Ike.
His strengths:
His forward air outranges you. His nair is deceptively lagless on contact with the ground. His jabs are amazing. His fair, bair, downB, dair easily outprioritize the tornado, even a well angled ftilt.
His KO moves:
Fair KOs at 130% (and gets refreshed quickly because of his jabs). Ftilt, uptilt, bair and upair can KO from 90%. His smashes too, except fsmash, which can KO very early. Nado doesn't outprioritize fsmash, keep away from if it'll hit. Watch out for bair!! If he's on a platform and shields a hit of yours, you may make him slide from the platform, along with the ability to instantly bair you.
How to play this one:
Good Ike players are a pain at first (if you ever get to play one, Ike's not frequently well played), in the sense that it's more of a guessing and prediction game against them than anything else.
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- Do not attack great Ike players with tilts or aerials
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(While he's on the ground)
Ike's spotdodge is amazing against MK. He can dodge a fair or a dtilt, frequently even an ftilt, and jab you for 14%. He can dodge dairs with no problem. He can spotdodge any tilt or aerial and perform jabs, and it works. An Ike player has to abuse spotdodging to beat MK's. Do not punish spotdodges by attempting dashgrabs, you get jabbed out of them. Besides his spotdodge, his fair also outranges your tilts and aerials, and KO's at 130%.
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- Predict, or flip a coin (Mach Tornado vs Bait+Dashgrab)
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LIST OF MOVES THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO TORNADO (wait+dashgrab=win):
Forward air (KO's at 130%)
Back air (KO's from 90%)
Counter (hurts)
Ftilt/Uptilt (KO's from 90%)
Down air (so catch him with the side of the tornado if you're afraid of getting hit)
! - For all of these, wait and dashgrab.
LIST OF MOVES THAT YOU NEED TO TORNADO (Ike: tornado me please):
Spotdodge
Jabs
Airdodge (into the ground)
! - For all of these, mach tornado
! - Notice how these are all close-range options, so you shouldn't Mach Tornado from far away!
NEVER MT FROM AFAR
Yes, it works against Peach when she's pulled turnips out. Ike is another story. He can run away and bair you to death, he can ftilt, uptilt, forward air, counter...he has many painful options against your tornado if you let him see it coming.
- BOTTOM LINE: Tornado or space and dashgrab. Prediction is key. Since predicting works half the time, as does guessing, with your 50% guess success rate, plus the added 25% from the fact that you're actually predicting, you should have 75% control of this match.
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- How to KO (gimp city):
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Ike has two recovery methods:
- Quickdraw (the most commonly used):
Ike players double jump into quickdraw after being sent off the stage. You can try to intercept the move with your Shuttle Loop, but it is very difficult to pull off if he has already fired it, so you should Shuttle Loop him before he gets the chance to fire it off.
If he quickdraws into a platform, there's not much you can do about it, besides rushing into him and performing a Mach Tornado. Attempting to hit him can be risky, as hitting his shield may make him slide off of the platform and bair you. He cannot do this in FD though, neither can he do this most of the time on Smashville (lack of platforms for him to fall into), so you should take advantage of this and go dashgrab him, or even attempt another attack.
Quickdraw sweetspots into the edge too. If you predict your opponent attempting this, SPECIALLY if he starts his quickdraw at a low altitude and you know he's forced to try it, edgehog him. it's an auto stock loss for Ike.
Eather (upB):
When the Ike player has little recovery choices, because of being sent in a downwards angle or lacking his airjump, he may be forced to Eather onto the stage. Here are his two choices, and how to counter them:
- If his sword toss will reach above stage:
Jump and quickly clash your Shuttle Loop into his body. You will get hit by a minor one of his multiple blows, while he gets Shuttle Loop'ed away. If he can still recover, keep your edgeguard going.
- If his sword toss can only reach the edge:
Edgehog him, but wait until the LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT. This is so your invincible frames last longer than the Eather's hitbox. At the final instant his UpB can still hit you, press forward so your invincible frames last just a tiny bit longer for a successful edgehog. It is recommended that you try to hang on the edge after your opponent has pressed Up+B.
Besides taking advantage of Ike's recovery, it is insanely difficult to KO him, if he DI'es well, under very, very high percentages. You can attempt to down air offstage before he's able to perform Eather, if he has to recover from so low, that he is forced to Eather (not after though, since Eather has Super Armor frames, as we all know).
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- If the Ike player does not attempt abusing the spot dodge:
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This would mean you can short hop aerial and tilt him without getting sidestepped, which also means it is relatively safe to do these things, which means you have little to worry about. Non-spotdodgey Ikes make for very easy wins.
MATCHUP ODDS:
Meta Knight 70/30 Ike
