Picking up Diddy for one matchup

[Praxis]

So I've decided to pick up Diddy. I've always had fun with him in friendlies, and fun factor is a heavy incentive for me to play. I'm also a Peach main, which means I have experience juggling items and playing fancy xD

The main matchup I am completely unable to deal with using Peach is Mr. Game & Watch. I've got plenty of experience against our local Gaymanwatch and can predict him fairly well but simply can't punish the vast majority of his approaches with my character. The turtle even pierces Peach's counter when spaced correctly. This one Game & Watch has given me a 0-9 tourney record his favor, and I always seem to get matched up against him.

He'll probably read this post and be laughing too. xD

From what I've heard from the Game & Watches, Diddy actually runs even with him. each. He can't pick up the bananas well with his poor dash attack, and the banana goes through the turtle. I figure my strengths in predicting him should help me out in this regard, since Diddy finally actually has something I can use to punish him, but now I just need to learn Diddy.

Considering only three characters in the game actually have the advantage on G&W and only two others (Diddy and DK) run even, I picked out Diddy as the one that I would enjoy the most and would play similarly to Peach. If I can get good enough with him maybe I can even take him vs MK if he's not banned in a few months, and any other matchups that he might do better in than Peach, but that's a long term goal. For now, I just want to learn everything I can to take down that flat jerk G&W.

I've been reading through the guides here yesterday and practiced a half hour with Diddy against CPUs and he's really enjoyable. I've also been watching NinjaLink and AZ's videos.

I'll continue using the guides, but what I would appreciate is if anyone could tell me what aspects of the character's game I should most focus on specifically to be able to handle this matchup and any tricks I should be using specifically on Gdubs. At least I'm already used to a character with no kill moves XD

Thanks for any help!

 

[Le_THieN]

I'll continue using the guides, but what I would appreciate is if anyone could tell me what aspects of the character's game I should most focus on specifically to be able to handle this matchup and any tricks I should be using specifically on Gdubs. At least I'm already used to a character with no kill moves XD

Thanks for any help!

I don't normally respond to these pleas because they're usually torpid one-liners ("Hi, I decided to main Diddy and I can't beat Meta Knight! Do you have any advice for me??????????"), so congratulations for being so persuasive. =) Also, welcome to the Diddy Forums.

In all the tournaments I've attended since Brawl was released, I've only run into a handful of sets against Game & Watches, so I'm not really the most qualified person to really give advice on this particular match-up. I specifically remember five guys I've played over the course of the last few months (three of which were obvious scrubs, while the other two were knowledgeable, obviously seasoned G&W mains), but all of them manage to give me roughly the same amount of headache regardless of varying skill levels; if I had to attribute this to anything, it would probably be due to just the inherent level of difficulty it takes going against G&W in the first place.

My last two tournament experiences dealing with Game & Watch involved Hylian at HOBO 11 in Houston, TX and Dallas' own UTD Zac at a promotional tournament for a local bistro in Flower Mound, TX. I remember playing three friendlies with Hylian immediately following a Diddy ditto I had with FlipHop, and the first match was pretty ugly - Hylian ***** me for two stocks straight and I purposely suicided on my last stock to end the pain. I made some adjustments during the next two friendlies and I believe I two-stocked Hylian both times.

After the both of us spent the majority of the next seven or eight hours trudging through the depths of the loser's bracket (myself for a considerably longer time than Hylian since I actually got knocked into loser's bracket immediately after my first bracket set), we eventually ended up facing each other again in tournament. I thought that I would be in okay shape for this match, even despite the tournament famine and fatigue that was starting to set in. Turns out Hylian made even more adjustments in the time he realized that he would probably end up playing against me, and proceeded to mow me over (the first match was somewhat close, but then he blew through me in two-stocking fashion the second match). I really didn't feel bad about it at all because he was doing things during this set that I didn't know G&W could abuse (I'm most specifically referring to the abuse of G&W's invincibility frames on his Fire special), so I was perfectly fine with losing to someone who had considerably more match-up knowledge than me on both sides of the fence.

The other notable G&W main I have faced from Texas is UTD Zac from this past weekend at that aforementioned bistro tournament. Long story short: I used the pure ***-beat I received from Hylian as a primer for what I should expect in this tourney set, and I was able to successfully scrape by with a fairly convincing win over a very skilled G&W user.

As you can see, playing two competent G&W mains in tournament doesn't really make me the end-all-be-all authority on this match-up. I'd fancy that GDX, AZ, NL and even Hylian all have better input than I do on this, but I'll go ahead and outline some mental notes I made during both my sets against Hylian and UTD Zac:

• After this winning against UTD Zac in winner's semifinals this past weekend, I have decided that it is not wildly unreasonable to approach the G&W match-up almost exactly as you would the Meta Knight match-up (with, of course, a few key differences). They both greatly excel in the areas of aerial mobility and priority, and they will preferentially always take to the skies against a character like Diddy, who has the stronger ground game for obvious reasons. They both also have irritatingly small hurt-boxes and a slew of disjointed, high-priority attacks.
  • The big difference to note between G&W and MK, however, is that G&W actually has greater and faster vertical and horizontal movement in the air, and arguably even better aerial directional influence. G&W can easily harass Diddy with a mix-up of approaching with F-airs, N-airs and B-airs, and can retreat and DI away far enough to be out of shield-grab range.
• Contrary to popular belief, it will not take Diddy as long as the G&W Boards claim it will for him to dispatch of G&W with one of his KO moves. Completely fresh F- or D-smashes can easily KO G&W near the edge of most stages in the neighborhood of 100%. The opportunity to kill G&W at the edge of a stage arises more often than you might believe: banana-locking easily assists with repositioning opponents near either end of a stage, and glide-tossing forward to close the spacing and then capping it off with a fresh smash attack during the appropriate percentages will always finish the job.
• Game & Watch's tripping animation, while punishable, does not last as long as you might think. If you successfully connect with a glide toss, make sure you're diligent and aggressive about connecting immediately with some sort of follow-up. I emphasize this because if a G&W main senses he's about to eat a glide-tossed banana, he will always try to take advantage of slow timing to activate the invincibility frames of Fire ASAP. If your follow-up fails, the bananas or attacks will be harmlessly deflected off of him, and you will invariably take damage for this mistake. If this is the scenario that ends up being played out, either shield, run or retreat immediately, because you will probably end up eating a D-air if you were disoriented Fire and were unprepared for G&W's immediate follow-up.
• It would appear that if you manage to keep G&W grounded and at arm's length, he's a good deal easier to manage than MK. Other than his killer smashes, G&W's ground game is a bit on the slow side and isn't very versatile at all. He also has the worst and possibly most punishable roll in the game, which should be immediately taken advantage of.

That's all I've got for now. Hopefully someone else can chime to correct me if necessary or fill in some holes.

 

[ADHD]

No game and watch is more trouble for diddy unless you reach a really high level of skill with him you're gonna be destroyed by good gnw's

Dribble backwards to avoid the turtle, and punish the lag after by throwing the naner.

 

[aeghrur]

Counterpick against G&W?
What're you doing here? The MK boards are open to all. :O

 

[AntiPyroShyGuy]

Have fun with your banana spam.

 

[Hylian]

Le_Thiens post was excellent.

First off, if you want to pick up a character to play GW with then I recommend you pick either, Snake, Marth, or MK in that order. Snake and Marth both pretty much destroy GW.

Diddy however, does do fine. I personally think it's a 50-50 match-up. GW does have more stages he can take you to though. Diddy players will generally wreck GW's who have no experience vs them. At FAST, GDX WRECKED me in pools. He wrecked my GW so hard that I picked MK the second match, and I had no clue how to play MK back then. I then had to face him the second round of brackets and managed to win with a few irl mindgames. I picked Falco confidentially vs him, and he switched to GW. I then called for a double blind pick. I knew he secondaried GW, and I was pretty certain he would pick him because of how badly he beat me in pools and the fact that he would rather play my falco with GW then diddy. So we both blind picked GW and I won. I then lost horribly the second match GW vs diddy, and then counterpicked Rainbow Cruise and won GW vs Diddy only because I am so familiar with that stage and diddy sucks on it. Since then though, I have picked up diddy to learn how he plays and it worked quite well. I kept in mind how Le_Thien approached when I played him and how he reacted after I threw him and used those two simple things to win in our tournament set. The second match of our set I felt I pretty much knew what he was going to do based off a few games and my knowledge of how diddy should play. That is just a case of me adapting fast though and doesn't really have much to do with the match-up heh.

GW is going to go in the air a lot vs diddy because nana's wreck him on the ground. Try to bair a dair then punish it. Keep in mind how he likes to fall after his up-B. Most GW players tend to fall into habits.

 

[AntiPyroShyGuy]

vcjghfxkjg

 

[Diddyknight]

ive played oki too much so i know the matchup against GaW =3

he purely alll ariel game. Watch out for his Nair And Turtle only those, they can easily rack up 30+ damage on you.

As for picking up Diddy, what you should watch out for GaW mainers:

-Glide Toss as amazing as DKs'
-Smahes can kill Diddy below 100
-His Air game is amazing
-he can combo

To Do against GaW:

-Punish the Keyblade because of the landing lag
-punish the turtle because its landing lag
-ALWAYS keep banana with you
-can Sometimes Gimp GaW via Fair/Bair
-can kill GaW around 100-150%
-Diddy > GaW on speed
- Banana lock him if need to be
-banana juggle his a**
-dont bother out Arieling him

its also a 50:50 matchup

i got others but im at skool typing this and my teacher will be annoyed...>.>

Have fun Praxis =3 come back to Cali to ditto Sky again =3

 

[DUB]

Just wait till he lands and pop him with a naner. Should KO fairly quick.

 

[GDX]

honestly, you probably picked one of the worst characters to win this particular matchup quickly. IF you pick up snake you'll win this match much faster. High level GWs are hard to beat with diddy, even if you main diddy. I cant imagine what hell you'll go through with diddy as your secondary. But i am happy to see more people interested in diddy

All i can suggest is under no circumstances do you go in the air with him. Throw a banana at him in the air or shoot a peanut or bait him to come down where you want him to. You'll suprisingly get alot of damage baiting the keyblade and getting a free fair off of him. On the ground, if they dsmash, safely assume they'll dsmash again, and dont try to punish with anything laggy. The only thing you can punish with between two dsmashes are probably your dtilt, or a banana if you have one. everything else is too slow (including grab) and you'll get owned. if you know turtle is coming, glide toss backwards from where theyre gonna land and ftilt just as they finish the move, even if they didnt slip on the banana.

all of that advice is kinda bad, now that i look at it. I just cant explain how to fight a GW besides be very afraid...

 

[Praxis]

Great stuff so far, thanks all

Le_Thiens post was excellent.

First off, if you want to pick up a character to play GW with then I recommend you pick either, Snake, Marth, or MK in that order. Snake and Marth both pretty much destroy GW.

Problem being that my G&W has a LOT of Snake and Marth experience. The best Snake in the state can beat him, but none of the others can. He's got lots of TL experience too. Diddy is the best one that he won't have practice against, and more importantly, as a Peach main, the one I should find most intuitive to play (projectiles).

Considering that I usually can fight my G&W to the last stock with a 65:35 matchup (Peach), anyone who goes even will be a gigantic improvement.

Have fun Praxis =3 come back to Cali to ditto Sky again =3

>-)

 

[Sky`]

You should srsly like watch N4N3RZ. :3

 

[ADHD]

There's not really alot of good videos out there, NL never records actually good matches lol. Watch nanerz, and advent.

 

[Diddyknight]

lol i fight oki too much =3 hes one of the best GaW out there now

I beat LeePuff with Diddy and its possible but its a hard matchup overall cause GaW is broke.n..he ccan kill you below 100%
Just play Diddy for a while =3

i wish i had the matchup recorded >.>