Official Viability Ratings v2 | Competitive Impressions

[Ffamran]

Can't Wii Fit Trainer kill with U-throw or setup something... I don't remember what her throws look like, so I might have confused her F-throw with U-throw... I remember seeing a throw kill with Deep Breathing. I just remembered that Zelda's U-throw is used for setups as well - mostly Uair. Captain Falcon can alternate between D-throw and F-throw for forward followups and U-throw for Uair setups. Meta Knight can sort of kill with U-throw like Kirby, but it's really dependent on how high he lands and damage unlike Charizard and his ludicrous U-throw and Meta Knight also has D-throw and F-throw for forward followups. I don't remember if Rosalina can do anything with U-throw and D-throw since most of the time, I just see Rosalina players use B-throw or F-throw to toss people off the ledge. Oh, and Pikachu can setup Thunder kills with U-throw if you have no idea what the hell is DI.

Then there's the rest of the cast... Pretty sure Diddy is the most well-known since he "started" the D-throw to something craze that's named... And then he started the U-throw to something to not stale D-throw or whatever that is now a staple of his gameplay.

 

[FullMoon]

Greninja's D-Throw only combos into F-Air at pretty high percentages. Though rage helps a lot there.

Really I think Greninja is one of the characters that benefits the most from rage even though he doesn't have a very good survivability.

 

[Jams.]

What Diddy players are still placing well now besides MVD and Zinoto? I'm surprised everyone seems to agree this character is still top 5 over other characters such as Rosalina, Sonic, or even Ness. His representation has dropped off pretty significantly since 1.0.4.

 

[Ffamran]

Marth with rage is a monster compared to... anyone with rage. If there was a scale of 0 to 10 rage threats, Marth would be 13. Falco with rage is like Falco without rage; he's going to kill you and he's going to kill you. Redundant, huh?

What Diddy players are still placing well now besides MVD and Zinoto? I'm surprised everyone seems to agree this character is still top 5 over other characters such as Rosalina, Sonic, or even Ness. His representation has dropped off pretty significantly since 1.0.4.

Angel Cortes... Seriously want to call him "anh-hel corrrrrrrr-tez". I don't know how to type out a rolling "r" phonetically. Oh, and I think JJRockets.

 

[Ghostbone]

Can't Wii Fit Trainer kill with U-throw or setup something... I don't remember what her throws look like, so I might have confused her F-throw with U-throw... I remember seeing a throw kill with Deep Breathing.

Wii Fit's up-throw kills very late (probably weaker than Marth's up-throw), though with deep breathing it's a bit more reasonable.
F-throw kills at about the same %s at the ledge, but then against most character's f/b-throws kill at the ledge.

What Diddy players are still placing well now besides MVD and Zinoto? I'm surprised everyone seems to agree this character is still top 5 over other characters such as Rosalina, Sonic, or even Ness. His representation has dropped off pretty significantly since 1.0.4.

Angel Cortez and Zero.

Also, characters that benefit from rage the most are characters with high base knockback kill moves.

So Rosalina and Meta Knight (since you're so close to the top blastzone with up-air strings)

 

[Baby_Sneak]

Falco and Greninja eh?

How does falco play? I've wanted to get into him but I never found a good playstyle that I could work with. How should I be playing him? This comes from a Toon Link/Wario main.

Form your own playstyle with him. His limits should guide you well by yourself.
EDIT: I don't mean you shouldn't ask for help or tips for what to do, but just playing the character and seeing what they can do and what works in your mind is better for growth.

 

[⑨ball]

Can't Wii Fit Trainer kill with U-throw or setup something... I don't remember what her throws look like, so I might have confused her F-throw with U-throw... I remember seeing a throw kill with Deep Breathing. I just remembered that Zelda's U-throw is used for setups as well - mostly Uair. Captain Falcon can alternate between D-throw and F-throw for forward followups and U-throw for Uair setups. Meta Knight can sort of kill with U-throw like Kirby, but it's really dependent on how high he lands and damage unlike Charizard and his ludicrous U-throw and Meta Knight also has D-throw and F-throw for forward followups. I don't remember if Rosalina can do anything with U-throw and D-throw since most of the time, I just see Rosalina players use B-throw or F-throw to toss people off the ledge. Oh, and Pikachu can setup Thunder kills with U-throw if you have no idea what the hell is DI.

Then there's the rest of the cast... Pretty sure Diddy is the most well-known since he "started" the D-throw to something craze that's named... And then he started the U-throw to something to not stale D-throw or whatever that is now a staple of his gameplay.

Wii Fit has low percent combos on mid-fast fallers and kill throws with DB uthrow but nothing noteworthy on anything else. Both Up and Forward look like volleyball serves. I'm pretty sure Zelda's dthrow combos into nair too. MK's uthrow is ok, sitting just behind Lucina in kill potential. The platform bit is a bonus, especially since he likes platforms anyway. IMO it's real potential is in it's landing hitbox that deals so well with Pikmin, Luma, and nearby doubles opponents. No need to speak on his dthrow. Rosalina has uthrow>utilt, no idea on dthrow.

Falco's lasers really irk me in his throw since DI can mean something that should have killed won't since the laser will whiff.

 

[TheReflexWonder]

I think that Zelda is likely a better character than Samus. Past patch benefits for both of them have been modest, but I feel like Zelda is capable of defending herself better, strings moves together a bit better (the landing lag reduction on aerials certainly helps), more flexible invincibility options...Rough as she is, at least she feels like she can still threaten an opponent when they're in your space. A really underrated tool in Neutral-B for catching the ledge snap vulnerability, too.

 

[Blobface]

What characters benefit the most from rage?

You can combo these guys all you want, you're only making them stronger.

 

[outfoxd]

Wii Fit has low percent combos on mid-fast fallers and kill throws with DB uthrow but nothing noteworthy on anything else. Both Up and Forward look like volleyball serves. I'm pretty sure Zelda's dthrow combos into nair too. MK's uthrow is ok, sitting just behind Lucina in kill potential. The platform bit is a bonus, especially since he likes platforms anyway. IMO it's real potential is in it's landing hitbox that deals so well with Pikmin, Luma, and nearby doubles opponents. No need to speak on his dthrow. Rosalina has uthrow>utilt, no idea on dthrow.

Falco's lasers really irk me in his throw since DI can mean something that should have killed won't since the laser will whiff.

With her offstage game i imagine throwing people off has it's own rewards. Or at least getting real estate for breathing.

 

[Ikes]

What characters benefit the most from rage?

You can combo these guys all you want, you're only making them stronger.

yes, all the super heavyweights benefit from rage

i thought we knew this 8(

 

[Ffamran]

Falco's lasers really irk me in his throw since DI can mean something that should have killed won't since the laser will whiff.

Falco's U-throw and B-throw are both the best and worst kill throws in the game. They're the best since you're guaranteed a kill if that laser hits, but they're the worst because of that. It's not even like Pikachu's Thunder setup where you have to guess if Pikachu is going to Thunder or not; it's not a freaking 50/50. You see that laser fire and you better DI or you're a *******. It's freaking hilarious when it happens and anti-climatic too since it's a little push that sends you off to die; Charizard and Mewtwo's kill throws are violent while Falco's is pretty much half-*****.

Form your own playstyle with him. His limits should guide you well by yourself.
EDIT: I don't mean you shouldn't ask for help or tips for what to do, but just playing the character and seeing what they can do and what works in your mind is better for growth.

The sad part is that Falco's play style is stupidly malleable since it's not really defined other than: "hit **** and hope they die*. That's the core play style of the entire cast.

What characters benefit the most from rage?

You can combo these guys all you want, you're only making them stronger.

What about Ike? And Bowser Jr. and I guess, Mega Man? Oh, and Marth, most definitely Marth. The fact if someone let's Marth live that long (and isn't playing Sheik) means they're definitely doing something horribly wrong.

 

[Ikes]

idk He just feels slow on the ground but fast enough in the air

Like I could get used to it if I knew what to do with it

 

[Antonykun]

What characters benefit the most from rage?

You can combo these guys all you want, you're only making them stronger.

how dare you forget about him. talking about Ryu reminds me that i would love to play him but despise how his mechanics function

 

[⑨ball]

With her offstage game i imagine throwing people off has it's own rewards. Or at least getting real estate for breathing.

True, but it's not really exclusive to her in anyway. Like if she had Pit's fthrow she'd still get them offstage only at later percents she'd be able to threaten a KO from it.

What characters benefit the most from rage?

You can combo these guys all you want, you're only making them stronger.

Featherweight speedsters probably benefit more from rage than anyone since they go from fast, safe, but weak to fast, safe, and now going to kill you.

Marth and Ike's rage games are disgusting. Ness gets rage bthrow. ROB get's rage uthrow. Lucario gets rage+aura lol.

edit: forgot about Ryu. Truly gross rage play.

 

[Nu~]

Gets a little something too.

Rage affects the knockback of both water spouts and fire spouts. The field either turns into an ice rink or a minefield where you can die at 120% in the middle of the stage.

Rage keys and DITCIT cherries -> Inky/Bair are no joke either.

He doesn't get the most, but what he does get out of rage is pretty interesting.

 

[TheReflexWonder]

Same here. If the special commands were just mapped to the special button, I'd be fine, but I stop playing him whenever my fastfall double-jump B-Air eats my jump and Tatsus away from the stage. He's just not allowed to use certain "normal" commands, which is infuriating.

 

[Mario766]

Ike with rage is terrifying. His moves combo better with rage due to that little extra amount of KB being perfect for hitstun, and he starts to get up throw f-air kill combos along with up air killing stupidly early for how long the move lasts and how big of a disjoint it has.

There's also dash attack, which kills Mario at 100...with no rage.

 

[Ikes]

Same here. If the special commands were just mapped to the special button, I'd be fine, but I stop playing him whenever my fastfall double-jump B-Air eats my jump and Tatsus away from the stage. He's just not allowed to use certain "normal" commands, which is infuriating.

thats why I cstick almost everything

 

[Nobie]

I was looking at Link's landing lag data. Is it not kind of absurd for a character of his type? I know he's not winning any tournaments or anything but I was surprised to see how quickly he recovers from his key aerials.

 

[Ffamran]

I was looking at Link's landing lag data. Is it not kind of absurd for a character of his type? I know he's not winning any tournaments or anything but I was surprised to see how quickly he recovers from his key aerials.

That's only for Nair and Bair, right? Uair and Dair have bad landing lag while Fair, I don't know. Ike and Shulk are noted to have good landing lag despite their outrageous range, damage output, and power. Then you have Sheik, Luigi, Captain Falcon, and ZSS.

Edit: You can easily auto-cancel Link's Bair and probably Nair, but everything else is just landing lag. Also, keep in mind that like Fox, Link can't really stay in the air for long which if we went with that theory, Bowser should have low landing lag...

 

[zeldasmash]

Doesn't Link also benefit a lot from rage? I mean the guy already hits hard, now he just hits harder. And it makes Utilt really scary as it makes one of his most reliable kill moves (and it's fast) even better and due to D-Throw shenanigans, can easily be set up, alongside Usmash and Uair.

 

[A_Kae]

That's only for Nair and Bair, right? Uair and Dair have bad landing lag while Fair, I don't know. Ike and Shulk are noted to have good landing lag despite their outrageous range, damage output, and power. Then you have Sheik, Luigi, Captain Falcon, and ZSS.

Edit: You can easily auto-cancel Link's Bair and probably Nair, but everything else is just landing lag. Also, keep in mind that like Fox, Link can't really stay in the air for long which if we went with that theory, Bowser should have low landing lag...

Link's landing lag data:

|Nair|Fair|Bair|Uair|Dair|Zair
Lag|10|12|10|23|32|8
Window|4-35|1-50|1-28|11-46|10-64|??-??

SH is 33 frames, FH is 49.

Source: http://kuroganehammer.com/Smash4/Link

 

[PK Gaming]

Wario is the poster child for characters who benefit from Rage.

60% Waft kills are disgusting in the best way

 

[Ikes]

now you see why I love Wario

He's the most beautiful package of salt and disrespect in such a way that he's probably one of the best characters in the game

 

[Vipermoon]

I'm probably crazy but what if every character benefitted from rage?

Woah

 

[Antonykun]

Wario is the poster child for characters who benefit from Rage.

60% Waft kills are disgusting in the best way

You forgot Back Air
food for thought most top tiers get screwed over by Rage either because of light wieght or difficulty to kill
Sheik is doubly affected

 

[Shaya]

Why can't I say pikachu sucks still? Guys, come on.

• Has done average at the highest level quite a lot
• Did well against ZeRo once but fell trapped to the adapter (just like everyone else ever, I've seen close sets down to the wire and in an hour its three 2 stock matches as an 8 minute total wrap up set "in my country, I go home early when I want to")
• He beat Nairo twice. It's a positive match up for Pikachu. Nairo made tons of newb-level errors and seemed flustered. Choke-master tbqh. Is Pikachu's good match up with ZSS and the-first-time-in-the-history-of-smash-4-thus-far-has-esam-not-been-bopped-by-competent-Sheik Sheik actually enough to ignore the difficulties everyone else seems to give him? (hint: 1 set should not change the fact holistically Sheik/Pika approaches 60:40)

So I've taken several days to catch up to 'everything', but yeah. Wow. I don't know how/where/why, but I must have missed the page where we somehow all decided Pikachu was top 3, all I saw was a few short posts on an amazing winner's finals set between ZeRo and ESAM and that was it, top 3 guaranteed?

Also if I read one more time "we all agree Luigi isn't top tier" from a person who doesn't go to tournaments I'm going to hyper-rage-explode. I don't care if you express an opinion we don't all share, but stating we all agree to an ignorant opinion is going to test my sanity.
Will Luigi always be "top tier"? Maybe not. Is Luigi one of the most relevant characters in the cast? Yes
Is it different to Dedede? Let's compare how D3 at brawl tier list #1 http://smashboards.com/threads/the-official-sbr-brawl-tier-list-v1-0.192028/

• Third in the game.
• Snake, and ROB were considered top tier and he beat them.
• A large factor to his placement was because everyone felt Snake was super-broken and him having a poor match up [Snake/MK was considered even], plus the fact he hard countered half the cast at first glance gave him solid justification.
• Meanwhile his match ups with #1, #4, #5 were bad and only got a lot worse (bar G&W, evenish in the end), and other characters rose to the occasion that were hard match ups too.

Today is a little different. If you look at Luigi's match ups with the apparent high/top tiers we consider now, he beats the following characters:


Hey, wait a second!!!!.I just listed 5 characters that most of the people in here would be willing to put in their top 5s.
And that's just from match ups I've seen on a common basis (I would assume Falcon has it difficult too, no idea on Ness/etc)
Luigi's results/theory against these characters are a mix between "Top level players losing or having close sets to unknown Luigis" and "oh let's all camp/run away from Luigi, hence the match up isn't his advantage, in fact, Luigi sucks".
Luigi may not be a solo main viable character, as major tournaments have shown. But his capabilities as a pocket? Well if Larry beating/forcing ESAM off Pika isn't enough indication to you that he's extremely dangerous at top level, AND you think Pikachu is top 3, I'm going to question your logical deduction.

I will say that the rise of power level/popularity of MK, Marth, Ike, Wario and others could give us the same result as Dedede did, but those 5 characters above aren't suddenly becoming non-relevant unless major balance changes come in (well, sonic has been nerfed enough times now to draw skepticism from me, at least a little), so Luigi will still continue to be extremely relevant. And unless we see more characters out there that are indefinitely better as solo characters, they don't deserve to be above Luigi who's dominating half (or more) the characters you think are good.

-----

Anyway, updating the notable player's list stuff, derivative "data". You could say Little Mac, Brawler, Palutena, Wii Fit are outliers in this sense, but in my mind the Rayquaza to borderline wraps up what I would consider high tier-ish at this stage. Megaman used to be considered highly but has essentially fallen off the face of the Earth.
Brawler, Palutena and WiiFit with customs obviously are getting boons that shoot them up a lot higher than customs off, this giving strong indication how much better they can be with more options.
Little Mac is... the Luigi-minus? Considering my previous argument/point. If we want to underrate Mac, theory allows us to put him in bottom tier, but we know that's not what happens. So his overall "power level"? Well being up there with staple high tiers may be a stretch, but is he able to compete with them? Well if he couldn't, he likely wouldn't have the alright results associated with him.

29 (30 with Dark Pit) associated, so if I were to cut down on them to reduce to half the cast it would be the aforementioned four plus Toon Link.

Spoiler

Mega-Rayquaza


Uber


Overused


Borderline


Underused


Rarely used


Never used

 

[Trifroze]

That's only for Nair and Bair, right? Uair and Dair have bad landing lag while Fair, I don't know. Ike and Shulk are noted to have good landing lag despite their outrageous range, damage output, and power. Then you have Sheik, Luigi, Captain Falcon, and ZSS.

Falcon's range actually isn't all that great especially for his height and size, for example characters like Luigi and Lucario have better horizontal reach than he does surprisingly. Meanwhile ZSS outranges Sheik while having less landing lag and more power, but worse frame data, closer to that of Falcon (although after Falcon's nerf ZSS' bair is superior in pretty much every way except for ease of use). What characters have moves that outrange ZSS' nair and/or bair? I'm sure Shulk does, but not certain about others.

Samus being Zelda tier? I'll have to disagree as Samus has a lot of really good moves like uair, screw attack, charge shot, zair, fsmash and ftilt (although less so after the nerf which was ?????????). To me her biggest problem seems to be that she lacks any CQC options now; a slow grab, a jab that doesn't work and an ftilt that isn't safe on hit when used up close. The changes she needs to be decent aren't that numerous, but I'd agree her design is fundamentally not likely to do well unless she's given some op gimmick like beep boop.

 

[TheReflexWonder]

Olimar over Wario? I didn't think Olimar got much play these days.

As for the Rage discussion, I confirmed some Rage-centric Waft setups out of a landing D-Air about a week ago. That's good for Wario, too.

 

[AlMoStLeGeNdArY]

Everyone naming all these characters that benefit from rage no one mentions Lucario? Really?

 

[Ikes]

anything except sheik/ZSS/Rosalina/Sonic/Pikachu over wario is a bold statement

he has arguably more results than any character besides those 5

 

[Kaladin]

Why can't I say pikachu sucks still? Guys, come on.
> done average at the highest level quite a lot
> does well once but fell trapped to the adapter.(just like everyone else ever, I've seen ZeRo have close sets down to the wire and in an hour its 2 stock 8 minute wrap up sets)
> beat Nairo. Positive match up for Pikachu. Nairo made tons of newb-level errors and seemed flustered. Choke-master tbqh. Is Pikachu's good match up with ZSS and the-first-time-in-the-history-of-smash-4-thus-far-has-esam-not-been-bopped-by-competent-Sheik Sheik actually enough to ignore the difficulties everyone else seems to give him? (hint: 1 set should not change the fact holistically Sheik/Pika approaches 60:40)

So I've taken several days to catch up to 'everything', but yeah. Wow. I don't know how/where/why, but I must have missed the page where we somehow all decided Pikachu was top 3, all I saw was a few short posts on an amazing winner's finals set between ZeRo and ESAM and that was it, top 3 guaranteed?

Also if I read one more time "we all agree Luigi isn't top tier" from a person who doesn't go to tournaments I'm going to hyper-rage-explode. I don't care if your opinion is ignorant, but saying we all agree to an ignorant opinion is testing my sanity.
Will Luigi always be "top tier"? Maybe not. Is Luigi one of the most relevant characters in the cast? Yes
Is it different to Dedede? Let's compare how D3 at brawl tier list #1, was third in the game. Snake, and ROB were considered top tier and he beat them; he was essentially in that place because everyone felt Snake was super-broken and him being capable in that regard (plus the fact he hard countered half the cast at first glance) gave him reason to be there. Meanwhile his match ups with #1, #4, #5 were bad and only got a lot worse, and other characters rose to the occasion that were hard match ups too.

Today is a little different. If you look at Luigi's match ups with the apparent high/top tiers we consider now, he beats the following characters:


Hey, wait a second!!!!.I just listed 5 characters that most of the people in here would be willing to put in their top 5s.
And that's just from match ups I've seen on a common basis (I would assume Falcon has it difficult too, no idea on Ness/etc)
Luigi's results/theory against these characters are a mix between "Top level players losing or having close sets to unknown Luigis" and "oh let's all camp/run away from Luigi, hence the match up isn't his advantage, in fact, Luigi sucks".
Luigi may not be a solo main viable character, as major tournaments have shown. But his capabilities as a pocket? Well if Larry beating/forcing ESAM off Pika isn't enough indication to you that he's extremely dangerous at top level, AND you think Pikachu is top 3, I'm going to question your logical deduction.

I will say that the rise of power level/popularity of MK, Marth, Ike, Wario and others could give us the same result as Dedede did, but those 5 characters above aren't suddenly becoming non-relevant unless major balance changes come in (well, sonic has been nerfed enough times now to draw skepticism from me, at least a little), so Luigi will still continue to be extremely relevant. And unless we see more characters out there that are indefinitely better as solo characters, they don't deserve to be above Luigi who's dominating half (or more) the characters you think are good.

-----

Anyway, updating the notable player's list stuff, derivative "data". You could say Little Mac, Brawler, Palutena, Wii Fit are outliers in this sense, but in my mind the Rayquaza to borderline wraps up what I would consider high tier-ish at this stage. Megaman used to be considered highly but has essentially fallen off the face of the Earth.
Brawler, Palutena and WiiFit with customs obviously are getting boons that shoot them up a lot higher than customs off, this giving strong indication how much better they can be with more options.
Little Mac is... the Luigi-minus? Considering my previous argument/point. If we want to underrate Mac, theory allows us to put him in bottom tier, but we know that's not what happens. So his overall "power level"? Well being up there with staple high tiers may be a stretch, but is he able to compete with them? Well if he couldn't, he likely wouldn't have the alright results associated with him.

29 (30 with Dark Pit) associated, so if I were to cut down on them to reduce to half the cast it would be the aforementioned four plus Toon Link.

Pika has the second best matchup spread in the game, including going even with Sheik. Quick attack is the best move in the game. Those things alone make Pika top 3.

 

[Ffamran]

Falcon's range actually isn't all that great especially for his height and size, for example characters like Luigi and Lucario have better horizontal reach than he does surprisingly. Meanwhile ZSS outranges Sheik while having less landing lag and more power, but worse frame data, closer to that of Falcon (although after Falcon's nerf ZSS' bair is superior in pretty much every way except for ease of use). What characters have moves that outrange ZSS' nair and/or bair? I'm sure Shulk does, but not certain about others.

I think you read my post a little bit wrong. I noted that Ike and Shulk have good landing lag data or good auto-cancels despite their range, damage, and power. The other characters, Sheik, Luigi, Captain Falcon, and ZSS are just characters with good landing lag that I noted. Kirby and Lucario too, but people don't really know since people just don't think about them at all except to bring up Kirby as "anti-Sheik" and Lucario as "anti-game". I could have mentioned Fox, Mario, Peach, and even Falco, but only Falco would be considered a, "What?! He doesn't have landing and end lag slower than Bowser?!" Pretty sure Villager has good landing lag too.

 

[TheReflexWonder]

Rage is alright for Lucario, but it's a drop in the bucket that is his aura mechanic, far as I know.

 

[Man Li Gi]

@ Shaya
Smogon.com is a pretty good website. Ur forgetting BL2, BL3, and PU.

 

[Shaya]

Pika has the second best matchup spread in the game, including going even with Sheik. Quick attack is the best move in the game. Those things alone make Pika top 3.

Pika having the second best match up spread in the game is EXTREMELY rich.
Sheik vs Pika results are HEAVILY in Sheik's favour. Actually, honestly, the amount of sets Pikachu has taken off top sheiks? I'm aware of zero, zilch, nil, nada, NONE. So yeah, definitely even with Sheik

results are indicative in one direction as well.
Edit: took out sonic (Djent explanation; ty)

 

[Baby_Sneak]

Pika having the second best match up spread in the game is EXTREMELY rich.
Sheik vs Pika results are HEAVILY in Sheik's favour. Actually, honestly, the amount of sets Pikachu has taken off top sheiks? I'm aware of zero, zilch, nil, nada, NONE. So yeah, definitely even with Sheik

results are indicative in one direction as well.

Didn't know MUs were easy to figure out.

 

[Ikes]

Pika having the second best match up spread in the game is EXTREMELY rich.
Sheik vs Pika results are HEAVILY in Sheik's favour. Actually, honestly, the amount of sets Pikachu has taken off top sheiks? I'm aware of zero, zilch, nil, nada, NONE. So yeah, definitely even with Sheik

results are indicative in one direction as well.

how many times has ESAM met sheik in tournament?

Would help us know about this MU, especially if the games were all close

 

[FullMoon]

Hmm, I think Luigi is probably the most anti-meta character in the game right now. Like Shaya said he beats a lot of the characters that many place in their top 5, but at the same time he has a good number of bad MUs with non-top tiers.

If other good characters like Greninja, Pac-Man, Toon Link and Megaman were more widely used (I think all those beat Luigi?), then he would be a lot less successful, right now Luigi is thriving on the fact that a good number of the characters he loses to aren't present enough to stop him from getting results.

If we did make a tier list based solely on MU spread, then sure, Luigi is a bit underwhelming compared to most other top tiers. When we look at the current meta and the characters that thriving like the five Shaya mentioned though, while at the same time most of Luigi's "counters" show up irregularly for one reason or another, we see that the current meta is just being very kind to Luigi.