Smash Brawl Blog

SteelKangaroo:

After some extended time with the game, Pokemon Trainer seems to me to be one of the versatile characters in the game, although there are times when he’s really hard to play. I’m going to take you in depth with PT and explain some of the tricksies that will give you an edge. I’ll look at each character separately, because realistically you’ll be playing as one character for a stock, and not switching back and forth.

Ivysaur

Ivysaur is in my opinion the most powerful of the three pokemon and usually the best one to start with. Ivysaur’s game is primarily centered around spacing. Ivysaur plays best at midrange, putting pressure on the opponent with razor leaf and fair. This means that Ivysaur has to do the legwork against characters with spamable projectiles like Falco and Pit, but against those characters with no projectiles, feel free to sit outside their attack range and spam them. Bair works really well when the opponent gets ontop of you. Jump and bair as you move away from them; they will be stunned by the attack or will be stuck shielding if they decide to do so, while you can get some space and get in a better position. Utilt, ftilt, and fsmash are great moves that have good priority and help with spacing. The best strategy for KOs with Ivy is to either land an uair at high damage or throw them off and punish as they try to recover. Ivysaur’s bullet seed is extremely powerful when used sparingly. It is hard to escape even with proper DI, so if every once in a while you use bullet seed instead of utilt, it can catch people offguard and do some amazing damage. Spam it, and you will be punished.

Charizard

Charizard is still somewhat of an enigma. He is much faster than he looks, but he is predictable and a huge target. Right now I think it is best to play him as a sort of hit and run character, staying at long range until the moment is perfect, and then approaching with a nair (fair is way too obvious and should be saved for KOing) and a dtilt, or staying at range and using ftilt. Char can juggle well, with a great utilt and uair, and his spike is very powerful. Rock Smash is also a strong move that provides some cover while you use it. Even if you miss with the main attack, the rock fragments do damage and will prevent the opponent from getting to you. Killing is very easy with Charizard, as his fair can kill at extremely low percents, and can act as a spike if used off the side. Dair is a great spike, and bair can kill if you chase with it off the edge.

Squirtle

Up until recently, I hated playing Squritle. He was just too weak and got punished very easily. That was until I read Tobias’s thread on shell shifting over at smashboards. Read the full thread for all the info, but basically Squirtle has a way to wavedash (albeit a little less useful) and it has opened up his game. Simply tap the opposite direction while running (not during a dash) and you will slide backwards in your shell while preserving your momentum. Watch Tobias’s video for the full rundown, including a superwavedash with upsmash. What this means is that Squirtle can dodge attacks very easily, and basically has the versatility of wavedashing from melee. You can dash forward and “wd” back, or dash the opposite direction, “wd” back and gain momentum and jump with bair extremely quickly. Use it as a mindgame, the possibilities are endless. What this means is that Squritle just got significantly better than before. Fair, Bair, Uair and Dair are all powerful aerials (rising dair is a great combo starter) and utilt and dtilt are good as well. Otherwise Squritle’s moveset is unspectacular, but his ability to wd makes him useful in a number of ways.

EDIT: MOOPLET HERE!

BAM, VIDEO! we just played this match today on wifi!

mooplet (lucas) vs. steel kangaroo (pokemon trainer)