Lord Chair
Smash Master
With this write-up, I assume you are all aware of the knowledge one is already ought to have about this MU. I won’t tell you how to instant-throw, how to Z-catch, how to ban FD or that Diddy’s utilt can, in fact, kill.
Nana on shield vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX9qzcaKL-g
Avast.
First things first, Diddy cannot commit to doing nothing, and he doesn’t have spammable safe options. The matchup will largely be about whether or not Wario is able to keep up pressure without feeling obliged to keep being agro. Controversial? No. Pressuring Diddy means withholding him from getting nanas, and that’s about as easily done as it is said (ya, really).
What is pressure:
- Being close to him.
Yeah, simple as that. It’s not like as if him predicting you’ll retreat safely means he can pull a nana. If he doesn’t have a nana, he can’t defend himself without either giving up space or committing to something punishable. His (character specific) defensive options are pretty much retreating bair/fair, pivot grab and utilt. If he reads an aerial approach, he’ll be able to beat it. Of course, you’re Wario. So you fake a lot of **** until he does something punishable, of which you'll take your obvious advantage. That advantage isn't necessarily something big, don't expect to uair a grounded Diddy a lot, but it's an advantage you can build further advantages from.
Aerial Diddy = yay Diddy.
Diddy on the ledge = yay Diddy.
Diddy on the ground = meh Diddy.
Diddy with nanas on the ground = fu.
Oh, that was basic knowledge, my bad. Diddy's aerial mobility is kinda bad and his options limited. It's easy to bait all sorts of stuff, but you can expect a good Diddy to not airdodge close to the ground: we can't punish a spaced fair on our shield.
When grabbing Diddy, don't dthrow. Just don't. Uthrow is situational, fthrow does the same thing but usually better: either he DIs it upwards and can be edgeguarded/juggled, or he DIs it downwards (at lower%) and grab the ledge. Ledgeguarding Diddy is yummy. Bthrow if it means you'll get to ledgguard, rather than fthrowing him across the stage and dashing after him.
About ledgeguarding:
Shielding near the ledge is safe and will net you a punish if he tries to be reckless. However, a good Diddy will know not to try anything in a situation like that. If you stand too close to the ledge shielding, he can ledgehop fair your shield and retreat to the ledge safely. He can technically Monkey Flip grab your shield as well, this is something really basic which you sometimes see working against people with MU inexperience. If you see him leaving the ledge, you should be wanting to punish whatever he does with an aerial (unless you specifically predict a ledgeroll/attack/getup, in those cases you can go for a smash). Your counters are fairly straightforward, you can beat the Flip Kick with a shieldgrab or FH dair and you can beat a ledgejump by simply taking advantage of the situation (you should know how to). The key to this whole ordeal is to STAY PATIENT. He can technically camp you by just spamming ledgedrop upB, don't even bother trying to punish it. Keep your spacing (which should be just outside his ledge attack/fair range) and wait for him to do something.
When to fart:
Diddy is rather fartable, or so to speak. His recovery is one situation of which you can make splendid use (more on that later), so are juggles, airdodged aerials (all of them except for bair have very noticeable lag), Flip Kicks and landings (though you might as well consider those a part of the juggling process). All of these situations tend to be inevitable, and should be consider reliable killing situations.
About edgeguarding:
You get Diddy offstage in a lot of ways: the ways you get people offstage in general (no ****ing **** *** Sherlock). In pretty much all of these situations, you should be able to exploit his recovery in some way, unless you knocked him away across the stage. A predicted Flip Kick means you can ledge drop bair or fair him. If he drops low, fair is usually guaranteed (just get your *** back ASAP, even if that means you have to be content with doing 5% damage and committing to a ledgeguard situation). If he goes high, it's practically a juggle trap only with him having even less space and options than usual. Important note: you can beat his barrel startup with nair, but once he releases it, it beats you out. Don't try and nair gimp his barrels unless you are absolutely sure you'll take him out with it, it sucks dying because you didn't manage to assess the situation correctly. In general, edgeguarding Diddy is definitely possible, but I personally feel like ledgeguarding is just that much more profitable. If Diddy still has his jump, be aware of him having the option of simply DJ fairing whatever you may want to do to him. It'll technically beat all your silly attempts of edgeguarding. If he's close to the ledge and still has his jump left, just commit to the ledgeguard.
About nanas:
When they do happen to come into play, don't be afraid of them unless there's 2 and he's in control of both of them. Wario is an awesome character to work around nanas with. His item game in and by itself isn't awesome, his glidetoss and followups are good, but he's awful at trip-techchasing and his throwing speed is sluggish. His main asset is being able to catch and control the nanas. When Diddy has nanas, there's nothing wrong with simply SH fairing. You don't necessarily have to hit him or his shield, spacing SH fairs from a distance is perfectly safe. If he figures he can safely throw his nana towards you he'll be wrong, you can catch it by landing an airdodge or nair, or by DJing another fair. If all else fails, you can just DJ away. Stay patient, don't try to uair an 'armed' Diddy, and try to limit dairing. You can nair to a certain extent, but I recommend being stubborn and annoyingly safe by just sticking to fair. If Diddy has a nana in hand and another one lying close to him, and you're in the air without a jump, don't panic. You have options. Or well, if Diddy times the nana right, by making it his you just at the time you'd be landing, you can't really catch it anymore. If you expect him to do just that, just bike. When Wario is biking/pulling out his bike, Diddy can't hit him with nana's while remaining grounded. They'll deflect off the bike and you can safely mind your business. In fact, if you specifically predict a nana toss, you'll punish him in his cooldown lag, he'll lose his control of both nanas and he's off flying to places he doesn't really want to be flying to. It's actually, at any rate, a very low risk, very high reward situation.
About killing:
Don't depend on fsmash, you'll get chances to use it, but you shouldn't take them for granted per se. Same deal about uair, and same deal about fart. Consider Diddy the same deal as all other characters: you can't throw out safe killing **** until he falls into it. Sometimes, if Diddy plays it really well, you just won't get the chance to kill early. In those cases, feel free to rack him till percentages in which you can force edgeguards or him being above you. If all else fails, follow the advice I'd give in every lightweight MU: wait until 170% and kill with dair or nair.
Diddy's killing options are rather limited, close to being lulzy. It's hard for him to keep fair fresh, and if you play it safe, he shouldn't see killing with smashes as a realistic thing to do. This isn't necessarily because it's so hard to hit with them, but also because he might as well rack another 20% and get you into utilt/fair killing percentages (you should be able to survive fsmash and dsmash at 150%). He gradually gets more killing options, and you should know when to keep track of another one. Once you're at 170-180%, he'll probably commit to utilt which is, tragically, extremely safe.
About Bite:
It's usable in this MU, it's very realistic to pressure Diddy into shielding, and it eats quite a few of Diddy's moves. Moves it won't beat:
- Fair
- Dsmash
Those are the only ones you should care about. Of course it also eats his nanas, but you shouldn't really aim for that unless you see a great opportunity to use the laglessness of it by means of baiting.
About patience:
You can generally keep going aggro (note that my definition of aggro is: putting active pressure), don't commit to holding back unless you know you're simply at an disadvantage. Take it easy on the ledge, there's little he can do while you're hanging there.
Ratio (experience against a LOT of Diddy's, favorite and most played MU):
60:40, making Wario a solid counter.
If anything is unclear, do feel free to ask. Posting this now because I feel like it, not necessarily because I think I covered everything
Nana on shield vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX9qzcaKL-g
Avast.
First things first, Diddy cannot commit to doing nothing, and he doesn’t have spammable safe options. The matchup will largely be about whether or not Wario is able to keep up pressure without feeling obliged to keep being agro. Controversial? No. Pressuring Diddy means withholding him from getting nanas, and that’s about as easily done as it is said (ya, really).
What is pressure:
- Being close to him.
Yeah, simple as that. It’s not like as if him predicting you’ll retreat safely means he can pull a nana. If he doesn’t have a nana, he can’t defend himself without either giving up space or committing to something punishable. His (character specific) defensive options are pretty much retreating bair/fair, pivot grab and utilt. If he reads an aerial approach, he’ll be able to beat it. Of course, you’re Wario. So you fake a lot of **** until he does something punishable, of which you'll take your obvious advantage. That advantage isn't necessarily something big, don't expect to uair a grounded Diddy a lot, but it's an advantage you can build further advantages from.
Aerial Diddy = yay Diddy.
Diddy on the ledge = yay Diddy.
Diddy on the ground = meh Diddy.
Diddy with nanas on the ground = fu.
Oh, that was basic knowledge, my bad. Diddy's aerial mobility is kinda bad and his options limited. It's easy to bait all sorts of stuff, but you can expect a good Diddy to not airdodge close to the ground: we can't punish a spaced fair on our shield.
When grabbing Diddy, don't dthrow. Just don't. Uthrow is situational, fthrow does the same thing but usually better: either he DIs it upwards and can be edgeguarded/juggled, or he DIs it downwards (at lower%) and grab the ledge. Ledgeguarding Diddy is yummy. Bthrow if it means you'll get to ledgguard, rather than fthrowing him across the stage and dashing after him.
About ledgeguarding:
Shielding near the ledge is safe and will net you a punish if he tries to be reckless. However, a good Diddy will know not to try anything in a situation like that. If you stand too close to the ledge shielding, he can ledgehop fair your shield and retreat to the ledge safely. He can technically Monkey Flip grab your shield as well, this is something really basic which you sometimes see working against people with MU inexperience. If you see him leaving the ledge, you should be wanting to punish whatever he does with an aerial (unless you specifically predict a ledgeroll/attack/getup, in those cases you can go for a smash). Your counters are fairly straightforward, you can beat the Flip Kick with a shieldgrab or FH dair and you can beat a ledgejump by simply taking advantage of the situation (you should know how to). The key to this whole ordeal is to STAY PATIENT. He can technically camp you by just spamming ledgedrop upB, don't even bother trying to punish it. Keep your spacing (which should be just outside his ledge attack/fair range) and wait for him to do something.
When to fart:
Diddy is rather fartable, or so to speak. His recovery is one situation of which you can make splendid use (more on that later), so are juggles, airdodged aerials (all of them except for bair have very noticeable lag), Flip Kicks and landings (though you might as well consider those a part of the juggling process). All of these situations tend to be inevitable, and should be consider reliable killing situations.
About edgeguarding:
You get Diddy offstage in a lot of ways: the ways you get people offstage in general (no ****ing **** *** Sherlock). In pretty much all of these situations, you should be able to exploit his recovery in some way, unless you knocked him away across the stage. A predicted Flip Kick means you can ledge drop bair or fair him. If he drops low, fair is usually guaranteed (just get your *** back ASAP, even if that means you have to be content with doing 5% damage and committing to a ledgeguard situation). If he goes high, it's practically a juggle trap only with him having even less space and options than usual. Important note: you can beat his barrel startup with nair, but once he releases it, it beats you out. Don't try and nair gimp his barrels unless you are absolutely sure you'll take him out with it, it sucks dying because you didn't manage to assess the situation correctly. In general, edgeguarding Diddy is definitely possible, but I personally feel like ledgeguarding is just that much more profitable. If Diddy still has his jump, be aware of him having the option of simply DJ fairing whatever you may want to do to him. It'll technically beat all your silly attempts of edgeguarding. If he's close to the ledge and still has his jump left, just commit to the ledgeguard.
About nanas:
When they do happen to come into play, don't be afraid of them unless there's 2 and he's in control of both of them. Wario is an awesome character to work around nanas with. His item game in and by itself isn't awesome, his glidetoss and followups are good, but he's awful at trip-techchasing and his throwing speed is sluggish. His main asset is being able to catch and control the nanas. When Diddy has nanas, there's nothing wrong with simply SH fairing. You don't necessarily have to hit him or his shield, spacing SH fairs from a distance is perfectly safe. If he figures he can safely throw his nana towards you he'll be wrong, you can catch it by landing an airdodge or nair, or by DJing another fair. If all else fails, you can just DJ away. Stay patient, don't try to uair an 'armed' Diddy, and try to limit dairing. You can nair to a certain extent, but I recommend being stubborn and annoyingly safe by just sticking to fair. If Diddy has a nana in hand and another one lying close to him, and you're in the air without a jump, don't panic. You have options. Or well, if Diddy times the nana right, by making it his you just at the time you'd be landing, you can't really catch it anymore. If you expect him to do just that, just bike. When Wario is biking/pulling out his bike, Diddy can't hit him with nana's while remaining grounded. They'll deflect off the bike and you can safely mind your business. In fact, if you specifically predict a nana toss, you'll punish him in his cooldown lag, he'll lose his control of both nanas and he's off flying to places he doesn't really want to be flying to. It's actually, at any rate, a very low risk, very high reward situation.
About killing:
Don't depend on fsmash, you'll get chances to use it, but you shouldn't take them for granted per se. Same deal about uair, and same deal about fart. Consider Diddy the same deal as all other characters: you can't throw out safe killing **** until he falls into it. Sometimes, if Diddy plays it really well, you just won't get the chance to kill early. In those cases, feel free to rack him till percentages in which you can force edgeguards or him being above you. If all else fails, follow the advice I'd give in every lightweight MU: wait until 170% and kill with dair or nair.
Diddy's killing options are rather limited, close to being lulzy. It's hard for him to keep fair fresh, and if you play it safe, he shouldn't see killing with smashes as a realistic thing to do. This isn't necessarily because it's so hard to hit with them, but also because he might as well rack another 20% and get you into utilt/fair killing percentages (you should be able to survive fsmash and dsmash at 150%). He gradually gets more killing options, and you should know when to keep track of another one. Once you're at 170-180%, he'll probably commit to utilt which is, tragically, extremely safe.
About Bite:
It's usable in this MU, it's very realistic to pressure Diddy into shielding, and it eats quite a few of Diddy's moves. Moves it won't beat:
- Fair
- Dsmash
Those are the only ones you should care about. Of course it also eats his nanas, but you shouldn't really aim for that unless you see a great opportunity to use the laglessness of it by means of baiting.
About patience:
You can generally keep going aggro (note that my definition of aggro is: putting active pressure), don't commit to holding back unless you know you're simply at an disadvantage. Take it easy on the ledge, there's little he can do while you're hanging there.
Ratio (experience against a LOT of Diddy's, favorite and most played MU):
60:40, making Wario a solid counter.
If anything is unclear, do feel free to ask. Posting this now because I feel like it, not necessarily because I think I covered everything
