I wanted to make this post before any kind of patch or release of new characters occurs, which looks to be pretty soon even if not today. It won't contain any information that G&W players, particularly those in the skype group (you should join too!) don't know about, but I just wanted to post it for history's sake.
More and more, I'm seeing G&Ws other than myself in tournaments. When I went to KTAR XIV (admittedly, I don't get to travel far, but still), there were 3 other G&Ws, one of which had never met me and wanted to do so immediately. Everyone in my region is joked to have a "pocket G&W", and I have actually seen that occasionally. And I'm even being asked over Facebook by a guy who can't beat Mario on how to play G&W.
But it's not just me and my region at all. Regi is getting fantastic results in Mexico and slowly building an international reputation. Songun's play has encouraged Abadango to put G&W as B+ on a tier list. Vader is dominating his own little corner of California and making cash every week. Lorenzo beat GIMR 2-1 in G&W dittos not too long ago despite not being considered a top G&W by any of us, and looks to wreck at Xanadu eventually if he keeps playing and learning MUs. I could go on and on, but these are the major things I can think of.
And it does seem strange that we're talking like this now, doesn't it?
Traditionally, G&W has been seen as a lower mid tier character with not much going for him. He is considered to be massively downgraded from his Brawl iteration; this board was flooded with complaints about him for many months. And while it would be some top quality mental masturbation to liken his rise in Smash 4 to the rise of S4 Meta Knight, that's just not possible because what is good about G&W is not immediately evident at all.
Everything about G&W looks bad on the surface. He dies early, is almost completely unsafe on shield, has a poor grab, can't (usually, and especially considering the uair nerf) kill from a grab anyway, doesn't land well after an aerial, has almost no projectile game to speak of, and generally has special moves that are extraordinarily situational at best.
Essentially, G&W has absolutely no trait that we can readily ascribe to a top tier character. So how is he even good?
The truth is that G&W does everything else wonderfully.
Being a character who is fundamentally aggressive, using unsafe physical attacks to close in on the enemy, G&W can struggle to get an initial hit. But once he does, it's a nightmare to stop getting hit for a lot of characters. Owing to his very quick foxtrot, his fantastically lingering and distance-covering dash attack, as well as his multiple aerials and safe smashes, G&W has a great ability to "vortex" his opponent; that is to say, he can, particularly in theory, relentlessly and unpredictably tack on damage on any opponent in a disadvantaged position (usually an aerialized opponent, as per this game's mechanics).
And it would be a terrible thing to let G&W vortex you into landing close, because you would get grabbed (if not smashed to death). Off of every grab, he gets at least 20% on a standard basis (dthrow > nair). But he can also get much more, with a potential up B and fair from dthrow > nair. He can do dthrow > uair > nair at low percents on some characters, or even dthrow > uair > uair > up B > fair on the heavies! And there are some great footstool combos that have barely even been put into practice yet but can do some ridiculous damage by the looks of them. Oh, and although it's been nerfed, dthrow > uair for the kill is still a thing on some stages.
So, you ask, why not go to the ledge against G&W? Well, for one, you could probably get dash attacked in the process of going for that anyway; but there's another thing G&W does exceptionally well. G&W is absolutely one of the top edgeguarding characters in the game. When edgeguarding aggressively, fair and bair can threaten people with lingering hitboxes and respectable hits off of raw prediction, and forwardly-tilted Up B exists as a backup move to vortex the opponent off of the stage. On the more defensive end, G&W can trap you into hard-to-tech and sometimes untechable stage spikes with many lingering moves, including his own recovery and even his onstage dash attack on some stages. And don't forget his key, which not only nets great stage spikes as well, but can directly spike from off or on the ledge, killing Duck Hunt as early as 10%!
But, on top of all of this vortexing, throwing, and edgeguarding ability, G&W is also capable of defending by attacking. Let's assume Mario is in the air shooting a fireball at G&W, for example, and I am in an unfavorable position in which bucketing is simply not possible. I can cancel this by invincibility tanking with up smash / up B, disjointing with my fair or bair, windboxing it with uair, or clank it with pretty much any grounded move. And each and every one of these moves can hit or disadvantage Mario in the process of usage as well!
Now, I would not always want to use the defensive properties of my attacks, but it's so tempting. Is pretty much any aerial that's safe on shield being thrown into you? Up smash it and get a kill. Is Yoshi throwing eggs offstage at a bad angle? Disjoint a specific egg and let the lingering hitboxes take care of Yoshi. Is Ness trying to recover? Windbox him with Up B / uair.
And, finally, there is the bucket. While in general, it is quite bad and sacrificial, usually resulting in G&W getting hit, it is still a real threat in some matchups. Mewtwo, Robin, Mega Man, and Lucario have a great deal of worry when it comes to this move (the first in particular). And even the implied threat of it against Mario, Luigi, and a few others can have real and significant psychological effects on the opponent. I have confidence that we will see more of this move to effect as time goes on, commensurate to the rise of G&W.
So, can G&W win a tournament?
The hard and brutal truth of it is that he can't. While he should have positive matchups with the majority of the cast, he has an unwinnable matchup with Fox, who fundamentally counters every single strength listed here in some way by the virtues of his laser / shield camping, extreme fastfalling, throw combo DI, and extremely / surprisingly underrated recovery. Sonic is almost as bad for G&W when proper camping is done, but for different reasons. The Sheik MU, while not as terrible as either of these, is still very bad. And the problem for G&W is that, in any given tournament, he will see a lot of these characters in bracket. Also, we're not even considering the uncommon matchups that are bad for him either - and I'm not talking Rosa, I'm talking Duck Hunt, Bowser, and (Dark) Pit!
But, even given these facts, I still have a great deal of hope for his future, even if his history of getting nerfed for no reason continues. And I don't mean to say this because I haven't even gone over the nuances of his platform game, solid jab game, and so on - I mean it because I am confident that the strengths of this character are evident enough as stated herein for him to at least be an odd counterpick, dual main, or mid to high level threat as this game's scene continues. And, given the right buffs to him and / or nerfs to problem characters, he could become a serious threat on his own. Imagine if he had a true kill throw - that'd be almost perfect for him!
People are picking G&W up and those who don't are beginning to take him quite seriously in tournament, worrying about every up smash and dash attack. He may not be the best, but he is sure as hell making a comeback - and the results and participation rates are beginning to prove that, surely and steadily.
More and more, I'm seeing G&Ws other than myself in tournaments. When I went to KTAR XIV (admittedly, I don't get to travel far, but still), there were 3 other G&Ws, one of which had never met me and wanted to do so immediately. Everyone in my region is joked to have a "pocket G&W", and I have actually seen that occasionally. And I'm even being asked over Facebook by a guy who can't beat Mario on how to play G&W.
But it's not just me and my region at all. Regi is getting fantastic results in Mexico and slowly building an international reputation. Songun's play has encouraged Abadango to put G&W as B+ on a tier list. Vader is dominating his own little corner of California and making cash every week. Lorenzo beat GIMR 2-1 in G&W dittos not too long ago despite not being considered a top G&W by any of us, and looks to wreck at Xanadu eventually if he keeps playing and learning MUs. I could go on and on, but these are the major things I can think of.
And it does seem strange that we're talking like this now, doesn't it?
Traditionally, G&W has been seen as a lower mid tier character with not much going for him. He is considered to be massively downgraded from his Brawl iteration; this board was flooded with complaints about him for many months. And while it would be some top quality mental masturbation to liken his rise in Smash 4 to the rise of S4 Meta Knight, that's just not possible because what is good about G&W is not immediately evident at all.
Everything about G&W looks bad on the surface. He dies early, is almost completely unsafe on shield, has a poor grab, can't (usually, and especially considering the uair nerf) kill from a grab anyway, doesn't land well after an aerial, has almost no projectile game to speak of, and generally has special moves that are extraordinarily situational at best.
Essentially, G&W has absolutely no trait that we can readily ascribe to a top tier character. So how is he even good?
The truth is that G&W does everything else wonderfully.
Being a character who is fundamentally aggressive, using unsafe physical attacks to close in on the enemy, G&W can struggle to get an initial hit. But once he does, it's a nightmare to stop getting hit for a lot of characters. Owing to his very quick foxtrot, his fantastically lingering and distance-covering dash attack, as well as his multiple aerials and safe smashes, G&W has a great ability to "vortex" his opponent; that is to say, he can, particularly in theory, relentlessly and unpredictably tack on damage on any opponent in a disadvantaged position (usually an aerialized opponent, as per this game's mechanics).
And it would be a terrible thing to let G&W vortex you into landing close, because you would get grabbed (if not smashed to death). Off of every grab, he gets at least 20% on a standard basis (dthrow > nair). But he can also get much more, with a potential up B and fair from dthrow > nair. He can do dthrow > uair > nair at low percents on some characters, or even dthrow > uair > uair > up B > fair on the heavies! And there are some great footstool combos that have barely even been put into practice yet but can do some ridiculous damage by the looks of them. Oh, and although it's been nerfed, dthrow > uair for the kill is still a thing on some stages.
So, you ask, why not go to the ledge against G&W? Well, for one, you could probably get dash attacked in the process of going for that anyway; but there's another thing G&W does exceptionally well. G&W is absolutely one of the top edgeguarding characters in the game. When edgeguarding aggressively, fair and bair can threaten people with lingering hitboxes and respectable hits off of raw prediction, and forwardly-tilted Up B exists as a backup move to vortex the opponent off of the stage. On the more defensive end, G&W can trap you into hard-to-tech and sometimes untechable stage spikes with many lingering moves, including his own recovery and even his onstage dash attack on some stages. And don't forget his key, which not only nets great stage spikes as well, but can directly spike from off or on the ledge, killing Duck Hunt as early as 10%!
But, on top of all of this vortexing, throwing, and edgeguarding ability, G&W is also capable of defending by attacking. Let's assume Mario is in the air shooting a fireball at G&W, for example, and I am in an unfavorable position in which bucketing is simply not possible. I can cancel this by invincibility tanking with up smash / up B, disjointing with my fair or bair, windboxing it with uair, or clank it with pretty much any grounded move. And each and every one of these moves can hit or disadvantage Mario in the process of usage as well!
Now, I would not always want to use the defensive properties of my attacks, but it's so tempting. Is pretty much any aerial that's safe on shield being thrown into you? Up smash it and get a kill. Is Yoshi throwing eggs offstage at a bad angle? Disjoint a specific egg and let the lingering hitboxes take care of Yoshi. Is Ness trying to recover? Windbox him with Up B / uair.
And, finally, there is the bucket. While in general, it is quite bad and sacrificial, usually resulting in G&W getting hit, it is still a real threat in some matchups. Mewtwo, Robin, Mega Man, and Lucario have a great deal of worry when it comes to this move (the first in particular). And even the implied threat of it against Mario, Luigi, and a few others can have real and significant psychological effects on the opponent. I have confidence that we will see more of this move to effect as time goes on, commensurate to the rise of G&W.
So, can G&W win a tournament?
The hard and brutal truth of it is that he can't. While he should have positive matchups with the majority of the cast, he has an unwinnable matchup with Fox, who fundamentally counters every single strength listed here in some way by the virtues of his laser / shield camping, extreme fastfalling, throw combo DI, and extremely / surprisingly underrated recovery. Sonic is almost as bad for G&W when proper camping is done, but for different reasons. The Sheik MU, while not as terrible as either of these, is still very bad. And the problem for G&W is that, in any given tournament, he will see a lot of these characters in bracket. Also, we're not even considering the uncommon matchups that are bad for him either - and I'm not talking Rosa, I'm talking Duck Hunt, Bowser, and (Dark) Pit!
But, even given these facts, I still have a great deal of hope for his future, even if his history of getting nerfed for no reason continues. And I don't mean to say this because I haven't even gone over the nuances of his platform game, solid jab game, and so on - I mean it because I am confident that the strengths of this character are evident enough as stated herein for him to at least be an odd counterpick, dual main, or mid to high level threat as this game's scene continues. And, given the right buffs to him and / or nerfs to problem characters, he could become a serious threat on his own. Imagine if he had a true kill throw - that'd be almost perfect for him!
People are picking G&W up and those who don't are beginning to take him quite seriously in tournament, worrying about every up smash and dash attack. He may not be the best, but he is sure as hell making a comeback - and the results and participation rates are beginning to prove that, surely and steadily.
