Solo viable characters in Smash 4?

[Lattenzo]

Or would it be a better idea to secondary or duel main?

 

[TOVL]

I solo main Ganondorf in sm4sh and I still see moderate success even against chars that are supposed to defeat Ganon hard (Rosa, Sheik, or Cloud for example). Any character except Puff can do it as a solo main.

HOWEVER it can be advantageous to counterpick for some characters, so having two characters for each other's bad MUs can be advantageous - until you meet someone who knows said mu and can fight it easy.

I say one character is good enough, no secondary needed, but it can help against less experienced players. My own opinion at least.

 

[Noah Perney]

Solo maining a character is possible, and there are people who have solo mained and gotten good results. (Ally, KEN, Elegant and Cosmos) But a secondary is extremely helpful for matchups you don't care for. Having one though takes time away from your main, so you have to choose how you want to play it.

 

[Applebutter61]

Personally, I am beginning to have this crisis myself. I have been maining PM Marth since I starting playing PM, about half a year ago. However, I mained Snake from Brawl (before I discovered PM), and it is starting to seem that I have an easier time winning with Snake than Marth, and I don't even practice Snake that much. So maybe I'm looking at a dual main situation myself... In light of this, Smash Switch better have a good character for me to main, lol.

 

[SwagGuy99]

Most characters not in S, A or B tiers are probably not 100% solo viable. I would recommend a second main. The best choices are characters people don't have much experience playing against (Duck Hunt is a good one here) or a high tier or lower (to throw people off). The three of the best counterpick characters in Smash 4 are typically considered to be DK, Bowser and Meta Knight.

 

[EMT~]

I think that, for most cases, that you don't strictly need a secondary or co-main unless you're playing at the level where you're getting far at majors/supermajors and getting actual significant pot bonuses from your play. Because tier lists and MU ratios are based on players of equal skill, and skill fluctuations are far more significant at the local, regional, and lower levels; tier lists and MU ratios become less relevant as the level of play decreases. Not that they aren't relevant at local and regional levels all - they're just less so than at the absolute top level of play, where fluctuation in skill between players is much smaller.

Armada discusses a similar topic in one of his videos:

And that's in Melee, which is quite a bit less balanced than Sm4sh.

That being said, it certainly doesn't hurt at any level to have a secondary or co-main if your main has some egregiously bad MUs. Or if you just don't like a MU with your main. As an example, there's one (and only one) MU where I'll switch to a secondary character, and that's more because I find the MU unfun to play with my main rather than it being actually bad (though it is indeed a horrible MU).

Long story short, it's not necessary to have a secondary/dual main at most levels of play, but it can still be helpful.