Viable without de-sync

[Soyaccino]

I know there’s been quite a bit of discussion about de-sync ever since these little darlings wandered back into our screen but...
Are they viable without it?
Take it totally out of the equation for instance.
Are they strong enough to work on, spend time on and really match up against the vast majority of characters currently being deemed to ‘put tier’ them?
I love them btw. But I do struggle at times seeing what their niche battle plan is?
Any feedback??

 

[Cheryl~]

To be frank, probably not. Back in Melee before their desyncs and wobbling were discovered the Ice Climbers were mostly considered as a low to low-mid tier character and I'd say it's the same case here. While they still have a decent combo game without desyncs thanks to Down-Throw, ICs will still struggle to actually get in to get the D-Throw and even though they can rack up damage easily with stuff like Up-Air (one of the best changes they received in this game), they can have a hard time killing due to their stubby range on their Smash attacks and F-Air. Couple that with being somewhat light and having to deal with Nana's screwy A.I. in this game, and it just makes for an underwhelming character compared to the rest of the cast. Not as bad as, say, Kirby/Bowser Jr./Little Mac, but still not a great character overall.

Now with desyncs mastered, ICs will have a much higher potential for killing and just doing everything better overall, so yeah in order for ICs to be totally viable, it would be wise to practice and optimize your desyncs.

 

[Winter]

Desyncing happens pretty naturally throughout the match- there are several points where Nana and Popo will fall out of sync for a specials, during throws, or after movement options, where you just start throwing out two offset moves.

I definitely believe they're a viable character without memorizing and grinding the 70% desync combos, but I also desync pretty naturally just by pushing the character and buffering additional moves while playing.