Okay, so if I am correct in understanding you want to give Roy more option but not give him any bread and butter options (i.e Sheiks old Fthrow to Fair etc)I will discuss and go into buff ideas here despite my general standpoint, but I want to make it clear that I don't want to get too caught up in dreaming of buffs; I'd like to simply lay any groundwork for a potential buff analysis, if we decide to pull one together.
Unfortunately, as someone who was a previous Ike main and sometimes used DK in tournament before Roy, I feel like their combo throw buffs ultimately made them play in a more linear fashion. Ike's play pretty much equates to dthrow or uthrow to fair and sometimes nair a jarring amount, it's almost all I see at lower percents and it's admittedly what has to be done to play him optimally. I use them when I play Ike in friendlies, because why not? They're free tools that benefit the character, I'd be dumb and overly-prideful to neglect them. DK's ding dong is really prevalent in his play and makes grabs much more valuable than the rest of his kit a lot of the time. These changes made how they play more limited and took some of the creativity out of playing them, in my opinion.
One thing I admire about Roy's design is that you constantly have to weigh and consider how much reward jab, fair, uair, fthrow, dthrow, nair, and single-hits reward you, and act accordingly. You have some moves like bair and dtilt that occasionally create followups with diligent use, and sourspots can sometimes create followups. You have to be creative at all points with your punish game and work hard to optimize, and good reads and frame traps are our best tools. If anything, I would prefer changes that polish his punish game up, where everything works at least just a bit better and fails less, rather than one or two new god-tier options. Overall fundamental building will give me similar things, which is why I dig it so much.
If Roy got a down or back throw that would combo into practically anything from 0 to 120 or something like that, then it would make Roy's optimal play to constantly go for grabs and abuse them. It would make his play more binary (limited to few options) or limit it to a small flowchart. The For Glory Roys who dthrow -> Blazer constantly no matter what would reign king. It would be unhealthy to our meta and use of the character, and his gameplan would flow less naturally and have a more fatty feel to it. We'd be swarmed more with players who want to abuse easy options to win. Plus with Roy's mediocre grab range, we're better off with general kit improvements. Roy could have one of the most beautiful smash designs imo if he was designed just a bit better, but patches can fix that, and maybe Roy's just underdeveloped and my work will create that design. I'll do everything I can over time to develop, it's not something that'll just come if I wish hard enough, and it's not good to linger in certain areas too long.
Even if I feel that way now, I wouldn't complain about this kind of buff if we did get it. I am overall overwhelmingly positive about the Ike buffs, even with my gripes about throwcharts. I'm grateful for anything noteworthy we'd get in the future.
I have a private writeup from last night that you might like, I'll send it your way soon.
I dig the new name, by the way.
Yeah, I think I understand where you are coming from though
Also thanks, though I kind of wish I made it just "The Merc"