At any given moment in ANY fighting game, the fight will be in one of three states. I will go over each and talk about the options available to you in each one. Momentum is constantly shifting and true mastery of this game will require you to understand these three states and how your options are affected in each.The most common state. In this state all of your options are available to you. You can do as you please. You can walk, roll, jump, smash or what have you. It's also the most important state in the game because what you do in this state will decide how often you end up in the other two states which WILL decide how often you WRECK FOOLS and how often you get your butt handed to you on a silver platter. As I said before, in this state you can do as you please, but that doesn't mean you should. This state is really about being intelligent and testing the waters. Some things to consider while you are in this state is what your good options are. Do you have safe pokes that allow you to hit a shield without being punished? What are your mobility options? How do you deal with projectiles? When someone says such and such character is good at neutral, they are saying that character has alot of versatile tools that let them deal with a variety of situations. Pit is a great example. Solid pokes. Decent kill moves, SH aerials that finish before he lands. He has a projectile as well and even a forward rushing move with super armor with Upperdash Arm. Characters that are said to be weak in neutral are those that lack solid tools to impose their will. They usually have poor pokes and their attacks have alot of recovery which means they "commit" to their attacks, thus they require hard reads. Mastery of your options at neutral shows a strong command of how the game flows and how to establish dominance.This is when one person has gained control over the other and now has momentum. The most obvious example of this is when one character has another in a combo. Clearly the aggressor has the advantage. But having the advantage can be much more subtle than that and it often is. Being at an advantage can be as simple as creating a situation where your opponent has to fight different or on your terms. You now control the pace of the match and your opponent must figure out a way to deal with that. Characters that can hit this state with a fair amount of ease are of course, the top tier characters. Rosalina is a strong example thanks to Luma. Luma's existence alone creates this state because her opponent has to figure out a way to deal with her. When you have advantage you want to maintain that advantage as long as possible. This usually means transitioning into a trap situation, but more on that later. Also it's important to not do anything that puts you into disadvantage. If you can't maintain advantage for w/e reason, let the fight reset to neutral. Better then getting overzealous and losing complete control right?Just so we are clear, there are multiple states of advantage. I will list them. When your opponent is in a combo, when your opponent is high in the air or has been put into the air by you, when your opponent is on the ledge, when your opponent is lying on the ground and when your opponent is off the stage. Knowing your options and what your opponents options are in each situation is pivotal for staying in control and keeping your advantage going. And again, if your opponent manages to get out of your control, don't be reckless and put yourself in unnecessary danger to regain your control. You need to let the situation go back to neutral because that's alot better then being put at disadvantage which I will talk about next.This state is the opposite of being at advantage. When one player is at advantage the other is at disadvantage. This is the state you don't want to be in and the state you will find yourself in the most when you first start out. Get used to it and know how to get out of it. The key to dealing with this state is just like the other states. Knowing your options. When you are at disadvantage you still have plenty of options. If you are on the ledge you can roll, get up, get up attack, ledge hop attack, ledge jump and your character may have character specific options like special moves that are useful in that scenario. If you are being comboed/attacked you can use DI to try to get out of the combo or maneuver yourself farther away so you can regain your footing. There are options in EVERY scenario and you must be able to think fast and act quickly to take control of the match and get advantage/back to neutral. Otherwise you'll get rocked. This different states of disadvantage are the inverse of the states of advantage. Basically w/e state of advantage the aggressor is in, the defender is the one in the same state only he is the one dealing with being under the control of the one who has advantage. When Luma is killed, Rosalina is now at disadvantage. Make her FEEL it.Options will change according to how close you are to your opponent and what situation you are in. As always eliminate risky options that will get you killed easily. Go with what is safe and effective. If you are in the air then airdodging and fast falling to get to the ground quickly should be at the forefront of your mind. And as always, try not to be reckless about it. If you are lying on the ground and your opponent is shielding, do you really think it's a good idea to do a get up attack so your opponent can block it and then you get your face rearranged? Of course it's not a good idea, but I see it in real tournament matches and tournament vids all the time. Remember...just think smart and act on it.When you talk about Street Fighter or almost any fighting game, the term footsies usually means using your mobility, pokes and counter poking with normals to gain advantage and control. At the time of writing however, top players in FGs have been using the term more broadly to describe any kind if exchange at mid range where both chars are using their tools, vying for control(GamerBees Adon in SSFIV using Jaguar Kick in footsies is a strong example.) My own personal definition that I think is accurate and encompasses what footsies truly is really about, is as followsThe contest to establish dominance at mid range using whatever viable tools a character may have in their arsenal, while playing for space control at close range and trying to punish any over commitment the opponent may make. At the same time making sure that you do not overcommitment yourself and get punished for it.This may seem broad, but it works. Not every move is good in footsies after all. Generally you want fast, safe, high priority attacks with little recovery on them. Alot of characters we consider to have good footsies have good pokes. Marth, Lucina, Pit, Dark Pit, Donkey Kong, ZSS, Shulk and Ike definitely come to mind. Can't forget Little Mac. He is very special. Mobility is another huge factor as well. Aerial mobility and walk speed are very important for minor adjustments in spacing.Counter poking, baiting and whiff punishing still have a huge role in this game. Generally ground pokes are a commitment in this game. So if someone throws out a poorly spaced attack and it whiffs, its pretty easy to smack them right back for it. F-tilts in general tend to have good range and coverage but are unsafe on whiff and block. D-tilts tend to be safer, while doing less damage. This is a general rule, but it does not apply to every character. It's always great to know what you can punish and when from each character. General advice for counter poking is as follows. Short hop aerials with low hitting hitboxes/arcs are good for beating d-tilts. Use your mobility and empty short hops to bait out f-tilts, so you can punish. U-tilts are solid anti-airs. F-tilts are usually a characters most damaging raw poke, but tend to have alot of commitment and are therefore unsafe. D-tilts are usually fast and fairly safe, useful for poking at opponents. These are general rules however and some chars like Sheik for example have a very fast low commitment f-tilt that set up for more combos/set-ups. Experiment with your character and see what button should be used for what.I mentioned short hopping and in Smash it adds an extremely interesting dynamic due to how it changes footsies. SHing gives an added mobility option as well as "aerial pokes". Marth is notorious for this gameplay in every game he has appeared in. Jigglypuff and Wario as well are monstrous at SH based footsies. Since aerials cannot clash this makes chars with good aerial mobility and SH aerials invaluable for this kind of footsies gameplay.Some characters like Peach and the Links can throw items. Item throwing is a great footsie option. You are at little risk if it's blocked. And many times even if its blocked you still maintain advantage. To make up for this, you will notice that neither Peach or the Links have amazing pokes overall. Link has very little recovery on his aerials and Peach has her fair as a scary aerial, but overall their footsies are not amazing due to range limitations or lack of safety on the rest of their moveset. Peach can also float so her footsies are pretty unique and imo make her extremely interesting to play and fight against.Attacks with super armor can be a game changer. Remember I mentioned Little Mac right? Most high level players/theorist agree Little Mac's footsies are incredible. Why? He has no good SH aerials. Well, let's see. His regular tools are great. Frame 1 jab. Frame 3 f-tilt. D-tilt is fast, safe and set-ups for KO punch. It can also combo into itself. But even if you could outfootsie him and some chars can do this consistently like Shulk or Pit, he can blow through them with super armor. This puts risk vs reward in his favor, thus making him stronger in neutral as his opponent is more likely to want to be defensive. All his smashes have super armor and can be hard to punish on block when looking at f-smash and d-smash. If Little Mac sees his opponent SH at him he can throw out an f-smash and even if he misses he probably didn't risk much. If they airdodged then he can punish the huge recovery time on landing. If they double jumped, he is probably safe. Little Macs footsies are actually very anti-footsies. Letting him negate the footsie tools of other chars and exert his will when they try to play that game vs him. Pit has armor on his upperdash arm as well, so he can call a move and blow through his opponent, though upperdash arm is not hard to punish so Pit has to be careful.Transcendent Priority is an important factor in footsies. This trait is such that any move with it will not interact with other hitboxes. Only shields and hurtboxes. Foxes and Falcos lasers are transcendent if you need a point of reference. Marth's Dancing Blade is transcendent. Theoretically he could outfootsie almost any character that uses their limbs to poke as he would strike their limb, never clash. There are other examples but that is the most obvious.Special attacks in footsies are not uncommon in other fighters (Fei-Long's Rekka Ken) and they have their place here too. Lucarios Force Palm and Marth's Dancing Blade that I mentioned previously both come to mind, but Robin's footsies really take the crown here. Robin's best footsie options are special moves. Arc Thunder and Arc Fire both control space really well and limit the opponent thus increasing Robin's potency at neutral.Conversion is probably the most important factor in footsies. Conversion is literally being able to "convert" a poke/attack during footsies into a combo or a trap situation. Preferably a combo. Little Mac can convert a D-tilt into a KO punch. Game ending conversion not unlike Chun-li in 3s. Pokes that lead into traps are good examples. Ike's d-tilt into a potential land/air trap. Same for Pit. Robin has strong conversion as his/her best footsie options traps their opponent in one spot for a moment.In traditional fighters mobility is the biggest factor in footsies. Being able to weave in and out of someones zone to bait an attack and then respond with your own, is footsies at it's most basic. In Smash however, walking back and forth IS good, but not quite as good in traditional fighters mainly due to turn speeds. Still aerial mobility is a huge factor in playing footsies especially the short game. Smash 4 also has specific movement techniques that when mastered can elevate a chars footsie game to new heights. Marth and Roy will be my examples for this. Marth and Roy both possess excellent overall mobility. Both have good walk and run speeds. Marth is THE fastest walker with Roy only walking a bit slower. Roy has a really good run speed as well, with Marth being only a little slower. Using advanced movement techs such as dance trotting, perfect pivoting, fox trotting and a few other basics such as empty short hopping and short hop airdodge with Marth, it is possible to create a movement style that is hyper focused, threatening, evasive and able to respond quickly to any changes in a battle. Because they are swordsmen they can throw out quick pokes from pivots and SH's with little commitment and any whiff poked is easy prey for Double Edge Dance/Dancing Blade. This style of play is super reactive and precision based, but can be extremely oppressive not to mention very impressive. Of course all this applies to Lucina as well.Differente characters can use different mechanics and techs to various levels of effectiveness. And some characters have other unique options. Ryu for example using his FADC has a very stylish and interesting movement style unique to him, made even more potent with b-reverses and wave bouncing.Experiment with your character and see what they can do. Even implementing basic empty SH baits can greatly improve your footsie game since you are not very vulnerable and have still have many options available to you.Not everyone wants to play footsies all the time depending on the match or who you play. I would never advise Fox to play footsies with Marth. That is a losing battle. Fox simply does not have the tools. Fox is the second fastest walker in the game. Marth is the fastest. Marth has better horizontal aerial movement speed as well. Marth has a sword. Marth has better pokes and Marth's f-tilt when tippered can kill Fox at reasonable percents, around 115%. So, what is Fox supposed to do when Marth tries to engage in footsies?Simple.Fox should deny him. He has two options. The first is run away. This is very viable strategy. Fox runs faster and Fox illusion can get Fox out of tight spots and reset the fight to neutral. After gaining some space he can shoot lasers at Marth and build percent. This is a frustration tactic. Footsies takes a calm and reactive state of mind. If you make Marth angry or fluster him, it will be that much harder for him to slow down the pace of the match and zone out Fox with his blade.The second option is to RUSH THAT **** DOWN! Get at Marth hard and fast. Use Foxes speed to overwhelm Marth's defense, put him in a bad position and build up his damage. Keep him off balance with different attacks and feints. This is much riskier than the first option, but a strong offense can shake up even a battle hardened opponent, if its tight enough.Knowing when to play footsies and when not too is just as important as actually being good at footsies itself.This is when a player forces an opponent into a bad position that they can take advantage of. There are many variations of traps 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.An attack trap is when any attack done by you limits the options of your opponents. Easiest and most well known example is Marth's d-tilt trap. When Marth's d-tilt is blocked he is put in a strong advantage. He can respond to almost any option his opponent takes. Roll towards Marth gives him a free punish. Jumping at him is an easy anti air. The best options are roll away or SH backwards. These are ok, but it means they give up stage control and put themselves closer to the ledge. This kind of trap is probably the hardest to master as it requires great reaction time and spacing.With this you use the projectile to force a reaction and then have an option to cover the reaction of your opponent. 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.ZSS has the charged paralyzer trap. When chasing after her own charged paralyzer shot, her opponent is quite limited. ZSS can punish several options on reaction or easily let it reset to neutral. In truth her opponent really can't challenge her outright. This situation favors her by a good margin. Not infallible, but an advantageous situation for sure. 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.This trap is simple and very common in Smash 4. The idea is to draw out an airdodge then punish accordingly. This is not a bait really. This is more taking advantage of the recovery time of the dodge then punishing when your opponent can't do anything. Depending on when the trap occurred, this is sometimes called an air trap or a land trap, but both traps follow the same concept. Force a dodge then punish. CF is really great at these thanks to Uair having such little recovery and his awesome ground speed. FYI it's easier when done as a land trap and you attempt to force an airdodge into the ground, since this will give the airdodge 22 frames of recovery upon landing. Plenty of time to punish. Many characters excel at these for various reasons. Pit due to lingering hitboxes and multiple jumps. ZSS and CF as mentioned, due to great ground speed and low recovery Uairs. Marth/Lucina due to range and great aerial horizontal movement speed. Fox due to being a high jumper and a fast faller can set these up very well. MK while having poor air speed has multiple jumps and nice specials for this kind of trap. Her aerials are great for it as well.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. But abusing traps like this is key to beating certain characters since it takes advantages of certain weaknesses they may have. Ledge traps while not as potent as they were in previous Smash games, are still important to high level play. Ledge trumping also plays an important part here. So if you see your opponent about to grab the ledge, go for it yourself. When they eject try to end the stock before they realize what happened.Different characters can also use their throws as traps. Sonic's d-throw is a great trap. Even if they tech he can pressure from there pretty easily. CF has good d-throw traps too. Basically any character with an u-throw/d-throw with good recovery, decent aerials that don't have alot of landing recovery as well as solid mobility, probably have a solid throw trap game. Greninja and Sheik also come to mind.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 that you can take advantage of. 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.There is no trick to getting out of these situations. You just have to know your options. And for characters that simply don't have the tools to get out of certain traps unscathed, the only thing I can truly say to you is to try your hardest not to get caught in that particular trap. Some characters simply cannot be walled or trapped really. Like MK for example. He has options no matter what situation he is in. Other characters like say Ganondorf, can be trapped pretty easily. Characters with counters have a nice answer to traps if they call a move at the right time. Moves that change trajectory or momentum are invaluable as well. Zelda, Metaknight, ZSS and Sheik are all chars that are good at getting out of trap situations consistently.Remember when I said to eliminate risks from your gameplay? Eh. I may have fibbed a bit. See, knowing when to take a risk is a huge part of getting better and definitely plays a part in the 3 States and can cause a huge swing in momentum when you guess right. Knowing when to take a risk is about making a good read on your opponent. Let' say as Little Mac you get put into an air trap situation and you have no jump. Your percentage is still low though and your opponent's is high. One clean counter will seal your opponents stock and win you the game. Your opponent is playing Captain Falcon and he's looking for a Uair to U-smash air dodge trap so he can reset you. You call the U-smash perfectly and Little Mac absorbs the blow and comes back swinging. CF gets blown away completely and you win the game. This is just one example where it can be worth it take a risk because it can allow a player to go from disadvantage to advantage. Mac COULD have went for a safer option and attempted a reset to neutral, but this risk got him the win so it was worth it. Even at lower percents it can be worth it to try, simply because it will show your opponent that you are not afraid. This will make them respect you more and they may even hesitate a bit in situations that require quick critical thinking. Risk vs reward is a huge part of this and different characters have different risk vs reward ratios. Ike is a prime example. A smash at high percents from him is very scary and demands respect. If an Ike player makes it clear he is not scared to try for a smash occasionally, it forces his opponent to approach the match vs him a bit differently and more cautiously. Heavy weights in general have good risk vs reward ratios when it comes to damage and KO power.Everyone, that wraps it up. I truly hope it was a good read. I also hope I was able to open your eyes to what's really going on in a high level match and how you can take your own game to a higher level. If you are already in that upper echelon of players then at least I hope my words gave you some inspiration so maybe you can cook up something new with your character of choice.Just remember to play smart and think beyond.Thanks for reading my intro to high level concepts and good luck in...Super Footsie Trap Bros: Smash Caliber EditionSpecial thanks to @ Locke 06 for pming me about risk vs reward and shifts in momentum. Definitely an oversight on my part for not mentioning those two important aspects of high level play.Shout-outs to @ En.Ee.Oh and @ HoodedAltair And please check these vids out if you wanna step up your movement game.