Working on a guide for choosing a main and need your help!

[WispBae]

Hello there!

With the Smash scene growing and many more new players still to come, I though I would make a little guide highlighting each characters strengths and specialties, to help anyone take their first step into competitive Smash, or for anyone contemplating picking up another to their personal roster!

The main dilemma I have is I don't main EVERYONE in P:M, nor am I a self-proclaimed Smash genius. So, I thought I'd ask you guys, the experts to your respective mains! If you could help me out by filling out a few lines of info for me, I'll be collecting the data and responses during the week and compiling them. Once it's all collected, I'll release the guide (somewhere on the boards, not sure yet...). So if you could take a few minutes to help, I would really appreciate it!

Pros: Strengths and advantages of this character!
Cons: Weaknesses and disadvantages!
Character Specifics to Learn: Techniques exclusive to only this character (example: Squirtle's shell abilities)
Similar To: Characters that play similar to this one or have a similar strategy.
Secondaries that Compliment: A secondary character that covers certain weaknesses the main has.
(Optional) Best video example of this character in action.

Cheers!
(Sorry if you see this thread posted in multiple character forums, I find the best way to gather info is to ask directly!)

...even though I main Zard, I don't feel qualified enough to voice my opinions XD

 

[leekslap]

http://smashboards.com/threads/how-to-train-your-dragon-meta-game-guide-for-charizard-3-0-2.365650/
There you go.

Puff, Marth and Ike are pretty simlar to Zard.

Projectiles and pressure are his main weaknesses so someone like Fox or Marth could be good.

metroid is by far the best Zard so any video with him will do.

P.S. I barely play Zard and I came up with this stuff so you're probably more qualified than me.

 

[Heroofhatz]

http://smashboards.com/threads/how-to-train-your-dragon-meta-game-guide-for-charizard-3-0-2.365650/
There you go.

Puff, Marth and Ike are pretty simlar to Zard.

Projectiles and pressure are his main weaknesses so someone like Fox or Marth could be good.

metroid is by far the best Zard so any video with him will do.

P.S. I barely play Zard and I came up with this stuff so you're probably more qualified than me.

So first of all, thanks for sharing my guide and for your critiques on it, I'll be editing sometime shortly if all goes well.

However I would like like to ask you about some of the things you posted.

I don't see how Zard plays anything like Puff, and have a hard time seeing how he plays like Ike either, so if you could clarify that would be great.

I do agree that he plays a like Marth, very zoney and grab heavy, but with less safe on shield stuff in exchange for some more range and speed.

I would even gander that Zard can be played a little like Falcon, in that he can get a lot of tech chase opportunities that lead into stomp Dair combos.

And while Metroid is one of the best Zards, he is well known among most Zard mains as having a very odd style of play comparatively. Don't forget to check out the video discussion thread which has tons of our top players, most notably, Ikuzen, Mask, Metroid, John #'s, and myself. All of us have radically different styles which lends Zard to being played in radically different ways, so it's hard to nail down who plays him correctly per say.


Also, while my guide does voice a lot of the points the thread is asking for, let me add a few things since the guide was written a while ago, but never uploaded.

Pros and Cons remain the same

Charater specifics to learn:
OOoooohhhhh boy, there's a lot. Many of Zard's more advanced techniques revolve around learning how to control glide, B reversing and wave bouncing both the start up and cancel of the move. In addition you have a multitude of things you can do with Glair and glide ledge tech, quite a bit outlined in the guide. In addition you have Zard's dash attack against the ledge which can lead into a million different things, but for most of it, check out the guide.

Similar characters: Marth and very slightly Falcon

Secondaries: Pretty much all of the Zard mains in the Skype group say the MK is a good compliment MU wise, or even Mewtwo due to their ability to deal with projectiles fairly effectively

If you guys have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

 

[leekslap]

So first of all, thanks for sharing my guide and for your critiques on it, I'll be editing sometime shortly if all goes well.

However I would like like to ask you about some of the things you posted.

I don't see how Zard plays anything like Puff, and have a hard time seeing how he plays like Ike either, so if you could clarify that would be great.

I do agree that he plays a like Marth, very zoney and grab heavy, but with less safe on shield stuff in exchange for some more range and speed.

I would even gander that Zard can be played a little like Falcon, in that he can get a lot of tech chase opportunities that lead into stomp Dair combos.

And while Metroid is one of the best Zards, he is well known among most Zard mains as having a very odd style of play comparatively. Don't forget to check out the video discussion thread which has tons of our top players, most notably, Ikuzen, Mask, Metroid, John #'s, and myself. All of us have radically different styles which lends Zard to being played in radically different ways, so it's hard to nail down who plays him correctly per say.


Also, while my guide does voice a lot of the points the thread is asking for, let me add a few things since the guide was written a while ago, but never uploaded.

Pros and Cons remain the same

Charater specifics to learn:
OOoooohhhhh boy, there's a lot. Many of Zard's more advanced techniques revolve around learning how to control glide, B reversing and wave bouncing both the start up and cancel of the move. In addition you have a multitude of things you can do with Glair and glide ledge tech, quite a bit outlined in the guide. In addition you have Zard's dash attack against the ledge which can lead into a million different things, but for most of it, check out the guide.

Similar characters: Marth and very slightly Falcon

Secondaries: Pretty much all of the Zard mains in the Skype group say the MK is a good compliment MU wise, or even Mewtwo due to their ability to deal with projectiles fairly effectively

If you guys have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

For some reason I play any multiple jump character like Puff including my main Meta Knight. I was thinking of Brawl Ike and my brother's Zard. I DID say I barely play Zard. I've only see metroid and John Numbers play but I'd be interested to see you play. I also wanna know why metroid is so different.

 

[Heroofhatz]

Soooo...that still didn't really answer my question about how you thought that he plays like Ike or Puff, I'm still curious as to why you think they play similar.

True he has multiple jumps, but his air speed is trash compared to Puff's, yet he has obscenely more range in the air and speed on the ground.
Also I'm not quite sure what you mean by Brawl Ike, since I wasn't that big of Brawl player.

Metroid is very different in that he plays Zard as a very grounded character and very rarely takes to the air, he'd rather jab and ftilt on the ground than try and use RAR Nair to space. This is partially because he sets his Cstick to "attack" instead of "smash" because it allows him to Ftilt and Jab with the Cstick. John plays very Nair heavy and very campy, he'll wait for people to try and challenge him in the air then outrange them. Ikuzen is probably the best mix of all of the basic styles, with a lot of interesting stuff but more characterized by very efficient shield dropping and glide control. Mask plays him like Falcon, getting tech chases and Dair combos, as well as a lot of crazy glide wave bouncing and B reversing. I play Zard really zoney, putting out a lot of spaced RAR Nairs trying to catch people with bad spacing or anti air jab/Ftilt people as they approach.

If you're wanting to learn more about Zard, I would recommend checking out the Skype group, that's where the bulk of the information about Zard is shared and discussed.

 

[leekslap]

Soooo...that still didn't really answer my question about how you thought that he plays like Ike or Puff, I'm still curious as to why you think they play similar.

True he has multiple jumps, but his air speed is trash compared to Puff's, yet he has obscenely more range in the air and speed on the ground.
Also I'm not quite sure what you mean by Brawl Ike, since I wasn't that big of Brawl player.

Metroid is very different in that he plays Zard as a very grounded character and very rarely takes to the air, he'd rather jab and ftilt on the ground than try and use RAR Nair to space. This is partially because he sets his Cstick to "attack" instead of "smash" because it allows him to Ftilt and Jab with the Cstick. John plays very Nair heavy and very campy, he'll wait for people to try and challenge him in the air then outrange them. Ikuzen is probably the best mix of all of the basic styles, with a lot of interesting stuff but more characterized by very efficient shield dropping and glide control. Mask plays him like Falcon, getting tech chases and Dair combos, as well as a lot of crazy glide wave bouncing and B reversing. I play Zard really zoney, putting out a lot of spaced RAR Nairs trying to catch people with bad spacing or anti air jab/Ftilt people as they approach.

If you're wanting to learn more about Zard, I would recommend checking out the Skype group, that's where the bulk of the information about Zard is shared and discussed.

Yeah when I posted I didn't really think and for some reason puff just came to me. Brawl Ike has great range and power like Zard but lacked in movement, combos, and recovery which is how my brother plays Zard lol(he is so bad)! I don't really check too indepth on characters I don't play and I don't even have Skype, I use my Samsung tablet to use the internet. I just have a lot of knowledge on Tink, MK, and Olimar.

 

[Linux_F_Smash]

I play Zard like Bowser, just with less armor and power, but Zard is faster and has a much better recovery than Bowser. Basic I play the two the same way because i feel like several of their hit boxes match up pretty well to make them interchangeable in play style. That is just my opinion though....

Pros: speed(for weight), multiple jumps, great recovery, strong attacks, disjointed tail hit boxes and good combos.

Cons: no projectile(not counting fire breath), some slow attacks, punishable for missing attacks, Easily to combo

I think Zard is a great character with multiple ways to play and no wrong unless you are losing then you might want to adjust your style.