Counterpicking Made Easy

[MenoUnderwater]

Knowing your enemy and how they will react to their environment could be the deciding factor in whether victory is a sure thing or something almost unobtainable. Below, a working list of all the characters in Brawl and their general consensus on what are their 3 best and 3 worst stages. The easy way to counterpick!

Please help contribute to the empty spaces or correct existing ones.

Bowser
Best: Norfair, Battlefield, Castle Siege
Worst: Jungle Japes, Brinstar

Captain Falcon
Best: Battlefield, Pokemon Stadium 1, Norfair
Worst: Final Destination, Smashville, Jungle Japes

Diddy Kong
Best: Final Destination, Battlefield, Smashville
Worst: Brinstar, Rainbow Cruise

Donkey Kong
Best: Brinstar, Jungle Japes, Luigi's Mansion
Worst: Frigate Orpheon, Rainbow Cruise

Falco
Best: Jungle Japes, Final Destination, Smashville
Worst: Norfair, Rainbow Cruise, Luigi's Mansion

Fox
Best: Smashville, Final Destination
Worst: Delfino Plaza, Lylat Cruise, Luigi's Mansion

Game & Watch
Best: Rainbow Cruise, Green Greens, Norfair
Worst: Final Destination, Yoshi's Island (Brawl), Luigi's Mansion

Ganondorf
Best: Pirate Ship, Norfair, Brinstar
Worst: Rainbow Cruise, Port Town Aero Drive

Ice Climbers
Best: Final Destination, Smashville, Pictochat
Worst: Rainbow Cruise, Norfair

Ike
Best: Green Greens, Pirate Ship, Norfair
Worst: Jungle Japes, Frigate Orpheon, Luigi's Mansion

Jigglypuff
Best: Jungle Japes, Frigate Orpheon, Smashville
Worst: Green Greens

King Dedede
Best: Green Greens, Pokemon Stadium 1, Delfino Plaza
Worst: Jungle Japes, Brinstar, Norfair

Kirby
Best: Jungle Japes, Rainbow Cruise, Delfino Plaza
Worst: Pirate Ship, Yoshi's Island (Melee)

Link
Best: Rainbow Cruise, Norfair, Smashville
Worst: Frigate Orpheon, Jungle Japes

Lucario
Best: Luigi's Mansion, Jungle Japes, Frigate Orpheon
Worst: Green Greens, Rainbow Cruise

Lucas
Best: Norfair, Brinstar, Luigi's Mansion
Worst: Lylat Cruise, Yoshi's Island

Luigi
Best: Brinstar, Norfair, Frigate Orpheon
Worst: Final Destination, Jungle Japes

Mario
Best: Yoshi's Island, Smashville, Battlefield
Worst: Jungle Japes, Pirate Ship

Marth
Best: Battlefield, Delfino Plaza, Norfair
Worst: Brinstar, Jungle Japes

Meta Knight
Best: Luigi's Mansion, Rainbow Cruise, Delfino Plaza
Worst: Yoshi's Island (Melee), Green Greens, Final Destination

Ness
Best: Delfino Plaza, Brinstar, Pirate Ship
Worst: Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Island (Melee)

Olimar
Best: Yoshi's Island (Melee), Halberd, Luigi's Mansion
Worst: Rainbow Cruise, Jungle Japes, Frigate Orpheon

Peach
Best: Jungle Japes, Luigi's Mansion, Brinstar
Worst: Rainbow Cruise

Pikachu
Best: Norfair, Final Destination, Smashville
Worst: Luigi's Mansion, Battlefield

Pit
Best: Norfair, Lylat Cruise, Final Destination
Worst: Pokemon Stadium 1

Pokémon Trainer
Best: Brinstar, Norfair, Pictochat
Worst: Frigate Orpheon, Jungle Japes

Squirtle
Best: Brinstar, Norfair, Battlefield
Worst: Jungle Japes, Pokemon Stadium 2, Pictochat

Ivysaur
Best: Norfair, Brinstar, Green Greens
Worst: Rainbow Cruise, Frigate Orpheon, Port Town Aero Drive

Charizard
Best: Halberd, Pokemon Stadium 1, Castle Siege
Worst: Norfair, Battlefield

R.O.B.
Best: Frigate Orpheon, Luigi's Mansion, Jungle Japes
Worst: Distant Planet, Norfair, Brinstar

Samus
Best: Battlefield, Final Destination
Worst: Jungle Japes, Yoshi's Island

Sheik
Best: Battlefield, Halberd
Worst: Jungle Japes

Snake
Best: Norfair, Halberd, Smashville
Worst: Jungle Japes

Sonic
Best: Rainbow Cruise, Yoshi's Island
Worst: Brinstar

Toon Link
Best: Rainbow Cruise, Pirate Ship
Worst: Castle Siege, Luigi's Mansion

Wario
Best: Rainbow Cruise, Jungle Japes, Frigate Orpheon
Worst: Final Destination

Wolf
Best: Smashville, Yoshi's Island
Worst: Lylat Cruise, Frigate Orpheon

Yoshi
Best: Halberd, Final Destination, Rainbow Cruise
Worst: Jungle Japes, Green Greens, Frigate Orpheon

Zelda
Best: Battlefield, Luigi's Mansion, Smashville
Worst: Lylat Cruise, Norfair, Rainbow Cruise

Zero Suit Samus
Best: Pokemon Stadium 1, Lylat Cruise, Battlefield,
Worst: Jungle Japes, Frigate Orpheon, Castle Siege

Keep in mind this is just a general outlook on how characters do on specific stages - not to mention a democratic one. To truly excel in choosing the correct counterpick against any character or player look at things personally and carefully; don't blindly follow a list.

I'll only list stages Counter-Banned and up.
Here's the official list of legal stages: SBR Recommended Rule List v2.0: Brawl.

I also recommend watching this: The Art of Counterpicking Stages.

[BlazingKatakiri]

Rainbow Cruise is definitly the worst stage for Sonic. (No room to run)
And I'm pretty sure Green Greens is the worst for Marth.

[MysticKenji]

Originally Posted by BlazingKatakiri

And I'm pretty sure Green Greens is the worst for Marth.

I can't really see why.

And I'm pretty sure that JJ is worse than Frigate for Ike, but since it might be banned...idk.

[peeup]

Delfino plaza is certainly not the best stage for DK. Pokemon Stadium 1 is, its very easy to stage spike with the cargo toss, and the terrain can discourage camping; campers give DK a hard time.

[SauceKay]

I like this thread.
Like a lot.
Thank you.

[SuSa]

Sheik-Best- Battllefield - Reason: She has a good aerial game, with the platforms you can play many mindgames, Sheik may recover from nearly anywhere as long as she isn't edgehogged. The platforms help her play mindgames with the needles, if an enemy is on the platform above you and you upsmash, so far for me its been a 100% "sweetspotted" (I used that term loosely) up-smash and is powerful. Her Teleports can hit people on the platforms as well. she can more easily gimp (and sometimes KO) and recover here.

Zelda- Best-Smashville - Reason: small enough to actually spike with her, and her sweespot kick has an easier time KO'ing then Final D, plus she can recover from basically any point in the stage including a "Din's Fire Recovery" and still be saved by the platform if they try to edgehog, if you want to say FD then I guess it depends more on if you use Dins Fire more

I don't really have any "worst" picks, because they both do good on neutral stages, and I haven't really played any matches with counterpicks.

[_Phloat_]

I would say you should definitely change Game and Watch's best stage from Yoshi's Story to Rainbow Cruise. I have never heard that he is actually good at yoshi story (Besides his character that is good anywhere) he really doesn't have that much going for him there.


Rainbow Cruise is an amazing GaW stage, and many good GaW's counterpick it so they can have a great advantage.

[MenoUnderwater]

Most of the information was gathered by scavenging through each of the character boards, mainly guides and "best stage" threads. You can see some of the boards didn't have these - some not even a guide. So forgive me for some of the misinformation at the moment.

[SuSa]

Does anyone mind linking me to an official list of legal counterpicks? I want to play as my Sheik/Zelda on them versing different people, to get a feel for which I do horrid on.

[Anomic_Punk]

I'd say perhaps Stadium 1 or Yoshi's Island are Pit's worst stages. They make him have to recover like everyone else.
lol

[AlexX]

Battlefield is probably the best STARTER stage for Ike, but I wouldn't say it's the best possible. I believe Corneria gets that award.

I also fail to see how Jungle Japes is the worst for him...

[MenoUnderwater]

Originally Posted by Havokk

Does anyone mind linking me to an official list of legal counterpicks? I want to play as my Sheik/Zelda on them versing different people, to get a feel for which I do horrid on.

It's the first link at the bottom of the OP.

[MysticKenji]

Originally Posted by Havokk

Does anyone mind linking me to an official list of legal counterpicks? I want to play as my Sheik/Zelda on them versing different people, to get a feel for which I do horrid on.

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=187736

SBR list

[SuSa]

Originally Posted by MenoUnderwater

It's the first link at the bottom of the OP.

I'm sorry, I totally missed that ^^;

[Arturito_Burrito]

Rainbow cruise is Ike's worst stage and for the best it maybe Norfair or Battle field.