Buffoon Bust Mashup Tread #∞ - Doddy King

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Player-1 said:

Hunter Rogers
23 May 2011
An In-depth Look at The Diddy Ditto Match-up
Every match-up is important to learn if you want to be a competitive Super Smash Bros. Brawl player, including the ditto. A “ditto” is how the smash community refers to a match between two of the same characters. Some find it a silly match up, but it is still important to learn. Since Diddy is such a cool character and everyone wants to use him, you will most likely end up fighting other Diddys in a tournament set. Like any other match up, there are tricks to exploit and such. Much of this match up is played based on player preference since there is an even match-up ratio of 50:50, with neither Diddy having any advantages or disadvantages since they are the same character. The more you know about the character himself the better you will do in this since it is a test of how well you can perform with the character and how well you can capitalize on your opponent's lack of knowledge on the character.
As was stated earlier, much of this match-up is based on player preference. For instance, which stage to strike/ban/counter pick is pretty much just this. Whenever the set calls for striking, it is best to try to go somewhere that you like to go to and a stage that you know well. Also, if you have any background information on the opponent then try to go to a stage that the opponent doesn't like. The same can be said for what stage that you should counter pick/ban. Ban a stage that you either don't know very well or that you know the opponent likes and counter pick a stage that you like or the opponent doesn't like. Also, it is important to analyze the other Diddy player's playstyle. Analyze what they do and how they do it, then consider a stage that you would that suits that person's playstyle or hurts it. For example, if that Diddy player relies on bananas more than you then it may be helpful to ban Final Destination, which is a semi-large flat stage with no platforms, and counter pick Rainbow Cruise, a stage with four main parts to the stage that the other player has to adapt the bananas to each time as well as it moves which can hurt banana control. If the other Diddy player completely out classes you then I recommend choosing a stage that has a higher probability of luck helping you out. The most obvious stage would be Pictochat, but recently the Brawl Back Room: Ruleset Committee has banned it from their tournaments so it will probably be seen at tournaments less. Frigate Orpheon, Halberd, Delfino, Rainbow Cruise, and Brinstar are all stages that has luck as a factor or helps you capitalize greatly on a tiny mistake they make. When you combine all of these factors, stage preference, play style, and liberal stages, and have considered all of your options then you can come up with a good counter pick against the other Diddy player.
Now let's look at playstyles of the Diddy player. There are many different playstyles a Diddy can take on and then combine them: defensive, aggressive, safe, smart, precise, etc. The playstyle that you should take on it should be formed around what you are personally good at, what the opponent is bad at, the stage you are playing, your damage percentage, your opponent's damage percentage, and where you are on the stage that you are playing, but the most important thing is that if the playstyle you are using is working and keeps on working in the set then keep going for it. Playing super defensive and campy in this match-up isn't a great idea when you are at lower percents isn't that great of an idea, but when you reach the higher percents then it becomes a great idea. Diddy has the tools to beat his own defensive playstyle and can even camp you back if the opponent is better at it. I find it best to be aggressive in this match-up, but at the same time one most play very, very safe. Diddy is a character that can capitalize on a tiny mistake and get a **** load of damage. Diddy's shield is great in this match-up because it allows you to be aggressive and safe at the same time. The only moves that Diddy has that beat shields are his grabs and monkey hump. Neither of these moves can punish you very hard like a banana slip can and since banana slips don't beat shields in most cases. As in any match-up, though, if you overuse this then those grabs can start adding up and hurt you a lot in the end so you still want to have a mix have shield and no shield in there. Spotdodge and rolling can be a good substitute for a shield in some cases, but I wouldn't overuse either of them as they can be punished hard if predicted right. When you reach the higher percents that is when I suggest to start playing really defensive. At this point playing campy will help because it doesn't matter that much how much damage you take because you are already at kill percents. There's not much difference between 160% and 180%, as long as you can avoid the kill move which playing campy an defensive allows you to do. Diddy gets a lot of his kill set ups by glide tossing a banana to a smash attack, thus camping the ledge can help when you get to the 150%ish area. This is because if you get with a banana you will land perfectly safe on the ledge...well maybe not perfectly safe. Being on the ledge is a bad spot to be in most cases unless your name is Meta Knight. Diddy isn't a character that can plank very well and thus he is pretty much forced to get back on stage somehow. If you are on the ledge then you only have a set number of options and some of these options can be covered by the same thing meaning your opponent has to predict and read your next option even less which can end in a death for you. This is why when you're camping the ledge it is very, very important to have a banana in your hand or within grabbing distances because having a banana adds to your options on the ledge when you grab it and greatly increases your chances of getting back onto the stage safely. I don't recommend camping the ledge if you are in the 100-130% range (assuming that 100%+ is killing percents) because you can probably DI those kill moves and still live if you are in the center of the stage, but at the ledge you will get closer to the blast zone so even though it becomes harder to get a kill set up on you, you might end up dieing at a lower percent than you normally would since you are so close to the edge.
When dealing with where you should be on the stage and how many bananas to have out etc., it is important to know the advantages/disadvantages to those positions depending on the stage you are playing on. The following information will be based off the position you should be in most neutral settings (no stage hazards, minimal slopes, neutral stage settings). When dealing with banana control it is important to make sure the other Diddy cannot get control of your bananas or you might get overwhelmed. Yes, having more bananas with you at any given time is always a good thing, but you don't want to leave them in a place where your opponents can easily take control of them so you might end up being better with just one banana. This is where stage positioning comes in. If you're near the edge of the stage then having one banana is usually better because a second banana can easily be taken by your opponent in that position and can be used to over power you and besides you really don't need two bananas. Being sandwhiched in by your opponent and the edge of the stage is a very bad position in any match-up and in most cases so you want to get out of that position as fast as possible. Only one banana should be needed for that, throw the banana at your opponent and let them slip and just get out of there, not too difficult. A second banana pull should really only come out when you have some breathing room, and that goes for most match-ups any way, but when another Diddy player has one or more bananas under his/her control then they can easily overpower another Diddy player when they pull out the bananas, even more so than other characters. Another important aspect is to know if your opponent is better with banana control than yourself, you don't want to give him even more bananas to beat you up with. When up close to your opponent then it becomes very important to know frame data for Diddy. At that point it can be a race to get the fastest moves. Diddy's fastest grounded move is his jab which comes out frame 3, it's even faster than throwing a banana so this move is great for trying to get the first hit. If your opponent isn't fast enough then jab to grab is great whether the opponent hit by jab, shields the jab, or spotdodges the jab. Diddy's down tilt is his second fastest move which comes out on frame 4. It has a good amount of range to it as well, nearly as much as Diddy's forward tilt. Diddy's up smash attack is a perfect move for punishing spotdodges which most Diddys like to do because it's so fast. It comes out on frame 5 (faster than Diddy's up tilt which is frame 6) (Smashboards).
Diddy also has a lot of tools for gimping himself. His back aerial is great for punishing another Diddy player's monkey flip to recover, bananas our amazing for edgeguarding barrels, and Diddy's forward aerial allows for some kills at lower than usual damage percents since you're a the edge of the stage. Diddy's down aerial is also great for punishing the monkey flip as well and can get you an early kill. Peanuts can be used to stop the monkey flip like how a lot of Diddy's use it against Falco/Fox/Wolf's recovery as well as bananas. One of my personal favorite strategies for the ditto when edgeguarding is grabbing the ledge then proceed to ledge to to a mid air jump and do a rising banana pluck. This allows for a banana to pulled at a great arc trajectory that really forces the opponent into certain situations to avoid it or really limits their options and you will also regrab the ledge if done right subtracting even more options from them. If the Diddy is recovering from right below you then you have a lot of other options to try to edgeguard them. Obviously if you have a banana in your hand then you can throw it down on them to score an easy kill, you can also try z dropping it instead as I believe z dropping is faster than a down throw, but I'm not 100% sure. If you don't have a banana then you can try to predict when they'll release their up-b and use a dropping down forward aerial. This will destroy the barrels with no movement from the Diddy player in most cases meaning they'll fall back down stunned in the animation that happens when you get hit out of the barrels, if that doesn't happen then you will get hit to where the forward aerial sent you and the Diddy player can sometimes survive with side-b, midair jump to another up-b. If you don't have a midair jump then you can use a wall jump in some cases like on Battlefield or Final Destination. Another trick is that if there is a banana on the edge of the stage then you can do a ledge drop midair jump and instant throw it down to hit the Diddy player out of the barrels.
This match-up is a very unique one as in it is not only a ditto, but in order to play it successfully one must play very adaptive, smart, and safe so that they don't get over powered by everything. The way one edgeguards in this match-up can be the difference between a victory and a loss, as this match-up gets very frequent gimps in them. Stage positioning is key in this match-up if you want to momentum going or prevent your opponent from getting any momentum. Again, player preference is also a very important aspect of this match-up. Since the match-up is 50:50, any small minor things that you can do can also mean the difference between a victory and a loss.
Works Cited
"Thorough Frame Data (Updated."*Smashboards. N.p., 20/08/2009. Web. 23 May 2011. <http://www.smashboards.com/showpost.php? p=7717395&postcount=1>.

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Player-1 said:

What style do you want the 5 page essay in? MLA/APA? Does it matter? Double spaced 12 point times new roman font I assume correct?

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DFEAR said:

just copy pasta =D

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Player-1 said:

*sails asks users to troll thread*
*P1 writes legit 5 page essay on it which defies the purpose of the thread*
*P1 is even more of a troll*

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