In all fighting games it's important to be able to take control over a match in order to secure a victory. By gaining control your opponent is forced to play your game on your terms and unless they understand ways around your control then you will take the win. So how does one take control? By using Brickwalls and Traps.



This article will explain what Brickwalls and Traps are, what the different variations are, and why they are the most important aspect of high level play in Brawl. More important then anything else even combos.



To start off, let me give you a definition of both brickwalls and traps.





Brickwall - A tactic that forces an opponent to figure out a way around it before they can actually fight their opponent. Brickwall tactics are often referred to as zoning when done with pokes and attacks with good range or camping/spamming when done with projectiles. Brickwalls are not the mindless spamming of moves though. It's using moves intelligently to force a reaction from an opponent, control their movements and also to frustrate them as they try to figure ways to deal with the brickwall.



Traps - This is when a player forces an opponent into a bad position that they can take advantage of. There are many variations of traps in Brawl and the effectiveness will vary depending on which character you are, which character you are facing, and your positioning on the stage. Traps are extremely effective because once your opponent is forced into a bad position, their options become very limited. Then it's just a matter of choosing an option of yours that covers the option they are most likely to take which will usually be their very best option.





The reason why these two tactics are so important in Brawl, is because unlike most other fighters, comboing is very limited in Brawl. This is not the type of game where you can score a hit then make your opponent feel some serious pain. At most you will get a few hits then you will be back at neutral position with your opponent. These tactics give you a way to stay in control of the match and it's very low risk with high reward. If you master these strategies you can turn situations into advantageous ones and stay in control of the match. And as in all fighting games, control = victory.





So now that you have a basic definition of these tactics and understand their importance let's go over the many different types of walls and traps.





Brickwall - Projectiles



Projectile walls are pretty simple in Brawl honestly. People do it all the time and don't even think about it. Want to know how simple it is? Go into a 1v1 with the CPU. Pick Pit. Set the CPU to any character and pick any stage. When the match starts hit the b button. Congratulations. You just did a bit of projectile zoning. People usually call excessive projectile zoning, spamming and it has a negative connotation. There is a reason why people hate it though. Because when done by a smart player it's a frighteningly effective strategy and even when done by a noob it can be very frustrating. All you are doing is forcing an opponent to deal with your projectiles. You aren't actually fighting them or doing much to control them. Your projectile is enough for that. Pit is a great example thanks to the speed of his arrows and the fact that he can control the trajectory. This makes Pit a fearsome projectile zoner. Essentially it's a way of saying, "Hey, if you can get past this then I'll fight you, but if you can't then why should I stop?" Of course a smart projectile zoner won't keep shooting projectiles once you close in. They will either get you back out somehow or run away. You may think this is cowardly, but honestly that's scrub talk. Play to win or don't play at all is the mentality of a true high level player. If a strategy works then it should be abused.





Brickwall - Zoning



This type of brickwall would be classified as any type of brickwall that doesn't involve projectiles. I will use Marth and MK for this example. Marth has good range and fast A attacks. If Marth uses a combination of fairs, jabs, and d-tilts at the right spacing his opponent is going to have to figure out a way past his wall if they want to attack him. Marth has also has good horizontal movement. So during his wall he can easily adjust his spacing during fairs, which also increases the effectiveness of his wall. This means Marth can lure an opponent in with his superior spacing and hit them back out. This is a highly effective strategy that can very frustrating to play against. Now let's take a look at MK. As I'm sure you all know MK has a move that allows him to brickwall opponents with ease and it's considered to be one of if not the best b move in the game. It's the Mach Tornado. This move combines powerful zoning, with shield pressure, high priority and good damage. MK can simply Mach Tornado onto an opponent's shield and most of the time it will shield stab and from there MK can mash B for more damage. The Mach Tornado will cut through alot of different attacks and even phase through alot of projectiles. It's a very powerful move with good attributes. And the last hit of the Tornado launches opponents upwards which means MK has enough time to start up his Brickwall yet again if he wants too. So from this we can see that MK's torndao not only acts like a Brickwall, but also acts as a trap since after the last hit the situation is reset. This is one of the reasons why MK is such a dominating character.







Traps - Attacks



An attack trap is when any attack done by you limits the options of your opponents. Marth and MK both have a D-tilt trap. They can space a D-tilt as a poke and no matter what happens they are at an advantageous position. If it hits then they get a follow-up attack. If the opponent spotdodges then they can throw out another and then get a follow-up. What if an opponent shields? In this case Marth and MK are still in control. They need only wait a moment and react to anything the opponent does. If they roll towards them then they can attack before their opponent gets out of roll lag. If they try to attack out of shield then MK and Marth can still attack them since they will usually be able to outrange or outspeed their opponent or both. The only viable option is to get away. Either SH back or roll away. This is still not a very good option though since it gives Marth and MK more stage control and moves their opponent closer to the ledge. Still it's better then getting hit. But if Marth and MK know that their opponent will most likely just try to get away they need only be ready for that option and choose an option of their own to cover those. Is it hopeless for an opponent in those situations? No, it's not but it's still heavily in the favor of Marth/MK. Different characters have different attack traps so you should experiment and see what you can come up with. The reason why this particular trap works so well is because MK/Marth have IASA frames on their d-tilts which lets them cancel into any action after the d-tilt reaches a certain animation. This seems to give them a bit of frame advantage on hit which let's them act a bit before their opponent when the d-tilt is blocked.





Traps - Projectiles



This is a slightly different concept then Projectile walls which is more of a frustration tactic. With this you use the projectile to force a reaction and then have an option to cover the reaction of your opponent. Let's say your opponent is Snake and you are Wolf. You are shooting lasers to keep Snake at bay, but he is approaching with ease using Perfect shielding. So after a few moments the Snake player is pretty close. You predictably shoot one more laser and watch Snake PS. Then you dash in for a grab after Snake drops his shield. Your laser forced Snake to approach you and due to this you read his pattern easily. You also knew that he expected another laser, which enabled you to run in and grab. Wolf's laser gave him control of the situation. With projectile traps the goal is to use your projectile to test your opponent and see what they do. Once you have observed their reactions and and most common ways of dealing with your projectile you can devise appropriate counter measures. This isn't like before when you spam projectiles. This is using projectiles intelligently to limit your opponents options, observe their actions, and then pick them apart. Toon Link is another great example of this. He can throw his boomerang upwards which covers one approach option. He can then shoot an arrow in a SH which further limits the opponent. Now you know your opponent will most likely come in low and approach with dashing and when they do you can score a grab. This is another example of projectile traps at work.





Traps - Juggles



A juggle trap is simple and very common in Brawl. Since you can't do true juggles like in Melee or most other fighting games, it has become an effective strategy to draw out the airdodge of an opponent so you can hit them when they come out. I will use Marth and Snake for this example. Marth is good at juggles and Snake is bad at getting out of juggles. If Marth u-throws Snake his options are instantly limited. There isn't much Snake can do that isn't risky to try to get out of this juggle trap. All Marth has to do is do a SHFF Uair when Snake is above him then do an U-smash right after. The Uair is there to force Snake's airdodge and when timed correctly it will beat any of Snake's aerials. If Snake does airdodge then he will eat Marth's U-smash and the trap is reset. Juggle traps can be extremely difficult to get out of. In this situation Snake is better off going for a ledge then trying to land on the stage, but even then Marth could attack before he manages to grab the ledge. This situation is in Marth's favor by a wide margin. There is very little chance that he will be hurt by doing this and a very great chance that he will remain in control as he keeps Snake in the air.





Traps - Ledge



Ledge traps are also very common and very easy to do. When an opponent is on the ledge they have several options. They have roll get up, ledge hop into an aerial, ledge attack, normal get up and ledge jump. If you space yourself so that their get up attack would miss you if they tried, you have effectively covered most of their options. If they roll get up you can just throw them back out or get a free attack. If they normal get up then you can just rush in and attack or grab and throw them back out to reset the situation. The best two options would be ledge hop aerial or ledge jump. But if you are facing a character with bad ledge hop options or a character that is easily juggled then you know they are limited to one option or the other. Some characters like Snake have poor ledge jump options AND are easily juggled. As you can imagine, Snake does not like ledge traps. But abusing traps like this is key to beating certain characters since it takes advantages of certain weaknesses they may have.





Traps - Throws



Different characters can also use their throws as traps. Just because a character can't chain throw doesn't mean their throw game is bad. Peach's D-throw is a good throw trap. At low percents she can get guaranteed damage from but at higher percents she can't. But she can still pull out a turnip and use that to force a reaction from her opponent or keep control of the situation. Wolf's D-throw is a decent trap as well. It leaves them at very close range and Wolf can just shoot a laser to force a reaction and stay in control. There are many throws traps and some are much more obvious then others. Snakes D-throw as well as G&W's D-throw are the most recognizable and well known throw traps. Snakes is especially good since an opponent can only do 4 things. So Snake can easily cover his opponent's options, by shielding which covers 2 options of normal get up and wake up attack. This means that have to roll right or left so from there its a 50/50 gamble.





Traps - Edgeguarding



This is the most obvious trap of them all and one that everyone does constantly. When your opponent is off the stage you are clearly at a distinct advantage. There isn't much work to be done in this situation. Generally you will at least damage your opponent even if you don't outright gimp them. Alot of the time simply running out with an aerial is enough to force an airdodge or another type of reaction and then form there you can go for the ledge to force them onstage so you can take advantage of their land lag or maybe grab the ledge an instant before your opponent does so they fall to their death. Edgeguarding strats vary from character to character of course as will their effectiveness. This is probably the only section that pretty much every player already knew about before I talked about it, but it's still the best trap situation in the game and it's very easy to take advantage of, so I had to mention it.





Dealing with Brickwalls and Traps



There is no trick to getting out of these situations. Alot of it is just knowing your options. And for characters that simply don't have the tools to get out of certain traps or walls unscathed, the only thing I can truly say to you is to try your hardest not to get caught in that particular brickwall or trap. Some characters simply cannot be walled or trapped. Like MK for example. He has options no matter what situation he is in. Other characters like say Ganondorf, can be walled or trapped with ease. But this is the difference between an amazing character and a bad character. I will not hand feed how each and every character gets out of these situations. How could I expect our community to grow if I did such a thing? What I will tell you is please experiment and have fun doing it. Learn more about this game at a higher level. This may not be the deepest fighter in existence, but it certainly has more depth then alot of us realize.



And with that.



Please discuss.