I’ve been having a lot of fun playing MK because he feels really natural to me. I think it’s mainly because he’s so damn easy to pick up. Anyway, I wrote this up for anyone who’s looking to play him:
Don’t: fsmash, fwd b, down b
Do: everything else
Seriously. Go nuts. But if you want a better idea, here’s what I’ve got:
Approach:
The tornado can run through a lot of projectile spam, which is nice. It’s also an irritatingly difficult to punish. However, it really doesn’t do a whole lot of damage, especially when spammed. Don’t spam it unless it’s simply to annoy your opponent (which it can be very effective at doing).
Grab a lot. Metaknight’s dash grab is the shit. I normally use a dthrow and try to follow them with a fair or upsmash out of dash right after, but I’ve seen people who like other things. Also, I sometimes fthrow or bthrow if I think I have a chance at gimping them off the edge. Also, dtilt to grab as a tick throw works pretty well too. Mix it up with dtilt into ftilt or dsmash or something though.
MK’s dash attack isn’t to bad either. Works well with dash grab as a mixup, because it’s difficult to tell what you’re going to do. You can always upsmash out of your dash as well if that fits the situation better.
Well spaced fairs are always nice. It’s pretty obvious, but difficult to punish if you land out of grab range. If you ever accidentally land in grab range, you can try MK’s crazy jab to get out of it, since MK’s aerials have so little lag. It’s no shine, though.
One more thing, uair juggles pretty well with itself if you just hold up and mash A. MK will jump and uair again after each uair. When your opponent DIs away, or you realize you’re out of jumps, chase them and end it with a fair or up B.
And, of course, play spacing mind games with your jumps. Oh, and cstick your aerials so you can have an easier time spacing yourself. Also, this is obvious, but if your opponent seems roll happy, space yourself in front of them and downsmash as they roll into you or chase them with a grab if they roll backwards. Consequently, this is why you shouldn’t be roll happy yourself.
Defense:
MK has a good number of options out of shield. As said before, you can tornado through most projectiles. If you find your opponent grabbing you a lot, you most likely aren’t being offensive enough. Space yourself against an attacking opponent with ftilts and dtilts. However, if you shield an attack you can:
Shieldgrab. Know the range of your grab and if they’re in there, this is usually your best option. MK seems to have an extremely quick shieldgrab (though most characters do). Make sure you do it as soon as you can or you might get interrupted.
Jump cancel and aerial them. This can work and is sometimes your best option, but it’s not the quickest so I only do it if I have to. Fair and bair are the ones I use most.
Shield drop and downsmash. Shield drop and anything, really. Ftilt works nicely as well, but be careful not to accidentally fsmash because the lag on that attack with get you killed. However, I find myself dsmashing a lot. It’s quick, has nice range, and gets them out of your face. The only disadvantage of this option is the diminishing knockback on the move, as this also happens to be MK’s most useful killing move, in my opinion. If you couldn’t guess, MK’s dsmash is just a wonderful move overall.
Up B out of shield. Incredibly cool looking when you do it, however, I wouldn’t do this unless you think it will kill, or at least have a chance of killing. Otherwise, you’re just lowering it’s knockback for when you want it to kill. It has surprising range, though, so sometimes it could be your best option. Be careful with it though.
Finishers/Edge game:
The main killers I’ve been using are dsmash, shuttle loop, and nair/dair for gimping. Possibly fsmash, but that shouldn’t be hitting unless your opponent screwed up and whiffed a move or something. Typically, you’ll be using dsmash in place of fsmash as it’s so damn quick. Just throw it out whenever you think it’ll hit: punishing whiffs, out of shield, punishing rolls (shouldn’t happen against good players).
Up B takes a little more set up. Generally, you’ll want to be doing it out of shield to punish something, but it’s also a very nice follow up to an uair juggle. Since they’re already high in the air, it should have an easier time KOing them as well. Another thing I’ve seen done is dthrow to shuttle loop. Dropping underneath a platform as someone lands on it and shuttle looping can work too. I’ve had some success dashing in with this, but that’s not really a very smart option and just me trying to look cool so I wouldn’t recommend it.
As for gimping, if I get them off the ledge, it really depends on where they are. If they’re above the stage, I’ll use fairs/nairs to continually knock them back. Then maybe reverse up B back to the stage like a Marth and hope it kills. If they’re below the ledge, I use dairs/nairs instead and do the same kind of thing. Whether or not this is effective is generally dependent on the character. Some characters are much more easily gimped than others.
Getting back to the edge:
With multiple jumps and air dodges and the shuttle loop, there’s no reason you should ever get gimped off the edge. If someone ever tries following you out there, up B in their face and they should learn that shit quickly. Try and get them with the back end of the up B too, as it’ll send them in back of you and will either kill or turn the tables and set you up for an edgeguard. Also, always use the glide attack when coming back to avoid that ugly landing animation. You can use the tornado or forward B to return to the stage safely also on an opponent waiting to knock you back out there but the glide attack generally gets the job done. If you decide to sweet spot, you can play some mind games with your opponent by dropping down and quickly up Bing in their face which works for me a lot even though it’s so freaking obvious.
I’m tired and I’m not sure why I’m posting info on Metaknight because everyone knows how to play him anyway. If anybody has any critiques, I’d love to hear them, as my Metaknight could certainly use improvement.
I play the next one for fun though. I’ll hit you up with a PM tommarow and we can play some casuals.