Metal blade acquisition mini-guide

[SanAntonioSmasher]

I have been messing around with metal blades for awhile now, but have never really looked in-depth at all of the options available to acquire one and use in hand. Just through playing, I know what I can and cannot do, but I never took a systematic look at it. Most of what I say has probably been stated elsewhere, and by no means do I take credit for any of this content. I will be referencing some techniques, which are well explained here:

http://smashboards.com/threads/list-of-mega-mans-techniques-and-tricks.394846/

To start, I think it helps to understand all of the options you have depending on whether you are standing on top of a metal blade, or you are landing on top of a metal blade, or you are next to one in mid-air. All of these actions will result in picking up the metal blade.

Standing on top of a metal blade ("ground options"):

Dash attack
Any rising (performing attack immediately after jumping) aerial
Rising jump grab
Rising jump dodge
Rising jump invinciblade (hit jump, then shield, then grab)
Rising jump instatoss (hit jump, then shield, then c-stick any direction)

Landing on top of a metal blade ("landing options"):

Instatoss
Jab/f-tilt (can jump immediately after firing one for a "laser hop" or can shoot up to 3)
BAIR (last hit gets cancelled so careful with this as minimal knockback)
FAIR? (I'm pretty sure its not possible to have the FAIR hitbox come out and still grab blade)
Hit and hold grab to pick up blade and shield, you can also buffer a roll or spot dodge

Obviously, if you wait a moment upon landing you then have all of the ground options

Next to metal blade mid-air ("air options"):
*note - a metal blade can be on the ground, and you can do air options if you time a double jump right before landing, and input action such as an aerial or air dodge when inputting jump (strict timing). This is done at beginning of 1st video

Instatoss
Insta-invinciblade (you instantly grab and then air dodge and drop the blade again, flashy but probably of little value)
Any aerial
Metal blade grab
__________________________________________

Next, I'll go over actions you can perform, and then in what state mega man will be in relation to the metal blade

Things you can do, and have ground options:

While standing, throw a metal blade downwards (duh)
Anything really just be sure to land on the metal blade(included this section for completeness)

Things you can do, and still have landing options

Falling towards ground for any reason (if not under influence of any lag for performing an action)
Full jump rising metal blade thrown either straight down or diagonally down
Laser pellet (jab/f-tilt immediately followed by short-hop)
Full jump air dodge or full jump invinciblade
Short hop item throw (metal blade thrown down in most cases)
Use rush and then fall towards ground, you can fast fall it also

Things you CANNOT DO and have landing options (abbreviated list, obviously many others)

Any short hop aerial
Full jump UAIR
Double jump DAIR (even if timed correctly so no landing lag)

Things you can do, and have air options:

While falling, throw a metal blade down
While falling, throw blade diagonally down
http://smashboards.com/threads/new-tech-need-your-help.415837/
Z-drop metal blade in the air
Throw a metal blade upwards right before landing on rush
Throw a metal blade down after using rush (very strict timing)

Below is a video going through many of the options I mentioned in order (more or less). I usually do pellets as the "landing option" for simplicity, but keep in mind you can do any option each time. Much of it is simple, and there are some mistakes throughout, but hopefully most people can take something away from it. Sorry, there are no captions or anything like that.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=em-upload_owner&v=Bhz3Eat2YZs

Miscellaneous Metal Blade Techs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGAA3JASZSA

Here is a quick video with some other random metal blade stuff. I have a description for each thing done below:

1. Quick metal blade pickup with leaf shield activation -- Hold down, attack, special
2. Quick metal blade pickup with jumping leaf shield activation -- Hold down, jump, grab, special
3. Use rush, metal blade down, grab, down special
4. Full jump, rush, metal blade down, (drift away for protection), backair to recatch - this is a handy and pretty safe way to get a metal blade. After using rush you still have your double jump, and can land on rush for safety also.
5. Messed up
6. Full jump, rush, metal blade down, move slightly then upair - a mix up to #4, also pretty safe
7. Full jump, rush, metal blade down, move slightly then bair - a mix up to #4 if you think they will punish high
8. Full jump, rush, metal blade down, lemon to catch - trying multiple lemons causes blade throw after bounce
9. Holding blade, rush, invinciblade (dodge + zdrop), dair to recatch - fancy stuff, hard to actually punish
10. Holding blade, rush, invinciblade, short bounce fair to recatch - fancy stuff, hard to actually punish
11. Holding blade, rush, invinciblade, uair to recatch - fancy stuff, hard to actually punish
12. Standing over metal blade, rising full hop fair, zdrop to bair recatch - a nice mixup that works well when jumping around opponent
13. Standing over metal blade, rising full hop bair, zdrop to bair recatch, thrown metal blade on landing - flashy way to throw out a bunch of good hitboxes
14. Holding metal blade, short hop, double jump, zdrop to dair recatch, thrown metal blade on landing - put some pressure from above and land with metal blade and no landing lag
15. Full hop, downward metal blade, landing lemons regrab, jump at end - good way to put out several hitboxes and jump away at end for safety
16. Same as #15 except metal blade thrown as item
17. #16 used on DK, it didnt connect too well that time and blade disappeared sadly

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

I figured out a nice landing option, and added to the guide. It's helpful if someone tried to punish you landing on MB.

It's a double jump, air dodge or aerial metal blade grab. Basically you take advantage of a small window of time where you are close enough to a grounded metal blade to take actions on it, but you haven't hit the ground yet. The double jump is there to keep you airborn while you perform the action.

How to perform:

When landing on a metal blade (being as close to ground as possible before touching), hit jump immediately followed by shield or an aerial(basically at same time). You will know if you did it correct if you can't jump again. If you can jump again, you actually landed and then did a rising air dodge pick up or rising aerial pick up.

My favorite is definitely the down air option. Very satisfying jumping over someone dashing in, hitting them with the down air, and getting a metal blade all at the same time.

 

[Rush 2112]

I can't visualize what you mean with this new option. Video?

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

I might be making it sound more difficult than it actually is.

While landing on a grounded blade, like with his toes touching it, hit shield and jump. It's like at the same time, you just can't hit shield before the jump.

You will grab blade and then go into air dodge animation. The same thing works with any aerial, except you do aerial instead of dodging.

In retrospect, the timing is pretty strict, and it has only a small frame advantage over just landing, and then doing whatever you wanted to do. You also lose your double jump.

It's really only worth doing if you're landing on a blade and someone is going to hit you for sure.

I'm gonna do a video at some point with me messing around with fancy MB stuff, so I can include this in it

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

Added a video to original post. I started video off with the technique there was a question about.

 

[Unclesatan]

I use rising pickups all the time, it's usually the safest way to pick them up with fake out movement

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

Added another video and description of some techs. Comments welcome

 

[DRU192]

I've had a quick look on the forum and the MM tips and tricks one and I've not noticed this yet (apologies if it's known)

It's pretty much an extension of landing on a grounded metal blade and going directly into shield by pressing grab just before you hit the ground.

If you buffer a direction (up/down/forward) and you time it correctly you can skip the shield animation and go straight into a forward/backward roll or a spot-dodge while still picking up the MB.

Might come in useful

 

[DRU192]

Managed to do a quick vid showing the Metal Blade rolls & spot dodges I was talking about

 

[Unclesatan]

Managed to do a quick vid showing the Metal Blade rolls & spot dodges I was talking about

Interesting, can always use more ways to pick up metal blades

 

[ENKER]

Managed to do a quick vid showing the Metal Blade rolls & spot dodges I was talking about

That's super freakin' spiffy. I can't believe I've never tried that before. Thanks for sharing! I'll definitely be playing around with this. :D

Agreed, Metal Blade is pretty much our most important move. Any development in the MB department is vital to us.

 

[DRU192]

Decided to go on For Glory and test MB rolls in a real match situation, pretty pleased with the results and I'll definitely be adding it to my repertoire.

 

[DRU192]

Edited post: I was thinking abstractly with my original post so I've taken my post. Tech is definitely known. Apologies for hyping it up. Thus is the life of a fighting game scientist. Sometimes you find gold but other times you find nothing *blushes

 

[ENKER]

It may have been known, but I bet other Mega Mains (like I) forgot about it! Thanks for reminding us!

 

[DRU192]

It may have been known, but I bet other Mega Mains (like I) forgot about it! Thanks for reminding us!

Thanks Enker cool guys like you are what make my lab-work worth it. As far as I know MB rolls are still new but the post I took down was something else.

 

[ENKER]

Ohhhhh, gotcha.

Thanks, man! Glad I can keep moral up! :D

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

Great addition! Didn't know about those options. I'm curious how good the roll is vs using a short hop laser pellet. I like to fire a pellet and the short hop gives you more freedom than a roll I think. It seems like both options cover about the same distance. Doing a pellet would be the more aggressive and rolling is more defensive. I guess one nice thing about the roll is if you want to change which direction you're facing.

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

I want to add the roll and spot dodge to the original guide. But I don't know if it is truly a landing option. I think grabbing into shield is a landing option, and the roll or dodge is a buffered ground option.

But for some reason it doesn't seem possible to short hop, item throw blade down, and then perform roll/dodge. Other landing options can do this.

 

[DRU192]

I want to add the roll and spot dodge to the original guide. But I don't know if it is truly a landing option. I think grabbing into shield is a landing option, and the roll or dodge is a buffered ground option.

But for some reason it doesn't seem possible to short hop, item throw blade down, and then perform roll/dodge. Other landing options can do this.

I'm not sure what category it fits into technically. But if you can't add it to the list because of this then that's not a problem. I generally use it to pick up metal blades already in the ground (which can be done from a short hop) or after a full hop down or diagonal blade.

It's a nice movement / blade acquisition option. That's fitted into my playstyle nicely

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

Bump for newer players that might have missed this

 

[CopShowGuy]

...or for old players who forgot >_>

 

[SanAntonioSmasher]

Added a couple more ground options to guide.

Rising invinciblade - done by quickly hitting jump, then shield, then grab when on a metal blade. Super flashy and actually pretty decent way to create a metal blade hit box in air and at the same time jump away while dodging. This can also be a footstool setup.

Rising instatoss - done by quickly hitting jump, then shield, then cstick in any direction. Mostly useful for horizontal throws. This is a nice way to quickly throw a blade at shorthop height, which can be handy. I'm going to lab this and see if there is any value to throw it downwards if opponent is nearby. Thinking it should combo into uptilt, grab, upsmash, etc or pellets with blade regrab.