Picking a Secondary

[Taytertot]

Hey guys this is the first thread I've done so let me know if I'm doing this wrong (I didn't see any other threads on secondaries in the brawl competitive discussion, so I'm hoping that I'm not just making a second one), but I'm curious what secondaries work well with what mains? I play marth as a main personally and would certainly like to know what characters would benefit me in terms of match-up advantages. There are other characters that I play fairly confidentially, but I'm not sure who to commit to. I have played ZSS a lot though I'm still not amazing with her, I play R.O.B. a lot, but I realize that he's pretty low tier. I'm somewhat comfortable with snake and I'm interested in pikachu (mainly because esam baffles me) and G&W used to be my main though I wouldn't say that I ever improved much with him. I'd love to hear any opinions on the subject of secondaries like what two charcters cover lots of options in terms of playstyles or match-ups (though I'm sure that lots of people would just say MK and another top tier)?

 

[Thor]

Being really good at your character is much better than being good/okay with two characters. This is especially true of Marth, given his matchup (MU) spread. I wouldn't worry too much about a backup at this point unless you have a ton of MK and Dedede problems. I should probably emphasize this more but I'll just leave this as is.

Marth has two less than even MUs (more if you ask certain people): MK and Dedede. You should be well-practiced at the MK MU because it's most common, as well as the ICs MU (that's even, but still very important).

Your backup should counter those who give you problems, MU-wise and/or player-choice wise. Pikachu is even with MK and beats Dedede (many dispute the first statement) so that covers all MUs as even or better. MK is even with MK and beats Dedede solidly, so both Pika and MK are good to cover you MU wise. If you want a different Dedede counter, ICs are really good if you are patient and skilled enough to do the CG (although you may end up flipping mains and secondaries - same if you use MK as a backup).

Another character to look at is Falco - he beats Dedede and his MK MU is pretty good, especially on FD (still a -1 though). He also beats Olimar and Diddy Kong, although he has ICs and Pikachu problems (but if you have Olimar problems, Falco may be a good choice - this would be the player--choice thing mentioned above). Snake doesn't give you anything extra in MU coverage really, except a different form of even vs characters like ICs (he's way more campy) and a different -1 vs MK. He does better against Peach I guess. That said, you can reliably go Snake vs most of the cast, same as Marth, so he could be a strong backup if you need to fight different characters different ways (i.e, you can trade a lot with someone - Snake is better at that than Marth if you can play the MU the same way).

ZSS teachs you item control. Learn it and even your Marth will improve in some MUs. She has fine MUs and beats Dedede. ROB does have lame MUs but he's fine vs ICs if you're having issues using Marth in that MU and he's also even with Marth if you're bad at the ditto. Game and Watch doesn't do much for you unless you have no problem landing smash attacks but have problems dying off the sides, in which case his powerful smashes and his Bucket Brake will mess with your opponent. I can't say he's a good choice for a backup though, unless you're having massive problems with a Lucario's Aura Sphere (then bucket it and KO him at anywhere from 0-50% with the bucket, or else he wont' shoot Aura Spheres so that the bucket doesn't fill).

Others are probably more versed in this sort of thing than I am, but this should give you some ideas to work with.

 

[infiniteV115]

Generally the purpose behind picking up a secondary is to deal with MUs that you don't want to deal with with your main, whether it be because your main flatout loses that MU and/or because you personally have a problem with that MU (which means it's not necessarily a bad MU for your character)
Though I'll say now that there are a lot of MU ratios that are heavily debated and it's not simply a matter of "oh yes this character definitely loses the MU" all the time
And obviously, since better chars have better MU spreads than worse chars, if there are MUs you have trouble dealing with, attempting to pick a secondary for these MUs will likely lead to you picking a better character as your secondary

eg you main Marth.
MUs he flatout loses (that pretty much everybody agrees with): MK and DDD
MUs that are evenish for Marth, and a not-negligible amount of people think he loses: MK, ICs, Diddy, DDD, ROB, DK

MUs that are annoying/frustrating for Marth to deal with, to the point that one would consider picking up a secondary to deal with them better (I would imagine): MK, ICs, Diddy, Olimar, Falco, DDD, ROB, and maybe DK
You'll have to give your personal input on this group if you wanna make a decision lol

Every character loses to MK so this really just depends on how much you want to stick with Marth
If you pick up MK as your secondary then he covers every bad MU cause MK doesn't lose any MUs lol. Obviously this is because MK > Marth

DDD loses to a lot of top tier characters, so there are a lot of secondaries you could pick up to deal with him. Picking up ICs would make it easier to deal with DDD, Olimar, Falco and DK easily, but again that's mostly because ICs are better than Marth

I guess I'll wait for a response from you on which MUs you'd rather not deal with as Marth

 

[smashkng]

Actually the problem with Marth is just the amount of practice it takes to become good with him. It takes so much compared to the other top tiers that you'd rather just main him if you want to use him at all. The way he's designed forces you to be good at understanding REALLY well when to pick which specific option (like if in a situation you'd only have to spam Tornado with MK, a Marth can cover the same options with the combination Uair, Fair or Bair, but you have to pick exactly the right option, which you can learn but takes a lot more time to do).

 

[Taytertot]

Thanks guys this is awesome! Well it's a bit difficult for me to say as I haven't faced a player for every top tier character. I've had trouble with falco although I know that that MU is general even and maybe even a bit in marths favor. I've had difficulty with olimar's moveset though I'm only training against him and obviously the CPUs dont know what theyre doing, but I do find myself having trouble seeing his attacks and therefore finding a good way to deal with each move, but that could be lack of experience. Um Ive never played anyone who uses MK so I dont know how well id do, though I've watched many marth vs MK videos so I have a general idea of how I should play. I'm not very interested in playing MK or IC just because I dont like theyre playstyles much. any other character Id be down to learn though.