The Complete Mario Matchup Thread

TL;DR version: Get matchup experience, and play your best. Don't get gimped early, do not try to make an attempt to chain Uairs, tilts, or any of the usual stuff. Find a stage where you feel most comfortable on.

Counterpicks: Any stage with a low ceiling can work more in your favor than his. Consider Brinstar, Halberd, and Green Greens if it's legal in your area. If you're forced to pick a neutral, go FD. Every time, it takes away his platform control.

Bans: Rainbow Cruise. Meta Knight dominates this stage.

Additional Info & Matchup Tidbits: If there was ever a time when you should play defensive, now is that time. His Tornado can be FLUDDed offstage if you time it right, and caping his glide puts him a considerable distance away. He'll be forced to either Shuttle Loop, or Drill Rush his way back. Predict it, and you'll get an early gimp that could win you the match.

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TL;DR version: Snake has a pretty simple game. Tilts and grenades for the most part. A good deal of their game revolves around C4, and mortar sliding to get out or trouble. Snake has excellent boxing, with very fast jabs and tilts. Play midrange, stay in the air. Snake has generally bad aerials. Bair and Uair being his only decent ones, with Nair and Dair being DIable. He'll try to recover high, keep pounding him down with Fairs, if you get the chance.

Counterpicks: Stages like Jungle Japes take away Snake's staple killer. Lylat and Yoshi's Island will also suffice.

Bans: Halberd, Smashville, or any stage with a low ceiling, for obvious reasons.

Additional Info & Matchup Tidbits: You can grab Snake out of cypher by a ledge. Don't pummel, and he'll be released for a potential KO. He can DI into C4 to save himself, but you can either FLUDD him away, or toss a fireball. You can also cape his Usmash.

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TL;DR version: Don't get grabbed, avoid the Usmash, and don't take pikmin damage. Nair is your staple move here, it destroys pikmin, and puts pressure on Olimar. Your air game is better than his, mainly because you have that speed and range. His recovery's fairly laughable, he's one of the easier gimps.

Counterpicks: Jungle Japes come to mind. His main killer is taken out by the high ceiling, and the water kills all but the blue pikmin.

Bans: Final Destination. Any place that gives him room to camp.

Additional Info & Matchup Tidbits: When recovering, they'll whistle for super-armor. Either cape or Nair their recovery. Keep an eye out for the tether as an offensive move. Be wary of purple pikmin for the early KO, and blue ones can kill early with a back throw.

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TL;DR version: Watch out for Bair and Uair spacing, Ice Climbers have deceiving range. The obvious chaingrabs can be avoided by Dair camping the entire match. Seperate and kill the CPU climber, taking on the solo climber if your best bet. Solo climber is by far the easiest character to gimp. Put pressure on them

Counterpicks: Lylat and Rainbow Cruise aren't very good for the climbers, surprisingly enough.

Bans: Final Destionation and Smashville. Any other neutral is fine.

Additional Info & Matchup Tidbits: When attempting to desync, that's your best chance at seprating the two. Just Bair the other climber offstage while keeping the player at bay. Fireballs go through their desynced Blizzard, to retreating FB's work well. If they don't damage the players' climber, it still only makes the CPU weaker, which isn't a bad this. To keep it concise, don't get grabbed. Play defensively, and always retreat your aerials. Don't get shieldgrabbed, but rather play a good deal of this match campy. Seperate them at all costs, and get them offstage, since their only reliable "GTFO" aerials are Nair and Bair.

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Not a very hard matchup at all, he's no real threat if you're not on FD. Control bananas, play patiently. Go Rainbow Cruise if you want to be agressive, or Battlefield and abuse platform control. Diddy can't kill as early as he'd like to, so keep finishers fresh. His recovery's gimpable, so go ahead and be as reckless as possible. You really shouldn't lose if it's not on FD.

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HeroMystic said:

**** him up.

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KirinBlaze said:

The most we can do is space bair's, maybe a few Uair's to try and get some combos and using our awesome jab up close and some Utilts. Bait his aerials and punish the landing lag with a stutter step Fsmash to KO.

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Game and Watches moves of choice are gonna be Bair, Nair, Dair, Dtilt, Up-B, Fsmash, Dsmash, Upsmash, and the Bucket, for braking, of course. Use fireballs sparringly. Poke at his shield with Dair, and space witb bair. One of the best choices for an approach in this matchup is an aerial fireball, followed by a fastfalled Nair to Jab combo. It puts enormous pressure on his shield, and you can grab before he might. He's near ungimpable, so hope he recovers from below, and capestall for a lucky edgehog. Spend as little time as possible on the ground. If you can, timeout the match, it's just that hard. Up-B OoS if he goes for a bair.

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Matador said:

50:50 if not 45:55 DK.

We've already gone over the obvious stuff like DK's weight, KO power, and gimpable recovery, so I'll just go ahead into specifics.

Cape ***** DK close to worst in the game onstage. Reason being that cape is safe on shield meaning capejump to bait shieldgrabs, shield pokes, DK has no disjointed hitboxes so it outprioritizes his everything, AND he has alot of dedicated attacks. Use it whenever you feel vulnerable or you predict an attack. It'll work wonders. Don't be afraid to pivot backwards while grounded.

Fireballs are your best friend for approaching (if you plan to approach) so keep them handy. Don't be afraid to lob them offstage before you come in for a cape gimp if you're trying to force an upB out of him. Speaking of which, DK's recovery is easily gimped by cape, BUT DK can just as easily recover high to protect himself. If you can manage it, Fair meteor works well on DK because of his short vertical recovery. DK also has an insane momentum cancel with upB that works as well as G&W's, but leaves him in a freefall afterwards. Punish this at any cost. Cape will certainly do the trick. DK's upB is ridiculously amazing on the ledge. The invincibility frames on startup and the initial knockback give it the ability to easily beat our upB and allows him to auto-regrab the ledge. For this reason, I wouldn't recommend capeglide vs DK since he could easily grab the ledge before you get to return. Try your best to stay out of this situation; there aren't many options for you here.

Unless you're on a stage with a low ceiling, don't bother saving your Usmash. Like A2 already said, it is amazing in this matchup because of its priority and where it puts DK above your head. Just don't forget that your Utilt is also great for getting DK above you for combos. Grabbing is essential in this matchup as well, since DK's not safe to attack on shield. Stay unpredictable because DK's grab range >>> yours, so grabbing from the front is only safe if you're faster grabbing than he is.

If you're in KO range, remember than DK's safest KO move is Utilt (unstale). It's quick and kills at around 110% IIRC. Next is Uair, which makes capestalling above him ridiculously unsafe because of how high he jumps. This alone is why I think BF isn't as good as it normally is for Mario in this particular matchup. Dsmash usually follows the novice DK's spotdodge, but a seasoned one will often use the initial hit of Dsmash (while DK has his arms above his head) to kill. Generally around 110% is where you'll find this killing, and it's the most likely to be unstale since it's the least safe. DK's Fsmash can kill at stupid low percentages, so don't get hit by it; it could cost the entire match.

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Edit: DK can cargo spike at higher % if you don't mash out quick enough, but under 100%, you can easily escape it by holding up on the control stick when he grabs you. You'll break out every time. This requires no timing or anything. Once he's grabbed you, just hold up until you're out.

While platforms give him about as much of an advantage as they give us, I'd probably still go BF since we can keep pressure well here, and DASS (dash attack stage spike) works on its ledges. FD I personally wouldn't try because of how easily he could wall us with Bairs there. I can't think of a stage that gives us a huge advantage though.

Overall, I'm thinking 50:50 or slight advantage DK because he completely outranges Mario, kills much faster, and can wall very well with his Bair to keep Mario from getting in constantly. Once he's got his momentum, it's hard to stop him. If the Mario is adept at comboing and gimping however, DK is in trouble because approaching DK isn't all that difficult even with Bair.

In the event that you live in an area that still hasn't realized how bad Luigis is and you're forced to play DK here, keep one half of the mansion destroyed at all costs and camp on that side. If DK has to approach you, the threat of his downB is gone until he's successfully gotten within your range. Don't forget to jab lock either.

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A2ZOMG said:

It's a hard matchup...I think in his favor slightly, but winnable as long as you aren't on Japes.

Crouch and Cape lasers appropriately. Make sure you do not crouch for extended periods of time otherwise Mario will do the stupid animation that makes him able to be hit by lasers. <_<

Fireballs are still useful, if only for manipulating him at a distance. He will usually try to reflect them back.

His CG is devastating...however you can get him back with U-tilt and U-air juggles if you can read him right on one D-throw. When it comes to kill moves, Mario's kill moves are slightly better, but this is counterbalanced by the fact that Falco is going to harass you with laser camping the entire time, and if you jump into a laser and get unlucky, it might just combo into a boost Up-smash.

Yoshis is a pretty good stage against him IMO. The stage is the right size for controlling space against his recovery, and the depression in the middle is VERY helpful for ducking under his lasers.

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Falco's easy if you know what to expect. Be on the offensive for that matchup, and pressure them. Throw, as often as possible. Mario has the better air game, so avoid his tilts. He'll be looking to edgeguard with bair, just SJP and that stops his guarding of the edge. FLUDD *****, so if you have some spare time, always charge it.

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