Stages to ban

[Burnt~Ramen]

I'm recently getting into competitive melee, and sometimes do money matches with my friends with stage bans to get used to a competitive style of play. However, I don't really know what stages are better for certain characters. Are there certain stages that I should ban when playing against a fast character such as fox or cpt. falcon, or certain stages that I shoudn't ban when using a certain type of character? Or should I just ban whatever stage I don't have as much experience playing on?

 

[Svetsunov]

If you look in the character specific board of your main, there is usually a thread with stage info there.

If you're new, I'd suggest mostly favoring stages that you are comfortable playing on until you read/experience some of the stage specific advantages/disadvantages.

 

[Bing]

Based on the your avatar and character in the bottom corner, you should be good on every legal stage, counterpick Stadium if possible. But yeah, check the Fox boards and use the stages you're most comfortable with. Ex. No matter what character I am, I almost always ban FD because I hate not having platforms even though I actually play really well on that flat piece of crap.

 

[Kal]

..........

 

[Bing]

I have to comment on the above post: this depends on how well you handle strategies you dislike. Not a fan of Fountain of Dreams personally, but I'm good on it so I don't usually ban it, for example. Another example is that I really dislike camping, but I almost always go straight to Dreamland against Peach and just run away and play as campy as possible. So, if you can properly implement an effective strategy, then it's a good idea to do so, even if you dislike it.

Yes I suppose thats true, but what I was getting that is for newer players especially its less about strategy as opposed to getting into the game, as you develop more match up knowledge and strategies then yes, do what you gotta do to get the win...

But I seriously hate FD with a passion...

 

[Kal]

..........

 

[LazynProud]

In my experience, just being uncomfortable with playing on a stage is more than enough reason to ban it. I've never taken the time to look for reasons to ban stages myself, but I imagine that an example you would want to look for would be banning Scar Story because of its low ceiling against a character like Fox and vice versa if you were playing him. Especially if your character is light and susceptible to over the top deaths. Also, Randall is a jerk.

 

[Bones0]

Everyone's style is different, so the best stage for one person may not be the best for another. It doesn't even matter what you're just starting out. Treat every stage equally so you don't limit your options when you get better and have a clearer idea of which stages actually benefit you.

 

[dkuo]

when banning, take into consideration:

• your last match(es) - what was most beneficial to you in your earlier match(es) against the opponent and what stage would hinder this strategy the most? also, what problems did you run into vs the opponent and how can you mitigate that via banning?
• your (+ your opponent's) overall strengths/weaknesses and how that may affect gameplay on each stage
• your track record with your opponent on each stage - historically, which stage do you do worst on vs your opponent? if you haven't played your opponent before, what about the character he's using?
• your general stage preferences (+ your opponent's general stage preferences.) the more comfortable one feels on a stage the better one tends to do (and vice versa), especially if one tends to play emotionally
• general matchup knowledge of each stage - this should be knowledge prior to counterpicking. read character boards/ask others for matchup information and how each stage affects this

list goes on etc. similar process for counterpicking too
counterpicking/banning should be a process that involves deliberation, especially with the top tiers. how you prioritize these things is up to you

 

[N64]

dkuo!

what he said. Try to get a general idea of what stages allow you to do, and then use that in your banning and counterpicking. After the first match, think about what happened in that match. What about the stage seemed to help you the most? What in the match was the most difficult, and is there a stage that you think could help you better handle it?

There are general guidelines (i.e. take CFs to FoD!), but it won't particularly help if you don't understand why the stage may be good for the matchup.

 

[Massive]

Most pragmatic stage bans/counterpicks boil down to how maneuverable you are vs how maneuverable your opponent is.

Fox, for example, is arguably at his best when he has a lot of room to run around and/or a lot of terrain to hide behind/on. Stages like Pokemon Stadium, and FD are preferred by many fox mains because they can always run away from their opponent and force them to approach using lasers.

Smaller stages tend to favor slower characters slightly more, as their hitboxes comprise a larger part of the stage, leveling the playing field somewhat against more maneuverable opponents. If you were marth, picking Yoshi's story against a campy fox could be considered a strong offensive counterpick (your hitboxes are huge on that stage, you can platform kill off of tech, low % KOs on any char). Conversely characters like jigglypuff or peach (and fox, if you like to be a campy *******) can pick large stages like dreamland or kongo jungle (if legal) and live to very high % without damaging their KO potential substantially, this would be considered a good defensive counterpick.

But like people have said already, you should play on whatever stage you're comfortable with. But keep in mind character factors and try to practice most on stages you're weakest at, you WILL get counterpicked there eventually.

 

[Burnt~Ramen]

Oddly enough my friend who is a marth main beats me the most on fd, even though i've heard it's a good stage for fox. Although the stage gives fox a lot of room to camp, he can combo me and chain grab me very easily, even with unpredictable di. Maybe I should try a stage like dream land, where I can camp but still have platforms to di to when he combos me?

 

[Ziodyne]

FD for Fox depends on the matchup. As Fox, FD is a terrible choice vs. Marth and DL is so much better vs. Marth, it's not even funny. After DL, Stadium is also an alright choice I believe.

 

[toadturtle3]

Some things to consider. Are you more likely to die up or to the side? What about your opponent? Do you like fighting by the edge or in the center stage? How do platforms effect your gameplan? What type of edge gives me an advantage (or minimizes my weaknesses)? Use thought processes like these when deciding.

These questions have common answers for many characters like Fox goes to PS or Marth goes to YS, but individual preference should trump popular opinion. For example, I hate PS for fox because I struggle with sweet-spotting that ledge for some reason. Also, even though the transformations should help me in most matchups, they mentally impact me more than my opponent.