Picking up Mac as a Secondary

[Speed Boost]

Hey, what's good Smashboards? I am a Dark Pit main and have been since 3ds. I've dabbled in other characters but have never invested enough time into any of them to make them tournament viable. I have been wanting to add a secondary for a while now, and in the past when I tried to pick one I always leaned towards characters that were pretty technical. I tried picking up Sheik and ZSS, but for me they were taking a lot of effort just to get decent. I wanted a charcter like Dark Pit was for me on 3ds. Someone that was easier to get started with.

Which brings me to Little Mac. I have been practicing some with Mac and I think he is going to be perfect for a secondary. I may not be very good with him, but he is approachable enough I think I can get there in time. I just don't want a character that takes to much lab time away from Dark Pit.

That said, I do want to ask some of you with more experience with Mac for some feedback. Here are some of the options I have been using in practice on FG and CPU.

I have been using a lot of walk. Is using walk as a staple movement option viable? I'm not saying I only use walk, just that I use it a fair amount. I don't find dash approaches very fruitful since you don't have any options safe on shield. I'll typically dash around and use Shield to cancel the dash into walk.

Walking allows me to approach with tilts. I do a fair amount of poking with DTilt and FTilt to and use UTilt with when I'm crossed up. I mainly use Jab as a defensive option to avoid being punished on a wifted tilt.

I also like to use pivot FTilt/FSmash, mostly retreating and sometimes on a shiled run through.

I like Dash Attack and JC USmash for catching landings. It's amazing that empty hops with Mac will still bait jumps BTW.

I've also been using some grab and I will pummel until they mash out instead of throwing them. I also have had some success doing this to confirm into KO pawnch.

I want to see how y'all like to confirm into Up B. I have had some success with Jab 1 and out of shield. Any other confirms? Down throw seem pretty DI dependent.

I haven't used much counter or Side B(aside from recovery), so any tips on those moves would be awesome.

Just looking for feedback from the experts before I start any bad habits. Thanks guys.

 

[SteadyDisciple]

Well, I may not be an expert, but I might be able to give at least a bit of feedback.

1: Walking is (as far as I know) generally considered to be a better option than dashing, mostly for the reasons you pointed out. Arials aren't exactly Mac's friend, and dash attack is just too slow and too easy to punish compared to tilts.

2: USmash is considered one of the better anti-air options Mac has, given that it outclasses Utilt in a lot of ways. I've also heard of people using an upward angled FSmash against some characters because it reaches forward further.

3: Grab release does combo on certain characters (Wario comes to mind), but aside from that bit of info I'm honestly not super familiar with Mac's grab game. As long as you aren't on the edge I find it's usually inferior to other methods of dealing with shields or starting combos. Dtilt, on the other hand, is a great combo tool, and can lead into Up B depending on how the opponent DI's and if you dash forward a little first.

4: Counter can be a huge gamble, as a punish can easily mean Mac losing his stock. I most often see it used as a mix up for recoveries (since if it goes off in the air it moves you forward) or against super laggy moves like the falcon punch.

5: Jolt Haymaker is a very good tool and I'd honestly say it's a bit underrated, but that's just me. The distance you get with it on the ground combined with invulnerability frames at the start make it incredible for punishing projectiles that have a lot of end lag, or just punishing in general. Using it in the air means much shorter range and no invulnerability, but this can be useful for mixups or guarding the edge against low recoveries without hitboxes such as Rosaluma's recovery move. Just be very, VERY aware of the spacing, since doing this and overshooting the edge will kill you, and know that if an opponent is at a low enough percent they can punish your end lag even after they get hit in many cases.

Again, I'm no pro, so take this all with a grain of salt, but hopefully this is a helpful start.

 

[jet56]

i am a hardcore little mac main, so i will try to offer my advice on the character.
hes a solid secondary, since hes a great counterpick against a lot of the roster. he does take some time to fully get tournament viable. im going to assume you know how to roll-cancel grab, perfect pivot, foxtrot, and pivot grab and pivot f-titl., since all of this is used in little mac.

1.in terms of movement foxtrot is the best, its good spacing, and you can act out of it with a tilt, smash, can pivot from it (hard timing though) and grab or shield.

2. TBH, there might be some lab work involved, since d-tilt combos into almost all his other moves, and jab can string with a lot of stuff as well. as long as you use his tilts in neutral, and smashes for punishes and reads, youll do fine as a secondary, but you might miss some opportunites for follow ups if you don't know macs combos.

3. his aeriels are important for his gameplay (did i just say that?) as his fair strings with his down tilt at mid percents, his nair can get him out of juggles, and his dair can poke and is his jabreset/jablock. up b kills at 100-120% and side b does 14% in air.

4. k.o. punch links with his d-tilt and is almost always a true combo at low percents. jab links as well, but is not always guaranteed.

5.two things to never do: dash attack in neutral, or side b off stage. use your foxtrot to tilts instead.

i could go on and on, but i know hes going to be a secondary, not a main (not trying to convert or anything. )

 

[Ghidorah14]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhjdN-hRxIU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP-e4k0mcuY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Ov4Xv_G3g

That oughta get you off on the right foot. Ace has a really good mac, and in the first video especially, he explains what you wanna do and why you wanna do it.