When should I pick up a secondary?

[skwaag5233]

I'm a marth main and have been playing competitively for about a month now. At my most recent tournament (Low Tier City 2) I had my taste of bad matchups - most notably shieks who I have trouble even taking a stock against - and this got me thinking about maybe picking up a secondary for some matchups At the same time though I feel like it would probably slow my improvement if I tried training two characters at once.

At what point should people pick up secondaries?

 

[STiCKYBULL3TZ]

You should keep playing Marth and focus heavily on the Marth vs Sheik matchup. Head to the Marth section and learn everything you can about it. You can get some great advice on Sheik's weaknesses as well as Marth's in the matchup. I would keep with the Marth main. If it comes down to a point where you feel you can't overcome a matchup against a certain character, then you should think about a secondary.

I would say to use a character you like as a secondary but your question seems geared toward competitive play.

 

[Spazzy]

Any point you really want to. As a samus main, I secondary fox so I have a fast faller and a floaty so it's good for all matchups.

 

[X WaNtEd X]

I think it's good to pick up a few secondaries for the sake of learning that character, but not for actual tournament play. Learning other characters is a great way for you to learn the matchup better. But for the most part, switching between characters at tournaments is quite hard at the higher levels of this game.

There's something to be said for character dedication; you pick up on a lot of really subtle things you wouldn't otherwise learn from switching around all the time. If you truly learn marth, you'll learn some obscure ways to get around bad matchups that'll allow you to absolutely stomp players that aren't ready for it. Turn your weaknesses into strengths. Of course, the best players will still beat you, but you'll just have to keep thinking about what you can do to get ahead. It's harder to think about things this way with multiple characters.

 

[JKJ]

I believe that picking up secondaries is the only way to gain comprehensive knowledge of other characters and their matchups with your character. I find that playing as a character gives you a base of knowledge that no amount of reading or matches can. For instance, you are able to know how it feels to be that character in situations that your character will put them in. Say you pick up Fox as a secondary and play against Marth. When you get hit offstage, you feel pressured and immediately jump and side-b. That means that you now know what to expect when you throw a panicking spacie offstage. More importantly, you know how the opponent is thinking, which gives you an immense advantage. Pick up as many secondaries as you can.

Pick up Sheik.