Melee Marth Matchups

Stuff to add

dashing back when puff take space and instantly punish with grab, aerial or Fsmash

Can dash grab: idle frame 2 & first few frames of squat

Hold center, play lame, play fly swatter

Neutral

Play keep-out + center

Movement

You don’t want to scrap with puff at close range, you play range game as your sword can beat out any of puff’s aerials.

Dash dancing is good for when you want to try to whiff punish Puff’s aggressive options such as pound, F-Smash or an approaching aerial; Otherwise you will be playing a swatting game where you will mix up where and when you choose to go and swat Puff out of the air.

Holding center in this MU is key. By taking center you can force puff to approach and have alot of space to drift / move around to swat her out the air.

Gameplan

At low %s (0% - 20%), you will want to use N-air to swat her out the air as it combos better at this % than F-Air.

At mid to high %s (20% - 100%) you will use F-Air to swat at puff and build up damage.

Trying to grab Puff in this MU can come down to reading and reaction to where she is. Trying to see if the Puff is repetitive is quite useful, as it allows you to find where she will land and dash grab her. Additionally, any bad approaches can also be whiff punished grabbed if you have enough time to do so and she did not fade back with her aerial drift. Before 50% you can also CC B-Air and get a grab.

N-Air is also good when they are on platform and at high %s as it sends further.

Options to respect

Side B

The easiest way to beat this move is to whiff punish it. You can F-Smash at higher %s or F-Air / grab it at lower %s, just time it correctly as that hit-box is active for a while.

B-Air

At low %s, you can CC it, but after 50%, you shouldn’t really contest it, doding it or swatting it is the best counter play.

U-Tilt

This move is quite good at close ranges, so don’t let puff get that close.

it can combo into rest if you DI wrong.

D-Air

This move breaks CC but lasts a while, meaning you can whiff punish / swat it. When shielding it, do a light-shield, as otherwise it might poke or puff can mix up her drift.

U-Air

When landing from below, you can get caught by this move, as it also is like a mini Marth U-Air, so watch out when landing for it.

F-Smash

You can sheild F-Smash and grab at low %s or at high %s, Up-B

Options not to respect

Sing

This move is trash, F-Smash it if she does it, just don’t get INF-ed if she does it on the ledge.

Punish Game

Punish routes

You can combo many F-airs together, and at low % N-Air -> F-Air

Combos

F-Air -> F-Air N-Air -> F-Air

Edge Guarding

To edge guard puff, you must match her height. If she goes above SH range, you will want to go to a platform or FH and wait. Then if she gets close, B-Air or F-Air her off the stage again

If she goes too high where you can reach her, go back to juggling her.

If she goes strait at you bellow SH height but still above the ledge, you can mix up between F-Air/B-Air/N-Air, F-Smash, D-Air or Side-B.

When going low, you can D-Tilt her jumps, however she might mix up with an air-dodge / U-Air; To beat these, just D-Air in place at the ledge.

Throw Follow ups

50-77%: Mixup=fthrow pivot tip vs dthrow raw tip 78-92%: Mixup=fthrow pivot tip (rc dsmash on down and away) vs dthrow pivot tip (From around 83% until 92% there is no reason to mixup dthrow, since you can cover every DI with a kill option) 92-110%: Mixup= fthrow WD tip/utilt vs dthrow pivot tip or WD uptilt 110-120%: fthrow WD tip or uptilt vs dthrow pivot tip OR wavedash fsmash (If they do a spinning animation during up and in di you do an instant uptilt, if they don’t you delay the uptilt by 7 frames) 120-130%: fthrow RC fsmash or uptilt on no DI (DL only), vs up and in uair on YS, FD and PS or uptilt on DL, fod and BF 130-150%: Fthrow RC fsmash, uair or uptilt (DL).

Defence

Remember to DI out B-Air at lower %s or you will be carried to the blast zone.

Recovery

Don’t go too low as she can just drop down F-Air / B-Air or Marth killer.

Don’t mash side b too much / too close as you will be B-Air-ed.

Mix up your recovery or you will be B-Air-ed trained into the blast zone.

Stages

Best

FD, YS

Worst

DL, FoD

Resources

PPMD puff MU

THE puff VS marth video (zain huzband training)

Weaknesses

Speed ★★★★☆ Movement ★★★★☆ Offence ★★★☆☆ Defence ★★★★★ Range ★★★★☆ Out of Shield ★★★☆☆ Boxing ★★★★☆ Recovery ★★★★☆ Ledge Trapping ★★★★☆ Edge guarding ★★★★★