2 questions.

[misterpimp5757]

what is marios best stage?

what is the first thing i should do at the start of a match with mario?

[MBreeto]

FD, its a playground. And FJ B.... I'd wait until a legit mario user comes in to make a post, but thats what I do

[Judge Judy]

Mario's best stages are BF (Battlefield) and RC (Rainbow Cruise); Mario does well on stages where he can abuse his air and edge game more often, and platforms provide Mario with additional options (platform canceled aerials, additional fireball setups, cape gliding, etc.).

As far as what you should learn first with Mario, you should start off on learning the basics for everything and just add on as you progress, that and read the stickies of course.

PS: You could have just posted these questions in our Q&A thread.

[Mario_ 101]

also, a gud stage for mario is norfair (my personal fav stage), and at the start of a match u should usually start fireball spamming.

[A2ZOMG]

The problem with Mario and stages is that stages Mario does well on, usually there is someone who does better on that stage (not accounting for matchup values). Battlefield is a solid stage for Mario thanks to well-spaced platforms, but characters like G&W and Marth have more in terms of abusable exploits. Rainbow Cruise goes well in tandem with Mario's air game and camping, but ROB, Metaknight, and G&W do much better with better air games and recoveries that almost never get gimped.

All in all, battlefield is easily Mario's best stage overall, as nobody specifically overpowers Mario on this stage. When it comes to stages however, it's more about knowing your opponent when you use Mario.

In most matchups, Mario should either fireball camp or charge up FLUDD to start off, unless his opponent charges up something threatening, in which case he should pressure them with an approach to discourage that before they fully charge up.

[Kanzaki]

My favourate stages are Battlefield and Yoshi's Island(Brawl).

When a match starts, I always charge FLUDD, and after that, spam fireballs.