there is no point maining mario without a top tier to back him up, that is if you are going for the top 3.
shiek is a good choice because she covers marth and puff, but alot of people disagree with puff. an excellent combination of chars is mario (v.s everybody but marth+puff) and falco for puff, fox for marth.
i can 100% vice for people being totally thrown off by mario in tournament. He is **** fast, and **** underrated - if people played all the characters equally, in that tier list id eyeball him around ganons level and certainly above samus This is assuming the mario mains have somebody else to help with marth.
on the other hand, the top 10 wont be thrown by the matchup, and the nature of their positions in the region denotes that they can adapt really well. howver, all the tier list does is 'tally' tournament results, and the longer it is in effect the more bias it becomes. Its a testimony to how gamers are all sheep to the legends of their games, because everybody plays the top tiers in most games. its not a character ranking system, its a god **** tally chart.
to conclude:
If you are aiming to impress, get a foothold in ur community and generally **** everbody but the top guns, then picking mario will work to your advantage.
If you are aiming to get to the top/top 3, then maining mario will still work very much to your advantage - but you need an alt with decent range to cover bad matchups. its just the way it works
because campers are gay.
and theres a little something called down time. you need tournament experience with mario, and to get that you gotta loose. accept the down-time, and it'll be well worth it. That and playing a low tier gets you noticed and invited to smashfests, but if you've been playing for 2 years i doubt thats a problem
j3ly 4 pres