New to P:M Ganon, looking for tips.

[Nicholas James]

Hola, Smashboards. I've recently begun to play Project:M after a long hiatus from Smash games of any iteration for a long time, after having played it entirely casually when I was far younger. Recently friends of mine have gotten absorbed by the competitive Smash idea and scene, and I've been sucked in with them. After playing Project:M for hours, and loving it, I went out and bought a wii, grabbed myself a copy of Brawl and two Gamecube controllers and am ready to dive in.
I know the basics and the theory behind them - Shuffling, Wavedashing, etc.
Though I'm still working on applying them practically on the fly.
I've picked out Ganon as my main - I love the moveset (I will admit to maybe using Flame Choke a bit too much) and how each hit feels like wailing a sledgehammer into my opponent.
Anyways - I came to you guys, infinitely better Ganon players than myself, for tips on what techniques are especially important to practice and use with Ganon, as well as what moves are no-gos. (I've been told that practically nobody uses Side-B or Down-B in competitive P:M, two moves which I use a lot - and I'd like to know why they're not used and what other moves are too risky or too easily punishable or whatever reasons there may be) I apologize if this is just a bother - but I figured you would know where to begin laying the foundation better than I would.
Cheers and thank you.--Nick

 

[CORY]

learn to ac nair, it's actually really easy and it's your best move in neutral by far. (just short hop, then asap hit attack for the nair, then fastfall it. it's a really lenient window). when it's fresh, it's +3 on shield, which means you can react and move 3 frames before your opponent can do anything oos. fully staled, it's only 0, which is still really really good. use it condition people to stay in their shield/roll away and punish their option. outside of that, it's a powerful move, with really fast startup (only 5 frames! wtf!?), and high damage without super high knockback (each hit does 12, fresh. so a dthrow-2hit nair on its own is about 35 damage). this is probably your best move, with uses in neutral and combos, and if you get them absurdly high somehow, it can kill off the top surprisingly well.

dtilt and ftilt have similar ranges, but very different uses. use dtilt when you want to continue hitting someone, use ftilt to either reset to neutral or to kill/setup an edgeguard. (not as cut and dry as that, but i can almost guarantee you're underusing dtilt).

you're also probably underusing uair. it has an amazing hitbox coverage for how fast and safe it is. use it to keep space above you safe, for edgeguarding, and for combo extensions.

don't rely too heavily on fade-away fairs. it's really good, yes, but if you get predictable you can get caught out of the endlag (or even the startup) by quicker characters. save it for good reads.

it's not "never use down/sideb". it's "never use them in neutral". downb, especially, should be saved for reads and tech punishes. at any appreciable range, it's entirely reactable. downb can be used in neutral, but you have to have your opponent conditioned to shielding it, then going in with the grab. after that, use it to build up damage on tech chases and roll punishes, when your downb won't kill.

get used to float. you have a 14 frame commitment when you use it before you can do anything besides backhand reflect or jump. if you cancel it (by tapping down) it's another 14 frame commitment, this time only cancellable by jump (you might be able to attack as well? not sure and can't test right now...). learn to use the breverse (use it, then 1 frame after, hit the opposite direction on your analog stick) and reverse b (press the opposite direction right before using it).

-b reverse (aka wave bouncing) will reverse your horizontal momentum going into the move. so if you run forward, jump, b reverse it, you'll float backwards instead of the direction you jumped.

-reverse b just makes you turn around and do it facing the opposite way.

go into training and get familiar with how deep out you can go, attack, dj and upb back to stage. you can go surprisingly deep with it, just don't let the opponent get past you, as you have a good, but pretty linear recovery.

in terms of recovery: don't always knee jerk into dj-downb-dj. downb has a very predictable path and enough time to get punished afterwards that you need to decide if you actually need it. better opponents will head to the end of the path and just hit you, sometimes before you finish enough of the move to regain your double jump. the ideal usage of float for recovery is dj-downb-float forward-dj-up/sideb. that'll get you the most distance with the most options available (basically, you can jump out of float, which helps a lot). there's always a reason to do something else, but that's the ideal, in terms of options.

 

[Sgt_Pepper]

Since you like Side-B so much, a quick Neutral A/Dtilt after release is an easy way to sneak a little extra percentage in. Also, use your Dair often, it's a very good move both on and off stage, and it's the best down spike in the entire game due to a wide hitbox and really great knockback.

My advice is obviously much more simplistic than CORY's, but I hope it helps at least a little.