down Special on occasion to mix things up. Up close, use your alternative grabs (Ftilt, Dtilt). Just don’t expect to stick around long – you have no aerials and the Master Warlord won’t be able to save you from being juggled to your doom. The Master Warlord’s ability to get ahead in the next stock builds on his momentum aspect all the more, as he won’t need nearly as many grabs if the foe actually has some damage on them. The Master Warlord can become an absolute god in doubles matches if paired up with somebody who can camp, a three character fortress with two firing projectiles being much harder to penetrate. The Master Warlord is more able then most to do this with team attack on, as he can just extend his slime-base up in order to fire over his teammate. The real highlight of the Master Warlord in doubles though is the ability to sacrifice his teammates for his Down Special. If they already have high damage and are gonna die, why not? This increases the Master Warlord’s already insane durability to even higher levels.
to be added latter