Ok so I'm about to go back to school tomorrow and instead of getting good rest I'm writing on the Samus boards, but for good reason.
So as some of you have heard, I'm returning to Melee. I haven't quit Brawl, but I'm most definitely focusing completely on my Melee game atm.
I had 3 questions when I decided to come back. And they were:
1. Am I capable of handling the current metagame?
2. Is Samus capable of handling the current metagame?
3. Can I become better than I ever was?
Through my observations and experiences, I answered all three questions with a resounding "yes".
I'll address each question in depth here:
1.Not to brag, but there are styles that are truly timeless in this game, and I was fortunate enough to have created one of them. For every new strategy that someone threw at me, I answered back. Perhaps not as quickly as desired due to my inability to play as fluently as I used to but, I certainly know I could deal with everything new.
2. Samus lived up to what I felt all along. Samus is fully capable of delivering an answer to everything she is dealt. This game is beautiful in that respect, and Samus is a character representative of that beauty. Sure, people now wiggle out of upB's a lot, have crazy angles to recover with, developed anti shield pressure strategies, but no matter. There were solutions to all these problems, and I will explain some at the end of this.
3. I can certainly become better than I was under the following condition:
- I continue caring about getting better
So far, so good.
And there are 2 big reasons for why I feel this way.
- I always had notions of ways to improve my game, even while I was in my prime. However, the metagame never called for it. I was a product of the community, and it functioned like an economy would; If there was no demand for improvement, I wouldn't supply it. Similarily, improvement is now demanded of me, so I supply it.
- My long break allowed me to part with bad habits. Because I have been "re-virginized" to melee, I am starting from scratch, fresh, uninfluenced by anything but my own thoughts. On top of that, I have my experience to build on, so I could skip much experimentation and dead ends.
________________________________________
New/Relived Tricks and Strategies
Now on to the fun stuff. My ideas on how to improve myself, including strategic analysis and brand new tactics:
I'll start with the new tricks. If you already do these things, don't bother posting about how you've been doing it "forever". I have never seen these tricks done by a Samus in tournament, and if it has been done, you haven't been successful enough with her to claim any kind of superiority over anyone, especially me. So be happy you discovered it, but keep it to yourself please. You can brag, but don't be condescending about it.
Trick #1
Canceling reflected missiles to punish.
How it works: Basically, Samus's best approach method involves missile canceling in order to zone in on your opponent. There need not always be a follow up, but you usually end up closing in.
When fighting a falco/fox, the 2 most popular characters in the metagame, reflectors essentially nullify our main approach. But then, by accident, I found a solution to this problem.
You can missile cancel, dash forward, then dash attack the reflected missile. There's not much novelty to that, it's been known by some people here and there. BUT, the best tricks are the most practical, and this has a practicality to it.
When you cancel the reflected missile with a dash attack, you are immediately free to do what you'd like, and when fox/falco reflect a missile, they are in reflection stun. They cannot shield, sidestep, or even jump cancel their shine. You are completely free to dsmash/dtilt/ftilt/and fsmash. There are properties of the shine that i'm not too sure of, but I hypothesized the following:
- There are 2 modes for shining. Reflection mode and offensive mode. When neutral, as in nothing hits the shine, both modes can be jump canceled immediately. But when a reflection occurs immediately after spacies are able to reflect, Fox/falco are stuck in reflect mode which causes tons of lag.
However, if a shine is allowed to be out for a while, it enters offensive mode, where even after a reflection the spacie is able to jump out quickly.
Naturally, you enter offensive mode the moment you shine as an attack. But if not, you enter this mode sometime after you have the shine out for a while.
That was a whole hypothesis based on observation. I invite anyone to test it and prove it wrong or right.
Trick #2
A character cannot tech/recover after tumbling to the ground after an upB before you can punish him.
Basically, if you up B a character and it doesn't break out in time and manages to hit the floor, you can punish after your up B lag with your quickest moves below 7 frames of start up time. That includes dsmash, dtilt, ftilt, upB, and a few others.
That ALSO means that if you upB a character above one of the lower platforms and you see he won't break out, feel free to land ON TOP of the platform and punish, rather than trying to land below the platform to be safe. Keep in mind, the lower platforms are closest to the ledge, so it brings about edgeguard opportunities.
Also, keep in mind that you need not attack a character from the ground with your upB. You can intercept them from the air, making it harder for them to break out, and giving this a higher chance to succeed.
Once again, test test test!
General Strategy Improvements
1. Dtilt > Dsmash
I've learned to try and discontinue my use of Dsmash as punishment at low percentages. Dsmash is the quickest smash attack, and it is definitely strong. However, good DI prevents most follow ups.
Dtilt is EXACTLY as fast as dsmash, frame for frame, and it deals similar damage with the added ability to follow up. There's absolutely no reason to use Dsmash instead of Dtilt other than an inability to do so.
So I'm learning; Marth fsmashes my shield at low %, I wavedash out to dtilt.
Fox usmashes my shield, wavedash out to dtilt. Etc etc.
2. Shield Dash Spacing Calibration
This is something I've always done but wasn't exactly aware of until the need came for me to actually think about using it again.
It's a bit complicated, but bare with me.
Basically, you dash dance, but you shield in between to calibrate your spacing...
This game is fast, it's F***ING fast, so it is simply unwise to stand still and react in order to space properly. And it's too easy to approach a still opponent with all the offensive options given to us in this game.
Dash dancing solves this problem, but really, dash dancing is meant for characters with fast falling abilities and great short hopping games. Samus/peach/jiggs don't really have that. So peach spaces by floating, and jiggs spaces by WOPing and multi jumping. So what does Samus do?
She shield dashes.
What that means is while I'm dash dancing, the moment an approach is coming from my opponent, I shield to stop myself at the appropriate distance. Afterwords, it's a matter of choosing wavedashing/jumping out/sidestepping/holding shield/upBing whatever.
The point is, I'm spaced properly all while constantly moving to make it Harder for my opponent to space correctly himself.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to be constantly moving when playing the zoning/defensive game.
And for more advantageous dash spacing, you can also cancel the end of dashes by crouching instead of shielding to do an immediate "A" attack. Keep in mind though, you cannot crouch cancel the dash animation, so you must wait to be able to crouch. So use both appropriately for proper spacing.
Of all things i've written here, that's my most vital advice, as I see improper spacing as being the biggest problem for samus mains, and proper spacing being one of my best traits. This is one of the ways I do it.
______________________________________________________________
If you've read all of this, congrats, you've managed to learn something new with Samus, and are on your way to bringing her to levels she deserves to be at.
So that's my conclusion to this essay, you've all read enough
So as some of you have heard, I'm returning to Melee. I haven't quit Brawl, but I'm most definitely focusing completely on my Melee game atm.
I had 3 questions when I decided to come back. And they were:
1. Am I capable of handling the current metagame?
2. Is Samus capable of handling the current metagame?
3. Can I become better than I ever was?
Through my observations and experiences, I answered all three questions with a resounding "yes".
I'll address each question in depth here:
1.Not to brag, but there are styles that are truly timeless in this game, and I was fortunate enough to have created one of them. For every new strategy that someone threw at me, I answered back. Perhaps not as quickly as desired due to my inability to play as fluently as I used to but, I certainly know I could deal with everything new.
2. Samus lived up to what I felt all along. Samus is fully capable of delivering an answer to everything she is dealt. This game is beautiful in that respect, and Samus is a character representative of that beauty. Sure, people now wiggle out of upB's a lot, have crazy angles to recover with, developed anti shield pressure strategies, but no matter. There were solutions to all these problems, and I will explain some at the end of this.
3. I can certainly become better than I was under the following condition:
- I continue caring about getting better
So far, so good.
And there are 2 big reasons for why I feel this way.
- I always had notions of ways to improve my game, even while I was in my prime. However, the metagame never called for it. I was a product of the community, and it functioned like an economy would; If there was no demand for improvement, I wouldn't supply it. Similarily, improvement is now demanded of me, so I supply it.
- My long break allowed me to part with bad habits. Because I have been "re-virginized" to melee, I am starting from scratch, fresh, uninfluenced by anything but my own thoughts. On top of that, I have my experience to build on, so I could skip much experimentation and dead ends.
________________________________________
New/Relived Tricks and Strategies
Now on to the fun stuff. My ideas on how to improve myself, including strategic analysis and brand new tactics:
I'll start with the new tricks. If you already do these things, don't bother posting about how you've been doing it "forever". I have never seen these tricks done by a Samus in tournament, and if it has been done, you haven't been successful enough with her to claim any kind of superiority over anyone, especially me. So be happy you discovered it, but keep it to yourself please. You can brag, but don't be condescending about it.
Trick #1
Canceling reflected missiles to punish.
How it works: Basically, Samus's best approach method involves missile canceling in order to zone in on your opponent. There need not always be a follow up, but you usually end up closing in.
When fighting a falco/fox, the 2 most popular characters in the metagame, reflectors essentially nullify our main approach. But then, by accident, I found a solution to this problem.
You can missile cancel, dash forward, then dash attack the reflected missile. There's not much novelty to that, it's been known by some people here and there. BUT, the best tricks are the most practical, and this has a practicality to it.
When you cancel the reflected missile with a dash attack, you are immediately free to do what you'd like, and when fox/falco reflect a missile, they are in reflection stun. They cannot shield, sidestep, or even jump cancel their shine. You are completely free to dsmash/dtilt/ftilt/and fsmash. There are properties of the shine that i'm not too sure of, but I hypothesized the following:
- There are 2 modes for shining. Reflection mode and offensive mode. When neutral, as in nothing hits the shine, both modes can be jump canceled immediately. But when a reflection occurs immediately after spacies are able to reflect, Fox/falco are stuck in reflect mode which causes tons of lag.
However, if a shine is allowed to be out for a while, it enters offensive mode, where even after a reflection the spacie is able to jump out quickly.
Naturally, you enter offensive mode the moment you shine as an attack. But if not, you enter this mode sometime after you have the shine out for a while.
That was a whole hypothesis based on observation. I invite anyone to test it and prove it wrong or right.
Trick #2
A character cannot tech/recover after tumbling to the ground after an upB before you can punish him.
Basically, if you up B a character and it doesn't break out in time and manages to hit the floor, you can punish after your up B lag with your quickest moves below 7 frames of start up time. That includes dsmash, dtilt, ftilt, upB, and a few others.
That ALSO means that if you upB a character above one of the lower platforms and you see he won't break out, feel free to land ON TOP of the platform and punish, rather than trying to land below the platform to be safe. Keep in mind, the lower platforms are closest to the ledge, so it brings about edgeguard opportunities.
Also, keep in mind that you need not attack a character from the ground with your upB. You can intercept them from the air, making it harder for them to break out, and giving this a higher chance to succeed.
Once again, test test test!
General Strategy Improvements
1. Dtilt > Dsmash
I've learned to try and discontinue my use of Dsmash as punishment at low percentages. Dsmash is the quickest smash attack, and it is definitely strong. However, good DI prevents most follow ups.
Dtilt is EXACTLY as fast as dsmash, frame for frame, and it deals similar damage with the added ability to follow up. There's absolutely no reason to use Dsmash instead of Dtilt other than an inability to do so.
So I'm learning; Marth fsmashes my shield at low %, I wavedash out to dtilt.
Fox usmashes my shield, wavedash out to dtilt. Etc etc.
2. Shield Dash Spacing Calibration
This is something I've always done but wasn't exactly aware of until the need came for me to actually think about using it again.
It's a bit complicated, but bare with me.
Basically, you dash dance, but you shield in between to calibrate your spacing...
This game is fast, it's F***ING fast, so it is simply unwise to stand still and react in order to space properly. And it's too easy to approach a still opponent with all the offensive options given to us in this game.
Dash dancing solves this problem, but really, dash dancing is meant for characters with fast falling abilities and great short hopping games. Samus/peach/jiggs don't really have that. So peach spaces by floating, and jiggs spaces by WOPing and multi jumping. So what does Samus do?
She shield dashes.
What that means is while I'm dash dancing, the moment an approach is coming from my opponent, I shield to stop myself at the appropriate distance. Afterwords, it's a matter of choosing wavedashing/jumping out/sidestepping/holding shield/upBing whatever.
The point is, I'm spaced properly all while constantly moving to make it Harder for my opponent to space correctly himself.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to be constantly moving when playing the zoning/defensive game.
And for more advantageous dash spacing, you can also cancel the end of dashes by crouching instead of shielding to do an immediate "A" attack. Keep in mind though, you cannot crouch cancel the dash animation, so you must wait to be able to crouch. So use both appropriately for proper spacing.
Of all things i've written here, that's my most vital advice, as I see improper spacing as being the biggest problem for samus mains, and proper spacing being one of my best traits. This is one of the ways I do it.
______________________________________________________________
If you've read all of this, congrats, you've managed to learn something new with Samus, and are on your way to bringing her to levels she deserves to be at.
So that's my conclusion to this essay, you've all read enough
