You're awesome Shockdrake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0VvKmqVIF4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MISXW2IuecQ&feature=related
Looking for every bit of help I can get in the MK matchup. So just a little matchup specific advice. And I suppose if you see any general glaring faults I wouldn't mind those pointed out too. Thanks!
Once again, this is a bit longer than "general" is supposed to be...
Sorry for the lack of formatting here. I'm just C&P'ing what I write in Notepad.
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Land with nair so that it autocancels when you're trying to recover. I forget which vid it was in, but you were landing with nothing or fair. Nair's hitbox keeps you safest.
Don't chase an mk off stage unless you're confident with timing a bair/nair. He has many more options than you do. I only saw you do it once, I think. You probably know this pretty well actually, since... I never see you chasing at all anymore. That's good. Nair does have strong killing potential if you can hit him in the air with it. MK can't really do much against a perfectly spaced nair if he's trying to recover. Note that this only applies if he's not recovering low. If he's low, he can just UpB once nair ends.
Nair hits through the tornado if you hit his body. The last part of nair does this best. You did it once. Good job.
Tilt your shield up for tornado shielding. Not sure I saw you doing that. It only helps a little either way though.
If he hits your shield with a dsmash, dtilt him. If it trips, you get a good advantage.
DI away from the dthrow. If you don't DI or you DI up, MK shuttle loops you. Truthfully, MK has options for any DI you choose out of a dthrow (which is why he always uses it), but DI'ing away is safer in general. You don't eat a shuttle loop, which can kill you, and his best approach is an fair, which only does 7% damage or so. You can also retreat an fair.
If he spaces an fair and you shield it, only ftilt will hit him OOS. I saw you try for a shieldgrab.
Do NOT go hug when you're feeling pressured. You did this twice within 10 seconds in one of the vids. MK has very good ledgeguarding. Better than Marth, who covers almost all of ROB's options already.
Against a good ledgeguarding MK, you will have a tough time. He can cover every one of your ledge options easily. If you fight a good Marth, the same thing happens, but a ledgejump is harder to punish. An MK can easily spam uair after dropping his shield. With this in mind, try to recover from above with smart airdodges and spaced Nairs (triggering UpB again right after nair'ing to control spacing). It's like Snake trying to recover from your Airdodge-bait-uair-juggle. Now it's your turn to be in the air. This applies to Marth battles too btw.
Read the DISCLAIMER for this under "Important" below.
Spotdodge the end of the nado to avoid the final poke if he's just sitting on top of you.
Very nice fsmash'ing his nado at 3:35 (2nd vid).
Very nice z-drop at 3:55 (2nd vid).
Platform stages really help you KO with usmash. Counterpicks with platforms help you more than they help him. He may rack a bit more damage and combo better, but you may get to kill much much earlier.
When you try to recover and you're underneath stage level, go low and then come directly up with a good uair. Do NOT come in at a 45 degree angle. MK can repeat dair you and possibly KO you off the side with fair afterwards. Try to get directly under him and uair. Uair kills anything of his from directly below. If he's diagonal to you, his dair will hit and your uair won't.
If he grabs the ledge as you try to come up, UpB as fast as you can past him and get back on stage, trying to land ASAP. His invincibility and fast aerials will knock you back off if you try to hover around and wait out his invincibility or hit him in general. Getting knocked back out after coming up from below = bye bye fuel = hello gimp. MK gimps ROB very well.
Nair is your most likely to hit attack, but MKs WILL try to bait it and then shuttle loop you or aerial you. Remember what I said before about recovering high against a good ledgeguarder MK? With you up high, a good MK will now play the bait game. Your best chance for safety is nair, but when you use it is up to you and how you read the MK (and how he reads you). You stand more of a chance here than on the ledge though.
IMPORTANT: Many MK/Marths, despite their amazing ledgeguarding games, will not ledgeguard you that well. They do that at the highest levels of play. If you think that your MK opponent won't ledgeguard you to death and you think you have a better chance on the ledge, recover by ledge! My talk about good ledgeguarding MK's only applies if the MK actually knows how to ledgeguard well. Take advantage of what you can whenever you can.
when you need the kill, keep your gyro fully charged.
Good capitalizing on bad UpB's with your usmash.
A grab > groundbreak at 2:29 (first vid) leads to a guaranteed fsmash. Grabbing and ground-releasing in front of a gyro is one of the best scenarios for ROB. He can do ANYTHING he wants except usmash (depends on the character's height) while the opponent gets hit by the gyro.
Lol at backwards hitting fair at 2:47 1st vid.
At 3:30 or so first vid, you need that kill. Keep that gyro fully charged. If you get a grab, grab attack the heck out of him. Refresh your nair because you need that option as a kill even more than you need your gyro.
You stand at a good distance when 'ledgeguarding' MK. about 1/4 FD. This lets you usmash a bad glide, avoid an UpB from the lip (this MK option especially hurts in Smashville), etc.
I'm told not to DI at all for the nado and just let it pop you up and then AD down. This kind of makes sense. If you Smash DI, you move a set distance. Therefore, if you smash DI the last hit, you move that set distance and drop again into another hitbox, and you don't get popped up. I don't know for sure though.
When MK is in the air (above stage) and you're on stage with a gyro, Don't glidetoss forward. Glidetoss down. It leaves the gyro on stage for interruption. You can also just hold it and wait for a possible opening, but if Mk is in the air, he's probably approaching you that way, so you won't get that chance. Glidetoss down or Retreating-hop-zdrop instead.
Just as a small thing, if the MK is stupid enough to directly glide toward you from far away to try and glide attack and you have the gyro in your hand, if you have space on stage, glidetoss down toward him to get closer and usmash him out of his glide.
Grab attack when you can. Every % counts. Always get 2 'knees' in unless he's < 3%, in which case you hit him once and then throw or release. Refreshed moves are more important here than in any other matchup.
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I'm not sure if anyone does this (I don't see any top ROBs doing it in most vids), but if you Grab groundbreak release and dtilt until he trips, you can play a small techchasing game similar to Snake's dthrow. After dtilting for the trip, move forward a bit so that you are still outside of his getup attack. Then,
1) getup attack = dash grab and reset situation.
2) normal getup = dash grab or dtilt and reset situation.
3) rolls behind you = turn and grab and reset situation.
4) rolls away = safe unless you predict it and chase. You have to predict it, because human reaction is too slow. You can still laser though.
Therefore, standing still at just outside getup attack range covers 3 of his 4 options. You have a good chance to continue the whole little game. Only his rolling away gets him out of it, and you can predict that.
Now, the good part. When I said to keep the gyro fully charged, I said it with this in mind. If he rolls behind you, then you can turn around and grab, but everything else he does leaves his position in gyro range. Fully charged gyro comes out fast. If you just wait for him to move and ascertain that he didn't roll behind you, you can let the gyro loose for a potential kill.
I'm not sure if this works on MK, and I'm not sure if you can guarantee a dtilt hit after a grab groundbreak release on anyone, actually. I asked Levitas for some grab groundbreak release data, and he said he'd have it out tonight. I am sure, however, that if the first hit doesn't trip, he can DI out of the second if he's ready.
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EDIT: And so it's settled. They can powershield the dtilt if they hold shield. But that doesn't mean it doesn't work, because you can dashgrab shields. After one dtilt session, you might try going for a straight dashgrab. If it's too risky to play the game, you can just throw him at any time though.
If you need a kill, and you've got a fully charged gyro, and you get a trip in any way, try that gyro business. You need good reaction though.