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Mewtwo's Approch Options

HyperSilver

Smash Cadet
Joined
Apr 9, 2012
Messages
38
Location
Tucson,AZ
Okay as I started to play my Neutral game a little bit better facing off against tougher opponents and I found my self at a stand still where all of my Approach options were being Countered while me Forcing them to Approach wasn't a Good Idea either.
So I made a List of my most Prominent Approaches, & wondered if there are more I'm not doing:
1 - Teleport in w/ an Aerial
2 - Hover Twords them promptly w/ nair or bair
3 - Wavedashing in w/ D-tilt Preferably
4 - DJC Aerials Somehow?? (I really don't do this often but I know I should)
Any others I should Consider?
 
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Darkoness21

Smash Cadet
Joined
Aug 4, 2012
Messages
62
Location
OH
3DS FC
0576-4758-7122
I use hovering as a tool for baiting making my opponent approach me by retreating hover nair. It's also good as a tech chase on platforms and you can mix it up with a hover nair or side B. Hell even hover into a waveland grab. If you use it as an approach you're putting a lot of commitment especially if you get hit during your hover (results in losing your jump), Mewtwo would be at a disadvantage. As other people have mentioned and how I've come to understand this is Mewtwo plays similar to Marth where you have to use your movement tools in neutral to bait your opponent and commit as little as possible. When you see an opening, that's when you turn your agression on.
 
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InfinityCollision

Smash Lord
Joined
Jul 9, 2014
Messages
1,245
This requires understanding of different interactions and what Mewtwo actually wants to do at any given time.

An approach is something you do with the mindset of "I want to place this hitbox in such a way as to hit my opponent". It's raw, aggressive, and committed. Pressure is something you do with the intent of placing a hitbox where it (safely) interacts with your opponent's space, but actually hitting them is not required and is potentially a product of your opponent responding poorly. Punishment is reactionary and increments your advantage in a meaningful way, though this does not always convert to damage. Gaining stage control is a form of punishment that can theoretically lead to bigger things through further interactions.

All three require you to know when to back off. Overextending potentially leaves you unable to make the most of your advantage or worse, allows the opponent to reverse the situation.

So here's the thing: Mewtwo doesn't really approach. He's not built for that. Smash as a whole doesn't really allow you to just go in and actually get something worthwhile for your trouble, though some characters can get away with it to an extent via strong movement/frame data/followups. So we focus on the latter two options: pressure and punishment.

There are two key elements of Mewtwo's kit to consider here:

-Hitboxes with moderate amounts of speed and disjoint, generally combined with above-average reach
-Flexible movement tools complimented by strong midrange burst mobility (teleport, wavedash)

Pressure uses movement to augment the use of his hitboxes and make them safer via things like hover cancels or fading back with hover, wavedash/land, or dash away. His strong wavedash in particular gives him the ability to move in and out of this space relatively quickly, akin to Luigi. While he lacks strong extended blockstrings, he can still exert limited shield pressure via potent mixups a la Peach as well.

Punishment involves baiting opponents with ambiguous movements and/or capitalizing on unsafe actions by your opponent, including at midrange via the aforementioned burst movement tools. You can then follow up in a flexible manner with Mewtwo's combo-friendly moveset.

Quoting myself from the Mewtwo skype chat:

movement is your #1 way of passively interacting with your opponent so that you can get a chance to actively interact with them (hit them). calling it baiting can be sort of misleading if you don't fully understand it though, because you're not so much going out there and saying "i'm going to make them try to hit me and miss" as you are observing patterns in their behavior, reacting to them, and taking advantage of them. mewtwo is very heavy on the mental game with the way he can play hot/cold with pressure vs punishment, so it's good to understand how you can throw them out of their comfort zone then create situations where they'll potentially make punishable errors
Make no mistake, this does not come without effort. Current Mewtwo play overemphasizes the (also very unoptimized) punish game in part because fluently integrating his pressure demands understanding, nuance, and proficiency in both the mental and technical aspects of the game.

tl;dr Don't look for one-size-fits-all options with which you can force things. Play to the situation. Use your tools to observe your opponent's behavior and respond accordingly.
 
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ShadowKing

Smash Ace
Joined
Jun 1, 2015
Messages
676
Location
Germany
NNID
TheShadowKing24
3DS FC
4785-7167-2769
I use teleport into neutral air forward air back air or a upward attack and my Shadow ball to safely land
 
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