Tips to Improve My G&W

[AzNfinesse]

Ok. So I finished a tournament yesterday, and my G&W has shown drastic improvement. I was able to beat people I normally couldn't defeat and got a lot farther than I had expected. Now my main focus is improving my playstyle. The only advice I've gotten is that I get pressured too easily, but I know there's a lot more that I can improve on. Here are some videos of my matches. If there's anything I can improve on, please say it.

Ness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOBIf56I4Ic

Donkey Kong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VDuXd-oSBY

Marth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi5LVYSKQuo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ_NBHNDqhQ

Diddy Kong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL3tfCSZX8k

Fox
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUtmIswvIZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vuHUu6dXIw

Pit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLKYllXGV6M

Bowser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwduYoU1SK4

Ness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc0sudlvyt4

 

[Noa.]

You have a good G&W. One thing. On the Ness video, you tended to use your smashes a little too much. Remember that G&W's smashes aren't really fast, and an opponent can shield them based on reaction.

You seem to like using Judgement hammer. That's ok, just be careful when you use it, and be sure that it'll hit when you use it.

You have a good G&W.

 

[POKE40]

Not bad at all.

But I would suggest on working on:

• approach
• grabbing
• smashing
• aerials

1) Approach:
You're approach is very predictable and you got punished alot of times because of this. Make sure your G&W is quite unpredictable.

2) Grabs:
You should shield grab more often rather than dash grab. And learn about G&W's grab follow-ups, they're quite beastly

3) Smashing:
You shouldn't rely on u-smash for assaulting. 1. It has a lot of lag, thus leaving you open 2.Can be punished very easily 3. is not properly planned. Overall, setup to your smash instead of using it as an assault attack. Use it has a finisher. And use less smashing as well.

4) Aerials:
Both of us know that G&W's aerials rock, but you shouldn't rely on it so much. Example would be the match with marth (battle 1). There was many times you could have grabbed Marth, but instead you did nair and got countered. Rather than nair when nearby opponent, you should grab and d-smash.

Enjoy G&W
And Good Luck to you.

 

[A2ZOMG]

*Will give more comments as I watch vids*

Vs Ness.

You are too focused on Bucketing his PK fire. The risk outweighs the reward if you are only Bucketing the inferno. Especially if you are at a KO percent. Instead of doing that, the safer thing to do is SDI up and Up-B away. He can't punish this at all. It's okay to Bucket the inferno if you already collected like a PK Thunderbolt or a PK Firebolt and want to fill up the Bucket fast, but otherwise it's usually more important to have the Bucket empty so you can Bucket Brake.

You spotdodge TOO MUCH to compensate for spacing mistakes. You got lucky in that your opponent dealt with spotdodging badly, but spotdodging is usually a terrible option for G&W. It's not that his spotdodge is bad. It's just that he's usually much safer with good spacing and moving around a lot. G&W doesn't have many punish options from a spotdodge, so usually spotdodging unnecessarily forces you to stop moving.

2:18. You COMPLETELY missed an opportunity to edgeguard that Ness. A ledgedrop B-air would have punished his recovery and put Ness in a bad position. Also, trying to grab while he was on the ledge was stupid. If anything you should have done a Dash Attack (stagespike) or D-air (punish his getup).

In general, I felt you made a lot of simple mistakes committing to some unwise things, like D-tilting immediately after *insert other action* when running away to reset your spacing would have been a better option.

vs Donkey Kong

Most of the mistakes made here were spacing mistakes on your part, and not shielding enough to block counterattacks (in fact, you should learn to shield and punish out of shield against DK in general. DK doesn't have many attacks that are safe on block, and learning how to react to this is VERY important. Learning what aerials, tilts, etc to punish all of DK's attacks is important in this matchup, and so is powershielding the Giant Punch). I really liked your Up-smash -> F-smash fakeout.

Also, NEVER down-throw DK. Like....seriously. Just Up-throw him. You can't really get much on DK from a D-throw. When you U-throw DK, you set him up for juggles which can do a lot of damage. EVEN BETTER, when you Up-throw him, if you read his DI, you can wait out air dodges with Up-smash and kill him at like 90% easily.

vs Marth

Not much to say here except you were too agressive. Approaching Marth is usually a very bad idea. Throwing out Smashes against him doesn't usually work if he's smart. The only real times you can use Smashes against him is when he whiffs one of his own Smashes on your shield.

 

[toobusytocare]

when ness is recovering, jump over to him and bucket that thunder!

then he cant recover LOL

 

[Hawks go Caw]

You throw out a lot of random smashes and it got you punished a ton. You also used F-air a bit too much. F-air from the ledge, F-air onto a platform, F-air from a platform, short hop F-air . . . all generally really bad ideas, especially if it's not going to be used for a kill.

 

[AzNfinesse]

thx guys for the tips. especially A2Zomg. very descriptive.

yea i noticed i bucket too much with ness. i'll work on that. it was my first time playing dk too so i really didn't know what to do. and my fair is just a force of habit that' i'm currently trying to break.

 

[AzNfinesse]

I have a couple of other questions:

1) what are some good approach options against mario? i don't have any vids of it, but at the tournament I lost to Jwned (probably one of the best mario players on the west coast). 1st round i actually used Zelda and he destroyed it. I had no choice but to go G&W. Problem was...he banned Rainbow Cruise. So i chose to go to Luigi's Mansion. It was close but he beat me out in the end. I especially had trouble with his Utilt while in the mansion. Was this a wise level choice? and what can i do next time? He already knows how to fight G&W very well (his friend plays G&W as well), so I was wondering what's the best approach to fighting a mario?

2) What is the best way to fight a wario? I played LeoFTW at the tournament as well. He knocked me out the first time (just to clarify it was a double elimination tournament). First round went well because he played ganon and i played zelda. It went in my favor. Next round i stayed zelda and he pulled out wario and beat me. 3rd round I went G&W and took it to Rainbow Cruise. He was dominating me in the air while we were at the boat, then I started dominating when we moved to the upper area of the stage. My question is how can i fight a wario well in the boat section of rainbow cruise?

 

[A2ZOMG]

1) what are some good approach options against mario? i don't have any vids of it, but at the tournament I lost to Jwned (probably one of the best mario players on the west coast). 1st round i actually used Zelda and he destroyed it. I had no choice but to go G&W. Problem was...he banned Rainbow Cruise. So i chose to go to Luigi's Mansion. It was close but he beat me out in the end. I especially had trouble with his Utilt while in the mansion. Was this a wise level choice? and what can i do next time? He already knows how to fight G&W very well (his friend plays G&W as well), so I was wondering what's the best approach to fighting a mario?

The best way to deal with Mario is to space B-airs on his shield at maximum range. If you space it right, he can't counter it. Of course, if you space it wrong, you will get punished.

Luigi's Mansion is a terrible stage for G&W (except for the fact he survives forever here) and a good stage for Mario. Bad counterpick. Jungle Japes would probably have been a better stage IMO. Or Frigate. Yes, Frigate is probably the best stage you could have taken him too. Frigate is a stage that can really help your edgeguarding if you get lucky.

Keep in mind...if you're both in the air, you outrange him. Do not be afraid to throw out F-airs if you know they will connect. When Mario is offstage, you can edgeguard him pretty effectively with D-airs or sourspot F-airs.

And don't forget to Jab and D-tilt.... Your Jab outranges his, and is the only thing that can compete with Mario's speed at close range. D-tilt limits his approaches, but doesn't work as well once Mario actually gets inside your range. Just watch out and don't get F-smashed (his reverse F-smash outranges you).

 

[AzNfinesse]

The best way to deal with Mario is to space B-airs on his shield at maximum range. If you space it right, he can't counter it. Of course, if you space it wrong, you will get punished.

Luigi's Mansion is a terrible stage for G&W (except for the fact he survives forever here) and a good stage for Mario. Bad counterpick. Jungle Japes would probably have been a better stage IMO. Or Frigate. Yes, Frigate is probably the best stage you could have taken him too. Frigate is a stage that can really help your edgeguarding if you get lucky.

Keep in mind...if you're both in the air, you outrange him. Do not be afraid to throw out F-airs if you know they will connect. When Mario is offstage, you can edgeguard him pretty effectively with D-airs or sourspot F-airs.

And don't forget to Jab and D-tilt.... Your Jab outranges his, and is the only thing that can compete with Mario's speed at close range. D-tilt limits his approaches, but doesn't work as well once Mario actually gets inside your range. Just watch out and don't get F-smashed (his reverse F-smash outranges you).

real helpful. thanks. i'm going to experiment with frigate more then. I like that stage but don't normally use it as a counterpick since I always go to rainbow cruise.

 

[ShadowPhoenix951]

Yeah, learn more CP stages. My favorites are Rainbow Cruise, Green Greens, and Corneria. On any of these stages, you're almost guaranteed to win on those as G&W.