A "joint production" between Darth Meanie and the Warlord.
Oh, *please,* Daniel, Meanie. Must I *actually* defeat you with one hand behind my back before you realize you're outmatched?
Vlad Plasmius is the main antagonist from the Nickelodeon cartoon Danny Phantom. A freak accident transformed him into a half-ghost when he was in college, giving him a suite of incredible superhuman powers. Vlad used these powers for personal gain, becoming a multi-billionaire and one of the most incredibly successful people in the world.
Not satisfied with what he had though, he sought what he couldn't have; the girl he loved in college, who married his former best friend and became Danny's mother. He wants nothing more than to kill Danny's father, marry his mother, and take the boy as his surrogate son.
Vlad is far more powerful than hero Danny, as he has twenty years more experience as a hybrid ghost. Vlad is smart, cunning, and skilled at combat, consistently beating Danny in their fights.
Stats
- Recovery: 10
- Air Speed: 9
- Range: 8
- Jump Height: 8
- Size: 7
- Ground Speed: 6
- Power: 6
- Weight: 5
- Attack Speed: 5
- Fall Speed: 1
Vlad apparently missed the memo that says all villains need to be slow, bulky heavyweights. Vlad is a quick and powerful aerial specialist, with strong, fast attacks and excellent movement.
Vlad can also hover by holding up on the control stick; unlike Peach, Vlad can only hover in place for five seconds instead of floating forward and backward. He can however glide by holding down the jump button, just like Pit, Meta Knight, and Charizard can.
Specials
Down Special (O) Duplication
Vlad holds his hands at his sides, and a ring of black energy bursts from his waist. After a brief moment, he splits into two different, identical clones! You control the original one; the second one hovers in place right behind the first Vlad. You can change control to the other Vlad immediately and laglessly by pressing Down Special again, even if you're in hitstun. You can fuse back with a clone by using a grab next to one, which causes it to vanish and return to the previous body. Both clones share the same damage percentage though, so your damage can shoot up very quickly, but every single one has to be knocked off the blast zone in order for Vlad to be KO'd. Vlad's clones aren't defenseless either; he has several attacks that multiple duplicates can use at once. Also, whenever you input a shield or air dodge, all of Vlad's clones will perform the same defensive maneuver, giving them some way to avoid damage even if you're not controlling them.
But that's not all! If you smash this input, both clones will duplicate again! Vlad can have up to four clones at once this way. Every time Vlad splits himself up though, each individual version of him becomes a little less powerful. Think of it as Vlad having four units of power; he can have it all in one body at once, or split it into two or four duplicates. Note that he doesn't get any power back if one of his bodies is KO'd; if it's gone, it's gone. Not surprisingly, mastery of Vlad's duplication technique is key to his victory in battle.
Up Special (O) Intangibility
Vlad laughs as his image fades, leaving only a light blue transparent shadow behind. Vlad Plasmius is now completely invincible, and can fly in any direction at his excellent air speed. He can even travel through any solid object, including items, enemies, and even the stage itself. Vlad can stay in this state for up to six seconds, but if he exits it in the air, he becomes helpless. Vlad also cannot attack while he is intangible; if you input any attack, it will instead be performed by the nearest duplicate.
If Vlad's body overlaps with an opponent for three-quarters of a second, Vlad will dive himself into their body, overshadowing them. Vlad can now control the opponent and make them use any of their moves, though Vlad retains some of his ghostly powers in the foe’s body, giving him infinite free flight as fast as Ganon’s dash. This lasts until either he is forced out of intangibility or the opponent button mashes at x1.5 grab difficulty. Because he's controlling a solid creature though, he can't phase through the stage while overshadowing someone. Vlad can still swap control to his other duplicates by double tapping Down B while overshadowing an enemy.
Use his ability to overshadow opponents to toss enemies into the attacks of other duplicates, or throw them offstage to their doom. If you have another duplicate onstage, you can KO the opponent while only losing a fraction of your own power.
If an opponent button mashes out of being overshadowed, Vlad slips out into helpless, cursing,
"Butter Biscuits!"
Neutral Special (O) Ghost Ray
Vlad holds his hand out and charges a blast of ghostly energy, which can be angled in any direction. He can fire this attack in two different ways depending on if you tap the attack or hold it down.
If you hold it down, Vlad fires a continuous ray of pink ectoplasmic energy, like a slightly slower moving version of ROB's laser. It deals little knockback, and damage based on how much power he is currently has. Remember, the more Vlad duplicates, the less power each individual body has.
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 8% | Minimal
3/4 Power | 6% | Minimal
1/2 Power | 5% | Minimal
1/4 Power | 3% | Minimal
If he just taps it, he instead tosses it out a pink energy ball instead. The energy ball explodes like a bomb once it comes into contact with anything, creating a Bowser sized explosion. This is a slower, but more powerful way for him to attack from range.
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 12% | Kills at 110%
3/4 Power | 10% | Kills at 140%
1/2 Power | 8% | Kills at 180%
1/4 Power | 5% | Kills at 240%
As an added bonus, whenever Vlad performs his Ghost Ray, any other duplicates that are not performing any other actions will fire the same Ghost Ray at the same time, giving you more angles to fire from and a better chance of hitting the opponent in exchange for the weaker knockback.
Side Special (O) Ectoplasmic Bubble
Vlad throws his hands forward, creating a red bubble of ectoplasm that travels forward at roughly speed of Lucario's Aura Sphere. If it hits an opponent, it encircles them and expands to a bubble about the size of a Smashville platform across, trapping them inside. Vlad can trap up to three characters at once this way.
Unlike other grab-like traps, the opponent still has freedom of control; they can float around inside the bubble and use their specials and aerials as normal. The bubble lasts for five seconds, or until it is destroyed by taking 25% damage. You can also get knocked right out of an Ectoplasmic bubble if you take enough knockback, usually a little less than it would take to knock you offstage from the center of Final Destination. Being knocked out of the bubble decreases the knockback by about half though.
While the opponent is trapped inside the bubble, Vlad is free to enter and exit as he pleases; you can simply push towards the bubble on the control stick in order to enter it. While inside, their limited mobility makes it easier to attack them, and they are much easier to Overshadow as well.
Aerials
Neutral Aerial (O) Ectoplasmic Burst
Vlad keeps missing these memos; first a quick moving antagonist, now a slow powerful nair! Vlad brings his limbs in, generating a black ring around his body; after a period of start-up, he releases the energy around him in an explosion with the radius of half a battlefield platform.
To be fair, it's not exactly a 'slow' attack, just slower than most. Interestingly, because he channels all his power through himself, this attack becomes faster but weaker if he has split his power into multiple bodies. The spread goes something like this.
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 16% | Kills at 80%
3/4 Power | 13% | Kills at 110%
1/2 Power | 10% | Kills at 140%
1/4 Power | 9% | Kills at 180%
Depending on usage, this can be a strong, potentially finishing move, or a quick way to get foes to get out of the way and deal some damage.
Forward Aerial (O) Ghost Stinger
Vlad punches forward quickly, shifting his momentum forward as he continues at the same speed as Mario's dash forward in the air. If he hits someone, his hand emits electric sparks that deal mild flinching hits of around 1% damage before punching them for 6% damage and moderate knockback, regardless of power level.
This move makes a good approaching attack, and with the electric hitbox and multiple hits absolutely tears shields apart. It also has a long period of active frames, as it doesn't cancel for a while unless it hits. You can therefore approach an opponent with this move, switch to another duplicate, and attack from another angle while still threatening with this attack. The move also functions well inside a Ectoplasmic Bubble, as it becomes impossible for foes to DI out of the first few flinching hits of the move as he brings them up against the side of the bubble.
Back Aerial (O) Reverse Kick
Oh V-Man, you're such a kidder. First a fast antagonist, then a slow nair, now a stall then fall in the back aerial? What's next, a jab that works in the air?
Vlad starts this move with a strong kick behind him with both feet, the kind you may have seen Mario, Luigi, Kirby, Jigglypuff, Sheik, Zelda, Samus, Zero Suit Samus, King Dedede, Fox, Falco, Wolf, Squirtle, Ness, Lucas, and Snake do before. The kick deals 8% damage, less than most of these moves, but the range is pretty impressive.
What's interesting is that if you hold the button down instead of just tapping it, Vlad dives backwards with ghostly speed at a nearly horizontal angle, traveling at about the same speed as Captain Falcon's Falcon Kick. His foot deals 10% damage now and spiking knockback.
Besides being an incredible way to aid recovery and cancel momentum after being knocked far away, this move is another 'set and forget' attack that Vlad can begin and then change control after starting while still threatening opponents.
Down Aerial (O) Ghost Clap
Vlad hunches forward and claps his hands together beneath him, creating a burst of ghostly power. Think of Doctor Doom's Photon Array Hyper Combo from Marvel vs Capcom. This is a very fast attack with decent range; it's good at both air-to-ground and air-to-air attacks, and can effectively attack opponents stuck in an ectoplasmic bubble.
The attack has a burst of ectoplasmic energy right in front of him that deals decent damage and some knockback and hitstun, being stronger when he's at full power. At mid-high levels of damage, this can also function as a meteor smash.
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 9% | Spikes at 70%
3/4 Power | 8% | Spikes at 90%
1/2 Power | 7% | Spikes at 110%
1/4 Power | 6% | Spikes at 130%
His clap also fires three weak ghost rays at a downwards angle; each ray deals a mere 1.2% damage and mild hitstun. These rays only have a range of slightly less than a battlefield platform. Like with his Neutral Special, if a clone isn't doing anything else, they'll fire this attack if they're floating in the air.
Up Aerial (O) Ghost Wave
Vlad raises both his hands over his head, spreading them apart and creating a band of ectoplasmic energy above him. This ribbon of ectoplasmic energy has a suction effect that pulls in opponents within a character width for multiple weak hits before pushing them away, out of the vacuum zone. If you switch duplicates in the middle of this attack, the duplicate will hold this attack out indefinitely until you shield or take control of it again.
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 3% | Stunning
3/4 Power | 2.6% | Stunning
1/2 Power | 2.4% | Stunning
1/4 Power | 1.8% | Stunning
Inside an ectoplasmic bubble, you can use the wall of the bubble to make it harder for opponents to push out of the field of ghost energy, increasing the damage output significantly, and forcing them to Smash DI to the other side of the bubble. You can also use it as a sort of psuedo-trap if the opponent gets too close to Vlad without attacking.
Glide Attack (O) Ghost Chaser
Vlad does a quick punch forward, fairly weak at only 7% damage; this deals the same damage regardless of how much Vlad has split his power down though.
If Vlad misses with this attack, but there is an opponent within half a battlefield platform of him, he will chase after them, maintaining that distance. He will continue to chase them until he is struck or runs out of speed from his glide; the higher up you were when you started this attack the longer and faster he'll chase. You can change control once he enters this state, and he'll continue to chase even if you aren't currently controlling that copy of Vlad.
While Vlad is in 'chase mode' he is still capable of performing attacks in mid-flight, able to perform aerials, his grab, and his Neutral Special. This is a great way to put extra pressure on an opponent and commit a duplicate to an attack, but also puts Vlad at considerable risk of a retaliatory strike.
Smashes
Up Smash (O) Ghost Twister
Vlad hovers just off the ground and spins around rapidly, building up speed until his body shifts into a giant, whirling tornado. The tornado extends around him in all directions, larger than Meta Knight's Mach Tornado, making it very difficult to avoid. Because the tornado is literally just Vlad flying in circles at high speeds, striking the tornado counts as striking him, cancelling the attack. If an opponent is caught in the tornado, they are brought in for multiple hits, then chucked out the top after spinning inside for a second, with damage and knockback dependent on Vlad's current power.
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 3% x 5 | Kills at 160%
3/4 Power | 2.6% x5 | Kills at 175%
1/2 Power | 2.4% x5 | Kills at 190%
1/4 Power | 1.8% x5 | Kills at 210%
The tornado lasts for three seconds before some very hefty ending lag. The tornado normally stays in place, but you can push on the control stick to force the twister to travel forward or backward at the speed of Bowser's dash. You can change control of duplicates in the middle of it, letting them finish the attack while you can force opponents into it.
Vlad’s other duplicates are capable of being sucked up into the tornado and will be treated like a foe getting sucked into it, but will take no damage from it. Aside from being useful to regroup your duplicates, you can grab a duplicate in the tornado and throw it upwards directly under/above the foe, enabling you to immediately pressure the foe after they come out of the tornado with another duplicate.
Forward Smash (O) Power Fists
Vlad clenches his fists, which both glow with pink energy he has charged up. After a brief start-up period, he quickly punches forward with a ghostly strengthened strike. This can be followed up with a second punch for more damage that combos from the previous one. A third press will cause him to jump forward, flipping and delivering a third overhead piledriver punch that spikes opponents. Damage and knockback depends on the amount of power Vlad has in his body.
First Two Hits
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 12% | Stops Comboing at 80%
3/4 Power | 11% | Stops Comboing at 110%
1/2 Power | 9% | Stops Comboing at 130%
1/4 Power | 7% | Stops Comboing at 150%
Third Hit
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 17% | Spikes at 75%
3/4 Power | 15% | Spikes at 90%
1/2 Power | 13% | Spikes at 105%
1/4 Power | 10% | Spikes at 125%
While the first two hits usually combo into each other unless the opponent is at very high damage (interestingly, it combos at higher percentages when Vlad is at a lower power level), the third hit will never combo into the previous two.
However, if you knock the opponent away from the duplicate you currently control to another duplicate, the closer duplicate will perform the follow-up attacks if they can land it, allowing you to potentially combo off of it, and even spike opponents offstage.
Down Smash (O) Ecto Balls
Vlad holds his hands out at his side, generating a pink energy ball in each hand. These balls grow as you charge this attack like Lucario's Aura Sphere, and like Ness's Up Smash deal damage to opponents who touch them while charging, knocking them away with 3% damage and set knockback a smashville platform away.
When released, they both explode at his sides, dealing damage based on charge and Vlad's current degree of Power.
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 15% | Kills around 120%
3/4 Power | 14% | Kills around 160%
1/2 Power | 12% | Kills around 200%
1/4 Power | 9% | Kills at > 250%
You can also store them by tapping Shield to cancel the attack. Instead of storing them as a Down Smash though, he can fire a single explosion from the thrown version of his Ghost Ray. Good for setting up for a later kill while staying out of the way, especially against offstage enemies.
Standards
Jab Attack(O) Ghost Gang
Vlad does a very generic jab combo, two punches for 2% followed by a straight kick for 4% damage and moderate knockback. What makes it unique though is that if a duplicate is right next to him, they'll copy Vlad's motions, allowing him to trap the opponent in a furious ghostly beatdown. Of course the opponent can escape through DI, which leaves you in the awkward position of having a bunch of duplicates closely clumped together, making playing defense that much more difficult. In addition, if you swap control of a duplicate while it’s performing the jab, it will keep using it until either it gets hit or you tell it to stop.
Forward Tilt(O) Ghost Shield
Vlad throws his hand forward while laughing, materializing a pink ectoplasmic shield in front of him. This shield reflects all projectiles away and makes them stronger; if an idling duplicate is about to be struck by a projectile, they'll throw this up, even if they're hovering in the air.
If an opponent hits the shield, they take 3.5% damage and moderate hitstun, but they also take extra damage and knockback depending on how fast they were moving when they hit the screen – a dashing Jigglypuff takes 2%, Mario takes 5%, and Sonic takes 10%. Enemies who hit the shield with a physical attack won’t take extra damage beyond the usual 3.5%, but will slide backwards along the ground, taking a third of the knockback of their own attack. A decent way to get some breathing room or potentially repel the enemy into a counter attack of another duplicate.
Up Tilt(O) Sweeping Uppercut
Vlad crouches down before doing a mighty uppercut, capable of scooping foes up in front of him with it. In addition, Vlad uses his ghostly powers to aid him in the uppercut, flying upwards as fast as Mario’s dash 1.5 Ganondorfs. If the foe would take little enough knockback that they would go upwards more slowly than Vlad flies upwards, the foe will remain in hitstun as they cringe in pain on Vlad’s fist and an additional 4% before finally taking the knockback once Vlad reaches the peak of his ascent.
Power Level | Damage | Knockback
Maximum Power | 12% | Kills around 140%
3/4 Power | 9% | Kills around 165%
1/2 Power | 7% | Kills around 180%
1/4 Power | 6% | Kills at 205%
As you can see, the significant decay of this move with less duplicates can actually be largely beneficial in helping Vlad lift foes higher into the air.
If Vlad holds A for a good bit longer than he needs to execute the input or immediately swaps control to another duplicate after inputting the move, the duplicate will turn upside down and fly in a sideways oval shape after completing the normal move, still going just as fast with his fist being just as powerful. The oval will end when Vlad makes a complete lap to end up where he’d normally of ended the move, and the oval in the middle of Vlad’s flight path is as wide as a Smashville platform – just as wide as his ectoplasmic bubble. This makes for a good way to zone the foe as you set up the bubble with another duplicate.
If you actually hit a foe with the elongated version of the move and the knockback they would’ve taken is slower than Vlad moved, they’ll remain on Vlad’s fist until he starts going directly downwards, then they’ll take the knockback as normal. Aside from the obvious use of potentially spiking a foe, this will leave the foe stunned for a considerable time and begs for a follow up, much less considering they’ll be knocked into prone. . .Which is almost as much a curse as a blessing, as it means there’s no utilt or grab infinites to be had.
Down Tilt(O) Shadow Lurker
Vlad turns ghostly and dives into the ground, a shadow as wide as Kirby blatantly showing where he is. If any enemies come over the shadow he’s standing on, he’ll lash out at them, dealing 6% damage and knocking them into prone.
Vlad must come out after 2 seconds of this if he doesn’t earlier, but can move as slowly as Ganon’s walk and is invulnerable as a shadow. If you swap to control of another duplicate while moving as a shadow, Vlad will continue moving in that direction for the remainder of the move.
Notably, if Vlad manages to slink down into a shadow directly behind the foe (Assuming they’re on the ground), he will enter their shadow and use it to conceal himself. Unless you specifically order Vlad to come out of the foe’s shadow, he will stay inside it for the entire 2 seconds, coming out of it enabling him to get an almost guaranteed hit in unless the foe spot-dodges it out of essentially pure luck considering how quick the attack is. The one way a foe can force Vlad to leave their shadow is by going off-stage so he has no shadow to hide inside of, which can oftentimes be preferable to tacking on a token 6% to the foe’s counter.
Dash Attack(O) Ghost Sword
Vlad holds his hand up and creates a sword out of his pink ghostly energy, and charges forward, dragging it along the ground as long as you hold it down. When released, he does a sudden upward slash with some of the most impressive range out of all of his moves, dealing 9% damage and launching opponents slightly upwards.
If he passes by another ghostly version of himself, they'll summon a sword and follow behind him, releasing their attack once they reach the area Vlad released it, leaving the first duplicate’s ending lag less vulnerable.
Grab Game
Grab(O) Ghostly Clutches
Plasmius reaches out and lifts the opponent into the air by their neck, an utterly average grab by all accounts. He can perform this either on the ground or while hovering. This means that hovering duplicates will also grab if an enemy is nearby them. If you successfully grab with a hovering clone, control instantly switches to them.
Pummel(O) Ecto Shocker
Vlad's hands glow, releasing electricity into the opponent. This deals damage over time as long as you hold it down, but the damage drops like a rock if Vlad's power is lower than normal.
Power Level | Damage
Maximum Power | 5% per second
3/4 Power | 3% per second
1/2 Power | 2% per second
1/4 Power | 1% per second
However, it has the extra advantage of slightly extending the length of the grab with each hit, and being a 'set it and forget it' pummel; use Down Special while the opponent is grabbed and the duplicate will pummel away while you can beat on the stuck enemy with any of your other attacks or just try to overshadow them while they can't move.
Up Throw(O) Teleport
Vlad brings the opponent in close, and wraps his cape around the two of them. Quickly, press the control stick in any direction; he teleports in that direction with the same range as Zelda's teleport, and then punches the opponent away for 7% damage regardless of power level.
The angle at which he punches him depends on the angle at which you teleported; he throws the opponent at the same angle he teleported at, but with the y-axis flipped, punching him down if he teleported upwards, and upwards if he teleported downward.
You can teleport straight up to spike the opponent exactly where you threw them, letting you essentially reset or, if you grabbed them offstage, potentially kill.
Forward Throw(O) Ghostplosion
Vlad holds the foe with one hand as he lifts the other above his head, charging a massive ball of ghostly energy. He takes longer to charge it to full power based off how many duplicates he has out, but once he finishes charging that ghostly explosion deals 32% and knockback that KOs at 85%. Unfortunately, the long charge time is actually relevant, as the foe is perfectly capable of escaping the grab during the charge time.
Power Level | Charge Time
Maximum Power | 4 Seconds
3/4 Power | 6 Seconds
1/2 Power | 8 Seconds
1/4 Power | 10 Seconds
However; Vlad will continue to charge even after the foe escapes the grab, and will throw the Bowser sized projectile at the foe as fast as Falcon’s dash speed upon finishing it, exploding on contact with anything solid or a foe. The foe can casually interrupt the charging by poking Vlad out of the move once they escape the grab, but that’s what his duplicates are for. First you’ll have to defend the duplicate charging the ghostplosion, and later you’ll have to prevent the foe from just dodging the finished projectile.
Back Throw(O) Ghost Bomber
Vlad again charges up a projectile in one hand while he holds the foe in his other hand, but doesn’t charge it nearly as much as in his fthrow, dealing only 8% and knockback that KOs at 200%, but Vlad will knock the foe on a trajectory towards the nearest duplicate. That duplicate will charge an identical projectile as the foe flies at them, then send them towards the next nearest duplicate that hasn’t already hit the foe, and the cycle repeats. The final duplicate will launch the foe downwards, making it an excellent way to gimp if you can chain all the hits together.
Of course, spacing all of the duplicates properly for this is annoying as all hell, much less taking the foe’s damage percentage into account. Not only do you have to knock the foe hard enough to send them to the next duplicate in line, you can’t knock them too powerfully either or else they’ll fly right past the duplicate before they can unleash their ghost bomb on them.
Down Throw(O) Dark Dive
Vlad swats the foe into prone with minimal effort, dealing a meager 2%, proceeds to dive downwards through their body as he becomes ghostly, dealing an additional 5% and weak set knockback, going through the foe and into the ground.
The foe is now free to move, but Vlad will pop up from the ground a second later a platform away from the foe before repeating the process, still dealing 5%. Vlad can be knocked out of the move with any attack at all, but if he isn’t knocked out he’ll retreat into the ground after swooping at the foe, regardless of whether or not he hits.
Each time Vlad goes under, he’ll come up again twice as quickly as he did previously, moving faster so that he can stay on schedule, so this move can be a great damage racking aid if you can control your other duplicates to distract the foe properly. Vlad cannot swoop more than 5 times with this move at the most, but if they somehow all hit you’ll of dealt 32%.
Final Smash
Vlad creates an army of duplicates – far too many to count. Considering that this would cut the power of them individually down to pathetically low levels, though, Vlad takes advantage of his sheer numbers by having them all form together into a gigantic tornado so large that it goes right up against the side blast zones, blocking them off. Contact with the actual tornado does 20% and knocks you back towards the middle of the stage, and inside the middle of the tornado a constant upward current occurs that can easily push foes off the top blast zone.
The stage will also flip upside down inside the tornado and spin around (The playable stage getting ripped up out of the ground if it was a walk-off stage), dealing 35% and large knockback on contact with the sides of it. While foes can just hide underneath the stage to defend themselves, when it flips back over they’ll typically be screwed. If they don’t want that to happen, they have to get above the stage, but that means they might get sucked off the top blast zone.
Playstyle
Vlad’s duplicates do little to nothing when left to their own devices, so a large part of your game is going to be ensuring they’re doing something productive. While the obvious way is to use a set and forget move, there are several moves that take advantage of you simply properly spacing the duplicates out – the most examples are the fsmash and bthrow. In addition, properly spacing the duplicates out means that Vlad will never have to approach, as the foe will never have anywhere safe to go on the stage without running into another of your duplicates. Spreading out your duplicates is also very important in order to defend them properly, as otherwise the foe will be able to hit multiple duplicates at once and make your damage percentage skyrocket. The main way your duplicates can get involved when they’re too far away to be of specific use is the Ghost Ray Neutral Special, which enables Vlad to take advantage of his distance from the foe on a regular basis and camp at the foe from several different locations at once.
Aside from simply attacking with a range with one duplicate while you attack close up with another, you can knock the foe into another duplicate and then proceed the gang banging. One of the most obvious methods is the jab, but you also have the duplicate use utilt in order to make it harder for the foe to get away as another duplicate sets up an ecotoplasmic bubble. A more direct way to bring the foe to another duplicate is your fsmash, which will specifically set up the foe for a round of aerial combat. Combining it with a utilting duplicate and one making an ectoplasmic bubble can only make things more fun, as you start putting aerial pressure on the foe before the ectoplasmic bubble even gets made. Inside said ectoplasmic bubble, while Vlad is perfectly capable of dominating a foe with a single duplicate, it’s another excellent place to gang up on the foe – perhaps the best combination is having one at the top of the bubble using dair, while the other stays at the bottom and uses uair to prevent the foe from stopping the one at the top.
Perhaps the easiest way to make the foe simply run into your other duplicates is your Up Special – foes can’t fight back against Vlad while he’s intangible, so they’ll more likely than not opt to attack what they still can during that time. If they instead intend to punish the duplicate that went intangible, if you space your duplicates out properly it’s not like they’ll have much place to run to during that time. If you do successfully overshadow the foe, it’s pretty much the best possible set-up in the game, as you not only have time to correct your spacing and charge up attacks, but can position the foe exactly where you want to boot, making setting up a more complex perfect fsmash or bthrow gimp more feasible. Alternatively, if the foe is content to just dash dance to avoid your overshadowing, your ftilt is a nice way to encourage them to go bug a different one. This is all assuming you have to –force- the foe to attack another duplicate in the first place, considering if you just spam the Ghost Ray many foes will have little choice but to constantly be attempting to approach another duplicate.
With all of these various methods of making the foe constantly flee, your glide attack can prove to be incredibly useful so you have a duplicate chasing the foe regardless of their constant movement. The dtilt can be applied similarly, and can also potentially encourage the foe to go off-stage where you hopefully have yet another duplicate waiting. Seeing the foe is going to be doing a lot of dashing, your ftilt becomes increasingly useful and gains a purpose more meaningful than just simple GTFO.
When going for the a gimp the gimp with a utilt, fsmash, or bthrow with your spread out duplicates starts you off with a large advantage and is essentially the easiest way to get the foe off-stage in the first place if their damage is still low, though dtilt also works. If you only have one duplicate, overshadowing the foe is the main legitimate threat you have against them off-stage, as while your dair is threatening your other aerials are only all that useful because of how much air time Vlad gets when he attempts to gimp a foe. While it’s easier to gimp with more duplicates off-stage for obvious reasons, a surprisingly useful tool that isn’t immediately obvious are ectoplasmic bubbles – if you can force the foe to use up all of their jumps and what-not combating Vlad inside of it, then they’re as good as dead once the bubble expires. You can just attempt to grab the foe rather than hitting them and renewing their jumps, as if you successfully grab them it will be easy for another duplicate to overshadow them afterwards.
If gimping isn’t working for whatever reason, whether you used failed gimping attempts to damage the foe making that predictable, or whether the foe simply has a lot of damage, fthrow is your best kill move. Obviously damage racking enough to make the foe not escape the grab is out of the question, but this is a rare instance where clustering your duplicates up in a small area can actually be worth the immense risk, as it’s doubtful you can pressure the foe enough otherwise. This is obviously the time to actually use your jab, though your ultimate goal should be to catch the foe in an ectoplasmic bubble, which will give you all the time you’d ever need. If you can manage to pull off a grab, it should be easy enough to overshadow the foe and make them simply go too far away from the duplicate charging the gigantic fthrow projectile to interrupt him. Just keep in mind that said projectile still has to hit, so you’ll either need a duplicate ready to land in a guaranteed hit on the foe’s tail via dtilt/glide attack (These moves also minimize the risk of bringing your duplicates together, keeping them temporarily safe), or to have your Ghost Ray ready. If you’re struggling to bring all your duplicates together in time to pressure the foe properly (Which you inevitably will if you’ve been trying to space them), have the last one come over with an fsmash to both catch the foe –and- set up continued pressure from another duplicate, presumably with the glide attack. In the event you’re struggling too much to get even three to the foe in time, though, that’s what the upgraded movement speed on your bair is for.
Whether or not Vlad is pressuring directly, his goal is to keep the foe from mustering up any real momentum of his own and prod them into his attacks like the scared little puppies they are, running to and fro about the stage to attack the only duplicate they’re actually capable of attacking only to be met with a smack to the face. By using his Ghost Ray and making specific duplicates un-attackable, Vlad has complete control of where his foes will go regardless of whether or not he technically possesses them, making them simple pawns in his game of chess.
Boss Moveset
Like so many other extremely powerful villains, Vlad Plasmius has his own boss moveset designed exclusively for 3 v 1 play. Vlad of course has one advantage that none of those other boss sets have though; the ability to outnumber his opponents. Here is a list of the buffs Vlad gets in his boss form.
- Vlad's weight is quadrupled, meaning he'll be KO'd on average around 400%
- Vlad can now remain intangible for up to twelve seconds, and completely recharges intangibility in four seconds
- Overshadowing foes is now 20% faster
- If Vlad overshadows someone, they must escape at x4 grab difficulty
- Ectoplasmic Bubble must be dealt 60% damage to burst and lasts a maximum of 16 seconds if not destroyed
- Vlad now fires two ghost rays / energy balls at once with his Neutral Special
- Vlad’s power is not nerfed by creating duplicates, though if a duplicate dies he becomes very slightly weaker. With 3 dead duplicates, Vlad is as powerful as he would be with only 1 duplicate out normally.
- His pummel now makes his grab much more difficult to escape than it did previously
- If Vlad swaps to control of a duplicate using the dthrow, he can choose which foe the duplicate will attempt to go after next – left for the leftmost foe, right for the rightmost foe, and down for the foe in the middle. In addition, he will swoop after foes 3 more times than he normally would for a total of 8 times.
- With 1-3 duplicates, Vlad’s fthrow takes 1 less second to charge, while with all 4 duplicates it takes 2 less seconds. Vlad also gains 20% superarmor and anti-grab armor during the charging, and the projectile will not explode until touching something solid despite constantly being a hitbox, enabling it to hit multiple foes.
While you do indeed outnumber the foe with all 4 of your duplicates, the skill level required to play Vlad as a boss is significantly higher, as much more micromanagement is required due to multiple duplicates being able to be under attack at once regardless of whether or not they’re spaced out. Thus, imprisoning foes in ectoplasmic bubbles or your grab isn’t about eliminating their direct threat, but just eliminating them long enough so you can focus on the remaining players well enough to actually get anything done. Grabs work particularly well for this purpose, as not only do they eliminate a foe temporarily but also give a duplicate something to do for a while, giving you less to focus on.
Assuming everything happened the way you wanted, you’d be able to keep a constant stream of people getting grabbed/overshadowed/bubbled/sent off-stage to prevent much resistance, but things inevitably aren’t going to go so smoothly. One of the best strategies for an enemy team to defeat Vlad is to surround a single duplicate and pound on it en mass to damage rack Vlad, never giving it a chance to go intangible and escape. While losing a single duplicate in this manner isn’t a –huge- loss, the damage it’ll take on to your counter is entirely unacceptable. Your fsmash is the best way to save a duplicate from being utterly destroyed, as whether or not it actually catches the foes inside of it there’s nothing they’ll be able to do to prevent the duplicate from getting sucked up. Granted, if you –do- catch the foes inside of it the duplicate you’re trying to save will just be in the air instead of the ground with the 3 foes, but you should hopefully have another duplicate up there to create an ectoplasmic bubble.
Overshadowing foes is the best option for zoning. If foes mindlessly fight back against the character you’re overshadowing, then they’re only hurting their teammate while you get off without so much as a scratch. Assuming they’re not going to be that stupid, overshadowing foes is a great way to zone the remaining two foes where you want them, as they have little choice but to just run from the foe you’re overshadowing in most cases. Notably, foes can actually save overshadowed teammates you’re trying to drag off-stage for gimps by attacking them to knock them back to the stage – aside from being a great damage racking technique on said foe, it also is a great way to lure the un-possessed foes off-stage to either gimp them or be left alone with a single foe on the stage with 3 duplicates to antagonize them. Regardless of your gigantic control over where the 2 un-possessed foes go, it pales in comparison to how you have –complete- control over where the third one ends up.
If you are struggling to trap members of the enemy team at all, grabs should be your primary goal, as the fthrow will –force- the other foes to approach, seeing with the superarmor the boss version of the move gets it’s very difficult for a single foe to interrupt it by themselves. When foes are mindlessly approaching in a desperate attempt to interrupt you, it’s much easier to trap them, much less with your ftilt becoming such a good option. In order to ensure that they actually get –hit- by the fthrow projectile, your dthrow’s buffs prove immensely useful here to prevent pretty much all of the foes from dodging. With the ability for the duplicate using the dthrow to swap targets, it’s also far easier to build up momentum without just casually being interrupted, as there will inevitably be one foe who is unprepared for it.
The fthrow is without a doubt your kill move of choice, as Vlad was never particularly good at killing to start with and gains minimal buffs to his power in his boss moveset. Without it, you will require to be completely undisturbed with one foe in order to kill them, and with your other duplicates being busy restraining those other 2 foes there will be open space for them to flee to on the stage, unlike in 1v1 where you can have duplicates essentially littering the whole stage. If you intend to kill without the fthrow, you will largely be relying on ectoplasmic bubbles, as aside from sending foes off-stage (Which doesn’t last long enough), it’s the only way to delay foes without using a duplicate in the process. This means he will be using his other restraining methods more for damage racking early on while the bubble is saved for enclosing the arena for the kill. . .Though this is if he doesn’t want to use his fthrow and assumes none of the foes have below average recoveries.
Match Ups
Vlad Vs. Concrete Man(O) 67.5/32.5 Vlad’s favor
Vlad’s usual strategy of spreading his duplicates across the stage comes across awkwardly against Concrete Man – not just because of concrete blocks littering the stage, but because of Concrete Man’s shoulder charge enabling him to bulldoze past a duplicate and immediately start heading after the next one. This would be a significant problem for Vlad if not for his trusty ftilt’s disjointed nature out-prioritizing the shoulder charge. However; Concrete Man can shoot a single projectile at a duplicate with his own ftilt to force it to automatically put the shield up early, then bulldoze past it during the ending lag of said duplicate’s ftilt. While this is all well and good, Concrete Man needs to suck up one projectile per duplicate he intends to go past, making pulling it off much more annoying than it would be otherwise.
On the other hand, Concrete Man’s Down Special Iron Balls constantly rebounding off of concrete blocks can be a much more competent threat, forcing Vlad to have to go out of his way to destroy the concrete blocks and having to awkwardly wait for the iron ball to pass and go off-stage before he has it back to himself. Vlad will want to pressure Concrete Man around before he can pull off set-up like this, much less get up enough concrete blocks to abuse his shoulder charge/jab combo with. With no projectiles sucked up to shoot out with ftilt, Concrete Man is fairly easy to bully around. While he will inevitably get some competent set-up at some point, overshadowing Concrete Man enables Vlad to waste Concrete Man’s custom concrete structure battering weapons, smashing them over on top of nothing and wasting a significant amount of Concrete Man’s work. What prevents this match-up from being as bad as it would be otherwise is Concrete Man’s raw durability, with his Up Special hitting all of Vlad’s idle duplicates sitting on the ground to boot. Still, Concrete Man struggles significantly to get past Vlad’s other duplicates to interrupt his fthrow, meaning that only goes so far.
Vlad Vs. Galaxy Man(O) 40/60 Galaxy Man’s favor
Galaxy Man has good enough mobility in his recovery to get around Vlad’s gimping/overshadowing attempts fairly easily as he makes it back to the stage, though his low weight means he won’t particularly have to be gimped anyway so long as Vlad can competently damage rack him. Galaxy Man’s annoying preference to camp in the air means that if you antagonize him with a single duplicate he can continue to flee with little resistance, but if you just defend until he comes back down it’s fairly easy to go town on him as he recovers. Even if Vlad is impatient, he can just gather up his duplicates and launch them up at Galaxy Man all at once by using his fsmash tornado.
Galaxy Man is just as good at killing off Vlad’s duplicates, though, largely because of his ability to send them off-stage at 0%. Shifting the stage’s gravity requires Vlad to annoyingly have to micro-manage all three of his duplicates to recover back onto the stage at once, making them either easy fodder for gimping or easy targets later when they suffer bad ending lag if they all just used overshadow. Aside from this, making a portal that leads off-stage will be exceedingly annoying for duplicates to get around as they transverse the stage en-mass, and can also block off Ghost Rays, meaning Galaxy Man doesn’t have to always go for whichever duplicate Vlad wants him to and enables him to better focus on killing off one duplicate at a time. Granted, Galaxy Man is pretty crappy trapped in a small portion of the stage against Vlad and he’ll go up into the air to camp, but the space provided by the portal generally gives him an easy time landing.
Vlad Vs. Dr. Wily, Concrete Man, Galaxy Man(O) 57.5/42.5 Vlad’s favor
Regardless of being a MYM 6 set, Wily is largely a run of the mill trap character from MYM 5, which makes sense considering he was posted so early in MYM 6. This means Wily’s moveset is filled to the brim with random traps on almost all of his inputs, and the vast majority of these traps are minions which will stick around forever until defeated – Vlad already has his hands full trying to occupy 2 characters at once so he can kill the third, he simply doesn’t have the time to take down an army of robots. Thus, it is absolutely vital that Vlad kill Wily before he can do any proper set-up, as unlike Concrete Man he can’t just possess him and destroy the progress he’s made. Aside from Wily’s pathetic weight, his flying saucer is among the easiest recoveries to gimp for the game, and while Vlad isn’t the best gimper out there he’s more than competent enough to destroy its petty 15 HP.
Vlad will ultimately just have to take some of Galaxy Man’s camping that his ftilt doesn’t automatically reflect for a while until he can kill Wily, though Concrete Man can be significantly more problematic – due to the duplicates automatically reflecting projectiles with ftilt on such a regular basis, Concrete Man can easily barge through them all with his dashing attack to damage rack up the duplicates fairly quickly, meaning that he will have to do his best to contain Concrete Man in a bubble until later. On the other hand, said dashing attack can greatly assist in killing Dr. Wily’s many many low HP minions at once if Vlad takes too long to kill Wily if Vlad overshadows Concrete Man, meaning it’s rather a double edged sword. Concrete Man is further the best candidate to possess because of his concrete structures, as rather than just wasting them like in a 1v1 match-up Vlad can have Concrete Man use them as battering weapons against his allies, meaning even if Vlad struggles to kill Wily the match-up is still favorable for him.
Galaxy Man’s synergy may seem rather limited, as changing the gravity on the stage will cause all of the set-up Wily and Concrete Man have set up to slide off the stage. However; Galaxy Man’s portals are Wily’s main hope for survival, Galaxy Man regularly having to go out of his way to save the mad doctor. If Galaxy Man can keep Wily alive long enough the tides can turn in the favor of the robot masters, though without Galaxy Man constantly shooting projectiles at duplicates Concrete Man will struggle significantly against Vlad back on the stage.
