Marth (SSBB)

Marth in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	Fire Emblem
Other playable appearances	in Melee in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Critical Hit
Tier	A- (5)

Marth (マルス, Marusu) is a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Despite being a "hidden" character, Marth appears in the game's opening video, standing back to back with Meta Knight. It is uncertain whether Marth has improved or been nerfed since Super Smash Bros. Melee (in which he was ranked 4th on the tier list), as he has gained the ability to escape from most combos, the tip of his sword is stronger in most attacks, Dolphin Slash improved, and Counter deals more damage. On the downside, his standard attack combo is slower, the tip is harder to land with most attacks, his standard special is harder to hit with, and the range of his sword and grabs is shorter.

He ranks 5th on the current Brawl tier list (the highest unlockable character on the list), still maintaining a high tier ranking similar to Falco and Ice Climbers. His high placement is due to his long-ranged sword attacks that give him among the best reach in Brawl, allowing him to space very effectively, especially against characters with poor range. Marth also possesses attacks that are very low in startup lag and above average mobility, power when he lands an attack on the tip of his sword (in particular his forward smash and down aerial), strong combo abilities at low percents due to his fast attacks, and a strong air game and edgeguarding abilities (with his forward aerial being very powerful at both aspects). Marth has a few flaws however. His primary recovery move, Dolphin Slash, provides decent vertical distance, but very little horizontal distance, making his recovery predictable and rather easily edgehogged. Marth has difficulty KOing without edgeguarding if he can't sweetspot his finishers due to the much weaker knockback delivered, requiring very precise spacing to be effective. He also can have difficulty approaching due to his lack of a projectile. Marth has among the strongest matchup spreads in Brawl (losing only to Meta Knight and King Dedede), and has achieved strong tournament results.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play 10 matches in Brawl, then defeat Marth.
• Finish Classic mode on any difficulty, then defeat Marth.
• Get Marth to join the player's party in The Subspace Emissary (The Battlefield Fortress).

Except for the third method, the player must brawl Marth on Castle Siege.

Attributes

Marth in Brawl is basically a reprise from Melee. He retains status as a quick-footed, high-range lightweight; tall (for his weight class), with stronger aerial attacks. With a great aerial moveset and air defense, Marth is almost unparalleled in the air. Marth also retains certain qualities, such as increased power and hitlag at the tip of his blade, which defines a great part of his game. This tip is the basis for Marth's very potent down aerial meteor smash and for his down tilt edge guard. His attacks, when not tipped, are relatively weak, and hitting with the sweet spot can be difficult (although some attacks are rather easy to sweetspot like his up aerial and down tilt). Most of Marth's attacks have little starting lag and good reach, but his attacks can be easily punished when shielded due to often having noticeable ending lag (though his standard special has Shield damage). Marth himself lacks a projectile, but his high mobility allows him to avoid opponents' projectiles. Dolphin Slash, which grants Marth invincibility in its first five frames, allows Marth to escape chain grabs and gives him access to a powerful OoS option that can KO at higher percentages, though it leaves Marth helpless and vulnerable until he lands. As a recovery, the move travels a decent vertical distance, slightly higher than the distance between the main body of Battlefield and its highest platform. Though it can be aimed to travel farther horizontally, Dolphin Slash only provides mediocre horizontal distance and suffers from the landing lag glitch, though Marth can augment his horizontal recovery by charging Shield Breaker. The latter attack has the most horizontal reach out of Marth's moveset, and true to its name, deals high shield damage. Marth players often follow up a shield break with another fully charged, tipped Shield Breaker for a KO. Dancing Blade does high damage and counts as four attacks in the refresh counter, making it great to refresh his other moves as well as inflict high damage on the opponent, and the last hit tilted upwards can KO at higher percentages. As such, Marth is arguably one of the characters least affected by Stale-Move Negation and it is also a good out-of-shield option as it has almost no start-up lag, though like many of Marth's moves, it is easily punished if shielded. Marth's Counter, the fastest counter in the game, can be used to punish opponent attacks and interrupt combos. Marth has good standing grab reach and a very long reaching pivot grab which is combined with the fact that he can chain grab a number of characters using his forward throw (if only for a couple of throws). He also has a grab release infinite on Lucas and Ness (making him a hard counter against those two characters), a chain grab-release to a dair meteor smash (or slight step f-smash) on Squirtle, and grab release to dair, fair, or Dolphin Slash on Meta Knight (although the latter is still considered a hard matchup for Marth). On the downside, his throws are extremely weak in terms of damage and knockback (usually doing only 4% per throw, with the exception of his down throw, which does 5% and his up throw is the only throw that KOs in Sudden Death), although their weak knockback also means they are great tech-chasers.

Overall, Marth is a fast character whose attack range gives him very potent offensive and defensive options, especially in the air. His strengths are tempered by his lack of a projectile and his light weight relative to his height, though he is heavy enough to make him vulnerable to King Dedede's down throw chaingrab. Marth also has difficulty KOing the heavier characters, especially those with good momentum canceling, due to his tipped attacks having high base knockback but low knockback scaling, which forces him to rely on edgeguarding to KO.

Moveset

Ground attacks

Normal

• Neutral attack - Swings upward, back and forth. Can be chained continuously. First two can be chained more quickly if well timed. Can jab lock. The first hit has a similar animation to his up tilt, but visually, it has less range. 4% base. Does 6% tip. First hit on frame 4, second hit on frame 25.
• Dash attack - A dashing upward diagonal slash with rather slow start-up (13 frames) when compared to Marth's other attacks with high ending lag. It does have far reach and good power for a dash attack (though it is still a rather weak attack). Does 10% at the base and 13% when tipped.
• Forward tilt - A quick slash forward that has low start-up (7 frames) but some ending lag. It has good horizontal reach and decent vertical reach. Its knockback is low when it is not tipped, but is capable of KOing (above 150%) when it is tipped. Does 9% at the base and 12% when tipped.
• Up tilt - Swings his sword in a large arc above his head, front to back. It has good all around reach and like his other ground attacks, it has low start-up (hitbox out on frame 6-13) but noticeable ending lag. It has an untipped and tipped hitbox but produces different hitboxes throughout its animation, resulting in varying degrees of knockback, though it has strong enough knockback to KO under 150% regardless of where it connects. The strongest hitbox is the tipped hitbox at the end of the animation. However, the untipped ending hitbox sends opponents at a more horizontal angle and as a result may KO slightly earlier. Does 9% at the base and 12% when tipped.
• Down tilt - A quick crouching sword poke, with little start-up lag (7 frames) and unlike Marth's other attacks, it has low ending lag. It works well for ground edge guarding because it semi-spikes, has fast start-up, good horizontal reach combined with low vertical reach, and can make the opponent waste their midair jump while Marth follows up with another attack. It can also be used to pseudo crawl. Does 9% at the base and 10% when tipped.

Smash attacks

• Forward smash - Rotates body counter-clockwise with a strong arc-like swing from his head to the ground. Very fast start-up (hits on frame 10), good horizontal and vertical reach, but has noticeable ending lag. The tip can KO light characters and at closer distances to the blast lines at low percentages (under 75%) due its very high base knockback (third highest in the game for an uncharged forward smash) but has low knockback scaling for a forward smash (thirteenth lowest in the game) though it is still rather high. As such, heavier characters can survive a tipped forward smash above 100% if they're not near the edge. Works well for punishing air dodges into the ground with its good air to ground coverage. Although the tip has more shieldstun and pushback, it is actually less safe on shields (especially against a perfect shield) because the hitlag increases the ending lag. When fully charged and tipped, it can KO at 50%. Does 14% at the base and 19% when tipped.
• Up smash - A powerful upward thrust. It has three hitboxes that produce different damage but around the same knockback. When Marth hits someone at low percentages with his running up smash, it sends his opponent on a bizarre horizontal trajectory with very high base knockback. This is very effective at setting up edgeguard situations at low percentages, especially since Marth is arguably one of the best edgeguarders in the game. On a interesting note, Marth's up smash only send opponents at low to mid percentages horizontally. Its slide smash is very long, due to Marth's low traction. Once they approach 70%, it only sends opponents vertically, no matter what part of the up smash connects. This hitbox also has no knockback scaling. Does 17% at the tip and 14% with the rest of the sword; does an additional 4% if the opponent is hit by the side hitboxes that push the opponent into the sword. Hits on frame 12.
• Down smash - Sweeps his sword on the ground towards front then towards back. It is one of the fastest smashes in the game, start-up lag wise, but it has punishable ending lag. If tipped or hit at the base, it sends opponents upward. If the opponent is hit at the foot range, it sends his opponents on a horizontal trajectory. One of the strongest down smashes when tipped, but it can also KO at high percentages untipped. At the front, it does 14% at the base and 17% when tipped. At the back, it does 13% at the base and 16% when tipped. First hit on frame 6, second hit on frame 21.

Other attacks

• Ledge attack - Flips onto ledge with a quick downward diagonal slash from left to right. 6% base. 8% tip.
• 100% Ledge Attack - Quick, low, horizontal slash with medium lag. Less reach than normal ledge attack. 10% base and tip.
• Floor attack (Face up) - Quick stab to the left followed by horizontal slash to the right. 6% base and tip.
• Floor attack (Face down) - Sweeps the tip of his sword on the ground front to back. Less reach than floor attack from back. 6% base and tip.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial - Two horizontal slashes around himself. Both hits connect easily on an airborne opponent. It has almost no start-up lag (6 frames) and low ending lag as well. The tip of the second strike has rather high knockback and can KO at high percentages. Can be used after a connected fair for edgeguarding. Does 3% base, 6% tip on first hit, second hit does 9% base, 12% tipped.
• Forward aerial - Forward vertical slash (up to down). Although it has fairly low knockback when not tipped, it is very fast in both start-up (has a start-up of 4 frames and it ends on frame 8) and ending lag, many characters can't punish it when spaced properly even when shielded, and because of the long disjointed range, some characters have a very difficult time dealing with it. Can easily be done twice in a short hop and is useful for edgeguarding as a wall of pain. It also has KO power when tipped (though it doesn't reliably KO under 150%). It is considered Marth's best aerial and is arguably the best fair in the game, if not the most versatile. Does 10% at the base and 13% when tipped.
• Back aerial - Bottom to top sword slash behind him. This is the only back aerial that turns around the character. It has very low start-up (7 frames, it ends on frame 11) but it has more ending lag than his fair. When it is tipped, its Marth's strongest aerial, reliably KOing anyone around 150%. Does 11% at the base and 14% at the tip.
• Up aerial - A forward to back upward sword slash. Hit from close is as powerful as the tip, being a reliable vertical finisher but from medium distance it is quite weak. At low percentages, it can lead into an up tilt, up smash, or aerial if used close to the ground. Similar to his back aerial in frame data but weaker. Does 11% at the base, 14% when tipped. Compared to Marth's other aerials, this one is easier to sweetspot. Hits on frame 6-9.
• Down aerial - A forward to back downward sword slash. When tipped, it is a meteor smash with high base knockback. However, the sweetspot is significantly smaller than the sweetspot in Melee and as such the move is drastically less useful overall. The end of the swing is slightly easier to tip with, so a RAR may help sweetspot it. Vertical spacing (using a footstool to setup the move) is also a method of sweetspotting the attack, though this is unreliable. Very low start-up (6 frames), it is in fact the 2nd fastest meteor smash in the game (Falco and Fox's down aerials are faster by one frame). It is a risky edgeguarding move however, as it has very high ending and landing lag. Does 12% at the base and 14% when tipped.

Grabs & throws

• Pummel - Repeatedly knees the opponent. One of the faster 2% pummels.
• Forward throw - Grabs and pushes forward, tripping with his leg. Great for tech-chasing and can chain throw heavy/fast falling characters at 0% for up to usually four throws maximum and set-up a guaranteed forward smash at 0% on most characters, on some characters it can hit with the tipper for more damage. Can also be used to set-up a fair combo or a meteor smash at the ledge. Does 4%. Considered to be his best throw, due to its combo ability.
• Down throw - Hooks his arm and drags the opponent to the floor sending the opponent backwards. Sets up a tipper forward smash at low percentages, and other attacks like Dancing Blade and down aerial at a ledge. Otherwise it has extremely low knockback with little KO potential. Does 5%, being Marth's most damaging throw.
• Back throw - Pulls and extends his leg simultaneously. Similar to down throw, but even weaker knockback wise and is poor for setting up due to high ending lag. Does 4%.
• Up throw - Powerful upward throw with one arm. This is Marth's only powerful throw and it can KO lighter characters under 200%. 4%.

Special moves

Marth's special moves

Neutral special	Shield Breaker
Side special	Dancing Blade
Up special	Dolphin Slash
Down special	Counter
Final Smash	—	Critical Hit

Taunts

Up: Points his sword in the air, where it shines. Similar to his stance before performing a critical hit in Fire Emblem.

Side: Slashes his sword twice in front of himself, then sheathes it.

Down: Twirls his sword, then raises it in front of him saying "皆、見ていてくれ! (Mina, mite ite kure!)," which is Japanese for "Everyone, look at me!" (same in Melee).

Idle poses

• Holds chest and takes a breath
• Brushes hair out of his face

Cheer

Marth's NTSC and PAL cheer

Marth Marth Marth!

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Notable players

See also: Category:Marth professionals (SSBB)

•  Leon
•  mikeHAZE
•  Mikeneko
•  Mr. R
•  NEO
•  Zex

Tier placement and history

Similarly to Falco, Marth has remained a top tier character even after his transition from Melee. Throughout Brawl's history, Marth has always hovered around the 5th to 7th place positions due to his positive traits as well as his strong representation in tournaments. When Olimar and the Ice Climbers began to rise, Marth's position slipped back to 7th place, with some thinking he would fall further as professionals of characters below him, such as Zero Suit Samus, would discover new innovations in their metagames, while Marth's would remain mostly stagnant due to his simplistic playstyle. Marth did manage to rise back to 5th place for the current Brawl tier list. There are smashers who dispute this placement, stating that Marth is placed far too high; some (such as Keitaro and Mew2King) claim that Marth's nerfs going into Brawl overwhelmed his buffs, and that because his combo ability was completely compromised in the transition, he was a bad character in theory and should be ideally placed around middle tier. However, strong tournament results from Marth professionals such as Mr. R and Mikeneko in high-level tournaments such as Apex 2013 have caused the Brawl Back Room to place Marth in 5th above Falco and Snake.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

It is difficult to tell whether Marth has been buffed or nerfed from Melee to Brawl since he received both buffs and nerfs.

• Significantly faster air speed.
• The sourspot hitboxes around Marth during his up smash now launch the opponent into the main hitbox (similar to Roy's up smash in Melee). The move also has more horizontal range, and no longer needs to be tipped to KO, improving its utility against grounded opponents, and making it a more reliable KO move overall, despite the tipper being much weaker.
• Tipped aerials are stronger, particularly neutral aerial.
• Shield Breaker charges faster and is easier to sweetspot.
• The removal of crouch cancelling greatly improves the utility of Dancing Blade. Additionally, the move no longer requires the button inputs to be done on certain frames, allowing it to be done much faster and easier. It also has increased utility in being able to refresh other moves with the much more severe stale-move negation (as each individual slash counts towards stale-move negation).
• Dolphin Slash gives a bit more horizontal distance, and its sourspot hitboxes are stronger. It also has more invincibility frames, allowing Marth to escape most chaingrabs and have a sort of second counter.
• Counter deals 1.1x damage back with a minimum of 8% damage dealt, unlike the fixed 7% it dealt in Melee, and it no longer has set knockback. In addition, the counter has slightly faster startup (2 frames).
• In general, his attacks have significantly shorter range, due to his sword now being much shorter. His grab range is much shorter as well.
• Furthermore, most of the tipper hitboxes in his attacks are significantly more difficult to land, due to their hitboxes having generally smaller size, particularly in his down aerial.
• Slightly decreased dashing speed.
• Both hits of his jab are weaker, and the two hits cannot be used as frequently. They also can't gimp as reliably.
• Up tilt is weaker and has increased ending lag.
• Dash attack is weaker, 1 frame slower, and has worse hitbox placement. It also has more ending lag, less followup ability because of its now horizontal knockback, and is more punishable.
• Tipped up smash is significantly weaker.
• Down smash is 1 frame slower, has weaker knockback when tipped, and it has slightly more ending lag.
• Neutral aerial's non-tipper hitbox is significantly weaker, making it a much less viable edgeguarding option.
• Tipper forward aerial does horizontal knockback instead of vertical, reducing the ability to combo into other aerials, grab, or forward smash.
• Up aerial is 1 frame slower.
• Down aerial's tipper hitbox is much smaller and more difficult to land, and it is much more difficult to combo into it, to the point where it has very little potential.
• Up throw can no longer chaingrab fastfallers at all.
• Shield Breaker is now a stab instead of a vertical slash, giving it much less vertical range, as well as making it harder to connect and a less useful edgeguarder. It is also 3 frames slower.
• Each individual hit of Dancing Blade is weaker than its Melee counterpart. The variants of its third hit can also no longer tech-chase or KO. The first hit can also only stall Marth in the air when used after a jump (unlike in Melee where it can stall Marth continuously).

For cosmetic changes, all of Marth's sword attacks now make a strong (but short), high-pitched "whoosh" sound that varies depending on the attack's strength, denoting the Falchion's thinness, as well as Marth's agility when slashing with it. His Shield Breaker also makes a strong light-spark sound, which becomes longer and louder, also depending on the attack's strength. Additionally, Marth himself still uses many voice samples from Melee, as well as still speaking Japanese, though he now receives some new voice clips (notably for when attacking), with his voice actor remaining the same. When using Dolphin Slash, he also no longer grunts, now doing it for his Critical Hit, though the attack now makes a loud slashing sound. Marth now also has a light-blue costume, which is similar to his default one, but with noticeably lighter colors, similar to Captain Falcon's blue costume. This is now also the costume used for when he is on the Blue Team, instead of being his default one.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

Two R.O.B.s activate a Subspace Bomb in a barren battlefield. Marth is seen atop his castle watching helplessly as the robots detonate the bomb. He stands and shines Falchion, prepared to fend off the hundreds of Primids advancing toward the castle. Marth confronts the Primids, descending through the building until he reaches the grounds. There he is ambushed by Meta Knight. During the duel (in the same video sequence), they are attacked from behind by a group of Primids, at which point they simultaneously jump into the air, slicing the Primids in two with their swords. Realizing that they share a common enemy, they join forces to defeat the Primids. After fighting against the Primids, both Meta Knight and Marth aim their attacks at the Ancient Minister, who is carrying another Subspace Bomb. Marth misses with Dolphin Slash, while Meta Knight's wing is ignited by a laser shot from the fleeing Ancient Minister. Ike then shows up and dismantles the Ancient Minister's Subspace Bomb with his trusted Aether move. With the Subspace Bomb destroyed, the trio storm the castle once more.

Marth in the SSE.

In the desert, they see a vehicle driving off in the distance. Ike immediately jumps off the cliff to pursue it, followed by Meta Knight. Marth merely scratches the back of his head in disbelief before following them. When they find the vehicle, it transforms into Galleom, and the three fight it. The defeated Galleom falls through unstable ground, where it encounters Lucas and Pokémon Trainer in the Ruined Hall. Now severely weakened after being fought again, it grabs Lucas and the Trainer in an attempt to detonate an emergency Subspace Bomb, but Lucas manages to free himself and Pokémon Trainer from Galleom using PK Thunder, commencing a headfirst freefall. Meta Knight catches Lucas and the unconscious Trainer right before they hit the ground and meets them up with Marth and Ike. When the Halberd crashes the Great Fox into a mountain, Marth is unable to catch up with Meta Knight, who is climbing the mountain. Later, the Ice Climbers fall down and befriend Marth, Ike, Lucas, and Pokémon Trainer, only to be rained on by Shadow Bugs from the Halberd above. Mario, Pit, Kirby, Link and Yoshi come to aid them in fighting off the Primids that were dropped. After the battle, the Halberd (now under control of Meta Knight, Snake, Lucario, Sheik, Peach, Fox, Mr. Game & Watch, and Falco) and the Falcon Flyer (carrying Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Olimar, Samus, Pikachu and R.O.B) land to pick them up.

Marth and friends destroy the Subspace Gunship (though the Halberd was downed in the process). They enter Subspace and encounter Tabuu, who turns them all into trophies. Fortunately he, and some of the others, are revived by King Dedede, Luigi, and Ness, while the rest are revived by Kirby. Marth helps the heroes in the showdown against Tabuu.

Exclusive stickers

The following stickers can only be used by Marth or Ike:

• Ninian: [Arm, Leg] Attack + 6
• Lilina: [Leg] Attack + 5
• Mist: [Slash] Attack + 8
• Deke: [Slash] Attack + 9
• Eirika: [Slash] Attack +17
• Ike (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn): [Slash] Attack +27
• Rutoga: [Slash] Resistance +12
• Ashnard: [Slash] Resistance +34
• Shiida: [Specials: Direct] Attack + 7
• Greil: [Throwing] Attack +14
• Marth: [Weapon] Attack +19
• Micaiah: [Weapon] Attack +21
• Ike:(Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance) [Weapon] Attack +23
• Eliwood: Flame Resistance +33

Trophy

Marth's trophy in Brawl.

The prince of Altea, in whose veins the blood of heroes runs. He and a small group of stalwarts fought to free Altea after it was invaded by the kingdom of Doluna and the dark dragon, Medeus. With his divine sword, Falchion, he fought and defeated Medeus. However, Altea was then invaded by King Hardin of Akaneia and eventually destroyed.

: Fire Emblem (Japan Only)

Costumes

Marth's alternate costumes in SSBB

Trivia

• Marth uses his sword in all of his attacks except his pummels and throws.
• Marth is the highest rated character in the Prima Official Game Guide for Brawl, receiving a 9/10.
• Marth's back air turns his whole body around to face the other way; it is the only aerial in the game to do this.
• Marth is the first unlockable character to join the player's party in the Subspace Emissary, though he is not the first to be played, as Ness is temporarily available in a previous stage.
• Marth's sword trail animations on his aerial attacks will only play if done at the peak or near the peak of his jump and midair jump, when attacking after or before the peak of a jump Marth's sword will simply glow and leave no trail, except on his up aerial. Note this can only happen on a stage in Stage Builder and also happens to Ike.
• Marth is the only character that speaks Japanese in English-language Brawl game (with exceptions of Kirby copying Jigglypuff's ability, where Kirby shouts "Purin!"). He can only speak Japanese because the only Fire Emblem games he appeared in were only released in Japan at the time of Brawl's release.

External links

• Marth's Smash DOJO!! page
• Marth Character Guides at SWF
• Marth's hitbox size of each of his moves
• Marth's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice