So glad we're talking about this
_Chrome
. And Ripple's right: remember when you played Morks, he said there are guaranteed punishes out of Bite... which is stupid as **** since it's so easy to land one with his mobility, and forces mix-ups (i.e. he can beat shield with Bite or **** you up with any of his aerials, which either lead into huge combo strings or have huge kill power [although, in reality, they often do both]). Not only that, but it does huge damage. Like, you'd think that for a command grab that has guaranteed edge guard/juggle/ko opportunities, it'd at least be compensated with weak initial damage output. But no. You'd also figure that it'd be reasonable to have a "barely defensible" trait (in quotation marks because it really isn't defensible) as
@Umbreon said, but Wario also has "GO" Shoulder charge, and Waft.
If ZSS' back air is considered barely defensible, how come Wario gets a full kit of aerials with similar utility and the ability to weave like Puff? Not only does Wario have weave like Puff, but he also has the ability to a relatively decent fast fall, meaning, coupled with his weave, he can get in from the air extremely easily, and like Fox, can get you to throw something out and then swoop in quickly with any aerial, which as already mentioned, lead into basically everything and the kitchen sink (which he probably ate too, I mean, he eats motorcycles...).
It's not even that he's all air game, command grab, and waft. While his aerial game is strong, his grounded game is also incredibly good. This may be a little bit of hyperbole, but his ground game shines through in its ability to transition back and forth with his air game incredibly smoothly. Aerials on shield/weak nair/fair lead smoothly into Smashes, dtilt, and grabs (or alternatively, run away/'nother aerial), which can lead into either edge guards, or guess what? More juggles! Which eventually lead into edge guards/bair/uair chains. AKA death.
His punish game isn't even limited there. More on his ground game next. Wario has some of the best tech chasing ability in the game. He can cover tech in place/missed tech with dtilt, tech in with a re-grab, and tech away with "GO" shoulder charge. And these are only the most basic of tech coverage options (I'm no expert on Wario; this is just what I observe, ergo, take this suppository with a grain of salt; it may only be possible to cover tech away by read, although I doubt this). He can still get you with janky af dsmash, usmash, fsmash, and others if he really wants to style (aka Waft). And as
Beorn
said IIRC, his throws don't even stop there in terms of usefullness... like come on. Puff loses kill power on her fthrow, and Wario gains an even better one (as if he didn't already invalidate her already). Wario's bthrow also sets up edge guards, but it can do so from anywhere on the stage. Really? I'm so glad that the Dev team has come up with a throw that invalidates stage positioning all on its own with two inputs! And his uthrow we already know is good.
Overall, Wario's tools allow him to nearly never be in a disadvantageous state. His mobility in the air, coupled with his ability to move on the ground quickly with a fast initial dash speed and wave dash, means that on reaction, he can adjust his micro-spacing at any time to avoid getting hit. This circumvents his supposed weakness, his range, which doesn't matter when you're able to space just outside of the opponent's range and be able to punish regardless of whether you're in the air or on the ground. This makes his defensive game very strong.
Speaking of his defensive game, Wario has incredibly dangerous moves that come out quickly, cover a multitude of spaces, and deal very high damage (i.e. Shoulder charge, smashes, dtilt, etc.). This means that you always have to respect Wario, as he can adjust his spacing quickly and hit you hard for it. He's also able to zone you out very effectively through fairs, à la Jigglypuff. Which means that you can't always hope to blitz through him to get in. You'll get stuffed.
Honestly, this post is so horribly written (granted, it is 3:00 AM) and there are a lot of things that I wanted to talk about but never got around to, but the message presents itself at least a little bit. Now this may start to seem like a salt mine, but I think Wario's one of those characters that never should have made it over from 3.0 the way he did. Trimming the fat they said? Wario barely fits into his size 42 overalls as it is. Seriously, he's one of the most unintuitive characters in the game and he's straight up the easiest example for someone to point to this game and denounce it as janky. Like wtf. GaW is janky and he can't even compete with this crap. I haven't even played against a real Wario and even I can see he has serious design problems. But, it doesn't really take a genius to see all of this I guess.
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TL;DR, Wario's punishes are nuts. DK-esque in the ground or air, with a Puff-like air game and ability to micro-space on the ground plus a kit that makes for a safe offensive game, a nearly impenetrable defensive wall, and superb zoning kit. As well as easy to land kill moves that threaten a bunch of space. As well as a varied kit that can handle most every situation well.
Oh yeah, and perhaps lots of exaggeration <3 #Nofilters
has been getting placed alot lower in the tier lists posted recently. Seems about a month ago he was usually thought to be just under the top tiers, but now the general consensus is he's high-mid/mid tier. Is it because the lack of representation or does he falter vs some important characters?
