Getting over Marthritis: How to Get Kills as Marth When Your Opponent is at High Percent
Reliable kill setups your Marth can benefit from.
In many matches, Marth players find themselves in a position where their opponent is at such a high percent that it can seem impossible to combo into a kill, as each individual hit sends the enemy too far. It can be very tempting to throw out risky F-smashes here, but those are very punishable and become easier to read the more Marth uses them. While it can be quite difficult to close out the stock in this situation, there are ways to get it done. Here is a list of ways Marth can bring an end to stocks that have gone on too long.
1. Tech chase up b
When you’re up against a Fox, Falco, or Falcon who has gotten past the point where you can reliably combo out of your up throw, you can still get the kill off of a grab conversion. Once you get the grab, forward-throw and position yourself right next to where they’ll land. From here you can react to tech in place and no tech with an up-b to end the stock. If they tech roll away, you can react by regrabbing instead. You’ll definitely want to practice reacting to this, as using up b on the wrong tech option will get you punished, so grind this out on the 20XX AI.
2. Tech chase down smash
This next one is a bit more lenient on your reactions. When you throw a Sheik, if you space a down smash so that the first hit tippers where they land, the first hit covers both tech in place and no tech, but if they tech roll behind you, then they’ll be hit by the tipper of the second hit, which is even stronger! Not only does this cover three tech options, but if they tech roll the full distance away and you time it properly, you can’t be punished.
3. Down air flowchart
Staying on the topic of Sheik, her recovery is fairly good but has a lot of end lag upon landing. If you have time to space a tipper on her as she lands on stage, that’s a great way to secure the kill, but sometimes there is not enough time. However, in these situations down-air can often lead to a kill. If Sheik lands right next to the edge, you can stand in front of her and hit a down air, which can pop her up into another down air to spike her off stage, keep in mind Sheik can avoid the second hit with good DI. If she lands a little further in, you can go from down-air into nair or up-B to send her back offstage, and at really high percents, you can even do down air into up air to kill off the top on stages like Pokemon, Final Destination, and Yoshi’s.
4. Forward throw/down throw up air
Up air usually doesn’t seem like a kill tool until the very late percents, but it’s important to make use of it. Against Puff and other floaties there is a great DI mix up. If they DI in on either forward throw or down throw, you can connect an up air to try to kill off the top. Because this is a mix up, you want to be sure to use both throws in these situations to keep the opponent guessing. If they DI out, there is often not a direct follow up, but you do get great stage positioning out of it and can attempt an edge guard if they are thrown off stage.
5. Up throw into weak up b
Once up-throw nair and up air stops working on fastfallers, there is still one follow-up you can get off of Marth’s up-throw, and that’s his weak up-B. This doesn’t have very much knockback, but with bad DI, it can still send quite far at high percents. This is especially effective on Falco, who doesn’t have the farthest reaching recovery. Even when it doesn’t directly net a kill, this can set up for some nice edge guard scenarios. If you land on the top platform of a stage afterwards, you will have the most time to get in position to edge guard. Just make sure that, if you do it by the edge, you have enough space to land on stage.
6. Dancing blade set ups
One of the most common kill setups on high percent floaties is first hit side B into up tilt, but the kill potential that side B has isn’t limited just to floaties. On fastfallers there is still a good follow-up with dancing blade. After connecting the first hit, depending on DI, you can sometimes reach with second hit forward. (You can also sometimes hit with second hit up, but the follow ups here are not as reliable.) Two possible outcomes arise from this move: If a fast faller has poor DI on this, you can connect with a forward smash. but even if they DI it well, they are forced into a tech situation. If this forces them onto a platform, you can attempt to cover any tech option with a nair. Otherwise you can try to forward smash, up-B or grab a grounded tech option
7. Back throw follow ups
If Marth gets a grab on Fox or Falco starting around 130%, back-throw is a great option--especially if Marth is next to the ledge facing away. If they DI hard in, you can connect an F-smash or an up-b that will either kill or set up for an easy edge guard. If they DI out, they are off stage and you can grab ledge and try to edge guard from there. Against slightly floatier characters like Marth and Sheik, back-throwing at mid to high percents can set up for a great mix up. If they double jump, you can full-hop double-jump back-air them out of it and have them off stage without their jump.
8. Up B out of shield
If an opponent does an unsafe move on shield or messes up their shield pressure, a simple up-B out of shield can send them flying. If they are at a low percent, this can be punishable, but even at those low percents if you land on the top platform of stages like Battlefield and Dreamland, it becomes much safer.
With all the variables present in SSBM, it can be difficult to find safe kill setups. I hope that practicing these punishes will help you clutch out the kills you need in dire situations.
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