Trouble combating Mario

[Bombchu Link]

I've been having issues combating Mario in PM.

I first of all can't seem to approach him at all because of fireballs, Nairs sometimes work, but he always spot dodges into a grab and then combo's me like crazy with dash attacks finished with a Usmash that deals me about 40% if I'm at 0 when I begin.

I can't maintain control of center stage because of the flaming balls of death, and when he pulls me to the edge he knocks/throws me off before using his cape on me as a punish for not sweet spotting my recovery; it makes me want to rage quit.

Also as a more general question as a newbie to PM, what should I work on first? I have L-Canceling down mostly, SHFFLing, and wave bouncing the Falcon pawnch (fun times). I'm working on moonwalking (compared to M2K though, I would be a crying shame), getting my knees to connect, and getting off autopilot during battles.

I haven't even started DI'ing (unless I'm jiggs) wavedashing/landing, or DACUS.

I'm also willing to bet the answer is "about 500 hours".

 

[Cloudburst]

Yeah, Mario is a little ****ter.

Bait and punish - improving your movement will let you get around fireballs easier, and you have to DI to get out of his (rather breaindead) combos. As for getting caped for not sweetspotting, well. Start sweetspotting.

Work on DI next, and then wavelanding. Wavedashing with Falcon is not nearly as important as wavelanding, movement on the same platform should primarily be dashdancing, with the occasional wavedash.

 

[GeZ]

Mario's fireballs aren't that good anymore, honestly. They're relatively low profile so you can fly over them to land whatever you want. Falcon is a fast faller, so Mario gets pretty good combos on you, but you're Falcon, so you get mad combos on everyone. That's just part of the character you chose.

In regards to getting caped away from ledge, work on sweet spotting. If you're not sweet spotting ledge, plenty of characters will snipe you with something and edgeguard for that stock.

Don't worry about wave bouncing until much later on when you have the consistent play to start to get fancy. Moonwalking is also unimportant if your SHFFL's aren't on point. Just don't falcon punch unless you've got a hard read. Against a good player, that's a lost stock.

And @ Cloudburst Mario has a good combo game, especially on Falcon, but braindead is unfair. Good DI will stop anything that seems braindead.

 

[DMG]

Getting away from Mario works best if you DI and SDI away from him. Uair, Utilt, and Usmash are the main tools he has to keep a combo going. There are exceptions and it's kind of complicated to list them all, but I'll cover a few:

Against his Dair:

You can SDI upwards and try to jump out
You can SDI behind him (works best if he approaches with momentum)
You can try to SDI towards the ground, either towards or away from him also

Against his Uair:

DI + SDI away is usually good, sometimes SDI up or thru Mario is good if you can land on a platform this way.

Against Usmash: the angle it naturally sends at if he is facing you, tends to place you above and in front of Mario. DI away limits his options the most.

Against Utilt: you either want left/right, or sometimes SDI up / up away. If you go up with SDI, you either want to hit a platform or you want to force him to Uair without running momentum, so that you can SDI + DI this follow up away from Mario. If other followups are better or still guaranteed after his Utilt, SDI up usually will not help.



Comboing Mario is not too hard, you just have to end them earlier than you expect or intimately understand the Falcon combo game. Uthrow into a single Uair is not a bad punish on Mario if you can retain a positive position underneath him: in general he is a character that you can hold back on extensive combos and still do fine with good positioning during your punishment game and neutral game. Running SH and Full hop uair tend to give Falcon the best possible chance of landing another hit, and Uair is his most reliable move to smack Mario with from a throw or starting setup.

 

[Lil Bucket Hat]

This is a mu where good punish game, movement thru projectiles and edgeguarding really shine, focus on those things and you'll be ight, bruh