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Smash Legend
Ok so as many of you may know, there is a Wolf Back Room for good Wolf players and contributors. In there we only discuss important Wolf tactics so we aren't plagued by lower level discussion here (no offense to any of you). So far, we've discussed 3 main points, and we are currently discussing a few more, but those will be posted later once we're finished.
So it was Gheb_01's idea a few weeks ago to post our discussions in reports like this, and we'll have a different theme for each one (this one is the basics). These will be posted by different WBR members every time, and these are meant to be helpful threads for Wolf's meta game.
So here we go:
Topic #1: Wolf's best secondaries:
I personally think Marth is a good secondary for Wolf because of his good matchups vs. most of the cast, and him not having a terrible matchup vs. Meta Knight. But here are other people's takes on it:
Gheb: GaW goes about even with MK, owns Falco owns D3 = best choice for a 2nd
MK = always the right choice
Falco owns DDD and goes even with MK and Falco. Reliable back-up...unless you fight GaW
Kirby = even with MK and Falco. No clue about Kirby vs DDD but I know, that Kirby sux vs Marth...
The only weakness Gaw leaves is Marth but neither Wolf nor GnW have big problems against him.
MK leaves you vulnerable to....?!??????
Falco leaves you vulnerable to GnW, who is tougher for Falco and Wolf than Marth
Kirby leaves you vulnerable to Marth, unless you can reliably defeat Marth with Wolf
So in order: GaW = MK > Falco >>> Kirby
Pikachu isn't so good, aside from his ability to counter DDD. He sucks vs. MK, GaW and Marth and isn't good vs Falco either. The only things Pika is great for is to own Snake but Wolf has no disadvantage vs. Snake.
Tl;dr take MK or GaW as 2nd
Snad:
I defend Pikachu as a very good alt to wolf. He is a very hard counter to DDD, wolfs worst match up, and Pikachu goes even with Falco,*besides isn't it only justice to be able to cg the Falco and DDD's* and he counters Kirby*I think it’s a bad match for wolf* Sure Pikachu is weak to MK, but who isn't really. Pikachu does better against MK than wolf mo, since Pikachu can fight MK off stage and can't be gimped easily.
Topic #2: Wall of Wolf: To Use Or Not To Use?
My take on WoW is that it is a pretty bad tactic to use because you should not really double jump often with Wolf, because you expose his one main aerial weakness: below him. But some of the other members word it better than me:
Gheb:
There's a difference between the Wall of Wolf and spamming Bair intelligently.
Germ has used the Wall of Wolf in the past, but it's really a dated strategy.
Arc pretty much nailed, what I said before: Wall of Wolf = predictable. It’s a Wall but has holes in it - a smart player will always break through it. Bair -> Ftilt works way better...
ArcPoint:
Effective? o.O Going by GERM's most recent matches at Axis, against mikehAZE he mixed it up quite well, played very intelligently there. And against Fly Amanita was where he used the "wall" tactic, which, against the Ice Climbers you almost need, you CANNOT get grabbed, and so using Wolf's poking move you tend not to get grabbed. Though, every time he used an Fsmash after a Bair, he got grabbed for it, but luckily Fly messed up most of the times he got grabbed.
Topic #3: Wolf's Grab Game
Dthrow:
OK I think Ishieymoro explained the Dthrow techchase that Wolf has the most simply when he said "Dthrow tech chase is when you Dthrow, then run up to them and shield-grab if you predict an attack/spot dodge or dash-grab if you predict a shield."
Going more in depth to this tactic is
ArcPoint:
As for Dthrow techchase, it's really simple, at certain percents you can Dthrow an opponent and they have about...7 options? Tech left, tech right, tech straight up, get up, get up attack, get up right, get up left. With Fsmash you eliminate about 5 of them (Tech towards you[which puts them behind you], get up, get up attack, get up towards you, tech straight up) And with DCU you can eliminate the other two, Tech away from you, and get up roll away from you. Blaster works too ^_^
If they're below the percent to where they fall on the ground, then (if they don't tech it) you just run up to them, shield, and see what they do... I think they have a lot more options in this situation. If they spot dodge, Charge a Usmash out of shield, if they shield, grab them, if they don't shield, do whatever, if they attack, keep holding shield, if they grab, spot dodge, Roll away from you, DCU, if they roll behind you, Fsmash. If they jump... then I don’t know, set something up, get back stage position. So about 8 options in all, oh, and three more options if you include teching ^_^.
If they're at a high enough percent as to where they go a fair distance, you'll be in two situations: either you have your back against the ledge, and you can use the throw to get back valuable stage position and apply pressure/prevent yourself from being pressured. If you're at center stage and beyond while they have their back to the ledge, then you can push them off the ledge and set up for ledge pressure =D Overally a really great throw =)
Snad:
I never really use any throws other than Dthrow, if they can't tech it after 2-3 you should be able to catch them post throw with something. I prefer to chase after for re-grab, trick is not to do a dash grab, run shield and if they spot dodge wait then grab, or shield grab, most people either just shield or sidestep if they don't land, if they land u dash at them and shield right above, if they attack or stand right up u grab, if the roll you Fsmash.
Bthrow:
Lucien:
Bthrow is good against big characters or fast falling characters at low percents. Especially snake. people almost always DI towards you from the Bthrow so it acts like a better Uthrow. A lot of people also air-dodge early from it, so you can buffer it with an usmash. Of course you should pick up air-dodging habits before doing it, if they double jump from it hit them with a full hop Bair, off the stage without a double jump.
So there you go, that concludes the WBR's first report, stay tuned for more!
Feel free to discuss!