Remzi
formerly VaBengal
I have a ton of these little things I do that work really well for me, yet nobody else seems to be doing. If you read through this you'll probably find at least a few things you didn't know or never cared to implement into your game. I'll be updating this sporadically whenever I think of some more little things, I know there are a bunch more, but these are the ones that came to me:
12/22/09
-If you are playing someone who tends to SDI out of your standard DB combo, use the third up hit instead of the standard third hit to keep them in range for your 4th strike.
-If you are on a stage with a low ceiling, or are near the center of the stage and have a better chance of killing vertically, use reverse DS OoS rather than a standard DS. The back of DS's hitbox has strong vertical knockback and can kill vertically at surprisingly early percents.
-Fthrow to pivot grab at low-mid percents is awesome considering how many people like to airdodge after you dash at them. Not a lot of Marths do this for some reason. It usually puts you in a situation where you can dthrow or bthrow your opponent offstage also.
-If you dtilt someone extremely close to you or someone that is landing on you, theres a good chance they will end up behind you so be ready to pivot dtilt or B-reversal DB.
-If you need to create some extra breathing room after using a retreating aerial, craq walking followed by a pivot boost backwards covers a lot of ground extremely fast. Interrupt that with a turnaround jab, dtilt, or ftilt if you need to.
-You may notice that after fastfalling an aerial on a platform and trying to drop through with another aerial, you end up using a smash, jab, or dash attack instead. To prevent this, walk at least one step backwards or forwards after landing on the platform (right before you drop through it).
-I think I learned this one from Junk, but it's extremely helpful and for some reason almost nobody does it. Use the third down DB hit to create space between you and your opponent if you connect with their shield or they are spot dodging all of the hits. Marth takes a huge step backwards after that third DB hit, making it harder to be punished. In some cases your opponent will miscalculate how far away you are and punish with a short range move or a grab because they don't know about this little quirk.
-Use jab for platform pressure occasionally. Jab is Marth's only ground option that can attack someone on a platform twice in a short period of time. Tipped jabs have good shield pushback and can often knock people off platforms, thus setting up jab locks and what not.
-If you hit a shield with SB and it doesn't break, SPAM DANCING BLADE. DBs only real flaw is the fact that it is unsafe on block. When you have your opponent in a situation where they are afraid to shield, and actually can't block the entire string without it shield poking, there is no reason to not be spamming DB.
-If you barely survive a vertical kill move, shield breaker bounce back down at least every once in a while. It's a great option and is very hard to predict/punish. It's also not very well known since few people are actually using it.
-True pivots are useful for multiple reasons. They expand your approach options by allowing you to use smashes, pivot grabs, or really anything as approaches. That being said they aren't overly safe and should be used sparingly. Dashing and true pivoting backwards is solid way of baiting reactions.
-DIing horizontal kill moves down is usually considered the opposite of what you should do, but if you are on one end of the stage and are about to get hit across it (i.e you are standing on the right edge, and your opponent knocks you horizontally to the left), DI down and tech. Or at least hit into the stage and immediately double jump, as this also decreases momentum a lot.
1/21/2010
-Don't always crouch before you dtilt, it telegraphs it and makes it easy to react to. If you tilt down slightly, you can let out a dtilt from a standing position.
-Try ftilting, fairing, or nairing out of a crouch. When you are crouched people like to assume you will dtilt and often jump to get around it, ftilt and nair **** this. One thing I love to do is crouch when my opponent is hanging on the ledge, it usually forces a ledge jump or ledge hop which i can punish with one of the options i mentioned above.
-Everything is safe on block when your opponent is on the edge of the stage because they'll tumble right off. That's probably the best time to just throw out a kill move and hope for the best. This of course is a bad idea if you are playing someone who likes to spot dodge or has a really good roll.
-In a scenario where your opponent is offstage trying to recover, you are hanging onto the ledge, and they have the option of going for the ledge straight up or trying to actually land on the stage try this: ledge jump > fastfall ledge grab. When you ledge jump, people usually just go for the ledge assuming you will land on the stage, and that would of course give you an easy edgehog. They have to be a second or two away from actually attempting to use their up B when you ledge jump. This is a nice little mix up to throw in once every few matches.
8/18/10
-Frame 5 of Marth's jump is a dead frame (every character has a dead frame on the last frame of their jump). Anything you input on this frame is ignored, and if you input a bair or fair on this frame, Marth will jump backwards or forwards respectively. This tends to happen to people who aren't quick enough with their aerials. To avoid this, a lot of people claw. I personally don't find that comfortable, so what I do is just tap jump and input a c-stick aerial at the same time. It allows you to automatically short hop, completely avoids the dead frame, and insures that you will unleash the aerial on the first possible frame. This doesn't work for uair and obviously nair, and doing it with dair just isn't a good idea because sh dair is horrible, lol.
-Full jump Dair OoS is AMAZING. It is hands down, Marth's best tool for dealing crossups because it covers both sides of you and directly under you with a huge arc. It also allows for a bunch of mixups afterwards including first hit of nair and double jump fair.
-Here is a very easy yet extremely effective conditioning trick that I believe Shaya has mentioned before: empty SH -> FF -> dash grab. Its simple, make them attempt to shield a last second ff fair, and instead go in for the easy grab.
-Another one I'm going to credit to Shaya. He calls it "hairing." If you jump at the very edge of a stage or platform, the jump only takes one frame. You'll know you're doing it right because he will automatically full jump rather than short hop. This is great for quick edgeguards or a run-away bair. Things of that nature.
-Forced someone to up B onto the stage because you were hogging the ledge? Do NOT just ledge hop fair/nair or get on the stage and grab. Ledge hop over them and bair/nair. Sending them back offstage maximizes your positional advantage and allows you the best opportunity for more damage + an early kill.
-Remember that shield breaker has the most range of any move you have. It is not a gimmick move and is more than just a shield breaking tool or a "mindgame" device. It kind of sucks on the ground (unless you're landing with it), but in the air it is really amazing. A huge asset to my game. When you use it in the air, Marth narrows his hurtbox for a moment, which allows you to avoid your opponents aerial/anti-air attack and fire back with a quick long ranged counter. I seriously love this move.
---------------------------
That's all for now, if any of these need further explaining let me know.
Hope these help.
12/22/09
-If you are playing someone who tends to SDI out of your standard DB combo, use the third up hit instead of the standard third hit to keep them in range for your 4th strike.
-If you are on a stage with a low ceiling, or are near the center of the stage and have a better chance of killing vertically, use reverse DS OoS rather than a standard DS. The back of DS's hitbox has strong vertical knockback and can kill vertically at surprisingly early percents.
-Fthrow to pivot grab at low-mid percents is awesome considering how many people like to airdodge after you dash at them. Not a lot of Marths do this for some reason. It usually puts you in a situation where you can dthrow or bthrow your opponent offstage also.
-If you dtilt someone extremely close to you or someone that is landing on you, theres a good chance they will end up behind you so be ready to pivot dtilt or B-reversal DB.
-If you need to create some extra breathing room after using a retreating aerial, craq walking followed by a pivot boost backwards covers a lot of ground extremely fast. Interrupt that with a turnaround jab, dtilt, or ftilt if you need to.
-You may notice that after fastfalling an aerial on a platform and trying to drop through with another aerial, you end up using a smash, jab, or dash attack instead. To prevent this, walk at least one step backwards or forwards after landing on the platform (right before you drop through it).
-I think I learned this one from Junk, but it's extremely helpful and for some reason almost nobody does it. Use the third down DB hit to create space between you and your opponent if you connect with their shield or they are spot dodging all of the hits. Marth takes a huge step backwards after that third DB hit, making it harder to be punished. In some cases your opponent will miscalculate how far away you are and punish with a short range move or a grab because they don't know about this little quirk.
-Use jab for platform pressure occasionally. Jab is Marth's only ground option that can attack someone on a platform twice in a short period of time. Tipped jabs have good shield pushback and can often knock people off platforms, thus setting up jab locks and what not.
-If you hit a shield with SB and it doesn't break, SPAM DANCING BLADE. DBs only real flaw is the fact that it is unsafe on block. When you have your opponent in a situation where they are afraid to shield, and actually can't block the entire string without it shield poking, there is no reason to not be spamming DB.
-If you barely survive a vertical kill move, shield breaker bounce back down at least every once in a while. It's a great option and is very hard to predict/punish. It's also not very well known since few people are actually using it.
-True pivots are useful for multiple reasons. They expand your approach options by allowing you to use smashes, pivot grabs, or really anything as approaches. That being said they aren't overly safe and should be used sparingly. Dashing and true pivoting backwards is solid way of baiting reactions.
-DIing horizontal kill moves down is usually considered the opposite of what you should do, but if you are on one end of the stage and are about to get hit across it (i.e you are standing on the right edge, and your opponent knocks you horizontally to the left), DI down and tech. Or at least hit into the stage and immediately double jump, as this also decreases momentum a lot.
1/21/2010
-Don't always crouch before you dtilt, it telegraphs it and makes it easy to react to. If you tilt down slightly, you can let out a dtilt from a standing position.
-Try ftilting, fairing, or nairing out of a crouch. When you are crouched people like to assume you will dtilt and often jump to get around it, ftilt and nair **** this. One thing I love to do is crouch when my opponent is hanging on the ledge, it usually forces a ledge jump or ledge hop which i can punish with one of the options i mentioned above.
-Everything is safe on block when your opponent is on the edge of the stage because they'll tumble right off. That's probably the best time to just throw out a kill move and hope for the best. This of course is a bad idea if you are playing someone who likes to spot dodge or has a really good roll.
-In a scenario where your opponent is offstage trying to recover, you are hanging onto the ledge, and they have the option of going for the ledge straight up or trying to actually land on the stage try this: ledge jump > fastfall ledge grab. When you ledge jump, people usually just go for the ledge assuming you will land on the stage, and that would of course give you an easy edgehog. They have to be a second or two away from actually attempting to use their up B when you ledge jump. This is a nice little mix up to throw in once every few matches.
8/18/10
-Frame 5 of Marth's jump is a dead frame (every character has a dead frame on the last frame of their jump). Anything you input on this frame is ignored, and if you input a bair or fair on this frame, Marth will jump backwards or forwards respectively. This tends to happen to people who aren't quick enough with their aerials. To avoid this, a lot of people claw. I personally don't find that comfortable, so what I do is just tap jump and input a c-stick aerial at the same time. It allows you to automatically short hop, completely avoids the dead frame, and insures that you will unleash the aerial on the first possible frame. This doesn't work for uair and obviously nair, and doing it with dair just isn't a good idea because sh dair is horrible, lol.
-Full jump Dair OoS is AMAZING. It is hands down, Marth's best tool for dealing crossups because it covers both sides of you and directly under you with a huge arc. It also allows for a bunch of mixups afterwards including first hit of nair and double jump fair.
-Here is a very easy yet extremely effective conditioning trick that I believe Shaya has mentioned before: empty SH -> FF -> dash grab. Its simple, make them attempt to shield a last second ff fair, and instead go in for the easy grab.
-Another one I'm going to credit to Shaya. He calls it "hairing." If you jump at the very edge of a stage or platform, the jump only takes one frame. You'll know you're doing it right because he will automatically full jump rather than short hop. This is great for quick edgeguards or a run-away bair. Things of that nature.
-Forced someone to up B onto the stage because you were hogging the ledge? Do NOT just ledge hop fair/nair or get on the stage and grab. Ledge hop over them and bair/nair. Sending them back offstage maximizes your positional advantage and allows you the best opportunity for more damage + an early kill.
-Remember that shield breaker has the most range of any move you have. It is not a gimmick move and is more than just a shield breaking tool or a "mindgame" device. It kind of sucks on the ground (unless you're landing with it), but in the air it is really amazing. A huge asset to my game. When you use it in the air, Marth narrows his hurtbox for a moment, which allows you to avoid your opponents aerial/anti-air attack and fire back with a quick long ranged counter. I seriously love this move.
---------------------------
That's all for now, if any of these need further explaining let me know.
Hope these help.
