In the world of Smash Brothers, it’s important to understand your style. Are you campy? Are you aggressive? Something in between? But when you get into a game, it’s even more important to identify and understand your opponent’s style.
It’s a popular topic in competitive Magic: The Gathering which we call, “Who’s the beatdown?” In short, there is always an aggressive deck (beatdown) and a reactive deck (control). The key is identifying which role you are playing in the game in order to win. If you’re on the back foot as a control deck, you don’t want to spend resources attacking, you want to spend your resources stopping your opponent’s attacks until you find an opening. It’s important to note that even in the case of two aggressive decks facing off, one will be proactive and the other will be reactive.
In Smash, I like to call it ‘Who’s the aggressor?’ It’s pretty much the same thing as in Magic. It’s about who is being aggressive and who is being ‘campy’. Figuring out your role in the game and when to switch roles is important. If you’re a generally more aggressive player, but your opponent has figured you out and is punishing you, it might be time to change it up. If your character has range and can attack from afar, use that to camp and force your opponent to attack. Odds are, if they’re incredibly good at reacting and punishing, their approach game may be lacking.
If you find yourself in the opposite situation, this strategy still holds true. You’re camping and reacting to your opponent, but he keeps getting the best of you? It might be time to change it up. He won’t be expecting the aggression. You can exploit this while he makes an adjustment to your style.
Which works into my next point. Changing it up when you’re losing is a good thing. Jumping behind your opponent and hitting his shield with a bair has not worked at all in the first three stocks. You can’t keep trying it and expecting it to work. Maybe tomahawk and pivot grab him instead. If your opponent has seen the same approaches out of you the entire set, he will not just be prepared for it, he will expect it.
Style Changes
We can see this in a set I watched at Carroll Fest 5. See if you can identify the switches that each player makes.
KJH is an extremely aggressive player, which gives him the win in game 1 against VanZ playing Sheik.
In game 2, VanZ switches to Peach, reacting very well to KJH’s aggressive style. VanZ takes a decisive win proving that KJH can’t keep doing the same thing against VanZ Peach as he did against his Sheik.
In game 3, KJH picks a large stage (that isn’t Dreamland) and switches to a campy style. Even though it’s not in his nature, he can force VanZ to become the aggressor. Attacking isn’t VanZ’ strong suit on Peach. VanZ get’s JV 3 stocked as a result.
Identifying your opponent’s style is something you can practice even in friendlies. Then try different things to change it up!
-Casual Friday
@CasualFr1day
[…] – If you need to in the aggressive matches, either morphing or just playing a 2/1 Den Protector at times is Just What You Need, and trading them away as face down 2/2s against burn for instance is absolutely fine. Appreciating whether or not you are the “control,” in the particular match up is important here. See an interesting read on comparing MTG to Smash Bros: http://www.meleeitonme.com/guest-article-whos-the-aggressor/ […]