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The Mechanics of Forward B as Recovery/Pacing Tool

Shai Hulud

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,495
Location
Oregon
As you all should know, Marth can use the first move of his forward B combo as a kind of pseudo-jump, which has two obvious applications: the first, to gain horizontal distance when recovering; and the second, to slow Marth's fall, on stage, for pacing purposes.

Sometimes, though, when you use forward B you fall, and don't get the pseudojump. I thought initially that you get one floaty forward B per jump, but it's actually more complicated than that.

On a given jump, forward B will give you a pseudojump under "normal circumstances." What do I mean by that? Well, apparently in regards to forward B, a "jump cycle" is the time from when you leave the ground to the time you land ON THE STAGE, on your feet, from the falling animation. In other words, if you jump, forward B, and fast fall an L-cancelled aerial, for instance (something I do quite often), the game engine does not consider the "jump cycle" to have ended, because you are landing during an aerial animation and not from the falling animation. The consequences of this are that the next time you jump, you will not have a floaty forward B, but will fall instead.

So, basically, you lose your forward B for the following jump under the following circumstances, assuming you have jumped and used a forward B:

  • Edgehogging--i.e., if you ledgehop you will no longer have a floaty forward B
  • Landing during any kind of attack animation, whether an aerial, neutral B, or counter
  • Getting hit and teching the hit, on the stage or off
  • Getting hit and flubbing the tech
This little-known aspect is significant because it doesn't matter how long it's been since you performed whatever action that lost your subsequent floaty forward B--you still won't have it on your next jump. You can dash dance around for five minutes, use ground attacks, throws, etc., and it doesn't matter. With respect to the forward B the "jump cycle" has not completed and you do not get a new pseudojump.

Luckily, there's a simple solution to this dilemma--whenever you perform an action that would kill your next floaty forward B, all you have to do is finish the "jump cycle." You can do this by jumping and landing on the stage, irrespective of what happens during that jump, so long as you land ON YOUR FEET, ON THE STAGE, and from the falling animation. This means you can WAVEDASH to complete a "jump cycle" but you CANNOT run around SHFFLING aerials. This also means if you are attacked with anything that causes your feet to leave the ground, the jump cycle will finish when you next land. Being grabbed or thrown will NOT, however, end the jump cycle, even if you land on your feet.

A lot of you are going to think this is pointlessly obscure information, but I just wanted to put it out there, because it really is important, especially if you use this move frequently for mindgames and pacing. I've died countless times trying to ledge-hop attacks off the stage, unaware that I'd lost my recovery tool until it was too late.
 

TheCatPhysician

Smash Ace
Joined
Mar 10, 2005
Messages
976
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Cordova, Alaska
I think this is pretty useful. I never noticed that you don't get your floaty side-b back if you don't land neutral. I almost never use side-b in the air except for recovering though, so I always thought of it working just like Samus' and Link's grapple out of air dodge: you don't get it back by just grabbing the edge, you have to get back on the stage before it will work again.
 

Pye

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Sep 20, 2006
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496
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Montreal. PM me if you're on the island! I need op
Whoa, quite handy info to have. I've died a few times after, say, spiking a foe, then trying to use overB to to get under the edge so I can sweetspot it, only to see that the overB does nothing and I plummet to my death. Extremely embarrasing :(

Pretty wierd. You know what this means, Marth players. WD or empty shffl after every edgehop aerial, just in case, lol.
 

Elen

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 11, 2006
Messages
1,206
Location
USA
I was just wondering about this today. That's a really useful bit of information. I'm gonna have to start wavedashing out of shffl's with marth now at high percents O.O
 

metroid1117

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 1, 2005
Messages
3,786
Location
Chester, IL
Contrary to what you said, I think that a lot of people will regard this as significant information; it's useful to know how to get that floaty Dancing Blade back.
 

Razgriz

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Aug 6, 2006
Messages
223
Location
Charlottesville, Virginia
This is info I really wish I had known back in the day. I thought the game was just being inconsistent and gay. But even now I didn't know that shfling an aerial would cause you to not reload ur side-b. Thx for posting this. Btw... Is it true that Marth's side-b continues to aid your horzontal recovery just a little bit for up to three times after the pseudo-jump?
 

Shai Hulud

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,495
Location
Oregon
This is info I really wish I had known back in the day. I thought the game was just being inconsistent and gay. But even now I didn't know that shfling an aerial would cause you to not reload ur side-b. Thx for posting this. Btw... Is it true that Marth's side-b continues to aid your horzontal recovery just a little bit for up to three times after the pseudo-jump?
Yeah, if you get the floaty forward B, you can immediately do it again a couple times and it will still slow your fall, but not to the extent of the first one. If you don't start with the floaty forward B, none of the subsequent forward Bs will slow your fall to any significant extent either.
 

FrostByte

Smash Lord
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Nov 15, 2006
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London, England
I think you forgot to add that you can use a grounded over-B to restart the cycle. Not completely sure if that's true though. I might have been wavedashing beforehand.
 

Shai Hulud

Smash Lord
Joined
Dec 21, 2006
Messages
1,495
Location
Oregon
I think you forgot to add that you can use a grounded over-B to restart the cycle. Not completely sure if that's true though. I might have been wavedashing beforehand.
Grounded forward B does not restart the jump cycle. I just double checked it to make sure.
 

shadydentist

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 4, 2006
Messages
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La Jolla, CA
Excellent post, impressive find.

Props to you, sir. One question: When you say edgehogging, do you mean that grabbing the ledge does not give you your floaty >B back? Similar to Link's hookshot?
 

metroid1117

Smash Master
Joined
Sep 1, 2005
Messages
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Location
Chester, IL
Also, here's something interesting I've found with the first stage of Forward B aka Dancing Blade; when you get knocked off the stage, you can still move move towards the stage if you use Dancing Blade in the direction of the knockback IF you DI'd towards the stage before doing so.

For example, let's say a fellow Marth user FSmashes you off the left side off the stage. You can DI to the right (back towards the stage), and if you use Dancing Blade stage 1 to the LEFT, you will still move to the RIGHT, towards the stage. It still works even if you jump before using Dancing Blade. If the distance you get from it is shorter than the standard "towards the stage" Dancing Blade, then it's probably by a slight margin; I don't see a significant difference in distance.

The only uses I can think of for this is to use BAir's slightly longer horizontal range over FAir against edgeguarders, for reverse NAir'ing edgeguarders close to the stage (reverse Dancing Blade -> rising NAir), and for the slight horizontal distance Reverse Dolphin Slash has over the "frontal" Dolphin Slash. Other than that, I don't really see anything else.
 

Dark Sonic

Smash Hero
Joined
Jun 10, 2006
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Orlando Florida
Also, here's something interesting I've found with the first stage of Forward B aka Dancing Blade; when you get knocked off the stage, you can still move move towards the stage if you use Dancing Blade in the direction of the knockback IF you DI'd towards the stage before doing so.

For example, let's say a fellow Marth user FSmashes you off the left side off the stage. You can DI to the right (back towards the stage), and if you use Dancing Blade stage 1 to the LEFT, you will still move to the RIGHT, towards the stage. It still works even if you jump before using Dancing Blade. If the distance you get from it is shorter than the standard "towards the stage" Dancing Blade, then it's probably by a slight margin; I don't see a significant difference in distance.

The only uses I can think of for this is to use BAir's slightly longer horizontal range over FAir against edgeguarders, for reverse NAir'ing edgeguarders close to the stage (reverse Dancing Blade -> rising NAir), and for the slight horizontal distance Reverse Dolphin Slash has over the "frontal" Dolphin Slash. Other than that, I don't really see anything else.
Can you use this to stop you're horizontal movement from the attack you got hit by? Similar to how Fox and Falco's shines stop vertical movement? If you could then this would make Marth even harder to kill.

Is it better to use the reverse dolphin slash for recovery or is it the same as DIing foward and useing the frontal dolphin slash? Does either one increase your overal recovery distance or does Marth fall slow enough to cancel the horizontal distance gained by the reverse Up B.
 
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