A2ZOMG
Smash Legend
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While it is important to know your character's tools and options, in high level competitive play, mixup potential is also equally important, and is what ultimately determines which player is able to win a matchup when good tools are being used to their fullest potential.
Mario's set of tools is decent enough, but as we know he is very dependent on mixups to truly exert himself competitively. In this thread I wish to cover commonly used, and perhaps some uncommonly used options Mario has for mixing up the opponent, and I wish to explain how and why they work.
Crossover Airdodge -> Up-smash
This is a very simple but effective mindgame that will usually work very well on low level players, although every so often it will fool even high level players if executed with the right precision. The goal is to land behind your opponent with an airdodge, and then Up-smash them (ideally when you need to score a KO). This works best if you make your crossover look ambiguous, where you land inside but slightly behind your opponent putting yourself in a position where you almost can be shieldgrabbed. Obviously if your opponent shieldgrabs, they are wide open to the Up-smash, but your opponent may try to do other things, which are still usually punishable by the Up-smash. If they jump out of shield by the time you are landing, Up-smashing still will usually beat out whatever they were trying to do. If they shield drop at the same time you Up-smash, this will also interrupt anything they try to do out of shield.
Your opponent's options for avoiding this mindgame are to either spotdodge the Up-smash, or to roll away. However if they are anticipating this maneuver, they can also jump out of shield with a lingering aerial or pivot grab. If your opponent spotdodges, it's just a matter of choosing a different attack to commit to besides Up-smash, as Mario has a variety of different moves from his aerials to Jabs which can effectively punish spotdodge. If your opponent rolls, you are in a neutral position usually. It is the ones that know how to space pivot grabs (especially if they use someone like Marth or Snake) that will usually give you trouble, and against those opponents, it is wise not to overcommit to this mindgame and to play safe with fireballs.
B-air feinting -> F-smash
Mario's B-air when spaced well is a very safe move due to the decent autocancel window and the low landing lag as well. Facing backwards however also conveniently sets you up in the ideal position to pull off a reverse F-smash which outranges almost everything in the game. By baiting a reaction to a whiffed B-air, your opponent may try to drop shield to punish, in which case they will be wide open to being hit by your F-smash. Obviously this mindgame is risky because if your opponent continues to shield, or if they spotdodge the F-smash, they can punish your F-smash out of shield, so it is important to watch your opponent and observe whether or not they whiffed a shieldgrab or something.
Whiffed aerial -> D-smash
This is a really wicked mindgame that takes baiting to the extreme. Normally when you hit someone's shield in close range with non-optimally spaced B-airs or U-airs or N-airs, they will shieldgrab you easily. While this mindgame still involves you landing in shieldgrab range, the trick is that by NOT hitting their shield with your aerial, you give your opponent less time to react as there is no shieldstun or shield hitlag for your opponent to react to, and this will more often than not enable you to land a free D-smash before they can shieldgrab you. The D-smash isn't even particularly unsafe if they shield it, and it's not wise for your opponent to spotdodge Mario's aerials in most situations. Of course it is important you use this mindgame with caution, since you are in fact open to be punished if your opponent is expecting you to deliberately whiff a move.
Cape Stalling
Every Mario main probably knows how this one works, but it's probably the most essential of Mario's unique mixup options. Cape Stalling gives a new dimension of aerial mobility to Mario that not many characters can attempt to mimic. In addition to allowing you to easily adjust your B-air spacing, by stalling in the air, you can potentially avoid all manner of conventional juggle traps and bait shieldgrabs, and it even goes so far as to making Mario's recovery decent. Knowing where your opponent's zones are is important with this tactic, as of course, Caping unwisely can leave you open to being punished. By hovering outside of your opponent's best zones, this is where the tactic sees strength.
Charged F-smash
Another simple mindgame but a very powerful one when executed correctly. Mario's F-smash has leanback properties which allows him to evade attacks and outrange them (outranging virtually all of MK's ground moves is no small feat). As an added bonus, charging Mario's F-smash makes the move incredibly powerful, allowing him to potentially score ridiculously low percent KOs at around 80% if the F-smash is fresh, and if the opponent blocks the F-smash normally, the extra power on the move makes it virtually safe on block, a valuable quality that Mario very much appreciates when trying to score a KO. If you observe a spotdodge, proper timing of the charge release also will massively punish it. The leanback can mess up people who try to cross you over, although you have to realize that well-spaced crossovers are the bane of this mindgame. It is also not wise to charge F-smash when say...Lucario has a fully charged Aura Sphere in hand.
D-throw
D-throw in itself is a mindgame and mixup. There really isn't anything guaranteed off of it, but there is a lot that you can potentially do off of it. Most obviously at low percents, it puts opponents in a prime position for U-air, U-tilt, and U-smash juggles. Your opponent can buffer an airdodge to avoid your buffered juggle attempts. If they try to do that, regrabbing them out of airdodge, or timing U-tilt/U-smash are great ways to punish it. If they try to attack, usually U-tilting (or Up-Bing) will beat it, although there are some cases like Marth DIing away from you and F-airing which will be tough to handle. The safest option for your opponent is jumping away, but it is at this point that you can go for the U-air juggle, since your U-air juggle will hit them before they can jump.
D-tilt and F-air
Where D-throw usually stops being extremely useful after low percents, D-tilt and F-air start becoming useful at moderate and high percents. D-tilt in particular is strictly meant to be used when your opponent is at KO percents. As a frame 5 move that has more range than Mario's Jab and D-smash, you can land it pretty easily, and it puts your opponent right in the position where a D-throw would at low percents. As Pierce stated, it will bait a lot of airdodges, which you should have no trouble punishing with a Smash attack.
F-air is a bit less useful than D-tilt at KO percents, but much more useful than D-tilt and D-throw at moderate percents when it lands. Being a meteor Smash, it stuns your opponent quite a bit, but won't send them too high. At around 50-60ish it will combo right into U-tilt nicely if they don't DI away. A bit beyond those percents, it sets up very nicely into an aerial juggle if your opponent doesn't airdodge. Landing F-air however may be more trouble than it's worth due to the move having laggy startup and landing lag, so at best, it will be a situational punish option. Also overlooked is spiking your opponent into the ground with this move. Most people don't expect to be spiked by your F-air, so as of now, nobody ever techs it, which means it does lead to a decent techchase situation.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I probably haven't covered half of what Mario is capable of, but I stand ready to update this thread when more comes to me. As of now, discuss and contribute.
Mario's set of tools is decent enough, but as we know he is very dependent on mixups to truly exert himself competitively. In this thread I wish to cover commonly used, and perhaps some uncommonly used options Mario has for mixing up the opponent, and I wish to explain how and why they work.
Crossover Airdodge -> Up-smash
This is a very simple but effective mindgame that will usually work very well on low level players, although every so often it will fool even high level players if executed with the right precision. The goal is to land behind your opponent with an airdodge, and then Up-smash them (ideally when you need to score a KO). This works best if you make your crossover look ambiguous, where you land inside but slightly behind your opponent putting yourself in a position where you almost can be shieldgrabbed. Obviously if your opponent shieldgrabs, they are wide open to the Up-smash, but your opponent may try to do other things, which are still usually punishable by the Up-smash. If they jump out of shield by the time you are landing, Up-smashing still will usually beat out whatever they were trying to do. If they shield drop at the same time you Up-smash, this will also interrupt anything they try to do out of shield.
Your opponent's options for avoiding this mindgame are to either spotdodge the Up-smash, or to roll away. However if they are anticipating this maneuver, they can also jump out of shield with a lingering aerial or pivot grab. If your opponent spotdodges, it's just a matter of choosing a different attack to commit to besides Up-smash, as Mario has a variety of different moves from his aerials to Jabs which can effectively punish spotdodge. If your opponent rolls, you are in a neutral position usually. It is the ones that know how to space pivot grabs (especially if they use someone like Marth or Snake) that will usually give you trouble, and against those opponents, it is wise not to overcommit to this mindgame and to play safe with fireballs.
B-air feinting -> F-smash
Mario's B-air when spaced well is a very safe move due to the decent autocancel window and the low landing lag as well. Facing backwards however also conveniently sets you up in the ideal position to pull off a reverse F-smash which outranges almost everything in the game. By baiting a reaction to a whiffed B-air, your opponent may try to drop shield to punish, in which case they will be wide open to being hit by your F-smash. Obviously this mindgame is risky because if your opponent continues to shield, or if they spotdodge the F-smash, they can punish your F-smash out of shield, so it is important to watch your opponent and observe whether or not they whiffed a shieldgrab or something.
Whiffed aerial -> D-smash
This is a really wicked mindgame that takes baiting to the extreme. Normally when you hit someone's shield in close range with non-optimally spaced B-airs or U-airs or N-airs, they will shieldgrab you easily. While this mindgame still involves you landing in shieldgrab range, the trick is that by NOT hitting their shield with your aerial, you give your opponent less time to react as there is no shieldstun or shield hitlag for your opponent to react to, and this will more often than not enable you to land a free D-smash before they can shieldgrab you. The D-smash isn't even particularly unsafe if they shield it, and it's not wise for your opponent to spotdodge Mario's aerials in most situations. Of course it is important you use this mindgame with caution, since you are in fact open to be punished if your opponent is expecting you to deliberately whiff a move.
Cape Stalling
Every Mario main probably knows how this one works, but it's probably the most essential of Mario's unique mixup options. Cape Stalling gives a new dimension of aerial mobility to Mario that not many characters can attempt to mimic. In addition to allowing you to easily adjust your B-air spacing, by stalling in the air, you can potentially avoid all manner of conventional juggle traps and bait shieldgrabs, and it even goes so far as to making Mario's recovery decent. Knowing where your opponent's zones are is important with this tactic, as of course, Caping unwisely can leave you open to being punished. By hovering outside of your opponent's best zones, this is where the tactic sees strength.
Charged F-smash
Another simple mindgame but a very powerful one when executed correctly. Mario's F-smash has leanback properties which allows him to evade attacks and outrange them (outranging virtually all of MK's ground moves is no small feat). As an added bonus, charging Mario's F-smash makes the move incredibly powerful, allowing him to potentially score ridiculously low percent KOs at around 80% if the F-smash is fresh, and if the opponent blocks the F-smash normally, the extra power on the move makes it virtually safe on block, a valuable quality that Mario very much appreciates when trying to score a KO. If you observe a spotdodge, proper timing of the charge release also will massively punish it. The leanback can mess up people who try to cross you over, although you have to realize that well-spaced crossovers are the bane of this mindgame. It is also not wise to charge F-smash when say...Lucario has a fully charged Aura Sphere in hand.
D-throw
D-throw in itself is a mindgame and mixup. There really isn't anything guaranteed off of it, but there is a lot that you can potentially do off of it. Most obviously at low percents, it puts opponents in a prime position for U-air, U-tilt, and U-smash juggles. Your opponent can buffer an airdodge to avoid your buffered juggle attempts. If they try to do that, regrabbing them out of airdodge, or timing U-tilt/U-smash are great ways to punish it. If they try to attack, usually U-tilting (or Up-Bing) will beat it, although there are some cases like Marth DIing away from you and F-airing which will be tough to handle. The safest option for your opponent is jumping away, but it is at this point that you can go for the U-air juggle, since your U-air juggle will hit them before they can jump.
D-tilt and F-air
Where D-throw usually stops being extremely useful after low percents, D-tilt and F-air start becoming useful at moderate and high percents. D-tilt in particular is strictly meant to be used when your opponent is at KO percents. As a frame 5 move that has more range than Mario's Jab and D-smash, you can land it pretty easily, and it puts your opponent right in the position where a D-throw would at low percents. As Pierce stated, it will bait a lot of airdodges, which you should have no trouble punishing with a Smash attack.
F-air is a bit less useful than D-tilt at KO percents, but much more useful than D-tilt and D-throw at moderate percents when it lands. Being a meteor Smash, it stuns your opponent quite a bit, but won't send them too high. At around 50-60ish it will combo right into U-tilt nicely if they don't DI away. A bit beyond those percents, it sets up very nicely into an aerial juggle if your opponent doesn't airdodge. Landing F-air however may be more trouble than it's worth due to the move having laggy startup and landing lag, so at best, it will be a situational punish option. Also overlooked is spiking your opponent into the ground with this move. Most people don't expect to be spiked by your F-air, so as of now, nobody ever techs it, which means it does lead to a decent techchase situation.
~~~~~~~~~~~
I probably haven't covered half of what Mario is capable of, but I stand ready to update this thread when more comes to me. As of now, discuss and contribute.
