Quick Tips
- Down-smash after down-throw? NO (yes only if they used getup attack)
- Bucket anything? NO
- If you shield the 4th hit of Marth's dancing blade (SideB) you're guaranteed an fsmash.
Videos
- Kaak vs. Mr. R - Friendly
- UTDZac vs. Dphat - Friendly 1 Friendly 2 Friendly 3
General Matchup
- Marth plays a very interesting defensive/offensive game vs gw. Capable of punishing poorly spaced aerials, countering, and rushing with good priority, decent ranged attacks make marth very capable of dealing with game and watch's approaches.
- In most cases, marth can outrange your ranged attacks. Approach moves like the turtle, fair, and even dtilt or key can be countered with them up b'ing out of shield, countering, or using their dtilt spaced well. Always keep in mind that marth is capable of shutting down your approaches and even your defensive tactics if they play right.
- Marth's kill moves are his smashes and uptilt/upair and can hurt alot when tippered. Because marth's range has been reduced in this game, it has become a lot harder for him to land fsmash kills etc, so he isn't as much of a killing machine as he was in the last game. If the marth player is good at setting up tippers, don't be surprised to be killed around 100%.
- His recovery is both bad and good at the same time. His up b has a very high amount of priority and invincibility frames that makes it very difficult to punish, however when knocked far away off the stage, i think he dies much more frequently than high tiered characters. Make use of weak fairs and bacon thrown offstage to clutter their recovery path and go for a gimp if possible. Also ff'd nairs can drag them down as well. If you hog them and they do an early up b, up air them when they are above you to keep them in their freefall animation and try to land a free smash.
- The only way that marth can edgeguard gw is to drop really low off the stage and try to land a fair, which, because gw's up b has a lot of priority, he shouldn't have a hard time dropping a bit lower than marth can go and just up b through him.
- Marth is one of the better combo'ers we've seen in this matchup thread. Fair chains, tilts, forward b and other moves help him to string together high damage combos.
- Overall I would agree to liken marth to metaknight in a lot of ways. Range is slightly to be desired, good priority, great speed on moves and movement, etc. He's a very quick character than can put a lot of pressure on gw.
Basic Strategies
- When approaching marth, make sure that your aerials have their maximum spacing and that you don't leave yourself open afterwards. Against most other characters you have some room to be sloppy because the turtle has a lot of range, a lot more than most characters can handle, however if you space the turtle incorrectly, you'll be eating an up b (tippered most likely) because it has invincibility frames.
- Because marth has no projectile game, he has no way to force you to approach him, so i wouldn't be surprised if more gw players begin to play more campy against marths, ie forcing them to approach and then punishing based on that. Retreating bairs and dtilts can be extremely difficult for marth to get around, however it isn't impossible.
- To edgeguard marth, you can try to get a quick fair off on him, but you'll have to do it farther than he can up b to the ledge, as the up b will always go through your fair, so if he's close enough, he'll just up b if he thinks your going to try and intercept him. If not that you can try to grab the ledge to hog, or if he goes above you try to space a ledgehopped up air to push him up off the ground and keep him from landing. He seems to have pretty poor aerial di after the up b so you get a free smash off from this, works very well.
- Learn to watch for the counter against marth. If you make too much of a pattern with your turtle/fair approaches he'll be able to counter it pretty easily as the moves stay out for a while. Empty short hops work great if you think your falling into a patter and you think your opponent might start countering.
- Another serious threat to watch out for is the neutral b shield breaker. Against anyone this move can be devastating. Common setups for shield breaks are sh fair to shield break and i've seen combinations of forward b's to shield breaks. These setups aren't the only times that he can do it though, anytime he thinks your shield will stay up he could use it so watch out. Even if he doesn't break your shield, it will still be low allowing for shield pokes.
- The last big pain in gw's side would b the forward b combo. As far as i know this move comes out in 4 frames, making it one of the faster moves in the game for its damage output. Great out of shield for marth, great to move away from turtles and then move in with a quick sword dance to punish. Be aware of how quick it is. It can also rack up a lot of damage, try to always di away from all of the hits, never in or down as you'll just eat all of the hits.
Stages
- Imo, all of the stages that have worked in the past should work fine here too. Once again gw has more mobility than marth so stages like rainbow cruise etc will work great.
- Try to avoid stages that give marth alot of platform use as he is probably better at optimizing platforms than you are. Stages like norfair and lylat cruise should be avoided.
Frame Data
- Neutral B: 19
- Side B: 4 then varies by input
- Up B: 5 (invincibility frames from 1-5)
- Down B: 4-27
- Fsmash: 10
- Dsmash: 6, 21
- Usmash: 12
- Ftilt: 7
- Dtilt: 7
- Utilt: 6
- Nair: 6, 15, 17 (behind), 19
- Fair: 4
- Bair: 7
- Uair: 6
- Dair: 6
- Jab: 4, 25
- Dash Attack: N/A
- Standing Grab: 6
- Dash Grab: N/A
- Pivot Grab: N/A