New to Smash and trying to main MK !

[Channelle]

Hello, my objective is to become a "decent" player of MK. I searched a lot on youtube and other forums but i found that there are not a lot of content fort MK in Ultimate, so i came here to find help and maybe begin a topic where new player can learn this character.

So i adress those questions to good/advances player of MK in ultimate :

1- What are his strength ?
2- What are his weaknesses ?
3- How to play neutral with MK ?
4- What are his basic combo at low % ?
5- What are his killer moves at high % ?
6- What are his advanced combo ?
7- Other tips ?

I think this is a good start to lean how to play MK, thank you in advance for future answers ! =)
(sorry for my english this is not my native language)

 

[Luigi Linguine]

1- His biggest strength is probably his edgeguarding game. The air speed buff as well as range buffs to all his aerials further compound this. If there's one thing you should never do as a Meta Knight main, it's let your opponent get back to the ledge for free. His disadvantage state is also amazing because Mach Tornado is very fast with a lingering hitbox and Dimensional Cape (no attack) is very ambiguous in terms of where you'll go, so using these two moves in tandem will help you get out of bad situations pretty effectively. Oh, and he's also a pretty good combo character.

2- Unless you get a raw f-smash, back-air, or Dimension Cape read, Meta Knight can really struggle to kill. Up-throw doesn't kill until like 200% and back-throw won't kill at the ledge until about 160% if it's fresh, which it usually isn't. Shuttle Loop's kill power was also nerfed from Smash 4, so it's way less reliable to use OoS or as a surprise attack and kill confirming into it is more difficult. Another weakness is that his neutral is pretty linear. It's actually a bit less linear in Ultimate compared to Smash 4 because SH down-air is better due to the range buff and being able to use tilts out of a dash helped out Meta Knight more than most, but it's still one of his weaker points.

3- Similar to Smash 4, you'll want to look for openings to land a grab or dash attack. As I mentioned before, SH down-air is also very good, namely at stuffing approaches or poking the enemy's shield if you retreat with it. Down-tilt is tied for the fastest down-tilt in the game at frame 3, making it a safe poke and his best tilt out of a dash. Forward-tilt got a huge quality of life buff from Smash 4, making it a great way to punish most attacks out of shield. Aside from those things, his other aerials besides up-air can be decent in the neutral as long as you aren't being too obvious with them because they're pretty easy to punish if your opponent knows what they're doing.

4- If they don't DI down, down-throw will combo into up-airs against most characters at low percents. If they do DI down, you can combo into running up-smash or dash attack. Another good early % combo is early hit dash attack > up-tilt > up-air > back-air/forward-air/neutral-air/more up-airs depending on how they DI. You can also get a landing neutral-air and that will combo into the dash attack or grab.

5- Forward-smash is his best smash attack because it has very little end lag for how strong it is. Down-smash is very weak, but it's the fastest down-smash in the game at frame 4, so it has its uses in killing. Up-smash is good if you can chase the opponent's landing. If they aren't respecting Shuttle Loop, you can catch them in the air with it and it will kill decently well (it also seems like the first hit leads into the second hit much more reliably in this game). Dash attack's knockback was buffed from Smash 4, hindering its combo potential a bit, but allowing it to serve as a quick kill option at roughly 170%. Unlike in Smash 4, forward-tilt actually has good kill power at the ledge. Back-air has insanely high KBG, making it Meta Knight's strongest aerial for killing and neutral-air is also pretty good if you land the sweetspot. Finally, while punishable, Dimensional Cape can kill quite early if you get the read.

6- While most of Meta Knight's advanced combos likely haven't yet been discovered, here's a pretty interesting one utilizing the new attack cancel technique. I recommend watching the entire video to understand how to perform the combo properly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1kjQtMaPkE&t=9m6s

7- It may be tempting to dash attack out of down-tilt at low percents, but it's not true unless the opponent trips. You'll have to wait until mid percents (about 50%) before it starts comboing because at that point, it'll start sending the opponent off the ground. Landing bair and landing fair is a lot better for comboing in this game compared to Smash 4 because of the landing lag buff, so you can follow up with down-tilt, forward-tilt, grab, etc. Finally, I'd like to say that Battlefield is Meta Knight's best stage in my opinion because the platforms really help his up-air ladder combos and they also allow up-throw to actually kill at reasonable percents.

I'm not the best Meta Knight player (as evident by my profile), so there's probably a bunch of stuff I missed that other people could add, but these are my two cents.

 

[Channelle]

Great ! thank you very much for this answer. I assume all of this also depend on the character you are facing.

Now what should i practice first as a new MK player in the training mode ? I don't want to do things in the wrong order.

 

[2 C H i L L E D]

1) His biggest strengths are going to be his aerial and egdeguarding game. You’ll need to understand how to be proficient in both areas to actually play a solid Meta Knight.

2) His greatest weakness is his absolutely horrible damage. You will find yourself hitting opponents twice as much as they hit you but for the same or even less damage. Because of this MK has to win in the neutral more than basically any other character in the game. While he has the tools to do this it’s still a VERY bad thing. His specials are all extremely punishable as they all have a ton of endlag spare down-b.

3) In neutral I normally throw out a lot of dairs but I always jump afterwards to avoid a shield grab. Cycling through d-tilt and f-tilt is also very good in neutral d-tilt is less laggy and f-tilt has more range. I only throw out the final hit of f-tilt if I get a hit with first or second strikes because the final hit has a lot more lag than the second. F-air and B-air I usually throw out to catch a short ranged aerial from the opponent or just to control my current space.

4) D-Throw, Fair, Dair, Dash Attack and grab are going to be your most used tools for combos. I find that while Meta Knight can combo you’re usually only going to get about two hits in before returning to neutral. But usually after those two hits you’ll still have the advantage so knowing how to maintain your pressure is important to link your strings together.

5) Kill moves are going to be F-smash, Bair and Nair. Cape will destroy someone at high percentages but can be difficult to land. I take all most all of my stocks with B-air or F-smash. Nair takes stocks consistently in offstage situations, usually by means of a drop zone due to everyone recovering low since it’s a pretty safe option against most characters.

 

[Luigi Linguine]

Great ! thank you very much for this answer. I assume all of this also depend on the character you are facing.

Now what should i practice first as a new MK player in the training mode ? I don't want to do things in the wrong order.

Practicing your combo game against fast fallers is a nice way to start. When you're done with them, transition your combo game to floaties like Jigglypuff as well as average fallers like Mario. After that, edgeguarding is probably the next best thing to train, but it's best to use a friend to act as the practice dummy because CPUs can be pretty weird and unrealistic with how they recover. Practice this against a wide variety of different characters as some have way better recoveries than others.

 

[Channelle]

1) His biggest strengths are going to be his aerial and egdeguarding game. You’ll need to understand how to be proficient in both areas to actually play a solid Meta Knight.

2) His greatest weakness is his absolutely horrible damage. You will find yourself hitting opponents twice as much as they hit you but for the same or even less damage. Because of this MK has to win in the neutral more than basically any other character in the game. While he has the tools to do this it’s still a VERY bad thing. His specials are all extremely punishable as they all have a ton of endlag spare down-b.

3) In neutral I normally throw out a lot of dairs but I always jump afterwards to avoid a shield grab. Cycling through d-tilt and f-tilt is also very good in neutral d-tilt is less laggy and f-tilt has more range. I only throw out the final hit of f-tilt if I get a hit with first or second strikes because the final hit has a lot more lag than the second. F-air and B-air I usually throw out to catch a short ranged aerial from the opponent or just to control my current space.

4) D-Throw, Fair, Dair, Dash Attack and grab are going to be your most used tools for combos. I find that while Meta Knight can combo you’re usually only going to get about two hits in before returning to neutral. But usually after those two hits you’ll still have the advantage so knowing how to maintain your pressure is important to link your strings together.

5) Kill moves are going to be F-smash, Bair and Nair. Cape will destroy someone at high percentages but can be difficult to land. I take all most all of my stocks with B-air or F-smash. Nair takes stocks consistently in offstage situations, usually by means of a drop zone due to everyone recovering low since it’s a pretty safe option against most characters.

Thank you for your point of view =) i now understand better the character !

 

[Judgement]

A lot has been said already, so to add/confirm a little bit: use Meta Knight's speed, use his aerials right, practice the Dimensional Cape a thousand times or more (especially the timing -- when to surprise your opponent with it to finish off a stock or when to use it to get away from your opponent), kill with Bair, Fsmash, Nair or Dimensional Cloak and only use other B's when you really need it.

Down throw into Nair is pretty abusable, when timed right. His aerials will do most of your damage. Down throw is probably his best throw, as it does quite some damage for Meta Knight standards and the animation is really satisfying to watch.