New Marth Player Help

[Fools Requiem]

I've been trying to get an alt for my Link on Melee, and after playing Marth for a bit, I feel like he's my best choice
I've played Melee/Brawl on and off since 2002 but never really dabbled in Marth much until yesterday.

I feel my best game is in the air. I am god awful on the ground especially against fast characters like Fox/Falco (and oddly enough, Luigi), but if I get someone in the air, I can juggle them or at least keep them off the ground long enough for me to get in a nice strike from an UTilt or FSmash. This leads to issues on stages in which there are no raised platforms like Cornia and FD. On Battlefield, Yoshi's Story, Fountain of Dreams, Dreamland, on I don't have as much of an issue outside of my need to improve my accuracy and decision making.

Without suggesting learning wavedashing, what can I do to improve my ground game? I've never been great at grabs (often resorting to grabbing OOS instead of hitting the Z button) and roll dodging only puts me in a different location to smashed off the board from or to get grabbed.

I should note, I'm not good on the ground with anyone else either. Makes playing certain characters nearly impossible.

 

[Xyzz]

Marth isn't really a character you can play while neglecting your ground game, because his aerial moveset is fairly weak against grounded opponents. If you really feel your issue can't be fixed, the character you should pick up is captain falcon. I highly doubt that though, learn wavedashing and stuff, before that you're barely playing the same game as the other people around here.
It also isn't set in stone that you would have to grab with Z, you can just as well use shield + A for that.

 

[Fools Requiem]

Marth isn't really a character you can play while neglecting your ground game, because his aerial moveset is fairly weak against grounded opponents.

Yeah, that's what I figured.

If you really feel your issue can't be fixed, the character you should pick up is captain falcon.

Falcon's not my kind of character. I like distance comfort a sword gives me, I get pumbled a lot if I'm not in the air or chucking projectiles from a safe distance. I know Puff is great in the aerial game against grounded characters, but Puff plays too slowly for me to stand a chance against Fox/Falco.

It also isn't set in stone that you would have to grab with Z, you can just as well use shield + A for that.

I'm very much aware. Most of my grabs come from the shield. I find myself getting grabbed a lot when shielding, however. Like I said, I'm pretty bad on the ground. Too many smash attacks and specials used.

 

[Chives]

Like I said, I'm pretty bad on the ground. Too many smash attacks and specials used.

If you're using too many smash attacks and specials try and use dtilt (and to a lesser extent ftilt) more often. Most of Marth's ground moves are pretty laggy, however dtilt and ftilt are one of the less laggy ones, and are certainly less laggy than any of his specials or smashes. Another good alternative to throwing out attacks is dash dancing. Again, most of Marth's moves are pretty punishable if you don't hit them, so try and dash dance more often to bait out attacks and then punish instead of preemptively throwing out attacks. Definitely refrain from using fsmash too often. Fsmash should almost exclusively be used as a punish move, and in no circumstances is a walk-up-fsmash an approach. Fsmash becomes a lot easier to hit as a punish if you learn how to pivot (Watch arc's tutorial on how to do so here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuCCmymFpMU&feature=youtu.be) .Also try and get your opponent in the air. Marth destroys when below his enemy. Also try and avoid getting above someone, because Marth has 0 options when coming from above.