Mr. Escalator
G&W Guru
Okay, quick introduction. I haven't been happy with the G&W forums as of late, so I wanted to stir up some conversation about our favorite 2D man. There are going to be a few more of these, but I wanted to start off with something useful to new users and old! Edgeguarding is one of G&W's greatest strengths, so I wanted to help people get ameliorated with his moves. Here are some quick descriptions of moves I thought of to be the most useful (Sans the Side B) to use to hurt your opponent recovering. I left out a few goodies, but you can obviously mention them for me. Nair gets honorable mention for doing 17%, Ftilt is a great Horizontal knocking back move, and Chef doesn't have to be used only onstage, FOR EXAMPLE. So discuss his moves and things you like to do with G&W.
Uair should probably not be used offstage. Period. <___________>
Here's what I got.
Onstage Edgeguarding
Offstage Edgeguarding
Now Discuss!
-Neutral B, Chef-
-Dtilt-
-Dash Attack-
-Fsmash/Dsmash/Usmash-
Probably G&W's most useful tool in edgeguarding a foe recovering from being knocked offstage, Chef is great at interrupting foe's jumps and straight forward recoveries, like Falco's Phantasm. Ideally, you want to use this at around the same distance you would want to be using Dtilt at the edge; Roughly a bowser length away, but as long as most of the projectiles are arching over the edge and you aren't *that* close to the edge, you should be good. Use this on opponents who are close enough to try and DI onto the stage or DI towards the ledge. Going for the stage or ledge will result in them eating a few foodstuffs, which then can be led into a Fair/Nair/Judgement/etc. You can also stop doing it a bit early as the food is arching to give yourself a bit more freedom.
-Dtilt-
Dtilt is also a very good tool to edgeguard with. It may not be the beast it was in melee, but it's great atsending your foe back off the stage and hitting them as they hang on or come over the ledge. Due to it's 0 Frames of cool down, it makes it very easy to work into another move or action, and you can quickly Dsmash a foe who ends up rolling behind you. Like mentioned a bit above, the best place to use this is about a bowser's distance away.
-Dash Attack-
The Dash Attack is fairly decent at dealing with foes on the ledge. With it's Freeze Frames, and enormous priority, it's a truly formidable move to use. You'll have to be smart about it's usage, though, since you have to commit yourself when you use it. Probably the best part of the Dash Attack is that it stage spikes opponents. Lylat, BF, FD, PS1, etc are all decent stages to use it on. You can stage spike a Metaknight in the middle of his Shuttle Loop as well.
-Fsmash/Dsmash/Usmash-
Everyone and their mothers know how powerful G&W's smashes are, so it's only common sense to include them in your on stage edgeguarding game! All of them have Iasa frames, allowing you to switch actions if you predicted wrong. Dsmash is especially useful for opponents who roll over the ledge, and can otherwise, assuming it's sour spotted, send your opponent far off stage. Fsmash can hit many opponents as they attack over the ledge and is especially deadly that close to the blast zone. Usmash gets a mention because it's so **** strong
Offstage Edgeguarding
-Fair-
-Dair-
-Bair-
-UpB, Fireman-
-Side B, Judgment-
Fair. The Box. An invaluable tool in any G&W's arsenal. Not too useful on stage due to it's tremendous landing lag when short hopped, the Fair is quite good off stage where landing lag is a non-issue. The hurtbox sends foes far horizontally, and is very good at picking off foes near the blast zone. There is also another, lesser identified, use for the Fair; Using the Sex-Kick/Weak part of the attack to gimp. It's very good. I have a few replays where I do this to a Marth & Diddy which puts them too far away to recovery, where G&W comfortably comes back and grabs the edge.
-Dair-
Another VERY useful tool for G&W. While it seems dangerous to use this offstage, it's actually a great way to beat vertical based recoveries. A2ZOMG brought this tactic to my attention, and I have been using it a deal more; Slow fall the key by pressing down on the analog stick/C-Stick and punish your foes trying to get back from below. It's great, it really is. Other than slowfalling, the key can also spike, if you can pull it off.
-Bair-
Ahahaha, the Turtle seems to be good at EVERYTHING. It lingers through airdodges offstage, deals a great bit of damage, and sends your foe far horizontally at the end of it. It can even kill near the blastzone. Heh
-UpB, Fireman-
The parachute is ferocious of the edge, both it recovery and in hitting your opponent away. Allowing your opponent to grab the edge first to then stage spike them as you grab on is priceless. The parachute can also be used in a surprising manner near blastzones, by poppong them with it, and there killing them. You then use the parachute to glide back. Very few opponents suspect this.
-Side B, Judgment-
I just HAD to include this, though it's by no means his best option, though it might have some merit being linked into from a Chef. You can use this on a foe after a predicted airdodge or one who can't airdodge + live at the same time, or maybe surprise a foe completely. Both 6's and 9's are great, but you obviously wont always get one of those two. The other hammers, minus 8 and 1 have decent gimping potential. Iunno, try your luck, but preferably not in a serious match!
Now Discuss!