Improving Your Neutral in SSBU: The Mindgame

in a boxing match both competitors have to box you can't use your elbows and you can't use your legs the matchup is boxer versus boxer in the same way during a fencing match you're using the same type of weapon you can't use a machete and you definitely can't use a gun so the matchup is fencer vs fencer but in smash bros there are a wide variety of matchups some characters use their fists some have swords some can make the ground explode and some have noodle arms why does this matter well consider the samus vs ken matchup when far away from ken samus has access to her missiles and her charge shot and if ken decides to try to block those projectiles she has access to her long range grab however her options are fairly limited at a close range when compared to ken's incredibly fast tilts and specials sure she has a tool her invincible up special out of shield can force ken away from her but samus wouldn't offensively be using that move instead she would use it to punish ken and reset neutral if he wants to jump onto her shield comparing her tools at different ranges samus would strictly want to play a mid to far range game in this matchup ken on the other hand has really bad far range options he has a doken but it's really slow and will get beaten out by most moves one thing's for certain ken isn't outgunning samus's heavy arsenal of weapons up close though is an entirely different story with ken's shield break setups and incredibly safe tilts up close combined with the insane damage output and early kill percent he can deal large amounts of damage off of winning neutral ones and then can set up even further an advantage does this mean that the samus ken matchup is even after all while ken may struggle at getting in he can blow up samus once he lands at one hit this is obviously not true the most optimistic can means consider the match-up even at best while the vast majority of kenmaids consider it to be a losing match up both of these characters have their strengths and weaknesses but how do we determine a matchup to be winning or losing let's consider these options and see how those options convert into mind games let's look at samus's charge shot for example there's a triangle interaction for how ken can deal with it ken can jump over the chart shot and samus can fear the jump ken can try to play reactively and attempt to punish the fair or shield the charge shot and punish it while samus can hit ken with a grab ken can run at samus and call out that she's not going to shoot the charge shot and samus can just shoot the charge shot so there we go right that's a three-way structure that the neutral will be built around now we just need to win by picking the right option but this triangle all relies on the samus player using her charge shot she can use her missiles or bombs instead and sometimes she can just run forward and hit you for trying to play around her neutral b ken on the other hand has no neutral tool that samus needs to actively play around sure she needs to watch out for his neutral air but she can just do that by playing her regular game plan we call this a mind game ken has to actively play around a tool that samus is technically threatening while samus can just play a regular game plan to win ken is receiving the mind game and samus is initiating it instead of ken let's pair up samus against wolf and see how this changes the neutral wolf has his reflector so any projectile samus throws at him is at risk of being used against her she can no longer just play her regular zoning game and will have to make some close-up interactions to make things even worse wolfe has his transcendent laser it can't be blocked by any of samus's projectiles and samus has no reflector of her own not only is samus's zoning game interrupted her approaching game is interrupted as well these two factors directly interfere with samus game plan while letting wolfe play his own this means that wolfe is the one initiating the mind game while samus is receiving it so while ken is playing around samus's charge shot samus has to play around wolf's reflector and laser one thing that you should also know is that the mind game does not exist if you have no idea it exists in the first place if you keep running into your opponent's anti-air over and over your opponent isn't god-like and anti-airing you're just doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results only once you demonstrate you know the mind game exists is when the mind game begins on that note how do you deal with these situations where you're the one receiving the mind game one solution is just to pick up another character if you want to save mental energy or your character has no positives in the matchup whatsoever this is a pretty good idea and is most applicable when you play a mid-tier lower but if you only try to counter pick you'll eventually run into a wall with your development so we recommend that you learn how to deal with mind games first before deciding to pick up a new character mind games are less about what's going on in the game and more about what's going on in your opponent's head so instead of focusing what's going on on the screen try to understand what your opponent's habits are how does the opponent move around if you see them using their double jump a lot in neutral or you see them roll in a lot you can catch your landing or read their roll what if the opponent likes to take a lot of risky options if so expect the high risk stuff more and the low risk stuff less does the opponent want to take less risk if so don't be afraid of the super risky stuff what moves are your opponent using and how often are they using them if your opponent is going for a lot of anti-air samus fare and barely shoots charge shot there's no reason to jump instead punish the fair triangle interactions exist during mind games since even though samus doesn't have to use charge shot she's still operating within a triangle it's just a different one with different solutions understanding which set of interactions your opponent is using is your ticket to winning the mind game obviously you need to know about the character's mind game for it to happen but character resources are both obscure and also very indigestible so like and subscribe to see good character overviews analysis videos and most importantly guides to help you not suck at neutral

Channel: You Suck at Neutral

Views: 18,849

Keywords: ssbu, smash ultimate, guide, smash guide, smash how to, smash winning, smash bros, smash mindgames, mindgames, fighting game, how to win, you suck at neutral, ssbu guide, ysan, smash tutorial, ssbu tutorial

Id: Z5Y0zCmBnqk

Length: 7min 0sec (420 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 17 2020