The Approach: Breaking Down the opponent

[GiMiX]

I've been lurking these boards for months and have learnt a lot from the posts here. I figured I'd give a little something to the DK community I felt could be elaborated on. If anything the discussion could further my own knowledge.

Approaching the opponent is the most difficult aspect of playing Danky Kang as we all know. Some players recommend avoiding using certain special moves, like his Forward B and Down B. But I believe you must utilize every move you have and curve their usage based on your opponent's play style. Winning with DK is usually about out playing your opponent or using poor match up experience to your advantage.

Many opponents tend to lean towards one of the following options more often when approached. And I've characterized them below:

Blockers - These guys tend to block anticipating a dash attack, an auto cancelled aerial, or near the edge. They usually go for a grab or finishing move afterwards. You want to use forward b to punish this behaviour (down b near the edge or after rolling ). Going for an empty reverse jump into a pivot grab and performing the Bum combo (up cargo throw -> uair) I find to be very effective because you can mix it up with a last minute bair if they release shield. Poke at their shield with f-tilt from a safe distance, after they block the first hit they often drop the shield allowing you to go for a d-tilt, another f-tilt or jab combo. If they are blocking near the edge as you're holding on to it a neat trick I picked up is to press down, then immediately jump and forward b. You will break their shield or bury them and cancel the animation by rabbiting the ledge. This give you ample time to punish them accordingly.

Dodgers - These guys tend to dodge roll behind you or spot dodge and then grab or down smash when you approach from the air or ground. Up B is especially effective on punishing this behaviour when approaching on the ground. When approaching from the air, using an empty jump to down smash is amazing (especially when coming back after a death). When fighting these guys don't let them make you do all the commitment. Relax and wait for them to take action. Poke at them with f-tilt and down tilt. If you manage to grab them when going for the cargo up throw combo at high percent, wait a little bit before using your second jump and head butt. There is a good chance they will dodge out of fear and you can catch them coming out of it with an up air for the stock.

Attackers - These guys are typically new (Overzealous cpt falcon players spamming uair and dair) and tend to take the most offensive option in each situation. When being juggled instead of avoiding you or dodging they would attempt to challenge you with one of their own attacks. On the ground you can punish this with shield grabs, shield to down smash, or trade by absorbing a hit with the super armour from up B or a fully charged giant punch. In the air just time your up tilts and uairs around their attacks, or block and send them back up there with cargo up throw - > uair.

Zoners/Spammers (lol) - These guys prove to be a huge pain for DK, but he actually has a couple of tricks to help get in. DK can use hits f-tilt to clash with many kinds of projectiles. Just slowly inch forward and time your slaps, light hop over some and fast fall and when you are in range you can do a jump cancelled running up B to absorb the projectile and trade (Jump cancel up b allows you to disregard the delay before you can execute up b after starting a dash). Most importantly you will get them in the air, where its your time to shine with juggles until they hit the ground and reset the process. What ever you do, don't short hop fair or something because that's what they are waiting to punish. Think ryu from street fighter.

As you continue to punish a players behaviour they may adapt and switch to a different one. You must do the same to stay in the game. I'd be happy to hear alternative approaches to these scenarios or talk character specific examples.

 

[DaRkJaWs]

Although I appreciate your input and sharing your knowledge, all of which I generally agree with, I really feel that any Dk approach must be tailored somewhat to specific characters. I think we also need to write a general outline of Dk approaches, so we can better approach particular characters. The reason why I say it needs to be geared towards specific characters is that the one thing Dk players need to learn is how to deal with facing combos and what it takes to both rack up damage and then finish off those characters. Zss, diddy, Mario, luigi all come to mind.

 

[Kantolin]

That is an excellent analysis! I go through those sequences myself in general - although this does remind me that I really need to grab more often. I often seem to forget I can grab entirely unless the opponent has a counter, heh.

An interesting alternative for the blocker is to /not/ punish their blocking, but rather encourage it!

...for most of the stock.

So steadily try to wrack up some damage, use a few throws until they're in fully-charged-forward-smash-kill-range, and then use forward-B. By this point, they'll have been 'trained' to block your incoming attacks, which makes it a lot easier to shield break them.

This is obviously not foolproof; a lot of DK's moves are extremely unsafe on shield, so allowing them to block might result in some pain. But if you can manage it, training them to block and then breaking their shield is very effective (at least against random For Gloryers)

You also definitely reminded me - I need to make sure I don't lose my cool against zoners. That is the surest way to die, heh.

 

[GiMiX]

@ DaRkJaWs I was hoping this topic would evolve into character specific approaches. I just wanted to lay the foundation with a basic formula that can generally assist DK. Right now I lack the match up experience against characters like Diddy Kong to provide more than eye roll solutions, but as a community I think we can pit some techniques together to counter flo chart play styles of higher tiered characters.

@ K Kantolin You can create opportunities where it may feel convenient for the opponent to block like using a cargo throw to place them on a platform above you. However I don't know how you could encourage a player to block while building damage unless they refuse to adapt. You can however force them to switch from dodging to blocking at higher percents by punishing their dodges with a grounded up b for example.

I do agree strongly with your point of waiting for them to get within a kill percent before going for the headbutt though, that's something I should've mentioned. Headbutting someone below 40%, even if you land the blow is usually pretty ineffective and it's better to go for grabs instead. BTW if you do land that glorious head butt and need as much knock back as possible go for 10 winds on giant punch and let it go. It is stronger than a fully charged forward smash and kills characters at ridiculously low percents (35% to 55%). If there percent is high, just charge your b and then smash them (you have enough time lol)