dettadeus
Smash Lord
Table of Contents:
-Move Analysis-
-Combo Analysis- (Coming Soon)
-Advanced Techniques- (Coming Soon)
-How to make Victory your Destiny- (Coming Soon)
-Matchup Analysis- (Coming Soon)
Move Analysis:
-Jab: Not terrible, but not good either. There are usually better options in almost every situation, but it's generally not punishable on hit. Can knock down opponents.
-Ftilt: Godlike. Super fast (frame 4), three hits, 12% unstaled. Pretend that this is your jab. Ftilt1 combos into a lot of things, and the hits can be delayed a long time to mix up on shield or on hit to stuff punishes. Also amazing for spacing, especially in the ditto. I'll get into specific combos in the combos section.
-Dtilt: Godlike. Quick (frame 6), at maximum range it pokes, at point blank it pops up for combos. Has pretty good IASA so it's good for poking in techchases to cover tech in place and missed tech (best to get close up and try to hit with the hilt).
-Utilt: Meh. It's not terrible and it still combos into things on hit, but the range is pretty lackluster compared to many of his other moves (horizontally, at least), and there are almost always better options to use.
-Dash Attack: Awkward. It can combo into stuff and it's pretty fast, but there are usually better options. The main reason I give it an "Awkward" rating is because it's his only move that clanks with other hitboxes, and it has the ability to clank with aerials, something no other character can boast.
-Fsmash: Good. Kills very early and hits shields hard too, and has deceptive range.
-Dsmash: Godlike. First hit comes out obscenely quickly (frame 4), both hits have fairly good kill potential and range. Very good for edgeguarding since it hits as low as Dtilt but much harder.
-Usmash: Terrible. I won't even sugarcoat this, the move is garbage and there are always better options. SH Uair covers the same range, combos/sets up better, and is less punishable on whiff. It could maybe be used as a last-ditch vertical kill move, but Grounded Shuttle Loop would still kill way earlier.
-Nair: Godlike. It kills, it combos, it gimps, it approaches. This is easily one of his best moves overall. Use it often at lower percents, but once they're around 60-70 save it for kills or gimps (DJ Nair underneath an opponent and space it so the weak hitbox connects; if you don't jump first, I guarantee you will die in basically every edgeguarding situation).
-Fair: Very Good. That is to say, the first two hits are very good. The last hit is lackluster compared to what the first two hits offer when lcancelled. Since they barely pop the opponent up and the move has very little landlag, this move combos into basically MK's entire moveset (not including obvious exceptions like Fsmash). The last hit isn't really good for anything since it never kills. Has very good range and is useful if you're trying to space your opponent out, but Nair is a better approach overall.
-Bair: Good. It's job is to provide a way to hit behind you in the air as well as a second aerial kill option (with more range) if Nair is staled, and it does this job well. However, it doesn't really do much else. It's slow and hits too hard to combo into stuff after like 20% (although if you hit with it around 0-10 it combos into basically everything).
-Uair: Godlike. It combos, it juggles, it sets up, it's a good OoS option (IMO MK's best outside of situational GSL OoS). It has a deceptive amount of horizontal range and comes out quickly.
-Dair: Not quite terrible. It's better than Usmash in that it at least combos somewhat reliably on-hit and ledge-cancels very well, but it's definitely not all it's hyped up to be. It can also be useful for getting out of juggles and... dragging your opponent down with you for a suicide kill. The biggest problem with this move is that you have very little control over it once you start it. For a character who focuses on harassing people in the air, a move that you can't control (aside from the angle) and which forces you onto the ground regardless of hitting or missing isn't exactly good design, despite being a nice reference to his canon appearances. Definitely his worst aerial and one of his worst moves overall.
-Fthrow: Bad. It's not really his worst throw since it's fast and can catch people who survival DI and provide heavy punishes (Nair), but there's almost always a better option.
-Bthrow: Good. It can get people offstage, and provides a techchase mixup with Dthrow.
-Uthrow: Terrible. You can't get any followups if your opponent has a reaction time of under two seconds and knows to DI away. Never use this move. Please.
-Dthrow: Godlike. This is Sheik's Dthrow on a faster character with more range. If they DI towards you you can regrab, if they DI away it's a techchase. MK is fast enough to cover basically everything on reaction if you run towards your opponent immediately (you should always do this after a Dthrow, no matter what). Tech in place? Regrab. Tech away? Keep running and regrab. Tech towards? Wavedash back, dash, regrab. Miss the tech? Dtilt/Ftilt. Is your opponent above 100? Instant DC whatever tech option they choose. They just died.
-Nspecial: Good. This is basically designed to gimp spacies. It catches their recoveries and sends them at a downward angle for further edgeguarding. It's also good vertical recovery if you're at a bad angle for Shuttle Loop.
-Sspecial: Good. Only use this for recovery and ledgestalling. Although it can combo in some circumstances, you're better off with something else in any given situation. Ledgecancel it if you wanna look fancy.
-Uspecial: Amazing. This move does a lot of things, and it does them well. It's MK's best recovery move if he's above the level of the stage, and I recommend starting it early and away from the stage to build up a lot of glide time. It ledge cancels on all sorts of things on its own, and Glide Attack can help ledge cancelling once you're in the glide. You can grab the ledge while gliding if you're moving downward as well. It's also a good vertical kill move (basically MK's only one), and a good OoS option if you're in the right place under a platform so you can ledge cancel it. Pretty much all of MK's advanced techniques stem from Shuttle Loop's various properties.
-Dspecial: Godlike. This is another one of MK's moves which is hyped up a lot, but for the wrong reasons. While it can be used for mindgaming or getting one last aerial in in a combo (which it can't actually because there's way too much startup and endlag before the aerial even comes out to combo into anything), it's most useful when the slash is used immediately. This turns Dimensional Cape into a frame 7 flashstep that teleports MK three character lengths away and kills obscenely early, easily catching bad DI, punishing misspaced moves, and shredding techchase options.
Rest coming soon. Hopefully I'll finish everything important before X and Y come out.
Marth is just a really hard character to play. But he is godlike
