Smasher:Taj

Not to be confused with Tai, another Marth player from Arizona

Taj
Character info
Melee mains	Mewtwo, Marth
Other Melee character	Fox, Link, Samus
Project M mains	Mewtwo, Marth
Team info
Crew(s)	AZC
Personal and other info
Real name	Tony Jackson
Birth date	February 27, 1987
Location	Gilbert, Arizona

Taj is an American smasher, internationally famous as the best Mewtwo player in the world in Melee, as well as being a notable Marth player. He is also the creator of the series of combo videos Shadowclaw. Taj is also a former moderator on SmashBoards, responsible for the Pichu and Mewtwo Character Specific Forums. He was formerly ranked 2nd on the Arizona Melee Power Rankings.

Some of Taj's most famous tournament placings are his runs through Apex 2010 and GENESIS 2. In Apex 2010, he reached 17th place by going solo Mewtwo, the highest placing of any Mewtwo main at a major tournament so far. In GENESIS 2 pools, he defeated various players including PPMD. In bracket, he defeated DEHF, Hax, MacD, and Mango. He was then defeated by Armada in winners finals and then eliminated by Mango in a losers finals rematch, rounding up to an astonishing 3rd place, out-placing other top players such as Hungrybox and Mew2King. He used Marth for the tournament. He's in a semi-retired state since 2014. He has recently entered Paragon Los Angeles 2015, getting top 64 using only Young Link. He has also attended The Big House 6 making it into bracket with Mewtwo and getting top 16 in teams with Axe.

He also got 9th in Project M at Apex 2014, the 2nd largest Project M tournament of all time. He was eliminated by Ally 1-2 in a last-hit situation.

Shadowclaw - A Mewtwo Combo Video

Although well-known locally, Taj's biggest impact on the global smash scene was his release of the Mewtwo combo video Shadowclaw.

The video illustrated professional Mewtwo play at a level not previously seen in wide distribution. Despite a few quiet claims to the contrary (and surprisingly little tangible evidence), he was almost ubiquitously considered the best Mewtwo player in the world for a long time, to the point where Taj is sometimes credited as being the sole reason for Mewtwo's later rise out of the bottom position on the later revisions of Melee's tier list. Forward later created a thread at SmashBoards called Taj is the best Mewtwo, which has since become a hub for question-and-answer sessions for Mewtwo enthusiasts.

Shadowclaw later received three sequels, though none have eclipsed the popularity or infamy of the first incarnation. The fourth video, Shadowclaw 4, was edited by former Mewtwo main V3ctorman.

Tournament placings

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Champ Combo: NorCal Edition	April 8th, 2006	4th	2nd	Forward
MLG Dallas 2006	May 19th-20th, 2006	17th	9th	Forward
MLG Anaheim 2006	June 23rd-24th, 2006	17th	3rd	Forward
Zero Challenge 2	August 15th-17th, 2006	25th	7th	Forward
NorCal Tournament 2	October 28th, 2006	4th	2nd	Forward
AZOne	January 7th, 2007	1st	1st	Forward
Arizona T5	April 14th, 2007	2nd	1st	Forward
Pound 2	June 16th-17th, 2007	7th	4th	Forward
MELEE-FC Diamond	July 12th-14th, 2007	5th	13th	Forward
Zero Challenge 3	July 20th-22nd, 2007	17th	9th	Wobbles
Super Champ Combo	September 29th-30th, 2007	13th	5th	Wobbles
Southern Arizona Smash Tournament 2	October 13th, 2007	4th	—	—
Mango Juice	March 21st, 2009	7th	2nd	Wobbles
GENESIS	July 10th-12th, 2009	33rd	13th	DoH
Pound 4	January 16th-18th, 2010	49th	13th	Axe
Apex 2010	August 6th-8th, 2010	17th	7th	Axe
Don't Go Down There Jeff	December 18th-19th, 2010	9th	5th	Axe
GENESIS 2	July 15th-17th, 2011	3rd	5th	Axe
Apex 2013	January 11th-13th, 2013	33rd	17th	Wobbles
EVO 2013	July 12th-14th, 2013	13th	—	—
Smash the Target	January 3rd, 2015	—	2nd	Forward
Apex 2015	January 30th-February 1st, 2015	—	17th	Wobbles
MVG Sandstorm	April 18th-19th, 2015	—	5th	Wobbles
Paragon Los Angeles 2015	September 5th-6th, 2015	49th	—	—
Rewired 2015	November 14th-15th, 2015	2nd	2nd	Tai
GENESIS 3	January 15th-17th, 2016	—	25th	Wobbles
The Big House 6	October 7th-9th, 2016	33rd	13th	Axe
Rewired 2016	November 19th-21st, 2016	9th	5th	Tai
Battlefield 10: 7 Days to GENESIS	January 14th, 2017	3rd	2nd	Forward
SPC 37	January 17th, 2017	1st	—	—
GENESIS 4	January 20th-22nd 2017	97th	65th	Dr.Z
Boss Rush: Shroomed	February 11th, 2017	4th	—	—
Boss Rush: Duck	March 11th, 2017	3rd	3rd	Applesmaush
Boss Rush: SFAT	April 1st, 2017	—	1st	Medz
Runback 2017	May 20th-21st, 2017	9th	5th	VTS
Boss Rush: SmashG0D	July 8th, 2017	—	1st	Rishi
EVO 2017	July 14th-16th, 2017	65th	—	—
Esports Arizona: Talking Stick Resort 3	February 10th, 2018	—	1st	Far!
Esports Arizona: Talking Stick Resort 4	June 23rd, 2018	—	4th	Forward
Runback 2018	July 14th-15th, 2018	—	5th	Forward
Suit & Tie	March 23rd, 2019	—	1st	Axe
Ascension VIII	August 17th, 2019	—	1st	Medz
Settle It! - Pizza Bites vs. Chicken Nuggets	January 18th-19th, 2020	—	1st	Axe
GENESIS 7	January 24th-26th, 2020	—	17th	Medz
GENESIS 9	January 20th-22nd, 2023	33rd	—	—

Project M

Tournament	Date	1v1 placement	2v2 placement	Partner
Project AZ	June 1st, 2013	1st	—	—
Salvation	June 22nd-23rd, 2013	1st	—	—
Apex 2014	January 17th-19th, 2014	9th	—	—

Trivia

• Due to his Mewtwo-related fame, Taj was sometimes used as a figurehead amongst anti-tier players; despite this, Taj is pro-tier, claiming that some matchups, especially in critical tournament matches, require the use of higher tiered characters to win.
  • In particular, Taj and Forward's infamous victory against the previously undefeated El Chocolate Diablo team featured Taj using Fox.
• Taj would defeat Mang0 at GENESIS 2 and GENESIS 9, making Taj the only player outside of the Five Gods to defeat Mang0 twice at a GENESIS event.

External links

• Twitter account
• SmashBoards profile
• ShadowClaw (Mewtwo combo video) - official thread

Gameplay videos

Super Smash Bros. Melee

• ShadowClaw (Mewtwo combo video)
• Taj (Fox) & Forward (Falco) vs. Isai (Captain Falcon) & Ken (Marth) - Taj & Forward's famous victory over Ken & Isai at Champ Combo: NorCal Edition