In tournament play it can be incredibly frustrating to face an opponent who plays a character that you just don’t have enough experience dealing with. Depending on the matchup, your usually sharp punish game can become dull. You may drop combos you would usually complete, and your attempts to edge guard can fail. You can also become overwhelmed with the way your opponent’s unfamiliar character plays both the neutral and punish game. It can hurt your mental acuity and maybe even your ego to lose in these matchups. That being said, the higher your climb in competitive play and rank, the less appropriate it becomes to blame your loss solely on the match up. In the spirit of “No Johns”, let’s go over what you can do to avoid losing to a character you’re not quite used to facing.

First, let’s identify the two situations you might find yourself in. The more frequent situation is that you find yourself pitted against a high tier or relatively high tier character that you have not played against as often as you’d like. It can be difficult to obtain practice against certain characters when few individuals in your area plays them. If your region/local scene is dominated by Fox and Falco players, a Samus, Peach, or a Jigglypuff player could give you a run for your money.

The second, less likely situation that can occur is that you face off against a “low/mid-tier specialist”. Like many others you might not initially be worried about playing against a character that is placed in mid or low tier. However, with the rise and success of players like Masaya ‘aMSa’ Chikamoto in recent years, there is plenty of reason to give mid to low tier characters like aMSa’s Yoshi some respect. Here are some general tips for dealing with these two scenarios.



1. How to Deal with the Unfamiliar High Tier Character Matchup

When your match first begins, you may not be able to adapt to this unfamiliar situation right away. What you can do, however, is analyze and scout out how this character and how this player plays the neutral game and the punish game. A few questions you can consider are as follows:

Does this character’s playstyle naturally lend itself to a more offensive or more defensive neutral game?

What is this character’s main initiation/approach moves and defensive moves/options and how can I avoid them or beat them out?

What tools does my character have to win in neutral and punish my opponent?

What habits does my opponent have while playing both the neutral and the punish game?

Asking yourself these questions and noticing the habits of your opponent will help you in the next step of playing this match up.

The next step, as briefly mentioned before, is adapting. If you won your first game, great! You are probably already doing what you should be doing. If not, what you want to think about is the engagements or interactions you ultimately lost during your first game. Did you lose neutral because you were rushed down by their explosive and offensive playstyle? Or was it because you couldn’t get figure out how to effectively deal with and punish a defensively styled character/player? Specifically, you want to analyze what you could have done differently to overcome the interactions and engagements you lost. This principal can apply to nearly any match up. However in this next segment I will use a specific matchup example to help clarify this point further.

A common interaction within the Samus and Peach matchups presents a great example of how you can adapt to an opponent's defensive options. Samus and Peach players often utilize crouch canceling to punish weaker moves with a down smash. Suppose that in the first game you played Fox and attacked Samus or Peach with short hop neutral air frequently and you were punished by a crouch cancel down-smash several times.

In the second game, instead of approaching with an aerial, try an empty hop grab (also known as a ‘tomahawk’) as a mix-up. Chances are the Peach or Samus player will crouch (or shield) upon your approach expecting an aerial. Now, instead of getting down smashed, you have yourself a grab!



2. How to Deal with the Unfamiliar Low or Mid-Tier Character Matchup

Before we continue it is important to note that all of the general tips in the previous section still apply here! When dealing with mid or low tier specialists, it is important not to get frustrated. A number low tier characters have useful tools against the higher tier cast. It is critical to try and identify these tools and adapt to them quickly. Yoshi, for example, can use techniques like double jump cancelling, super armor, and parrying to escape your offensive pressure. Even seemingly benign characters like Doctor Mario have useful tools against top tier characters like Fox and Falco. Doctor Mario can effectively chain grab Fox and Falco to around 60% on stages like Final Destination and finish them at high percent with up throw to forward air.

When playing against these characters, it is important to remember this: they are considered low tier for a reason. Several low to mid-tier characters are considered as such because they have poor recovery, lack KO power/reliable kill setups, or are easily chain grabbed or combo’d. If you can identify the attributes that make a character inherently weak, then you can easily abuse those weaknesses. Overall, it is important to find a balance in your game play that respects but also doesn’t give your mid or low tier opponent too much respect.

I’ll leave you with a few more parting tips to help you improve in unfamiliar match ups.

If your match was recorded or streamed, watch and analyze the VoD. Even if you lost and it hurts a little to watch, you can still learn something from it.

When possible, play friendlies with people who main a character you’re not familiar with to gain some knowledge.

Don’t get intimidated! Be confident in the fact that you are a capable player and that you will be able to find some success no matter the match up.

The points presented in this article are certainly not foolproof. Your mileage may vary. That being said, hopefully these tips will help you find your footing when you are feeling confused. In addition, be sure to check back on the blog to catch Dilly-Jo’s upcoming Sixty-Forty Match Up Guide. He will be analyzing sets in order to produce guides for each of the most relevant matchups in Super Smash Brothers Melee. His guides will surely help!

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