as I said my 2nd my guide. This one took me a while because I had some stuff for school to do. I hope people can use it. =)
like my last guide this only covers basics. It's not like I can whrite what to do in every single situation. If you have questions about any mu or just this guide PM me or just ask them here and I will try to give the best answere I can give =)
I'm sorry for the post spacing but SWF messes with it because I typed this in word.
Diddy kong MU:
The ratio for this mu is +1 for MK in my opinion. This is because Diddy gets pretty much destroyed off-stage. However Diddy still has a great on-stage game vs MK and great ways to punish MK.
To start of this is a mu where you can eat tons of damage for small mistakes. Diddy can punish easily and can give you much damage with banana strings to grabs and can even do an infinite against you.(Not many diddy’s use this though). Diddy is really good at punishing landing. He has a really big range with banana’s to do this. If you land somewhere in this range and he predicts or reacts to this he will eat you alive. Diddy also easily eats bad used aerials or nado’s . Diddy basically can punish every little mistake easily. That’s why you have to put a lot of time in learning it.
So what should MK do against him if you get punished so easily?
MK’s main goal in this mu is getting Diddy off-stage. Diddy basically can’t do anything which doesn’t lead to a kill if you predict and punish it correctly. I will go into gimping diddy later. Diddy has also has a hard time landing. I will also go into juggling Diddy later. What you want to do against a grounded Diddy is You want to poke him with move like dair and nado if he has no banana’s to close to him Don’t nado him if he has one in hand unless you can rethread and get on a platform pretty far away from him. Fair is not a good option vs grounded Diddy’s because he has an really easy time punishing this move. Diddy basically can punish all mk’s moves if they are in Vertical and horizontal Banana range. Good examples are Tilt’s, Fair and Landing with dair.
Diddy however has to get banana’s first. And they don’t stay on the field the entire match. You want to get him where you want him before he can start up his banana game. Places where you have the advantage are when Diddy is off-stage, on the ledge, above you or slightly outside of his range but in your tilt range. I will explain the last one. Diddy trouble punishing good spaced tilt’s if he does not have access to his banana’s. Spaced dtilt and Ftilt1 or 2 are great vs him as well as grabbing him. You can basically play a poke game against him if he does not have any access to a banana. Diddy will try to do a few things here because you will win this up-close battle if he has no banana’s. He will try to get a grab. He can throw you away and get soms space to set up his banana game. He can try to land a dtilt to grab. This is not guaranteed so try to SDI it if you can predict it. He can try to land a smash attack but this is risky you can now punish him, He will try to land sideB in any way. He will try to land fair or any other Arial. This basically are options to get you away from him so that he is able to get banana’s which is important to him. So what you want to do is keep up your momentum without giving him his momentum. So That’s your goal. Don’t give him space to pluck banana’s or don’t get hit by them. So play this mu really aggressive or really campy. It’s up to you.
Diddy is a character that can be easy or hard to juggle depending on how well you know his options.
Diddy can do a lot of things but I will go over his best options or his most used options.
First of diddy can dair you. You can do a few things about this. You can space Uairs that way that his dair can’t hit you. Not right below him but a little bit Horizontal below him. You can bait it and then punish it with dair or nair. Uair also works but does less damage. You can nado it. This is good if you are closer to the stage. It’s your best juggle option over al vs Diddy if he has no banana in his hand.
The next thing he can do is sideB. Honestly. This is kinda slow. You can Uair it pretty easy. But don’t try to get too greedy. He can bair you after this move. You can also just nado when close to the stage.
He also has the option te use B-reversal>popgun cancel. I like to do this as Diddy. It’s like snake’s be reversal but I think it’s better because Diddy can cancel and thus more versatile in my opinion. You can punish this when you read it with the same options as other moves. But it’s kinda hard to punish if you don’t expect it. He can pluck a banana. This can make it harder to move around for you because he now has some kind of defense to work with. However it’s not that great because the banana will fall straight down and you can just move around it.
It is harder to juggle Diddy if he has a banana in his hand. He can now actually punish your moves. And he actually has a legit option vs Nado’s from below. If He has a banana in hand try to let him throw it. Because you then can nado him for free again. You can also Uair him outside of throw range. He can’t reach you if you are horizontal below him. It’s very good to uair him from that spot in every situation. He can basically Fast fall fair or get away.
Those are basics to juggle Diddy. Like I said Diddy is pretty easy to juggle but he has options to catch you off guard be aware of them and You will see that you now have an much easier time juggling him.
Now how do you gimp DIddy. Diddy is easy to gimp. His recovery can travel pretty far but has really bad priority and it’s pretty easy to space well on it. Diddy has a few options to recover. If he had a good DI and is high he can choose for high recovery. If he goes for this it means that you are below him in most cases. Juggle him as I explained earlier in this guide. He can also Recover a bit lower. Like BF or SV platform height. This is use usually the best way for him to recover. He can get closer to the stage with SideB and get more height with his midair jump before he goes for his upB. Last option for him is to recover low. He should never do this unless you force him or he had bad DI. He is almost free for a gimp because your Dair beats all his options here+ if you get in that dair he’s almost always dead because he has hit stun from barrels or is forced to use them for second try to get back.
Now those are the ways he can recover. If he goes high go for juggles and try to get him off-stage again. I explained how to juggle him earlier on. If he goes low he has big trouble. He will try to get closer with midair jump. It’s key to dair him after he did his midair jump. He only has specials left. And both are easy to punish. He will first go for sideB. Let him do this if he is low. You don’t have to punish it. After this he will probably need his upB. This is the moment you are going to punish. Because of the hit stun barrels give he’s almost always dead or 95% dead. Don’t knock him in the stage(stage spike) though. He will not get stage spiked but he will get the effect of a stage tech. this is an side effect barrels give. Just knock him away. He will suffer from hit stun and he’s dead or he gets one more try and is dead after that. So don’t punish the sideB just wait for the barrels to come out if he goes low. He can also recover on stage height. This can be done at several ways. If he is close to the stage a lot of diddy’s actually instant sideB into the stage. If you find a habit in this punish it every time with Fair,Nair or Dair. Dair and Fair are easier to space but if you feel comfortable go for nair because it does more damage and knockback. If you really get a good read in this good for Arial shuttle loop. It’s a great tool that can force him to recover low which is that you want. He can also have a midair jump habit. If he has this dair it. He will really have trouble to recover without midair jump. If he is farther from the stage he will usually go for sideB first before he uses his midair jump. If he can get to the ledge with this dair is a good option to react to him. If not then just wait for his upB. That’s about it for gimping Diddy kong. Basically unless he can get to the stage or edge with sideB or hi midair jump just wait for the upB and punish that.
Now what about you being off-stage? You have a pretty safe and easy time to recover however. If you don’t watch out he can catch you off-guard. For one Diddy has a spike. This move can be dumb if you don’t watch out for this move. It’s pretty stupid when you have a good lead and then get spiked at 80%. You can avoid it or beat it with something whatever you think is better in this case. Just be aware that he can spike you. He also has a wicked good fair. This move is just a pest. He can come off-stage with this however a smart diddy will not go for this. Recover low or just glide attack it. He can throw banana’s off-stage. This can be annoying if he has 2 of them. He can without taking too much risk throw banana’s at you. However if he does and you get on stage before he has new ones he loses momentum. If he throws them off-stage avoid them and use dimensional cape to get back to the edge fast. He can shoot peanuts. This is what most diddy’s will do. It’s annoying and stupid but all your moves beat it. Just uair the peanuts. Your Uair is faster than his popgun. Basically you shouldn’t have too much trouble to recover. It gets harder once you reach the ledge but just basic recovery is not to dangerous vs Diddy kong.
After you or diddy’s recovery it is very likely that especially diddy has to go for the ledge. MK also likes to go for the ledge but more about that later. Diddy can do a few things on the ledge. First off all he can ledge jump and use Fair or any other Arial. Honestly his other aerials don’t really have the range or hit box at the right place do this. He could use Uair which comes out on frame 2. This move however won’t hit you if you don’t get too close to the ledge. He can nair but like uair this shouldn’t hit you. He can also go for regular getup attacks. These are pretty slow however they have the advantage that they have invincibility. You however can react to them and grab them pretty easy especially the 100%+ one. He can jump of the ledge but this is most of the time pretty bad because He is above you and that’s a position he doesn’t want to get in. He can go for sideB on the stage. But this is very laggy and slow. You should be able to react to it and punish it GSL is good for this. He can ledge hop air dodge. This is just like everything else punishable if predicted. Best way to punish is with grab because you can put him off-stage again. Grab overall is really good as punish toll here. Last but not least his best option throwing a banana on stage or wall jumping to banana pull. Keep in mind he can’t do the second one on smashville. If he has a banana. Keep in mind that it he will probably throw it. Be ready to catch it if you feel comfortable or at least avoid it. An good option to pressure Diddy on the ledge is nado. Don’t do this if he has a banana however. He can’t really do much. Best ways to punish get up options are nado which can beat everything except for banana’s or Grab. Fair and Ftilt are also really good or a fast dtilt poke to poke him back to the ledge again.
That’s about it for ledge options from diddy’s side. All of them are punishable if you react to them. Don’t stand at the ledge throwing out moves but wait for him to do something. If you have the lead don’t try to go off-stage in this case. You have the lead anyway so he has to get on stage. If not then try to let him come back on stage first.
Then what can you do on the ledge? Well first what can he do to you when you are on the ledge. He can try to knock you of but he will probably not go for this if he is thinking. If he tries it you can Shuttle loop him or hit him with something else. However keep in mind that he can do it. Second thing he can do is shooting peanuts. When spaced well he can barely shoot them over the ledge. This is his best option for shooting peanuts. It’s pretty annoying to avoid consistently. You can beat all of his peanuts with Uair but this just makes life harder. Best option is to go under the ledge so that you won’t get hit by peanuts off-stage. So space yourself under the ledge or slightly under the stage and us dimensional cape to get back to the ledge. Time this correctly and you will be able to avoid most peanuts pretty easy. This is the best way to plank vs Diddy kong. If you want to go back on-stage the best way to do it is going over the peanuts to prevent him from throwing banana’s at you. If there is a platform close to you than try to go for that if it is safe. And reset the match from there. By air camping or trying to reach the ground safe. If not then go on stage but time it when he is about to shoot a peanut so that he can’t throw his banana right away.
He can also try to hit you from the ledge with a banana. If he does you could try to catch it but best thing is just let go of it and go back later. He last one banana and you didn’t do anything at all basically.
Another important attribute of this mu and actually every mu is how to get a kill and how to avoid getting killed. First of how do you kill diddy. There are several ways to kill Diddy. You can gimp him which I explained in this guide already or You can kill him with your basic kill moves. Now this mu gives you another way to kill which are banana’s. Just like he can sed up kills you can do as well. MK has a great banana game which I will explain later. You can abuse your amazing glide toss to set up kill moves. Easiest one to land after Glide toss is Dsmash. More details about banana options later. You can Diddy with your basic kill moves. Nair, Dsmash, GSL,ASL, Glide attack and Fsmash.
First off Nair. This move is good vs Diddy. It can catch banana’s and it is a really good tool to punish predictable sideB’s. You can also gimp diddy really well with it. You can punish him with it if he tries to land to finish juggles. This move is really good in this mu to punish his recovery or to finish juggles. Abuse it.
The second move we have is Dsmash. The best way to kill with this is out of glide toss or to punish his roll’s dodges or landings. Don’t spam this if he has banana’s it’s easily punished by Diddy kong. The third move we have is GSL. This is like always a really good kill move. You can beat everything with it except for banana’s. You can use this to punish short hop fair you can use it to punish sideB’s you can use it when you shield a banana and he dashes into you to grab you, you can use it to punish his landing. Just about everything. If you can use this move and glide to a platform afterward it’s also really hard for him to punish it. If you can’t reach a platform try to reach the ledge just avoid banana’s.
The fourth move is Arial shuttle loop. This move is good to punish his sideB if he is in range and not too low. It’s great to punish him while juggling him. And it destroys him off-stage. Use it. It can give you some nice early KO’s.
the fifth move is glide attack. This move is great. It clashes with almost every move or outranges them. He has a hard time to combat this move without banana’s and you can also easily mind game him by gliding into his face then cancel and grab. Just be creative since his grab is really good and it can punish you.
Last but not least Fsmash. This move is kinda hard to land on diddy kong. But it’s good to edge guard him if he us on the ledge. It’s also good to punish sideB’s or landings.
That’s basically how you can kill diddy of course gimping him early on is much better but this is how you kill him without gimps.
He can of course also kill you. His main ways to kill you are fair, Dsmash or Fsmash. In which most out of a banana trip. The easiest way to avoid kill moves is by air camping. He can’t hit you with Dsmash or Fsmash and he can’t trip you with banana’s for a kill setup. Only legit kill moves that are left are fair and Uair. His fair is really good but you can beat it by using diar smart and patient. Uair is the same story. Just wait for him to get closer and dair him away. Don’t play this mu grounded at kill% you give him a much better change to kill you. If you have to land, land away from him or on a platform. Another good way is to nado away.
I already kinda got into this but I will do it again. How to play around banana’s? well this is probably one of the most important things in the mu if not the most important thing. Diddy kong is a character that plays with banana’s. You will need to get at least an basic idea on how to use banana’s. This makes you feel much more comfortable in the mu and it makes a big difference. There are 2 different things that are important for this.
Banana control: how well can you contl banana’s? s in how well can you use them. Making combo’s with them, hoding hem under you control etc. Diddy’s hate it to play an opponent with good banana control.
Playing around them: How well can you avoid banana’s and prevent him from making combo’s with them. This is basically how well you can avoid banana’s.
If you have a strong combination of these 2 things Diddy will have a really hard time with you. First of all you can avoid banana’s and then you can grab them for yourself to use them. Try to get your item game better than whatever diddy you know. How to do this. Well this is basically practice. Can’t really help on that.
And how to avoid them? Well stay in the air as much as possible. He can’t trip you in the air which is his main goal with banana’s. Dair camp and abuse platforms if you have the lead and he will a hard time to make a comeback happen.
Last but not least I am going to explain some basics about MK’s banana game.
MK has a really good banana game. It’s believed to be the second best in the game. He has a great glide toss. A good dash attack and fast dash to pick them up and amazing arials to catch them or just to pick them up. He can combo with them really well and he can just throw them at diddy’s barrels if he needs to recover.
First of the glide toss. This is a great way to punish diddy. You can use this to get close hit him with and hit him with a banana at the same time. You can do lots of moves out of this like Dsmash, Nair, Dair or tilts and it is really fast. It’s an extra kill setup for you basically. Then we have the dash attack. Mk’s dash attack is really fast and just perfect to pick up banana’s It’s just a great option to pick them up. His arials are great to pick them up as well. Just make a wall and pick up a banana at the same time. You can throw this at diddy off-stage and he will be in big trouble. It’s just and extra gimp toll for you. And last but not least your combo’s I can’t even name all of them. Just try some stuff out and know what you can do with them. Just try this in trainings mode. Do this against big characters to make it easy and spam the banana’s.
EDIT: I forgot to cover stages =V
as for starters srike FD. He will strike Lylat probably. then go for the stage you prefer.
As for bans ban FD. or the oponents favorite stage if you know it.
For CP's Halberd, Delfino and Frigate all work well. watch out for the plaza part of delfino though. you can't plank here and it is straight so it's a great start for Diddy.
But I will not go any further on this. I might start playing wifi again, so if anyone here wants to play, hit me up. Though there may be some lag