VS "grapple" Mario

[Phoenix502]

no, I'm not talking about some run of the mill Mario... i just blocked a Mario player out of salt induced rage, and the fact that for most of the matches against him involved him punishing my shulk with almost nothing but grabs is frustrating. i tried grabbing back, and i tried other characters, including Robin, Toon Link, Sonic, and Salty Mac... none of them could beat this mario...

Upthrow to Uptilt chain is painful, and he follows up with Upair juggles... nothing I got can rack up that much damage that early or THAT F***ING FAST... reliably

I'm currently trying hard not to let the salt cause me to rant, so I'll just ask...

what does Shulk have that can counter a grab happy homo Mario...?

 

[Zephil]

Speed and Jump are your friends. DON'T USE BUSTER AT LOWER %s, Mario takes more advantage of this than you.

When approaching make sure to always land behind Mario. If you are playing defensively, space more with dtilt and ftilt and if mario is aproaching by the air short hop backwards fair works very well.

Pay attention to Mario's main way of going for grabs: running grab, running shield grab, shield grab punish, or pivot grab.

If its running grab or pivot grab just make sure to have a hitbox in front of you when you see him approaching.

If its running shield grab its all about spacing your moves, the short hop fair and even nair works well here.

And if its punish shield grab then be more careful in your approaches.

 

[ZcK]

If he shield-grab you, then you could try f-tilt bustah as it pushes him far enough from his grab range and if you are fast enough or if he tries to run-grab you then you can punish. But then again if he grabs you with buster then he will rack up more damage.

So if you want more options then run with speed and grab him if he is waiting for you to attack, otherwise you can jump(Not so close to him by the way) and N-air him while the poor thing tries to grab you. There is a video somewhere were this is used in a incredibily happy way.

Also jump may work if you are willing to get away from him until he starts getting more aggresive with aerials you can punish with a well spaced N-air.

If nothing works then just use Smash and that will launch far enough from more strings, just spotdodge everything and get away if everything else fails.

Also never approach with an N- air or F-air unless they get you behind him or far away from his evil hand.

Dont get to predictable with the arts by the way.

 

[Masonomace]

A slight obscure thing you can do is activate Smash on to avoid those pesky D-throw > U-tilts & U-air > U-air airborne. Your Knockback defense so-to-speak reduces thus you escape them easier. Ofc Smash's fault is glaring, but early game you free yourself from those combo setups so you avoid damage while dealing 50% less damage. Take it or leave it for the example.

 

[erico9001]

Something Jerm brought up in his video guide is when in Mjump falling they are going to expect aerials and try to go for shield -> grab. So to trick them out you can land without an aerial, far enough away from their grab, and do a quick dash grab on them. Don't just keep doing this though; you want to be unpredictable. Once you successfully do this once he may be more hesitant to just shield grab. He might try to roll away instead the next time. Who knows.

One thing though - were you online? I play mostly online too, so I'm not going to criticize or anything, but reactions to grabs are going to be slower. For instance, you're shielding and going for a spot dodge to avoid the grab you know is coming, but due to online lag your spot dodge input does not happen soon enough. Idk if this has relevance to you, but it definitely affects my playstyle when online.