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Mario Edgeguarding Flowchart

DunnoBro

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DunnoBro
This is something I'm finding pretty potent lately.

Currently, typical Mario edgeguarding is a bit linear. He will either dash off cape/fair/nair, or try to drift off with a bair, maybe harass with a fireball to snipe a dj.

The dash-off options are good when the opponent is forced to drift in, but drift off bair is much less reliable, and doesn't mesh with the dash-off options well. The opponent can generally know it's either or due to your initial positioning.

Instead, Mario should be doing One of three things:

1: Dash off cape/aerial like normal.
2: Dash instant cape ledge snap (/ FH/SH Fireball into cape ledge snap to cover floatier or tether recoveries) > Ledge Drop Bair/Nair / Ledge DJ Dair/Uair
3: Dash in > Wavedash Back > FLUDD/Uair/Fair / Dash In > Dash Back > Bair/Dair/Usmash

The theory for this is pretty simple.

Cape, and run-off aerials actually aren't themselves reactable. But mario dashing off, is. Letting opponents either alter their drift since they know mario's range off-stage is very limited, or double jump towards stage to cross him up and regain stage control.

Instant ledge snap is great for dealing with people drifting off/recovering later. And especially those throwing out protective hitboxes/aerials towards the ledge (yoshi eggs, pikmin toss, snake nades, etc) Since it turns mario around for both bair, and nair.

And vs characters with no hitbox recoveries, it lets you more easily react and punish. (Especially vs ganon/falcon)

Nair actually has a lower hitbox in the back, making it much better for edgeguards from the back.

And wavedash back is a superior alternative to a regular dash back.

When dashing back, Mario only really has bair. Which while a fine move at kill percent, doesn't really send at a bad enough angle to be that rewarding this deep onstage at lower percents. And it doesn't cover that much space/options to begin with.

By wavedashing back, mario keeps facing forward thus letting him retain FLUDD as an option. As well as the front hit of uair, which is 2 frames quicker, and hits higher, and is way more generally rewarding when the opponent has no jump.

When you mix players drift up like this, FLUDD is very scary vs average or worse recoveries. And uair is just a great general juggle tool due to it's much bigger, and higher hitbox than bair.

Of course, there will be different optimizations and options based on the character, but in general this is a very universal flowchart. Especially when you consider how low-commitment just wavedashing back is to let you just ledge trap.
 
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