The Jab

[lonelytraveler8]

I've heard a lot of people complain about Meta Knight's Jab. I'm interested in hearing everyone's standpoint on it in one thread. I know of at least two great ways to make use of it, but I want to hear from others first.

Just to clarify: Meta Knight's Jab is the neutral-A attack. He slices the sword through the air around his body repeatedly. It lasts until interrupted or until you stop pressing the A button (or holding it if that's what you're doing).

 

[sxiz]

It sucks when I accidentally use it because is lasts so long but it's kinda fun for wall infinating my brother.

 

[lonelytraveler8]

That's one good use of it. Actually performing the infinite can be difficult, especially since there are few, if any walls, in tournament levels.

 

[Adriel]

In some parts of Delfino Plaze there are walls. Whenever I do Meta Knight's jab it's usually by accident. Whenever I do it intentionally, I press A only once. If you hold it longer you'll be an easy target because of it's short range. Even though it hits behind you, it seems to be a lot weaker than in front. (I don't know about all characters though)

 

[El_Komosutro]

it has it's moments,

if you do a quick ground tornado and you go through someone's sheild, sometimes they don't DI and they fall straight down, mash A... not as good as ivysaur's bullet seed, but the damage can be pretty rewarding for such a quick reaction to a rare thing...

block string, SH (short hop) Dair Uair no FF (fast fall) repeat or mash A... just watch for the roll before the A...

bait marth, if he is running away, do it as a slap in the face, they'll come a running...

infinate, I guess, but it's easier to just d-tilt, in fact, d-tilt has a better chance of just going through sheild (d-tilt not infinate because of different hit properties once you get close enough to the enemy, but the damage is good enough before they can tech)

if you want to be a jerk, you can shallow a low percent dash attack and combo a neutral A... (safe if you don't mash)

 

[lonelytraveler8]

My favorite use is simple and quite useful. I'm sure everyone can agree that when initially used, it's fast enough to catch the opponent off guard and will hit whether they are right behind your or right in front. Once you do that, pause before letting go of the A button and then hit them with MK's excellent ftilt. Once you get the timing right, the tilt basically comes out instantly. The third hit pops them up and then you'll have them right where you want them.

Pros:
Basically impossible to initially dodge the jab
Easy ftilt
Fast combination of attacks

Cons:
None?

Dtilt is good, but if they're behind you, you're likely to get hit first. You could just do the ftilt, but this tacks on a little bit of extra damage, so why not? It can also lead into other things, like an easy dsmash or an usmash if they're close enough. Once, the opponent was on the outside of the jab range and it caught them off guard enough that they ended up with a fsmash to the face for a kill. Fsmash is only a viable option if they're range isn't enough to hit you after you stop the jab. If they can't, they'll be forced to dodge and you probably won't get punished for a miss fsmash (but you'll miss out on that extra hit).

 

[Prax]

My favorite use is simple and quite useful. I'm sure everyone can agree that when initially used, it's fast enough to catch the opponent off guard and will hit whether they are right behind your or right in front. Once you do that, pause before letting go of the A button and then hit them with MK's excellent ftilt. Once you get the timing right, the tilt basically comes out instantly. The third hit pops them up and then you'll have them right where you want them.

Pros:
Basically impossible to initially dodge the jab
Easy ftilt
Fast combination of attacks

Cons:
None?

Dtilt is good, but if they're behind you, you're likely to get hit first. You could just do the ftilt, but this tacks on a little bit of extra damage, so why not? It can also lead into other things, like an easy dsmash or an usmash if they're close enough. Once, the opponent was on the outside of the jab range and it caught them off guard enough that they ended up with a fsmash to the face for a kill. Fsmash is only a viable option if they're range isn't enough to hit you after you stop the jab. If they can't, they'll be forced to dodge and you probably won't get punished for a miss fsmash (but you'll miss out on that extra hit).

I like to use the jab -> f-tilt too, works well for setting up a u-air to shuttle loop combo.

 

[JDegner790]

Oh, the Jab has cons. Not many, though. One of them is, as already mentioned, it does leave you vulnerable to attack if the other player has enough priority and attacks from behind. Furthermore, even if it is initially successful, you can be shield grabbed fairly easily then you get set up for a juggle or something like that. I do go from jab to f-tilt sometimes, but it's not my favorite combo. Most of the time, my jabs are accidental when attempting to f-tilt, d-tilt, or n-air. I personally think it's a greatly overrated move.

 

[DZemke]

I randomly came up with a technique involving the Jab today. I was going to create a topic for it to see what people thought, but I guess I'll just post it here. It appears that lonelytraveler8 touched on it already, but I'd like to bring it up again, because I think it might be worth using.

You more or less tap A to do the Jab animation, and then slap the C-Stick downwards immediately after it finishes. If you do it right, this results in the opponent getting tripped up by your Jab and then hit hard by the Dsmash (and possibly KO'd). I found some applications for this in terms of edge guarding, but it probably won't work too well if your opponent knows how to sweet spot the edge.

What do you guys think? Is it a decent tactic?
(I guess I'll make a video if asked to, but it's not too difficult to try by yourself...)

 

[lonelytraveler8]

Oh, the Jab has cons. Not many, though. One of them is, as already mentioned, it does leave you vulnerable to attack if the other player has enough priority and attacks from behind. Furthermore, even if it is initially successful, you can be shield grabbed fairly easily then you get set up for a juggle or something like that. I do go from jab to f-tilt sometimes, but it's not my favorite combo. Most of the time, my jabs are accidental when attempting to f-tilt, d-tilt, or n-air. I personally think it's a greatly overrated move.

You misunderstood. The Jab itself has many cons and is actually a really poor attack. It's the combo itself that really has no cons. If the opponent dodges, there's no way for them to punish you. If they don't dodge, well you get to do just about whatever you want to them.

 

[MetaKnight63]

Jabbing leaves many combo options when wavedashing.

 

[BDawgPHD]

If they don't DI out of it right away, I can usually c-stick a dsmash and some of the time itll land.

 

[lonelytraveler8]

Jabbing leaves many combo options when wavedashing.

We talking Melee or Brawl? There's no wavedashing in Brawl.

 

[RangeOverMatter]

(lol to the wave dashing post)

But I like the jab because if I get lucky I can utilize my FSmash right after it. People might notice it I am sure, his FSmash does take a while, but I've pulled it off here and there.

My favorite thing to do is hit their shield with the jab, this causes a lot of hit lag as some may have noticed, but if there shield was already used from an attack they blocked before then you can do a DSmash and BOOM! You hit below the shield, which knocks your opponent out of shield and going flying towards the kill zones...

Now if they tech off the killzone, your done for (lol, can't do that, just like wavedashing lawlz!)

-RoM-

 

[BDawgPHD]

Now if they tech off the killzone, your done for (lol, can't do that, just like wavedashing lawlz!)

-RoM-

They can if Bullet Bill shows up :3

lol, you can tech off bullet bill, try it out *boots up Melee*

 

[NESSBOUNDER]

I rarely ever use this move except by accident, because the Ftilt is actually a lot faster.

Try it, go into training mode and slow the game down to 1/4 the speed. You'll see that Ftilt comes out faster.

I guess the only real advantage of the jab is that it hits behind you as well and has very little after-attack lag.

Also, it's the best jab lock. It racks up damage fast.

 

[EternalCrusade]

If I can connect the first attack on my opponent out of a glide, I almost always continue with the jab to rack up percentage, then dtilt, dsmash (or just dsmash, depending on the situation and my mood)

 

[zamora]

i only jab to catch people off gaurd, when they shield only the beginning (idk why they dont shield the whole thing or roll away) and then follow up with F-tilt

jab-f-tilt is the only time ill use jab, otherwise hello spam F-air WALL OF PAIN!!!

 

[Iron]

I find Meta's jab to be practically useless. Everytime I do it, it's by accident. Even when they're up against the wall I prefer dtilt spam.

 

[R.Kefka]

I dislike calling his neutral A a jab. It's more of a frenzy of sword-swinging madness.

I will now call it his frenzy. I encourage all to join me.

 

[LG7]

I agree with the calling it a frenzy, so I am joining!

Anyways...
I like to throw the occasional frenzy out... if it traps the opponent, which in my experience it usually will, just Dsmash immediately after it finishes, and they'll fly! If the frenzy misses em, stop it asap, & hope they don't get a free hit on ya. lol

 

[ollenberger121]

/join......

 

[Skazryk]

I like it against attacks that have little priority so you can stun and attack with it.

 

[R.Kefka]

Frenzy -> down-smash is pretty handy, but an opponent can just shield the smash. My advice is to mix it up by using the frenzy and going into a grab or tornado. Instead of going for a hit, you can go for a positional advantage.

That's only if you use the frenzy so much that the opponent builds a conditioned response to it, though. Most of us frenzy by accident, so it would be hard to mix it up intentionally.

Frenzying at the edge is good though, because it can guarantee a down-smash. Same with platforms.