I’ll be cliche and start with a question: is Marth an aggressive or defensive character?
The most common answer, by far, to this question is “defensive character.” Intuitively, this makes some sense. Earlier, I discussed how Marth is really bad at “approaching” and forcing things. I also discussed how he’s VERY GOOD at hitting people out of their options or weaving around their options altogether. These things point to defense, right?
Of course, my initial question was rhetorical. The entire POINT of this discussion is to question and redefine your ideas of aggression and defense. Based on my definitions and my opinions, Marth is actually an aggressive character. However, we’ll need to talk on that.
SO MANY Smash players like to categorize things into false dilemmas (false dilemma: a fallacy in which a subject are improperly categorized into only two choices, when the reality is not black-and-white) with regards to playstyle. Aggressive vs defensive, approaching vs camping, you get the point.
Personally, I find this to be an offensive oversimplification of this game. A lot of the time, when people use these categories, they ignore how deep and interactive this game truly is. There are SO MANY intermediates that vary based on stage position, timing, conditioning, move choice, option coverage, that talking about things in an “approach vs camp” lens is insane to me. In fact, I think this kind of attitude can even stunt your growth as a player because it can lock you into a mindset that STOPS you from seeing options and seeing the depth in the game.
One of the big problems with the “approach vs camp” mindset is the implication that approaching means you need to go all-in and take a risk that will hopefully hit your opponent and hopefully lead to a follow-up. For a lot of people, the definition of approaching implies overextending prematurely. IN OTHER WORDS, for a lot of people, the definition of approaching ignores a good chunk of the possibilities and decision making that happens before and after an attack is thrown out (it also implies that an attack HAS to be thrown out, but more on that later). And from this poor definition, since “approaching” is bad, the only choice is to camp. There is nothing else you can do in this game.
To be honest, I really dislike the words “approach” and “camp.” I think they have toxic implications (not necessarily, but you run the risk), so you’re better off using more precise words to avoid being misleading.
So what terms should we use? Personally, I am a fan of proactive vs reactive. Instead of thinking of an aggressive player that approaches, you should think of a proactive player, that is trying to create opportunities and force the opponent’s hand. Instead of thinking of a defensive player who camps, you should think of a reactive player, who is waiting for more information from the game before committing to a decision. Being a good player requires you to be able to effectively use both in the proper situations. Instead of trying to typecast players as aggressive, defensive, whatever, you should think of every player as a unique individual who does what they think is best in a given situation. Sure, people have their tendencies, differences, and quirks, but you really should just be focusing on what you think is ideal in a given situation. Now, let’s get back to whether Marth is an aggressive or a passive character.
How good is Marth when he’s cornered? Bad. How good is Marth when the opponent is INSIDE his sword range (or in other words, how good is Marth at disengaging)? Awful. How good is Marth out of shield, roll, and spotdodge? Mediocre (compared to Sheik, Peach, and the space animals). How good is Marth at not-getting-comboed and not-getting-edgeguarded? Not exceptionally.
How good is Marth when his opponent is cornered? Amazing! How good is Marth when the opponent is a bit outside of sword range away from him? Amazing! How good is Marth at FORCING his opponent to respect and playing around his options? Amazing!
Get the point? Even though Marth’s kit is defensive, in the sense that he doesn’t engage extremely well and that his kit is more suited for countering the opponent’s aggressive options, he needs to apply it proactively/aggressively. If Marth plays too passively, he essentially gives the opponent the opportunity to walk all over him, pick THEIR favorite spots, and play on THEIR OWN TERMS, reducing him to a bad character with an amazing punish game. Being proactive/aggressive with Marth means that you have to be aggressive with your positioning and proactive with regards to forcing good positions.
This sounds fine and dandy, except there’s one problem. As I said, Marth’s kit is kinda defensive in nature. Even if you have the aggressive positioning and situation-forcing down, how do you actually execute it? The key is patience.
A lot of people equate patience with defensive or boring play, but this is really just a poor understanding of what patience actually is. Patience is not passive. Patience is waiting for the perfect moment to act. Patience is not cowardly. In fact, it’s QUITE the opposite, and heres why: impatience, a lot of the time, stems from the fear that you HAVE to do something, or else! Patience, on the other hand, requires you to have the wisdom, heart, and courage to be able to wait in the perfect spot and wait for the perfect moment, being very close to danger, but keeping calm, knowing that you have control.
Let’s talk more about WHAT patience actually is. Patience is one of the keys to solid decision-making in Smash, which is why it lends itself so well to Marth’s sword usage, but that’s only one application. Patience allows you to cover options. Patience allows you to win the neutral game. Patience is what lets you get the most out of positional advantage.
Whenever you perform an action in Smash, you are committed to that action, for some amount of time, making you completely unable to access all of your other options. Since you are committed to this action, the opponent may be able to act accordingly to gain some advantage or some opportunity, knowing you’re committed. IMPATIENCE is the error of making tons of unnecessary commitments, hoping one of them will work (and sometimes they do, otherwise people would learn faster).
Going from this, PATIENCE is the art of being comfortable waiting in a neutral position where you have a lot of options available, being calm and not committing to any of them unless you have a reason. If you are more patient than your opponent, they’ll oftentimes crack before you and they’ll GIVE YOU a free opportunity to make something happen. If your opponent is patient (or just really defensive, it varies from person to person), then you’ll have to finesse your way into something.
Here’s a bit on patience that is VERY important. A lot of Smash players will convince themselves that something is spammable JUST because it’s frame safe. In other words, because they will not get immediately hit or grabbed for it, people will think it’s okay to use liberally because “they’re not getting punished.” This is not the right way to think, and it has to do with the nature of getting punished, so listen carefully to this next bit.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO GET HIT TO GET PUNISHED. IF THE ENEMY GAINS ANY RELATIVE ADVANTAGE IN RESPONSE TO YOU DOING SOMETHING, YOU GOT PUNISHED.
Therefore, if you do an overly committed or unnecessary action, you are effectively punishing yourself by cutting down your own options from a situation where you had many.
A lesson that personally helped me develop my own patience is the idea that you are not in a rush to make anything happen! Let’s say you’re in an advantageous position, like having your opponent in the corner. A lot of Marth players will squander this opportunity by being impatient and overextend while trying to force an opportunity when there are none immediately present. The waiting game is in YOUR FAVOR! Advantageous positions don’t go stale! If 5 seconds pass and nothing happens (unlikely), your opponent is in no better shape than they were at the beginning! Keeping your opponent in a bad position indefinitely is a lot better than being impatient and losing the opportunity altogether.
Patience is particularly important to know with Marth because his sword usage requires a lot of discretion. Marth’s sword swings have really punishable lag whenever he doesn’t manage his space correctly, so you REALLY need to use your judgment for whether or not you actually want to commit to it. His sword is AMAZING at what it does, which is to limit and forbid the opponent’s aggressive options. However, it makes up for being amazing at what it does do by being awful at what it doesn’t do. In other words, it’s pretty mediocre vs defensive options, like crouch cancel, shield, evasion, certain trades, etc. For a counterexample from a different character, let’s think about Falco’s dair. It CAN be used to limit the opponent’s aggressive options, yes. However, if Falco hits a shielding/crouching opponent with his dair, he can STILL make something happen from it. The same applies for Peach’s fair, for another example. Marth cannot just force it to work a lot of the time, and trying to make it work like Fox, Falco, or Peach is playing a game you shouldn’t be playing. Because Marth is so bad in close quarters, being impatient will oftentimes make you overextend, and Marth is probably the viable character that gets punished hardest for overextending.
So does that mean Marth loses to defense? Not really. The thing is, whenever your opponent has shifted towards a more defensive style, that means he already respects your range. He has forfeited his aggressive options. In other words, your sword has already done its job!
Once your sword has done it’s job, it becomes YOUR job to follow up, not your sword’s job to keep doing more than it already has. Whenever your opponent’s aggression has been limited, he is essentially put in a position where his main choices are to stay back or to do an unsafe aggressive option (which you still need to be careful of). When your opponent is in this situation, THAT gives you the freedom to do so many things! It allows you to be more invasive with your positioning; it allows you to go for grabs more safely; it allows you to be more bait-heavy; it opens tons of doors.
For Avatar (TLA) fans, I will be using a quote from the show to wrap up the lesson. For everyone else, I’m using the quote anyway because I love it.
Aang: I don’t understand. Why didn’t you free yourself? Why did you surrender when Omashu was invaded? What’s the matter with you, Bumi?
Bumi: Listen to me, Aang. There are options in fighting, called jing. It’s a choice of how you direct your energy.
Aang: I know! There’s positive jing when you’re attacking, and negative jing when you’re retreating!
Bumi: And neutral jing when you do nothing!
Aang: There are three jings?
Bumi: Well, technically, there are eighty-five, but let’s just focus on the third. Neutral jing is the key to earthbending. It involves listening and waiting for the right moment to strike.
Aang: That’s why you surrendered, isn’t it?
Bumi: Yes, and it’s why I can’t leave now.
Aang: I guess I need to find someone else to teach me earthbending.
Bumi: Your teacher will be someone who has mastered neutral jing. You need to find someone who waits and listens before striking.