Meta Knight Thread

WHY DIDN'T I SEE THIS SOONER?!?

Ok, from my experience, Meta Knight is a reckless little butt. So, you have two options:

1. Deck him out with lots of speed and power, I usually do this by giving him Trade-off Abilities.

2. Use the overload build, but squeeze in Smooth Lander on account of his laggy forward air.

Anything else, is just not enough. He's either super slippery, or he gets hit. If he doesn't have the speed, you load him with enough attack power to at least somewhat compete. Either way, it's tough for him to adapt to both.

You can improvise if you want, but just remember to focus on being slippery. Because Meta Knight cannot afford to take many hits.

Depending on what setup you choose, it might be best to give Meta Knight his Dreadful Tornado if he has trouble KO'ing. It has less utility than Mach Tornado, but the fact that this move is such a powerful move might just be enough to throw certain opponents off guard.

Getting on the to subject of recovering, he can be hit out of normal Shuttle Loop by Explosive Perfect Shield. That being said, its extremely important that you teach your Meta Knight to either recover with his double jumps, or low enough that neither of the two hits of Shuttle Loop hit an opponent's shield. Shield Piercer can help with this, since he'll start recovering with this move if he has it equipped.

Oddly enough, if you equip an up special that isn't Shuttle Loop, he'll start trying to recover with Dimensional Cape if he has it. But because of the physics of this move, and the AI being really dumb at going about recovering with it, he has a very great chance of SD'ing with this move. I actually remember a couple instances where Meta Knight would overshoot the ledge with Dimensional Cape, and appear right next to his opponent instead. Soooo, if you decide that you for some reason want a different up special, please do yourself a favor and equip Shield Piercer. Its much safer, and the AI can actually recover with it. Because Meta Knight will gun for the ledge every time when using this move to recover.

Getting on to his onstage game, Meta Knight has some interesting tools that he'll use. But sadly, he can't learn dash attack into the elevator get bodied combo. Like apparently, down air into jab is a true combo that can be taught at low %'s. And of course, you have the classic down throw into Shuttle Loop combo that's really damaging. Anything else Meta Knight attempts is either a forward air or a repetitive option that he'll "push" a bit if he wants to hit with it. His attack power is also super bad, so investing in attack points in a must.

His grab isn't too good, but his pummel is pretty strong. Just don't teach him to dash grab as an approach, only have him use it as a punish option.

Where Meta Knight really shines, however, is his very nimble defensive game. His dodge rolls are some of the fastest in the game, and his spot dodge is amazing as well. Though, he does have an extremely small shield to balance it out, so its important that he isn't taught to sit there and try to tank hits for too long. If you really want Meta Knight to shine, you definitely should have him sharpen his dodging skills.