So a thought occurred to me this morning. But let's review the basics first. When you grab the ledge there is a small period of time in which you cannot do anything. When someone gets trumped, there is a small period of time in which they cannot do anything. In order to punish someone who is trumped then, you must grab the ledge at almost the exact same time as them so that by the time they get kicked off, your period of time on the ledge in which you cannot move has already been used up. Seems fair enough.

Now add to this picture the fact that when you tether to the ledge, you can act immediately and you don't have any period of time on the ledge in which you cannot do anything. You see where this is going?



Take the situation where someone is on the ledge and you Tether to the ledge such that your timing isn't perfect (your timing doesn't have to be perfect i.e. you can do it at any point, not just the very moment after they grab the ledge) you reel it in, then when you grab the ledge they get trumped (they can be trumped any time after their period of time in which they cannot act has run out). Well did you know that in this situation you have a guaranteed D-air spike on every character?

Different characters have slightly different trump distances and archs that they travel, but this difference is not enough to make any difference. If you Tether Trump then immediately hit away from the ledge and double Jump Dair, it is impossible for the opponent to escape being spiked regardless of what character they are playing. Of course, this situation can be avoided by simply avoiding the trump, but still, you can see how this situation might occur, and knowing exactly what to do should you find yourself in this situation could easily win you the game.



Now if you Tether the ledge and your timing is perfect, i.e. you reel the tether in and grab the ledge just after they grab the ledge, you find yourself in a very advantageous position.

Even though you can act immediately, if you chose to stay on the ledge till the opponent can act and if they don't buffer a ledge option, they will be trumped and you can get that guaranteed Dair spike.

If you immediately stand up, the opponent is still forced to buffer a ledge action otherwise they will be trumped. Note that hitting away from the stage to let go of the ledge does not count as a buffered ledge option, and any attempts to do so will simply get you trumped. While I don't believe at this stage that you have anything guaranteed out of a trump in this situation with you standing up and all, it is still clearly advantageous. They cannot re-grab the ledge or they will be stuck on the ledge with no invincibility frames this time around (yelling please hit me), and you are by this time in complete control of your character and ready to punish them when they try to return on-stage.

Seeing as they will likely want to buffer a ledge option in this situation and seeing as you've already stood up, you are now in a prime position to punish whatever option they choose. This is very different from simply standing near the edge while someone is on the ledge because now you know that they must choose a ledge option and you also know exactly when it will come out. They have the option of immediate ledge roll, ledge hop, ledge attack, or stand up. I'll leave it up to you to decide how to react in this situation.



[Is 'Tether Trump' too boring of a name?]