This is going to be a very unpopular opinion, I'm sure, but I REALLY don't think that the Official Custom Moveset Project will be satisfactory.
I supported customs
before the game was released, because I erroneously assumed specials could be swapped from the CSS. Now that I know that's NOT how it works, I'm not so sure we should be allowing non-"solid" (1111/2222/3333) custom sets at all.
Here's why I do
not support the OCPM;
- It's too Smashboards-centric and encourages circlejerking. Chances are, a random given entrant doesn't go to Smashboards. Therefore, they will likely have practiced for a tournament where they heard customs were allowed using an "illegal" set, thinking it would be allowed by mistake.
- Practicing for it requires making a significant feature of the game entirely unusable. Want to freely play around with equipment, or simply not die in the more difficult single player modes? Too bad; all of your custom slots have to be eaten up by equipmentless sets in order to study matchups. It punishes players who enjoy those features in their own time; it's like inflicting a penalty on players who like to have items on when playing with their younger relatives, etc.
- It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The problem with arbitrarily deciding what sets are the "best", especially without sufficient data, leads to those sets having the most developed metas.
Ideally people can load whichever sets they want on the fly, and the "official" sets are just suggestions to help more casual players not get overwhelmed. The project has always officially advocated (strongly) the ability to load whichever set players want.
Unfortunately, this is not possible in the most time-contrained environments, namely a super-national like EVO. Fortunately, 10 sets is more than enough for every character except Samus, Mega Man, Bowser Jr, and WFT. (And if those characters had to choose between having customs legal or not, the choice is overwhelmingly obvious!)
Tested with boss and chudat, we're 100% convinced X23X on little mac is at the very least a critical set to be considered for the next update.
Grounding blow gives little mac platform and aerial pressure, as well as superior movement and landing options.
This I agree with, but the endlag is pretty real and in practice the platform pressure I've found to be underwhelming. (I almost always run Grounding Blow; it's recovery potential is more valuable than the offensive utility of Jolt Haymaker imo)
And combined with rising smash, it enables absurdly early kills. (Though it apparently doesn't work on all characters while grounded.... Greninja, and wii fit seem to fall out before the strong hit at even high percents. But sheik and mewtwo don't, it could also be a positioning/% thing though)
Rising Smash's initial hitbox has insufficient weight knockback to link on any buried character except Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, and inconsistently on Kirby + G&W. It can sometimes link on Rosalina if and only if Luma sits in the middle of the attack so that the 2nd hitbox extends.
Rising Uppercut, on the other hand, can connect on several more character, including all those plus Rosalina (consistently), Diddy, Sheik, ZSS, and Falcon.
Any anti-air default upsecial gives pales in comparison to grounding blow, and grab follow-ups are pretty inconsistent.
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Huh? I feel like we're on different planets.
Grounding Blow has no anti-air followups, period. The opponent can tech for a generous frame advantage, and even if they don't the bounce leaves the opponent out of reach at most percents. It can also never kill an aerial opponent except off-stage (lol), is somewhat slow (at least 12 frames, dodgeable on reaction), and has limited height. It also cannot drop through platforms on the way down.
Rising Uppercut hits on frame 3, is frame 1
invincible, and kills at around 100%. It also goes higher, and can be used immediately close to the ledge--the most important nati-air use case! The endlag is also long, but you can at least drop through platforms.
One of these two moves is one of the best anti-air moves in the game. The other is, well, Grounding Blow.
But wait, there's more!
Rising Uppercut is guaranteed out of d-throw in most situations at high %s, giving Mac
the earliest consistent grab -> kill option in the game. It's LM's only good rear OoS option; it's poor reach, but still frame 3 and deadly. As one of the game's only 2 frame 1 invincible moves, it can break out of all sorts of unique stuff, from Mario juggles to jab resets to repeating jabs. It's literally the game's best combo-breaker.
All this you give up if you take Rising Smash. Yes, it kills at 60%, but it also comes out frame 13. And that's the
ground hitbox; an aerial opponent has even more time to dodge the actually scary part!
The only value Rising Smash has is as a superior alternative to running u-smash, and more punishing ledgepoke against opponent misplay on the edge.
Compact counter also sets up for grounding blow, but since they're in the air it doesn't really ground them consistently without platforms or low %. Haven't tried it out much.
I don't think there's any true synergy here. As stated, hitting people with Grounding Blow in the air is not really a win.
Flame lunge might be best but all seem like ***.
Yup! Defualt might be... situationally best for doubles; but dubious.