Emblem Lord
The Legendary Lord
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2005
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So, on Shoryuken.com I was asked to look over Marth's match-ups and give my opinion on them. I'll post the list I made for his matches and how well he does in them. Then we can get some discussion going on why I called matches the way I did and analyze Marth's game vs the rest of the cast.
Here are Marth's match-ups.
Bowser - 6:4 Marth
Captain Falcon - 7:3 Marth
Charizard - 6:4 Marth
Diddy Kong - 6:4 Marth
Donkey Kong - 6:4 Marth
Falco - 5:5 Even
Fox - 6:4 Marth
Game & Watch - 6:4 Marth
Ganondorf - 8:2 Marth
Ice Climbers - 6:4 Marth
Ike - 6:4 Marth
Ivysaur - 7:3 Marth
Jigglypuff - 7:3 Marth
King Dedede- 5:5 Even
Kirby- 7:3 Marth
Link- 6:4 Marth
Lucario - 6:4 Marth
Lucas - 7:3 Marth
Luigi - 6:4 Marth
Mario - 7:3 Marth
Marth - 5:5 Mirror Match
Meta Knight- 5:5 Even
Ness - 8:2 Marth
Peach - 7:3 Marth
Pikachu - 6:4 Marth
Pikman & Olimar - 5:5 Even
Pit - 6:4 Marth
R.O.B. - 5:5 Even
Samus - 6:4 Marth
Sheik - 6:4 Marth
Snake - 6:4 Snake
Sonic - 7:3 Marth
Squirtle - 7:3 Marth
Toon Link - 5:5 Even
Wario - 6:4 Marth
Wolf- 6:4 Marth
Yoshi - 7:3 Marth
Zelda - 6:4 Marth
Zero Suit Samus - 6:4 Marth
As you can see form his match-ups he really doesn't blatantly destroy any of the characters unless those characters just aren't very good in the first place.
He goes even with most of the better characters.
Overall Marth is solid not broken. He doesn't really **** the cast. For the most part he usually has slight advantage or goes even with his opponents.
And with that...discuss.
Edit: I'm going to be adding the match-up details to the first post now.
Bowser - Bowser has good range on his tilts that rival your range, a good ground game thanks to his Fortress, tilts and grabs, good durability thanks to his great weight and can play keep away thanks to his Flame Breath. Marth has speed, a slightly better close range game, better air game and better edgeguarding. Still Bowser is no pushover, so don't take him lightly. Don't rely on SH fairs since Bowser can abuse f-tilt to hit you since that has virtually the same range as your f-tilt. Instead rely on safe rushdown. Dash into Dancing Blade, or use d-tilts and f-tilts since they are safe on block. Dancing Blade is less safe, so use it when you know it will connect or to punish mistakes. When Bowser is off the stage use this chance to go for the gimp. Go off the stage for fairs and tipper nairs. Also be sure to edgehug him when he tries to up b to the ledge. Edgehugging is when you run off the side of the stage and immediately hit the direction towards the stage and Marth will grab the ledge. You can fast fall it to be faster if you are good enough. Bowser is also a big target, and can't match you in the air so go for a lot of juggles and try to keep him in the air. You do this by baiting an airdodge with an attack that has little ground lag and fast falling it. Then when you land attack with Dancing Blade, U-tilt, or D-smash. They are all fast and can launch your opponent right back up to repeat the process. On a different note, Bowser may find that he can't kill you efficiently, since his main kill tools are his smashes, but you can avoid those with relative ease with good spacing. Still watch out for his d-tilt since it has good killing power. Also the Flame Breath can be really annoying to deal with, but he can't spam it since it decreases in length if he has it out too long. If you get caught in it just DI back. And remember that Bowser WILL punish your bad spacing with his forward b grab which does 18%. Be careful.
Captain Falcon - I'm going to be blunt. I am of the opinion that CF is the worst character in the game. Honestly this fight shouldn't be hard at all. CF is faster then you. That's it. You have more range, more priority, more power, more combos, better A moves and better B moves. CF isn't a good character. And he can't kill well since his smashes suck. Just camp CF with Fairs and D-tilts. If he tries to hit you he will be outprioritized and eat a hit. Vary the timing of your attacks so he can't find openings as easily. Punish mistakes with Dancing Blade. When he is off the stage finish him. If he grabs you just DI away after the throw and airdodge, fair or counter. If you get caught in his A combo just DI away. CF should only beat Marth if the CF is way better then the Marth. Otherwise Marth mows CF down.
Charizard - Think Bowser with better recovery and better smashes, but lighter and different but still solid special moves. Flame Breath is still annoying, so remember to DI away if you get caught since he can aim it just like Bowser. His tilts also have very good range that rival your own and they are fast, especially d-tilt. Just like with Bowser rely on your speed and your safe moves to apply pressure and punish him with Dancing Blade. He isn't as easy to gimp as Bowser, but still pretty gimpable, since his up B isn't that amazing for recovery. You could also just rely on outright killing him, since although he is heavy he isn't one of the super heavy wieghts like Bowser. He is more around Link's weight. A mid heavy type. His grab range is good so be aware of it. His fair is good too, but only at close range near Charizard's body. His fair has no knockback at the end of the flames, so take advantage of that. His up b and U-smash are good punishers out of shield so remember your spacing.
Diddy Kong - Bananas can be annoying to deal with, but you can grab them and use them against him. His Peanut gun is really nothing to fear. You can grab them or swipe at them. At close range it's your fight for the most part. He has good speed, but you have speed as well as priority, which Diddy seems to lack. He also seems to lack in the kill move department. When he is off the stage you can just run out and fair him or if you see him charging his up b and he is aiming for the ledge just edgehug him and he is done. If he lands on the stage he will have some cool down time where he is vulnerable so punish him. As long as you keep an eye out for Bananas and don't run into them alot, you should do fine. Diddy has some good tilts, smashes and a good jab combo, so space well this way he can't abuse all that and you can retaliate if he tries to hit you.
Donkey Kong - Another Heavy weight with tilts that rival yours. His f-tilt outranges yours, but lags a bit so if you shield it punish him. Another fight where you have to rely more on rushdown. You don't have to worry too much about dying before DK since his kills moves are on the slow side and you won't be getting hit with them that often. Also his recovery is pretty gimpable, so abuse that. His up b does have super armor on it so he can punish you with it out of shield if you screw up your spacing. He can't match you in the air, but his bair is good so watch out for it.
Falco - Pretty much the best camper in the game. He has lasers and his shine and his forward B to run away. To get past lasers use full jumps, roll, instant double jumps, or just eat the laser when you are close and walk towards him and attack. The shine is much more tricky , but easier once you know it's max range. If you are just outside it's range and Falco is lasering, then you could roll in and he wouldn't have enough time to stop lasering and shine you. If Falco has already stopped lasering and he is waiting for the shine, then you have options. You could just walk forward slowly and keep your eye on him. If you are far enough away you can shield his shine on reaction, but you have to pay attention. You could also just SH airdodge forward and then space well so that you are just outside the range of all his close range moves. This is good for you since Marth can dominate Falco at close range with good spacing. Falco's forward b is annoying at first, but it can be punished on reaction. If he starts it up just do Dancing Blade, SH fair, or f-smash to stuff it. Just listen for the sound and look for when Falco draws himself back for the phantasm. Ideally you want to put Falco in a postion where it's too risky to laser , this way he only has a few options, but Marth's options > Falco's options at close range. Also Falco is one of the easiest characters to gimp and edgehug and he can't kill to save his life. If Falco is going to use Fire Bird just go out and do forward b. He will drop down a bit and then be too low to come comeback and you can just grab the edge and stay on till he dies. He has a CG combo on Marth that only works from 0 to about 30 percent. CG with d-throw till about 30% then dash attack cancelled U-smash. Marth can up b to escape at anytime. So essentially it will become a guessing game with better Falcos on whether or not you will up b. If they start waiting for the up b, just roll away or attack him. Falco has some good aeriels so be aware of them and a nasty jab combo, so DI out of that if you get caught.
Fox - The Fox boards thinks Marth destroys Fox. I think it's even. Whatever. Anyway, Fox is a tough customer. His Dair leads to easy u-tilt chains for a combo that can do up to 40%-50% in damage. You can smash DI the Dair to avoid this and his u-tilts as well to get out of them sooner. He can camp with his laser, but it has no knockback so I wouldn't worry about it. Fox has a horrible jab combo, so if you get caught in it you can usually attempt to perfect shield and get a grab off and it will work over half the time. He is limited to Dairing for his approach since that is the only thing that leads to anything from him. He will grab to put you into bad positions though. So he really only has two main methods of approach in this match-up for the most part. You can camp him pretty easily once you get close although he has great speed so be cautious. You outrange him and overpower him and he will die quickly since he is one of the lighter characters. His moveset overall is pretty solid and he has good aerials as well. Space well so he can't easily hit you with his kill moves since they all have good power and knockback. For edgeguarding it's not that much different from Falco, just remember that he has more distance on his Fire Fox and slightly less on his Illusion. As always punish with Dancing Blade and if he makes a mistake at high percents then it should be a free tipper. Foxes shine is also good, since he can try to shine spike repeatedly and then if you go for the stage he can jump back up with an aerial. I would suggest try to go somewhat low before using your up b. This way you are harder to shine spike. Or you could try jumping at him and fairing to catch him off guard. If you space well you won't get shined, but you can still hit Fox.
Game & Watch - Someone got buffed. Alot. Wow. Holy cr*p. >_> So yeah, he is a force to be reckoned with. He has slightly less range then Marth in the air and a Uair that will push you up even if it doesn't connect. Also his Bair tends to shield stab unless your shield is near full. His grab can set up a tech chasing game, but remember that you can tech the d-throw much like Fox and Falco's D-throw in Melee. You can tech in place or roll in either direction. You can also DI left or right to alternate where you land when you hit the ground. His d-tilt has good range but you can outspace it as well as all his other moves. You have the advantage in range and speed, while he has the advantage in kill moves. His Dair is safe on block so don't bother trying to punish him for it when he uses it. You can't really gimp G&W since his recovery is so good, but that's ok since he is one of the games feather weights and he will die early even from non-tipper smashes. So since G&W's kills very well and he is light you will both be killing at the same percents more or less. This is a match where you can camp pretty easily and adjust your spacing easily as well since G&W's projectile isn't good and you have more range then him. So just rely on your fairs, f-tilts, d-tilts superior speed and mobility to keep him out and force him to get past your blade. Punish him for any errors and you should come out on top. But be very careful. G&W kills at obscenely low percents even with good DI, so watch that spacing.
Ganondorf - Ganondorf has a decent moveset actually. His jab, f-tilt and d-tilt all have similar range to your own attacks. The range on his d-tilt is especially good and somewhat deceptive as it extends a little beyond his foot. His d-tilt, jab, and u-smash all have IASA frames on them so he can create walls with them and then do a surprise attack, usually a flame choke. Speaking of Flame Choke, it's really good. Set-ups for free d-tilts against you or a tech chasing game where he can do another flame choke to reset the situation or something else. Don't get predictable with how you respond to getting caught with a Flame Choke because if Ganon anticipates you then you will most likely eat a Warlock Punch or at least an F-smash. Ganon can also do a stutter step to increase the range of his f-smash, so watch out for that. Depite these little tricks that Ganon has up his sleeve, Marth runs all over Ganon. He is slow, with abyssmal recovery and he is laggy on his aerials. Marth can just rush him and easily punish any mistakes Ganon makes, plus since Ganon's kill moves will be tough to hit with Marth will actually be killing Ganon sooner then Ganon can kill him. Ganon has some neat tricks and a solid ground game, but his low mobility, laggy aerials, bad recovery, and bad kill moves hurt him alot. You can camp Ganon or just play rush down, it's really up to you. Both are equally effective vs him.
Ice Climbers - I'll probably end up coming back to this one. Anyway, they have a ton of crazy grab combos and a majority of them will end in a KO. Stay slippery and don't get grabbed. You can split them up fairly easily though thanks to your speed and range. Rely on your d-tilt alot and your fairs to split them up and then go for Nana. Just beat on her and gimp her then Popo will pretty much be at your mercy. If they try to camp with ice blocks you can jump over them or roll. You outspace them so keep them out and play a camping game. If you mess up your spacing and you are too close use up b or roll away. This match will come down to how patient you are and not being reckless. If you get grabbed once, you lose a stock. Don't forget that.
Ike - Honestly I like Ike alot, but he can't really challenge Marth unfortunately for him. Ike has one of the most gimpable recoveries in the game and he attacks slowly in the air so his aerials are counter bait for Marth. If Ike gets aggressive with aerials just counter on reaction. He may start to camp you though. Just rely on safe tilts and punish any mistakes with Dancing Blade. You can zone Ike with your fairs and tilts once you get close since you are faster then him. If you block a jab combo that's a free up b. You can up b anytime within the combo. Once Ike is off the stage he should be dead. You can jump in front of the QD to take the hit and Ike will drop. You could also just airdodge and he will go through the attack motion, but you won't take the hit. If he is going lower and he has to use Aether just drop down with a fair. Even if he Aethers in time you use Dolphin Slash to grab the ledge before him and then just roll onto the stage when your invincibility is about to where off and he will go straight down to his death. He may try to land on the stage in this instant, but then you can just knock him off if you know he will try to land on the stage. Just play safe and smart. Ike's best moves are outranged by your sword, and his other good moves are on the slow side and you can gimp him easily, so you don't have too much to fear in this match-up.
Ivysaur - The worst of the 3 pokemon. She has great range, but her damage laughable. Just zone her when you get close, since she doesn't have the tools to really stop you once you set-up your control/camping game. You can play rush down too if you want. Not too much to fear here. Plus she is super easy to gimp. Just get her off the stage and then nair or fair her then edge hog. When she comes back do a ledge dropped bair if you have to. This way she has to use her second jump to come back. Then just hog the ledge again. Don't bother trying to roll up. Just take the hit. If your damage is low she will hurt you, but you won't die. And she will be done. That's just one example, but overall her recovery is terrible. Also you can DI the launching hit of bullet seed. Just hold forward and you will fly right past the seeds. If you get caught in them just do repeated smash DI of up/away. You will get out fairly quickly and you won't take that much damage. Maybe 20% or less. She telegraphs her kill moves so you shouldn't be getting hit with them much and you can DI away from her multi-attacks which happen to be her best moves overall. Marth just runs over her pretty much. Also Razor Leaf is easy to deal with. Just jab it or perfect shield.
Jigglypuff - Another character that really has no advantage on you. She has good DI on her SH, good edgeguarding, and good recovery. But other then that she has nothing really. If she hits you when you are at low percents she will be at disadvantage on hit, so she will try to float away to avoid retaliation. Just chase her down and attack or set-up your zoning in this case. She is the lightest character in the game. She will die very easily because of this. You don't even really need to think about getting in tipper smashes. You can outcamp her thanks to your sword and your DI is actually a little better then hers I think or at the very least they are comparable. Rest isn't too much to worry about since it doesn't kill all that well till mid percents or higher. If she is edgeguarding you with repeated aerials that are carrying you off the screen try to fair, counter, or just airdodge and then try to recover. Other then her edgeguarding though this is your fight. Watch out for that and you should be fine. Also she can double aerial in one SH, so be aware of that.
King Dedede - There is a match that alot of Marth's just hate. It can be difficult to space well since his grab range is so long. Also he has his Waddle dees for camping and his f-tilt outranges all of your moves. Well thier are some simple things to remember in this match-up that make it easier. All of Marth's ground moves outrange Dedede's grab and a SH will allow Marth to go over Dedede's f-tilt and his Waddle dees. A SH fair is a great way to apply pressure and be safe. Good Dedede's that know this will try to go for dash grabs once they block your fair. Knowing this you can just jump or attack them when you see them try. Dedede also has a CG on Marth, but Marth can up b out of it. If Dedede expects this he can wait and then attack Marth while he lags. So it becomes a guessing game just like with Falco. If Dedede starts waiting for it, just roll away or set-up your zoning game. When Dedede is recovering you can run out and hit him since he is a huge target. If you force him to you use his up b you can counter it if he goes for the stage. If he cancels it then you have enough time to hit him back out and repeat the process. If he goes for the ledge, you will have enough time to hit him when he cancels it to grab the ledge, which will reset the situation as well. You could also try to edgehug him the moment you think he will cancel it to grab the ledge. He would fall to his death this way. Please keep in mind that Dedede is one of the heaviest characters in the game, so he won't die easily. Just be patient. His best kill move is his u-tilt, but you shouldn't be too worried about it if you are spacing well. He can edge guard pretty well thanks to his recovery, so if he goes out to hit you try to time your fair to hit him since he has no aerials that outrange yours. If you can keep him in the air it will be easier for you since he can't fight you there. His smashes are pretty slow so just roll away on reaction. His d-smash is good, but doesn't kill as well and is more close range so space well and you won't have to worry too much. Just take your time and don't get anxious to get in kills, because if you make a mistake you will eat an u-tilt and die around 100. Play smart. Play safe.
Kirby - Kirby has been buffed quite a bit. That said nothing much has changed in terms of the match-up itself. You can still zone him, outrange him and outprioritize him. He is light so he dies early of course. He has some good kill moves though especially his hammer and his f-smash so be careful and watch your spacing as always. He has great recvoery so gimping is is difficult, but not impossible once he is at higher percents. Then a tipper bair, fair, or nair should do it. He can edgeguard you much the same way that Jiggs does. With repeated bairs and fairs, so remember try to counter, airdodge or fair, then recover. This is pretty much your fight. Just watch out for his good kill moves and concentrate on zoning. Force him to get past your sword. He may start spammng Final Cutter though. You can hit him as he comes down but it's easier just to counter it when you are close. If you are far just shield or perfectshield the energy wave then approach and set up your zoning.
Link - Range is virtually equal in this fight, but Marth actually has slightly more range since he tends to lean in more on his attacks. The only attack Link has that has for range is his F-smash since he takes a huge step forward. He has a projectile game, but honestly it's not hard to contend with. Bombs can be shielded or caught. Arrows can be jabbed or shielded and his boomerang can be jabbed or shielded, but honestly you can just avoid it and then not worry since it doesn't hit on the way back and draws you in towards Link. You can use this to your advantage and close in on him. Just be careful since a good Link will also try to use this to catch you off guard and attack you. He does alot of damage hit per hit, but other then that he is nothing special really. Just watch your spacing and be cautious. Also when edgeguarding if he is in the middle of his up b run off and counter it. That's an easy way to get in some free damage. Also watch out for his Zair a.k.a the aerial grapple. It has no land lag when performed, but alot of range. You can usually just duck it, jump over it, or shield it and then approach. When you attack his shield, be aware that his grab is a grapple so you will have to roll away or try to stuff his grab. Also Link will often use his up b out of shield. You can block this and retaliate while he is still spinning. So if you always roll away after a blocked aerial that covers his option of grabbing you or hitting you with his up b. Then you can punish him.
Lucario - He has good range and great comboability. His hitboxes linger a bit with his attacks since he uses aura and he gets stronger the more damage he has. He can perform some good combos on Marth for alot of damage, but most of his combos can only be done on Marth when they are BOTH at low percents. He has Aura Sphere as a projectile. He will use these to play defensive and lure you in while also using them as containment tools to control your movement and spacing. Remember to jab them or perfectshield them so you can advance on your own terms while maintaining your spacing. You can also SH airdodge and then use the analog to go in either direction since Marth's aerial movement is so good. Charged Aura Sphere's can't be jabbed and fully charged ones will be used to kill. He will be relying on edgeguarding alot since his smashes aren't too great for killing, because they come out a tad slow. In terms of raw attack speed you are faster while he has more moves that are safe on block then you do. His roll is fast and he also has those lingering hitboxes, so zoning is difficult but not impossible. Remember that you do outrange his fair with yours and your tilts as well. So with good spacing you will be safe. You will usually want to DI back when zoning with fairs so that if Lucario rolls towards you he will end up in front of you. Then you can punish with Dancing Blade. Lucario's recovery isn't too hot. Extreme Speed has no hitbox so if you are on the ledge he is basically screwed. He can try to wall cling then wall jump and up b back to the stage. If you know he has to wall cling then you can ledgedrop fair or ledge drop up b and then he should be done. If he goes for the stage then he will lag and he is easy prey. Just kill him or hit him back out. When he is trying to edgeguard you, try to just airdodge or counter to get past him and then recover. When he is at 100% you need to being going for the kill since that is the percent where he starts to become significantly more powerful.
Lucas - I don't care what Levitas says, Lucas can't handle Marth. LOL. All he really has on you is a good edgeguarding game and PK fire. You can perfect shield PK fire or jab it. But you have to space well with the jab, otherwise the fire will still hit your hand. Might be better off using a perfect shield. Once you get in, it's your game. Lucas has s solid moveset, but simply put you outrange him, so he can't do much without putting himself at risk trying to get past your sword. He has some nice combos with his nair that lead into other moves though. But good spacing means you shouldn't be getting hit by that stuff. Also Lucas telegraphs his d-smash and his u-smash even more. If you see Lucas go for these moves just roll back and then punish him in his cool down time. He has a grapple grab, but the range isn't that long really and he is vulnerable if it doesn't grab so good Lucas' won't rely on it too much. When Lucas is edgeguarding you he will try to stage spike with PK thunder. You can swat the thunder, counter it, or just take the hit and tech the stage and then recover. When you are edge guarding Lucas you want to swat the thunder so Lucas will fall to his death. Or just swat him to get in some easy damage. If Lucas abuses wavebouncing, like any good Lucas should, just be patient. Take your time approaching. Everytime he uses it he flies back, so if if he wants to abuse it he will have to run back to where he flew back form otherwise he will just end up at the edge, which would be bad positioning for him. Knowing that, you can take your time and approach cautiously. When you do get close just set up your normal zoning game. Lucas will be hard pressed to get around your blade. Also you have a grab set-up on Lucas. Just grab and pummel him non-stop. When he breaks out you can re-grab him and he can't stop you. From 0% to 20% there is nothing he can do. After that he can DI farther back, but if you are fast you should be able to get a re-grab or a dancing blade. Maybe an U-smash for the kill. If he didn't DI too far back you can get an easy D-smash tipper for a kill at higher percents. If you don't do the grab set-up correctly he can mash jump and other buttons and he can jump out, but if you mash the attack button then this won't happen consistently. It's not really too much of a huge threat to Lucas except that it set-ups up for an easy follow-up attack or a kill at higher percents. Anyway, this just solidifies the fact that Lucas can't go head to head with Marth really.
Luigi - Luigi is a solid character with some some decent kill moves , but one great kill move with his fire uppercut. But since you use a sword you won't have to worry about that too much. He really doesn't have anything on you. You outrange him and outprioritize him and overall you have the better moveset. He can't challenge you in the air so you can keep the fight there if you want, plus it means he can't abuse SH aerials, but since Luigi is so floaty he might not abuse use them much anyway. He might use his tornado to approach so be aware of that and try to counter when you see it coming or shield and punish. You can zone him and it's very effective. Also his fireballs aren't good for camping snce they don't go far, are somewhat slow and go in a straight line. Just jab them or fair through them. His good moves are his d-tilt, his tornado, all his smashes, and pretty much all his aerials. But as I said, since you have him beat in range you don't have to worry all that much. Just play safe. He may try to set-up for fire upper cuts with jabs. Try to jump away when he does this or up b after his jab to break out. For edge guarding you can try to counter the Green Missile or just edgehug when he uses his uppercut and he is coming in low. If you get hit with his f-smash at a high percent you will probably die so DI doesn't matter that much since you are done for anyway. But usually you want to try to DI diagonally up/away instead of up. This way you won't go straight up and die. You could also try to DI into the stage and tech.
Mario - Mario is actually below average in pretty much all areas. He is subpar in pretty much every catagory except edgeguarding, where he can use FLUDD to really mess up your recovery. Other then that this is your fight. You are stronger, faster, more range, better moves, just plain better. You can go aggro or zone him. Nothing much to this fight really. stick to the usual gameplan of spacing control with fairs, f-tilts, and d-tilts. Punish him with Dancing Blade and go for tippers when you see them and when they can kill. His fireballs are no threat. Just jab them. Now when he is edgeguarding you it gets tricky. The water from FLUDD can push you away from the ledge while you up b. Try to come in low to avoid the water, but mix it up since a good Mario will pick up on this and start edgehugging. When this happens you need to start going low enough that you will auto grab the ledge, but still be high enough that you can land on the stage if he tries to hug you. Other then that though, this match goes to Marth.
Marth - You have the same tricks and spacing abilities so the normal gameplan doesn't work. I find that being patient in Marth dittos works best. Using walking, SHing, and foxtrotting to adjust your spacing. Don't get too aggressive. Also Marth's ground game outranges his air game so if you abuse SH aerials in this match you will catch an f-smash to the face. Use your aerials wisely. Punish any mistakes with Dancing Blade as always. If the other Marth gets fair happy and starts thinking he can actually chain them together you can usually get an easy counter or just him back with a fair, f-tilt or f-smash. This match is actually very tough since there really is no normal gameplan. You just have to be very cautious and know how to punish any mistakes. Marth counters himself. Try to bait your opponent into attacking and then punishing. Stick with your safe moves so that you are harder to punish. D-tilt and f-tilt are your best friends in this match.
Metaknight - A close match. Remember your zoning as always. Pressure his shield if he backs off with well spaced fairs and d-tilts for the most part. Make him approach then when he does force him to get past your fairs, f-tilts and d-tilts. His rushdown is a bit better and so is his pressure. Don't try to aggro him, since you will do better if you force him to take action. If he gets you into air don't panic. You have your counter and your airdodge to fall back on. You could also use neutral b to push you into the air and mess with his spacing/timing. If he is edgeguarding you then you can try to hit him, but it might be rough since he is fast with compareable range. You are better off airdodging or counter. Your up b has alot of speed and priority. It can beat out pretty much anything, so if you are low don't be afraid to use it to plow right through MK. If you want to edgeguard him you have to be precise. I prefer ledge dropping and then double jumped Bairs since they have good knockback. But be careful. Don't try to constantly challenge him since he can use shuttle loop and it can stage spike you. If you think he will use it be sure to hold up as you do your aerial. This way you won't get stage spiked if he uses it and you will DI up. He is light so all your kill moves work well and be sure to punish any mistakes with Dancing Blade. If he approaches with a special move just counter it.
Ness - This fight is unfair, but oh well. Marth has a grab infinite on Ness. Just grab and pummel him constantly. When he gets out just grab and do it again. Do this till he is high enough to die from a D-smash. Then when he gets out D-smash him. As you can already tell Marth counters Ness. Even without the infinite Marth has the tools to lay the hurt on Ness. More range, speed, and power. His fair can beat yours sometimes, but the damage is low so don't worry about it. As usual just play your zoning game once you get closer. Shield PK fire and then advance. For edgeguarding just hit PK Thunder or let your body take the hit from it so he can't use it to recover and he will fall to his death. He can use PK Thunder to try to stage spike you when he is edgeguarding you. Try to DI up and tech the stage in this case. Or you can try to swat the PK Thunder. He can do combos with his PK Fire so watch out. If he hits you with PK Fire just do repeated Smash DI of up/away. Anyway , other then that, this fight is all Marth honestly. The infinite alone would allow a Marth of lesser skill to beat a Ness of greater skill.
Peach - Peach doesn't really have anything over Marth. All she has that's better is recovery and MAYBE edgeguarding. Turnips are nothing. Swat them with fairs. Half the time you will knock them away the other half you will just catch them. If you block her turnips they dissappear. When you get close zone her as usual. Her kill power sucks so just watch out for her fair and F-smash as kill moves. Her U-smash is a good one too, but she has to be right on top of her opponent to get the full power out of it, and Marth should NEVER be that close. She is hard to edgeguard thanks to her floating so don't worry about that too much. If she edgeguards with turnips you should just fair them or airdodge. If she goes out to hit you just fair her. She can combo with dair to w/e. If you get caught with the dair, DI each hit and then try to jump away or airdodge. She is light so all your kill moves work well. She has good range on the ground BTW so be aware of that. Her f-tilt has very good range. Still she can't do much about Marth's zoning. Also if she uses Peach Bomber just counter it.
Pikachu - A straight forward match. Pikachu has some good tools honestly, but you have a sword. You can jab Thunder Jolts all day. QAC is annoying, but not deadly since tit only goes into aerials, and Pika's aerials are outranged and outprioritized by you. D-smash has tons of priority, but your spacing game means you won't be getting hit by it much. If you get hit by it just repeatedly Smash DI up and you can get out fairly easily. If you don't Smash DI out in time DI to the left or the right, so Pika can't hit you with Thunder after the D-smash. Your F-smash is equal to his in range, but his sweetspot is in the middle of the thunder shock, while yours is at the tip of the blade so Marth wins out here. His recovery is good, while his edgeguarding is decnt, but not spectacular, so generally the both of you won't be edgeguarding each other too effectively, although you can edgehug him easily when you know he has to go for the ledge. If he is edgeguarding he will usually do a jumping Thunder Jolt that you will have to contend with. Just fair it if you can or airdodge if you aren't too low. If you are edgeguarding him and he just used skull bash then you can run out and hit him if you space well or counter it.
Pikmin and Olimar - This fight is weird. You have to rely almost exclusively on SH approaches. Don't worry about Pikmin getting attacked to you since all your attacks can cut them off with ease. As I said abuse SHFF Fairs and Uairs. If they are blocked, then you are safe since you can roll away, spot dodge, and up b to stuff any attempts at retaliation. If they hit then just proceed to follow-up. For edgeguarding you can just stay on th ledge at low percents and he is done. The Pikmin will hit you, but he will die and you will be fine. You could also just run out and fair him then up b and if you tipped it then chances are he is finished. He can't challenge you in the air at all, so you can try to keep him there to make things easier. If he just spams forward b you can just rush him and punish with Dancing Blade. This fight is strange since you don't zone at all, you just constantly approach and just try to stay safe when he blocks. Also he will usually try to punish a blocked aerial with a grab so if you spotdodge you will be in a prime position to punish with Dancing Blade.
Pit - As Undrdog said himself that Pit is more then a bow. Which is true. It's just that once Marth gets past the bow, he can handle pretty much anything Pit throws at him. Arrow are annoying, but not hard to deal with really. You can roll, perfectshield, or jump, or duck straight arrows. Once you get close, it's time for the spacing game once again. Marth outranges all of Pit's tools except forward b which has a huge lunge to it. Pit's don't really abuse this move since it's very dangerous to throw out, but if you do caught in it just DI back and then up B. You will hit his hand. Pit sucks at killing outright, but has good edgeguarding, especially through the use of his arrows, so remember that. He also has some good throw combos. He can D-throw to Uair at lower percents. Just DI the throw and Smash DI the Uair in pretty much any direction, but I would DI up/away. His F-tilt has good killing power as does his Bair, but both have some noticable start-up time, so you should be able to avoid them usually. For edgeguarding Pit, just run out and swat him if he is close enough or gliding back to the stage. If you hit him out of his up b he is done for.
R.O.B - He outranges Marth with his tilts and has a good keep away game. His laser is unpredictable, but you can tell how much of a charge he ash by looking at the light on top of his head. If it's dark then he can't use the laser. If it's flashing a bit then he has a normal charge. If it's blinking alot and it's bright then he has strong charge. he can use his gyro in conjunction with his laser for some good cmaping. Gyro makes it hard to approach on the ground and if you jump he's got you covered with his tilts and his laser. In this case you can pick up or shield his gyro to approach on the ground or SH airdodge to avoid the laser/tilts and jump over the gyro. He can charge his gyro so it has greater knockback and use it for edgeguarding so be aware of that. Although is tilts outrange you he is very weak hit for hit and his smashes aren't good at all. You can easily outrange them and you can do repeated smash DI a.k.a Tap DI to get out of his D-smash. You could also just hold up and that would do it about half the time. Since he really has trouble killing, he must rely on gimping. When you are off the stage be ready with your airdodge to avoid a laser or a gyro. You CAN gimp him if he is close to the stage. If you grab the ledge and force him to recover high, you can go for a spike if he is at the right angle for it. You can also run out and fair him for damage racking if he is close enough. Alot of his best moves telegraph themselves, so you can avoid alot of them with ease. When fighting on the ground, rely more on your rush down and play safe. Punish with Dancing Blade and if he starts sitting in his shield alot just grab him or use shieldbreaker. You may find yourself using Shieldbreaker more so that you can compete with ROB's range a little better. Just don't over use it since he will get wise to it and start predicting you.
Samus - She has nothing on you really besides Zair, and f-tilt which outranges alot of your moves. Zair is annoying at first, so check out this thread where I talk about it and how to deal with. http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=148271 The Zair is good, but in the end it's little more than an annoyance. Missiles are easy to deal with. Jab them or swipe at them. Or just dodge them entirely. Her SH is slow and floaty and it makes her very easy to read. Also when you get in close and set-up your spacing game she becomes very limited in what she can do. All your options either outrange hers or simply outspeed and outprioritze hers. She may try to roll, but in Brawl having a roll that slow is a death sentence. Punish her roll on reaction everytime. Also her grab is very slow, so when you see it coming just jump or roll, then punish. She can also try to SH back, but again her SH is slow. So as you can already tell, when Marth zones her she is in trouble. Her kill options are terrible. The only one you need to worry about it d-tilt, which is a little slow and unsafe on block. Also it won't hit you if you SH, so SH zoning will beat it. Her other kills moves just don't kill well or are too slow and easy to read. And her d-tilt only has kill potential when you are at alittle more then 130%. She has good edgeguarding thanks to Zair though and her bombs. Still you can hit her and kill her if you space well. If she tries to grapple to the ledge you can usually just up b her while she is swinging and it will stage spike her. To deal with her edge guarding just swipe her missles and be ready to airdodge that Zair, but honestly, I have been hit with Zair in the air and still made it back even when I was low on the screen. It's not too much to worry about unless you are far from the stage. Despite her being on the heavy side she still dies relatively early compared to other heavy weights and you will be able to consistently kill her sooner then she can kill you.
Sheik - Sheik has good auto combos. She can chain tilts easily into aerials. If you Smash DI each tilt and then try to jump, it will severly reduce her comboability. At most she would get 3 maybe 4 hits. You can also DI towards her to cut the combo short since you will end up behind her. Good Sheiks will use U-tilt to counter this though. She has needles to force an approach, but her approach isn't too hot, since her SH is very high so she is limited to the ground. Once you get close your zoning game works well, and she really only has her dash attack to try to pierce your steel wall. But you can outprioritize this since you are in the air and your sword will cut into her back, so this is risky for her. Her throws don't gaurantee any hits, but they will set-up you up in the air, so be careful and vary the timing of your airdodging and try countering to mix it up. She sucks at killing, so don't worry about that too much. If she hits you with her F-smash just Smash DI back and the second hit will miss completely. Then she is wide open. Her U-smash is her one good kill move and it has very high knockback when sweetspotted, so keep an eye out for that. If she spaces a tilt on your shield, don't try to attack. Just roll back and then try to set up your spacing game. If you try to attack she can just tilt again to stuff you. For edgeguarding you can just edgehug when you know she has to vanish. Usually she will just die. If she is close you can run off and fair then up b and stay on the ledge and usually she will be done in this scenario as well. She will usually try to edgeguard you with needles. Try to Smash DI each one up and towards the stage. If she runs off to hit you, you can try to hit her, counter, or airdodge.
Snake - Snake is a monster. His ground game rivals yours in speed and his range is virtually equal to yours on his tilts. His jab combo is also fast and strong.Also his f-tilt is a great damage racker and his u-tilt kills around 100%. As if you are playing a Marth ditto stay on the ground. Only use SH aerials when you are already close, since if you approach with them, you will eat an f-tilt to the face. His u-tilt is deadly so you MUST be aware of it's range. It's about the same range as Marth's jab. Snake has a good throw game thanks to his d-throw. Sets up a free tech chase so be sure to switch up what you do after it. Some can roll right or left, wake up in place, or wake up attack. If you start waiting to do an action, Snake can stick a C4 on you so be careful. Snake has an awesome control game thanks to all his explosives. Grenades can thrown at you or cooked then tossed at you so they explode quickly. C4's can be be planted and used as surprise moves. Mines are simply pure space control. Well grenades can be tossed back at Snake and shielded. Mines can be hit or used against Snake. C4's can be difficult to actually hit with as long as you pay attention. You can DI his jab combo too. Just DI back and the third hit should miss most of the time, then you can punish. You will want to rely more on d-tilts on this match-up, since they outrange all of Snake's moves except the second hit of his f-tilt. Try to keep Snake in the air since he is juggle bait. He doesn't have alot of options when being juggled. For edgeguarding you can just grab the cypher when he is close and if you don't do anything, he will drop to his death when he gets out. If he is a bit farther out you can just spike him. If he is even farther just Nair him for the kill. Good Snake's will try to just recover high which means he sets himself for a juggle situation. No matter how Snake recovers Marth can take advantage of the situation. The Snake dash is also tough to deal with. To counter it you can try using SH fairs, using your counter, or shielding it and then chasing him down to punish. The key to beating Snake is to pay attention to his movements and what he does at all times. Keep him in the air to make things easier for yourself. Don't worry too much about his explosives. It's his close range game that's the real threat. He can also bring out grenades and shield so that if you attack you eat the explosion, or he can bring out a grenade and roll so he avoids you while you get hit. You can just grab or use shieldbreaker or even just space well with your attacks when he abuses shielding to drop grenades. If he rolls alot after bringing out a grenade just space your fairs then punish when he rolls or wait for the roll then punish. Also Snake has his Nikita missile for long range play and edgeguarding. Just hit it to deflect it with an attack, shield it, or roll past it.
Sonic - Sonic has speed and some auto combos thanks to his spin dash, but other then that you can treat him like a better verison of CF, which doesn't mean much honestly. He still loses in the match-up for the same reasons CF does. Marth is a faster attacker, with more power, more reach and loads more priority. Sonic has some neat tricks up his sleeve with his spin dashes, but alot of it is just mindgames and surprise tricks, not reliable strats or methods of gameplay. Play your usual game of zoning and punishing with Dancing Blade. Sonnc can use the stutter step to increase the range of his f-smash so be aware of that. Also it's hard to gimp Sonic so don't worry about it if you can't do it. Edgeguarding vs Sonic is really just to rack up damage. If he tries to edgeguard you just fair, counter or airdodge. Sonic has good throws to set-up for juggles or tech chasing. Always be sure to nail the tech on his d-throw at lower percents. At higher percents you can just DI away and you won't have to tech since you can land on your feet. U-throw sets up for juggle situations at lower percents so be reay to jump away or airdodge. You can DI away from his jab combo. Just hold back and you will usually be out before the 3rd hit comes out.
Squirtle : Another character that loses to Marth due to having less range and priority. Squirtle is quick in the air with nice DI, but loses out to Marths sword. His ground game is nothing to really fear since, Marth out ranges and outprioritizes it. None of his smashes are noteworthy really, except U-smash which is alot of knockback. Squirtle telegraphs it a bit though so use that as a clue to roll away or shield. Water Gun is annoying when he is edgeguarding you so refer back to the Mario match-up since you deal with Water Gun the same way you deal with Mario's FLUDD. If Squirtle tries to edgeguard you with aerials just hit him or airdodge. He can kill with his d-throw at high percents so be aware of that. You can edgeguard him fairly easily. Just use fairs and that should suffice. Then just edgehog him or go for a ledge hopped bair. When he is too far out to re-grab in time, just grab the ledge and stay on it. If he uses Withdraw to recover you can hit him and Squirtle will turn around and go in the opposite direction.
Toon Link - TL has a solid projectile game with a good moveset to back it up. Remember that you can deal with his projectile game the same as Link's. The only difference is that his boomerang hits on the way back, so you are better off just jabbing it or shielding it. His arrows travel more slowly then Link's so he can use them as walls. TL can Short Hop Double arrow. Short hop then shoot an arrow then land and shoot another one. To deal with this you shoudl dash under the high arrow, then SH over the low one. But keep in mind that TL can just SH arrow then do anything he wants, so be on your guard. At close range you have the edge due to superior range, but he has good speed and moves so be careful. He can chain his bairs for easy combos and all his smashes are good for killing. Also his throw game is solid since his d-throw sets up really well for juggles. His recovery isn't stellar though so you can gimp it pretty easily so go for those off the stage Fairs and Nairs. TL is the opposite of Link in that he doesn't do alot of damge hit for hit, but his attacks have alot of knockback which makes him a good killer. Still, you have the advantage in range so use that to keep him out and play your zoning game once you get past the projectiles. He is light so he will die early, so you don't have to worry about him living to very high percents. Be aware that you can avoid the second hit of his f-smash at higher percents, you can DI up and then jump away. Remember that his bombs do have a larger blast radius then Link's and he can throw his Boomerang at sharp angles.
Wario - A straight forward match. Wario lives by his aerials and his crazy DI. But your DI is good too and you have more priority. His ground game is no match for yours at all. And you slice through his aerials like a hot knife through butter. As long as your spacing is even half way decent Wario will be hard pressed to lay a finger on you. None of his smashes are note worthy really. They all seem to lack range and priority, although his f-smash has super armor on it and has good killing power with decent range. His other smashes are subpar. His tilts are slow and leave him open and they have very little range and priority so don't worry about them too much. His Fair, Uair, Bair and his Dair to some extent are his main tools. But you outrange and out prioritize them all. Just zone him as usual and the fight is in your control. Be on your guard for the Wario Waft. When it is half charged it does less damage but more knockback. When it is fully charged it does more damage, but less knockback. He will blink when it's fully charged so it's easier to deal with. There are no visible signs of a half charged Wario Waft, so you will just need to be careful. Also Wario has an excellent recovery with is bike so don't worry about edgeguarding him, since he will usually make it back to the stage. If he is close to th stage and he didn't bring out his bike then feel free to gimp him since his up b is horrid. His Bite can outprioritize you if you don't space well so be aware of that.
Wolf - Wolf is very hard to fight at first. His special moves and his f-smash make it hard to space well vs him. The key is to camp just outside his f-smash range so if he tries it you can punish easily. If he uses a special move then your own attack can outpriortize it or you can shield and punish. Lasers aren't a big deal really. SH over them or just perfectshield them. If you sapce correctly you won't have to worry about Wolf's close range options which are all good, but I will tell you what they are anyway. His shine comes out fast, probably 1 frame and it has invincibility frames. It has a set knockback not based on percentage. iy sets up really well for any follow-up move. If you shield he is in range for a dash grab. If you roll away he just laser. If you try to attack you will eat an f-smash. Just roll away since lasers are easy to deal with in the first place. No reason to risk getting KOed by an f-smash or put into a bad postion by a throw. Speaking of throws, his d-throw is really good. Also leaves you in range to follow-up with different things. The set-ups are the same as with Wolf's shine, but the d-throw set-ups only work at lower percents. At higher percents you will just smash right into the ground. Also at close range Wolf's d-smash is his best kill move. He has a good jab combo that is fast and does decent damage and his f-tilt has good range and priority and hits twice when sweetspotted. But as I said if you space well you can avoid all of these moves. You should almost never get hit with his d-smash honestly. A big component to beating Wolf is taking advantage of his horrible recovery. Alot of the time you can just edgehug him when he is trying to recover and he will be done. But you can chase him with fairs if you like. Honestly it isn't hard to gimp Wolf and once you start doing it, the match gets easier. Also Wolf has some nice aerials, especially his Bair so be on your guard for that.
Yoshi - Yoshi has one decent approach with his Bair and some good range on his d-tilt. That said everything else about him is subpar. His killing power, priority, and recovery are all low. He has eggs so he camp a bit, but with your speed it's nothing to worry about at all. Shield or jab them. Also he can't jump out of his shield and he drops his shield slower then anyone else in the game so you can stand to be more aggressive vs him since he has less options to get you off of him if he is shielding. He can combo with Uairs after a Bair or an U-tilt. Try to DI away but at low percents there isn't much you can do. Just place they spacing game and gimp his recovery. When he uses that second jump you can un out and hit him, which should kill his momentum then you can edgehug. His eggs will give him a boost upwards, but if you just edgehug, he will usually be done. Or you could just ledge drop bair then continue edgehugging. Not much else to say really. Yoshi is simply outclassed.
Zelda - She is a beast, but still falls prey to Marth's spacing game. Din's fire is pretty easy to deal with. SH airdodges while spacing yourself are all you will need. She has some good range on her f-tilt and f-smash but you outrange both. Her d-tilt can set-up for a free U-smash. You can DI her U-smash with repeated Smash DI though. Just keep hitting up and you can get out of you are fast enough. You can also DI out of her F-smash. Just hold up and you will get out half the time. You can Smash DI for greater success. It's harder to gimp her thanks to her teleport, but don't worry about it since she is light and will die early. Now Zelda is a killing machine and hits hard, so be on your guard. She can kill with U-smash, Fair, Bair, Uair and Din's Fire. Proper spacing really limits her though and makes it very hard for her to get in. She simply doesn't have the speed to get past that sword consistently with little risk to herself. At close range you can dominate since she will have a hard time hitting you and you kill just as well as her. A good Zelda will try to re-adjust her spacing to hit with Fair or Bair so if you notice that a Zelda player uses empty SH's alot, they are probably trying to get their spacing right. Be careful in this situation and try to adjust your spacing so she can't hit with the lightning kick sweetspot so easily, but you can still shut her down at close range. Try not to be above her since that U-smash and Uair can be deadly. At higher percents her d-tilt will pop you up and she can do an U-smash. But you can DI the d-tilt to avoid her follow-up attack. You may be able to jump out, but you would need excellent timing since the time windo to get away is so small. Her nuetral b is sort of like a shine and has good knockback, but again if you space well, it's not a huge concern.
Zero Suit Samus - Her recovery is pretty solid and she rivals you in speed and range, even surpassing your range with some of her moves. But this is still Marth's advantage, since he has more killing options, is better at damage racking, and he is heavier so he will last longer. ZSS's has very poor kill moves as well, so you may find yourself living to some high percents when you fight her. She has her paralyzer as a projectile, but it's slow and easily dealt with. Her forward B is a nuisance and one of her kill moves, but since it's an effective spacing tool it won't kill that well since ZSS players tend to spam it vs Marth to keep him out. It's easy to tell when it's coming though since she draws her arm back. Just SH airdodge or shield it then retaliate. You can also clank it with anyone of your A moves. She also has some other tricks like Uair combo pillars. Not true combos, but she will try to bait your airdodges or draw them out then keep you in the air with Uair chains. You can counter or use your nuetral b to give yourself some momentum and mess up her spacing/timing. She will often try to d-throw you after a grab to set-up for Uair pillaring. Her up B can send you up and then drag you back down or just drag you down if you are already in the air. From there she can do follow-up attacks. You can tech when you hit the ground though, so this will mess up any follow-up attack she was planning. still she could tech chase you so, be on your guard and switch up how you tech to keep her guessing. She can also do set-ups with her d-smash since it paralyzes you. She can get a free hit of you get hit with this so be careful. when you get in close, it's your advantage though. You can't really outprioritize you, and your close range game is stronger. For edgeguarding, you can usually just go out and fair her then edgehug. She can try to use her down b to come back up, but if she is farther away then she is done. You can also try to edgehug her when you think she will up b and she won't be able to grab the ledge.
Here are Marth's match-ups.
Bowser - 6:4 Marth
Captain Falcon - 7:3 Marth
Charizard - 6:4 Marth
Diddy Kong - 6:4 Marth
Donkey Kong - 6:4 Marth
Falco - 5:5 Even
Fox - 6:4 Marth
Game & Watch - 6:4 Marth
Ganondorf - 8:2 Marth
Ice Climbers - 6:4 Marth
Ike - 6:4 Marth
Ivysaur - 7:3 Marth
Jigglypuff - 7:3 Marth
King Dedede- 5:5 Even
Kirby- 7:3 Marth
Link- 6:4 Marth
Lucario - 6:4 Marth
Lucas - 7:3 Marth
Luigi - 6:4 Marth
Mario - 7:3 Marth
Marth - 5:5 Mirror Match
Meta Knight- 5:5 Even
Ness - 8:2 Marth
Peach - 7:3 Marth
Pikachu - 6:4 Marth
Pikman & Olimar - 5:5 Even
Pit - 6:4 Marth
R.O.B. - 5:5 Even
Samus - 6:4 Marth
Sheik - 6:4 Marth
Snake - 6:4 Snake
Sonic - 7:3 Marth
Squirtle - 7:3 Marth
Toon Link - 5:5 Even
Wario - 6:4 Marth
Wolf- 6:4 Marth
Yoshi - 7:3 Marth
Zelda - 6:4 Marth
Zero Suit Samus - 6:4 Marth
As you can see form his match-ups he really doesn't blatantly destroy any of the characters unless those characters just aren't very good in the first place.
He goes even with most of the better characters.
Overall Marth is solid not broken. He doesn't really **** the cast. For the most part he usually has slight advantage or goes even with his opponents.
And with that...discuss.
Edit: I'm going to be adding the match-up details to the first post now.
Bowser - Bowser has good range on his tilts that rival your range, a good ground game thanks to his Fortress, tilts and grabs, good durability thanks to his great weight and can play keep away thanks to his Flame Breath. Marth has speed, a slightly better close range game, better air game and better edgeguarding. Still Bowser is no pushover, so don't take him lightly. Don't rely on SH fairs since Bowser can abuse f-tilt to hit you since that has virtually the same range as your f-tilt. Instead rely on safe rushdown. Dash into Dancing Blade, or use d-tilts and f-tilts since they are safe on block. Dancing Blade is less safe, so use it when you know it will connect or to punish mistakes. When Bowser is off the stage use this chance to go for the gimp. Go off the stage for fairs and tipper nairs. Also be sure to edgehug him when he tries to up b to the ledge. Edgehugging is when you run off the side of the stage and immediately hit the direction towards the stage and Marth will grab the ledge. You can fast fall it to be faster if you are good enough. Bowser is also a big target, and can't match you in the air so go for a lot of juggles and try to keep him in the air. You do this by baiting an airdodge with an attack that has little ground lag and fast falling it. Then when you land attack with Dancing Blade, U-tilt, or D-smash. They are all fast and can launch your opponent right back up to repeat the process. On a different note, Bowser may find that he can't kill you efficiently, since his main kill tools are his smashes, but you can avoid those with relative ease with good spacing. Still watch out for his d-tilt since it has good killing power. Also the Flame Breath can be really annoying to deal with, but he can't spam it since it decreases in length if he has it out too long. If you get caught in it just DI back. And remember that Bowser WILL punish your bad spacing with his forward b grab which does 18%. Be careful.
Captain Falcon - I'm going to be blunt. I am of the opinion that CF is the worst character in the game. Honestly this fight shouldn't be hard at all. CF is faster then you. That's it. You have more range, more priority, more power, more combos, better A moves and better B moves. CF isn't a good character. And he can't kill well since his smashes suck. Just camp CF with Fairs and D-tilts. If he tries to hit you he will be outprioritized and eat a hit. Vary the timing of your attacks so he can't find openings as easily. Punish mistakes with Dancing Blade. When he is off the stage finish him. If he grabs you just DI away after the throw and airdodge, fair or counter. If you get caught in his A combo just DI away. CF should only beat Marth if the CF is way better then the Marth. Otherwise Marth mows CF down.
Charizard - Think Bowser with better recovery and better smashes, but lighter and different but still solid special moves. Flame Breath is still annoying, so remember to DI away if you get caught since he can aim it just like Bowser. His tilts also have very good range that rival your own and they are fast, especially d-tilt. Just like with Bowser rely on your speed and your safe moves to apply pressure and punish him with Dancing Blade. He isn't as easy to gimp as Bowser, but still pretty gimpable, since his up B isn't that amazing for recovery. You could also just rely on outright killing him, since although he is heavy he isn't one of the super heavy wieghts like Bowser. He is more around Link's weight. A mid heavy type. His grab range is good so be aware of it. His fair is good too, but only at close range near Charizard's body. His fair has no knockback at the end of the flames, so take advantage of that. His up b and U-smash are good punishers out of shield so remember your spacing.
Diddy Kong - Bananas can be annoying to deal with, but you can grab them and use them against him. His Peanut gun is really nothing to fear. You can grab them or swipe at them. At close range it's your fight for the most part. He has good speed, but you have speed as well as priority, which Diddy seems to lack. He also seems to lack in the kill move department. When he is off the stage you can just run out and fair him or if you see him charging his up b and he is aiming for the ledge just edgehug him and he is done. If he lands on the stage he will have some cool down time where he is vulnerable so punish him. As long as you keep an eye out for Bananas and don't run into them alot, you should do fine. Diddy has some good tilts, smashes and a good jab combo, so space well this way he can't abuse all that and you can retaliate if he tries to hit you.
Donkey Kong - Another Heavy weight with tilts that rival yours. His f-tilt outranges yours, but lags a bit so if you shield it punish him. Another fight where you have to rely more on rushdown. You don't have to worry too much about dying before DK since his kills moves are on the slow side and you won't be getting hit with them that often. Also his recovery is pretty gimpable, so abuse that. His up b does have super armor on it so he can punish you with it out of shield if you screw up your spacing. He can't match you in the air, but his bair is good so watch out for it.
Falco - Pretty much the best camper in the game. He has lasers and his shine and his forward B to run away. To get past lasers use full jumps, roll, instant double jumps, or just eat the laser when you are close and walk towards him and attack. The shine is much more tricky , but easier once you know it's max range. If you are just outside it's range and Falco is lasering, then you could roll in and he wouldn't have enough time to stop lasering and shine you. If Falco has already stopped lasering and he is waiting for the shine, then you have options. You could just walk forward slowly and keep your eye on him. If you are far enough away you can shield his shine on reaction, but you have to pay attention. You could also just SH airdodge forward and then space well so that you are just outside the range of all his close range moves. This is good for you since Marth can dominate Falco at close range with good spacing. Falco's forward b is annoying at first, but it can be punished on reaction. If he starts it up just do Dancing Blade, SH fair, or f-smash to stuff it. Just listen for the sound and look for when Falco draws himself back for the phantasm. Ideally you want to put Falco in a postion where it's too risky to laser , this way he only has a few options, but Marth's options > Falco's options at close range. Also Falco is one of the easiest characters to gimp and edgehug and he can't kill to save his life. If Falco is going to use Fire Bird just go out and do forward b. He will drop down a bit and then be too low to come comeback and you can just grab the edge and stay on till he dies. He has a CG combo on Marth that only works from 0 to about 30 percent. CG with d-throw till about 30% then dash attack cancelled U-smash. Marth can up b to escape at anytime. So essentially it will become a guessing game with better Falcos on whether or not you will up b. If they start waiting for the up b, just roll away or attack him. Falco has some good aeriels so be aware of them and a nasty jab combo, so DI out of that if you get caught.
Fox - The Fox boards thinks Marth destroys Fox. I think it's even. Whatever. Anyway, Fox is a tough customer. His Dair leads to easy u-tilt chains for a combo that can do up to 40%-50% in damage. You can smash DI the Dair to avoid this and his u-tilts as well to get out of them sooner. He can camp with his laser, but it has no knockback so I wouldn't worry about it. Fox has a horrible jab combo, so if you get caught in it you can usually attempt to perfect shield and get a grab off and it will work over half the time. He is limited to Dairing for his approach since that is the only thing that leads to anything from him. He will grab to put you into bad positions though. So he really only has two main methods of approach in this match-up for the most part. You can camp him pretty easily once you get close although he has great speed so be cautious. You outrange him and overpower him and he will die quickly since he is one of the lighter characters. His moveset overall is pretty solid and he has good aerials as well. Space well so he can't easily hit you with his kill moves since they all have good power and knockback. For edgeguarding it's not that much different from Falco, just remember that he has more distance on his Fire Fox and slightly less on his Illusion. As always punish with Dancing Blade and if he makes a mistake at high percents then it should be a free tipper. Foxes shine is also good, since he can try to shine spike repeatedly and then if you go for the stage he can jump back up with an aerial. I would suggest try to go somewhat low before using your up b. This way you are harder to shine spike. Or you could try jumping at him and fairing to catch him off guard. If you space well you won't get shined, but you can still hit Fox.
Game & Watch - Someone got buffed. Alot. Wow. Holy cr*p. >_> So yeah, he is a force to be reckoned with. He has slightly less range then Marth in the air and a Uair that will push you up even if it doesn't connect. Also his Bair tends to shield stab unless your shield is near full. His grab can set up a tech chasing game, but remember that you can tech the d-throw much like Fox and Falco's D-throw in Melee. You can tech in place or roll in either direction. You can also DI left or right to alternate where you land when you hit the ground. His d-tilt has good range but you can outspace it as well as all his other moves. You have the advantage in range and speed, while he has the advantage in kill moves. His Dair is safe on block so don't bother trying to punish him for it when he uses it. You can't really gimp G&W since his recovery is so good, but that's ok since he is one of the games feather weights and he will die early even from non-tipper smashes. So since G&W's kills very well and he is light you will both be killing at the same percents more or less. This is a match where you can camp pretty easily and adjust your spacing easily as well since G&W's projectile isn't good and you have more range then him. So just rely on your fairs, f-tilts, d-tilts superior speed and mobility to keep him out and force him to get past your blade. Punish him for any errors and you should come out on top. But be very careful. G&W kills at obscenely low percents even with good DI, so watch that spacing.
Ganondorf - Ganondorf has a decent moveset actually. His jab, f-tilt and d-tilt all have similar range to your own attacks. The range on his d-tilt is especially good and somewhat deceptive as it extends a little beyond his foot. His d-tilt, jab, and u-smash all have IASA frames on them so he can create walls with them and then do a surprise attack, usually a flame choke. Speaking of Flame Choke, it's really good. Set-ups for free d-tilts against you or a tech chasing game where he can do another flame choke to reset the situation or something else. Don't get predictable with how you respond to getting caught with a Flame Choke because if Ganon anticipates you then you will most likely eat a Warlock Punch or at least an F-smash. Ganon can also do a stutter step to increase the range of his f-smash, so watch out for that. Depite these little tricks that Ganon has up his sleeve, Marth runs all over Ganon. He is slow, with abyssmal recovery and he is laggy on his aerials. Marth can just rush him and easily punish any mistakes Ganon makes, plus since Ganon's kill moves will be tough to hit with Marth will actually be killing Ganon sooner then Ganon can kill him. Ganon has some neat tricks and a solid ground game, but his low mobility, laggy aerials, bad recovery, and bad kill moves hurt him alot. You can camp Ganon or just play rush down, it's really up to you. Both are equally effective vs him.
Ice Climbers - I'll probably end up coming back to this one. Anyway, they have a ton of crazy grab combos and a majority of them will end in a KO. Stay slippery and don't get grabbed. You can split them up fairly easily though thanks to your speed and range. Rely on your d-tilt alot and your fairs to split them up and then go for Nana. Just beat on her and gimp her then Popo will pretty much be at your mercy. If they try to camp with ice blocks you can jump over them or roll. You outspace them so keep them out and play a camping game. If you mess up your spacing and you are too close use up b or roll away. This match will come down to how patient you are and not being reckless. If you get grabbed once, you lose a stock. Don't forget that.
Ike - Honestly I like Ike alot, but he can't really challenge Marth unfortunately for him. Ike has one of the most gimpable recoveries in the game and he attacks slowly in the air so his aerials are counter bait for Marth. If Ike gets aggressive with aerials just counter on reaction. He may start to camp you though. Just rely on safe tilts and punish any mistakes with Dancing Blade. You can zone Ike with your fairs and tilts once you get close since you are faster then him. If you block a jab combo that's a free up b. You can up b anytime within the combo. Once Ike is off the stage he should be dead. You can jump in front of the QD to take the hit and Ike will drop. You could also just airdodge and he will go through the attack motion, but you won't take the hit. If he is going lower and he has to use Aether just drop down with a fair. Even if he Aethers in time you use Dolphin Slash to grab the ledge before him and then just roll onto the stage when your invincibility is about to where off and he will go straight down to his death. He may try to land on the stage in this instant, but then you can just knock him off if you know he will try to land on the stage. Just play safe and smart. Ike's best moves are outranged by your sword, and his other good moves are on the slow side and you can gimp him easily, so you don't have too much to fear in this match-up.
Ivysaur - The worst of the 3 pokemon. She has great range, but her damage laughable. Just zone her when you get close, since she doesn't have the tools to really stop you once you set-up your control/camping game. You can play rush down too if you want. Not too much to fear here. Plus she is super easy to gimp. Just get her off the stage and then nair or fair her then edge hog. When she comes back do a ledge dropped bair if you have to. This way she has to use her second jump to come back. Then just hog the ledge again. Don't bother trying to roll up. Just take the hit. If your damage is low she will hurt you, but you won't die. And she will be done. That's just one example, but overall her recovery is terrible. Also you can DI the launching hit of bullet seed. Just hold forward and you will fly right past the seeds. If you get caught in them just do repeated smash DI of up/away. You will get out fairly quickly and you won't take that much damage. Maybe 20% or less. She telegraphs her kill moves so you shouldn't be getting hit with them much and you can DI away from her multi-attacks which happen to be her best moves overall. Marth just runs over her pretty much. Also Razor Leaf is easy to deal with. Just jab it or perfect shield.
Jigglypuff - Another character that really has no advantage on you. She has good DI on her SH, good edgeguarding, and good recovery. But other then that she has nothing really. If she hits you when you are at low percents she will be at disadvantage on hit, so she will try to float away to avoid retaliation. Just chase her down and attack or set-up your zoning in this case. She is the lightest character in the game. She will die very easily because of this. You don't even really need to think about getting in tipper smashes. You can outcamp her thanks to your sword and your DI is actually a little better then hers I think or at the very least they are comparable. Rest isn't too much to worry about since it doesn't kill all that well till mid percents or higher. If she is edgeguarding you with repeated aerials that are carrying you off the screen try to fair, counter, or just airdodge and then try to recover. Other then her edgeguarding though this is your fight. Watch out for that and you should be fine. Also she can double aerial in one SH, so be aware of that.
King Dedede - There is a match that alot of Marth's just hate. It can be difficult to space well since his grab range is so long. Also he has his Waddle dees for camping and his f-tilt outranges all of your moves. Well thier are some simple things to remember in this match-up that make it easier. All of Marth's ground moves outrange Dedede's grab and a SH will allow Marth to go over Dedede's f-tilt and his Waddle dees. A SH fair is a great way to apply pressure and be safe. Good Dedede's that know this will try to go for dash grabs once they block your fair. Knowing this you can just jump or attack them when you see them try. Dedede also has a CG on Marth, but Marth can up b out of it. If Dedede expects this he can wait and then attack Marth while he lags. So it becomes a guessing game just like with Falco. If Dedede starts waiting for it, just roll away or set-up your zoning game. When Dedede is recovering you can run out and hit him since he is a huge target. If you force him to you use his up b you can counter it if he goes for the stage. If he cancels it then you have enough time to hit him back out and repeat the process. If he goes for the ledge, you will have enough time to hit him when he cancels it to grab the ledge, which will reset the situation as well. You could also try to edgehug him the moment you think he will cancel it to grab the ledge. He would fall to his death this way. Please keep in mind that Dedede is one of the heaviest characters in the game, so he won't die easily. Just be patient. His best kill move is his u-tilt, but you shouldn't be too worried about it if you are spacing well. He can edge guard pretty well thanks to his recovery, so if he goes out to hit you try to time your fair to hit him since he has no aerials that outrange yours. If you can keep him in the air it will be easier for you since he can't fight you there. His smashes are pretty slow so just roll away on reaction. His d-smash is good, but doesn't kill as well and is more close range so space well and you won't have to worry too much. Just take your time and don't get anxious to get in kills, because if you make a mistake you will eat an u-tilt and die around 100. Play smart. Play safe.
Kirby - Kirby has been buffed quite a bit. That said nothing much has changed in terms of the match-up itself. You can still zone him, outrange him and outprioritize him. He is light so he dies early of course. He has some good kill moves though especially his hammer and his f-smash so be careful and watch your spacing as always. He has great recvoery so gimping is is difficult, but not impossible once he is at higher percents. Then a tipper bair, fair, or nair should do it. He can edgeguard you much the same way that Jiggs does. With repeated bairs and fairs, so remember try to counter, airdodge or fair, then recover. This is pretty much your fight. Just watch out for his good kill moves and concentrate on zoning. Force him to get past your sword. He may start spammng Final Cutter though. You can hit him as he comes down but it's easier just to counter it when you are close. If you are far just shield or perfectshield the energy wave then approach and set up your zoning.
Link - Range is virtually equal in this fight, but Marth actually has slightly more range since he tends to lean in more on his attacks. The only attack Link has that has for range is his F-smash since he takes a huge step forward. He has a projectile game, but honestly it's not hard to contend with. Bombs can be shielded or caught. Arrows can be jabbed or shielded and his boomerang can be jabbed or shielded, but honestly you can just avoid it and then not worry since it doesn't hit on the way back and draws you in towards Link. You can use this to your advantage and close in on him. Just be careful since a good Link will also try to use this to catch you off guard and attack you. He does alot of damage hit per hit, but other then that he is nothing special really. Just watch your spacing and be cautious. Also when edgeguarding if he is in the middle of his up b run off and counter it. That's an easy way to get in some free damage. Also watch out for his Zair a.k.a the aerial grapple. It has no land lag when performed, but alot of range. You can usually just duck it, jump over it, or shield it and then approach. When you attack his shield, be aware that his grab is a grapple so you will have to roll away or try to stuff his grab. Also Link will often use his up b out of shield. You can block this and retaliate while he is still spinning. So if you always roll away after a blocked aerial that covers his option of grabbing you or hitting you with his up b. Then you can punish him.
Lucario - He has good range and great comboability. His hitboxes linger a bit with his attacks since he uses aura and he gets stronger the more damage he has. He can perform some good combos on Marth for alot of damage, but most of his combos can only be done on Marth when they are BOTH at low percents. He has Aura Sphere as a projectile. He will use these to play defensive and lure you in while also using them as containment tools to control your movement and spacing. Remember to jab them or perfectshield them so you can advance on your own terms while maintaining your spacing. You can also SH airdodge and then use the analog to go in either direction since Marth's aerial movement is so good. Charged Aura Sphere's can't be jabbed and fully charged ones will be used to kill. He will be relying on edgeguarding alot since his smashes aren't too great for killing, because they come out a tad slow. In terms of raw attack speed you are faster while he has more moves that are safe on block then you do. His roll is fast and he also has those lingering hitboxes, so zoning is difficult but not impossible. Remember that you do outrange his fair with yours and your tilts as well. So with good spacing you will be safe. You will usually want to DI back when zoning with fairs so that if Lucario rolls towards you he will end up in front of you. Then you can punish with Dancing Blade. Lucario's recovery isn't too hot. Extreme Speed has no hitbox so if you are on the ledge he is basically screwed. He can try to wall cling then wall jump and up b back to the stage. If you know he has to wall cling then you can ledgedrop fair or ledge drop up b and then he should be done. If he goes for the stage then he will lag and he is easy prey. Just kill him or hit him back out. When he is trying to edgeguard you, try to just airdodge or counter to get past him and then recover. When he is at 100% you need to being going for the kill since that is the percent where he starts to become significantly more powerful.
Lucas - I don't care what Levitas says, Lucas can't handle Marth. LOL. All he really has on you is a good edgeguarding game and PK fire. You can perfect shield PK fire or jab it. But you have to space well with the jab, otherwise the fire will still hit your hand. Might be better off using a perfect shield. Once you get in, it's your game. Lucas has s solid moveset, but simply put you outrange him, so he can't do much without putting himself at risk trying to get past your sword. He has some nice combos with his nair that lead into other moves though. But good spacing means you shouldn't be getting hit by that stuff. Also Lucas telegraphs his d-smash and his u-smash even more. If you see Lucas go for these moves just roll back and then punish him in his cool down time. He has a grapple grab, but the range isn't that long really and he is vulnerable if it doesn't grab so good Lucas' won't rely on it too much. When Lucas is edgeguarding you he will try to stage spike with PK thunder. You can swat the thunder, counter it, or just take the hit and tech the stage and then recover. When you are edge guarding Lucas you want to swat the thunder so Lucas will fall to his death. Or just swat him to get in some easy damage. If Lucas abuses wavebouncing, like any good Lucas should, just be patient. Take your time approaching. Everytime he uses it he flies back, so if if he wants to abuse it he will have to run back to where he flew back form otherwise he will just end up at the edge, which would be bad positioning for him. Knowing that, you can take your time and approach cautiously. When you do get close just set up your normal zoning game. Lucas will be hard pressed to get around your blade. Also you have a grab set-up on Lucas. Just grab and pummel him non-stop. When he breaks out you can re-grab him and he can't stop you. From 0% to 20% there is nothing he can do. After that he can DI farther back, but if you are fast you should be able to get a re-grab or a dancing blade. Maybe an U-smash for the kill. If he didn't DI too far back you can get an easy D-smash tipper for a kill at higher percents. If you don't do the grab set-up correctly he can mash jump and other buttons and he can jump out, but if you mash the attack button then this won't happen consistently. It's not really too much of a huge threat to Lucas except that it set-ups up for an easy follow-up attack or a kill at higher percents. Anyway, this just solidifies the fact that Lucas can't go head to head with Marth really.
Luigi - Luigi is a solid character with some some decent kill moves , but one great kill move with his fire uppercut. But since you use a sword you won't have to worry about that too much. He really doesn't have anything on you. You outrange him and outprioritize him and overall you have the better moveset. He can't challenge you in the air so you can keep the fight there if you want, plus it means he can't abuse SH aerials, but since Luigi is so floaty he might not abuse use them much anyway. He might use his tornado to approach so be aware of that and try to counter when you see it coming or shield and punish. You can zone him and it's very effective. Also his fireballs aren't good for camping snce they don't go far, are somewhat slow and go in a straight line. Just jab them or fair through them. His good moves are his d-tilt, his tornado, all his smashes, and pretty much all his aerials. But as I said, since you have him beat in range you don't have to worry all that much. Just play safe. He may try to set-up for fire upper cuts with jabs. Try to jump away when he does this or up b after his jab to break out. For edge guarding you can try to counter the Green Missile or just edgehug when he uses his uppercut and he is coming in low. If you get hit with his f-smash at a high percent you will probably die so DI doesn't matter that much since you are done for anyway. But usually you want to try to DI diagonally up/away instead of up. This way you won't go straight up and die. You could also try to DI into the stage and tech.
Mario - Mario is actually below average in pretty much all areas. He is subpar in pretty much every catagory except edgeguarding, where he can use FLUDD to really mess up your recovery. Other then that this is your fight. You are stronger, faster, more range, better moves, just plain better. You can go aggro or zone him. Nothing much to this fight really. stick to the usual gameplan of spacing control with fairs, f-tilts, and d-tilts. Punish him with Dancing Blade and go for tippers when you see them and when they can kill. His fireballs are no threat. Just jab them. Now when he is edgeguarding you it gets tricky. The water from FLUDD can push you away from the ledge while you up b. Try to come in low to avoid the water, but mix it up since a good Mario will pick up on this and start edgehugging. When this happens you need to start going low enough that you will auto grab the ledge, but still be high enough that you can land on the stage if he tries to hug you. Other then that though, this match goes to Marth.
Marth - You have the same tricks and spacing abilities so the normal gameplan doesn't work. I find that being patient in Marth dittos works best. Using walking, SHing, and foxtrotting to adjust your spacing. Don't get too aggressive. Also Marth's ground game outranges his air game so if you abuse SH aerials in this match you will catch an f-smash to the face. Use your aerials wisely. Punish any mistakes with Dancing Blade as always. If the other Marth gets fair happy and starts thinking he can actually chain them together you can usually get an easy counter or just him back with a fair, f-tilt or f-smash. This match is actually very tough since there really is no normal gameplan. You just have to be very cautious and know how to punish any mistakes. Marth counters himself. Try to bait your opponent into attacking and then punishing. Stick with your safe moves so that you are harder to punish. D-tilt and f-tilt are your best friends in this match.
Metaknight - A close match. Remember your zoning as always. Pressure his shield if he backs off with well spaced fairs and d-tilts for the most part. Make him approach then when he does force him to get past your fairs, f-tilts and d-tilts. His rushdown is a bit better and so is his pressure. Don't try to aggro him, since you will do better if you force him to take action. If he gets you into air don't panic. You have your counter and your airdodge to fall back on. You could also use neutral b to push you into the air and mess with his spacing/timing. If he is edgeguarding you then you can try to hit him, but it might be rough since he is fast with compareable range. You are better off airdodging or counter. Your up b has alot of speed and priority. It can beat out pretty much anything, so if you are low don't be afraid to use it to plow right through MK. If you want to edgeguard him you have to be precise. I prefer ledge dropping and then double jumped Bairs since they have good knockback. But be careful. Don't try to constantly challenge him since he can use shuttle loop and it can stage spike you. If you think he will use it be sure to hold up as you do your aerial. This way you won't get stage spiked if he uses it and you will DI up. He is light so all your kill moves work well and be sure to punish any mistakes with Dancing Blade. If he approaches with a special move just counter it.
Ness - This fight is unfair, but oh well. Marth has a grab infinite on Ness. Just grab and pummel him constantly. When he gets out just grab and do it again. Do this till he is high enough to die from a D-smash. Then when he gets out D-smash him. As you can already tell Marth counters Ness. Even without the infinite Marth has the tools to lay the hurt on Ness. More range, speed, and power. His fair can beat yours sometimes, but the damage is low so don't worry about it. As usual just play your zoning game once you get closer. Shield PK fire and then advance. For edgeguarding just hit PK Thunder or let your body take the hit from it so he can't use it to recover and he will fall to his death. He can use PK Thunder to try to stage spike you when he is edgeguarding you. Try to DI up and tech the stage in this case. Or you can try to swat the PK Thunder. He can do combos with his PK Fire so watch out. If he hits you with PK Fire just do repeated Smash DI of up/away. Anyway , other then that, this fight is all Marth honestly. The infinite alone would allow a Marth of lesser skill to beat a Ness of greater skill.
Peach - Peach doesn't really have anything over Marth. All she has that's better is recovery and MAYBE edgeguarding. Turnips are nothing. Swat them with fairs. Half the time you will knock them away the other half you will just catch them. If you block her turnips they dissappear. When you get close zone her as usual. Her kill power sucks so just watch out for her fair and F-smash as kill moves. Her U-smash is a good one too, but she has to be right on top of her opponent to get the full power out of it, and Marth should NEVER be that close. She is hard to edgeguard thanks to her floating so don't worry about that too much. If she edgeguards with turnips you should just fair them or airdodge. If she goes out to hit you just fair her. She can combo with dair to w/e. If you get caught with the dair, DI each hit and then try to jump away or airdodge. She is light so all your kill moves work well. She has good range on the ground BTW so be aware of that. Her f-tilt has very good range. Still she can't do much about Marth's zoning. Also if she uses Peach Bomber just counter it.
Pikachu - A straight forward match. Pikachu has some good tools honestly, but you have a sword. You can jab Thunder Jolts all day. QAC is annoying, but not deadly since tit only goes into aerials, and Pika's aerials are outranged and outprioritized by you. D-smash has tons of priority, but your spacing game means you won't be getting hit by it much. If you get hit by it just repeatedly Smash DI up and you can get out fairly easily. If you don't Smash DI out in time DI to the left or the right, so Pika can't hit you with Thunder after the D-smash. Your F-smash is equal to his in range, but his sweetspot is in the middle of the thunder shock, while yours is at the tip of the blade so Marth wins out here. His recovery is good, while his edgeguarding is decnt, but not spectacular, so generally the both of you won't be edgeguarding each other too effectively, although you can edgehug him easily when you know he has to go for the ledge. If he is edgeguarding he will usually do a jumping Thunder Jolt that you will have to contend with. Just fair it if you can or airdodge if you aren't too low. If you are edgeguarding him and he just used skull bash then you can run out and hit him if you space well or counter it.
Pikmin and Olimar - This fight is weird. You have to rely almost exclusively on SH approaches. Don't worry about Pikmin getting attacked to you since all your attacks can cut them off with ease. As I said abuse SHFF Fairs and Uairs. If they are blocked, then you are safe since you can roll away, spot dodge, and up b to stuff any attempts at retaliation. If they hit then just proceed to follow-up. For edgeguarding you can just stay on th ledge at low percents and he is done. The Pikmin will hit you, but he will die and you will be fine. You could also just run out and fair him then up b and if you tipped it then chances are he is finished. He can't challenge you in the air at all, so you can try to keep him there to make things easier. If he just spams forward b you can just rush him and punish with Dancing Blade. This fight is strange since you don't zone at all, you just constantly approach and just try to stay safe when he blocks. Also he will usually try to punish a blocked aerial with a grab so if you spotdodge you will be in a prime position to punish with Dancing Blade.
Pit - As Undrdog said himself that Pit is more then a bow. Which is true. It's just that once Marth gets past the bow, he can handle pretty much anything Pit throws at him. Arrow are annoying, but not hard to deal with really. You can roll, perfectshield, or jump, or duck straight arrows. Once you get close, it's time for the spacing game once again. Marth outranges all of Pit's tools except forward b which has a huge lunge to it. Pit's don't really abuse this move since it's very dangerous to throw out, but if you do caught in it just DI back and then up B. You will hit his hand. Pit sucks at killing outright, but has good edgeguarding, especially through the use of his arrows, so remember that. He also has some good throw combos. He can D-throw to Uair at lower percents. Just DI the throw and Smash DI the Uair in pretty much any direction, but I would DI up/away. His F-tilt has good killing power as does his Bair, but both have some noticable start-up time, so you should be able to avoid them usually. For edgeguarding Pit, just run out and swat him if he is close enough or gliding back to the stage. If you hit him out of his up b he is done for.
R.O.B - He outranges Marth with his tilts and has a good keep away game. His laser is unpredictable, but you can tell how much of a charge he ash by looking at the light on top of his head. If it's dark then he can't use the laser. If it's flashing a bit then he has a normal charge. If it's blinking alot and it's bright then he has strong charge. he can use his gyro in conjunction with his laser for some good cmaping. Gyro makes it hard to approach on the ground and if you jump he's got you covered with his tilts and his laser. In this case you can pick up or shield his gyro to approach on the ground or SH airdodge to avoid the laser/tilts and jump over the gyro. He can charge his gyro so it has greater knockback and use it for edgeguarding so be aware of that. Although is tilts outrange you he is very weak hit for hit and his smashes aren't good at all. You can easily outrange them and you can do repeated smash DI a.k.a Tap DI to get out of his D-smash. You could also just hold up and that would do it about half the time. Since he really has trouble killing, he must rely on gimping. When you are off the stage be ready with your airdodge to avoid a laser or a gyro. You CAN gimp him if he is close to the stage. If you grab the ledge and force him to recover high, you can go for a spike if he is at the right angle for it. You can also run out and fair him for damage racking if he is close enough. Alot of his best moves telegraph themselves, so you can avoid alot of them with ease. When fighting on the ground, rely more on your rush down and play safe. Punish with Dancing Blade and if he starts sitting in his shield alot just grab him or use shieldbreaker. You may find yourself using Shieldbreaker more so that you can compete with ROB's range a little better. Just don't over use it since he will get wise to it and start predicting you.
Samus - She has nothing on you really besides Zair, and f-tilt which outranges alot of your moves. Zair is annoying at first, so check out this thread where I talk about it and how to deal with. http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=148271 The Zair is good, but in the end it's little more than an annoyance. Missiles are easy to deal with. Jab them or swipe at them. Or just dodge them entirely. Her SH is slow and floaty and it makes her very easy to read. Also when you get in close and set-up your spacing game she becomes very limited in what she can do. All your options either outrange hers or simply outspeed and outprioritze hers. She may try to roll, but in Brawl having a roll that slow is a death sentence. Punish her roll on reaction everytime. Also her grab is very slow, so when you see it coming just jump or roll, then punish. She can also try to SH back, but again her SH is slow. So as you can already tell, when Marth zones her she is in trouble. Her kill options are terrible. The only one you need to worry about it d-tilt, which is a little slow and unsafe on block. Also it won't hit you if you SH, so SH zoning will beat it. Her other kills moves just don't kill well or are too slow and easy to read. And her d-tilt only has kill potential when you are at alittle more then 130%. She has good edgeguarding thanks to Zair though and her bombs. Still you can hit her and kill her if you space well. If she tries to grapple to the ledge you can usually just up b her while she is swinging and it will stage spike her. To deal with her edge guarding just swipe her missles and be ready to airdodge that Zair, but honestly, I have been hit with Zair in the air and still made it back even when I was low on the screen. It's not too much to worry about unless you are far from the stage. Despite her being on the heavy side she still dies relatively early compared to other heavy weights and you will be able to consistently kill her sooner then she can kill you.
Sheik - Sheik has good auto combos. She can chain tilts easily into aerials. If you Smash DI each tilt and then try to jump, it will severly reduce her comboability. At most she would get 3 maybe 4 hits. You can also DI towards her to cut the combo short since you will end up behind her. Good Sheiks will use U-tilt to counter this though. She has needles to force an approach, but her approach isn't too hot, since her SH is very high so she is limited to the ground. Once you get close your zoning game works well, and she really only has her dash attack to try to pierce your steel wall. But you can outprioritize this since you are in the air and your sword will cut into her back, so this is risky for her. Her throws don't gaurantee any hits, but they will set-up you up in the air, so be careful and vary the timing of your airdodging and try countering to mix it up. She sucks at killing, so don't worry about that too much. If she hits you with her F-smash just Smash DI back and the second hit will miss completely. Then she is wide open. Her U-smash is her one good kill move and it has very high knockback when sweetspotted, so keep an eye out for that. If she spaces a tilt on your shield, don't try to attack. Just roll back and then try to set up your spacing game. If you try to attack she can just tilt again to stuff you. For edgeguarding you can just edgehug when you know she has to vanish. Usually she will just die. If she is close you can run off and fair then up b and stay on the ledge and usually she will be done in this scenario as well. She will usually try to edgeguard you with needles. Try to Smash DI each one up and towards the stage. If she runs off to hit you, you can try to hit her, counter, or airdodge.
Snake - Snake is a monster. His ground game rivals yours in speed and his range is virtually equal to yours on his tilts. His jab combo is also fast and strong.Also his f-tilt is a great damage racker and his u-tilt kills around 100%. As if you are playing a Marth ditto stay on the ground. Only use SH aerials when you are already close, since if you approach with them, you will eat an f-tilt to the face. His u-tilt is deadly so you MUST be aware of it's range. It's about the same range as Marth's jab. Snake has a good throw game thanks to his d-throw. Sets up a free tech chase so be sure to switch up what you do after it. Some can roll right or left, wake up in place, or wake up attack. If you start waiting to do an action, Snake can stick a C4 on you so be careful. Snake has an awesome control game thanks to all his explosives. Grenades can thrown at you or cooked then tossed at you so they explode quickly. C4's can be be planted and used as surprise moves. Mines are simply pure space control. Well grenades can be tossed back at Snake and shielded. Mines can be hit or used against Snake. C4's can be difficult to actually hit with as long as you pay attention. You can DI his jab combo too. Just DI back and the third hit should miss most of the time, then you can punish. You will want to rely more on d-tilts on this match-up, since they outrange all of Snake's moves except the second hit of his f-tilt. Try to keep Snake in the air since he is juggle bait. He doesn't have alot of options when being juggled. For edgeguarding you can just grab the cypher when he is close and if you don't do anything, he will drop to his death when he gets out. If he is a bit farther out you can just spike him. If he is even farther just Nair him for the kill. Good Snake's will try to just recover high which means he sets himself for a juggle situation. No matter how Snake recovers Marth can take advantage of the situation. The Snake dash is also tough to deal with. To counter it you can try using SH fairs, using your counter, or shielding it and then chasing him down to punish. The key to beating Snake is to pay attention to his movements and what he does at all times. Keep him in the air to make things easier for yourself. Don't worry too much about his explosives. It's his close range game that's the real threat. He can also bring out grenades and shield so that if you attack you eat the explosion, or he can bring out a grenade and roll so he avoids you while you get hit. You can just grab or use shieldbreaker or even just space well with your attacks when he abuses shielding to drop grenades. If he rolls alot after bringing out a grenade just space your fairs then punish when he rolls or wait for the roll then punish. Also Snake has his Nikita missile for long range play and edgeguarding. Just hit it to deflect it with an attack, shield it, or roll past it.
Sonic - Sonic has speed and some auto combos thanks to his spin dash, but other then that you can treat him like a better verison of CF, which doesn't mean much honestly. He still loses in the match-up for the same reasons CF does. Marth is a faster attacker, with more power, more reach and loads more priority. Sonic has some neat tricks up his sleeve with his spin dashes, but alot of it is just mindgames and surprise tricks, not reliable strats or methods of gameplay. Play your usual game of zoning and punishing with Dancing Blade. Sonnc can use the stutter step to increase the range of his f-smash so be aware of that. Also it's hard to gimp Sonic so don't worry about it if you can't do it. Edgeguarding vs Sonic is really just to rack up damage. If he tries to edgeguard you just fair, counter or airdodge. Sonic has good throws to set-up for juggles or tech chasing. Always be sure to nail the tech on his d-throw at lower percents. At higher percents you can just DI away and you won't have to tech since you can land on your feet. U-throw sets up for juggle situations at lower percents so be reay to jump away or airdodge. You can DI away from his jab combo. Just hold back and you will usually be out before the 3rd hit comes out.
Squirtle : Another character that loses to Marth due to having less range and priority. Squirtle is quick in the air with nice DI, but loses out to Marths sword. His ground game is nothing to really fear since, Marth out ranges and outprioritizes it. None of his smashes are noteworthy really, except U-smash which is alot of knockback. Squirtle telegraphs it a bit though so use that as a clue to roll away or shield. Water Gun is annoying when he is edgeguarding you so refer back to the Mario match-up since you deal with Water Gun the same way you deal with Mario's FLUDD. If Squirtle tries to edgeguard you with aerials just hit him or airdodge. He can kill with his d-throw at high percents so be aware of that. You can edgeguard him fairly easily. Just use fairs and that should suffice. Then just edgehog him or go for a ledge hopped bair. When he is too far out to re-grab in time, just grab the ledge and stay on it. If he uses Withdraw to recover you can hit him and Squirtle will turn around and go in the opposite direction.
Toon Link - TL has a solid projectile game with a good moveset to back it up. Remember that you can deal with his projectile game the same as Link's. The only difference is that his boomerang hits on the way back, so you are better off just jabbing it or shielding it. His arrows travel more slowly then Link's so he can use them as walls. TL can Short Hop Double arrow. Short hop then shoot an arrow then land and shoot another one. To deal with this you shoudl dash under the high arrow, then SH over the low one. But keep in mind that TL can just SH arrow then do anything he wants, so be on your guard. At close range you have the edge due to superior range, but he has good speed and moves so be careful. He can chain his bairs for easy combos and all his smashes are good for killing. Also his throw game is solid since his d-throw sets up really well for juggles. His recovery isn't stellar though so you can gimp it pretty easily so go for those off the stage Fairs and Nairs. TL is the opposite of Link in that he doesn't do alot of damge hit for hit, but his attacks have alot of knockback which makes him a good killer. Still, you have the advantage in range so use that to keep him out and play your zoning game once you get past the projectiles. He is light so he will die early, so you don't have to worry about him living to very high percents. Be aware that you can avoid the second hit of his f-smash at higher percents, you can DI up and then jump away. Remember that his bombs do have a larger blast radius then Link's and he can throw his Boomerang at sharp angles.
Wario - A straight forward match. Wario lives by his aerials and his crazy DI. But your DI is good too and you have more priority. His ground game is no match for yours at all. And you slice through his aerials like a hot knife through butter. As long as your spacing is even half way decent Wario will be hard pressed to lay a finger on you. None of his smashes are note worthy really. They all seem to lack range and priority, although his f-smash has super armor on it and has good killing power with decent range. His other smashes are subpar. His tilts are slow and leave him open and they have very little range and priority so don't worry about them too much. His Fair, Uair, Bair and his Dair to some extent are his main tools. But you outrange and out prioritize them all. Just zone him as usual and the fight is in your control. Be on your guard for the Wario Waft. When it is half charged it does less damage but more knockback. When it is fully charged it does more damage, but less knockback. He will blink when it's fully charged so it's easier to deal with. There are no visible signs of a half charged Wario Waft, so you will just need to be careful. Also Wario has an excellent recovery with is bike so don't worry about edgeguarding him, since he will usually make it back to the stage. If he is close to th stage and he didn't bring out his bike then feel free to gimp him since his up b is horrid. His Bite can outprioritize you if you don't space well so be aware of that.
Wolf - Wolf is very hard to fight at first. His special moves and his f-smash make it hard to space well vs him. The key is to camp just outside his f-smash range so if he tries it you can punish easily. If he uses a special move then your own attack can outpriortize it or you can shield and punish. Lasers aren't a big deal really. SH over them or just perfectshield them. If you sapce correctly you won't have to worry about Wolf's close range options which are all good, but I will tell you what they are anyway. His shine comes out fast, probably 1 frame and it has invincibility frames. It has a set knockback not based on percentage. iy sets up really well for any follow-up move. If you shield he is in range for a dash grab. If you roll away he just laser. If you try to attack you will eat an f-smash. Just roll away since lasers are easy to deal with in the first place. No reason to risk getting KOed by an f-smash or put into a bad postion by a throw. Speaking of throws, his d-throw is really good. Also leaves you in range to follow-up with different things. The set-ups are the same as with Wolf's shine, but the d-throw set-ups only work at lower percents. At higher percents you will just smash right into the ground. Also at close range Wolf's d-smash is his best kill move. He has a good jab combo that is fast and does decent damage and his f-tilt has good range and priority and hits twice when sweetspotted. But as I said if you space well you can avoid all of these moves. You should almost never get hit with his d-smash honestly. A big component to beating Wolf is taking advantage of his horrible recovery. Alot of the time you can just edgehug him when he is trying to recover and he will be done. But you can chase him with fairs if you like. Honestly it isn't hard to gimp Wolf and once you start doing it, the match gets easier. Also Wolf has some nice aerials, especially his Bair so be on your guard for that.
Yoshi - Yoshi has one decent approach with his Bair and some good range on his d-tilt. That said everything else about him is subpar. His killing power, priority, and recovery are all low. He has eggs so he camp a bit, but with your speed it's nothing to worry about at all. Shield or jab them. Also he can't jump out of his shield and he drops his shield slower then anyone else in the game so you can stand to be more aggressive vs him since he has less options to get you off of him if he is shielding. He can combo with Uairs after a Bair or an U-tilt. Try to DI away but at low percents there isn't much you can do. Just place they spacing game and gimp his recovery. When he uses that second jump you can un out and hit him, which should kill his momentum then you can edgehug. His eggs will give him a boost upwards, but if you just edgehug, he will usually be done. Or you could just ledge drop bair then continue edgehugging. Not much else to say really. Yoshi is simply outclassed.
Zelda - She is a beast, but still falls prey to Marth's spacing game. Din's fire is pretty easy to deal with. SH airdodges while spacing yourself are all you will need. She has some good range on her f-tilt and f-smash but you outrange both. Her d-tilt can set-up for a free U-smash. You can DI her U-smash with repeated Smash DI though. Just keep hitting up and you can get out of you are fast enough. You can also DI out of her F-smash. Just hold up and you will get out half the time. You can Smash DI for greater success. It's harder to gimp her thanks to her teleport, but don't worry about it since she is light and will die early. Now Zelda is a killing machine and hits hard, so be on your guard. She can kill with U-smash, Fair, Bair, Uair and Din's Fire. Proper spacing really limits her though and makes it very hard for her to get in. She simply doesn't have the speed to get past that sword consistently with little risk to herself. At close range you can dominate since she will have a hard time hitting you and you kill just as well as her. A good Zelda will try to re-adjust her spacing to hit with Fair or Bair so if you notice that a Zelda player uses empty SH's alot, they are probably trying to get their spacing right. Be careful in this situation and try to adjust your spacing so she can't hit with the lightning kick sweetspot so easily, but you can still shut her down at close range. Try not to be above her since that U-smash and Uair can be deadly. At higher percents her d-tilt will pop you up and she can do an U-smash. But you can DI the d-tilt to avoid her follow-up attack. You may be able to jump out, but you would need excellent timing since the time windo to get away is so small. Her nuetral b is sort of like a shine and has good knockback, but again if you space well, it's not a huge concern.
Zero Suit Samus - Her recovery is pretty solid and she rivals you in speed and range, even surpassing your range with some of her moves. But this is still Marth's advantage, since he has more killing options, is better at damage racking, and he is heavier so he will last longer. ZSS's has very poor kill moves as well, so you may find yourself living to some high percents when you fight her. She has her paralyzer as a projectile, but it's slow and easily dealt with. Her forward B is a nuisance and one of her kill moves, but since it's an effective spacing tool it won't kill that well since ZSS players tend to spam it vs Marth to keep him out. It's easy to tell when it's coming though since she draws her arm back. Just SH airdodge or shield it then retaliate. You can also clank it with anyone of your A moves. She also has some other tricks like Uair combo pillars. Not true combos, but she will try to bait your airdodges or draw them out then keep you in the air with Uair chains. You can counter or use your nuetral b to give yourself some momentum and mess up her spacing/timing. She will often try to d-throw you after a grab to set-up for Uair pillaring. Her up B can send you up and then drag you back down or just drag you down if you are already in the air. From there she can do follow-up attacks. You can tech when you hit the ground though, so this will mess up any follow-up attack she was planning. still she could tech chase you so, be on your guard and switch up how you tech to keep her guessing. She can also do set-ups with her d-smash since it paralyzes you. She can get a free hit of you get hit with this so be careful. when you get in close, it's your advantage though. You can't really outprioritize you, and your close range game is stronger. For edgeguarding, you can usually just go out and fair her then edgehug. She can try to use her down b to come back up, but if she is farther away then she is done. You can also try to edgehug her when you think she will up b and she won't be able to grab the ledge.
