Melee Marth Matchups

Stuff to add

spam crouch and dash-back and wall with aerials, only drift forward if you have a read

and only fsmash if it’s from a tipper at a considerable %

prioritize grab into fthrow and dthrow you get regrab or tech chase and at 40%ish you can start fishing for fthrow/dthrow pivot tipper on di away you get tech chase normally

also think about the things that combo into grab and help you get more grabs, like tipper dair grab or dtilt into dash forward grab or 1st hit nair grab

and when you edgeguard think about it like Sheik grab ledge and refresh and wait for upb then neutral getup and punish trust me bro

a well timed ledgehop dair or bair can cover pika going stage/ledge too

or you can learn to dtilt on reaction at the edge, kinda like you did with dsmash

1 i go ledge (your getup kills me) 2 i go stage (you punish after getup) 3 i go platform or higher (you are safe but get no punish) to cover option 3 you have to read it and instead of getup from ledge you do a ledgedash and youre ready to cover platform JUST LIKE VS SHEIK!!

Neutral

Advantageous Positioning (the general game-plan)

Character weak-points

Landings

Pika struggles to land, the only option he has to mix up is double jump and side b side b is worse when closer to the floor, as it has alot of lag, so when juggling at close distances, he can only jump

Short range

Pika has really small ranges on his moves, making his attack easy to dodge and wall out

Good Positions (To play for)

Center

Center allows Marth to fade back, stopping Pika’s approaches This also allows Marth to corner Pika, and set up for kills

Bad Positions (To avoid putting myself there)

In corner / ledge

Without space to dash back Pika’s overshoots, Marth is a sitting duck in the corner. Attitudinally when on ledge, Pika can just choose to take it whenever, so stalling is now a mix up.

Above Pika

That u-air is a crime, you cannot get down

Offstage

Good luck, Pika is really good at edge guarding Marth Mix up your recovery paths to make sure the Pika don’t hard call you out

Movement

Gameplan

Options to respect

D-Air

N-air

U-Air

Grab

Options not to respect

Punish Game

Punish routes

Juggles

Pika struggles hard with getting down, all he has is double jump and he has short range on his attacks

We can exploit this by racking up damage off juggles

Using f-airs and u-airs we can juggle pika off the stage for an edge guard

RTC

Pika has long identifiable tech options, so RTC is a good way to get some damage into a throw follow up / a juggle or KoDoChase F-Smash

A good way to start one is with a D-air, witch could also lead to an f-smash if he does not hold down

Combos

D-air -> F-smash Throw -> F-Smash

Edge Guarding

Think about it like Sheik, grab ledge and refresh and wait for an Up-b, if they go to ledge, wait and hog the ledge, otherwise get up and punish.

If you think you have got their timing, you can also d-tilt / f-smash the ledge, however, if they grab after you do this, GTFO to center

Throw Follow ups

Low %

(mash or nothing) U-throw -> u-tilt -> juggle (double jumps) U-throw -> juggle

Mid %

U-throw -> juggle (DI in) F-Throw / D-Throw -> pivot f-smash (DI out) F-Throw / D-Throw -> Tech chase